Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Bronze Meets Bronze

Nay reached the Flesh Wight and it spun, its arms spinning to clobber her. She slid underneath the clubs of flesh as one of Lain's hoops razored into two of them, taking the massive three-fingered hands off the wrists. Nay stabbed up with Thorn, slicing through the thick underbelly of the Flesh Wight.

She dinged up a Kinetic Point. The belly opened and chunks of yellow flesh spilled out in congealed strings of blood. It looked like the unholy fusion of lychee fruit and blood pudding. She gagged at the smell.

The monster let out a bellow, "Mommy!"

Nay's blood ran cold at the voice. And she cringed at the word 'Mommy'. What the fuck? Did the thing identify her as its mother? It made some sense, as she did kind of birth it out of her body.

It planted the knuckles of its hands from three remaining arms into the snow and straightened its arms, lifting up like a flying saucer on a tripod. Its tumor-like head swiveled on a wrinkled neck truck, bending down and underneath its body to observe her.

Nay stared in horror into a face where everything was in the wrong place. Eyes, nose, slanted mouth. As if assembly had gone wrong in the womb.

"Why...mommy...hurt...me?" it asked, drool and blood and other fluid falling in strings from its pointed teeth. It was about to say something else but its neck bulged. It was Nom pressing against the inner-walls of the neck.

Nay could hear the strains of her friend’s muffled voice. "Why do I always have to end up inside things?!"

Nay drove Thorn into one of the Flesh Wight's yellow eyes. Another Kinetic Point. It shrieked, spraying Nay with the stank of its hot break and spittle. It retracted its neck to move its head.

Nay drove ice scythe up and into the back of the massive trunk, hooking it. A third Kinetic Point. She was lifted into the air with the neck. One of the three-fingered hands wrapped around her and squeezed.

The pressure was immense. It was an intense crushing Nay had never experienced before, nor would she want to experience it again. She felt some of her ribs crack and her spine began to compress. She started to scream in pain.

"I pop mommy!" The Flesh Wight said.

There was a blinding gold light. One of Lain's hoops appeared above her and was shooting a healing beam onto her. Nay closed her eyes and the pain disappeared.

Lain's other hoop sliced through the knuckle joint of one of the fingers holding her, and the pressure was suddenly gone. The Flesh Wight released Nay and she fell to the snow.

Renewed and rejuvenated by Lain's healing, Nay produced a candied frog leg from her inventory and tore into it with her teeth. Tuk-Tuk rolled away from one of the Flesh Wight's arms and stopped next to her. She touched the back of his neck and held another candied frog leg up to his snout. He licked her hand and consumed the frog leg.

Nay saw the Jump Icon appear over his head.

---

[Frog Ups]

[02:00]

---

Nay leapt into the air and landed on the Flesh Wight's back. The beast's hide was rough with warts the size of speed bumps. The back shuddered. Tuk-Tuk had landed next to her. He grunted and nodded his head at her. They both began moving forward toward the neck.

Nay used the warty mounds as hand-holds so she didn't get thrown off.

Tuk-Tuk found a soft patch of skin near what looked like the bumps of the spinal column underneath. Then he roared and activated some kind of Berserker Frenzy attack and started clawing at the skin like he was digging into a bee hive for honey. Flesh and blood filled the air around him.

The Flesh Wight cried underneath them. Nay could see Martygan, rejuvenated, approaching them, led by his swarm of remaining familiars. He was taking the crossbows off his belt.

Nay activated Gore, spending her Kinetic Points. The wounds she had made on the Flesh Wight ruptured. Its belly opened up. The top of its face where its ruined eye was exploded. And its neck wound widened, the skin flapping with the release energy.

The Flesh Wight wailed and toppled, crashing into the first wave of netherlings and blood imps. Nay and Tuk-Tuk, shifting back into his human form, rolled off its back and landed in the snow.

Lain held both her hoops and jumped on the back of the trunk-like neck of the Flesh Wight. Steam came out of the things nostrils and it let out a pained sigh. "Mommy..."

Lain placed the razor edges underneath the neck and then pulled back, decapitating the beast. The head of the Flesh Wight fell into the snow and a green fin emerged out of the neck stump. A purple tentacle appeared. Nom pulled himself out and shook all the gore from him like a dog shaking off water.

