Chapter 67: This is What it Means to Fight Me (1/2)

Jason moved comfortably through the marshy woods. His feet didn’t sink into water or mud, while his eyes easily pierced the darkness. Clusters of scraggly trees and other obstacles were no bother; he could vanish into the ample shadows and appear on the far side. Despite being all an illusion, it felt completely real. The hot, heavy air, the tiny insects swarming around him. A small burst of aura projection sent them scattering.

A thick strand of webbing launched itself out of a shadow, striking the spot where Jason had been moments before. It was not the first such miss, as Jason’s eyes could dig out the trap weaver’s in the darkness. Even if they hit, the webs slid off. They could not adhere either to his essence ability cloak or the armour underneath.

Effect: Resistant to adhesive substances and abilities with adhesive effects.

The woods were filled with trap weavers, leaving behind a maze of sticky threads as they attempted to ensnare Jason. He flashed through the shadows, dagger planting in the head of the giant spider. It dropped to the ground as he continued strolling through the woods.

In the viewing room, Danielle controlled the perspective of the viewing window with the rod in her hand. She used it to follow Rick and his team’s journey through the dark, marshy woodlands.

Henry Geller threw out his hand as he chanted a quick spell.

“Fire Bolt.”

Flame launched from Henry’s fingers, missing the fleeting, shadowy figure to burn out as it hit a tree trunk. Hannah’s arrow had come closer, but Jason’s figure was gone before it too stuck harmlessly into a tree.

“Henry?” Rick called out.

“He jumps around too much,” Henry said. “It’s like he’s everywhere.”

Henry wielded magic of wind and fire, and they had been tracking Jason by reading his scent on the air. They had caught glimpses of him, but seen little more than shapes in the darkness.

The group continued searching the murky, woodland bog. Jonah was their bulwark, but his heavy armour and shield slowed him to a crawl. Rick was their other frontline fighter and he was coping better. His armour wasn’t as heavy and his might essence gave him the strength to plough through the mud. His greatest problem was that his long, heavy sword was hard to swing among the trees.

Rick and Jonah, along with Henry, were all members of the Geller family. The two remaining team members were the elf twins, Hannah and Claire Adeah; an archer and the team healer. As the healer, Claire was always the most important team member to protect. Her ability to cleanse Jason’s afflictions made it doubly true. For this reason, she was in the most guarded part of the formation as they made their sluggish way through the marsh.

“What’s that?” Jonah called from the front. The others looked at he pointed out ahead. The trees grew closer together, and streamers of webbing, thick as an arm, were draped through them like party decorations. It wasn’t any kind of pattern, instead wild and scattered. It was thickly laid out, to the point of being hard to find a passage through.

“Trap weavers,” Hannah said. They had already encountered several, most of which had been pinned to trees by her arrows.

“Trap weavers are careful,” Rick said. “This doesn’t look careful.”

“I think Asano might have provoked them,” Henry said. “This whole area is riddled with his scent.”

“I don’t think going through that is a good idea,” Jonah said.

“We have to,” Rick said. “He hides, we chase; that’s the game. If we refuse to go somewhere, he can just wait there and time us out.”

“That’s not a fair condition,” Jonah said.

Hannah looked at him like he was an idiot.

“There’s five of us,” she said.

“I’m just saying,” Jonah said sullenly.

“Hannah,” Rick said. “Your eyes are the best. Find us the clearest path.”

The webbing proved to be very widespread.

“How did he get trap weavers to do all this without getting caught by them?” Claire wondered.

“He’s tough to pin down,” Rick said. “He may need shadows to teleport, but he can keep doing it, over and over. In a place like this, he's a ghost.”

As they headed into the web-strewn trees they were plunged into shadow, the canopy above them low, but thick. They were moving slower than ever as they picked their way through the webs.

“I don’t like this,” Henry said.

“We just need to get a good look at him,” Hannah countered. Her bow was always at the ready. She was not worried about the obstructions, prepared to fire from her short bow at a moment’s notice.

“Can you burn through these webs?” Rick asked Henry.

“Trap weaver webs don’t burn easily,” Henry said. “I’d blow through my mana and barely make a dent.”

Around them was eerie quiet. Only the buzzing of insects accompanied the squelching of their feet in the mud, so a sudden new sound arrested their attention.

The sound of feet pounding rapidly through mud came from somewhere in the distance. The sound stopped for a moment, then they heard panicked swearing and the sound started again from a different direction. They heard the wet slap of something landing in the mud and a startled yelp.

“He’s got monsters on him,” Rick barked at the others. “Go!”

