The "Best" RPG Ever-113

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---

Please stay inside. We are neither out of the metaphorical, nor physical woods yet, I think.

Should we drive forth to escape them? the prince inquired.

Katherine returned the concept of a negative response first. Then: Not, at least, until Clera's done. We're probably better off getting rid of them all than running anyway.

Clera was still sitting on top of Karl, shaking. The soldier winced, still feeling a decent bit of the pain himself. "Please, miss—I ain't worth this. Just—" She cut him off with a firm but harmless slap to the face.
"Are you a soldier or not? Fight."

Zack was still standing just over them, sword held at the ready. What do we do? Take poison from one of the bodies and make an antivenom?

Producing antivenom is a process which requires livestock which can tolerate the poison, medical equipment we do not possess, and furthermore—months, Clera replied in an increasingly frustrated tone. And I have never seen so much as a syringe in this world. 'Ordinary' healers must have some relatively simple method of dealing with poisons in general, but since I was never trained as a healer, I do not know any such spells myself.

Wait...

Zack closed his eyes, opening the knight skill tree for the first time in a while, and scouted the central branch for a few seconds. Oh...duh. Almost immediately an 'antitoxin' spell presented itself not far past the basic healing he could already do, so he took its prerequisites and bought it right away. Sheathing his sword, he knelt next to them and put out his hands, chanting the spell. It seemed effective, as both Karl and Clera stopped showing signs of being in severe pain.

You're gonna make Aria mad, Lynn joked privately as he stood up and offered Clera a hand to help her up. Her legs shook at first, but she waved for him to pull Karl to his feet too.

Whatever, at least I bought something.

"That spell only weakened the poison's effects so your body can fight it," he said aloud; the skill's description had made it clear it was more of a suppressant than a cure. "It's still in there. You start hurting worse, I need to re-cast it."

"Urgh..got it." The soldier let the knight help him over to the caravan, then leaned carefully against it for support on his way to the sick wagon.

---

When the group arrived at the front gate to town carrying three unconscious people, it immediately drew the attention of the guards at the gate. "Yeah, hey," Mira said, taking the lead. "These two went slightly crazy and we aren't exactly sure why, so I put them to sleep temporarily. Maybe the Captain'll know what happened?"
"This guy had a run-in with giant spiders," Aria added, waving to the avian.
"I removed as much of the v-venom as possible," Nora said, "He seems stable, but he sh-should still be properly treated." None of them questioned either story, instead one volunteering to carry the avian to the healers' while another ran to try and locate their captain. Given Rast's reaction to their arrival earlier, it was hardly a surprise, but it was still strange to see them so instantly trust these people.

A former monster, a witch—who Hyacinth had been brought up to perceive as about equal to monsters, if not worse—an unusually talented shapeshifter who wasn't a witch, yet reeked of demonic magic anyway, and...a priestess of Haestra who also accepted all three of them. It would not be possible to report on the sort of people Kyzerath's town considered heroes honestly, Hyacinth thought—but then, her superiors seemed to have accepted long ago that whatever Lady Ezra did always worked. Regardless of anything else, these four (or particularly Mira and Nora, anyway) had more or less saved her life. It seemed the gods were keen to test her personal conviction to regard actions over reputation.

They went to the guardhouse and carefully set down the two unconscious guards in a clear space just in front of it, right on time for Lady Ezra to arrive from elsewhere. She glanced at the two guards, then turned to Mira. "You put them to sleep?"
"Mm-hm." She leaned back and forth in place, still smiling."A weak, improvised curse so we wouldn't have to knock 'em out the concussive way."

"And you can break this curse."
"Yep! Anyone can, if they say the right word. But uh, they might jump up and start attacking you then."

Ezra glanced briefly at the rest of the group—appearing to tangentially acknowledge Hyacinth's presence—then knelt in front of the avian woman, raising her hand and chanting what sounded like a scanning spell of some sort—but not one Hyacinth knew. She seemed to nod to herself then, standing and turning to one of the guards who'd arrived with her, giving an order: "Go, get Jacob. Check the library first."

