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PW Chapter 20: The Surge Begins in Truth
🕑 Added 2025-05-29 07:42:54 +0000 UTCSix wargs rushed out of the brush, their mouths wide open and ready to tear into flesh. Astrid rushed forward and slammed into two, but a third circled around and caught her armored calf in its jaws. She roared as she struggled to keep her feet, but the monsters didn’t slow down. Two more turned away from Petr and rushed to her. Petr, Svana, and Pursene struck out, trying to kill the monsters, but they didn’t care about the wounds they sustained, looking only to kill and maim.
Astrid screamed in pain as one took her other leg, and they pulled her to the ground while a third tried to rip her throat out. She imposed her shield between herself and the monsters, letting them continue attempting to mangle her legs as she begged for help. Without any real strategy or thought, she whipped her hammer around, trying to catch the wargs that were hauling on her shield, and she made contact with something, but only a glancing blow.
“Get up!” Petr shouted as the weight on her shield disappeared. Astrid did so, taking in the sight. Four of the wargs had sustained small injuries, and Svana was desperately parrying the attacks of the other two wargs, one bleeding heavily from its neck. Her face was pale and terrified, but she was holding the line deliberately to keep Tobias safe. He scrambled to his feet, but Astrid didn’t have any time to look at him. Petr was being attacked by three wargs, one on his arm and leg, the other being battered back by his shield. Then, as Astrid watched, Pursene leapt over the warg chasing her and lodged an arrow deep in the monster’s spine. It fell, but there was no kill notification.
“I’m fine!” The Archer shouted as she nocked another arrow.
The best option available to her, so far as Astrid could tell, was the one that she went ahead and did. Limping and unwieldy, she activated Quick Recovery and lunged forward with her hammer. It snapped the warg attacking Svana’s spine, and it fell. Then, with the two women attacking at once, it quickly gave the death notification.
Warg slain. 6 Experience gained, split among party.
Warg slain. 5 Experience gained, split among party.
Another appeared, meaning another death. The other, trapped between Astrid and Svana, died quickly. Three dead, one crippled. They turned, watching Petr. The warg on his leg had died, an arrow buried in its chest. While the other two women approached, Pursene loosed another shot, striking the warg that was being harried by Petr’s shield squarely in the head. It fell, though not yet dead. Astrid’s hammer killed the last, the warg hanging on Petr’s arm, and then she went to make sure the other two were dealt with permanently.
Once the sixth death notification appeared, Astrid stepped back, panting. Quick Recovery had closed the worst of the shallow but painful wounds all over her legs, but there was still plenty that needed to be dealt with. Even so, she didn’t call attention to herself, but instead looked to Petr.
“Are you alright?” She asked, looking the Shieldsman over.
“Need Tobias.” He grunted. The Healer stepped forward without complaint and laid his hands on Petr’s shoulder. He immediately seemed to feel a bit better, but Tobias didn’t continue providing healing to their frontliner.
“It’ll get a lot further, or at least I will, in the long run if I only heal as much as is necessary. Do you have a draught?”
Petr nodded, pushed his helmet back enough to expose his mouth, and pulled a small vial from a satchel. He tossed it back before resettling his helmet and rolling his shoulders. Astrid considered doing the same, but decided against it. Instead, she allowed her body to recover as quickly as it did naturally, though her legs burned.
“Hold still.” Tobias commanded as he stepped forward and placed his hand on her side. A small burst of an icy chill ran down her legs and she grunted as Tobias scoffed. “What were you screaming about? You’re basically fine.”
Astrid gritted her teeth, still keeping her Skills hidden. “Don’t worry about it. The armor kept the worst of it from getting through.”
She didn’t speak to the Healer any longer and instead walked to Svana. “Thank you for getting them off me when you did, Svana.”
“Wasn’t exactly my plan.” She grunted back. “But I’m glad it worked out. If someone goes down this early, we’ll all die.”
Astrid nodded and got herself back into position. Then, looking around at the party, she saw that they were ready to keep on fighting. She rolled her shoulders, and given that there wasn’t any sign of any more wargs appearing, she asked Pursene, “How are you on arrows?”
The Archer grunted, and walked to one of the corpses nearby and pulled the arrow free. “I’m fine right now, but I only have 50. If there’s too many of these things and my arrowheads break in them, then I’ll become pretty worthless.”
“You lose any in this fight?” Svana asked as she settled into a ready stance behind Astrid and Petr.
“One’s chipped, but they’re all useable. I might have to use a Skill on the chipped arrowhead, but I’m fine.”
“Sounds good.” Svana replied. “Now, all the parties are supposed to be patrolling in the same direction to make sure that none of the monsters end up able to escape our encirclement. I’ll leave a message here, and then we’ll be moving to the east.”
