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The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown

Book : Adventuring with Avatars

Chapter 5: Family Troubles

Beta:


The party was trekking through the Underdark towards the Kuo-toa city that was their next target of their anti-slaver campaign in good spirits. While maintaining a cautious wariness against a potential ambush, a constant threat in the Underdark, they were nevertheless chatting amicably with each other. Mainly over Yorha's affectionate treatment of her new pet and some of the more humorous things that had happened to Taana in her recent magical training.

However, as Drau's sensors pinged a host of unknown contacts she raised a clenched fist to signal a stop.

"What is it?" Falgrim asked, tightening his grip on his weapon, Doomhammer, and the whole party formed up into a circle.

"We've got company." Drau said simply. "A lot of company."

"What kind-"

Before Neia could finish her question, the answer presented itself as almost a hundred Shadar-kai stepped out of the shadows and surrounded them.

"Is that how a proper Shadow Jaunt looks like?" Gaul commented idly. "It's certainly better than anything Taana can manage."

"Yeah, I've never been very good at it." The aforementioned Shadar-kai admitted with a pout. "It's why I'm working on something else."

The others chuckled as Taana's words brought to mind the spell in question that she'd been practising with lately. Drau however kept her cool and searched the ranks of the newcomers for their leader. She was saved the trouble when a man in an ornate cloak stepped forward.

"Cousin Taana," the apparent leader of the Shadar-kai host said in greeting. "You know why we have come."

Drau shot their party's resident lightning Wizard a questioning glance.

"Cousin Lorien, I don't actually." Taana said defiantly.

The leader, the girl's cousin it seems, narrowed his eyes. "I'm here to recover the Tome of Lightning Magic that you stole."

"I didn't steal anything. I am the rightful inheritor of the Tome."

"You took it, the priceless heirloom of our family, without permission. Rightful inheritor or not, that is theft." Taana's cousin insisted. "If that were not the case, you would not be afflicted by the curse protecting the Tome as you are."

That actually makes sense.

"I needed it." Taana said with a shrug. "I wouldn't have survived out in the world without it."

"Then perhaps you should have waited for your turn and inherited instead of stealing it."

Taana looked ready to say something to further inflame the situation, so Drau stepped in. She'd rather avoid a fight with what appeared to be her partymate's family if she could help it.

"Taana, couldn't you just return the Tome? I mean after you've copied down the spells you use most often elsewhere that is."

"That is a reasonable compromise." Lorien acknowledged.

"No," Taana said flatly, causing Drau to groan. "If you lot want it back so much that you brought a whole army to take it away from little old me then go ahead and try taking it."

Her cousin bristled at the taunt.

"You're hardly alone." The man shot back heatedly. "And based on the reputation of your friends, nothing less than an army was necessary."

"So we've developed a reputation, huh?" Neia noted with a chuckle.

"Is it really a surprise after everything we've been doing lately?" Gaul drawled.

Argh! Why are they not taking this seriously? Do they want this to come down to a fight!?

Suppressing her annoyance, Drau cleared her throat to regain everyone's attention before turning to Taana.

"Taana, why won't you just return the Tome. That will lift the curse won't it?"

"It would." The Shadar-kai leader confirmed.

"But it'll make it impossible for me to use some of my spells." Taana countered. "The Tome lets me use all lightning spells regardless of level and class restrictions. Without it, there'd so much I wouldn't be able to do."

"That's a valid reason." Gaul said, causing Drau to suppress a groan. Of course, the necromancer would prioritize their combat ability over good relations with Taana's estranged family. At least Falgrim got the point as evidenced by how he was shaking his head in disappointment at his apprentice's behavior.

"That's rather selfish of you, Taana." Drau observed. "I really think you should hand it over. We don't need to make enemies of your family."

"No." Taana declared stubbornly.

"Then you force our hand cousin." The Shadar-kai leader said with a genuinely sad cast to his face. "Attack!"


The moment Cousin Lorien had given the signal to attack dozens of his men used Shadow Jaunt to teleport into the party's own shadows in an attempt to knife them in the back. Thankfully, they were too skilled for such a simple tactic to take them out and managed to either parry the strike or evade it.

Taana herself had managed to kill her attacker by parrying the thrust from his short sword, creating an opening that she promptly used to stab Joltfang into his neck. She'd charged the dagger with Infuse Lightning last night so the stored electricity surged through her opponent's body despite the relatively shallow wound and finished him off. It was almost a waste of the charge, the opponent wasn't all that strong, but dealing with him quickly was a priority.

