Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 22

Chapter 22

Camrad_RIP 16.08.22 в 18:37

I hate it, I hate the triple-fucked swamps with all my soul, I hate them to the point of black dots in front of my eyes, I hate them to the point of cracked teeth, I hate them more than I once hated Monday morning, though it seemed impossible to do more. And yet, I am forced to admit that, right now, the swamps are playing in our favor, not in the favor of our opponents.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:04

Northern Woods was an old and ancient forest, and there were many rumors about it, but despite all the scary rumors, it had been explored by Melareth's forces from the ground up. I believe this forest was scrubbed of all possible monsters or other threats before the construction of the Stone began. At the same time, the terrain itself was undoubtedly studied like the back of their hand, simply because it was easy to do and it didn't cost the unwilling explorers themselves anything. All the same, while the fortress was being built, they had to keep the soldiers and huntsmen busy.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:05

Those days are long gone, and the forests have gone feral again, but the traces of that same cleansing are still visible to my keen eye. The first was that we saw no sign of any powerful monsters, but my clairvoyance picked up the echoes of very, very old battles in which the monsters had lost to the well-coordinated human machine. Those old maps, which they couldn't help but make, must have rotted and decayed and turned to dust by now - no one had left Stone territory for any important or not-so-important raids in the past century. And yet, the locals must have known the forest far better than all of us put together, and specialists capable of tracking a wounded group in the forest simply must be a lot. There had to be, or else I would have to declare all my opponent's idiots, which they were not. Scum, bastards, and bestiality, obviously, but idiots they were not.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:08

On the other hand, the swamp adjacent to the Woods looked much more promising to all of us than the forest, which was beginning to look deadly uncomfortable. I can't argue with the fact that the swamp can be explored just as well as the Woods itself, but our company has the Ygra, and they obviously don't have the Ygra. If anyone can hide there and hide us in the swamps and marshes, it's her. And yet we must hide, for only Hans, whose luck arouses evil envy, and Ygra, in whose case the envy arouses endurance, can continue the journey. The rest of the team, including myself, are about to fall to the ground. And if in my case it will not be so fatal, then Losius and especially Taria must be treated quickly and properly, or they will simply die of intoxication.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:16

We've been running for almost six hours, and we're running pretty fast - our high stats and skills allow for more than that. But even we have a limit, and rest is necessary. I'm not sure if our enemies are on our trail. But if they haven't already begun pursuit, they will in the next couple of hours. As soon as the Shoreless Eye is able to recharge, it will use its resources to create a new passage arch, right after the previous one. Only this time the portal will not be punched into the nearly destroyed Stone, but into the battlefield, next to the outer ring. And then the timer will start ticking much more rapidly.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:19

I don't believe in the fact that they won't find our footprints, not on a dime, not at all. If I were alone, I'd be able to hide thanks to my skills - high stealth would allow me to leave no trace, and the shadow steps would lead me through another realm without leaving a single clue in the real world. Hans and Ygra are very cool at covering their tracks, moving like the inaudible rustle of the wind, the flap of a bird's wing. But we will be confronted by a real elite, among which can not be no less than the owners of the pumped up skills and all sorts of exotic classes. Our trail will be found and set upon.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:22

It is possible, only possible, that they will not do it immediately, taking their time. There's a chance that they'll start losing our tracks from time to time, but there's no reason to believe that they won't take it again. Pursuing us at the same speed we're moving won't work for them, except we're already on the edge. We must drop down and at least try to detoxify quickly before Taria's liver and kidneys turn to mush. After that, the gap will only shrink until they catch up with us. We'll get away from the scouting party even now, but after all, their only purpose will be to give a glare. And after our location is established, a classic driven hunt will begin, where we will be given the role of game. That is if the enemy doesn't risk using the Shoreless Eye and dropping the guards right on our heads so that we're guaranteed without a chance.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:31

That's why we're in such a hurry to the swamp, where it will be harder to find traces and easier to hide. There, among the marshes and lonely islands of dry land, I have some chance of sheltering us all with Dream and trying to buy at least a few days' rests so we can rush forward with renewed vigor. Without such a danger to the health of Taria, Losius, and Hans, who were slowly beginning to give up, I and Yggra could run for at least a week. Then it would have been bad, but I would have won the week by making my opponent lose track of me.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:33

Alas.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:34

However, our enemies were no better off now - while they were gathering, while they figured out where to run, while they finished their inspection, we could have plenty of time. That's why, just as I began to sense that my comrades' alchemy would soon finish them off, I stopped heroically and gave the long-awaited command for a halt. A halt for everyone but myself - even if I fell off my feet, I was obliged to make sure that the others continued on their way. They could carry me alone, but I couldn't carry them all.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:37

"Lie down, lie down, and I'll come to you." My hands begin to glow with golden light, picking up all kinds of leaves and sticks from the ground, processing them into essence. "Now Uncle Kostya will heal you, heal and cure everything. Why are you all so pale?"

