Chương 82: The Loot Fell Like Rain

The wisps had sensed blood in the air and came at them like piranhas. Of course, they went for the injured guards first. One had been reeling with two shadow blades embedded in him, and the other's arm was on fire. They were easy prey. Neither guard time to scream before the piranha wisps were on them. Thomas saw a wisp bite down on the side of the neck of the man who'd been stabbed. Where it bit, the flesh was simply gone, leaving a grotesque hole behind.

The wisp grew brighter in an instant and then doubled in size. It looked like it was leveling. Thomas was already moving towards the beleaguered guards, and he wasn't the only one. The prisoners were helping too—the big biker-looking guy reached them first and swung his rusty-looking blade into the cloud of wisps. Thomas didn't think they were doing it to be nice, and really, neither was he, despite his healing mana also urging him on: Those monsters were growing more powerful as they fed.

They had to take them out now when they were still small and relatively harmless. Out of the corner of his eye, Thomas saw a group of wisps heading towards Courtney, who was still crumpled on the ground. Twitch stepped forward to put himself between her and the oncoming monsters, swinging his sword wildly. He more or less accidentally knocked wisps away, but it was working.

"Get the remote!" he heard Jo yell.

"She had it! Get it before she wakes up!" That was all the attention Thomas had for Jo because he hit the cloud of wisps with his shield first. The impact was like having a dozen baseballs strike the surface of the shield all at once. Every single wisp bounced off the rose-gold metal, but one wisp managed to avoid the fray and sneak around to take a bite out of his arm. Thomas slapped it away, but not before it had sunk its teeth in deep.

Warmth pooled up from the shield into his body, and abruptly the cut was sealed. Underneath that, he felt a warm glow from his Watering Wellspring skill as wellspring mana was activated to further reinforce the arm. However, now his blood was in the air, and more wisps had targeted him. His Combat Foresight was less than useless. Ordinarily, it gave him a ghostly image of where the enemy was going to be, but it failed hard at swarm-type monsters.

There were too many choices, and his vision was filled up with so many ghostly images that he had trouble picking them out from the true wisp. So instead, he swung his shield around in wide arcs, bashing them out of the air. Just like with the flying swords, every wisp that was hit then seemed locked between wanting a second pass at Thomas and not being able to, by virtue of the healer's Burden. In fact, it seemed that they were a little bit more stunned than even the swords had been.

The swords could, and did, sneak past if he gave them a chance. These wisps seemed stun-locked. He was trying to figure that out when a wisp he hadn't shield bashed sneaked past his shield and bit him on the shoulder. It blanched and flew backward to join the others before Thomas had time to knock it away. That was when he got it: He was level 4 to their level 3. His healing mana affected them that much stronger. Maybe that's why each bite hadn't had a giant chunk taken out of him like the guards.

He didn't need his Health Sight to know that they were gone. Once the swarm locked onto them, they hadn't had a chance. Thomas was just glad for his own sake that he didn't have anything to do with their deaths. Off to his left, Zach was fighting one of the biggest wisps, which had grown to the size of a volleyball. He snapped a ribbon of fire at it, and wisp charged in as if welcoming the fire. It struck and wisp brightened. It had been recharged just a little bit by the energy and spit back electricity at him.

Zach easily danced out of the way, thanks in part to his new skill, which lent him dexterity and grace.

"Heads up! Fire doesn't work!" Zach yelled. That didn't seem to matter to anybody else's fighting style. Jo and the big bearded prisoner were cutting through the wisps held in thrall by Thomas. The other prisoners had helped untie the poor guy meant to be used as dungeon feed, and they were now picking off the outliers with their own basic swords. However, more swarms of wisps were heading at them from around the bend, attracted by the noise. Should they retreat to the safe room? Then what?

No, for one thing Thomas didn't think that they would all fit inside. They would have to go through it and back into the mineshaft where they would be facing a harder fight. They had to make a stand here. Thomas decided to bring out the big guns. The wisps seemed to be made of energy. He wondered what happened if that energy was severed. The hardest part was accessing his bag while trying to shield bash flying wisps. He tagged a couple of times, but that was no biggie.

They didn't bite deep and he healed almost immediately. Thomas grabbed his halberd from the bag, aimed it at a thick cluster of wisps, and let Severing Radiance loose. Now that Light mana had been integrated into his core, the enchantment was smoother than ever. He found that he could actually increase the width of the beam, making it more of a sweeping wide arc than a lance of light.

When it hit the wisps, the monsters shrieked electric hissing cries, and then seemed to completely fall apart into motes before they evaporated. The only thing left behind were mana crystals, which dropped to the ground. Thomas turned and swept his halberd in a half-circle, easily taking out another group just as they started to rush them. He did it again and again. The loot fell like rain. The mana crystals left behind looked very promising, and he manfully resisted the urge to scoop some up.