Even Tobias didn’t have a complaint about that, and after Svana left a couple stones in a pattern that Astrid wasn’t familiar with, they set off. The journey continued uninterrupted… for about three minutes. Then, a mere pair of wargs burst from the bushes. Prepared and no longer outnumbered, the party quickly dispatched the monsters. Then, as they resumed traveling in the direction that they’d planned, Svana spoke up.
“We need a plan about what to do the next time we get outnumbered. We only have practice fighting fewer wargs than our own numbers, and being evenly numbered is hard enough, especially since we have a noncombatant. If we’re fighting four, then Astrid, you take two, Petr takes the others, while Pursene and I focus on those attacking Astrid. Any disagreement from you two?”
Astrid and Petr met eyes and shook their heads.
“Great, then that’s for four. With five, Petr, can you take three again, or will it always end the way it did this time?”
“Probably this way.” He grunted after thinking. “Probably higher level, so it’s hard to say.”
“Damn.” Svana didn’t sound surprised. “Then Astrid. If you use all your Skills and disregard safety, can you reliably kill a warg right as we make contact?”
Astrid sighed. “Maybe two out of three times without risking myself? With how much faster and tougher they are, I can’t guarantee immediate kills. If I just let them attack me however much they want, then I can kill one for sure. Two if they’re distracted.”
“Then, Tobias, your job is to ensure that, right before a fight begins, you cast your ward on Astrid.”
“Svana, it’s a waste to—”
“Yes, you don’t get experience by using that mana. I get that we’ve prioritized you gaining more levels, but the couple of experience that you’d get from healing instead of warding is worth less than a Barbarian’s toenail. Prevention is going to go a long way further than fixing, and your mana will go a lot further that way. Don’t think we don’t know that. Now shut up and cast the ward on her now. When it fades, it’s your job to stay on top of that and get it back on before she’s in danger. Do you understand me?”
Tobias nodded curtly before walking forward and taking Astrid’s hand in both of his.
“This will last for the next 30 minutes or until you sustain an attack.” He explained as he cast the Skill. “On the first attack you sustain that would deal more than a small portion of your health, it will reduce the force of the attack by 50%. It’ll be better if you don’t take the attack at all, but that’s what the Skill does.”
Astrid nodded as a faint sensation crawled over her skin. If it wasn’t affecting her personally, she suspected that she wouldn’t have noticed it at all. Again, that old worm of jealousy reared its head, but Astrid fought to tamp it down. Instead, she turned her attention to the forest around them and Svana continued giving directions as they went.
“Tobias is right, try to keep from using the ward, but if you need to, don’t worry about it. If there are six or even more monsters, our goal is to cripple or slow as many of them as quick as possible. If, instead of a killing blow, you can strike two debilitating ones, focus on those in fights against more of them. I would say try to disengage if there’s more than seven, but I’d suspect that there won’t be any possibility of escape with that many. In that case, Astrid, Petr and I will take each point and attempt to keep Pursene and Tobias safe behind us.”
Any further discussion was cut off by four wargs approaching. With their new plan of attack set, Astrid strode forward and, taking care to not trigger the ward when she didn’t need to, struck at a warg. The hammer crunched into flesh and bone, and the beast fell, insensate. The other three all swarmed Petr, and Astrid, Pursene, and Svana all focused on dealing death as well as they could. Before long, they’d killed the pack.
“Maybe this isn’t going to be as bad as I feared?” Astrid wondered aloud, though she cringed immediately after.
“You’re gonna curse us like that?” Pursene asked, her face belying her real intentions behind the joking tone.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Petr said. “Won’t actually change anything.”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Shut up! I hear more!” Svana cut off the slight relaxation, and the delvers got back into position. When a pack of seven appeared, two going specifically for Tobias, Astrid did wonder if she’d somehow cursed them by her words. She roared as she hefted her hammer and disregarded one of the wargs lunging for her leg.
***
The surge continued throwing more and more difficulties at the party. Astrid had used Quick Recovery for the second time as they continued their movement, and Tobias was beginning to get suspicious, as the blood on her body and the wounds that needed his treatment simply didn’t match up. Astrid ignored the looks he gave, and they moved from one fight to the next.
They did manage a quick break between most fights, but perhaps because of their patrolling, they quickly entered into the range of another pack of wargs’ perception. The worst experience they’d had thus far was when a level 5 had appeared with three level 3s in tow, and as a result, Petr had been badly mauled. Fortunately, Astrid and Pursene were barely able to strike killing blows on two of the level 3s right as they appeared, and they’d taken out the final level 3 before long. Even so, the level 5 was simply too strong, and it’d evaded Petr’s shield before ripping through his armor and nearly disemboweling him with one bite.
