I do not own Dungeons and Dragons or any of the characters.
Monster
Doric frowned as she looked around. She was walking along as a dog, sniffing and listening for any sign of the monster, but so far, there was nothing. The Lurkwood here was completely silent. There were no signs of life at all. No squirrels, no birds, no insects. The wind barely penetrated the woods here, so the only sounds were Jasper and the others traveling. Finally, they stopped as Doric growled a warning. They all stopped, Dorig sniffing around for another moment before shifting back, backing up to the others.
"I'm smelling something, but I can't tell where it is," Doric said.
"I have a guess," Jasper said, staring up into the trees.
Everyone's eyes rose and their mouths fell open. Above them, situated so that several bowed over trees supported its likely gargantuan weight, was the second ugliest creature Jasper had ever seen, right behind Lust Sinspawn and just barely ahead of spiders. Its body was about sixty feet long, but twenty feet thick, and it looked something like an extra-fat caterpillar with only eight legs and huge claws the length of Jasper's forearms. Its body was flabby, with skin folds the entire length of it, and the teeth inside of its mouth were jagged and lined every inch flesh that he could see, which was saying a lot, considering that its mouth, while tiny in compared to its swollen body, would easily swallow any of them whole, possibly standing upright.
"Does it see us?" Simon asked.
"It has no eyes," Doric pointed out. "What do you think?"
"You know what I mean," Simon said.
"What is it?" Mia asked.
"I have no idea," Jasper shrugged. "But, as a rule of thumb, if it's not made of fire, it's afraid of it. Simon, would you care to say hello?"
"Sure," Simon nodded, reaching down to his Spell Component Pouch. "Kelenta."
He raised his hand as a small fireball sprung to life in his grasp. Then, a moment later, he hurled it up at the massive creature. The fireball streaked through the air in a surprisingly accurate throw, slamming into the creature's side before erupting into a massive fireball a hundred fifty feet across. The trees were blasted apart, the creature crashing down before them on its back. Now that it was closer, Jasper could see tiny, quivering hairs covering its body, probably for sensing what was around it, if he was judging by its lack of eyes. It wiggled for a second before rolling away from them to its feet, then shook, its entire bloated body jiggling, then turned toward them, its steps crashing down with the sound of an explosion and trembling the ground. Then, once facing them, the thing's straw-like mouth opened, and a high, deafeningly loud, vibrating roar echoed out of it, making them all cover their ears.
"Looks like we do it the hard way, then!" Jasper growled. "Mia, Jasper, hit it!"
He ran to the side as Mia opened fire with her arrows, Simon peppering it with less destructive fire spells and lightning bolts. Jasper fired several Flame Arrows into its side, but they did nothing but break apart on its side, burn for a few seconds, and then go out. He narrowed his eyes, realizing it was fireproof, and evidently lightning proof, just as Simon realized the same. Simon stopped firing off spells, allowing Jasper to rapidly close in. However, as soon as he was forty feet from its side, its legs opposite him pushed off and the thing began to roll toward him, closing the distance rapidly. He swore as he realized that it could roll more than sixty feet in a single rotation. He leapt into the air, shifting into a falcon and streaking skyward, narrowly avoiding the creature's claws as it swiped at him. Then, it regained its feet as Jasper's Shadow shot into the air, then landed on its back as a massive, hulking creature with enormous claws, with which it began to rip at the creature's flesh. However, within a second, the creature began to roll again, knocking Shadow from its back and quickly rolling away from him.
Jasper shook his head. It didn't seem to feel Mia's arrows, which were punching into its body entirely, it was immune to both fire and lightning magic, and also ice, if Jasper were to guess, and it was too big, too fast, for him or Doric to fight up close. He shook his head. "He'd have to try something. Anything, really.
"Simon, freeze it!" Jasper ordered.
Simon's hands instantly snapped up, a massive cone of ice magic flooded from his hands and engulfing the massive creature. However, when the spell ended, leaving the creature encased in a massive, sloped formation of ice, the creature suddenly began to swell, filling in its flabby body before finally exceeding the space its body had formed in the ice, which immediately exploded off of it. A massive chunk of ice slammed into Doric, hurling her, Jasper evaded one, and Mia tackled Simon away from a surprisingly jagged one. Jasper shook his head, taking off as a falcon again, getting over the creature before transforming into a Girallon. He plummeted fast, rapidly picking up weight, then drilled four hammer fists down onto the creature's back as he landed, but its body merely seemed to deflate around him, rendering the strike completely ineffective before the thing's body swelled as it began to roll again, only for Jasper to shift back into a falcon and streak away from it. As he landed and shifted back, Doric and Simon ran over to him as Mia ran the other way, rapidly firing arrow after arrow. Suddenly, the thing's body turned and shrank, a pressurized spray of a pungent, bubbling, green fluid spraying out of it at Mia, who abandoned her attempts to shoot it in favor of fleeing the acid, which melted through anything it hit behind her.
