Having finished looking around at the trade festival on the mesa, the group meets back up amidst the crowded chaotic atmosphere.
“I did everything I needed to. You guys get anything cool?” Kayde asks, not bothered by the difficulty of finding the others.
“No, nothing was as good as what I already have,” Drakthar responds, thinking only of weapons and armor.
“We got a few things here and there,” Xander speaks for Gwendolyn and himself.
“I hope it was worth coming, sorry you couldn’t find anything Drakthar,” Kayde comments, not wanting them to think this was a waste of time.
They begin to head towards the mountains where the ruins lie, just a far off range outlined by the falling sun on the horizon. The coming of the night forced them to set up camp among the sand dunes.
As Kayde and Drakthar head to sleep in their tent, Gwendolyn, who is supposed to be on watch, goes into her tent where Xander is. She is surprised to see that he isn’t sleeping but instead is grabbing his sword.
“What are you doing?” She questions him.
“I thought you were supposed to be on watch?” Xander points out, not expecting her to enter the tent.
“Yeah, but I thought, you know, we could christen the new tent tonight, if you know what I mean,” Gwendolyn suggests slyly.
“Sorry… not tonight, I have to start training,” Xander apologizes as he heads out of the tent.
“Wha… Why?” Gwendolyn follows him out, incredulous that he could refuse such an offer.
“It’s like I’ve said before. I am not strong enough. I don’t want anything like what happened with Cenred to happen again, and to ensure that, I must get stronger,” Xander explains, passionately. Gwendolyn is disappointed, but she can’t tell him not to when she sees such fire in his eyes.
“Okay, go ahead,” she sits down drearily and watches as he starts to train.
Gwendolyn gazes at Xander’s silhouette against the moonlight as he swings his sword around until her shift on watch is over and she returns to her tent exhausted. Xander has the next shift and spends it relentlessly training until the sun comes up.
In the next few days, a cycle begins. Every other night Xander does not sleep, training throughout the night. The others notice that he has trouble staying awake on the days following those nights.
“Does Xander seem different to you? Like he’s been really out of it recently,” Kayde voices his concern to Drakthar.
“Maybe,” Drakthar shrugs, he definitely noticed it too, but he doesn’t care to talk about it.
Finally, they reach the edge of the mountains. Drakthar finds a nook between two hills and sets up a spot for his horse. He leaves it with enough food and water for it to survive on its own. The cart full of power armor remains with it.
At the end of the day, they finally reach the ancient ruins.
“We don’t go in them until tomorrow, so I guess we should set up camp for the day,” Kayde suggests to the others.
That night Xander intends to train again.
“Not tonight, we are going inside the ruins tomorrow. You should be well-rested when we go in there,” Gwendolyn is worried about him.
“It’s okay. I will be fine, I have started to get used to functioning off little sleep,” Xander tries to calm her down.
“You mean no sleep,” Gwendolyn mutters as Xander leaves the tent.
She stays up on watch and stares at him blankly, watching him push himself too far. Halfway through the night Kayde wakes up to start his shift on watch and sees Gwendolyn sitting there, seemingly alone.
“Alright get some sleep I’ll take over,” he yawns sitting down next to her.
Gwendolyn doesn’t respond still staring at Xander off in the distance. Kayde looks at her face and follows her line of sight to see Xander training.
“What is he doing?” Kayde is confused.
“What he does every other night. He is training,” Gwendolyn explains gloomily.
“Sounds like you aren’t too happy about that,” Kayde observes from her tone.
“He is being too hard on himself. I’m… I’m afraid of what he is doing to himself,” Gwendolyn voices her concern.
“Hey, why don’t you get some sleep? We’ve got a big day tomorrow,” Kayde suggests not wanting her to continue to worry about Xander.
Gwendolyn starts to get up, “Yeah, you are right”.
“Goodnight,” Kayde waves as she goes back into her tent.
Half an hour later Kayde approaches Xander after he is sure Gwendolyn is asleep.
“Hey dude sorry to interrupt, but you should really get some sleep,” Kayde tells Xander who is practicing a flurry of horizontal slashes.
“Not tonight Kayde, I need to get stronger,” Xander replies, not phased by Kayde’s words.
“Look, man, Gwendolyn is really worried about you. She said you are pushing yourself too hard,” Kayde starts to explain.
“She shouldn’t be worried,” Xander states confidently as he continues.
