[Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer] Chapter 140 - Futures Grave

“Shrubley, what’ll we do?” Cal asked.

Slyrox was busy punching the door and when that clearly wasn’t working, she went to punch all the other doors on the simple principle that nobody had tried it yet.

Smudge squealed with fright and quivered like a bowl of jelly until Shrubley gently stuffed him into Cal’s arms.

“My mistress will die in there,” Sose told them solemnly. Shrubley could feel his small body shaking on his branch. “She has sacrificed herself so that you may all get away.”

“Not if we can get to her,” Shrubley told him. “There has to be a way.”

“There is not,” Sose told him simply. “We must flee.”

There was a heavy THUMP! as something hard hit the ground and shook the entire palace. The ensuing silence was deafening.

Shrubley looked at everybody else, afraid of what that meant. “There is no way out…”

“What are you doing?” Cal asked, holding Smudge like a comfort pillow. It seemed to soothe both the skeleton and the slime.

Shrubley folded his legs up into a meditative pose. “I am asking for help,” he said, shutting his eyes. His Bronze aura flickered and wavered around him like a candle in the wind.

“It was a trap all along,” Sose whispered. “Set by Alaster for his own devious machinations. The threat to the afflicted Dungeons was real, but the true plot is even worse.”

“What could be worse than triggering a war between mankind and the monsters of this world?” Cal asked. “That would destroy the world itself!”

Sose poked his head out of Shrubley’s immobile leafy body. “I do not know,” he admitted. “But I do know Alaster. He would not wish to destroy what he might one day control. The threat was always just bait. He never wanted to destroy anything. What he wants… my Mistress does not deem it worthwhile to let him have. She is willing to give her life to deny him his prize.”

Cal looked at Shrubley. “But… why him? I get it, to a degree, but he’s only Bronze.”

“Qwest!” Smudge said.

“What do you mean?” Cal asked.

Sose’s eyes widened. “Oh dear. I see it now.”

“Well, I don’t!” Cal grumbled.

“Shrubley is special. Connected to the Worldshard in a way few others throughout history ever are,” Sose explained, his spirits beginning to lift. “His ability to so readily find quests is proof of that. A mere questbook could not do what he has.”

“He did trigger this quest when nobody else could, it seemed,” Cal agreed, catching on. “But what could you do with that?”

Sose shook his head. “Nothing good.”

Shrubley’s eyes bolted open. They seemed to glow a brighter yellow than before. “Help is coming,” he said, getting to his feet and pressing a hand on the door. “Just hold on a little longer!” he tried to tell Miranda.

“What have you done, Shrubley?” Sose asked, daring to hope.

The little shrub looked down at the oppa and grinned. “Called on a friend.”

***

Miranda tumbled through the air across the room, barely managing to block the latest attack. It didn’t matter that the golem was slow, because without a leg to stand on, she was even slower. Without being able to draw on a deep quantity of blood, there was no way for her to undo the damage.

Her only chance was transforming into a bat, which meant she was perpetually placed on the defensive.

Better to wound the creature with her last breath instead of running and protracting the fight. She doubted the golem had used up even a tenth of its power fighting her, while she was staring at the dregs of what she had left.

“Alaster, you bastard!” she screamed into the light-filled void.

The villain didn’t respond. Knowing him, he was already gone. His overconfidence would be the death of him one day, but until that day… he would continue to win. Just like before.

Can you really call it overconfidence if he can back it up?

Miranda banished the dark thoughts in time to turn into a bat and dodge a sweeping pale arm that took out three pillars and gouged a trench in the wall.

The golem was getting impatient, putting more power into its attacks now that Miranda’s only choices were to narrowly dodge or block.

She had kept her bat form as a last-ditch effort because she knew its weakness. The transformation took just long enough that if you knew what to look for, you could attack the vampyr just as they were coming out of it.

If only I could break through to Silver, this golem wouldn’t stand a chance.

So far, the golem had proven to be remarkably canny at analyzing her fighting patterns. It’s been too long since I was in a real fight of life and death. I’m rusty.

With her own Silver aura to over-match the golem’s, the fight wouldn’t be easy, but at least she would stand a chance. But breaking through to a new rank while fighting didn’t happen.

Everybody knew that.

Those things only happened in books and plays.

The golem swung its massive arms up to catch Miranda mid-flight, but she had already transformed and dropped onto the rounded top of the golem’s “head” for lack of a better descriptor.

With every last ounce of her remaining power, she used [Shadow Auger]. Spiraling shadowy particles clung to the edges of her whip-thin rapier as she stabbed down with all her might.

Her Steel aura flared and guttered as she pushed it to the limit and then beyond as the essence ability cracked the only weak point she could find on the creature.

Pressing down, she felt the blade bore through its defenses. Her danger senses clamored for her attention, but she ignored them and pushed even harder.

The blade sunk in halfway before the two massive arms of the golem crushed her between them. Dazed and caught in its clutches, the golem could have killed her right then and there. Instead, it threw her so hard across the room that the vampyr Countess created a miniature crater in the stone wall.

She cried out once, unable to hold it back, and slid down into a sitting position, unable to move. Can’t feel my arms, she thought muzzily.

