Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 15: The Ties That Burn

To my horror, I swallowed the frothy sludge. The acid burned all the way down. Lungs on fire, I fought aspiration as my stomach roiled.

[You have been [Poisoned]. All health regeneration has stopped. If you already suffer a health debuff, you will lose an additional health point every thirty seconds.

Currently [Poisoned] stacks with [Acidified]. You lose two health points every thirty seconds.]

My health bar had already turned a brownish-red color due to my [Diseased] state, and was now shot through with a sickly green. The bar pulsed in anger, as though judging me for my mistakes. My eight health points would vanish in a flash at the rate of my debuff. I had to do something fast.

I was pulled through the lake like my foot was caught in the stirrup of a runaway horse. The joints of my leg ached with pressure.

Desperately, I called on [Heartbeat], tugging on the string connecting me to Meredeath, begging for help. All my senses were overwhelmed with water and debris, so I used [Stillpoint] and slowed everything down, ignoring all but Meredeath's thread. I needed help.

Suddenly, Meredeath was there. We collided as I raced by, except suddenly my ankle was free. Bobbing up, I gasped for breath. Meredeath reeled from our collision. The lake was in absolute chaos.

The water frothed with movement. Splashing as ripples and waves smacked into each other, throwing droplets of acid into the air. Mixed in the surf were threads rolling and churning through the water as they rubbed against friend and foe in a frenzy of excitement.

A tendril of something snaked up the rope towards Tandy. Leo looked ready to jump in to save her. Precariously balanced, he wobbled indecisively on his axe.

Meredeath, who I thought had been reeling from our collision, instead had used the momentum to spin faster. She dipped her claws in and out of the water, a maelstrom of death. Red foam and dead bodies of an eel-like creature bobbed in the surf.

To free me, Meredeath had left the base of the rope dipping into the water. Even with Leo pulling Tandy up, enough was coiled in the lake that I could see white wormlike threads coiling up after Tandy. I'd admire their ability to climb a vertical surface if they weren't monsters.

"Meredeath, Tandy's in trouble." Our worm death-dealer stood, checking her surroundings. Her claws showed a dark ebony, tipped with dripping blood. She looked feral as her eyes scanned the lake, searching for her next victim.

She started moving towards Tandy and the rope, but her progress was slow as the ribbons of hunger targeted her. The white ribbons rippled under the surface, skin flashing in the magical light of Meredeath’s glow orbs.

I felt helpless as a ribbon coiled around Tandy's foot. Within seconds, the monster tossed her into the lake like unwanted garbage. Two more worms wriggled towards Leo, pushed by an unending hunger.

I'd made it to the lake’s edge, finding a dry patch of stomach lining. Richard clung to my shoulders. With my feet out of the lake, my health stabilized. Regeneration was cut off, but I wasn’t losing ground either.

One of the worms pushed onto the shore next to me.

I brought my hammer down on the creature, pinning it down for a closer look. It writhed, trapped under the head of my hammer. The monster was only a couple of inches thick. Instead of fish scales or a slippery eel skin, the beast was lined with the suction cups of an octopus. Slowly, the monster slowed, as life drained out of it.

The system is identifying them as [Ribbons of Hunger]. No detail given. But we both know we’ll all die if they reach Leo.

Richard's usually jovial voice had been replaced with dead seriousness. He slithered down my arm, looking up at me. His skin was off, pocketed with acid marks and green with [Poison].

I holstered my hammer, the crushed ribbon of hunger no longer moving.

You need to throw me at the rope.

His little eyes looked serious.

"If we miss, you're dead. You won't be able to get out of the lake in time." I said my fear out loud. He may have been right, but no part of me wanted his life riding on my throwing arm.

Then don't miss. Besides... I'm immortal.

He arched his back with a brash grin, all confidence. I didn't dare question his immortality.

Instead, I grabbed him by the tail, prayed to the god of slugs, and threw. If he was indignant about being thrown by his tail, it was lost as the foot-long banana slug cartwheeled end over end through the air.

