Elsewhere

Duke entered the tunnel, FLYING down the twenty meters to the floor of the opening. He could see where the ants had clawed their way up the walls to get to his people. He could also see evidence of some fighting in the tunnels. It seemed that the Legionnaires that had either fallen or been dragged down here hadn’t gone quietly. He checked on the three bodies he could find but all were dead and beyond his care. He continued on into the tunnel, his DUNGEON SENSE guiding his way.

The trail from the ants’ passage was easy to follow, even when the tunnel intersected others. There was a general trend downwards and Duke was able to see that the tunnels he was traversing were clear for as far as his DUNGEON SENSE could tell. He was glad that he had trained up the Ability and was able to use it comfortably now. Unironically, it was even easier to use underground as if that was what the Ability was originally designed for. With a moment’s consideration Duke finally came to the realization that that was the case, cursing his stupidity for not realizing it earlier.

After about ten minutes, Duke had switched to FLIGHT down the tunnels to speed up his travel. It was becoming clearer and clearer that these tunnels had been formed long before the ambush. Again, either they have out planned us, or they had such things in place for someone else.

Duke’s frustration swelled as he continued, unconsciously increasing his speed as he flew down the empty tunnels. Finally, after his frustration began to boil over into pure anger, his DUNGEON SENSE picked up motion ahead of him in the tunnel he was following. He slowed down to give himself time to assess the situation.

He sensed giant ants ahead, down a side tunnel and slowed his approach to quickly observe them. They were working furiously at closing off the tunnel as Duke approached. He snapped a bolt of LIGHTNING into the working ants, scattering them away from the end of the tunnel they were attempting to close off. In response, they came boiling out of the tunnel en masse. Duke smiled at finally having something to vent his anger against and attacked.

He flew into the approaching ants, blasting them apart with his tonfa and a strong charge of LIGHTNING surrounding him. The ants were individually stronger than a normal man with pincers that could easily lop off a limb. This changed drastically when Duke entered the equation. His ARMOR SKIN made him significantly harder to hurt and his sheer physical and magical might made it a simple effort to overwhelm any ant he encountered. The problem was when they came at him in such large quantities. He was able to smash his way deeply into the swarm choking the tunnel, but the weight of their numbers was starting to slow his progress down.

Duke amplified the LIGHTNING pouring out of his body to 3,000 a second to keep it under his Mana regen rate. This filled the passage with electric energy, and, at nearly the top of the Practiced tier, flash-fried the giant ants in within their exoskeletons. It marginally increased his speed of advance as none managed to live long enough to effectively grasp him, but it rapidly filled the passageway with the horrendous smell of burnt and shattered ant bodies. He reactively fired off CLEANSE whenever the smell got bad enough to make him gag.

He lost track of time as he slowly burned his way through the swarming mass of giant ants. Just how many of these fuckers are there? We killed tens of thousands of them above ground. He pressed on, burning his way through the swarming mass with his LIGHTNING. Another Ability might have been more effective at the same rank and level, but that was the issue. Duke had used his LIGHTNING so much that it was his highest offensive Ability after TELEPORTATION which was more of a utility that could be used as an attack.

Finally, he burst out of the swarming tunnel into a larger chamber that his DUNGEON SENSE had told him was ahead. He flew out into the center of the chamber, coming to a hover to give himself a moment to assess the situation.

There were streams of giant ants pouring out of three holes in the chamber. They traced the outline of the chamber and converged into a larger hole on the opposite side of the chamber. In the center of the chamber stood the druid Duke had seen earlier. His dead eyes stared back up at Duke but he was not Duke’s first concern. Behind the druid was a spider the size of a New Jersey McMansion. Grasped in the spider’s forward pair of legs was Grat, his neck centered between the spider’s pincer-like chelicerae. He appeared to be unconscious.

“Don’t even make a gesture or Moonspinner will snip his head clean off. You don’t want that, now do you?” The druid gloated, knowing he had Duke by the heartstrings. His friends were his weakness which he proved by coming back for the gladiators, at least that was what his master had told him.

Duke didn’t make a single gesture, not even a twitch of an eyebrow. Instead, he TELEPORTED Grat back to the Legion, pouring an extra 100,000 Mana into it to overcome any resistance the spider could have put up. Grat vanished from the arachnid’s pincers and the enormous spider screamed at Duke. The druid looked at the spider, looked at Duke, and tried to run behind the spider.

