Taboo Online

The root passage ended at a curtain of hanging vines.

Firelight flickered through the gaps, replacing the pale green glow that had guided Luke and Lauren underground. Somewhere beyond the vines, wood split with a sharp crack. Steel rang against steel, and then a scream cut off so abruptly that Luke tightened his grip on the spear.

He slowed near the opening while Lauren remained beside him with one hand wrapped around his. The golden pulse beneath their feet had weakened again, and the surrounding roots shivered with every distant impact.

The route had taken longer than Luke expected, but the time spent moving through the living network had allowed his mana to recover. His ribs and right shoulder still ached from the Root Gate battle, though a quick glance at his status confirmed that his reserves had finally returned.

[Mana: 50/50]

"That sounds close," Luke said.

"It is."

"How close?"

Another tremor passed through the floor. Lauren tilted her head toward the fighting and listened for a moment.

"Close enough. We need to move."

"Right."

Luke used the spearhead to part the vines, revealing Lethariel beyond them.

The village had been built among several enormous trees, their pale roots rising from the forest floor to form natural walls. Curved homes rested inside hollow trunks, while suspended white-wood walkways connected platforms at different heights. Pale leaves must once have filled the canopy, but most had blackened or burned away.

Fire climbed the side of one home high above them. Another had already collapsed, leaving broken white wood scattered across the platform below. The air smelled of burning sap and the bitter rot carried by the Black Rain.

Dark water streamed through the open canopy. Living branches still curved over parts of the village and diverted most of it, but widening gaps had begun to form in their protection. Every drop that reached the walkways hissed against the pale wood.

Beyond the bridge, another section of Lethariel collapsed, sending sparks and frightened cries through the burning canopy.

Luke barely had time to absorb the sight before three creatures rushed across the nearest bridge.

They resembled deer only at a glance. Their legs bent at irregular angles, and overlapping plates of black bark covered their hides. Antlers twisted from their skulls and continued down their spines in rows of hooked branches, while thin red threads stretched from their joints into the smoke overhead.

An elven warrior stood between the creatures and the entrance to the lower village. His white-wood armor had split across one shoulder, and blood darkened the side of his green cloak. He held a curved blade in one hand while pressing the other against a deep wound beneath his ribs.

The first creature charged. The elf tried to step aside, but his injured leg gave out beneath him.

Luke moved before he had time to weigh the risk, and Quickstep pulled him across the platform. The sudden shift still twisted his stomach, yet his boots came down squarely beside the fallen elf instead of tangling beneath him. He had landed exactly where he intended.

Luke caught the charging creature across the throat with the shaft of his spear. The impact drove him backward, but Reinforce was already spreading warmth through his arms.

"Move!" he shouted.

The elf rolled away while Luke twisted the spear and shoved the creature toward the edge of the bridge. Its hooves scraped across the pale wood, and black liquid sprayed from its mouth as it threw its head sideways and trapped Luke’s weapon between its antlers.

The other two creatures rushed closer.

"Down, Luke!"

He dropped at once as purple light swept over his shoulder.

Lauren stepped through the vines with one hand pressed against the living wall beside her. Unveiled Weakness revealed dark knots beneath the creatures’ bark, while violet symbols moved across her blindfold as she opened Oracle’s Glimpse.

She caught Luke’s wrist, and the vision flashed into his mind.

One knot pulsed inside each creature’s chest. Several smaller ones ran along their legs and necks, but the red threads passed through every weakness before disappearing into the smoke.

"The knots are bait," Lauren said.

The creature above Luke ripped its antlers away from his spear and tried to stamp on him. He rolled aside and drove the metal base of the weapon into its front leg.

"What happens if I hit them?"

"The knots rupture. The corruption spreads into the bridge and infects anyone still standing on it."

"So I need another target."

"Yes."

"That’s annoying."

"You’re smiling."

Luke climbed to his feet. "Maybe a little."

"Of course you are."

The wounded elf stared at Lauren’s blindfold and the faint green light beneath her skin.

"Elven blood," he whispered.

"Only a little," Lauren replied. "Questions later."

One of the creatures leaped toward her. Luke turned, but the elf reacted first and struck its antlers with his curved blade. The impact knocked it far enough off course for Lauren to step aside.

The beast landed badly, and its rear leg folded beneath it. Before it could fall, the red threads overhead tightened and forced the limb straight again.

Luke activated Truth Behind Motion.

The skill separated the tension in the creatures’ muscles from the movements forced upon them. Their bodies prepared for one action, only for the threads to drag them into another. One creature tried to turn toward Luke while the strings pulled its head toward Lauren, and another wanted to retreat even as its legs drove it forward.

Too much information crowded Luke’s mind, and pressure gathered behind his eyes. He had made this mistake before. Following every limb and possible attack overwhelmed him until he could no longer tell which movement mattered.

He shifted his attention to the red threads and the muscles resisting them. Each thread tightened a fraction of a second before the creature beneath it was forced to move, overriding whatever the animal itself wanted to do.

"They’re being controlled," Luke said.

The elf blocked another strike from a set of antlers. "We know."

"No, the strings move first."

Luke tracked one red thread as it pulled tight above the nearest creature’s shoulder. The muscles beneath the bark resisted for a heartbeat before the beast’s right foreleg lifted.

Truth Behind Motion still showed him the intention of the creature he was watching. That hesitation told him the movement belonged to someone else.

He followed the thread upward. The red line disappeared into the smoke above the bridge, but its angle led toward a shattered watchtower overlooking the lower village.

"The controller is in that tower."

Lauren turned her blindfold toward it, and violet light gathered beneath the dark fabric.

"Don’t open every future," Luke warned.

Her head shifted toward him. "Now you are supervising my skill?"

"You told me to stop you when you push too far."

"I should have been more specific."

"Pick one path. We only need the one where those strings break."

Lauren became still. The glow across her blindfold narrowed instead of spreading over the entire bridge, forming a single violet line between Luke and the ruined watchtower. Her breathing remained steady.

"I have it," she said. "Three metal needles anchor the threads beneath the roof."

"Can I reach them?"

"Not from here."

Luke glanced at the creatures, the wounded elf, and the narrow bridge beneath them.

"What happens if I use Rapid Magic Flurry?"

Lauren followed the chosen future rather than opening new ones. "You destroy all three anchors before the controller can move them."

"And the creatures?"

"They collapse. The nearest one falls across this side of the bridge."

Luke glanced at Lauren’s hand against the living wood. "Can the Heartroot catch it?"

"If I warn it before the threads break."

"I’ll give you the signal."

Lauren reached for his hand and sent the three targets into his mind. One needle was hidden beneath the left corner of the roof, another sat behind a broken support beam, and the final anchor had been driven into the tower floor.

Luke memorized all three positions. Rapid Magic Flurry could strike them, but he needed a way into the tower first.

He looked at the wounded elf. "Can you keep those things away from her for five seconds?"

The warrior tightened his grip on his blade despite the blood running beneath his armor.

"For the Queen, I can give you ten."

"Five is enough."