Our feet carry us over rock and stone for several hours, slowly making our way to the entrance of Blight Spire from within the Connector. It is common, almost guaranteed that we run into more Plagued and even some Motherbound. Fortunately, most seem weak or injured from the river washing them upon the shore, making it far easier for us to kill them and move on.
Doing so allows Blake to build up her store of ghosts to guard herself and fight with, hitting her limit at around ten. Her previous limit is a far cry from now. I wonder if that is the natural advancement, which is likely, or if the Cathedral Of Eyes had something to do with it. Speaking of… if that place really did teach her a skill, then perhaps… could it teach me one too?
She said that it had to be personal, something individually essential and relevant. One can't just ask vague things or events about the future. They have to be about you. Like how to do this or how to do that. The best way to improve myself, etc. But is something like Shiver relevant enough to me to warrant that?
Perhaps. Perhaps not. Only time will tell. And while that Cathedral was dangerous, I should take the risk if the reward is that grand. I've already done it once, right? Even if Blake did most of the work.
I'll get back to that later; I'm not even ready to advance right now. I think my answer to the Metaphor is alright, but I need more time to ensure. It just doesn't… feel quite right. And after seeing all this corruption, I don't want to risk disobeying or not following The Cabin's guidance. For now, though, we are nearing the Connector's exit and the Blight Spire's entrance.
Carefully, I peek over the edge of a sharp rock, my eyes just barely making it over to not reveal myself. Hundreds of Plagued are crawling around on the walls of a pit similar to the one we fell down. Water is at the bottom for most of the hole, but not all of it. The section that ends with rock instead of water has a Dreadmarked with their signature giant arm ready for action.
I scour a bit more with my eyes but cannot spot any more Motherbound than just that one Dreadmarked, nor can I spot the actual entrance up the walls of the pit. Noiselessly with Stealth subduing the sounds of my movements, I slide backward and whisper to the group.
"Hundreds of Plagued on the walls and one Dreadmarked. Not sure of any other Motherbound in case they're hidden, and I could not find the exit."
Johnny nods at me and whispers some details of his own, focusing on me at first.
"Okay. So here's what we're going to do. We need to make it up to the tunnel high up along the rock, and Skychaser's wings are injured, so we need to do it the old-fashioned way. Wyatt, you're the fastest climber we have. Use those boots of yours and just run up the wall as fast as you can, and we'll keep the horde off of you. Once you get up, you'll get a rope tied to help the rest of us up. Take a few minutes if you need to gain that confidence with those boots since you always just use them as a supplement to your hand."
He then turns to Bonfire and Skychaser, our two best ranged combatants when there is no ammo.
"You two will be the brunt of keeping him safe. Anything you two can do to keep him safe will be needed. So hold nothing back, okay?"
The pyro and the Bado nod in agreement, having enough rest over the past several hours to use their Ether again. Johnny then turns to Blake.
"What is the range of those ghosts of yours?"
She thinks for a single second before answering.
"A hundred feet or so, and I already tested it. It's ten times as far as before."
I see Johnny's head turn slightly as if the man is thinking about her answer and how to add it to the plan. He finds it out quickly. The man we all look to as a leader makes conjuring a plan seem like a piece of cake.
"Okay, for the first hundred feet, you'll be his main guard, letting the other two save some energy."
He then turns to Lennox, Dakota, and Silas with a finger pointed at himself.
"Us four will cover the ground and anyplace we can reach on the wall. Silas, if you get the chance, feel free to help those above with your coins, but ration them. Who knows when we'll need a Wish? Everyone got it?"
Everyone agrees at the end of his plan, with short whispers indicating their understanding. Once that is done, we all stand and start slowly making our way toward the section of the pit where the stone floor meets the wall.
We don't make it very far before getting spotted; Lennox, Skychaser, and Bonfire are awful at stealth, the first two because of their natural endowments and the last because… he's Bonfire. So we start off the plan with a hundred Plagued screeching at us and all of us rushing toward the wall.
The Plagued twist and turn their bodies to move toward us as fast as possible, claws clinking against stone and jaws clanking against their own teeth as a horde; no, an army of madness scream toward us. Still, I do not spot any human Plagued; these are all still Bados.
