Chapter 12
Riftland Expedition [https://imageshack.com/i/pm6346ECp]
They continued to travel even deeper into the wild Riftlands.
It took them only two days to get lost.
And two more for Linus’ to finally confess that he doesn’t know where they are, but it did not come as shock to anybody.
His party only smiled watching Linus step over his pride to deliver the bad news which everybody already knew. Dogs understood that Linus wasn’t the best at pathfinding or measuring distance and nobody expected him to lead them any further than he already did. Just the fact that he was able to find a single marked rift was a wonder in its own sake.
Linus was as good as a pathfinder as Zaun was as a public speaker. The map didn’t matter as long as they continued to move west. All they had to find was any rift to the Deeper strata, and more west there should be plenty of them.
The only one who said anything to Linus was Orla. Long walk with heavy bags and armor made her tired and grumpy. Stats helped out and without Arms of Spearman she wouldn’t be able to move at all, but heavy travel still took its toll. Poking fun at Linus about his inaptitude was the only way for her to relieve some stress.
Trees became even rarer and soon they could find only small sickly brushes from time to time. There were no more trees anywhere in their view. Already rocky and the unhospitable landscape became even more so.
And then came riftkin.
Lone Eldtritch Crawlers attacked them with bloodthirsty mindless anger. Sometimes Crawlers traveled in larger packs and once they saw a pack of hundreds of riftkin traversing Riftlands with no clear direction. They walked around this pack as no armor would save them if they would get overrun by the monsters.
"What do they even eat in this wasteland?" Jack asked.
"Riftkin don't eat. Most have mouths and inner organs, but they don't need them for sustenance." Orla said.
"How do they survive then? Where do they gain energy? Why do they attack? Why do they have organs?" Jack didn't understand how that was even possible.
"No one knows," Orla shrugged.
Except for Eldritch Crawlers, there were also other types of rifkin roaming the Riftlands around them.
Zaun stopped and unsheathed his axe with a swift motion. The party stopped in its tracks and dropped their bags on rocks arming themselves up.
“Where?” asked Jack.
Zaun pointed towards riftkin sneaking between the rocks towards them.
Lesser Eldritch Roshack – Lvl 10
It was a canine riftkin with six legs and three long tails with spearheads on top of them. It was trying to sneak on them from the side like a real wolf would do. As soon as it understood that its cover was blown Roshack exploded in movement and rushed at them with an angry snarl.
It charged right into Jack standing closest to him. Jack blocked its charge with his shield, but the force was enough to knock him to the ground.
Zaun stepped in front of Jack guarding him against Roshack’s consecutive tail strikes with his shield. Tails rocked on his shield leaving shallow scratches and bouncing off.
Orla took the opportunity and struck Roshack’s from the side with her spear but the monster dodged, jumped back, and tried to strike her with its middle tail.
Orla relaxed judging the distance between them too long for the monster's attack to reach her, but she was mistaken as its tail elongated during the strike and landed on her chest. Tail head penetrated her breastplate and stopped at chainmail under it. Strike took the air out of her as she stepped back and hid behind her shield.
Anger flared inside her and she stared at Roshack clenching her spear in her hand with fury. She once again was the first to take a hit and she hated it. And her hatred radiated to the monster in front of her.
Linus stepped forward and reached for mana in his core. Mana burned through his body as he activated his perk Spearman’s thrust and his spear flew forward with an incredible speed.
Roshack couldn’t possibly dodge Linus' strike but the monster didn’t even try to. Roshack threw his own attack past the Linus spear. Two of his tails flew past the spear to strike Linus right in the middle of his face.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Linus' eyes opened wide, and his muscles bulged as he tried to stop his own strike and swirl out of the way of both approaching tails.
His spear went wide and missed the monster, while Roshack’s both tails hit glancing blows on his helmet without piercing it.
Zaun tried to sneak his own axe blow in, but he was forced to stop by a defensive tail sweep from the monster. Roshack stood in a defensive stance and carefully observed his human foes. His eyes followed them as they got back to their positions in this brief respite Roshack gave them. Monster's sneak attack was unsuccessful and now they will have to fight on the even ground.
Four of the Mad Dogs slowly surrounded Roshack. Carefully watching Roshack in front of them for any opening he would give them. They didn’t rush.
