Timid Hart was eminently unsatisfying. Hartwin wasn't a bad protagonist, as far as I could tell. He quelled some sort of 'Great Wave' right after 'The Sundering' and was one of the founding members of the Allorant Empire, which apparently had fallen almost three centuries before the author put pen to paper after lasting half that span itself. A lot of the events and ideas were unexplained to me, as if it was written for a dusty historian who already knew their stuff. The problem was mainly two things: the prose being that of a child's, and the fact that it was just unfinished. Literally. The stupid thing just ended between sentences, describing the "long lost art of Allorantic metalworking."
After I'd finished eating and settled in to play with my magic, I had begun to feel a bit heated, and I wondered if it wasn't some sort of result from the mana in the mimic meat or the flush of finally fully relaxing after such stressful circumstances, but even though the itch had been there in my mind a bit more strongly than expected, I didn't give in and give myself the personal time. Even if I felt safe, that still felt a bit weird to do here. So, to distract myself, I'd grabbed the book I'd been granted by the dungeon to learn. I did get a little info from it, but now on the other side of feeling frisky, the fact that the book was basically also being a tease was just too much, and I tossed it to the ground unceremoniously.
Part of me did immediately jump at the mistreatment of a book, even one as worthless as that, but my displeasure won out. I'd gained some knowledge, at least. Individuals rising to great heights of power was actually a common occurrence, at least once every century or so, though the marks they left on the world varied. 'The Sundering' had been one big event where three of them had perished at once and "cracked open Vibbi, down to the core," in the process, following with the chilly sentence of "and its peoples were no more." I guessed Vibbi had either been a continent, or an Island, or a country and the core was a metaphysical one? Until I got more context, I'd have to just put it down as some geographical location. There was also Fiernal, explicitly described as a continent, that housed a lot of different civilizations, including the previously mentioned Allorant Empire.
Hartwin had been noted as "particularly dedicated to following the wisdom and teachings of Utyr." My guess there had been Utyr is one of the gods, so that was two I knew the names of now.
"Gods, groundbreaking events, a shitty writer, and now I feel like shit. What a historic tome. What a wonderful time." A sour taste was left on my mind as I slapped the lights off and hobbled over to my bedding, only cursing once when my foot kicked away the stupid book on the ground. I didn't have to be upset for long, though, as sleep overtook me before I knew it.
The next morning was a whir of activity as I pranced around and prepared for my next trip into the labyrinth. Despite the danger and unpleasant surroundings, I was actually a bit excited to go back in. A bit? No, I was pretty damn excited. I took a little time to fashion my damaged clothing into something a little more usable. Though I didn't have full body coverage, they were more secure and tighter against my body. My shirt was more like a tight crop top, and around my legs was basically a shitty sarong, but it was a little better than having the mess on me from before. My gloves and boots were still in great condition, thankfully, given the boots were enchanted and the gloves were brand new. I grabbed an intact cloak and swung it around my shoulders, which would go over everything and provide the rest of the coverage I needed.
It hadn't taken long to get myself in labyrinth-shape, so a bag filled with food and my waterskin later, plus my spear and my best knife in a makeshift sheathe, I was ready to go in. I found myself before the portal, looking at it a bit oddly.
"Were you more greenish yesterday?"
Rather than the normal cacophony of colors flaring through it, it was mostly greens and blues, with the rest of the colors pushed to the edges of it. "Hm." What did it mean? Was it the next step, or something, now that I'd made it through properly once? No matter what, it'd be more speculation. I pulled my jaw away from biting my top lip and shook my head. "Nothing to do but do it. Come on, Allison." I was saying that a lot lately, but it definitely helped me get moving. I strode forward and stepped into the portal.
Back in the plaza. That was, at least my guess, as I reappeared in the cabin that housed two now-empty boxes on either side. Was I just back in the same place? It seemed a little different, though. The cabin around me seemed darker, more hostile. I crept over towards the doorway and peeked through.
Yeah, this place had definitely changed some. The bonfire that had roared through the fight was now a discolored spot on the ground. The structures around me were barely holding together, and where the city buildings had been somewhat decrepit, they were now crumbling. Half the city around me was almost ground to nothing.
It was almost as if the place had aged a century during my absence.