"Dammit!" Jasper swore, shifting into a Tabaxi and exploding forward, passing along its side from behind, his son's Ironwood Sword tearing through its side, thick, yellowish green blood flooding out behind him.
Then, just as it stopped spraying acid and began to roll, Jasper kicked off of the ground at an angle away from it, only narrowly escaping it. Then, just as it stopped, its head directly behind him, Shadow appeared beside him as an Ephemeral Hangman, grabbing him and hurling him away just before a pair of thin, black, spear-like tongues shot out of its mouth, piercing through Shadow and trying to pull him in, only to fail as Shadow lacked a solid body. In response, Shadow shifted into a Manticore, slashing the creature across what would be its head, then stung it twice before dropping into a spot of darkness and racing back to Jasper's shadow again.
"This thing's ridiculous!" Jasper snarled, then narrowed his eyes. "Simon, know any spells that would be useful for making spike traps?"
Simon glanced at him, then at the flattened, compressed section of ground where the creature had rolled back and forth. Finally, he nodded.
"I can try!" Simon said. "Distract it!"
Jasper nodded, Mia once again firing arrows into the creature as Jasper shot forward, aiming a Flame Arrow for its mouth, only for that to be equally ineffective. Shadow shot out, becoming a Horned Felldrake again, and charged into its side, piercing its body before slashing at it. The creature swiped its claws at Shadow, but they also passed through him just before Shadow retreated to Jasper again as Jasper landed beside Simon. Then, just as he did, Simon swiped a hand, a massive cobblestone hand swiping through the trees above. As he did, broken chunks of wood fell to the ground, almost all landing flat. However, as he did, Jasper raised a hand, roots and vines bursting from the ground and wrapping around the chunks of shattered wood, stabbing them into the ground and reinforcing them before Jasper chanted a quick incantation, spikes the length of arms bursting from the sides of the roots and vines, many of the roots pointed and also sticking up into the air like spikes. Jasper nodded to himself, glancing at Mia, then shifted into a falcon, taking off toward the creature. It roared, as he neared it, swiping with its next-to-last leg, but Jasper avoided its claws, then shifted, becoming a Girallon and crashing into the thing with all the speed of a Falcon. As with before, it did no damage, but as Jasper had hoped, the creature inflated rapidly and began to roll. Jasper shifted into a falcon again, turning and racing away from it.
Then, as the creature reached the impromptu, non-magic spikes they'd prepared for it, it shrieked in pain as its flesh began to be ripped apart. It finished its roll, however, and by the time it was done, so was the fight. The creature's weight had driven the spikes deep, and while some had remained embedded in its blubbery body, others had acted like blades, allowing massive swaths of flesh to be ripped free or shredded, and as it righted itself, its internal organs began to slide out of its body, the creature beginning to deflate quickly, until it was nearly flat, a sea of thick, gooey blood and partially-shredded organs lying across the ground to one side of it. Jasper sighed, falling onto his ass beside Mia, where he'd landed and shifted back to normal, and Simon and Doric both sat off to the side as Mia sat beside Jasper, hugging him.
"That thing was obnoxious," Jasper complained.
"No kidding," Simon nodded. "It was completely immune to magic! What was that?"
"No idea," Mia shrugged. "It's dead now."
"We should get back to the others," Doric sighed. "As much as I'd like to sit here for a long time."
"Agreed," Mia nodded.
"Can't we spend a few more minutes with no spiders bothering us?"
"Unfortunately, no," the Aranea said, stepping out of the trees and smirking at him. "You did well. I honestly expected you to die like the others."
"If we had to fight it much longer, we probably would have," Jasper said, pushing himself up and looking at the remains. "Can you clean this up?"
The Aranea considered for a moment before nodding. "I think my spiders can manage."
Jasper nodded and they all walked through the woods with the Aranea in the lead. After a few minutes, they reached the others, Edgin looking relieved to see someone who wasn't a spider.
"Finally!" Edgin groaned. "What was it? Is it dead?"
"No idea what it was," Jasper answered. "But yes, it's dead. We made a spike trap and it shredded itself by rolling over it."
