CA Chapter Seventeen (Patreon)

Summoning her longsword, Alpha swung out at the thing, which all but filled the corridor with its bulk. Her blade scraped on its rocky surface, spitting sparks into the darkness, but did no real damage.

“Toggle, pull Vexxx and Amy away!” she yelled over the grinding of rocks that sounded like an avalanche was advancing toward her. “I’ll try to keep it here!”

She could only hope that the gnome obeyed, since she couldn’t afford to take her eyes off the monster, which swung arms that looked like loosely-connected stone ropes at her. The arms rippled and writhed, and even with her high dexterity, she was barely able to dodge them as they twisted and turned back to chase her. The golem was like an animated piece of wall, with extremely short, stocky legs, and the two whip-like arms tore through the area ahead of it like whirling cudgels.

Twisting, she struck down at one of the arms, severing about half of the stones from which it was made. They pattered to the ground like hail, and for a moment she hoped that she could at least whittle it down so they could escape. The thing was slow on its elephantine legs, and if they could get out of reach of the arms, they could probably just flee the encounter.

Unfortunately, as soon as the loose rocks hit the ground, they began rolling back toward the golem as if caught by a magnet. She ducked and kicked at one, knocking it away, but it just bounced off a nearby wall and then rolled back, picking up speed until it, too, rejoined the main body. The arm she’d cut curled into itself, and when it unfurled, she saw that it had completely regenerated.

“Amythyst!” she shouted, “What am I supposed to do with this? I can’t cut it.” She grunted as she ducked beneath the swing of an arm, and the end whipped back to pound against her side painfully.

You have lost 106 Blood Drops.

Current Blood supply: 1406/2100

“And I can’t bite it!” And if it hit her three more times, she’d be overwhelmed by the vampiric craving for blood, and since you couldn’t get blood from a stone, that meant Vexxx might get his wish, and she’d be forced to bite him after all. Which would leave all of them open to attack from the golem, and probably get them killed.

“Mistress!” Toggle squeaked, though she could barely hear him over the pounding in her head, the sound of her sword on stone, and the rattle and crunch of rocks against the walls and each other. “The words on its… scratch them…!”

Spinning on one foot, Alpha pirouetted, pulling her arms in close to her body as the monster’s arms struck out on both sides of her. She was facing Toggle when the tentacle-like limbs merged to become a circle that wrapped around her, pinning her right arm against her body and pulling her close to the wall-like body. It began to squeeze in a bone-crushing hug, and she would have sworn she heard her joints crack, though she didn’t get any notifications about broken bones. Yet.

Toggle gestured toward his forehead, yelling something she couldn’t understand, his small voice lost in the thunder of rumbling stone. Twisting her head, she looked up at the golem’s ‘face’, just inches above her shoulder.

You have lost 87 Blood Drops.

Current Blood supply: 1319/2100

Just over two hundred and fifty points until she lost control and went for Toggle or Vexxx. Hazily, she wondered which would be better. Either way, she’d be forced to take so much Blood that she’d have to use [Turn Ally], or they would die. If she used it on Toggle, he had a better than fifty percent chance of dying when she tried to force him to become a servant, and even if she succeeded, he’d be unconscious until sunset, whenever that was.

But if she bit Vexxx, she’d be biting a human being, an actual player, and the idea of touching another person that way, clutching them to her and sucking at their flesh, made her want to vomit, especially since the vampire instincts made her go for the throat, rather than something relatively innocuous, like an arm.

Her right arm crunched, and her spasming fingers dropped her sword. It clanged to the ground, sparking, as she reached up with her taloned left hand and clawed at the monster’s face.

You have lost 148 Blood Drops.

Your right arm is Broken.

Current Blood supply: 1171/2100

A red haze began to create a bloody vignette around her vision. It pulsed with each beat of her heart, and she could barely see the craggy, impassive face above her. Her talons left shallow grooves in the stony ‘skin’, and she vaguely wondered if the boost she got to Strength when she became Bloodthirsty would be enough to allow her to escape the golem’s grasp so she could attack her allies instead.

The inexorable pressure of the stones that threatened to crush her midsection wavered as her talons caught in a deep crevice on the thing’s forehead. Sensing weakness, though she couldn’t see what, exactly, had happened, she dug her claws deeper, chipping stone fragments from the golem’s face. A few of the rocks that made up the tentacular limbs fell away, and when they hit the floor, they stayed there. A fingernail snapped.

You have lost 7 Blood Drops.

Current Blood supply: 1164/2100

Another snap.

You have lost 6 Blood Drops.

Current Blood supply: 1158/2100

She refused to give up. Curling her bloody, scraped fingers deeper into the widening crack, Alpha forced them apart, pushing the two sections of stone away from each other. A sharp report, almost like a gunshot, sounded in her ear, and the golem’s arms crumbled, followed shortly thereafter by its whole body, as it separated into its component pieces.

Alpha screamed as she was half-buried by the collapsing rubble. Her head remained clear, but her midsection was completely interred by the largest, and heaviest, part of the remains.

You have lost 91 Blood Drops.

Current Blood supply: 1067/2100

You are now level 85.

[Longsword Mastery] is now level 28.

[Fast Digging] is now level 7.

Seventeen points. Eighteen? Would Bloodthirsty trigger at exactly fifty percent health, or did it have to go a point below? She gritted her teeth as she tried to move her left arm, the only one that was partially free, to clear away some of the debris. A large rock shifted precariously and rolled over, adding to the weight against her ribs.

You have lost 10 Blood Drops.

