Chương 61: Chapter 138: Silverdeath

Mark Wyrd was taking a much-needed break. Four months since he had killed his father and rescued his wife, and it felt like he hadn't gotten a single moment to rest. It wasn't just purging the ranks of his father's stooges and straightening out their extremely crooked finances, it was also defending his claim on the Wyrd Stronghold. When a Lord passes, everyone and their grandfather suddenly thinks they have a chance at the title. Literally.

The first month saw the worst of the fighting, Where Mark just stood there and let people kill themselves beating their faces against his Build. There were a few people who worried him a bit, but for the most part, it hadn't been a titanic feat. Stressful, though. And the paperwork… dear gods, the paperwork. That kept coming back to him like a damned dog with a stick.

Sign this, calculate that, oh by the way, since you signed this, you have to either sign this to change the law or go back and rewrite the original proposal. Amanda had calmed him down enough to convince him that he should painstakingly try to do everything right the first time, so that the rats in the Stronghold's bureaucracy couldn't so easily chew holes in the law.

Mark was reclining against a large pillow, sipping something herbal while Amanda reclined against him, reading through documents with patience and an eye for detail that he simply didn't have. She had asked him if he 'wanted to do anything' to which Mark had jokingly replied 'I want to stare into space for a couple hours.' And that's what they were doing. Just blankly staring at the wall keeping out the jungle beyond. Occasionally remembering to drink the tea. Floor-wide Alert!

The Raid Boss, Silverdeath has been engaged on the 7 th Floor! Silverdeath was a common slime that chanced across a large deposit of powerful Relics and Blessed Steel. Millenia of absorbing these has evolved it into a metallic slime and given it strange and unnatural powers. Bounty: 2000 Ivory ten-pieces, 3, 000, 000 XP, to be shared among the Parties that claim the bounty.

"… Of course. Why not?" Mark muttered. They would have to keep their eyes open to make sure that an agitated Silverdeath didn't come their way, but other than that, it wasn't Mark's problem. Somebody wanted to go get killed by a raid boss? No skin off his back. A few minutes later: Floor-wide Alert! The Party of William Oh has claimed the bounty! Many thanks to our Climbers for their efforts. Mark sprayed out a mouthful of tea.

"Who's William Oh?" Amanda asked. *William Oh**"Go go go gogogo!" Will shouted, herding the rest of the Party up the stairs. A confined space was not where Will wanted to be against this- Will saw a flicker of movement ahead and put his foot on Reggie's back and kicked him up the rest of the way even as a curtain of liquid steel slammed shut in front of them. Suddenly Will was alone on the staircase, with no one ahead, and darkness behind. I'm cut off.

For a brief instant, Will considered turning around and leading the creature back into the structure and figuring out some way to get past it. That brief instant was all it took for another sheet of liquid steel to block the staircase behind him. Shit, what do I- Oh right. Coiled Strike. 122->117 Charges remaining. Will popped into existence near the top of the staircase, ahead of his sprinting Party.

"Gogogogo!" Will shouted, waving them past as he stepped out of the way. Silverdeath rippled, and suddenly Will felt a pain in his pinky finger. The one bearing his Set piece. His teleportation had left them behind. Usually that wouldn't be a problem, given how fast they were, but since Will had been teleporting out of an enclosed area… Another pain in his fingers. SHIT! It's trying to eat my Ability! Will drew a mental line from where the metallic slime had come.

Assuming it's trying to engulf that section of the staircase, the last point it would be able to enclose would be… Will sent his Phantom Snakes down and to the right, utilizing their own intangibility to try and escape the monster's grasp. It didn't work. Will felt his fingers slam up against something living only a few feet inside the wall. Will gritted his teeth. Coiled Strike. 117->112 Charges remaining.

Will lured the creature's attention to the fair side of the staircase with his snakes, then teleported back inside of its enclosure. Will couldn't see, but he knew where his snakes were. They were further down the hall getting slowly compressed into a single point where the slime could absorb them. Will considered unleashing a cannonball out of his Phantom Snakes to clear the way for them to go up the stairs, but his Party was up the stairs.

The sheer amount of power he was going to use might accidentally kill or injure one of them. Guess it's back to plan A. Will thought, creating a cannonball copy and shooting it downstairs. The Coiled Strike bonus when combined with the manifestation's extra durability allowed the cannonball to cut through the metallic slime's body, cutting a head-sized hole in the creature's living wall, which his Phantom Snakes dove through. Will followed after them. Coiled Strike. 112->107 Charges remaining.

