Zalia exhaled slowly and quietly, watching from the small cubby she had hidden herself away in. From where she was she could see between two crumbling stones towards where the shades slowly floated back to their tortured existence in the sky. It had taken them a short time to make quick work of the two elementals she had summoned and it seemed like they had left the undead Bathar in peace. She could tell that was the case by the flood of the creatures spreading out from the area with disjointed and agitated gaits.
“I wonder how long they’ve been down here for?” Zalia thought.
Ember and Indis had once had an argument about the Bathar people, an argument about how the kingdom of Endaria had taken over the lands that were once theirs. Their race was now reduced to a tiny number, dwindling more and more by the year. She was a little curious as to how that came to pass because the city she saw, despite its current state, was quite advanced. Maybe they were a peaceful people once and it was the aggressive nature of the human race that let them conquer them.
There were many other explanations for how it could have come to pass however. Something like an Emerald or even Diamond ranked person could have accomplished it by themself depending on how powerful the Bathar were. If the ranks of the undead here correlated in any way to what they would have been long ago, the average Bathar were anywhere from Tin to Bronze. That meant they probably had members of their society in the higher ranks as well, making that theory a bit less probable.
Her last idea was that it was something other than a hostile takeover, though that idea seemed ridiculous to her.
Now that she had woken the undead in the city, the once somewhat clear streets were filled with Bathar who had slept for who knew how long. She was going to have a much harder time finding her way back home now. She would only have to reach the nearest pillar thankfully, though it was somewhat far away. She had a look at the one message in her vision.
Congratulations! Nature’s wrath had gained two levels reaching Iron 8.
It wasn't much but it looked like the ability had managed to kill a good number of the Tin ranked Bathar. She had an idea at that thought, looking down to the street below. The Tin ranked Bathar only held danger in the fact they could call nearby higher ranked allies if they saw her. They wouldn't be able to harm her unless they somehow managed to pin her down and overwhelm her. She summoned her bow and checked down below for a Tin ranked Bathar and with a swift movement, drew, released an arrow and then ducked back down. She could see through the small hole in between the stone bricks as the Bathar dropped with a hole straight through their head. The flight of her arrows was so quick that the Bathar around her target didn't see where the shot had come from, milling around the dead one in confusion.
She knew for a fact by the fight with the undead Juniper that these undead were not intelligent in any manner. They walked around, heads jerking from side to side to try and catch sight of an attacker, having a vague awareness of a threat. After being unable to find any apparent attacker, they went back to aimlessly wandering the streets once more. She smiled, looking over at Boreal,
“Looks like we’re in for the long haul,” she whispered.
She began slowly picking off the Tin rank Bathar, now putting Hunter’s mark on each just to help level it. She also began using Kill shot, the ability adding very little to the first shot but the time between shots allowing her to use it for each. After twenty or so minutes, she finally finished clearing the majority of the Tin rank Bathar from the street below her cubby. It might have once been a covered rooftop balcony with a stone fence but one corner had collapsed making it more akin to a piece of covered rubble.
Zalia used a Dodge-vine ritual, altered to protect her from sight rather than attacks and began making her way quietly down from the building. She swung from the fence into the open window below, landing in a roll to dampen the sound of impact. She paused for a moment in the small room, listening to the sounds from the street below. Thankfully there were no screams of alarm or anger so she kept moving. She moved through the building until she found a window looking across to the building across the street. The opposite building had a similar window but the actual structure went much further down towards the nearest support pillar.
Measuring the distance, Zalia nodded to herself and looked over at Boreal.
“Think you can make it?” Zalia asked in a whisper.
“Make it,” Boreal replied, looking into her eyes.
Zalia reprimanded herself, she should have been using the mental connection to talk.
She backed up as far as she could for a run up. She took off as fast as she could, sprinting towards the window, using its ledge as a step up and throwing herself across the street. She stepped on the air once in the middle of the jump, feeling it solidify beneath her boot, before landing in another roll on the other side. She remained in a crouch, moving to peer through the window. Looking out, it didn't seem like the Bathar were aggravated, none of them so much as glancing upwards. She looked across the street,
Stolen novel; please report.
“Your turn,” Zalia said to Boreal.
She saw a small feline form shoot out of the window and immediately saw that Boreal wouldn't make it. She quickly leant out of the window, catching Boreal as she barely fell short and pulled her in, stumbling backwards but keeping her balance.
“Close,” Zalia told Boreal, her heart beating quickly.
“Didn't make it,” Boreal replied.
“No shit,” Zalia said.
