“Yeah,” Dale spit out a bit of blood, weakly finishing with, “Try not to let em hit your chest, guys.”
“Duly noted.”
“And why are there so many boots down here?!” That got a chuckle from his team, and from me.
They limped toward the final room, preparing to meet the Boss. Peeking at him from around the corner, they decided on their battle plan. Too bad for them I could hear every word, of course. I adjusted my plan accordingly, and got ready for their charge. None of them had ranged weapons, an obvious lack, which would put them in the best range of the Bloody Bane. Since he had no real intelligence, I could not directly control him, but the hidden Bashers were ready for my hostile takeover. I watched the group countdown to zero on their fingers, then silently charge the Boss.
<Terrible idea really.> I thought maliciously.
The F-ranked man had stayed near the entrance, so when the Bloody Bane released a cloud of poisonous spores he was outside of it. These men were so strong that the poison was really only enough to deal a little damage, make them cough and whatnot. The poison would have been far more effective on the weak one in the now-not-so-shiny armor. Ah well, such is life. Time to go with plan B. The carpet of moss constricted, grabbing the weak one’s foot. A Basher hitting him from behind convinced the youngster to fall flat on his face into the moss as it dragged him as fast as possible to the Bane. The other members were finishing off the Boss when the lightly armored one noticed his predicament and came to his aid.
Drat, I had nearly maneuvered around that armor! I let a holy symbol drop as a token of my appreciation for the good fight, and would make sure to talk to Dani later about ways to improve my tactics. They got very excited by the holy symbol for some reason, probably the etched Inscription that came pre-made on it, so I decided to make that more… rare, in the future.
~Dale~
“You guys ok? Dale uttered around a swelling lip.
“My legs feel tenderized, but I’m fine otherwise.” Grouched the burly man carrying the massive shield near the front.
“Pretty good for such a low ranked place.” Commented a man who was wielding daggers. “Did you see that necklace? I wonder if it is legitimately inscribed...”
“Let’s bring it to a cleric when we are done here, could be worth something. We need to move on to the next stage though.” Craig abruptly cut off the conversation.
“What would that be?” Dale voice wavered apprehensively, as the other men turned to look at him with varying degrees of either pity or excitement.
Craig exhaled through his nose, and turned toward Dale, “Remember how we said we were going to get rid of that corruption?”
“Well, yeah. That was the whole point of this right? That’s why we had to be near that Silverwood tree... right?” Dale looked at the men nervously while pointing at the small sapling.
The men had surrounded him now, and Craig continued in an eerily calm voice, “Not quite, for one thing that tree is too immature still, but mainly that is a higher level technique. It helps people break into the B ranks, and convert their Essence to Mana. No, we are going to actually remove all the Essence from your center... by force.”
Dale started looking around a bit wildly. “Um.”
“It isn’t like we are going to beat you, kid. Relax.” The dagger wielding man tried to calm him down. “Still, it isn’t exactly a fun process. Here, start drinking.” He handed Dale a water skin. “Drink until you think you are going to hurl, then drink more.”
“Ok…” Removing his helmet with hidden relief, Dale took the water and drank. Every time he stopped or slowed the other men told him to keep going. When he was looking queasy, and obviously holding back his bile, Craig motioned for him to stop.
“This next part is dangerous for you. You are going to swallow this.” He handed Dale the small package the Guild Master had given him. “It is a Beast Core. What happens when a Beast Core is swallowed is very, hmm, interesting. If done willingly, all of the Essence in your Core will flow into the gem, taking the corruption with it.”
“Then, it will continue pulling Essence from your body, until there is nothing in you but your personal life force, which it will also take if possible. Unwillingly ingesting one leads to a different fate, but we’ll not have that issue, right?” Craig eyed Dale with a threat lingering in his voice.
Ensuring Dale was paying attention, Craig looked him in the eyes and enunciated, “When I tell you to, and not before, you need to begin cultivating as fast as you can. You now know how to, that technique is a permanent part of your memories. Draw the Essence in this cavern into yourself as fast and cleanly as you can with your new technique. We’ll start your Chi spiral before we leave. Make sure you follow my directions exactly, the timing of this can be tricky. If you start too early, you are going to leave corruption in you. Too late, and you die. Get it? Listen to me through the pain.”
“The pain?!” Dale challenged, his head swimming.
“Forceful removal of what allows you to live tends to hurt a bit. The job of your fine squad members is to get that Core out of you when it is time, hence drinking all that water. You’re going to get punched in the stomach a bit. Which reminds me, armor off the top half.” Craig directed, as if he had not just told Dale he was going to be attacked by the shield holding mans’ ham sized fists.
Dale complied, forcing himself to stay calm, though the whites of his eyes were showing and he was starting to breathe heavily. After reducing the weight on himself, he grabbed the water skin drank more. He was nearly sick, but he told himself that anything to reduce the following stomach blows would help in the long run. Bracing himself, Dale waited for Craig to give the signal to start. It didn’t take long.
“Go.”
A bit more water helped the small gem slither down his throat, and Dale focused his mind on the filthy energy within him. There seemed to be no effect, and he wondered if this were just an excuse to terrify him or beat him up. Then, he ‘saw’ a tendril of light leave the gem and reach for his center, twisting and turning through channels that Dale couldn’t understand. The light connected, Dale then saw a gentle brown light pull away from his center back to the Core. It was a nice, tingly feeling; until the murky brown Essence touched the surface of the Core.
The energy ripped at his Core suddenly, taking in the Essence like a starving man eating cake. The pain came then, feeling like acid washing through his blood, destroying the tissue and knitting it together by grasping his flayed flesh and nailing it back down with salt covered spikes. Darker Essence flowed like blood from a ruptured artery into the Core, which was also growing muddy. Dale was gasping, on his knees as he watched this unfold inside himself. Eyes wild, he saw the last few wisps of Essence leave his center, emptying it completely. For a moment the pain subsided, Dale thinking it was over somehow.
The pain erupted again, in new and torturous ways. Like a hollow needle had entered his veins, sharp pain penetrated dozens of points on his body and pulled with a strong vacuuming force. Every bit of the corruption inside of him was being pulled to the Core, which was not being gentle. Dale’s nose began to bleed as his head shook violently, looking for any escape from the pain.
Craig grabbed his head to help control the seizure, “Almost time now, Dale. Focus! If you don’t cultivate, and we get the Core out of you, your life energy will attempt to fill the void, which will assuredly kill you. Feel the energy around you, and get ready to pull! Let nothing else matter!”
Dale’s mind shook. The world was wavy around him, his head spinning. He opened his eyes, revealing burst blood vessels and reached out for the energy of the heavens and the earth, preparing to pull it in as soon as Craig said…