BARKING UP TREES [HARD(er) QUEST] | Page 2

“Grroaaaa.” Moaned the wolf attached to Roland’s ankle its teeth biting into his flesh deeply. He tried to ignore the pain and focus on the task at hand a few more moments and another wolf would quickly join it and rip him to shreds. The thought sent a shiver down his spine, he didn’t want to experience what the game thought that would feel like. With renewed determination he gripped his remaining blade tightly, thrusting it at the wolfs face, only managing to nick its ear as it furiously shook him. Trying again, Roland hacked at the creature, this time landing a clean hit onto the top of its skull sending it whimpering off. Roland tried to push himself up, but the pain in his ankle screamed in resistance pulling him back down to the ground. “Damnit…” Roland growled as his face became covered in mud, apparently during the struggle it had begun to rain. Redoubling his efforts, he managed to push himself up, hobbling in place waving his sword in front of him in the downpour.

Seemingly without warning a barrage of lightning covered the immediate area in a blinding flash. Roland moved to ineffectively cover his eyes from the strike but the damage was done leavening blinded and shellshocked temporarily as he tried to grasp around feeling out what had happened. Everything had gone silent, well except for that idiot who knocked herself out again somehow, but more importantly he didn’t hear the growling of wolves. Soon his vision returned confirming his thoughts as he looked at the scattered burnt remains of the pack that had just harassed them. Sadly, he noticed both his teammates were also both face down in the muddy floor. He tried to move to Sera first, his pained ankle flaring again, “It’s not as bad as before.” Roland thought thankfully, “Thought I doubt it will heal without at least some rest.” Pushing the pain of his mind he stumbled over to the blacksmith dragging her into the remains of the cabin.

It had taken a hell of a beating, the combination of fire, water, and lighting had left several holes in its roof, not to mention that all the windows were now shattered. Roland did his best to wipe away the glass in the center of the room where there was the most cover, propping Sera up on a spare rug before he sat down himself catching his breath. He gazed at Olive laying face first in the mud outside the door and deeply contemplated simply leaving her out there. The contemplation lasted several minutes before he decided to finally get up, grab her ankle and forcefully drag her back into the cabin, getting her through the threshold of the door before dropping the girl and planting himself on the ground intent to take a long deserved breather.
@Sera Phim @Olive Westfield

 

It would be a while before Sera slowly stirred awake. She coughed weakly several times, as if she had choked in her sleep and only now realized it. She stared around the cabin in a daze. Her head moved up to her head, hoping to steady it as it felt like it was shaking, but it reality her headache was just so bad that it was throbbing hard enough to mess with her vision.

"Did-" she coughed again, curling up into a ball on the floor from the force of it. When she finished coughing, she laid back down on her back. "Did... did we get them all?" She asked quietly, in a voice that could only barely not be called a whisper. Another cough followed her question just a few seconds later.

She tried to slowly sit up, hoping that sitting upright might cause the world to stop shaking and spinning. It got significantly worse, however, and her vision turned black again and she lost all of her balance, falling back to the floor before her vision came around fully. She groaned in pain. "Lucia?" She asked. "Lucia, is that you?" She asked, looking in a direction where no one was. She groaned again, and shook her head weakly. "Fuck," she spat. She exhaled heavily, trying to regain a sense of control over herself. "Fuck," she repeated and took a sharp breath in. "Fuck," she cursed for the third time, exhaling the breath as she did, drawing the curse and the breath out for as long as her lungs would hold.

Now, she sat up. Not quickly, but with a visible speed of movement. She looked around a bit better now, being in a vantage better for observing ones surroundings. "Roland..." she said as she faced the man. "Brat," she said when she saw Olive. She sighed heavily. "Roland, did we get all the wolves?" She asked. "With what those spells did to me..... I really hope we did.... Goddess, I didn't know that Mind Down would be so terrible..." she said. She sat there, just breathing for a few moments, before finally forcing herself to stand. "Based on the fact I still have the quest logged, I assume we still need to kill the alpha wolf, right?" She asked. "I say we rest here, just a while longer, let my energy recover enough that I can actually cast spells again, and then head out."

