Alma knew that a frontal assault was useless. Her master had been brave to try, but also foolish. He had a blend of courage and stupidity that she found endearing but also insanely irritating. Once again, it fell to her to save her silly master. So she would.
The dragonling dove at her top speed, and unleashed her Psi Blast when she was only meters away. In its tightest beam, it bathed the goblin in psychic energy. Her Mental Deep Magic assaulted the Blood Deep Magic of the stone. There was no way that she could match the power of the ancient artifact, but the flesh it inhabited was much weaker.
The goblin reared back, barely keeping control of the spell. It resisted the secondary effects of Stun and Disorientation, but Alma’s attack weakened the hold the Bloodstone had on the Druid by the slightest amount. Radg-or had not been completely destroyed when the possession began, merely forced into an impossibly dark space.
When the goblin had actually felt the cold will of the Bloodstone, the Druid had been horrified to his very core. He had delighted in the pain of others in the past, but had never imagined the dispassionate “nothingness” of the stone’s will. Even more horrifying, he had learned its true purpose. Though Radg-or’s mind and spirit were weak as newborn kittens, he began to fight back.
Before the stone could even react to the goblin’s defiance, Alma carried out the rest of her attack. With all four claws extended, she slammed into the back of the goblin’s neck. Her new psi poison injected into his body. A moment later, she snaked her head around to his throat and bit down hard. An arterial spray of black blood filled her mouth and covered her face. The taste was disgusting, but it was worth it. Her venom entered the vessel that supplied blood to the goblin’s brain, further disrupting the stone’s hold.
Finally, her venom spent, she firmed her grip on the goblin and attacked with Brain Drain. As her own consciousness was carried away by the mental flood of the goblin’s thoughts and experiences, she sent one last message, *I love you, master.* Then she lost all sense of self while being swept away by the flood of the Druid’s memories… and something more.
Richter fell forward onto all fours, panting. His blood flow had only been inhibited for a few seconds, but he had lost hundreds of health. The chaos seed might have lost consciousness as soon as the Bloodstone’s power released him, but he heard Alma’s voice and looked up. The goblin’s face was twisted by indignant rage at his familiar’s attack. The chaos seed watched as the possessed Druid reached up for his helpless dragonling and a roar rose out of Richter’s battered form.
“Nooooo!”
Richter raised his arm quickly and threw his short sword underhand. The attack was not strong, but the moonstone blade easily pierced the goblin’s robes. The Bloodstone turned its attention back to Richter, intending to halt the flow of his blood again, but Richter was already moving. In one sure motion, he drew his second short sword and stabbed it through the Druid’s heart.
Between the psychic attacks, the trauma of Richter’s blades and the Radg-or’s renewed consciousness, the Bloodstone lost a modicum of control. That was all it took. As Richter stared into the goblin’s face, their noses only inches apart, the Druid’s eyes became mortal again. As strange as that was, the look of gratitude in the goblin’s eyes was even more shocking. They stared at one another for long moment, bitter enemies now united in purpose. With black blood covering his teeth and lips, Radg-or simply said, “Thank you.”
Then the Druid used this one chance to die on his own terms. Taking control of the spell, he purposefully triggered a spell backlash. The maelstrom stopped sending down elemental attacks, and the air grew heavy with bottled energy. Every soul in the valley felt the importance of that one moment in time, and knew instinctually that all of their fates were about to be decided.
The moment ended and the Druid’s head flung back. Both of arms flung out to the sides as the thousands of points of mana in the storm flooded back into his body all at once. Radg-or could not even scream as every neuron in his body was burned out simultaneously. He died before his mind could even register the pain. The energy from the spell could not be contained by the goblin’s ruined body though. The veins in his skin began pulsing with red light, faster and brighter.
Richter stood there, one hand on the hilt of his elementum short sword still sticking out of the goblin’s corpse. He had been both shocked and relieved when the Druid’s body slumped in death. Seeing the vessels in the goblins body begin to pulse though, his heart started beating wildly with premonition and panic. Alma was slowly opening her eyes as she finished feasting, but not fast enough.
With a strength fueled by dread, Richter pulled his blades from the goblin’s body and swung clear through Radg-or’s neck. Then, grabbing both the head and the dragonling attached to it like a football, he started sprinting away from the body that was now glowing like a volcano before eruption. He had only made it seven steps before the body exploded with uncontained power. The explosion threw him forward off his feet. Richter had a last view of a rock growing large in his vision, then there was only pain. Then, there was only the black.
CHAPTER 44 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
A rough tongue licked Richter’s face. He blinked in confusion then sat up groaning. His health bar flashed, dangerously low. The chaos seed raised one hand to his head. There was something hard embedded in his skull. When he pulled it out, a small amount of blood started flowing. He looked at what he held in confusion until he realized it was a yellowed, goblin tooth. A golden glow out of his field of view made him look left. Alma was casting a spell, and his meager health bar began to refill. The pain ebbed slightly. The chaos seed dropped the tooth and quickly checked his status page. Thankfully, he wasn’t injured enough to have any debuffs.