UnwillingEldritchHorrorofFortune
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Chapter 185: The Village Part 3 (Aspirant POV)
🕑 Added 2024-09-02 14:57:00 +0000 UTCThe creature attacked without warning, and it was fast, too fast. It had been at least a few dozen feet in front of the five Aspirants, and they were still in the midst of reorganizing, so its first charge had taken everyone off guard. For something that was almost eight feet tall, it was supernaturally quick, and it was only Wayne’s athleticism that saved the thing’s first blow. Unfortunately, the Aspirant couldn’t quite get his shield out and in front of him in time and had taken a wicked hit from the monstrosity. His thick armor took the brunt of the assault, but the distinct sound of snapping bone told Vincent everything he needed to know.
“Fuck!” Wayne muttered as he fumbled to distance himself from the creature, “That’s the same arm!”
Vincent joined the fray, his own glaive already out. He slashed at the thing, but impossibly, he slipped on a small stone halfway into his charge and made his swing go wide to the left. Worse, Wayne had chosen the worst moment to pause his advance to take out his own weapon, and he was right in the way of Vincent’s strike. The Aspirant tried his best to stop the attack, but his muscles seized, perhaps from the pent-up anxiety, and he watched in horror as he was on course to decapitate his friend. Thankfully, a glimmering barrier of light protected Wayne’s neck from this improbable series of events.
“What the fuck are you people doing?” Benjamin screamed, “I thought you were fucking competent, but you’re trying to off your own teammates this quickly? He’d have died if I didn’t step in, you damned morons.”
Vincent didn’t have time to refute his new Squad member or even apologize to Wayne because the doctor monster took the opportunity to batter Wayne aside to land a huge punch on Vincent. He was still recovering from the shock of that accident and that small lapse in concentration made the blow connect squarely on his chest, knocking the wind out of the Aspirant and sending him flying back. Vincent saw his HP plummet to dangerous levels, but his team was already in action, covering for him.
Nicole rushed to his side and forced an HP potion down his throat while Vivian joined Wayne in his desperate attempt to slow down the monster. She took out her bow and started to pepper the thing with arrows, but for some reason, more than half of her shots would go wide. Vincent had seen her in action before; it was rare for Vi to miss one arrow, let alone most of them.
Worse yet, the horror seemed to be beelining straight for Vincent, ignoring the others and its own body to do so. With Vivian floundering, the thing was gaining ground, and for good reason. It had always been Vincent’s role to dish out damage, and with him out of commission for the short term, the Squad had to take a defensive position. It had been insanely strong, and it was only through the continued buffs provided by Ben that Wayne was even able to keep it at bay for so long, but even in Vincent’s prone position, he could tell that it was only a matter of time before his friend was overwhelmed.
“Holy shit, you guys are all fucking useless!” Ben shouted, “This bitch can’t hit the broad side of a goddamn barn, why did I get stuck with you lot? Nicole, do something! I ain’t made out of MP!”
Nicole nodded and gave the signal for the rest of us to back off. Ben, being the only one not originally from this Party, didn’t know what she was doing, but he was far enough back that it shouldn’t matter. Wayne heaved his shield and used the remainder of his strength to shove the creature back, just a little, before making a mad dash back. Vincent braced himself, and that was when Nicole used her ability.
“Halt!”
Vincent felt the sheer force of will of the command pierce through his body, even though she had not directed the brunt of her powers at him. His breathing halted, his muscles ached as they stopped all movement, and even his heart briefly paused. Even his eyes lost focus and the world went white. That awful feeling of total stillness felt like it had lasted an eternity, but only moments would have passed. He needed to recover fast so that he could strike down the frozen foe.
Once Vincent felt the first inkling of movement return to his body, he forced himself up, hands clenching onto this glave, and he was ready to rush in to end the creature’s miserable life. He refocused, but what he saw wasn’t the petrified body of the doctor thing, for it wasn’t frozen. It… it was moving with a strange, almost robotic movement then, and before Vincent or the rest of the party could even understand what was happening, the thing moved faster than it had ever done before. It crawled on all fours using muscles that defied common sense as if it was just a puppet on a string, and it launched its rusted cleaver right at Nicole’s horrified form.
“That cost me a lot of charges,” it cursed cryptically.
The Squad could only watch, the aftereffects of their own teammate’s abilities still lingering, as the doctor’s instrument struck the poor girl in the throat. It was only a miracle that Ben had recovered enough to erect a small barrier to dampen the worst of the impact, or else Nicole’s head would have been practically vaporized given how fast that weapon was thrown. However, the barrier wasn’t strong enough to stop it completely, and blood oozed from the woman’s neck. She struggled uselessly to staunch the wound.
No, Nicole wasn’t dead. Not yet at least. Vincent couldn’t freeze, not here.
“Vi, take her back to base,” Vincent shouted, “We’re not losing her here!”
“But what about-”
“We’ll hold it off,” Wayne offered, “just long enough to make sure you escape, then we’ll book it ourselves.”
“Fuck it,” Ben said, “If she’s leaving, I’m going with her. You fools have been the most worthless set of Aspirants I have ever seen, I am not dying here due to your incompetence!”
Vincent wanted to say something, anything, but there just wasn’t the time. “Then go! Get them to a cleric ASAP! We’ll be right behind you.”
Vivian gave the two one last look of worry, but she knew that any hesitation now could cost her friend her life. She stashed away the bow and splashed some health potions onto the worst of the wound. Without the ability to swallow it, and with the weapon still lodged firmly in her throat, the effects would be minimal, but anything would help at this point. Vivian picked up her wounded comrade and ran toward the exit; Vincent could only hope that they didn't get lost in the gloom.
