Callie's Heroes

PART V: AT FIRST I WAS AFRAID, THEN I WAS PETRIFIED…

Not questioning Reynard’s tone, Callie and the rest of the Rangers spun, facing away from the incoming danger. Her brain went into a slight panic as the word ‘Basilisk’ rattled around in it, suddenly remembering Harry needing to defeat one in the second movie. What was it? A really big snake-like thing, right?

“Lhawni, get down! Cover your eyes and keep your back to it, you’re the only one that can break the curse!” Reynard ordered as he drew back on his bow, an arrow re-appearing from nothing.

More fuzzy details flooded into Callie’s mind. Curse. That’s right. And what was its power? Then it all clicked into place. The creature had a cursed gaze … of DEATH!

Callie may have been in charge of the mission, but at that moment Reynard took situational command. Even before the orders came, Lhawni was already crouching down. Her Swamp Sense trait had kicked in, finally recognizing the roar and realizing she couldn’t fall to the creature. She instinctively put one hand over her eyes while using the other hand to roughly pull Ambria down with her.

“Rangers! Use Eagle Eye!” Reynard yelled. “Keep it up and it won’t affect you.”

In spider form, Tazrok had vision in all directions, and there was nowhere for him to turn. Another crash of a tree falling into the water was accompanied by a new roar as the monster emerged from cover. Unable to look away, Tazrok immediately locked eyes with it. It just couldn’t be helped and the curse hit him full on. His arachnid body froze instantly in place, as his muscles completely stiffened, three legs still in mid-movement. Only autonomous muscles like his heart and breathing were still working.

Major Celeste was still fighting to pull the oil out of her pack. She’d heard the distant roar and part of her knew she had to hurry. Finally freeing it, she flung the unneeded pack to the side just as the even closer roar came. But she hadn’t fully processed Reynard’s warning to not look, and as she reflexively glanced towards the sound, her eyes met the Basilisk’s. Every muscle on her body tensed, stiffening her in place. Celeste tried to fight the curse as it rolled through her, but even natural Elven curse resistance couldn’t fend off the Basilisk’s gaze. As her fingers constricted, the Dragonfire Oil popped from her hand, clinking three times as it tumbled down the Bogwump dome, before disappearing into the murky water with a mocking splash.

Pixyl's hand was extended eagerly toward the Major when Reynard's urgent warning called out. Her mind swiftly registered the term ‘Basilisk’, somehow suppressing her reflex to look towards the source of the roar. With a quick pivot, she turned her body away from the impending danger, all the while still poised to receive the precious Dragonfire from Celeste. Time seemed to crawl as the Major fought with her backpack, until finally the Dragonfire was pulled free.

Horror held the Pixie transfixed as she watched in slow motion the metal container leap from the Major's grasp as the curse took hold. Frantically, Pixyl reached out, first physically, her fingers desperately hoping, and then employing her telekinesis in a final bid to grab it. Yet, any attempt to stop it would redirect her peripheral vision towards the Basilisk; a risk she couldn't afford to take.

At Reynard’s direction, Callie activated her Eagle Eye skill. It was a channeled spell, and the mana drain was fairly light, but it was still there. It wasn’t designed for continuous use, though, so would quickly add up. She spun, taking in the Basilisk for the first time, while simultaneously starting to apply her last Piercing Shot charge to an arrow.

The Basilisk wasn’t a snake, as Callie had anticipated, or really anything serpentine at all. Instead, it resembled a six-legged alligator; a really big six-legged alligator. It was roughly the size of Tazrok’s spider form, but supported on long, thick legs instead of spindly ones, the beast almost having a dinosaur feel to it. On its face, glowing eyes seemed to swirl with hypnotic colors and Callie could almost sense the curse bouncing off her vision spell. The eyes weren’t the only horror, though. The Basilisk had long, sharp teeth and a jaw strong enough to back them up. This was truly a monster. Strangely, it showed no sign of blood leaking from its eyes or mouth, seeming to suggest it wasn’t infected, just really mad. Tazrok had certainly disturbed it with the Egg-sploder.