"I'm ready for that Bathe Ability," Nom said. "This is getting out of hand."

Lain looked at Nay with a new appreciation. "How long have you been training in combat?"

"Since the last time I saw you."

Something hit Tuk-Tuk in the side. The boy gasped and looked down at the crossbow bolt sticking out of his side. Everyone looked up to see Martygan approaching. The Gloom Ranger's crossbows were pointed at them.

Lain tossed a healing arc towards Tuk-Tuk. As the object spun through the air, Nay saw it was a golden acorn. It hit the boy and a wave of healing spread over him. The bolt popped out and the wound mended. But, pissed he had been shot, Tuk-Tuk shifted into bear form and ran straight at Martygan.

"No!" Lain said. She tried to grab the bear but he was already thundering across the now. Another bolt appeared in the side of the bear. He merely grunted and ran straight at the ranger.

Nay yelled, "Tuk-Tuk!"

Martygan fired his other crossbow and Tuk-Tuk went to swat the projectile but it pierced straight through his paw. The bear roared again and continued his charge. The ranger went to reload his crossbows with a different sort of projectile. His hands started to give off a vigor glow. Nay had seen what he and those weapons could do and she had a feeling he was preparing for his vigor-enhanced rapid-fire attacks.

"Tuk-Tuk, take cover!" Nay said.

But it was too late, the ranger came up with his crossbows and a stream of projectiles shot forth. Chuk-chuk-chuk. That's the sound they made as he mowed the polar bear down.

Tuk-Tuk put up one of his hands again and he took the stream of bolts across his arm and in his shoulder. He ducked his head and crashed into the snow and his back turned red.

Nay screamed and threw her Salvo of Knives at Martygan. Thornand ice scythe appeared in his shoulders. But her Iron-enhanced attacks were just an irritant for the ranger. The spirit knives rained down on him and he turned, sweeping his crossbows in Nay's direction.

She took cover behind a tree. The stream of bolts chewed up the other side of the tree, spraying bark and wood shavings everywhere.

Lain threw one of her hoops into the air and it charged up, releasing a beam of red energy at Martygan. It seared one side of his face and the arm he used to shield himself. Since Lain was Bronze also, the attack did some damage and Nay could hear his grunts of pain.

Martygan leaned forward to run and disappeared in a blink. He reappeared in front of Lain, his crossbows on his belt and his short sword in hand. Vigor blasted off him. His stun attack. The energy hit Lain and pushed her back.

The corrupted ranger lunged with his sword but Lain caught the tip of the weapon in the hoop in her hand. She shoved the sword aside. But Martygan pressed forward, both hands on his swords and drove it towards Lain's torso.

Nom popped out of the snow and wrapped around Martygan's leg, holding him back. So his thrust entered Lain's stomach but didn't run her all the way through.

Lain gasped in pain and looked down at the sword tip inside her. Then she looked back up and gazed into Martygan’s face, his betrayal seeming to hurt her more than his weapon. "Where have you gone, my friend? Is there no part of you that remains?"

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Martygan sneered at her. "You were an annoying companion. Ever since the commander paired us together, I have barely tolerated your company."

He pulled the sword out of her and Lain crumpled to the snow. Her hands began to glow gold and she held them to her stomach. Martygan raised his sword above his head to deliver the coup de grace, but Nom coiled around both of his wrists and arms, the end of his body swatting Martygan in the face.

It was more of an annoyance for the ranger, but it bought enough time for Nay to land next to Lain. She picked up the Ranger with her Iron-enhanced strength and leaped away thanks to the frog jump spell.

Martygan managed to shake Nom off and the tentacle went flying. The ranger saw Lain was in Nay's arms, and he commanded his familiars to stop them. The swarm moved towards them.

The worst of her wound self-healed, Lain stood to her feet. Nay and her faced the approaching swarm. Both Lain's hoops hovered in front of her and the red beams swept into the netherlings and blood imps, burning them to bits. Nay helped with Salvo of Knives.

A noxious cloud started to move through the tide of netherlings and blood. It started on the far end and Nay noticed the creatures shriveling and bursting. Their bodies turned green and started erupting with boils, the juices and gas spreading onto the ones around them. It was a plague.

"It's Quincy!" Nom said. "He's come to aid us!"

