[NR] The Living Dead - Chapter 573

The first challenge was a hive of necromancer bees. Which, despite the name, do not actually use necromancy. Rather, they make a hive near the recently deceased body of some creature. The name comes from the fact that the venom of their sting causes a zombie-like state in their victims. They are not capable of making those that are actually dead get up and walk around.

Why the bees do this? It isn’t like they eat meat or anything. Rather, they’re macabre gardeners. The bodies of their victims provide fertilizer for the nearby plants. Though just providing fertilizer wouldn’t be enough to call them gardeners. No, that comes from the fact that they also kill any plants nearby that don’t flower.

So suffice it to say, stumbling upon a neat is not exactly a pleasant experience. There are a handful of beasts stumbling around as gangrene and other such nastiness eats away at their bodies. Beasts that are now innately vicious and won’t back down in the least bit until their enemy is either dead or succumbed enough to the venom that they stop registering as “other”.

All that aggressiveness, however, is a smoke screen. They are simply there to distract anything that wanders in. The real threat are the bees themselves and their nasty sting. The good news is that Rosha spotted the danger and only Jason got stung.

Well, Jason getting stung isn’t exactly good news in and of itself. It is just that of everyone there who could be stung; he was the only one capable of tossing off the effects of the venom. Though it did require them to stop for a good fifteen minutes. If it had been just a regular venom, Jason would have been fine to keep moving, but the necromancer bees venom definitely has some nasty curse magic involved which requires his entire focus.

On the upside, this was worth an entire level in his resistance skill, which had been stagnant for quite a while now. Though Jason was disappointed that it didn’t add an effect to resist non-mundane stuff or curses. Either of which would have really improved the skills utility. So much so, he was even tempted to go back and get stung a bit more, though Rosha talked him out of it easily enough. It was a risky idea and there would certainly be other poisons, venoms, or curses he could attempt it with that wouldn’t turn him into the living dead.

Jason could only admit that was probably for the best. Though the next threat they stumble across on the way to the settlement, almost makes the party wish it was more necromancer bees. They managed to run into some chimera.

Though just saying they ran into chimera doesn’t really explain the problem. After all, the name is more of a broad category used to represent the infinite range of mad science and magic when it comes to smooshing multiple creatures together into a patchwork whole. More correctly, they ran into a small group of True chimera.

True, in this case meaning that whatever had been done to create the first, had gone so far as to make it so the creature could not only reproduce, but in doing so, passed down its patchwork nature. Most times, even if a chimera can have children, they either end up as a single species or the various bits blend into a more cohesive whole. This doesn’t happen with true chimeras.

Oh, and because of their patchwork nature, they can work in new “patches” over the generations and this group was clearly not a young branch. The patches are each as small as the palm of Jason’s hand, representing who knows how many unknown abilities. Could they spit poison, acid, fire, or maybe all three? No way to tell. Would lightning spark out from the various protruding spines? Just as likely as it is that the spines themselves can shoot out with deadly force.

The smart option would be to avoid them. A little hard as once again, you don’t know what they’re capable of. There is no way to know what senses they have, after all. The only saving grace is that while they technically have infinite potential, individual chimera tend to be limited in what traits they express.

So even as Jason and the gang tried to do the smart thing, the small group of chimera noticed them through cover and let out uncanny howls. Each one sounded different, yet somehow they all matched together. Then the crystal shards can through the foliage.

Not at the party, but rather aimed at the distracted chimeras. From the side opposite Jason and friends, a man steps out with his hands ringed in crystal. The shards form three circles around each wrist. Though the number quickly plummets as he holds his hands out towards the chimera and the shards are let loose.

The chimeras respond with a barrage of wind blades. An attack that the man easily counters with a sheet of crystal being summoned in front of him. Then Jason flies out of the brush, leaping onto the nearest chimera.

It tried to buck him off, but Jason holds on and manages to get one hand on the monster’s throat. Energy coats his hand and he sinks his fingers in, before ripping furrows in the beast’s neck. Blood flows freely, the scent of which turns the attention of the other chimera back into him.

Just in time for the man to ready another round of shards. Though this time he holds them ready for longer, causing them to slowly combine with one another. The shards in the outer ring condensed down into the shards of the next ring until only the circle of shards next to his hands is left.

What was once finger size chunks of crystal are now half a meter long, though even thinner than before. The man, satisfied with this, lets loose. Crystal bolts thunk home into the backs of the chimera, their pelts unable to stop them.