Somnus III - Chapter 15 (Patreon)

Kat grunted, pulling her knife from the crumpled dent in the Guillotine Tortoise’s hide.  She wiped the blade on her thigh armor while grimacing at its hulking corpse.  Dark green blood seeped from the razor sharp chunks of shell lodged in its flesh.

Some ten or so paces to the left, Kaleek hacked away at the dead monster’s neck with wild abandon, a manic grin on his face.  She flinched as Dorrik placed a heavy claw on her shoulder.

“Are you alright Miss Kat?”  They asked gently, glancing worriedly at her left arm.  “Am I correct in guessing that this is your first time suffering a serious injury?”

She lifted the limb, wincing at the smooth, shiny stump where her hand should have been.  Intellectually she knew that Cure Wounds I had healed the injury, but at the same time, her nonexistent palm itched.

“I think alright is a good word for it,” She smiled weakly at the big lizard.  “It doesn’t hurt anymore, but at the same time I can still remember the snap gecko biting it off.”

Kat shuddered.  The dungeon had two major foes, scale brutes and snap geckos.  At first, their team only noticed the brutes, hulking eight-legged monstrosities that took a dozen slashes from Dorrik or a pair of solid hits from Kaleek’s greatsword to bring them down.

She first discovered the smaller snap geckos for their team the hard way.  While dancing to the side, looking for an opening while one of the scale brutes squared off with Kaleek, she strayed too near one of the dungeon’s walls.

In a flash of pain, her hand was gone, a bright spray of blood washing over the forearm sized amphibian as it clung to the wall.  Its skin shifted colors, blotches of red and grey melding together as the camouflage tried to blend in with the dungeon rock once more.

The last thing Kat recalled before collapsing was ramming her knife up to its hilt into the monster.  After that, her memories faded in and out.  At some point she remembered Kaleek pinning her shoulders to the ground while Dorrik tied a tourniquet round her hand to stop the bleeding.

Things were touch and go for the next half hour or so as she slowly healed the injury.  When her hit points capped out, Kat’s hand was missing, replaced by a shiny patch of rounded skin.

She fought through the rest of the dungeon in a haze.  Kat knew that the rest of her party was carrying her, but there wasn't much she could do.  Her missing hand threw off her balance, forcing more conservative movements as she did her best to avoid lasting injury.

The final fight against the Guillotine Tortoise, she was barely involved, mostly hanging back and using Gravity Spike and Overpressure to damage the heavily armored boss.  Once or twice, she made it close enough to stab the giant reptile through dents in its shell, but still, everything about the flow of her movements felt off.

“Maybe we should stop Kaleek,” Dorrik interrupted her thoughts, drawing Kat’s attention back to where the desoph kept hacking away at the giant tortoise’s corpse.  “I appreciate his enthusiasm, but he’s going to run himself out of stamina at this point.”

“Worse,” their snout wrinkled as they continued.  “Even if you use Water Jet on him, I doubt we are going to be able to get turtle blood out of his fur.  He’s going to smell vile the entire hike back to town.”

Kat chuckled, stump of a hand forgotten as she shook her head.  Kaleek was gasping for breath, a cheerful smile on his face as his greatsword finally sheared through the boss’ neck.  It’s head, little more than a massive and well muscled mouth with its four eyes set into the top and sides, rolled slightly to his left.

Kaleek turned back to them, chest heaving, as he planted his sword into the stone of the dungeon floor and beamed at the two of them.  His weapon sparkled as it drew mana from him to keep the blade sharp and undamaged as the big otter released it and walked over to Kat and Dorrik rubbing his hands together happily.

“It’s dead,” he announced brightly.

“I can see that,” Kat replied with a smile.  “My skill progress bars went up about ten minutes ago.  That’s usually a pretty sure sign that a fight is over, but I guess you just had to be extra sure.”

“Sometimes the Tower will try to trick you,” Kaleek nodded knowingly.  “Dorrik and I almost lost our avatars to something called crypt scarabs a couple of years ago.  Apparently if they still had mana left when you killed them, there was something like a twenty percent chance that they would spontaneously reanimate ten or so minutes after you killed them.  We were almost to the boss fight when half of the dungeon hit us from behind.”

“Kaleek.”  Dorrik’s crest fluttered in amusement.  “The crypt scarabs were death aspect monsters.  None of the reports on this dungeon have indicated any concerns regarding reanimation or monsters feigning death.  I suspect that your actions regarding the tortoise were wholly unnecessary.”

“Did your reports warn us about the snap geckos?”  The otter motioned at Kat’s missing limb.  “Her avatar’s hand will grow back the next time we enter the dreamscape, but at the same time, I remember losing my tail to a trap on the fifth floor.  Hardly a pleasant experience.”

