The Newt and Demon

5.56 - Mass Bind

The roar emitted by the chimera sent a shockwave through the gathered monsters. Theo watched, holding his laugh back as the creature tore a path through the kobolds. It held no loyalty to them, even while they assembled to tackle the pair threatening the dungeon. Tiny bodies were flung here and there, slamming hard against walls or tumbling into gathering crowds. Tresk released a shrill laugh, pointing and laughing at the boss monsters.

“What a doofus!” she screamed, dipping to the side a moment later as another spear hurtled through the air. “A doofus with pretty good aim.”

Theo chucked a Firebomb to the group below, watching as the flames spread out. Kobolds shouted as they scattered, only spreading the flames to their companions. Tresk chugged a few potions before releasing another scream. Before the alchemist could do anything about it, she dashed through the air, slamming into a group of kobolds.

The way Tresk danced through the group was inspiring. Theo latched onto the sense of danger as he watched her, side-stepping another throwing spear from the chimera. She must have chugged a Dexterity Potion… One infused with the Haste spell. Monster fell by the dozen. The boss couldn’t wade through its companions fast enough and could only watch as its allies were thinned.

Well, if Tresk could do it, so could he. Theo withdrew a Major Dexterity Potion from his inventory. One infused with Elemental Wind. He drank it, feeling his Dexterity shoot up by 40 points. His body buzzed with power as his physical speed scaling shot through the roof. He then drank a Potion of Desperate Attack and smiled to himself.

Theo kicked off the wall, shooting through the air and angling straight for the boss monster. With a dagger in his right hand, he drove it into the back of the boss. Ribbons of magical light formed into blades, slicing into the monster as 60% of the alchemist’s health drained away. He kicked off from the chimera, tossing a barrage of daggers infused with Dragon’s Dance. The field of battle devolved into a churn of magical blades, even as he drank a Retreat Potion then a Healing Potion.

“Not fair!” Tresk shouted as the boss sagged to one side. She slashed at nearby kobolds, attempting to get her kill count up so she wouldn’t fall behind Theo.

Potions were absolutely unfair when applied in the right order.

Although the initial assault wasn’t enough to kill the boss monster outright, that didn’t mean Theo was out of options. After restoring his health and using the retreat potion, which allowed him to slowly fall backward, he tossed a Bind Bomb to keep the boss monster in place.

Magic flowed from Theo’s chest. Dark bands of magic sprung forth from the ground, covering the entire room. The kobolds were wrapped in that darkness—just like the Bind Bomb worked—and held them there. The alchemist’s eyes went wide as a system message appeared.

[Spell Cast Successful]

You have successfully cast [Mass Bind].

532 targets affected.

182 targets resisted.

Tresk wasted no time taking advantage of the spell, although some monsters had resisted it. The boss was already wrapped up in the potion’s effects. The marshaling dashed between the creatures, moving at an impossible speed as she sliced a swath through the hundreds. Theo continued tossing daggers and bombs down at the crowd. It became a confusing scene of evaporating magic and flying kobolds.

Neither member of the party could tell when the boss monster fell. The combat had turned so chaotic that they didn’t even notice. Theo was surprised at how much fun he was having, using his overpowered potions to defeat many of the monsters. He fell into that kind of bloodlust Tresk always talked about. He only took comfort in the fact that they weren’t real creatures; they didn’t have sentience and were made of magic. No blood came when they were split in half. They simply evaporated into wisps of magic if their bodies were so destroyed.

Theo stood on the ground, looking around and heaving breaths. He was bowled over as Tresk jumped and wrapped him in a hug. She was squealing with excitement, shrieking in his face about how cool their fight was.

“We need to do that every single day,” she screamed, shaking him by the shoulders.

Theo allowed himself to be jostled, his head hitting against the hard stone, but a smile plastered his face. When he had first arrived in this world, he had thought of doing anything but fighting. However, this wasn’t a struggle. This was a one-sided fight where they could let loose and have fun. Most of all, it was extremely satisfying to see his potions in action. He had a score of them in his bag that he hadn’t even thought to use. After spending so long being the provider of potions, it was impossible for his brain to wrap around the concept of personal use.

“That was fun,” Theo said. “And I think I accidentally created a new spell.”

“Yeah, Mass Bind,” Tresk said, finally removing herself from the alchemist and standing. She dusted herself off, as her leather armor was singed in some places.

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“Maybe it was the excitement of the fight, but I was solely focused on the magical effect of the Bind Bomb. I had been thinking about turning my form of magic into large-scale magic. Perhaps those two things came together to help me create the spell.”

“I could feel that,” Tresk said, nodding along. “Both your desire to create the new type of magic and your Mage’s Core responded. It’s as if they are singing together in harmony.”

That was an oddly eloquent way to put it. Theo nodded to himself, rolling it over in his head. He could remember the sensation of the spell forming in his soul. It wasn’t the structured thing he had become accustomed to, not through dronon magic or the standard type of magic taught to him by Xol’sa. It was something in-between both of those things, coming in as both a song and a structured series of inputs. A bridge between words and runs he couldn’t explain.