Current Blood supply: 1057/2100

Her head fell back, skull cracking against a rock, though thankfully she didn’t actually take damage this time. “Stinking hellebore!” she shouted. “Barrenwort! Horehound! Bloody freaking cranesbill!”

Some of the stones shifted, and she looked in that direction, only moving her eyes, since she didn’t dare knock over even one more stone. It was Toggle, his expression worried as he carefully made his way closer to her. His small body was light enough that while some rocks shifted, none of the small boulders moved.

“Mistress?” Toggle asked tentatively, reaching out his hand, faded almost to colorlessness in her [Darkvision]. In his fingers, something gleamed, and it took her a moment to realize that it was a flask. Toggle tilted it invitingly, leaning toward her, and she opened her mouth so he could pour in the fresh, warm contents.

You have restored 400 Drops of Blood.

Your Mana and Stamina regeneration will double for the next three hours, thanks to drinking the Blood of a Servant.

Instantly, she felt better, and when Toggle began to refill the flask with the blood still running down his arm, she shook her head. “I’m… all right, now, I think. Back up, Toggle, and I’ll try to get out of here.”

The gnome looked dubious, but he nodded and climbed back out the way he’d come.

Slowly, Alpha shifted. More rocks tumbled and rolled, taking off a few points of health here and there, but now that she wasn’t teetering on the verge of the Bloodthirsty debuff, it didn’t matter. The worst part was getting her broken arm out from under several rocks that each weighed twenty or thirty pounds, and she named more than one flower as she did so.

When she was finally free, she cradled the shattered limb against her body, stabilizing it with her other arm, until she could finally stand up. She had lost just over a hundred points of the Blood Toggle had given her, but at least she could breathe and recover. She took a few steps, then sat down on a conveniently stool-sized slab nearby.

Toggle moved up beside her again, gently lifting the refilled flask to her mouth. Reluctantly, she drank, and the flavor of sweet raspberry cordial filled her mouth.

You have restored 400 Drops of Blood.

Your Mana and Stamina regeneration will double for the next three hours, thanks to drinking the Blood of a Servant.

“Thank you, Toggle,” she managed, wiping her mouth with the back of a trembling hand. “I’m good now. Almost full.” She gave the concerned gnome another smile, and he stepped back reluctantly.

“As you wish, Mistress,” he said, but he refused to meet her gaze.

Alpha reached for him, but let her hand fall before she touched him. “Toggle. You saved us. If you hadn’t told me to go for the face, I would have kept trying to pull the arms away instead. Why did that work, anyway?”

Reaching up to tug at the brim of his felt hat, Toggle shook his head. “All golems have an inscription somewhere on their bodies. It contains the sacred words that give them life. If it’s broken, or even changed, they can’t function. But, Mistress,” his big blue eyes shimmered even in her faded vision, “If I hadn’t set off the trap, you wouldn’t have been in danger!” Glistening tears rolled down his cheeks. “I’m s-sorry!”

Impulsively, Alpha reached out and pulled him close, kissing his cheek gently. Releasing him as his cheeks flushed so darkly that she could practically feel the heat radiate off of them, she said, “You’ve done more for us than anyone else since the moment we stepped foot in here. You found the traps. You disarmed them. You knew how to defeat the golem. None of my skills or spells were going to affect a walking rock pile, so we would have died here without you. Setting off one trap out of dozens doesn’t negate everything else you’ve done.”

A circle of light bloomed as someone triggered a glowstone. “Tha’s… true,” a slurred but understandable voice said. Alpha jumped, flinched against the pain that shot through her arm when she did so, and looked over to where Vexxx’s slumped form leaned against a nearby wall. Amy’s silent figure stood stiffly beside him, her eyes vacant and glassy.

Vexxx had managed to lift his head, and Alpha thought he looked more aware than he had earlier. “I shoulda… listened,” the lightning mage continued, forcing his shaky legs to hold as he used the wall as a brace to help him stand. “Ev’rybody said… you were more than… an NPC. Sorry.” He grimaced and looked at Alpha, his voice growing stronger.

“An’ if I’d listened, an’ hadn’t been messing with those heads, I wouldn’ta been hurt, either, an’ I could have helped you.” He shrugged stiffly. “Sorry for tha’, too.”

Alpha blinked, then her eyes narrowed. “Who are you, and what did you do with Vexxx?”

The boy flinched, then glared, a bit of his usual cocky attitude returning. “I’m tryna be serious!”

Alpha gave him back look for look, then sighed and rubbed her eyes with her left hand. The fingernails she’d broken deep into the quick twinged, but she ignored the pain. They would recover soon enough, thanks to Toggle’s blood. “Okay. I’m going to…” She huffed a breath.

“Never mind. I’m just glad you’re finally figuring out that your stupidity puts other people in danger.” She snorted. “Not that a lightning mage was going to be much good against an earth monster.”

Vexxx tried to fold his arms, fumbled the motion, and instead flicked his fingers. A lance of water shot out of his hand, stabbing through the tip of Alpha’s boot and further cracking the crumbling floor below. Slowly, she lifted her head, staring at him incredulously.

“Uh, okay, maybe I shouldn’t have tried that yet,” the boy squawked, voice cracking on the last word. “But my point is, I have other spells! Sure, they’re not boosted by my class, but I’m not helpless without lightning!”

Alpha’s eyes narrowed. “Fifteen,” she growled, “maybe. And I only believe that because you have to be at least fourteen to play Veritas.”

This time the boy managed to fold his arms, though he couldn’t quite meet her eyes.