Somewhere on the other side of the path, Cedric and Stan were caught separately, each tangled in their own mass of vines.
Harry tried not to breathe too deep. Small pinpricks of blood dotted Jo's neck and arms where the thorns had bitten in. That was easily ignored. But the smell of the blood seeping from the wound he had made in her arm clung to the air between them, copper and wet. And tempting. He could feel the hunger inside him stir. Demanding attention.
“Dammit,” Jo growled. “I walked right into another trap.”
Harry blinked. He tried to focus on her words and forget the thoughts he had been fighting to suppress. “We’re lucky we didn’t get caught by more,” Harry said. “None of us are high enough level to be here.”
“If we didn’t take the shortcuts we might have run out of time.”
Harry let out a deep sigh. “I know.”
She shifted slightly, stopped when the vines tightened in response. “Do you think Stan really has a way out of this?”
“No idea. He wasn’t very lucid earlier.”
They waited.
The vines held steady. No tightening. No release. Just the slow creak of plant fiber under tension and the faint rustle of leaves somewhere higher up the terrace.
Jo tried party chat.
- Jo: Stan?
Nothing came back.
- Harry: Cedric, can you see what Stan is doing?
- Cedric: Hold on.
Harry listened. His enhanced hearing cut through the low ambient noise of water and wind. He caught Cedric muttering under his breath as he shifted, the sound rough and irritated. A curse, clipped short. Thorns scraping against armor. After that, Cedric called Stan’s name. Once. Again.
- Cedric: I think he is asleep.
Jo’s eyes widened. “Harry, he’s just asleep right?”
Harry checked his Blood Sense. Stan’s life thread was there, long and strong, swaying slowly. Steady. Untroubled. And the snakes were bit coming up the terraces.
“He’s fine as far as I can tell.”
- Harry: Let him rest.
“Harry, can you try using Stonefang?” Jo said. “Maybe it’s meant to get us past this.”
Harry focused on his right arm. He tried to coax the smallest bit of movement out of it, just enough to make the gesture that would reach into his inventory and grab the dagger. The vines held fast. He strained harder. Nothing.
He pushed strength without spending vitae, forcing a thirty percent boost. Muscles tightened. The vines creaked. His arm still would not move far enough.
He checked his meters.
H: 93 | V: 72 | TM: 35%
He must have taken a few points of damage somewhere. Maybe the plants. He didn't like how low his vitae was getting, but there was no way around it.
He spent a point and drove the strength boost up to sixty percent.
As he forced his arm against the vines, the thorns bit deeper. He clenched his jaw and pushed anyway. Pain flared along his forearm and shoulder.
Something changed.
A new sensation crept across his skin, strange and wrong. It felt dry. Rigid. As if the surface of his arm was hardening from the inside out.
System, what is this?
:: System: It is the same ability that allows you to transform your hands and feet.
Well, damn, it would be nice to know these things.
:: System: Duly noted.
Dammit.
Harry held still and concentrated. At first the change spread everywhere at once, a deeply uncomfortable awareness of his entire body stiffening. He reined it in, experimenting by feel. After a minute he managed to confine it to just his arm.
He pushed again and felt nothing from the thorns. They scraped and pressed, but the bite was gone.
He tried to move and realized the strength boost had expired.
Seriously, I hate this place.
He spent another point and pushed again.
H: 93 | V: 70 | TM: 36%
His arm moved enough to trigger his inventory. Stonefang dropped into his hand. He closed his fingers around the hilt and froze, careful to keep the blade angled away from Jo.
Harry twisted his wrist, angling the blade toward a vine wrapped across his chest. The movement was slow and awkward, fighting the tension in his shoulders. He sawed the edge back and forth until it went through.
The cut vine peeled away. Nothing else happened.
The remaining coils slid and tightened, crawling higher, pulling him in closer.
“That didn’t do anything,” Harry said. “Now what?”
“Umm…” Jo shifted as much as the vines allowed. “I don’t know. Maybe stab the ground?”
Harry weighed it. He could make it work. Barely.
“I’m going to have to turn so I can get my arm down to the ground,” he said. “When I do, these vines are going to get pulled. I expect they’ll respond.”
Jo gave a small nod, barely moving her head. “Do it.”
Harry focused inward and hardened his skin, ignoring how wrong it felt in certain places. He drew a breath, put two vitae into strength so it would last a full minute, and forced himself into a shallow roll.
The vines reacted at once.
They slid and cinched tighter, new lengths snaking in from the growth around them. Jo grunted as the pull caught her too. Harry froze when a vine whipped up and looped around her neck.
