Chapter 9: Chapter Nine: Life Gave Them Lemons

            Leo started forward, but Hugh reached out and put one forepaw on Leo’s arm, stopping him. “Leo, buddy, you’re not the guardian here. Let me go first.”

            Leo nodded. That’s fair.

            “And you lost your sword.”

            Lily snickered, putting her hand in front of her mouth.

            “I didn’t ‘lose’ it,” Leo said, feeling maligned as he held his fingers up in air quotes. “I used it up to save you, remember?”

            “All I’m saying is you’re about as dangerous as a bird.”

            That must be a dragon-ism.

            “I already agreed. You should go first. Once you win the argument, you have to quit arguing. That’s the rule.”

            Lily snickered again, and Hugh harrumphed.

            Then he walked in front of Leo and headed through the gate. Leo followed him in and gazed on ruined grandeur.

            The scene in front of Leo reminded him of the Coliseum of Rome—the shattered remnants of a once-grand civilization brought low. A massive marble plaza, arranged in great, sweeping tiers, stood before him. It filled a huge depression in the ground with a great statue in the center—a world-famed gathering spot forgotten to time.

The statue, an epic depiction of an elf—perhaps a renowned leader or philosopher—overlooked the plaza from the center. Its arms had been broken off and lay at the feet of the once stunning work, and the plaza it gazed upon was cracked and empty, but for the vines that snaked across it.

            “Ten thousand people could have filled this place,” Leo said in awe as he gazed out over the ruins. “What was it used for?”

            Lily’s voice was choked with excitement. “This was the Great Marble Forum. It’s so beautiful, so incredibly beautiful. More than I even imagined.”

“But it was used for…?”

“Thousands of people, many from other continents, once sold their wares here every day. The stalls and kiosks of the merchants here had everything, from magical crystals and items to the animals and spices of unknown lands. This place was once the center of the world.”

            Lily slowly stepped forward, into the plaza. “Can you imagine this place in its prime, Leo? I read about it on hundreds of occasions—it features in so many stories. The Plot of the Artificers, The Romance of Iluthinae, The Last Stand of Fiolanthi’s Own…”

            Lily trailed off and then looked up at the statue. “Can you imagine the things that the eyes of the first king have witnessed? This plaza was here for over four thousand years. And now it’s ruins.”

            Since the pyramids were built. Okay, yeah, that’s pretty impressive. I’d be depressed if I saw the fall of something that great as well.

            “Well, we’re getting close, Lily,” Leo said, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder gently. “Let’s go get the treasure so you can rebuild the empire.”

            She nodded, then smiled at him, her teeth a brilliant white, her eyes mischievous. “Sure you don’t want to stay here, in this world? This is a worthy goal, even for a dragon lover.”

            I can tell she’s not being insulting, just bantering. And honestly, seeing this makes it a touch tempting. This city is a thing worth rebuilding. Plus, I would love to be able to use my civil engineering degree again.

            “So, not to spoil the awe and whatever, but I think I should draw your attention to the wolves across the way,” Hugh said, using one foreclaw to point across the broken market, a slight quaver to his voice.

            Two wolves were exiting from the ruins of buildings at the edge of the plaza, a thousand feet away, almost dead across from them. Each wolf bore a strong resemblance to Leo’s buddy, but only if that buddy had been turned evil. They had the brown fur, but it was falling out in diseased patches. Their eyes were too large and not quite the same size. And even across the great, open space, Leo heard cackling from the wolves, an insane giggling that clawed at his mind.

            I didn’t even know wolves could laugh.

            “So, you’d mentioned something about corrupted magic, Princess?” Hugh asked.

            “Yes,” Lily said, her voice tight. “The magics that sustained, warded, and improved Calasti have been decaying, and the corrupted magic has been spawning terrible magical beasts.”

            She unsheathed her dagger and held it out with one painfully thin arm to Leo. “You fight better than I do, and you never seem to use your bow. How about a trade?”

            “I only have the two arrows,” Leo said, but he passed her the bow and took the beautifully filigreed dagger, then shrugged out of the quiver holding the arrows. He was terrified, but having a dagger eased his fear somewhat.