Will hit the ground hard, blind and not entirely sure of his footing. Aspect kept him from slipping on the staircase, and an instant later, he wrapped a snake around his waist, tugging himself forward as he used the others to feel their way through the dungeon below him. With the slime taking up the entire staircase, there was no light for Will's enhanced senses to make use of. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It's times like this I wish I could use Mason's cantrips. Still, Will could sort of feel the changes in pressure on his skin as he neared walls, hear empty cavities in the walls where intersecting hallways were. It wasn't too bad. Will was getting used to- Will was alerted to Silverdeath abandoning the hallway as light spilled down the hall behind him. Now is it coming after me or them?

Will focused on his feet, using Aspect of the Immortal Serpent to stabilize the terrain around him, creating a sort of bubble around himself. The idea was he should be able to feel if- The air above and behind him cracked like an eggshell as something manifested out of thin air and attempted to snuff him out. It's after me then, Will thought, the snake around his waist tugging him forward in a swift dodge as he spun and whipped his tomahawk into the liquid metal spear, just to see what would happen. CLANG!

The Blessed Steel of his tomahawk hit the liquid metal, rebounding off with a ring that sent shocks through his hand. The attack left a tiny indent in the liquid metal that vanished in the blink of an eye. Not entirely unexpected, Will thought as he dragged himself further away before the monster could try engulfing him again. I need to get around it. Will didn't want to fall into another trap.

If it had left a significant portion of it's bulk near the staircase and was just harrying him with a small extension of itself, he might run straight back into it's clutches. It probably wasn't that smart, but Will wanted more assurances than 'probably'. I need to see the whole thing so I know exactly where it is. I need space. Will thought back to where Bee's copy had been attacked. That had been a huge chamber with enough room for the entire slime to coalesce, and then some.

If he could bring it back there, he could verify that it was all present, then race it back to the surface. Even with it being able to draw a straight line while Will had to take a roundabout path, Will was still confident he could beat it. Will whipped himself down the hall at full speed, gradually growing blind again as the light from the surface faded to nothing.

He didn't slow down, using his skin, ears, and the snakes to feel his way through the ancient dungeon at full speed, arriving at the spot where Bee had been attacked only a few moments ago. There's light here. Will thought, glancing around the biggest room of the ziggurat. The room was dome-shaped, with a glowing Relic in the center. It was a metal sphere the size of a horse that had seemingly been corroded by eons of the metallic slime chewing on it.

The sphere's corrosion revealed patches of brilliant Miasma blue beneath it, the toxic magic concentrated enough to cast brilliant blue light. On the floor were dozens of tubes that connected the Relic in the center to black stone coffins bearing the mummified remains of humans. There were strange symbols carved into the coffins that seemed to pulse with faint light in time with the sphere in the center or the room.

The sphere represented a larger amount of Blessed Steel and concentrated Miasma than anything else in the ziggurat. Even in this heartbeat of time that Will was able to observe the room, he could see that the sphere was repairing itself. Blessed Steel was filling in the gaps, seemingly pumped in from below, slowly dimming the light in the room as the exposed concentrated Miasma was slowly covered. No wonder it was chewing on that. It doesn't run out.

Will bounced up to the ceiling as ten-foot steel spears emerged from the ground. Will held himself up through a combination of Phantom Hand and Aspect, anchoring himself to the ancient stone ceiling.

"Come on, you son of a bitch, let's see your whole body," Will muttered, staring down at the silvery spikes emerging from the floor. Unfortunately, the slime didn't seem willing to play along, sinking its spears back into the floor before winding through the wall, trying to get around and above him. Will detached from the ceiling and dropped out of the way as another volley of steel needles emerged from above, trying to catch him off guard.

As he fell, another dozen spikes emerged from the floor, attempting to surround him. Will dodged in midair, dragging himself to the side the snake he'd looped around his waist like a belt. The spikes from the ceiling and floor touched and merged together as the slime's mass began to coalesce in the center of the room. NOW! Will whipped himself back towards the exit door, his Phantom Snakes leading the way in preparation to feel his way back to the surface again.

A burst of pain from the leading Phantom Snake was the only warning, prompting Will to duck as a nearly-invisible string of steel across the door frame nearly decapitated him. Will skidded to a halt and assessed the hall, noting several dozen glints of light ahead, glowing faintly blue from the light of the room behind him. Unnaturally strong and sharp wires filled the hall, when a couple seconds ago, there had been nothing. It backfilled the way back to the surface with traps to slow me down! What an asshole!

Will almost gave an exasperated sigh, but there wasn't time to bemoan his circumstances. This was just about survival at this point. Focus 124-> 82 Will sent a stream of three manifested shortswords buzzing through the air ahead of him, cutting through the steel wires with sheer power as he blasted down the hallway. Will put his snakes and his useless left hand in front of him to feel for any wires he might've missed as he sprinted through the halls, praying that he didn't bisect himself by accident. Go go go!

