121: Brood Matron (Patreon)

Tia looked up just in time to see the Brood Matron descending upon her, all eight of its bladed limbs poised to skewer her.

Reacting instinctively, Tia allowed herself to fall, turning her momentum into a roll.

It wasn’t enough. She narrowly avoided the matron’s devastating limbs, but she hadn’t rolled far enough away to clear the matron’s enormous body.

“Gaaaaaaaaaah!” Tia screamed as the matron’s weight crashed down upon her. It was all she could do to wrench her torso away… but it came at the cost of her arm.

Her left arm lay crushed and maimed under the Matron. Tia gritted her teeth against the immense pain.

She’s not going to make it, Vir thought, observing from ten paces away. The Matron’s ambush happened so quickly, none of the other party members had time to react.

But they’d been in fights before. Lots and lots of them. Whereas a lesser party might have frozen or fled, Spear’s Edge did nothing of the sort.

Neel weaved through the enemy Hunters, confusing them, while Haymi fired Splash before lashing out with twin Arc orbs. Vason activated Bulwark and Leaped forth.

Both attacks would have ended a human. Both attacks failed. Haymi’s Lightning spells harmlessly cracked against the Matron’s tough carapace, failing to shock her target. Vason didn’t even make it to the Matron. For the mother who’d spawned so many beasts had not come alone. Over a dozen Hunter-Gatherers surrounded the Matron in a circular formation, guarding her against physical assault.

Vason’s tower shield smashed into the formation. While the Hunter took some damage, their defense held, and the warrior’s momentum came screeching to a halt.

Worse—the Matron hadn’t paid them an ounce of her attention. Her bladed limb raised, ready to decapitate Tia, who lay crushed under her immense weight.

Despite the agonizing pain, Tia mustered her willpower and produced an Ember spell, firing it right into the Matron’s face to force the beast to abort its strike. It bought her a precious few seconds, but that was all. She remained stuck under the Matron, with nowhere to escape to.

Left alone, she would die there.

Not if I can help it.

Vir hadn’t been idle, either. The moment he saw Tia fall, he’d started charging Dance of the Shadow Demon. With the current prana level of this area, it took only a handful of seconds to activate, but even that felt like an eternity to Vir.

The moment it did, he sunk into the shadows. Instead of looking for an exit he could escape to, he looked straight at the shadow cast by the Matron. Though he’d never tried it before, shadows were an absence of light, and so it made sense that the ground under the Matron lay in shadow.

He was right. From the Shadow Realm, he saw Tia, sandwiched between earth and beast.

All he had to do was create an opening large enough. After all, he’d done it before with Neel.

Vir attempted to take a deep breath, but of course, his body was completely unresponsive within this Realm of darkness. Before his ten counts were up, he exited.

Right next to Tia. Right under the beast.

To say that the sensation was uncomfortable was an understatement. The Matron’s immense weight compressed his torso, and he could feel his armor straining to retain its shape under her weight.

Even ten seconds of this would no doubt crush his Brigandine, causing his chest to implode. But Vir didn’t need ten seconds. He only needed four.

Tia’s face warped from pain to horrific shock as she saw Vir emerge from the ground, right under the Matron’s torso. Her surprise was so great that her lips moved, but she was unable to form words.

And then Vir grabbed her arm, and they disappeared.

Back into the Shadow Realm. The Matron’s crushing weight immediately disappeared. Vir searched and found Tia’s prana signature right beside him, her body frozen just as his was.

Remembering his first experience in the Shadow Realm—and the panic attack that ensues—Vir did not linger long, instead choosing an exit near the group.

The long rays of dusk gave him several options, and in the next instant, they’d both resurfaced behind Haymi and Vason.

Tia gasped desperately for air, as though she’d been submerged underwater. The sensation was eerily similar, until one learned they couldn’t possibly drown in the Shadow Realm.

“Tia! What happened? Are you alright?” Vason shouted, immediately falling back to her position. Haymi also scurried over, placing herself on the opposite site, while Neel barked and raced between the enemy’s legs. It was only thanks to his efforts that the Hunters hadn’t attacked them yet.

“Was it Apramor?” Haymi asked.

Tia, having regained her breath, furrowed her brows and regarded Vir with a contemplative look.

Vir looked away. “I…”

“It was. He saved my life. That’s all that matters,” she replied, nodding subtly at Vir.

So she’s not going to ask. Well, not like we have the luxury of discussion right now, anyway.

He’d hidden the true power of Dance from them until now. But was that secret worth Tia’s life?

No Badrakking way.

“Tia, your arm!” Haymi said, immediately dropping to her knees and bringing out her B Grade Mend Bone orb.

“Thanks, Haymi. Do what you can to patch it up, but I’m not expecting a miracle,” Tia said, grimacing as Haymi’s orb went to work. She always kept her Life orbs precharged in case of a medical emergency like this. In fact, Haymi tended to keep nearly all her orbs precharged for emergencies.

“What now?” Vason shouted as he fended off a Hunter. Vir was right beside him, lashing out at Hunters who strayed too close as he kept watch on the Matron.

So far, the beast was content to watch its minions harry the injured party. Did she think they were doomed? Or was she gauging them for weaknesses?

“She’s intelligent. Highly intelligent,” Vir commented. “She’s using tactics like humans would.”

