NOVEL NEXT Book 3 Ch 20: Julian - Damage Control
There were frogs. Everywhere.
“You could have reported this.” Julian told John.
The man was standing at attention with an armful of confused frogs, his face impassive. “I could have.”
The guards were trained by Grand Duchess Calisto, and were well equipped to deal with many things; Julian was shocked to discover that that included a swarm of civilian’s turned frogs.
The street was thankfully designed to help the situation. The Hall of Inventions was situated on a busy corner and it wrapped around the corner in an L-shape. From there stretched a line of shops going one direction and a stone wall blocking off carriage parking and storage for the Hall in the other.
Opposite, there was a corner cafe between a crepe shop and a barbershop all nestled closely together.
Queen Henrietta was corralling the amphibians that made it across the street back towards the Hall of Inventions. Minstrel Bronwynn had climbed on top of one of the dragon statues outside the hall and was sitting on its head playing her lyre harp.
He resisted her [Siren Song] even as the ability hit him. Luckily, the half-giantess was a high enough level that her ability worked on most of the frogs. They were drawn to her music and climbing over each other to croak at her feet.
“Move them towards the music!” Captain Auralee yelled over the noise of the crowd. There were people who were yelling for loved ones that had turned into frogs, and there were those trying to escape the area without stepping on frogs. The guards swarmed the area, blowing whistles and using skills to blockade the victims.
“You’ve got this love!” Rufus called out from farther away. The beastman was using some sort of calming skill to slow down the frogs that were outside the bards area of effect. As he walked, he calmly scooped up the creatures and gently tossed them closer to the safe area.
The safe area being a puddle of happy frogs at the bards feet.
It was chaos, but it was under control.
“John, drop the frogs and go get Chloe.” She was the most powerful mage he knew that specialized in curses… and making high level antidotes. Since the poison mirrored the curse, she would know best what to do next.
“Yes, Your Grace.” John put down the frogs and then vanished into shadow.
Julian took one final look around and decided to tackle the escaping frog problem first. There were around thirty frogs at the bard’s feet, and at least twenty more trying to hop down the road.
“[Multi-Target Shield]” He cast, and invisible shields appeared around many of the frogs making their escape. He could have done this without speaking aloud, but it was better to show everyone that their duke was here and he was doing something productive. “[Divine Heal].”
[You have attempted to use the Perk: Multi-Target Shield. Targets = Shield Arts 12 x Dexterity 22 = 264. Available targets = 56. You have selected eighteen targets.
Select Durability Type: Communal or Unique. You have selected Unique Durability. Individual shields will each have their own durability.
Select Durability Strength: 10 Mana per level. You have selected 1 Durability. Mana Cost 180.]
He targeted the frogs that were furthest from the fray and ignored the rest of the notification. Then he switched to his next perk.
[You have attempted to use the Perk: Divine Heal. Available Targets = 18.
Heal: Select health increase, mana cost 2 mana per 1 health point.
Cure: [Waurg] detected. [Exhaustion] detected. [Bunions] detected. [Misheal] detected.]
Julian selected all and mentally chose [Cure].
[You have cured 18 [Waurg], advanced poisons cost 15 mana/each. Mana Cost 270.]
[Warning, Mana below 10%.]
He had 500 mana total from his combined Perception 25 and Intelligence 20. There was 180 mana to activate his shields on each individual frog, and another 270 Mana to cure them.
[You have cured 2 [Exhaustion], status ailment minor cost 5 mana each. Mana Cost 10.]
[Warning, Mana below 10%]
[You have cured 1 [Bunion], status ailment critical cost 20 mana each. Mana Cost 20.]
[Warning, Mana below 5%]
He probably shouldn’t have healed the other status ailments listed, but he had enough mana left, and he'd summoned an advanced level [Mana Potion] into his hand, already chugging it.
He finished drinking the mana potion and keeled over a bit as everything hit him all at once. The headache, the nausea were almost unbearable, but he remained standing until the mana potion brought his stats back to regular and alleviated the pain.
All up the street, frogs were popping back into people. There were shouts as family and friends rushed forwards to help their loved ones to their feet.
A little old catkin lady sat alone, looking around nervously and then patted herself to be sure she was there. Julian helped her to her feet and handed her over to a guard.
Thankfully, the [Waurg] poison was a magical replica of the [Frog Curse] spell, and those who suffered it’s effects had all of their apparel and equipped items changed with them.
Julian would have had a nightmare on his hands if fifty odd naked festival-goers suddenly poofed into existence on his city street.
This was already a nightmare.
“I think we’ve got them all, Your Grace,” Captain Auralee walked up to Julian. The human woman was amazing at her job, and he noticed that she was blocking him from line of sight as she stood there pressing a fist to her heart in greeting.
The last of the frogs were rounded up and deposited at Bronwynn’s feet, and guards were already helping the newly changed-back to their feet.
“Good job, Captain.” He said. “Make sure that everyone who was affected stays long enough to give a report. Necromancer Chloe should be here any second. The frogs are affected with [Waurg] poison, and we can start using any antidotes on hand to try and mitigate the effects.
That was when Rufus joined them. “Duke Julian, Bronwynn will only be able to hold the frogs for another fifteen minutes or so.”
“Were you here when this happened?” Julian asked, already knowing Gerda was going to meet them here.
“I was.” Rufus remained calm, but Julian noticed his tail sunk low. The beastman glanced at the minstrel just finishing her song and back. “We arrived after the second match and grabbed a green tea and strawberry whip crepe when a woman working in the cafe started handing out free samplers–”
“Captain.” Julian didn’t bother waiting for the beastman to finish his story before pointing at the cafe.
The woman ran off to go investigate the shop. Rufus continued, “My passive effects notified me in time, but Bronwynn turned into a frog right away. I gave her an [Antidote], and when she was back to normal we started damage control.”
Julian sighed. “Thank you for your assistance.”
Chloe’s voice echoed through the crowd. “What in the nine rings is happening here?”
Perfect timing.