KC: Chapter 22

“SCREEEEEE!” Cutthroat’s bird-like screech echoed off the walls, and then her keel nearly drove me into the ground as she flung herself on top of me. The blow landed squarely across the hookwing’s back instead of my head. Bones crunched and one hind leg gave way. She huffed with pain, falling to rest on her wrist joints. 

[Cutthroat uses Pack Protector!]

[Pack Bond: Cutthroat’s Attack and Defense sharply increases! HP: 244/1200]

[Cutthroat has a Fractured Pelvis! Max HP reduced, Movement -65%!]

“Goddammit, Cutthroat: I respawn, you don’t!” I slapped every poltice I had left onto her belly, lifting her HP back up to its new maximum - about 70% of her usual total. She hissed at me, mantling over my prone body as Suri charged ahead into the fray. The Beserker’s skin was smoking, her hair standing on end, but every hit she landed on the Broodmother was restoring her HP as her Primal Rage ability built toward its maximum damage output.

Cutthroat was suffused with a deep red aura not unlike Suri’s as she snarled, limping up to her one good leg. As I chugged potions, she stood over me, blocking and swatting away the cable-like limbs as they flailed over us, soaking Electro Web attacks, fending off slime and static shocks. When I was back to half, I slid out from under her and used the Spear to get to my feet.

“Get her, girl! Icecream!” I gave Cutthroat her old attack command, getting ready to Jump. “Rin! Can you heal Suri?”

“Yes!” Rin cried back. One of her turrets was crumpled on the ground, while the other was on its last legs. The Mercurion made a beeline for Suri, who was furiously hacking into the Broodmother’s bleeding abdomen with her axes. She was hovering at around 30% HP, wailing on the boss with supernatural speed.

[Suri deals 1292 damage!]

[Cutthroat deals 200 damage!]

[Broodmother uses Restoration! HP: 4130/15,000]

[Rin casts Haste! +20% movement and attack speed!]

My AP bar was full from the massive hit I’d taken. Gritting my teeth, I sprung up, dodging the flailing bullwhip limbs, and threw everything I had at the Broodmother. Lances of black energy slammed into it, rocking the giant worm to one side. One of Suri’s axes broke, its durability gone, and she seamlessly dodged a tentacle, rolled to her giant sword, and hauled it up like it weighed nothing. Her eyes were molten gold, blazing with inhuman strength as she roared and charged back in to swing.

[You deal 1983 damage!]

[Suri deals 1921 damage!]

[Broodmother uses Restoration! HP: 1726/15,000]

Across the room, Karalti drew a deep breath. “Hector! Go left!”

The Broodmother spun its bulk around and began to dive back into the pit of slime. But Karalti was faster. Her breath weapon slashed a line of white magnesium fire down the front of the giant worm, and it wailed long and loud as the fire ripped across its wounds. The limbs, each one as thick as bridge cables, smashed down around us, sending chunks of rock and crystal flying. It stopped trying to run away and began to turbocharge in preperation for one last Plasma Blast: a blast that would kill me, Suri and Cutthroat if it was able to get it off.

“Fuck you! Fuck YOU!” I vaulted up onto one of the writhing metal limbs and ran up along its bucking length, waiting for the right moment to Jump, Shadow Dash, and then land on the Broodmother’s open mouth. Fighting shocks of electricity, I rammed the blazing Spear down its gullet, while Cutthroat buried the full length of her scythe-like claws into the monster’s burning belly. Suri was right behind her, using her sword to crack the monster’s carapace open. Bright blue viscera spilled over the ground, and with one final screech, the huge creature toppled. The whip-like limbs went limp, falling to the ground.

[You have defeated Swamp Hag Broodmother!]

[You gain 1600 EXP!]

[Congratulations! You are Level 18!]

[Congratulations! Karalti is Level 10!]

[Suri Ba’hadir is Level 21!]

[Rin Lu is Level 17!]

I jumped when I felt the Broodmother begin to fall, landing lightly just ahead of the wave of bug juice. Suri dropped her sword, then went to hands and knees, heaving for breath and drooling blood from her mouth even as a faint golden glow suffused her: her level up. Cutthroat limped off-side and sunk down, panting and wide-eyed with pain. Her left leg was hanging useless, the hip joint soft and deformed. Rin was singed, but mostly unharmed. Her turrets, on the other hand, were fucked - maybe beyond repair.

“FUCK!” I threw the Spear down in a fit of pique, burning off the nervous energy that threatened to turn me into shaking jelly. “Jesus fucking Christ!”

Karalti twisted and scrabbled, then slid through the entry to the Broodmother’s lair like a cork through the neck of a wine bottle. “Yeah! We did it!”

“Barely. Fuck me,” Suri gasped. She looked up and around, wild-eyed with fatigue. “Cutthroat? Is Cutthroat okay? She’s literally just five points off Level 18.”

“Of course. Can we find a bug for her to kill or something?” I collected my weapon and went to the ailing dinosaur as she tried to turn around and lick her injured leg. When I crouched in front of it, she growled.

“Easy, girl.” I held up a hand to her, reaching out to gently examine her pelvis. The flesh around her hip joint was soft, dimpling under even a light touch. “Yeah, this is fucked. I have something that can help her, but it’s alchemical.”

Suri spat to the side and rocked back onto her rump. “What’s that mean?”

“There’s a small chance it’ll kill her, or Strange her.” I winced.

Suri groaned and shook her head. “Do it. If she had a choice between death and disablement, I know which one she’d pick.”

