The Chronicles of Dwynveia - a Slimeling LitRPG

Varyag

Varyag perched on a branch of one of the trees overlooking Akh’ret’s Mercy and watched the unfolding events. He couldn’t see inside per se, but his magical senses gave him the next best thing and he had a fairly decent idea of what was happening. He could barely contain his glee. He won. No matter the outcome. Either the Terran would die, or, even if she lived, she likely was permanently out of the running due to her stupidity. Sure… she could somewhat recover, but as a shadow of her former self. She ceded her position to the Granddaughter of Zekuthran too. Now… this one needed to be watched. There was only one wrinkle in the results. Lilyth’s incompetence did cause the demonborn… to fully embrace her family heritage. Varyag dared not to piss the Archpraetor off. He was not someone to cross. No. The one hope was that she would meet her demise here as Varyag trying to arrange more accidents after this one… would end poorly.

Suddenly there was a crack of lightning and someone joined him on the branch.

‘Hi there, birdie,’ a carefree melodic voice said. ‘Whatcha watching?’

‘Ter’ius,’ he said with fake and forced politeness in his voice. ‘So nice of you to join me. Some mortals wandered into the Akh’ret’s Mercy. I am observing their progress.’

‘And here I thought you were told, by his marine imperiousness not to try to mess with Lilyth.’

‘Where did I break his order?’

‘Stop bullshitting me, Varyag,’ Nyx’s voice thundered. ‘I know you woke up the Hospital.’

‘I did no such thing,’ he protested, indignantly. ‘I was merely tending to my domain and recharging the guardian spells.’

‘Which you happened to do just as Lilyth and her friends were about to leave?’

‘An unfortunate coincidence,’ he shrugged. ‘It being beneficial to my ends doesn't mean I arranged it.

‘You know no one is going to believe that.’

‘What you believe and what you can prove are two different things, Ter’ius. And judging by the fact it is you screaming at me and not his Majesty…’

He failed to add it was likely due to Lilyth no longer being of interest to him. She was tested and she failed.

Nyx sighed. She looked at the teal-feathered birdman and showed him her tongue.

‘You were always such a sore loser,’ Varyag laughed. ‘Wanna watch with me?’

Instead of answering Nyx summoned a cloud and sat on it.

‘Might as well,’ she pouted.

Aki

‘Caei!’ I shouted. ‘Lil! Take care of the undead. I’ll handle the Rot Hound.’

They didn't wait long. Lilyth almost immediately opened fire and Caeileera plunged into the rest with her glaive. Most of them looked to be revenants, so my girlfriends should make short work of them.

I drew the Lance of Longinus and fired at the Rot Hound, which was still only half out of the spiral. The lance of hellfire hit it on the rib and disrupted the rotten bone a bit but didn't look to have pierced it.

Shit! Is this due to it still being in the spiral? Or is it more durable?

I tried with Lesser Abyssal Bolt next, but it likewise had no effect. I frowned and decided to wait until it emerged. I took a quick glance at my comrades. Caei and Lilyth were currently deep within the ranks of the revenants. The slimeling dropped her shotgun in favour of her dark knife. She was carving a path for herself with it. Caei was supporting her from the distance with her glaive.

A howl sounding like strong wind passing through rocks brought my attention back to the Rot Hound. It was now fully out of the spiral, and, boy, it was one ugly bastard. The skeleton-looking incarnation of rot was maybe a metre and a half tall and three metres long, though a third of that was a bony tail. Like the beast from the Administrator’s Office it was walking on all fours, well… all eights?... with front legs looking like human arms and those in the back were these weird three-segment ones, I’ve seen on some animals. At each side, the monster also had a pair of limbs ending with bony scythes, that it likely used to support itself. The Rot Hound’s skull easily rivalled that of a Lesser Behemoth in size, its jaw was unhinged and there was some black miasma inside of it.

Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid.

I fired the gun at the monster’s skull. It hit it on the side of the jaw and blew a small chunk out of it, dislodging it from the joint and causing it to hang in an almost comical lopsided way. It had the added bonus of causing the miasma to dissipate.

I followed up with a quick shot to the other joint, but the lance flew wide and created a small hole in the wall behind the monster.

The Rot Hound looked at me with its empty eye sockets and let out a wet-sounding rattle. A drop of rot dripped from one of its teeth to the ground. I holstered my gun and drew my Falchions. The monster began lumbering towards me, picking up speed as it went.

As good a moment to spend my Perk Points as any.

Your Falchions - Dual Wield skill has increased to level 12 (0% total progress to level 13)

You have spent 2 Perk Points (Current Number of Perk Points: 0)

As the last move, I cast Flaming Weapon on my sword causing them to burst out in flames and burned one charge from my Ring of Protection. A shimmering yellow energy field appeared against me.

