Chapter 134: Chapter 134: Mel (pt 2)

They peppered Delph with questions after that, but the man refused to answer a single one. He just kept walking, ignoring the two students completely. After a few minutes, they gave up and followed after him silently.

The thing that really surprised Damien wasn’t the fact that Delph had tried to kill someone. It was that they’d survived. The strange professor had enough strength for even Henry to respect him, so for someone to have survived Delph actively trying to off them was seriously impressive.

When Delph took one final turn and brought them to a halt before a small log cabin nestled into a clearing in the trees, Damien had already built a mental picture of the mage in question.

“So, what are we supposed to do?” Sylph asked.

“I’m figuring it out,” Delph replied. “There are probably traps on the door. Maybe the clearing too. It’s too dangerous to walk in there without protection.”

“Even for you?” Damien blinked, doing a double take and scanning the clearing again. It looked perfectly normal to him.

Henry?

“I don’t see anything,” his companion muttered. “It appears to be a normal clearing to me. Some traces of magic, but nothing too strong.”

Delph nodded, unaware of Damien’s internal conversation. “Yes. Even for me. Perhaps more so for me than for you. In fact – Damien, go knock on the door.”

“What? No!”

“Fine. Then you do it, Sylph.”

“I’m not going anywhere you’re scared to walk,” Sylph replied, crossing her arms. “I’m not suicidal.”

“Then we’re going to be stuck here for a long time,” Delph said, leaning against a tree and pressing his lips together.

“Isn’t it the professor’s job to take care of his students?” Damien asked. “You’ve got more shielding than us. How can it be dangerous for you?”

As they bickered, the curtains in one of the windows shifted to the side. All three of them froze. The door swung open and a tall woman swept out, her eyebrows lowered her lips curled inwards in an annoyed frown. Her long, curly ginger hair bounced below her shoulders like a miniature sea of fire.

The woman was stunningly beautiful. Every single one of her features looked like it had been painted with careful precision. With one glance at her, the mental image Damien had built shattered into thousands of pieces – which only served to make him more wary of her.

“Delph,” the mage said. Her voice was sultry, but a cold undertone gave her words edge. “What are you doing here? And with children, no less?”

“Trying to get them to knock on your door, actually,” Delph said.

Her sharp eyes ran over both Damien and Sylph. Then she shook her head. “More projects. Of course. I don’t suppose you’ll leave if I ask politely?”

“Nope.”

“Then come in. If I have to deal with you, I’m not doing it sober.”

The woman turned around and strode back into the house, leaving the door open behind her. Damien glanced up at Delph, who still hadn’t moved from his spot.

With a grimace, the professor pushed away from the tree and headed into the log cabin. They followed after him. The inside of the cabin was rather quaint. A small, undecorated wooden table took up much of the space in the middle of the room. It had a single half-finished bowl of oatmeal on top of it. There were several chairs around the table.

Sparsely filled bookshelves lined the walls and there was a door on the left of the room that probably led to the woman’s personal quarters. It swung open after a moment to reveal her carrying a large grey bottle.

She sat down in the chair in front of the oatmeal and gestured for them to do the same. Damien hesitantly pulled out a chair and sat down. Sylph sat beside him, and Delph chose the spot directly across from the woman.

She reached out and a glass materialized in her hand. In a practiced motion, the woman flicked the cork off the top and poured herself a glass of sparkling red liquid. She downed it in one gulp, then leaned back and raised an eyebrow.

“Introduce me to the children, Delph.”

“This is Mel,” Delph said, curling the side of his mouth in mild distaste and waving in her direction.

“Hello,” Damien said. “I’m Damien, and this is Sylph.”

“I wish I could say it was a pleasure,” Mel said, not impressed. “At least you’ve got more manners than your teacher. So, Damien, what brings you and your friend here with Delph?”

“This,” Delph said, pulling the necklace out of his pocket and tossing it onto the table before her.

Mel curled her nose in distaste and poked the prong of her fork through one of the holes in the chain before lifting the necklace into the air and examining it. “Some sort of artifact. What’s so special about it that you have to bother me?”

“I’m pretty sure it incited a monster horde,” Delph said. “There’s got to be something special about it. The horde was completely uncontrolled. It was like they all rushed past the frontlines as soon as they realized that it was missing. No strategy or even a semblance of common sense.”