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:38

They went pale not from fear, but the beginning of organ failure. There are shades of green in there, too, so now we're some kind of world-class troll team. We've pissed off Melareth so much that the King himself isn't running after us, dropping bricks and his slippers. Shadow tentacle pulls closer trunk with the rest of the alchemy: nothing combat in it, just healing potions and detoxifying agents, which I prepared with a huge stock - I knew where I was going and how we would return.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:48

The easiest thing was with Ygra. I honestly thought that I would have to turn her off with a trigger, but the green giant somehow managed to understand what was going on, realizing the degree of danger. In any case, I only needed one more small barrel of the detox tank I had prepared especially for her to completely neutralize the effects of the booster, which the ogres were drinking in buckets. She drank three and a half liters of the nasty stuff in one gulp, and then made a pitying face. Given her size and her beastly expression, it was almost comical.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:52

It's all right, the taste is far from pleasant, but there are no intestinal upsets or bloody vomiting. Indeed, the absence of serious side effects is more a consequence of high stats and an extremely strong body, which was enough even so small thing. Well, sometimes it's the little things that save the day, and now I don't have to worry about the big and mighty Ygra's hand tremors and shortness of breath.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:56

Second in line was the panting Hans, who was slowly starting to hallucinate, as if he were on an overdose of amphetamines. The man was lying on his back, gazing silently up into the night sky, where the first ray of sunrise was beginning to light up. He could not stand so much because of fatigue as because of severe dizziness, next to which any hangover would be a slight runny nose at most. Add to this the colors that were beginning to get confused and the "northern lights" in the sky, existing only in his imagination, and you realize how far the pathfinder had driven himself. And he wasn't a young boy to have to endure such exertion for a long time.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:57

He didn't even pay attention to the few cuts I'd made, from which I got blood samples. I couldn't be sure what the side effects would be, so a lot of the pre-made concoctions still needed final mixing. It's like, you break a drug into blocks, and only by mixing them do you get a ready-made potion. This is a very painstaking method that requires much more effort and time, but the efficiency is much higher because in the result I will get only those effects that I need right now, while the standard potions, poured into bottles, will have a certain amount of invested magic, which will become unnecessary or even harmful. There's so much crap in our bodies right now that even a measly little thing can break that camel's backbone. That's why I'm trying to match the potions as much as possible so that every grain of essence will be put to work and not be slagged off in the exhausted body.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 18:59

The rolling drops of blood between my fingers made me wrinkle my nose in anger - too little blood in this cocktail, while the charged magic is much more than the norm. Yes, we'd discussed all of this before I'd started matching individual potion complexes, but it was still a mistake to agree to pour them all at the highest bar. On the other hand, if it hadn't been for that decision, they might not have been strong enough to fight, which would have resulted in the ignominious death of everyone but Ygra.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:20

I stirred the final version of the concoction and slipped it under the nose of a grinning Hans - he couldn't even look at alchemy right now, not to mention nausea that was building up. Actually, mixing so many potions in one bottle is a recipe for explosions or other unpleasant effects, but my skill allows a lot. The large flask I shoved in is a mixture of several dozen ready-made potions of extremely narrow application, held together and not in conflict only thanks to the mythical class of the cook.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:22

Quietly swearing - I'm too busy to listen to it - Hans silently drinks the contents of the flask in a gulp, like a shot of dwarf water, which I'd call pure alcohol. The stuff tastes like that for sure, but to add flavor stabilizers to it would be foolishness of the titanic scale. He's not a little boy, he'll tolerate it, especially since the drug would induce vomiting anyway - the fastest way to rapidly cleanse the body. No, it is possible to force all the shit out of the body through other orifices or even just together with sweat, but it is too long, and time is now worth its weight in gold.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:23