He hit the rope with a loud squeak.

That throw had a lot of... enthusiasm.

His voice had returned to the dry sarcasm I'd learned to expect. Smiling, I saw his bare fangs descend on the incoming worms.

That's my slug. I sent him a silent wish of luck and waded in to help Tandy.

My health had dropped to a mere 5 points.

Tandy had worms pulling her under. I grabbed a hand with one arm and pulled her towards Meredeath. Her head popped out of the froth, eyes wild as she gripped my arm.

Her fingers slipped.

Using both hands and all of my leg muscles, I pulled her towards Meredeath.

"Hold her still, I'll take care of them," Meredeath called, diving for Tandy like a predator on the hunt. She whirled in the water like a tornado of claws, using some unknown skill.

Meredeath struck with surgical accuracy. The worms evaporated in a spray. I carried Tandy's limp form slowly towards the wall where she could sit out of the lake. Meredeath joined me, taking the majority of Tandy's weight.

Not six feet from the rope, my body spasmed as my health dropped to a mere three points. Flashing warnings alerted me to the helpful fact that death was imminent.

I hesitated, torn between helping Tandy and getting to safety quickest.

"Go, I've got her," Meredeath's harsh voice broke the tie.

Richard clung to the rope, midline. Slug slime trailing behind him like a triumphant banner. His fangs gleamed as he dispatched his second writhing target.

I ran for the rope as though my life depended on it.

My health was down to two. Skin was such an insufficient barrier to stomach acid.

With a leap, I grabbed salvation with both hands, pulling my body out of the gastric stew.

I hung, feet tucked under me, out of the lake, and watched [Acidified] blink out. My health didn't improve because I was still [Poisoned], but it wasn't decreasing anymore. I arduously pulled my body up. Looking inward, I realized that hanging onto the rope drained me of stamina every half minute. This meant tops, I could cling for another nine minutes, and that didn't count my [Diseased] debuff, or any feats of strength I'd need to go up the rope.

I struggled, manually pulling myself higher. Unlike Tandy, Leo wasn't pulling me up.

My stamina drained faster. I had to get higher so Tandy could join me on the rope. She was going to need to get out of the stew, too.

Suddenly worried, I looked down, checking on her.

Meredeath had propped Tandy on the shore, the only relatively safe spot other than the rope. Meredeath fought like a cornered rat as dozens of ribbons of hunger followed her ashore. Tandy was slumped unconscious behind Meredeath.

Her body splayed out like a marionette without strings.

Dread crept up my throat as I examined her too limp form. I followed the outline of her foot, that'd been jostled. It dipped low, back into the miasmic surf, surely stealing the last of her life.

My sheep-hating weaver friend who just wanted to escape Woodsten. Was gone.

I hadn't gotten the notification yet, but I knew.

Her body lay on the shore like an abandoned shell. Empty. Lifeless. The tension in her brow, the strain in her jaw, gone. Her face held an oddly serene expression of relief.

Reaching out with [Partial Rapport], I felt a void where Tandy's warmth had been. The system confirmed what we already knew with a message.

[Your [Party Leader] Tandy Selvedge is [Dead].]

My hand slipped as the death notice blinked in my head. One of the strings holding me up had snapped.

My heart ached unbearably for an unwavering moment before a dull numbness washed all feeling out.

"Tandy!" Leo shouted a heartbroken wail. The rope shook as he reached futilely for his abandoned friend, hands pawing at the emptiness between them.

The walls convulsed, reacting to Leo's shout. A wall of rotten digestive juice coated me from head to toe. My vision flickered red as my health ticked down.

One health point. My fingers burned as my arms shook. The rope was slipping. I was slipping.

In all the days I'd dreamed of being an [Adventurer], in the stories we told of our [Trial Dungeon] success and failure, I hadn't imagined the taste of bile. The slosh and sizzle of burning acid as it marked my skin. Or the desperate fear in a slug's face as the cool brackish water closed over my body.

[You, Cole Thornfield, are [Dead].]