Even through the numbness I can feel a fever burning away inside me, my very mind is fighting off the shock that would force me to sleep, but I grasp at every thought and struggle to hold onto consciousness.

Bundled up alongside Eshya, we’re being carried by Tkarn, who has not yet betrayed us—if the last five minutes are a good show of her character at least. If only it was always so easy to steal my opponent’s pieces. Thankfully her support device is still working properly, my attempts to yank it out, damaging it only slightly. Though, leaving it whole is a risk of its own.

“This is the domain of the wood weavers. They move the roots, and set the traps as they please, though none is as powerful as Loekan.” She explains as she walks, careful of every step. She hasn’t set off a trap yet, so it’s clear she knows some trick to it. She describes it as a ‘feel’ however and doesn’t seem able to describe the process.

“We’ve been down here once or twice before. Dodged traps and killed a few of those mages, too.” Darrell says, hefting his heavy axe on his shoulder as he follows us. “Don’t much like the place, myself.”

“Well, you are not a wood weaver.” Tkarn says. “This place is not meant for others. Only fodder is brought down here.”

“So Loekan is treating you like fodder?” I ask through messaging, my throat too numb to serve its purpose.

“No, I am not fodder.” She grumbles. “I am stronger than fodder, he trusts me to survive here. He trusted me to bring you back, but I failed.”

“What’s it like serving him?” I ask, looking for ways to fully convert her onto my side. It’s important to treat your minions kindly if you want to keep them.

“I get to keep living.” She says. “Which is supposedly better than the alternative.”

“Sounds to me like you need to find a hobby.” Darrell says, tapping cautiously at the walls with his axe, following Tkarn’s steps carefully to avoid any traps. The rest of his slayer team follows behind him, equally as careful.

“Hobby? What is a hobby?” Tkarn asks, her voice slow and plodding, as she wriggles her way through a particularly tight spot.

“It’s what you do for fun.” Darrell says, spinning his axe in his hands. The large muscles of his shoulders and arms ripple in waves, and I’m sure he could rip out whole swaths of the roots around us if he wanted to.

“Fun…? Loekan always says that we should enjoy our work, some of the others like to torture their prey. Is that what you mean?”

“I wouldn’t quite call that a hobby.” He grumbles at the ground. “What about games? You don’t have games?”

“The games?” She perks up, familiar with the term. “I don’t much like the games, the arena is just painful and awful. I don’t have the right limbs for the fodder throwing, and I don’t really like hearing them scream when they land on the spears.”

“No, I mean games, like word games, or games of pretend.” Darrell insists. “Dice games, card games, and things like that.”

“I don’t quite get the words you’re saying.” She murmurs with a long sigh.

“I’ll come around and teach you, then. Poor creature…” He says with a resigned sigh, “The entrance should be just up ahead.”

“The entrance you made?”

“That it is.” He replies, “Got a few other teams out there cleaning the place out.”

“Loekan would not appreciate that.” Tkarn mumbles.

“Loekan can shove a poisoned root right up his-”

“Enough.” Charé says, quieting Darrel. “Let’s just hurry and get everyone some proper treatment. Tkarn, is that potion enough to keep you going?”

“It is sufficient.” Tkarn replies, lumbering onwards. She was given a potion which was able to restore her nervous system, and getting her back to her feet, but unfortunately that was all it was able to do.

Eshya and I are scrapped along the walls as Tkarn squeezes through a particularly tight section of tunnel. I’m not really in any condition to be complaining, even if I were on my feet, I’d be catching spears from every second trap.

“There you are.” Red calls at us from up ahead, “Hurry it up, we don’t have all day.”

“The traps…” Tkarn says, carefully placing each step to avoid them.

“Your condition?” Red sends.

“Hearts still beating. Poison is getting worse.” I reply, my mouth feeling too numb to properly shape the sounds, while I’m not sure I have the energy to shout that far. The thoughts in my head are getting thicker and thicker, making it difficult to shape the sentences properly.

“Nel, Vii, and Adler are waiting ahead. They’ll travel with you to the healer in the lord’s colony. They’re not a battlefield healer, so you’ll have to go to them.”

“As you command.” Tkarn mumbles, shuffling along and up the slope that Red points out. The roots there have been torn, burned, frozen and otherwise destroyed to make space for a somewhat rougher tunnel.

“Good work surviving. Don’t blame yourself too much, the unexpected occurs more often than you’d think. I’ll make sure everything moves smoothly down here.”

