Anything ~ 38!

- Andre -

The Druid watched as the man that had just turned a literal swarm of bugs into paste opened a portal and vanished. He winced as he realized that the Murderhobo had drained away a huge amount of the area’s ambient mana when he opened the portal, and it might take days before there was enough in the area to be able to open portals again. Even then… only if the plant life here survived. At this moment, that meant exactly one thing. “There are more bugs coming. We need to retreat immediately.”

“You know, sometimes I think bears are better at communicating than people are.” Zed sighed wistfully as Andre bodily lifted him and began to run. “You know they have a sound that means ‘there are bees here and we need to leave’? I feel like we should be able to do that.”

“We can.” Taylor’s voice cut into the Bard’s out-of-place introspection. “We say ‘there are bees here and we need to leave’, just like what Andre did. Stop trying to sound deep because you picked up a few random facts about nature by hanging around a Druid.”

Phantom pain wracked Andre, to the point he nearly collapsed mid-stride. “Gah!”

“What is it?” Taylor placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. “More of the swarm?”

“Yeah… so many more.” Andre swept his perception along his connected swathes of plants. “They’re everywhere in the desert, Taylor. Anything I look at… it's getting destroyed. They’re even ahead of us. I have no idea how we’re gonna get past them without a dozen people to add more firepower-”

“Or one Full Murderhobo!” Zed chimed in.

“-and my power is rapidly melting away.” Andre continued without missing a beat. He was starting to calm as the pain continued; he supposed that you could get used to anything over time. “If we’re going to escape, we’re gonna need to get through a portal before they collapse on us. The mana in the area is too low, so we need to get past them…”

“What is it?” Taylor demanded as Andre’s words trailed off.

“I have an idea of how we can make a break for it while still out here.” Andre dropped Zed, who fell to the soft grass below with a yelp. “I was ordered not to grow plants out into the desert. Well, we had expanded that range significantly, so I have some leeway. First, I need to ensure that all the Lotus Coffins are so far below ground that they won’t get caught… there. I’ve given the order. If they manage to do it, great. Next, we need to kill a whole slew of bugs so I can feed them to a whole bunch of plants at once. The runoff mana should be high enough that I can open a portal without an issue. We can use that to get out of here.”

“Why not just have all these nice Knights… help us?” Zed gestured grandly, but faltered as he realized that not a single sunbeam’s reflection from an armored form could be noticed as far as his vision could reach. “Did they seriously just leave us here?”

“We’re all Nobles, Ascenders, and some of us are powerful.” Taylor spoke calmly as she began preparing herself for the oncoming attack.

“Well, I’m more of a benefit to society than you are. I bet that feels really nice to know, doesn’t it?” Zed’s words made Taylor’s breath hitch for a second, but she moved on even as he taunted her. “You talk about benefits in the long term, but I’m helping the people that are suffering now, ya know? I bet that just kills you.”

“How about I kill you - no.” The Mage caught herself and forced her furious eyes to the horizon. “The Knights were likely under orders not to help us even slightly, so as to not show favoritism. If other people thought the King was helping us unfairly, then even the neutral factions might call for our deaths.”

“So the Prince can send his goons to kill us for no reason, a whole buncha people can try to destroy everything we do, but the only thing that’ll be noticed is when one person tries to help us?” Zed spat at her feet as if this whole situation was Taylor's fault.

“That about sums it up,” the Mage sighed sadly as the first of the Preying Mantous began cresting the horizon. “Hey, Zed?”

“What?”

“Do you know that I really, really hate Master Don and the fact that he’s forcing me to take his position as Archmage?” Taylor didn’t look over at the Bard, but Andre did. Zed’s face was stuffed with suspicion, which bloomed into a condescending sneer. “I just wanna learn cool spells. I want to be as uninhibited as Luke, even. But every time that I give in to what I want to do, versus what I think will be the best way for me to survive, I’m weakening the foundation I’ve built for when I have to live in that snake’s den that they call the capital. Flame Lance!”

The explosive spell left her hands so suddenly that Zed fell back with a yelp. Andre realized that Zed had been so entranced by Taylor’s words that he had forgotten about the oncoming swarm, and that made the Druid laugh as he started setting up the few defensive plants that he could grow in the low-mana area. There were barely a few whipping vines before the leading edge of the swarm was upon them.

