Healer Arc 2 -- Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Simply walking toward the stand of trees in the distance wasn’t quite the stroll in the park that Thaden had hoped for.  Not more than 100 feet from where he’d taken control of the Beezards, his army was attacked by 3 giant Mutated Beezard Warriors that seemed to float up from the flowers despite there not being any room for them to hide, which were each the size of a greyhound bus.  At Level 44, they were already inherently stronger than his own minions, but that didn’t mean much when they were prevented from moving toward Thaden by a bunch of controlled Drones.  They also didn’t last long against the combined leeching of his Dominated army, which rapidly sucked their Health dry by absorbing thousands of Health with each usage of their leeching ability.  Combined with the constant healing that he maintained on them all with Lesser Minion Regeneration, the Warriors didn’t stand a chance.

That was just the warm-up, however, and it was more of a proof-of-concept than anything else.  When another short distance produced another group of larger Warriors, this time 5 of them, he held his army back and instead took them over with a combination of Lesser Enthrall and Dominate Spirit, adding them to his forces.  Once they were fully under his control, the strain on his mind increased, but he hadn’t hit his limit quite yet.

No one from his Party said anything through all of that.  They stood behind him at a distance of about 50 feet, simply watching in silence as he destroyed the first group and took control of the second.  The twins’ expressions were locked down, their faces showing none of their thoughts, though by the way that they gripped their staves to the point where they looked like they would crack the wood, he could tell they were doing their best to hold back an extreme reaction to what they were seeing.  Whether that reaction was anger, fear, or something else, he couldn’t rightly tell.

As for the Aelveen, Rel’ba’shet, the Soldier Recruit’s face was an open book.  Shock and fear were clear to see, as well as what might be a hint of jealousy in the way he shook his head at what he was seeing.  He was also mumbling under his breath, though it was either completely incomprehensible or Thaden’s hearing wasn’t as good as he thought it was.

Blinky, on the other hand, had originally gone from fear and hopelessness to his normal exuberance – turned up to 11.  He bounced up and down in place, his hands gripping onto his sheathed knives on his belt, and his smile was wider than Thaden had yet seen it.  The Grome’s eyes shone brightly with excitement and eagerness, as if he couldn’t wait to see what wonder was next.

Well, at least someone appreciates all this.

Then again, he hadn’t originally brought his Party along to impress them, so he supposed it didn’t matter.  What did matter, though, was that they learned what he could do so as not to underestimate him; not because he wanted to be intimidating, but because he was planning on Leveling-up quickly, which meant putting them all in dangerous situations that would lead to the biggest benefits.

The next few minutes saw a mixture of Drones and Warriors appearing from the flowers as if they were being birthed by the colorful plants, and instead of controlling any more, he instead instructed his army to destroy everything in his way.  While he could theoretically handle more strain on his mind by adding to his forces, there was no reason to push it and make the experience uncomfortable; in addition, he wanted to ensure he had ample “room” to add anything unexpected to his repertoire of minions.

Thankfully, Thaden didn’t have to worry about extracting any loot from the dead monsters he left in his wake, as Blinky volunteered the rest of the Party to handle it while he continued on his way.  He didn’t look to see what he received, but he had to believe that it was quite a bit since these were higher-Level monsters than what he’d killed numerous quantities of before.

After a steady 30 minutes of progress through the flowers, Thaden began to think that something was wrong for a couple of reasons.  The first one that made itself known was the fact that, despite walking at least a mile of distance, the trees in the distance didn’t seem to be getting any closer.  The second, and probably most important factor in his assumption that something was wrong, was when he looked back the way they’d come and, instead of leaving a relatively straight path through the flora, they seemed to have made a clearly curved cut through the flowers. 

“What do you make of that, Blinky?” he asked, pointing the way they’d come.

It appeared as if their Scout Class hadn’t noticed it until then, either, as he seemed to twitch slightly in surprise.  “I hadn’t even noticed that!  Must be some of the Strained dungeon shenanigans that Lovinia mentioned.”

“Are we walking in circles?”

The Grome thought about it for a second before shaking his head.  “No, I don’t believe so.  We would’ve looped back on where we’ve already been, and now that I’m paying attention, I’m positive that we aren’t doing that.”

“Hmm… should we head a different direction?”

He just shrugged in answer.

Thaden thought about it for a few seconds before he decided to continue on as he was, as he didn’t have any other visible destination to head toward. 

It was only a minute or so later when the something changed.  As his lead minions flew over the flowers approximately 100 feet ahead of him, he heard a short hissing that made him freeze in place, as it was out of place.  He thought, perhaps, that there was some sort of snake monster in the flowers because of the hissing, but when a whole line of red flowers suddenly exploded in a detonation that sent a heavy shockwave toward the Party, strong enough to nearly knock him down, he realized that the hissing was the prelude to a bomb going off.

