The Realm Between: A LitRPG Saga (Books 7 - 10), page 43
Defeated Level 30 Baleful Bramble. 240XP rewarded.
“If one more damn monster wakes me up,” he complained, walking straight to his bedroll to lie back down.
“You don’t have to worry about that, because it’s your turn to keep watch.” They could all hear the grin in the elf’s voice.
The half-imp just scowled.
GOD OF LIFE
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE REALM – DAY 718
Up to this point, the nights had been more harrowing than the days. But their luck had to run out eventually.
Azure’s party had not gotten very far the next morning before Tiny Owl alighted on Jin’s shoulder, causing him to come to a dead halt. Everyone stopped behind him.
“What is it?” Uden asked, his tone reflecting the fear that something was amiss.
The elf took a deep breath before responding. “It’s a minefield.”
“What’s that?” The half-imp gave him a queer look.
“There are,” Jin hesitated, “countless baleful brambles up ahead.”
“Countless?!” Princess Zadori’s eyes widened.
“Are they all as strong as the ones we’ve faced so far?” Rerdam inquired.
“I’m afraid so.” The elf kept his eyes forward.
“Are they headed this way?” Azure followed his gaze.
“No.” Jin shook his head. “Thank the Gods for that. But there are a lot of them, and they’re spread out as far as the eye can see.”
“Then we divert from this path. There is no rule stating that we must proceed forward.” Rerdam seemed confident in his solution.
The elf looked at the owl for a moment. “He says they’re on all sides. Even behind us.”
“How?!” Princess Zadori frowned. “How did they come up both behind and in front of us, yet we haven’t confronted any yet?”
“A trap,” Uden replied simply.
The old knight shook his head. “Baleful brambles are not capable of that kind of critical thinking. They must be drawn here by the power of the orb.” He glanced down at where Jin was cradling it in his arms. “Are there more behind us or in front of us?”
“In front.” The elf pivoted his head in the direction where the brambles were the thickest.
“Then we should travel the path of least resistance,” Rerdam insisted.
“The path is only going to become more resistant the further we travel,” Jin argued.
Rerdam spun around to address Princess Zadori. “What do you think we should do, Your Highness?”
She chewed her bottom lip for a moment before responding. “I trust that King Jin knows what he’s talking about. He’s lived much longer than any of us. If he thinks we can break through, then we should continue onward.”
“Then it’s settled. We press on,” the elf said with authority.
And press on they did. Slowly. Cautiously. But the care of their steps did not matter. The baleful brambles were waiting for them all the same, and they would not allow the group enough space to make it through them, even with their Stealth activated.
Azure’s heart clenched when he caught sight of the first group of plantlike monsters. There were three of them of various sizes and shapes, rolling back and forth through the pastel foliage, their black branches a stark contrast. He Analyzed each to see how dangerous the situation really was.
Level 28 Baleful Bramble.
Level 28 Baleful Bramble.
Level 30 Baleful Bramble.
It wasn’t deadly, but it would certainly be a challenge if they were forced to fight. All three brambles were a much higher level than Azure.
The goal was not to engage them in combat, though. The goal was to sneak by unnoticed, but that seemed almost impossible with so many of the plantlike creatures patrolling the area.
Sure enough, their party did not get very far before one of the monsters rolled close enough to break their Stealth. Instead of immediately attacking, it made a wide loop, moving to inform the others of the intruders so that the group of brambles could all attack together. Perhaps Rerdam had been wrong about the plantlike creatures not being capable of critical thinking. It sure seemed that way.
As soon as the monsters began charging toward them, the old knight raised his sword and rushed to meet them. The brambles were nimbler than they looked, though, dodging out of the way of his attack.
Azure followed suit, having better luck. Targeting one of the level 28 brambles, he chopped to the left, hoping to cut through it and send it spinning into its buddy. Black branches littered the floor, but the damage wasn’t enough to do more than slow the plantlike creature slightly.
The strongest of the baleful brambles cut between Azure and Rerdam, heading straight for Jin, but Uden quickly stepped in its way. Slashing his blades forward, he stopped the monster in its path, though if he did more than a little damage, they couldn’t tell. It rolled back a foot, ready to engage him in combat.
Meanwhile, the other two brambles created a circle around the fighters, caging them in so that only Jin and Princess Zadori were on the outside.
The one Azure had been facing whipped one of its branches forward, slicing through his shin and shattering his tibia. Azure tried to muffle his scream as his Health dropped.
Critical hit! Level 28 Balleful Bramble delivers 280 damage.
Seeing its brethren have an advantage on one of the intruders, the second level 28 bramble moved to attack Azure, but he righted himself just in time, raising his sword threateningly and successfully making the monster reconsider.
The sound of Bard Protect sailed on the air as Princess Zadori began playing her flute, but Jin quickly knocked it out of her hands, telling her that it would only alert the other monsters in the area. And he wasn’t wrong. Almost before the song stopped, two balleful brambles appeared from the forest, this time boxing in the princess and the elf.
