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  It struck home, slamming the snake just behind its sloped skull, the words Critical Hit flashing in Solomon’s HUD and three hundred HP exploded away in a flash of red text as he struck. The Naga hissed and drew back, writhing away, mouth prying open, throwing Solomon hard back to the stone, striking shoulder first, the sword leaping from his hands.

  “Ow!” he shouted as he hit and rolled, slipping further away from his weapon. “Critical hit and he’s still got almost a thousand HP left.” Starting to crawl to his feet he met the serpent’s gaze, eye to eye and its mouth opened into what Solomon could have sworn was a smile of grim satisfaction just before it lunged at him again, flashing teeth.

  Megyn glanced left, her eyes locking on a small alcove in the wall, not too far away. She raced toward it, forcing herself away from Solomon and Ella, trying not to think that she was leaving them high and dry, trying to convince herself that she was doing the right thing.

  Meanwhile Solomon barely squirmed out of the way as the huge snake snapped its jaws closed less than a foot from his legs, and Ella twisted left, firing another quick volley of weakened Ice Daggers. All three of them struck the beast on the side of its head, but besides a minor wince, he made no real reaction. Down on one knee, the Dark Elf Druid pressed her palms to the ground, trying to draw in the mana from beneath the surface of the ground, and she could feel it swimming around down there, feel it flowing to her touch, starting to draw into her. Tyson leaped over her right shoulder as she knelt there, once gain latching fangs into the serpent’s oily hide, bursting more bright blood onto the stone beneath.

  The snake lashed out its head, throwing Tyson aside again, the wolf hitting and rolling, coming up on four legs, spinning around, baring his fangs at the huge Naga, a low growl escaping black lips. Solomon made his way back to where he thought the two-handed sword landed, but found only empty rock at the edge of the pit, and he realized then that the weapon must have skidded down inside, leaving him completely unarmed. He remained in a low crouch, turning as the Naga spun back on him, mouth opened, fangs jutting out, thick strands of pale green saliva stringing between the top and bottom halves of its elongated jaw. It held for a moment, watching him with beady eyes, faded right slightly, then shot forward like a laser, jaws closing, Solomon square in its sight, with no weapons to defend himself.

  Chapter 37 - From the Mouth of Darkness

  * * *

  He tried to squirm out of the way, but he was too slow and the Naga was too fast, closing on him, jaws clamping shut, long fangs driving hard into the skin and tight muscle of his legs. Solomon muffled a scream of pain as the Naga grabbed him and plucked him from the stone, clamping its mouth around his thrashing body. Sol drove frantic punches into the snake’s nose and face, desperately trying to do anything to get it to release him, and he could feel the curved, serrated edge of the creatures narrow fangs digging through the soft tissue of his left leg.

  “Solomon!” shouted Ella, crouching on the ground, her hands glowing with the raw power of the mana buried in the leylines beneath the rock. She stood up quickly, sucking the energy into herself, then adjusted her hands, directing them upward and funneling the entire reserves of power she’d just consumed into a thick blade of pure Acid Arrow. It scorched the air like a beam of light, pounding into the Naga, wrapping its liquid, smoking tendrils around the beast’s thick neck and starting to melt and flay the flesh away.

  Solomon coughed as the stink of burnt skin and scorched snake meat filled his nose, stinging his eyes, and the Naga hissed angrily, refusing to release his prey. Sol saw another hundred hit points jump away in the blink of an eye, but it still had nearly seven hundred left and seemed more angry than injured. He could feel the grinding clunk of its jaw bones dislocating, and he knew it was preparing to open its mouth wide, throw its head back and swallow him whole. Pushing his arms out, he winced as he locked his hands on the moist inside of the snake’s mouth, bracing himself there in the opening of the creature’s massive jaw, desperate to prevent from being swallowed. It seemed inevitable now, pinned there, unarmed, the snake continuing to open its mouth wider and wider, soon enough too wide for his arms to reach each side. It hesitated for a moment in apparent frustration at Solomon’s resistance, then slammed its jaw back together again, a tooth driving hard through Sol’s right shoulder, punching flesh, muscle and bone.