Humans started their attacks. They closed in to attack and jumped back when Roshak's tails swatted them away. They had all the time in the world as they were systemically probing Roshack’s defenses, poking and waiting for weakness to show.
Roshack was twirling around and his tails flew in chaotic swipes keeping them at bay. He didn’t go on the offensive as Dogs wouldn't allow him to do so. As soon as he advanced to one of the humans others moved to strike and canine riftkin was forced back to defend itself.
They were stuck in weird middle ground where both sides were wary to go attack too recklessly. Fighting sides stood there slowly inching back and forth clashing and retreating. After some time it was obvious that humans had the high ground. There were four Dogs facing Roshack and only three tails on its bum.
“Attack at the same time!” Jack shouted, “Now!”
All four of them advanced at the same time with shields in front. Three tails met them as dangerous strikes rained down on the shields in their hands. Three of them were stopped and forced to defend themselves, but with the monster's attention split, Orla was able to pass through Roshack’s defenses and get in striking range.
She thrust her weapon with all her fury and her spear pierced the monster's flesh with ease. Roshack roared in pain. All three tails returned to the monster for a second and struck out toward Orla. She hid behind her round shield as they crashed into it pushing her back. But the shield was too small and one of the tails went under it and pierced her leg armor drawing blood.
The girl fell on one knee, but she was not out of the fight yet. Tails retreated and struck out again. This time she rolled to the side leaving the spear behind. Tails missed and struck the ground shooting in the air dust and rock bits.
Tails stayed in the ground as Roshack’s skull got caved in by a mace, its neck got struck with an axe, and its back got pierced with a spear at the same time. The light went out in his eyes as he slumped over dead. Blood pooled under the dead creature feeding the rock below.
Congratulations! Your party has slain Lvl 10 Lesser Eldritch Roshack!
Zaun didn’t waste a breath as he climbed up the rock on the side and scanned around for other possible dangers.
“I wasn’t that bad!” Jack said swinging his mace to get bloody bits of it, “Orla you got hit. Did he punch through?”
“Yes, but barely,” she said sitting and checking her leg to see how deep was wound, “This armor was worth the coin. The very first hit in the chest would have killed me in my old wooden armor.”
“Let’s go to the bags and put some medicine on the wounds,” Linus said to her, “You will feel better.”
“Do it quick and we will continue moving,” Jack stood beside Zaun on the rock looking in the same direction as him, “We have a party to attend.”
Linus and Orla followed his gaze toward a column of clearly visible smoke in the distance. The unexpected view so far from human lands gave them a pause.
“We shouldn’t go there!” Orla said worriedly.
“Nonsense! These must be humans,” Jack answered.
“That’s why we shouldn’t go there.”
“I will be a bad Guardian if I will go past human camp in these lands full of danger,” Jack addressed the rest of the party, “What do you think?”
“We are seeing more and more riftkin roaming around outside of rifts,” Linus pointed his spear at Roshack’s corpse, “It will be sensible to spend the night with others.”
Zaun didn’t voice his opinion.
“Then it is settled. Let’s get bags and go see what luxuries they have here in the wild,” Jack said looking at the column of smoke.
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They arrived at a small rock fortress in the middle of the Riftlands after more than an hour. Six meters high fortifications fully hid what lays beyond them. Only a column of dark black smoke which they saw earlier and voices traveling over the walls gave away that encampment wasn’t abandoned.
“We have guests!” a voice resounded from beyond the parapets, “Code?”
“Riftkin cupcakes!” Jack shouted.
“Ha ha! Call the Dermo! We finally have somebody with a sense of humor!”
After a small wait, they could hear heavy footsteps approach the gates all the way from their spot on the other side of the wall. Heavy wooden gates opened and a fat giant stood in front of them with an old scarred face.
He wasn't wearing armor, instead, the giant was adorned in a simple set of thin grey clothes which only accented his large belly and bulking muscles. His blonde hair and beard were cut short and hair didn't grow in places where scars were running through his skull.
Giant was holding the largest and most beautiful hammer Jack has ever seen in his life. The sides of the large war hammer were ornated with beautiful metal ornaments showing scenes of war and hunt.
Delver Lord – Lvl ???
“Come here Delvers! You can stay at my house as long as you don’t cause trouble here.”
Giant lifted his war hammer towards them.
“But remember, if you do cause trouble in my sanctuary, I will send you to divines myself.”
Mad Dogs glanced at Jack with worry.