I felt that violent smile creep over my lips again as I stood tall and brought back my spear, then advanced on the Korgoth Spawn cautiously, step by step. With less than ten paces to go, I became impatient, and made to run and stab the thing instantly through the skull.
The MOMENT I’d decided on rash action, the skeleton spun and threw its arms wide, then lunged for me, swiping its knife left and right — full range of motion in the tight space. With [Vigour] I launched myself backwards and with [Weapon Mastery], I returned my own swift stab, letting the spear slide down so I held only the final two inches of the pole.
Bronze pierced the skeleton’s ribs, cracked bone spraying dust, but I didn’t feel much of an impact — there was no body aside from the bones. Something other than organs held this fiend together. Still with [Vigour] coursing through me, I drew the spear back and closed the distance again, then thrust hard, this time into the skeleton’s skull.
Half through an eye socket and half through a brittle cheekbone, the back of its skull exploded as if hit by a bullet. But it kept coming on. It moaned and groaned, the sharp bones of it neck reverberated with a sound eerily similar to the howls carried on the winds above.
I sent a quick glance back to Alator, only to see him climbing vertically up the side of the wall, gaining a vantage point. He stuck his legs out either side and held himself aloft, waiting for an opening — or anticipating his having to jump in.
The echo of [Battle Tactics] told me the skeleton didn’t have much left in him.
I can do this!
It slouched forwards again with that frightening, surprising speed. Dodging wildly, the knife flew harmlessly two-inch over my shoulder. I met its body full-on, and it almost crumpled like paper, falling onto mine in exhaustion. Utilising every ounce of the new Strength in my muscles, I THREW the skeleton backwards, sent it sprawling on the floor.
Then I brought back the spear and thrust, then again and again, like a fencer with a rapier I cut and stabbed into every part of the fiend where it lay. Broken bone sprinkled like shards of china in the darkness, clattering against my body and the close walls. After a dozen hard hits, spearhead on dirt and stone, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s gone,” Alator’s gentle voice pierced the red veil. Eyes ablur, I looked between him and the fiend — a pile of unmoving bones on the floor.
// SYS : You have gained 30 XP for defeating the Korgoth Spawn. You now have 60 and need 82 total for the next Level. //
“Another!” I yelled into the darkness of the trench.
Unfortunately, only my own voice echoed back to me. A semblance of calm returning to me, action hormones fading, I walked over to the bones. I found the Obsidian Knife it had and tied it onto my belt, then looked it over properly. The bones were cracked and sundered in a thousand places, but there was still a light deep within its eyes. I reached through the splintered skull and my fist closed around a small orb.
The Analysis Card told me this was an Ignis Fatuus, whatever that meant. It emitted a soft white glow, felt cold to the touch, and even made me uneasy to hold. I felt something creeping up my spine, but rubbing the place I felt nothing. I stuffed it into my pouch.
XP, and loot, to boot! A proper kill in a proper (sort-of) dungeon!
The visceral lived experience was of course absolutely different from any game I’d ever played, but at least some things worked that way.
I waited for the oncoming dizziness and sway, but it didn’t come; one use of each Skill didn’t bring on any ill effects.
“I’ve another one of them in me!” I laughed to Alator.
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He grinned widely, sharp teeth glistening in the dark. Again I felt an odd paternal presence as his eyes showed pride, and then perhaps a little melancholy. . . . He turned away from my staring and said aside, as he started to walk off:
“Unfortunately there aren’t any others that I can sense. Let’s get aboveground.”
I red-faced brushed fragments of bone from my Linothorax and followed him back up the slope and back to the light.
At many points in the journey back up, Alator heard me slip and span and offered a steady hand, which even with my low Dexterity I managed to catch . . . most of the time. A couple of times I slid down a yard before he grabbed the scruff of my neck and yanked me back up.
Cresting over the lip of the ridge, we saw the clouds were darkened. That moment, there was an intense twisting pain in my stomach, accompanied by a loud grumble. For a moment I winced and almost doubled over, then I realised it was hunger!
Food!
I’d forgotten that I’d have to eat food!
“Uh — we might need to find some food.”
“I heard,” Alator cocked his head. “When was the last time you ate?”
“This morning, but I only had a small calo-pouch. You know, like vits and mins and veggies in a sort of purée, you squirt it into your mouth.”
Absolute bewilderment.
“Sounds ghastly. . . .”
Yeah, I guess it is, actually. . . . To be honest, though, that’s pretty much all I ever eat.
“So you have to eat multiple times a day?” Alator asked as I rubbed my stomach.
“Yes, Alator,” I scoffed at him incredulously. “I have to eat multiple times a day.”
“Fine.” He huffed and rapped his fingers on one of the bleached bone Shards, then glanced about the ground, seemingly looking for tracks. “I don’t know this place at all. Even if we hunted, I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
My heart sank as I realised the only course of action.
“We have to go back to Ur-Kadesh. Ugh, bollix, I should have bought some rations from that Haggler at the gate.”
“Hate hagglers,” Alator muttered.
“Me too! Just price your goods at what they’re worth, for Pete’s sake.”
“It’s a point of pride for many — reaching a price that both sides can agree on. Hate it.”
We made back to the frozen lake, keeping to the open in case there was an opportunity to gain XP, but unfortunately no fiends made themselves known, and Alator didn’t sense any as we moved. Then back along the oream goat’s path — I still hadn’t seen an oream goat, just heard the words from Kikiara, maybe they’d be good eating — and we climbed the slope that was the foothills of the mountain into which Ur-Kadesh had been carved.
“What to tell you about this city. . . . It’s dark, pretty gross, underground. There’s a man called Yorrick there who probably wants to punch my lights out, and almost certainly will.”
“For good reason?” Alator shot back without a thought.
“In what world is that sort of violence ever for good reason?”
Alator raised an arm and indicated the wastes. The wind carried howls that sounded like the vibrations of cursed souls, and dry blood was still caked onto his neck and bare chest.
“Yeah, okay. Well no, he was slightly rude to me so I threatened to kill him.”
My companion just nodded, like that made perfect sense, too. SYS said that Alator was from a savage world, and it was one which the World-Eater had ravaged in some way. My mind blanched for a moment at the memory of the Something with ridged bones and purple-black fangs, and imagined the damage it would do to Earth if it got there.
I mean, it wouldn’t be so bad if it was a MegaCorp-Eater, or like a Supermarket-Eater, maybe, but World-Eater? And I’m supposed to stop that thing somehow? Best not to think about it. . . .
Twilight came on fast and was chased by nightfall. Up the last leg of the hill — felt MUCH longer on the way up than when I ran and leapt down it earlier in the day, I used the Bronze Spear as a walking stick most of the way — we came to the bronze gates of Ur-Kadesh. It hadn’t snowed anew, but the drag-lines from Kikiara’s Abominable kill had long been covered over by shifting winds.
“Damn, Jothar must have packed up,” I said as we walked down the corridor into the city.
“Wouldn’t you rather hold out for freshly-cooked food, instead? We’ll find somewhere proper.”
Freshly-cooked food? I can’t remember the last time I had a home-cooked meal.
My mum kicked me out when I turned 16 and I’d pretty much just been eating calo-pouches and the odd takeaway meal, when I could afford it. Struck me as some cruel irony that it took me travelling to some barbaric land before I could eat some real food.