Chapter Eight

  Miranda took off, sprinting toward Visantii with every ounce of speed she could coax out of her hooves. Elise followed as close behind her as she could manage, but Miranda swiftly left her in the dust. The massive snake’s eyes immediately locked on to her, and she suppressed a shudder.

  Banishing Midnight Frost to free up her left hand, Miranda dove into her inventory and scrolled until she found the stick of dynamite Derrick had mentioned. It was a dark, ominous red color, and above its icon hovered a white skull. There was a ten percent chance that it would accidentally detonate for every five seconds that it was handled by someone without the Explosives Specialist title. Derrick had forbidden her to even take it out of her inventory ever since she’d accidentally pickpocketed it from an unsuspecting Underling—and for once, she’d completely agreed with him.

  She didn’t summon it just yet, though. Gambling was one of her worst vices—just after stealing—but even she wasn’t reckless enough to stake her life on that ninety percent. Instead, she left her inventory window up with the dynamite selected, waiting for exactly the right moment, and charged toward the massive blue cobra.

  She fixed her eyes on the gaping pink maw that loomed in front of her, and did her best to ignore the voice of common sense as it demanded to know why she was running toward the giant living nightmare.

  The dynamite needed to be in her hand for at least five seconds to trigger the chance of detonation. That meant she had four seconds to do her job once she pulled it out of her inventory. Any longer than that, and it would put her entire party at risk.

  “Get ready, Elise!” she yelled, a plan already forming in her mind as she scanned the room around them.

  Visantii reared back, her severed necks dangling uselessly on her left and right, and bared her fangs. Gripping Eagle Feather tightly in her right hand, Miranda clenched her teeth. What she and Elise were about to do was dangerous, reckless, and stupid. They would only get one chance to do this, and everyone’s lives would be at risk if either of them screwed up.

  She leaped into action, rocketing up toward Visantii and summoning the dynamite at the same time. She was only vaguely aware of the blue flash as it materialized in her hand, every ounce of her focus trained on the snake goddess’ massive, rapidly approaching mouth.

  “Now, Elise!” she yelled, and threw the dynamite. The dynamite streaked across the distance between her and the snake, passing between Visantii’s scaly lips, and—

  A river of green venom came cascading out of her mouth.

  “Ashes!” Miranda yelped. She didn’t even have time to throw Eagle Feather. All she could do was close her eyes, curl her body into a flip, and hope the fountain of death didn’t hit her. With her natural Faun balance, she was able to land rightside up on Visantii’s head even with her eyes closed, and she sprang desperately away.

  She waited for the flash of heat, and the resulting BOOM, but it never came.

  What she did detect was the smell of burning stone. As she fell, she glanced over her shoulder to see that Visantii was craning her neck backwards while the venom continued to spew from her mouth. It spattered against the ceiling, leaving a scorch mark in the stone and raining back down onto the gigantic blue snake to absolutely no effect.

  Miranda landed with a grunt and immediately threw herself into a roll. The luminescent green poison arched over her head, missing her by less than an inch. Miranda followed it with her eyes as it shot all the way across the chamber, and…

  Miranda’s eyes widened in horror.

  …hit the still-immobilized Jeremy right in the chest.

  The blow knocked him clean off his feet, and he went sliding across the floor as stiffly as a statue until his head struck the wall with a sickening CRACK, leaving a patch of blood on the dark, moist stone.

  Time seemed to stop as terror clutched Miranda’s heart. Jeremy was level zero. Visantii was level forty. She could have killed him with a mere flick of her tail. He was lucky that her venom hadn’t instantly vaporized him. But it didn’t matter. He was dead. He was dead a thousand times over.

  No, something inside her whispered. There’s still a chance.

  Miranda realized it was right, and threw Eagle Feather without a moment’s hesitation. There was no time to think. If she hesitated even for the blink of an eye, it would be too late.

  The world turned silver, and she reappeared standing directly above Jeremy’s unmoving form. Her inventory came back up, and this time she didn’t scroll through it with her hand. She mentally summoned the item she needed and felt it materialize in her hand. Without looking at it, she hurled it downwards so that the glass shattered against Jeremy’s chest.

  With her inhumanly quick reflexes, all of that took less than a second—and she was still almost too late.

  The moment she’d seen the venom hit Jeremy, her mind had flashed back to all the times she and Aaron had been poisoned during the fight. Every single time, it had taken exactly one second for the poison to take effect. That meant that no matter how deadly the venom was, if you could counteract it in less than a second, it became as harmless as bathwater.

