Anything ~ 51!

“I have no idea how you managed to make that work.” Taylor shuddered as her Cleanse spell worked overtime to eradicate the flecks of… mud… that kept splattering onto her with each step someone took.

“You catch Cookie, I pull her to me,” Luke explained yet again as they worked to defend the Druid, who was sitting in the muck and somehow smiling. “The angle of your fall changes and becomes a slope. You don’t fall as hard on a slope. You can’t reach the fastest falling… the…”

“Terminal velocity,” Andre murmured to him as yet another green sprig sprouted around him. “I can’t believe this is working. I’m not growing plants in the desert, I’m growing them way below the desert. Not complaining that I have my utility back, but that command seems pretty easy to get around, now that I know how to do it.”

“Hey, that’s cool and all, but how about more plants that kill any bugs that get close?” Zed forced an unhappy chuckle as he strummed his out-of-tune Ukulele. “Not that I really trust them to get all of them, but…”

“One bug got through, Zed. Even that was because I was opening a portal.” Andre winced at the stare that was leveled at him. “Yes, to be fair, it got you right in the heart, but we fixed that, yeah?”

“They’re swarming again!” Taylor called over as she fired more Shatter Shots into the hundreds of bugs per second that were coming after them. Luke responded by charging out of their defensive circle and swinging with all his might with Cookie, activating a shockwave only when he was certain it wouldn’t rebound onto his team.

Damage dealt: 1 (3,334)

He ignored the other messages that were telling him that his mana was gone, as well as the one complaining that he had killed too many of this type and should leave some for others. “Sigil, if they wanted the Potentia, it was right there for the taking. Stop telling me off for killin’ faster than they can manage!”

He turned and dashed for his group as the cavern was rocked by a spreading wall of death. A single look informed him that, while he had killed likely tens of thousands with that attack, it just didn’t matter. More bugs were pouring in at all times: down through vents like the one they had fallen through, from the walls, from the portal. Taylor pondered the hopeless situation and wavered. “A single Flame Lance could take them all out at the same time-”

“No Spells that kill us too, thank you very much,” Andre snapped just before Zed could do so. “There’s a better way, and I’m ready.”

Zed took up the argument against burning, “If one of you kills me with fire, I’m

An opening appeared in the swirling muck below them, and Andre slid down a moist, pulpy tunnel with a gesture for the others to follow him. Taylor went first, then Zed, followed by a very reluctant Luke. He took one final half-hearted swing at the bugs before allowing himself to slither down, finding himself in some kind of gourd. “Is this a watermelon?”

“A pumpkin. Welcome to our home for the next few weeks. Luke, Luke! I’m joking!” Andre barely managed to speak in time, but the Murderhobo aborted his swing at the wall of the orange gourd. “We’re sinking to the bottom and waiting out the bugs’ attention span; that’s it, I promise.”

“Okay then. Your real plan?” Luke leaned back on the pumpkin, which swayed dangerously as he and his massive Greatclub’s weight settled in one spot.

“The bugs aren’t diving into the filth. Right now, the vine of this pumpkin is dragging us along the bottom of the pit toward the roots coming off of that massive plant. When we get there, we’re gonna get on it and climb up. If we can reach the portal fast enough, we should be able to cut off reinforcements from the other side.” Andre responded to the hopeful faces of his team by letting loose a bright smile. “We’re moving slowly enough that all the buzz should die down by the time we pop out.”

“I hear your joke, and I want you to know that I’m judging you for it,” Zed informed the Druid bluntly. “So your plan is betting that they’ll all settle down, giving us enough time to get to the Scar and close it before they can swarm at us again?”

“Exactly.” Andre touched his nose and pointed at the Bard. “Then it’s extermination and vacation time.”

No one had a better idea, so they waited until Andre thought it was time. “We have as many shots at this as we need, so long as the bugs don’t realize that we are under here and come after us if we need to retreat again.”

“Why would you even say that out loud and will it into existence?” Zed grumbled as a strange feeling of weightlessness filled them. “You always yell at me for doing it.”

“We’re a quarter up, but they’re coming! I’m carving the pumpkin! Go!” With a gesture, the top of the pumpkin blew off, and they grabbed the thick vines dropped through the opening. Taylor and Luke scampered up instantly, tossing themselves upward a half-dozen feet with each pull. Andre grabbed Zed and commanded his personal vines to do the climbing for the both of them.

The air rumbled a few moments after they began, a sound they had no basis of understanding for. Even more concerning, the Preying Mantous that were coming after them paused, then changed directions, flying up from the locations they had just rested upon. Zed searched the cavern nervously. “Anyone know what that was?”

