Chương 138: Shouldn't Have Taken This Job

138 Vraxious— The forsaken lands Torvald was practically bouncing in excitement on the tips of his toes. Neck craned up to try and catch a glimpse of the battle between the Tear Makers and more of Malaketh's monstrosities while a deep stalker updated Vrax on what Slev's answer had been. Vrax nodded in thanks to the Deep stalker and turned to Torvald.

"Okay, what were you asking me before I got distracted?"

"Well, mostly I was complaining about how little fighting I've gotten to do lately, but I think I asked if the creepy bastard was actually as gnarly as he looked."

"Leandro, yeah, he was a fully fledged demon summoner, which honestly is not great but not nearly as sanity breaking as I was expecting." Torvald gave him a "no shit" look.

"Vrax, man. Have you taken an honest look at yourself lately? I'm surprised he didn't just fucking run from you. Actually, what the heck happened? How would a fight like that even play out? You have a grab bag of stupid skills all overshadowed by things you really probably shouldn't have made," Torvald said excitedly. Stereos looked over from where he was lurking in the shadows by Edward and Duchess.

"I am also curious. As often as I have been accused of summoning demons, I'm remiss that I've still never actually seen one." Vrax rubbed one of the fang-shaped impressions on his helm. Well, honestly, it was a bit weird, scary, and anticlimactic all at the same time. The crazy bastard was all, "Oh, look upon my dark powers!!" And summoned this weird-ass chimeric demon that was only like level fifty." Torvald nodded excitedly, waiting for Vrax to go on. Vrax shook his head slightly at Torvald's boundless energy.

He definitely needed to go fight something.

"Well, I countered with, 'Have you met Sunshine...'" Stereos sighed in the background.

"And of course that went about how you expect the flower gives not a single shit and immediately just flat out ate a demon." At this point one of the deep stalkers nearby had stopped to listen as well, utterly fascinated by the bizarre story.

"So of course next up this guy just skips the whole build-up and summons a tier-2 monstrosity to murder my ass with; I called for help from Duchess." Torvald interrupted, "Duchess fought a tier two demon?"

"No, Duchess looked at the tier-2 demon and then ate the unarmored summoner…"

"Huh…yeah, that sounds more like her…" Stereos piped up.

"I hate to interrupt this riveting… retelling of your personal failings as a beast tamer, but I believe they are getting close. And we all have our roles to play." Vrax nodded grimly to Stereos, who set off with, in Vrax's opinion, the worst group to run into. It was Stereos and Edward, Basically a blood and fear mage guarded by a wanna be Dragon with sadism issues. Vrax really pitied their targets; they were so unprepared for what was about to happen to them, higher leveled or not.

Torvald gave him a shit-eating grin and a wink before exploding upward into the air and letting out a bellowing, screeching war cry. His job was to deal with the archer. They figured Jeff would let him survive some dismemberment, and it's not like the lady would be able to get away from Mr.

"too fast for his own good." Vrax found it a bit astounding how Torvald had turned nearly every skill he had at this point into a mobility option or something that helped his mobility. Then there were Vrax's targets; he and his menagerie would be taking on the leader and whatever the hell a Craven was. Slev seemed scared of him, but Slev was scared of everything at this point as far as Vrax could tell. Man was excitable to begin with, and the vacation in Vrax's sanctuary had fucked him up something fierce.

Of course all three "teams" were being supported by deep stalkers. They were going to do their best to be cheap shotting problems. Vrax wouldn't be surprised if they ended up getting killing blows in half the battles. He wished the Abyssal guard were here to help as well, especially Crixus; that man was nearly as scary as Torvald in a straight-up drag-out fight. But they were busy routing the lancers upstairs.

The deep stalker had told him after they annihilated the few lancers dumb enough to try and take the old warehouse from them, they had given chase to the main force remnants that had fled. It was good Vrax didn't have to worry about the Tear Makers getting sudden reinforcements, but he would still almost rather just have Crixus. Vrax melded into the shadows of the tropical trees, summoning Lux from the menagerie with a gesture that left their previous meeting spot a blackened circle.

Lux climbed from the remains of a tree trunk, his head cocked curiously, his eye pits simmering a hellish green. The bark all along his body trembled in anticipation, connecting and disconnecting with slight snaps and whisps of mana.

"Hunt!" He creaked excitedly.

"Yes, but shhh! I have to go lay the bait really quick before they chew through the last of Malaketh's distractions. I don't think he's going to help too much more in this fight; he's already spent an unholy amount of essence." Lux nodded slowly, obviously having utterly no idea what any of that meant. Vrax shook his head and made his way forward to the planned ambush spot. It was an old focal point of the dungeon back when this was still an in-use dungeon floor.