Rerdam hacked away at the strongest of their foes, looking like he was finally making some headway, though he wasn’t able to put it down. Splintered branches littered the ground around it.
One of the newer brambles went straight for Jin. With his hands occupied with the Life Resin Orb, he could do little more than kick at it. Doing so garnered him the same fate as Azure, and he ended up with a limb of the bramble piercing through his leg. The hit shaved off about a fifth of his Health. He would have fallen over if not for Princess Zadori catching him.
Azure tried to rush forward to help his king, forgetting that his leg was injured. All the effort earned him was pain.
The strongest bramble lashed out at Rerdam, bloodying him with each strike. Losing his armor back in Raetha had put him at a significant disadvantage, and the old knight wasn’t as nimble as he had once been in his youth.
Wanting to keep the princess from protecting the elf, the second bramble boxing them in rolled forward to attack. With no weapon at the ready to defend herself, she was an easy target. The monster easily tore through her robes and dress, leaving deep cuts on her skin. She cried out but never left Jin’s side, clutching onto his arm as if they were the only things keeping each other standing.
“We can’t fight them all. We need to fall back,” Uden called to the elf as he danced out of the way of one of the brambles slashing at him.
His eyes trained on where the elf and the princess were taking a beating, Azure didn’t see the other black limb rocketing toward him. He took it through the chest this time, just an inch away from piercing his heart.
Critical hit! Level 28 Balleful Bramble delivers 280 damage.
Azure’s eyes went wide, his Health dropping dramatically. One more critical hit and he’d be done for. The worse part was that he was impaled and couldn’t move. All he could do was use Heal Burst, hoping to boost his Health enough to save himself.
You have been healed for 100 points.
The relief was instant, though it was only momentary and felt about as effective as putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.
Princess Zadori looked around desperately, knowing she needed to contribute somehow if they were to survive this. She knelt to pull the bramble out of Jin’s leg, also shielding him with her body.
It was then that the elf realized the situation was truly dire. His friends were making no real purchase against the brambles, and the princess had already been driven to potentially sacrificing herself to save him. Without Jin aiding them in battle, they would all die.
The elf sucked in a breath, knowing there was no other choice. He poured his Mana into Tiny Owl, changing the bird’s form. Then he sent out a single command. “Protect us.”
Azure heard the beating of wings above them, and dread filled his heart as he feared an enemy from above. Seeing a giant owl descending toward him only increased his panic. It looked pissed off, its massive talons, sharp and gleaming black in the sunlight. As it lowered itself toward the Earth, blocking out the sun, it looked ready to shred whoever it got ahold of.
Azure weakly raised his sword, though every movement came with intense pain.
The owl, easily the size of a Great Dane, grabbed ahold of the bramble that had impaled Azure and flew into the air with it, which caused the monster to finally withdraw its limb to defend itself. A few yards into the air, the owl tossed the plantlike creature to the side, then moved on to pick up the next they were fighting.
“Run!” Jin yelled, hobbling in the direction of The Shrine of the Mother. As he did, he dug into his bag. “Drink healing potions and run! Do not stop until I say so!”
Azure felt like he could barely move. Still, he willed himself to do as his king commanded. Reaching into his Bag of Holding caused warm pain to bloom in his chest, but he knew that he had to. This small chance to drink potions might be the only thing that saved him.
Luckily, the elf wasn’t running very fast, going through the same process of drinking potions to heal himself, so Azure was mostly able to keep up.
The forest was chaotic around them. As Azure’s party tried to escape, brambles rolled toward them from all sides. The giant owl was doing all it could to fly beside them, lifting the approaching monsters into the air and tossing them away. It did not seem like the owl had any interest in engaging the plantlike creatures in combat. Instead, it was merely beating them back, trying to protect Azure’s group.
Despite the owl’s best efforts, several of the brambles made it through, slicing at them with their barbed limbs and causing even more injuries, though nothing critical or enough to make them give pause.
Rerdam ran to one side of their group, hacking at what he could with his sword to beat back any monsters that pushed through the owl’s perimeter. Uden was on the other side, doing the same.
Through most of their run, Azure was just trying to recover enough not to slow them down. Dragging the rear, he was a large part of why they were still getting overwhelmed.
“Just leave me!” he yelled at one point, worried that he’d be the death of all his friends.
But the elf refused, turning his head for a fraction of a second with a firm, “No.”
They ran until Azure was fully healed. Ran until their lungs burned and the brambles finally began to thin, and the poor owl was bloody from all the strikes it had taken in its efforts to defend them. And then they ran until they couldn’t run anymore.
Princess Zadori fell to the floor, heaving from exertion. Every member of their party was in a various state of agony. Their calves ached from running nonstop, and all of them felt like they had an overfilled balloon in their chest, their lungs expanding and contracting to the point of persistent throbbing pain.
As soon as Uden saw that there were no more brambles behind them, he collapsed onto the ground as well, though with a bit more grace, landing on his knees and facing the direction they had come from.
The owl crashed next to Jin, squawking pitifully up at him. For as fierce as it had been while protecting them, it looked sad and practically harmless now. Jin stroked the bird’s head, to which it hooted contentedly, though there was clear fatigue in its eyes. Then it began to shrink.
