Chapter 31

I woke up on the floor of the inn and once again stretched out all the kinks that I had. I looked forward to sleeping in our bed when we got home later today. I did my morning business while the other two were starting to wake up. I did some morning exercises to loosen up my muscles as I waited for them to finish. Once they were ready, we thanked the person at the counter and headed over to the Tavern that we had dined at last night. They saw us and immediately took care of a hearty breakfast for us. As we were eating, the village chief arrived and asked to join us.

“I apologize for not coming to see you last night,” the chief said in a soft but authoritative tone. “There were still some things to deal with in preparation for you completing the quest. I would like to thank you all for your assistance with our issue as you have saved this village from failing.”

I finished a bite of food and replied, “You are most welcome. Just make sure you have regular patrols going around to purge as well. You had a goblin camp sprout up right near your doorstep. From what I could see, they were getting ready to start raiding this village. That would have made matters much worse. I hope that we can get some more foot traffic around here for you guys, but I don’t really have any control over that, but at least the work we did will give you guys some time to prepare so that it doesn’t happen again.”

The chief smiled, “Don’t worry, I will. Thanks to you we have contact with the guild again and have sent requests for more guards so we can have regular patrols until this region gets more adventurer foot traffic. What will you do now?”

“Well our original plan was to head to the stairwell,” Cassandra explained before putting another sausage link into her mouth.

I nodded, “We plan to deal with the guardian and then head to the next floor. Though we don’t mind helping you all of course. We had expected to go yesterday, but we didn’t expect the numbers of advanced mobs that we came across. Not to mention that the goblin village took what we had left. So, we will head out today and be able to head home tonight.”

The chief nodded, “Well we wish you all the luck, and if you can ever stop in, don’t hesitate to visit.”

We thanked him and finished our meal. We tried to pay, but the tavern keeper told us the chief had already covered the cost of our breakfast. I shook my head and thanked him before leaving. I sent a message via stone to Esmerelda, telling her that we would see her later today with the three hundred thousand for the stones, as well as collecting the reward for our quest. She seemed excited to see us, but there was an underlying tension in her that I hadn’t seen before. We left the village and headed northwest into the brush. As we moved along to our destination, we came across a few more of the enhanced mobs. We had done an oval shape that had taken care of the area around the village and stairs, but we didn’t do the forest area between them. This would give us the warmup we needed, and we took our time dealing with as many as we could. We made quick work of the targets we came across.

About an hour after we had entered the brush, we came to the outer area of the stairwell. We moved to the edge of the tree line, staying in the shadows of the brush to get an idea of what could be waiting there for us. The area where the stairwell had been placed was a flat open plateau, with an open canopy, like where the goblin village had been built. This meant that if I needed to, I could call in Draco and Saphira to supply added support. I hoped that we could handle things ourselves, but there was only one way to find out. I called up my map and made sure that we wouldn’t have to deal with any mobs coming and giving us some added grief. With the coast clear, we left the safety of the brush and moved out towards the stairwell. As we neared there was a roar that filled the air and we readied ourselves for whatever arrived. The beating of wings filled the air, and I wondered just what was coming for us.

I was shocked to see a large flying lion landing in front of us, but even more shocking was the creature itself. It looked like a large sphinx, with a thick mane, large wings, and a human face. However, the sphinx looked sickly and almost necrotic, with veins of green energy running along its body. I began to have an unbelievably bad feeling, as a realization came to me that something more had been going on in this area. Perhaps the goblin village was set up so they could use the book to corrupt the guardian and that meant that this was, yet another creature corrupted by Kali’s crusade.

“Oh great Sphinx,” I called out, “please allow us to pass. We wish you no harm and will happily participate in any test you will give us.”

The sphinx let out a growl, as the sickly green energy grew brighter, “Your test is to kill me you puny human! If not, you will become my dinner!”

The sphinx roared and jumped at us, causing us to split apart to dodge the attack. Theresa called out Airie, and commanded her to attack the sphinx, while trying to get out of range. Cassie gave me a look, telling me she too didn’t want to do this, but we had no choice. Resigned to this fate, we charged the beast.

“You have spines after all,” It boasted in a sickly gurgle. “I wonder how they will taste as I devour your flesh?”

I tried to get in close but had to dodge out of the way of his powerful paw strikes. We would have to wear it down to get in close enough and even then, there was no telling how long that would take.

“Theresa, Cassie, Boom time!” I yelled, as I stowed my sword in its sheath, grabbing a handful of projectiles.

Cassandra did the same and readied hers as well. Instead of moving up close, we began circling the beast, staying out of range of its attacks, and also focusing its fire away from Theresa. The shuriken had the desired effect and Cassandra’s work was fantastic. They were as lightweight as ever as they cut through the air towards the beast’s limbs in a hope to slow it down and immobilize it a bit. When they struck his flesh they erupted in an explosive ball of fire, causing the sphinx to cry out in pain. Theresa switched Airie out for Pincer, her scorpion. I think she hoped the venom in its stinger would cause it to weaken and ease our battle. The scorpion got a few good stings in until the sphinx crushed it under a mighty swipe of its paw. It returned to Theresa’s bracelet, and she sent out Airie again.