"It was completely immune to magic, and it wouldn't hold still enough for any lasting physical damage," Simon recounted.
"And my arrows were basically useless as big as it was," Mia added.
"Wow," Edgin blinked, then shook his head. "Whatever. Let's just get out of here, get the reward for saving this kid, and then we can-"
"Right, about that," the young boy said, then suddenly began to grow, rapidly aging into a bearded, middle-aged man wearing studded leather armor similar to Jasper's own, and pulling a pair of daggers from behind his back. "See, we kind of figured it'd be you lot who answered."
"Wait, I know that face," Jasper narrowed his eyes, then groaned, drawing his rapier.
"Fargut," Mia identified him icily. "Shit."
"Who?" Edgin asked as he, Holga, and Kira backed away from the man, who made no move to stop them.
"He's a part of the mercenary gang we worked for when we came to this forest before," Mia answered, her Ironwood Sword in her hand.
"How'd you know we were Changelings?" Jasper asked.
"We didn't," a new voice called from behind them, all of them turning and seeing a Barbarian with a staff tipped in a spiked ball over the backs of his shoulders. "Not until you went and showed off who you were to the whole city. We started putting things together pretty quick after that. You've got some pretty memorable weapons, Jasper."
"Plus, when you two disappeared, it was kind of a weird situation," a new voice said. "Suddenly you were gone and no one in the entire village saw which way you went. Including the night watchmen standing at the gate."
The owner of this voice wore heavy plate mail and held a claymore in his right hand, a shield adorning his left forearm that was fitted and customized to leave his hand free for his sword. As they watched, nearly a dozen more members of the mercenary gang arrived. As always, their armor was all a dark blue with the same bloody hand emblem on the chest and shoulders, and as always, they had magic-users, Barbarians, Assassins, soldiers of multiple specializations. There were too many, and they were too skilled.
"You want to fight?" Edgin asked. "Well bring-"
"Edgin, shut the fuck up!" Jasper snapped, Edgin glancing at him and seeing his blade trembling slightly at his side. "You have no idea who we're dealing with, or what they'll do when they definitely win this battle."
Edgin stared at him, then back around at the mercenaries, his eyes looking more carefully this time. "Kira, stay behind me."
"What's the plan?" Simon asked.
"Aranea," Jasper muttered, so low even Fargut couldn't hear, though he'd backed away to fill in the circle now. "A lot of them won't survive, but can your spiders distract them?"
The Aranea nodded. "How many do you think we'll need?"
"All of them," Mia whispered. "Each of them is as deadly as me and Jasper."
The Aranea nodded, narrowing her eyes. Then, a moment later, spiders swarmed the mercenaries from all sides. The chaos was immediate and terrible. Entire swaths of spiders were blasted with spells like Chain Lightning, Cone of Cold, Fireball, and any other massive spell that the magic-users could think off. The other types of fighters all tore into the spiders with a ferociousness that even Jasper and Mia shuddered at the thought of facing. However they were distracted, which gave Jasper and the others just enough of a chance. Jasper exploded forward as a falcon, then shifted into a Girallon, greeting the Barbarian with a shoulder check at nearly a hundred miles an hour, shattering his entire body and hurling him, allowing the others to flee past him as he shifted back to normal, sprinting after them. As they ran, the Aranea shifted into her hybrid form, four spider legs sprouting from her back as her canine teeth grew into long fangs reaching past her lower lip, an extra pair of eyes opening above her normal ones. Instantly, she turned to run backward, her arms waving madly as dozens of strands of webbing flew from her spinnerets, which now were in the undersides of her wrists. As the webbing stuck to the trees and bushes around them, her four spider legs flailed seemingly randomly through the webs, only for Jasper to realize that what they were doing was hopelessly tangling the webs. Finally, she spun back around, remaining in her hybrid form, and they continued to run.
"Did we lose them?" Edgin asked, Kira riding on Doric's back, Doric currently in the form of a deer.
"You wish!" Fargut's voice shouted, just before a crossbow bolt stabbed into the Aranea's back from the side, likely only barely missing her spine and heart.
She shrieked in agony, crashing to the ground, and Fargut raced in for the kill with his black daggers, only for Mia's dagger to deflect his. He spun, slashing at Mia, but Jasper's blade deflected his before he bent in half forward, Mia rolling across his back before hurling a fan of throwing knives at Fargut. He spun around them, grinning as he leaned back from Jasper's dagger. Then, he leapt backward, landing on his feet and raising his daggers. However, just as he did, Jasper smirked.
