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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b0SPJrvAu-yWypHppH_pEthRGbjxDG9QIz-rLQkDJH4/edit?usp=drivesdk
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Alex got his companion’s attention, leaning in and whispering, trusting to their sound dampening skills as he briefly explained the plan.
Alex reached down and dumped his HP and Life into the cable, directing it to overwhelm the flow of undeath mana and track back up the cable to where the Plague Lord was waiting.
Even as his very health poured out, overcoming the far weaker power—one that his health and Life were very experienced at obliterating—he kept his eyes on the flesh golems, looking for any sign that they’d seen something amiss.
They didn’t seem to.
Even the Plague Lord seemed oblivious.
Alex’s HP slammed into the creature, breaking a path for his Life, and the two energies worked together to ash the being before it could react.
A moment later, all those it was connected to roared in final agony, the force that had been animating them fading, leaving them lifeless flesh once more.
The three Initiates with him met his gaze as he grinned in pride and triumph.
Paresh quietly cleared his throat. “That easy?”
Alex nodded. “I don’t see why not.”
Maria arched an eyebrow. “That would be… so anticlimactic. You expect all the other undead to just fall over, defeated in the single act?”
Alex held up a finger. “Well, actually, the Plague Lord is adding in something to the power as he’s giving it out. I do think that’s how he’s controlling them, and likely how the commanders are doing the same.”
“So… you expect this to be a keystone army? Really?”
Alex shrugged. “The information we got from the Watcher implied we could end this threat once and for all, here. Him tying the undead to himself making this a keystone army is actually quite a reasonable possibility. I’d rate that as the most accurate part of my guesswork. Why not?”
Natasha sighed, rubbing at her temples. “While I don’t doubt that you might be right about the death of the Plague Lord ending in a win for this scenario, I think expecting to be able to just transfuse life into the creature and claim victory is… foolish.”
Alex opened his mouth to object but hesitated.
As he considered it, while it felt clever, it also seemed like it would be a rather oddly niche way of finding victory. He grimaced. “I still want to try it.”
Surprisingly, Natasha nodded in easy acceptance. “Oh, of course.”
The other two looked at her like she was mad even as Alex grinned in triumph.
“However, I want you to be smart about it, and we need an exit strategy for when this fails.”
Alex’s grin turned to a glower. “If.”
Natasha closed her eyes and took a slow breath before nodding once. “If.”
Paresh gave a small smile and shook his head. “Very well. I see no issue trying this, so long as we have a means of escape”—he glanced at Alex—“if it doesn’t work out.”
Maria grimaced, though obviously for a different reason than Alex, before she grudgingly nodded. “Fine. I can’t say I have a better idea. Who knows? It just might work, and wouldn’t we all feel stupid if it could have worked, and we didn’t bother trying?”
Alex smiled. “That’s the spirit.”
She continued. “The fact that such logic could lead us to try all manner of idiocy should be—and will be—willfully ignored.”
Alex gave her a flat stare. “You could have stopped. You know, and let me have that?”
“You’re right. I could have.” She gave a small smile.
As Alex opened his mouth to snap back, Natasha cleared her throat. “Now is not the time. Paresh? Can you go check our back-trail? See if any of the undead have stirred or any others have come through.”
He nodded, fading into the darkness and vanishing so quickly and completely that it had to be a skill of some kind.
Alex supposed it could be a spell, but if so, it had hidden the mana use as well… which made sense for a stealth spell, if that’s what it had been.
Maria checked her knife and buckler unnecessarily. “Is there anything we can do to help this… plan have a better chance of success?”
Alex chose to ignore the incredulity in the woman’s tone. “No, but thank you for the offer…” He then had a thought. “Actually, could you obscure us from as many forms of detection as possible?”
She gave him another flat look, waiting.
He cleared his throat. “I mean… more than you already are?”
She sighed. “Does the term idiot savant mean anything to you?”
“That’s a bit harsh and hardly accurate…”
Maria shook her head. “You’re right, savants have more to offer… But that doesn’t matter. We’re on this rollercoaster, I suppose I shouldn’t whine about the loops.”
Natasha gave a crooked grin. “You get used to it after a bit.”
Alex was torn between thanking Natasha for the support and complaining about the clear back-handed insult… and the direct insult from Maria.
Before he could do either, the Russian woman placed her hand on his shoulder. “I do believe in you, Alex. Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest, and Maria’s right. This might work, and we can all walk home laughing, ready to reap rewards and get on with getting home.”
Alex felt his somewhat childish objections fall away, remembering that this woman was trying desperately to get home to her husband and son. He had no idea what Paresh and Maria were fighting for, but he shouldn’t forget how serious this was for everyone.
No mistake, he took it seriously, but in a large sense, if he failed and died that was it. He’d have failed and died, but there weren’t people waiting for him back home.
He didn’t want it to happen, but for the most part, it wouldn’t affect anyone he’d known before the System.
He gave a slow nod. “I know, Natasha, and thank you.”
She gave a tight smile before removing her hand. “I assume that a shorter distance will be easier?”
Alex frowned. “Well, no, but we should be closer.”
