Chapter 182: No Warden to Her Will
Nara had learnt repeatedly that surprise attacks were a thrilling way to start a fight for both sides involved. For all the detection that Maelon had in obnoxious range, he lacked in detail and transmission speed. Perhaps fleas did not have detail capacity, or it was just Maelon’s inherent mediocrity.
Either way, it was Nara’s sword dyed crimson with Blood Reprisal that plunged through the base of the neck of a runic that she really, really, really hoped was an Adventist at this point that signaled the blood-pounding, heart-throbbing start to the fight. She might dub this move, “The Nara Special.”
Ah, the screams of her fans (stalkers)! They really seem to appreciate her signature move!
By the time any of them turned around, Nara was already gone into the chaos where she made her home.
*****
Theodore gripped his hammer, a circular array of glowing runes fanned out around him. He swung his hammer through two—the runes for ‘shatter/break’ and ‘shield/protection’—applying them to his weapon. It was the runes he used as standard, until he devised a two-rune combination to counter whatever he was facing. Shattering defenses with a war hammer was always a good place to start.
Sweat beaded his brow and blood roared in his ears, as loud as a leonid’s roar. This sort of life and death battle against essence users was not something he had participated in before outside of a mirage chamber—his father’s insisted upon foundational training. He was glad for it now, even if the bloodshed there had been a mirage of magic and mind.
A scream rang out, and one enemy crumpled. Not dead yet, but dead-man-slumping—an iron ranker would be dead from that, and the expectation of death sent the nerves in his arms tingling. His hammer felt weightier than it ever had before. 4 versus 5 were decent odds, although Theodore was aware that he wasn’t an exceptional fighter. He at least had some experience fighting with Sen and Nara against the monsters of the mausoleum. That may save them yet. Roscoe was off doing what scouts did during a fight, darting in and out of shadows and taking opportunistic shots as he could as well as watching for any other hidden opponents. Theodore could appreciate he hadn’t gone and buggered off entirely, screwing all of them further.
The runic on the ground twitched. Roscoe’s hand reached from a shadow and sliced a tendon. Not dead but incapacitated for a while longer. The runic was a good choice for a first target—likely to have devastating spells that none of them were well suited to protecting against, and also unlikely to have powerful recovery abilities to recover from such an assault.
Sen was in the thick of it, fighting on the front while Nara darted in from another, hyper-aggressive. It wasn’t her usual fighting style, but Theodore was aware they had to press their advantage before their attackers could stabilize. Adventists, this team had mentioned—but who were Adventists, and why were they their target?
The speckled blue draconian in front of Leonid manifested a mana shield to stop the swing of Theodore’s hammer. It didn’t stop; the shield shattered like cheap glass, and the blow followed through, smashing into scales, which also cracked under the blow. It wasn’t enough to fell the draconian, and now he knew better than to trust his shields around Theodore. It was time to switch his runes.
His next two swings connected with the runes for ‘magic/mana’ and ‘null’. He saw the draconian pause, sucking enough air to use their race’s signature breadth; it was arrogant to use it with so little set up—Dragon Breath was a famous racial, and Theodore had seen draconians around Kallid. Draconians were nothing if not prideful—Theodore was glad to see it was a constant, even against these unknown opponents.
Glimmering frost flakes coalesced in the air, confirming that his foe’s draconic ancestry was ice, as he suspected. He swung his hammer down, blowing forwards a wave of force imbued with mana null. It snapped the draconian’s jaw up, and the breath died before it could be unleashed.
So far so good. This combat thing wasn’t going too badly—he had been trained by his fathers, after all! He just had to keep thinking, and keep fighting. Maintain calm. Be vigilant.
“Glacial ice, grab and slow.”
A hand of ice wound its way around Theodore’s left leg, the freeze felt through his thick fur. He stumbled, suddenly unable to move forward.
“Freezing spike!”
A spike of ice coalesced above his opponent’s shoulder, then shot out towards Theodore’s face. Theodore just managed to bend his head out of the way. He swung magic null, hitting the hand and freeing himself, either shattering it from pure force or from the effects of his runes.
