Author Frank Morin
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Ch 38 - Tug of War Death Match
🕑 Added 2024-10-10 19:15:02 +0000 UTCThe camp erupted into bedlam as people boiled out of tents and scrambled for weapons. Magical lights flared and everyone seemed to be shouting at once, screaming about monsters or demanding information.
Burns marched off with his retinue toward the lower end of the ravine, his powerful voice booming over the din. “Meet at your rally points. Sentries, to me!”
They had set rally points. Good idea.
Jane and several of the other locals clustered to my right, nervously scanning the area while I strode toward the dim slope leading out of the ravine. Dawn had probably happened on the other side of the mountains, but the sky was still a vision-obscuring gray to most people. I could spot the monsters better and wanted to lead the charge.
“Look out!” Joey shouted, and a blinding energy beam blasted past my eyes, barely half an inch from my head. I dove aside, rolled, and returned to my feet, about to curse Joey out for nearly shooting me in the face.
That’s when I saw the spectral form floating right behind where I’d been standing. How had I not seen it? Did it have some kind of invisibility?
Unlike the Essence Wights that looked mostly humanoid, this thing looked more like a roiling cloud of pure blackness with hundreds of glowing white teeth and 10 tiny brilliant blue eyes. Not even Wolf Sight penetrated the darkness of its form.
Joey fired faster than I realized that energy rifle could manage. Shouting and cursing, he kept up an intense barrage. With every shot from the energy rifle, the monster seemed to shiver and recoil slightly.
“Spectral Mauler. Level 24. Ghost. The lingering will of a powerful slain monster, this ghostly apparition seeks a new host. It feeds on the spirit. Immune to physical attacks.”
I called Soulrend to hand, ready to help Joey, but Jane shouted behind me in sudden fear. I spun to see her facing another Spectral Mauler, both hands raised toward it as the people around her stumbled back in fright.
The Spectral Mauler looked like mist surging against an invisible barrier as it fought to reach Jane. She held her ground, face twisted in intense concentration. She was holding it back with pure telekinetic power.
“Keep it busy!” I shouted to Joey and William, who had added his own beam rifle to the fight.
“Go!” Joey shouted back, still firing. His rifle was starting to glow dangerously bright.
I hoped it didn’t overload, but didn’t have time to hesitate. The spectral mauler attacking Jane was slowly but inexorably closing on her.
I dashed the short distance to it and brought Soulrend tearing through the center of its cloud shape. The blade slowed as it passed through. Slicing the spirit was like cutting through a big boneless roast.
The spectral mauler shrieked like an insane insect and turned to me as parts of its cloud body began to dissipate. I slipped into a stick fighting form I had practiced hundreds of times, flowing from one stroke to the next as I carved the ghostly beast apart with a never-ending barrage of strikes.
Within seconds, it screamed one more time and the dark cloud of its body started to fade. On my wrist, my Tesla Coil bracelet started to grow warm as it absorbed energy from the monster as I wounded it.
“Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated Spectral Mauler.”
I triggered Soul Feed even as I spun to race back to Joey and William. Power roared into me from the dead monster, but it seemed like barely a trickle compared to what I’d gotten recently from the werewolves. It was still enough to top off my health and mana and add a slight boost to my physical stats.
Joey’s rifle exploded in a flash of bright light. William tumbled away and Joey screamed, falling to the ground, hands grabbing at his face.
The Spectral Mauler, which had been looking ragged from all the laser bolts, coalesced into a solid black cloud and pounced on the helpless Joey.
“Joey, roll!” I shouted as I raced to intercept.
He failed to react in time. I almost made it.
The Spectral Mauler plunged into Joey’s chest half a heartbeat before Soulrend flashed past. Joey convulsed, his scream snapping off instantly. His hands fell away from his badly burned face and his one remaining eye widened in horror.
I stood over him, unsure what to do. “Joey?”
His convulsing got worse, then both his good eye and his ruined socket began to glow with the same blue light of the Spectral Mauler’s eyes. He reached up with shaky hands toward me and darkness shrouded his hands.
I retreated, horrified as he sat up and opened his mouth far too wide. Four rows of sharp teeth filled his mouth and an animal growl far too powerful to be made with human lungs rippled between his teeth.
“Oh, no,” I whispered, retreating to stand with William, who was pointing his energy rifle with shaking hands.
“Can we save him?” William asked.
I had no idea. I racked my brain, but I had very few weapons to fight ethereal monsters. Soulrend worked great, but it would kill Joey too.
Maybe that would be better. His body still twitched with shuddering mini convulsions and I imagined the Spectral Mauler consuming his spirit on the inside where we couldn’t stop it.
“Help!” a woman screamed behind us.
“Keep everyone away from him. Shoot out his knees to slow him down if you must,” I told William.
He nodded shakily, but hefted his rifle with more purpose. The Mauler was trying to approach, but its control over Joey’s body was still barely rudimentary. We had to find a way to drive it out, but until I figured that out, I had to prevent other Maulers from taking more victims.
I raced across camp and spotted Burns and several other spell casters blasting away at another Spectral Mauler. It was hovering in the air above the fallen form of Susan. She lay unconscious, her thick, blond hair hiding her face. The monster was trying to feed on her like the other one was doing with Joey, but the constant barrage of spells kept knocking it back.
It was a losing battle and I bet they’d either run out of available spells or mana soon. I dashed to help, but just as I feared, the spell barrage fizzled as everyone either hit cooldown limits or ran out of spells at almost the exact same time.
“No,” I growled, diving the last 10 feet, Soulrend extended as the Spectral Mauler dropped toward Susan’s prone form.