Once he was off, she turned her attention to the mage. "Hyacinth. You did not ask the nature of your initial injury when you were brought here, nor how it was healed."

"By the time I might've, you brought up dangerous information," she said. "I thought it may be more of that."
"..Maybe related, but I can safely tell you this: It was a previously unencountered form of chaotic magic. These two have something like that flowing through them, but not in the same way."

"So you believe the same method may 'cure' them?"

"I at least hope that it will."

---

Holding his sword and shield ready, Zack looked at Clera; she was no longer shaking, but didn't look entirely steady, either. "You okay to fight?"

She exhaled slowly. "I can still cast. It's only pain."
"At least get in the back row?" She nodded, backing up slightly and letting him take up a position in front of her.

"You get any in-depth info on these guys?" Lynn asked the fox-girl, who was busy staring at the nearest lizard corpse.
"Fast, but not strong. Highly venemous; don't get bit."

"We could've used that protip earlier."
Quiet, everyone, the psion's voice went out. More coming in...five from each side, one in front of us. She glanced Rayna and Lynn's way briefly before darting up toward the front end of the caravan to look. Big one in front. I'll keep it busy, you all take care of the others.

Any chance you can level some better 'heat' illusions or something?

Way ahead of you on the leveling part, but it's only a bit better. No promises, Rayna replied, leaning herself back against the caravan and disappearing from sight, also spreading out the sensation of her heat so it seemed to just be more of what was coming from inside.

Lynn stringed an arrow, 'listening' in on the illusionst's visual information for a target again. Well, hope I can dodge, then.

They're here, Zack reported.

---

"You guys don't really have to hang around for this, y'know," Mira said, looking between the rest of her party members. "I mean, if you wanna rest or something..."
"Actually, we'll need her," Ezra contradicted, indicating Lupa.
The wolf-girl tilted her head slightly. "This one can help?"

"Yes. Stand close by these two."

"Okay~!"

Looking between the rest of them: Hyacinth and Rast both seemed to have a vested interest in sticking around, Nora looked unwilling to leave Lupa behind and so shirk her duties as "temporary guardian", and Aria just shrugged. "I wanna see what happens too," she said.
"You're not concerned about Rose at all?"
"Are you kidding?"

"Hmnh, yeah, they're prolly fine..."

Before long, the guard returned, bringing with him a tall elvish man with glasses. Hyacinth's immediate impression of him was the sort of mage who buried himself in research and would surely wither out of existence the moment he stepped briefly outside of a magic college...yet here he was. "You needed me for something urgent?" he addressed Lady Ezra, of course, but after a second or two he also made a double-take Hyacinth's way, like he recognized her.
"These two," she pointed. "Some form of chaotic magic appears to have caused them to behave strangely, and is still in them."
"That isn't.." He shook his head, coming a little closer and kneeling near Kayriel. "I suppose I should not count on what isn't supposed to be possible at this point. But just for the record, I can't account at all for it staying concentrated stably inside a person like that instead of dispersing." It seemed like he didn't even need to cast anything to 'read' what Lady Ezra had described for everyone else's benefit. And his voice seemed increasingly familiar to Hyacinth the more she heard it.

"You think you could purge it out of them? Or possibly test your other idea," the captain of the guard suggested, gesturing Lupa's way. Jacob finally noticed the wolf-girl at this point and jumped slightly when she gave him a very sharp-toothed smile. It wasn't easy to tell for sure whether she'd meant to look friendly and failed, or actually wanted this reaction out of him.

"I-I see. Yes, I suppose I have something resembling a prototype for that.." He glanced around briefly. "Everyone else, stand well clear, please. Just..hold still, miss Lupa?"
"Okay!" She grinned and wagged her tail, seeming extremely eager to help.

Now Jacob cast a spell. Hyacinth couldn't put her finger on it, but something felt wrong about this one, and even though she had a general sense that it should move 'something' to a different location, the concept behind it was...slippery. It felt like something that was not meant to be understood, yet not painful in the way that dangerous information was supposed to be.