While he stumbled, free from the grip and dodging another ice spike, he summoned a second hammer from his inventory, a smaller one, and tapped it through magic null as well, which worked well against this ice conjurer. He quickly threw it, rebounding it from various coalescing ice constructs with a special attack. A mage hand controlled the small hammer, catching it as it boomeranged bank. He swapped his main hammer back to shield break instead of a combination like fire potent. As much as he was tempted, an ice draconian wasn’t a monster and therefore wasn’t “weak to fire”. Another lesson drilled into him—do not assume weakness where there is none. While Theodore may not like fighting, he found his father’s lesson gave great insight into what an adventurer needed in their equipment, so he had remembered all his lessons. If he could remember what made an adventurer great, then he could make great equipment to match. Any great food critic should know how to cook, and when his father said, “Any great crafter should know how to use his crafts”, Theodore found he could not disagree.
He was doing alright, and he was occupying a single enemy, at least trading hits back and forth. He thought perhaps they’d survive this, until they felt the flash of a silver rank aura.
*****
“What a mess.” The silver ranker said, gazing about the chaos, his presence immediately arresting in the clashing group of bronze rankers. “I thought the five of you could handle four.” He noticed the dead Adventist. “Four of you, anyway.”
Maelon, evidently, had buggered off sometime during the battle, evening the odds of 4 to 6 to 4 to 5.
Sen decided in a split moment. “PORTAL, NARA!” he yelled out in voice chat. Roscoe, shadow hopper he was, slipped inside safely with barely a pause. Sen teleported with Theodore, bringing them to the front of the cosmic portal.
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Ability: [Teleport]
Special Ability (Dimension)
Cost: Moderate mana
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Effect (Iron): Instantly appear in another location.
Effect (Bronze): Able to bring along a group of people (up to 10 iron rank individuals) nearby.
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“I think not.”
A barrier of force sprang up in front of the portal, blocking them off. The silver ranker shot forward, smashing Sen into the force barrier, cracking it from the impact, the portal’s entryway teasingly behind him. Sen had managed to avoid a crushing hand to the throat, but his shoulder and back had still crashed painfully into the barrier, unyielding against his bronze rank bulk. The next blow Sen redirected with great effort with Karmic Return, force blast ricochetting into the air and impacting the stone ceiling of the mausoleum, still undamaged, the tyranny of rank sneering its omnipresence. It was his years-honed skill and high attributes that Sen had managed to persevere against the focused attention of a silver ranker.
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Ability: [Karmic Return]
Special Attack (retributive)
Cost: Low stamina and mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Enhance your weapon with significant resilience. If this attack intercepts another physical attack, inflict the damage of the attack as retributive damage identical to the damage amount and damage type of the intercepted attack to the original attacker. Reducing or negating the original damage does not reduce or negate the retributive damage.
Effect (Bronze): This attack can intercept magical abilities and incorporeal attacks such as spells with size and shape limitations.
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A moment later, a starry plane spread out on the ground to his left, and Sen understood to leap towards it and drag Theodore with him.
He could only hope Nara made it in too.
*****
If only life could be so easy.
Roscoe, Sen, and Theodore secured, Nara shot through the mausoleum with teleportation, silver ranker no doubt hot on her heels. She couldn’t abandon their position entirely—their teammates would eventually emerge from the portal, and they could not subject them to a silver ranker and four iron rankers either. She could not retrieve them from inside the trial room; they would have to inevitably exit, into a fight they had no knowledge about. The Adventist elites were as well trained as they suspected, although both Sen’s and Nara’s abilities fared well against other essence users in close combat.
Unfortunately, her tricky domain portal placement was a one-off success. She couldn’t open the portal directly below any person (not that anyone would fall in unless they wanted to).
“How long are we going to play this game of tag?” The silver ranker called out from behind her.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Until you stop chasing me!”
She skidded around a corner, spam-teleporting down a corridor. According to her map from her Guide, there was a gap at the top of the wall that led to another section of the mausoleum. No doubt they’d follow her through, even if they had to scale the wall to make it through the gap.
