“How do you know which way to go?” Alyssa asked as they all jogged after Derek through the tunnels of dry, woven plant material. “Did you memorize the way back or something?”
Derek tapped his nose in response, not even missing a step in his loping strides. The large man could practically take one step for every two that the rest of them made. “I’ve always had a good sniffer, and it’s hard to miss a show . There are a hell of a lot of people.”
“You can smell things that well?” Claire asked. “I’ve got a pretty good sense of smell too, but I can’t pick up anything beyond the rot.”
“Huh,” Derek said. He managed to shrug, which was a fairly impressive feat to pull off while one was jogging. “I guess the System just boosted that more for me than my other senses. My sight has always been a bit below average. Just trust me. We’ll be on Crimson and that other family soon enough.”
“We do trust you. Do you have a guess as to how soon we’ll get to them? Our plan is still a bit spotty,” Alex said. The hilt of his glaive bounced against his shoulder with every step he took. It was slightly surprising that they hadn’t run into any new monsters yet. They’d already been jogging for several minutes — but they’d also passed a number of bodies. The Great Families had evidently been kind enough to inadvertently clear the way for them to catch up.
“Soon,” Derek replied. “A minute or two, maybe. I don’t really like making plans, to be honest. They’re a lot of thinking. I’m not usually a fan of that. But maybe one would be smart. How do you plan to steal the kill of a boss monster from two Great Families?”
“It’s a good question. Sneaking a kill like that is going to be nearly impossible, and that doesn’t even get to how we’re going to escape,” Alyssa pointed out as Derek led them to the right of a forking path. He didn’t even pause for a moment before deciding the path. It was as if he knew exactly where Crimson and the boss they’d been chasing was.
Alex couldn’t help but be impressed.
I guess the System really did make his sense of scent incredibly good. Either that or he’s just completely lost and confidently leading us in the absolute wrong direction. That’s always technically a possibility.
“Two things,” Alex said. As he had been many times before, he was thankful for all the improvements that he’d gotten since the start of the apocalypse. He never would have been able to talk so casually mid-run before the world had ended. “The first is that you should avoid getting noticed too much. I’m wearing a disguise — but you and Claire are both dressed normally. We want to avoid them hunting everyone down in retaliation after this Ancestry is done.”
“And the second is waiting for the right time,” Claire said, picking up where Alex had left off. “We don’t need to defeat the boss from start to finish. We just have to make sure we’re the ones that deal the final blow. That should ensure the rewards that the Ancestry grants go to us — as does a fair amount of the experience for stealing the kill. That won’t be a simple task.”
“I can help!” Derek said. “I never told Crimson I was working with them. I’m just with Wess, and he loves backstabbing people. He’s done it to me a bunch of times already. I still have one of his daggers in my spine.”
Alyssa nearly missed a step. “Why do you guy again?”
“I want to kill him,” Derek said cheerfully. “We have a good fight scheduled. That’s a great reason to like somebody, don’t you think?”
“Oh,” Derek replied. “Well, he’ll probably help us if he thinks there’s a good shot at us pulling something off. He doesn’t like Crimson much.”
“Noted,” Alex said. “I think our best chance at this is for me and you to pretty much just rush the monster as soon as it gets weak. We’re both more resilient than average, so we should be able to close the distance. That means everyone else needs to make a distraction. One big enough to buy us a few seconds to kill the boss and keep Crimson and whatever other great family is here from finishing the deed themselves.”
“And then we all need a way out,” Claire said. “Alyssa, that will be your job. The moment we get into the room with the boss, look for a way out. You’re more observant than the rest of us. See if you can find a secret exit again. Something hard to through. I’ll get you to it.”
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“I can do that… but you’re just going to charge at the monster? That’s your plan?” Alyssa asked in disbelief. “That feels a little unrealistic, doesn’t it?”
“That’s the point,” Alex said. “These are two Great Families. Either they’re going to be so busy with the monster that they don’t get a chance to notice us coming, or they’ll be so confident that nobody would be stupid enough to charge them that it just might work.”