In fact, that was likely what had happened. If the labyrinth could change and add places like the city to begin with, it could definitely alter them. With no enemies visible, I explored the square a little bit. A smirk found its way to my mouth when I came across a ragged treasure chest near where the bonfire had been. Apparently, they were a little more sturdy than everything else. I walked up and kicked it, knocking it a small distance away. Irritating thing.
A low growl hit my ears, though, after I'd kicked it. I lowered myself to my combat stance, spear and spell at the ready. Where was it? What was -
A bit of rubble being pushed over caught my attention and I looked over. Not far away, a humanoid figure was rising up and clumsily climbing over a crumbled wall. A gray? I looked closely, and it did seem to be one. However, the big change was that it was rotting. Disgusting. Zombie grays, if the blood around its mouth was any indication. One of its tusks was missing, and it was actually shambling towards me.
I was prepared for its approach, but it was slow. Very slow. Shambling was not a terribly efficient means of mobility, so by the time it got very close to me, I was positively bored. I raised my hand and pointed at its head. "Mana Bolt." The burst of pink that followed rammed full speed into its head, and I had to hold a bit of bile back as it obliterated half of its head, leaving just the lower jaw.
The bigger problem was that it didn't stop. "Ah, shit." Braining it wouldn't work. Great. I should take the time to find out how to take this thing. Keeping as much range from it as I could, I began to poke various parts of its body with my spear. The rotten flesh didn't resist my weapon, but it seemed like nowhere I could strike it would make much of a difference. Well, no brain was one thing, but the head was another. I prepared another mana bolt and aimed lower, and watched as my magic once again resulted in a splatter of gore. I grinned as it simply fell to the ground unmoving afterwards.
"So, not brain, but whole head. Okay." I thought about where I should go, glancing over at the the big central building that still stood despite the rest of the city's deterioration, figuring that was the best bet as any. Before I could get moving, however, I froze. Something tickled my ears, quieter than I would have expected. The hairs on my neck rose as I spied towards what had caught my attention.
There, out in the street, positively oozing out of the ruined buildings, was a horde. It was a bunch of zombies, right? That's a horde. They all started to get to their feet, in various states of decay and destruction, and shuffle towards me with purpose. Their groans and grumbles started to hit my consciousness as they approached, and I found myself unintentionally taking a step back as the sheer number of them grew... and grew.
That's right. Zombies might be slow, and shitty, but it didn't matter when there were dozens of them. Hundreds, possibly. I didn't have the Mana or Endurance to fight off all of the creatures. I had just started this run, and it was pulling no punches. Was it because it was already in progress? Or something else?
Didn't matter. I turned on a heel and began to fast walk in the opposite direction, toward that big building. Running would be foolish. Who knew how long I'd be going? Have to conserve my stamina. I turned down a street, but found zombies here too, beginning to rouse and staring at me with empty, dead eyes. The smell, which I had no idea how I'd missed before, was vile. I was forced to breath through my mouth, and I wrapped my cloak up a bit higher to breathe through it as I passed the slow creatures. Had there been this many grays in the previous iteration? Why was it so different? Had I not fought the boss, but only reached a checkpoint? Was I supposed to use it, or was this the cost of doing it?
My musing was cut short as a zombie lunged at me, one I'd allowed too close in my musings. I smashed it back with the butt of my spear, but that barely did anything, because instead of pushing it, the haft simply put a hole in its chest and it slid along it towards me. "Fuck!" I kicked at it, leaving it tumbling along, but despite its weakness, it was sturdy. I couldn't get it off the spear, and the other creatures were getting closer to me in the meantime. I raised my hand and pumped two mana bolts into its mouth, hoping to obliterate it. The first one caved in its skull with a sickening crunch, and the second knocked it clear off the spine. Upset that I was wasting mana, I pulled my spear out, and pushed forward.