“Well, she is. And let me tell you buddy, it’s your job to make sure she isn’t. If she shouldn’t be worried maybe you should give her a reason not to be,” Kayde finds himself getting a little angry with Xander.
“I will make sure to do that,” Xander brushes off his comment, not really listening to it. Kayde turns around and heads back to sit between the tents.
He mutters under his breath, “Fine, it’s your relationship".
The next morning they go over their plans for the ruins, mapping out what the rooms down there are like and marking the traps that abound in each of them. Once they are sure they know what they are doing, they descend the stairs down into the ruins.
Kayde sees the golden handle attached to a wooden door at the entrance causing him to smile at the memory of Alcaeus ripping it off and getting splashed by poison. He really misses messing with him.
In the next room upon seeing the trapped chest Xander chuckles, “This place really messed with Alcaeus didn’t it?” They go through the next few rooms until they are in front of the door leading to the room with the hole in the middle.
“Remember, the guy in the next room can’t be trusted. He is a proven liar,” Xander mentions in order to keep the others on guard.
Kayde ignores his comment and opens the door yelling loudly, “Hello friend!”
The man is so startled he gets up from the edge of the pit and stands rigidly in a corner of the room.
Kayde casually approaches the pit and throws a rope ladder down it, “Don’t worry I brought rope this time”.
“I don’t know you… and how did you know I wanted the treasure down there?” The man asks intimidated and confused by everything going on.
“Natural assumption,” Gwendolyn quickly responds, afraid he might piece together that they time traveled.
The treasure hunter notices Gwendolyn for the first time.
He relaxes and saunters over to her, “I did not expect to see a woman as beautiful as you down here”.
This comment bothers Xander, but before he can say anything Gwendolyn responds first, “Yeah, I didn’t expect to be here either, but my boyfriend dragged me along”. She grabs a hold of Xander’s arm making it obvious to the treasure hunter he has no chance.
While this was happening, Kayde had already climbed down and gotten all of the treasure at the bottom of it. He lays it out on the floor and lets the guy take half of it.
“Here you go friend, it was good to see you again,” Kayde waves at him. He doesn’t say anything as he collects his gold and leaves.
They continue forward making sure to dodge out of the way of the axe that falls from the door. In the next hallway, they find the statues of Gwyn holding spears with gemstones for eyes. They ignore them and continue on.
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“The next room is the one Sharn was in,” Drakthar recalls from the last time they were down here. Kayde opens the door, but this time it is empty.
“Shit, I guess he wasn’t down here this time. Looks like this was a waste of time,” he observes the vacant room.
“No, he is down here, I can sense it,” Drakthar tells them, knowing it to be true.
Instead of heading to the room previously filled with a voracious hoard of rats, they go to the room with the black door where they ran into the members of the Cult of Chaos before. This room is much larger than other rooms in the ruins, but it is empty just like the others.
“Looks like the Cult of Chaos really never came down here after we took the Scientist from them and took out their members in Melusarej,” Xander speculates, wondering why they are not there.
They hear a door open and close from the far side of the room. The room is too dark to see who entered.
“Who is there?” Kayde calls out, holding his torch forward to give him more vision.
No one responds. They don’t have their answer until Sharn suddenly appears out of the shadows before them. A wide grin creeps onto Drakthar’s face; he has waited too long for this.
“I challenge you in battle, one on one, to the death,” Drakthar declares his intentions to Sharn.
Sharn’s eyes fill with a look of almost fatherly concern for Drakthar. He shakes his head, turning down the challenge.
“Why not? I wish to discover who between the two of us is the superior warrior,” Drakthar will not take no for an answer.
Sharn shakes his head again with the same look on his face and points to himself.
“So you believe yourself to be the better warrior?” Drakthar tries to figure out what Sharn’s motions mean. Sharn nods.
“Prove it, fight me!” Drakthar demands, pulling out his battle-axe. Sharn dejectedly draws his sword holding it out in front of him. “Shouldn’t we stop this? Sharn looks really confident,” Gwendolyn whispers to the other two.
Xander grabs her hand to reassure her, “don’t worry. I have a reset button remember? If Drakthar loses I will change the future”.
“What?” Gwendolyn has no idea what he is talking about.
“What do you mean what? I turn back time Drakthar is okay, the fight never happened. I don’t see what you don’t get?” Xander comments having not realized he has never mentioned his ability to manipulate time to Gwendolyn before.