“Which the distraction should help with, so long as we can get a big enough one,” Claire said. “That might be the hardest part.”
“I think Wess could help,” Derek said after a moment. They turned yet another corner. The large man slowed as they drew up to a wide stairwell made of the same dried, gray plant matter at the end of the hall. The stairs were dimly illuminated by distant red light.
“Would he, though?” Claire asked.
Derek shrugged. “Probably. We can give him a cut of the rewards, right?”
“Don’t see why not,” Alex said. “I’d rather split it with one person than a whole family. And you’re planning on killing him anyway, aren’t you? That means it’s basically free to bring him on.”
“See? That’s the spirit,” Derek said with a grin. He pointed up the stairs. “I think they’re up here. I smell them. Lots of ‘em. Hear them too, if you listen close.”
They all fell silent for a moment.
Derek was right. It was faint, but the sounds of battle echoed from far above. The stairs wound up into the distance, leading straight up toward them.
“You think you can get Wess on our side quickly?” Alex asked.
Derek nodded. “Yeah. He’ll listen to me. I’m real trustworthy.”
That somehow wasn’t the most convincing promise that Alex had ever heard, but it seemed like the best shot they had at this. The Great Families were going to be preoccupied with each other and the boss anyway.
If there was ever a chance to try and sneak a kill, then this was it. The fight was already going. There wouldn’t be a better opportunity. And, if things were truly completely unwinnable, they could always retreat. He doubted the families would be keeping that close of a watch for interference while they were occupied with a major fight.
“Right,” Alex said. “Then let’s do it. Derek, After the distraction, get back to Alyssa and Claire. I don’t want you left behind.”
Derek nodded, and his wide face split as a grin pulled across his lips. “Easy enough. I’m all jumped up right now. This is going to be fun.”
They all started up the stairs, moving at something between a brisk walk and a jog. The sounds of fighting grew closer. Alex gathered his magic. He still had the abilities from his fallen monsters — and the most important of them was going to end up being Spark’s power to swap places with his shadow. Find the newest release on novel-fire.net
The moment I get the final blow, I need to get the hell out of there. Riftwarped Qi lets me actually move the shadow around, so I just have to send it with Claire and Alyssa.
Maybe I can even lure the Great Families’ attention to the wrong direction before swapping back to join them.
The stairs wound up and up, and the intensity of the red light grew stronger until the dry plants almost looked like they were soaked through with blood — though that might not have been far from the truth.
Alex didn’t need Derek’s sense of smell to pick up the thick scent of blood in the air. The fight was clearly a brutal one. Screams split the air, broken only by the thunderous crash of magic and the clang of ringing metal.
The ceiling finally vanished above them as they came to the end of the stairs and emerged into a bloodied battlefield.
Dry, woven vines and splotches of rancid black identical to the halls they’d just passed through made up the room. The sharp, brittle plant matter rose far into the sky, coiling above a huge orb of murky crimson that hung above like a false sun.
What must have been around a hundred people were spread out through a huge, circular room.
And there, directly under the angry gaze of the false sun and bearing the ire of both Great Families, was an enormous scorpion easily the size of a three story mansion. Three barbed tails that dripped with green toxin rose over its back. They whipped down into the ground to pierce one opponent after the other with a rhythmic crack-thud like a weedwhacker tearing through all in its path.
Enormous chunks of its black chitin carapace had been torn apart and shattered, but the monster’s claws were bloodied and splattered with bits of flesh that had once belonged the corpses now strewn around it.
The two families stood roughly arranged into ranks around the massive creature. They each sent a hail fire of attacks down upon both each other and the boss. The barrage filled the room with thick clouds of oily magical smoke and a constant thundering crash that threatened to drown out the thoughts in Alex’s skull.
Above the scorpion, a shimmering trail of red light twisted into being as the System finally identified it to Alex’s eyes.
Lifebane Triscorpion (Expert 7)
Adrenaline start to thunder through Alex’s veins.
“That’s one hell of a monster,” Alyssa muttered.
“That,” Alex said, a slow grin stretching across his lips, “is exactly what I was hoping for.”