            At least I can hurt them back now.

            “Why don’t you use it?” Hugh asked as he moved forward over the cracked marble tiles of the Plaza to stand in front of Leo. “The bow, I mean. You didn’t use it on the harpies or the goblins.”

            “I’m a really bad shot,” Leo said. “Just absolutely abysmal.”

            “That’s a good reason,” Hugh quipped. “Also, not to point out the obvious, but do we have to fight these wolves? I mean, sure, we can probably take the two of them, but they’re still far away… Perhaps we could just run?”

            Leo hadn’t thought of that for some reason—it wasn’t like he was a great warrior, and this could go badly for him. Fatally bad, and quickly.

            But there was another consideration. In this world, soul energy apparently made you stronger. He didn’t really want to kill sentient creatures for it, but insane, corrupted wolves… he was okay with that. In fact, Leo was outright pro culling the evil canids.

            Leveling had been amazing. Leo figured that they would probably need the levels to complete their goals—so this fight was a risk, but the payoff was a permanent gain, and a permanent increase in their chances of success.

            And I want to be more powerful, Leo thought, recognizing the sliver of greed in him. It could get addictive, making baseline improvements to himself. He might already be hooked on it, if he were being honest. But I need to keep my perspective—if I’m going to level, it needs to be on evil magical beasts, not people.

            “We’ll need the experience, Hugh. I just made Level Two, and I’m sure Lily needs to level as well.”

            “I’m partway there, from the goblins. It would be very helpful if I leveled.”

            “Alright, dead doggies it is,” Hugh said nervously.

            Leo winced as a third wolf carefully picked its way out over a ruined wall at the far edge of the plaza, and joined the two in stalking forward.

            “Wolves tend to fight in carefully coordinated packs,” Leo said, reciting tactics he remembered from a YouTube video. “The species relies on quick attacks to generate bleeding, darting in and out to avoid damage, and almost always attacking from behind. They tend to retreat from any violent response, so be prepared to counter their darting attacks and strike quickly.”

            The monstrous wolves broke into a loping run, heading for Leo and his group, still keeping up their insane laughter.

            “These aren’t wolves, Leo,” Lily said in a low voice from beside him. “They just vaguely look like them. Be prepared for a lot of possible tactics.”

            She had the bow drawn back to her ear, and her arms were trembling.

            “Wait for the perfect shot,” Leo said. “You only have two. And one wolf hurt enough to slow it could make an incredible difference.”

            The wolves accelerated from a loping run to a full-on charge. They split into three, two running around to the left and right, and one charging Hugh.

            Hugh roared and lunged, but the first wolf managed to skid and backpedal, dodging the strike, and then accelerated again, running behind Hugh and snapping at his hindquarters.

            Leo got to see the error of that. Even though the wolf got a mouthful of Hugh’s calf, it barely drew blood—and dragons weren’t defenseless to the rear. Hugh’s tail smashed down with the same force he’d used to smack trees and rocks. The wolf yelped and leapt back, shaking its head and trying to retreat.

            Then Leo had his own problems. He slashed with his dagger at the wolf charging him to drive it back, then dove sideways at the wolf attacking Lily. Lily waited until the wolf was in mid-leap before releasing her bowstring. The arrow speared it through its open mouth, and Leo’s lunge lodged his dagger in the wolf’s side.

            The wolf still hit Lily and bowled her over, and then thrashed, trying to remove the arrow and the dagger at once. Lily screamed as claws raked her. She grabbed her last arrow from the quiver and tried to stick the wolf with it.

            The wolf rolled away, pouring blood and hacking, and immediately broke the arrow off by chomping on it. Leo started to stand, then screamed. The first wolf that had attacked him had darted back in and bitten him on the back of his thigh.

Diseased Wolf bites Leo for 4 damage. Leo has suffered a crippling wound to his leg. -40% to dodge and -20% to accuracy. Leo fails Toughness check against bleed. Leo is bleeding for 1 damage per minute until 10 damage has occurred or medical attention has been received. Leo fails his Toughness check against Thel’s Rot. Bleed damage does 200% and has 200% the duration.