 

Olive was, once again, unaware of the world and surroundings as she found herself in yet another deep sleep. This time, however, the clownfish and seahorses came back for vengeance.

Hidden: Olive's Dream

Naw, she was just messing with you again. Apparently one [Mind Down] signified a dream-like escape for a few moments. Two [Mind Down]'s meant that you were going to have the most horrifying nightmare that your twisted mind could think of. Olive, unfortunately, was betrayed by her own mind as she witnessed the most terrifying and gruesome spectacle ever known to mankind and beyond. Never before had she encountered such a repulsive and frightening display that kicked the air out of her lungs and left her frozen, still except for the tremors that crawled up her arms and the shivers from the chill worming up her spine. She felt nausea building up and treacherous, viscous bile rising from her throat. Her stomach felt odd and light, as if she were in space and only her stomach got the memo that there was no gravity.

All around her were the most disgusting, rage-inducing, fear-mongering thing that could ever render the normally expressive Olive silent. It was a sight that left her skin clammy and her fists clenched, no words able to form from her dry throat and wrinkled lips. Her hair was a messy, easily displaying her state of mind to her dreamworld and, getting a stick from nowhere, she warded these beasts out for death with it, swinging wildly at the grasping and demented monsters. "GET THE FUDGING H, E, DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS AWAY FROM ME!" she managed to scream, eyes wild and voice cracking.

The voices...they cheered and spoke some sort of incantation in unison. They maliciously laughed, their teeth twisting in some sort of smirk. They were trying to gain her trust, Olive knew, but did a piss-poor attempt at it. Her eye twitched as she used her foot to kick one of them out from her perch above. "We love you Olive!" they gushed and cooed, dresses and makeup in hand, ready to deform Olive as well.

Then, a voice pierced through the crowd. A voice that sent Olive into a desolate place in her mind. Hopelessness and terror filled her. "Olive," the woman smiled, outfit in hand as she approached the frozen girl. Olive screamed.

She woke up, horrified and panting with sweat dripping down her forehead. It took awhile for her to maintain her calm and, eventually, she recovered enough to glare at the other two in the room. Her face was stained with mud from being dragged and, feeling the obstructive goo on her face, she wiped it off with her sleeve and continued giving them the most vicious, hateful look she could muster after her nightmarish dream. "WHAT THE FUDGE IS HAPPENING?!" she demanded. She waited as patiently as she could (three seconds to be exact) before stomping her foot and screaming that they had to tell her everything they knew.

@Roland Rutledge @Sera Phim

 

The rain hadn’t stopped, and despite being damp Roland didn’t care. The faint pitter patter against the wooden roof sent a relaxing chill down his spine as it sent him back to simpler times. He enjoyed just sitting there listening to the rain for quite a while before Sera eventually woke up with a start. It took her a few moments to come to her senses but she did so on her own, “Well that depends on what you mean by all of them.” Roland said responding to Sera’s initial question regarding the wolves. Sure enough she came to the correct conclusion on her own, “Yea, still have the alpha to go, I will say though that your spell did wipe out the group that ambushed us, though so, spectacular job. As far as resting goes…” He pulled back his leg jerkin revealing the bloodied wound slowly healing on his ankle, “I think I might need it as much as you at this point, it might not hurt as much, but it will affect my mobility if we try and take off now so staying put is the only logical- “As he said ‘logical’ as if summoning the beast from its slumber Olive decided to wake up in a fitful tantrum that Roland couldn’t decide was better or worse from when she had first arrive “-conclusion.” Roland said finishing his thought as the girl continued to berate them for some particular reason.

With a slight sigh he briefly tried to sum up their situation to the tyrant despite knowing it was a waste of time, “I’m hurt, Sera’s out of magic, and you likely are too, smart move here is to rest and regroup.” Roland paused ignoring the stream of childlike slurs that had likely erupted toward him before changing his tactic. “To be honest only a weakling would chase after them while they are injured like this, they need time to regroup and come up with a new plan. To be able to take that plan head on, that would take some kind of a miracle working, so on second thought let’s move now, I’m too afraid to sit here and wait for whatever those crafty wolves are cooking up.” Roland grimaced at his rambling, it barley made coherent points and he had shifted his argument three different times, but he figured the girl wasn't smart enough to catch onto that and moved to get up with a slight limp, the pain helping him keep a straight face. It was a risky gamble, but having her run off and stir up trouble before they were ready was riskier still.