  A regular healing potion wouldn’t have been enough, though, especially since he couldn’t drink it while immobilized. Jeremy needed something that would neutralize the venom on contact. Derrick might have had some spell or potion that could have done it, but that would have meant explaining the situation to him. Even if he agreed to help, Jeremy would have been long dead by the time they’d reached a decision.

  No, Miranda’s only option—and Jeremy’s only hope—was for her to do this herself, and she only had access to one thing that could give her what she needed.

  Panacea.

  Panacea was one of the most valuable potions in Nyr. Just a touch was enough to cure you of every single physical or magical ailment that existed, while also fully restoring your health and mana points. As far as Miranda knew, there wasn’t a Hero on Nyr with a high enough level to brew it themselves, which meant that buying it was their only option.

  Derrick had saved half of the gold he’d earned for an entire year to be able to afford this one bottle, with the promise that someday it would mean the difference between life and death for one of them.

  Miranda had never been so happy to say that he was right—if she had reacted quickly enough.

  Miranda’s heart beat in her throat as she watched the glowing white liquid seep across his chest, mixing with the neon green of the venom. As amazing as it was, Panacea still couldn’t raise you from the dead. If she had taken just a fraction of a second too long…

  A System message appeared in front of her, but she hastily dismissed it. A moment later, the Panacea flashed with white light and evaporated off of Jeremy’s chest, taking the venom with it. His shirt was ruined, eaten through by the acidic attack, but the skin beneath was as fresh and unmarred as a newborn baby’s.

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  Miranda raised her hands to her mouth and fell to her knees with a cry that encapsulated all of her fear and relief in one ugly sound.

  Then he got up and dashed toward Visantii again.

  “Right! I’m here to help!” he yelled, raising his feeble fists.

  Hissing in outrage, Visantii curled around and came for Miranda again, slithering across the chamber like an out of control subway train. She didn’t spare a glance at Jeremy, but that didn’t matter. He was in between Visantii and Miranda, and she would flatten him like a mouse beneath an eighteen wheeler.

  Why hasn’t Elise blown her head off already? Miranda thought, launching into motion yet again. That had been the entire plan! Miranda would throw the stick of dynamite down the ugly slur’s throat, Elise and Makolo would follow it up with a fireball, and the dynamite would blow the last head off.

  She thought back to the way Visantii had craned her head backwards to catch her in the venom attack, and suddenly she understood. With her mouth facing the wrong way, Elise’s fireball must have bounced harmlessly off the stupid snake’s chin.

  Miranda scanned the chamber for the Impwarden, but couldn’t spot her. Derrick and Aaron were sprinting across the room toward something, but she couldn’t make out what it was.

  Visantii was nearly on top of her and Jeremy by now, her mouth stretched wide in the hopes that the Faun would obligingly sprint straight into it. Miranda’s eyes immediately locked onto something dark red amongst the slimy pink mass. The dynamite! It had found its mark, and wedged itself into the corner of the serpent’s mouth rather than sliding down her throat.

  “I’ll tear you to pieces!” Jeremy declared proudly.

  This has gone on long enough, Miranda thought. Sorry, Elise!

  Once again, she summoned her menu, mentally selecting a torch from her inventory. She flung it forward even before it had finished appearing in her hand, and then grabbed Jeremy by his arm.

  “Silverwing!” she yelled, throwing Eagle Feather as hard as she could.

  The world turned silver, and she reappeared on the other side of the chamber, the dagger’s blade buried halfway in the stone wall, and—

  BOOOOM!

  Even from this far away, the explosion was powerful enough to throw her and Jeremy forward, and they both slammed face first into the roughly carved wall of the cavern. A wave of heat washed over Miranda, and then…

  Silence.

  Ignoring the ringing in her ears, she spun around just in time to see Visantii’s headless corpse flop to the ground with a wet splat. The green portal, which had been roiling and churning above their heads this whole time, shrank to nothingness and disappeared, plunging the chamber into darkness.

  PRIMARY QUEST COMPLETE:

  DEFEAT VISANTII, MATRIARCH OF SERPENTS

  The words appeared over the dead snake’s body in bright white letters, and with a series of sharp fwooshes, the wall sconces ignited, bathing the boss room in a less evil light.

  Glowing green XP began to rise from Visantii’s corpse—more than all four of the ecclesiastic vipers had generated combined—and promptly separated into four shining tendrils.

  One of them wafted over to where Miranda was standing and struck her in the chest. Once again, that invigorating, electrifying power began to course through her veins, chasing away her shock and exhaustion.

