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Drip-Fed – A Rivalry 28 – Dungeon Poison
🕑 Added 2024-10-09 20:20:27 +0000 UTC
Apexus threw himself in the Healing Fountain. He caught Korith by the horn and dragged her back up from under the water. Eyelids fluttered while he moved her back to the adjacent stone floor. “Huh…?” she muttered. That was all she pushed out. Her eyes were glassy.
Aclysia threw the book at Reysha, who caught it hastily. “Which page?!” the redhead asked, already scanning the book at random.
The angel did not answer immediately, instead focusing her immediate efforts on scanning the kobold, now laying somewhat comfortably in Apexus’ lap. Her hand came to rest on Korith’s forehead for only a moment. She was scorching hot. Sweat joined the pearling water on her naked skin.
“215!” Aclysia finally managed to answer the question, her mind already racing through the catalogue of poisons that she knew. “219, third entry, double check it!”
Reysha flipped through the pages, wrinkling the paper. “Trial Poison, estimated occurrence chance 0,1%. Chance of contagion: low, requires prolonged exposure. Behaviour: remains dormant for anywhere between 1 and 4 hours, before creating a rapid onset of fever, exhaustion, and sweating. Leading to death, if victim is unaided, within one hour.” Reysha gulped, then continued reading. Aclysia cast healing magic on the Warrior. “Treatment: if your healer is a Shaman, they can Detoxify this using Blessed Water, Healing Fountain water will do if skilled enough. Otherwise, your healer must keep the victim alive using traditional healing magic. When the Trial Poison activates, a flower blooms somewhere in the surrounding dungeon, within an approximately 2-hour radius, that cures the poison upon ingestion. Weathering the poison’s duration is like, if highly unpleasant, provided the healer is of adequate level for the dungeon. Healing offsets any pains and aches created by this poison. It will take 3 to 7 days depending on delivered dosage.”
Turning the book around, the redhead presented Apexus with the inked image of a flower with remarkably sharp-angled petals. Especially in this environment, it would be hard to miss.
“The fuck is a 2-hour radius?!” Reysha complained.
Aclysia had the answer for that ready. “The encyclopaedia does in-dungeon measurements based on time spent walking at average humanoid speed. Theoretically, that’s easier to understand while inside an enclosed structure.”
That made enough sense for Reysha to not complain about it further.
“Let’s move,” Apexus decided immediately and wiggled out from underneath the kobold. “How much time do we have?”
“If I can take breaks healing her… 10 hours?” Aclysia sounded doubtful. “I have not healed continuously like this before, I do not know with any certainty.”
“Before the day is over,” Apexus distilled the point to its essentials.
He and Reysha quickly strapped their equipment back on. “Should I scout out the corridor ahead?” the Rogue asked.
“Yes. I will check the direction we came from first,” Apexus answered. If the flower bloomed in a nearby corridor, then it was possible that it had popped up where they had already come through.
On regenerated wings, Apexus flew over the corpses of the mini bosses and up the slope. He took a moment to scan the environment, then headed back up the corridor.
He turned the corner and came face to face with an ape-like insect. The acidic substance of the Spawning Pool was still running off of its chitinous hide when it parted its mandibles and teeth and rushed forwards.
Ironskin kept the bite from taking off more than Apexus’ nose. The monster’s left paw came forwards, attempting to grab Apexus by the midriff. Monk instincts guided him well, smacking the arm aside without seeing it. The flat of the humanoid chimera’s palm slammed against the side of the monster’s head. The Rippling Palm caused the brain inside the head to rattle, but it did not kill it.
A second time, the monster went for a grab. Apexus wasn’t quick enough to intercept. These creatures he had previously fought with his entire party, now he was in its reach and alone. The clawed paw of the great ape tightened and yanked at Apexus’ shoulders, tearing the slime muscles at the shoulder.
Apexus did not fight with safety in mind, only swiftness. The palm that had struck the monster’s head turned into a grip of its own. The thumb gouged out the creature’s hateful eyeball. The smasher set into Apexus’ wrist clicked. It was enough to add to the daze of the monster, but not to end it.
The two hulking humanoids were locked in a primitive struggle, one ripping at the arm, the other at the neck. Both were pounding with too much adrenaline to care. Apexus’ training gave him just enough presence of mind to anticipate the moment his arm finally gave.
The creature lost its balance, all of the pull it had used becoming free energy. Apexus half-loosened his grip, concentrated fully on his palm, and turned the forward motion of the monster into a twist via Flow Manipulation. With a sickening crunch, the neck of the monster cracked and it suddenly went limp.
Apexus looked at his dismembered limb on the floor, already turning into water, loose skin, disconnected, translucent muscle fibres and a regular human arm bone. Whoever came across it next would wonder what it was, but Apexus had no use or time for it. He ripped the head off the monster, distended his jaw and forced the entire thing down his gullet. Regrowing the arm from scratch would take some time.
More time than he used backtracking. By his estimation, he ran and flew three times faster than the average person and he made sure to check every nook and cranny. Once he had covered that base, he turned around and sprinted back the way he came. By the time he arrived back at the Healing Fountain, the arm was back, although muscles, skin, and other additions were still in development.
Reysha was waiting for him. She shook her head before he could ask. He took a stray glance at Korith. Aclysia was currently wiping her down with a wet towel, keeping her cool by physical means. That was as much as he afforded himself, before following the Ragressian down the corridor that led deeper into the dungeon.
