Azrael felt that they were close to the end of their journey. The unnaturally tall mountains that marked the end of the known world were now raging up into the sky before him, massive stone peaks covered in perpetual snow, seemingly holding up the sky itself. Indeed, they were so tall that barely two hours after midday the travelling duo were once more cast in shadow, the sun hidden beyond the massive snow-covered peaks. It was, however, not the closeness of the mountains which convinced Azrael that they were nearing the end of their journey, but rather the ever-increasing signs of human activity.
Sure, the path that he and James had travelled the past two weeks had been expanded and reinforced by players, but the road here was properly supported. Caves carved into the ravine wall with magic increased with size, as greater and greater numbers of players moved towards a final goal. Here and there were occasional steps carved into the ravine’s side, leading upwards and the ravine itself was widening out as the cliff walls grew less tall.
Noticing a potential ambush point up ahead, Azrael began drawing upon mana to cast [Search]. The spell had been refined, its level increasing due to frequency of use and its range increasing to almost triple its previous size after Azrael had figured out how to include environmental mana into his spell. At present the spell gave him a basic insight of his surroundings within almost 50 meters of himself.
Azrael cast, as James raised his hand, signalling a stop. He froze and the big man slowly reached up, gripping his sword hilt. [Search] came back with a negative result, but Azrael followed James’ lead, drawing upon mana, ready to cast a spell or summon a dagger.
The two of them stood in silence for a few moments, Azrael noticing faint vibrations through his feet. Steadily, the vibrations grew, shaking loose small peddles, but whatever was causing it was still some distance away.
“Bandits or Goats?” Azrael asked, to break the silence, despite knowing that neither were anywhere close to them.
The massive mountain goats that roamed the mountains and ravine ledges were almost been more of a hassle than the bandits, in part due to the fact that James wanted to pet each and every one of these ‘woolly cuties’. Neither of them had posed a threat so far and indeed the duo had passed the entire journey mostly unchallenged.
However, since entering the ravine Azrael had come to accept two things. One, James had a terrible misconception of what was cute, and two, he – unsurprisingly – had a fantastic sense for danger and the possibility of a fight.
James relaxed, releasing his grip on his hilt.
“Neither” he said with a grin, before bounding forward with one massive stride. The grin remained firmly fixed in place.
Azrael applied [Wind Stride] to himself, racing after the madly grinning madman. Whatever it was that James had discovered Azrael wasn’t too worried. Afterall, the man was still grinning – bounding along the ravine with strides heavy enough to shake the road.
Azrael briefly reconsidered. James had been grinning when he’d mentioned killing the dragon. Perhaps his sense of ‘fun’ and ‘ok’ were just as skewed as his perception of ‘cute’. For all Azrael knew, James could be grinning at the possibility of the entire road collapsing from his reckless actions.
Azrael decided to try and overtake the grinning maniac, before he actually did collapse the path.
Racing after James, Azrael felt the vibrations growing ever stronger. It was mostly uniform, but every now and then there was a greater tremor, sending rocks tumbling down from above. The further they ran, the closer they got, and the closer they got, the worse the tremors were.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Barely two minutes later and the tremors were so intense that Azrael swore there was a battle going on. Dust, sand, stones and man-sized boulders were raining down, forcing Azrael to deftly dodge them, or else press close the cliff in order to avoid being squashed. The chunks of rock smashed into the path, sending massive sections tumbling into the ravine below. It was only thanks to Mors’ [Footwork] and [Wind Stride] that he managed to keep his footing.
James on the other hand was having fun, smashing through small boulders with his sword, while avoiding the larger ones. His blue-glowing blade sent rocks flying in every direction with each swing, adding to the chaos.
Then, suddenly the road ended, the returning into a goat track. Azrael skidded to a halt. Barely stopping himself from tumbling down into the ravine. The largest tremor that he’d experienced chose that exact moment to strike. From behind him James called out a warning, diving for Azrael.
Azrael looked up.
A boulder, far larger than any he’d seen so far was coming down.
On two sides was ravine, on the third a sheer cliff and on the fourth was James, hurtling towards him, and the remains of what had once been a road.
James caught Azrael in a full body tackle, slamming into him all the tender gentleness of a goat hauling a cart load of bricks and sending them both flying towards the cliff. Despite having all his breath knocked out of him, Azrael braced for impact with the cliff.
It never came, the two of them flying far beyond where the wall should have been and landing roughly on the ground. Sent tumbling, Azrael felt a jarring sensation as James dug his sword into the ground, followed by another short flight through the air as he was ripped from James’ one handed grasp by the remaining inertia in his body. He flipped, [Dramatic Flair] catching him in a somersault, then fell backwards as he stumbled over something. For the second time in unimaginably brief moments he felt the wind knocked out of him. A throbbing pain in his head and his suddenly blurry vision confirmed a concussion. Everything was fuzzy, it hurt to breath and there was a ringing in his ears. Concussion and a cracked rib.
He saw a silhouette – James – rush over, bending down to check on him. He swore he heard people shouting, but amidst the shaking of the ground and the ringing in his ears he wasn’t sure. His vision dimmed and slipped for moment and James wasn’t there. In his periphery he thought he saw something – no, several somethings – flash. He heard James’ distinct laugh from somewhere beyond his vision, when another blurry silhouette entered his view. It was male, but it wasn’t James. They bent down and spoke, raising their hands. There was a glow of magic and he felt his vision and hearing clear. The pain in his side subsided.
Azrael blinked, looking past the person that had just healed him and processing the scene. Seeing that their patient was moving the person that had just healed him rose and rushed away, seeking other injured people on the battlefield. And a battlefield it was. People of all races; humans, elves, dwarves and beastkin were fighting massive bronze scaled lizards, amongst what could only be called a tent city.
Rampaging through the tents and carts in a stampede, the lizards spread chaos wherever they went. Their reddish-brown metal scales protected from both blade and magic, causing spells and weapons alike to bounce off.
Even as he watched – recovering – a smaller lizard charged towards him, followed by a swordsman. Azrael didn’t hesitate, summoning an [Earth Spear] under the charging monster. The smaller, potentially juvenile, lizard didn’t stand a chance – its own momentum impaling it.
The swordsman arrived barely a moment later, poking the dead lizard with his boot.
“Neat trick” he said between gasps. “Haven’t seen you before. You new?”
Azrael answered with a single nod. Even as another explosion occurring somewhere.
“Good. The south side needs back up. The bronze-scales broke through”
He saw Azrael’s confused look.
“The lizards. The left.” He said, pointing with his blade.
A moment later he was gone, just as fast at the healer. In a battle every moment of inactivity was a moment wasted.
Azrael pushed himself off the ground, summoning two stone daggers and layering them with [Reinforcement]. It seemed he was going to get some practice hunting lizards – bronze-scales – before he hunted a dragon. He sprinted to the south side of the camp.
They weren’t quite dragons, but that was always the way with games. You had to hunt the mobs before the boss.