Chapter 138: Silverdeath

Mark Wyrd was taking a much-needed break. Four months since he had killed his father and rescued his wife, and it felt like he hadn’t gotten a single moment to rest.

It wasn’t just purging the ranks of his father’s stooges and straightening out their extremely crooked finances, it was also defending his claim on the Wyrd Stronghold. When a Lord passes, everyone and their grandfather suddenly thinks they have a chance at the title. Literally.

The first month saw the worst of the fighting, Where Mark just stood there and let people kill themselves beating their faces against his Build.

There were a few people who worried him a bit, but for the most part, it hadn’t been a titanic feat.

Stressful, though.

And the paperwork…dear gods, the paperwork. That kept coming back to him like a damned dog with a stick.

Sign this, calculate that, oh by the way, since you signed this, you have to either sign this to change the law or go back and rewrite the original proposal.

Amanda had calmed him down enough to convince him that he should painstakingly try to do everything right the first time, so that the rats in the Stronghold’s bureaucracy couldn’t so easily chew holes in the law.

Mark was reclining against a large pillow, sipping something herbal while Amanda reclined against him, reading through documents with patience and an eye for detail that he simply didn’t have.

She had asked him if he ‘wanted to do anything’ to which Mark had jokingly replied ‘I want to stare into space for a couple hours.’

And that’s what they were doing. Just blankly staring at the wall keeping out the jungle beyond. Occasionally remembering to drink the tea.

Floor-wide Alert!

The Raid Boss, Silverdeath has been engaged on the 7^th Floor!

Silverdeath was a common slime that chanced across a large deposit of powerful Relics and Blessed Steel. Millenia of absorbing these has evolved it into a metallic slime and given it strange and unnatural powers.

Bounty: 2000 Ivory ten-pieces, 3,000,000 XP, to be shared among the Parties that claim the bounty.

“… Of course. Why not?” Mark muttered. They would have to keep their eyes open to make sure that an agitated Silverdeath didn’t come their way, but other than that, it wasn’t Mark’s problem.

Somebody wanted to go get killed by a raid boss? No skin off his back.

A few minutes later:

Floor-wide Alert!

The Party of William Oh has claimed the bounty!

Many thanks to our Climbers for their efforts.

Mark sprayed out a mouthful of tea.

“Who’s William Oh?” Amanda asked.

***William Oh****

“Go go go gogogo!” Will shouted, herding the rest of the Party up the stairs. A confined space was not where Will wanted to be against this-

Will saw a flicker of movement ahead and put his foot on Reggie’s back and kicked him up the rest of the way even as a curtain of liquid steel slammed shut in front of them.

Suddenly Will was alone on the staircase, with no one ahead, and darkness behind.

I’m cut off.

For a brief instant, Will considered turning around and leading the creature back into the structure and figuring out some way to get past it.

That brief instant was all it took for another sheet of liquid steel to block the staircase behind him.

Shit, what do I- Oh right.

Coiled Strike.

122->117 Charges remaining.

Will popped into existence near the top of the staircase, ahead of his sprinting Party.

“Gogogogo!” Will shouted, waving them past as he stepped out of the way.

Silverdeath rippled, and suddenly Will felt a pain in his pinky finger. The one bearing his Set piece. His teleportation had left them behind.

Usually that wouldn’t be a problem, given how fast they were, but since Will had been teleporting out of an enclosed area…

Another pain in his fingers.

SHIT! It’s trying to eat my Ability!

Will drew a mental line from where the metallic slime had come.

Assuming it’s trying to engulf that section of the staircase, the last point it would be able to enclose would be…

Will sent his Phantom Snakes down and to the right, utilizing their own intangibility to try and escape the monster’s grasp.

It didn’t work. Will felt his fingers slam up against something living only a few feet inside the wall.

Will gritted his teeth.

Coiled Strike.

117->112 Charges remaining.

Will lured the creature’s attention to the fair side of the staircase with his snakes, then teleported back inside of its enclosure.

Will couldn’t see, but he knew where his snakes were. They were further down the hall getting slowly compressed into a single point where the slime could absorb them.

Will considered unleashing a cannonball out of his Phantom Snakes to clear the way for them to go up the stairs, but his Party was up the stairs. The sheer amount of power he was going to use might accidentally kill or injure one of them.

Guess it’s back to plan A. Will thought, creating a cannonball copy and shooting it downstairs.

The Coiled Strike bonus when combined with the manifestation’s extra durability allowed the cannonball to cut through the metallic slime’s body, cutting a head-sized hole in the creature’s living wall, which his Phantom Snakes dove through.

Will followed after them.

Coiled Strike.

112->107 Charges remaining.

Will hit the ground hard, blind and not entirely sure of his footing. Aspect kept him from slipping on the staircase, and an instant later, he wrapped a snake around his waist, tugging himself forward as he used the others to feel their way through the dungeon below him.

With the slime taking up the entire staircase, there was no light for Will’s enhanced senses to make use of.

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It’s times like this I wish I could use Mason’s cantrips.

Still, Will could sort of feel the changes in pressure on his skin as he neared walls, hear empty cavities in the walls where intersecting hallways were.

It wasn’t too bad. Will was getting used to-

Will was alerted to Silverdeath abandoning the hallway as light spilled down the hall behind him.

Now is it coming after me or them?

Will focused on his feet, using Aspect of the Immortal Serpent to stabilize the terrain around him, creating a sort of bubble around himself.

The idea was he should be able to feel if-

The air above and behind him cracked like an eggshell as something manifested out of thin air and attempted to snuff him out.

It’s after me then, Will thought, the snake around his waist tugging him forward in a swift dodge as he spun and whipped his tomahawk into the liquid metal spear, just to see what would happen.

CLANG!

The Blessed Steel of his tomahawk hit the liquid metal, rebounding off with a ring that sent shocks through his hand.

The attack left a tiny indent in the liquid metal that vanished in the blink of an eye.

Not entirely unexpected, Will thought as he dragged himself further away before the monster could try engulfing him again.

I need to get around it.

Will didn’t want to fall into another trap. If it had left a significant portion of it’s bulk near the staircase and was just harrying him with a small extension of itself, he might run straight back into it’s clutches.

It probably wasn’t that smart, but Will wanted more assurances than ‘probably’.

I need to see the whole thing so I know exactly where it is. I need space.

Will thought back to where Bee’s copy had been attacked. That had been a huge chamber with enough room for the entire slime to coalesce, and then some.

If he could bring it back there, he could verify that it was all present, then race it back to the surface.