Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

776 - Nowhere But Up

The sensation of Solvei’s death had been the worst pain Lex had ever felt in his life.

Prior to that, the most intense agony he’d ever felt had been when he’d overcharged his body’s magical channels while trying to conjure enough food to feed Vanhoover’s survivors. For ten long minutes he’d carefully constructed the spell, despite feeling as though he was being shredded from the inside out, and although he’d been through numerous instances of extreme pain since then – Xiriel deliberately twisting his broken leg, the backlash from his cursing Luna, and Dark Streak cutting one of his eyes, among others – that had remained a level of pain beyond all others.

But feeling Solvei die had surpassed it by far. It had been more than just physical agony – though that had been thoroughly present as well, despite the lack of damage to his body – but rather had encompassed every idea of pain that he could imagine. There had been a sense of horrific incompleteness, as though staring at a severed limb, along with an overwhelming feeling of grief, a crippling feeling of isolation, and so many other forms of suffering that he hadn’t been able to process them all, losing consciousness from the sheer onslaught.

So unbearable had it been that even now, Lex found himself freezing in place as Solvei’s presence once again disappeared from his mind.

It was only after several seconds passed that the truth pushed its way to the forefront of his consciousness: that pain hadn’t returned now, with only the memory of it echoing through his awareness.

Building on that realization, he was able to follow that line of thought. His connection to Solvei hadn’t been broken. Instead, it was like that time that Paska and Vidrig had used some spell to temporarily suppress his connection to the winter wolf; rather than being separated from Solvei, it was more like the link between them still intact, just...quiescent.

She wasn’t dead.

Solvei hadn’t died again.

But even as he fully digested that thought, Lex couldn’t bring himself to trust it. Instead, his breathing ragged and his pulse pounding in his ears, he stumbled toward the edge of the ravine. Uncaring of the consequences, he summoned an aura around his horn as he reached the cliffside, making it as bright as he could. The deep purple fluorescence only shed as much light as a candle, but combined with the soft red light coming up from below, it was just enough to let him make out the rocky ledge where his and Akna’s black statues had been...

And where his stood alone now.

She went back. The thought sent a rush of relief through him, his breathing slowly returning to normal, though the pounding in his ears remained. She went back in Akna’s body.

Except he’d seen what had happened, viewing it through Solvei’s eyes. She and Akna had touched the way back to the latter’s body at the same time. But if Solvei had gone back, then Akna...

A sliver of uncertainty slid across his mind. He didn’t know for sure that the two of them had touched the black statue simultaneously; that had just been how it had looked from Solvei’s perspective. It was entirely possible, and more than likely, that the winter wolf had made contact with it a fraction of an instant before the adlet had. In which case...

Lex glanced down then, intent on checking to see if the mist at the bottom of the ravine was swirling from Akna’s having passed through it.

But what he saw made his breath catch in his throat.

The sound he’d been hearing had not, as it turned out, been his blood pounding in his ears.

It was the sound of the eight-legged monster that had attacked them clawing its way back up the cliffside.

Its claws sinking into the rock wall of the ravine as though it were made of clay, the creature let out a screech as he locked eyes with it, limbs pumping as it pulled itself up faster. Despite the blood running down its body in rivulets, the thing seemed no less aggressive than before, snarling and gnashing its teeth as it struggled to reach him.

The sight was enough to bring Lex back to his senses. Knowing that he had no chance against the thing if it reached him, he immediately began casting his short-range teleport spell. Now that Akna’s statue was gone, there was just enough space on the rocky outcropping for him to stand. Once there, he wouldn’t even need to raise a hoof; he could simply tilt his head and he’d make contact with the statue, at which point he’d return to his body.

But only if he could finish his spell before the creature reached him.

Fortunately, a quick glance downward assured him that would be the case. With its eight legs, the thing was ascending the walls of the crevasse as a quick rate, but even as he pronounced the necessary words and made the requisite gestures, Lex could see that it wasn’t climbing fast enough to reach him before he finished. A point-eight-second margin in my favor, he concluded. More than enough time.

Almost as if it realized that, the creature surged up faster, jaws snapping as it hauled itself upward. For its effort, Lex spared it a derisive sneer, even as it came to within a few feet of itself. With less than a half-dozen syllables left and even fewer gesticulations, it had no hope of reaching him in time.

He had just completed that thought when the precipice that he was standing on, its underlying structure having been weakened by how the supporting rock was being torn up by the climbing creature, gave way.

