Chapter 49: Home Sick
When Nicholas awoke, it was to a raging headache and a nightmarish racket- screaming, shouting, and the clashing of blades. It was too dark inside the elven barracks to see exactly what was going on, but the smell of smoke and the faint red glow that shone through the doorway to the main hall gave Nicholas a clue. He tried reaching out for any nearby minds...
"Hero? Hero, where are you!?"
He started to stand up, but very quickly found himself doubling over and coughing like he'd just taken a hammer to the chest. The taste of ash coated his burnt throat. How long had he been asleep in the smoke? Too long, clearly.
"Hero?" He repeated. Tears began to form in his eyes. "...Leo?"
"I'm here! Are you okay? How long have you been awake?" Nicholas blinked a few times as Leo crashed down onto his hands and knees beside him, covered in soot and blood. He started fishing around in his seemingly infinite satchell.
"I… I don't know, a minute maybe? What's going on?"
"Demons found where we're hiding, and now they're killing everyone here. Healing potion?" Nicholas nodded graciously. "Yeah. We aren't winning. So, I'm thinking you, me and Jupiter get the hell out of dodgee while we still can, and then figure shit out from there. Cool?"
That didn't sound even remotely "cool" to Nicholas, but in lieu of any better plans, he just nodded and let Leo haul him up. Immediately, the smoke hit him again, but he managed to stay standing through it this time. Together, they left the dark, empty barracks and entered the main hall, where the heart of the chaos seemed to be. Leo worked the lever on his shotgun.
"You aren't gonna stop me from killing these guys, are you?" Nicholas shook his head. "Good. Stick by me, let's kick some demon ass!"
Before Nicholas could even properly understand what was happening, Leo was practically dragging him through the burning undergrowth. He tried looking around, hoping to get a better idea of what was going on, but with all the smoke, and the many many minds around him crying out in pain and anger, he just felt like he was navigating a nightmare.
"Demon- demon on your left!" he shouted suddenly, and Leo took care of it with a single blast from his winchester. Nicholas flinched as he felt its pain, listened to its life force drain away.
"Good call Nicholas!" He chambered a new round with the wildly impractical Terminator Twirl. "You see Jupiter anywhere?"
"I'll start looking…" Nicholas winced as a demon-scythe sheared through the plant life that'd been giving him cover, and whooshed by his ear. Leo fired another shot.
Even discounting the battle, picking people out of a crowd was never easy. It helped that he knew Jupiter's mind already, and perhaps it helped that he'd known her sister's so well, too, but Nicholas had no other advantages here, and his disadvantages just kept piling on. While searching, he spotted a lone elven soldier battling a demon. They were both wounded, but the demon was clearly on the verge of winning- through the smoke and vines, Nicholas saw the Elf take a knee. Almost on impulse, Nicholas slithered into the demon's mind.
THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM YOUR COMMANDER: LOOK BEHIND YOU, THE ELF IS A DECOY. THEIR LEADER IS ESCAPING!
Without thinking twice, the demon looked over his shoulder, and Nicholas relayed a single word to the elf:
RUN.
Apparently not one to waste an opportunity, the elf disappeared into the underbrush before either Nicholas or the demon could understand what had just happened. The Demon continued to look around in confusion.
Was it a waste of time? Probably. But did it give him some much needed clarity and peace of mind in a situation that was desperately lacking in both? Definitely. Nicholas cracked his knuckles.
"Alright, let's get down to… hey, is that Quinn?" Not far from where the Guide-Mediated scuffle had taken place, Quinn was currently dancing around the attacks of four or five attackers at once, her glass skirt glimmering orange in the light of the flame. Every once and a while, Quinn would motion with her arm, and one of them would inexplicably cry out in pain. "Hey Leo, I think I see someone important over there. Can we go help them?"
"Um, are they Jupiter? Cause I'm kinda trying to keep the party to three people or less." Nicholas sighed.
"Well, no, but-"
"Well then, YOU can help them if you want, but-" he fired his shotgun again. "But you're gonna be on your own! I'm gonna keep looking for Jupiter, she's clearly the most plot relevant person here, and the best fighter."
"Plot relevan- agh, you know what!? Maybe I'd rather do this alone anyways!" He stuck his hand out. "Gun, please?"