 

            Leo turned around to see a chunk of his thigh in the wolf’s mouth. He tried to slash with his dagger but missed as the wolf darted away, spitting pieces of Leo on the ground, giggling insanely as its mouth was freed.

            Lily came to her feet gracefully. In one fluid movement, she nocked her last arrow, pulled it back, and shot it into the shoulder of the wolf. It howled in agony but still started forward as Leo tried to stand. But it abandoned its charge as Hugh rushed it from the side. The dragon caught it by the spine in his huge mouth. He crunched, and the wolf screamed before Hugh simply lifted the struggling beast by his horrid hold and slammed it to the ground of the plaza. The wolf feebly kicked until Hugh did it a second time.

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Three Diseased Wolves slain. Leo’s share of experience is 72.

           

            Leo looked over and saw that the other wolf had, as the box claimed, died as well.

“That’s two for me and one for you bozos,” Hugh said proudly.

“One and an assist,” Lily replied, her eyes staring out at nothing.

            Leo looked at his leg, seeing the mangled tissue and the blood pouring from it. He was instantly queasy. “According to that helpful little stat box, I’ve got about three minutes to live if we don’t fix this. Can I get some of the magic mushrooms, Lily?”

            “No,” Lily said absently, her eyes still glazed over.

            Is she leaving me to die? “What?” Leo asked, his voice dark and his teeth clenched against the pain.

            Lily’s eyes lost their dreamy look at his question, and she turned to him.

She blushed and coughed. “Sorry, Leo, that’s not what I meant. I leveled and decided to take a Regeneration power. I’ll use that instead, and we can save the mushrooms until I have time to convert them into a more powerful potion.”

Oh. Leo was a touch embarrassed as well. I shouldn’t jump to the worst conclusion immediately. Although her comment seemed pretty damning.

            Lily walked up and put her hand on Leo’s shoulder. A relaxing warmth spread through his body, and Leo stared at his wounded leg, fascinated, as the mangled flesh slowly straightened and began to knit itself back together.

Lily has used Regeneration, Rank I, on Leo. Bleed is removed. Leo will receive 1 health back every 6 seconds for 1 minute.

 

            “We’ve got a healer now!” Hugh said. “Sweet. Healers are pretty rare as adventurers.”

Then he grinned his goofy grin at Leo, his eyes crossed weirdly. “Huh. We’ve got the guardian and the healer, now. Huh. If only we had someone who was spectacular at hurting things, we’d have the three basic adventuring roles filled. Huh.”

“Ass,” Leo said affectionately as he watched his leg continue to regrow in front of his eyes. “I’m sure when I make the next level, I’ll turn into a deadly warrior.”

“So,” Hugh said, turning to Lily, “Can I get a heal as well, please?”

“For the back of your leg?” Lily asked, walking around Hugh’s eight-foot form to stare at his hindleg.

“Yeah.”

Lily reached over and probed it, her brow furrowed. “How much damage did your notification say you took?”

“One,” Hugh said, his voice low.

Lily gave a slight smile. “Don’t be a baby—it takes me two essence to use Regeneration, and it would only heal you a point of health. Between myself and Leo I’ve already used four, which is a significant portion of my reserve. Let’s not waste my abilities, ‘k?”

Oh, yeah, she doesn’t seem wounded anymore herself. Not sure how I missed that. Probably because I was staring fascinated at my own leg as it healed.

Also, she picked the magical ability and can use it four seconds later? That seems weird. I wonder how that works.

“But it hurts,” Hugh whined.

“Hurts—or stings?” Lily asked, one eyebrow arched and her hands on her hips.

“…Stings.”

Leo laughed. “Suck it up, buddy.”

Leo’s leg was fully healed. He stood and dusted himself off. Although my pants are basically just blood-soaked rags at this point. They barely even provide modesty.

He glanced over at Lily’s once-beautiful dress, now reduced to bloody strips of silk. And she’s one or two well-aimed hits away from becoming an involuntary nudist herself. We really need to find some clothes or armor soon.

