Hollow Henry

Andy shimmered into view in front of them. He was still wearing his gas mask, and he'd apparently been collecting things along the way. He had several pouches tied to his belt that he didn't have when they left for the caves. Henry admired the hidden haul while Andy smiled knowingly.

“Good loot down here,” he said, tossing a gas mask to each of them. “I guess we can thank Hamish for getting us caught up in it.”

Lee quickly fixed the mask to her face. Whatever the mask smelled like would be pleasant compared to the foul stable they hid in. Henry didn't worry about the mask, sending it to his Temple instead. His DiHexan had started regenerating some time ago, and the bubble of air he summoned around his head was only reserving 25[DiH] points of his pool. Once upon a time that would have been unacceptable, but his higher pool and lack of spirit shock made the cost of magic less of a worry.

“Any ideas on where the big man is?” He asked.

“I sent a few messages to him,” Andy admitted. “He isn't sharing his location though. I don't even know if he's seeing them. I haven't seen him this wasted since our Lie-Door pub crawl 50 years ago.”

“His endurance must be in the hundreds,” Henry laughed.

“Some things just can't be explained by stats,” Andy laughed back. “I have a good idea where he's being kept though, and you’re not gunna like it.”

Henry lost his smile. “That's a shame. I was enjoying it all so far,” he said sarcastically. “What's the issue then?”

Andy walked them through what he had seen. Most of his searching had led him into empty houses and barely attended shopping areas. The creatures were oblivious to the invisible man's presence, but there were enough of them in most places to be an obstacle. The strangest thing he'd noticed other than the stoners surprisingly operational society, was their wild variation in size and shape. All of the creatures had the same pale white skin and blackened hands and faces, but they definitely didn't look like they all came from the same place. There were even plenty of quadrupeds and 4 armed critters. While he was searching less crowded streets, he came across a group of the humanoid ones they'd seen on the surface. They were pulling a cart with a particularly pissed off Goblin tied up in the back. The cart was taken to a heavily guarded collection of buildings on the outskirts of the city. He tried to sneak in to have a look, but his power failed him when he got close to the compound. It caused an alarm and a search, which doubled the amount of guards around the place.

Lee shook her head, looking as if she'd just heard they lost. “Fuck,” she whispered softly.

Henry raised his eyebrow at her. “Care to share with the class? Princess.”

“It's a melt field,” she declared. “We're not using any magic in that place.”

That caught Henry by surprise. He'd never heard of a melt field before. It sounded like something he should have been aware of earlier. “That sounds like a problem,” he decided.

“In more ways than one. If you breathe that air in you might not be casting anything for a while. Not without an expensive healer anyway,” she said.

“That's what I was worried about,” Andy admitted. “It took me a few minutes to go invisible again afterwards too.”

“The dirtier the field, the worse it is. A dirty melt field is just a bad spell spewing out melt dust endlessly. It comes with magical blocking, and heavy metal poisoning at the same time. Not to mention how bad it fucks up your lungs.” She flicked through her grimoire until she landed on the page she was looking for. “I can help push the dust out with this. But it will cost a lot of DiHexan, and it hurts like a bitch. My older brother taught me this after he came back from one of his journeys. I've never used it, but I know it works.”

“Is that a healing spell?” Andy asked with a hint of excitement.

“Not quite,” she admitted with an apologetic smile. “It's closer to resetting a bone than it is to mending one.”

“It's better than being inert for weeks,” he assured her.

“I'm sorry,” Henry interrupted. “But how exactly are we going to get in there without magic?”

“The hard way,” Andy sighed. “Besides. One of us doesn't need to use DiHexan,” he said, looking Henry in the eyes.

“I was worried you were going to say that,” Henry said, slumping his shoulders. It was going to continue being a long day of spending essence after all.

Along the way, Henry insisted they stop a few times to feed loot into his essence. Most of the haul was precious stones. Some of them were even cut into shape, however crudely. A few stones glowed with the faint green of a low tier DiHexan crystal.

