Healer Arc 2 -- Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Darkness descended upon the area underneath the trees, as the full foliage above blocked out the sun that had been beating down on them for hours.  It was both a welcome relief and a warning, because with the loss of full sunlight, the forest they entered had a sinister aspect to it.  That didn’t stop Thaden, of course, as he spread his army of Beezards and Floral Scourges out ahead of him and his Party, who was staying near him instead of hanging back and out of the way like they had been through the rest of the dungeon. 

In total, Thaden had maintained control of the 61 monsters he’d acquired throughout his trek past numerous flowers.  The majority of them, 26 in fact, were Beezard Drones at Level 38; after that came 12 Mutated Beezard Drones at Level 41, 10 Level 40 Beezard Spitters, 8 Floral Scourges that were Level 42, and finally 5 of the massive Mutated Beezard Warriors at Level 44.  Each of them had a refreshed Lesser Health Reinforcement and Lesser Explosive Recuperation cast upon them, which would not only make them hard to kill, but if they did die, they would automatically heal Thaden or one of his Party members who had the least amount of Health.  If everything went well with the Boss, he hoped that none of his Party members would even need healing.

Before too long, the view back toward the vast field of flowers was blocked, and their entire world suddenly felt like it had always been inside the forest they were traveling through.  There was an earthy smell that permeated the bare ground underneath his feet, which was completely free of any underbrush or even dead leaves, as if it had been swept completely clean of all debris before they arrived. 

It was eerie – but for some reason, Thaden didn’t feel too threatened.  There were no monsters that were set to ambush them as they walked through the trees, nor were there any sudden traps that were just waiting for someone to pass before striking out at them.  If anything, he felt increasingly more calm and a sense of peace abruptly washed over him; there was a split-second of time when had the impression that he should stop maintaining any of his spells, only for it to disappear completely a second later. 

Whoa, what was that?

Thaden glanced over at Sadia, who glanced back at him with a similar sense of confusion on her face.  He stopped, concerned at what was going on.  “What was—?” he began to ask, when he realized that the rest of his Party hadn’t stopped along with him.  Instead, as he looked at their glassy eyes and euphoric facial expressions, he could tell that something was very wrong.

“They’re under the influence of something!” his giant squirrel companion said, confirming what he suspected as soon as he saw them.  Thaden and Sadia had apparently fought it off, thanks to their shared Psychic Resiliency Competency, which was at a fairly high Level – and he had additional Advancements that helped them even further.  This wasn’t the first time something had attempted to mess with his head, after all.

Thaden quickly searched through his spells to see if he had anything that could free them from whatever was affecting their minds, but his Support spell that dealt with eliminating mental afflictions was still too expensive to cast.

Celestial Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast): Cures all mental afflictions upon a selected target from a source up to 90 Levels higher than caster.

Afflictions Cured: Charmed, Confused, Dizzy, Feared, Silenced, Stunned

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 180 feet

Casting Time: 1 second

Mana Cost: 9,800

There was also a spell from his Spiritual spellcasting list that might have been useful, but it was just out of reach of what he could afford to cast.

Celestial Dispel Spiritual Influence (Single Cast): Dispels all spiritual influences upon a selected target and makes them immune to the same influence for a limited time; effectiveness and length of dispelling is dependent upon the strength of the spiritual influence.

Number of Targets: 1

Duration: 60 seconds

Range: 180 feet

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 5,700

He needed a few hundred more Mentality to afford Celestial Dispel Spiritual Influence, and even then, he wasn’t sure if what was affecting his Party was spiritual or psychic in nature – though the fact that Thaden had resisted it seemed to indicate that it was.

In short, he currently had no way to free them from whatever was affecting them.  Instead, all he could do was follow them as they kept walking, lost in their own worlds, and hope that he could destroy whatever was doing this to them before they ended up hurt.

Sadia had obviously come to the same conclusion, as she bounded ahead of Blinky, who had taken the lead, and was on the lookout for any hostile threats.  Thaden maintained his pace behind them, trying to sense whatever was doing this to them, but all he could feel was the same effect that continuously attempted to influence him but was immediately repelled by his Psychic Resiliency.

Based on how quickly it was negated, there were two scenarios that he considered.  The first was that the influencing effect was actually relatively weak, at least compared to his Competency Level and his Hardened Heart Advancement, which reduced its effectiveness by 50%.  That was the best-case scenario, however, because the other one was that his Size Matters Advancement was kicking in, which meant that whatever was doing this was at least 50 Levels above them – and was therefore nullified completely. 

Regardless of whatever it turned out to be, Thaden was as prepared as he could be as they continued to walk in silence, his army of minions out front and seemingly completely unaffected by whatever was going on.  The forest seemed endless and unchanging, but he could tell that the exit was gradually getting closer; they were making progress, at least, even if it didn’t physically seem like it.