Four sides of stairs led up to a flat platform that rose above the jungle foliage. It looked like a miniature version of some of the sacrificial platforms of old Vrax had read of in the library. A pair of detailed statues rose on either side of it, nearly reaching the same height. One was of a dragon with wings spread and lightning dancing across his teeth. The other was of a man with a crooked smile on his face and a dice in his outstretched hand.

The jungle here was especially dense, with moss and vines warring with the platform. The statues both had thick blankets of fine climbing flowers peeking in vivid yellows from within their detailed crevices. Vrax rushed up the stairs and activated his Menagerie. Rot flowed down the steps like a river, trickling to the statues below. If anyone had seen this without knowing what was going on, it would have looked like he had just sacrificed someone up here. Vrax only summoned two things.

The first was The Bush, his glorious rectangle of compressed life energy, so he would have an extra dense spot to draw from if he needed it. The next was Gobbles, Vrax's favorite example of why sometimes he should ask if he should, not just if he can. Gobbles rose from the top of the platform like he had been summoned with a foul ritual. His uneven arms flapped up and down like wings briefly before he twisted his head nearly sideways, and his beak snapped open like an opening book.

"BWAkk…bwaaakkk…" Rumbled out accompanied by disgustingly meaty sounds. Vrax shivered slightly.

"Alright, anyone who sees you is going to be distracted, wondering if you are an existential new threat or if the gods just made a mistake." Gobbles's dull eyes narrowed, and it pecked him hard, nearly tossing Vrax down the stairs. It was forceful enough that Vrax's shield actually flared to life to dull the blow. Whoa, okay... I know you have been eating everything you can get your hands on in the grove, but holy crap. Your level isn't that high yet. Is all your free essence just going into physical enhancements…

Like, how actually does a first of its kind chicken advance? Vrax shook his head and rushed down the stairs; he didn't have time to ponder the mysteries of the system right now. Gobbles watched him almost offended, then turned to the bush, giving it a curious peck. His eyes went wide, and arms crept from his mouth along with each peck starting to grab at the bush. Huh... I didn't think about that, but if it keeps you out in an obvious spot ominously eating a bush, I'll take it.

Vrax settled into an especially dense treetop with Lux clinging to the wood next to him, doing his best to hide in the shadows Vrax's talent provided. Torvald was still screaming across the sky, overhead occasionally diving down to disappear in the jungle every time an arrow sailed out towards him. The tear makers finally came into sight, and to Vrax's luck, they were going to pass awfully close underneath him. For now he just had to wait. For the plan to work, they needed to divide and conquer.

Get everyone squared off with members of Vrax's party they were poorly matched against. The deep stalkers hadn't just been harrying them for the last day to cause attrition. No, they were doing reconnaissance. If you knew what you were up against and planned accordingly, Vrax found you could really punch above your weight. The Barbarian Kon was following closely behind the slab of metal and tower shield that was Edie. The twitchy duelist Carmen was just a step behind, her eyes dissecting every shadow ahead of them.

Vrax held his breath and prayed she didn't look up. The rear of the procession had the archer Laurana's eyes peeled upward to take another shot at Torvald. Slightly out of formation behind them all was the Craven figure. He didn't look like anything terribly special. A big dark cloak draped over chainmail armor and a full helm. Vrax couldn't see any weapons protruding under his clothes; he did have some rather intricate tattoos swirling across his hands. He was still a wildcard.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Kon finally saw Gobbles.

"What the fuck is wrong with this guy?" He raised his axe up slightly. Carmen danced from side to side nervously.

"That has to be Trap. Where the hell is this guy? We've been fighting for half an hour, and we haven't seen anyone other than..." She trailed off as Torvald zoomed overhead, wings spread wide, his passage causing the trees to sway, his booming laughter an almost physical force.

"... that fucking lunatic."

"Goddammit, sit still, you maniac!" Laurana cursed colorfully, trying to track Torvald with her bow and then giving up suddenly as he disappeared downward again.

"That is really getting annoying." Violin music began seeping from the woods to their left side. All of them gained a pained expression, especially Carmen; she looked flat-out panicked for a moment before pulling a clear blue potion out and downing its contents in a single pull.

"I call killing that guy." She said as the potion worked its way through her, calming her nerves.

"Not if I get to him first. Who the fuck. Brings a violin into the forsaken lands first of all. Second, what kind of fucked-up mind chooses a bard class and decides, "Yeah, this is great; I can make people shit themselves with it!" Vrax had to bite his tongue not to laugh; Kon sounded utterly over his party, and he hadn't even fought them yet. Edie looked back over his shoulder.

"Uhh, guys, what are we doing? The fucking chicken demon is looking at me." He stepped forward a bit and planted his shield angled at Gobbles.