With all four fighters focused on the beast, Pursene managed to pepper it with enough arrows to slow it that Astrid darted in and smashed it down to the ground. As soon as there was a solid surface to serve as the anvil to her hammer, Astrid pulverized the creature. When the notification for 9 experience appeared, Astrid pulled back and went to look at Petr. Already, Tobias was treating the man, and the Warrior looked at the rest of the party. Even through her helmet, she could feel the eye contact and the confusion.
“I’ll say it.” Svana spat to the side. “That Duchess-forgotten Dungeoneer somehow managed to give us the wrong damned information.”
“Yeah.” Pursene agreed. “There shouldn’t be any level 5s this far out. Unless something’s happened that’s changed everything in the past two hours, we shouldn’t be finding anything higher than level 3.”
The party continued grumbling, hoping the complaints would stave off the continuously growing terror that fought to overwhelm them.
Eleah
“It doesn’t make sense!” She shouted as her fingers danced through the sigils necessary to understand the leylines of mana below here. “They were settled! They don’t change!”
“Turns out they do!” Grom shouted back as he flared his aggro Skill. Hundreds of wargs rushed forward, and the notifications from the experience let her know that almost every single one was level 8.
“It’s impossible! The Dungeon doesn’t change!”
“Well, change your opinion of what’s impossible, kid! We’ve got delvers out there that are about to die because you gave the wrong damn information! So get the right stuff and tell me what it is! I don’t care if the Duchess herself comes down here, I’m your god right now and you’ll do what I damn well say!”
Eleah started to argue back, but Kiera slapped her and screamed, “Look at the mana! Find what’s changed!”
With her protector so angry, Eleah grumbled under her breath about unfair treatment as she threw her mind more completely into the Dungeon’s flow. Dungeoneering was the name of her primary Skill as well as her Class, and it threw her mind into the inner workings of the Dungeon. The wonderful, unknowable was the source of all mana, so it could make its own damn rules, but it always followed them! It didn’t make sense if, for since forever, it had always just done what the mana was saying, but now it decided to change its mind after it had settled.
She felt her eyes roll back in her head as the mana thrummed through her body and her blood vessels began to burst from the pressure. Even so, she pushed herself deeper into the rushing river of mana below. She’d always been cautioned against it, and she knew why. Mere toxicity was one of the mildest of consequences she could expect. Through her closed eyes, Eleah could see her body glowing as her blood was forced to house more and more mana. Something in her ear popped, and suddenly she could hear her blood flowing inside her body, and the mana rushing underfoot.
It called her. Mana was the lifeblood of the world! It was the source of levels, experience, monsters, mutations, Skills, Classes, and was the blood of the Dungeon! Enlightenment called to her, warned of the misconceptions that’d been forced onto her ever since she’d gained her Class. There was so much that she would learn if she just opened herself further. There was so much more that begged her to lean into. So much more to learn. She would become something so much more than—
“It’s all coming back!” It all made sense, and Eleah hauled herself out of the mana-induced mania. It was far and away the furthest she’d ever let herself descend into the Dungeon, and as blood flowed from her eyes, she grinned. Her blood covered her face and she could hear nothing but the flowing of mana underfoot. Kiera asked something but Eleah couldn’t hear.
“It’s coming. All the mana of the surge, it’s coming here. It’ll be a growth of at least 200%. At least. Maybe more. More? Yes. More. How much? More. But how much? Mmm. Percentages. Yes. The rivers of mana converge. Will there be a Great Surge? No. But more. More than 200%. Mana from higher levels, from Steel here. Yes. It will be great, but not Great. There will be more. More than wargs? I can’t say. Greater wargs? No. But more. There is more. The mana flows. The mana congregates. Here it will burst. Will there be toxicity? Yes. Will there be mutilation? Yes. Will there be mutation? No. Yes. More.”
Eleah tried to stop herself from her maddened ravings, but she couldn’t cease the words as they flowed from her lips in an unceasing steam. Flowed like the mana that was poisoning her. Flowed like the mana that was gathering here. Flowed like the mana that would poison everyone within the bounds of the radius. The radius stayed the same, but they needed to escape. This part of the Bulwark would need to be dealt with specifically by at least high Irons. Maybe even some Steels. If the mana was left to percolate into the ground, then yes, Steels would be necessary.
As Kiera placed her hand on Eleah’s mouth and forced something down her throat, Eleah’s mind quickly cleared. Once she was finally able to look around herself and see the world for what it was, she saw terrified looks on all her companions’ faces. At what she’d said, at what she’d implied. She grinned in response, then the mana toxicity stole her consciousness.
Comments
No_Creative_Name
Yes.
Gilded Goblin
So if I get that right, the Surge was *originally* low power, large range. But now it's gone and flipped, high power, low range. Possibly so low as to only hit this specific dungeon branch.