The flowers all around the explosion were flattened with most of their petals ripped off, showing the devastation that had occurred when they went off.  He took a quick inventory of his minions, and while those that had been right on top of the exploding flowers were heavily damaged, their Health pool was high enough because of Lesser Health Reinforcement that they miraculously survived.  He looked over at Sadia, whose eyes were wide in surprise, but she otherwise appeared entirely unhurt.

“Everyone alright?” he asked, glancing toward the rest of his Party.  Thankfully, they were even further away and hadn’t been nearly as affected, and while they shared the wild eyes of surprise that Sadia sported, they were also unhurt.

As if the line of exploding flowers was some sort of divider, the environment past the devastation changed from what they’d been walking through.  Instead of the flowers ranging from knee-height to almost waist-height, they seemed to rapidly grow taller until they were taller than Thaden.  They quickly blocked out his sight of the trees that never got any closer in the distance, but he wasn’t going to turn back quite yet.  Rather than use it as a definitive guide, he figured he would just walk forward, hoping that he would eventually reach whatever counted as the end of the dungeon.

The taller flowers grew close together, making seeing more than 50 feet or so difficult, so he had to pull his army of Beezards back so that they could respond to any threats up close.  In fact, since the Mutated Beezard Warriors were so large, he used them as bulldozers to crash through the flowers, flattening them to make a navigable path.

Even when he started that process soon after encountering the taller flowers, he realized that it had almost been too late.  Within the first dozen feet or so of the new environment, his bulldozers encountered a new enemy.

Floral Scourge – Medial

Level 42

Dozens of flowers uprooted themselves and began to migrate toward Thaden, their stalks nearly a foot around and their leaves wide and razor-sharp like arboreal swords.  But the worst part about the Floral Scourges were their petals, which were solid and detachable, and as they turned their heads toward Thaden, they suddenly launched hundreds of colorful projectiles at high speed right at him.  His forces weren’t quite in position to block more than a handful, but he was fast enough to react by throwing himself face-down into the grass and bent flower stems, with Sadia doing the same next to him.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough to avoid every petal projectile, and he felt at least a half-dozen of them pierce through his cheap shirt and embed themselves in his chest and shoulder before stopping.  The pain hit him like a sledgehammer, but thankfully his Health pool was high enough to withstand the damage without killing him completely. 

Even as he panted in pain, he was already at work ripping out the colorful and now blood-covered petals from his body, while casting Lesser Health Siphon and targeting one of his nearby Drones and himself.  The sharp petals cut his hands even more as he gripped onto them, but he ignored the damage as he eventually felt his healing spell take effect, and he immediately felt better even as he continued removing the projectiles from his body while he lay on his back.

Meanwhile, Sadia had gone to work.  Using Lesser Enthrall, she managed to take control of 30 of the 35 Floral Scourges with a single cast of the spell, which made Thaden wince as the new load hit his mind, but he pushed through and continued what he was doing.  She didn’t try again, but instead used the new additions to surround the 5 Scourges not under his control, using them as fodder to keep them occupied.  The strain on his mind lessened bit by bit as more than half of the flower monsters he controlled were cut apart by the blades of those still hostile, but that was when his Beezards finally got into position to leech the Health away from the attackers and kill them. 

By the time he picked himself up, threw the last sharp petal off to the side in annoyance, and assessed the scene, he found that only 8 of the Floral Scourges remained under his control.  Their addition put more strain on his mind, but it still wasn’t as bad as when he’d been forced to control the whole 30 of them from when they first appeared.

“Thanks, Sadia.  That was… painful.”  Not for the first time, Thaden wished that his defensive spells were a bit more affordable, because he could really use some sort of damage protection.

“You’re welcome.  By the way, you need a bath and a new set of clothes; you’re not looking so hot.”

Looking down at himself, he couldn’t help but agree with her, as his whole front side was covered in blood, and there were huge holes in his shirt.  His hands and arms were practically drenched in still-wet blood, and though he wiped them a few times on his pants, it still looked like he’d just come from a class on how to be a serial killer.

“Are you… alive?” he heard coming from Flarenia, of all people, and he grinned back at her, the intense pain of the attack already starting to fade from his mind.

“Alive and kicking!  I look like I just bathed in blood, but I’m… fine.”  He was feeling good, though he had to admit that he wasn’t a fan of the ongoing feeling of his vital fluids covering a good portion of his skin. 

“Hold still.  I’ll clean that off you,” Lovinia spoke up, surprising everyone, as she walked toward him while glancing at the monsters lined up obediently behind him.  Thaden was momentarily suspicious, but he realized that she wasn’t likely to try anything, as hurting or killing Thaden would likely end with her death when he lost control of the monsters.  “Now, close your eyes and don’t scream like a baby,” she warned, before she started casting a spell.