Tresk’s attention turned away from the battlefield. She looted the boss monster and shrugged. “Some weird Level 1 sword. Yeah, this boss was all messed up.”

“Makes you wonder what’s inside the dungeon,” Theo said. He felt the familiar sense of danger and his attention was drawn down a nearby tunnel. “Well, decision time. Dungeon or returning to the surface?”

“How many potions do you have left?” Tresk asked.

Theo gave her a concerned look. He had a lot of potions in his inventory, and even a decent stock in their shared inventory. It was obvious Tresk was eager to do more fighting with him, so he weighed his options. They had just put in the effort to clear the cave. Leading a group of adventurers down here would be a pain, and clearing the dungeon might be even harder. But wasn’t Elrin still in the area? Even if he wasn’t, that dude could teleport.

Theo withdrew the communication crystal from his inventory, squeezing it tightly. To his surprise, he answered right away.

“What is it?” Elrin asked.

“Are you free? Can you get underground quickly? I’ve got an ascendant dungeon I need help dealing with.”

There were a few long moments of silence. “The ascendant dungeons must be destroyed. All of them. Where are you exactly?”

Theo explained where he was, and Elrin somehow understood where it was. By the time he hung up, the kobolds were storming down the passages. Tresk was vibrating with excitement again.

“A last stand,” Tresk said, visibly shaking. “Oh, this is so good. Let’s go!”

Before Theo could say anything, she had dashed down the path and was fighting more kobolds. The alchemist released another sigh and joined her, taking it as a chance to cast his new spell again. It didn’t come so easily to him, though. And the spell wasn’t in his interface. No matter how much he focused on the sensation he remembered from the spell, he couldn’t bring it back.

Oh, well. Nothing a few hundred bombs couldn’t replicate.

They didn’t need to fight for long. Of all things to come down the tunnel, Theo didn’t expect an eagle. It was massive, about the height of a marshling, and came soaring in over the tides of kobolds. A moment later, the eagle poofed

“Well, that works… I guess,” Tresk grumbled, folding her arms as she watched Elrin’s beasts do their work.

Elrin’s eyes were locked onto the dungeon in the distance, disdain painting his face. “Are you two joining me into the dungeon?”

“If you don’t mind,” Theo said. “I’d like to see this thing through to the end. And it seems to me like you know what an ascendant dungeon is. Don’t you?”

“I’ve dealt with them in the past,” Elrin said. “The dungeons themselves become sapient. They can even forge contracts with the system or the gods. The result of that in my time was disaster.”

“What does a sapient dungeon even do?” Tresk asked.

“Depends on what they want to do. Worst of all, they can move and think. That alone is enough for concern. But I’m certain the rules for ascendant dungeons now are different than my system,” Elrin said. “We had many differences, so I can’t speculate. All I know is they’re dangerous, and each should be put down. Tell me, local, how far does this underground area span?”

“Me?” Tresk asked, pointing to herself. “Gawsh, way to boil me down to being a weird towny… We don’t know how far the underground area goes. I’ve heard the dwarves talk about them, and they claim them to be expansive.”

“That’s concerning. If dungeons can spawn underground, my search above ground will be a challenge,” Elrin said. He hadn’t taken his eyes off the dungeon in the distance. “If that underground area is large, I’m in even more trouble. I don’t suppose you two could lend a hand, could you?”

“How?” Theo asked. “We both have responsibilities to the Southlands Alliance.”

“Perhaps there’s another way you could help me,” Elrin said. “I’ve been talking with Death, and we’re working together. No, I don’t enjoy it. But enough has changed that I can overlook what he did in favor of a brighter future. If he agrees to give some of my people back, they could help with the search.”

“You want to make a deal with Death?” Tresk asked, scoffing. “That sounds smart.”

Elrin withdrew something from his bag. Theo realized it was a round from a post-modern looking rifle. Something that used gunpowder to send a bullet zipping forward. Only this one was covered in an intricate layer of sigils and arrays almost too small to see. When the alchemist attempted to inspect it, the system simply tossed him an error.

“This is my last resort,” Elrin said. “Something I promised I’d never use. This is the one item that saved Earth back in the day. The item that drew the attention of the Watcher.”

“Well, hot damn!” Tresk shouted, clapping her hands. “Does that thing kill a god?”

“It can seal one,” Elrin said. “Sometimes. The chance isn’t high, but it’s enough to make non-corporeal entities fear the shot. Enough to get them to comply.”

“You’re going to threaten Death? After all the progress we made with him?” Theo asked, shaking his head. “Absolutely not.”

“No threats. This is a reminder of an agreement we had back in the day,” Elrin said. “A reminder that we stopped the killing when the world burned around us.”

That was grim, but Theo didn’t know if he could stop Elrin if he wanted. The alchemist’s abilities had grown a lot, but not that much. This dude was scary.

“However you want to play it,” Theo said. “You understand this guy more than I do, so I’ll leave it to you.”

Elrin shrugged. “Back to the dungeons. We won’t have much of a world to come back to if the ascendant dungeons aren’t taken care of. Who knows what kind of magic they could wield. I’d rather destroy as many as I can.”

“I know one thing,” Tresk said. “I’m itching to stab more monsters. Let’s go!”