Chapter 96: Tier 2

Mason’s speed and jump carried him past the worm’s larger blades entirely. He sliced away as many of the smaller teeth as he could going in, but many more still raked his skin. Then he struck a kind of long, sphincter, an oval tube of skeletal muscle fibers filled with acid that sucked him down.

[Apex predator activated: elemental.]

The excruciating fluid became a mild burn, and he knew it wouldn’t kill him quickly. He squirmed and cut, helping the thing swallow him deeper and deeper. With Ranger’s Mark he could see its organs—he could see everything. The stomach was close.

With several breathless seconds of being squeezed and contorted down in a trail of blood and goo as he cut, he finally slopped to a larger space. The worm was convulsing at his attacks, clearly affected by the pain. He could barely breath, but he’d expected that and held his breath. Time to learn how long his body could endure.

He sloshed through acid and struck at the stomach lining, activating Predator’s Strike on cooldown and slashing with abandon. He had only one task—to cut straight out for air.

Blood, goo and acid washed over him, coating his sword, his arms, his face. The worm was squeezing and thrashing, turning him and rolling in agony. But he held out. And he cut.

What

’s wrong?

He wanted to shout.

Having a little indigestion? Eat something that disagrees with you?

Ranger’s Mark told him how much flesh and hide he had yet to cut through, and it wasn’t pretty. The acid was slowly burning him alive, the air straining in his lungs. But Mason was always the stubborn type.

Let

’s see who lasts longer

, he wiped his eyes and kept hacking, pulling globs of worm flesh and goo away with his bare hand.

* * *

“I’ve killed things worse than big earthworms, he says,” Carl grumbled as he tried to see out from Violet’s hole. “Follow the giant purple thing. Sure. Or maybe I’ll just climb up that hundred foot sheer hole with a wolf on my shoulders. No problem, kid. Go have fun.”

The giant worm slammed against the tunnel wall and shook everything like an earthquake. Streak whined and Carl put a hand on his head to comfort him. “I know what you mean, buddy. This is fucked. I should be balls deep in Silvie right now, not…wherever the hell we are.”

The worm was roaring and screeching, coiling itself and rolling all over the tunnel.

“What in the name of God is happening out there.”

A weird bubbling, sort of tittering sound practically sent him into a spasm of alarm before Carl realized it was Violet behind him.

“Yeah I don’t speak worm like that other guy,” he said. The worm sort of

grunted

, then turned and started digging away.

Carl had no idea what else to do but follow.

They went on for a little while, then the damn thing curved its tunnel and went right back towards the Devourer.

“Hey!” Carl shouted over the digging. “This is the wrong way. No bueno. Very bad worm. Go the other way!”

Unsurprisingly, his words had no affect. Violet just kept on digging, and Carl followed along cursing and begging every God he could remember. He had no mana left to speak of. He could still warp and stab things, but that was about it. And stabbing the Devourer was a bit like tickling a bear.

How could anyone or anything kill that fucking worm? What on earth was Mason doing out there?

On the other hand, he’d watched the crazy kid shoot a giant insect man down like it was nothing. The amount of arrows he’d loosed in mere seconds was inhuman, and he hadn’t even flinched at the charge—like he hadn’t questioned himself at all.

But that was just a big insect man, and not remotely the same. Carl flinched as he heard the worm thrashing again, watching dirt and little rocks fall from the roof as the thrashing continued. At least that meant Mason wasn’t dead, right?

Another boom. More whining from Streak as their little tunnel shook like a leaf.

God help us

, Carl thought. He didn’t want to get buried like Mason had. Would Violet save him if the whole tunnel collapsed?

Could

he? Er, she?

Then the little tunnel broke through again into the larger one, and Violet popped out and turned to go make another tunnel somewhere else, leaving Carl and Streak to watch the madness.

The Devourer had now curled up entirely, and begun to…

eat

itself. It bit into its own body again and again, the same blades used to slice open rock wall spraying blood and worm goo as it tunneled into its own body.

Carl just stared with his mouth open. When he couldn’t stand to watch it anymore, he turned away then shivered when he found Mason’s wolf licking its lips. The purple worm was watching outside the tunnel now, making little sounds and practically vibrating, staring with coal black eyes. It was the craziest moment of Carl’s entire damn life. For about a second.

