Growth in Dark Places

Anita was not having a fun time anymore. Going out with mostly everyone was fun, dancing was fun, Soundwave’s show was fun. Getting attacked by icky slime monsters that were going for the throat was not fun. At least not when it wasn’t something set up by John’s powers. Those were fun.

A wave of purple spores flew out of her hands as she jumped back from an attacking slime. The smile shook off the effects of her mana disrupting spores with little issue and kept advancing on her.

“Not good, not good,” Anita chanted as she kept falling back. Her head swiveled around, looking for any sign of Estelle, Verida, Goe, Tok or Tamia. In the chaos of the attack and even before during the show, they all had drifted apart in the crowd. And now people trying to escape or fight were making progress impossible.

She couldn’t even fight back freely. Her spores didn’t care about friend or foe and even her safest would make it hard for others to fight. John and the others had been brainstorming ways for her to use them without risking crossfire, but prepping for the trail and other things pushed that to the backburner. And it hardly came up during the training as they picked settings that had open spaces that let her spray enemies down without worry.

A warm light cut through the darkness and Anita turned her head towards it. A fair distance away, Verida stood in the center of the field of light purple flowers, their glowing petals lighting her from below. Everyone seemed to stop and look her way, captivated by the goddess bringing her power to bear.

‘Verida,’ Anita thought as she began to march towards the center of the room, the people fighting seemingly growing stronger as the goddess neared them. One of the slime monsters managed to overcome whatever sort of fear Verida’s display of power struck it with and lunged at her.

Verida deftly moved, sidestepping out of the way before slicing it in two with her sword. Magenta light bled out of her sword and seemed to cause the slime pain as it flinched back from her. Seeing Verida fight, being the light that broke through the darkness, made Anita feel things.

Love, fear, pride and guilt warred in Anita. Love for Verida, fear that she would get hurt, pride at the power she was showing and guilt that she wasn’t doing as much as her.

‘I’m part of the group, right?’ she thought, insecurity gnawing at her. She was sure everyone else was fighting, if this was going on all over the place. ‘I have to think of some way to help.’

Her spores were out. They had too much of a chance to hurt someone else right now. The only other thing she could do was use her tendrils, but they were too thin to…

Three slimes attacking Verida combined into one, twisting together into a large tentacle before trying to strike. Verida was able to parry the hit, but the attack looked like it took great effort to defend against.

“That’s it!” Anita shouted, pumping her fist into the air. Thin mycelial tendrils grew from her forearm in great numbers before she let them weave together. Alone, each was a little thicker than hair, but combined, they let her form a tendril that extended her reach by more than a meter. She repeated the process with her other arm and now had two flexible tentacles to fight with.

“Let’s go!” she shouted as a battle cry and began to race towards Verida. Her cry drew the attention of a slime and it took her charge as a threat. It jumped at her, the powerful legs it formed letting it across the distance between them with ease. But Anita, full of courage and determination, faced the approaching monster with a grin.

She swung her arms with all her might, letting some purple, magic nullifying spores seep out from them. The ooze managed to evade the first swing easily enough, but the second hit its flank with a meaty thwack. Its body deformed, shifting from solid enough to something more liquid to absorb the blow, but instead of becoming solid again once Anita drew her arm back, it continued to melt in the area she struck.

Grinning more at the knowledge that her spores worked if delivered directly beyond the surface layer, Anita kept up her lashing. The slime took note of the danger she presented and was keeping its distance, letting affected pieces of its body slough off dead. After a few failed attempts at catching the slime once it caught on to her rhythm, Anita’s confidence began to diminish.

“Just hold still and let me melt you!” she growled frustratedly, missing another attack. Panting and with her arms burning from the effort of swinging around her tendrils, she knew she couldn’t keep up like this. She would tire out and get attacked once she was too burned out to defend herself.

‘I need to fight smarter,’ she thought. ‘How would John or Vivian deal with this? I mean, they don’t have the same skills I do, but they would be able to do something with this. Think, Anita, think!’

Nothing came to mind and with a frustrated cry she swung her arm down, putting a large amount of force into the strike. The mycelial tendril slammed down onto the floor as the slime slid out of the way, the tiles cracking under the force of her blow.

‘It’s too good at seeing my attacks,’ Anita thought, breath coming in harder. ‘I can’t sneak up on it.’

As she began to pull the tendril back, pieces of the floor clacked back down to the ground. The sound, somehow sharp despite the din of battle around her, caused an idea to pop into Anita’s head: Maybe the slime couldn’t avoid an attack it couldn’t see?

Anita advanced to where she had broken the floor, planting a foot on the shattered tiles before lashing out at the slime. She kept the length of the tendrils short to keep the slime in roughly the same spot.

‘Let’s hope this works,’ she thought as she began to enact her plan. With careful focus, Anita sent fungal tendrils down under the floor, gradually spreading them out towards the slime. With the tendrils infused with her nullifying spores, they dug under the floor with surprising ease, reaching the spot under the slime far faster than Anita had thought. Which came as a relief to her, as her mana was beginning to fall low.

With a shout of defiance, Anita let the amassed fungus explode up. Finger sized tendrils broke through the floor and speared into the slime from its vulnerable underside. Each alone wasn’t much, but as a whole, especially bolstered by her nullifying spores, they tore through the slime.

Before it could try to escape, Anita struck from above with both arm tendrils, flakes of purple spores flying off as they slammed into it. The damage plus the disruptive effect of her spores caused the slime to liquify and ooze out lifeless across the floor.

Anita felt the tendrils, both the ones on her arms and the ones in the ground, dissipate as her mana reached its limit, flakes of fungus falling to the floor before fading out of existence.

