Arcane Arctic 5: A Harem LitRPG Dungeon Crawl Adventure, page 35
“And if you don’t?”
“Then I’ll win it myself.”
“What’s your end game here, Nova? Are you out for power or are you out for revenge?”
Nova flashed another grin. “That’s a very good question, honeysuckle. And I’m not the only one you should be asking…”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Maybe you should ask Aurora why she hates it when I call her Princess, for starters. Or what the angel Alphonse did to have his wings torn off and his bleeding body cast from heaven. Or how many of your soldiers dream of making that killing blow in order to make something of themselves.”
A chill rippled across Jay’s flesh. He hadn’t considered how many people involved in the rebellion might be in it for their own chance at the throne. Was Alphonse using him so that he could kill Wenshire himself? He sure as hell had motive enough. And what of Aurora’s connection? She’d mentioned when they first met that she was on a mission to kill a king. He hadn’t asked her about it at the time, and it had never come up again. Was there more to her cooperation than Jay realized?
Nova laughed. It was a high, tinkling, bell-like sound accompanied by a faint, mechanical resonance.
“First lesson on the path to power, baby.” She leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. “Trust is a brittle, fragile thing.”
As she pulled away again, Jay was distinctly aware of the fact that he hadn’t been able to feel her breath.
Nova might have been human once, but she was not anymore.
He reminded himself not to forget that in the coming days.
“Enough of this.” He pushed past her in order to exit the tent, suddenly feeling the urge to hit something. “Let’s go play in your arena.”
She laughed again. This time lifted the hairs on the back of his neck and sent a shiver down his spine.
20
Root of All Hungers
A massive root the size of a subway car slammed into the ground where Jay had been standing a heartbeat before. He rolled to his feet, dirt and splinters of bone showering around him. Nova sat in the obsidian stands above the arena floor, clapping her hands together with glee, her orange eyes bright with excitement.
"Wonderful form, my delicious little death-bringer!" she called down, her voice carrying perfectly over the thunderous groans of the creature dominating the battlefield. "More dodging! Less standing still like a tourist!"
Jay cursed under his breath and sprinted toward better cover as another gnarled appendage erupted from what had been solid stone moments before.
The arena floor writhed with unnatural life—twisted trees burst through the black rock, their branches already thick with pulsing fruit that looked disturbingly like human organs. Vines carpeted the ground in a web of thorns and corruption that made every step treacherous.
Verdancyx, Root of All Hungers, filled the center of the arena like a living mountain. What Jay had initially mistaken for a massive pile of ancient logs and bones when they’d first entered the arena, now moved with the slow, inexorable weight of continental drift. Wherever it touched, the battleground transformed into a nightmare garden of flesh and foliage.
"Eda!" Jay shouted, his HUD picking up his voice and transmitting it through their group comms. This was a new feature he was testing, which allowed them to speak to each other even when on opposite sides of the arena, making collaboration against the behemoth monster a little easier. "What’s the status from your end?"
The scar-faced veteran's voice crackled back through the magical connection, steady despite the chaos. "Creature's using the overgrowth to limit our mobility. Senna's got eyes on it from the north wall, but those floating roots are making targeting difficult. Brakka's engaging the spawn-limbs on the eastern approach."
One of Verdancyx's ent-like appendages—a writhing mass of bark and sinew twenty feet tall—lumbered toward Jay with predatory intent. Its wooden fingers ended in claws that wept crimson sap, and its eyeless face split open to reveal rows of thorn-like teeth.
"I've got company," Jay muttered, drawing his weapon and circling the creature. "Continue coordinating from your position."
"Copy that, General. Maelric says the main body is experiencing something he's calling 'ravenous joy' during its consumption phases. Whatever that means."
“Probably nothing good for us.”
Jay dodged another swipe from the spawn-limb and struck back, his blade carving deep into the creature's wooden flesh. Instead of blood, thick green sap poured from the wound, and small shoots immediately began sprouting from the cut.
"It regenerates," he reported. "Anything we damage, it regrows. We need a different approach."
