Chapter 21: Side Quest Part 2

"Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer."

- Wayne June

Chapter 19

Side Quest, Part 2

"Can anyone think of anything else we need, looking at what we have?" asked Star. "I've never camped out before. Hey, it said you needed lots of water, Raythiel. Is everyone carrying water?" The sound of crickets told her what she needed to know.

"I guess maybe we should get Twixia a sword and armor then?" Olier thought out loud.

"Armor! Right, Twixia's armor!" exclaimed Tira. "Let me go get it."

Tira went to go get Twixia's steel long sword. It had a gray-purple and orange leather pommel with a matching crossguard. Tria had made it at the same time she had made Zip's bronze armor. She could only make two things at a time, one for each spell level that she could cast.

There was a week's cooldown, and she realized that a week had passed now. Anyone who doesn't take conjuration is pretty stupid, she thought. You will never starve with conjuration. After all, you can just make money appear. If that silly Almiel had taken it, he could have just made gear for everyone. He would have been a lot richer as well. He could at least have bought his own children some gear. What a cheapskate!

I don't know why I can't make bows yet; the bowyer guild has made elven bows way too expensive. I wonder if the system takes that into account. It almost seems alive sometimes, like it makes adjustments to what things are worth. In any case, I might as well put everything on cooldown again.

I can make a scabbard, but a shield is too expensive for my first level spell. Which is ridiculous because it is essentially just a piece of wood. I don't know why Ambrose can't turn them out. Crying about not having tools. Twixia will be fine in melee, I'm sure. Tira concentrated on the scabbard she wanted—a purple and orange one, of course, to be made of the same leather and style as her armor.

She then created velvety monster armor with purple and orange colors to match Twixia's eyes and hair. There were steel rings in the armor to make it better against slashing weapons. She hadn't been able to find anything in the stores that was like what she wanted. The steel-reinforced monster leather armor turned out great! Best thing I have ever conjured, I think. The transparent parts are great!

She observed the rest of the group filling water skins from a barrel. Oh, water; that is a good idea. She walked over to the others, her hands full with the long sword and armor. The wagons started moving, and Tira quickly filled her water skin. They waved goodbye to the elves driving the wagons.

"Here you go, Twixia. I have some presents for you. Go ahead and put this on." "Ok, turn around for a minute, Olier. Go ahead and take off the skirt and wiggle into this, Twixia.

"Why is my armor slinky?" asked Twixia.

"Are you going to look down on my present?" asked the sword maiden, with fake tears in her eyes and a puppy dog expression on her face. "I made it to match your hair and eyes."

"Why does it show off my midriff and cleavage?" asked Twixia. This was answered by Tira with a continued puppy dog expression. 

"Yes, well, thank you for the armor and sword, Tira," said Twixia. She removed her skirt and got advice on how to wiggle into the armor. It took all five of them, as Twixia was really bad at this, but with a little patience and Elfess laughter and having to adjust her breasts to squeeze into the armor, and with a lot of "no, not there's," Twixia was finally in her armor. Then they had to teach her how to wear the scabbard and still be able to walk. Twixia was a bit on the short side after all.

"It looks great on you, Twixia," said Star. "You can turn around now, Olier."

"Thank you for allowing me the chance to be nice and not peak, mistress," said Olier. "You are very thoughtful." He turned and looked at Twixia. "I didn't expect the, uh, fake openings; very nice," said Olier, trying to be sincere and truthful, as if his life depended upon it. "So, who knows how to find a dragon's lair?"

Everyone looked at Manuel, who was flying in from the direction of the caravan, having been summoned at the last minute by the recovering Almiel. They all hoped the angel had a plan. Manuel landed next to them.

"So Manuel?" asked Star. "Do you know where the dragon's lair is?"

"No," said Manuel. "It went north; that is all I know. I am not of this world, so don't count on me for skills like hunting a dragon. Plus, they don't send bright angels to be summoned; they send the muscle-bound stupid ones." Manuel flexed his arms, showing he had some nice muscles indeed.

"Why don't you wear armor, Manuel?" asked Star.