"Bwakkk…bwakkkk…" Echoed in response to his words. Kon grumbled to himself, "Shouldn't have taken this job…" then in a louder voice.

"Advance forward, stay tight. We will kill the chicken. Laurana, can you use a scout arrow from that high point?" He pointed to where Gobbles was shoving The Bush into its maw while maintaining eye contact and simultaneously squatting oddly.

"Yes, it should work fine, but I'm not going near that thing. What is it doing?" She wheeled her bow around to aim towards Gobbles. Gobbles tensed its featherless body and let out one last loud cluck, and then egg after egg unceremoniously dropped from it. Starting to roll down the stairs before red tentacles shot from the cracks in the eggs and the lifeless, floppy chick heads peeked free. Edie made a dry heaving noise in his armor and lifted his weapon towards the eggs now scuttling down the steps.

They were utterly distracted by the horrible show Gobbles was putting on, so Vrax triggered the Loam caller vine Torvald was carrying in a dead bird to let him know to strike. There was a low grunt in the distance followed by booming crashes and the whipping of wind. A two-stride-long javelin magically enchanted to be denser than should be possible utterly ripped through the middle of a tree and straight at the archer.

Her reaction time was impressive; she jumped straight up to avoid the lethal throw and at the same time fired an arrow at the incoming projectile. Her arrow hit and exploded with concussive force, angling the javelin down just enough for her to clear the projectile as it zipped past the party, demolishing more trees behind them. What she wasn't expecting because who the hell would? Was the three hundred pounds of gleaming muscle on bloody wings that flew straight in behind the javelin.

Torvald hit Laurana in a full-bodied tackle nearly too fast to track, crashing out of sight with her in tow.

"What the fuck!" Kon shouted, whirling to chase after the archer.

"Bigger problems!" Carmen shouted as a handful of arrows rained down towards them. She dashed in behind Edie, deflecting and weaving her way through the storm of metal. The arrows that came within five strides of Eddie simply slowed to a stop, but they accomplished their purpose. The tear makers were no longer in a cohesive tight-knit group. With a gesture, Vrax raised a roiling wall of vegetation and trees, explosively separating the party further. Now Kon and the Craven were hemmed in with him and Lux.

And the two tanks got to try and survive versus a blood mage that didn't give a shit if you were wearing armor. And constant psychic assaults plus Duchess, those guys were screwed. The two facing him, however, would still be a hell of a fight. Edwards' violin picked up into a frantic pace that wailed across the battlefield as Vrax and Lux dropped onto the prey below them. He nearly got Kon right away with a dropping stab; he was pretty sure if he could get the maggot he had adapted into the guy, he was dead meat.

Kon was an experienced warrior though, his axe was in motion and his rage skill activating before Vrax was even halfway from the tree. Vrax's stab was deflected past his head with an outward sweep of his arm, and his free hand swept into a savage hook that flared against Vrax's shield, slagging enough foliage to suggest it was a bone-breaking punch. Lux fell onto the Craven in a dizzying display of swirling magic and still-forming bladed limbs.

He rolled backward, forming a blade of mana in one smooth motion before taking short, controlled steps back, his blade a blur as it parried slice after slice from Lux's half-dozen uncontrolled scything blows. Kon's rage had bellowed into full effect, a red haze seeping out with his every breath. His density suddenly increased to the point that his feet sunk slightly into the ground. He grabbed the axe with both hands and swung straight for Vrax's midsection.

He didn't even try to block dropping totally prone at the same time as he activated his garden, calling six Razor Retriever hives out at once. Vrax stayed low, scrabbling past the nearest retriever hive. There were hundreds of umbilicals in the air above him as the retrievers around him all lunged for the only foe within reach, the raging barbarian. Vrax had high hopes for this plan. The hive had done a number on a barbarian before.

He pulled himself up outside the circle of retrievers just in time to see Kon stomp down with his foot, sending a shockwave of red coursing force through a path of retrievers, obliterating their hive. Vrax frowned and used his smite quickly to unplug the end of his spear. He had three magebane worms inside it and one adapted maggot. Before Vrax could throw his spear, the barbarian unexpectedly whipped his axe sideways, flinging it end over end straight at Vrax. It caught Vrax straight on in his chest.

He blasted backward straight at a tree hard enough to nearly topple it. The entire path he flew in was a rotted husk from his shield saving his life. Holy shit that would have been flat out lethal without the stigmata. Vrax pulled himself up, pushing healing energies into himself. Kon was still struggling with the remaining retrievers when the Deep Stalkers and their Nightmare Conductors struck as one. Kon was peppered with a half dozen arrows, several of which detonated in razorblade-like explosions of shrapnel.