The delay had cost me, though. I was slowly but surely getting surrounded. Somehow, the entire goddamn - godsdamned - city was waking up from its eternal rest, and it was hungry for human. I picked my way through the hordes that were starting to crowd the streets, having to Dash once or twice to put some distance between me and some of my suitors. The volume of grays was only growing, and some of the larger ones were starting to show up as well. I noticed they were all fairly identical - was there no sexual dimorphism? Or sex at all? How did these things -
"Uuuuungh," one of them said to me as I was forced to Parry a bite. Right. Focus. My quick walk was forced into a run several times as I approached my ever looming destination, and I had no idea how long I'd been going before long. Every moment was fraught with danger. Had I been moving for ten minutes? An hour? Three? I glanced up at the sky and saw the sun on its way down, but realized that I hadn't noted its position when I got here. Idiot. There was no other choice, then. I needed to get to safety, because it's not like these things were going to just stop coming to meet me because it was dark. "Meat me. Stupid."
The streets were becoming more and more difficult to traverse, with the path becoming thinner and the bodies becoming more populous. Something had to shift, here, or I was going to be overwhelmed quickly. Where could I go? Wait. The buildings were more and more intact as I'd been approaching the center. Could I use that? The roofs didn't seem too far...
A glance down the next turn I'd be forced to take made the decision for me. Rotting, hungry corpses filled the space. No way was I going to get past that. My eyes roved around until I found the best building I could, and I sprinted at it. The door was burst into so many splinters as I rammed into it, its wood giving way before my momentum. I wasn't anywhere near safe, though, as several zombies were waiting for me in the entrance. I avoided the ones I could, but I found the stairway at the end of a hallway that held three of the damn things. I gritted my teeth and pushed forward.
A hand prepped with Spark pushed it away before it could get its balance to lunge at me. Electrical energy surged through the corpse and it fell to the ground under the magical assault. Instead of a poke, I used my spear to sweep the legs out from under the next one and slammed its jaw into the floor. Other options expended, and with it just a little too far to get easily, a Mana Bolt was my option to assault the last one. Again, it only took out only about half of its head, but enough space was created for me to push past it. My brain screamed at me to double tap the thing, but I had no time. I could hear the horde following me into the building.
The stairs thumped under me as I ran, and I desperately hoped they wouldn't fall in under me. I almost ate shit when I turned on the landing, stepping into a hole that already existed, but I Dashed at the last moment and slammed into a nearby wall instead. Of course, I nearly fell then too, but I didn't, and that was the important part. I made it to the upper floor and looked for either roof access or a window. I had to rush past a zombie that lunged at me and fell into the stairway. If I wasn't in such a life or death situation, that would've been hilarious. It didn't take long to find a pair of large windows, but failed to find any way up to the roof. It would have to be enough.
The window I found to step out from was big enough for me, but the shattered glass in the path concerned me. Unlike the previous buildings I'd been inside, this one clearly had more luxury to it once upon a time, but that was against me at this time. I used my spear to quickly bust out as much of the glass as possible. I hoped that would be enough.
I stepped out of it and regretted looking down a moment later. That was a lot of zombies. Thankfully, the face of the building was ornate enough that there were handholds to grab. I pushed through and cried out when my left hand caught on a shard of glass, tearing my new glove off of it. I couldn't stop, as much as I wanted to grip my now injured hand and scream in pain. I forced myself into action and climbed up the small way to the roof and took stock.
No zombies on this rooftop. Next one was... uncomfortably far away. Can I jump that far? I glanced down at my bleeding hand and decided that I didn't really have a choice to find out beforehand. I ran at full tilt and felt my stomach flip as I jumped over to the next roof. I hit hard on it and felt it in my knees, but managed to not lose my footing. From my higher vantage point, I could make out far more of the central destination.
A big, looming manor dominated the center of the city, as big as a pair of warehouses and ridiculously ominous. I shuddered slightly, but before I could really get much of a better look, the crack of stone and the creak of wood grabbed my attention. Zombies were pouring out of the previous window I'd used and were climbing up onto the roof. The damned things certainly were tenacious. No time. I took off running again, ignoring the discontent caused by vertigo. Rooftop to rooftop, I jumped past, noting that further along, zombies were starting to climb things themselves.
I crumpled my nose up at that. Too smart. Something has to be guiding these bastards. The problem with my current trajectory was that I wasn't heading properly towards my destination, and to do that, I'd have to cross the street. My heart leapt up to my throat as I looked for a place to cross. Nothing was closer than a few meters, and any mistake would have me plummeting into a pile of ravenous corpses.