The mausoleum managed to concentrate monster manifestations within challenge rooms, then analyze the monsters within to provide a summary of monster ranks to grade the rooms. By creating pockets of ‘negative pressure’ where manifestation was easier, monsters manifested less outside of the rooms—of course, this also meant that positive manifestations (such as essences) tended to manifest within the rooms as well, rather than outside. The mausoleum and an area around it had a far reduced monster manifestation rate, hence foundation of second largest of Kallid’s cities, Krypt. It was also this mechanism that was being studied, in hopes of applying it near large cities to create similarly contained monster-pockets and reduce monster manifestations within city limits beyond the standard array protections, especially during monster surges.
All this was to say: Nara had a plan. In one of the marked corridors which the iron and bronze challengers avoided, a high silver rank monster had manifested. It hadn’t politely manifested within a challenge room like the rest of the monsters waiting in their pens to be slaughtered. It was a relatively recent manifestation, not yet cleared out by a silver ranker in the area.
On her next teleportation, a force-rope attempted to loop around her waist and yank her backward. She avoided it, Phase Shift allowing it to slide harmlessly through her.
There it was: It was a terrible thing, more cosmic horror than chimeric animal. Its body was black and indistinct, villi fluttering like fleshy hairs. It had a long, flexible tail, armored with interlocking grey spines that tipped the tail like a blade and ran along its back in what could be roughly considered the location of a spine. Whenever it moved it rattled, spines clattering like bones in an undead army, far more chilling than funny.
It let out a grating screech, simultaneously nails on a chalkboard and grinding gears. It leapt, indistinct black mass shaping itself into powerful haunches, instantly providing it with the massive charging mobility it desired. Nara teleported past it, her decoy node popped by an extending whip-tail while her main and backup nodes were safe to teleport to. Sage was scattering herself forward, out of reach of the monstrosity—Nara didn’t want to risk her there.
The thalgore’s instant and intense bloodlust played to her advantage; it had launched itself directly at the silver ranker. Nara stayed out of range at the end of the corridor, guarding it like Cerberus. If the silver ranker had followed, she expected the bronze rankers to come next.
They did, as expected, darting around into the domain of the thalgore with various movement abilities. Corners, of course, meant that line of sight teleportation or movement abilities did not see the trap that was the thalgore haunting beyond the bend. Nara’s teleportation did not need line of sight, as long as the object between her didn’t completely block aura. A chain of nodes and decoys had been enough to slip past.
The silver ranker was the thalgore’s first concern, but it was more than capable of leveraging its own famed silver rank spirit attribute. Its scythe tail darted out, skewering an unlucky Adventist through the thigh. With an ominous bone rattle, bone spikes protruded, launching themselves at the Adventists on trails of eldritch shadow goo.
They survived well enough: it was a weak projectile attack in comparison to the thalgore’s full capabilities, and force barriers had intervened to protect those without adequate protection. But Nara stood between the bronze rankers and safety. Their silver rank oversight was occupying the thalgore.
“Well,” Nara said spinning her sword for a bit of intimidation. “This feels a little fairer now, doesn’t it? I’m not interested in your group, and I’m not interested in joining you. Certainly not through coercion.”
The five of them danced, but Nara could make no instantaneous kills. She needed to reduce their numbers as much as possible, then return to the location of their team while letting Sen out. Then, their full force should be able to match a silver ranker, although Sen would grumble over the lack of tactical preparation. He’d just have to make do.
The Adventist team, even missing a teammate, was still a well-oiled machine. It was this pressure and focus—dodging the errant attacks of the thalgore, weaving between attacks from all sides, dealing with afflictions—that Nara finally felt progress with her dual cognition. While being pushed to the brink wasn’t a massage to her mental sanity, do-or-die was quite the motivator to figuring her shit out, right the fuck now.
She let part of her mind form and fall away, like a dissociation while she herself was still associated. Chrome still managed her swords for now, deflecting attacks with Dream’s Wake, which applied to Chrome’s swords as long as she was the one conjuring them. Every single one of her attacks could trigger the full effect of Astral Return, attacks chiming off swords like a Galton Board.