Almost at once, each of the five Rangers shot their arrows. Everyone except Jesca had used Piercing Shot, the Cheetahkin’s unenhanced arrow almost casually bouncing off the Basilisk’s tough hide. For the others, their arrows pierced deep into the beast, but it appeared largely unaffected. In fact, now, it was only more angry, and fixated its glare on the team, cocking its head slightly, as if wondering how the Rangers were still mobile. It roared again, using its tail to smash aside a pair of dead trees as intimidation before it began to lumber towards them.

“Disorient it!” Callie called out. It was directed at Thucax and he caught the suggestion.

During the week, Reynard had repeatedly tested the Rangers on their skills, calling them out randomly in mock simulation of moments of opportunity to interrupt their rotations, including their new melded skills. As a result, Thucax was well trained to react to the call, and Callie’s simple words called forth his unique power. The magic arrow flew towards the charging beast just as it raised its head to roar, impacting on its chest. A sphere of glowing red sparks seemed to erupt from the point of impact and the Basilisk stumbled to a stop, wobbling sideways in an almost drunken stupor. Sidestepping into one of the trees, the creature took issue with its personal space being intruded and it chomped into it, before tearing it from the swamp and throwing it to the side.

“Callie!” Reynard called out, almost a grin in his surprisingly calm voice. “Please blow up my monster!”

Callie caught the order instantly, and smiled slightly to herself in response, thinking back to when she killed the ‘Monster’ on Thorn’s training course. “I need a few seconds!” she yelled back.

Reynard responded with a fast Burst Shot, followed immediately by a second. The loud sounds and flashes of light only added to the Basilisk's disorientation, and it stumbled backwards, throwing its head as it tried to escape the assault. Quickly the other Rangers added their own Burst Shots, three more blasts keeping the monster confused.

Callie was out of Rapid Fire and Piercing Shot charges, so she pulled a layered combo from a Talisman containing the triple-layer of Piercing Shot, Multishot and Rapid Fire. The layered spell broke apart, granting the much-needed charges for each of the spells as the Talisman drained.

With fresh charges available for her go to spells, she began to layer up her new casting. The sounds of the Burst Shot explosions over the water were making her ears ring and her vision pulse from the concussions, but she was determined to work through. She struggled to concentrate, fighting the urge to check what the Basilisk was doing.

BURST SHOT + PIERCING SHOT + RAPID FIRE

She aimed, hoping to hit the Basilisk’s head. But it was now fully in the throes of both confused panic combined with genuine pissed-offness. Its disoriented thrashing started to slow as the other Ranger recruits exhausted their paltry two Burst Shot charges, with Reynard only able to add a couple more before he ran out as well.

Callie loosed, five arrows flying from her Everliving Heartwood bow. At the last moment, the Basilisk threw its head aside, and the arrows plunged deep into its shoulder. As they reached depth, they released a quintet of Burst Shots constrained by the solid skin, muscle and bone.

The explosions from within blew out the front right shoulder of the beast, and caused it to lurch sideways to its left, stunned, crashing into another tree. The damage wasn’t as bad as Callie had hoped though. Chunks were missing, it was bleeding heavily, and its front leg seemed unlikely it would ever be usable again, but it wasn’t down. Callie pulled a second triple-layer of charges from her other Talisman, and began to layer up a repeat of the three-layer attack.

Thucax’s Disorienting Shot finally wore off, and the monster quickly realized that it was both seriously hurt and still quite angry. Even worse, it knew exactly which pink-haired interloper had caused its pain. The Basilisk lowered its head and charged towards Callie, broken tree pieces parting in random directions with a wave of swampy water.

BURST SHOT + PIERCING SHOT + RAPID FIRE

The image of the charging Basilisk was absolutely terrifying, and Callie instinctively activated her Resist Fear trait with barely a thought, allowing her to concentrate on her target. The angry, charging Basilisk coming straight towards her presented an easy target for Callie. It was no longer moving its head, fixated on the Gnome instead. Callie loosed, and like so many times before, five arrows lanced out in machine-gun rhythm. Three hit the monster’s head, and you could almost hear a yip of startled pain over the snarls and growls. The other two missed the head but sank deep into the creature’s body behind it. The Basilisk barely had a chance to register it had been hit before the Burst Shot effects detonated. The top of its head blew off, followed a moment later by another taking off the side, one of those devastating eyeballs exploding out with it. The others blew out the bottom of its neck, or parts of its body, but it was the first that truly doomed the creature.