His eyes widening as he felt himself begin to fall, Lex ignored the distraught wail of the monster – again denied its meal – as the loose rubble sent it plummeting as well and instead focused all of his thoughts on finishing his spell before he hit the bottom. But the misty bottom of the crevasse was rushing up too fast. Not gonna make it!

He was right, striking the bottom of the ravine with only a single syllable left.

That was enough to ruin his spell, however, the magic fizzling away as its safeguards harmlessly dispersed the gathered energy. For all that he’d trained himself to maintain a casting through terrible discomfort and horrific pain, the force of the impact wasn’t something that could be ignored. That was driven home as he immediately tried to pick himself up, only for searing tendrils of pain to run up his right hind leg, a glance back showing that it was bent at an unnatural angle and covered in blood.

Nor was that the only part of him that was stained red, and Lex cursed as he realized that the exsanguinating mists which covered the floor of the chasm were already causing him to bleed. His horn lighting up as he waved his cloak, he immediately realized the effort was futile; fanning the red fog away simply caused more to be swept in on the backdraft. All his effort was doing was causing him to bleed out faster, red trickles already running down the corners of his eyes.

None of his remaining thaumaturgical spells could help with this. His wind wall spell would likely have kept the mists away, but he’d expended it during his magical duel with Sissel. The miniature tornado he used to repel enemies would only have swirled the fog around more, and a force field would only have delayed the inevitable.

Worse, there was a serious chance that the creature that had caused the cliff face to crumble was still a threat. Even with the crimson mists drawing out its blood, the fact that it had survived a single fall into their exsanguinating vapors was reason enough to believe that it could survive a second, at least for a little while longer. Which meant he had to get out of here before it found him.

Fortunately, he still had a means of doing that.

A rope ladder! With hooks on the ends! he screamed silently, hoping that his tulpa would find that request feasible.

Acknowledged.

Lex didn’t allow himself to sigh in relief as the items he’d demanded appeared in front of him, not wanting to inhale anymore of the toxic vapors than he absolutely had to. Not that it would have helped much; he could already feel his mane growing sticky as more blood trailed down the back of his neck. It wouldn’t be long before the fog seeped through his clothes, at which point he’d begin bleeding out of his pores.

Once that happens, he calculated as he telekinetically lifted the hooked end of the rope ladder, setting it over the edge of the outcropping jutting out overhead and giving it a test yank, I’ll have less than a minute-

The sound of heavy strides and a yowl of rage were the only warnings he got before the eight-legged monstrosity pounced on him.

Although he’d half-expected that to occur, there was no way for Lex to dodge it, not with a broken leg. Worse, the creature was far heavier than he’d expected, easily three times his own weight despite being the same size as him. The result was that he couldn’t do anything as the beast collided with him, easily knocking him off his hooves and to the ground as its ripped and tore at him.

If there had been any doubt that the creature was more than a simple animal, it was gone then. Despite its coat being saturated with its own blood, the thing showed no concern for its own life whatsoever, displaying only viciousness as it sank its claws into the prone unicorn. Magic items and defensive enchantments were no more effective than paper as the beast tore into Lex, who struggled to get his forelegs up in front of his chest and face.

The effort bought him a few extra seconds, its talons scraping across the bones of his forelegs rather than his ribs. But the monster had more legs than he did, and far greater strength, easily knocking his limbs aside. With a scream of triumph, its jaw fell open as it darted down, intent on tearing his throat out.

What it got instead was a mouthful of rock, Lex’s horn glowing as he took the piece of rubble that he’d grabbed telekinetically and shoved it between the creature’s teeth.

Its response was to bite down, crushing the rock like an overripe piece of fruit.

Which was when Lex remembered the bloodfruit tree directly above them.

“Bloodfruit,” explained Sanguine Disposition. “From a private reserve I keep outside of town. It’s normally quite dangerous to eat, but when properly prepared, it can dazzle the palate like nothing else.”

Without hesitating, Lex stared upward, past the bloody fog and the bloodthirsty monster, his horn and the mist barely letting him see the outline of the tree above them. But it was enough for him to telekinetically grab one of the sickly-looking fruits hanging from its bare branches. Doing so caused the misshapen vines surrounding the tree to slither and writhe, as though they were serpents instead of plants, and the entire tree seemed to shift backward as if trying to move out of his line of sight. But Lex didn’t let that stop him, yanking the pulsating fruit free-

Just as the monster’s jaws closed around his neck.

