[Beastborne: Tower of Blight] (Book 6) Chapter 18

More than one pair of eyes looked greedily at the card, but nobody raised any objections. Not only because Hal was their Founder, but because it didn’t seem anybody could put forth a better candidate.

Noth, much like Hal, was a very flexible fighter. She had kept more than one person from getting knocked out or worse by using her dark magic spells to leech health from the enemy, giving it to those in dire need.

Plus, as was obvious from the sleeping steri slime, her slimes could heal or soothe any extra wounds they incurred. Their rations of potions were almost exhausted, and those that needed them were dangerously close to their toxicity limits.

As Vorax drifted around, hoovering up monster parts to recover his HP and for Hal to use later, Hal made a mental note about what he would need to do differently to prepare for another incursion.

They would need very different supplies, especially knowing that the Blight affliction reduced both offensive and defensive parameters. He would need to talk to Hamrin to see if there was anything that he could whip up to counteract the effects.

Being a Gourmage, a non-combat magical food and crop wizard, Hal wouldn’t put it past the man to know of some rare fruit or vegetable that might impart such a potent buff. It might be the difference between surviving one more stack of the affliction.

Noth stood, pressing the card into her dark and spiky breastplate. It pulsed with light for a moment, then faded into the armor, melting into the breastplate until it vanished.

She blinked, then frowned.

“What is it?” Mira asked.

“It doesn’t work retroactively.”

“So you still have the same HP and MP?”

She nodded. “Just 5% more, despite the stacks if Blight I have.”

“Heckin’ bleck,” Kow muttered. From his tone, it sounded like an oppish curse of some kind.

Ashera gasped like he had said something dirty and stroked his fluffed-up fur until it smoothed down.

He blushed through his spotted fur.

“Looks like I’ll still be sitting the next one out then,” Noth said morosely.

“If we get out of here,” somebody muttered.

There were a few grunts of agreement. Nobody knew for certain if they would be able to leave. There were no rest rooms (a safe place to rest, not a bathroom, but also no bathrooms), no places of respite or comfort.

While they were mulling over what to do, a platform rose out of the floor with a familiar blue swirling light.

“Shashshasha,” Vorax said to Hal.

He lifted his brow at that. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to risk yourself.”

Vorax assaulted him with a series of overconfident images. The first was a giant treasure chest, as massive as a mountain, covered completely in shadow. The next was a much smaller treasure chest with exaggerated human-like abs on its front. The rest were various themes around… well, basically flexing.

Despite their grim situation, Hal couldn’t help but chuckle.

The mimic hadn’t been attacked by any monster it hadn’t attacked first.

In Vorax’s mind, he was nearly immune to the monsters. Besides, he had so many monster parts in his thousands of stomachs that he could easily heal any damage he sustained.

And what better scout could there ever be than one that could mimic anything, including one of the blighted monsters?

As Vorax explained this to Hal, he drifted off his shoulders and changed into one of the blighted creatures with thick, oily black skin and no facial features except a mouth full of oddly flat teeth.

“Shaa-shaa!” Vorax said.

He did a little twirl and a bow as if saying “Ta-da!”.

“You’ve proved your point,” Hal told him.

“Oh gods, what the shirt is that?” Mira asked. “That.. that isn’t Vorax, is it?”

Hal nodded. A number of people looked a little uneasy. Vorax’s mimicry was truly convincing.

“What’s the little fella doin’?” Durvin asked.

“Vorax thinks he can explore ahead as one of the blighted creatures. Rather than risking one of us by going alone, he thinks he’ll be able to keep the empathic link we have open. Even if he can’t, he’s confident that he can return without taking too much damage.”

“What if the wee bairn dies?” Bardan asked.

“He can’t,” Hal told him. “He’s my familiar. If he drops to zero HP, he’ll just return to me and take a while to reform. It’s not ideal, but… well, he wants to do this for us.”

“Shah.” Vorax said.

“Very well,” Hal told him, “just be careful, okay?”

Bowing awkwardly, the mimic traipsed in a lurching sort of stop motion toward the platform. As soon as he stepped on top of it, he disappeared in the customary blue swirl of light.

“Anyone want to take bets as to whether Vorax solos the rest of the floor?” Mira asked.

“Machi does!”

Sparks exchanged many hands. Even Lurklox put some money in.

Hal frowned. Not that he wouldn’t mind that. Vorax was far stronger than he had ever been before. As Hal’s familiar, he gained a significant amount of strength from being tethered to the Beastborne.

Likewise, Hal was able to pass his immunity through the Manatree’s blessing to Vorax. If only he could do it for anybody else.

Hal looked toward the teleporter pad. “The coast is clear,” Hal told them.

He didn’t blame the few incredulous looks he received, so to prove his unwavering faith in his familiar, Hal stepped onto the pad first.

“Shassh?” Vorax asked, looking longingly at Hal’s broad armored shoulders. He missed being his cloak. It was easy and surprisingly fun. He didn’t have to walk or do anything but fight and eat and sleep.

It was perfect for a mimic. Plus, it was comfortable. He liked being near Hal.

“Yeah, sure. Get on up here,” Hal told him.

With a sickening stretching and twisting motion that reminded Hal of a taffy mixer machine pulling a massive length of taffy, Vorax shifted into his cloak form and flew to Hal’s shoulders.