The Basilisk’s legs seemed to collapse in mid-stride, the momentum carrying the charging body forward, plowing through the swampy muck. A wave of infected water rose before it, cascading towards Callie and the rest, sweeping her off her feet and sending her tumbling. The larger Rangers were spared, able to stand up against the deluge while Pixyl, Lhawni, Ambria and the Major were high enough on the Bogwump dome to avoid the wave.

Callie wasn’t thrown far, and remembered in mid-tumble to keep her mouth shut, lest she swallow any of the infected swamp. The wall of water sent her towards Tazrok and she somersaulted into one of his petrified legs, which barely prevented her being swept away into the reeds. While she ached, she felt sure nothing was broken. She was definitely bruised, though, and somewhere in there her bow slipped from her grasp, carried away in the torrent.

Reynard dropped a final Piercing Shot into the downed Basilisk’s head. It was already dead, but still twitching a bit, and one never wanted a final surprise. It was best to be sure. Then, just to be doubly so, he shot again into the monster’s remaining eye with a long Rapid Fire, coupled with a few choice vulgarities, guaranteeing no more petrification possibilities.

“It’s safe!” Reynard called out, giving Lhawni permission to open her eyes. She saw Callie was down, and ran towards her, able to tell the Gnome had been battered around. With worry on her face, she asked, “Where are you hurt?” while helping Callie sit up.

“I’m okay, I think,” Callie responded.

“You’re sure?”

“Banged up a bit, but I’m mobile. We can deal with it later,” Callie confirmed. “Check on everyone else first.”

Lhawni growled, rested her hand on Callie’s cheek, and pushed a general heal anyway, which immediately started to make things feel better.

Reynard turned from the monster and surveyed the situation. It was immediately evident that Tazrok had been petrified. He was about to direct Lhawni to start decursing him when the rigid body of the Major fell sideways, rolling awkwardly down the hill of the dome. Her limbs never moved and a clear crack of some bone could be heard. Reynard winced. She’d be able to feel that, even in this state, but unable to make a single noise from the pain.

Ambria scrambled for Celeste, having also heard the sound of something breaking. It didn’t take long to see that at least three fingers on one hand were pointed very much in the wrong direction. Ambria realized it would best to remove the Major’s curse after her fingers were healed, or she’d make too much noise as she screamed in pain, and worse, probably writhe around, even hurting herself further. “Major, I know you can hear me,” the Faun said to Celeste, who was lying sideways in the wet mud, limbs still held frozen. “I want to heal your hand before we release you. I’ll block as much of the pain as I can, though.” Then she added a tentative, “I’m sorry.”

Placing a hand on Celeste’s neck, Ambria pushed a short-duration, generalized pain blocking spell to encompass her entire body below that point, on the off chance there was another injury not immediately apparent. Then, she added a second, focused at the Major’s wrist, since that injury was obvious and bad enough to likely exceed the general block. ”Lhawni, Tazrok first,” she added, gesturing with her antlers towards the giant spider standing over them.

“Rangers, stay on task. Watch for more incoming,” Reynard snapped. “Pixyl, are we ready with the oil?”

“We lost it,” Pixyl replied. “The Major dropped it when she got p-p-petrified. It’s down there, somewhere.” She gestured vaguely to the muddy waters. “I don’t know how easy it will be to find.”

Reynard cursed as he looked around. “Let’s get control and we’ll figure something out.”

Callie struggled to her feet and looked for her bow, not seeing it anywhere. She walked out from under Tazrok, still a little woozy, looking for the weapon, before finally just giving up and extending a hand. The bow came to her, but from a direction she didn’t anticipate and it clonked her in the back of the head before falling to her feet. “Ow!”

Lhawni looked at the Gnome, automatically raising a hand to offer a heal, but Callie waved her off.

“It’s fine. It just surprised me,” Callie grumbled, picking the bow up. She walked back to take up a spot between Jesca and Thucax and started watching for more creature attacks. “Will our Elemental arrows work on the nest?” she called out. “The fire ones, I mean.”