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Ability: [Astral Return]
Special Attack (boon, magic, combination)
Cost: Low stamina
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): A slightly enhanced attack. If used shortly after avoiding or negating an instance of damage with your abilities, the attack is enhanced with additional damage, even if the damage is not entirely negated or avoided. The type of damage enhancement matches the damage dealt by the weapon used. Additional damage is proportional but not equal to damage avoided or negated. Enhanced damage rapidly decays. Can be combined with other special attacks, adding the damage enhancement to that attack instead.
Effect (Bronze): Damage dealt with [Astral Return] inflict an instance of [Astral Retribution]. When used against targets with [Astral Retribution], steals a small amount of health and mana from the target.
* [Astral Retribution] (affliction, holy, stacking): Suffer increased damage from execute abilities. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
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Astral Retribution wasn’t useful yet, but Nara could at least gain a minor amount of health and mana each time she attacked a target. Stamina was her least favored resource, so this exchange suited her nicely.
Unfortunately, her time had run out. The silver ranker finished off the thalgore with a hard throw, force energy exploding outward and slamming the thalgore against the wall. The diamond ranked material of the mausoleum was hard and unforgiving, the thalgore’s spines and black goop flesh smashing against a wall that would not even crack. The arena of the mausoleum here had worked against her, far benefiting those that could make impact attacks with its unyielding stone.
“Wait.” The silver ranker called out, a snap of aura demanding her attention. “Let us not repeat this pointless exercise. You will not be coerced. Very well. What can we do to convince you to go through the portal?” Another snap of aura leashed the bronze rankers at his command, who watched angrily with weapons drawn. They wanted to fight. Avenge their lost comrade.
She immediately wanted to snap back that there was nothing they could do to convince her to go through the portal, yet, something locked those building words in the back of her throat. Nara felt faint: The priest of Knowledge Gwydion’s words echoed through her mind.
“My goddess asks that when it is the time to cross through the portal, that you find a way to do so. You do not have to worry about the way back.”
She closed her eyes. Out came a breath, releasing with it her instant nausea and swirling emotions. So, this is what Knowledge had wanted. She knew, of course, when she had agreed to Knowledge’s request that she would have to enter a portal. It did not mean she was prepared for it. Liedke’s face flashed through her mind.
“Repeat after me…I will not go through any portal, ever!”
She felt your wrists burn. Her eyes too, felt red with fire.
“Convince me?” She said lowly, fire burning ash in her throat. She met the silver ranker’s topaz eyes straight on. “This isn’t a matter of convincing me. Do you know what your people did?”
“The nightmare beetles.” He concluded. “I read the report. It’s…not something we condone.”
“Not something you condone?” Nara said through gritted teeth.
“You don’t understand. The Integrators are an extreme faction of our people.”
“Ha! And kidnapping and coercion are not?”
He seemed vaguely apologetic. “I would not wish that sort of torture on my worst enemies.”
“So, what? What was the plan here? Use a hostage and threaten me through the portal? Is that why you targeted me while I was with others?”
He nodded. “Would it have worked?”
Nara scoffed, throwing her hands up in the air. “I would want to! I’d try very hard to go through. I had been willing to go through the portal before to save my teammate’s life! But you all fucked me up! I’m messed up! I don’t even think you can threaten me through a portal! My logical mind may be willing, but my soul would rebel against it. Do you get what I mean?” She said, desperate.
He mulled this over, eyes glinting as he observed the group. His bronze rankers had retreated behind him, cleansing afflictions and healing wounds. Great. Any advantage she had in battle would be gone, reset. “What can be done?”
The problem now was two-fold: Nara needed be able to have a convincing reason to the mystery silver-ranker—
“Ah, what’s your name by the way?”
“Tosen.”
—Tosen, that she’d be willing to follow him to the Harmony home world, presumably. The second hurdle was convincing her soul that it was all right to go through a portal other than her own.
She paced; the bronze rankers watched on, eyes narrowed but quiet at Tosen’s command. “I need assurances. I need guarantees that I’d be treated equitably on the other side. No suppression collars, no implants, none of that. I would not leave behind a family to be a prisoner.”
