Effervesce - 1.9

Another quake had rocked everything, large cracks splitting from ground to ceiling, a few minutes after Jorge ran back to Stoneheart.

Normally, going home was a simple deal. The outskirts of Stonegut, the literal edge of society down here, was so desolate that it was literally the only safe place for us to live. Now, I meant safe as in safe from other people, it was dangerous in other ways.

There was a reason the alleys of Stonegut were to be avoided unless your life was at risk, and why my older siblings were nearly all classes capable of fighting somehow.

I held my breath as I crept behind a large boulder that had crumbled down into the street from the destroyed building beside it. Heavy breathing, no, sniffing echoed from the other side of the boulder, and I dared not look.

Heavy thumps, each followed by tiny clicks of claws on stone, and the heavy, loud sniffing, was my entire existence for the last minute. My own lungs burned as I refused to breathe out, and my hands gripped the scale-potion tightly.

At the slightest hint it found me, I was going to rip off the lid and down it.

Please, please, go away. Whatever it was exhaled on the other side of the boulder so powerfully that a cloud of dust spilled everywhere. Only then did it snort and the heavy footfalls with the tiny clicks of claws begin to walk off in another direction.

I didn’t do anything stupid like exhaling in relief, peeking out to see if it truly left, or something like that. Even when my lungs were on fire and squeezing themselves in my chest, and my vision began to blur, I refused to exhale.

Not until the heavy thumps of the beast had been gone for an entire minute more.

Air! Sweet, dusty air filled my lungs as I coughed as quietly as I could and then peered out from behind the boulder.

The coast was clear, and I immediately began walking home as fast as I could. Running produced too much sound, so I moved as quickly as I could while trying to be quiet.

Whatever was causing these quakes had upset the things in the alleyways, and now they were adventuring out. What were they? I had no idea, had no desire to know, and only wanted to be home as soon as possible.

That was the third monster I had avoided thanks to luck, and I was nearly at my home’s entrance. The other two I had managed to hide from and wait until another creature came by which had them begin fighting, although they were a lot smaller than whatever was on the other side of the boulder.

Finally, I saw the alley entrance that held the hidden stone chute to my home! The walls were damaged from the quakes, just like so many other buildings had been, and I worried if everybody inside was okay.

I was about to speed up and round the corner into the alley when a horrific, shrill screech. It wasn’t a cry of a beast, but that of claws grinding themselves down on stone, a sharp noise that sent chills down my back, raised the hairs on my neck, and had bumps on my skin appear.

The screech stopped, then started again, before repeating this a few times. Only the horrible noise let me sneak to the entrance of the alley to peek around the corner, and my stomach dropped.

It stood in front of the chute in the wall, the debris that normally hid it torn to shreds and shattered, as its massive claws wedged themselves in the chute and tried to pry it open wider.

Claws cut deep into the stone causing the horrific screech, and then it tried to stick its head inside to no success. I wanted to say it would be too large to fit in the chute, but if it broke it open even just a little wider?

It might fit.

This thing could crawl its way into my home, and there was nobody with a class upstairs except Maric, and he wasn’t a fighter.

Six thick, yet gangly legs covered in sharp fur that looked like it was once brown that was put to a flame and torched, but the charred mess of fur refused to burn away. A fleshy, furless torso that stretched over a skeletal frame of dark purple flesh, and a massive, eyeless maw that took up the entirety of its head, with said maw housing countless sharp teeth.

It had no name I knew of, and was just yet another of the terrors that haunted the deep alleys. Every creature that lived long enough in the alleys became other, something beyond the uniformity of a species like rockfish or graverats, because of one simple fact of life.

Everything in my reality gained classes, even monsters. Especially monsters.

That meant this horror had a class, that it had skills.

That everybody home was dead if it reached them, and I was dead if it noticed me.

…What do I do? It was the only thought in my mind. I couldn’t run and hide, that would mean leaving my home, my family, to possible death. The creature could give up, get tired and go hunt somewhere else.

Except I heard something, a barely audible yell of one of the kids, echo down the chute. How… why would they be near the chute flew out of my mind. The quakes could’ve damaged something in the house, or someone was trying to check what was going on outside, I didn’t know.

All I knew was the monster had every reason to try and climb up, and that small yell renewed its efforts to claw itself into my home.

…I examined the street for any other monsters, tried to see if there was somewhere I could hide if I distracted it, or something, someway to lure it away safely.

Yet, there wasn’t, was there?

I could leave and wait it out. Maybe they would be fine, maybe it couldn’t burrow its way through ten feet of stone chute, but I couldn’t know. Not if it would give up, not if there was something truly wrong inside that caused the kids to try and leave, or even if another quake wouldn’t tear something important down and change the situation.

No matter how good the potion was, I was still just skin and bones, just a ten year old girl. It might save me from a single hit, but those claws tore at stone! I… I had no illusions what would happen to me if I was caught, scale-potion or not.