He held still, heart pounding. The vine around her neck was tight but not choking.
He had rolled enough.
Carefully, he adjusted his grip on Stonefang until the blade pointed down.
“Here goes.”
He spent another point of vitae on strength.
H: 93 | V: 67 | TM: 39%
He drove his arm down. The dagger slid into the ground clean and easy. No resistance. No vibration. No reaction.
Nothing happened.
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The vines didn’t even twitch.
He still had time on the strength boost. He yanked the dagger free, leaving a neat, dark hole behind, and stabbed again. He twisted the blade until the soil crumbled.
Other than widening the hole it had no effect.
Harry let out a frustrated breath. “Well, that didn’t work.”
Jo scowled. “Piss.”
While he still had movement, Harry shoved Stonefang back into his inventory. The vines tightened a fraction and settled.
“Any other ideas?” he said.
Jo closed her eyes. A moment later they snapped open. “Could you get close enough to bite me? If you were recharged maybe you could work your way out.”
Harry jerked back on instinct. The vines reacted at once. The one looped around Jo’s neck tightened, the thorns digging in deep. She sucked in a sharp breath.
Harry froze.
The pressure eased.
“Not going to happen,” he said.
“It’s better than staying here till I die of old age.”
“We only have a couple of days at most before the dungeon closes and sends us out.”
“If it spits us out.”
Silence settled around them. The vines creaked softly. Water whispered somewhere beside the terraces. Minutes stretched.
Jo spoke again. “What about your Frenzy. Do you think you could get out if you used it?”
Harry’s brow lowered. “Probably. But it would be a very bad idea.”
“You’d eat me?”
He didn’t answer right away. “Almost certainly.”
“We have to do something.”
- Cedric: Stan is waking up.
Harry strained to listen. He caught Cedric’s voice, low and urgent, calling Stan’s name. After a moment, Stan answered. Slurred. Cheerful. They spoke back and forth. Harry could not make out the words, only the tone. Friction. Confusion.
“What’s happening?” Jo asked, her voice tight.
“I think they’re arguing about something.”
“Oh damn.”
- Stan: Sorry ‘bout that, nodded off a bit. Get ready.
There was a sudden loud crack and a burst of half yells, half screams, followed by a faint rush of wind and cold. It took Harry a moment to realize the yelling was coming from Stan.
- Jo: What was that? What happened?
- Cedric: That lunatic used the Wand of Winter’s Touch on us.
Harry heard the sharp snap of frozen vines breaking apart.
- Harry: Are you free?
- Cedric: Hold on.
He heard movement. More arguing. One of them got to their feet and immediately slipped and fell. If he had to guess, he’d say it was Stan.
- Cedric: We’re out.
- Stan: I told ya I got this.
Harry could hear them moving closer.
- Cedric: Brace yourselves. Sir Harold, if you can, shield Jomila.
Harry tensed up, ready to move.
Stan yelled from behind them. “Algid!”
The blast hit like a wall. Ice and wind slammed into Harry.
:: System: [Willpower Check] successful.
He moved with the first bite of frost, spent another point on strength, and forced himself between Jo and the oncoming surge.
Jo still took most of it. She was driven into the ground, her face crusted with frost as the cold washed over her.
As the blast passed, Harry reached beside her and snapped the vine from around her neck.
“Ow, ow, ow.” Jo writhed, breaking frozen vines from her arms and legs.
Harry forced his way to his knees beside her, frozen vines snapping off his back. Cedric was there at once, hauling at the remaining growth and pulling them both free.
Jo got to her feet and rubbed her hands across her face, smearing frost melt and grit on her cheeks. Cedric took her by the arm and steadied her, guiding her back toward the path. Harry followed close behind.
Stan sat on the stone with his legs stretched out in front of him, the wand loose in one hand, a lopsided grin stuck to his face.
Jo dropped to her knees beside him and hooked an arm around his shoulders.
“Have I ever mentioned how much I love this guy?”
Cedric shook his head. “That was borderline insane.”
Before Stan could muster a response, Jo cut in. “It worked.”
Harry looked them over. Every one of them bore the marks of it. Thorn punctures dotted their skin. Red and black patches bloomed where the cold had bitten deep.
“I was lucky and resisted the spell,” Cedric said. “I’m still down a bit.”
:: Health: 101/110
Jo slumped onto her heels. “I failed the save, but Harry blocked some of it.”
:: Health: 32/60
“Damn, that’s worse than when the desiccant used it.” Harry knelt to look her over and took some of the medical supplies from his inventory to clean and cover the wound on her arm.