With her immediate opponent out of the way, she scanned her surroundings to see who in the party needed help. She spotted Gaul dueling with a pair of Wizards. They had launched Lightning Bolts at them, but he'd had simply raises Anti-Magic Cocoon and negated their attack. Unfortunately, this left him distracted for a moment and the Shadar-kai closest to him, likely the one who'd tried to ambush him earlier and which he'd knocked away with his staff, lunged at him at his open back.

Not on my watch. Taana thought. Lightning Leap!

At her mental invocation, she transformed into a line of lightning, leaving a smoking trail as she blitzed in front of Gaul's attacker. The moment she returned to her normal form, she parried the incoming blade it with her own sword before following it up with a point blank Lightning Bolt, killing her fellow Shadar-kai which she belatedly realized was her cousin Noxi. He was roughly the same age as her and they used to play with when she was younger.

It's not like we've been close in years. Taana thought as she walked over the corpse to engage another of the attackers. More importantly, looks like I've finally managed to figure out Lightning Leap. Oh! And thank goodness for the new spell slot too its saved in too, I guess.


Gaul felt the hair on the back of his living skin stand as Taana used the Lightning Leap spell she'd saved up in the new spell slot she'd unlocked recently. Both the spell slot and her mastery of the aforementioned spell were products of her hard work and dedication.

And many meetings with cavern walls. The necromancer thought to himself with an amused smirk as he recalled how the party's lone Shadar-kai's practice with Lightning Leap had led her leaping into hard surfaces on more than one occasion. Even as he reminisced on recent events however he distractedly cast Chain Dragon Lightning to take out the attackers' two mages and another trio besides, leaving charred corpses in the wake of his spell.

"They are rather pathetic." He mused absently. "I can see why Taana abandoned them. Chain Dragon Lightning!"

Again he sent a lightning bolt shaped like a Lung Dragon streaking through the Shadar-kai ranks, taking down at least a dozen of their number. This seemed to paint him as a threat however and no less than five rogues used Shadow Jaunt to teleport into close quarters range and attempt to kill him. They severely underestimated his skill with his quarterstaff however and though hard pressed, he nevertheless held them off whilst suffering little more than a handful of scraps to his armor.

When Taana joined the fray, things just got worse for the Shadar-kai though the tide wasn't quite turning yet as more and more of their attackers leapt at them.

And how long exactly do they think they can keep this up I wonder? The necromancer mused as he cracked the skull of a Rogue with a powerful swing of his staff and he saw Taana bisect another with a Lightning Blade. Her physical sword apparently having been lost at some point. Not that she needed it as the charred remains at her feet created by her spell blade could attest.

The armored wizard allowed himself only a moment to admire the sight however before he went back on the offensive.

"Undeath Army!"

At his command, the corpses that littered the battlefield rose as Skeletons and charged the remaining Shadar-kai alleviating the numerical disadvantage that the party had been suffering until now.

Let's see what you can do when your one advantage is gone. Shall we? Gaul thought to himself with a bloodthirsty grin as he prepared to unleash the Nine Hells on the Shadar-kai through his magic.


Even as the Gaul went on a rampage while Taana watched his back, Yorha blitzed through the mob of Shadar-kai. Most of them were Rogues of some description thought there was a sprinkling of Fighters in the mix and lashed out at her with their weapons, many of which were admittedly sparking with stored electrical energy. They never got anywhere close to striking a clean blow however as the swordswoman's holofield and the afterimages it created threw off their aim as she rushed past them. She in contrast had no such trouble and cut them down with every swing of her sword.

Though to be fair, Falgrim was taking out a good number of them with bone breaking, skull crushing blows from his hammer and Drau was mowing them down with her carbine. The Shadar-kai, especially but not limited to the Rogues, tried to use their Shadow Jaunt ability to keep ahead of them, teleporting from shadow to shadow but the transportation wasn't instantaneous and they were vulnerable for the few seconds it took them to fade into the shadows. Seconds that the party gladly took advantage to finish them off.

Unfortunately, not everyone in the party was having an easy time of the fight. Neia was being hard pressed by a trio of quickly teleporting Rogues. Caught in close quarters, the archer found herself forced to defend herself with her dagger and was barely managing to avoid injury by dint of her excellent armor and sharp reflexes.

Taking out the nearest opponent with a casual swing that bisected the Fighter through his light armor and the buckler he'd tried to raise in his own defense, Yorha rushed to Neia's side. A Shadar-kai with a spiked chain tried to waylay her but she easily leapt over the stake like head of his exotic weapon.