“Yes,” Dorrik grimaced.  “Two of the five after action reports on this dungeon did mention the snap geckos in footnotes.  It sounds like the other parties managed to spot them before they could attack so their descriptions only cover the geckos' slow speed and camouflage.  I will have to update the records to reflect the actual danger that they pose.”

“That said,” the big lizard continued, nostrils flaring unhappily as they eyed up the cheerful, ichor splattered otter, “the snap geckos have nothing to do with your extracurriculars.  You’ve made a mess out of your fur and smell like an open sewer on a summer day because that is who you are, not out of an abundance of caution.  You can say what you will, but all three of us know the truth.”

Kat sputtered, slapping her hand over her mouth.  The tension of the dungeon and the final battle evaporated as her entire body shook.

“Maybe I just had a bad day at my job?”  Kaleek shrugged carelessly.  “I have a lot of stress to work through and I’ve been told to try and find a productive outlet for it.  The dead turtle seemed productive.”

Dorrik looked dubiously at the mutilated corpse before replying.

“Are you sure this doesn’t have anything to do with tensions on the fourth floor?  My clan doesn’t have many people there, but from the sound of things, entire communities have gone missing.  I don’t suppose-”

“Balee.”  Kaleek sighed.  “She’s a podmate of mine.  My brother’s pup.  A stallesp ship found her community and killed everyone.  They didn’t make it quick.”

“She’s just a kid.”  For the first time, the otter’s perpetual smile faded from his face.  “It was all just a game to her.  A chance to kill some monsters with her friends, eat new food and generally have a good time away from her parents.”

“How is she holding up?”  Kat asked, resisting the urge to flex the muscles in her nonexistent hand.  “I know she can get a new avatar, but getting hurt in here isn’t exactly a breeze.”

“She’ll be fine,” Kaleek replied, whiskers twitching.  “Balee is a tough clam and she’s talking with a therapist already.  I’m worried about some of her friends.  They just mope around all day.  They won’t even get in the water to fish.”

Dorrik shook their head grimly, crest flat against the back of their neck.

“The stallesp grow bolder every day,” the lokkel intoned.  “Your story of loss is distressingly non-unique.  Numerous races allied with my people have begun reporting aggressive actions on their part.  It is to the point that even the blind amongst the High Command have recognized that stallesp activities on the fourth floor constitute an attempt to cripple growth.”

“I don’t know anything about active trends,” Kaleek muttered, crossing his ichor spattered arms.  “I just know that a lot of my pod linger on the fourth floor longer than strictly necessary and right now I’m worried for them.  Partially, the massive island chains and oceans are just a good place for a desoph to grind skills, but mostly because the level is simply more pleasant.  Not everyone takes The Tower of Somnus as seriously as we do.  Many like to linger and enjoy themselves in between pushes to raise levels.”

“And you should worry,”  Dorrik replied grimly.  “This is not just one or two ships full of stallesp that have descended a level or two.  They appear to have learned a lesson from us steering some of their raiders into a living reef.  By all reports, there are dozens of vessels, each with at least a handful of elites that have evolved their classes.  Each ship has enough firepower to escape a reef or defeat a megalodon, let alone wipe out a party of young trainees.”

“Worse.”  Their crest splayed itself out unhappily.  “The stallesp’s goal seems to go beyond wasting their rivals’ resources by forcing them to procure new avatars for their young.  It very much seems that their intent is to punish and torment our youth into giving up on the tower entirely.  The effects might now be apparent in the next couple of years, but if a race produces fewer powerful avatars over the course of a dozen or years, that has the potential to dramatically shift the course of Consensus politics.  In short, I believe the trauma is the point of their actions.”

“Fuck.”  Kat frowned.  “That doesn’t make the lokkel struggle with the stallesp sound like a skirmish.  Whether or not your people are willing to admit it, what you’re describing appears to be a faction that has sunk a substantial sum of resources into the distant future of the conflict.”

“I tend to agree,”  Dorrik responded gravely.  “Clan Ahn intelligence suggests that the stallesp have built a fairly major hub on the fourth floor.  Luckily, a number of my people are not content to simply watch as the stallesp threat grows.  Already there are rumblings of putting together a strike team to descend a couple of floors and deal with their incursion.”

“I’m in,” Kaleek interjected, barely letting the lokkel finish.  “None of us are high enough level to actually make a difference in the war that’s coming, but if we can stop the stallesp from repeating what they did to Balee?  That’s worth it.”

