novelraw Chapter 333: Infection
Chapter 333: Infection
Chapter 333: InfectionI thought through the problem and turned back to Grotto. “Can you handle this alone?” I asked, nodding to the melee between his golems and the relentless blade weasels. He waved a feeler dismissively, so I turned and ran back towards the palisade. I had the floating half of my shield drop down to my feet, and I stepped onto it, letting it rise and take me flying over the wall. I felt clean enough, but I still worried about contaminating people with any leftovers that Grotto’s scouring had missed. I’d been fully marinated in innards, so staying in the air seemed like a wise move.
Now that Gracorvus could fly and hover with a small mana reserve rather than having a per-second cost, it was much better for short bursts of flight than Therianthropy. The latter had a limited number of uses per day. The shield wasn’t as fast, but the distance I was going was too short for the difference to matter.
I floated over to the center of camp, where the Littans defending the base interior were gathered. Kai called out a few orders while donning a full helm, now decked out in the familiar black and red plate armor like the other Littan heavies. He pulled a lantern from inventory as I approached, which he held by a thick chain, an eerie green light growing behind its shutters.
He acknowledged my presence, but didn’t say anything else as a wide, single-edged blade appeared in his other hand, only slightly shorter than himself. A third of the Littans were firing off skills at a wave of weasels coming in from the mighty roots of the Caving Tree at the back of the camp. Kai called out an order, and the group attacking stepped back as another line stepped forward, taking over the weasel slaughter. I floated closer to check on the people who’d been infected by the blood, squatting down on Gracorvus to get a good look.
“They just collapsed?” I asked.
The one-eyebrowed Specialist Rufio had some sort of monocle he was using to inspect the three, and was the one to answer. “Sort of.” He pointed to the legs of two lightly armored Littans. “Severin and Leoco only got a few drops on their fur along their exposed calves, then it looked like they were having a seizure. They fell over, bodies all stiff, and a little later they went still.”
He shifted and gestured to a man whose body been fully covered. “Edgard only got it on his armor.” Rufio pointed at the man’s blood-spattered gauntlet, which had been removed. “Look inside.”
I leaned over and peeked within without touching it, seeing that bruise-colored veins had grown between the articulation on the gauntlet and webbed the inside. I’d seen many more gruesome things, but the sight of it still made me ill. There was a visceral sense of wrongnessto it.
A healer carefully inspected the unconscious Delvers, wearing thick gloves that came up to her elbows. She was careful not to touch any fluids despite the protection as she pried open the eyelid of one victim. She sucked in a sharp breath. I floated to one side to get a better view, seeing that the man’s eye was bloodshot, the veins so visible they looked engorged. Then I realized they were wiggling, driving deeper toward his iris.
Part of me hoped this was what I thought it was, since that would mean I knew what we were dealing with. Another part of me was revolted by the idea, hoping that it was anything else. I focused on Soul Sight and ramped up my sensitivity. With so many powerful Delvers around, I had to continually filter out the noise. Finally, I saw what I’d been looking for. The ultra-thin soul threads made my blood run cold, their uniqueness unforgettable.“Arlo: Etja, did we ever get a kill notification for Charl?”
“Etja: Ohhh, nope!”
“Xim: That gross super-cancer guy that was living beneath Pending?”
“Arlo: Yeah, the one who got pooped out by people.”
“Kai: Excuse me?”
“Xim: Charl was something called a United. He could exist in millions of pieces, and he invaded our bodies with his cells. Cleanse didn’t work because his presence was benign at first. He caused the cells to multiply into tumors at the top of our spines in a second, which paralyzed three of us before we could do anything. Once the cells became hostile, it was like an ongoing attack.”
“Baltae: Yes, you spoke to me about this. The Cleanse spell would see it like a sword in your neck. Not something it can handle.”
“Xim: In this case, more like another person’s hand in your neck. I reforged my Cleanse afterward so it would target stuff like this. It turned the spell into an attack, buuuut it still works to cure debuffs. It just stings some, depending on what’s going on inside you.”
“Nuralie: It stings a lot.”
“Kai: Then you believe Charl is the one attacking us?”