Strangely enough, the creatures went after the vegetation before anything else. The humans weren’t going to be far behind, but it gave them a few extra seconds to start killin’. Andre’s Livingwood Staff bent and started growing long thorns. He lifted it and began sending arrow after arrow into the sky. He didn’t need to aim, and still the bolts killed two-to-three of the insects each time he released the bowstring-vine.

Realizing that he actually didn’t need to aim, he placed his staff on the ground again and ordered it to simply keep sending arrows forward and up. Just like that, he had made an auto-arrow turret. He scoffed at himself for not thinking of this earlier in his career, but he didn’t have time to explore this to its natural conclusion right now. Knowing that time was short, he pricked his palms and let blood flow to the ground. With a surge of willpower, the ground below flattened and started curving upward, forming a dome around the three of them and his staff.

Andre made sure to keep the front of the structure open, both for outgoing spells as well as arrows. He also kept the ground under his control so that he could repair it as needed, which wasn’t as difficult as he thought it would be. Very few of the bugs attacked the stone igloo directly, not with it having a large opening in it already. Most of the repairs needed were where their feet dug in to find purchase, so the upkeep was minimal. Ichor as well as fresh or charred bodies were collecting inside the small building at an enormous rate; the physically fragile bodies unable to do more than throw themselves to their death.

With the initial defense created, the Druid turned his attention to keeping the team functional. Having access to so many corpses was the entire purpose of leaving an opening: their blood was drained away, and their bodies converted to nutrients at a rate not possible without mana. Just as he sent his vines to grow up and around the opening, Taylor dropped to one knee with blood running down from her left nostril. “I’m… I’m out of mana.”

“I got it.” Andre murmured even as Zed began to panic. His vines thorns were more like blades against the insects that continued to swarm in even while being practically blended when they did so. All of their juices and meat went right into the roots of his plants, boosting the mana in the enclosed space over time. “I’m almost ready. No one do anything stupid.”

Having his concentration split like this hurt somewhat as time passed, but he was used to it after his decades of training. Andre cleared an area and started forming a circle in the air; it went far slower than he wanted it to go, taking a full five minutes instead of the standard three to get the portal formed. “Almost there…”

Zed shouted something and jumped at the Druid,coming to a dead stop right behind him. Andre grumbled lightly as he heard Taylor chewing the Bard out. The portal opened fully, and Andre had his vines grab him and his staff, then chuck the whole group through the portal, “No need to be fancy or potentially lose anyone to a closing portal. Everyone here?”

He looked at the others, shocked at the sight of blood pouring from Zed’s chest. Taylor was still struggling with a Preying Mantous that just wouldn’t die; that was all it took for Andre to realize what was happening. He grabbed the bug, and bodily tossed it through the closing portal just before it snapped shut. Then he turned to look at the others, only to see Taylor cradling Zed’s head in her lap as the Bard struggled to breathe.

Andre was next to them in an instant, and gave a low whistle as he saw Zed’s heart beating and bleeding with a hole the size of a finger through it. “I’m so sorry, Zed. This is really gonna suck until we find a way to heal it.”

“Not… gonna have to… worry about that for long.” Zed coughed a mouthful of blood, then showed a crooked grin at the others. “Hey… Taylor. I know I was being a jerk about it, but… make sure those kids get a real chance… would you? Don’t let someone take over the schools. Don’t cry, Tay. I even get to die the hero. I… saved the guy… that actually matters.”

Andre reeled back at that, tears stinging his eyes as the dark emotion behind those words set in. “If you ever talk about my friend like that again, I’m going to punch you in the face.”

“W…what?” Zed looked at the Druid, confused for many reasons. Then he thought about how long they’d been talking. “Why am I… still alive?”

“Yeah, welcome to my Grove.” Andre let a ghost of a smile appear on his lips, not truly feeling like showing off right now. “You won’t get any better without help, but you won’t be able to die either. I won’t let you.”

“How is that possible, Andre?” Taylor had never stopped lightly stroking Zed’s blood-drained forehead. “How is he… I’m glad he’s… but how?”

“Oh, did I never mention it?” Andre rubbed at the back of his neck and laughed self-consciously. “Yeah… I control a Domain here. Nothing, and no one, can deteriorate here.”

“D-domain? You have a Tier ten…?” Taylor froze at his words as her mind whirled, thinking of all the things they could use this place for.

Zed actually seemed to gain some life. “So… what I’m hearing is… go somewhere else to poop… or the smell will never go away?”