However that realization was enough of a slap in the face to get him to calm down. He could probably take out this entire swarm if he really let loose, and the loot it left behind would be... noticeable. So he focused on the big ones that had already eaten and grown stronger. Now that the tide had turned, everybody threw themselves at the remaining wisps. He hoped that would be enough to cover the fact that the ones he killed had dropped... um, a lot.

Zach helped by switching out his fire for a quarterstaff and bashing the things out of the sky so fast he nearly equaled Thomas' area of attack. He had some control over the wind, thanks to his sky and air mana, and managed to group a few wisps together so he could take out multiple at once. Jo and the big guy worked as an extremely effective team, both wielding their rusty swords like they were fine weapons. The pair of them were practically blenders.

The other prisoners helped, but they were not nearly as effective. Though quantity could be a quality of its own, and finally, they whittled the swarm down to nothing. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Thomas had just enough time to realize the fight was over before Jo practically jumped on him. Her arms went around his neck in a tight hug, and he staggered back a step to keep from falling. She... didn't smell great.

Apparently, showers weren't a priority when you were a prisoner, but it didn't matter. She was solid and warm, and whole. He hugged her back without any reservation, even though it messed with his holographic illusion.

"I knew you'd come," she said, still gripping him fiercely. He tried to speak, to apologize for not coming sooner, but found his throat was too tight to get out a word. Before he could get past it, she released him and ran straight to Zach.

"You're alive. Oh thank God, I wasn't sure if..." She trailed off and hugged him just as hard. His arms wrapped around her, too.

"Yeah, sorry."

"You're sorry? I can't... You're unbelievable." Shaking her head, she pulled back from him.

"No, I'm sorry they used my phone to get to you." Then her shoulders slumped and she looked back and forth between them.

"I used my Gift to hide my daughter. Do either of you know–""She's safe," Thomas said.

"It's a long story, but we got her." Jo's eyes misted and she looked like she was about to hug him again. Then she glanced to the side at the third elf.

"That's Twitch," Thomas explained.

"What? Really?" Jo broke out into a grin.

"Hell, that's a blast from the past. Come here, you." Then Twitch, who had been keeping his distance, got his own extremely fearsome hug. He looked almost as shaken by it as by the fight. The big biker guy cleared his throat and broke up their little reunion. He was looking with confusion at the three "elves."

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Why are your people helping us all of a sudden?"

"Oh, hell no, we're not really elves," Twitch said.

"This is some hologram shit." Jo turned from Twitch, laughing.

"This is my team," she confirmed to the big guy.

"They're disguised."

"Yeah, just a second." Thomas reached for the gem he had in his pocket and messed with the little toggle. It was a little harder than usual, seeing that his fingers were shaking slightly from adrenaline. Finally, he got it and the illusion dropped. Zach and Twitch had done the same, and the moment Zach looked like himself again, he went to the janitor guy. Thomas had almost forgotten that he was there.

He hadn't taken part in the fight but hung back near the door and now was sitting on the ground, rocking back and forth and sobbing like a young child. Zach went to him and crouched to speak quietly. The moment the young man looked at him, his sobs stopped, and he let out a half-broken, "Pres?"

"Yeah," Zach said.

"Yeah, it's me." The guy threw his arms around him, and they hugged just as fiercely as Jo had. It was easy to see that the two of them were closely related. Thomas had questions, but first he had to take stock and evaluate the situation. Courtney was still lying on the ground out cold a few yards off. He wasn't worried about her; his health sight showed that she was breathing. The guards... they were dead. Loot lay scattered all around.

Most of it was Light mana by the bright glow, as well as a blue-white version the System told him was Electric mana. He also saw quite a few level three Healing mana and green Nature mana. He wasn't the only one that noticed, and he heard some low whistles coming around. One of the prisoners muttered, "Team Charlie must have been wiped for the dungeon to give all this." Yeah, sure, he'd go with that.

"Everyone," Thomas raised his voice to be heard, "absorb a healing mana crystal right away. It doesn't matter if you weren't hurt. It shields against PTSD." Considering that they were all prisoners, they probably needed it. As an example, Thomas picked up one by his feet and slapped it into the hands of the guy who had been marked as dungeon feed. Now the fight was over, he had been just standing there looking around blankly, probably in some state of shock.

The other prisoners just stared at him, almost as if they were wondering if this was a trick.

"He's my team's healer," Jo said.

"He knows what he's talking about." They instantly took her word for it and started crouching to grab crystals. Thomas noted that they weren't only picking up the Healing. He didn't care, as long as none of them realized he was responsible for the bounty. Meanwhile, he wasn't going to let all this rare mana sit around either, and picked up Light crystals as well as Healing and a few Nature. Yes, it was all level three and technically below him, but he could still sell it. Jo made introductions.

