CHAPTER 554: EARTH MOTHER

Exploiting Strike was getting obscene. Mason used it on cooldown, and every shot from the fast-charging, slowly growing power was now like a Power Shot, blasting into the giant demon with force that told old-earth physics to hold its beer.

Ichor sprayed and dripped down the giant lava demon’s legs from a hundred stuck arrows. Flesh was ripped, scales were torn, and bits of bone were showing all over the place. Mason grinned as the thing finally opened its mouth and roared in rage. Then he sunk an Exploiting Shot into its tongue.

The demon’s mouth snapped shut. It swung its head back and forth and moved towards the towers, and the other players. He hadn’t told them exactly what to do, but they were smart enough to fall back. Most of his people couldn’t really hurt it without getting close. Though he’d definitely seen some of Demi’s spores melting scales.

For the moment, he didn’t really care what else the others did. You didn’t change tactics when a thing was working.

He just kept running alongside the beast and sticking it full of arrow-shaped pins, hunting for vulnerable points where he’d knocked off those huge, thick scales. If the players kept away, it was only a matter of time.

A few more arrows and his Ranger’s Mark flared. Mason glanced down towards the creature’s bulbous body. He saw something…moving. Something was pressing out, against the worm-like segment, as if trying to escape. A lot of somethings. The thing looked like it was pregnant with a hundred babies. He suddenly had a very bad feeling.

His brain whirled for a different tactic but he didn’t see any good option. If the demon spewed out a few hundred more, his players were just going to have to deal with them while he took down ‘mama’. But they couldn’t stop and make a no-man’s land. Not with the giant worm chasing them. So it was going to be a running battle.

As the worm got fully onto land, it turned its pulsing body forward. The hundreds of pressing things got more insistent. The huge segment of worm lost almost all color, until it was an opaque white, the outer shell thin enough Mason could see the endless variety of creatures inside.

He sprayed the thing with a Crippling Strike, then everything else on cooldown, and as many arrows as he could loose in between. It all ripped holes and punched into creatures behind the flesh, like he was shooting through the paper walls of some Japanese house.

The worm’s body expanded, then split and tore. Demonic growls and shrieks filled the air, and a hundred breeds of human-animal hybrids came pouring out. For a second Mason hoped the ‘birth’ had killed the giant demon. But it simply turned back and wiggled out of its broken husk.

And moved faster than before.

Mason stopped to channel, using nearly every scrap of mana he had left. He started another Freezing Grasp on the open ground between him and the demons, drawing the first rune with his eyes. Demi’s presence and therefore his divine title infused the power again, and he stamped the second rune with a satisfying breath as the magic hummed to life.

“Enjoy,” he muttered, dropping a full complement of explosive traps right after, just to be an asshole. Then he ignored the horde of roaring demons, sprinting after mama-worm to keep breaking down those legs.

Once that thing was out of the fight, they could manage the rest. His people just had to keep moving.

**

“To hell with it, let’s hold ‘em all here, lads! We got the towers!” The big man, John, shouted over the growing noise of angry demon. A few others cheered in support.

Demi thought that was a supremely bad idea. She swallowed a lump of anxiety, knowing this was no time to be shy and she had to do everything she could. Mason would back her up later, she knew it. She was about to disagree when Garet shouted over everyone.

“Don’t be fucking stupid. Everyone back towards the town! You heard Phuong, I’m in charge. Go right God damn now! Go! Go! Move!”

Demi let out a relieved breath and ran, infusing another growing mushroom with a violent burst of exploding spores. She smiled as her new divine title yet again started glowing.

The title was amazing and filled her with a warmth at knowing how she’d got it. Her dangerous man was close and boosted by the same strength they now shared. It felt like the recognition of a connection that was already there. A kind of ultimate proof she could point to whenever she felt unsure.

“Yes I know,” she muttered for the third time.

Dick was being a pain in the ass. She winced at the dirty way the thought formed, but, the little prick had a point. Her mana was running low.

She was trying to leave enough to use her newest power. Her new prestige class power, sitting there like a big red button begging to be pushed—always in the corner of her vision. She didn’t know what would happen if she did. And she was afraid it would screw up whatever plans the others had. But the temptation…

[Mother of the Earth. Threaten the mother, prepare for the sons. Weekly cooldown. Usable only in a natural environment. Not controllable once used.]

When the system went out of its way to tell you a power ‘wasn’t controllable’, you paid attention. She expected some kind of summon power. Some panic creation of living plants that would protect her.

The system was infamously unclear in its descriptions, but the fact that it took the time to describe a week long cooldown, and a negative aspect, meant it had to be truly epic. So she’d waited, figuring it would only be needed when things were desperate.

Which wasn’t now. At least not yet.