For the first time, he had the opportunity to see the Ashdancer Trainee at work, as a cyclone of smoke and hot ash suddenly appeared in front of her the size of Thaden, and before he knew it, that cyclone had moved toward him.  He barely closed his eyes at the last second before it slammed into and through him, the heat from the ash particles uncomfortable but not greatly so as they swirled around him.  It wasn’t the heat that was slightly painful, though, as it felt like the ash was scouring his skin raw as it rubbed across it, like some sort exfoliation treatment from hell.  He managed to not scream, which helped to keep his mouth closed, and he realized that was the reason why she’d told him that – because having that enter his body through his mouth would’ve been horrible to experience. 

After what felt like hours, but was probably no more than 15 seconds, the scouring cyclone of smoke and ash faded away, and he opened his eyes.  Already, the lingering Afterglow effect had healed whatever damage had actually been done to him, so when he looked down at his body, he didn’t see the raw skin that he expected.  Instead, he found that nearly all of the blood on his arms and hands was gone, and even a good portion of what had bled all over his chest.  His shirt had streaks of scorch marks all over them, as well as a few more tears, but it was thankfully still largely intact.  Bloodstained, but that was understandable.

Nodding toward Lovinia, he smiled.  “Thanks.  That’s… convenient?  Not very pleasant, but I guess that beggars can’t be choosers.”  In the end, it was a huge help, as while he certainly could’ve kept going while still covered in blood, he felt so much better being relatively clean.

“Anytime.  Seriously – anytime.”  The way she said it made her sound a bit vindictive, but if it made her feel a little better after the stressful time in the dungeon, he wasn’t going to complain.

From that point on, he made sure to keep his army of minions close to him while he had the Warrior flattening the way through the tall flowers.  They uncovered hundreds of Floral Scourges as they advanced, each one killed before they could cause a problem as soon as they appeared, and while he couldn’t see exactly where they were going, he felt like they were still making progress toward the dungeon exit. 

At least, that was what he thought at first. 

When the tall flowers eventually receded until they were the height they were when they first arrived, quickly followed by another explosive line of red flowers, he could see the trees once again – and they were still at the same distance away as before.  When they encountered more Beezards, essentially identical to the ones he’d fought before, he began to get slightly worried.  Another hour of tromping through the flowers led to a third exploding line of flowers, which he spotted before they reached it and had his Warriors trigger it before Thaden was anywhere close, he was somehow not surprised when the tall flowers and the Floral Scourges were back.

This cycle happened twice more, and Thaden was growing frustrated – while at the same time, he was slightly pleased.  On the one hand, it felt like they were stuck in the dungeon with no way out, even it they hadn’t seen any sign of going in circles; on the other hand, this while scenario was exactly what he was hoping to find, where he could kill high-Level monsters in droves, earning heaps of PICK and loot at the same time.

After about 8 hours of this, his Party members were bored and showing signs of worry, as well.  At first, they were angry and frightened – other than Blinky, after the first few minutes – but after so long in the dungeon, they probably felt like they were never going to leave it.  He couldn’t blame them, as he was somewhat thinking the same thing, but other than retracing their steps in the hope that another route would miraculously appear, Thaden couldn’t think of any other method to get out.

They were finishing up yet another section of tall flowers with his original Mutated Beezard Warriors flattening them with tireless devotion to his orders, when Flarenia finally lost it.

“I swear, if there’s one more area full of these damn Beezards, I’m going to scream!  How long are we supposed to run around in circles—?”  Thaden was glancing back at her when she abruptly cut herself off, so he could see when her eyes widened in shock.  Whipping his head back around to where his Warriors were still at work with the tall flowers, he immediately saw what was different. 

The trees.  They were suddenly right in front of them.  Somehow, despite the fact that they now stood right at the edge of where the 150-foot-tall trees began, they hadn’t been visible to them above the tops of the flowers until just that moment.  More than that, the dungeon exit, which had been so vague before that he hadn’t been able to feel where it was, was suddenly front-and-center to his senses.

“Well, it looks like we finally made it.  Who wants to bet that the Boss is in there?”

Blinky’s mood was back to normal as he snorted, which was accompanied by a grin.  “No bet.  But is that really the exit?”

“Sure feels like it.  Are you all ready?  Like I said before, I’m probably going to need some help to kill it.”

Rather than be frightened at fighting something that could be 30 Levels above their own, his Party actually looked eager to finally kill something.  I suppose that watching me do all the work was probably both boring and tiring.  They want to finally get involved.

When they all seemed to assent, he started walking toward a space in between two of the trees.  “Let’s get this dungeon done with, then.”