Apparently the caves around were abundant with resources. Lee took particular interest in that fact, not knowing about the riches deep in her family's land before then. He managed to accumulate an impressive 34,000[E], which would almost certainly suit their needs. He was spending his essence at an excessive rate, but for the time being he was staying ahead of the loss. He made sure to spend some of that essence on a large stone cage that he placed on his training island. He had an idea on how to fight the monsters if things didn't go their way, he just didn't want a bunch of wild stoners running a muck in his Temple if it came to making them disappear. He moved his current prisoner into the cage. When the time came, he would figure out a way to set them free. He didn't much like the idea of keeping them around. The last thing he did to prepare was make a pile of handy things he could use in a fight. It consisted of fist sized rocks, wooden steaks, and the total of 8 smoke grenades he'd gotten from the surface stoner. It was as prepared as he could possibly be for a fight he had no idea about.

Andy wasn't exaggerating the amount of guards surrounding the compound. Henry took it upon himself to scout the perimeter to find a good way in. He needed to drain his DiHexan pool completely before he could start pouring essence into his skills. His Hyper skills did well to drain him the rest of the way while he scouted. Once his pool was empty, he felt his essence draining slowly and they got into action. There were too many guards for Henry to rush in on his own, so Andy had to go with him. The plan remained the same as it was when they came up with it earlier in the day. It was just a mad dash in to try and rescue the big guy. Lee stayed behind, since her human body would suffer the most from the melt field. It didn't hurt that the players would respawn if things got bad, so they were a lot more willing to take the risk. The entrance they chose had the least amount of guards for obvious reasons. Most of them were the Goblin sized and shaped stoners, with a few humanoid ones thrown in. Their main concern was the 2 giants that blocked the door. They were at least 10 feet tall, and had muscular arms that went all the way to the floor. They looked horrifying with their thin legs beneath the massive torso. The giant stoners leant against each other as if they were half asleep, but the effect had the door behind them completely blocked. The only way in was to move those monsters.

Their charge was spectacular. The only thing missing in Henry's opinion was an awesome rock song playing in the background. Henry rushed in ahead using his Hyper skills, managing to bisect one of the stoners before it even noticed he was there. His new sword was so sharp he barely felt any resistance as it glided through. Andy managed 2 of them himself before his invisibility failed him.

Immediately, an alarm sounded. All of the sleepy guards raised their heads at once to see the 2 men rushing towards them. Henry stepped out of the way of an incoming spear. The tip was made of stone and tar, and still looked razor sharp. Spotting his attacker, he dashed across the courtyard and skewered them for their efforts. With a flick, the sword sliced cleanly through the creature from its chest to the top of its head. Andy was having trouble for his part, since his best weapons were all ranged. He was using two small crossbows that he must have found somewhere in the city. Henry was mesmerised by the way the strings would pull themselves back to make way for the ammunition that the necklace summoned. The problem was that the strings wouldn't set fast enough to keep up with Andy's fight. Henry quickly crossed the distance, and solved the problem of 3 melee assaulters for his friend. That gave Andy the opportunity to deal with the remaining spearmen. More stoners were on their way, so it was now or never.

He summoned a smoke grenade and lobbed it at the lumbering giants blocking the door, but nothing happened. The rock just soared through the air and uneventfully rolled into one of the giant's feet. He felt like kicking himself for the stupidity. The grenades obviously needed magic to work. He tried again, this time focusing on feeding his essence into the stone. It was a trick that came naturally to him as a Demisis. As long as he was touching something he could feed his magic into it, it stood to reason that he could do the same thing with essence. The grenade came to life in his hand, so he threw it with force. He had time to see one of the giant's eyes go wide just before the rock hit it in the chest. It exploded with a bright crack, blowing a hole big enough to tear an arm off. The creature howled and lumbered forwards in rage. It was missing an arm and half its face, but it still managed to charge him at full steam. It started slow, but the thing crossed the distance and slammed its remaining fist into his chest before he had a chance to react. His vision went blurry as soon as his feet left the ground. With his mind shaken by the hit, all he could focus on was the taste of blood in his mouth. He hadn't been hit in the face, so that probably wasn't a good sign.

