Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Silverbark Wolves

Up in the dark corners of the ceiling, hundreds of leathery-winged bats were wiggling about restlessly.

Nikola guessed they were up there so they could flutter down to distract and disorient the people trying to cross the chasm, lowering their chances of getting across successfully - but she wondered if she could target the flyers with her [Crunch] ability. They were numerous enough that if she were able to get them down juuuuust a little further, she could [Crunching Cleave] between them to reach anywhere in the room.

"Yeah," Luke bumbled in response to her question about her level of mercy, "what we need right now is a manic killing machine."

People in robes were beginning to draw out their elaborate sigils, and the bright-haired angular one was drawing back a bolt. The sight of so many hands drifting to weapon and prepping spells all at once had him reeling.

"Shoot the ceiling, Phoenix," Nikola commanded, and he loosed the arrow he had loaded miscellaneously upwards without question.

It made a twanging noise at it found purchase in one of the corners shrouded in blackness.

"Nice shot," chided someone close to the entrance.

"You're going to want to shoot us, not the ceiling," chuckled another.

A swarm of bats so thick they darkened the sky came flapping down in an instant, screeching and filling the room in cartoonish numbers.

"Oh, fuck," swore one of the mages as they loosed a fireball and it crashed into the sea of wings instead of into Phoenix's face.

"Sorry, bats," Nikola warned, and targeted the closest one with her [Crunch]. Her cleaver easily rendered the little thing to paste in the air, its brittle bones shattering upon contact.

She flew through the air, an array of familiar black squares rising all around her as she began to [Crunching Cleave] between as few flappy friends as possible. Her cloak danced in the air behind her as she flew straight into one of the Mages casting.

"AHHG!" They screamed as the shine of her cleaver broke through the wall of vermin, snipping the muscle of their shoulder in two handily. They were [Crippled] from the blow, but not dead - well, at least not until they misjudged the amount of space they had to fall to one knee, and went face-first into the hole below instead. The wet noise they made as they were impaled couldn't even be heard above the wing beats.

She swung her weapon diagonally and targeted the snippy lime-haired man at last, bursting forth from the shroud of ebbing and flowing darkness and catching them between the eyes with the corner of her blade.

Their head was summarily [Crippled], and they toppled backward into the crowd. With the number of people still left on this side of the room, she wouldn't be able to last for long - but now that the most vocal among them was fountaining blood from their forehead, would she even need to?

She reveled in the bloodshed for a split second, her fingertips on fire with a burning desire for more-- but she was pulled out of her reverie when she began to stall in the air.

She, remorsefully, sliced a diagonal line and took out several abnormally cute bats on the way over to the other side of the room, grabbing Luke's securely fastened cape as she yeeted past.

"AH!" He hollered as his feet fell out from under him, but once he realized he wasn't on his way downward to end up a shishkebab, he calmed.

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On the 10th use of her [Crunching Cleave], the skill no longer procced. Which came as a surprise to Nikola, the streak of colour sailing through the air.

One hell of a surprise, in fact; they were 2 pillars away from the other side when her momentum ceased and they began to fall.

"No," she gasped as gravity took hold.

Luke opened his mouth to scream, but remembered that he could also do things. He scraped the quickest [Sword Dash] he had ever drawn into the sky and sent them rocketing past the lip of the ledge and straight into the wall.

They slapped into the vertical plane in unison with an 'oof' from Luke, but landed on solid ground, greeted by a slow clapping Giga and a grinning elf.

"Do not cross us again," Phoenix threatened through the cloud of bats, "or we will finish the job next time. We really are quite pleasant if you aren't murderous fiends!"

Nikola, with her cheek smushed against the wall, stared wide-eyed at Luke. She blinked her icy eyes and turned her head to Phoenix as well; her party members had defended her. She didn't remember the last time she had relied on anybody else besides her own father, but even the more ephemeral members of their party had held up and remained loyal in the heat of the moment.

Which wasn't over. "Let us go while they're distracted," Nikola suggested as she pushed herself off the wall and began to sprint down the next hall, which was on the left side of the room and curved to the right. One set of people was ahead of them; she wondered how far they had progressed in the time they'd taken.

A pang of pain radiated from her hip. It felt warm and wet, and she remembered in that moment that she had been stabbed. The wound was superficial, but it pained her more as the adrenaline left her. She tried not to limp as she led the way to the next room; while the others in the group had proven themselves so far, she didn't know how they would proceed knowing she was weakened.

Luke, Phoenix and Giga followed closely behind her, Phoenix turned so he was skipping quickly backward in tiny, short steps. His weapon was drawn, his gaze alert.

They reached the end of the hall together, in a thin line, and it opened into a wide, cave-like room with stalactites piercing down from the ceiling. Frost coated the edges of the room, and humming snarls found her ears as they entered.

Her question of how far the party ahead of them had gotten was answered when she searched the room; two of them were splattered across the cave floor, and the last was backing away from a pair of snarling wolves with their haunches up.

They were bulky and fuzzy, with a thick coat of fur whose tips ended in silver. Their paws dripped with a glimmering ooze, coating the floors in gobs of the stuff.

"Silverbark Wolves," Luke murmured, putting his arms out to halt the golden ones behind him, "they're tough. Level 10, and there are two of them. Stay away from the puddles they leave on the ground; the silver sticks you to the floor if you stand on it for long enough."

"Got it," GigaGold rumbled, yanking his massive sword from the sheath seated on his back.

"Before we jump in--" Phoenix interjected, "what do you make of the one that remains? Shall we extend a helping hand?"

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