Chapter Thirty-Five: We’re Not Doing This Right Now...

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Immediately, Aiden noticed that their pincers glinted with some strange black fluid. As confident as he was in his armor, he really, really didn’t want any of that on him.

With Blizzy at his side, he confidently stood before the creepy shadow beetle-things. Looking past them to the top of the path, he saw Cloudy and Olivia glaring down at him. I’m gonna get an earful later, for sure.

Analyzing the foe before him, he counted at least twenty of the things. None of them were the same size as the one next to it, and the biggest one could rival a bear. It blocked the path and watched as the rest charged at him.

The things had weird antennae-like appendages jutting out from the back of their necks. The Big Boy clicked and clacked them, and the other horror beatles spread out around him.

It can command them? And has some kind of intelligence? This is less than ideal, but I should be fine…

The confidence he built up slowly waned the longer he watched the enemies move. He decided that a bit of proactivity was in order. He turned away from the swarm of buggers and ran toward the woods, passing the frozen monstrosity.

“Aiden, don’t!”

“Come back!”

Cloudy and Olivia shouted after him. As much as he wanted to regroup, he wasn’t in the position to do so. His gut told him that if he stayed, the numbers and strange black liquid on their pincers would result in him having a Not Good time.

Dying wasn’t on his agenda, so into the woods he went. Blizzy let out a surprised chirp when he started running, but she didn’t hesitate to follow him.

Peeking over his shoulder, he saw Big Boy chasing after. As he ran, Aiden continued to cast every available ability - Ice Touch spam really put in work.

The Hoarspike skewered some of the smaller ones, but he held onto Arctic Gale for when the fun really began. Ice Shield popped on his arm and slapped away a little bugger that got just a bit to close.

Its legs scraped against the slab of ice, but they failed to find purchase. When it hit the ground, it bounced onto its back and remained there despite the effort of its flailing limbs attempting to flip it over.

Blizzy leaped through the air and devoured one after the other, keeping pace with her skipping and gliding technique. Her horned headbutting easily shattered the shells and turned the smaller ones into Essence Orbs.

As he ran, he lamented having none on his person. An upgrade would be nice right about now.

But he had a skillset, and he needed to utilize it. Another Icy Touch channeled into his Pen, feeding the core more and more power. He had no idea if it did anything outside of give him a couple of Shards, but he hoped.

Big Boy had fallen behind quite a bit, so Aiden turned around and grinned. Blizzy chirped and skidded to a halt, turning around with a wagging tail.

“Be careful girl.”

Excited thoughts came through their connection, and her tail quickly swished as she anticipated the horde. The small buggers reached them, and she got to work - teeth, claws, horn, and small bursts of ice did the buggers in.

Feeling confident in her ability to avoid harm, he turned to the bigger ones. One rumbled toward him, its pincers snapping toward his face. A Hoarspike discouraged such behavior. Slipped to its side, he tested his Pen-knife against the strength of the shell and groaned.

This’ll be a long one then. The blade wouldn’t be enough. The shadowy shells rebuffed his attack, and he didn’t have the luxury to chip away at it all day. Not with the number of enemies he faced.

So he switched tactics. Its pincers and nasty maw tried to gobble him up and skewer him simultaneously. His Ice Shield put in work, stopping the powerful pincers, while he shoved his Pen-knife into the ugly thing’s face.

And it popped as he hoped it would. A rain of Essence Orbs sprinkled to the ground, but he didn’t dare grab one. Big Boy rushed toward him, and he did not look happy.

“Blizzy, let’s move!”

Now that he confirmed his strategy, he needed to get away from the leader of the buggers. Things got exponentially hard to manage when it led them with its chittering and chattering of the weird antenna.

Already, his plan to pick off the smaller ones away from Big Boy’s command bore fruit. The numbers nipping at his heels were far fewer thanks to Blizzy. Not only that, he managed to take out one of the bigger ones.

Now, rinse and repeat. He continued that two more times, each time getting more effective at avoiding the piercing pincers and finding his mark in their soft necks with his Pen-knife.

He could intuit the number of Shards there were looming around his shoulders, and he was about to hit max.

“Blizzy, one more time, girl!”

The boundary to the woods was quickly approaching. He turned around and glanced toward the Town Hall, but he couldn’t make out much from the distance. The only thing he could really note?

They do good work. His group - no, his friends fought back the Evils and the nasty spawns from the monstrous abomination. All that was left was Big Boy and two other medium-sized buggers.