As he felt teeth dig into his throat, Lex abandoned the bloodfruit, redirecting his telekinesis to the thing’s maw, its mouth glowing purple as he tried to pry it open. But it was futile and Lex knew it; the monster was far and away too strong for him to keep from tearing his throat out. All he managed was to momentarily slow it as razor-sharp teeth pierced his skin-

Then the forgotten bloodfruit hit the creature atop him, bursting into a splatter of viscous slime and twisted seeds.

And the creature – which had ignored being set on fire, shrugged off falling from atop a cliff, and cared nothing for its own blood-loss – threw back its head and screamed in agony.

It wasn’t hard for Lex to understand why. Just a few droplets of the bloodfruit’s juices had landed on the shredded mess that was his forelegs, and he could feel skin and muscles shriveling and decaying where the substance made contact with him. It wasn’t just painful, it was disconcerting on a fundamental level, as though his body was rotting away while he was still alive to feel it.

All that from just a few drops of the bloodfruit’s sap.

Sanguine Disposition, it seemed, had understated the perils of raw bloodfruit. It wasn't just dangerous to eat; it was deadly to the touch.

And the creature on top of him had gotten the entire thing broken over it.

Even as Lex watched, the monster seemed to shrivel in on itself. Its pained shriek caught in its throat as it shuddered, turning into a ragged gasp. Patches of fur withered and fell off of its body, its blood turning from thick and gummy to thin and watery, and its muscles quivered and went slack.

Lex didn’t miss his opportunity.

It was only because he was slick with blood – his own and the monster’s – that Lex managed to extricate himself from it. Even then, the act of picking himself upright was almost more than he could accomplish, the world suddenly spinning as he tried to stand up. A glance down at himself showed that the wounds the creature had inflicted on him were bleeding freely, drawn out by the mists, and Lex knew that if he didn’t get out of there in the next few seconds, he never would.

Stumbling back over to the rope ladder, he managed to issue an order to his tulpa. Put a splint around my leg. It wouldn’t help much, but at least it would keep it from-

Capacity exceeded.

The unfamiliar response almost caused Lex to collapse, instead managing to catch himself on the rope ladder. Hauling himself up, he ignored the burning in his legs as he tried again. Make bandages around my injuries.

Capacity exceeded.

Gritting his teeth as he pulled himself up further, Lex made one final attempt. Give me something to wipe the blood from my eyes with!

Capacity exceeded.

Letting out a hiss as much from frustration as from effort, Lex knew there was no point in trying any further. He’d investigated the limits of what his tulpa could create, but he knew that he’d just hit the one constraint that he hadn’t come across before: that there was apparently a limit to how much material it could create in a particular period of time.

And right now, he’d apparently exceeded that limit.

But as he ascended another rung and his head cleared the mist, Lex decided it didn’t matter. The only thing he had to focus on now was reaching the outcropping hanging overhead. Forcing himself to keep his horn lit up so that he didn’t miss the next crosspiece, he kept climbing, slowly leaving the mists behind even as he grew dizzier, fatigue and blood loss making each rung more difficult to reach than the last.

But as he reached the halfway point, a grin split his lips, knowing that he was going to make it.

That was when he heard a hateful yowl from the mists below.

No...it can’t still be alive!

The bloody, withered form that clawed its way up the rock wall a second later begged to differ.

In the light of the mists, the creature looked more dead than alive. Its eyes were rheumy and bloodshot. Its body was shriveled and twisted, bloody chunks of fur falling off of it in large patches. The second leg on its right side and the third on its left were hanging limp, save for the odd twitch.

But it didn’t hesitate to drag itself up the rock wall of the cliff after him.

Knowing there was no way he’d outpace the creature, Lex snarled as he telekinetically reached into his saddlebag...

...and withdrew the giant quill that the creature the huge creature he, Solvei, and Akna had encountered on their way here had attacked them with.

He’d taken it partially to independently confirm that items taken from this spiritual realm to the mortal world would transubstantiate as part of the journey. But the major reason he’d wanted to take it back was to see if it could be ensorcelled. While he’d never been able to unlock how Everglow’s mages could imbue magical channels into objects which didn’t naturally have them, using materials which did – such as certain rare gems, materials gathered from certain plants, and parts of magical creatures – had been known on Equestria for generations as a way to build unique and powerful magic items.

Lex had grabbed the harpoon-sized quill thinking that, since it had splintered Solvei’s black crystal armor, it would make a powerful weapon once properly enchanted.

But hopefully that’s the case even without any magic! he decided as he telekinetically launched the quill at the monster.