Nay and the others looked to where Nom was pointing with one of his green fins. Sure enough, there was a figure atop a fauglir that was riding around the edge of the swarm, intermittently swinging his double-bladed axe into the familiars.

Martygan aimed a crossbow at Quincy and fired. There was a clang as Quincy blocked the bolt with Gertrude. The ranger fired again and Quincy knocked that bolt aside as well.

As Al, the fauglir, reached Martygan, Quincy swung Gertrude. There was a massive clang of steel on steel as the Gloom Ranger's short sword met the axe. Quincy leapt off the fauglir and rolled in the snow, popping up to face Martygan.

The Bronze-ranked men circled each other.

Martygan blinked forward and there was the ring of steel on steel as the ranger's short-sword was met each time by Gertrude. The air shimmered around them, their use of vigor affecting the atmosphere as they moved through it. The ranger came in again, shifting from swings that went low to high. Speed and agility were the ranger's bread and butter, and he managed to slip through with an attack.

But Quincy just grunted and took the cut along the side of his torso. He was a hearty brawler and almost seemed to relish being struck. This time Quincy swung. Martygan dodged but he was baited right into Quincy's headbutt. It bloodied the ranger's nose.

They separated.

"Stand down and end this madness!" Quincy said.

Martygan wiped the blood from his nose and looked at it on his hand. He smirked. "Finally, a worthy opponent."

And with that he activated Blade of the Ranger. An aura began to form around his short-sword and a piece of metal seemed to materialize out of nowhere, connecting to the sword. It was going to form into a bigger, deadlier blade. As more metal appeared, spinning in the air around Martygan, Quincy swiped forward with a hooking swing. The air flow reversed and pulled the ranger forward.

Suddenly he was in the air, Quincy's hand wrapped around the corrupted ranger’s throat. The light show ended and the parts of the sword fell away, only halfway formed. The former adventurer had interrupted the attack. He disarmed the ranger and slammed him into the ground. He straddled the smaller man and laid his axe handle against his throat, pinning him.

"Stand down, Martygan," Quincy said. "I don't want to hurt you."

Martygan spit at him.

Quincy applied pressure across his throat. "Yield!"

Martygan snarled at him.

"There must be some way to help him!" Quincy said to the others. "To break the hold of the Nether Sister!"

Lain shook her head, forlorn. "We tried everything at Fort Nixx to break the enchantment. Nothing has cured the corruption. The knowledge eludes us. I fear the Martygan I once knew and loved is gone."

Nay looked at her and put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"Damn it to the nether hells," Quincy said. He hung his head and his face darkened.

"Wait," Nay said. She knelt so she was closer to Martygan. "Why have you been wanting to power up? What does the Nether Sister want?"

Marytgan looked at her and his violet eyes glinted. He smiled a smile that wasn't totally his. There was a twisted derangement about him and it freaked Nay out a little. "He who slumbers must be awakened."

Nay and Quincy exchanged a look.

"What does that mean?" Nay said.

"In my experience," Nom said. "Nothing good."

"His return is imminent and I must prepare the way!" Martygan said, spittle flying out of his mouth. "The Tower will be reformed and Dark Brother will be found and nothing you can do will stop him!"

---

[Quest Completed!]

[Gather Information About Nether Sister’s Plan From Martygan Completed!]

[You have been rewarded Vigor Points]

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At that, his jaw tightened and he bit down on something in his mouth.

Quincy grabbed his jaw and forced his mouth open. There was a detached tooth on Martygan's tongue he was biting down on. It was his molar. It looked like he had pushed it from the socket with his tongue and bit into it, releasing something.

"Poison?" Nom said.

Martygan started laughing even with Quincy squeezing his mouth open. A black foam spilled out of the cracked molar and started bubbling out of his mouth. He even continued laughing even though he was choking on the foam. Then the foam formed into a swirling disc. It was a Nether Portal, similar to the one Nay had seen the Nether Sister use.

But as this one spun and grew and expanded, Martygan's head disappeared. Quincy stumbled back and soon the nebulous darkness was big enough to make the rest of Martygan's body disappear. It rotated faster, growing in speed, then imploded in on itself, disappearing, taking the Gloom Ranger with it.

Martygan's deranged laughter echoed as the last of the smoky darkness dispersed.

"Well," Nom said, "that’s one way to exit stage left."

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