“Glacial Fang!” Before they had time to slow their momentum, he targeted Big Boy with his most powerful ability. Without pausing to see if it was effective, he attached Arctic Gale to the farther of the two and cast Hoarspike.

Ice Shield wasn’t ready to use again quite yet, and the one he had already fell into a crumbling mess. He used his armored right arm to block the pincers and stabbed the Pen-knife deep into the creature’s neck, popping it into Essence.

Groaning loudly, Aiden clenched his teeth as his eyes watered then looked at his arm. The spot the creature hit hissed and sizzled with the shadowy acid. That’s gonna be an issue, but -

Blizzy’s high-pitched roar greeted his ears, and then the temperature flip-flopped. Looking up, he saw her finishing off Big Boy. His Glacial Fang had nearly done him in, but the boss bugger was a hardy bastard.

But it wasn’t quite hardy enough to survive the brunt of Glacial Fang and Blizzy’s dragon breath. Ice slowly consumed Big Boy entirely. The shadowy leader fought and struggled until its legs froze over. The weight of his body was too much, shattering the frozen limbs.

Blizzy continued to breathe her most powerful attack until Big Boy finally stopped moving. Aiden knelt and pat her on the head, careful to avoid the horn on her nose. “Good girl.”

Big Boy’s icy tomb cracked and shattered as his body faded into a Core. Blizzy looked at him expectantly, licking her chops expectantly. Aiden didn’t know if it was safe to let her eat it, but everything he assumed she was capable of so far had been completely wrong.

Despite her small size, Blizzy was a certified badass. She gobbled up Big Boy’s Core with a happy chomp, licking her lips happily.

“At least one of us is full,” he joked.

The sound of footsteps approached, and he reluctantly turned to see Olivia running toward him. She was not happy. In fact, she was very, very angry. Her face spoke volumes about the wrath he was about to hear.

Aiden could see Cloudy in the distance, but Olivia had left her in the dust with sheer speed. Coming to a running stop, she started to pace back and forth in front of him.

“Do you even know how idiotic that was? You know, I really try to be supportive of you, but that was just reckless and stupid on a level that I can’t even comprehend,” she blurted out, not once stopping her frantic pacing. She stopped, glaring at him. She bit out the next few words in a scathing tone that made him feel ashamed of his actions. “Aiden, you realize that you are a freaking Quest objective, right?”

She let that sink in before frantically pacing again, continuing her admonishment. “If you died out here by yourself, everyone would’ve failed and you would be dead. You would've been dead and gone. I would’ve been left here without you, and there was nothing I could do about it? Did you ever stop to think for a second? Did wading into the horde of monsters really sound like such an appealing time?”

She stopped and wiped away the angry tears that started to spill from her eyes, taking several deep breaths. “What possessed you to run out and face that by yourself? We had the high ground and a team to back you up if you wanted to play hero.”

Cloudy panted as she came to a stop next to Olivia, grabbing her sides and catching her breath before folding her arms. The combined weight of his sister and friend really made him wilt backward.

Blizzy watched everything passively, tilting her head at all the yelling.

Back me up here?

Anything he said in response would fall on deaf ears, that much he knew for sure. Nothing he said would be right, and he honestly agreed with some of what Olivia said. His actions were reckless, but he also felt like he needed to test himself. He needed to know how strong he was out here in the world.

The pressure to protect everyone, to test himself, to slay the enemies that would threaten his future - it all grew to this massive thing that weighed on him. It all amounted to the point that he needed to prove to himself that he could do it. That he could lead those that followed him, be strong for himself and them, and vent the frustrations of the past two days.

There was so much he wanted to say, but he just bottled it up and let her vent. He knew she needed it as much as he did, but with that bottling of his emotions, that pressure, he felt bitterness creep into his heart.

I was only trying to protect all of you. Yet, she stood there screaming at him. Cloudy nodded along. Everything turned to static in his ears, so he blocked it out. While she continued to lecture him, he walked away.

“I’m not dealing with this right now. More enemies will come, and we need to collect the Essence and Cores. If you have to scream at me, do it later.” He tried to hide the pain in his voice, but he knew he failed.

Their looks drove another stake into his chest. He didn’t want to upset Olivia, but time was ticking. They had more pressing matters to deal with, so the emotional hodgepodge and reprimanding could wait for later.

Or never. Never sounds good.

He could hear Olivia stomping her foot and ranting at Cloudy behind him, but he didn’t pay them any mind. Instead, he started to fill his bag with Essence Orbs and Cores.

He hated how fast his heart raced at the idea of upgrading again, but he also couldn’t wait to step foot into the Orrery again. Is this what addiction feels like?

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