Then the giant worm pulled back and shuddered, letting out a long, slow moan that nearly made Carl cover his eyes, but slowly dropped in volume. Its huge front flopped over and smashed into the ground, leaking and spraying goo and puss and blood. Then the cavern rung with silence.

[You have slain The Great Devourer. Experience awarded (major).]

[Great Devourer’s Lair complete: Reward: Have you tried looking for a key?]

[Objective complete. Destroy the worms threatening Sanctuary. Bonus experience.]

[Level 9 reached. Please select your new power in the next sixty minutes.]

Carl stared in something like disbelief at the messages.

Then a green blade emerged out of the middle of the worm. It hacked and sliced until there was an opening, and a burnt, hairless, slime-covered thing that might have been Mason stuck out. He gasped as if for breath, then slid out and smacked hard into the tunnel floor, and lay unmoving.

“Sweet merciful God.” Carl crossed himself, then ran forward with Streak to Mason’s side. He was steaming with some kind of acid, and Carl wasn’t even sure if he wanted to touch him.

“The pool,” croaked the horror-flick looking Mason. “Throw me. Water.”

“Dear mother of...” Carl looked back and forth for somewhere to hold, then Streak was barking in impatience and Carl grabbed Mason’s foot and started pulling. Streak bit the other leg, and between them they managed to drag Mason a good fifty feet to the water, and tossed him in.

Carl’s hands were burning and he dunked them as Streak leapt in entirely. Mason was just floating in the water like a piece of driftwood. Carl purposefully refrained from thinking

like a corpse

.

He really didn’t want to go back in the pool. But with a curse he splashed in and swam over to the kid, trying to hold his face out of the water. He wasn’t a great swimmer, or at least hadn’t been, but his body was far stronger these days.

With a bit of effort he got Mason’s horrificly burned face upturned, and heard some wheezing breaths. Then the kid was sputtering with weird, stroke-like twitches and noises and Carl nearly panicked until he realized: Mason was laughing.

“Ah hell he’s delirious. You’re alright, kid. You uh…” he took another good look at Mason’s acid-washed skin and found he couldn’t talk. “You’re…you’re going to be…fine...”

Mason reached an equally burned hand out of the water, opening one slightly glowing green eye. He outstretched basically skinless fingers and smiled with cracked and bleeding lips. He was holding a key.

“For the door,” he grinned with practically skeletal teeth, then his eyes fluttered and he jerked in the water. “Get me out.” He muttered. “I’ll heal now. But I can drown.”

Carl leapt out and dragged the poor bastard out, no confidence at all he’d be ‘healing’ anything. And if he didn’t, what then? Would Violet dig him out of here? Should he take that key and open the door? Did he dare?

“Shit. Come on, kid.” Carl hovered over Mason with no idea what to do. “Why aren’t there any damn healing potions in this game, huh? Maybe a…wand. Or. Fuck what do I do?”

Mason reached over and patted Carl’s knee. Despite everything, the son of a bitch was smiling.

“Don’t worry,” he rasped, shivering in what looked like extreme pain before he closed his eyes. “I’ll heal. Probably.”

Carl shook his head, unable to even process what feeling that acid for so long would have been like. He looked over at the giant dead worm, then back at Mason, trying to understand what the hell he’d just witnessed. Y

ou beautiful, crazy God damn insane bastard monster,

he thought, putting a hand on the kid.

In that moment he didn’t think about his own circumstances, the settlement, escape, even the girls. He just wanted the kid who’d faced down that fucking thing…the man who’d saved him and was willing to die without a second thought…he wanted that man to live.

* * *

[The Great Devourer slain. Experience awarded [major].]

[Great Devourer’s Lair complete: Reward: Have you tried looking for a key?]

[Level 15 reached. Primary class {Ranger} upgrading to tier two when safe.]

[Title gained: Tiering it up. You have reached tier two in your primary class. +2 to a class statistic.]

[Title gained: Front Runner. You are the first player to obtain a tier 2 class. +2 to a class statistic.]

[Title gained: Phase jumper. Gain a title intended for a later phase in the Great Game. +1 to all statistics.]

