Chapter 70: Chapter 70: Nether Bond

Nay regained consciousness to a blinking prompt in her vision. The world around her was hazy, so she focused on the prompt until the words came into focus.

---

[Marrow Detected]

[Liver Marrow of the Frostfang Yeti]

---

She stared at her mini-hap, rubbing her head, until she could see it clearly. She saw a red dot near a green dot. “Huh?” Then she remembered her last moments before everything went dark.

The red dot was Martygan. He was going after Marrow, somewhere close to her.

She groaned and discovered she was nestled between the roots of a giant tree, lying on a blanket of snow. She looked around and discovered she was in some type of strange forest.

The trees here were ancient and massive. Instead of the usual evergreens, these trees were gnarled with black and twisted branches. Their presence made the dark snow forest seem haunted.

There was a campfire nearby, pots and pans hanging from a wooden stand. The carcass of a hare was draped across it.

Nay heard heavy breathing and snarling. The fighting was nearby. She rose to her feet and peaked out from behind the tree to see a large humanoid swiping with a white-furred claw at Martygan.

It was a yeti. About nine feet tall with blue and white fur. It had green eyes and sharp teeth. Its fur was marred with its own blood, already bleeding from half a dozen cuts.

The possessed Gloom Ranger easily leaned away from the swipe and he drove his short sword into the yeti’s belly. The yeti let out a mournful howl and Martygan twisted his sword and yanked it out the side, tearing the monster’s torso open and freeing its entrails.

The hot innards hit the snow and steam blasted into the air. Nay caught a whiff of the foul stench.

The poor creature tried to hold its insides in. It fell to its knees and howled. Its lonesome cry cut short as Martygan sliced the monster’s head off. He examined his butchery, exhaling hot breath into the cold air.

The center of the yeti's chest began to glow and a the curvature of a blue bubble began to emerge out of the dead yeti's chest. It was a beast core. As Martygan knelt to retrieve it, Nay realized that she should use the moment to flee.

---

[Quest Detected]

[Quest: Escape Martygan]

[Accept Quest Y/N?]

---

There was something wrong with the Gloom Ranger. He had changed somehow after emerging from his coma. The last time Nay saw him conscious, he had a part of the Nether Sister shoved into his throat. That's when she remember something the witch had said, "I've been looking for new thralls."

Motherfucker, he had been turned into a thrall of the Nether Sister.

She ran through the dark snow forest. She pulled the thermos of the venison stew out of her inventory. If she ever needed the Fleet-footed spell, it was now. Also, if it was off cool down that meant she had been unconscious for at least a day.

As she unscrewed the lid, there was a whooshing sound behind her. Something hit her in the calves, entangling her legs. She tripped and fell, sliding through the snow. She lost her grip on the thermos of magical venison stew. It spilled across the snow. She looked at her feet and there were cords attached to weighted balls entangling her ankles.

Martygan was holding one of his crossbows in the distance. He had shot bolas at her. And he was in pursuit.

Thorn appeared in her hand and she cut through the cords, slipping out of the bolas. She got up and ran.

She felt a shift in the air around her, and suddenly Martygan was next to her, grabbing her. She tried to stab him but he caught her wrist. Her Iron-level strength was easily subdued by his Bronze grip.

“I wouldn’t stray too far from me, little bird,” Martygan said.

Nay spat in his face. “Fuck you.”

Her saliva spattered his cheek and above his eyebrow. Her spit ran down his pale skin, dripping off his elegantly formed cheekbone. He closed his eyes and wiped the saliva off his face with the back of his leather glove.

His fingers squeezed her upper arm. Although it hurt, there was something electric about his touch. With his other hand, he pushed a finger near the center of her chest, between her breasts. “See this?”

She looked down and realized her tunic was torn, exposing the skin on her chest. There was a black mark on his chest that he was poking. It looked like the tattoo of a nether creature. A pinwheel of arms sprouting off the round body. Every time Martygan applied pressure to the mark, she thought she saw the tattoo move underneath her skin.

“You bear a Nether Bond to me,” Martygan said. “If you stray too far, the Flesh Wight will grow and erupt out of your back, drilling a hole through your heart as it eats its way out. To leave me is to die.”

“You lie!”

“Don’t believe me?” Martygan released her. “Then fly little bird. Fly away.”

She grimaced and shook her arms, brushing at herself as if she was wiping away the stain of his lingering touch. She began walking away from him, not taking her eyes off him, stumbling in the snow. Then she turned around and picked up speed until she was running.

When she was about fifty yards away an uncomfortable sensation radiated from her chest. With each step, the discomfort increased until it was outright pain. She looked down at her skin and saw the Flesh Wight had grown in size, its appendages rippling, making her skin undulate. She kept going though until she felt something was stabbing away inside of her, touching her breast bone.

She cried out and stumbled, falling to one knee. A hand flew to her chest. In another hand, Thorn appeared. She was going to carve the Flesh Wight out of her.