Spell: Flaming Weapon

Type: Elemental - Flame - Enhancement

Level: 1 (60% progress to level 2)

Effect: Imbues wielded weapons with flames. Can be maintained.

Casting time: 1 second

Item: Ring of Protection

Class: Jewellery - Magical

Rarity: Coven-made - Uncommon

Quality: Good

Durability: 15/20

Charges: 2/3

Effects:

Creates a force field around the user that lasts for 5 minutes or until destroyed (This consumes 1 charge)

Traits:

Rechargeable - You can channel mana through the object to restore its charges.

So I can eat three hits total before I have an issue. This will not be pleasant.

As the monster neared me I slid under its left, my right, armleg and slashed at its chest, breaking parts of its ribs. Wherever chunks of “bone” hit the protective field it sizzled.

Not good.

The monster moved to hit me with its chest. I wanted to step back out of the way but got stopped by one of its scythe limbs.

Shit! I forgot about these!

The Rot Hound started to crush me between its limb and ribcage but stopped on the energy field which cracked and exploded causing more damage to the monster's ribcage and the leg I was trapped on. Using the opening I spent another charge of the ring and jumped back.

This would be so much easier if I didn't have to worry about touching the thing. Or stepping on the rot spiral. Or crashing into those pinions. I’m starting to get why Lilyth swears so much.

As the monster turned towards me I spun around in the opposite direction and slashed at its armleg with my right falchion. My burning blade bit into it with enough difficulty I was afraid it would get stuck there. So the plan was to use the momentum from my charge and circle the limb in a quick movement in the hope I would be able to sever it completely. It would have been so cool if it worked.

Unfortunately, the Rot Hound had… other ideas and as I was continuing my movement it moved the limb back. Which caused me to lose my grip on the blade and made me tumble uncontrollably under the creature's body. As I crashed I bounced off the creature’s scythe limbs, which made the protective field explode and further affect my flight path. At some point I must have dropped my other sword, because when I finally stopped after crashing into one of the pinions, it was no longer in my left hand. I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn’t listen to me. I looked down and saw my falchion, luckily no longer on fire, protruding from my stomach.

Oh. There it is.

‘Aki!’ I heard someone shout from a great distance.

Come closer, I wanted to say, but couldn’t muster the strength. I can barely hear you.

I tried to raise my right hand, but it was too heavy, so I dropped it back down after merely raising it a few inches. I must have moved it slightly to the side too, as instead of ending down on the floor it ended up in something wet. And sticky. And burning.

I began to scream.

Caeileera

Caei’s heart sank when she saw Aki tumble across the floor.

What did the pipsqueak get herself into?

They had just finished with the Revenants and were about to go help her when that happened.

‘Aki!’ Lilyth shouted and turned towards me. ‘Go help her! I’ll distract the big fucker.’

Caei wanted to protest and call Lilyth reckless again but then Aki began to scream like she was on fire, so Caei just bit her lip, nodded and rushed towards the girl circling around the spiral of rot and the monster.

Stay alive, you stupid jelly. We need you. I need you.

Aki was in bad shape. She looked to have lost a lot of blood and was holding her right arm by the forearm. When Caei saw why, she gasped. Aki’s right hand was rapidly rotting away to the bone. All flesh was gone from her fingers, and the palm was slowly blackening.

Oh no.

She summoned the Floating Disk under Aki and carefully began to raise it. In the meantime, she cast Soothe Pain on the girl to at least make her suffer less. Carefully she removed the girl’s left hand from her arm and placed it by her side. Then she put the right one away from her body.

When Aki was more comfortable, Caei looked around for a place to hide and treat the girl. They were near an entrance to a corridor, so she went there with the disk following behind her and rushed into one of the rooms. One good thing - it was empty. She landed the girl on the floor and began treating her. First things first - the sword. She grabbed a Greater Healing Potion from her bag and placed it by the girl’s head. Next, she put her right hand on Aki’s stomach by the wound and removed the falchion with her left. She immediately cast Lesser Heal wound to stop the bleeding. Next, she poured the Greater Healing Potion into the girl’s mouth. The wound on her stomach fully healed… but the right arm was now a problem. Neither the spell nor the potion seemed to have any effect on it. If anything, more of it had rotten away, as now the rot had spread past her wrist and most of the hand was either bone or bits of black flesh.

I was hoping it would be like with Lilyth. Either the stuff from the spiral is more potent, or the slime is more resistant to it.

‘I will need to remove part of your right arm,’ she said in a flat voice.

Aki’s eyes went wide with shock, but then she nodded and steel returned to them.

Caei raised her glaive.

‘I’m sorry,’ she muttered and swung the polearm down.

Aki’s scream would haunt Caeileera for the rest of her days.