If anyone else had seen Vorax’s transformation, it might have been a repeat event of Komachi throwing up rainbow colored vomit on his shoes when she saw his “flesh chute”.

Despite the stomach churning transformation, Hal was glad to have his friend back.

Once everybody arrived, Hal stepped up to the door with the three empty sigils. Vorax coughed up the three tablets without any prompting, putting them into their appropriate slots with a long, slender purple pseudopod.

The door rumbled and split into three parts. The sides of the door slid into the wall, while a triangular portion on top vanished upwards.

Hal walked into the next room. It was a modest room that more closely resembled Hirash’s tower than any other.

Large enough to admit every person comfortably, but not many more, there was a massive circular platform ringed by free-floating white bone-like fences.

In front of the platform were three bronze-banded chests.

Hal looked at them. He could hardly believe his eyes.

Vorax sensed his unease and removed himself from Hal’s shoulders. He drifted around the room, looking like an octopus or jellyfish gliding effortlessly underwater.

“There are no traps,” Hal said with surprise once the mimic swept the room.

He walked forward to the central chest. It opened automatically and, like the others, the loot inside sprang out.

However, unlike the others, there was only a single piece of loot, and then the chest snapped shut again. Hal picked it up, curiously examining it.

“What? None for the rest of us?” Mira asked, pushing past him. As soon as she approached, the chest opened again and spat out another piece of loot.

It didn’t take long for people to realize that the chests offered one piece of loot to a single person.

More importantly, each chest had a symbol on the floor in front of them that Hal had missed. The one in front of Hal’s chest was in the shape of an unfurled scroll.

To his left, the symbol on the floor was an empty suit of armor, and on the right, a blade and a staff set in an X formation.

More than a few people surged forward to the same chest Hal and Mira had, each receiving a scroll, tome, or tablet with a schematic on it.

Trying to go to a different chest awarded no further loot.

Once they realized what the symbols meant, the people who hadn’t already received loot queued up in front of either chest to receive their reward.

The first–and typically greediest–looked on enviously at those who got a new weapon or piece of armor.

Kow was the very last to decide. He put a paw to his muzzle, pondering his decision.

Hal waited.

Everyone waited.

And continued to wait.

Finally, Kow scampered to the armor chest. Out popped something not precisely for him, but Ashera. A glorious suit of armor completely covered the small creature.

The shaggy oppa shook himself like a wet dog, ridding himself of the armor in a series of heavy clanks and clatters. Finally, he gathered up the suit and handed it to Ashera. “Here you are, ma’am!”

Ashera, who had already gotten a brand-new sword, looked on in shock. “Goodness… are you sure?”

Kow nodded enthusiastically. “You keep me safe!”

“Damn, he’s a sweet little guy,” Mira said, staring at Komachi. “I need me one of those.”

“Machi…?”

Once everybody received their rewards, Hal stepped up to the fenced-in platform. Rather than a swirl of blue light, a portal opened, one that showed the outside of Brightsong in the middle of a horrible midnight blizzard.

“That’s going to florkin’ suck,” Elora muttered.

“Tropical biome is on Komachi’s wishlist,” the pobul said, nodding. Multiple people voiced their general agreement, some even growing hopeful that the pobul could manage such a magical feat.

Even Hal felt a surge of hope for such a possibility. There was no telling when it came to soul aeder.

As the portal expanded, Hal could feel the frigid blast of cold air slice through Vorax’s strong insulation. “Let’s go home,” he told the beleaguered alliance.

One by one they stepped through the portal and into the frigid nightmare that was Brightsong in the grips of the Shiverglades’ worst weather.

However, they weren’t cold for long. There was a large building not far from the Tower with a pair of blazing braziers that should have been blindingly bright from miles off. Instead, in the low visibility of the snowstorm, Hal could barely make them out as flickering candle lights.

Even standing right next to them and the imposing building, Hal could hardly feel the heat that should have turned the snow on his shoulders into a flash of steam.

The door opened and Rondo smiled at them from his thick and suddenly frosted glasses. He turned to look over his shoulder and shouted. “They’re back! Get ready!” Turning back to Hal, he tried to crack the door open a foot or more, but the howling winds had another idea.

Rondo screamed and was bowled aside as the door snapped open like a whip crack and sent the small gnome tumbling end over end into the room beyond.

Built much like a modified longhouse but with a massive central firepit down the middle, the building should have been oppressively hot.

Given the storm raging outside, it was merely pleasantly warm, even a little cool if Hal strayed too far from the huge hearth. People bustled about with trays of hot drinks and bandages for all who needed them.

Buffrix marched up and took one look at the group, separating those who were the most wounded and in need of help.

As it turned out, nearly everybody required some sort of healing. Even with Buffrix prepared for the rush and several helpers, it was overwhelming for the small koblin. Lootlox jumped about with bandages as if she were in a parade, spreading thin gauzy strips of linen through the air like streamers.

“Ah, it’s good to be home,” Ashera said, sitting down with Kow, Elora, and Komachi.

Most people who sat down on a bed immediately passed out.

Val approached Hal, carrying a steaming mug of what looked strikingly like hot cocoa. “Welcome back to Brightsong,” she said with a gentle smile. She seemed relieved to see him return.

Tristal wasn’t far behind her with another, much larger tray for everybody else.