The rhythmic sounds of distant pendulums were audible there. They were close to the Blade Chamber, but finding it was hardly a priority right now. “I managed to sneak down there. Only two weird centipede creatures, no flower. Got most of that and that direction scouted out as well, although we should double-check later.” Reysha kept gesturing towards holes in the walls, floor, and ceiling. This deep in the dungeon, the corridors were winding and random, truly resembling the floor plan of an anthill. “I need you to be my battering ram there!” Reysha told her leader and pointed down a narrow corridor that forked off from the main path. “Did not manage to explore there at all.”
“Understood,” Apexus stated and sprinted ahead.
The enemy waiting for him there was a three-metre monstrosity between gorilla and crocodilian. Standing almost upright, scaled knuckles on the ground, it guarded the width of the corridor with its broad shoulders. That made it impossible to get past, even for a Stealthy Rogue. It also made it a simple target.
Apexus charged straight in. He stopped just short of the snapping, crocodile maw of the creature, then took another step forwards. Wrapping his good arm around the snout, he kept the most dangerous part of the monster shut as best he could. Scales cut his skin as the monster wiggled. A clenched fist slammed into his side, turning his ribcage into splinters. His field of view trembled, the ripple spreading all the way to his nucleus. It was a horrid sensation, numb and yet stinging.
Reysha bridged the distance and thrust her dagger into the pinned throat of the monster. The strategy was quick, effective, and actively suicidal for any party that lacked a member with lesser regenerative powers. Even Apexus could not continue immediately. It took three more stabs to end the monster’s life and thirty minutes before enough of his body had stitched itself back together that he could continue at proper effectiveness.
“We can’t go that way,” Reysha whispered quietly. As before, she had used the time to scout ahead. Her hair was wet with sweat by that point. The constant circulation of Ki to remain Stealthy was bringing her to the edge of exhaustion. “Three enemies. No fucking shot we take that down with just the two of us.”
“Then we hope for the best,” Apexus grunted and stared down another one of the winding pathways.
After twenty minutes and another two carefully chosen fights, they finally found it. Just spotting the flower had the two of them take a relieved breath. The problem was it was behind not just three but four enemies, each of them of the burly variety. Using tactics that disregarded Apexus’ safety, they were capable of taking out individual dungeon monsters swiftly, but as soon as there was more than one pair of hands involved, that would not fly. They would kill one, then Apexus would get pinned by the other three and ripped apart.
Which meant a direct confrontation was out.
“There’s only one way here,” Reysha mumbled and scanned the path. They were, once again, in an elevated position. None of their enemies had wings. An oblong chamber separated them from a second elevated platform where the flower was located. “I’ll let you do your thing,” she muttered.
Apexus nodded and waited for her to retreat. Simultaneously, he changed the composition of his body under the surface. Sometimes, being a weird creature in his own right had its advantages…
When he was ready, Apexus took flight.
‘This ought to work,’ he thought and, just as the monsters started to scream, separated himself from the majority of his body. A human body fell in the middle of the chamber with all of the limbs expected of one and a hole in the back where the wings had been attached.
The monsters snapped their attention to that body. All of their instincts were programmed specifically to oppose humanoids. They were divine trials made flesh. In the absence of form they hunted Sparks, but when a form was before them…
While the four monsters coalesced around the discarded majority of Apexus’ form, the omniverse chimera flew across. It resembled an older shape quite closely at that moment: a deep blue blob with emerald wings, possessing eyes and a nucleus. The only other Permanent Growth he had retained was a miniaturized version of his tail, scarcely more than a tendril, dextrous enough to pluck the flower as he made an elegant U-turn.
The monsters were starting to catch onto the deception, the body melting under their claws and teeth. Smaller, his wingspan decreased, Apexus dashed over their heads and then soared through the narrow corridor. Reysha waited for him at the end of it and both of them were booking it as fast as they could. Dungeon monsters were not smart, but they could be incredibly persistent.
They put enough distance between them that the four creatures never managed to catch up before they made it back to the healing fountain. “Darling?!” Aclysia almost screeched, looking at the state her beloved was in. Apexus could only create something like a thumbs-up from his surface to indicate he was alright. He lacked the biomass to recreate his Speaking Plates.
“It was a calculated risk and we’re fucking great at maths,” Reysha translated for him. “Give her the flower!”
Aclysia had many words of worry, but priorities were set. Apexus tentacled the flower over to the steady hand of the healer, who shoved it into Korith’s mouth and guided her through chewing it. The complexion of the blonde kobold rapidly changed. The fever abated, her breathing calmed, and her eyes slowly opened.
“…Urgh… uh… that sucked…” the Warrior said and sat up. Ashamed, she kept her eyes down. “Sorry about that.”
“Thank fuck you’re okay!” Reysha declared and hugged the shortstack. The rest of the party followed, everyone piling up on a squawking kobold too surprised and exhausted to resist the cuddle pile.
It lasted for all of ten seconds, before Apexus felt the all too familiar gnawing of fathomless hunger at the edge of his mind. He managed to wrestle it down for long enough to turn towards the way they had come from. His slimy mass attached to the side of the Fire Dryder and began to spread.
He had much body mass to recuperate.
Comments
FluffyButt Sr.
I want pictures of mini apexus. I bet he is adorable as a flying slime with ears.
