Chapter 87: Explosion!

Kaius sat at the writing desk in the mezzanine library, staring at the finished inscription of his newest runic hymn. He itched to test it out and saw no reason to wait.

“Going to test my new spell,” He said to Porkchop as he rose from his seat. “fair warning, it might get a little loud.”

Porkchop grumbled and rolled his eyes at him, but made no real move to protest from where he lay at the foot of a bookshelf. Grinning to his friend, Kaius moved over to the bannister and leaned out over the laboratory below.

He thrust his hand out, aiming towards one of the many tables full of glassware. If everything went to plan his new spell should punch through the first obstacle before detonating a handspan past it. Or in it, in the case of unruly depths-born.

With a flicker of intent he reached for the tightly secured packet of mana held within his linked glyph. Now familiar golden light spilled from his hand as his reserved mana was unleashed, running through the circuits of his new spell hymn in moments only to burn out the inscription with the force of its throughput.

A dark blue needle materialised at the tip of his finger, similar in shape to his Arcane Dart but a fraction of the size. It hung in the air for a fraction of a second before it shot forwards, crossing the distance between it and the table he had been aiming at in moments. There was a small thunk as the needle shot clear through the wood with a shower of splinters.

Kaius held his breath as he witnessed the impact. Hoping, praying, that it would work. A heartbeat later there was a violent boom as his spell detonated. The force of the aggressively expanding mana punched a hole the size of his head clean through the table, sending wooden shrapnel flying through the room. Glass implements shattered, both from the explosion itself and the high velocity shards of wood that had flown free.

Staring slack jawed at the results of his test, Kaius eventually managed to digest the sheer destruction that he had managed to pack into one tiny needle. Pumping his fist in the air he let out a whoop of success and jumped over to Porkchop to rustle the fur on his friends head.

“Did you see that! It blew clean through the table!” He yelled in excitement as Porkchop growled and snapped at his hands.

“Yes I did, now stop messing up my fur!” Porkchop grumbled, nipping one of his fingers.

“Sorry about that.” Kaius pulled his hand back with a shake and gave his friend an apologetic smile. “But seriously, that was awesome! It should work way better than Arcane Dart against regenerating lumps of meat. Hopefully it should blow holes straight through them. Plus it still only costs thirty mana!” He gushed.

Thankfully Porkchop looked at least somewhat interested. At least once he took an actual good look at the ruined table and shattered glass below. Kaius knew his friend had little interest in actual runework, but everyone loved a good explosion.

“I’m going to get the rest of these inscribed and then we can press on.” He said, rushing back to his seat at the small reading desk that sat against the wall.

Within moments he had his inscription stylus pressed against his flesh once more, moving quickly over his skin as he drew rune after rune with practised ease. With a new weapon to use against the quickly healing monsters that were present in the Fleshwarper’s Laboratory Kaius felt far more at ease about their exploration.

While common depths-born were no longer any major threat to him, not with his growing collection of artefacts and skills at least, the abomination they had just slain had raised an issue. It took too long to kill. The looming deadline to get their last Honours and slay a Guardian hung like a weight from his neck. While he was confident that they would be able to handle even a full contingent of flayed horrors, if their focus was split he was far less sure in their ability to deal with them in the same manner.

If they weren’t able to hack off the monster’s limbs and then focus it down, they would be forced to drain their Health the old fashioned way. Such a slog would slow them down drastically. He hoped that with his new spell they would be able to avoid that. If he could remove or cripple limbs from a distance, it should give them the time and space to pick off horrors one by one. Even when faced by a group.

Kaius took a slow breath, clearing the idle distractions from his mind. That was unimportant right now. His runework needed his full focus, lest he make a mistake and was forced to restart the spell from the beginning.

…

Standing by one of the exits from the laboratory they had entered, Kaius did a final check of his gear. He tugged on buckles and fasteners, his scalemail rustling as he ensured it was fully on tight. Reinscribing his spells had taken the better part of an hour, slightly longer than normal as he was still not as familiar with his new hymn.

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By the end of it Porkchop had gotten restless with impatience, and had taken to tearing pages out of the many nonsensical books that lined the walls. Even now his friend lurked behind him, eager to press on into the biome. Kaius suspected that his lack of Honours was starting to get to him. Thankfully Porkchop should at least get his first before they had fully cleared the laboratory of threats. Of the two biomes they had explored they had seen four Champions in each of them, and Kaius had no doubt that they would have missed at least a few in the winding warrens that were the Depths.

They had decided that Porkchop would have a shot at soloing the Champions they had come across. Kaius didn’t exactly relish the idea of watching his friend get torn to shreds by some empowered fleshy horror, but the fact that he would be waiting on the sidelines and ready to jump in if something went wrong made him feel a little better about it.

Nodding in satisfaction that his armour was properly fitted he turned his attention back to the door they waited by. Unlike the door that had led them into this laboratory section, this one had no bolthole so they had little idea of what they would find on the other side.

“Ready?” Kaius asked, turning back to Porkchop.

“Yeah.” Porkchop nodded. “Though I did want to ask how we are going to keep track of the way back here? We do want to go back to the dwarf city for our Guardian battle right?”