From across the arena, Senna's bow twanged followed by a series of explosions. One of Liora's enhanced arrows detonated against Verdancyx's main bulk, sending chunks of bark and bone flying. The creature let out a sound like wind through a graveyard—not quite a roar, not quite a sigh. It made Jay’s bones ache a fear embedded itself in his psyche.
But it was only a flash. His Charisma made fear effects much easier to shake off.
"Direct damage isn't working," Senna's voice came through the link. "Every piece we blow off just grows back bigger. And… I think I just pissed it off.”
The arena floor shuddered as Verdancyx began to move with more purpose. Massive roots burst upward in sequence, creating a wave of destruction that rolled toward the war leaders' positions. Cobbin leaped away from one emerging root only to be caught by another and hoisted fifty feet into the air, dangling from woody tendrils that began to constrict around his chest.
"Cobbin's in trouble!" Jay started toward his position, but a wall of thorny vines erupted between them. "Brakka, can you—"
"On it!" The Ursari woman's voice carried grim satisfaction. "Time to see if this thing bleeds."
Through gaps in the vegetation, Brakka charged directly at one of the larger spawn-limbs. Her claymore began to glow with that familiar dark energy as she activated her life-drain abilities. When she struck, the impact rang like a gong across the arena. Her thick, bear-like form swelled, as if she were absorbing something from the creature’s attempt at regeneration, drawing the very life force it used to heal itself back into her own body.
"That's it!" Eda's voice carried new excitement. "Brakka's draining its regeneration energy. Maelric, can you sense any other vulnerabilities?"
"The creature experiences different emotional states during its phases," came the empath's strained reply. Combat sounds filled the background. The heavy thuds of physical impact, the hiss of Kess's fire magic, explosions from Senna’s new arrows. "During consumption, it's euphoric and aggressive. But when it regrows... there's fear. Desperation. It's afraid of being starved."
"Starved," Jay repeated, understanding dawning. "It needs to consume to maintain itself. What if we cut off its food supply?"
"General," Penula's voice cut across the channel like a doctor prescribing an unpleasant medicine, "I've been analyzing the corruption it's spreading. The trees, the vines—they're all extensions of its digestive system. It's trying to break down the arena itself to fuel its regeneration."
"Can you counter it?"
"Working on it. But I'll need time to brew something that can neutralize organic corruption on this scale. And I don’t know how we’ll get the stuff inside its body. Probably not going to accept a drink, huh?"
Thinking of the weedkiller they used on the sidewalk outside his old apartment building, Jay said, “It’s a plant, right? It absorbs stuff through its roots and leaves. Try adding the poison to a light or water source somehow.”
“That’s… pretty damn brilliant, General. I’m on it!”
A thunderous crack echoed across the arena as one of Verdancyx's major limbs split open like a blooming flower. From within the wooden cavity, dozens of smaller spawn-creatures poured out. The little twiggy creatures were each a twisted amalgamation of plant and bone. They skittered across the overgrown floor on too many legs, like effigies brought to life.
"Swarm incoming!" Senna called out. "These little ones move fast!"
The spawn-creatures converged on Jay's position. They moved with insectoid coordination, some leaping to attack from above while others tried to flank him through the undergrowth. He cut through their ranks with his [Scorpion Blade] in a deadly storm of motion but for every one he destroyed, two more seemed to take its place.
“Oh no you don’t,” Dahlia said as a swarm of the creatures attempted to overrun her. An army of Doom Bunnies rushed from the shadows at her feet, tackling the effigies one on one.
"They're wearing us down." Jay said into the communicator. "We need to end this before we're overrun."
He was amazed that he wasn’t out of breath. In fact, despite what’d he’d just told the team, he didn’t feel he’d ever be worn down. But that wasn’t true for his teammates. Each and every one of them was starting to get tired.
"Liora here," came the artificer's voice, tight with concentration. "I think I have something, but it's… uh… completely untested. More of a concept than anything, but—”
“Looks like as good a time to test it out as any,” Jay shouted as he kicked another scrabbling twig creature away. “What have you got?”
