Draconic Sphere Ω

Chapter 8: It's a mystery~!

Lacrie touched a finger to her holy symbol and said, "Light, bless my companions and keep them safe from harm."

A warm glow filled everyone's chest for a moment. Brunhild felt filled with renewed courage.

"Woo, that's some good shit," cried Dandelion, whistling. "You should charge for this, Lacrie."

"Let's go, while the spell's still good," said Kaergat. "But first, we need a plan –"

Brunhild kicked the door down.

"That was unnecessary –" started Kaergat.

"Ratties!" cried Dandelion, apparently delighted; she aimed her crossbow. There were a dozen or so, about the size of dogs. One fell, Dandelion's crossbow bolt between the eyes. The rest swarmed towards the adventurers, looking angry.

"For mine and clan!!" screamed Brunhild, charging.

"Scheiße," swore Kaergat under his breath before starting to cast a spell.

Brunhild swung Verano's sword; magical energy flared and a rat more or less exploded on contact.

"I – don't – want – to!" wailed Verano's sword as Brunhild heaved and swung.

"Tough!" yelled Brunhild, stabbing a rat and taking out a huge chunk of the wall behind. "You're an inanimate object!"

"Leave me alone!" cried the sword, vibrating.

Brunhild toppled forward, trying to control the sword and accidentally hitting a barrel with it, which shattered. Gold coins, improbably, fell out. "You dumb hunk of metal," yelled Brunhild at the sword, "let me fight!"

"That's it!" screamed the sword before electrocuting Brunhild's hand. Brunhild shrieked. The sword clattered to the floor.

Rats leapt at Brunhild. She punched one out of the air, but another sank its teeth into her arm, and then another and another, and soon she collapsed under a pile of thrashing, monstrous vermin.

"Brunhild!" cried Dandelion, dancing to distract a rat from Kaergat, while simultaneously loading her crossbow.

"Light, give Brunhild strength!" prayed Lacrie.

Dodging the attacks of a rat, Dandelion fired her crossbow, but missed. Brunhild screamed, swore, and struggled.

Kaergat spoke the last syllable of his spell, pointed, and shot five red-glowing balls of light, which each hurtled towards a different rat, killing most on impact.

Dandelion shot another. Brunhild tore the last one off her arm and slammed it into the wall, before frantically kicking the two rats which had halfway survived Kaergat's spell into submission.

Lacrie ran to Brunhild and healed her, despite her protests, first with one prayer, then another.

"Thank the Light, you're okay," said Lacrie. "But I'm sorry – I've just got one healing spell left now."

"We're going to have to be careful, then – Leave those alone, Dandelion," said Kaergat, as Dandelion gathered up the gold coins that had fallen out of the barrel.

"No way! You gotta take barrel coins, that's what they're there for!" said Dandelion, stuffing them into her pockets. "I wonder who puts them there, anyway?" she asked, as if to herself. "It's a mystery~!"

"Oh," said Lacrie.

The others turned to look at her.

Lacrie was gazing at a bracelet she wore. The bracelet was lighting up in a white magical glow; a little arrow appeared over it, pointing ahead.

"Ooh, what's that??" asked Dandelion.

"Uhhh... just some jewellery?" said Lacrie, looking panicked.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds. Lacrie started crying. "I'm SO bad at keeping secrets," she said.

"There there, it's okay," said Dandelion, putting her head against Lacrie's hip. "Why don't you tell us all about it?"

Lacrie blew her nose. "Okay," she said. "I guess I can trust you."

"I'll keep your secret," said Dandelion. "Thief's honour."