Mason woke up with Streak’s tongue in his face. He groaned and turned over, desperate to just see the giant worm still lying there dead. It was. So he let himself relax a second, then shook with something like electricity as his body locked up.

[Ranger class upgraded to tier 2. All class statistics (Strength, Dexterity, and Vitality) improved in potency. All class powers enhanced in potency.]

When he could finally move, Mason forced himself to sit up and look at his profile.

Mason Nimitz

Level: 15

Primary Class: Ranger (tier 2)

Secondary Class: Druid

Strength: 14

Dexterity: 19

Vitality: 17

Intellect: 7

Will: 11

Presence: 5

Luck: 5

Titles: Killer, Early Lead, Soloist, Crazy like a Fox, Burnt the Boats, Patron, Progenitor, Hit the Ground Running, First Blood, Defender, Tiering it up, Front Runner, Phase Jumper

Powers: Power Shot, Crippling Strike+, Regeneration+, Predator’s Strike, *Nature Affinity, Ranger’s Claw, Endless Quiver+, Trapmaking, Aspect of the Cheetah, Blessing of Gaia, Nature’s Wrath, Duality of Life

He hadn’t been keeping exact track, but his stats didn’t look different except for getting the title bonuses. Did that man ‘tier 2’ affected them in some other way? He was trying to remember which powers exactly were ‘class powers’ and which weren’t when Carl came bounding over.

“You’re awake!” Carl leapt at him with a flask of water before he stopped and stared. “Holy shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Mason put a hand to his tender face and checked for damage. “Am I less pretty?”

“No. You’re just…you’re…pretty much

healed

, for Christ’s sakes.”

Mason nodded, not

feeling

entirely healed. “I do that. Any trouble when I was out?”

“My God. Thank Christ.” Carl leaned in for a one-armed squeeze, soon putting both around him and practically clinging on. Mason fought it for a moment, then just smiled and pat the man’s arm.

“You did pretty good back there. I thought you’d died about five times. So I guess we’re even.”

Carl’s eyes were a little watery but it faded quick. “At least now I can be honest. When I first pulled you out? You looked fucked up. Like that Deadpool guy. You know, from the Ryan Reynolds movie?”

Mason shrugged, but he could imagine. He took a long drink and closed his eyes.

“No? Oh! You remember Robocop? The original? There was this guy that got burned by a vat of acid. You looked like that.”

“Didn’t see it.” Mason took a few breaths and drained the flask. Then he looked over to see ‘Violet’ staring at him a little ways off.

“Oh. Yeah. She’s just been…over there. Kinda figured she wanted to eat your corpse, to be honest. But she’s been polite about it. I guess she’ll be disappointed Mason meat is off the menu, so to speak.”

Mason met the creature’s eyes, and it warbled and let out a scent he instantly understood as…joy? Happiness?

He activated Speak with Nature.

[Thank you again for your help. We couldn’t have done this without you.]

The happiness turned to pride—thick and pungent.

Obligation

, the worm spoke through the magic.

Kinslayer is destroyed. Life debt is owed.

Mason blinked. This was a shockingly articulate worm. “You want to serve me?” It warbled in the affirmative, and Mason gave a helpless shrug, no idea what to do with that. “I would be honored,” he said at last.

“I don’t know what’s happening but fyi it’s weird.” Carl was looking back and forth between the worm and Mason.

“Don’t worry about it.” Mason decided it was time to test his legs, standing with a groan as the world spun a little. Streak was at his side, whining and licking its lips as it glanced at the giant dead devourer.

“What?” Mason looked at the wolf and its obvious interest. “What is

wrong

with you? It’s literally filled with acid. It’s still leaking out of it. Right now.” The wolf didn’t seem to much care, and Mason rolled his eyes. “Fine, go eat the acid worm full of teeth. Be my guest.” Streak sort of barked and ran for it with tongue wagging. “Don’t come whining to me when you’re shitting fire!” Mason called.

Carl lifted the key Mason had found buried in the worm’s stomach, holding it with a grin.

“Ready to see what’s behind door number one?”

“Hell yes.” Mason grabbed it. “I worked fucking hard for this key. It was stuck in the damn thing’s heart.”

Carl’s face screwed up a little in disgust, which made Mason smile.