A stream of something rose out of the avain's body as he incanted—something equal parts mesmerising and nauseating. It was as if the eyes couldn't fully convey what they experienced when looking on it—only that it presented as a faint, translucent light composed of colors arranged in a variety of patterns, and that those colors shifted and moved around too swiftly to follow any single one with the eyes or fully make out any particular shape. It snaked through the air erratically before darting into Lupa, who appeared..none the worse for wear.

After a moment, the elf cast this spell again on Pirr. Not wanting to look at it again, Hyacinth turned her attention to the wolf-girl instead. This time she only saw a brief glimpse of whatever it was in motion, and it was plainly obvious that it followed the spiraling contours in the strange girl's magic which she had perceived before to have seemingly no purpose. Listening, she thought not only the man's voice but the structure of the spell felt vaguely familiar. She'd heard something like it before today. Not only had she heard something like it in his voice, but also something similar in another, very different voice...before.....

Finally, Jacob stood over both of them and cast a similar scanning spell to the one Lady Ezra had a moment ago. "It seems to be out of them. Was...were they unconscious for some other reason? They don't look hurt or anything..."

"That's on me!" the witch said, stepping forward. "I can wake 'em up if they're sane again."
"I..believe they should be."
"Alrighty." She rubbed her hands, then spouted some gibberish which was not a spell of any kind, just an amalgamation of several words and pieces of words: "Supercali-fragilistic-expialidocious!"

---

What Katherine faced was not like the other lizards. It was much larger and wider—probably a little slower but clearly stronger, too. It ran on all four legs, with the forelegs sporting unreasonbly long, sharp claws, and its mouth was much longer—more like an alligator's, fit more for tearing limbs off than the snake-like ambush tactics of the others. It sped up as it came closer, charging like it meant to pounce straight onto the front wagon of the caravan.

The psion ran several steps forward, raising the electric dagger and sending it out to stab and shock it. It shuddered but slowed only slightly in its run, so she moved over to one side and tried to provoke its 'mind' to want to attack her as much as possible. It took some concentration and effort, but soon enough it turned first its gargantuan head, then the rest of its body, off to one side to run at her. So she did what cats do best, and climbed the tree—leaping up to a nearby branch, sending some daggers down to cut her quarry, and then over to an adjacent tree just as it rammed that one with full force, sending it toppling.

She was still busy keeping track of everyone else during this. As the big guy arrived, two lizards came into Lynn and Rayna's view; the archer shot each with electricity, knocking them down to the ground, but couldn't capitalize as a third came out from behind a trunk, swiping its claws at her. She sidestepped, stuck an arrow straight into it and imbued it with ice in her hand, the sudden chill stunning the cold-blooded creature briefly and letting her kick it away and back up several quick steps. The other two she'd hit were up by now, but she landed an arrow with a big rock square in the head of one with enough force to crush its skull and knock it flat. The other one closed the gap as she fired and bit for her shoulder, but it missed by a decent margin thanks to Rayna's improved illusion, giving her an opportunity to chill it and back away like before.

On Zack's end, the first lizard to pounce stood no chance, Enceladus cutting through its body like it was a thin sheet of paper. The next two were more cautious, attempting to flank him from either side, but (with some help from the psion) Clera targeted one with a blast of flame, klling it instantly, and the knight bashed the other with a shield when it came close, stunning it so he could chop its head clean off. Maybe he should've taken the big one, Katherine thought.

The big guy showed that he was no less adept at climbing than his bretheren, the claws on his forelimbs helping him scramble up the tree toward the catgirl. She stuck the fire-enchanted dagger in the tree's trunk and set it off before leaping across to the other side of the road, catching the tree alight and scorching the giant lizard before it could get away. It wasn't capable of jumping that distance, it seemed, and had to instead close the gap to the other set of trees by running. She took the dagger she'd just used back and stabbed and slashed at it from above as it approached.

Uh..oops.The tree she'd just caught on fire wasn't going out, and its neighbors were beginning to catch. Do any of us have a reliable way of putting out fires? The psion had gotten a little too used to working alongside Nora, it seemed.