Again, unfortunately, my choice was being made for me. Ahead a few buildings, some of the zombies were beginning to gather on the roof and moving towards me. A few of them plummeted into the gaps between buildings, which I couldn't help but scoff at, but they were definitely waiting for me. There were too many of these things, and they were too smart. This sucked. "This sucks!"
I turned and looked for the closest crossing. No way was I going to make that with a normal jump, so I backed up and prepared myself. A few breaths later, I crouched down and did a sprinting start at the edge of the roof I'd been on. I pushed off over a horde of zombies that all reached up at my soaring form, but I left them behind as I Dashed to get to the next roof.
It wasn't enough, though. I was still short. I started to drop, and I used another Dash to make up the difference. My breath was knocked from my as I impacted the wall, but I barely managed to grab onto the roof. I tossed my spear up and followed it, desperate to get my breath before I started running again. This time, though, I had a straight shot. Maybe a kilometer away lay the environs around the manor, and I don't know why, but I absolutely believed that making it there would spare me the horde. Finally recovered from my harrowing jump, I ran again, taking no time to slow down or look for anything useful.
Zombies from all over began to pour into the streets below and creep up the walls to me. Hollow gazes, fetid breath, and vicious groans and snarls snapped at my heels the entire way, and before long, my burning legs were slowed as I faced my last big roadblock. Up ahead, on the last building before the rise, was one of those elites, staring at me with death in its empty gaze. "You're not stopping me," I growled as I sprinted forward, staying low.
The thing braced as I approached it, seemingly retaining some of its martial prowess from its previous life. But it was slow, and I would take advantage of my relative speed. A Dash put me behind it, allowing my to blow out the back of its head with a Mana Bolt. That wasn't enough as it swept back at me, sharp claws (despite the condition of the rest of its body) raking through where I was. The strike tore through my cloak, something that pissed me the fuck off, and I brought my spear up to strike at its arms. Surprise hit me as I lopped one of them clear off, half an arm tumbling down towards the horde below. I grit my teeth and struck at the back of its knee with my foot, hoping to bring it down.
The strike was successful, and the hulking figure dropped down to its knee. A manic grin hit me and I brought up my left hand directly adjacent to its head. "Mana Bolt," I declared, and flinched as viscera splattered the area around it, including me. Honestly, I was just thankful that none got in my mouth. The groans of its fellows made sure I couldn't rest on my laurels, so I spied what I'd need to do ahead. There were a good twenty meters - ish - between the edge of this building and the fence that separated the manor grounds from the street. I had a bit to drop before I'd hit it.
"Okay, Allison. If you Dash three times, you can make it. Just roll on the dirt." Beyond the fence was what was probably once a nice lawn, now bereft of even the mildest infestation of weeds. But no zombies. No time to consider, either, so I took my running start and immediately Dashed. I rushed forward, and before I could think further, I Dashed again.
A spike of pain went through my legs, but that was it. One more, and I'd be there. A third Dash propelled me over the edge of the fence and I started to prepare myself to land, but a shock of agony pierced my entire lower body. My legs splayed out and I smashed into the ground chest first, tumbling head over heels as I struggled to get my body under control. I noticed I was screaming again, clawing at my legs, before the pain vanished a moment later.
I huffed and puffed, reeling from the sudden difference in sensations. Holy fuck, that had been intense. Was that going to happen every time I tried to use the same skill so many times quickly? My spells didn't seem to have the same result. I -
Again, my thoughts were cut short by slamming at the fence. The zombies. I shook my head and and crawled back into a standing position, and sprinted at the front door of the manor. I yanked it open and stepped inside without looking around, closing it behind me quickly. I breathed hard, nearly hyperventilating, and started to take in my new surroundings. Something like a mud room greeted me, richly decorated with golden-trimmed furniture, landscape art, and a clay floor. A nice set of chairs lined the walls to my right, and a door more to the interior of the manor awaited my entry.
A few moments passed, and I simply didn't hear anything outside. I tested the door behind me to find it locked and unmoving. Wherever I was now, I was not going to leave. But finally, with a moment to rest, I staggered over to a chair and sat, head in my hands.
"Fuuuuuuuuuckbuckets."