A sudden introduction of brighter light ahead broke the monotony, and he could see a break in the trees.  The sunlight that had been largely obscured by the leaves overhead flooded what appeared to be a small circular clearing, perhaps only 100 feet in diameter, filled with a uniform, familiar calf-height green grass.  That wasn’t the only thing inside the clearing, however, as it was largely dominated by an enormous flowering bush that reached at least 40 feet into the air and spread out to fill approximately two-thirds of the available space.  The dozens of large flower heads decorating the exterior of the bush had deep-purple petals that pulsed with a brighter and lighter-colored purplish energy enveloping them in a sort of aura, and the entire thing felt just wrong to his senses.

Peaceful Slumber Bush [Vampiric Lavender Menace] (Boss) – Medial

Level 70

His vision was slightly blurry when he looked at its name, and he realized that the same effect that was trying to capture him like his Party members was attempting to obscure its name.  Whereas anyone without the resistances he had would see the Boss monster as a Peaceful Slumber Bush, which still wasn’t that great-sounding, in reality it was a Vampiric Lavender Menace – which certainly wasn’t peaceful at all.

When he saw that his Party wasn’t stopping, which was accompanied by movement along the lower edge of the Lavender Menace as the flowers pulled back to reveal branches with thorns as large as Thaden’s arm that were dripping with a purplish liquid that sickened him just looking at it, he knew he had to act quickly.  He sent his army of Beezards and Scourges ahead to begin leeching Health from the giant bush, while he and Sadia threw themselves in front of Blinky and Flarencia, who were up front and would be the first ones to reach the Boss.

They managed to stop them from moving any further, as they had a slight Physicality stat advantage over them, but Lovinia and Re’ba’shet continued moving – and Thaden had no hope of keeping the taller Soldier Recruit back along with the others, as he was too strong.  He looked back at what was happening with the Boss battle, and he wasn’t encouraged in the slightest.  Despite each of them being able to leech thousands of Health from the giant bush, what he hadn’t accounted for was how the Lavender Menace fought back.  The moment the assault began, it began using its branches to snatch and then pull inside of its “body” his minions, piercing them with the horribly long thorns – and then doing its own “leeching” of its own as its vampiric nature came into play.  While he could tell that they were doing damage, it was all negated as it used his high-Health pool minions as healing batteries.

Crap.

He immediately cast Lesser Enthrall, but he had no confidence in it working because of the Boss’s nature.  As he suspected, his attempt to control the Vampiric Lavender Menace basically bounced off as if it had hit a brick wall, and he could only assume that it was immune to any type of influence, just like Thaden was immune to psychic influence from sources 50 Levels or higher. 

Thaden couldn’t help but see some parallels between this situation and his experience in the Mausoleum of Despair on Tarth, where he’d brought a Party in and had fought an actual undead vampire as the Boss.  They’d barely survived that battle, mostly through luck, but Thaden wasn’t the same as he was back then; he had more tools at his disposal now, and he wasn’t planning on letting a damn bush get the better of him and his Party.

“I’m sorry about this, but I swear it’s for a good reason,” he said out loud, and he looked at Sadia with a feeling of sadness flowing through him.  She nodded slowly at him, knowing that they didn’t really have any other choice.  Doing what he was about to do would change how the other viewed him, in a way he didn’t want, and he knew that crossing that line would inevitably change the way they interacted with him.

He cast Lesser Enthrall again.  Not against the Boss, but against his own Party members.  Instantly, whatever the enormous bush had been affecting them with was gone, immediately replaced by Thaden’s own spell, and they stopped moving as soon as he had control.  He could feel them in the back of his head, and while they added to the strain on his mind, it wasn’t much compared to his other minions. 

“You had to do it to save their lives,” Sadia said as she bounded over to stand next to him. 

“I know, but I don’t have to like it,” he responded, even as he began casting Celestial Befriend Spirit.  “They’ll probably hate me after this.”

“Maybe.  But perhaps they’ll appreciate that you saved their lives?”

There was a chance of that happening, but he wasn’t going to count on it.  Regardless of how it ended up afterwards between them, he vowed not to use his controlling spells on his Party members again in the future… though he immediately knew that he would break that vow if it was a matter of life and death, like the current situation.  Hopefully by the time they experienced something so stacked against his current abilities again, he would have the Mana pool to solve these problems without having to resort to what he was doing now.

As he waited for his spell to finish casting, he observed the stalemate going on with his forces against the Bush.  It appeared as though the Lavender Menace could only pull in 8 victims at a time, and his Minions were incapable of escaping; he was tempted to cancel the Lesser Health Reinforcement on them, so that they could die, but he held off for the moment.  He wasn’t sure of the Boss’s reach, but based on how far the branches seemed to be able to reach to grab his controlled monsters, he worried that it would then try and reach Thaden and the others despite them still being inside the trees.  He’d rather keep it occupied for the moment, as it wasn’t attacking anything else; instead, it seemed to be constantly replenishing its Health and healing as it sucked on its current victims.

Thaden also noticed that the Spitters under his control were basically useless.  Whatever acidic properties the yellowish spit had on normal flowers seemed like nothing but water against the Boss; either it was immune, or it couldn’t be hurt much by the deadly projectile nastiness. 