“Slayers, your duty is to escort them to the healer. Can you do that?”

“We’re more experienced than everyone else here.” Darrell says, “We should stay here and weed through these tunnels.”

“You’re the most experienced, so you get the most important job.” Red insists. “Guard them and take them to the healer.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Charé replies, thumping Darrell on the shoulder. “We’ll see it done.”

“Good. There are other wounded waiting up there, so travel together and support each other.” Red says, looking down another tunnel before racing off. She steps on a trap, but the spear shatters on her skin, the shards of wood falling all about.

“She’s strong.” Darrell says with a sigh.

“What’s that about being the strongest slayers?” Charé asks him.

“Let’s just get moving.” He grumbles as his team chuckles at his back.

The upwards slope is a little difficult to get through, as a few stray roots catch on my clothes and threaten to pull me from Tkarn’s back. Though one particular root nearly pulls my top off, as I struggle through my numbness to keep myself decent.

We surface, after some struggles, up into the mangrove forest, the light of the lakes above cut through the forestry just enough to see by. It’s a refreshing change from the green glowing moss of the underworld.

“Kyra! Eshya!” Vii cries out swooping down to us. Shen leaps onto her as she reaches us, “Shen, you brave little girl.”

“Talking isn’t easy.” I send, Eshya’s ‘still living’ messages are still pouring in and I’ve taken to throwing her some of my own now that I’m in the same unresponsive state as her.

“You idiots.” Nel scolds, stepping up to Tkarn and looking into my eyes where I’m hanging from her side. “You’re going to be okay.”

“I told you they’d be fine.” Vii says, looking over the two of us.

“They don’t look ‘fine’ to me.”

“Fine has a very broad definition in my language.” She replies, blushing slightly as she looks aside.

“Which way to the healer?” Tkarn asks as Darrell’s team follows us out of the tunnels into the forest, acquainting themselves with the few other wounded here with us.

“Hold up everyone. We need to quickly exchange Chips. Nel? Do you have any extra on hand? And a wake-up potion?” I send.

I realize that we’re already losing our control over these new support devices, but what use is a car left to rust in the garage. We’ll use them for all they’re worth even if it means they might slip into the hands of our enemies.

“I do.” She replies. “I’ve learned to be prepared. You’ll also be needing a knockout potion. Are you wanting to start the procedure now?”

“We can’t bring her to either of our bases while her old King is on call.” I send privately. “We can’t be sure how much he’s hearing right now.”

“Sensible. Tkarn, rest on the ground a moment and drink this.” She says offering the beast the knockout potion.

“Do we have time for this?” Darrell asks, looking between Eshya and I. “The poisoning is getting worse, isn’t it?”

I leave the explanation to Nel and just get to yanking her Chip out. It’s easy work, and I rely on my specialised Skill for the most part, easing me through the process. This is truly where Skills shine, I can perform the surgery with the same performance as when I was at my best, even though I’m hardly breathing, paralysed while tied up to her side like a shoulder bag.

The silver goop falls to the forest floor and Nel forces the new device on Tkarn before pouring the wake-up potion down one of her trunks. I don’t know if that goes to her lungs or stomach, but it certainly wakes her up either way. Tkarn stumbles back into wakefulness, shaking off the last silver draining from her.

The entire process is over in a minute.

“What… what…?” She seems confused.

“New support device. You can’t contact Loekan anymore, this way we can trust you a little bit more. You’ll find your old Skills in the classes section.” I send to her, before encouraging everyone to get moving. I’m not sure if it’s the fever, the numbness, or just paranoia, but I have the uncanny feeling that my pants are wet and warm.

That and my eyes feel like they’re tied to heavy weights, and my mind is being smothered by ghostly lullabies.

“I’ll lead.” Darrell says, sounding professional as he turns to his team. “You lot know the formation. The rest of you, group up in the middle, help out where you can but don’t get in the way.”

“Alright.” Nel says, pulling my hand loose and grabbing onto it firmly as she lifts her pistol in the other hand.

Apart from being nearly completely numb and paralysed it’s quite the uninteresting trip through the forest. We make it to the entrance to the lord’s colony without any fights at all, the beasts we come across run off after little more than a bit of shouting and weapon waving.

The water ride is less than fun, but we don’t drown, so that’s all that really counts.