“That was my favorite bone saw,” the creature cursed, “It was a present!”
“It’s ours now,” Wayne answered, trying to make light of the hopeless situation, “Just come and try to get it.”
Vincent braced himself, still not fully recovered from that last hit, but he didn’t have the opportunity to rest. He prayed, for the first time in his life, not that he’d make it out of this situation alive, but that the others could at least live through this encounter. With nothing else to do, Vincent and Wayne charged at the monster.
*
Eric stared at the party counter and cursed under his breath. 34/50. That was 12 more deaths in the span of what seemed like moments. Even the reinforcements from Squads 1 and 2 that he dispatched hadn’t yet come back either; something was grossly wrong with half of the locations that the Squads were to search for. He was tempted to send the three parties that came back first to relieve the others, but with less than half an hour before the deadline, Eric thought against that. It’d take them minutes to even get there, and the risk of losing more Aspirants didn’t outweigh the benefits.
That shouldn’t have been the case. Eric’s Patron, Thoth, had blessed him and had even allowed the lowly Aspirant a copy of His very own Book of Knowledge. The Book and its insights had never failed him yet, and its often prophetic words were a large part of how Eric had risen to such heights. The Book even outlined, in excruciating detail, every aspect of this Trial, yet aside from the first Lunar shift, nothing else had gone the way it should have. The only unknowns that the Book couldn’t predict were the other Aspirants, but there was no way that one unknown opponent could contend with the might of a God’s holy relic.
Eric knew that this Trial was protected by a profane god and perhaps that was what was interfering with the Divine Thoth’s revelations. With only the first section of the Book of Thoth available to him, there was only so much he could know. If only he had access to more chapters of the Book…
[Offer more, my disciple… And you shall have the knowledge you need… You just need to offer your full pledge to my services, and the world will fall to your will. All can be revealed if you but capitulate.]
The Aspirant shook his head and forced that voice out of his mind. Eric knew full well that there was always a price to pay for more power, and he wasn’t naive enough to believe that there were no strings attached to his devotion. Until he knew more about these mysterious Sponsors and their intentions, or if his situation wasn’t truly dire, he would approach these offers with caution.
The only good thing that he could say about the situation was that one of his informants managed to secure a cryptic map of some sort. That would almost certainly be the hidden reward promised, and Eric’s heart inadvertently skipped a beat at the thought of what treasures awaited him. He’d have to have someone decipher the thing later, but as loathe as he was to wait longer to see what information that map entailed, there were more pressing matters to attend to now.
“Can you see anything,” He grumbled to Alexis. The slow, painful wait was trying his patience.
“N-nothing, sir,” she said, her voice barely audible, “I can sense the three Squads, but the fog makes it impossible to do more than get a rough outline of where they are.”
Eric grunted and turned to Steven, the only person who could communicate across distances. “And we still can’t send any kind of communication to them?”
“Nothing on my end either,” he answered with a frown, “Alexis is right, the fog makes my abilities muted. Anyone past maybe two, three hundred meters and the signal’s sketchy. They’re too far away, should we go closer?”
Eric shook his head. “No, we’re blind to what’s attacking our crew, and we could be walking into an ambush. We wait.”
“But-” Alexis began.
Eric turned to the woman. “Unless you want to go alone.”
She didn’t reply. Eric shook his head, it was all well and good to be concerned about your fellows, but it was always the people without power that wanted others to do the hard work for them. They didn’t give a damn about the bigger picture, and it was up to people like Eric to make the hard decisions, even if those decisions ultimately cost the lives of his subordinates.
“Wait,” Alexis said, “There’s… there’s three people running this way, one of them is critically injured!”
“Where?”
“Due south, sir.”
Eric frowned.“Steven, get the medics, go and see what’s going on. This is the first set of people that made it back. I want to know what the hell is going on over there.”
“Yes, sir!”
Steven started to coordinate a rescue squad while Alexis directed their movements toward the lone group of survivors. Without the fog getting in the way, the group of Aspirants was like a well-oiled machine, and the necessary personnel were moving within the minute. Within five minutes of their departure, the three survivors were safely back in their makeshift base, with the critically injured individual taken to the medical tent. The other two came to explain to Eric what was going on.
“Ben,” he muttered, “What the hell is going on?”
“Fucking monster ambushed us is what’s wrong!” Benjamin half shouted as he tried his best to catch his breath, “Some kind of damned mutant doctor thing got us, we could have won the fight if this Squad wasn’t so worthless!”
Vivian scowled. “We’re not-”
“Stick to the facts,” Eric warned.
“Those are the facts! They were-”
“Ben.”
The other Aspirant coughed awkwardly. “Right, sorry. I meant to say that we were ambushed by an unknown assailant. It was stronger than anticipated and could resist our spells. Vincent and Wayne, I believe his name was, stayed behind to save their wounded friend. I believe they’re both dead.”
“Hold on,” Alexis interrupted, “There’s one more life sign coming this way! Same direction.”
Vivian’s eyes opened and she turned to the direction where they escaped from. Sure enough, there was a lone figure, badly wounded by the looks of it, making their way toward them.
“Is that… is that Vincent?” she muttered, barely believing her eyes, “He’s hurt, someone help him!”
“Huh,” Benjamin scoffed, “I guess he’s more tenacious than I thought.”