“Arlo: I would have said Charl’s soul is unmistakable, but it was so strange that I may not have gotten as good an impression as I think. If not him, then it’s another one of Brae’ach’s United with a similar ability.”
“Kai: Why are you unaffected?”
“Arlo: I was immune to Charl’s nonsense because my body is weird.”
“Etja: I heard Ayamari tell Umi-Doo that you're made of tiny wizards!”
“Arlo: Uh, either way, that might be why getting covered in weasel bits isn’t a threat to me. It’s just gross as fuck. We thought we’d killed Charl, but maybe he grew back from some cells we missed, or… something. Dude was bizarre.”
“Nuralie: I notice the lack of victory notification, but it did not seem strange at the time. He was not a Delver or mana monster.”
“Kai: Lady Xim, can you teach the other healers how to handle this over psycomms?”
“Xim: No. My solution is very specific to me. For starters, it requires Sam’lian fire to work.”
“Tavio: Camp 3, drop all skill restrictions. If we have to clear out a few miles of forest to deal with these ants, then that is what we will do. Lieutenant Madel, you will come pick Xim up and take her back to camp 2 to heal those who have come into contact with the blood, then take her onward to camp 1. The two of you will loop through all the camps until a better solution is found.” R̃𝘈ɴ𝐎𝖇ËＳ
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“Arlo: Xim, that spell only requires Divine Magic, right? No other intrinsics?”
“Xim: Yeah, but we reforged it using one of my revelations. Nobody else here can learn it.”
“Arlo: Sure, but we could imbue it into a wand. So long as you’re the source of the spell, we can create wands that the other healers can use. They just need a good enough Divine Magic skill.”
“Xim: If you say so. You’re the wand guy.”
While this conversation went on, Kai’s lantern glowed more brightly. A distant, echoing wail came from within, and its light stretched out like an afterimage. The edges became blurred and then swept out to begin surrounding everyone within the camp.
I could still hear the sound of explosions from beyond the wall. Tomomaru stood, arms crossed, looking out at the wide stretch he alone guarded. The smear his soul created in my Sight was gone, but I noticed it moving through the forest further out, like a predator.
Deranged screams came from the lantern as more blurred forms emerged. The area around us became shrouded in a growing fog of virulent green. Shapes moved within, hints of people, naked and withered. I realized that all the other Littans had stopped attacking.
I could hear the weasels dying, but their souls all snuffed out upon entering the gloom.
Major Kai turned, doing a full circle to inspect his skill. The notification I’d gotten said it was called Poisonous Fog, but the description didn’t say shit about the things running around inside of it. Satisfied, the major looked down at the healer.
“Can you do anything, Polama?” he asked.
“I’ve tried everything I know to try,” she answered. “His health is dropping, but it is his maximum that’s going down, so I cannot heal it. That makes me think it is Wicked damage. Buffing his Divine defense does nothing, and there is no way I know of to grant resistance.” She waved at the other two unconscious Littans. “All three of them are the same. I do not know what to do!”
Kai came forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “Calm,” he said. “We are together on this.” She looked up, the frustration on her face softening back into worry. She nodded, and Kai turned to me. “Any insights?”
“Charl was a spy. He made it seem like he could only work slowly, and he didn’t attack until threatened.”
I followed the thin soul thread into the infected Delver’s body. It branched out and spread through him, becoming a chaotic mess. The end of each thread was slowly lengthening. I refiltered and looked at the victim’s soul. I could see ripples from what was happening to him physically, but the effect didn’t extend to his spiritual essence.
“I think he’s being eaten,” I said. The healer looked up at me quizzically. “As Xim said, if there’s another person inside of him, Cleanse won’t affect the invader.”
Polama looked back at the unconscious man. “It might even help the invader since it will cleanse them,” she added under her breath.
“If there is an enemy,” said Major Kai, “we will need to attack it.”
The healer took a breath. “Does anyone have a skill that can make an attack or contest inside an ally’s body without killing them?”
“Plenty of skills discriminate, but they avoid allies entirely,” said Kai.