I can take care of it once I'm not pinned down! Lynn reported, currently busy dancing between the three surviving lizards—another electric shock having done in one of her first few assailants.

The two lizards remaining on Zack's side were leaping back and forth between the trees, looking for an opening. I could possibly clear the caravan, Clera thought.

I've got this, go! the knight replied, and she nodded, turning and leaping, flapping her wings and getting just enough air to land herself right on top of a wagon. From there she cast down a few small fireballs that seemed to be lizard-seeking, as each one followed and hit its mark despite their best attempts to flee. Lynn struck an arrow into the chest of the one that was still moving after that, arcing electricity through it to take it down for good, and then quickly turned to send a volley of water-arrows toward the small blaze the psion had set.

Katherine was busy moving from one tree to the next, away from the caravan, as the big lizard chased her. Eventually she got far enough from the spreading fire to be comfortable jumping across the gap again, and then tossed three of her daggers over and down at the big lizard as it hurried back off of the tree and ran after her again. Don't set another fire! Clera helpfully suggested.

I know, I know, sorry!

With Zack's backup busy, the two remaining lizards on his side made their move—a flanking maneuver like before. He switched to Bright form, tossing the smaller sword that came with it backwards at one of them while stabbing the other through with Enceladus, cleaving it and turning around with the same momentum and then moving forward just as much as needed to stab the one he'd just slowed down with a small sword to the chest right through the neck. He grabbed his secondary sword back and continued running toward the front of the caravan—in the general direction of both Katherine's and the gigantic lizard.

The Empath sighed, then softly chanted a spell to gather some of the fire in the trees up into a space between her outstretched hands in order to keep it under control. This was enough for Lynn to put out the rest of it successfully, but—as she made clear in some nonverbal mental communication—all of that 'stored' fire needed to be released somewhere soon, or it would simply explode straight out of her hands. Fire magic wasn't much good at putting out fires, generally speaking.

Katherine let the big beast chase her as she went from one tree to another, back toward the burned, just-put-out patch, then leapt across the way still a decent distance forward from the caravan, highlighting a spot right between the two lines of trees very emphatically to the winged girl. Clera leapt and glided forward, landing in front of the frontmost wagon, and released the fire forward toward that position. It flew forward as a small, white-hot orb until it landed squarely in the side of the giant lizard, and then spread out instantly into a blaze all across its body which was both blindingly bright and intense enough that everyone present could feel the heat radiating out from it. After a moment this magical incendiary burned itself out and the monster was visible again, very badly burned but still staggering forward, humongous mouth agape.

Zack had caught up by now, and ran up to slam Enceladus down through the beast's neck. It didn't cut through this one as easily as it had all of the smaller monsters, but he struck with enough force for a normal blade to sever some important parts of any creature's neck, so this still succeeded in finishing the last of their targets off.

The catgirl hopped down from the tree, brushing some twigs and leaves off of herself with an expression on her face of slightly more annoyance at them than she expected to be feeling. Zack turned her way. "We got all of them this time, right?"
"Yeah. Didn't feel any other minds around, at least."

"I don't 'see' anything else threatening nearby, either," Rayna reported as she joined the rest of the group. Lynn panted softly, slowly working to catch her breath as she followed the fox-girl.

As Katherine carefully brushed some last bits of debris off of her tail, she caught Zack thinking that that she looked a little like a cat grooming itself, which was both slightly insulting and...not wrong, to be honest. She decided not to react to this at all since it was just an offhand thought he'd never actually say. Instead she said, "We're, gonna have to move that thing's body off of the road."

The knight nodded, turning toward the big lizard's fresh corpse with the apparent intent of doing so by himself.

"Please, Lady Zack," the prince's voice came as he climbed down out of the caravan. He gave a small bow toward the gathered party. "Allow us to take care of that. After all, you ladies have done the real heavy lifting already, and saved our lives in the process."

The knight looked between the prince and the soldiers, who were already on their way out of the caravan to obey the implied command, and shrugged. "Alright." He moved over toward Clera, both to get out of their way and to check if she was still suffering any effects from pulling the symptoms of the lizards' poison into herself.