Chapter 96: Chapter 96: The Reaper’s Toll

The Bjorbane backhanded Mishell with his club and she disappeared out of sight. One second she was standing above Nay. The next there was a rush of air and she was gone.

Then the one-armed ogre raised his club again over Nay. It was glowing green. Was this another magical weapon?

Nay knew she didn’t have time to dodge such a large weapon. Not with how fast the Bjorbane could move. Luckily she was wearing Fluxwell's Portable Armor. The gemstones running along the center ridge of the steel and stone battle helm glittered.

The Bjorbane grimaced and then brought the club down.

Nay felt the suit's charge of vigor energy activating. The eye sockets filled with with the energy and the Damage Absorption meter ticked across her vision.

The ogre’s club slammed right into her, encased in the armor. It was a strange sensation. The sound of the blow deafened her ears. The impact pressed her into the roots and dirt beneath her. She felt pain, but it wasn't crushing. It was a good thing she wasn’t claustrophobic. Because it felt more constricting than being inside a steel coffin.

Her ears rang, tinnitus whining. She saw the damage meter shift, filling up a little bit. She still had more than half of damage absorption to go before the suit went into the red. So, she could take a few more club slams to the body. Maybe around a half-dozen before she was in trouble and the suit had to be recharged.

The Bjorbane hammered her again until she was pressed even with the floor. The damage absorption meter filled up more. The ogre’s face twisted in dismay and the Bjorbane whipped around, leaving Nay embedded in the roots of the Ygdar tree.

She lifted her arms out, squeezing out of the Nay shaped hole. She sat up and pulled herself out of the crater. The Bjorbane was going after Mishell with a renewed rage.

On Nay’s mini-map, she noticed the green dot which represented the Delicacy was on the move.

The nether assassin had plucked the Delicacy from the tree and was escaping. It looked like she had gotten some distance away by jumping through nether portals. Nay wondered what the range on those portals was. Obviously there was a limit otherwise she’d be long gone back and back to the surface by now.

Nay broke into a sprint, using the Fleet-Footed spell enhancement to pursue her.

The Bjorbane was leaping through the air, closing the distance. Nay had almost caught up to him when he leapt again, reaching Mishell right as she emerged out of a portal. He swiped at her. The club hit her in the legs and she went sprawling down.

He dropped his weapon and scooped her up in his hand. “Give me the Fruit, thief!”

The nether assassin tried to escape his grasp but he squeezed harder. He held her high, examining her, and saw the satchel she was wearing. He ripped it from her and dropped her to the floor.

She summoned another portal to make an escape but his foot came down on her, crushing her into the ground. He grinded his foot down and he upended the satchel, pouring the Delicacy into his hand. He looked from it to her, his eyes mad with rage.

As he ground down harder, there was a rattling and a wave of bones appeared from one of the nearby tunnels. It spilled out and spread across the chamber. At the crest of the bone wave was Gideon. Bianca was above and behind him, the umbrella in her hand twirling, enabling her to hover in the air.

At their appearance, Nay stealthed and kept to the other edge, avoiding the sea of bones shifting across the floor.

Gideon closed his eyes and held his up-turned hands out as he rode the wave of bones. The tide circled around The Bjorbane.

Nay used True Sight to see that he was summoning his vigor reserves from his spirit veins, charging up to release some ability. An aura of eldritch green vigor energy raced along his arms and hands.

Nay backed away even more, putting some ample space between her and The Bjorbane and the necromancer.

Then Gideon thrust his hands above his head. At the release of vigor energy, he shouted, “Bone Spears of Leviathan!”

Harpoons that looked like they were hewn from the jagged exterior spine of some behemoth shot out of the storm of vigor energy above Gideon’s head. The first one hit The Bjorbane in the stomach, the point exploding from his back. The momentum lifted him into the air.

More of the bone harpoons flew out of Gideon’s vigor cloud and they streaked above them all, circling around and flying at The Bjorbane from different directions.

The ogre roared as each harpoon impaled him from a different direction. In a matter of a few seconds, The Bjorbane was speared through with half a dozen harpoons. He looked like some giant voodoo doll that had been turned into a pincushion.

The harpoons left ring trails of vigor energy in the air. The magic of the weapons held the Bjorbane suspended in the atmosphere and he continued to bellow in frustration.

Gideon drew his bone scythe and lept off the crest of roiling bones to decapitate the ogre, the sentinel of the Ygdar tree. That’s when there was a flash of blue light and a sound of wind and crackling ice.

Ilyawraith appeared mid-air in front of The Bjorbane.

Hoarfrost blocked the bone scythe and the resulting explosion of opposing vigor energy threw both Gideon and Ilyawraith tumbling in separate directions.

Two hoops appeared over The Bjorbane and Lain’s gold healing light beamed out of the instruments onto the ogre, keeping him alive in the midst of his torment.