It touched her chest and started sinking in just as I reached it. Soulrend pierced the monster’s black cloud body, and it shrieked in agony. My blade sank to the hilt as I crashed to the ground beside Susan.
I lunged to my feet and twisted the blade, heaving it higher so that the flat of the ethereal weapon pulled against the monster’s ethereal form. It was like lifting a 50 pound Christmas ham on the flat of a carving knife. Even twisted like that, the blade sank slowly through the monster’s body as it fought to retain its hold on its new host.
“No you don’t,” I growled, pulling harder.
“Yank it out!” someone shouted as people crowded around, cheering me on. Idiots. If the Spectral Mauler lost its grip on Susan, it could still slip free of my blade and sink its dozens of teeth into someone else.
I pulled it with agonizing slowness inch by inch back into the air. It was working, but my blade was still tearing up through the spectral mauler’s body. Gauging the distance, the math was easy. My blade would slip free before I pulled the monster from Susan. As soon as I did, it would plunge into her and consume her spirit.
“Do you have any more spells? Anyone?”
“Twenty seconds,” Burns said. He’d dropped to one knee beside me.
“That’s not soon enough.” I could only think of one thing to try, so I let go of Soulrend with one hand, instantly ceding another inch as the lessened pressure let the Spectral Mauler haul the sword lower.
“Don’t lose it!” Burns shouted.
I didn’t have time to answer, but extended my hand. The corrupted energy crystal I’d gotten from the Energy Wights popped into my hand.
I touched it to the spectral mauler.
Nothing happened.
“Power generator crystal is damaged and lacks the controls to absorb Spectral Mauler,” Eva said.
I bit back a curse, my eyes focused on Soulrend. It was barely an inch from the outside edge of the monster’s black cloud body and was starting to slip through faster, as if the outer edges of the creature were thinner.
The Spectral Mauler hissed again, this time a triumphant sound as it lunged a final time against my blade.
I triggered Soul Feed.
A conduit snapped into place between the energy crystal and my hand as that unique synergy that had allowed me to survive the Essence Wight attack activated again. The Spectral Mauler’s hissing cry of victory turned into a much higher-pitched shriek of terror as the crystal began sucking the black cloud into its smoky depths.
“Yes!” I shouted, driving the energy crystal deeper into the Spectral Mauler.
It released Susan, boiling into the air as it tried to escape the crystal. Burns instantly reached dangerously close to the ethereal battle to grab Susan’s hand and yank her bodily out of the way.
I focused on the energy crystal, keeping the link in place. I felt no energy flowing from the crystal to me, unfortunately. That part of the synergistic link was totally broken. The rest of the conduit felt strained and shaky, but it held the Spectral Mauler.
The monster fought it and the connection to it grew shakier. The crystal was too damaged. It was going to fail.
I slashed Soulrend through the Spectral Mauler’s glowing blue eyes. That disrupted its spirit enough that the resistance evaporated and with a sucking sound, the monster disappeared into the crystal.
I sagged to the ground, spent, even though the fight had been mostly spiritual. All around me, people jumped and cheered.
“Can you save Joey?” Jane cried, dropping to one knee beside me. “Hurry.”
With a grunt, I leaped to my feet and raced back to where I had left William to guard the poor guy with the monster in his spirit. A ring of people were watching, well back from Joey’s possessed form. He was trying to claw his way to William, who had indeed shot out his knees.
William stood nearby, rifle at the ready, tears streaking his determined face. When he saw us rush up, his obvious relief tore at me. He believed I could save Joey.
“What do we do?” Jane asked.
Burns had rushed over with us and nodded toward my sword. “Can you drag it out?”
“I don’t know. The other one hadn’t gotten inside of Susan. I’d have to stab Joey to get a grip.”
“Do it,” William pleaded. “It’s consuming him. He’s going to die, then it’ll gain full control.”
Of course. That’s why it was still twitching and unable to move well. Joey must still be fighting it.
Joey’s eyes rolled up to stare at me and shone bright blue for a second. “Do it,” he whispered in a barely audible voice even as his body shuddered and he clawed bloody fingernails into the ground.
“Hang on,” I said as I sank Soulrend into his thigh.
Joey screamed, the monster’s voice layered over his own. My sword sank easily through his flesh, but the two spirits in his body resisted more. Hating what I had to do, I twisted the blade and pulled hard.
A ghostly shape began to emerge. It fought a lot harder this time, maybe because it was already fully inside the body. The spirit was mostly black, but swirled with thinner strands of white. I shivered when I realized what I was seeing.
The Spectral Mauler had consumed much of Joey’s spirit. The thin streamers of white were all that remained of him. I was dragging both of them out together.
“If I can pull them both out and kill the monster, maybe his spirit will return,” I said as I used all my strength to pull.
My blade again tore sideways through the spirit, but not as fast. The combined, twisted spirits were somehow denser, giving me better purchase. With agonizing slowness, I hauled the Spectral Mauler and the fading remnants of Joey’s spirit from his body.
“We’re losing him,” Jane cried as the white streamers of Joey’s spirit faded away one by one, consumed by the blackness of the Mauler. The blue of his eyes faded, visibly darkening.
Before I could pull the spirit more than partially from the body, all traces of Joey’s spirit vanished and his eyes turned completely black. On the ground, he heaved a deep breath, his chest expanding so far he cracked his own rib cage, but didn’t seem to notice. With a terrifying growl, he rolled to his feet, yanking free of Soulrend and crouching to spring at me.
Burns plunged his boar spear through the center of Joey’s chest.