“I see,” Mel said. She set the necklace back down and poured herself another glass of wine. “You have payment, then?”

“Why would I do that? This is for the good of the kingdom.”

“The kingdom doesn’t exempt me from taxes or buy food for me,” Mel replied. “Coin, Delph. Or something else of value.”

“Just identify it, woman. It’ll take you a few seconds at most.”

“Make me,” Mel replied, cocking an eyebrow. Her hair started to ripple around her shoulders as if a slight wind had picked up in the room.

“Can’t right now,” Delph replied, jerking his chin at Damien and Sylph. “Children are present. We’d have collateral damage.”

Mel blinked. Her hair fell back down and her mouth opened in shock. “You shameless little shit. You brought kids so we wouldn’t be able to fight?”

A small grin tugged at Delph’s grizzled face. “We’re getting off topic, Mel. I’d be happy to wrestle you some other time, but right now we need answers.”

“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” Mel asked, downing the rest of her drink and tossing the glass over her shoulder. It vanished before it hit the ground. She turned to Damien. “You and your friend will have to wait here for a little. Don’t break anything.”

She stood up and reached across the table, touching Delph on the hand before he could stop her. Damien’s ears popped as the two mages blinked out of existence.

“It is just me, or was there an uncomfortable amount of sexual tension between them?” Sylph asked, not particularly perturbed by their disappearance.

“Way too much,” Damien agreed. “Do you think she tried to kill him because they had a fling?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me. Delph didn’t strike me as the type, but I suppose even he gets human urges every once and a while,” Sylph said. She stood up and walked over to the bookshelf. “Hey, look at this. This is a spellbook.”

Damien joined her and Sylph handed him the book. He felt Henry emerge and scan over it through his eyes.

“Somewhat high level stuff. For you, at least. Nothing you can learn though – this is all water magic,” Henry reported. He paused for a few moments as Damien glanced over the other books in the shelf. “They’re all probably on the harder side, actually. I suspect these books would go for a significant amount of money if sold.”

I’m not stealing from her.

You are reading story My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror at novel35.com

“I never said anything like that,” Henry said, chuckling. “You came up with that entirely on your own. I was just letting you know they were expensive.”

Damien frowned at set the book back in its spot. “Well, considering Mel is strong enough to fight Delph, I guess it’s not unreasonable for her to have some books with powerful spells in them.”

“I didn’t see a single high-level spellbook on any of my quests before I joined Blackmist,” Sylph said. “Some mid-level stuff, sure. But nobody, even powerful mages, had high-level ones. The colleges collect them zealously. Mel is either incredibly powerful or has the support from someone who is.”

“I thought her main thing was identifying stuff,” Damien said. “But it almost looks like she’s more of a combat mage.”

What do you think, Henry?

“Let me take a look around. Maybe she’ll have something interesting,” Henry said. Damien could feel him channel Ether, but his shadow didn’t budge. That was probably for the best, as if Delph happened to be watching them, it would have caused some problems.

Henry fell silent for a few moments. Damien couldn’t see the effects of whatever spell his companion cast, but the Ether trickling through his core proved that Henry was doing something.

“Well, this isn’t good,” Henry said.

What? Did you find something? Is she trying to kill Delph again or something?

“No clue. Both the woman and Delph aren’t within a hundred miles of the area,” Henry replied. “However, there appears to be a large monster coming through the forest and headed straight for the house. From your memories, I’m pretty sure that it’s an adolescent Devourer Beast.”

Damien paled. “A what?”

“What’s going on?” Sylph asked.

“A young Devourer Beast is coming towards us,” Damien said, chewing his lower lip. The pendant on the table caught his attention. Delph and Mel hadn’t brought it with them, wherever they’d gone. “Shit. It’s coming for the pendant.”

“Give me a rundown of its abilities,” Sylph said. “Can we fight it or outrun it?”

“They’re one of the more common monsters on the frontlines,” Damien said. He dug through his memories, trying to dredge up everything he could think of about them. “The fully grown ones can be several stories high, but younger ones are probably no larger than a house. It depends on how old it is. They’re incredibly strong and quick to anger. I don’t think they’re very smart, but they’re also quite fast.”

“Faster than us?”

“I don’t think so. If I use Warp Step and you move as fast as you can, we should be faster than it. It’s probably got more endurance than we do, though. It’ll run us down eventually. I also don’t think your camouflage will work on it unless it can cover your scent. They have a good sense of smell.”