"What are you-" Fargut began, only to be cut off as Shadow formed a scorpion tail and jabbed him in the back.
He staggered forward, eyes wide in surprise, only for a pair of Mia's throwing knives to stab into his throat and forehead, killing him instantly. Jasper dropped beside the Aranea and set a hand on her back.
"Go," the Aranea rasped. "Get out of here before the rest of them come! My spiders...they're all dead!"
Already shouts of surprise and annoyance were ringing out from where mercenaries were getting caught in the Aranea's webs.
"You heal by drinking blood, right?" Jasper asked. "How much would you need to survive me pulling this out of your back?"
"I don't know, a couple swallows, probably," the Aranea said. "But the person would have to be alive for that, and even in my hybrid form, my bite carries a deadly venom!"
"Then switch to your human form and let me worry about the blood flow," Jasper instructed.
"What are you doing?" Edgin asked as the Aranea reluctantly did as he instructed.
"I'm not leaving her to die," Jasper said. "She helped us, and she saved our life by sacrificing the other spiders."
He slit his forearm deeply and diagonally, then raised his hand, his blood running from his elbow. The Aranea leaned forward instantly, catching most of it in her mouth and swallowing it just as Mia carefully but forcefully yanked on the crossbow bolt, ripping it from her back. Within seconds, the hole began to shrink and Jasper pulled his arm back, only for the Aranea to shift to her hybrid form again and coat his forearm thickly in webbing, forming an effective impromptu bandage.
"It'll only hold about an hour before breaking apart," the Aranea said as Jasper lay her over Doric's back, Doric shifting into a horse instead of a deer.
"Go, Doric," Jasper ordered. "Don't stop for anything."
Doric snorted and took off at a gallop. Before anyone could follow, Jasper turned the way they had come as the leader of the mercenary gang started down the hill they'd just descended at a calm walk. Jasper grit his teeth, reaching for his rapier, only for the leader to hold up a hand. The leader, an Undead Blackguard who had been disguising himself as a Paladin when Jasper and Mia had joined, but had, at some point, revealed his true nature to the mercenary gang, who accepted him readily, except for Mia and Jasper, who had left the gang. Not only was it an Undead Blackguard, who was once a Paladin before being reanimated by the foul deity he now served, it was the same that had killed Jasper's son.
"It's been a very long time, Corvac," the Blackguard smirked. "Or, do you prefer Jasper, now?"
"I don't care what you call me," Jasper growled. "Just die."
The Blackguard laughed. "How do you intend to make that happen? You can't kill what's already dead. At least, not without a Magic Suppression Cuff. Nice touch, that. I never would have expected that to work. Of course, you always were creative."
"What do you want?" Jasper asked.
"Simple," the Blackguard smirked. "I want chaos. I was brought back for chaos. And I'll start that by setting loose a horde of beasts like you just fought upon Faerûn. But first, I'm going to kill the worthless scum who cut off my head."
Jasper narrowed his eyes, then stood, holding his hand out to Edgin. Edgin obediently handed him the rapier Jasper had given him, Mia rapidly swiping all of Jasper's own weapons at the same time. Then, Jasper reached into a pocket hidden away on his armor and removed a small sun charm. He chanted an incantation and the charm dissolved into shining, golden dust, which then swarmed to his blade and enveloped it in a golden aura, though the blade itself was still visible.
"I see," the Blackguard growled. "You came prepared." He hefted his claymore. "Come them."
Jasper narrowed his eyes, bending his knees slightly, shifted into a Tabaxi, then exploded forward. The Blackguard grunted in annoyance as his shield deflected Jasper's blade, only for Jasper to twirl barely past him, slashing and jabbing repeatedly. However, despite the Blackguard's much larger and heavier blade, he either deflected or avoided nearly all of the strikes. However, when he moved to strike back, Jasper leapt over him, twirling in the air and slashing repeatedly, his blade shrieking as it tore across the Blackguard's heavy plate mail. He landed behind the Blackguard, slashing for the unprotected spots in the joints, as well as the armor's ties and clasps, as he had before. Several of the strikes found their marks before the Blackguard spun, slashing. Jasper ducked, allowing the blade to skid along his own out of the way before slashing the Blackguard down across the chest. Then, as the Blackguard staggered away, his grieves fell apart, pieces of them landing in a trail after him. The Blackguard huffed, rolling his shoulders, only for both pauldrons to likewise fall off.
"Clever," the Blackguard narrowed his eyes. "But not enough to beat me."
"We'll see," Jasper narrowed his eyes, then held his rapier out, pointing it directly at the Blackguard.
