NOVEL WEB 30: Synergy
Before we left, I did a quick scan of the redcap bodies and came up with a singular attribute orb. I gave it to Chloe, because I was feeling generous since we’d had that rollercoaster of a conversation.
While she did that, I addressed a storm-induced notification that was patiently waiting for me. Huh. I was level six now, I think? My class had been filled with experience six times now anyway, and there were a few things that required my attention.
First, I actually had a sort of ephemeral ability orb of my own waiting to be allocated. Apparently you could also gain them from level ups? I wonder if it was random or based on thresholds?
It didn't take me long to decide where to put the orb. Strength was becoming an issue in my crafting class and the extra heft would benefit me now too.
The really interesting thing about this was that I could finally add a new class ability to my repertoire. So far, I had my aura of weakness and monster angering, my smite, my heal, and my empowered attack.
As for my two new choices… they were a little more intriguing. One was basically marvel Thor's ability to recall his hammer but with a lot less power behind it, while the second one had me firing a projectile from my hand that would sear my target with corrosive light and slow their movements.
They both sounded very useful… but I had to go with the former. Being able to retrieve my axe if I threw or dropped it would undoubtedly save my life at some point. Hopefully I'd get another chance at the acid arrow thing.
"Hey, how does your class work?" I asked when she was done using the orb and I was done with my level up.
Chuckling, she glanced up at me and said, “Don’t tell anyone from the school… but my class is Witch. Goddess, but if that pastor finds out I’m a Witch he’ll probably try and burn me at the stake. Literally.”
“I would kill him,” I replied instantly, and to my surprise, I wasn’t totally joking.
“Nice,” she laughed, but when she saw my expression, her amusement faded and she locked eyes with me. “For real?”
I shrugged self consciously, and I started to feel doubt creep in. Would I really kill him?
"Um… I would probably just stop him from doing it. If I wasn't there and I found out later… I think I might."
Chloe blinked once, then twice, and turning away, she kicked lightly at a dead redcap. "Shiiit. Okay. Intense. Thanks, though. That's kinda sweet, in a metal way."
She stood there for a moment longer, then stepped over the body she'd kicked and went to peek through a set of double doors. I guess the conversation was over and I'd need to learn about her class some other time. Either that or she was as ADHD as me and she got lost in her thoughts. She seemed like she was pretty neuro-spicy now that I'd spoken to her properly.
"Another hallway here," she said, waving me over to her. "I see some dead redcaps and some live ones. Get ready— Sorry, that probably sounded like an order… um… I mean, Are you ready?"
Approaching the door, I peered over her shoulder and through the grimy window of the swinging door. Four redcaps, plus another four that were dead. Two of the monsters had vicious little crossbows with way too many spikes on them. "Yeah. Those crossbows look nasty. How do we want to play things here?"
Again she was silent for an awkwardly long time, until she said, "I'll open with a stun bomb. They're easy to make, unlike my big area of effect kill spells."
I sucked in a steadying breath. "You got it."
Along with the breath I took, I got a noseful of her scent and… oh, jeez. Had she been bathing still? She smelled nice—warm and ever so faintly floral.
Ugh! Kaia! What are you doing! Keep it in your pants, girl.
Chloe shifted, and I stepped back thinking I'd made her uncomfortable, but instead she busted open the door with a shoulder and lobbed a packet underarm at the living monsters. I began to move, but— shit, the packet wasn't going to go far enough!
Shifting my weight, I started moving to put myself between the barbed crossbow bolts that would be coming any second now. Chloe's fingers flexed and flicked upwards, and… the hex bag curved upwards! Its trajectory changed, it exploded at the perfect height to spray the redcaps with some sort of dust. Holy crap! That was the ability orb I gave her! Awesome!
The evil creatures howled with sudden pain and dropped their weapons to paw at their eyes. I didn't give them a chance to recover.
With my long legs, I crossed the intervening space in a second and caved in a skull with the point of my axe. I was actually enjoying the spike on the back more than the actual bladed side.