“It’s a resonance device that might disrupt the creature's connection to its spawn, but… someone needs to get it to the pulsing core in the center of its body."
"How close?" Jay asked, cleaving through another cluster of the skittering creatures.
"Close enough to touch it."
The silence that followed spoke volumes about the apparent impossibility of that task. Verdancyx's main bulk was surrounded by a forest of defensive limbs, spawn-creatures, and corrupted vegetation that would make approaching it suicidal. The core was just a throbbing red light hidden inside the masses. As indestructible as Jay was feeling he wasn’t confident even he could get in and out of that mass unscathed..
"I can get you there," Cobbin's voice came through the link, strained but determined. Above, the man still dangled from the creature's grip, but now he was doing something with his hands—weaving patterns in the air that left trails of shimmering light.
"Don’t you have bigger problems to worry about?" Jay asked.
"What, this?” Cobbin grinned down at him. “I’ve got him right where I want him. Don’t worry about it.”
“What’s your plan?”
“If I can make this thing think there are a dozen of you coming from different directions, it should give you one shot at a clear approach, but whoever goes will have to move fast."
Cobbin’s Ice Wraith finally managed to freeze the vine holding his legs. He fell, tumbling through the air like an acrobat, before landing on his feet. The Ice Wraith shot another beam of freezing magic at the creature’s limbs. Cobbin continued weaving his spell as if nothing had happened.
From a distance, Lyra rained a barrage of ice and fire arrows down on the behemoth, freezing and burning its endless thrashing limbs. At the outer edges of the arena, Aurora and Breneth had set up healing circles which the soldiers could retreat to in order to restore their hit points if their health dropped too low.
Kalasi, Molly, and the Arse were coordinating with Eda and Bram for where to strike in order to help Cobbin’s illusory attacks seem most effective.
It looked like Jay was the one who was going in. Now that Nova had unlocked so much power inside him, he was by far the fastest and strongest in the group. Not to mention the least likely to get seriously injured. In fact, he was almost looking forward to the challenge.
“All right,” he said to Cobbin. "Do it. I’m ready."
Liora used the group interface to transfer her invention to Jay’s inventory. He pulled it out and gave it a cursory glance. Jay wasn’t sure how Artificer classes worked, but he had expected it to be made out of metal, like a tinker’s toy. Instead, he held a tiny, delicate carving made out of a pinkish semi-translucent stone. The magic inside it buzzed and hummed, giving the object the illusion of life.
“One order of General Morgan, coming right up,,” Cobbin said. “Actually… that beast looks pretty hungry. Better make it a double, triple, quadruple…”
The air around the arena suddenly filled with translucent copies of Jay—each one moving independently, attacking different spawn-creatures, charging toward Verdancyx from multiple angles. The effect was disorienting even for Jay himself, his own movements replicated and distorted across the battlefield.
“Decuple… double decuple… triple decuple…”
Verdancyx’s various limbs struck out at the illusory targets frantically, but its confusion did nothing to reduce its aggression. Jay, the real one, watched for his chance and sprinted through a gap in its defenses.
The construct in Jay’s hand hummed with energy, like it was filled with buzzing insects. It felt warm against his palm as he ran. The closer he got to the monster’s core, the louder the humming felt and the hotter the construct burned, as if it was spooling up for an attack of its own.
The creature's bulk loomed above Jay like a cliff face of living wood and bone. Up close, gaps between the twisted logs revealed glimpses of something pulsing within. This was what created the reddish glow, a heart or brain or stomach that seemed to be composed of pure hunger, driving the monster to attack them.
But he noticed something else, too. Here near the core, the new growth of its regeneration was withered and wilted. Penula seemed to notice at the same time.
“Eureka!” Her voice crackled through the comm. "It's working! The poison is spreading through the new growth sections—look at those fresh shoots turning black!"
The creature's frantic regeneration had become its weakness. Every new vine, every sprouting branch, every attempt to heal was now drawing Penula's toxin deeper into its system. The monster's movements became sluggish, its attacks less coordinated.
