The notifications came thick and fast as every leech that found purchase delivered the same bleed effect Jason used, plus two different kinds of poison.
[Leech Toxin] (affliction, poison, blood, stacking): When [Bleeding] is negated, an instance of [Leech Toxin] on the target is consumed to reapply [Bleeding]. Additional instances can be accumulated.
On top of inflicting damage through blood loss, the strength of the bleeding affliction was that it soaked up healing, negating its effect. The leech toxin would reapply the bleed, requiring even more healing to eliminate it. He didn’t think the shab had any rapid healing ability, but this would be useful against monsters with the power to regenerate. So long as enough of the leech toxin was applied, it would refresh the bleed over and over, leaving any healing stopped cold.
The other poison the leech inflicted was much the same as Jason’s dagger.
[Necrotoxin] (affliction, poison, stacking): Inflicts ongoing necrotic damage until poison is cleansed. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
Unlike Jason, the leeches didn’t require an external source of necrotic damage. They were a tiny army of ambulatory poison daggers.
Jason was going to move in on it, but the shab was already in bad shape. He felt a little pointless compared to his familiar. His inexorable doom spell was already on the shabs, but compared to what the leeches were doing, his spell adding a few more afflictions was barely relevant.
The second shab was drawing close and Jason went forwards to meet it. He tried to move around the pincers to get his knife into one of the leg joints, but was met with immediate difficulty. When not restricted by a tunnel, a shab could easily skitter sideways to keep its savage mouth pointed right at its prey. The defensive potion slowing Jason down didn’t help.
A pincer came at Jason. He avoided it clamping down on him, but took a glancing blow to the head. His skin might have been hardened by a potion, but it still rang his bell, sending him stumbling back. He glanced over at the first shab, which was woozily staggering back and forth, covered in leeches.
“I think my familiar might be stronger than me,” Jason said. “Good job, Leechy; see if you can’t catch that next one.”
Leeches started dropping off the stricken shab, and Jason continued to square off with his own monster. Realising there was no going around the pincers, he tried a new tack, moving straight in.
A pincer shot out to grab him and he raised his left arm, letting the pincer have it. The sharp pincer broke through even his toughened skin, applying crushing force to his arm and trying to drag him to its mouth.
For the price of letting the pincer grab his empty-handed left arm, his knife-wielding right was free to strike. With Jason’s arm in its grip, the pincer was no longer jerking about. Jason slammed the point of his dagger into the joint of the pincer.
Weapon [Night Fang] has inflicted [Umbral Snake Venom] on [Shab]
Special attack [Punish] has inflicted [Sin] on [Shab]
The creature shrieked, releasing Jason’s arm. He stumbled back, the dagger sliding free of the creature. The shab lashed out with its other pincer and Jason gave up the injured arm again. Whether from the previous injury or the rage of the monster, the pincer clamping down was much more agonising. He screamed at the pain, but fighting through it, savagely stabbed with his knife, again finding the joint of the pincer. It was the monster’s turn to shriek as it once again released Jason’s arm.
Special attack [Leech Bite] has inflicted [Bleeding] on [Shab]
Jason stumbled away from the shab, his left arm hanging limp and dripping blood. Unlike his familiar, Jason couldn’t pile-on the afflictions rapidly, but now all he needed was time. The inexorable doom spell would live up to its name, escalating the curse and the poison until the monster was overcome.
So long as he could stay out of the creature’s reach, its defeat was inevitable, but Jason wasn’t done. The shab might be quick side-to-side, but just by jogging backward Jason created distance. Then he stopped, held up his good arm and chanted a spell.
“Your blood is not yours to keep, but mine on which to feast.”
Ability: [Feast of Blood] (Blood)
Spell (drain, blood)
Base Cost: Moderate mana.
Cooldown: 30 seconds.
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Drain health and stamina. Only affects targets with bleeding wounds or who are suffering from the [Bleeding] affliction.
Red life force shone out of the shab. Some of it started streaming out from the wounds Jason had inflicted and into his waiting hand. Jason felt the healing sting in his wounded arm, but the life force drained was limited. Unlike his blood harvest spell, feast of blood didn’t take all the life force, but he could use it on living enemies. Jason’s arm was still far from healed, but at least now he could move it a little.
The shab let out an ear-piercing shriek, driven to madness by the effect of Jason’s spell. The red glow retracted back into the shab, which seemed frantic as Jason plucked away its life force. It scrambled madly, but was not physiologically designed for pursuit. If anything, its panicked movement was slowing it down. Jason easily kept out of reach as his afflictions slowly overtook it.
You have defeated [Shab]
Defeat [Shab] 1/4
Jason glanced at the shab the leeches had left behind. It was an emptied-out shell, collapsed on the ground. He looked around to where the leeches had moved to intercept the third shab. Spotting them, he slapped an exasperated hand over his face. The third shab had apparently seen what the sanguine horror did to the first one and was trying to avoid it.
The leeches moved slowly, but the shab was apparently unwilling to take its eyes off the leeches long enough to crabwalk away. The result was two monsters shuffling around in an awkward circle.
“When I said ‘see if you can’t catch it,’ I didn’t actually mean for you to not catch it!”
Jason couldn’t get past his own shab to intervene, being forced to wait out the ridiculous display.
Defeat [Shab] 1/3
The number of shabs he needed to kill dropped by one. Looking back over the channel, he saw a bloody and weary Hiram standing over a fallen shab.
“Good for you, mate.”
Jason’s own shab finally collapsed and he was able to corral the last one into the sanguine horror, which made short work of it.
Quest: [Protect the Village]
Objective complete: Defeat [Shab] 3/3
[Oasis Bracelet] has been added to your inventory.
Quest complete.
100 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
Jason had noticed that his quests were a lot less lucrative than killing cultists, at least in terms of spirit coins. There was the other item, but he could check that later. On the far side of the channel, Hiram was bloodied but triumphant, standing with one foot on a dead shab. He waved broadly at Jason, who waved back.
Using his blood harvest spell, Jason drained the remnant life force from the three shabs, healing himself back into pristine condition. He ran a hand over the bloody, but fully intact, arm that had not long ago been badly mangled.
“Not bad. Not bad at all.”
He looted the shabs, reabsorbed the sanguine horror and made his way back across the channel. When he got there, he tried to loot Hiram’s shab.
This monster kill was not yours. You are unable to loot this monster.
“Hey, Hiram,” Jason said. “Can I loot this corpse?”
“Sure,” Hiram said.
Jason tried again.
[Monster Core (Iron Rank)] has been added to your inventory.