Grand Game 257: Hidden Amongst the Reeds (Patreon)

Wood creaked and broke, causing my foot to plunge through the stairs more than once. I didn’t let it slow me down. Each time, I caught myself before I could stumble and raced onwards.

I reached the third floor still encased in blood flies.

Your health has decreased to 91%!

Second by second, the volume of the swarm’s buzzing increased. I assumed it was the blood flies’ manner of voicing their anger, but I had little attention to spare the phenomenon.

I had to find a way onto the roof.

There, I thought, spotting a hole in the ceiling big enough to fit through. Summoning psi, I formed a ramp of air.

You have cast windborne.

I accelerated up the windslide, leaving behind most of the swarm in the process. A moment later, I was flung onto the roof. Somersaulting off the windslide, I landed on bended knee.

My gaze flitted left and right, taking stock of my surroundings. I was on the roof, and it was empty. More than half of the support beams were gone, making crossing the rooftop treacherous. For the average player, anyway. Given my own agility, I foresaw no problems.

The next building is close enough, I thought. I could reach it easily with windborne, and from there, the structure beyond. If I strung together enough windslides, I could outrun the swarm. I was sure of it.

The swarm buzzed through the hole.

The windslide had let me temporarily escape their clutches, but they were back now. Though, instead of immediately resuming their assault as I expected, the blood files rose higher in the air. I frowned. Did they mean to dive down in attack?

That wasn’t it.

The swarm’s buzzing increased to a fever pitch. I winced, rubbing the sides of my head as the sharp sound hurt my eardrums. Is this a new sort of—?

I broke off.

Cloudy trails of red were streaming up from the adjacent buildings. And they, too, were buzzing.

More blood fly swarms.

Fleeing over the rooftops was out of the question.

My gaze swung back to my original foe. The swarm still hovered in the air, and was it my imagination, or did the little blighters seem smug?

I scowled in response. “Don’t worry,” I growled. “I will still have the last laugh.” Ducking back into the hole from whence I’d come, I dropped into the building again.

✵ ✵ ✵

None of my abilities or weapons would be effective against the swarms. I could spend all day hacking into the blood flies and still not make a dent in their numbers, and none of my spells—not even mass charm—was remotely useful.

That did not mean I was helpless.

I had… other options.

Returning to the room where I’d encountered the first blood swarm, I ducked under the staircase and got to work. It was a tight fit, but that was perfect for what I planned. Rubbing my thumb across the blue rune on the trapper’s wristband, I activated the item.

You have passed a thieving skill check!

You have removed 2 trap-making crystals from your trapper’s wristband. Remaining stored traps: 19 of 20.

As the enchanted crystals fell into my waiting hands, I cast set trap. To deal with the flies, I needed an area-of-effect ability. I didn’t have any of those myself, but my traps made up for the lack. My eyes and fingers humming with spelled-energy, I began preparing a killing ground.

A swarm funneled down the hole in the ceiling.

I ignored the insects. I doubted the creatures had the intelligence to understand what I was about, but if they did and fled, that was all the better.

Seeing me crouched beside their nesting ground, the blood flies did not hesitate and buzzed angrily in attack.

Your health has decreased to 90%!

Your health has decreased to 89!

I kept working, not bothering to brush aside the insects covering my hands or eyes. Releasing the enchantment on the first crystal, I extracted a trigger and set it on the floor next to me.

You have placed a pressure plate but have failed to conceal the trigger due to the presence of nearby hostiles.

Two more swarms dove down from the ceiling and streamed through the intervening space to engulf me.

Your health has decreased to 75%!

Your health has decreased to 72!

I was weakening rapidly, and my visibility had been cut to zero. Unfazed, I continued assembling the trap, working by touch and feel alone. Carefully lowering the second crystal, I placed it next to the pressure plate and set the magical weave between them.

You have connected a fire enchantment to a pressure plate.

A firebomb trap has been successfully configured!

Your health has decreased to 65%!

My work was almost done.

There was only one more thing to do: trigger the trap. But first, I had to ensure my targets were all in place. Turning my attention outwards, I focused on the surrounding swarms.

The space around me was so thick with flies, their mindglows formed a solid wall in my mindsight. How many swarms does that make?

Seven, at least, I thought. I’d lost count at some point.

Your health has decreased to 60%!

Is that all of them? I wondered. I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t afford to wait any longer. Lowering my hand, I slapped it down onto the pressure plate.