“Feck! Wait

! I’m…I think I’m stuck.”

All eyes turned to see the Irish wizard above the tower. He looked…caught against the metal—his body almost fused against twisted metal rods, like they’d melted over him.

“Somehow I….feck. Didn’t notice. I can’t…bloody…”

He was yanking at his robes, which flickered like he was trying to unsummon them but couldn’t. And one of his feet looked trapped. There were little flying demons back and shooting spikes and flames at him, most vanishing as they struck Alex’s blue shields.

“Shit.” Garet put a hand through his hair, looking at the horde of demons charging their way, the huge creature dragging itself behind them.

“What are we doing,” one of the other men shouted in growing panic, and Demi’s mental finger hovered over her button.

“Can you get up there and melt him out, Tommaso?” the spearmen was saying, the Italian sputtering a rejection but still running for the tower.

Demi knew they wouldn’t make it. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Did she just want to use it and was willing to take an excuse? She wasn’t sure. But if that giant demon reached the tower, she didn’t think any shield in the world would save the wizard. She pushed the button.

Power thrummed around her like the bass from fifty foot speakers. Her eyes closed reflexively, and when she opened them she saw little lights drifting away. They turned into fluffy seeds that fell across the stone ground and started to bloom.

The mountain shook, and not just from the huge worm or the demon horde’s charge. Patches of stone cracked and rumbled, breaking apart all over the cavern.

Garet was looking at her and shouting with wide eyes. But she couldn’t hear and in that moment no longer cared. She’d called, and the earth answered.

She shivered as power from the ground and the air sucked towards her, rumbling up from the hidden depths of the great mountain. She could hear its voice. Hear it yawning as if from some long slumber, growling with anger to be awoken before its time.

She felt its perception sweep across the cavern and find her. The anger faded, replaced by the sleepy smile of a happy old man, grinning at a loved one’s surprise. She smiled, wishing she could somehow reach out and touch it, to ask it a million questions. Then it saw the demons.

Rock cracked beneath her feet. Stalactites fell from the cavern roof, the lava beyond spurting with sudden geysers. Even the demons looked surprised and confused as they fought to stay standing from the quake.

A single voice roared like a lion, a boom that shook dust and rattled stone. Demi knew what it said before the words echoed through the cavern. Stretched like molasses from a being too grand for little words.

Eaaaarth Moootheeeer.

**

Lodie and her human servants were doing great! They’d snuck past the demon, dealt with some guards, and even found the bomb in pretty good working order. In a very unstable mound of trash.

She’d re-tooled the fuse and linked it to her Universal Control. Then she got the humans to load it onto her proprietary, extra strong zoomer, which even actually held the weight!

Then there was an earth rumble. Goblins did not like earth rumbles.

Lodie had lived most of her life with males. She had done everything she could not to remind them she was female. Changing how she dressed. Cutting or hiding her hair. Keeping her excitement and disappointment and fears under control.

But when the mountain shook, she squealed. She squealed like a little girl fresh from the warrens, and jumped into the arms of the closest human.

“What in the damn hell?” shouted the pretty female, holding Lodie in her big, strong arms. “Is this some kind of earthquake?”

Goblins had four words for the earth gods getting angry, but none of them were ‘quake’. A mountain could rumble. It could shake. It could break. And it could boom. She had no idea which version the human meant by ‘quake’.

She swallowed and closed her eyes. This was a rumble. Definitely a rumble. And a rumble meant they were for sure not all dead and buried beneath a thousand tons of rock before being melted.

The engineers called that one a ‘Goblin Funeral’.

“Just a rumble,” she squeaked, then glanced shyly at the human female before trying to climb off. She had to swing her legs a few time before the girl set her down.

Then she checked on the bomb, which was still levitating nicely on her zoomer. A piece of her brain told her if she hadn’t picked it up, the trash pile might have spilled it, and the rumble might have set it off.

“Lucky,” she said. “Very lucky. Ready to boom, humans?”

“Christ Jesus I hope she means the demon,” said the pretty female.

Lodie nodded, because of course she did. What a silly thing to say.

“How do we get it under the thing?” said ‘Fung’. “Do we just…push it?”

And lose her zoomer? Not likely! Lodie shook her head.

“On timer. No problem. Zoom close to demon. I push special button. Then strong human pick up bomb, and…” she made a tossing motion. “Put bomb in place. Then run away fast. Very, extra super fast. But don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe.”

She grinned, expecting they’d be just as pleased as she was with a plan well conceived, and soon to be well executed. But apparently humans didn’t like to show much emotion either. Because they both managed to hide their enthusiasm completely.

Lodie fought her smile, wanting to impress and fit in. She did her best to stay professional.

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