MH3 - Chapter 5: Necro Gem

The Skele-tree shrieked like a banshee and lashed out at Dolli. Taffy jumped in front of her and blocked the attack with a forearm, the vines whipping against his skin with a slap. Dolli buffed Taffy with Zeal and before the tree monster could pull back, he caught the roots in his bulging fist.

“Gotcha now.” Taffy jerked on the vines. The Skele-tree tipped forward, groaning with strain.

Taffy laughed, “Timber!”

The roots at the back of the Skele-tree pulled tight, balancing the monster. It split the air with another wail that prompted a debuff notification.

[Necrotic Scream_TKthisnamesucks]

Increasing paranoia and fear. Creature’s Mental Prowess decreases by 5% every 10 seconds until the timer expires.

Duration 120 seconds.

-----

In their vaporous Wispelle form, they were all ten times more vulnerable to magic. In ten seconds, their spell effectivity would reduce by half.

“Zeal Taffy and spell spam Divine!” Dolli called desperately.

Taffy’s body sparkled and grew until he rivaled the size of the Skele-tree.

Dolli fired a Divine aligned Spark Lance at the creature of bones and roots. The health bar above its head dropped by a fraction. Arrows of brilliant silver light slammed into the Skele-tree, carving away tiny chunks of its life at a time.

Taffy pulled a stone the size of a wagon out of the wall and smashed it into the Skele-tree’ chest. The monster staggered and its health dropped below fifty percent. The first tick on TK_Necroshriek hit Dolli like a cresting wave. She staggered back and prepared another lance.

The other’s lances slapped against the tree trunk with pathetic fizzles and its health barely moved. Dolli cut off her spell and saved the Spark, then changed to channeling Solstorm. The golden chain of magic connected with Taffy, healing him a small amount, then bounced to the Skele-tree for another fraction of damage. The magic bounced back and forth between them, gradually decreasing in potency.

Taffy roared with laughter and grabbed the tree by the trunk. He squatted down, then lifted with all his might. The vines from each branch whipped at every inch of him as the roots snapped and popped away from the ground. The monster’s health bar dropped below ten percent, and with each severed root it dropped further.

With a final twist, Taffy ripped the tree out of the ground and threw it across the cavern. Wispelle around the room continued firing bolts of divine energy until the tree stilled, dead.

“We did it!” Julie cheered and the others joined in her revery.

Dolli grinned, approaching the green glowing gem, but once again her hands were repelled when she tried to grab it. What the—

White roots descended from the ceiling and wrapped around Taffy’s neck, pulling him from the ground. The elf pulled at his noose and kicked, but the roots held tight.

Dolli’s mind flashed back to the massive tree sitting at the top of the hill. Of course! The Skele-tree wasn’t the Overlord, just an extension of it. The real boss was the massive tree on top of the hill. Now, how to kill it?

Dolli’s mind moved at half speed from the ever-increasing Mental Prowess debuff. Taffy punched at the ceiling, trying desperately to free himself from the tree’s grasp. Even he wasn’t big enough to take on the Plumereth…

But Turtle_TK was.

Dolli closed her eyes and reached out to Turtle_TK with the mental connection they shared. When she felt him listening, she sent images of him biting at the trunk of the tree. He sent back sizzling rock being eaten away by acid. She knew the sap was poison, but there was no other choice. Turtle_TK could regenerate when they connected to the Lifestream. She gave the command, and a moment later the ceiling above rumbled with a powerful strike.

The roots released Taffy and retracted into the ceiling. Dolli opened her Overlord menu, trying to recall the raid party into the Lifewell, but they were all still in combat. Dolli growled in frustration and looked up to the distant ceiling exit where they’d fallen in.

“Wispelle, gather up. Who has Fold Reality?”

Several hands went up and she called them closer. “We can’t make it up to the exit with just one Fold, we’ll need three well placed on top of each other to bloop us up there.”

“Bloop?” Julie asked.

Dolli threw her hands up in frustration. “Words are hard!”

The ceiling rumbled again, and big clods of black dirt plummeted to the ground. If they stayed any longer, they’d be buried. If they got entombed but didn’t die, they could be stuck in combat with that damned tree, forever unable to be recalled to the Lifewell. They had to escape, now.

“What’d I miss,” Taffy asked hoarsely while rubbing his reddened neck.

“Portals to exit. Julie, see that branch?” Dolli pointed up thirty feet to the wall. “Put your first right there. This is going to take well timed ability, skill, ugh! Corvin, put your fold on the ground, second above Julies. Julie, go through first and drop your second next to the big rock.”

“That rock?” Julie asked pointing to the same one Dolli had.

“Yes. Wendy, go right after and place two to the finish. I’ll stay to get the gem.”

The Wispelle nodded, worry plain on their faces. Another bulk of black ash dropped to the ground, covering the necrotic gem.

“We can do this. First Fold, Corvin. Julie, go!”

Julie hopped through Corvin’s portal and appeared next to the branch. She turned mid-air and cast another next to the rock, then fell through her first. She appeared next to the boulder, and Dolli turned to see Wendy standing next to Corvin, dazed.

“Wendy! Portals!”

The orange-tinged Wispelle snapped to her sense and jumped through the chain of portals, casting her own two at the top and kicking her out into the tunnel to the exit.