Health: 116% / 408%

Stamina: 230% / 408%

His health had regenerated to its maximum before the fight had started. So there was no way he could tank another direct hit from one of them. He really missed Hamish at that moment. Henry didn't know what role he played in their party, but he wasn’t about to try and usurp the tank title from the big man. His painful introspection was interrupted by the sensation of being dragged along the ground. He felt a tremor next to him, and heard a soft thud through the ringing in his ears. The fight was still going on, and he needed to get back into it. With considerable effort, he tried to bring his mind back into focus. Andy was above him and dragging him by the ankle. The giant had just tried to crush him with the side of its fist, and Andy had managed to drag him away just in time. He rolled onto his feet just in time to jump backwards to avoid a swipe. He didn't know where his sword was, so he summoned his old broken one. With next to no balance, he ducked another swipe. The creature was faster than it had any right to be. It had him on his back foot, even with the hyper skills active. Andy caught its attention briefly by shooting it in the ankle. The moment it turned its head, Henry lunged at it with wild abandon. It grunted in shock when he awkwardly latched himself to its chest and head. With the most vicious and speedy stabs he could manage, he brutalised the back of its neck and head. It spun a few times to try and shake him, but he managed to hold on with his free arm. It was an effective enough strategy though, since the bruit came crashing to the ground a few seconds later. He scanned the courtyard to see what he had missed, and found Andy running from the second giant, trying his best to shoot off stray shots at the stoners entering their battlefield. Before Henry had the opportunity to play the hero, a thick beam of red light pulsed down from a building behind them. It hit the giant with a violent and fiery force, sending it through the wall of the compound in a charred and mangled mess. A glance in the direction it came from showed a small figure in heavy armour scurrying away. He knew Lee was carrying around a few spells, but that one definitely caught him by surprise.

“Remind me not to piss her off,” Andy shouted, tossing Henry his lost sword.

“I didn't know she could do that,” Henry admitted. “Let's get moving before another one of those things show up,” he said with a hint of desperation.

“I've been waiting for you to get up,” Andy laughed. “Onward to smaller things I say,” he declared, shooting another stoner as it rounded the corner.

They made their way through the hole the giant's corpse created. With no idea where they were looking, they just chose a random corridor and started their search. Occasionally they would encounter small groups of the smaller stoners, but they'd proven to be no real obstacle. It was a disappointing revelation to discover exactly where the prisoners were being kept. One of the rooms had a balcony hugging every wall with an open floor in the middle. The drop went down 2 floors, and housed the prisoners at the bottom. There had to have been at least 30 people in there, and that wasn't counting the Goblins and other strange animals. Holes in the walls spewed the thick black smoke into the bottom of the room, keeping all of the prisoners in a delirious haze. Most of the occupants were fast asleep. The only ones awake were all huddled into a corner together, half heartedly conversating. They both breathed a sigh of relief to see Hamish among the somewhat lucid prisoners. As if he could feel them watching, the big man lifted his head and squinted at them.

“Oh, hey you guys,” he called out, a little too slowly and a little too loud. “I don't think this is actually a party.”

One of the men sitting with them also looked up. He remained silent, yet seemed to study them closely. Something about him stood out. He wasn't human, that much was obvious. His pointed ears were a pretty good give away that he was a member of the Elven race. Henry hadn't met an Elf yet, since apparently they were very few and far between in that part of the world. To run into his first Elf in a place like this was suspiciously coincidental. The way he studied them also set Henry off guard. He considered them in a way that went beyond the strange situation, and Henry wanted to know why.

There was no door at the bottom of the room, meaning the stoners were probably just throwing their captures over the railing. It wouldn't be too difficult to get Hamish out, since Henry could just lower a rope. The rescue would probably already be underway if it was only Hamish. The presence of all of the other prisoners complicated things significantly. It wouldn't be right for them to save only their friend, especially considering that Hamish was the only one that couldn't really die down there. They needed to try and save as many as they could, but getting that many drugged up and confused people out would be a nightmare. Henry knew of one solution, but it wasn’t going to be a very fun time for him.

“We better be getting paid double at the end of all of this,” he sighed, summoning a rope. He lowered himself down, nearly gagging at the smell of the smoke. Before he even touched the floor, he felt 2 big arms wrap him in a tight hug.

“I missed you so much,” Hamish said groggily. “Oh wow. Your hair smells like shite, man.”

“It's good to see you too, big guy,” Henry laughed. “Now go sleep it off,” he said, sending Hamish straight into his Temple.

4 men stood up as soon as Himish twisted away, the Elf man among them. They looked a little defensive, but Henry calmed them by showing his palms. “I'm only here to help,” he assured them.

“Where'd you send him?” One of the men asked, looking as if it was a struggle to bring the words out.