"My angel skin is my armor; I can't wear armor as it doesn't come with me when I am summoned. And the system's rules prevent it. Almeil has to give me his sword, in fact. Otherwise, I would just punch people."

"Does he give you your robes as well?" asked Zip.

"I think the system supplies them, so things don't get too out of hand," said Manuel. "I have a relative in the caravan as things stand already, after all," Manuel smiled.

"Who is that?" Raythiel was intrigued by the presence of another, non-elf, in the caravan.

"If she is trying to hide it, maybe she shouldn't call herself Angel," said Manuel.

"Right, that makes sense," said everyone.

They finally headed north, into the bush. Twixia was instantly glad she had armor on, as the huge thorns would have torn her up without it. How did Tira just sort of dance through them? Zip just dove under them. Olier and Star just turned sideways and sort of avoided them somehow. And for Raythiel, she whispered at them, and they just sort of moved out of the way for her and her dog. However, even if she followed any of their methods, she ended up crashing through them instead. This was going to be a nightmare! Why couldn't the power of reading work on weeds? Wait, they were going to stop and give her reading time, right? I mean, I packed a couple of books, of course, but it was too heavy to bring all of them.

As they got about 100 yards from the enchanted path and to a small stream where the woods opened up a bit, both Olier and Star shouted a warning and drew their weapons. A swarm of giant flying bugs with long needles protruding from their faces emerged from hiding.

"Goblin mosquitoes!" yelled Olier. They were called such because they were the size of goblins.

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* Roll for initiative.

Luck was with them this time, and the warnings meant that they wouldn't get skewered before they knew what was happening.

Manuel, being the fastest and immune to true death as a summoned creature, counter-charged some of them to try to keep them off of the party. Following a dagger to the creature's head, a heavy strike sheared off a wing. As he smugly looked at the dying bug, he saw that there were five more about twenty yards away looking at his audacity in killing their swarm mate.

Tira cast a freezing touch spell into her sword and waited for them to advance. Star, Zip, and Olier stood in front, and they had Raythiel and Twixia stay behind, as they couldn't take as much damage.

The mosquitoes, not being brilliant, all attacked the nearest creature. They all dive-bombed Manuel. All of them missed except one, who stabbed him right through the eye socket.

* Round 2

Normally, a giant mosquito's needle going through your brain would be instantly fatal, but in Manuel's case, it didn't actually do enough damage to the angel to undo the summons, unfortunately for the overconfident Manuel. He really couldn't think at this point, but the fact remains that summoners really don't have to think; they have to protect. Unable to move his arms due to the brain damage, he turned to the only attack he could muster. He breathed right on the bug. The blast that nearly killed a dragon twice as tough as this bug didn't kill it, but as he passed out, at least he had taken most of its hit points.

"Stand fast! Don't hold anything back!" yelled Tira, "Gang up on them one at a time, and we can survive!" Raythiel cast a vanish spell on Olier so he could use his sneak attack when they charged. She also cast it on herself and her familiar at the same time, as she couldn't heal the others if she was dead. Star yelled at Twixia, "Back off and attack once they have picked their targets!" This left four mosquitoes with three targets. Two thought Zip looked like the perfect snack. Both Tira and Star wounded theirs as they came in. Star only inflicted a minor wound, while Tira chopped off a wing. Zip decided to play it defensively and tried to dodge.

Star's mosquito just failed to penetrate her chain mail. Even though Tira's was out of control, its weird twisting movement confused Tira, and its needle sank into the unarmored elfesses' chest, doing a lot of damage. Unless they could kill it quickly, the mosquito would do what mosquitoes do: take a pint or so of blood each round. Zip's limbo routine worked like a charm, and they zoomed over her, towards Twixia.

A well-placed dagger was then sticking out of the mosquito inside Tira, but these bugs were tough; it was still alive, despite the two vicious attacks and the cold damage. The fifth mosquito fed on Manuel, taking blood "straight from the brain," as it were. The sixth was torn and frozen but wiggled around in death throes. Luckily for the party, neither wiggling nor drinking blood would cure frostbite.

