Chapter 94
Bargain-Bin Parasitic Entity
The portal grew until it was as tall and wide as Hrundar, then stabilised. It formed a perfect circle, and the energy had become so stable it almost looked like a sheet of black glass.
“The mana signature feels vastly different to Summon: Undead Minion,” said Rel. “There’s something malevolent about it.”
I turned my attention back to Helgana. She had the body of a yeti, but there was something off about her. The empty eyes. The lack of emotion. The pointy teeth. It reminded me of Winterclaw and the Dark One.
"Yeah… she’s definitely been possessed by something," I said. “Do you think the Dark One's back already?”
Rel shook his head. “No, I would've known immediately if it were him. This is something else altogether. It's not in the same league, but it's undoubtedly a powerful entity.”
“How do we keep getting ourselves involved in this sort of shit?” I said. “Seriously, two quests in a row both involving possession and attempted world domination. Why can’t they give us a nice quest for a change. Maybe one where we’re guest judges at a stew-making competition, or helping some friendly old farmer find his missing chickens.”
“If our recent history is anything to go by,” replied Rel. “It'd likely turn out that the winner of the stew-making contest was actually a cultist who'd added some mind-altering poison to his recipe to turn anyone who ate it into a zombie, and the chicken would be missing because it'd been sacrificed in a ritual to resurrect an ancient god determined to devour reality itself.”
I snorted. “True…” I said before glancing at Hrundar. He was staring at the portal with an almost fanatical intensity.
“What gives, Hrundar?” I asked. “I thought you were all about yeti supremacy. I don't understand how working with some evil spirit aligns with that belief.”
He tore his eyes from the portal to look at me. “Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made in the pursuit of power. The other yeti chiefs were short-sighted. They had no interest in expansion or building an empire that would last for millennia and span every continent of this world.” He glanced at Helgana. “A true king understands that compromises are sometimes necessary to achieve their goals. Helgana is... was my tribe's shaman. She too shared my glorious vision for the future of our people. She understood the magnitude of what I was trying to accomplish and supported it wholeheartedly. That is why she was willing to sacrifice her soul to host one of the Aurak.”
The surface of the portal started to ripple. An indistinct shape, something vaguely resembling a hand, passed through it. It moved slowly, as though it were having to force its way through.
“For the first of the Aurak to enter this world, there must be a willing and suitable host,” said Hrundar before turning his crazed eyes back on us. “Now, however, the spirit inhabiting Helgana can call through one of its brethren to possess the body of anyone who's willing or too weak to resist. It took very little effort to bring the rest of the yeti chiefs under our control. A little poison here. A knife in the back there. Once they were barely clinging to life, claiming them was trivial.”
“Hrundar,” I said. “I'm no expert on evil spirits, but I'm fairly certain they're not just helping you out of the kindness of their hearts. You do realise that, once they're in a position to do so, they'll probably try to take over this world or some cliché shit like that? What exactly do you think will happen to the yeti 'master species' then?”
The creature emerging from the portal had made some progress. An entire arm was now visible. It didn't have skin, scales, or fur. Instead, it seemed to be made from densely packed black mist.
He waved my question aside as though it were ridiculous. “The only thing they ask in return is that I provide suitable hosts to allow more of their kind to enter this world.”
Jeez... and people called me stupid.
I nodded slowly. “Yes...” I said. “And what do you think happens once they're all here? Do you think they'll want to coexist peacefully alongside your magnificent yeti empire? Or do you think it's more likely they'll kill you all and use your bodies and souls as ingredients in some fucked-up arcane shenanigans?”
“I– that– no,” said Hrundar. He looked at Helgana uncertainly. “No... they understand the importance of what I am trying to accomplish.”
Whatever. I tried my best, but there are some people who just can't be helped. It's like when you meet someone who genuinely believes Pepsi is better than Coke. They're clearly a lost cause.
“Do not listen to him, Hrundar,” said Helgana. Summoning spell complete, she lowered her staff and moved to stand beside the yeti king. She laid a hand gently on his forearm. “He seeks to plant the seeds of doubt within your mind. To weaken your resolve and lead you from the righteous path.”
He nodded, her words wiping away the little uncertainty I’d managed to inspire. Honestly, it was incredible how far people were willing to bury their heads in the sand if you told them exactly what they wanted to hear.
“What do you require of me?” he asked.
Helgana turned towards the portal. The first of the Aurak had now passed through. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, tall and slender, its body composed of dense black mist that never seemed to settle into a fixed form.
Another followed closely behind. This one seemed to have a much easier time crossing, as though the first Aurak had done the hard work, weakening whatever force had resisted their passage.
They both hovered near the portal, as if waiting for something.
