The First Great Game (A Litrpg/Harem Series)

Chapter 173: Should have thought of that

[Apex Predator activated: Arcane Affinity]

Mason blinked and wiped his hands across his face, but still couldn't see.

"Streak?" he called, hearing only a muffled version of his own voice. The pain was relatively minor, as far as Mason getting blown up and nearly killed went.

He could feel a few sharp pulsing wounds that were probably shrapnel. Most of his skin felt raw and slightly burned, particularly his face. But that wasn't so bad. As long as his eyes started healing.

But Streak and Phuong had been just as close to the blast as him...and maybe closer.

Mason focused on his still dulled hearing, trying to make out friend or foe and hoping to God that troll was either dead or down. Mostly all he could hear was his own pulse.

Then after the fiftieth blink or so, it actually worked. Light appeared in the darkness, blurry and blue and without much shape, but light. He instantly pulled up his profile to find Streak in the companion tab. He was still there. That was a start.

Mason used Speak with Nature.

[Where are you? I can't see you.]

The wolf whimpered from not far away, and Mason didn't bother trying to find him and see the damage, he just activated Shared Pain.

Then he collapsed. The sound of his own bones snapping pierced his dulled ears. Whatever mild burns he'd been suffering from became an overwhelming agony that swept the front of his body. He lay there gasping, mind blanked and thinking of nothing except the next breath, the next moment with a tiny break from the pain.

[Power activated: Duality of Strength]

"Oh shite Mason is done." He heard Seamus coming closer. "How the feck are we supposed to finish this without him?"

"Mason?" Phuong's voice. "Can you hear me?"

"I'll heal," Mason managed through bleeding lips. "Alex?"

“Jesus Christ.” He practically heard Seamus cross himself. But Phuong’s voice wasn’t phased.

"Alex is fine. He was too far away."

Mason nodded and closed his eyes, probably passing out awhile before he blinked again and managed to sit up.

"Jeeeezus" Seamus was sitting nearby and looked at Mason like he'd seen a ghost. "You were fecking sausage, mate. You both were. I could see your skull."

Mason was about to ask for Streak when the wolf came padding over and slumped down. He grinned and found a spot on the wolf that didn't look burned, and gave him a scratch.

"Sorry about that, buddy," he said. "Should have thought about the crystals exploding." Then he looked over at Phuong, who seemed damn near unscathed. "How the hell aren't you in about five pieces?"

"Alex," he said, his face still grave. Then he gestured with his eyes and Mason turned to see what he was looking at. Mason's compound bow was lying on the floor, broken into at least three pieces.

"Ah hell." He didn't currently have the heart to go see exactly how destroyed it was. Instead he rose up and moved closer to the still body of the troll. Well, the main piece, anyway.

The creature's various parts had obviously been fueled by the crystals, which apparently also exploded. Mason looked it over with Ranger's Mark, and saw its organs were very, very dead.

"Well that's something, I guess," he sighed, then looked down one of the tunnels. "You guys take a peek while I was out?"

Phuong shook his head. "I'm more hurt than I look. The blast knocked me flying."

Mason frowned and swapped his ranger's mark to Phuong.

"Don't freak out if you get some kind of power warning," he said, inspecting the man with his x-ray-like view. "You look OK. No internal bleeding. Organs good. But I think you cracked a rib."

The older man winced and touched his side. "Sounds right." He looked around like someone might be listening. "Today I'm feeling too old for this nonsense. But don't tell Miss Rebecca or Aila."

Mason grinned, just glad the man was OK.

"Not a word."

Phuong still looked troubled and opened his mouth once wordlessly before seeming to figure out what to say. "Patron, I don't know how else to say this, but, you've...grown scales."

Mason blinked and put a hand to his face, finding skin that felt extremely hard and slightly cool to the touch.

"And some kind of film over yer eyes," Seamus added as if he didn't much care anymore. "And your bones are still showing, mate."

Mason continued the self-inspection to find a kind of...carapace where his legs had been most hurt. He blinked and kept touching hard patches of skin and tissue before thinking it had to be either his 'transformation' power, or Duality of Strength. Or both.

Did that mean the more punishment he took, the more he'd react with...adaptation, or something similar? Was it permanent?

The thought was vaguely disturbing, but he didn't see a damn thing he could currently do about it. He’d gone from being not in control of his mind to being not in control of his body. But he supposed if he had to pick, he’d still pick this.

He took a few breaths and walked around the room, finding nothing but splattered troll and goblin and smashed apart machinery. He finally built up the will and walked to his bow to find it just as destroyed as he expected.

The riser, or central body of the bow, was totally broken. There was no way in hell he could salvage it. Maybe they had some kind of civilian in town who could do such a thing, but he sincerely doubted it. With a sigh, he dropped the pieces to the floor and summoned his Claws.

Whatever the hell was going on with his powers and body would just have to play out without his worrying, because he didn't have the time or energy. He had a damn tree to save, and at least he didn't have to think about what to do in combat anymore.

No more running around being cute. Now it was just charge, and cut.

"Two more minutes to rest," he said, mostly to himself. "Then we go finish this thing."

* * *

The tunnels all seemed to lead to the same place. All were now empty of goblins, but covered in an assortment of crystals, contraptions, mining and lumber equipment, all of which were scattered and abandoned along the walls.

Mason's senses had returned to normal, and he could hear the creatures all shrieking and scampering around somewhere ahead. The metal corridors were disappearing now, giving way to cut wood that smelled of rot and the acidic scent of the infused crystals.

Whatever mercy was left in Mason's heart at the start of all this was entirely gone.

He didn't rightly care if the engineers were armed, or if at some point they surrendered. For what they'd done to Mai, and for what they were doing to this tree, he intended to make them all pay.

The smell of rot got worse and worse, until even the others noticed and complained. Then finally the tunnel ended in another small cavern, with a glowing green orb in its center.

No, Mason realized, not an orb. It was a heart made of plant flesh.

Another tunnel that looked like a garbage chute was at the back of the cavern, with a few goblins still leaping down clutching what looked like green crystals. Some glanced at Mason and yelped to hurry, only a few staying and holding their crystals like grenades.

"Back!" one screamed. "Or we destroy tree!"

"No." Mason said, swinging his Claws in a little circle and as he stared at the goblin. "I think you're greedy little cowards, and you'd rather live. Run, for all I care. But if you destroy the tree, I'm going to kill you all, and nothing on this earth is going to stop me."

It was hard to read the goblins due to their goggles. But after a second or two of a very weird staring contest, the little creature turned and ran for the chute.

"Should I kill them? Seamus said, eyes starting to kindle with flame.

"Don't bother," Mason said, moving closer to the heart. As he did he felt a kind of nausea and danger, like he was nearing a wounded animal that yet may strike.

[I'm going to try and cleanse you] he said with Speak with Nature and his hand on the wall. [I have Gaia's blessing. It may not work, but there's a chance.]

The heart beat and pulsed with light, and Mason walked forward to touch it with his hand.

"Sorry mate," he heard from behind him. "Quest says burn the heart. Can't have Mai die for nothing. It's nothing personal."

Mason blinked, gut dropping as he turned to call out to Phuong or activate Aspect of the Cheetah or do something. Seamus' fiery bolts streaked over his shoulder, straight into the heart.