Chapter 527: Don’t worry, pretty girl

Mason’s sword-Claw cut straight through the first mud demon’s face, somewhere around where its nose would be. It growled and slammed a fist into his chest. He staggered back a step and ripped the blade out the side of its head, raking his claw down its torso with a sloppy mess of falling goop.

It punched him again. He kicked it, sending a foot-sized chunk of demon goo spraying out the back, and caught his foot through the thing’s body. It tried to bite him, and he ripped off its head at the ‘neck’. It shrunk, and grew another one.

“OK,” Mason called, finally just grabbing the thing’s head and body and ripping it apart with his bare hands before another mud demon stepped up to replace it. “These things suck. Get Seamus forward. Try burning them, I don’t care if you hit me.”

The players shuffled, and a few fiery missiles came sailing around Mason with increasingly expert precision. They hit the mud demons and vanished with a depressing sizzle.

“I fecking hate this place,” muttered the fire mage. More feet shuffled as he moved back out.

Mason was still ripping demons apart one at a time, doing his best to avoid getting bitten. He realized the ‘mud’ came in different varieties. Some was acidic, some was poisonous, some just really stunk. Apex Predator and his titles bounced around, Transformation replacing burnt skin with a rougher, thicker variety. He expected to be real pretty when he was done.

“There’s more coming from behind, Patron,” Phuong shouted, ending his next thought of having the demon-slaying swordsman give it a try. “We’ll hold them off.”

So, time was ticking. Mason growled and pushed, clawed and pulled. He wanted to just force them back, but the growing line of mud creatures were extremely sturdy.

Pressed together the demons made an almost solid block of material. He saw his Duality of Strength flare, but he knew he just didn’t have the weight or grip. You could only push so hard unless you had something to brace yourself. He needed some kind of leverage.

“Becky, get back there. If it gets bad just wall us off.”

The cowgirl nodded, her hands leaving Mason’s back.

“You back there John?”

“Aye, lad. What can I do?”

“Try your stuff to knock ‘em back. Anyone else think they can do something useful? I’m…” Mason ripped off another mud-face with a splatter of acidic ichor. “I’m open to anything here.”

Blasts of energy coursed from the big Scotsman, but struck the mud demons with about as much effect as fire. Mason also realized he saw the mud moving around his feet. It was literally dragging itself down the tunnel, and he had a very bad feeling these things were pulling themselves back together somewhere.

Becky just had to mention a ‘Mason type’ monster.

“Um, Mason?” Demi’s voice. “I think maybe…I can probably do something. I think they’re sort of…natural, technically. But like me, you know? Not like you. So I think if I…well…I’m not sure, but…”

Mason growled as one of the things bit his shoulder. He saw a reddish color flare and saw with some concern that Transformation was blinking a warning. He flipped it open to see something about ‘corruption’ reducing his regenerative ability. So that was great.

“Do it, Demi, whatever you can do. Do it.”

A nervous ‘OK’, then the scent of nature magic filled the air. Green and brown motes of power floated by his head. He winced as he sensed the nervous, angry energy—a kind of frustration and concern, a lot of it centered around him. He felt the affection, too, the intensity of how Demi felt.

It was a weird moment to feel good about your new relationship. He could tell there wasn’t ‘one-night stand’ energy in those emotions, which he was pretty happy about. He had the ridiculous urge to turn around and say ‘I really like you too’.

Then a bunch of mud-demons exploded.

Bits of stone or maybe demon teeth hit Mason like hail. He threw himself forward in the chaos, trying to get a few more steps as whatever happened to the demons happened. His face was literally coated in slime and rot, and he couldn’t see a damn thing. It burned like a son of a bitch, but that was pretty much business as usual.

He wanted to shout they were making progress, but he didn’t want to be like Carl with a mouth full of demon goo. Instead he thrashed and pulled the creatures down, mushing them against the walls or tearing them apart with clawed hands.

When he finally wiped at his face enough to see, the corridor was filled with floating spores and bubbling demons. His skin itched, and he coughed as he plowed ahead. The other players hadn’t followed, looking on from behind some shield line with their arms or hands covering their mouths and noses.

Mason finally got to a kind of crossroads, large enough for most of the players to stand, with wider corridors built for two or three going left and right. The mud demons kept coming from the main corridor ahead, but not the others.

“Move up when you can!” he shouted, still coughing. The others didn’t move, and it looked like Demi or maybe Phuong was holding them back. So apparently Mason had to hold the creatures off for a minute. But at least he had some space to move.