“Go, go!” Dolli urged her monsters through the portals, then turned back for the gem.

She connected with Turtle_TK and looked through his eyes. The stone of his beak was melted away, but he tugged on the half-severed trunk with vigor. Dolli sent him hope and strength, wishing there was more she could do.

There was!

She opened the Dungeon Abilities menu and found the one she’d considered getting at the last level up, but had held off.

[TK_Power Blast of Doom]

Turtle_TK blasts awesome power of doom from his mouth, dealing fuckloads of damage.

-----

Dolli spent the last Overlord point she’d been saving and sunk it into TK_powerblastofdoom. With a roar, Turtle_TK unleashed the spell on the base of the tree, severing it clean off.

Dolli reached out and touched the gem, then laughed. They’d done it.

“Overlord!” Taffy yelled from the exit far above.

Dolli triggered Burst of Speed and dashed toward the first wanning portal. With mere seconds left, she catapulted herself through the folds and blasted into the exit path. Taffy caught her and charged down the narrow collapsing path.

Taffy dropped into a three limbed sprint, holding Dolli securely under his arm as he tore down the tunnel.

“Hold on!” Taffy leapt from the crumbling ground and dug his fist into the wall. The floor fell away and the ceiling cracked to show the sky above. Taffy grunted and shoved off the wall, snagging a dangling root. They swung across the growing gap and landed safely in Turtle_TK’s waiting mouth.

The TK_necrowail debuff ended and Dolli shook free of Taffy’s grasp. He panted on the ground, his eyes staring into the distance. He was exhausted from the effort of saving her.

Saving her.

The elf had waited when no one else had—and not for the first time. She owed him the same, thrice over now.

Neckbeards and VV were coming, and Dolli knew what for.

“Get us out of here,” Dolli told Turtle_TK and she felt his mental acknowledgement.

Rumbling let her know they’d picked up from the ground and were underway. Dolli reached out for Taffy, her hands still solid from taking the gem.

The drunkard rolled onto his back and looked up at her. “That was fun.” He took her hand and pulled himself up.

“There’s still more to do. Heroes incoming.”

Taffy groaned. “When are they not?”

Dolli straightened, holding the Necro Gem_TK out. “In three days, when we have the Shillelagh of Sherkahn, and can banish them once and for all.”

“Hell yeah. Let’s crush some skulls, Overlord.” Taffy took off down the Turtle_TK’s throat into the maze underbelly and Dolli followed.

Dolli opened her chat interface and held Taffy’s hand, allowing him to pull her near weightless body along. First, she adjusted Turtle_TK’s direction, making sure he was pointed toward the next objective. Then she synced with Brene, who was mobilizing troops on the back ramparts near the turtle’s tail to fire on the incoming… vehicles?

Brene had never seen anything of their configuration, but said they were steel wagons with spikes and guns. Dolli scowled. Nothing a little fiery projectiles couldn’t solve. She asked Boji to bring out the big guns to put them down.

“This is where we part ways, I’m afraid,” Taffy said, pulling Dolli close at the exit of the dungeon up to the village.

Dolli blanched. “Thanks.”

“You’re pretty when you’re bein’ all timid,” Taffy ran the back of his hand through the Spark of Dolli’s cheek. It shimmered at his touch.

She tutted. “And you’re drunk.”

“The latter doesn’t make the former any less true,” he said, then left her at the trap hatch to topside.

Dolli pushed up into the village and was immediately met by Rufus. The skin around his eyes sagged and the fur on his arms was shaggy with stress.

“We can’t outrun them,” he said without context.

“We can’t outrun wagons? So, we’ll smash them.” Dolli shrugged, confident.

Rufus shook his head. “They’re reinforced, our weapons don’t seem to penetrate the shells. And they’re large.”

“How large?” Dolli asked, reaching up to Rufus.

He pulled her onto his shoulder and broke into a four-legged gallop to the back end of the village. A small door carved into the crystal dome let them out onto the back ramparts, and into the noise. Whooping, cheering, and music—horrible music—blasted in Dolli’s ears.

“They’re ours now!” A hero declared over a loudspeaker.

Dolli looked over the wall of the shell ramparts to see not one, two, or even ten wagons, but thirty or more. Five of them were very large, with spiny weapons poking out from the wheels that jabbed into Turtle_TK’s legs. More of the wagons fired harpoons into the turtle_tk’s legs, then staked them to the ground.

Images of pain, confinement, fear, and more flashed through Dolli’s mind. Her connection with Turtle_TK was growing stronger. She ran her hands along the shell ramparts and sent him calm. They would fix this. She opened her chat menu in half her vision.

Dolli: Nubiri. Pickup for death and destruction?

Dolli still had a few incendiary grenades left from the raids on TK_Village, and knew just where they’d be most effective.

Nubiri: Gladly.

The winged hellion swooped low across the ramparts, looking for Dolli. She stood up on the wall and reached out for the wyvern. Nubiri made a tight circle around the Monster Haven dome and came back for Dolli, who snagged the edge of her wing and held on tight. The Spark in Dolli’s body whipped against the cold fall wind and invigorated her.

“Let’s crush some skulls,” Dolli whispered, a bright grin warming her cheeks.