The Dreadmarked at the bottom of the wall where we are heading also reacts to all this noise. It roars, shaking the air before us, and starts charging toward our whole group alongside the dozen Plagued beside it. The being with the oversized arm glows with green chains in my sight, and before I can even go first to meet it, Johnny does, drawing a sword he had Blake make with four of her ten ghosts.
It is short, as he preferred the quality and density of the blade over length. With it, he slips underneath the Dreadmarked's swing just as I did before stabbing it in the gut, running the edge around the creature's side. A translucent aura of Ether is left wherever the blade touches, fragmented waves wafting off ominously, allowing Blake to use her Decay and further deepen the wound.
But she doesn't need to, as before we even reach the Dreadmarked or any of the Plagued to help, Johnny has already climbed onto the back of the larger Motherbound and sunk the blade into the back of its head. Then, with a quick twist and a noticeable surge of effort, the thing's skull rips in half and clatters to the ground. He then vaults off toward another target and adeptly lands on the head of a Plagued, ending it immediately.
Impressed at the man's prowess with a blade and a gun, I slow slightly before returning to my usual speed to catch up and help. Rapidly, we meet the rest of the Plagued on the stone floor, everyone doing their best to cut through the much weaker foes, even Lennox. The Stoneclad punches the Plagued and bludgeons them to death as he shows his courage.
I push through several Plagued with Bonfire beside me, burning anything that comes too close with his gouts of fire. And after almost a full minute of struggle, we reach the walls, some stragglers still on the stone floor and with many more coming. Most of which are from above.
Funneling Ether into my feet for Chainlink Boots, but taking it a level higher and using far more Ether is more complicated than it sounds because it now requires three types of manipulation: Single, Braided, and Steel all at once. But I manage it, my Sigil giving me a little guidance with Ether's near effortless flow.
The boots appear almost instantly with far larger chains than usual, the spikes evident and capable of digging into far more than dirt or shallow stone. I only admire them for a second before looking up at the horde descending upon us, the vertical walls making the Plagued far more bizarre and threatening.
Without waiting another moment, I put a boot against the wall and feel a kind of stability as the chains on the colorful boots sink deeply into the stone of the wall. Then, with an alacritous hop, I also put the second one on, standing horizontally and perpendicular to the wall.
Then, looking forward and seeing an almost endless horde of Bado, I run ahead, pushing my Ether through my body to enhance myself as much as possible. The only skill I leave out is Strugglers Gasp because of the weakness it leaves afterward. Strugglers Defiance and Adrenaline Surge get me moving quickly as I branch out to Release on my knees again, strengthening them by utterly removing the chains.
I'm off with a burst of speed, not even bothering to use my hand to help me climb up the stone wall, forgoing it to attack any that come near with my dagger. And for the first several seconds of my sprint, I'm only met with falling Plagued as Blake managed to rip them off the wall with her Bonds, the new and evolved version of her previous skill.
Onward I go as the next few hundred feet consist of only Plagued being hit with a ball of fire or a bolt of unseeable lightning. These, too, fall to the ground, forcing me to dodge them a bit to not get knocked into. The whole while, I have my eyes peeled, searching for the entrance into the spire, silently hoping that it is just above me. It would suck if I had to go sideways and find it for everyone else, as they'd have to make it through the water below.
But eventually, as the pit is nigh bottomless, Skychaser and Bonfire help me less and less, the former likely running out of Ether to spare and the latter unable to reach me quite as well. This means I have to make my way through even though I don't see the entrance.
I push through the horde by stabbing, shoving, and yanking the many Plagued, doing everything I can to get them off the wall. Fortunately for those below, the pure distance is likely enough to kill them as none of the Plagued fly despite their wings. Skychaser says it's because flight is arduous and requires intense focus for Bado, something Plagued are incapable of.
So, Leash becomes my best friend, enabling me to haul the Plagued before they even get close, but I can feel my mind struggling to maintain all these skills for so long at once. But I can't let any of them go, so I keep going with gritted teeth, never stopping my search for the entrance.
Briefly, I glance down and see just how high up I am. It looks similar to the height of the first spire I climbed from the outside, a high three hundred feet of stone. Only this is inside and started from underground with the ceiling still far, far above as this is Blight Spire, the largest of all the stone pillars in Starkbluffs.