Jo grinned back at him. “Yeah, that time we got blown backward instead of taking the full blast. But I’ll get six of it back when we rest.”
“You will?”
“Of course. When we rest we get back health equal to our endurance.”
“You do?”
Cedric studied him. “I take it you do not, Sir Harold?”
Harry shook his head slowly. “No. I don’t. Just the one point of vitae.”
System, why don’t I heal when I rest?
:: System: As a Vampire, you do not have any natural healing function.
Wonderful.
Finished with Jo's arm, Harry moved to crouch beside Stan. “How about you?”
Stan stared at him for a beat, eyes unfocused. Then he shook his head hard and laughed.
“No saves for me. I ate it right in the face.”
:: Health: 62/100
Jo gave his shoulder a squeeze and stood. “You idiot.”
Harry’s attention drifted past them, down the terraces. A wide swath of vegetation lay dead and brittle where the wand had hit, leaves rimed with quickly melting ice and snapped clean through. Farther down, untouched vines were already creeping back onto the path, slow and patient.
Ahead of them it was worse. The path was crowded on both sides for another hundred yards at least.
“Stan, there’s three more charges on the wand?”
Stan started to push himself upright. Cedric stepped in and hauled him the rest of the way. “That’s right.”
“How’s your mana, have enough to use the wand again?”
Stan nodded, a little too eagerly. “Give the word, boss. I’ll give these beasty plants what for.”
“Zephyr!” Jo was already stepping back toward where the vines had first surged out.
Harry caught her arm. “No, look.” He waved down the path. The stretch where she had been yanked off her feet lay untouched by frost, choked thick with vines that crawled and flexed over one another.
Her jaw tightened. Desperation flickered across her face. “We can use the wand to clear them out.”
Harry pointed toward the terraces still rising into the mountain. “We have a long ways to go. Three frost spells may not get us out of here.”
She shook her head, stubborn reflex more than argument, eyes still fixed on the path. After a moment her shoulders sagged. She nodded once.
Harry had them form up tight. He took point with his sword out. Stan stayed close on his heels, wand clenched in one hand. Jo and Cedric fell in behind him, side by side, Cedric with his sword ready, Jo gripping a short blade Harry had handed her.
They moved out.
Harry cut a path as long as he could, blade hacking through green coils and thorned runners. The growth resisted, bending and dragging at his arms, scraping along his legs as he forced his way through. Behind him, Jo and Cedric followed close, blades flashing in short, efficient strokes, keeping the vines from wrapping in around themselves or Stan.
When it got too thick to cut through, Stan stepped up beside him and lifted the wand. Frost burst outward, white and crackling. Vines stiffened, leaves blackened, and the mass shattered apart with sharp snapping sounds.
They rushed through the frozen gap before the cold could fade. The cycle repeated again and again. Steel first. Muscle and patience. Then ice when there was no other way forward.
By the third blast, the vines ahead thinned at last. They hacked their way through the final stretch, arms burning, thorns biting wherever they slipped. Twenty paces later, the growth finally fell back, and the path opened in front of them. They were past the terraces.
They stopped and looked back, chests heaving, eyes tracking the ruined stretch of path behind them before shifting forward again.
Stan wobbled a step, caught himself, and straightened with a crooked grin. “That weren’t so bad.”
The others just stared at him.
“Are you serious?” Jo said, eyes fixed on him. “You’d want to smack Toby for saying that.”
“It is the venom talking,” Cedric said. “He still needs to rest.”
“What?” Stan said, genuinely puzzled.
Harry looked up at the sky. The sun was dropping toward the mountains to the west. One more hour of light, at most.
“Come on,” Harry said. “Let’s get away from here. Cedric, keep an eye out for somewhere we can camp.”
Harry and Cedric swapped back to spear and shield. Jo took her old bow from Harry. Stan brought out his shield and spear and planted the spear’s butt on the stone. He leaned on it, breathing a little too hard.
Cedric caught Harry’s eye and tipped his head toward Stan. “Is that wise?”
Harry shrugged. “If it comes down to it, any help is better than no help.”
“True.” Cedric clapped Stan on the shoulder. “And if need, better to die with weapon in hand, right brother?”
Stan lifted an eyebrow, thought about it, and nodded. “I’d as soon live. But yeah.”
Harry turned to Jo. “I’ll take the lead. Your health is too low to be out in front.”
She only nodded.
They moved out, giving Harry twenty paces of space ahead of them. Cedric settled into the rear as usual.
***
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