 

"Roland, sit down," Sera said, seeing the man try to get up on his injured ankle. Her voice was surprisingly stern and she surprised herself with it. Usually she was much more soft spoken about things like that. "And Olive? Stay put, and act your damn age. I'm not going to baby you like the child you seem to want to be," she said, somehow in an even sterner voice.

"Look here, both of you. Running around with no plan at all will do nothing but get us all killed. Running around half-cocked will do nothing but get us all killed. Roland, you need to let me heal that injury of yours. Olive, you need to sit the fuck down and learn some patience, young lady. Maybe your parents never taught you manners, or maybe this is how you rebell against your upbringing, but I won't have it. Do you understand me? You are going to behave, and you will do it willingly, or I will make you behave."

If Roland hadn't sat down willingly, Sera would put her hand on his chest and push him gently but firmly until he sat down. "Goddess, all three of us have done nothing but act like children this entire time. We're supposed to be a team. Teams work together, not as three seperate hammers picking away at three seperate rocks, but one wrecking ball that will not be stopped by any boulder." Once Roland was sitting, Sera would kneel and feel around his ankle to find the injured part. "Roy," she barked, and the prism rushed to her side. "Which of your magics can heal?"

"The green magic of naturalmancy."

"Alright then. You and I are going to fix up Roland here, understand?" She asked it. Without waiting for a response, she put one hand on top of the prism and the other other Roland's injury. "Wounds causes by nature's tooth and nature's claw, the balance of hunter and prey, life and death, animal and plant, Mother Terra, you are beseeched to bring us life. Mother Terra, you are requested to wait for our death. Mother Terra, bless us now with your presence. Restore life into this man, let his flesh be made whole. Weave together his strands of life and make them no longer frayed threads, but a beautiful quilt. This is our request, answer us."

Vines sprouted from underneath the floor of the cabin and began to gently wrap around Roland's leg. Once they stoped growing, they would tighten until a point that was perhaps a bit uncomfortable, but not yet painful. Then, their green color would slowly fade to brown, and then from that they would crumble to dust. As their color faded, however, Roland would feel life surge into him from the plants.

Sera stood up. She stumbled a tiny bit, but quickly recovered. "Right, Olive? Do you need any healing?" She asked. "In just a moment, I will have enough energy to cast another healing spell. If you can wait patiently, and be polite when you ask, I will use it on you. Otherwise, I'll save the energy for the fight to come."

 

Olive spluttered indignantly at the two after their lack of respect to her own elegant and masterful self. She had graced the two with not only her presence but with her incomparable assistance in dealing with the latest threats after their lives and, instead of thanking her, they decide to mock her? She huffed and lifted her nose up. She was a good woman (as Gwen would always remind her) and, due to that, she knew she had to be the better person among this group of low-life thugs. In a proper and fanciful tone, she handled the situation without revealing a bit of her irritability. She was way beyond these two and she was showing it.

"I BELIEVE NOT," she refused the woman's offer for healing. Although she had attempted her most pleasant voice, the sound was still grating on the ears and barely any lower than her previous loudness. After a few seconds of calmly addressing the situation, she could feel the veins begin to pop from her head. Olive prided herself on many things but, just this once, maybe she should self-advocate instead of proving herself the better (everyone knew she was the best, after all, and instructing these hellions on what they had done wrong was a big leap of greatness and generosity on her behalf). She cleared her voice, fixing the two with a reprimanding glare.

"LISTEN HERE HAG!" she scolded, chin up. "I DON'T NEED YOUR HEALING AND I DON'T NEED YOUR DUMB OLD PLANS! IT'S OBVIOUS THAT IT WAS THE FAULT OF BOTH OF YOU GUYS THAT WE HAVEN'T FINISHED THIS FUDGING QUEST ALREADY!" she continued on and on, words babbling out of her mouth at the speed of light. Inside, she felt herself preen. She truly was a brilliant teacher, wasn't she?