He weaved back and forth as he cut with two sword-Claws now, looking for enough ‘open’ space on the ground to maybe start a freezing spell. The demons were trying to get around him, and he knew he’d have to fall back or get surrounded soon.

Streak came barreling through the dark with a howl. The huge, now spore-covered wolf slammed into the closest demon with barely restrained, impatient glee. It smashed it back, taking two more as they connected and stumbled away.

For a moment Mason forgot all about the raid, or the other players, or anything else. He grinned and attacked, wanting nothing more than to fight at his friend’s side.

**

“I think maybe....” Demi watched her fungal bloom go temporarily dormant. Or at least she was pretty sure it wouldn’t activate no matter the affinity…unless she charged it again. But these demons were strange hosts. “It should be safe now. Maybe the toughest person? If you can…”

“Go,” Phuong barked, and all the rest of the melee players charged before she could finish. She’d seen their faces when she (and then Phuong) held them back, the anger, the blame, the judgment.

“He’s alone, lass,” had said the giant white man who she could barely understand, and who kind of scared the shit out of her. The other people’s eyes had crawled over her skin.

“I know,” she’d said. “But it’s just another second. It’ll hurt you. You have to wait.”

“We wait,” Phuong had said, coming up beside her. “I’ve seen what those spores do. We wait.”

They had, until the other people at the back finished and came up too. Mason’s girlfriend Becky had stomped up in her cowboy boots and stared at the mess with wide eyes.

“There’s too damn many back there, we walled it off. Is Mason…? Why the hell are y’all back here?”

“Dunno. Ask her.” The Italian had gestured at Demi with his chin, and her stomach fluttered. She felt her face going hot.

I cleared the demons out didn’t I? she wanted to scream. None of you had any ideas! And now we’re through. We just had to wait a second, Mason can take care of himself!

But she didn’t get out more than a mumble.

“I…”

“You what? Trapped us with him out there?” Becky pointed and she looked so angry.

“We wait.” The older man held out an arm. “The spores are random and powerful. Mason can handle himself.”

Becky’s tanned skin hummed with some kind of arcane power. Then she brushed off Phuong’s arm, and ran right through the spores.

Demi had put her hands in her hair, knowing her shield might not protect her forever. The spores stuck. They drained mana, energy, whatever you had.

“Please! Just wait,” she called, seeing the others were about follow. “It’s more dangerous than it seems. It’s almost done.”

They’d all stared with impatience, like maybe they’d ignore her.

“Do as she says,” Phuong ordered, looking pretty mad now, too. “Don’t be fools. Mason has handled far worse.”

Demi nodded, wanting to shout even she knew that! And he’d told her to do what she could. It’s not like she’d just went off the rails and did something crazy. She was just doing what he asked!

Finally the spores cleared, she told the others, and they all went charging off.

“Don’t you even worry, pretty girl.” The wizard, Seamus, gave her a wink. “They’ll be back to hatin’ me in no time. I’ve got a spell that rains fire like the second coming of Jesus. They got over it.”

She fought the tears of frustration, giving the man a nod before turning her face. She followed with the others, too shy and afraid now to even try to use any of her powers. She could see Becky was dealing with her spores, trying to wipe them off with her weapon.

Mason looked…monstrous. She stopped and stared at him in the center of everything, covered in demonic magic and ichor and flesh. He was killing them with his hands and claws. Biting them alongside his wolf. His body was a wasteland of healed over scars, thickened skin and…bone plate.

He turned and growled as the other players got close, green eyes flashing like headlights on some dark highway. Demi looked in his eyes and shivered. Warmth flooded through her body.

That was her man. Or slightly more than a man. And he was the most dangerous thing in this fort, in this dungeon. In this world?

It made her feel better—like whatever anyone else thought or said didn’t matter. All that mattered was what Mason thought. How the hell did that happen?

And the beauty was she didn’t have to guess with him—when they were alone she could sense what he wanted, feel it, without words.

She knew he was loyal, no matter how busy with his causes, how many women there might be fighting for his attention. He’d never abandon her. Never hurt her intentionally. It wasn’t in his DNA. He never even entertained the thought.

It was a very strange moment and thing to think as she stood there watching him kill horror flick monsters in a dungeon. And a very strange moment to feel suddenly safe. But she did.

And Mason would want her to do what she could. To keep helping, even if the others didn’t understand or want her to. She blinked and slid through her powers, ready to cover the melee in a batch of boosting spores.