“Ma’am, I assure you there is nothing else in there! You did not hear sloshing or jiggling the last seven times, and you are still not allowed to disassemble me!”

Rosalyn might be getting on the Master at Arms’ nerves with her incessant investigation.

“I think it’s just magic, lambchop,” Ann said, gently taking the unfortunate skull from Rosalyn.

“Yeah, but that’s no fun. Bleh,” Rosalyn pouted.

“Well, if that is not up to your standards for entertainment, might I suggest our next trial? Please stand clear, everyone! Preparations are complete.”

Warped of every shape and size moved out of the way to reveal a stand had been set up on one end of the field with a large swarm of writing vines at the far end. The stand was mostly rotten wood, but there were a couple of good planks in there, about chest height for Lucia and covered to keep the meagre sun off whoever stood beneath it.

“As a markswoman and a Druid, physical trials involving close-quarters fights are not a test of their greatest skills. For this, we will be implementing a variation of a game children play at carnivals, with a twist, of course. Rosalyn, Lucia, please take your places. Rosalyn, stand to the left of the stand. Very good. Now, you see the writhing mass of corrupted vines and fungus at the end of the field?”

“Yes,” both women nodded.

“That is Heraldie. She will be administering today’s trial. You are to remain where you stand for the duration. When I begin the trial, Heraldine will begin to attack. Your objective is to neutralise any and all attacks before they reach your position. Failure to do so will inflict a deadly toxin on both of you. Outside interference or curatives are strictly prohibited. Cheaters will be dealt with swiftly and with extreme prejudice. Does everyone understand?”

Rosalyn shuffled where he stood, glancing nervously at Ann and Kat.

“Will be fine,” Lucia said, patting her head. “Can do it.”

“Okay,” Rosalyn sighed, bracing herself.

Lucia unslung Fillianore from her shoulder and took her stance behind the stand, aiming down range. Rosalyn summoned her staff and prepared to begin casting.

 “I see our contestants are ready. Now, stationary targets struck are worth one point, moving targets are worth ten points, and flying targets are worth twenty. Your goal is four hundred points.”

“Do we get a practice round?” Rosalyn asked.

“You do not. Ready, set, begin!”

Both women tensed as the first targets appeared.

Vine masses appeared and wriggled at varying distances from the pair. Lucia took a lazy shot at one, and it gurgled, hissed, and fell apart.

Rosalyn did the same with a wind blade and got the same result. Two points.

More replaced the stationary targets, and then the moving ones got mixed in. They were mushrooms that burst from the ground with gnashing teeth and blood red eyes. Charging forward by digging grooves in the ground, they moved with frightening speed. Rosalyn took one down, while Lucia sniped another, then returned to plinking the stationary targets.

Once those two were down, more spawned. When Lucia took aim at one, it ducked behind a stationary pillar of vines as the bullet sank harmlessly into the cover. Grumbling, Lucia tried to get it again, but the thing dodged once more, only to get fried by a burst of lightning.

“Smart,” Lucia growled.

“Yeah. Gotta hit them when they can’t hide,” Rosalyn said, slicing apart another mushroom. “Wish they didn’t dissolve so quickly. They might be interesting to dissect.”

“Focus.”

The flying targets were the next to get mixed in. Long mushrooms shaped like spears were hurled towards the pair by Heraldine’s vines. Lucia immediately switched to them, while Rosalyn took over handling most of the land targets. Two clouds of spores exploded from the spears as Lucia shot them down.

“Lucia!” Rosalyn cried, starting to get overwhelmed by the onslaught of land targets.

“Snare!” Lucia called.

Rosalyn waved her staff at a clump, and the sodden earth exploded with thorny vines, wrapping several of the mushrooms in place. Lucia aimed and took down three with a single piercing shot, the white light burning into Ann’s vision as it carved smoking holes into the Warped.

“Up!” Rosalyn yelled, and they got back to their roles. 

Lucia’s job was by far the most difficult, but also the most rewarding. She just had to take out twenty of the spears, and they’d be done. Rosalyn just needed forty of the mushrooms. Just when they got comfortable, things changed.

The spears grew wings and started to evade, swirling in the air. The mushrooms grew faster and developed a fungal armour on their caps, making them take two hits to take down.

The ground mushrooms were getting closer. Rosalyn was trying, but the wind spells were just not keeping up. One ran, screeching forward with its teeth bared, ready to kill both women, when lightning exploded just behind it. Eight of the mushrooms and ten of the stationary vines smoked and withered as Lightning Crash incinerated their flesh. Not only that, but the shockwave from the thunder stunned the flying Warped, allowing Lucia to pick off three in quick succession.