While Hans calls for Cthulhu under the nearest tree, I move on to restore Losius. I'd like to start working with the rapidly dying Taria, but getting the aristocrat out would be trivially easier and faster while working with the girl would take an incredible amount of effort, after which I definitely wouldn't stay up. The classic dilemma of a military doctor is that you have to save the lightly wounded first, because while you are dealing with the heavy ones, some of them will have time to die despite your efforts, and the light and medium wounds will move into the category of heavy ones. Emotions are habitually brushed aside, and I get down to business again.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:28

First I get rid of the nobleman's slowly inflaming wounds without proper care because a quick bandage at most stopped the blood but certainly did not get rid of the need for disinfection. Losius, by the way, is also good, as he forgot about the possibility of just watering the wounds with a couple of potions that I made specifically for that purpose. No, he didn't forget, though, just that one of the blows turned the vials on his belt into glass crumbs, ruining all my hard work.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:30

A steal of a shadow and already my long-suffering side, shoulder, and back have several painfully aching bruises, cuts, and cracks in the bones. The fever had also started to rise, indicating an infection had been dragged over me. The body, even weakened, began to repair the damage immediately, but I wasn't paying attention. I act radically, transforming the damaged areas of my body into a rapidly regenerating Shadow Form, for which these scratches are almost as dangerous as crunching some hare's Ygra. I could have transferred the wounds to the green-skinned one, but she was too hungry and very exhausted, so I decided not to take any chances.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:31

I don't feel good about this method of treatment, either, by the way. My mind is too tired to fight, and my body, which has become a Shadow, presses inexorably on my brain, trying to convince me of the need to heal my wounds in the most effective way possible: with other people's lives and souls. It's getting harder and harder to fight off the pesky voices and laughter in my head, but so far I'm doing fine. My form pulls strength from the home realm gradually replenishing my reserves and repairing the damage. Even the intoxication is wearing off! I can't help but notice that my body is regenerating even without the method, but I've been doing way too much alchemy and most of that recovery is just to keep the sludge in my blood. The perks work, and the Mystic Alchemist's passive skills work, but they are not enough.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:33

I'd like to clench my teeth, take the full Shadow Form, and dive into the deep levels of the realm for half an hour, after which I'd be back in reality as good as new. Except I'm too tired and exhausted and fucked up, and even my heroic resilience has limits. I won't go back, or, more likely, I won't be me.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:35

The moose doesn't swear, just looks around with a hazy look, and silently crawls over to Hans to help him with his call. I leave them alone, too, and with some difficulty I regain my human form, taking a moment to breathe calmly and evenly. I almost snapped when the partial transformation began to swiftly take over my entire body. I was in the end only my face and part of my left leg was in human form, and the rest was a black silhouette of a three-dimensional shadow, or rather, a Shadow. It was probably best not to use that method now. The wounds on me had already healed completely, and the reserve was about a sixth of what it was.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:37

It should be enough.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:37

Taria looks bad, very bad. We're all just chipper by comparison - her insides are failing already, literally dissolving in the muck that's now replacing her blood. I shouldn't have given her the shadow-form potion, not at all - it was too toxic, as was the mental stabilizer, without which the previous compound would have been fatal. Her effectiveness in combat had undoubtedly increased almost tenfold, but it was still worth knocking her out with a hook to the jaw and leaving her out of the fray.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:45

Alchemy isn't going to help, not at my level and not with the resources at my disposal. If I had my lab here and lots and lots of time, I could try to do something. In theory, my essentialism might allow me to literally heal with the laying on of my hands, pulling the harmful essence out of my body. In reality, it would require a concentration and skill that I, in this state, do not have. It's not even about the low skill index, but about the fact that I simply cannot use essence for such a purpose without prior training. I can disassemble Taria into reagents even with my eyes closed, but practicing healing, and such a high-class one at that... I'm not that class, not at all.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:47

I could try to use Shadow Creation by placing a realm entity in the girl's shadow, which would heal and restore her. The odds are better, but it would still kill her, if not the poison, then the Shadow itself, tearing apart the fragile mind of Taria, who was no longer protected by my compounds.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:49

I had to settle for the only obvious course of action - the same shadow-stealing. I remember being able to transfer alchemical intoxication to another person when I saved the life of a little elf in a slave trader's camp. Here's another reason for you to practice, Kostik. Eat up.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:50

I don't even think about transferring the damage to a set of green boobs, though it's a tempting thought. With her stats and survivability, she'll take the poisoning much easier, and it'll be as natural for her to regenerate her insides as it is to breathe. But she won't be able to move for the next twenty-four hours. Now let's turn to simple physics and mathematics, which argue that dragging me unconscious and Ygra unconscious are two big differences. Literally big differences.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:51

A completely healthy Taria opens her eyes as if awakened from a prolonged nightmare, and I roll away from her and start vomiting pieces of my intestines. I turn to the Shadow Form again, starting to regenerate rapidly, knowing at the same time that I won't be able to hold on much longer, I'll go insane. And if I drop the Form, I'll be dead in minutes from the damage and poisoning that have become too much for even me - my intoxication is still there.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:52

"Tin?" It doesn't even take a high intuition to know how bad I feel right now. "Tin?"