“I don’t know,” Reynard called back, casually loosing an arrow at something. “They don’t burn very long, and nowhere near as hot as the Dragonfire Oil. It’s wet in there, too. We’ll probably need to find the Oil in the water.”

“That’s going to suck!” Callie growled to herself. She hated swamps.

Lhawni saw Ambria futzing over Major Celeste’s hand. “Need me to do that instead?”

“Do we have time?”

The Shaman looked up at Tazrok. “Let me do him first. You do a full Diagnose spell in the meantime. Make sure there’s no other injuries.”

“On it,” Ambria replied with a nod.

Pixyl was close to the water’s edge, trying to reach out with her telekinetics and see if she could feel the canister of oil. The spell wasn’t built for moving something she couldn’t see, though, and she finally had to give up. She could sense things in the water and backed away, not really wanting to present a meal of herself.

“Do we have anything else that will burn?” Callie yelled out, still trying to brainstorm ideas.

“I don’t think so,” Jesca called back.

“Certainly nothing that burns hot and long,” Reynard added.

Lhawni was focusing all her concentration on Tazrok, working to find the thread she needed to pull to remove the petrification curse. Decursing someone could be complicated, and Maugra had trained them to envision a curse as a tapestry. The stronger the curse, the finer the weaving, but there always was a thread somewhere you could pull to unravel the whole thing. Warlocks had it easy. They didn’t break curses with subtlety, instead choosing to simply melt them off with their Nether magic.

Lhawni pressed on her Remove Curse spell, searching for what she needed. It was slower going than she would have liked, but finally, she found it. Her magic grabbed that tiny loose thread and pulled, gently at first, just to be sure it was the right one. She put more power into the spell, pulling harder and faster. Once started, it took only seconds before the curse was no more, reduced to a fading pile of magical threads only she could sense.

The giant spider finished the steps it was in the middle of taking, and then seemed to look around, fully taking in the scene. Tazrok was suddenly beset by a sudden wave of muscle cramps that almost brought the oversized arachnid to the ground. He forced past the pain, focusing on Celeste as Tazrok-the-Ogre warbled into its place, the muscle cramps suddenly disappearing. “Major Elf!” he called out in worry, seeing the officer rigid on the ground. Lhawni scrambled backwards out of the way as the Ogre stumbled towards Ambria.

“Any luck with that oil, Pixyl?” Callie called out. “Do you see it?”

“No!”

Callie cursed in a hiss. “Reynard, can we burn some of those trees or something?” she called out as she Multishotted a pair of lizards.

“Maybe. We’d need to get wood from on top of the ridge, though,” Reynard replied, shooting his own Multishot. “What’s down here isn’t dry enough to burn very hot. That’ll take time.

“Damn!”

“We really need that Dragonfire Oil,” the Foxkin called towards Pixyl, stating the obvious. “The nest is open now, and I don’t want to leave it until tomorrow.”

“I should have brought both,” Callie chided to herself. “Stupid of me.”

“Will look for oil,” Tazrok growled, having followed the conversation. He stomped around the dome, walking into the water which quickly rose to his upper thighs. Pixyl pointed to roughly where she thought the oil canister had rolled in, and slowly the Ogre started to run his hand through the muck-laced bottom of the swamp.

Lhawni and Ambria concentrated on repairing the Major’s broken fingers, Ambria thankfully finding no other significant injuries via her Diagnose spell. It was slow going, though, because the fingers needed to be re-aligned before she could start. They had swollen, turning an ever-deepening shade of purple, indicating internal damage. Remembering the lesson from the week before, Ambria pushed a reversed-Coagulate spell into the fingers to make sure blood clots were much less of a risk. Bruising would be a little heavier, but better than something else happening.

“Anything, Tazrok?” Callie called out as she and Jesca double-teamed another small ScorpoBeaver.

“Nope,” the Ogre replied, with obvious frustration in his voice. “Still loo …” his voice was cut off as the water around him started to roil and churn. He slapped at the surface, then reached under to try brushing something away. It apparently didn’t work. Tazrok winced in pain as the water around him soon began to turn red with blood.

“Get out of there!” Pixyl cried out.