Dao Divinity 2 Chapter 13 (Patreon)

Dar groaned back to consciousness. “That feels good.” Sasha was working him to completion, and he groaned in release.

Sasha pulled off and licked her lips. “Morning. You slept in this morning, and I thought you deserved a nice wake up call.”

“Not sending Amber this time?” He teased, remembering the last time.

She playfully swat him. “No, I need to get as much of you as I can get before there’s more competition.”

“Jealous already?” He probed as he sat up and fished for his clothes. Dar frowned, being unable to find them. They were right there last night.

“Not jealous, really, but your time is a limited commodity. I just want to get it while I can.” Sasha held up a new set of clothes and beckoned for him to stand.

He eyed the clothes; there was something different about them. “Are those made from your silk?”

She ducked her head as she blushed. “Yes. Now hurry up.”

Holding his arms out wide, he let her control the clothes. The seams split and reformed around him to a perfect fit. The silk was soft and flexible when he lifted his arms, trying to see if there would be any mobility issues in his new clothes. “It fits wonderfully, as always.” Dar pulled her close for a lingering kiss. “Thank you.”

“Mmm.” Sasha hummed happily as she pulled away and went to work on his pants, walking around him, making small adjustments. “They aren’t going to be quite as durable as your other set, but at least I’ll be able to repair and replace them far easier.”

Dar would be able to harden and strengthen the fibers with his dao. It didn’t matter too much to him how durable his clothes were naturally.

“How do they feel?”

“Great, like I’m wearing a cloud.” He grinned back. “Thank you very much, Sasha. I know this was a step for you.”

She went on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “You accepted me for what I truly am. Nothing could make me happier. There’s also just something about you wearing my silk that does send a little thrill through me.”

“I know another way to send a thrill through you.” Dar smiled, grabbing her hips.

But she swatted his hands away. “As much as I would love to, we can’t take that much time. While you slept in, Russ did not, and he’s been pacing the center of the village. I’d rather he not get so worked up he challenges you.”

Dar remembered how close they’d been to that the night before. “You saw last night?”

“Yes. I have no doubt you could beat him. However, for the stability of the village, I’d prefer you don’t have to put him in his place.” Sasha removed his hands and dusted off his shoulders. “Now get.”

Ducking out of his hut, Dar saw his group for the day lingering by the central hearth. It wasn’t far past dawn, but so many of the villagers started at the crack of dawn, putting in a full day’s work to make Hearthway ready for the winter. By comparison, he felt late.

“Morning Russ.” Dar said, sitting down and accepting a bowl of breakfast from Marcie, who went right back to stirring her pot over the fire.

Russ grunted, and Dar noticed Russ only had his goat demon wife, Mindy, with him. Russ must have noticed his look, because he explained. “Others are hunting today. We thought we should bring a smaller, elite team on this trip.”

“Fair. We certainly don’t want to create a lot of noise on this trip. Though, taking down that tree and transporting it is going to be loud.” Dar explained.

Frank sat down and joined them. “That’s an understatement. Taking down that tree is risky for all of us involved.” Frank gave Dar a look that told him he wasn’t entirely on board, but he’d help nonetheless.

“Great, even more reason for us to go with a smaller team. You don’t seem to think there will be a problem with taking it down, just that it’ll be dangerous?” Dar wasn’t about to let Frank seed any doubt for this trip.

“Something that big... it is hard to get it to fall the way you want. And something that big doesn’t give you much option to run if it falls your way.”

Neko walked up to get her own food and Dar waved her over. Before they got started, he wanted to see if she couldn’t help him with an enchantment.

“Dar.” Neko said simply, sitting down with her porridge.

“Neko, I was wondering if I couldn’t get you to scratch your dao into my ax.” He put the weapon on his lap for her to see it.

She stared at it for a moment and shrugged.

“Sasha, could you give her a crash course in enchanting? I’d like to see if we can’t get her character on it and speed up our cutting time so we aren’t in the woods longer than need be.”

“Yes, I think I can. Come here, Neko.” Sasha pulled the demon aside for a quick lesson.