"Kuro," she whispered and her pet responded immediately by leaping off her neck where he'd been resting like a scarf directly into the face of the fool with the chain and got down to eating his lunch.

Hang in there Neia. The android thought as she closed with her partymate's desperate fight, having to raise her buckler to deflect a brace of throwing knives thrown her way by one of the paladin's opponents as she got close.


Neia was not having a good day. She was a ranged fighter and faith based caster damn it! She wasn't supposed to fight in close quarters. Unfortunately, her current enemies didn't seem to have caught the memo as the saying went on Felmid. That was not to say she was completely useless in close quarters combat, Drau and months of drilling with her hold out knife had seen to that. But she was no specialist in the arena and her three opponents most definitely were. She was thus lucky that between her Turtle Shell armor and her own mediocre skill with a blade, she'd managed to avoid getting killed quite yet.

Though if this keeps up I doubt that'll stay true much longer. Neia thought as she barely parried a dagger thrust with her own blade whilst simultaneously ducking her head to avoid a pair of smaller throwing knives.

"Neia! Go prone!" Yorha shouted and the Paladin immediately followed through on the swordswoman's command, dropping to the ground. She thus narrowly avoided the energy blade created by the android's Grasscutter Sword skill as it bisected the three Rogues that had previously been giving her so much trouble.

"Thanks Yorha," Neia shouted as she jumped back to her feet already reaching for Ultimate Shooting Star Super and nocking an arrow. The moment she was firmly on her feet again, she unleashed a skill of her own.

"Rain Arrow!" She hissed as she let her arrow fly, allowing her skill to transform it into hundreds more that rained down on their attackers killing dozens of the already severely depleted force. It seemed her partymates had been quite effective in thinning the enemy's numbers.

So much so that Neia's skill was the straw that broke the back of their courage and they turned to flee. Running as quickly as they could, occasionally using Shadow Jaunt to move even further away.

Seeing such a sight, Neia could only blink in surprise. They've broken already? They still have more than half of their number left!

The facts were undeniable however. The enemy was indeed running for their lives.


"Dammit all!" Drau cursed as they watched the last of the Shadar-kai attackers disappear from view. "It should have come to this."

No it didn't. Falgrim agreed. But-

"What's done is done." The Dwarf told her reaching up to give the tall woman's armored shoulder a squeeze.

"Is it?" Drau said with a shake of her head. "We all know this isn't the end of it. Taana stealing the Tome was one thing. She had a rightful claim to it and we could've used that as a basis for a compromise of some kind but after this massacre? We've made an enemy out of Taana's entire clan.

"Good riddance." Taana chimed in, hugging herself lightly. "They just tried to kill me."

"There, there. It's alright Taana." Neia said, pulling the girl into a hug. "You don't need them. You have a new family now."

"Really?" Taana asked in a shocked gasp, her eyes swimming with joy.

Neia just nodded and Taana tightened their hug as her shoulders shook as she cried into the shorter Paladin's shoulder as the latter patted her back soothingly. It was no secret that Taana was very attached to everyone in the party. The fact that she'd fought by their side against her biological family was proof of that. But to actually have the strength of their bonds confirmed like this, was clearly a bit too much for her.

"Is that really alright?" Drau said in a worried whisper.

Falgrim rolled his eyes. What the hell would they do at times like this if I wasn't here?

"Of course it is." The Dwarf said as he slapped Drau on the back. "You're worrying too much. It's pretty damned common for parties to become surrogate families."

"Yes, but at the cost of making enemies of one's birth family?"

"It's more common than you think, leader."

Drau frowned but nodded in acceptance.

"I just hope whatever fallout this causes it won't be something we can't handle."

"Whatever happens, we'll face it together." Yorha said reassuringly as she came over with a noticeably more plump looking Kuro riding on her shoulders as usual. "That's what families do isn't it?"

"Indeed." Even the ornery Gaul said, taking a moment away from his tallying of the newest additions to his seemingly ever growing undead army.

"I guess you're right." Drau conceded at last, sighing resignedly.

"Cheer up, leader." Falgrim told her, slapping her on the back again. "Things will work out."

The Dwarf hoped he was correct.


Done!

A short one this time. Hope it was still an enjoyable read nonetheless.

And so the party becomes a family, by Taana rejecting her birth family for selfish reasons. Does this make Taana a bad person? To an extent, definitely. That said, I never set out to write any of the party as paragons of virtue. So I hope this twist wasn't too off putting.

Well, that's it for me this time. Till next time tạm biệt!