  This time he couldn’t muffle the scream and he shouted loud and long a scream of anger and unfathomable agony, a raging fire of indescribable pain as his right arm bounced loosely within the snake’s jaws, barely held together by ligament and pure will. Blackness swarmed in his vision, threatening to plunge him into fatal unconsciousness, his head swimming in an inky pool of sleep.

  “Solomon!” a voice screamed, seemingly from so far away, yet it was familiar, it was a voice he knew, a voice he cared about, one he wanted to reach out to and hold, to use as a buoy to keep him afloat.

  “Solomon!” Megyn shouted again, even louder this time and he turned his head, seeing her racing from the wall of the cavern. She held his axe in her hand, the familiar silvery gleam catching in the light of the full moon. His heart skipped at the sight of it, though he couldn’t even muster a smile on his face. She cocked her arm back and threw it, the weapon arcing high into the air, and Sol knew it was off target, her throw was bad, not surprising based on the off-balance design of the throwing weapon. Closing his eyes, he shut off all pain, pushed aside all fear and focused his energy on the spinning axe, holding out his hand, calling to the enchanted metal, willing it to change its course to tumble toward him instead of away.

  He held himself there, trying to ignore the grind of tooth on bone as the Naga’s fangs wedged deep into the soft tissue of his armpit, serrated edges slowly carving away at the sparse muscle holding his arm in place.

  Smooth, cool metal struck his extended palm, a swift burst of power, erupting there. Without even a second’s hesitation he swung his arm up and around, activating Axe Blow.

  The curved, sharpened edge struck the Naga in its right eye, a quick slam of metal on scale, the abrupt pop of a rupturing eyeball and the swift, precious release of pressure on his arm and torso as the Naga screamed, opening its mouth and letting him spill free. He tumbled backwards, legs carrying back over his head, throwing him into a clumsy open-air somersault. Barely conscious, he twisted in mid-air, directing his momentum down, falling, striking the stone with both knees, more pain ratcheting through his bones and muscle, slumping left onto the ground.

  “Ella, catch!” Megyn shouted, throwing the long, metal staff at the Druid and she moved to it, snatching it out of mid-air in a jump, curling her knees to her chest, flipping, and landing smoothly on the floor of the cavern. Behind her, the mammoth snake screamed and snarled, quickly recovering and lunging back again, charging down toward her back, teeth bared. Megyn had her bow and arrow out, the arrow loaded and firing before the snake even got within three meters of Ella. An arrow punched into the beast’s nose, doing very little damage, but an unexpected twinge of pain, which was enough to alter the path of the serpent’s strike.

  Ella scrambled forward, running to Solomon while Megyn loaded another arrow, activating Weak Point to see what she could find.

  “It’s tough pretty much everywhere!” she shouted as Ella made her way to Solomon, desperately gathering mana into herself again. “Inside its mouth!” Megyn continued, looking at Ella who nodded back to her. The Druid pressed her hand to Solomon’s right shoulder, a ragged, barely connected mess of torn tissue and broken bone. He was clinging to his last vestiges of HP and she pushed all of her MP into her hand, calling upon her Healing Hands spell, pummeling his ruined flesh with magic. Pale blue light coated the surface of his skin and as she watched, the light seemed to bond to the ravaged muscle and skin, filling the gaps, reconnecting frayed tissue and mending the damage right before her eyes. Within seconds her magic was drained, leaving her heaving, barely catching her breath, focusing as she waited for it to replenish. Megyn fired h
er arrow, sending it screaming toward the large snake who was slithering up and around, actually leaving its pit and crawling up onto the rock itself. Just looking at the creature move in odd, girating, muscular rhythms gave her the willies, but she tried to ignore that, instead focusing on Solomon.

  “Pouch,” Sol mumbled from the ground, laying on his good shoulder, the other arm draped loosely over his ribs. “Still have some healing salve in my pouch.”

  “This better not be some trick to get me to touch your butt or something,” Ella sneered and reached into the magical pack, fishing around until she pulled out what appeared to be a compress slathered with strange green material. Solomon was too weak to even comment about her bad joke, and she moved the salve over to him. He took it from her and rubbed it gently on his injured shoulder, wincing as he did, then popped the rest into his opened mouth.