“My siblings require hosts,” said Helgana. “They will not survive for long without suitable vessels.” She gestured towards me and Rel. “We must break their defences to ensure the process is... smooth. I will allow you to deal with the man who attempted to test your resolve. I will handle the rodent.” She ran her tongue along the points of her teeth before breaking into another one of those creepy-as-fuck smiles. “There is the stench of the arcane about him... breaking him will be delicious.”
As the last word left her mouth, she raised her staff and thrust it forward, a swirling mass of dark energy erupting from the tip and streaking towards Rel.
He was ready, his fur suddenly standing on end as lightning crackled across his body, his eyes blazing with all the fury of a storm. He raised both paws, and lightning poured from them in one continuous stream.
The two spells clashed in midair, both casters pouring power into them. For a moment, they seemed evenly matched, the dazzling blue lightning and roiling darkness locked in a stalemate.
Then Rel drove forward a step, his stream of lightning surging with renewed intensity and forcing the warring spells closer to Helgana. She snarled and abandoned her spell, leaping aside to narrowly avoid the lightning. It slammed into the ground where she'd been standing and exploded, sending ice and earth raining down around her.
Helgana rolled to her feet and jabbed the butt of her staff into the ground. Huge tendrils of darkness burst from the ice, pulsing and writhing like enormous tentacles. She thrust her staff towards Rel once more and the tendrils surged towards him.
Holy shit.
“Go on, Rel!” I roared. “Show that evil spirit bitch how we roll!”
I hadn't seen Rel challenged like this in a magical duel since he battled Zeus for the first time back on Floor Eight of the Tower.
I bet he was loving it.
Unfortunately, I wasn't going to have the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the show. Hrundar had paused briefly to watch, but his attention was now fixed firmly on me.
I grinned.
I was more than a little excited about this fight. Partly because Hrundar was an utter moron who needed a good smack, but mostly because it was the perfect chance to test out my new base stats. Absorbing the Heart of the Banished Dark had brought them somewhere close to where they used to be with my usual equipment.
Hrundar raised a hand to his side, fingers spread, and a spear began to take shape. It shimmered white, like ice reflecting the sun, with veins of blue running up its surface before gathering at the spearhead.
Right. It was time to carry out a few experiments.
Hrundar was the final boss of a Tier Five, two-star difficulty quest with a recommended group size of five to eight. With the exception of the Dark One, it was quite possibly the toughest challenge we'd faced since beginning our item-less grind-a-thon, so I was very curious to see how he measured up.
Test one: speed.
He lunged forwards with a roar, his spear driving towards my chest. My eyes widened slightly as I twisted aside, only just avoiding the blow. The tip of the spear sliced through my shirt as it passed.
Fuck, yes. It looked like all those muscles weren't just for show. The big bastard was fast.
Test two: durability.
Hrundar's momentum carried him past me, and my hand shot out, my fingers closing around the fur at the back of his neck. I yanked him back, sending him stumbling, then launched myself after him. I threw a sweeping right hook, my fist slamming into the side of his jaw.
You know in the old comic books where they'd add the sound effects – normally an onomatopoeia – to show that the hero had just landed one hell of a punch? Maybe a Pow! or a Bam!
If this fight was ever shown in comic form, a Crack! would've been perfect.
My punch shattered the big fucker's jaw, the force of the blow sweeping him off his feet and sending him soaring through the air. He crashed to the ground in a jumbled heap, and I let out a disappointed sigh, thinking the fight was already over.
I grinned even wider when he let out a pained groan and pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. He glared at me through slightly unfocused eyes, then shoved a hand into a pouch hanging from the strap of his armour. When he withdrew it, he was clutching a handful of something that looked a little like moss, except it was a vivid blood red. He shoved it into his mouth and shuddered violently as it slid down his throat.
I expected it to be some sort of yeti healing herb and that moments later there'd be a nasty grinding sound as his jaw worked its way back into place. I was completely wrong. It turned out to be less a 'healing herb' and more a 'ignore all your injuries and become an absolute psychopath' herb.
Not only did Hrundar's eyes regain their focus, little splotches of red appeared in them, slowly spreading until no trace of their original colour remained.
My third test was going to be strength. This would've involved letting him land a blow and seeing how my enhanced peasant garb and durability fared against it.
That plan was out.
I'd seen too many videos of crackheads doing completely insane shit. Not seeming to feel pain, shrugging off tasers, taking half a dozen police officers to pin them to the ground...
No thanks. I might've been committed to training, but even I had my limits.