“You can turn back time?” Gwendolyn focuses on that bit from Xander’s remarks.
“Hold on… I never told you?” Xander figures out what is going on.
“Nope, you never told her,” Kayde comments from the sidelines, enjoying this particular exchange.
“So… that time when we first met and I saved you from that guy with the knife, you are telling me that you could have just turned back time and saved yourself?” Gwendolyn asks, remembering their initial meeting.
“Yeah… you already knew that though, I was going to switch his knife with a bell,” Xander notes, referencing the powers he knows Gwendolyn is aware of.
“Well I assumed you already used it and couldn’t, but fine,” she turns away, perturbed upon learning that she didn’t actually save his life.
“Are you angry?” Xander asks, noting her mood.
“No… well yes! I always thought you liked me initially because of me saving you, but now I’m just kind of confused. And how could you hide something like that from me?” Gwendolyn asks, perplexed by his past behaviors.
“Wha… wait, you thought I liked you just because you saved me?” Xander notes, never having thought of that.
“I thought it played a big part in it yeah,” Gwendolyn admits, thinking that was the reason he fell for her.
“No, it wasn’t that,” Xander informs her.
“Then what was it?” Gwendolyn asks, curious to know.
“Ahemm…” Kayde grunts trying to get them to pay attention to the situation. They are taken out of their conversation to see Drakthar and Sharn both staring over at them annoyed.
“Don’t pay attention to them, I’ll answer your question. I liked you because you are strong, confident and beautiful… and maybe the part where you scolded me right off the bat helped too,” Xander ignores the others and continues his conversation with Gwendolyn.
“Oh… well, I guess that’s a good reason too,” Gwendolyn creeps closer to him, eventually pulling him down for a kiss.
After they part, Xander tells the others, “Alright, we are good, feel free to continue”.
Drakthar sneers at the two of them, for delaying the battle which he is eager to start.
“I have waited a long time for this,” Drakthar declares impatiently as he swings his mighty axe at Sharn. Sharn effortlessly deflects it with his sword, sending Drakthar careening to the side after hitting what seems to be a wall of steel.
Sharn rushes forwards and hits Drakthar in the chest with the hilt of his sword, the impossibly heavy impact knocking him to the ground.
“This isn’t looking good,” Gwendolyn observes from the sidelines.
“Yeah it doesn’t,” Kayde agrees.
Drakthar grunts and gets back up, charging Sharn time and time again to no avail. The others watch as their friend is slowly being beaten down at every turn. Gwendolyn looks over at Xander and sees him muttering something silently while watching the fight.
“Xander, what are you doing?” She asks, seeing his weird mumbling.
“Shut up and let me focus,” Xander quickly dismisses her question.
“Well that was rude,” Gwendolyn crosses her arms and starts to pout.
“Please,” Xander reiterates, slightly annoyed as he is trying to focus on the fight in order to study Sharn’s sword style and patterns. Gwendolyn isn’t happy, but she remains silent and continues watching.
Drakthar, who has been the aggressor the entire fight, stops attacking. Panting in place, even he begins to realize he is losing. Sharn just waits, watching Drakthar to see what he will do next. Drakthar reaches into his bag and finds a stym. As he swallows the pill his eyes slowly start to turn red.
Sharn braces himself to deal with the mindless beast that now stands before him. Drakthar, having lost all control with the stym, rushes thoughtlessly at Sharn, almost growling with every vicious swing of his battleaxe.
Sharn dodges and blocks each attack, but his parrys and dodges are slowing down and his breath becoming more ragged. Drakthar’s axe collides with Sharn’s sword one last time, the loud clang of metal slowly being replaced by Drakthar’s enraged roar. They hold their weapons in place, metal screeching against metal, eyes locked, muscles strained to their limits as they attempt to overpower one another. Ever so slowly, Drakthar begins to slide back, and is eventually thrown to the ground as Sharn sweeps his legs from under him.
The beast looks up, but the first person he sees isn’t Sharn, it’s Gwendolyn. He gets to his feet and runs towards her with his axed raised. Xander, quickly realizing what is going on draws his sword and stands in front of Gwendolyn. He barely manages to catch Drakthar’s blow with his blade, but the pressure is too much. Forced to his knees, he holds the bare blade with his left and in order to stop Drakthar from breaking past it.