Nay looked over to see Lain, Quincy, Fluxwell, Tuk-Tuk and Nom. Everyone was still alive and they had come to aid the tree sentinel.

#

Gideon hit the ground and quickly recovered. He silently cursed to himself for underestimating these people. It was clear this Silver Rank was a surviving member of the Banshee Sect. He was sure he could still take her but the durability of the others had surprised him.

He saw that their healer was keeping the ogre alive. And now he did what he should have done from the start. Which was single out the healer and take her out. That was the best tactic in dealing with groups of Marrow Eaters.

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Isolate the healer and destroy them. Once they fell, the rest would fall one by one.

And he had just the gift for her. By her cloak and the badge she wore on her leather armor, he knew she was one of the fabled Gloom Rangers from Fort Nixxiom. What was she doing working with these people?

Had the North gotten wind of the happenings in The Black Ice Waste? This could complicate things, so it was important to take out this party now. Or at the very least, cripple them.

He summoned the bones around him and hopped on the ivory wave and raced towards the healer. By the time she noticed him coming into view it was too late.

He drew the bone dagger from the scabbard he kept in his boot. It was called The Reaper’s Toll. It was carved from the femur bone of his former master, who he had killed in his sleep. He had imbued it with an ability called Decrepify, which he had acquired from a rare Marrow that took him years to find and acquire. It came from the Marrow of the Reaper, an organ taken from one of the rare Soul Reapers found in the veil between this realm and that of death. It required him waiting to reach Silver Rank before he could even hope to hunt and take one of the creatures out.

The others in her party tried to block him, but he had summoned a Flaming Green Skull Shield and placed it in front of his bone wave. When they turned to face him, the skull shield collided into three of them.

The plated maugrim, the polar bear and the brawler with the two-headed axe were plowed over by the spinning bones and green flames of the shield. He drove The Reaper’s Toll into the small of the back of the healer. He plunged it in and then ripped it out, tainting her with the cursed blade.

Then he was on his way again, the bone wave carrying him away from the party. Now, he and Bianca could take them out out one by one.

#

Lain gasped. The sudden sharp pain in the small of her back brought her to her knees. She tried to rise but there was something wrong with her legs. She was aware of her hoops weakening. The healing vigor that flowed out of them seemed to grow thinner. She blinked and there were dark shadows out of the edge of her vision.

She looked down at the back of her hands and arms and noticed that the skin was shriveling. The blue veins underneath began to grow dark and she felt her heart skip a beat. A sluggishness came over her and she summoned an acorn of healing.

She pressed it against her chest. The burst of light it produced was small. It was barely glowing and the healing was minimal. What had just happened to her?

Panic set in and she tried to heal herself again, using a basic heal self ability. There was a pulse of comfort, but it was faint. She still felt slow and there was still a lot of pain. She groaned.

Had she been poisoned?

The green moss materialized in her hand. But it was already starting to gray and turn to ash. She managed to whisper, “Clean poison.” But nothing happened. She tried to stand again but now even her arms grew weak. They felt rubbery. She was overwhelmed by the need to lie down.

So, she crumpled on the ground as her own body succumbed to the withering.

#

Nay saw what happened to Lain. She wasn’t quick enough to intervene. But she de-stealthed and rushed to her friend’s side. She crouched next to her. “Lain! Lain! Can you hear me?”

But the healer’s eyes were closed. And parts of her hair had turned gray. When Nay got in her face, she saw that it looked like her skin had aged a few years. It had more age lines and wrinkles.

She shifted her vision to True Sight and saw a dark debuff icon over her friend’s head. The necromancer had crippled her with an affliction ability of some kind.

Fluxwell picked himself up and came over. “That bone fucker put a curse on her!”

“She can’t cleanse it?” Nay said.

“Poison can be cleansed,” Ilyawraith said. She recovered from the vigor explosion and had rushed over. “But that’s not poison. It’s a curse.”

“And a curse needs to be purified,” Quincy said, who appeared, his eyes locked on Gideon.

“Who can purify a curse?” Nay said.

“My tribe has such a healer,” Tuk-Tuk said.

“Nay,” Ilyawraith said. “Stay near her while we finish this.”

But Nay was no longer listening. Her attention had turned to Gideon and his healer Bianca. “Take out our healer?”

Ilyawraith looked at Nay. “Are you hearing me?”

“Then we take out theirs!” Nay said.

“Nay, don’t –“

But she activated Blade Rush and flew across the chamber. She jumped, enhanced by the Frog Ups spell and landed on Gideon’s roiling wave of bones right next to Bianca. Her blades hit the healer’s vigor shield ability. The area of effect from Blade Rush also met Gideon’s bone shield.

Bianca turned to face her. Nay activated Shred.

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