“Yeah. It’s really important that we keep her out of the sun for a minimum two days after she takes this. This stuff is seriously phototoxic – she’ll take damage on contact with sunlight.”

Cutthroat fixed me with fierce, intelligent eyes as I pulled my one and only Bonefuse potion from my Inventory. The dark potion cast a deep blue-violet light. I set it aside along with the Spear, and held up both hands.

“I have to set this fracture, girl,” I said to her. “Try not to kill me.”

The hookwing snorted, nostrils flexing. Her muzzle tracked me as I lay both hands on the injured hip. As soon as my hands touched her skin, she growled low in her chest.

“Here.” Suri crawled over and sunk to her knees at the other end. Cutthroat immediately lost interest in me, crooning as Suri took her head into her lap and stroked the singed feathers back. The hookwing shivered, and her eyes half-closed with pleasure. “Okay… just be quick.”

Karalti padded over to us and ducked her head, feet booming against the cavern floor. “Will she be okay?”

“That’s the plan.” I got my hands in position, and a virtual diagram appeared that demonstrated what I needed to do and how to push. I had to press the heels of my palms in, hook up, then push in. All the crafts I’d tried in Archemi had this sort of rhythm-based minigame, but banging out armor and stropping leather wasn’t quite the same. They didn’t have giant murder-claws. “Okay… three, two, one.”

I followed the diagram and put my back into it. Cutthroat howled, kicking loose rocks along the floor with her other foot, but Suri hung onto her head for long enough that I could put the hip back in place. She sunk down, whimpering, and nuzzled into Suri’s chest with her snout.

“Yeah, I know. I do the same thing when I’m miserable.” I picked up the potion and handed it to Suri. “Here. Remember, no sunlight. Two to four days. She’ll lose one percent HP every minute she’s outdoors in the daytime.”

Rin and I held Cutthroat’s limbs down as Suri plugged Cutthroat’s nostrils with her fingers and poured the potion into her mouth. The hookwing snortled and gurgled, struggling weakly against our grip. We waited tensely as the bottle drained. When it was all gone, Suri folded the empty flask into her Inventory.

Cutthroat snapped her jaws at me, hissing sullenly, then suddenly stopped in place. She cocked her head back and forth in confusion. There was a wet crunching sound deep in her pelvis. With a yelp of surprise, she struggled up off the ground, dragging us all with her. We let her go, and she hopped a few steps forward before gingerly putting her weight on her left foot.

All of us let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew!” Rin dusted herself off and pushed her mask up to show her face. “Nice crafting, Hector! Looks like it worked perfectly!”

“Yeah.” I rubbed the back of my head. My braid was messed up from the fight, and I fought down the urge to pull it out. Vanity had to wait. “That was a close one. I would have kicked myself if we’d lost her. She’s my second-favorite murder chicken.”

“AHEM.” Karalti loomed down beside me, her throat vibrating with a deep growl. “WHAT did you just call me?”

“I didn’t call you anything.” I crossed my arms and grinned back at her.

“You implied it!”

I saw Suri chug one of the stamina potions I’d given her. She made a face. “Come on, kids – time to go find Vash.”

“Come on, Suri. There’s no way he’s still alive.” I gestured at the recumbent corpse of the Broodmother. “This thing nearly killed all of us.”

Rin gave us a rueful little shrug. “You guys go ahead. I’ve got to repair Hopper and Lovelace to be able to get them back to the fort. I think they held up pretty well!”

“Didn’t deal much damage though,” Suri said. “Twenty points here, twenty points there… might need to get a bit more momentum in those crossbow bolts.”

“Oh.” Rin deflated, and rubbed her elbow with the other hand. “Yeah, I scaled those down for… for umm…”

“Don’t sweat it.” Suri went over and clapped her on the shoulder. “Come on, Hector: let’s loot this thing and go exploring.”

“Your HP is still in the pits.” I glanced at Suri’s corona as she trudged over to the body. “You gonna heal that up, missy?”

“Soon as you get the sand outta your cunt.” Moving stiffly, she slowly crouched down and began scanning her HUD. “Let’s see… lot of monster parts here, potion boy. Oooh, blue-grade mana.”

“I need that!” Rin called out.

“Okay! Now, let’s see here.” I cozied up to Suri’s side, leaning in a little while I did the same thing she was doing. The Broodmother had a lot of loot. Yanik [Marsh Scout armor], weapons, money, jewels… 

6500 Olbia

249 Rubles

Bluecrystal Mana x 5

+3 Vlachian Saber

Yanik Marsh Scout Armor

Manual of Physical Health

Metal Detector

+2 Mastercrafted Spellglove

Fine Leather Pouch

Staff of Ghost Touch

Goat of Terror

Black Opal

Sapphire x 3

Light Steel Shield

Ring of Web

Ring of Force Shield

A grin split my face. “Look at all this! Holy shit, that’s a lot of gear.”

“Yeah. Mind if I have the sapphires?” Suri asked me. 

“They’re all yours, babe. I want that armor, but we’ll look over and… what the fuck is a ‘Goat of Terror’?”

“Probably what it says on the tin.” Suri chuckled, then paused. “Wait. Did you just call me babe?”

I thought about that for a second. “… I plead the Fifth.”

“At least he didn’t call you ’Murder chicken’.” Behind me, Karalti huffed.

“Yeah, but you’re the Number One Murder Chicken. Isn’t that right babe?”

I Shadow Dashed before either Karalti or Suri could hit me, and ran off giggling as both of them tore after me into the bowels of the Broodmother’s lair.