“Woods?” Neko asked, as Sasha pulled her away.

Dar knew Sasha would end up doing more of the work, but if they could get Neko to at least enchant the blade, it would go a long way.

“Still amazing how casually you allow everybody to use enchantments. Think once you get your ax done, we could get some of ours?” Frank asked, licking his lips.

“No safety concerns?” Dar shot right back.

The old woodcutter gave a noncommittal grunt.

Dar smiled, shifting back to his food so they could get going on the trip and get it done. The whole affair promised to be its own set of troubles.

“Dar!” Mika bounced over to his side, already wide away and with some black smudges on her hands.

“What are you up to?”

“Just finished talking through the design of the spear with the blacksmiths. Now I just need to work on getting a hearty net made.” She seemed excited about her new tools.

Dar was happy for her, and excited for the prospect of a steady supply of fish. “I’d love to see it later. We are going to head out here shortly. But definitely show it to me later. I look forward to how much fish you bring in tonight.”

“Do you need me to come with?” she asked, but Dar shook his head.

“Not this time. We got our crew all setup. Hopefully, we won’t need everyone.”

Mika nodded, bouncing away excitedly over to a group of nearby women.

“Sasha, do you have enough to make her a net?” Dar asked.

“Not right now, but that’s a great idea.” Sasha understood what he wanted.

Russ looked like he was about to bounce out of his seat, so Dar figured it was time to get going.

“Alright, finish up. We are heading out.” Dar looked over his shoulder. And Sasha had already taken the ax back from Neko and was adding the conditional scroll work to focus the enchantment on the blade of the ax.

After a few more moments, Sasha looked up and nodded, putting away her wand and holding up the ax for him. “It’s at least done. We’ll have to test it on this favorite tree of yours.”

Dar hefted the ax and looked over the head, careful not to focus on the enchantment. “Great. Thank you.”

Standing up, they all grouped together, throwing their bags over their shoulders. The team consisted of Dar, Russ, Mindy, Frank, Sasha and Cherry. They all had weapons, along with Dar and Frank’s having axes for the tree.

The edge of the forest was quieter than before, and it was immediately obvious why. Large spider webs hung overhead, with ensnared birds and small game wrapped up.

“They just decimated our squirrel and bird population, didn’t they?” Dar looked up to see so many of the poor critters trapped and dead.

“Devils.” Russ spat. “When they form big groups, it is always like this. They drive the life out of the land.”

“There don’t seem to be any lurking though?” Cherry said, although she spun as she walked, clearly still antsy.

Dar head was on a swivel, and he had yet to spot any. But that didn’t mean they weren’t there. His experience the day before had taught him that they were masters of ambushing prey. “I don’t see any, but we cannot afford to lower our guard. Keep your eyes peeled.”

The group nodded and stayed quiet as they walked through the eerie forest. It had only been a day since the same walk had been filled with vibrant, lush greens and the sounds of nature. Now any rustling of leaves caused everybody to startle and spin around. The walk was far less therapeutic.

Breathing a sigh of relief as they reached the tree, the group circled up around it. The tree was large enough that it had beaten out any smaller plants below, leaving an open area around it. It would at least give them some warning before any ambush.

Cherry whistled as she saw the tree. “That’s big. I see what you mean by making a boat out of it.” Her neck craned back as she tried to look for the top. “There’s no way in hell I can control that much plant.”

“Good thing you don’t have to. The plan is to cut this guy down the old-fashioned way.” Dar slung his ax over his shoulder and looked over to Frank. “How do you want to do this one?”

The old woodcutter circled the base of the tree, looking up and down and picking up some grass and letting it flutter in the breeze. “West towards the village is down hill. Wind isn’t strong, but it’s blowing east. You’d be surprised how much wind the top of a tree like this can catch. It is a bit of a toss up on whether the land or the wind will have the most power to direct the way it falls, but I’d bet on the wind. We’ll have to try and use it to help us direct its fall.”