"Ooh, what happened to-"
"Just give me a thrice damned weapon." Leo nodded somberly and pulled his old flintlock from his satchell.
"Sure. Blast away. Just try not to take too long, alright?" Nicholas didn't even bother to roll his eyes at Leo as he took off through the underbrush towards Quinn. Behind him, he could've sworn he heard the words, "...and be careful!"
But he was probably just imagining things.
Before he'd covered even half the distance between himself and his query, he found himself stepping through a pile of dying elves, who's mental signatures he could still feel; they were too weak and too scattered now to constitute much, and rather than finding any coherent emotion as Nicholas scanned over the pile, he found only a puddle of vague fear and regret, circling around a rusty drain. He shuddered.
Just ignore it. There's nothing you can do for them. One of the elves let out a pitiful cough-whimper as Nicholas stepped over them, and he tried his best not to let this elf's unusually active mind touch his, lest it sob to him or cry for help.
"I'm so sorry." he murmured, and he really was- Nicholas couldn't even tell the elf's gender anymore, with how badly their face and upper chest had been burnt. One of their eyeballs had popped from the heat, and the other sat unblinking in its socket, glancing lazily about…
Suddenly, a fiery pain shot up through Nicholas's leg, and something pushed him to the ground hard as a second demon scythe whooshed just overhead. He squealed out in pain and surprise.
"Hero?" he grunted. The figure beside him snorted.
"You call him Hero? Ha, you two have issues! No, I'm not Leo." Nicholas sighed and planted his face in the grass. Of course. Jupiter. Just as well. In the nearby periphery, Quinn continued her battle with the hordes of demons.
"No, I just have professional boundaries!" Nicholas managed, eventually. He let out a ragged cough. Damn ash. "Anyways, it's not important. I think Quinn needs our help- She's…"
"Drawing a lot of attention, I know. It's on purpose. She's helping as many of our troops escape as possible." Jupiter looked around as if to make sure that no one else was listening, and then shamefully added, "That includes us."
"Does that mean we aren't even going to try and rescue her?" asked Nicholas, clutching his wound in one hand and Leo's pistol in the other. The knuckles of both his hands had grown white from the strength of his grip.
"No. This is her sacrifice. She made this choice. I'm not taking it away from her, and I'm not wasting the opportunity that she's giving us." She hung her head. Nicholas, ever the gentleman, tried to conceal the relief he felt. He was getting cold feet about this whole "charge the enemy with a single-shot pistol that he didn't know how to reload," plan. It didn't help that these demons were by far the most sentient monsters he'd encountered so far, and if he shot one…
No! It didn't bear thinking about. He couldn't let those kinds of thoughts distract him, not when so many would die anyways. What did it matter if it was him pulling the trigger?
"So, are you ready to go? We should rendezvous with Leonardo and leave before our forces are completely overwhelmed," said Jupiter. Nicholas looked down at his leg. Suffice to say, it wasn't a pretty sight.
"I may need some help." Jupiter nodded.
"Understood. Do you need carried, or can you-"
"I can limp." She shook her head.
"No, we have a pace to keep up! C'mere!" Before Nicholas could even understand what happened, Jupiter had thrown his wiry body over her shoulder with an effortless technique that let Nicholas know that he was not the first battle-buddy to suffer this indignity. She scanned the area before standing up. "Where's Leo?"
"That way," said Guide, pointing with his foot towards Leo's bright, unmistakable mental signature. Jupiter hefted her spear.
"Alright- get ready!" She drew a small, green flask from her belt that Nicholas quickly recognized as a potion of swiftness, and downed it all in one gulp.
Before the vial had even hit the ground, the world around Nicholas blurred, and he felt the sweltering, smoky air blast against his skin and blow through his hair. A horrible crack pierced the air as Jupiter let her momentum carry her spear through the head of an unlucky demon, who she didn't spare even a second glance as its knees gave out and it flopped to the ground.
Maybe you could have warned them…? Would that even be ethical? Pushing aside the thought, Nicholas tried to just enjoy the ride as Jupiter spotted Leo and made a beeline straight for him, the effects of her potion still going strong. The world behind them disappeared in a cloud of ash and smoke.
"Hail, Leonardo!" Jupiter raised her Spear, and Leo raised his shotgun to return the greeting.