As she prepared to cut into her skin, she noticed two shadows racing across the ground towards her. Netherlings erupted out of the shadows, entering the realm. They rushed at her and she turned to defend herself.

She slashed them down with Thorn and looked back to her chest.

“Stop!” Martygan was walking towards her, the ground before him rippling with shadows. It seemed like he could command netherlings. “I’ll release them if you don’t. You may be able to defend yourself for a while, but how many waves do you think you can stop?”

“Let’s find out,” Nay said. Ice scythe appeared in her other hand and she turned to face him. Another wave of pain from the Flesh Wight made her see double. She activated Salvo of Knives and threw her weapons at Martygan.

His short sword appeared in his hand, and the air wavered around him, some shifting of Bronze level power. As the weapons appeared to impale him, he backstepped and swiped the blades away with his short sword. They disappeared into the aether.

Spirit knives emerged out of the sky above him, and without looking, he held his sword above his head and parried each knife away. “Your stubborn thick-headedness will be the end of you, girl.”

He blinked forward, halving the distance between them. He swung his sword and the air pressure reversed and Nay fell forward, carried by a rush of wind. Some close-the-distance ability dragged Nay towards Martygan. She rolled and tumbled through the snow, stopping at his feet.

The intensity of the pain at her chest disappeared and she gasped. The Flesh Wight was shrinking now that she was within range of her captor. "Don't be stupid," Martygan said. "You're no use to me dead."

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Nay sat on one of the massive tree roots by Martygan's campfire as he absorbed the beast core. She was biding her time, racking her brain for an opportunity to escape. He was too powerful for her to beat in combat, so that wasn't an option. Her heart would basically explode if she got too far from him. So she had to do something about their Nether Bond.

He had stopped her from cutting the Flesh Wight out of her flesh, so it seemed that could work. But she had to do it at a time he couldn't intervene. At the same time, part of her was curious to why he had taken her. What was he trying to do, or rather, what was the Nether Sister using him for?

---

[Quest Detected]

[Quest: Gather Information About Nether Sister's Plan From Martygan]

[Accept Quest Y/N?]

---

Martygan's chest glowed for a second as his body took in the core. He grunted at the surge of vigor. Then he dug up the raw and bloody Marrow that he had packed in the snow. He tossed it onto Nay's root. A fleck of blood hit her arm.

It was the yeti's liver. Green motes swirled within and around it.

---

[Marrow Detected]

[Liver Marrow of the Frostfang Yeti]

[Consume Y/N?]

---

"Activate this," Martygan said.

She played dumb. "I"m sorry. Activate what?"

"Don't play dumb, girl," Martygan said. His voice had lowered into a growl. "I know what you can do. She showed me."

"I'm sorry. I don't follow."

"Cook the Marrow so I may eat it."

"Ew! You want me to cook this organ for you? That seems unsanitary."

Martygan took a step towards her. Shadows formed on the ground around him and on the trunks of the trees. Netherling heads poked out of the shadows, watching her with their violet eyes.

"If you value the lives of the people you care about in Lucerna's End, you will obey me," Martygan said. "So end this mummer's farce and cook the damn Marrow. Epicurist."

She eyed him and his netherling familiars. "Fine."

A pan and cutting board appeared in her hands from her inventory. She grabbed the Marrow and set up her prep station on the massive root next to the campfire. The shadows disappeared and Martygan sat down across from her. His face smoldering with a feral intensity.

She cleaned the yeti liver with water from her waterskin. "Aren't you concerned about your brothers and sisters from Fort Nixxiom hunting you?"

Martygan sneered. "I have too much of a head start."

"If you needed an Epicurist, why didn't you just use yours at the Fort?"

"There was too much resistance with too many eyes watching."

"So you came to Lucerna's End instead. It was you who summoned the netherlings to attack the town, wasn't it? You needed a distraction so you could take me."

He didn't deny it. "Chaos is always the best distraction."

"So here we are. You have your pet Epicurist so you can hunt your Marrows and power up."

After a moment of silence, she continued, "What do you need to power up so badly for? Your new master must have you on a helluva honey-do list."

"Honey-do list?"

"A list of tasks whisked together by the Nether Sister to give to her fetch boy."

"I would mind your mouth, girl."

"So what is it that she has planned, Fetch Boy?"

"Nothing you need concern yourself about."

"It's too late for that, Fetch Boy."

"Be quiet and cook the damn Marrow!"

He had stood up and unsheathed his short sword from the scabbard on his back. His violet eyes smoldered in their sockets and his jaw was clenched. His hand was tight around the hilt of his blade. It looked like he was trying to resist the urge to run her through.

She shut her mouth and looked back to the task at hand. As she prepared to cook the yeti liver, she realized she could cook it without activating and he wouldn't know the difference until he ate it and nothing happened. As she took her seasonings out of her inventory, a pouch appeared on the root next to them.

She blinked and saw something slither and retract back into the snow.

Nom.

Not only had he somehow tracked and found her, but he had just given her poison.

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