“Kaleek,” Dorrik cut him off, glancing worriedly at Kat.  “Miss Kat needs to earn levels.  The stallesp are a constant threat to her planet, and she doesn’t have the time for a jaunt back to the lower levels.  Especially one that will likely end in a major battle where a large number of higher level avatars will die.  My blood boiled as well when I heard of the stallesp’s actions, but joining the expedition is an unnecessary risk.”

“But-” Kaleek practically bubbled over in frustration before Kat stopped him by patting his forearm with her stump of a hand.

“It’s all right Dorrik.”  Kat interrupted with a smile.  “I don’t want to spend too much time spreading our focus away from progressing toward level twenty four, but at the same time, the two of you have done so much for me.  It wouldn’t be right for me to stand by while Kaleek’s family suffers.  Plus, I’m more than sick of the mess the moles have made out of my world.   Going out of my way to punch them in the nose might not be the most logical course of action, but at the same time, it will be satisfying.”

“As for the risk?”  She asked rhetorically.  “Fighting against higher leveled stallesp might be dangerous, and not provide any sort of defined benefits to my avatar’s growth like a dungeon or a level, but at the same time-”

She held up her missing hand, a wry grin on her face.

“It’s hardly safe for my avatar, but then again, every night and every dungeon is a risk.”

“Thank you Miss Kat.”  Dorrik nodded their head, relief flooding their voice.  “I did not want to pressure you, but I am sure you are aware of my… displeasure with the stallesp.  The idea of striking a blow against them thrills me.”

“Of course I know,” Kat chuckled.  “It was hard to miss when you dropped your stoic warrior-monk act.  That said, after what I’ve seen and heard, even without our personal relationship it would be even harder for me to disagree with you.  I have not come away thrilled with the stallesp’s actions on the intergalactic stage.”

“Again.”  Dorrik’s crest flared.  “Thank you.”

“On a related note,” she continued with a grimace.  “It appears that the fourth floor isn’t the only stallesp hub.  I managed to kill another one on Earth.”

“What?”  Dorrik hissed, eyes narrowing as Kaleek’s head whipped around.  “The stallesp have been adamant in the Consensus that your previous encounter was just a rogue bad actor.”

“If it happened at all,” Kaleek interjected bitterly.  “They still haven’t admitted that there actually was a stallesp on Earth, but if there were, the assholes are claiming that the individual in question was ‘clearly acting on their own’ without ‘state sanction or support.”

“I’m sure they have claimed that,” Kat replied with a shrug and a roll of her eyes.  “I just happen to have in my possession the body of a human-stallesp hybrid as well as three flash clones and some sort of holographic computer I can’t read.”

Kat blinked as Dorrik’s upper arms grabbed her by the shoulder, pushing her back a half step as they stared intensely into her eyes.  God they were fast.  She had barely seen them moving.

“You have an unlocked stallesp computer in your possession?”  Their crest was flared to its full height, a brilliant red orange that contrasted with their darker scales.  “Do you have any idea what sort of information might be on it?”

“Easy there big fella.”  Kat winced, reaching up with her good hand to pry Dorrik’s claws out of her flesh, trying to ignore the trickle of blood they left behind.  “I’ve been too afraid to toy with the computer.  I’m afraid that it might automatically lock if I do something wrong.  For now, all that I know is that it keeps displaying images of major landmarks, at least a couple of which I know for a fact have been associated with stallesp activity.  I don’t consider that a good sign.”

“Good,” Dorrik released her suddenly, stepping back.  “Very good.”

“Now,” Kat rolled her neck back and forth, trying to recenter after the lokkel’s sudden burst of motion.  “If someone that happened to know the stallesp’s language could happen to share that knowledge, it would be a great help.”

“It is against the rules, but consider it done.”  Dorrik nodded decisively.  “I would prefer that the translation guide not be traced back to me, so I cannot pass it to you directly.  Instead, I will insert it into the metadata of a post on one of your entertainment channels.”

“Sounds good,” Kat replied agreeably.  “Whip should be able to pull it from wherever you put it.  What am I looking for.”

“I have become very interested in what your people call ‘fan theories’ about the show Chrome Cowboys.”  Kat’s groan almost drowned out Dorrik’s voice.  “I have been posting on the X-Chrome X-Change messageboard under the name TallDarkAndRugged69.  You can expect the lexicon buried in my next post.”

“Jesus Christ,” Kat buried her face in her one good hand.  “How in the name of all that is holy did that username happen.”

“It’s very straightforward Miss Kat.”  Dorrik nodded eagerly.  “I am much taller than most of your race, and the dark color of my scales is a point of pride for all lokkel of Clan Ahn.  Additionally, my scaled covering makes me much more resilient than the average human.  As for the number?  I saw many usernames with it included.  I assumed that the numbers had some sort of cultural significance and appended them in order to assure that I blended in.”