 

Roland let out a slight sigh as Sera stood up, taking the bait meant for Olive. His intention was that the plainly fool hearty plan would be immediately shot down by the tyrant, and in turn she would suggest sleeping their various conditions off. Of course, he didn’t exactly have time to indicate as such to Sera, so the fact that she didn’t catch on was mostly his own fault. His plot blown, he sat back down at Sera’s request.

“You have healing magic too?” Roland asked inquisitively as he watched Sera kneel down beside him. “That’s what, three different elements I’ve seen you use? That’s quite a variety-ts ts ts.” He cut himself off hissing in minor pain as Sera began inspecting his ankle, digging her fingers into the bite marks to see what kind of damage was done. A few moments later he found his leg covered in vines that tightly constricted against his calf and ankle. As quickly as they had grown they decayed turning into ash and disappearing into the air. The result was that the pain coursing through his ankle had simply vanished.

As this all happened, Olive had been constantly spouting a never ending barrage of nonsensical insults, and half minded ideas of what to do next (Which mostly included her somehow killing all the wolves with a glare). In turn, Roland was growing more used to simply tuning her out, and hummed a rhythmic song to himself as he repaired his ripped leggings. Instead of paying her any mind he turned to Sera, “So how much rest do you think you need?”

Regardless of the answer, they’d need some sort of plan so Roland began thinking of some sort of avenue of approach. His first ideas were to use Olive as some sort of bait, her loud mouth, and inexplicable ability not to gather any agro made her perfect for it after all. However, that pretty much relied on them being surrounded by wolves again, which was something they clearly should avoid. No, in order for this mission to be successful they’d have to work as a team somehow.

Roland cringed as a thought hit him, but it was likely the best one he had yet. As Olive continued to gripe about something or another he leaned in towards Sera whispering in her ear, “Hey, I think it would be best if we let little miss tyrant think she’s in charge, and sweet talk her into doing what we want to do.” He finished the comment with a wink as he faced the tall blonde child struggling to suppress his disgust. “When I first saw you, I will admit, I didn’t understand your….uh.. greatness. Yes, but now I fully understand. Please, we need your help, guide us.” He bowed his head slightly trying to sell the act, glancing at Sera to see if she would join in. Worst came to worst, there was always plan B, use Olive as bait.

 

Sera seethed at Olive's response in indignity. She was offering to be nice to this girl, and she was getting called a hag? She was going to kill the bitch! Before she could begin chanting the spell she would use to roast the bitch alive, Roland asked her question. She didn't completely hear it, but she assumed it was about rest, since they were just talking about that. Sera sighed heavily. "For my energy as a stat, just a little while longer. For the migraine that is the brat, until her funeral," she said, muttering the last sentence so that even Roland would barely hear it.

"As for the variety of my magic, I'm an astramancer. I can cast any spell from any basic school of magic, all I have to do is beseech a spirit that rules over some of that magic to do so. I'm still having some issues speaking with the spirits of illumancy and malefimancy, but the rest of them I can talk to fine through Roy here," she said, gesturing to the floating prism. "As such, I don't really have set spells so much as I ask for what I want, and if I'm lucky, I get it, if I'm not, I still get something, and that's generally useful."

She jerked away from the man when he suggested they let Olive be their leader. She opened her mouth to protest, but stopped herself. A heavy, angry scowl creeped on to her face the longer she thought about it. "Goddess fucking damn it," she said finally. "Why do you have to go and make sense?"

Sera winced visibly as Roland asked Olive to be their leader. "Yes..." she said afterward. "We realize... that we would... be so lost... without your glorious guidance... oh great one...."

 

Olive smirked at the change of heart shared between the two fools and, deciding to oblige them, began to flaunt her absolute prowess in striking an elegant pose, head held up high and nose snootily facing the ceiling. "IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE THAT PEOPLE OF YOUR STATURE WOULD BE UNABLE TO RECOGNIZE GREATNESS IF IT KICKED YOU IN THE NUTSACK! I, HOWEVER, UNDERSTAND YOUR PREDICAMENT SINCE YOU HAVE ONLY SEEN DEGENERATES AND HAVE NO IDEA ON HOW TO HANDLE ROYALTY AND, WITH MY ETERNAL GENEROSITY AND KINDNESS, WILL FORGIVE YOU AND LEAD YOU ALL ON THIS QUEST TO SUCCESS AND FORTUNE!"