“Spoken like the guy who got a heal. It’s anti-dragon prejudice, I’m telling you,” Hugh groused, but Leo could tell that he wasn’t really upset.

“Let’s go get the treasure,” Leo said. “I’m sure that’ll make it feel better.”

“Oh, yeah, that’ll definitely take away the sting… of being unfairly denied a heal.”

“Oh, wordplay, I’m impressed,” Leo said. “I didn’t know you had it in you, bud.”

            Hugh chuckled and head-butted him affectionately where he stood, nearly knocking him back to the ground.

            “Well, c’mon,” Lily said. “The sooner we get the dragon his dad’s ill-gotten goods, the sooner I can get to rebuilding the kingdom.”

            Hugh glared at her for a minute. Leo was pretty sure Lily’s banter had crossed the line into irritating Hugh, but Hugh let the matter drop. Lily walked determinedly around the outside of the huge, marble plaza and then started down a broad thoroughfare that headed due East from the great market.

            Leo and Hugh hurried after her. As he turned down the large boulevard, he got his first full glimpse of the royal castle, a mile away.

            It was everything he imagined a medieval fantasy castle should be, and then some. It had two walls—a huge outer wall and a taller inner one. There were a large number of towers around the outer wall, and he saw multiple interior keeps, connected by bridges made of the same marble as the rest of the castle. It was gleaming, white marble, and what had been done with it was impossible, according to Leo’s knowledge of civil engineering. Parts of it seemed to flow, like natural grown wood. And it barely appeared to have decayed at all. And the bridges… Did they cut a marble bridge in its entirety and then move the multi-ton stone to rest in niches? How did they do that?

            “That’s an impressive castle,” Leo said. “How, exactly, did the architects manage to do all that with marble? Especially the curved walls? Was it slowly chiseled over time to look like that?”

            “What?” Lily asked, confused.

            “Magicless dirt-grubbing world, remember?” Hugh said.

            “Oh, right,” Lily said. “Sorry, I forgot. No, it wasn’t chiseled. Earth magic using masons carved the stone, and in most cases, smaller chunks were taken up and the mages used their power to melt them back together. Then they caused it to flow into the shapes they wanted. Earth magic is less common among elves than many other races, but it’s still an elemental magic and relatively common.”

            Hugh told me the Elemental magics were the most common, but I can’t remember them all. Earth makes total sense, though, Leo thought as he gracefully walked down the marble path toward the castle.

Lily was continuing. “We had numerous famous Earth magic wielding artists and builders over the generations in our kingdom. And the stone of this entire palace was improved with the hardening magic abilities, as well. So it supports weights it couldn’t normally handle in places, allowing for far more graceful buildings.”

            That makes a lot of sense, actually. Magic as a substitute—or accompaniment—for advanced engineering.

            A while later, they reached the castle.

            The front gate to the castle, through the outer wall, was wide open. The portcullis, a much more normal wood-and-iron affair, partially rotten and rusted, lay on the ground about fifty feet from the gate itself. It appeared to have been ripped from the door and thrown by some angry giant.

            “Dad always did believe that no problem was so tough, it couldn’t be solved by the judicious application of violence,” Hugh noted.

Ripped and thrown indeed, by an angry dragon. If Chao isn’t gone, we’re royally screwed.

They passed through the massive gate, a marble hall filled with arrow-slits and murder holes. They exited into the inner courtyard. A procession of beautifully wrought pillars, each of marble, about ten feet tall, and bearing a small, glowing crystal, lined the walkway to the largest of the inner keeps. The entire front wall of that keep had been smashed open, and the central floors and interior walls were ripped out, leaving just three outer walls and a ceiling surrounding an otherwise empty space.

“That’s Dad’s lair!” Hugh exclaimed, laughing, as he left the group, running forward.

Something about the whole thing looked odd, and it took a moment for Leo to get it.

Lily’s gasp came just as Leo asked her, “That place looks entirely bare… Where’s the hoard?”

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