Stepping around to the east side of the tree, Dar got to work cutting out the wedge. He activated the new enchantment on his ax and cut into the tree. It wasn’t quite like cutting through butter, maybe closer to cutting through a steak. Definitely easier than it would have been before.

Even with the ease that his ax slid through the wood, Dar still had to work to carve out the wedge rather than the few simple cuts it would have been for a smaller tree. Everybody else in the crew kept an eye around Dar, letting him do the brunt of the work, given his extra strength.

“That’s it. We probably need to go a little deeper right here though.” Frank observed the wedge Dar had been making.

“Here?” Dar notched a spot with his ax.

“Yeah. A little deeper. I’m just trying to be extra careful that it goes the way we want.”

Grunting, Dar took another few swings, deepening the wedge and taking a break to lean on his ax. “That’s good?”

“It’ll have to do. Want me to start on the other side?” Frank asked, eying Dar’s ax.

“You just want to play with my new toy. Not fooling anybody.” Dar smiled, holding out the oversized ax. “Go for it.”

Frank sank when he grabbed it. “Drasil above! How do you swing this?”

“With my arms.” Dar let out a satisfied chuckle.

The woodcutter was unamused. “I’ll take a few swings, but I think that’s all I’m worth.”

Russ grumbled. “As long as you hurry up. I feel like we are being stalked.”

Dar knew better than to distrust a demon’s instincts. “Danger?”

“Just being watched. Maybe a scout for their colony. Can’t see the bugger though.” Russ shaded his eyes and looked up into the canopy.

Dar nodded, trusting Russ and the rest of the crew to keep an eye on whatever was stalking them while he focused his efforts on the tree.

Frank pushed through about a dozen swings before he dropped Dar’s ax with a thump. “That’s all I got in me. New respect for you Lord.”

Brow rising up, Dar gave him a slow nod. It seemed he was earning the old man’s respect. Oddly enough, for his ability to swing an ax of all things.

Taking over the ax, Dar went to work on hacking a narrow channel through the base of the tree. Then Frank and Russ worked to lift the largest piece from cutting the wedge into the thin tract that was made.

“Okay, line her up and drive her home. Try to be a little more careful than last time.” Frank backed up away from the tree.

Dar pressed on the wedge and squared up his ax. This was the moment of truth. “Everyone, be ready to move when this starts to fall.” Dar swung, hitting it with the shaft of the ax. Once, twice, three times.

It wasn’t tipping, at least not yet.

“Give me another piece of the wedge.” Dar held his hand out.

Frank gave him another piece, and Dar wedged it in, winding up and slamming it home.

Crack.

It felt almost like the wind and leaves paused in respect for the mighty tree about to fall, everything holding for a moment after the loud noise.

Holding his breath and looking up to see which way the tree would fall, Dar froze as it tottered for a moment. He backed up to get the full view as it swayed and finally tipped.

“Timber.” Dar said, just loud enough for everyone to hear. “This way.” He stepped around to the west side as the tree tipped east. It was slow going for just a moment. It felt like it would take minutes to fall. Then it accelerated and crashed down to the forest floor in seconds, tearing apart other trees in its wake and slamming against the dirt with a deafening boom.

Dirt and debris blew up into the air, and Dar had to shield his face to prevent it from getting in his eyes.

Blinking away the dirt, the mammoth tree was laid out before him. Now on its side, Dar got a real idea for how thick it was; he couldn’t see over the top. He guessed it was about eight feet wide.

“Now how the fuck do you plan on moving that?” Frank asked.

“Cut a section for the boat, and then roll it out of here.” Dar answered, not wasting any time. They already felt like they had a watcher, but no doubt more would come from that loud noise.

Dar walked long paces down the length, aiming to count out about thirty feet and starting to hack a section off.

“Could we build more than one boat?” Russ asked, seeing the length of the tree.

“One is already going to be a massive task, so let’s start with one. It’ll still be here if we want more later.”

Digging into the tree with his ax, Dar didn’t have to worry about the same finesse that he did when felling the tree. Speed was most important to him at that moment.