“That’s not going to help you.” Duke called down to the druid. Without warning, the spider leapt at Duke, springing from the floor with incredible speed. Duke’s reaction speed was simply faster than the spider’s. He TELEPORTED behind the leaping spider to stand in front of the fleeing druid. The druid skidded to a halt a single meter in front of Duke, his face set in full panic, desperately trying to find a way to escape.

“No trees here for you to step into.” Duke taunted as the both of them were TELEPORTED to the Legion. Immediately, the druid was subjected to nearly one hundred Hold spells as the Legion’s Mage Corps reacted to the second being appearing in their midst in the past few seconds.

Duke immediately moved to check on Grat who had a trio of healers standing around him. They were franticly pouring healing Mana into him, but Grat did not seem to be improving. He was still laid out on the ground motionless. Duke’s body flushed with adrenaline as concern for his friend peaked.

“Heal him, dammit! Why isn’t it working?” Duke shouted ineffectively.

“They’re trying but nothing seems to be working.” Aurelia answered from Duke’s side. He nearly jumped, startled as he had not heard her coming, his focus being solely on his fallen friend.

A cackling laugh came from nearby. Both Duke and Aurelia snapped around to see the druid being restrained by some sort of glowing field that Baslin was pouring Mana into. Noting that he had everyone’s attention, the druid began speaking. “He has the queen’s venom in his veins. You will not ever revive him without the antidote. The venom was meant for you, golden girl, but you were too hard a target to get to. Gratukelsten, on the other hand, let me walk right up to him. Trusting fool.”

Duke focused his IDENTIFY on the druid, quickly getting an assessment of who he was dealing with.

*** You have encountered Farthell Masolivich, High Druid of the Council.

Level: ???

Health: ???

Mana ???

***

“Farthell Masolivich. Why do I know that name?” Duke asked, his mind churning through memories until it landed on one in particular. “You were Grat’s mentor. He trusted you and you used that trust to do this to him. You surely must be one of Chopie’s minions.”

“Oh, you should not speak of the great King Chopie, may he reign forever, in such a manner. If you come before him and prostrate yourself and beg for his mercy, he may even allow you to serve him.” Farthell responded, his voice full of reverence towards the king.

“Seriously? You worship that asshole?” Duke replied incredulously.

Farthell strained against the field Baslin was holding him in and Baslin grunted with the additional strain before he reinforced the field with an additional gesture. “You do not know the glory of the Everliving King! He has brought unity to the land, a new day and a new dawn of prosperity!”

“We can’t be talking about the same guy. The asshole that imprisoned his father’s best advisor to keep his sister from ‘winning’. The asshole who is allowing undead to take over his kingdom? The asshole who sold his soul for undeath. That is the Chopie I know.” Duke responded heatedly.

“You don’t know him at all. He elevates us all, gives us power that we would never have on our own. He is the true ruler of this land!” The more Farthell ranted about Chopie, the more deranged he sounded.

“His mind has been warped. To do so to such an individual is frightening.” Baslin added.

“Can his mind be healed?” Aurelia asked.

“It would take a healer of enormous capability.” Baslin responded. “The Legion’s healers can handle battlefield wounds and the like but something like this is well beyond even the best we have.”

“So, unless we can find a healer at least at the Master level, this guy is fucked?” Duke asked.

“That is essentially the case.” Baslin responded, ignoring the continual rants of the druid. “If you bring us back to the Inn, I have a facility in my lab where he can be contained safely until we find a solution.”

“What about Grat?” Aurelia asked.

“Sleep forever!” The druid ranted, his eyes dead eyes flashing into a glowing a bright green.

“OK, one last chance, asswipe. What queen’s venom are we talking about here?” Duke pushed the entirety of his Psyche into the question, hoping for a direct answer.

The crazed druid raised an empty vial, waving it from his fingers. “Queen Pahst, of course. Once she took the transformation to become the Endless Spider Queen, everything became so much clearer.”

Duke ignored the druid after that as he wandered off into ranting about the web of truth and ageless arachnids. He looked over to the healers that still poured their healing magic into Grat on a rotating basis. One stepped away, exhausted as yet another rotated in. Duke pulled the healer aside for a moment.

“Is the healing having any effect?” Duke asked, concern radiating from his voice.

