Magic Crystal Bomb

After finishing their meditation and eating the black bread and thick potato soup Carlson had ordered brought to them, the two were taken to the place where the giant centipede had last been seen: a low-lying rubbish dump in the slums.

Laud, meanwhile, was held at the gang's base by members of the Iron Rat Gang, waiting for the two witchers to return.

"There. Right there," the Iron Rat Gang member guiding them said, pointing to a sewer outlet with water pouring out of it.

"We've got it. You can go," Witt said, looking at the unconcealed terror on the gang member's face.

As though granted a pardon, the lad turned and fled in a blind panic.

There was no moon that night, and the mountains of rubbish and pervasive stench lent the darkness an added pall.

The two approached the enormous sewer outlet. Since the giant centipede's hunt had taken place just the night before, the scene was well preserved.

A clear drag mark ran across the ground, flanked by regularly spaced rows of round footprints.

"Let's go. Don't rush to apply the Insectoid Sword Oil. We might run into quite a few drowners inside. Dark, damp, close to people-it's the perfect place for them to nest."

Witt nodded and took out the flame crystal bombs he had kept tucked inside his clothes for so long, homemade from crystals obtained from the elves. He handed two to Geralt.

"These are the discarded magic crystals I got from Miley earlier. I found I could pour magic into them, so I made these. You use them just like bombs. In your case, just throw one and cast the Igni Sign at it. They're about as powerful as Dancing Star Bombs, but deal more fire damage."

Geralt hefted the two crystals surging with fiery energy in his hand and smiled. "No wonder you chose these over crowns, lad. I thought you were planning to give them to some girl!"

Witt rolled his eyes at Geralt and ignored the remark, continuing his instructions. "Throw them a good distance when you use them. I haven't tested their power yet. There's also quite a bit of flammable gas down here, so be careful."

"Lad, you weren't even born when I started hunting monsters in sewers. You think I don't know that?" Geralt tucked the two magic crystal bombs inside his clothes.

"Let's move." Witt downed a Cat Potion and headed inside first.

Watching his retreating figure, Geralt shook his head with a smile, then drank his own potion and followed him into the sewer.

Everything before Witt turned gray and white again. A pungent stench hit him in the face, reminding him of Geralt's earlier joke about why Vesemir never took him into sewers. He had never expected it to come true so soon.

The household waste of Ard Carraigh's residents lined both sides of the sewer. With his sword raised, Witt explored ahead, wading through water that covered most of his calves.

The elven ruins serving as the human city's sewers had long since lost their former glory. Broad streets had become dumping grounds for filth, and former homes had become nests for underground creatures.

Geralt approached from behind, sword likewise in hand, and passed Witt to take the lead.

The two had walked through the sewers for an unknown length of time when a fork brought them to a halt. Geralt, who was in front, crouched to examine it.

"Find anything?" Witt asked. Rather than joining him to look, he stayed where he was, constantly scanning his surroundings and keeping watch.

Though filthy rubbish covered every part of the place, the seasoned Geralt still discovered a somewhat haphazard but clearly defined set of footprints on a patch of moss in the left-hand passage.

"There's a set of footprints here. About the same size as a human's, with five toes," Geralt said.

"Human footprints? People actually live here?"

Witt could hardly be blamed for his disbelief. The smell down here truly made it difficult to breathe. If Lambert had been here, he probably would have cursed, "This place stinks a hundred times worse than Old Speartip's shit!"

"Of course not. Drowners. There's a protrusion in front of these toe marks. It should be from the hooked claws on their feet."

"Drowners won't mess with creatures like the Idr Giant Centipede, and drowners aren't on its menu either. So if we want to find the giant centipede, we should go right," Witt said.

"Exactly, but..."

Witt interrupted Geralt. "Then let's go left first. These drowners could crawl out of the sewers and eat people at any time. We should deal with them first."

Geralt gave him a knowing smile. "All right."

Having reached an agreement, they briefly discussed tactics, then crept even more slowly down the left-hand passage, trying not to make a sound so they could catch the drowners off guard.

They moved silently one behind the other for several dozen meters, and the splashing of footsteps gradually grew clearer in their ears.

Geralt turned to exchange a glance with Witt. Seeing him take out a magic crystal bomb, he understood that Witt wanted to take this opportunity to test it. He silently cast the Quen Sign on himself and let Witt take the lead.

Less experienced, Witt was naturally even more cautious than Geralt. When casting the Quen Sign, he even drew on a little of the earth elemental power in the air so he could withstand a stronger impact. He really was far too cautious.

A few more steps brought dozens of figures into view. This was an enormous drowner nest.

Even though this was not his first time killing drowners, their scaly, blue-green skin still made Witt feel utterly sick.

Witt stopped and raised a hand to halt Geralt beside him. They were still twenty or thirty meters from the drowner nest.

Geralt judged the distance and gave him a doubtful look that asked: Isn't this a bit far?

Witt did not know whether the distance counted as far or close, but he kept feeling that it was better to stay farther away when testing something like this.

Standing where he was, he steadily extracted the sparse fire elemental power in the sewer from chaos magic. The rune of the Igni Sign appeared in his hand, and the fire elemental power flowed through it into the magic crystal.

As the remaining empty third of the crystal gradually filled, the crystal bomb began to shine with dazzling light.

The dozens of drowners in the distance were also drawn by the light and turned their heads. Just as they were chattering away about whether to come closer and investigate, Witt swung his arm and hurled the magic crystal.

Flashing with a dangerous red light, the magic crystal traced a meteorlike arc through the dark sewer before plunging into the mass of drowners like a falling meteorite.

Boom! The entire sewer seemed to shake, and bits of moss and other debris were shaken loose from the ceiling.

The instant the crystal exploded, an enormous fireball burst from it. Accompanied by a deafening blast, the erupting light turned the dark sewer as bright as day.

The surrounding air heated up, and the water on the ground instantly vaporized. A powerful shock wave spread in every direction, sending severed drowner limbs and blood flying through the air.

Witt was still standing there in a daze, seemingly admiring the explosion, when Geralt grabbed him and dragged him flat to the ground-a rare display of "excitement" from the White Wolf.

He shouted, "This is what you call about as powerful as a Dancing Star Bomb?!!!"