“Hurry up,” Henry said, giving Damien a mental flick. “You’ve got five minutes, tops. I can handle it, but if Delph is watching in any way, he’ll definitely see me.”

That’ll be the last ditch effort. If it’s only adolescent, we’ve got a shot at beating it, right?”

“Probably,” Henry replied. “Just don’t get hit. I don’t think your mage armor is going to do much against it.”

Damien relayed Henry’s words to Sylph. She nodded once he’d finished and started out of the house with him close behind. A faint rumbling in the distance was growing louder by the second.

“What are the chances Delph shows up before that thing gets here?” Damien wondered aloud.

“When has Delph ever showed up on time?” Sylph asked. “If anything, he’ll wait until after the monster attacks us and show up to save the day.”

The tips of the trees in the near distance started to vanish as something tore them out of the way. Damien dropped into a fighting stance and a shimmering black and green blade formed in Sylph’s hands.

“Panther strategy again?” Damien asked.

“Can you hold on that long?” Sylph asked worriedly. “You can’t let yourself get hit like you did with the panther. Anything this big is going to crush your mage armor.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“No. Not yet.”

“Then panther strategy it is,” Damien said, setting his jaw and drawing Ether into his core.

This feels like something I should have asked earlier, but can I cast two different spells at the same time?

“No,” Henry said flatly. “You don’t have enough mastery over any of your spells yet. One mistake and you twist the Ether up completely, blowing yourself up in the process. One type of spell at a time.”

Wonderful.

The dirt was practically bouncing beneath their feet now. A savage roar tore through the woods as a furry black hand knocked two trees to the side, ripping them out of the ground and sending them flying.

Despite what Henry had said, the Devourer Beast hardly looked adolescent to Damein. The spiney gorilla was a head taller than the log cabin. Some of the creature’s rippling muscles were larger than his body. It snarled at them, spittle flying across the clearing.

Sylph flickered out of sight and Damien thrust a hand towards the monster, sending a gravity drill hurtling through the air. It slammed into the beast’s shoulder, knocking it back but failing to penetrate the monster’s hide.

“How strong is its armor?” Damien cursed as the Devourer Beast’s beady red eyes focused on him.

It let out a roar and bounded towards him, swinging its arm in a brutal backhanded strike. Damien blurred out of the way, appearing several feet to the beast’s side and staggering slightly. The wind from the monster’s attack had rustled his hair.

Damien formed two gravity spheres and tossed them at the beast. They both landed on its back and detonated, pulling it off balance but failing to do anything other than annoy it.

Why doesn’t my magic work?

“It’s got innate resistance to magic,” Henry said. “Your spells aren’t strong enough to penetrate. You better hope Sylph’s is more effective because you aren’t touching this thing without my help.”

Damien gritted his teeth. The Devourer Beast lumbered towards him again, this time balling its hands up and bringing them crashing down above him. He used Warp Step again, narrowly avoiding the attack once more.

A shockwave nearly knocked him off his feet as the monster’s huge hands slammed into the ground. The Devourer Beast spun, locating him much faster than it had the previous time and lunging forwards.

Damien’s eyes widened and he Warp Stepped a farther distance away, appearing on the other side of the clearing.

“Over here!” Damien yelled, drawing the monster’s attention back over to him. It snarled, but instead of moving towards Damine, it turned towards the house and swung a fist down at the roof.

Sylph blurred into vision as she dove off the roof and out of the way, hitting the ground in a roll as the Devourer Beast’s fist demolished a large portion of Mel’s roof. She hopped to her feet and spun, slashing at the back of the monster’s leg with her sword.

A spray of blood shot out from the monster’s legs and it let out a roar of pain. Sylph darted out of the way, barely avoiding getting crushed under its huge foot. It spun after her, lunging forward as it tried to swat her like an annoying insect.

Damien hurled a gravity sphere. He detonated it when it was several feet away from Sylph. The edge of the spell caught her, yanking the girl out of the way moments before the monster’s hand whistled through the air where she’d been standing.

Sylph landed on her feet and turned to face the monster again. "Thanks. I think I'm figuring out its movements."

You can find story with these keywords: My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror, Read My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror, My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror novel, My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror book, My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror story, My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror full, My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror Latest Chapter