Then, with a magnificent twirl if she did say so herself, she began to sing a boisterous and ear-grating hymn. Whilst the purpose of a Muse was to heal and calm, her singing and magic had the opposite effect on many, driving them to rage and bolstering their strength and durability momentarily. She herself was oblivious to the effects and continued her song, positively dancing out the room in a demented, twisted form of the waltz. Her voice was shrill and all the notes were off-key; her pride and grace radiated from every fiber of her being as she haughtily moved with flourish. After a moment, she felt her throat go dry and stopped.

"THERE IS YOUR REWARD!" she declared with a toothy, vicious grin. "NOW GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTTS AND LET'S GO HUNT THAT WOLF DOWN!" she commanded, turning her back on them and walking into the forest. She had no idea where she was going but she was certain that everything would turn out perfect for her. Fate loved her, after all, and she knew that this world would pave the way for her due to her noble heritage and kindred heart.

@Roland Rutledge @Sera Phim

 

... an incredible time had seemed to pass since the tyrant had begun wailing. To the bottom right of his vision, Roland could see she was casting some buff, but he was simply too annoyed to read it. Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard, the high-pitched vocals piercing through his skull. As she stopped Roland noticed his hands were clenched in rage as he forced himself to suppress his anger. The only light side to the turn of events was that the girl had started marching forward into the forest in search of the wolves. "The sooner I can be done with this quest, and get away from her, the better." With her mouth shut Roland could begin to think again. They needed a plan, running into the wolves did not work earlier in the least bit.

As they strolled forward, he found himself unable to come up with one. "We should probably be thinking of ways to take out the beast," he said out loud to both of the party members. "If what you said about your magic is accurate Sera, we might be better off coming up with a plan to hold them off while you prepare some spell to stop them." Roland paused listening to whatever responses he got before adding, "To be honest my blades are the best defense I have against these beasts, if it were a one on one fight I could do quite well, but with the multiple opponents, well I am quite disadvantaged." As the words hung in the air, a howl could be heard in the distance. It seemed far away, but with the density of the trees that could be misconceiving. "They're coming," Roland announced as he pulled forth his two blades.

Unlike before the wolves poured past the trees in a mad dash, crashing into the party with little warning. Roland's swords flashed meeting flesh and fur in a frenzy as he struggled to protect himself much less either of the two casters. There were simply too many of them to count as they blurred on by, snapping at his calfs and ankles as they did so. Mere seconds had passed before he felt overwhelmed, and heard a distinctly lower growl up ahead. Looking up he saw the beast that was the unmistakable alpha, but it was no wolf. Standing several feet high, with gray fur, and red eyes a Dire Wolf appraised them with a murderous glare.

Things were about to get dicey.

@Sera Phim @Lyre @Olive Westfield

 

Roy pulsed red and Sera seethed during Olive's song. Sera's urge to smack the girl, at the minimum, was growing the entire time the brat made any noise. Sera noticed that there was indeed a buff affecting her, increasing her strength and durability. Lot of fucking good that'll do me! I'm also a spell caster!

Luckily, Sera was able to restrain herself from doing anything to harm Olive until they encountered the wolves. "Perfect, something to fucking vent out on," she growled. She began to chant. Fire swirled around her, indeed boosted by Olive's buff. The fire leapt out wildly, barely under Sera's control. Yet still Sera kept on chanting, staring right into the eyes of the dire wolf. "Burn, you fucking bastard! Burn in fucking hell!"

Sera released the spell and the fire lunged toward the dire wolf, taking the shape of a wolf itself as it crashed into the wolf who was behind it all. Kill that bastard, and all of this was over! The pack would scatter, and she wouldn't have to deal with that little brat any longer!

"Die!" Sera shouted. "Die, die, die, die, die! Die so I don't have to fucking deal with this any longer!" She shouted, even as the flames leapt and burnt. She didn't care about what the wolves might be doing to Olive. She didn't care if Roland was getting hurt. Her anger and rage from Olive's spell had blinded her to anything except killing, and she had chosen the dire wolf as her target.