  Her XP bar reappeared in the corner of her vision, rapidly climbing as more and more of that sweet energy was pumped into her. She could feel it building up in her chest as the meter rose higher and higher, until it reached the top and—

  Yes! she roared inside her head as something inside her seemed to explode, releasing all of that power into the rest of her body.

  This time it didn’t just pass through her—it became her. Energy flooded her veins, her muscles, her everything, until it felt like her cells were glowing. Her heart raced, her mind buzzed, and her nerves sang as every last speck of her existence came alive in a way that was more addictive than any drug known to man.

  The sensations soon began to fade as she soaked up the power like a living sponge, leaving her feeling stronger, in some slight but undefinable way. She could run just a little bit farther, hit a little bit harder, and withstand just a little more punishment. Nothing that anyone but her would ever notice, but there nonetheless.

  In the corner of her vision, the XP bar emptied out and began to fill again, but not before the little number next to it changed from 18 to 19.

  Watching the meter go up, she let herself hope that she might have earned two levels from this fight. A level eighteen Hero taking down a level forty boss was worth that much, wasn’t it? She clenched her fists in excitement, her muscles still on fire from the last level up, and—

  TRADE ACCEPTED

  It disappeared, taking the heavenly sensations with it and leaving her XP bar almost completely empty. Despite having known it was coming, Miranda had to fight back the urge to punch the wall in frustration.

  The rest of the XP was flowing over to a corner on the other side of the chamber, where she saw Aaron and Derrick kneeling over something. She made her way over to them, the click, click, click of her hooves sounding almost surreal in the silence.

  “Well,” she said, her voice echoing, “I’d point out how that didn’t go according to plan, but do our plans ever—”

  Derrick whirled around so fast that Miranda actually flinched.

  “Where is my Panacea?” he demanded. “Where is it?”

  A pit formed in Miranda’s stomach. She had been friends with the Mandrake for almost ten years, and she knew he would never hurt her. And yet, seeing the look in his eyes right then, she couldn’t stop herself from taking a step back in alarm.

  “I- I used it to save Jeremy!” she stammered. “Why? What hap—”

  Derrick’s hands came up faster than she could react. For a split second, she thought he was going to wrap them around her neck. Instead, he only grabbed her by her shoulders, but she found that that didn’t comfort her as his grip tightened and he began to shake her.

  “You idiot!” he roared, his voice drilling painfully into her ears. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

  “What?” Miranda yelled.

  “I could have saved her!”

  Grabbing his wrists, Miranda finally managed to pry his hands off of her. “What do you mean? Who could you have…”

  Her voice trailed off as she finally paused to take in the scene around her. There was Derrick, and there was Aaron, still kneeling over something she couldn’t make out with a look of shocked horror on his face. An exclamation point was flashing in the corner of her vision, reminding her that she still had an unread System message.

  “No,” she whispered, her gut tightening.

  It couldn’t be. It wasn’t what it looked like. It was…she had no idea what it was, but it couldn’t be that! Half panicked, she brought up her menu and scrolled to her messages tab. That would clear this up right here and now, and then she could…

  Eagle Feather fell from her listless fingers to clatter against the floor.

  PARTY MEMBER ELISE KITCHNER HAS DIED.

  KILLED BY: VISANTII, MATRIARCH OF SERPENTS - VENOM SPRAY

  She looked at the shapes on the floor again, and they finally solidified in her vision. The ragged, acid-eaten remains of what had once been a green dress lay abandoned near a floppy, pointed hat. A chain, its links half melted, led to the pile of dust and bones of a familiar whose connection to the mortal realm had been destroyed.

  “No,” she whispered again.

  So small. So young. Barely more than a child.

  “I could have saved her,” Derrick said again, his voice as sharp and cold as Midnight Frost. “But I needed my Panacea. I opened my inventory, but it was gone.”

  “No!” Miranda said more loudly, shaking her head and taking a panicked step backwards.

  “It was gone!” Derrick ranted. “And now she’s gone, Miranda!”

  “NO!” Miranda yelled, covering her ears.

  It was all her fault. She couldn’t take this. All her fault. Terror devoured coherent thought, leaving her mind a blank white fearscape. All her fault! Everything seemed to be sped up and in slow motion at the same time. All her fault! When had she fallen to her knees? ALL HER FAULT! She was going to throw up.

  “BECAUSE YOU USED IT TO SAVE AN NPC!”

  A scream rang out through the boss chamber—but it didn’t come from Miranda.