“Varrin?” I asked, looking at the big guy. He was standing amidst several Littans who panted heavily, his eyes closed. I couldn’t see his stamina-sharing skill, but he emitted a relaxing pressure with every deep breath he took, like a bone-deep massage. He opened his eyes and glanced down at the fallen soldier.
“Soul Strike may have an effect,” he said, stepping out from the group and approaching. He studied the invading soul, enabled by Reveal, and rested a hand on the pommel of Kazandak. He drew a spiritual copy of the sword while the physical blade remained in its sheath. A gentle wind blew out from him as he moved to a two-handed grip. He stopped and glanced up at Major Kai before he struck. The Littan commander looked at the Ravvenblaq warily, but nodded his approval.
Varrin struck down without hesitation. His incorporeal blade cut through the man with no resistance, soft ripples through his soul the only evidence of the attack. Meanwhile, the invading threads were all split, snapping away like they’d been pulled taut. Varrin and I watched closely for a moment, but the threads slowly crept outward and reconnected.
Varrin hummed in thought, so deep it was nearly a growl. “Please step back,” he said, and all the Delvers around took a hurried step away without question. Varrin’s body came alight with power for a moment, then he struck like a storm, hitting the threads a half dozen times. The invading soul was shredded, but it didn’t matter. The pieces reconnected, good as new after a few seconds.
“I’ve never seen a soul repair itself that fast,” I said, then went down a list of other possible solutions in my head. “Anybody have a highly focused skill that’ll sear tissue? Something that can be used for extremely fine work?”
Kai turned and sent a psychic message I wasn’t privy to. Soon after, Sergeant Alanor flew over the fog wall and descended to join us.
“Sir?” he said, crumbs falling from the fur around the hungry mage’s mouth.
“You are always boasting about your accuracy. Now let us see how good your control is.”
*****
Alanor’s breathing slowed as Polama’s hand rested on his shoulder. I was using Reveal on the lightning mage so that he could see the invading soul threads. Since I had the shared perception running near constantly with my own party, I’d learned ways to attenuate the effect and keep from being such an overwhelming experience. The peckish lightning mage still had a panic attack when I made the connection, and the healer had to soothe him.
“You okay?” I asked. Alanor nodded, refusing to meet my eye. His mouth was tight, and he ran his hands over his head several times, then smoothed back his whiskers.
“I try not to think too much about how dangerous my job is,” he said, “but that is most of what you do think about.” Alanor looked around at the other Littan soldiers watching him. “It is fine.” He straightened his brigandine and nodded at Polama. “I’m fine.” She hesitantly removed her hand.
Alanor held out a finger, and a burst of electricity arced to the first unconscious Littan, beginning with the man’s hand. The patient’s whole arm jerked, and Alanor flinched. He made a soft chitter then tried again. This time, the bolt traveled into the limb without causing it to spasm, targeting only the area around the invading soul, physics be damned.
The mage nodded and repeated, slowly making his way up the arm. He gained speed as he went, carefully annihilating the tissue surrounding the soul threads, which destroyed the invading cells. This caused collateral damage to the person we were treating, but it was minor. We had enough passive regen buffs between our group that it wasn’t a problem.
However, after a few minutes, the threads began growing back again. Alanor swore, but Polama’s hand was back on his shoulder before he could get worked up.
“His health is coming back. You are extending his fight.”
“It is too slow,” said Rufio, once more peering through his monocle. He used the eye that still had a brow to do so.
“Silence, Rufio,” ordered Major Kai. “We do not need your naysaying.” Rufio looked up at the major, then stood up straight and gave a quick salute. He didn’t say a word thereafter.
“Only a little bit faster, and you can likely work two at once,” said Polama. What the healer left unspoken was that there were three victims. They were willing to let the man in heavy armor ride things out until Madel returned with Xim. He had the highest health total, so it made sense.
Still, the invading soul kept springing back from nowhere.
Camp 1, where Baltae was, had also come up with its own stopgap cure. That one involved Etja using Disentegrate while working alongside the battle priestess Xim had punched into oblivion the day before. The woman was using her Righteous damage in a creative way, her attacks ignoring her ally while still passing through him to affect the threads.
Regardless, they had the same problem we did. It was too slow.
There were people who weren’t going to make it.