“And my magic is completely ineffective. With Tia out of commission—”

“I can still fight,” Tia said, scrambling to her feet. It was obvious to everyone just how much pain she was in, even with Haymi’s Numb Pain orb.

“We should flee,” Vason said, bashing another Hunter. “Whatever respite we’ve earned won’t last long. That Matron is eyeing us like prey.”

Vir shook his head. “We have no chance of outrunning her. You saw how fast she moved. If it was me, alone, I might manage something. But with you…”

“Take Tia and flee. You can… move through the ground, can’t you?” Haymi said.

“And leave you behind? You’d be as good as dead. No, we need a better plan. We need to—watch out, poison!”

“Aroo!” Neel cried, jumping in front of the Hunter. The Bandy possessed no means of harming these creatures, so Vir had Neel run around. The Hunters’ limited intelligence made this plan possible, but against the Matron? Vir didn’t want his friend anywhere near her.

“Neel, back! Protect the others!”

“Awooo!” Neel barked, returning to Haymi and Tia.

Vason moved into position, taking the Hunter’s poison with his tower shield.

Vir was on the enemy even before Vason had recovered. Jumping onto its back, Vir drove his Prana Blade katar into its carapace, beginning the process of gouging into its armor. For the Hunters, he needed only Prana Blade and Empower. He’d opted to slot Haymi’s Enhance Speed orb to get more strikes in, rather than Enhance Sharpness. It’d proved to be the right decision.

Though he’d done this dozens of times, it was still a slow, cumbersome process, even with his speed. He’d tried swapping out for Vason’s katar in the past, but to no avail. Prana Blade’s limit was about the length of his katar’s blade. Without it, he had no hope of dealing damage to the hardened chitins.

Another blast of poison flew through the air, but this time, it was aimed for Vir.

He’d been expecting as much, and Leaped out of the way, deftly landing on another Hunter’s back. He landed katar-first, gouging a deep wound in its armor before using his momentum to flip off its back and onto another. Acid sailed, but so long as it was all directed on him…

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spied the Matron, charging at Vason, Tia, and Haymi.

Badrak’s Balls!

She’d waited for the moment Vir took action before acting, showing just how cautious she was of Vir. How long her caution would last, Vir couldn’t say. All he could do was give her even more reasons to fear him.

Vir hurled a chakram, which bounced harmlessly off the Matron’s carapace, before Leaping directly onto her back. Like her spawn, she possessed no defenses in this area, and so Vir laid into her.

Augmented by Haymi’s Enhance Speed orb, Vir sliced faster and more viciously than ever before.

Innumerable marks appeared on the Matron’s back as her carapace, but his strikes did little to chip it away. As befitting a creature of her Balar Rank, her armor was even sturdier than her Hunters.

The Matron, finally noticing the entity on her back, roared.

Immediately, half the Hunters present fired their poison. Green acid arced into the air, all aimed for Vir, but he knew better than to press his luck.

Vir was gone the moment the Matron screamed for help, already on top of another Hunter’s carapace. One which he’d already gouged before.

“Apramor! What’s taking so long?” Vason cried, tanking another burst of poison. “The Matron’s got poison too,” he said in desperation. “And she’s got a lot more of it than the others. I dunno how long my shield will last.”

Vir glanced at Vason to see his shield corroding before their very eyes.

That acid can eat through steel!? Vir gulped. The Matron’s attention was still solidly on Vason and the rest of the crew. He had to change that.

Luckily, he had a way to do exactly that. After having bounded from Hunter to Hunter, gouging away at their armor, he’d finally exposed them all.

Vir landed atop a Hunter’s back and thrust his katar into the hole he’d dug. This time, the blade dug deep enough, and with a shudder, it collapsed.

Having used this tactic so many times before, Vir didn’t even wait to check his results. From one Hunter to another, he bounded. One by one, the Hunters collapsed.

In his wake, he left only a trail of death and destruction. And in doing so, earned himself the attention of their Matron.

The massive beast screeched in anger.

Or so he thought.

But that screech wasn’t born of frustration or hatred. It was a declaration of victory.

For the moment Vir’s feet touched the ground, pain assaulted him. His boots melted off, and continued to melt his flesh, leaving him reeling.

Badrak’s Balls… the ground!

The continuous sprays of poison Vir had dodged weren’t aimed at him. They were aimed at the ground.

To turn the ground into a festering pool of acid that crippled all who walked through it.

“Apramor! Look out!!”

Distracted by the pain, Vir failed to notice the Matron open her poison gland and spray a deluge of acid—right at him.

Vir ducked and turned, but could not dodge in time.

He took the full brunt of acid to his back. His armor held—for now—but the rest of his body was not so lucky. The acid ate into the back of his head, his biceps, and most of his legs, consuming his clothing as if they weren’t there.

“APRAMOR!” he heard someone cry, but it was difficult to say who. Vir’s world had become one of all-consuming pain. He no longer knew which way was up or down, or even if he was standing upright.

Had he fallen into the vat of acid that covered the ground? Was he being attacked?

Ah. This isn’t good, he dazedly realized as his vision grew dark.

But it was not the gods he prayed to as his consciousness ebbed. It wasn’t Janak, or Adinat, or even Vera.

Ekanai? Shardul? If you’re there, I could really use some help right now…