A Jaded Life

As we retreated back to the stairs, after our first serious battle on the third floor, I got curious and asked the still stumbling Sigmir what had just happened.

“It's called 'Ferocity of the lone Wolf', just now, when Ylva went into her Hallow, she shared it. She's sworn to herself that she will not lose us, that she will protect Lenore and you. That ability is the embodiment of that commitment; it let's her go berserk if she is outside, or she can use it within her Hallow and share it with me. It grants extreme strength for a short amount of time but it takes a lot out of me. Especially if I combine it with my Berserker-Aura, as you see. I can hardly walk.” she told me while leaning heavily on me.

Together, we managed to make it back to the stairs and I pulled our sleeping furs out of the packs and helped Simgir to lay down, letting her head rest in my lap and idly stroking her hair. It took only moments until she fell asleep, breathing softly. Ylva had not re-emerged from her Hallow and was probably in a similar condition. I drew a regeneration spell, linking my mind to her body to check for damages but it looked like the channelled regeneration during the fight had taken care of it. It was just exhaustion which I wasn't able to effectively heal. I could heal the wear and tear of muscles, even help them strengthen themselves but against her condition, I was powerless.

With the opponents we faced down here, I'd have to get creative. There had to be something I could do, the simplest way would be to create an Ice block to seal the doorway, giving us time to deal with the opponents outside and a choke point against the enemies inside. But it would take a lot of power to create and move a block big enough to seal the entrances, I'd have to use normal Ice, no idea if it would be strong enough against the undead.

Maybe some kind of mist, but to freeze the Draugr, I'd need incredibly cold mist, spread out over a large area. Probably not feasible as well.

What about my Dark Magic? The skeletons seemed to be able to block my Anti-Magic attacks with their shields and the Draugr had their undead flesh to block them.

Blood Magic? No way, no how, I'd be able to support Sigmir with it but not deal with them. I didn't want Sigmir to be forced to abuse her new ability; it seemed to be an ace in the hole-skill, nothing to plan your battles for.

No, I'd have to go with Ice-Magic and Ice-Runes. But how?

I thought back about everything I'd done with either and remembered my old cave, the one protected by the Mist-Field. I'd been able to create mist with an engraving - why not try the same with Ice? I could create some kind of base-item out of Hard Ice and channel Astral Power into it to create the plug I wanted.

With an idea in mind, I wanted to test it. First, I asked Lenore to keep watch and meditated to regenerate my Astral Power.

With full Astral Power, I raised my hand and created a small cuboid out of Hard Ice. While creating it, I engraved small Heptagon Formations out of Ice-Runes into it, so four sides around had each one Formation on it. It took a surprising amount of power, for a one-off Item that didn't even do anything.

To test it out, I let it float up, a few steps and poured Astral Power into two of the Formations, the one on the top and bottom. Before the cuboid could start falling, Ice shot out of it spreading in a rough cone, smashing into the floor and the ceiling, anchoring it solidly in place within moments. I did the sides in the same way and within maybe four seconds, I had a solid barrier in place. I didn't want to disturb Sigmir with movement, the noise just now had been enough so I asked Lenore to inspect my work. Looking through her eyes showed me that the Ice was seamlessly fused with the Hard Ice, making the idea of re-using the item impossible.

Well, that meant that I had to create a few of them.

I managed to create 5 more in the time Sigmir was asleep and when I showed her the barrier, she tested it with a couple of whacks with her axe and pronounced it 'Quite Solid'. According to her, it should buy as a minute or two, which had to be enough.

Now rested, Simgir sat up and took out a bit of food to eat, so I snuggled up on her lap, closing my eyes and relaxing. I'd need my strength soon.

I must have nodded off for Sigmir woke me with sweet kisses. I felt good and Ylva had rejoined us outside as well, looking rested, just like Sigmir. I ate some food as well and then it was time to move on.

When we saw the next room, we charged again and I let one of my cuboids float up. As Sigmir crashed into the Skeleton-Warrior, the cuboid floated into the entrance and I stopped running, triggering it with my Astral Power and it worked like a charm. There was a crashing, grinding sound as the Ice smashed into stone and then the entrance was sealed for now.