He tried to dodge, but all that did was cause the unbilical cords he was tangled in to sink deeper into his flesh. Flitting forms alighted above hellfire burning in their eyes as they let out high-pitched cackles and settled into the trees above the barbarian. They lifted tiny paws in unison like dark conductors, and a single purple shadow rose from the corpse of the retrievers. It wasn't what Vrax expected; it was a knight clad in simple armor wielding a longsword.

His heraldry was indecipherable within the swirling shadow. The reaction from Kon was immediate; he pulled harder against the umbilicals, snapping half a dozen against his bones in his rage-fueled state.

"No, you are dead, you motherfucker! We made sure we buried your revenge-fueled idiocy!" The shadow lunged, becoming more tangible by the second. Whoever this was, Kon was scared shitless of him; this was the most real apparition Vrax had seen from the nightmare conductors yet. Kon caught the swing in a bare hand; it sliced deeply, taking off two fingers before stopping just short of his face. The knight leaned in, far more emotive than should be possible.

The shadows slowly started giving way to metal as the phantasm gained more and more details until Vrax was looking at a battered knight in well-worn armor. His cape had the crest of a Hydra on it. Then the phantasm screamed a sound filled with rage and loss the kind of emotion that could only be quenched in blood or death.

"You killed my son!" The knight pushed the blade deeper into Kon's arm while he struggled against the few umbilicals left trying to flee. Holy shit…. I don't know what's happening, but I need to act now; the second he's free, he's going to obliterate that phantasm and then me. He's riddled with arrows, cut to the bone in half a dozen places, and isn't even slowing down. Higher-level barbarians are terrifying.

Vrax sprinted straight forward, stopping three strides short, and threw his adapted spear at Kon's side while he was still focused on the ghost of his past. It sailed true, skimming through a web of retriever wires, and stuck solidly into the barbarian's shoulder. The man didn't even seem to notice; he was too busy tearing the head from the nightmare conductor's phantasm with his bare hands. Emerald fires immediately sprung up under his skin, highlighting his flesh in a haunting way from the mage Bane worms.

They were almost as suddenly extinguished as his rage obviously had some kind of effect on it. But that wasn't what Vrax was counting on anyway. The magebane worms were great but against casters and other squishy targets. They wouldn't do much against a hard-to-kill monster like a raging barbarian. No, Vrax stepped back and watched tensely. The maggot he adapted was the largest mana investment he had ever made in something so small to give it a singular purpose.

Over three hundred mana poured into making it want to feast and grow. And giving it the tools to do so. It had been a few seconds now, so by now its form should be changing. Maggots were, after all, just the larval form of flies. Vrax had just changed what it would grow into… and how fast it would do so. Kon heaved ragged breaths as the wisps of darkness that once formed the knight pooled around him.

With a final stomp, he shredded the last of the retriever's bindings and turned towards Vrax, just ignoring the archers' arrows sticking from his arms and chest. He took one wrathful step towards Vrax and stopped, a confused look crossing his face. He looked down towards his chest with a grimace. The grimace changed to a surprised, pained look. His frame flashed red as he tried to purge whatever was attacking him from the inside. Any second now ….

A leechlike mouth suddenly burst from Kon's back, attached to a wormlike body wrapped in twitching barbs of chitin. The creature wound around Kon's shoulder, its mouth level with his face. Even with his rage dulling the horror and pain, he knew he was dead. He reached up and caught the awful creature emerging from him with both hands, trying to rip it free. All that did was help it shed its former skin, revealing glimmering multifaceted eyes where the leech-like mouth was seconds ago.

Small scything limbs stabbed out into his eyes; they stuck on bone until the creature pushed itself forward farther, finally slipping one of its needle-like scythes through bone. Kon dropped instantly as his brain was punctured. The creature was so gore-covered Vrax couldn't even see what it looked like after its changes. He had an idea, but it looked smaller than he had imagined. Kon had stopped it from finishing its feast. The creature screeched and slid downward back into the corpse to continue the feast.

That finally dealt with, Vrax heaved a sigh of relief and started jogging through the woods towards where Lux had been chasing the Craven. Vrax rounded a tree and came up short, eyes wide. The craven was sitting on Lux's back, his legs crossed and his sword impaled through Lux's back, holding the spriggan to the ground, not that it was needed. Lux's arms and legs were scattered around the small clearing. Lux was lucky he was so hard to kill.

His torso still wriggled slightly under the man, and a muffled creak came out.

"Bad hunt! Bad hunt!" The Craven stood.

"Ahh, good, there you are. Is this a Spriggan? Fascinating creature, very hardy as well. Now I have a job to do." The man bowed respectfully as he slid his blade free from Lux's back, taking one curious last look at the Spriggan before pouring a healing potion over it.

"That ought to give him a better chance after you are gone." Vrax nodded thankfully and squared up with the man.