There really wasn’t a choice, was there?

I tore the lid off the stone jar and swiftly drank the potion. It was a bit salty, similar to what I imagined seawater might taste like, and had a bit of a chalky texture.

Small scales, the size of my fingernail, immediately began growing on my skin. Each had a silver-blue tint, and when they began to rapidly overlap to cover my flesh, I grew worried.

It was something else to watch flimsy, small scales grow on Jorge’s arms, but another entirely to feel my skin stretch, to harden and morph into scales that started on my arms and then rapidly spread across my entire body. To my chest, head, legs, and even toes, all my skin was warped to these scales.

And… I felt good? Great, even? The chill of the cold, underground air that faded as an unfamiliar warmth covered me and the rough sensation of stone cutting into my skin fading into a smooth touch of scale on stone.

Maybe, maybe this would give me the edge I needed?

“H-Hey, ugly!” I yelled as I stepped into the view of the monster. “Yeah, you, leave them alone.”

It slowly, terribly slowly, pulled itself out of the chute, its claws sending that horrible screech into the air. Its skeletal torso with the purpled flesh stretched tight over its bones inhaled and exhaled, the massive maw tasting the air with a blackened tongue, and many legs stomping around with sharp, ivory claws.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The maw snapped once, its teeth crushing the air so swiftly it caused a burst of dust, and was the only signal I got to begin running.

“Ooooh frick!” I cursed. The rapid thuds of feet behind me, followed by a bellowing growl, was all I needed to know.

I was far from healthy, but fear did a lot to keep me moving. The scales on my feet made every sharp footfall that should’ve flayed skin off my soles instead a steady step, and each impact so muted that it felt like I was running on cloth.

Not only that, I wasn’t stupid enough to try and outrace something with six legs and likely far faster than me in an open street. Nope, I did the lease suicidal thing I could do now that I was already dead meat.

I veered into the nearest alleyway.

A sharp thump of the monster slamming into the wall to follow me came shortly before the rapid screeches of claws skating across stone. It wasn’t great at turning, I guessed, but I didn’t have time to look behind me.

No, my feet pounded stone so hard that if I didn’t have scales I feared I wouldn’t have feet below my ankles anymore. Into the alley I ran, deeper and deeper, with the monster on my tail.

Left, right, straight, left, straight, right; I took so many twists and turns that the alleys began to narrow. Twice, something had been camping above, an assortment of limbs and teeth that chittered and fell, but I ran past them.

The monster behind tore those creatures apart in seconds, but those were precious seconds to let me keep on living. Maybe on another day, the monster would’ve stopped and settled for the feast of those creatures, but not today.

It had my scent, knew I had led it on a chase, and I didn't think it was going to quit until it got me.

Already I was grasping at my side, a sharp stitch that kept worsening with each deep breath I took, my legs losing feeling despite the burning as they got heavier and heavier. It’d been what, two minutes, and I was already dead on my feet.

How much longer could I run?

Could I even survive the trip out if I escaped?

I was so deep into the alleys now that I’d lost track of where I was. The narrow stone corridors were filled with pieces of corpses, be it bones, shells, claws, teeth, or actual half-eaten and torn apart creatures.

There, too, were several times I spotted something laying down or crawling about, but even with a few trying to grab me for themselves, I managed to jump out of the way.

All for the true monster on my heels to shred them apart with tooth and claw and not stop in its pursuit of me.

Oh c’mon, why was it so persistent? It wanted food, right? It’d killed so much more than what I was worth, more meat in those creatures than me combined, yet only the other creatures and the narrowness of the alleys kept me out of reach.

At least until I stumbled.

My foot cracked against something, a dark blob that blurry to my eyes, that refused to move with my weight and speed behind it. My potion was still in effect, and the scales were the only reason that crack was me breaking an ankle rather than losing the whole foot.

I went down hard, my body spinning into an uncontrolled roll that had my head and limbs slamming against the ground repeatedly, all my momentum turning against me.

Something else cracked in my other leg, and my back slammed into a wall.

I cried out in pain. It hurt, so blindingly bad that I could barely focus on the fact that the monster had stopped. I tried to stand using my hands to pull myself up, but lines of fire shot through my legs. Not literally, no, but the mere act of putting pressure on them sent me back to the ground.

I cried.

I cried, tears streaming down my face, and pitiful wails coming out my mouth, as I stared at this dark, monstrous horror slowly advancing on me. It growled, rhythmic and deep, while snapping its fangs together and licking its purple lips with that blackened tongue.

Was… was it laughing?

It pawed the ground back and forth, its legs bobbing up and down, as it slowly advanced on me.

My scales began fading away, the potion that had kept me going finally ending its lifespan, and I hiccupped. Whether or not the monster noticed, licked its lips and inhaled deeply.

[Destitute Amateur Brewer 2 / 10]

[Please select skill.]

[Am—]

“A-Ah,” I breathed out shakily as I shoved the skill information away.