A deep breath filling my lungs, I continue upward, the sound of fighting far below me and an actual fight always before me now that I have no more aid. All the others are too far to help, and Johnny is out of ammo.
I push through the throngs of mindless humanoids, their dead eyes staring at me with an unseeing hunger, the silver in their eyes discomforting. My dagger is clutched tightly as I squeeze it for its reassuring weight. Without ever slowing down, I dodge and weave between their grasping hands and biting maws, trying to keep them at arm's length. Their rotted smell assaults my nostrils as I plunge my blade into one's skull, feeling the resistance of bone and sinew before it finally gives way. Then, before I waste any more time, I twist the knife and throw the climbing Plagued off the wall.
More of them swarm around me, their grotesque forms overwhelming me. I latch Leash onto the one I stab as it falls and throw it into the group in front of me with a grunt and a whirl. I slice and stab with my dagger while using Leash as much as I can, trying to make a path through their ranks. Their clawed fingers reach for me, but I dodge and twist, barely avoiding their grasp. Here or there, I am slashed, clawed, or gnawed, but the wounds are minimal, for each Plagued is weak on their own.
My arm and legs ache with the effort, but I press on. The horde seems endless, but I must find a way through it. I grit my teeth and plunge my dagger into the eye of another one of the Plagued, feeling the satisfying crunch of bone as it slams into the wall before falling the lengthy way to the ground.
Taking another brief moment to look around with those all right near me killed, I finally spot it. A tiny inlet up and to the right, a twisted face peering over the edge with a dozen other Plagued beside it. Having my destination in sight, I take a deep breath, Ether filling my whole body and weakening my chains as all the Bado around me slip and fall hundreds of feet to the ground, the newest boon to the skill coming into effect.
Strugglers Gasp fills me with strength as I move like a hurricane, speeding through the remaining Plagued and reaching the lip. Once I do so, I climb over with a quick jump which leaves me meeting the grotesque face of a Tonguer, the sharp teeth inside its beak dripping blood and gore along with saliva.
I quickly press it as it swings the oversized tongue filled with barbs toward me. Then, dissipating Chainlink Boots, I slide underneath the tongue and latch Leash onto its leg, forcing as much Ether as possible into the Leash without breaking it or losing control. And before it can attack again, I jerk it with all my strength, ripping the fucker right out of the tunnel and into the bottomless pit.
A startled yelp comes from the wild and corrupted thing as it falls out of the tunnel to its death, and I finish off the rest of the Plagued in the tunnel. Of which, surprisingly, there are few. But I guess the pit is enough for most. A half-dozen stabs and one stomp, and it's all clear.
Then, I take out the hundreds of feet of rope that Bonfire and Skychaser brought, tying several of the fifty-foot strands together. I quickly find a spike of stone to wrap it around as I knot the rope before tossing it down.
After all that, I look down to see more Plagued coming up at me and up to see even more coming at me, all of them snarling and wanting for my flesh. Cool. Cool.
Guess I'm not going down to help them.
But I can feel my Strugglers Gasp already reaching its limit, the long climb not very helpful for my lung capacity or ability to hold my breath. And so, I let several dozen Bado get into the tunnel, their bodies filling the cramped inlet before I release the breath, a deluge of Ether and air exiting my mouth so fast that every single one is blasted out like a hurricane swept them up in its wind and sent plummeting to their nigh-guaranteed deaths.
Kneeling after the expulsion of Ether for some air, I hear clicking and clattering of claws on stone behind me as well, the noise alerting me even more. Then, I see even more crawling into the tunnel right before me.
How the fuck did Bonfire and Skychaser make it past all this?
Bastards. They got so lucky.
I drive strength into my legs as I stand again, the stone ceiling of the inlet threatening my head. But I ignore the narrow tunnel and stride forward, even with the remnant effects of Strugglers Gasp, as I take the opportunity to push the Plagued off while they are climbing in. It is much harder to stop them once they crest the edge and get their whole bodies into the tunnel.
But as I kick, stab, and drag off the Plagued climbing up tirelessly, I hear a shamble behind me and a groan. I glance behind me to meet the hanging Tongue of a shimmering Bado. And behind it is many more of its kind.
Bonfire... How lucky can you be!