Oracle spun around, searching the ceiling and walls until she spotted a recess high up on one side.
“There,” she said, pointing. “There’s a lot of webs over there, but she kept the other two away from it, it might be…”
“Her stash.” I finished for her, nodding. “Get up and check it out please. If anyone had healing or mana potions in here, it’d be her.” As Oracle vanished up into the web-covered darkness, I turned back to the rest of the group.
“Barrett!” I said, and he looked over at me. “Are you okay?”
“Not so much,” he replied, gritting his teeth, and I checked my mana, five points…nowhere near enough. “Miren, get the healing potion and give it to Barrett.” I ordered, and immediately the prisoners started to complain, the older man going so far as to try to grab the potion before she could get it.
Bane was there in an instant, blades drawn and ready. Like Lydia, he’d been too far away to get involved in the fight and had to make do with throwing knives. Now, he slashed at the hand that reached for the potion, and the older caravanner jumped back with an oath.
“Are you crazy?!” he snapped at Bane, before turning to plead with me as Miren scooped up the potion and ran to Barrett. “Look, we can do a deal, okay? She needs that!”
“I can heal her.” I said, cutting him off with a shake of my head. “I’ve not got the mana right now, but when I recover it…”
“She could be dead by then!” he snapped, and I glared at him.
“And if we lose this next fight with the Drow, she will be! Barrett…drink the potion.” I ordered through gritted teeth, knowing the old man could see my leg.
“Aye sir.” Barrett said, before downing it. He stiffened as the healing rushed through him, knitting muscles and flesh together, pain flooding him for a few heartbeats before he sighed in relief.
“Now everyone get ready; those dickbags are out there somewhere, and we need to kill them.” I ordered, then called up to Oracle. “Anything?”
“I can’t tell. There are so many webs covering the entrance, and they’ve got magic in them, so I can’t just pass through…”
“Bane.” I snapped and he nodded. “Get your arse up there and help her.”
“Yes, Jax,” he said, rushing across the room to kick off the wall, grabbing onto a rocky protrusion and starting to climb.
“Lydia, Barrett, and Jian get ready by the tunnel. Miren, Stephanos, either side of them with your bows ready. Arrin, I want you with these assholes. If they try something like stealing a fucking healing potion we need again, burn them.” I snapped the orders out, making sure the caravanners heard the last ones. Some of them swallowed hard, while the grey-haired older man just looked pissed.
I hobbled to a stool that had been knocked over during the fighting and straightened it, sinking onto it with a groan as my leg bled some more. I looked down at my pants, seeing the bloody footprints I’d left in my wake, and the continual ‘bleeding’ status that told me I was losing one HP per second until I dealt with my wound.
I pulled the cinches on either hip and forced myself to my feet, dropping my pants, and getting a low whistle from Lydia.
“Yeah yeah…” I muttered, forcing a grin, knowing she was doing it to try and raise spirits after our little ass-kicking.
Before I could do anything else, Miren was there, setting her bow on the floor and pulling a bandage out of her pack to wind around my leg, pulling it tight and getting another groan from me.
“Best I can do…sorry Jax.” She whispered apologetically, and I shook my head, forcing my breath out between my teeth as I stood, letting her help me into my pants again as the bleeding debuff vanished.
“It’s what I needed, Miren…thank you.” I said, catching my naginata as Arrin threw it over to me, having recovered it from the corpse of the Drider on his way to the prisoners.
“Cheers, dude,” I said, nodding to him, and I forced myself to walk over to stand closer to the webbing that Bane was climbing up to.
I checked my mana, finding that I was up to… six points of mana now, and I ground my teeth as the slow regeneration.
The debuff from using the Mana-overdrive was there, along with my lowered regeneration, and it was kicking my ass!
I moved back to stand with the others by the entrance to the tunnels and hefted my naginata, hoping we’d have time to get the team up to strength before the next round.
Bane reached the thick webs covering the recess and started cutting into them, swearing as he tried to saw them apart, when a loud whine sounded from the tunnel the Drow had fled down. Flashes in the distance, and then a loud explosion, echoed off the walls. Dust blew into our faces as the air hurtled towards us and screams of pain and fury rose in the distance.
We looked at each other in confusion before I started snapping out orders.
“Jian, Barrett…get those crates over here and arrange them in front of the tunnel. Lydia… you, Stephanos, and Miren keep watch… Bane! Get that stash found! Arrin, I want one firebolt down that tunnel right damn now. See how far you can get it before it hits something.”
Arrin fired his Firebolt off without his usual flare, the loss of his friend clearly weighing on him, and it flew down the tunnel to impact on a wall over a hundred meters away, illuminating a bend in the path.
“Okay, nothing coming yet, but be ready.” I muttered.
I stood alongside Lydia, naginata lowered and pointing toward whatever might try and attack