Hissing, the thing tried to skitter clear of the shot, but with two of its legs out of commission, wasn’t able to move out of the way in time. The barbed end of the quill sank just below its front left shoulder and going straight through, causing the thing to scream as it was pinned to the rock wall, the missile sinking deep into the cliff face.

Flashing the creature a spiteful grin, Lex turned and continued climbing...only for a gory gnashing sound to reach his ears before he’d ascended another rung. A glance back over his shoulder showed him the source of it:

The beast was gnawing its leg off.

Lex had no breath left to swear with, but in his mind he cursed the thing’s tenacity, putting everything he had left into reaching the outcropping before it got free.

Not daring to look back, he kept climbing, his legs growing weaker and his breath becoming heavier with each rung. But the outcropping was growing closer. Only five rungs were left...then four...three...two...

With just one left, Lex felt something claw at his tail.

Hauling himself over the rock ledge, Lex found himself less than two feet from the black statue of himself. Letting out a laugh that sounded like a dying gasp, he reached out for it...

Only to find that his limbs refused to move.

Exhaustion and blood loss had finally caused him to reach his limit, directly in front of his goal.

A moment later, Lex heard something crawl over the ledge with him, then felt blood fall on him from above as a growl, pained but triumphant, reached his ears.

His horn lit up then, and the beast took that as the signal to attack, teeth taking his neck and biting down, this time with nothing to stop them.

But it wasn’t enough to keep his telekinesis from lifting his foreleg, covered in the monster's blood, and brushing the edge of the black statue.

Author's Note:

Overcoming a foe with supernatural fortitude and dauntless perseverence, Lex manages to reach his goal!

But has he come through his ordeal unscathed? Or will there be consequences to being so damaged as he returns to his body?

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Thats things almost as bad as the worst case Dragons Ive seen in stories. At least it didnt breath fire and have neurotoxin blood.

[Alzrius]

11425309 The funny thing is that this was the toned down version of the fight sequence. I had some ideas for making the fight more brutal, but I couldn't get them to fit with the flow of events, so things were comparatively less harsh here.

[Not so New Brony]

I'm almost glad that the bandersnatch wasn't the one to have been sent Lex's way since from what I could see, I assume that Akna and Solvei wouldn't have made it if the bandersnatch was the one to hit them let alone Lex. Still, the aurumvorax's tenacity felt unnerving since I always thought that all creatures would put self-preservation above all else.

Regardless, Lex has seemingly made it out albeit barely though given the state he's in, I have to wonder how it'll affect him upon his return to the Everglow.

Also, I did not expect the tulpa to have such a limitation for such a good ability then again, Lex did extensively test his new ability prior to the encounter with the beasts so the fact that he could even use it in such a dire situation is still pretty good.

[Alzrius]

11425370 Given how incredibly deadly it is, if Steel Soul's annihilator robot had succeeded in redirecting the bandersnatch (which, by the by, was what shot those quills in passing) toward Lex, Akna, and Solvei, they all would have died. As a Challenge Rating 17 monster, it's the sort of creature that Lex would have been hard-pressed to handle even if he'd been at full power, and he hasn't been anywhere close to that for a while now. With her armor and innate toughness, Solvei would have lasted the longest, but it still would have been a foregone conclusion.

Fortunately, it didn't come to that, as a single aurumvorax was almost enough to wipe him out, in conjunction with the sanguinary cloud they both fell into.

On a minor note, I should mention that while the bandersnatch was a "garden variety" example of its kind (i.e. it wasn't any of the variants listed on the linked page), and the annihilator robot had a few additional components built into it beyond what its stats indicate (i.e. I used the NPC gear value for a CR 16 creature to build in some communication devices from the d20 Modern rules, since the base creature technically has no long-range communication capabilities), the aurumvorax that Lex fought was actually a variation on the basic monster in several ways (e.g. your typical aurumvorax doesn't have a climb speed).

I actually slipped in an extremely subtle hint about that in a few chapters back. The classification system that the annihilator robot used in Chapter 774 when referring to the bandersnatch and the aurumvorax was me using a bunch of in-jokes in order to come up with a robot-like series of alphanumeric indicators. The annihilator being part of the "ISB43" series, for instance, was a reference to the fact that its stat block is found on page 43 of the Inner Sea Bestiary. That the aurumvorax is "type B2, classification 35.3" is likewise a reference to the Bestiary 2 hardcover book, which has the aurumvorax on page 35; it's the ".3" part of that which is an indicator that it's not the standard creature, since ".1" indicates a by-the-book type (which is why the bandersnatch has that listing), with that number going up as changes are introduced.

Hopefully that behind-the-scenes glimpse was interesting!