Azure blinked as the terrifyingly large owl reduced in size until it was recognizable. It teetered onto its side and fell over in exhaustion. Jin knelt, setting the Life Resin Orb down for the first time to scoop Tiny Owl up and place him beneath the hood of his cloak. The owl promptly disappeared into the darkness, presumably snuggling against his master’s neck to rest.
“Do you mean to tell me he could do that this entire time?” Uden raised an eyebrow at the elf, his lips set in a deep scowl.
Jin did not apologize. “It takes a great toll on me, and I hate putting him in danger. I won’t do it if it can at all be avoided.”
“It’s a good thing he could do that, or we’d all be dead.” Rerdam spoke directly to the half-imp as if he shouldn’t be complaining.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Azure felt like it wasn’t a big enough secret to merit being hidden from them.
“Because I didn’t want any demands to be made in unnecessary situations.” The elf’s tone was firm.
“I’m just glad we made it.” Princess Zadori continued to pant from the floor, looking up at the darkening sky. “We should make camp soon. I’m beat.”
“I agree.” The old knight nodded.
“No.” Jin shook his head. “We should walk a bit farther first to make sure the threat is well behind us.”
“You should send the owl back out to see what’s ahead.” The half-imp nodded in the direction they were going.
“I can’t. He won’t be well enough to fly again until tomorrow,” the elf informed them.
“Then caution would dictate that it’s better to stay here,” Rerdam voiced his opinion.
“What do you think, Azure?” Jin turned to him.
Usually, Azure would have gone with whatever the elf wanted, but having almost died made him want to use his own brain. Consequently, he thought about how far the brambles were behind them and how easy it would be for them to catch up. Not knowing what was ahead was almost a greater fear.
“Well,” he shifted his weight from his still sore leg to his good one, “we know what’s here, but we don’t know what’s ahead. The brambles are a good way behind us.”
“They could continue to give chase,” the elf cut him off, knowing the direction in which Azure’s decision was leaning.
“Or there could be more ahead. I assume we’re beyond the area that Tiny Owl was able to scout?” He looked at Jin expectantly.
The elf nodded.
“Then I am with Rerdam. It’s unwise to travel on when we don’t know what’s ahead.”
“I, for one, don’t think we should be stopping at all,” Uden spoke up. “The closer we get to The Deathlands, the more monsters there will be. The longer we take to get to the shrine, the more monsters there will be. It makes more sense to me for us to press on.”
“Zadori?” Jin set his attention on the princess.
“I just want to be safe,” she replied with a sigh.
“Well, that’s not going to happen until we get rid of that damn fetus blob.” The half-imp glowered at the Life Resin Orb.
“He’s right, unfortunately.” The lines in Rerdam’s face hardened. “The longer we have the orb in our possession, the more monsters there will be. Still, we have many more days to go, and we can’t afford to be unrested to face what’s ahead.”
“Let’s vote.” Azure grew tired of the debate. “All for stopping here, raise your hand.”
Rerdam and Princess Zadori joined him in overthrowing Jin and Uden in their desire to press on. And with that, they made camp, though the elf insisted that they split the watch, at least two people awake at all times in case enemies did swoop in.
Azure and Uden took the first watch, which was blessedly without incident. The only downside was that they didn’t get their full amount of sleep, because a monster did attack during the second watch. Luckily, it was just one. Unluckily, it’s first move when it emerged from the darkness was to kick Azure in the back of his head.
Critical hit! Level 25 Barbed Skeleton delivers 250 damage.
If not for the fact that it had done critical damage, Azure would have thought the damn thing had tripped over him. Regardless, he had a very rude awakening and was plagued by a headache upon rousing.
Waking to the sound of Azure’s groaning, Uden was on his feet right away, his blades in hand, crouching to cut off the offending leg that had kicked Azure. With the balance of a yoga master, the skeleton somehow managed to remain standing, punching out with its balled boney fist and clocking the half-imp right in the chin. He flew toward the fire, his back kissing the embers and causing him to roll away from it.
By that time, Azure had gotten up. Pissed off that none of the people watching had actually done anything once the skeleton had breached their camp, he lifted his sword and swung it violently, slicing the skeleton in two and causing the top half to fall a few feet away from the bottom half. It clattered to the floor in a heap, the bronze helm it was wearing rolling off its head to a stop just at the edge of the fire’s light.
Defeated Level 25 Barbed Skeleton. 200XP rewarded.
Congratulations! You are now Level 26! Your base stats have been boosted. You have earned 3 points to assign to your characteristics (per level). Please note that adding points to some characteristics (Vitality, Intelligence, and Strength) will further boost your base stats. You may also advance any 1 skill of your choosing by 1 level (per level).
He would have grumbled about how they were all useless if not for receiving the level up notification.
Still grumpy from having been woken needlessly in such a painful way, Azure stomped over and picked up the helm.
You have received the following item:
Small Bronze Helm
Defense: +10
Type: Heavy Armor