No sound of alarm came from below so Zalia didn't worry too much about it, continuing through the building. There were several patches that looked like Bathar had recently burst out after being woken by the racket she had made. Sections of rubble with suspiciously humanoid shaped holes in them, rubble strewn across the floor or doors that had been broken down. A fate she would have shared had it not been for her passive healing. Even then, the ability at Tin rank wouldn't have been enough to protect her, barely being able to now.
Boreal had her own passive healing, a combination of her control over temperature and passive that healed her based on how cold it was. In fact, Boreal had actually gotten all of Zalia’s passives associated with her own Survivalist passive as well. That meant she would have the Heat resistance, Cold resistance, Stealth and Trapper passives, though she probably had Cold resistance and Stealth already. Trapper wouldn't be super useful unless she learnt to construct traps but the passives were still a powerful addition that she hadn’t considered before.
They moved through the length of the building, the layout reminding Zalia of some kind of hotel or apartment complex. She eventually reached the end of the long hallway leading down the length of the building. Finding nothing but a stone wall, she checked the two closest rooms and found one to have a giant hole in the wall where the corner of the building had collapsed. She inched along the wall to see out into a crossroad, both streets filled with the shambling Bathar. The intersecting street looked to be a highroad in the city, the distance far enough she wouldn't be able to jump it. That meant that they would need to go down to street level if they wanted to go further.
Zalia thought for a moment. Clearing out the Tin ranked ones again would be a good first start, though it might be worth looking further down to see if there was any cover she could utilise. Deciding on the latter, she climbed up onto a big piece of rubble and used her air step to get high enough to reach the edge of the collapsed roof. She hauled herself up and crawled across to the streetside edge of the building as Boreal stepped out of her shadow getting low as well. She looked down the length of the street either way and saw that to her left an entire building had collapsed strewing rubble all over the place. It was as good an opportunity she would get to cross without being seen so she started making her way in that direction.
They had to jump across to two other buildings, these having sloped rather than flat roofs. It was easy for them, the distance short enough that Boreal could jump over without trouble as well. They reached the edge of the third building and looked across to the next, the one that was just a pile of rubble spilt across the street. Luckily, Zalia could hide behind the edge of the sloped building to look across the street. She would definitely need to thin them out before crossing, moving across with that many Bathar there would be treacherous.
She summoned her bow and got to work.
It went pretty much exactly the same as last time, only getting a little scary when one of the tiles under her feet slipped, clattering to the ground below. She managed to keep her footing with a timely use of Fight or Flight to slow time to her perception. A few of the Bathar came investigating but weren’t able to spot her from in the small alley between buildings. Soon enough, her work was done and the immediate street was left with a significantly lesser amount of the undead.
She snuck over the other side of the building and dropped lightly to the ground. She moved up to a large chunk of building and waited until it looked like the Bathar were looking away. She made a dash for her target, a big chunk near the middle of the street that might have once been a corner of the building. It formed a hollow triangle that she would be able to dive underneath. With light feet and as much speed as she could muster, she managed to reach the cover and dove under to safety. Boreal followed soon after, though she could hide behind many more pieces of rubble her size so was much less likely to be seen.
Only one particularly perceptive undead came to investigate, possibly having seen or heard something. Luckily, it didn't think to look under the rubble, only walking around it before walking off again. She could see by the feet that stepped past that it was Bronze ranked, a challenge for her on its own even without the other Bathar. Wishing she had found some type of teleportation herb, Zalia eventually crawled out from under the rubble and covered the rest of the distance with another dash.
Much of the next few hours were taken up by periods of travel followed by waiting around, taking out Tin rank Bathar one by one. She killed enough of them that despite being Tin rank she managed to level Kill shot once and Hunter’s mark twice. Her Survivalist ability also ranked up once, gaining experience from her constant brush with danger.
She managed to make it to the pillar without attracting another swarm, though there were a few close calls. Thankfully her stealth ability kept her very well hidden against an enemy that wasn't too bright. She climbed slowly up the pillar about halfway, using nothing but raw strength to accomplish the feat on the rough stone. She used her digging method to create a little spot she could be safe for a time, sitting in it as she mentally recovered from the stress of the past few hours.
Breathing a sigh she looked out over the city and saw a large building further out that she hadn’t been able to see earlier. It looked like a keep with high walls and towers, the architecture like nothing she had seen before. Whoever had built it had obviously been very familiar with the materials, fashioning a structure sound enough to survive a very long time. Unlike most of the other buildings in the city, it looked to be relatively intact. If there was anywhere she was going to find anything useful, it was likely to be there.