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[Omen of the Witchblade] Chapter 34 - Stinger
🕑 Added 2025-01-07 00:10:37 +0000 UTCInsidious cold battled with the [Firestorm] raging around Mel. Heath rushed to her side, then threw up his arms to fend against the flames. “Mel! Are you okay?”
Mel slurred something that was meant to be another scathing, unfounded insult about Ohio, but came out as, “Fleehhh.”
Oh, shit, I might actually be in trouble, Mel thought to herself as she reached out and struggled across the ice toward the water. Why was she so hot? If only she could get a drink of water.
***
Heath’s [Gripnail Boots] kept a firm hold on the ice, allowing him to backpedal easily away from the flames. What was she trying to say?
Probably a cry for help, he reasoned.
Mel had helped him when she didn’t have to. She even saved his life. He knew firsthand just how vicious people could be in this new world. Finding one person who wasn’t willing to immediately kill or maim for an ounce of gain was like finding a unicorn.
He might not know her, but he thought he knew her heart.
Heath took a deep breath and wrapped [Shadow Wall] across his body, turning it black as night and blurring his form. It would be a feeble protection against the flames, but Mel clearly was not in control of herself anymore.
She looks drunk, Heath thought to himself as he dug into a pocket and pulled out a small torn-open packet. There remained three chalky pills within.
Mel struggled against the ice, her fingernails scrabbling for purchase as she tried to claw her way toward the water. Heath darted for her, dropped to his knees in a controlled slide, and scooped her up into his lap as the flames crackled and burned away the thin layer of shadowy protection.
It was a sign of how bad things were that Mel didn’t fight him. He didn’t think he could stop her from stabbing him or worse while trying to feed her the [Antidote].
Sweat beaded on her face, slicking her hair to the sides. Still, her warrior spirit struggled against him. Thankfully, she was as weak as a babe.
“I’m trying to help!” Heath told her, but he doubted she heard him. “You need to take this, Mel.”
Flames scorched his skin, but he held on to her despite the pain and fed her one of those chalky pills. At the moment, Heath didn’t care if the flames burned through his armor. He could always find another piece of equipment.
There wasn’t another Mel.
Something in her eyes registered his words, even if her squirming body didn’t seem to get the memo. She swallowed convulsively, though Heath knew from firsthand experience that the pill would dissolve in seconds anyway.
The effect was instant. Mel’s eyes cleared up. A range of uncountable emotions played across her face. She wrinkled her small nose distastefully. The light dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks seemed darker than before.
It took Heath a moment to realize that the flames were still swirling around her, but they no longer hurt him. He raised a scorched hand, but it was only deeply reddened like a bad sunburn. He had expected to find a charred limb.
Being Copper is neato, he thought to himself.
Mel grinned at him. “My hero,” she said in a sing-song voice. “How ever will I repay you, my handsome prince?”
Though he didn’t know her very long, Heath could tell when Mel was messing with him. He definitely wasn’t that handsome. He rolled his eyes and set her down gently.
***
Mel got her feet under her and rose to her full height. She looked at Heath with greater interest than before. He could have let her suffer as he went ahead. The way was clear for him. He could have destroyed the dark ice and been gone.
You gotta do it, Mel told herself.
It was the hardest two words she ever had to say. “Thank you,” she whispered so quietly that nobody could have heard her.
“What was that?” Heath asked, looking over. He seemed relieved about her recovery.
Mel pointed at him. “Nope! Doesn’t matter that you didn’t hear me. I said it. That’s all that matters. Let’s go.”
He tilted his head curiously.
Without another word, Mel spun on her heels like nothing had happened and stomped toward the dead body of the scorpion.
Would you like to loot the [Frostbite Scorpion (High Copper Rank)]?
You find [Frostbite Stinger Twinblade].
(10) [Frostbite Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
A disgusting-looking weapon dropped to the floor at her feet as the scorpion’s body vanished into streamers of light.
Mel reached down and picked up the twinblade. Its handle was rough and sandpapery, the cross guards for the blades were made out of frost-covered carapace, and the blades themselves were sharpened and straightened scorpion barbs.
She felt a little gross just holding it.
[Frostbite Stinger Twinblade]
(Copper Rank, Weapon)
(Epic)
A twinblade harvested directly from a Frostbite Scorpion, fashioned into this form from the slayer’s Blue and Green tinged Deeds. The double ended stinger-like weapon secretes an unusually potent toxin that inflicts an icy poison.
Imprint: Heightens haste, increasing base attack speed. Inflicts Cold and Poison magic damage.
Imprint: Attacks inflict [Frostbite Toxin]. For each creature afflicted with [Frostbite Toxin], you gain a stack of [Haste].
[Frostbite Toxin]: Deals stacking Cold and Poison damage-over-time with a numbing effect similar to extreme cold.
[Haste]: Increases movement and attack speed.
“Did that monster just…drop its own stinger in weapon form?” Heath said, keeping a healthy distance away from Mel’s new toy.
“Yeah, I think it did.” Mel studied the weapon with newfound appreciation. It would pair nicely with [Omen Mark]. “You’re a nasty little beauty, huh.”
“And without having to kludge it together out of monster parts,” he said with enthusiasm, despite his clear apprehension towards the weapon’s insectile nature. “Didn’t know that was possible!”
“Best keep an open mind,” Mel said, shutting her eyes and focusing on the weapon.
She was pleasantly surprised that she could bind herself to this weapon and still keep her old twinblade. She dismissed her new toy and dusted her hands.
Out of curiosity, Mel summoned both twinblades. One in each hand. She whirled them idly. One trailed embers, whereas the other left behind a dazzling smear of acidic frost.