When his spell finally completed, Thaden didn’t even have to so anything as his Befriended Party members immediately started moving in reaction to Thaden being attacked – which in this case, was due to his army of minions being attacked by the Boss.  Rel’ba’shet positioned himself in front of Flarenia and Lovinia, taking a defensive stance that showed that he would defend them against anything that might attack them, while the Fledgling Flameweaver and Ashdancer Trainee began to cast some spells.  Blinky disappeared from sight, but Thaden could feel him hanging back and protecting the other Party members from off to the sight; he was glad to see that, as he was worried that he would suicidally try and attack the Boss head-on.

Seeing his Party ready to do their part, now that they were free of the bush’s influence, Thaden took steps of his own.  First, he mentally canceled the Lesser Health Reinforcement on the monsters that were being vampirically sucked dry of Health, while at the same time he activated Lesser Sacrificial Backlash Aura, which would reduce the stats (up to 60%) of hostile targets in range of his Aura when one of his controlled minions died.  His spell efficiency increased how quickly it reached the maximum stat reduction, and not increased how much they could be reduced – which was a shame – but he hoped that it was still more than enough as it was to allow some serious damage to go through.

Within seconds, his captured minions were dead as they lost their extra Health pool, and he could immediately see the petals on the bush wilt a little as its stats were decreased, though it didn’t seem to be as much as he had hoped.  He could only assume that the Boss had some resistances against his Backlash Aura, though thankfully it wasn’t immune like it was to his controlling spells.

Even as more branches whipped out to snatch up more victims from the controlled monsters attacking it, Flarenia’s spell went off, creating a firestorm of flames that enveloped the entire Boss.  Thaden could see it doing some damage, even more than what his army of minions had been doing, though it wasn’t enough to get through the Lavender Menace’s vampiric regeneration; even with slightly reduced stats, it was still a Level 70 Boss, and it wasn’t going down that easily.

Lovinia’s spell went off a second later, and the firestorm was accompanied by smoke and ash, whirling around and seeming to grow stronger by the second as the flames burnt parts of the flower petals, creating more ash, before they were regenerated. 

That, more than the flames alone, seemed to get the Boss’s attention.  Even as he felt another of his minions die, as he’d canceled Lesser Health Reinforcement on those that were snatched up, he saw a burning branch whip out of the flaming cyclone and aim right for the Netherine twins.  Rel’ba’shet reacted instantly and deflected the incoming branch with his shield, which nearly knocked him on his back, and while he struggled to regain his balance, the branch began to wrap around his waist.  Out of nowhere, Blinky appeared and sliced through a hefty chunk of the branch trying to snatch away the Aelveen; it didn’t get all the way through, however, and the Soldier Recruit was pulled off his feet.

Rel’ba’shet wasn’t out of the fight, however, as his arms were free, and he stabbed the cut portion of the branch with his spear, using some sort of ability that made the speartip glow, and then he retracted it before he slammed down with the bottom edge of his shield in the same place.  There was a crack as his shield blow cut through the branch, and he was suddenly falling, approximately 20 feet from where he’d been standing, and he agilely rolled as he hit the ground.  He was back on his feet in no time, before running back toward his previously position without a trace of fear on his face for the death he’d just barely avoided.

Sweat began to fall down the faces of the twins as they maintained what were likely channeled spells, as their Mana ticked down in waves, while the fire, smoke, and ash cyclone continued to increase in intensity – but it still wasn’t enough.  Thaden kept throwing his controlled monsters at the Bush, who instinctively grabbed at them to suck them dry of Health as it tried to recover from the damage being done to it, and it grew weaker and weaker as a result of his Sacrificial Backlash Aura. 

“That’s the last of them; let’s hope that it was enough,” he said softly as he watched the last few Beezards still alive and under his control being snatched up and drained by the Boss.  Meanwhile, his Netherine Party members had fallen to their knees as their Mana continued to drain, and not for the first time, Thaden wished that his Mana Rejuvenation spell was accessible, as it would help to replenish their Mana at an incredible rate. 

What would give out first?  Their Mana, or the Boss’s defenses and Health?

He thought it might be his Party members that ran out of Mana first, as nothing seemed to change within the firestorm, but a psychic scream not a second after the last of his minions was drained signaled the end of the Vampiric Lavender Menace.  Three branches shot out toward the spellcasters, but even before they were halfway to them, they crashed into the ground, all strength behind them having given out.  The rest of the bush followed suit soon after, and even as the twins collapsed to the ground, their spells abruptly winking out, he could see the still-burning remains of the Boss smoldering in the middle of the clearing. 

What really confirmed the fact that it was dead, however, was the glowing archway that appeared along the trunk of a large tree positioned on the edge of the clearing.  The way out.

Taking a deep breath, Thaden looked at Sadia with a small smile, happy that they had managed to kill the Boss, but dreading what was going to happen next.  Turning toward his Party, he closed his eyes for a moment, preparing himself for the—rightfully—angry tirades he was about to suffer.  Finally opening his eyes, he took another deep breath…

…and canceled his Celestial Befriend Spirit spell that he’d used on his allies.