“No, Your Grace. His condition remains unchanged despite our best efforts. Whatever venom runs through his veins is well beyond us.” The exhaustion and desperation in the man’s voice stirred something in Duke’s heart and an idea in his mind.

“Who is the best healer amongst you all?” Duke asked while carefully gauging the man’s unconscious response.

“That would be Eihlen. She is the best of all the healers but she could do no more for Grat than any of us.” He sullenly responded.

“Thank you. Go rest.” Duke smiled at the healer, knowing the dedication the man was showing and giving equal respect. He then walked over to the woman who had looked up as her name was mentioned. “Eihlen, I presume.” Duke asked as she turned at his approach.

“Yes, Your Grace.” The short dark-haired young woman turned to meet his gaze with blue eyes full of compassion.

“I am told that you are the best healer in the Legion.” Duke started.

“I…I am a good healer, but not the best.” She responded.

“Who is the better healer then?” Duke asked curiously.

“Well, Shandra, or perhaps Olean.” She replied. Duke did not miss the headshakes from the individuals Eihlen pointed out.

“They seem to disagree.” He responded. “No need to be so humble. Be proud of your abilities and what you can do with them. It doesn’t serve anyone to downplay what you can do.”

“But I was not able to help Grat. I’ve failed.” She answered sullenly.

Duke shook his head with a wistful smile. “No one can help him just yet. What ranks are your healing Abilities?”

She paused, checking her own stats. “My general HEALING Ability is at the Practiced rank and my CURING Ability is still Initiate, but close to advancing.” She cast her gaze downward, feeling insufficient.

“That’s truly impressive. Having only been a healer for such a short time, those ranks are phenomenal. You must have a strong natural affinity for healing and your work ethic has to be through the roof.” Duke praised.

She raised her eyes at the unexpected praise. The Duke was not known as one to accept failure gracefully. She was surprised to see the admiration in his eyes and began to second-guess her perception of the man. “I do whatever I can, Your Grace. Healing is my passion and removing the suffering of others brings me joy.”

His smile grew and he gestured. “Come with me please.” She followed him over to Aurelia who was speaking with her command cadre. “Aurelia, may we borrow you for a bit?”

“Of course. Excuse me. Please continue with planning.” She broke off from her cadre and joined Duke and Eihlen aside. “What is on your mind?”

“Too much but I have an idea and a few questions to see if it might work.” Duke responded. After receiving a “go ahead” nod from Aurelia, he continued. “What is the range of your INSPIRATION and ALL FOR ONE Abilities?”

“Right now, a bit over two kilometers. Why do you ask?”

“That should work. The three of us are going to hunt some ants and Eihlen is going to get a massive level boost if this works like I expect.”

Eihlen immediately protested. “Your Grace, I am not much of a fighter. I will be of little use to you fighting these horrific insects.”

“I do not want or expect you to fight them. What I do expect is for you to use your HEALING and CURING Abilities so that you get credit for participating in the fight and using Aurelia’s Abilities, you will leech enough experience to level up quickly. We are going to see if we can push you up high enough to unlock an Ability that could help Grat or level up your current Abilities to the point they make a difference.”

Both women gaped at him. Aurelia spoke first. “You’re going to place her in that level of danger in the hopes it will advance her? That’s more than a bit heavy handed and extreme.”

Eihlen responded, steel in her voice. “I’ll do it.” Aurelia’s head snapped around in shock. Eihlen continued. “General, this is a need for the Legion. We have already encountered things we had not anticipated nor trained for. I am,” She paused, giving Duke the slightest nod, “the best healer in the Legion yet my Abilities are not up to the task at hand. This is likely the fastest way to advance my level and Abilities. Depending on how it goes, I might even be able to hit Tier three and get my next Ability or even possibly a Class evolution. It is worth the risk.”

Aurelia listened intently, shook her head, and smiled. “Your bravery and dedication are a credit to you and to the Legion. Give me a few minutes to organize my leadership and we can be off then.”

Duke smiled and shouted out. “Baslin, I’m going to take you and Grat back to the Inn. Elaine can care for her husband while you put the deranged druid on ice.”

Baslin smiled and spoke quietly to himself. “Idioms.” He continued more loudly. “Very well, Duke. I am ready to depart whenever you are.”

The three of them disappeared to reappear back at the Inn.