Frank moved around the other side and worked with Dar to separate the massive log.

“How’s that feeling, Russ? Should we be worried?” Dar checked in with the hunter.

“Still feel like we are being watched, but I don’t know. If these ettercaps are so aggressive, there’s no way they’d not come investigate. But whatever is watching us isn’t making a move.”

Dar hoped it was some other predator of the forest that had managed to escape the aggressive clearing of the forest wildlife the ettercap had clearly done.

Focusing back on the task at hand, Dar threw himself into hacking at the tree, sending large chips of wood flying.

It wasn’t long into the task that a yowl of a large cat sounded in the trees above, and the sounds of chittering spiders reached Dar’s ears.

“Where?” Dar said, looking up from his task, his ax buried in the tree at present.

Russ must have spotted it, because he pulled back his bow, lining up a shot in a tree a hundred paces behind them, towards the village.

But Dar spotted Neko up in the tree, surrounded by ettercap and spiders. They had snuck around them and had been trying to block them from returning.

“No, hold your fire.” Dar called, not wanting Russ to hit Neko before calling out to her. “Neko, jump down.”

He was already running to get underneath the tree and catch her.

She looked over the edge of the tree at him, and that was the moment an ettercap attacked. It jumped on Neko’s back, pinning her to the tree.

Webs sprang from the surrounded ettercaps, trapping her up in the tree and cutting her off from Dar. In that moment, all Dar could think about were the dozens of dead critters they’d seen in the forest, wrapped up in webs just like Neko was now. She was not going to be one of them.

Dar’s concern for her outweighed anything else in the moment. “Frank, spear. Now.”

The old woodcutter didn’t hesitate for a moment, tossing Dar his spear and pulling out his ax.

Putting his full strength behind it, Dar launched the spear like a missile. As soon as it left his hand, he knew he hit.

The branch Neko was pinned to shattered where it connected to the trunk, and the whole lot fell to the forest floor.

Dar was already running, his ax pulled back and swinging for the first ettercap in his path. His newly enchanted blade cut right through the devil, this time closer to butter, and he swung back in a chopping motion. In the backswing, he cut the ettercap on top of Neko.

Reaching the center of the fray, Dar grabbed Neko and slid her out from under the ettercaps, shifting her behind him and pushing her towards his companions. Sasha rushed forward to grab her.

But the ettercap weren’t idle. They jumped on him, trying to tie Dar down with their webs. Sticky threads rapidly coated him from above and around.

But Dar had a new advantage; Neko was out of any blast radius.

Dar pumped his dao of heat out of his every pore and cooked the web surrounding him. He even managed to get the nearby ettercap and their spiders.

But they didn’t stop coming, no matter how many he cooked alive. Dar had shifted into single-minded battle focus. He continued blasting his heat, pausing to unleash one of his largest waves yet to get a moment of reprieve to strategize.

But the spiders didn’t flinch, continuing to throw themselves at Dar. They poured out of the canopy like a swarm. He could start to feel his heat puttering out.

Reaching for more mana for another blast, Dar found that it was like a dry engine sputtering on only fumes.

“DAR!” Sasha screamed behind him.

She was crouched over Neko with her ribbons out, but the spiders were leaving them alone, for the most part. Instead, they all seemed to be focusing on him.

More spiders jumped down, using the opportunity and landing on his back.

Dar reached up and flipped one off of him, finishing it with a swing of his ax, but more threads spat out at his extended arm, tangling it up. Dar was strong, but the sticky webbing had a flex to it that made it hard to break with brute strength. As he worked to break it, more and more webbing piled up on top of him.

Dar continued to swing and cleave his way through the spiders, refusing to give up, but with each added web his movements grew less effective, until he was barely able to move.

AN: I was editing this chapter and originally Dar took Frank's ax and threw it to free Neko. Rereading it, I was like: Dick move Dar. To take this dude's only weapon and throw it, only to pick your own back up and go fight. Leaving Frank without a weapon as the ettercaps come >.<

Silly things you find when I go back to edit.