“He's in a safe place,” he insisted, trying not to give away the truth of the matter. Strangers seem to get a little apprehensive if you tell them you want to put them in your soul. “I have a way out for all of you, but you're going to have to trust me.”

The three human men looked at each other in a groggy consideration, but the Elf never took his intense stare away from Henry. “Alright then,” another one of the men said. “Can't be worse than this.”

Henry nodded, and gently placed his hand on the first man's shoulder. He tried to send him to the cage in Henhole, making sure not to take any chances. When he tried, he felt a strange resistance that he hadn't felt before. He flexed the skill harder, and the man shot him a look of panicked confusion right before twisting away. None of the others seemed to notice, so he played it off smoothly. It was going to be an issue he would figure out later, until he attempted to send the second guard.

As soon as he felt the same resistance, he tried to flex harder again. The man immediately tore his shoulder away from Henry's hand and pressed himself against the wall.

“What the hell was that?” The man barked in a panic. “You’re attacking my Temple,” he spat. “This guy is attacking our Temples.”

“Wait, what?” Henry asked, just as panicked. “No I'm not. I don't even know how to do that,” he defended. “I didn't know that was something anyone could do.” The implications had him immediately terrified. If his Temple could be attacked, it might not be quite the safe place he thought it was.

“Your Temple touched mine,” the man accused. “What did you do to the others?”

“Nothing. Honestly,” Henry continued to defend, taking a step back. “Look, see,” with a thought, he summoned Hamish back into The Hollows. The big man was already half way through the thickest dogleg he could find. He whirled around with a look of confusion on his stuffed face. Before he had a chance to complicate things further by speaking on Henry's behalf, Henry sent him back.

“Was that food?” The third man asked, stepping forward as if nothing happened.

Henry groaned. He was glad that most of them were asleep, otherwise it would be a long night of babysitting the impaired. There was a reason he always took a taxi home back on earth. Being the designated sober one was a frustrating experience. With a little more convincing, he managed to get the men into his Temple. They weren't going to be happy with their new cage after already having trust issues, but it was better than the alternative.

He turned to the still silent Elf. He was taller than Henry by a head, nearly being the same height as Hamish. Henry was getting very used to bending his neck to see people's faces. He'd left the Elf until last because he was too uncomfortable to address him. The man's intensely curious gaze never wavered while Henry talked to the others. He almost didn't know what to say to the stranger at that point.

“Are you ready?” He asked awkwardly.

“Is the big one your friend?” The Elf eventually asked. He spoke with a stern middle eastern accent, choosing his words carefully through the confusion he must have been suffering.

“Hamish?” Henry asked dumbly. “Last time I checked he was.”

“He says strange things,” the Elf said quickly. “Familiar things.”

That caused Henry to squint at the Elf in return. “What do you mean by familiar things?” Henry asked cautiously.

The man considered something for a moment, then shook his head. “I am ready to go now,” he declared.

Henry was suddenly feeling a lot less welcoming. The Elf had made him feel uncomfortable in the first place. With that exchange though, Henry didn't think he could trust him. “Don't see many Elves around here,” Henry said, trying to get a better handle on the situation.

The man just shrugged. He wasn't exactly the most forthcoming person.

“You might want to get a move on down there,” Andy called from above, followed by the slapping sound of his crossbow firing.

Henry gulped, and hoped for the best. Stone was a pretty tough material. If the Elf was a problem, hopefully the cage would hold him for long enough. He placed his hand on the Elf's shoulder, and sent him to Henhole with no resistance.

The sleeping prisoners were no trouble at all. Each of them twisted away with no argument or resistance. There were a total of 5 people that he decided to leave behind in the end. While going through the cell and seeing the state of the variety of prisoners, it became hauntingly apparent to him where the stoners were coming from. It seemed to take to the smaller creatures faster, but even some of the people had pale skin and blackened hands. Something in the smoke was transforming them slowly into stoners. One of the men he examined had even started to show the differences in facial features. It felt wrong to walk away from those most afflicted. With no way to wake them up, or to know how to fix them, he had no choice. If they were too far gone they were better off with their new society.

When he climbed the rope out of the cell, he left a part of himself behind. He didn't know who those people were, or how they got there. All he knew is that he got there too late to help them, and there was another group of families out there wondering when their loved ones would come home.