A second later, smoke and steam began to scream off of the Blackguard's armor, which turned a bright, fluorescent orange in seconds. The Blackguard roared in irritation and pain, ripping the last of his armor off and casting it aside, leaving himself in a charred, tattered shirt and his pants.
"How?" The Blackguard demanded. "You have no...Oh. You learned from me. Your Ironwood weapons are your Divine Focus."
"Yes, they are," Jasper nodded. "Watching you use that holy sword of yours taught me a lot."
The Blackguard chuckled, lifting his sword, only to stab it into the ground. Instantly, what looked like a seam on the cross guard opened and shown with a bloody light before the Blackguard's body began to change in a wave from his hand. "Then allow me to teach you something else."
Jasper narrowed his eyes as he watched the Blackguard's flesh change, growing harder and darkened to pitch black, leaving him appearing as little more than a silhouette with his eyes seeming to glow by contrast. Jasper swore lowly.
"Adamantine Skin," the Blackguard gloated. "A gift from my lord. It doesn't matter what holy magics you imbued your sword with. If it can't pierce my flesh, you've lost."
Jasper glanced at his sword, then at the Blackguard again before straightening his posture, holding his left arm behind his back and raising his rapier in front of his face, then lowering it to his side again. As he did, he activated his own Ironwood Flesh, preparing himself for pain. The Blackguard's Claymore was also Adamantine. It could cut his flesh, though not as easily as if he hadn't used the spell. Before him, the Blackguard laughed.
"Edgin, take the others and run," Jasper ordered. "Mia, you too. I'll hold him here and meet you later."
"How?" Mia asked.
"Mia," Jasper said firmly. "Go."
Holga took Mia's arm and turned to run, the others all following. The Blackguard made no move to chase them, and when the remainder of the mercenaries arrived, they also made no move to follow, instead, standing around to watch the duel, some leaning on trees, others on their weapons, and one sitting down and pulling out a skin of ale. Jasper waited, watching the Blackguard carefully as he shifted his weight first one way, then the other. Then, the Blackguard lunged, stabbing at Jasper. Jasper's rapier whipped up with all the force he could muster, slamming the claymore aside. chips of wood flew from his blade, but Jasper ignored it, streaking into motion. He slashed again and again, his blade bouncing from the Blackguard's thigh, arm, chest. He allowed the sword to scrape along his as he ducked under the Blackguard's strike, then struck for the Blackguard's throat, his foot, his forearm. The Blackguard slashed back at him and Jasper flipped over it, slamming his blade into the Blackguard's head and shoulders three times before he landed to the Blackguard's left. The Blackguard, whose sword was still swinging, spun in a circle, slashing, and Jasper ducked, using the back edge of his blade to deflect the sword high into the air. An entire section of his rapier's blade spun into the air, but Jasper continued to ignore the damage to his blade, instead spinning around behind the Blackguard and slamming a slash into the back of his head, the back of his rear knee, his back. He dropped low to the ground, nearly lying down but catching himself with his free hand, and when the Blackguard turned and slashed, missing due to not realizing Jasper's position, Jasper shoved himself up and struck hard and fast with a flawless thrust. More chips broke free from the blade as the edges scraped the Blackguard's eyelids, but the lethal point of the now much-thinner blade plunged into the Blackguard's eye. For a moment, the Blackguard shrieked in agony, the other mercenaries watching in stunned silence. Then, Jasper twisted the blade and stepped sideways, leveraging the rapier to the side to force it to tear through the Blackguard's brain before the blade broke free and Jasper took a couple of steps, holding his broken sword at his side. As he did, the broken section of blade inside of the Blackguard's head shone, blinding golden light issuing from the Blackguard's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Then, the light was replaced by smoke and the Blackguard crashed to the ground, his Adamantine Skin fading.
"No way," one of the mercenaries breathed. "He...He's dead?"
"Impossible," a sorcerer breathed. "Corvac...Corvac killed the boss?" He shook his head, grabbing his staff. "Kill Corvac!"
"You're trembling," Jasper noted as the sorcerer stood, only for his knees to give out, as though in response to Jasper's words. "You're weak. Even together, none of you could have killed him." He spat on the ground toward them. "If I ever see any of your faces again, or if you ever come after, or even mildly threaten, my friends, I'm coming for you." He shifted into his true form, glaring around at them all. "And you'll never even see me coming."
The mercenaries watched him walk away in a stunned silence until Jasper sheathed his broken rapier at his hip and shifted into a peregrine falcon and took off, racing through the trees after the others.
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