* Round 3

Twixia had a choice to make: flight or fight. She chose flight. One of the mosquitoes gave chase as she headed for the dreaded thorn bushes back in the forest. The other made a turn and attacked Zip again; it went low and struck a woodling leg, then started to suck. The one on Tira sucked happily away, causing all sorts of problems for the sword dancer. The one on Star was getting quite frustrated with the taste of chain mail.

Tira cut the needle off the bug at its eyes, causing it to stop sucking. Then, with her second attack, she cut into the one on Zip. Olier once again could use his sneak attack, and he did so, causing more damage to the one on the woodling. Zip tried to pry it off, but her bronze sword barely scratched it. Raythiel cast a healing spell on Tira, ending the bleed effect as the magic forced the needle out of her.

*Round 4

A shrieking Twixia, who would have drawn a paralyze spell from a certain oracle, found what she was looking for and dove into a big mess of thorns. Even with her armor, the thorns shredded anywhere without armor; she protected her face as much as she could, but this was desperation. She hoped the mosquito would not want its wings torn off by thorns, like her skin was currently. She was correct. The mosquito reversed course to go back to the feast by the stream.

The mosquito on Tira did a lot of damage, but the one on Zip was taking blood from a sixty-pound being. It was a lot worse. Zip's health score went down because of the blood loss. Star screamed as the one sort of ignored by everyone stuck its needle deep in the back of her right leg, finally getting in on the sucking.

"It's in the bone! It's in the bone!" yelled Star in unbelievable pain.

Tira stopped attacking the one on Zip and attacked the one on Star. She cast another cold touch spell on her sword and sheared off the bug's legs. Olier likewise abandoned Zip to try to save Star, but the writhing bug avoided his dagger. Star swung on the bug on Zip and finished it off. Zip stabbed the bug on Star once again. Raythiel healed Zip to stop the bleeding effect.

*Round 5

The bug that had turned around saw that his friend had picked out the princess and dove for Star as well, somehow avoiding the mail to go for her other leg and another bone. "Two bugs is too much!" screamed Star. The other bug enjoyed some princess blood, and Star was fading fast.

Raythiel realized she had run out of mana to cast a spell to cure minor wounds; the best she could do would be to stop the bleeding. Tira finally killed the wounded bug, but there was still another one. Olier went over to Star to attempt to grab and pull the bug out of Star. Then he realized the best thing was just to do damage; he wasn't a muscular man, he was a rouge. He plunged the dagger into the bug, and Raythiel, with her stick, appeared and bashed it on the head as well. Star also hit the bug. It didn't die.

This bug happened to not be in a good place like its brother bug and didn't do enough damage to outright kill Star, but it did knock her out and do health damage. The bug on Manuel finished him off, and it flew away happy with its angel meal. The sixth doomed bug finally gave up and stopped moving. What was left of Manuel was still there, nearly bled out but too tough to die right away.

"Get off of her!" yelled Tira as she stabbed it, but it was still very much alive. Zip stabbed it, and it still didn't die. Olier took a breath and stabbed it in the eye, returning the favor that the bug did to Manuel, and still the bug didn't die. A dog appeared with its mouth around the bug as it crushed it and pulled it from Star. The bug finally stopped moving. Raythiel squeezed out her very last mana point to stop Star from bleeding out and was stunned by mana burn. Manuel finally disappeared.

* The combat rounds have come to an end!

* All members of Etherstaria's party receive 1,333 experience points.

* Tira, Twixia, and Etherstaria level

* Goblin mosquito number two gains 9,800 experience and has the potential to evolve into a celestial giant mosquito.

* Etherstaria has lost health, is stable and unconscious, and, by rule, receives her next level's worth of hit points. Star receives five maximum hit points due to health loss. Her hit point total is now at zero, and she regains consciousness and cannot be healed until the next dawn.

"Well, so much for the side quest," said Zip.

"Wait! that can't be right; what is going to happen to me?" cried Olier.

"Arf?" added the puppy, playing with his mosquito by moving his head back and forth.

End of Side Quest?  They made it about 100 yards. Touchdown?

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