“Little insects have a bite to them!” it growled in rage, as it looked like the poison was taking hold. “You think that something like this will stop me, you have no idea!”

The sphinx then staggered and collapsed, falling into a heap. The poison worked to help finish what the necrosis started. Its breathing slowed, until it stopped all together and we waited for the beast to erupt in a blast of smoke. Only it didn’t happen, and I got an unbelievably bad feeling about it. Its eyes opened and began to glow like fire had begun behind them.

Its mouth barely moved, as it began to get up, “Now it is time for the bugs to be squashed under my power!”

The glow of its eyes intensified, and I watched as the beautiful, yet matted mane of the beast ignited in green flame. The fur on the end of its tail also ignited in sickly green brilliance. It pulled back its head in preparation for a roar, but when its maw opened, a blast of sickly green energy erupted from it. We barely got out of the way in time, and I watched as the energy began to dissolve the face of the beast, revealing the muscles, tendons, and bone beneath. I had to change tactics and end this quickly.

“Cassie keep up the projectiles, Theresa use up any explosive tips you have!” I yelled as I stowed mine and put my shield on my back.

I began to call forth the summoning for my dragons, but just as the rift began to open, the Sphinx roared and emitted a flash of energy.

“You dare to try and bring others to fight your battle for you?!” It bellowed. “You are a coward, and I will enjoy eating your carcass!”

I growled in frustration and then began charging my divine blasts. With my shield on my back, I could cast with both hands and allow myself to alternate blasts. There was no time to build it up, so I would deal with the base damage output. With my mana at full I could fire at least twenty shots and I had two mana potions as well. I fired off my first blast and saw realization and anger grow in the beast. I continued to fire, making sure to move around and focused on the legs and head as much as I could. Each blast tore away flesh revealing bone and yet the beast showed no signs of stopping. Given the energy emitting from it, I was certain that this beast had given in to the necrotic magics that had infected him and now it was an undead beast.

“Concentrate fire on the torso!” I yelled, as I began to concentrate my firepower there. “We need to find the core of this necrotic energy and destroy it, or we will never kill this thing!”

“You are quite bright for an insect,” the beast growled. “Too bad it will not be of help. I will destroy you all before you get the chance!”

I drew my sword and raced at the beast, firing blasts as I went. I could see that Cassie was running out of projectiles, and I needed to get closer to toss her my pack of projectiles to restock her. The necro sphinx was firing blasts at all of us, and we were barely getting out of the way. As I neared the necro sphinx got ready to hit me with a blast, but I used all three charges in my sword to send a fire wave at him. It ignited his flesh causing him to move back in pain, giving me time to toss the projectile pack to Cassie. I then sheathed the sword and dumped as much energy into both hands as I could and sent the enhanced blast at him in the center of his torso. It had the desired effect of blowing most of the flesh off and causing him to go flying back and landing in a heap in front of the stairs.

As it got up, I could see that it exposed the heart of the beast, which was beating with necrotic energy, much like the crystal in Catherine’s staff. As it got up, it looked at us and roared. I felt the whole ground quake and I found it hard to move, like a huge weight had been put on top of me. I had a bad feeling and moved as fast as I could to get my shield, and it felt like my arm was one hundred pounds, but I was able to grab the shield. It was just in time as the beast launched spikes of necrotic energy at us. Airie was taken out, and since Cassie was next to Theresa, she used the gale wall effect of her sword to protect them from most of the damage. Despite Cassandra’s quick thinking they were still hit causing the shield to falter and were knocked to the ground by the remnants of the blast. I took the brunt of the attack, keeping my torso from being hit, but it hurt like hell. The weight dispersed and I looked to see the beast stalking towards me. I quickly glanced at my bracer and saw my health was low and I had enough mana for one more blast. I grabbed a potion of each and downed them.

Glancing over, I saw that Cassie and Theresa were only just getting up from the hit. I knew that if it attacked them again, it would be devastating. So I began running at the beast, firing blasts towards its exposed core. The first blast grazed the core and the necro sphinx felt the intense pain of it, which is why the second didn’t even come close. It began to prepare itself to take flight, but I couldn’t let that happen. I started blasting the wings, in a vain attempt to not give it the ability to take off. Soon Cassie and Theresa were joining in, and Inferno had joined the fray to spit fire at our enemy. We made quick work, and I could see the necro sphinx growing angry and desperate. It couldn’t protect its core and now it wouldn’t be able to fly away. We had to end this, because if this thing took off, we would have one hell of a chase on our hands, then it dawned on me.

I ran over to Theresa, “Coat this on one of your regular bolts and hit the necro sphinx with it.”

Cassie looked at me in confusion, “Why are you wasting time with this? We should just kill it now!”

“We need to see its lair,” I answered. “I think whatever happened to this thing happened there!”

Theresa just looked at us both but took the liquid and poured the rest of the tracking liquid on the bolt. I turned and began to attack the necro sphinx from the left, while Cassie attacked from the right. Theresa took her opening and aimed at the beast’s heart. I was worried as I saw it fly though the air, that it would kill the thing, but the beast used the sub remainder of its wing to block the attack.

“You have become tiresome!” the beast growled, with evident strain in its hollow voice.