After that, it’s a brisk walk to the healer, and we’re forced into beds as the large man looks over us. His eyes move dispassionately as he counts out the injuries, a few spells run through us, taking in the state of our poisoning, if I’m to guess.

“You’re seeking to have these plates removed too?” The healer asks, as he gets to Tkarn. He’s of course referring to the armour nailed into her flesh. “We have armourers that could use straps instead of nails.”

“It’s fine.” Tkarn says.

“No, it’s not fine.” I send to her. “Get them pulled out, we’ll have you equipped properly later.”

“Take them out please.” Tkarn says with a long sigh.

“Alright, then.” The healer mage looks between us again, likely deciding on what order he’s going to heal us.

“How are you feeling?” Nel asks, sitting between Eshya and I as she holds our hands.

“On the positive, at least I don’t feel like I shat myself.” I send.

“So, your sense of smell is gone, too.” Nel says. I can’t even tell if she’s joking or serious right now. Maybe it’s best I don’t ask.

“What was it like when the ground ate you up?” Vii asks hopping over. “The roots and the dirt just grabbed your feet and pulled you down, right? It had to be weird. Did it hurt? Or was it just uncomfortable?”

“It was a bit like getting beaten up, and a bit like drowning.” I unfortunately have the experience to compare the situations.

“Move aside.” The healer says, walking over to Eshya with a small potion. “This is an antidote for the poison. It will clean the poison, but it is not a comfortable treatment. It will hurt.”

He doesn’t give us even a chance to ask questions before he pours the potion into her mouth. I spare a little mana for my senses and take a look at the magic unravelling inside of her. Flowing tendrils reach out through her body, tearing through her flesh, before gathering back up towards her head.

Eshya chokes, spitting up black gunk as she rolls to her side, the mana now faded away, the magic having served its purpose. Shivers take her, as she rolls up tight on the bed. Nel offers her comfort, but I don’t think she can really hear it.

“Next, the same with you.” The healer says, with another bottle in his hands.

He tilts the bottle into my mouth, and on the bright side I don’t taste a thing as it slides down my throat

Then the burning threads of mana seek out the poison in my body, searing my veins and nerves in search of the intrusive poison. The burning tendrils reach every part of me, and though they bring the poison up to my mouth, the burning remains. Powerful disinfectant rubbed on an open wound burns, this feels like a whole bottle injected into my blood stream.

I’m glad I’m already broken. I imagine that pain like this would ruin a normal person’s mental state.

Bright red liquid crawls up my throat much like the filth runs down my body when using a cleansing stone. I spit it out, and choke a few breaths when I can, but the flow is faster and heavier than I was expecting.

The bright red liquid coming out of me almost looks like blood. But it’s shinier, almost metallic, and seems far too viscous.

Vii pats my back as I choke the last of it out of my air ways.

“Foul.” I say, rubbing my tongue to try and clean away the taste of it.

“It works.” The healer says. “Now I’ll be focussing on Tkarn’s injuries next, you two will need time to fully recover. Please lay back and relax for now.”

“Whatever you say doc.” I mutter, laying my head back on the blessedly soft pillow.

Eshya is still shivering as Nel holds her hand. Vii is by my side, Shen hops from her shoulder down to Eshya, running her tail around her comfortingly.

“Together.” She says, cuddling her arm.

“Together.” Eshya whispers, her eyes closed as she continues to shiver.

Grunting I roll from the bed and start shoving it closer towards Eshya’s.

“How was it fighting down there?” Vii asks me, helping me rearrange the furniture.

“Aggravating.” I say. “The wood weavers, as Tkarn calls them, can make the walls, the floor, and the spears in the traps move at their will. If they were any more powerful they’d have simply crushed us by pressing the walls in on us.”

I lay in my bed, now moved right alongside Eshya’s, wrapping her in my arms as she continues to struggle through the pains of her own treatment. I still feel a few twitches take over my own body as I try to move through the burning sensation.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think her current condition might be more physical than mental.

“Sounds terrifying.” Vii says, shivering.

“When’s our next class?” I ask Nel, who looks back at me with a hard expression.

“Tomorrow morning.” She replies. “It’s the bestiary class. Just sitting in and listening, so if you can recover it would be best you go.”

“We’ll go.” Eshya sends through the chat, forcing herself to sit up through the shivers. Her body is still twitching on its own, but not nearly so bad as a moment ago.

“We still have some time.” I say, “Besides, I’ll have to talk schedule with Arduelle. I need to know exactly when she plans to kidnap me.”