Hrundar roared, and a fine red mist began radiating from his body. He tossed his spear aside and charged back into battle. There was nothing skilled about him now. He roared like a berserker, unloading a wild flurry of punches, each of which would've turned a Trialist on Kaelis's level into something that looked like it'd been fed through a mincer.
The herb had made him stronger, faster, and far less predictable. The fight quickly devolved into something that more closely resembled a drunken brawl than a duel between two skilled warriors.
It was awesome.
After one particularly wild low blow caught me squarely in the crotch, I was suddenly incredibly grateful for my enhanced peasant garb and the Heart of the Banished Dark. Without the extra 15 durability they provided, it's entirely possible that the punch would've ensured the Brookes bloodline ended with me.
And I’m sure we can all agree that depriving future generations of my magnificent genetics would've been a crime against humanity.
I straightened my fingertips into a hand-knife, ducked beneath one of Hrundar's wild swings, then thrust my hand forwards. My fingers punched straight into his bicep. I dragged my arm sideways, slicing the muscle open, and for what had to be the several hundredth time that day, found myself standing beneath a downpour of yeti blood. The pain was enough to penetrate Hrundar’s drug-induced berserker state, and he snatched his arm back.
I activated Flight, shot between his legs, then came up behind him. Having to use both arms because of the absurd girth of his neck, I put him into a chokehold.
I squeezed.
Hard.
He flailed wildly, reaching over his shoulders in an attempt to tear me loose, but I tucked my head against the back of his neck and held on for dear life. He was a persistent bastard, and it took more than a minute before he finally began to weaken. He stumbled forwards, then sank to his knees. He clawed weakly at my forearms, but there was no strength left in his fingers.
“Hush, little yeti, don't you cry,” I sang softly in his ear. “Pete's gonna buy you a–”
Something plunged into my back.
It was impossibly cold, like diving into an icy lake on a scorching summer's day. It wasn't physical. Instead, it passed through my clothing and skin as though they weren't even there, sinking deep into my body.
I looked over my shoulder to see one of the Aurak looming over me, its arm extended.
Shit.
The cold seeped into my muscles and bones and I felt my grip on Hrundar weakening. The yeti drew in a ragged breath, and his struggles reignited. I felt his enormous fingers hook into the fabric of my shirt. With a triumphant roar, he tore me free and slammed me into the ice.
The Aurak moved with me, sinking into the ground as it clung to my back like a parasite. I barely managed to raise my arms before Hrundar was on top of me, his fists crashing into my arms, chest, and face.
Despite my durability, Hrundar's punches were doing work. My nose broke, a bone in my forearm snapped, several ribs cracked, and blood streamed into my eyes.
Please, no. I always knew there was a real possibility that I’d die during the Trial… but to be killed by a yeti? That's just embarrassing.
My vision started to blur.
I closed my eyes...
And found myself standing in a small white room. The floor, walls, and ceiling were pristine, and standing directly in front of me was Elirion.
He did not look impressed.
“Boy,” he said, his voice low and gruff, “do you have any idea how long it took me to create the Essence of Knowledge – Aura Manipulation? I swear, if you die now, mere months after receiving it, I'll follow you into the afterlife and kill you all over again.”
“You can do that?” I asked.
He reached up to squeeze the bridge of his nose and sighed. Then he stared at me for a few moments, his frown making the old scars across his face seem even deeper.
“I have no intention of allowing my student to die to a yeti and a bargain-bin parasitic entity,” he said. Then he reached over and slapped me upside the head. “Do you know what your problem is, boy? You think with your fists instead of your brain. Have you already forgotten that you possess a weapon whose potential is infinitely greater?”
Oh, right… Aura.
I slapped myself upside the head.
“Sorry, sensei,” I said, bowing. I glanced around the room. “So… where are we? Based on what you said before, I’m assuming I’m not dead.”
“This conversation is taking place in your subconscious,” he replied. “I created this room because, quite frankly, your mind consists of ninety-nine percent nonsense.”
“That seems a little harsh...”
He stared at me flatly. “I was being generous.”
I couldn't help it. I laughed.
There I was, an evil spirit leeching my life force, a yeti beating the ever-loving shit out of me, and somehow I was having a conversation in my subconscious with my Aura Master while he insulted the contents of my mind.
My life had truly become incredible. I would be so fucking livid if it turned out I'd survived the car accident and this was all taking place in some drug-induced coma. That would have to be the worst wake-up in the history of humankind.
“Okay, boy,” said Elirion. “There is no more time for nonsense. This conversation is taking place outside the normal flow of time, but you will not survive much longer. Even now, I can feel the parasite attempting to take possession of your body. In a moment, I'm going to jolt you back to consciousness. When I do, I want you to unleash your Aura against both the yeti and the parasite. Do not hold back.”