They started surging over the marshy ground. Hannah had found them a path that was relatively solid and even Jonah powered forward in his heavy armour. What they found was an indentation in the mud.

Rick looked around, peering at every shadow.

“Hannah?” he asked. When there was no response, he glanced back.

“Hannah?”

The whole team craned their necks searching in every direction.

“She was right behind me,” Claire said.  “We were all running, and…”

“Back the way we came,” Rick said decisively, and so they went. What they found, to their horror, was Hannah’s body, barely moved from where they had started running. Her throat was cut and she dangled macabrely from thick strands of webbing like a puppet on strings.

“It’s not real,” Rick told Claire, who was looking at her sister with a hand over her mouth, eyes shocked wide. He put a supportive hand on her shoulder.

“It’s just illusion,” he told her. “We’ve been through this before. Henry, do you have a scent?”

There was no answer, and they looked again. While they had been looking at Hannah’s corpse, Henry had vanished. That left the two men in their heavy armour and the healer.

“How did he do that?” Jonah asked.

“He’s going for the ones he can kill quick and quiet,” Rick said. “The rest of us won’t go out like that. Our armour and Claire’s magic shield means he can’t take us easily.

Suddenly blue light flared around Claire in the form of a bubble as objects struck it, three in quick succession. They were throwing knives, falling harmlessly into the mud after bouncing off the protective barrier.

“That way!” Jonah called out, but Rick grabbed his arm.

“He’s baiting us,” Rick said. “The way he baited the trap weavers into making all this mess. From now on, we go carefully.”

“How do we find him now?” Jonah asked. “Henry and Hannah were our spotters.”

“We’ve been dancing to his tune the whole time,” Rick said. “Time to change the music. Use your shout.”

“Are you sure?” Jonah asked. “You know what that’ll do to the monsters.”

“He took out our spotters,” Rick said. “The best advantage we have now is a straight-up fight.”

“I don’t think he’s suddenly going to step out for that,” Jonah said.

“It’s not us he’ll be fighting,” Rick said. “He might be able to dodge a handful of trap weavers, but look at all these webs. That’s more than a handful. If they all go berserk, he’ll have a harder time dealing with them than we will.”

“Are you sure about that?” Claire asked.

“No,” Rick said. “I’m open to alternatives.”

The others shook their heads.

”Alright,” Rick said. ”Jonah shouts, then we fight off the monsters while we wait for them to flush him out.”

Jonah nodded, then took a deep breath. Throwing back his head, he roared; a primal scream that blasted through the marsh like an explosion. As he fell silent, animal shrieks rose up in answer, echoing out what felt like miles. Rick grinned, hefting his heavy sword in readiness.

“Let’s see how he… crap!”

Everything went dark as a thrown dagger shattered their floating lantern. Unable to see, Rick felt a sting on his arm, as did Jonah moments later. Light bloomed, illuminating the area from a glowing orb over Claire’s raised hand. They looked around, but Jason was already gone.

“Keep the orb up,” Rick told Claire. “I know it uses your mana, but not that much and another lantern would be vulnerable.”

She nodded, looking at the wounds on Jonah and Rick.

Jason had found gaps in their armour while they couldn’t see to defend against him, but he had barely drawn blood. They were minor cuts, but Rick had warned them early that it was all Jason required. Claire extended an arm towards Rick and chanted a spell.

“Be made clean.”

A glow of white-gold light glowed out from under Jonah's armour, and a black smoke arose from the gap where Jason's knife had cut. She did the same with Rick.

“A poison and a curse each,” Claire said. “All gone, now.”

“His hit and run attacks have done all the damage they can,” Rick said. “He can’t quickly finish the rest of us, and now the trap weavers will flush him out. We move carefully, fend off the weavers that come for us, and either find his corpse or make it.”

“Like this body?” a mocking voice asked. There was a lilting malevolence to it, like the speaker was slightly unhinged. They turned, seeing Jason’s shadowy figure behind the dangling corpse of Hannah, still strung up on webs. It was their first clear look at him, although clear wasn’t exactly the word. He looked halfway made of shadows, his cloak of darkness wrapped around him. The dark, flowing lines of his battle robe melded into the shadows and his face was shrouded in the darkness of the hood. Even with the light of Claire's orb, he was hard to see standing in front of them.

Rick threw his massive sword. It spun through the air at Jason but buried itself in Hannah's body as he moved further behind it for cover. Rick held out his hand and the sword yanked itself from Hannah’s corpse, flying back to Rick’s hand.

Standing behind the dangling, macabre puppet that was the ravaged corpse of their companion, Jason’s laughter was filled with sinister mirth.