While wielding two at once would be fun, two-handing a single twinblade remained her preference.
Maybe after I get some training in, I can be more flexible in how I use my weapons. Mel gave it some thought. And probably higher graded strength.
Heath watched her warily, moving around her in an oblique pattern toward the far side of the room where Mel’s vision faded.
Despite the camaraderie she shared with Heath, she found herself instinctively moving [Omen Mark] from the deceased scorpion over to Heath as she closed the distance between them.
Not entirely out of any desire to hurt him, but because she wanted to keep tabs on him while she shifted her vision back to heat. Plus, she was curious if a target was aware of her [Omen Mark]. The monsters seemed to be, but what about people?
The description stated the mark could be made visible, but it also applied an affliction. The target might not see the glowing marker over their head, but would they see the affliction?
Heath spun around, his eyes wide and hurt. “Mel, why do I have [Marked for Death] on me?!”
Mel dismissed the mark with a laugh. That’s as good an answer as I could hope for!
“I always wondered what it looked like,” she said, climbing up to him. “Don’t look so worried!” She clapped him on the shoulder. “I can move it freely after the target’s death, so I wanted to do a little testing.”
“Don’t look so worried about being [Marked for Death], she says!” His voice was pitched incredulously high.
“You get it,” Mel said, purposefully misunderstanding him. “It’s hard to do proper testing of these things. That skill is probably the easiest without any lasting harm.”
“You have an ability that makes somebody marked for death.”
“Pretty sick, right?”
Heath opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He shook his head and turned back to the dark ice.
Mel let her gaze linger on the room behind them. The waterfall of hot water was the one bright spot in the entire place aside from the flames swirling around her.
She finally released [Tempest Heart] now that the battle was over. Having ragged streams of heat across her heat vision was disorienting.
I already miss the warmth, she thought to herself as Heath broke through the dark ice and slipped into the tunnel ahead.
Mel was right behind him. She gave him a gentle push. “You first this time. I’m aware of my limitations.”
He gave her a thumbs up and proceeded onward.
There were ways she could mitigate the issues with both her normal vision and her infravision, but they weren’t perfect. Using [Omen Mark] would let her be aware of her target, but it didn’t work on multiple creatures at once.
Worse, it only let her know where the creature was. It didn’t tell her anything about its weapons or attacks. It could stand halfway across the room and shoot darts at her without Mel ever being aware.
If it moved closer to her, however, such as trying to strike her, she’d be aware it was moving closer, but that was about it. If [Omen Mark] gave her an outline of the target, it’d be a different story.
Using [Hidden Mist] and lighting it up would work for her normal vision, but it was more mana hungry and had other drawbacks. If the creature moved out of her range, she’d lose it entirely.
Few creatures wanted to be covered in fog. Their first priority once they realized what was going on was usually to get the hell out of there.
Normally, that made them predictable and easy to deal with. She knew they would make a break for it, and that during their initial flight, they would be vulnerable to attack.
A much stronger creature wouldn’t be nearly as vulnerable.
“You’re awfully quiet back there,” Heath said over his shoulder.
“Just thinking about the battle,” Mel said absently. She summoned her stinger twinblade and looked at the dark blue blade.
I wonder what would happen if I gave myself just a little bit of the toxin. Just enough to get that buzz again…so long as I can avoid the whole guts on fire part. The rest had been almost fun.
Mel shook her head. Nope. Bad idea. Best not to go down that road. She dismissed the weapon.
“It was pretty intense,” Heath agreed. “I haven’t fought a battle against something that was High Copper before. I didn’t even know that was a thing!”
“Best to get used to that,” Mel said.
“I bet!” Heath’s enthusiasm was inexhaustible. “We made a pretty good team back there. I’ve never seen anybody move that fast. You might even be quicker than I am. And here I thought I was one of the fastest around.”
Mel grinned. “You ever want to duke it out sometime–for fun, of course–let me know. I’m always up for a scrap.”
“Maybe when we’re not in a trial for life and death.”
Mel made a dismissive gesture. “It’s not a trial for life and death. It’s kind of like…what’d’ya call ‘em, placement trials? This is more to see where people fall on the spectrum to better place them for the true competition.”
Heath stopped so fast that Mel nearly ran into him. He looked over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”
She nudged him onward. “Eyes forward, Mister Ohio. We don’t want to get ambushed again.”
Heath picked up the pace. “So, you were saying?”
“Call it a hunch, but I don’t think you usually pit two entire worlds against each other to see who places. Besides, the goal isn’t to kill each other. That’s just a byproduct of the way the point system works. Even if you couldn’t take somebody’s BP by killing them, it would still be in your best interest to take out rivals. Competition naturally breeds assholes.”
Mel could see from the way Heath’s shoulders tightened, his body temperature rising, that something was bothering him.
“I’m not going to kill you for your points,” Mel told him, amused.
For some reason that Mel didn’t understand, that only seemed to make him more nervous.
“I couldn’t help but notice,” Heath said, feeling his way through the conversation, “that you added a qualifier there.”
Mel nodded, understanding his concern. “Fair point.”
After several tense long seconds, Heath said, “You’re not going to take it back, are you?”
“Seems factually correct to keep it in place.”
“Great, what a partner.” Heath picked up the pace until he was jogging.
They broke out into the star-strewn night a few moments later. Wind whipped Heath’s dark cloak around and knifed through Mel’s [Heathen’s Cuirass], making her wish she had remembered to drain the scorpion for her [Sanguine Coat] before she looted it.
I always do that! she chastised herself.