You have triggered a trap!

Raging hot flames blossomed into life.

At the epicenter of the inferno, I squeezed my eyes shut and hugged myself tight as the fire washed over me. There was nothing to do but to bear the pain, my only consolation knowing that as much as I was suffering, the blood flies were hurting worse.

You have failed a magical resistance check!

Your health has decreased to 23%. Quick mend triggered, restoring 20% of your lost health!

A blood fly swarm has been killed.

A blood fly swarm has been killed.

A blood fly…

As quickly as the magical flames appeared, they vanished.

Relieved, I collapsed against the floor, my body still riddled with pain. I was charred and singed but no worse for wear. Nothing a few heals won’t rectify.

Around me, it was blessedly quiet—absent the buzzing of even a single blood fly. My cracked and burned lips spread into a smile.

The trap had worked.

✵ ✵ ✵

A little later, I was whole again.

Dropping into a crossed-legged, I considered the waiting Game messages.

Your thieving has increased to level 79. Your telekinesis has increased to level 111. Your elemental absorption has increased to level 12. Your chi has increased to level 105.

I snorted. The battle against the swarms had not been worth the effort. My gains were negligible, and I’d nearly died in the process.

Speaking of the flies… Turning my attention outwards, I studied the area.

Nothing remained of my foes but ash.

They’d died easily enough once I employed the right tactic against them. But the encounter gave me pause and made me question if I was as prepared as I thought for a trip through the saltmarsh. Still, I was committed now, and there was nothing for it but to go on.

And besides, it was not like I was in a dungeon; I could always turn back if necessary.

Rising to my feet, I returned to the building’s roof. My head constantly swiveling left and right, I kept a wary eye out for blood flies, or anything else, for that matter. I would not make the mistake of underestimating the saltmarsh’s insect-life again.

Just as I’d hoped, I had a clear vantage of the district from the top of the building. To the east and west, the train of dilapidated wooden buildings continued without end. No doubt, many of them housed more colonies of blood flies. Feeling no desire to tangle further with the swarms, I turned my attention south.

At the farthest edge of my sight was a mass of heaving, turbulent gray, topped with ephemeral streaks of white.

The sea.

Something shifted in my mind, and a sense of longing overcame me. I was convinced that some part of me—the ‘me’ from before the Game or one of the fallen scions—had some deep, unfathomable connection to the ocean.

But as quickly as the sea piqued my interest, it lost it, too. Something else had attracted my gaze. Along the shoreline was a mighty fortress.

It was the sole structure in the district that was entirely free of the marsh. Built atop a rocky outcropping and battered by the ocean on one side and bordered by the marsh on the other, the mammoth stone construction was replete with towers and defiant spires that reached up to the sky.

Now, what is that? I wondered, feeling an almost irresistible urge to explore the ancient structure.

I quelled the thought immediately.

I’m not going there, I thought, refusing even to consider the possibility. I would have to cross nearly the entirety of the saltmarsh to reach the distant fortress, and I only had eight hours of disease protection to work with. Some other time, maybe.

Turning away, I studied the rest of the saltmarsh. Deeper into the district, the number of ruins dropped notably—perhaps, having been exposed to the marsh for longer, they had succumbed more fully to its clutches—and the marsh’s surface was an almost unblemished field of bulrushes and other reeds.

But only nearly so.

Here and there, the occasional ruins still fought off the saltmarsh’s attempts to swallow it.

One particular set of marble pillars caught my eye. They were in the same state of disrepair as the rest of the structures in the district, but interestingly enough, they were situated in a stand of trees.

A forest grove.

The trees were formed from thick, tall boughs, certainly not the kind one would expect to find in a marsh, and looked old enough to have been in the district before the saltmarsh invaded.

It was not the pillars nor the grove that had attracted my attention, though; it was the figures I could see walking between the trees. Narrowing my gaze, I focused on one of the distant specks.

The target is a level 117 coral hag.

Every sea hag began life as an ordinary witch. But at some point in their lives, lusting after the dormant power in the ocean, they gave themselves, body and mind, to primal sea spirits. Each sea hag is a true denizen of the ocean and lives for one thing only: spreading her master’s watery domain. All land-bound creatures are anathema to the hags, and they will do their utmost to purge the lands of life.

I smiled, not at all put off by the Game’s daunting description. I finally had a lead on one of my bounties, and it was time to begin hunting.