Jay grinned as he pressed Liora’s device inside the creature’s core.
“It’s in. Now how do I activate the thing?”
“Leave it to me, General,” Liora’s almost gleeful voice answered. “You just get your butt out of there and back to safety. Er… if there is such a thing in this oversized monster playpen, that is.”
Jay didn’t have to be told twice. The atmosphere near the behemoth’s core was oppressive with dark magic. Even with his heightened strength, Jay could feel the fingers of despair worming into his brain. He was more than happy to get the hell out of the arcane fog.
He rolled under a thrashing vine, shot to his feet once he was clear, and ran like hell.
He got out of there just in time.
Verdancyx let out a sound like every tree in a forest screaming at once. Not that normal trees screamed. But Jay had spent enough time in this godforsaken place that that was the first thing he thought as the sound tore through his eardrums.
The twiggy spawn-creatures that had been swarming through their numbers collapsed as one once the connection to their progenitor severed. Between Penula’s poison and Liora’s frequency disturbing construct, Verdancyx’s corrupted vegetation began to wither and retreat, revealing patches of the original black stone arena floor.
"Beautiful work, my deadly darling!" Nova's voice rang out from the stands, her applause echoing across the arena. "Look at that gorgeous destruction! More! More! Mama wants to see some blood!"
"Senna, target the main trunk while it's weakened!" Eda commanded.
From her perch on the arena wall, Senna drew back one of Liora's explosive arrows, the alchemical tip glowing with contained fire. She released it just as a massive root whipped toward her position. The arrow struck true, but the explosion was too close—the blast wave knocked her backward off the wall.
"Senna!" Aurora's horn blazed with silver light as she raised both hands. The archer's falling body halted mid-air, suspended by Aurora's telekinetic magic, and gently lowered to the ground.
"Nice catch, Princess!" Nova called out, though she sounded almost disappointed that no one had gotten seriously hurt. “I guess…”
Jay caught a glimpse of Aurora’s expression and was almost surprised that she managed to stay focused on rescuing the archer. She looked like she wanted to rip Nova from the stands and stuff her into Verdancyx’s maw.
Across the arena, Molly let out a war cry that would have made Arcanicea’s barbarian ancestors proud. "Come on, you big Arse! Let's show this overgrown houseplant what we're made of!"
The massive two-headed weasel monster charged alongside its master toward one of Verdancyx's ent-like golems. While one head clamped down on the creature's wooden arm, the other breathed a cloud of noxious gas that made the bark begin to dissolve.
“Hey, that’s new!” Molly laughed. Her [Wildcall Maul] crackled with magical energy as she brought it down in a devastating overhead strike that split the golem from crown to roots.
"Ooooh, ‘Barbarain Barbie’ and her fat Arse can actually fight?” Nova cheered from above. "Remember, Red. Violence solves everything. Maybe I’ll let Jay keep you as a pet, if he’s a good boy. Make another attack like that and I might forgive you for all the times you sucked my man’s dick, huh?"
“Rein your bitch in, Jay,” Molly growled over the comm. “She’s getting yappy. Like that annoying Yorkie Terrier your old boss used to have. Remember what I did to it?”
“Uh… cuddled it and baby talked about how much it looked like a lint ball wearing a hairbow?”
Molly huffed and smashed the ent again. “Oh yeah. But when it barked I really wanted to flick it in the nose.”
“If you flick Nova in the nose,” Jay said, suppressing a laugh, “I promise I will do everything in my power to protect you.”
With the spawn-creatures neutralized and the regeneration disrupted, Brakka's life-drain abilities became devastatingly effective. Her bear-like form swelled with absorbed power. She grew to twice her regular size, muscles bulging and swelling. Thanks to the dungeon magic, her plate armor grew, too. She tore into Verdancyx's weakened defenses with huge clawed hands, scooping crimson sap into her mouth and literally drinking the life force from the monster’s dying systems. It was both frightening and fascinating to behold.