With that done, I focused on the Skeleton-Warrior, using the vines to trip it like I'd done before. Again, Sigmir didn't grant any quarter, using the opening with impunity, smashing the skeleton apart. By now, we heard the sounds of weapons smashing into the Ice-Barrier, trying to break it.

Sigmir engaged the Draugr to give me the time needed to freeze it and once it was frozen, she dispatched it in moments.

While waiting for the barrier to break, I let my mind rest, trying to regain as mush Astral Power as I could. It wasn't a lot but to me, every drop of power was valuable.

Once the barrier started breaking, it broke apart swiftly and Sigmir engaged the Undead in the opening, using the walls to guard her sides. Our first opponent was a Draugr so I froze it for Sigmir to dispatch, which she did.

I waited for openings when she fought with a Skeleton-Warrior, not trying to trip it with my vines, another skeleton would just take it's place and guard it's fallen comrade. But the second, Sigmir managed to knock off the helmet of a Skeleton-Warrior, I struck with an Anti-Magic Heptagon, triggering it the second the Skeleton's shield was out of position.

With one more enemy out of the fight, there were only three left, one Skeleton-Warrior and two Draugr. The next opponent was a Draugr and my Ice-Beam struck once more, giving Sigmir the chance to relief it of its head.

Now, with only two enemies, it became simple, I tripped the Skeleton-Warrior and blocked the Draugr with a floating shield to give Sigmir time to finish off the Skeleton. Then it was just a question of freezing the Draugr and cutting it apart, something that Sigmir did with glee.

Skeleton Warrior died.

You gain 2200 EXP.

For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP

For killing an opponent with the Dungeon Traveller-Bonus in effect, you gain Bonus EXP

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Draugr died.

You gain 2000 EXP.

For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP

For killing an opponent with the Dungeon Traveller-Bonus in effect, you gain Bonus EXP

Satisfied that our tactic worked, we collected the spoils and regained our stamina and Astral Power before moving on. Just as we started our charge against the next group, something bizarre happened, causing us to stop in our tracks.

It looked like the space was warping itself, twisting and shimmering like a mirage. Then, the two undead we were able to see turned into teacups of all things, falling from their chest-height to the stone-floor and shattering. Just as I thought it could not get any stranger, two beings walked out of the room, one was wearing a chequered dressing gown and holding a strange device that looked like an tablet-computer to me but had a bright, orange label that said “Don't Panic!”. The other guy wore a colourful sports-coat but for some reason a large, bathing towel was wrapped around his waist. I looked at Sigmir, silently asking her if she was seeing what I was seeing. Her wide-eyed appearance told me that either we were both going insane or something really, really weird was happening. Maybe I should take the advice written on that label. Don't Panic!

“Amazing, Arthur, I don't think we are within our own Universe any longer. The infinite Improbability Drive truly managed something improbable this time.” shouted the sports-coat and towel-clad figure.

“That's great, Ford, but what do we do now? I wanted to visit Milliways, not some strange catacomb.” complained the gown-clad man. “Can we use the drive to get back?”

“Well, it will take just a moment to calculate that improbability, then we are off again.” answered his companion.

Just then, the space around the two began to distort again and the man in the dressing gown turned to us, bowed and said “Farewell ladies, and thanks for all the fish”

With that, both of them vanished.

Skeleton Warrior died.

You gain 2200 EXP.

For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP

For killing an opponent with the Dungeon Traveller-Bonus in effect, you gain Bonus EXP

.

.

.

Draugr died.

You gain 2000 EXP.

For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP

For killing an opponent with the Dungeon Traveller-Bonus in effect, you gain Bonus EXP

I looked at Sigmir, completely confused. “What in the world just happened? Did you also see two strange guys?”

She looked back at me, looking just as confused as I. “Maybe we should head the other way. Yes, let's just walk away.” I guess she was as freaked out as I was. Without getting even a step closer to the area those two had been in, we turned and walked the other way, freaked out beyond words and trying to pretend that no, nothing had just happened. Somehow, it felt safer for our sanity.