Will didn't know how he did it, but he could feel the slime moving through the wall above him, getting ahead of him to cut him off at the staircase again. Screw that. Will was no longer interested in conserving Charge. He was more interested in getting out of the monster's lair alive. Will could see the light of the world outside filtering down the staircase and into the ancient hallway, faintly hear the sound of his Party shouting outside.

Will instructed each of his snakes to become as straight as possible, reducing their size relative to the series of cheese-cutting wires that cluttered the hall. Now. Will launched three cannonballs down the hall and began teleporting while his snakes tucked their coils in and shot behind the cannonballs as they cleared a path through the steel wires. Coiled Strike. 82->77 Charges remaining. Coiled Strike. 77->72 Charges remaining. Coiled Strike. 72->67 Charges remaining.

Will teleported to the end of the hall, then halfway up the staircase as the cannonballs exploded into the stone behind him. Will blinked one more time to the top of the stairs, where the rest of his Party was waiting for him just outside the small entrance room. Will ducked as another three cannonballs preceded his snakes, who grabbed him by the limbs as they swept past, dragging him out of the room a fraction of a second ahead of Silverdeath.

"Run straight!" Will said, pointing toward where Bee was acting as their lookout. Will set down a foot and hardened the air beneath his Party as they sprinted, stumbling momentarily at the unexpected surface beneath them, but quickly catching their balance and continuing to run. An instant later, Silverdeath's spears jutted out of the side of the ziggurat where they would've gone, aiming to catch a few of them from beneath. Unfortunately for the raid boss, they were retreating into the sky, where it couldn't go.

The liquid metal spears grudgingly retracted into the stone surface, giving the seven of them nothing to shoot at. Will panted, hands on his knees.

"How long was I down there?" He asked.

"About five seconds." Reggie said. The adrenaline made it feel longer. Damn that thing's fast… and smart. It had herded him, trapped the halls and deliberately stayed in the walls to prevent them from being able to get a bead on it. Does it… have a mind? Will thought. Or are those just predator instincts? Instincts were a form of mind. The instinct-driven monsters who had been lured in by Travis had 'minds'.

If the only thing the slime had done was chase Will in a straight line, Will would've escaped it much easier. It laid traps. It knew which direction Will would be retreating and had moved to get ahead of him, forcing him to triple-teleport to outpace it. … It had a mind. Will glanced over at Jason. Maybe this won't actually be that hard a kill.

"I got an idea." Will said, glancing at the Party's Nuker.

"Do tell." Mason said, squinting at the ziggurat.

"Jason, don't do anything until we say so, understood?" Will said, putting a hand on the inexperienced Climber's shoulder. The Prophet of the End nodded.

"I think this thing has a mind, which means we might be able to have Jason kill it easily. The only problem is, it's currently hiding in the walls of the ziggurat. If we kill it while it's in the walls, we don't get any Sacrifices. It's a slime, so it's corpse will immediately begin to blend with the stone wall and instantly degrade in quality.

"So whaddya wanna do?" Jason asked, glancing up at him.

"First thing's first:" Will said, raising a finger.

"Give me ten minutes to grab Badur. I think we can pry this clam out of its shell and preserve the meat." Will took them up further into the air, hopefully high enough that the slime couldn't percieve them, let alone attack them. He left a snake securing their perch high above the ziggurat, then he went and grabbed Badur, carting the whimpering Logistician back at speeds that would cause physical damage if he didn't use the Phantom Snakes to protect his eyes.

When Will got back, he was relieved to see that his Party was still there, sitting in a semicircle in midair and chatting with each other while they waited for him to return.

"Okay, I think we can make this happen with you three." Will said, pointing to their Nuker, their Buffer and Badur.

"What's the idea?" Mason asked.

"Okay, you know what happens if you put an explosion inside of an enclosed space?" Will asked.

"No more enclosed space." Mason said with a nod.

"That thing is smart." Will said.

"I'll bet its hanging around the entrance, waiting for one of us to set foot on the ziggurat again. Its lurking inside the stone near the entrance somewhere, completely intangible."

"I want you to channel a huge amount of Charge into an overcharged Conflagration, vaporizing the top of the ziggurat," Will said, pointing at Mason.

"Silverdeath will suddenly be floating in midair where there used to be a stone ziggurat for it to hide in. Since it's intangible, the explosion and shrapnel will slide harmlessly through it, but it will be exposed. Then you," Will pointed at Jason.

"Paralyze and damage it with Withering Repudiation while I try and keep it from retreating back into the stone. When it's dead, I want you," Will pointed at Badur.

"To preserve it. This thing is going to make some sweet Sacrifices and I want all of them for my Stronghold."

"…Let's kill this fuckin' thing," Will said.