Even still, she did not give up. Her limbs twitched as she tried to regain command of them again. Shadow and Blood essence misted out of her skin, forming the beginnings of a new bicolor technique that broke apart almost instantly.

She did not have the strength left.

Dying here might very well be the end of Miranda. While she had a blood vial left, it wouldn’t be of much use when the golem would easily just kill her again. From that point, there would be no new sources of blood to revive from. Whatever this place was, it seemed to be locked off from the rest of the world.

It is the Dungeon Dimension, I suppose.

Perhaps if Shrubley and Sose survived, they might one day become strong enough to return here.

A vampyr’s death was just another form of rest. She only hoped the world wouldn’t change too much by the time she arose.

Whatever happens, I will not look away, she thought as the golem floated soundlessly toward her. It wobbled slightly, her rapier still stuck into its top like an antenna.

***

Waiting was the hardest part. Shrubley bided his time by stacking [Bark Armor] and using [Recovery] on himself.

Everybody heard Miranda’s scream and the loud bang that presaged it, but still the door would not open. Shrubley placed a comforting hand on Sose’s long furry body. He took a few steps back from the door where everybody was clustered, worried sick for the Countess.

“I need your help, Sose,” Shrubley whispered.

“How?” he asked, miserable.

“Can you make it seem like the exit is opening?”

“Why?”

Shrubley did not like to trick or deceive, but he saw no way around it. “I am what this Alaster is after, yes? Then there is no reason for my friends to be harmed. Slyrox is Copper, and I do not confess to know much, but I can tell adding a Copper into a fight with a Silver will not change the outcome.”

He nodded slowly, seeming to grow tired. “I could do that.”

“Thank you,” Shrubley said miserably. He waited a moment, then whispered, “Now, please.”

A painted wave of Fantasy essence rolled out from Shrubley’s leaves, splashing across the far door. The bright colors disappeared from his vision, turning the door from closed to open near instantly.

“The door is opening!” Cal said, pointing at the far exit. He grabbed a fake version of Shrubley conjured out of Fantasy essence and dragged him along with Slyrox toward the exit.

Once they were far enough away, Shrubley flared his Bronze aura to its limit. He needed a strong enough signature generated for what he was about to do.

His friends reached the opposite end of the hallway, only to find the door shut despite seeming open.

The Fantasy Shrubley looked at them. “I am sorry, my friends,” Fantasy Shrubley told them. “This is the only way.” With those words, he faded from view.

Cal stared at his empty hand, then at Slyrox and Smudge in utter confusion. Only then did he notice the real Shrubley at the other end of the corridor.

The entire building shook violently, as if a giant had smashed into it with fists the size of wagons. The room quaked again. Cracks appeared in the white stone. The ever-present light flickered intermittently.

“Thank you,” Shrubley said to the air as the door in front of him turned translucent. Shrubley pushed through the doorway, which had turned to a sort of jelly-like consistency. Not quite open, but not closed either.

The door sealed itself once more behind him. Both Shrubley and Sose saw the devastation of the room. Miranda was slumped against the wall to their left, the golem raising a massive arm to crush the life out of her.

Sensing its intended target, the golem pivoted soundlessly toward Shrubley.

“You have forced my paw, Shrubley,” Sose told him. “I cannot stand by while my mistress suffers!”

“I understand,” Shrubley said. “Go to her.”

As it turned out, he did not understand Sose’s meaning at all.

Fantasy essence spilled out of his many leaves, staining them with the red and orange colors belonging to a fable only a valiant spirit like Shrubley could carry on his small shoulders.

Gathering immense depths of mana, the oppa cast [Fableweave] upon Shrubley.

[Fableweave] infused him with the strength of a heroic knight’s legacy. A knight that forged his legend on another world with futures grave and a land collapsed beneath a broken sky.

Shrubley gasped as raw power and heat flowed through him. The hope of not one, but two dying worlds filled his tiny shrubby body to the brim. He grew a little taller, his leaves went from orange to red with tiny curls of flame that roared and surged around him, joining with his Bronze aura that ratcheted up through the tiers.

As his Bronze aura strengthened step by step, he felt another presence reside within himself. A temporary alliance of souls.

Materializing out of his fiery Bronze aura, a shell of another creature took shape, with Shrubley at its core. A man with dark hair and dark eyes, broad shouldered, in knightly armor with a sword and shield much larger than Shrubley’s.

He was the spitting image of a hero.

His sword glowed with forge heat as if it was fire hammered into solid form. A ruby jewel in the pommel sparkled like freshly spilled blood. His kite shield, made of mana and flame, was emblazoned with the image of a phoenix.

Shrubley felt something strain within him. The helmeted head of the knight turned to look within himself at Shrubley, and the little shrub was sure he could feel the man smiling kindly at him.

The pressure within Shrubley’s soul built to a painful crescendo and then burst through the walls of Bronze into Iron. His aura took on a deep, dark gray, edged in flame.

Such power!

The Firesoul of Jacob Windsor stokes the embers of your conviction.

Your health, stamina, mana, essence, and aura are restored to full.