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:53

"Prey. Monsters. Beasts. Alive. Now." I speak syllable by syllable, barely keeping my wits about me, realizing that I'm already out of time.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:53

Ygra jumped to her feet, almost running circles around me, and I took control, pointing my finger in the right direction. I don't do well with pedobears, but this teddy bear will serve a good purpose. The ogre not only understood my words about prey but actually brought the bear back alive, even breathing, even if it was a little bruised.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 19:59

I'd never had such fond feelings for this fool with pebbles instead of brains, but she was saving my life right now. She sniffed quickly, then darted off in the direction I'd pointed, and in literally three minutes she dragged the occasional crawling beast away, ignoring the fact that the desperately fighting predator was trying to gut her. Green and steel skin doesn't always cut it, and regeneration continued to work.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 20:00

A clawed shadow paw slammed into the side of the desperately roaring bear, and then life itself flowed into me. This beast was strong and old, at least three decades of age yes, at an eighteenth level. No wonder its claws could still scratch lightly at an ogre that couldn't afford to kill it or cripple it too badly. A detached thought flashed through my mind that I hadn't put the right command in her head through dreams. So she thought of it on her own? I'd have to figure out a way to thank her, other than the most obvious way I could think of.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 20:01

In a minute, all that was left of the bear was a dried-out corpse covered in a leaky skeleton, and I was able to throw off my Form. My internal organs were relatively normal, resembling innards rather than a soup of some kind. I could breathe again, as my lungs were working and even nausea, though not gone, had receded. There is no way to call me healthy, but I am not going to die anytime soon. And then my stats and perks would work, restoring what could still be restored and not letting the rest be ruined.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 20:02

That's it.

Camrad_RIP 17.08.22 в 20:03

For the next week, I'm strictly against any realm manipulation, unless I want to give up my soul to the realms. My mind resembles a tea bag that has been used twenty times in a row - it will crumble to ashes in no time at all. It is no longer up to me to save our company.

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:04

I vaporized all the traces we'd left behind, including the vomit and the bottom-drained bear carcass, using the last crumbs of my strength before my body fully returned to human form. And then I almost fell to the ground, picked up by several pairs of hands at once. Oh, I'm so sleepy...

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:09

Just to sleep a little...

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:09

"Tin, don't you fucking pass out!" A scream and a few slaps in the face make me conscious and furious, and I have trouble suppressing a sincere and reflexive urge to reach for the shadows. "Tin, what's wrong with you? Tin!"

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:10

"Norm." I wheezed, not even trying to make out who was talking to me. "I've pumped you out, even Taria. I'm out of the fight now. You can carry me any way you want, or leave me right here, but don't wake me up."

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:11

"I'll twist your balls off for that kind of suggestion, you bastard! You could have..."

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:11

As I turned off, I realized that the last words belonged to Taria, the healthiest one among us. Apparently, in my attempts at trauma treatment, I had taken all of her wounds and injuries. Ironically, it was the one who was dying a few minutes ago who was now the most combat-ready of us all.

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:12

But my dreamless sleep was waiting for me.

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:12

I woke up feeling surprisingly well. My head ached, I had a mutant hedgehog in my stomach, my breathing was hoarse and irregular, and my heart was beating frantically and out of rhythm as if it were my last effort. And yet, compared to what I'd felt before I'd passed out, even those pains seemed insignificant.

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:13

Judging by the fact that the rocking was not observed, we are now in a break, and if we evaluate the surrounding silence, the whole honest company is simply knocked out. On the one hand, irresponsibility, but on the other hand, the simple beasts will not be able to get close to us unnoticed because of the danger sense, and against a full group of liquidators we will not do anything in such condition, but die (be captured, with special bad luck) sleepless and tired.

Camrad_RIP 20.08.22 в 14:14