As Drakthar pushes down harder, the edges of the sword cuts into Xander’s hand, blood beginning to run in rivulets down his arm. He looks to the left, as the axe slowly inches closer to his left shoulder. He feels a sharp pain as the blade of Drakthar’s axe slowly bites into his shoulder.
Xander lets out a scream, trying to summon more energy to stop Drakthar’s axe before it digs all the way to his bone. He feels the wetness of the blood spilling out of the wound begin to soak his shirt, but doesn’t yet feel the pain because of the adrenaline coursing through his body.
Just as Xander has nothing left, Sharn rips Drakthar off of him and knocks him out cold over the head with the hilt of his blade. Xander falls down to his knees exhausted from holding off Drakthar for so long.
“Oh my god, Xander,” Gwendolyn’s wide eyes notice how bad the gash on his shoulder is. She sloppily rummages through her bag, desperate to find something that can stop the bleeding. She grabs the first shirt she feels in her bag of holding and uses both hands to apply it to Xander’s shoulder.
“Gwendolyn… I…” Xander starts to nod off a little from the loss of blood.
Kayde slaps Xander in the face causing him to open his eyes again, “Turn back time dude! Before you lose too much blood”.
“No, I am okay. I’ll live,” Xander coughs a couple of times while speaking.
Gwendolyn gets a new shirt and finds that the bleeding has slowed significantly.
“The bleeding is stopping,” she thinks out loud in relief.
“See, I’ll be fine,” Xander mumbles, still out of it.
After ten minutes of tending to Xander’s wound, Gwendolyn feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns her head to see Sharn holding up a thin metal wire. She understands that he wants to stitch Xander up. She gets out of his way and watches as Sharn slowly pushes the wire through each side of Xander’s injury.
She grabs Xander’s hand instinctively as she watches. She feels the blood on his hand and remembers the way he was holding his sword. She cleans up those lighter cuts and bandages them.
Drakthar eventually wakes up from his stupor, his sanity restored. He sees Sharn sitting next to Xander as Gwendolyn looks over his wounds.
Seeing that Drakthar is awake and back to his normal self Sharn decides to leave.
Before he can exit Drakthar calls out to him, “How can I challenge you again?” Sharn turns back. He pulls out a map of the ruins and points to the room with the five chests in it.
“What does that mean?” Drakthar asks, confused about the meaning of his gestures, but Sharn ignores him and exits the room.
While they have this discussion, Xander seems more conscious than he did before, so Gwendolyn asks, “Why didn’t you turn back time to prevent this?”
“Because he needed to see this. He needed to know how big the gap is between them,” Xander explains, wincing as he starts to feel the full pain from his wounds.
Drakthar approaches them and apologizes, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come to this”.
“I don’t mind a slight cut,” Xander brushes it off so as to not burden his friend.
“It is more than a slight cut,” Gwendolyn points out, outraged by his statement.
“Did you learn anything?” Xander asks Drakthar, completely ignoring Gwendolyn. Drakthar nods.
“I was studying his movements when you were fighting him. We can go over them later,” Xander mentions, Gwendolyn and Kayde now realizing why he was focusing so hard before.
“Okay, I need to train every day from here until I fight him again. He is, without a doubt, the strongest warrior I have ever gone up against, “ Drakthar declares, filled with determination.
“Yeah and I will help you out by mimicking his style,” Xander adds, wanting to help his friends.
“Are the two of you serious?!” Gwendolyn yells, not able to sit by and listen to them anymore.
“Xander look at you! You are torn to shreds and all you can think about is training. I mean its already tearing me apart to see you push yourself so hard every night. Please, just slow down for a second before you end up like this again, or worse,” She starts to break down and cry.
Xander tries to get up to console her, but he can’t right now with the gash on his shoulder being too painful.
“Look at you, you can barely stand. Please just stop,” now sobbing uncontrollably.
“I’m sorry Gwendolyn, you are right. I won’t train until I am fully healed,” Xander assures her from the floor.
“And?” Gwendolyn wipes the tears and snot from her face.
“And I won’t train through the night anymore,” Xander adds, knowing immediately that is what she wanted.
“You promise?” Gwendolyn really wants to make sure Xander means what he says.
“I promise, Gwendolyn. You won’t have to worry about me,” Xander tells her sincerely, not wishing to upset her further.
Kayde and Drakthar share an odd look as Gwendolyn embraces Xander. After Xander can walk again, they head out the same door Sharn went through in search of whatever Sharn intended Drakthar to find in the artifact room.