“Whenever you’re ready.” She sends me quite cheerily. I can only imagine that this is some form of trap. There’s no ‘give me a few more months to prepare’ option for this quest.

“So probably after my bestiary class.” I say, “I’ll be doing that favour for Arduelle. Let’s both get better by then, yeah?”

“Of course.” Eshya says, flinching as she bites her tongue.

“How do you think the battle is going without us?” Vii asks. “I know we weren’t helping much, but I mean... it feels like we should be there.”

“I imagine that we’ll be sent messages if things go awfully.” Adler says, “Things must be going as planned. Red seems competent at this work, trust in her.”

“I trust her.” I say, “But I also know that everything out there is wanting to kill us, and she’s only one person.”

The healers work continues, as he pries the metal plates off of Tkarn’s hide. She seems slightly less intimidating without it, though not by as much as I’d been expecting. She’s still a massive monster with dozens of trunks, massive tusks, and enough mass to crush a person if she put her weight into it.

“We’ll have to talk to our crafters. They have a lot going on though, so I’m not sure we’ll be able to get you new armour too soon. Perhaps we can get these plates strapped on without all the bloody nails at least.”

“They should have at least prepared your own armour for tomorrows excursion.” Nel says, “I’m sure that they understand how much you need it.”

“Don’t remind me.” I sigh, rubbing at my head as I again consider the problems to come.

“What is this excursion?” Tkarn asks.

“I’m doing a favour for Arduelle, Frey’s friend.” I say, “I’m expecting that I’ll need to be armed and armoured.”

“You’re acquainted with the dungeon herself?” Tkarn asks, taking a step back and getting harshly scolded by the healer as he continues working to pull her metal plates off.

“I mean… isn’t everyone?” I wave my hands at the walls around us, “I mean, she’s always here listening to us. Right Frey?”

The ground grumbles a little under us, and the healer grumbles again.

“Sorry for interrupting your work.” I say. Always keep good relationships with the doctors, drivers, and cooks.

“Talking about cooks.”

“We weren’t?” Vii asks, giving me a strange look.

“It was in my head.” I say. “Anyway, let’s go see that cute chef.”

“You don’t recall her name?” Eshya asks.

“You didn’t save her name?” Vii asks.

“Cute chef?” Nel asks, before nodding to herself a moment later, apparently realizing who we’re talking about.

“Save her name?” I ask Vii.

“In chip.” She says, “You guys have done that too right. Visual cues to the name library.”

“I’ll be taking that.” Nel says, taping Vii on the shoulder, quickly followed by Eshya and I. The modification thankfully comes up as a Skill, but we might need to find a better way of translating these mods between us.

“Let’s get going, then.” Eshya says, patting Shen on her shoulder, seeming a little more relaxed than she’s been in days. Together we head for the door.

“You’ll need further treatment.” The healer warns us without turning from his work.

“We’ll be back before we leave town. Just need something to eat first. Should we pick up a plate for you?”

“I will be stuck here treating you all. If you’re offering, I’ll accept.” He says, laying another plate of metal on a spare bed. Tkarn doesn’t even flinch as the nails are pulled out.

“Can you watch over her?” I ask Darrell, gesturing to our new acquaintance.

“We’re meant to be watching over all of you.” He insists.

“Well, how about Charé comes with us, then?” I suggest, “We’re only visiting the markets. If there’s some big fight up here, then we’re going to have bigger problems.”

“I guess… Fine…” he says, waving us away.

“Let’s get ourselves a meal then.” I say, stepping lightly along the hall while my head is riddled with a couple dozen worries.

“You’re feeling better? Out of your ‘mood’?” I ask Eshya, looking between her and Shen. The bug is in a playful mood, but our elf doesn’t seem to mind.

“Ah, yeah.” She replies with a happy smile and nod. “I think I passed out at some point, I’ve been feeling better since.”

“Good.” I reply, “Now, let’s go buy a few meals. I’m sure we’re expecting more patients when the battles are over, let’s have some food ready for them.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 820 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Defence 0% 32% Offense 0% 57% Mana Sense 0% 72% Recovery 0% 30% Gluttony 0% 26% Misc. 32% 32% Efficiency 32% 82%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Mana surge punch

-Reactive mana skin

-Infused delayed Casting

-Fire burst punch

-Annihilation magic

-Mana form flow fixer

-Rapid fire casting