That was it. So many thoughts raced through my mind, of what I meant to say to my family, of how Jorge would feel when he found out I died, of failing the promise I made to Maric.

I didn’t want to die.

The monster lowered itself, ready to pounce and tear me to bits for its next meal.

“Hey ugly!” yelled a boy behind it, and my heart skipped a beat. “You’ve fucked up, you ugly ass purple pile of rat shit!”

No, I was super deep in the alleys, there was no way he would be here.

A boy, as short as I was with raggedy, curly brown hair, wearing a fairly nice set of leather armor that fit his small frame perfectly, stepped up. His smile was furious, yet cocksure. As if the world owed him a favor and he was angry it didn’t deliver.

“[One On One],” the boy said, his words reverberating with the power of skills. “[Coin Flip: Agility].”

He flipped a penny in the air and caught it, and his cocksure grin widened. “Well then, [Winner Takes All].”

The monster didn’t enjoy having its meal interrupted, not again after the several times previous, so it didn’t play around as it did with me. It charged, its charred black legs smashing the ground to dig its claws in deep, and went for the boy.

I couldn’t believe it, because how impossible it should’ve been. Not even seeing it with my own eyes made me believe it, but deep in my mind, it understood. That what I just saw was what my world was really like.

Not my dreams, not the stories told to me by my siblings, but a truth I wasn’t likely to forget.

The boy unsheathed a copper longsword with a simple flourish, took two steps forward and one to the left, and ran the sword through the monster six times in the span of a second.

It tried to turn around since its prey dodged to the side, but its massive maw-like head separated from its body as two legs came apart and sent it to the ground in a pile of purple blood. A single slice across its stomach had bulbous, pulsating shaped organs spill out, and it whined terribly with what breath was left in its lungs.

Even watching intensely as I was, I barely saw his arms move beyond the blur of the sword itself. That was definitely a skill, maybe multiple, all used silently with instantaneous timing.

“Ohh, that was a good bet!” He gave me that cocksure smile. “You alright, Eva? Nah, I can see you’re super fucked up, but at least your alive!”

“Tommy…” I said weakly. Between the shock of the entire chase and the last minutes, as well as the pain in my leg and ankle, thinking was hard. Instead, I said what I always said when I saw my youngest elder brother. “Glad to see you’re alive.”

Tommy grinned. “Same to you. Can you, nah, you can’t stand. Shit, both of them, huh? I’ll have to carry you.”

Smoke rose from the monster’s corpse as its purple blood boiled both its body and the ground. Tommy swiped his blade through the air, sending the purple guts and blood mostly off of it, before clicking his tongue at the clear damage to the blade.

What was that about him carrying me out of the alleys? That would get us both killed.

“Psh, I can see your worry on your face. Just, let me, hmm. Hold your arms up? Hmm, no, alright, I’ll lean down and you grab around my neck. Just like old times, yeah?”

Even doing that hurt horribly, but Tommy was gentle as could be as he lifted me up into a piggyback carry.

I steadied myself on his back, and what little strength in my arms was enough when Tommy supported me with his hands. He was barely taller than I was, but he walked slowly with strength above his size. A skill, undoubtedly.

“How?” was all I could ask, but he understood.

“Y’know how big bro Maric has that fancy skill, the one that finds other kids?” Tommy chuckled, but it felt directed at himself. “Always liked that one since, y’know, it let him find me. Finally, though it took forever, I got something like it but for those I care about. Family and friends.”

“But, you—”

“Shh, it’s okay, you’re alive and that’s all that matters, yeah? Skill had been ringing for an hour, then suddenly changed to you? Hah, didn’t think little, scared Eva would do something crazy, but it was easy when a bunch of alerts dropped to one. Just had to follow the bloody trail.”

“But, how did you beat it?”

Tommy shouldn’t have been able to kill it, not something like that monster. He was fourteen, barely, and had been a T-0 Hunter class a few weeks ago! My mind was foggy as every wrong step or jostle of my legs sent a lance of pain straight through my body, but what I saw Tommy do didn’t make sense.

“Easily, it wasn’t really that strong. Yeah, had to blow like six skills, but psh, if it wasn’t an emergency I could’ve dealt with it with three,” explained Tommy which just made me have more questions.

“Oh, you meant how the heck I’m so strong?” He laughed. “Well, that’s a bit of a story, and we’d better get you somewhere safe. Your legs are, uh, really messed up and I have absolutely zero ways to fix that. Hopefully Maric knows what to do.”

Maric might be able to help, but I didn’t think so. I’d never seen him heal injuries before, even when a kid hurt themself.

No, my only hope was raising enough money to get a Healer to work on me, which I couldn’t imagine the cost, or to get lucky and make a potion.

Knowing my options, my grip tightened on Tommy’s shoulders.

“Thanks for the save, big brother.”

“Anytime, little sister,” said Tommy. “Anything for family, right?”