The other female prisoner, who had a steel-gray buzzed haircut, was named Sue. A quiet guy, who hadn't done much but at least stayed out of the way, went by Holton. The giant man with the biker beard was, of course, named Tiny. Thomas wanted to make a crack about his name, but the guy had a look on his face clearly daring him to try it, and Thomas didn't feel like getting punched today. So instead, he took a couple of the Nature crystals and stepped over to Twitch.

"Here," he said.

"If you have any compatibility at all, I want you to absorb this. It's level three, so it'll hit you like a truck, but you've only got to level two on Earth, right?" He waited for Twitch to jerkily nod before he pressed it into his hand. He had a feeling the man would be perfectly compatible with Nature.

"You need more than one element, or you'll unbalance your core and probably your mind. Also, absorb a Healing crystal. I was serious about that." Twitch didn't really seem to care about mana right now. Instead, he glanced down at Courtney, who lay behind him. Then his jaw tightened as he looked back up at Thomas.

"We're not killing her. She's just a girl." That was when Thomas remembered Twitch was the type of guy who seemed to glom on to tiny, helpless things. He had this whole terrible backstory about one of the leaders in the gang, Grimm, and his dog. Thomas let out a breath.

"Look, she's young and pretty, but she is not helpless. Also, come on, we're not killing her. That isn't how we operate," He met Twitch's eyes.

"Absorb the mana. You'll feel better." Then, leaving him to it, he went back over to Jo and Zach. Zach had managed to get the janitor guy back up on his feet, though he was still sniffling and rubbing at his eyes.

"This is Antonin," Zach said, giving the name a French pronunciation with soft vowels.

"He's my cousin." Tiny must have overheard, because he strode over with his face already reddening.

"Cousin? So you're with the de'Montvallon's?"

"Obviously not," Thomas said before Zach could open his mouth.

"Zach is with us," Jo told Tiny, and the big man huffed. Zach looked pained.

"They're a branch family. Antonin was made to join them shortly before I ran off."

"What..." Thomas glanced at Antonin and tried to find a nice way of saying it without saying it, but just ended up with a blunt, "What happened to him?" Antonin didn't answer for himself. He seemed childlike and content to let the adults talk over his head.

"I've told you about him before," Zach said heavily.

"He's the one that... that was made to take Corruption mana before he was ready. He never fully came back from it." Corruption mana. So that was what Thomas had felt with Federick. No wonder Zach had run from them like his tail was on fire. He'd have to get the story out of him soon, but right now with listening ears was not the time. Turning, Thomas looked between Jo and Tiny, since those two seemed to be in charge of the other prisoners. The rest were busy picking up mana crystals.

"Okay, so what's going on here? They make you guys clear this dungeon? Collect the loot?" Jo let out a breath.

"Basically. They have teams running this dungeon on the regular for Light mana and whatever items drop, and..." She didn't meet his eyes.

"... something called Wellspring mana. It drops from the goldies." She knew perfectly well about his Wellspring mana and was telling him to keep it quiet. That was fine by him.

"We're Team Alpha," Tiny said with more than a little bitter pride.

"Means that we're the best team that they got, so we're sent in the most often."

"You said that you normally get eight-hour breaks?" Thomas asked. So Jo had already run this dungeon, three, maybe four times? More?

"If we're lucky," Jo said.

"The point is to grind people down. If you refuse, then they'll drag you in and slit your throat to feed the dungeon. Or if you try to escape..." She looked down meaningfully at her ankle monitor.

"But that's not going to be a problem," Tiny added.

"You got the remote that bitch was carrying, didn't you, Jo?"

"Sure did." She smiled and took it out from her pocket.

"I can do you better than that," Thomas said, lifting his halberd.

"Hold still." He probably should have warned Jo better than that before light of Severing Radiance lanced out and hit her ankle monitor. She let out a startled yelp as the whole device died, unclasped itself from her leg, and dropped onto the cave floor. Every other prisoner turned to stare.

"Me next," Tiny said instantly, already lifting up a leg. Sue, Holton, and the guy who was meant to be feed were right behind. It only took a couple more blasts and they were all free.

"Well, thank fuck for that," Tiny muttered, giving a vicious kick to his old ankle monitor.

"Question is, what do we do next?" Thomas had already thought about it. Federick wasn't expecting them back for hours, probably, and nobody outside had any reason to think that anything had gone wrong, other than the fact that Light elves had come for a surprise inspection. That meant they were alone in a level three dungeon full of loot with a whole group of people who could probably do with some leveling up.

"Here's what I'm thinking," Thomas said.

"Run the dungeon, load up on as much mana as we can fit, and maybe level if you can." He smiled.

"Then we break out. Maybe see that inventory room Frederic was talking about."