Chapter 35: 35: The Backlash of Being Too Good

As the holy light faded, the scene in the middle of the room was not pretty. The ground around the original impact zone was frayed, cracked, and overall, suffering from having just withstood an explosion. The treasures nearest to the lich, though still far away from the center of the room, having formed a sort of ring around it, had been melted or otherwise damaged. The main focus of the explosion though, the lich, was nowhere to be seen. 

Laying on the ground in the center of the room, and now also the center of a small crater, was Jayce’s spear, looking innocuous with no special power flowing through it, just its normal air of sturdiness and clear signs of its high-quality. 

Near the spear however, was no sign of the lich. The chains, the nascent lich, the energy that was being sapped from the dungeon, all of it was gone. Spread out in the area were some ashes, these ashes being the only remaining mark left of the lich as well as the chains that held it up.

Meanwhile, the 6 adventurers were a different story, tranquility was certainly not a word to describe the party... 

Staggering and falling to his knees was the now pale faced and tired Jayce, cursing while kneeling on the ground, “Really? Only one? I can only do one and I’m this tired?” 

Helping support him, Sasha waved over Dexter to help her out while Jayce continued his complaining, “At my peak, I used to be able to do like... 5 before I completely passed out! This is the level of fatigue I’d feel after the third... I’m so out of shape.”

With her swords on the ground next to her, Kaitlyn sat down, commenting from beside Jayce, ignoring the two writhing adventurers next to her, “You’re too busy with all your paperwork... Maybe you should consider working out with Dexter again.”

Watching Jayce shake his head with newfound vigor after that statement, Dexter sighed in disappointment, also ignoring the two writhing adventurers on the ground next to him, “Well the deal is always open!”

On the other hand, with the two writhing adventurers, Nao and Alix, they were both very regretful over their past actions, having stared slack-jawed at the attack before getting blinded by the bright explosion. 

Hands over their eyes, Alix was on the ground groaning about how they’d never be able to see again, massaging their eyes before accidentally rolling into Kaitlyn who was sitting on the ground. 

Deciding to help prop Alix up, Kaitlyn let them sit next to her before moving over to also prop Nao up, “You two will be fine, there are no long-term effects on your vision. Sadly, everyone in the party has experienced this attack head on, so we’ve been blinded, but look at us now, we can see! So don’t worry about it!”

Incredulous, Nao asked, breaking his reputation as the calm level-headed one with shock present on his still blinded face, “You all can survive that? That?? That was a huge explosion, how are you able to survive?”

“Well...” Kaitlyn murmured, looking over at the small crater formed in the center of the room, “It’s a few reasons really? First one is that the attack is much better against undead creatures or creatures with demonic energy in them.” 

Seeing their expressions of enlightenment, Kaitlyn laughed, patting them on the shoulder, “No, it still hurts like hell, just a little less. Also, Jayce is much slower these days at charging it up, he used to carry around two spears just so he could shoot one, recall it while charging up a second and shoot the second. Rinse and repeat 5 times in a row.”

You are reading story Vagabond’s Ambition at novel35.com

Falling back to lay on the ground, her legs still crossed in their sitting position, Kaitlyn sighed, “That was truly something we couldn’t win against. In spars, Sasha and Dexter would usually have to concede after three, while Chelsea and I would have to after four.”

“That’s... very unfair,” Alix muttered, having regained their vision, “I don’t know if I could even survive one of those.” 

“I don’t know either...” Nao agreed with a long sigh, having also regained his vision, “How fast was the charging time at Jayce’s peak anyway? This one was about, what, 10 seconds?” 

Sitting back up now that Jayce had recovered a bit, being able to stand up on his own, Kaitlyn reassured while patting the two doubting adventurers, “You two could definitely survive one. I don’t know about two, I think that’d be a coin toss.” 

Pushing herself up with the two shoulders of the two, Kaitlyn laughed a little at her own antics before answering Nao’s question, “I think at his peak it was about two seconds? Just a couple yeah... it was a smooth 5 in a row after all.” 

With everyone now ready to move again, Kaitlyn helped Nao and Alix up before walking with them back over towards the other three. 

Now re-equipped with his spear, Jayce walked over, weariness clear on his face, “How was it? Fancy right?”

Chuckling at the nodding S-Ranked adventurers, people idolized by the vast majority of other adventurers, Dexter commented, “I’m glad you two are doing fine now, seems like your over-exaggerated writhing was for naught.” 

Freezing in place, Nao and Alix averted their eyes, embarrassed smiles on their faces. Nao, coughing and clearing his throat, choked out, “It was bright...”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Sasha reassured while fluttering her hand, putting the other hand on Dexter’s shoulder, “This guy here was on the ground complaining for 30 minutes afterward. So, no need to feel bad.” 

Suppressing a laugh, Kaitlyn then also looked away, covering a smile on her face as she remembered when she first-heard the story, having not been there herself. 

‘That was like... the second day after I had joined the party...’

Waiting for everyone to gather themselves, Jayce tapped his spear on the ground to gather everyone’s attention, “Shall we go through the treasure then?”