“Three hundred and fifty points! Are you ready for the boss round?”

“Boss round?” Lucia asked, nervousness cutting through her normal deadpan.

Heraldine rumbled, sucking all of the mushrooms and vines back into her body with a creaking groan that shook the earth. Even the other Warped started making nervous noises as the roots pulled free, and a five-legged monster made of mushroom and marsh rose before Lucia and Rosalyn. A deafening roar flung muck and water all the way to the stand, spattering the overhang. Rosalyn, not fortunate enough to have cover, got a face full of the stuff.

“Ew! Just when I used the big one, too. Meanie!” Rosalyn cried as wind sliced into Heraldine. 

Vines whipped and flailed as they were severed, but the moment they made contact with the central mass, they re-attached.

“No good. Pierce!” Lucia called, using another of her blinding white shots.

“My wind can’t do that!”

“Thorns!”

“Oh, right!” Rosalyn said, then spikes of Thorns burst from the ground around Heraldine. They couldn’t make it to any vital areas, but Rosalyn had created a field of spikes. Each slow and lumbering step from the Warped forced it to step on at least one of the spikes.

“Can’t find weakness,” Lucia cried, crimson eyes focused on their target.

“Me neither. Keep shooting! I’m gonna blast it.” With that, Rosalyn lifted her staff and sent an arc of lightning, hitting Heraldine centre mass. Charred plant flesh recoiled from the blast as the gargantuan Warped staggered slightly, before resuming her forward march.

“Leg!” Lucia called, and Rosalyn responded by casting another Entangle.

“More!”

“Can’t! One at a time!” Rosalyn shouted, unleashing more Thorns.

More began to happen. Heraldine started sprouting spores, little mushrooms that would scamper across the field toward the stand. They were small enough and numerous enough that Lucia’s bullets were ineffective, and Rosalyn had to split her attention between wind blades and Thorns to deal with them and Heraldine.

The Warped let out a roar that shook the ground, making Rosalyn stumble and lose her concentration. Heraldine ripped free from the interrupted spell and charged forward. 

Lucia grit her teeth and fished for a bullet in her pouch, slotting it in and slamming the bolt home. “Stop!” she yelled, and an explosion erupted from Fillianore. Lucia flew backwards, hitting a patch of cobblestones with a crack.

Heraldine, on the other hand, staggered. Vines whipped and writhed with none of the coordination they’d had before. Pieces began to go limp, sloughing off in clumps as the Warped tried to move, to take another step. A leg fell off, dissolving into its composite parts, then another, then half her face, then even more. A groaning cry sounded as Heraldine fell, hitting the earth. A muffled sobbing rose from the pile as a tiny mushroom crawled its way out of the pile.

“We have a victor!” the Master at Arms cried.

“My body!” Heraldine wailed. “My beautiful, strong body! Noooo!”

“Shit, kinda feel sorry fer it,” Kat grumbled, scratching her head.

“Yeah, but what the fuck did Lucia just do?”

“I am unsure. She has not shared that skill with me.”

“Are you okay, Lucia? That looked like it really hurt and I think your shoulder’s not in the socket, I can try to fix it but maybe we should get Bren to look at it first cause he’s the healer, but holy crap that was SO COOL!”

“Fine. Dislocated. Hurts,” Lucia grunted, accepting Rosalyn’s help with sitting up. “Reason why don’t use more. Recoil too strong. Body too weak.”

“Then we need to get you stronger, because holy shit that was awesome!” Ann laughed, coming to crouch next to the wounded Thrundol. “Glad it didn’t hit your tusks, can imagine that’d snap one clean off.”

Lucia nodded. “Careful. Is risk.”

“No shite. Ye sure ye didn’t get offered anythin’ tae set yer footin’?”

“No.”

“Guess ye’ll have tae figure it out later,” Kat laughed.

“This will hurt. Brace yourself,” Bren said, placing his hands on Lucia’s shoulder. Both nodded to each other, communicating without speaking, and he set the socket with a pop. Both winced in unison and rolled their shoulders a little. Even if it wasn’t extreme, it seemed Bren could feel a little of Lucia’s pain. Soft healing magic smoothed over the wound, and Lucia sighed in relief.

Heraldine’s sobs continued to resound from the pile of vines and mushrooms as she tried to recover what she’d lost. Ann felt a little bad for the creature, even if it had just been trying to kill her friends. These were clearly different from the normal Warped, more conscious and far less reckless.