“I need to work on that,” she panted as she bent over with her hands on her knees. The attacking slimes were all occupied with other club goers, so she could catch her breath in peace for a moment. “Got to find Estelle, or get to Verida. Don’t think I can fight anymore.”

“Aw, really? But you looked like such a fun opponent!” a sing-songy voice rang out from behind Anita. She spun around to face it, her movements clumsy. Standing a few meters away was a human looking woman wearing a black leotard with thick metal cuffs on her wrists and a similar collar around her neck, both with yellow orbs decorating their surface. Her skin was a pallid grey with crimson red scars running up and down her limbs. Her red eyes were wide open and staring at Anita with a wild look.

She shook her head, short, untamed black hair swaying as a crazy smile stretched across her face.

“Maybe if I attack you, you’ll break your limits and make it a good time,” she said, a sadistic giggle accompanying her thought. She lowered into a crouch, one arm raised high. Blood red energy began to pour out from the red markings on her arms, viscous like sap, and flowed up and over her hand, forming into a large claw. Similar energy coated her feet before she sprang towards Anita.

Drained from her fight, Anita did her best to dodge, but her heavy limbs were too sluggish and she couldn’t get back in time. Before the red claws fell upon her, a strip of purple fabric interposed itself between her and the crazy woman. Silver glyphs flared to life along the surface of the material and a wave of force drove the woman back.

“Found you just in time,” Estelle’s voice came from behind Anita and she turned back to see the witch approaching, a serious expression on her face. She looked a little worse for wear, her silver blouse torn in a few small spots and black stains marring her arms. A small crystal orb floated beside her, pulsing with soft green light. The fabric, Estelle’s scarf Anita realized, floated back towards her outstretched hand.

“Estelle,” Anita breathed out, a small smile on her lips. “You’re okay.”

The witch’s expression softened as she smiled down at Anita. “Something like this isn’t enough to keep me occupied for more than a few minutes. Figured out some ways to weaken them.”

“Weaken them?” the mad woman repeated as she got back to her feet. “You figured something like that out? Hehehehe! Master wouldn’t want you sticking around!”

“Well, too bad,” Estelle said, stepping in front of Anita. “I’ve got no intention of dying anytime soon. Plus, you people ruined a nice night out for us. We’ve had too much on our plate and we’re looking forward to relaxing and having fun without fighting.”

“Um, Estelle,” Anita muttered, “I don’t think she cares about that.”

“Not one bit!” The enemy woman cackled wildly, chains made of the same blood red energy as her claws emerging from her skin. “Let’s dance!”

The mad woman charged at them and Estelle let her orb fly out to intercept. Their enemy lashed her arm out, chains flying in a way that Anita imagined was how she looked earlier with her tendrils and Estelle’s little sphere darted to block them.

A flash of green light accompanied a strong gust of wind that pushed their enemy back a few feet.

“You can’t keep me away from you forever!” the crazy woman laughed, as if this was all a game, her chains flying around like crazed snakes.

“She doesn’t have to,” a smug voice said as a pink portal appeared behind the woman. “Because backup is here.”

A short woman stepped through and Anita let out a gasp. Soundwave stood confident and strong, somehow appearing taller than she was. She was still wearing her performance outfit, but now with three added pieces of equipment: a grey jacket, a smooth, straight silvery staff about as tall as she was and a wide brimmed green hat in the same style as Estelle’s.

“Took you long enough to show up,” Estelle grumbled.

“And I never thought I’d see you in a place like this,” Soundwave shot back.

The head of a blue skinned elf woman came out of the portal. “Mistress, is it wise to taunt Ms. Estelle?”

“Probably not,” the gnome witch said dramatically. “Close the portal, Rae. I think this might take a bit.”

“As you wish,” Rae said before pulling herself back and letting the portal close.

A wide grin grew on the enemy’s face as she turned slightly. “Not going to run? Ohh, I like you!”

“You attacked my adoring fans,” Soundwave said plainly, the tip of her staff glowing slightly. “Can’t let that go.”

“You could have let us leave, Wendy,” Estelle remarked dryly.

“Oi, don’t go throwing my name around like that,” Wendy shouted.

“Don’t think anyone’s listening,” Estelle fired back.

“So Soundwave really is your friend?” Anita asked.

“Now isn’t the time for this,” Wendy said, eyes never leaving their enemy.

“Yes! Now’s the time for fighting!” their enemy cheered, chains flailing around, some striking the floor with enough force to gouge it. “Let’s all spill our blood!”

The crazed combatant spun on her feet before lunging at Wendy, chains flying behind her like streamers in the wind. Wendy was unfazed, and thrust her staff at the woman. Anita wasn’t sure what happened but the chain lady suddenly was thrown back as if hit by a strong force and crashed into a wall, the stone cracking. .

“I see you’re making good use of the kinetic staff we made.” Estelle smirked.

“It’s been useful.” Wendy grinned back. “Now…”

“More!” shouted the crazy woman as she rose to her feet, wisps of red energy coiling around her body. One of her arms was twisted in an unnatural angle but began to jerkily return to its normal shape as the energy flowed around it.

“Just great,” Wendy muttered, as she trained her staff back on the woman. “So much for easy.”

“Please tell me you didn’t expend all of the staff’s charge?” Estelle asked.

“Not all of it,” Wendy responded shiftily.

“Wonderful,” Estelle muttered, her orb floating into place in front of her. “Anita, think you can whip up some of those spores?”

“Um, it might take me a minute to recharge,” she admitted.

“Then wait for us to make an opening,” Estelle said seriously. “I think we’re going to need them.”