  Not far away, another arrow let loose, this one striking the rough scales of the Naga’s forehead and spinning away. Tyson angled left, around Megyn and lunged, snapping and chomping on the creature’s plump right side.

  “This isn’t working,” Ella whispered close to Solomon’s ear. “We’re not doing enough damage.”

  “Just get me better,” Sol replied, “I’ve got a plan.”

  “Don’t you always,” Ella replied. “Hopefully this plan is better than getting chewed up and spit out, because that worked really well for you before.” She pressed her palm to his shoulder and funneled everything she could into the spell again.

  You have learned:

  Healing Hands 02

  +3 HP per second for thirty seconds

  +15% chance to cure disease

  +15% to stop bleeding

  +15% to heal burn damage

  “Hey, bonus!” Ella shouted. “Level two Healing Hands. Maybe this will go a little faster now.”

  “Let’s hope so!” Megyn shouted, barely ducking under the Naga’s attack, whipping her short sword out and carving a narrow gash in the serpent’s belly as she swept underneath its lunge. The Naga turned its head scary quick and lashed out again, clamping jaws hard around Megyn’s left arm and squeezing. She grunted in pain.

  “Good enough,” Solomon mumbled, pushing himself upright and breaking into a run, fingers closing on the axe in his left hand.

  “Don’t be stupid!” Ella shouted at his back, as if he knew how to do anything else.

  Solomon glanced back at her.

  “Remember the plan!”

  She shook her head, moving in behind him.

  “Hey, ugly!” Solomon shouted at the Naga and to his surprise, the snake released Megyn’s arm and swung back around, letting her stumble down to the stone. It reared up preparing to strike, and Solomon focused his energy on the axe, feeling his mana drive hard into it, the handle glowing a hot white/blue. In the immediate area around him, all noise ceased, the waves of sound funnelled into the crystal within the axe. Now was the trick. Both his Sonic Shockwave skill and his Axe Throw skill required mana, and quite a bit of it, so he funneled half of what was remaining into the Sonic Shockwave, forcing himself to stop, even though he knew, and thought he could make it more powerful. Then he shut that valve off and called up Axe Throw taking a jumping skip forward, cocking his arm and letting the weapon fly. It screamed through the air in a swift forward somersault, streaking a pale blue light trail behind it. The Naga darted left and the axe barely struck it just where its right jaw connected to the rest of its body. There was a brief detonation of sonic power, an explosive wave of invisible energy and the Naga lurched left, hissing. Recovering quickly it darted forward, opening its mouth wide, leaping down toward Solomon, teeth bared. Sol held his ground, focusing his energy on his MP meter, hoping it would recharge just enough, he only needed a bit.

  It seemed to take forever, his narrow blue line slowly climbing right as the serpent bore down on him, teeth thrusting, lips peeling back, the creature’s echoing hiss striking at him like a force of nature.

  Seconds left. Less. His MP meter hit twenty percent, and he activated Scamper, funneling all mana into his dexterity and agility, throwing himself forward, crouching, and leaping, jumping clear of the snake’s opened maw at the last minute, landing on its snout on the balls of his feet.

  Ella was standing just behind him and glared hard at the snake, funneling all of the MP she’d regained in the past few moments into her staff, calling upon the power of Javelin of Light. She lunged and threw her arm forward, the staff shifting and streaking into a glowing spear of pure magical energy. It hurtled through the air, splitting the darkness like a laser and struck the Naga in its open mouth. The white hot beam of energy punched clear through the top of the snake’s skull and the creature’s hiss sputtered out just before its head exploded into a vicious shower of blood, brain, and smashed bone.

  What was left of the massive serpent crashed to the right, slamming hard on the rock, its neck ending in a ragged, smoking stump.

  “So. Gross.” Megyn said, looking at the creature. “That thing was so disgusting it couldn’t even die without totally making me want to puke.”

  Ella stared at it with wide eyes.

  You have learned:

  Javelin of Light 02

  +20% to Damage

  -10% to MP Cost

  “Uhh— did I do that?”

  “Yeah,” Solomon replied, his voice twinged with a hint of awe. “You’re pretty bad ass.”

  Off in the distance they could hear the shouts and screams of war, the violent clashing of weapons and armor, and they knew that although this particular battle had been very hard and tough to win, it was just the tip of the iceberg and there were miles to go before they slept.

  The three friends looked at each other solemnly, then looked over to where Soracia lay, slumped down at the post, motionless on the stone ground.

  Quest Failed

  Soracia’s Rescue

  Locate Queen Soracia and rescue her from her Sharak-Ku captors

  Success:

  Rescue the Amazon Queen

  Failure:

  Queen Soracia dies

  This Quest has Failed

  Solomon opened his mouth to protest, though he knew the indicator in his HUD was correct. He couldn’t think of anything they’d done wrong, anything they should have done differently, any sort of ‘mistake’ they’d made. They simply hadn’t been strong enough yet. Not high enough level. They’d tried to do too much, and Queen Soracia had paid the price.

  “For Soracia, then,” Solomon said quietly and seriously.

  His two friends nodded.

  “For Soracia.”

  Megyn swung her leg over Tyson’s back and lowered herself, gripping his fur in tight fingers.

  “Let’s go win ourselves a war.”

  Chapter 38 - What Are We Without Hope?

  * * *

  The word ‘battlefield’ didn’t seem to do the sight justice. The three of them stood on the rocky ridge, looking down into the western valley separating Devil’s Mouth from Gallowind proper. A hard downward slope reached from the edge of the caverns where they stood to the rock littered surface of the ground below, several uneven crags punching up through the grass and dirt, a vicious brutal collision of forest and mountain, neither one wanting to give ground. Grass and vines tangled up and around the sharpened edges of the rocks, but still those chunks of stone persisted, rising up in defiance, littering the landscape.

  All around them, chaos and violence reigned. Heading down the rock covered slope to the grass below, Sharak-Ku corpses were scattered, some on their backs, some face down, others laying on their sides, there had to be a few dozen of them, most of them with arrows jutting from their prone bodies, others dead by some mysterious cause. By all accounts, the Amazons hadn’t made it up this far, as the battle waged with ferocity down on the grass, female warriors on horseback charging in and out of trees, barreling over the ground, weaving in between the outcroppings of rock, arrows flying from mounted soldiers. Esmelda and Aldena had been right, the
Amazon’s biggest advantage was their ranged weapons, and by all accounts, they’d managed to replenish much of their bow and arrow stock from the Ancient Oak, and a good number of those oak arrows were now buried deep within Sharak-Ku corpses. As they looked upon the battlefield, Solomon could see some of the horseback warriors dipping the gleaming arrows into the pouches slung over their horses, the repurposed lizard sacs containing Ankheg bile. The arrows whizzed through the air, the broadhead tips the same color as the insect’s armor, thrusting hard and deep into enemy snakes, the sharpened ends wedging into muscle before releasing the poisonous venom within the target’s bloodstream. It was an ingenious use of the items and part of Solomon was glad that their quest had proven useful.

  The part of him that wasn’t completely disgusted, anyway. He had to keep reminding himself that the scores of bodies littering the battlefield were all lines of code, simple NPC’s that APEX programmers had developed from a computer, they weren’t real people.

  He glanced back at Soracia’s slumped form, arms still tied around the pole and suddenly had a hard time rationalizing that line of thinking. The Amazon Queen had seemed very, very real, and the world of Shyft seemed like a darker and more scary place without her. As he watched, a woman on horseback charged around a rock, tossing her bow aside, apparently out of arrows, and unslung a narrow blade. She wore pressed Ankheg armor and leaned over to get a clear shot at an unsuspecting Sharak-Ku warrior, but she herself was unsuspecting as well, as an unseen serpent man leaped from behind one of the tall rocks, battle axe in hand and swung it toward her. She started to draw back, surprised by his presence, but the axe struck home, slamming hard into her chest, splitting the armor and crunching bone, sending her sprawling from the back of the horse in an ungainly backwards somersault. The second Sharak-Ku turned in time to see this and laughed heartily, an evil, humorless sound, then leaped astride the now empty mount, taking it over and angling back toward other approaching Amazons.