She stood and looked to the Master at Arms. “She won’t hurt me, right?”

“No, the trial is complete, all present are dismissed until further notice!” the skull shouted.

Ann strode over to Heraldine cautiously, then knelt in the mess beside the tiny weeping mushroom. “Hey.”

“You did this!” Heraldine spat, her minuscule black and beady eyes glaring up at Ann. She was all of three inches tall with tiny arms that ended in stubs with roots for fingers, and looked to be a white cap of some sort. “You took away my body! My greatness! Curse you! My change had been glorious!”

“Hey, listen, we had to do what we needed to survive,” Ann said, sighing. “How long did that body take?”

“I… I don’t know?” Heraldine responded, looking down. “Time is… um… It’s strange. I can’t remember a lot. I know I was a soldier, but not much else. I just knew I was proud of that body.”

“Well, if it meant a lot, then I can help at least get you started on a new one. Here.” Ann reached out and found a strand of vine that was still alive. “Start with this. It’s not much, but that’s how we all start, yeah?”

“Yeah,” the mushroom nodded, taking the vine in her tendrils. She twisted it, inspecting it closely, then wrapped it around her stalk like a belt. “That’ll do for now. Thank you. I’ll try to kill you better next time.”

“Next time,” Ann laughed. “Sure.”

Shortly after, Heraldine sank into the muck of the swamp, as did all of the Warped in the training yard. Ann had no clue where they went, but they’d left. Maybe they had some other place to live. The mystery of how they were created was still unsolved. Perhaps that was a clue?

Ann stood and brushed off her legs, then returned to the party.

“Ye sympathisin’ wit’ the Warped?” Kat asked. It didn’t sound like an accusation, just curiosity.

“Kinda. Couldn’t help it. She sounded so damn sad, and I just had to.”

“Big softie,” Kat giggled.

“Bite me,” Ann spat back.

“Later.”

“So, where did all the Warped go? Seemed like they all just went back into the swamp itself?”

“That is for us to know, and you to leave alone,” the Master at Arms barked. “Congratulations on passing unharmed! Well, unharmed due to our efforts. Your mistakes are your own, and lessons for later. Ready to move on? There is a potion for you on the stand, Rosalyn.”

“Oh! Thanks, that really drained my Mind,” Rosalyn chirped, running over and draining the potion in a single gulp. “Ugh, why do these things have to be so bitter? Flavour matters!”

“Could taste worse, could taste like this shite,” Kat said, kicking at the fetid mud.

“Could taste like Ann’s cum,” Rosalyn grumbled. “Would make it nicer.”

“Can you please!” Bren cried, his cheeks flushed.

“Nope! Sorry, just waaaay too tasty not to talk about, just how it rolls dow-mmmpph!” Rosalyn was muffled by Kat’s gloved hand.

“Give ‘im a break, love,” Kat laughed. “So, magic talkin’ skull. We leavin’ the barracks?”

“That we are, my friends.”

“Friends is stretching it,” Ann said.

“Very well, aspirants! Your next task is across the yard before you enter the tower. Living quarters! We are a temple, and many reside here besides the soldiery. Rosalyn, if you would be so kind as to carry me?”

“I guess. Still grumpy you won’t let me take you apart.”

“Live through all of this, and you can remove one, ONE singular plate of my cranium with the promise that you return it quickly.”

“Oh? That’s it? Deal!” Rosalyn laughed, then grabbed the skull by his eye sockets and marched off ahead of the group, back into the barracks as the Master at Arms complained about his vision.

“So, what do you think this next bit’s going to be like?” Ann asked as they walked. “It’s living quarters. Are they going to make us fold sheets under threat of death?”

“We may be required to cook for them and have our captors judge the dishes.”

“Sweep an’ clean the floors?” Kat suggested.

“Repair,” Lucia grunted, nodding at the dilapidated roof.

“Shit, that’s a good one,” Ann agreed. “I don’t know jack about carpentry, do any of you?”

“Nope. Think Rosalyn’s whittlin’s about the limit o’ our skills in that area.”

“Then let us hope that is not our task.”

They crossed the rest of the courtyard as Ann mulled ideas over in her head. It could be anything, but being prepared for anything was a good state to be in.

You overwhelm yourself. Clear your mind. Adapt, change, become victorious, Waheela rumbled.

Yeah. Thanks. Just tense, is all.

A natural instinct. Do not let it consume you. Control it. Guide it.

With Waheela’s encouragement, Ann felt a little less on edge. Her breathing evened out, and she focused on her balance. She was here, and she could deal with whatever the Seed threw at her.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep