Chapter 546: Pretty good

Mason sent Carl and Garet back to learn about the machine from Lodie. They seemed to like puzzles, and technology. Both of which Mason hated.

“Honestly what kind of gen z are you?” Carl said, shaking his head. “You kids were practically born with computers in your hands.”

“Don’t pick a fight with me, old man. Just go tell the goblin about gold punch cards and whatever Alan Turing shit you grew up with. That’s probably more her speed.”

Carl rolled his eyes and waved Garet on, then turned back half way.

“I was a commodore guy. So you don’t know tech

or

history. I’m not

that

old. ”

“Oh and Carl, this goblin’s really pretty,” Mason called back. “Try to control yourself.”

A few (hypocritical) players laughed at the glowing pink ‘Glassassin’. Except as Mason glanced back he realized Lodie had come close enough to hear. She stared at him with those glowing eyes like jewels in the dark. He winced and turned back around.

“So, you think she’s pretty?” Demi said. He gave her a hard stare, which just made her grin. He slapped her ass hard enough to make her yelp before walking up to see Phuong and the tribal scouts.

“We should be close,” he said, glancing at his Wayfinder.

“Yes, very good, mighty king.” Uck the leader grinned and nodded. “Cave close now. But…”

“I don’t need you to come inside,” Mason said, watching his new ‘follower’ sag with relief. There was something comforting about goblin cowardice. It was like a new law of the universe—a principle you could rely on.

The narrower passages they’d been following soon opened up, growing wide and high enough you could put a couple semis through side by side. It got smooth, too. Mason winced because he expected this ‘mountain’ was really a volcano. These looked like lava paths.

He got a very bad feeling when he wondered when the last time the thing had erupted.

The larger passage opened even wider, the huge cavern ahead glowing with light and rippling with heat. As promised, two of the giant, multi-headed guard dogs stood at the entrance, surrounded by armed ‘soldier’ demons, flyers, and what looked like ‘fire’ versions of those mud demon/elementals.

“Well, shite,” Seamus said, “really doubt I can hurt those fire ones, chiefy.”

Mason really doubted it, too. But at least there were plenty of targets. He took a breath and glanced at the others.

“Alright, before we kill all that shit, who knows enough about volcanoes to tell me if this one’s active.”

Everyone looked at each or shrugged. Mason tried not to think about Blake. He supposed with his nature powers he might be able to

talk

to the thing, or enough of the living creatures inside that one could tell him something useful. Lodie cleared her throat.

“It’s been…’active’ for long time. We keep from booming with gizmos and mecha magic. Heart uses power up, keeps mountain calm.”

He nodded, not at all comforted. If true, it sounded like a pretty good reason not to break the ‘heart’. He suspected this was going to be more complicated than he’d hoped.

There’d be more runes or some other kind of annoying puzzle. But maybe all he had to do was get Lodie up to the machine and keep her safe while she diffused or exorcised the demon, or at least figured out what he had to do. He really

hoped

that would work.

“OK. Plan. Guess we need one.” He looked at the staring (and growing?) group of demons and took a deep breath. They didn’t seem to want to come any closer, and he wondered if they were about to trigger some kind of event.

Did that mean they couldn’t just start on these things with range? Maybe they’d hit another stupid shield, or something. He gestured for Carl and Garet, and took them and Phuong and Alex a little ways away from the others.

“You boys learn anything useful about this heart we should know? I don’t wanna destroy it, but I sure will if that’s what we need to do.”

The men looked at each other and shrugged.

“Sounds halfway between tech and religion for these things. Lodie there is more worried about hurting it because of some divine anger then accidentally setting off a volcano. But maybe those are the same things in her mind.”

“So definitely

don’t

destroy it,” Mason said, and the men nod/shrugged. “Anything else?”

“I expect a puzzle or three,” Carl said. “Soon as it makes sense I at least better get down there. Garet and the girl, too. If it’s not suicide.”

“Alright.” Mason took a breath. “On top of a small army of nasty, there’s a greater demon-infested, mad goblin scientist super machine in that cave. Carl, Garet, and Lodie will work on it. Other than that, Phuong’s in charge of team two. I’ll worry about team one. But for now everyone is on protection duty. Things might change when we get in there, but the plan is ‘keep everything dead or at least off the machine fixers. Any questions?”

“Uh, yeah.” Garet pointed. “What about all the demons, you know, right

there

?” Mason grinned.

“Phuong, your team gets the right hound. I’m gonna go check to make sure there’s not some bullshit shield. But if not—I want a no-man’s land of nasty. But, you know, efficiency. Don’t blow everyone’s mana. Spores, spears, the usual. Then we’ll start shooting. If they cross, melee holds them and takes them down. Sound good?”

Phuong nodded, and his key people looked ready, confident, despite going into the final area with some kind of boss. Beyond the prestige classes and experience, and whatever rewards awaited them, Mason decided this raid was a very good idea. Most of them hadn’t really fought together like this. Not with coordination and understanding of each other’s powers.

If they had to fight any of the easterners, he knew it was going to be chaotic and less controlled than this, but the practice would be a huge help. The confidence to handle themselves in a fight was important, too. They weren’t just raw ‘recruits’ anymore—they’d seen a battle or two. That made a huge difference in a fight.

They broke and went back to the others, quickly explaining things.

“When do we put up the…’no-man’s land’?” Demi said with a frown, but a bit more confidence than the day before. “I mean, you’ll run back through it unless we wait.”

Mason gave her a wink. “Put it behind me as soon as there’s any sign of the demons chasing me. I’ll lead’ em through.”

He could tell she wanted to warn him, or disagree—to say if he ran through the spores and whatever else it would hurt him, too. But she knew he knew, and was doing it anyway.

“You’re getting really cocky, you know that,” she said lower, just for him. “My magic isn’t weak.”

Maybe it was a lifetime with Blake, or the influence of Cerebus, or just the way Mason always was. But yeah, he supposed she was right.

On the other hand, were you really cocky when you’d just assessed the dangers and found them…wanting? He hadn’t dealt with Demi’s spores before, but he doubted they’d hurt him much. If they hit him at all.

He moved towards the demons with his bow ready, crossing about halfway before taking a shot. The creatures had started growling at each other the moment he came forward, as if trying to convince someone else to act. He suddenly wondered if their inaction hadn’t been more…normal. Not some system event. Maybe they’d stood there gathering for the same reason human fighters did.

Maybe they were afraid.

His fey/abyssal arrow Power Shot lanced across with stone, hissing before it struck with the increasingly satisfying ‘mini boom’ of reverberation and plain old kinetic force. The arrow smashed into one of the left hound’s heads, knocking it back with a stunned spray of flesh and ichor.

The demons roared, and charged in an angry mob.

Mason sprayed them with a Crippling Strike, started building an Exploit on his team’s hound, then fell back dropping traps. He felt Streak’s desire to just charge the whole damn mob and growled to keep the wolf back.

New and improved spear walls sprung up from the sides of the cave. Jason’s ‘divine’ version looked distinctly different now, gold and silver and more ‘real’ than Garet’s ghostly arcane blue. There was also

more

of them, and between the pair of powers the men had left only a narrow path to funnel the enemy.

Demi started filling said funnel with spores. Mason even saw Tommaso dump some kind of liquid on the floor, with John and Becky waiting with crackling energy on the other side. It looked intimidating as hell, actually. His players were all staring at him, maybe curious what would happen when he went through.

Instead he jumped straight over the lower side of spears, away from the spores, avoiding all his player’s tricks in one soaring, inhuman leap. He landed and rolled back to his feet instantly.

“Pretty good,” he said. “It should keep most of

them

back. Focus on the flyers, Seamus. They’ll attack where I did.”

He turned and started loosing arrows without another word, over and through gaps in the spears. He heard a few sighs and grumbles, and did his best not to smile.