She arched an eyebrow at him, causing him to continue.
“I’ll have to overcome more undeath mana the further away I am, but that’s not really to do with distance.”
She closed her eyes and sighed again. “Alex, that’s like saying ‘It’s not the depth that’s a problem, it’s all the water above you that crushes you.’”
He tilted his head to the side, considering before he opened his mouth.
Natasha held up one finger. “No, Alex. Let it go.”
His teeth clicked shut. “Yes, ma’am.”
Maria was grinning. “I think I might want to be you when I grow up.”
Natasha turned to the younger woman, raising an eyebrow. “Aren’t you twenty or something?”
“Twenty-three, but you have to have aspirations. Any tips?”
Alex glowered but decided it was wiser not to comment.
Natasha nodded. “Get married, have a son, then observe. Men aren’t that hard to figure out.” She glanced toward Alex and gave a half smile. “And the good ones are usually open to the right sort of input.”
Maria shifted, putting one hip out and resting her hand there as she rolled her eyes. “Oh, I know about that.”
Natasha shook her head. “No, child. I said the good ones, and the right sort of input. Don’t use your physicality to manipulate. It taints everything, even if you do get what you want in the short term.”
Alex… suddenly felt very awkward standing there, and he turned back to look closer at the cables. In that moment, Paresh reappeared, and Alex let out a huge breath. “Oh, praise the narrative timing.”
Paresh frowned in confusion, glancing toward Natasha. The Russian waved him off. “Not important.”
He shrugged. “Very well. No change behind us. So long as whatever you do doesn’t wake these things up?” He pointed to the undead that were spaced throughout the passage around them. “We should be fine.”
Alex had been willfully ignoring those frozen undead, and he didn’t see a need to change that now. “I honestly have no idea what will happen to them if this fails.”
Three sets of eyes regarded him expectantly, practically forcing him to continue.
“But he seems to be feeding them power to help them grow and change into more powerful variants. If this fails, I would bet he doesn’t want to disrupt that, assuming the System would even allow it given the balancing restrictions we’ve seen come into play. How are we on time?”
Natasha checked. “Fifteen minutes until they should be attacking again. We’ll need to run back to make sure we can get to them soon enough for your purification to facilitate the assault. That is unless this plan goes south really fast… but then we’ll probably be running for a different reason.”
Alex nodded. “Then I should give this a try. Now or never.”
Maria seemed to almost say something but held her tongue.
Hey, miracle of miracles. Maybe this will go as hoped. He ignored the fact that he’d only really known the woman for a short time, so it was hardly fair to assume she was argumentative all the time.
He knelt down, placing his hand on a single cable. In this way, he would only have to overcome the undeath in the single line rather than wasting energy across multiple paths unnecessarily.
Let’s get it done.
With a deep breath, Alex activated Life Transfusion and pushed his HP into the cable.
The flow of undeath further down the line instantly cut off as his HP fought against the oncoming flow, diminishing it and lessening itself with each passing second.
Alex pushed his health up the cable, finding it flowing easily due to the nature of the runic structure of the cable, though his HP didn’t actually flow though the structure like the undead mana did.
In fact, what it felt more like was his HP was walking on either side of a canal, attacking fish as they swam downstream. If anything, in the analogy, his HP was ‘dying’ as it became so exhausted that it fell into the water and drowned.
Regardless, he got the sense that he was removing close to five points of undeath for each point of HP he spent, maybe as many as ten. This allowed for his HP to rapidly race up the line.
Behind him something sounded like it was stirring, bringing a sigh from Natasha’s lips and a random string of words from Paresh and Maria.
If Alex had to guess, whatever creature was at the other end of the line was no longer in the odd frozen stasis since its energy inflow had been cut off.
That makes sense. Still, that meant he’d been wrong, and the process could be interrupted in a non-catastrophic manner.
He shrugged. Even with that little hiccup, things were working better than he’d hoped, so he sent in a packet of Life to follow the first surge of HP and add a bit more punch when it reached the Plague Lord.
The command he’d given his HP and Life was simple: Trace the undeath back to the creature and destroy it.
It was a simple instruction that shouldn’t have any issues and—
The Plague Lord’s eyes snapped open, already locked on the cable carrying Alex’s HP and Life.
Oh… Right. I could sense when Stephen’s death was pushing against my life, it makes sense that he could sense his energy being attacked while it is still so closely linked to him.
Alex braced himself for a fight—a clash of their energies—ready to give it all he had and go down to the dregs to overcome any resistance this creature could bring to bear.
The Plague Lord pulled out a knife, and Alex frowned, raising his left hand to be ready. If it threw the knife to distract him, he’d just use Life’s Active Defense. He wouldn’t be so easily tricked.
Unfortunately, the Plague Lord seemed a bit more clever than that.
It slashed across all of the few hundred miniscule cables that led toward Alex’s passage, blocking Alex’s HP and Life before they could reach him, and preventing any other avenue of attack… along with cutting off the flow to every creature in their direction.
Alex blinked a few times as the Plague Lord showed a small, vindictively triumphant smile.
Oh… Oh, pasture chocolate…