He smartly did not ask why she’d leave at all. The threat was still there. Once time rank out, Tosen could make it back to where the iron rank team was and slaughter them as they came out of their challenge. Her team would be next, and she didn’t have another resurrection to spare.
“…I may make a legally binding agreement,” He offered.
“You have courts?”
“Of course we have courts. We’re not uncivilized.”
It didn’t mean much. There was no reason they’d uphold their own laws for her. Nara had a feeling she’d never have perfect assurances, just promises of ink and word.
However, that wasn’t the point. The point was her deal with Knowledge: This was the sort of dangerous task she had to undertake to earn an item with the capability to pass dimensions. There was no way such an item could come cheaply.
“Here.” Tosen handed her a small metal strip. Pressing her finger against the strip, a holographic screen extended from it. “I’ve detailed an agreement. Standard, for those we recruit to our world. State your changes.”
She reviewed it very thoroughly. More thoroughly than any legal contract she had ever read in her life. It was, thankfully, not 28 pages of legalese, but rather clear and concise on specific conditions, rights, and benefits.
“I’m not ‘joining’ The Advent. And by the way—I could never be Harmonized. It’s far too violating for my soul. All this agreement, this is just to pass through the portal. It’s hardly fair to force-join an organization just because I decided to move to the world it exists on.”
He made a considering noise and amended it.
*****
Nara sat in front of the portal, facing it blankly. Her lute was held within her hands, sound pulling herself into relaxation. The rest of The Adventist’s bronze rankers had passed through for her peace of mind. Tosen stood off to the side, watchful of any escape attempts: Barrier abilities like Tosen’s prevent abilities from working through them, such as teleportation, but she could probably escape. However, she had reason not to.
And peace of mind was necessary.
Ah, what she would’ve given to be able to spend years sorting out her portalphobia, working through baby steps with Redell or another trauma healer to achieve self-growth through hard work and positive reinforcement. She had no idea what those baby steps could’ve possibly been; it’s not as if she could pass partially through a portal. Until the whole body passed through a portal, the body wouldn’t be portaled through.
“It’s better now than later,” Chrome said telepathically. “You’ve been putting this off.”
“Have I really?” She retorted sarcastically.
“It has been 7 months, benefactor,” Sage mentioned dutifully. Sage wasn’t one to let her summoner wallow. “You mentioned to Lady Amara that you benefit from external motivators and pressures. There is no greater opportunity than now. No greater gain.”
“You should thank Knowledge,” Chrome said, haughty as ever, “That conniving goddess knew nothing else would suffice. You’d take your sweet time, dragging your feet until you out-trauma’d yourself with a need to use a different portal.”
“I’m astounded by how high your opinion is of me,” Nara said dryly, although he was probably right. Compounding trauma was definitely not the best way to long-term mental stability, although it may work at the moment. But did this not count as compounding trauma? Highly motivated semi-coerced therapy?
“You can hardly stand to be picky. You have a task Nara: Get it done.”
She sighed, breath ghosting out into the mild cold of the mausoleum. With the next breadth in, she relaxed her muscles, one by one, twitching them then smoothing them out.
Out—Her concerns for her team and the iron rankers they were responsible for.
In—She has a goal, an objective.
Out—Failure or not, it did not matter. The ultimate gain was for herself.
In—She has a plan of escape.
Out…
Her mind emptied and refilled with each breath, pulling tight the threads of worry into something steadier. External motivation was important: it was the catalyst, the impetus. Internal motivation was the ultimate goal, the greatest reward.
She was a dimensional traveler, a wanderer of the cosmos, a seeker of paths unbounded. Free as in astral as in reality, all realms an adventure to her will. There are no paths she cannot tread, and no portal she cannot enter.
Her only barrier is herself. She will not be her own warden.
Deep within her mind, she felt an alternative path, weak and wavering, silk in the astral winds, but whole nonetheless: a path for later. The current path she sought was one of reality.
She rose, and with no pause nor hesitation, strode straight through the portal.