“No… idea!” Taylor barked as she scaled the vines. “Quarter mile to go!”

Luke spent every other movement throwing a mana-bottle into the swarm and killing hundreds of the fragile things before recreating the weapon and tossing it again. Even with the blatant attacks, the bugs were moving up and ignoring them. Luke was unsure if it was the vibration that seemed to come from everywhere at once that was confusing their senses, or if there was something else going on.

Either way, by the time the humans were securely perched on the main body of the behemoth plant, the air was utterly choked with bugs. Yet, they still weren’t coming after The Four. Taylor sent up a Shatter Shot, killing dozens of the beasts but failing to draw any attention at all. “What’s happening?”

“The bugs are… fleeing?” Zed shook his head as the deep rumble echoed through the cavern once more. “Nah, got a bad feeling about this. Back to the pumpkin!”

“Hold it!” Taylor’s cry stopped both Zed and Luke; Andre was far too fascinated with what was happening in front of them. “We aren’t getting hurt, and this is giving us a chance to see what’s going on. I think they’re flying through the Scar! We might have a chance to win without a fight!”

“What?” Luke howled in rage, turning and catapulting Cookie into a stream of bugs. She splattered through all of them, clearly agreeing that they should kill these nasty pests instead of letting them go free. “Hundreds are escaping every second, and you want us to wait?”

“Luke! We need to-” The Mage’s supplication was drowned out by the droning of all the flying bugs as the Murderhobo took step after step toward the Scar, using his mana-made Chain-Blade Rope as a blender to make sweet bug smoothie. A spell from the Mage *shizzed* past his head, but he knew it was frustration guiding her actions; if she killed him, she’d have no way to close the Scar.

Luke laughed as he stood in the midst of his enemy, killing them with impunity as they struggled to escape. Not one of them turned on him and attacked, and he loved knowing that he could slaughter without any consequences. As he got closer, the portal became clearer, and eventually was no longer marred by flashes of bug. It was slowly resolving into a lovely creamy-gold, and he couldn’t wait to punch it right in the energy field.

He swung Cookie back, pulping dozens of bugs, then swung her forward with a bellow. “Rift Hunter!”

Cookie hit the Scar, and its light was blown out like a weak candle in a hurricane. The bugs stopped moving, their eyes shifting to him as they seemed to notice him for the first time. The Murderhobo wasn’t going to give them time to get their bearings: he struck first. Chitin and ichor splattered through the area as his body moved to kill as many as he could access.“Yes! Now we fight! I’ll end your presence on this Plane all by myself! You don’t get to run away after you stabbed Zed in the heart!”

“Aww, he got us all killed because he cares about me!” Zed’s voice echoed in the chamber where the only other sounds were the squashing of bugs. “On that note, any idea why we’re not all small chunks of meat yet?”

The Preying Mantous remained motionless as Luke worked his way through them. They didn’t fight back, they didn’t fly away. They just died. Andre’s voice reached Luke through his rampage, and he slowed down—but didn’t stop—killing the bugs. “They must be a hive mind. Without the thoughts of their leader controlling them, they’re just husks.?”

“Are these things going to start fighting me, Andre?” Luke called over as he clapped his hands together and tore the head off another bug.

“Only if you re-open the portal!” the Druid called back. “I think… did we just win?”

“Congratulations, everyone,” Taylor called out after another minute without dying. “We saved the desert; time to clean this place up and get to work moving-”

*OOooOOmm.*

Everyone fell silent as the air itself vibrated and the ambient light was altered. Andre had the best view of the cavern outside the plant, and he finally called over his shoulder in concern, “Hey, all… why any idea why blue light in a shining rock would turn green?”

Zed dashed over and peered out into the open air. “They look fine to me. Green is fine. Green is lovely.”

Both of them looked inward at Taylor and Luke, but as they did… the lights above went out. Their heads snapped back around to look out, and green light once more suffused the area. Andre was the first to notice that something was different, “The pattern changed? Either different rocks are lighting up, or those ones are… moving.”

“Why would the star rocks vanish when you look away?” Luke stomped over, intent on splattering bugs with his feet the entire way. Unbeknownst to them, Taylor’s eyes had widened, and her face had gone pale. Her words were only a whisper, but they caused everyone to turn to look at her.

“Fear the caverns, for they too have teeth. The stars are gone when you look away, but they... can still see you.”

The world went dark once more, only the light emanating from Cookie allowing them to spot the vines of the behemoth plant reaching for them.