"Jupiter, Nicholas! Move those fine asses over here!" Jupiter sped through the underbrush to meet him. The two bumped weapons, and Jupiter dumped Nicholas on the ground unceremoniously. Kindred assholes, the both of them... "Can we leave yet? Or is there some MacGuffin we need to retrieve first?"
"As soon as you fix your Guide's leg- he's not injured badly, but a demon warrior hobbled him with a scythe as he searched for me." Nicholas rolled his eyes.
"Information I was perfectly capable of relaying myself, but yes. Of course, if I drink another healing potion so soon after that last one, I may or may not vomit on whoever administers it, but…" he allowed himself a little bit of a smile. "Well, let's just say that Hero here has some experience with that already."
"Well, let's get on with it then," said Jupiter. Leo nodded.
"Sure. Nicholas, do you prefer lemon-lime, cherry, or chocolate flavoring?" Nicholas blinked.
"Um, well, I suppose that chocolate milkshake was-"
"Trick question, they all taste like shit. You're a guide, you know that!" Jupiter laughed, and so did Leo as he passed Nicholas one of those iconic red flasks. In fact, Nicholas was the only one not laughing as he clasped the bottle between his fingers, and emptied it down his dry, ash-coated throat.
By the time the glass bottle was empty, Nicholas was already starting to feel the fabled effects of "Potion Sickness" all throughout his body- he'd broken into a cold sweat, despite the temperature, and his skin was growing ever paler and paler. His stomach tingled, and a strange, primal panic had begun to grip his lungs, compelling him to breathe harder, breath faster…
"Whoa, you're looking a little rough man! should I-" before Leo could finish his thought, Nicholas had vomited all over his feet, and after a few seconds of what looked like it might be recovery, he vomited again. Jupiter groaned.
"Back over my shoulder, and don't get any on me." Nicholas wiped the stuff away from his mouth and nodded blearily, letting himself be hoisted back into the humiliating position from earlier. Leo, meanwhile, stowed his shotgun and pulled out his trusty old pickaxe. The icon of player ingenuity. Nicholas couldn't help but be amused as he noticed that Leo had never made a better pickaxe than his crummy old copper one.
"Digging a hole to hell with a… copper pickaxe?" he murmured. Leo spun the tool in his hand.
"It's not about the size of your tool, Nicholas, it's how you use it!" He offered a sly wink as the dirt began to fly. If anyone else had said it, Nick knew that Jupiter would've pointed out how they had essentially just belittled their own genitalia, but instead she just giggled an un-warriorly giggle and watched his admittedly impressive progress. In less than thirty seconds, he was sticking his hand up from a head-deep hole, beckoning for them to follow.
"I made a little tunnel for you guys to wait in while I keep digging this to the bottom!" As if to add insult to injury, he'd added a table and a set of chairs too, just sitting there in the dead center of the tunnel. Nicholas rolled his eyes.
"Cute."
"What is it, Guide? Missing a torch?" Leo plonked a torch down on the wall. Nicholas refused to acknowledge him. "Aw, come on, give me a hint! I haven't done this in ages!"
"Well, there's no door, for one." In one swift motion, Leo erected an ornate wooden door in the middle of the room. Jupiter raised an eyebrow.
"Am I missing something?"
"That isn't- why are we wasting time on this nonsense!? The demons could break in and kill us all at any moment!" Leo seemed to consider Nicholas's statement, before rapidly filling in the entrance to holl with dirt. He smiled.
"Sorry. Doing all this high stakes, high octane, like, "story" kinda stuff has just got me so nostalgic! I miss the days when it was all about building houses and stabbing zombies, you know? Early game was best game." Jupiter nodded.
"Okay, so I am missing something." Nicholas felt like he might vomit again.
"You're delusional!" he tried to say, but his esophagus spoke louder than his windpipe; Jupiter and Leo eyed him pityingly as a small puddle of puke formed on the ground.
"...Anyways, I'll just, uh, get back to digging. Don't party too hard without me." Nicholas's vision was growing dark around the edges now, and he felt his body growing numb. As the effects of the sickness crept forwards and his consciousness skittered away, the last thing that he saw was Leo picking up the thrice-damned wooden door, and, with a special tenderness, placing it in the actual entrance.
Thunk.
He wanted to be angry. But it was hard coded in his DNA- in spite of everything, Nicholas couldn't help but feel a little bit at home again.