Bone scraped against metal as I withdrew my weapon and allowed my weakening aura to envelop the other three. Chloe flew in beside me and snatched up the weapon of the redcap I just killed.
It was a wicked looking bone dagger, and with a wild, crazed lunge she planted it in the eye of the next monster over. I danced past her, axe twirling in my fingers. We were so close we could've been dancing together. Her hair brushed my arm when I raised my axe… and chopped down into the shoulder of the third redcap.
Meat and gristle parted before the freshly forged metal until I arrived at bone. Magic flared in my veins and a pulse of explosive angelic light punched down through its collarbone, where the secondary corrosive effect began to devour vital organs. That was both crossbow monsters down, plus one of the melee dudes, but the last one was blinking away tears and reaching for its weapon.
Kicking its knee with one of my thick, powerful legs, I bent it backwards into an angle that it was very much not designed for. I bared my teeth in victory as it screamed—high and panicked. Good. These things were fucking evil. Before I could deliver a finishing blow to the hateful little shit, Chloe was again ducking through below my arm. Her newly acquired dagger slipped in under its chin in a viper's sting that killed it instantly.
My blood was pumping in my ears and I stared, laughing in wild disbelief as she yanked the blade back out. "Holy shit, that was awesome!"
Standing up, she inspected the knife, then glanced up at me. At least, I think it was meant to be a glance, but her eyes stuck to mine. She was really close to me. Wow. Her eyes were so shiny… wait, huh… were they purple? So pretty…
We stepped away from one another so fast I was wondering if she’d actually been as close as I thought. Oh geez, were my cheeks red? I was definitely blushing. Time to uh… oh look, dead bodies!
Hold on…
"These are the first dead redcaps that we haven't killed, right?" I asked, nudging one of the pre-dead bodies with my axe.
"Huh?" She asked, then frowned in thought. "Yeah. That must mean one of the groups made it here, right?"
"Yeah, I think so. I have a theory that this place acts vaguely like a video game dungeon, and we've caught up to the respawning timer for the group from earlier this morning," I replied.
Chloe shot me a sceptical look. "That's a bold theory…"
"I mean… there's only one entrance into this place and we're missing like three firefighters and all the redcaps they killed to get through…" I shrugged, gesturing vaguely in the direction we'd come. "How else do you explain it all?"
She grimaced. "I'm hoping that our existence doesn't conform to fucking video game logic—"
Like some sort of ridiculous comedy cue, the two pre-dead bodies began to fade away until nothing remained, not even their clothing or weapons.
Chloe threw me a fiery exasperated glare, and I shrugged back at her with a cheeky grin. "Don't glare at me. I'm not the one who changed the laws of physics."
"Whatever," she grumbled softly, and again decided to end the conversation by walking off. She really hated being wrong.
I couldn’t help but laugh as I followed her further down the hallway. “You know it’s okay to be wrong, right?”
“Oh, fuck off.” She shot back mildly.
I stifled another guffaw—I could hear the eyeroll in her voice.
The hallway had a hard left turn ahead, and Chloe approached it on tiptoes, careful not to trip on any of the gnarled tree roots that were sticking up out of the floor now. She peeked around the corner, then frowned and tilted her head as if trying to hear something better. I followed her head, listening intently. It sounded like… shouting?
“The firefighters!” I gasped, and took a step around the corner, intending to rush to their aid.
Chloe blocked me with a hand to my stomach. “Wait. Let’s go fast, but be quiet. Don’t want to go all reckless.”
“Ah, you’re right,” I said, and stepped back to let her take the lead again.
“Of course I’m right,” she huffed.
Oh god. The shit-eating grin—it was taking over my face. “Apart from just before.”
The little sound of outrage she made… oh my goodness. I hope she realised I was teasing her in a chill way. Knowing her, though… maybe I should make that clear later. Either way, she didn’t verbally comment on the teasing and we crept down the passage together, listening as the sounds of screaming redcaps became more and more discernible. We picked up the pace.
