Charomera

The 24th of Elaphebolion

The Year 4631 in the Era of Mortals

Arche opened his eyes. He was on his back, dazed and in more than a little pain. Thankfully, the feeling didn’t last long. Soft, greenish-yellow light surrounded him. The faint scent of flowers filled the otherwise musty room.

“Are you all right?” Lyssa asked.

“I…I think so?”

“You got a profession, didn’t you?” Tess said. “Picked an interesting time to do your Professing.”

It wasn’t a question but Arche nodded anyway.

“Yeah. But that doesn’t matter right now, it’s locked behind a quest. Is everyone all right?”

Odelia took that opportunity to pipe up. “Nothing ten minutes or so can’t fix. I think we’re mostly surface wounds.”

“Speak for yourself,” Abraxios said, lifting up one wing to show the wilted and singed feathers. “This kind of damage will take weeks to fix. I won’t fly right until I’ve had a chance to molt. I really thought it had us there.”

The tengu gave Arche a sidelong look. “That is, until you did…whatever it is that you did.”

“Divine Body,” Tess said in a playfully deep voice, waving her hands in a foul mimicry of Arche. “It makes me strong and dumb.”

“Hey,” Arche replied, feigning annoyance. “I don’t need any skills to be dumb.”

“Don’t I know it,” Lyssa muttered.

“Hey!” Arche held up a hand to stop further banter. “How long was I out?”

“Only a minute or two,” Odelia reassured him.

“We need to plan our next move.” Lyssa moved to the destroyed wall.

She peeked into the adjoining passageway, cocking her head to listen for the sounds of approaching beastmar. Satisfied, she returned, shaking her head to indicate a lack of alarm.

“We still haven’t figured out what the beastmar are planning or how to put a stop to it. That’s our number one priority.” Arche eased himself upright and found a seat on the rubble as Odelia moved back and forth between the rest of the party, using her biomancy to seal open wounds with a yellow glow.

“I think we need to go farther down, as much as I hate to say it,” Abraxios chimed in. “When I scouted it out before, I saw a lot of passages far below. This place is big and being entirely underground means it’s probably bigger than any of us know.”

“We could take a beastmar captive, next we fight them, and make them take us to their leaders,” Arche suggested.

“Absolutely not,” Lyssa replied.

Arche looked at the Huntress in surprise.

“Something the matter?”

“They’re abominations.”

“And you’re not willing to even consider that we use one to our advantage?”

“How would we know that it isn’t walking us into a trap? That it wouldn’t gladly throw away its life to kill us?”

Arche thought about that for a moment.

“Well, no way of knowing about a trap, but the ones from before ran away when the chímaira showed up, so they clearly have some sense of self-preservation.”

“They fear fire,” Abraxios said. “Many of them hesitated to enter when the oil was ignited, and several cried out who were not caught in the mess.”

“Shit, I forgot about that. What happened to the fire?”

“It’s buried beneath a thousand kilos of stone. If it hasn’t smothered, it will burn itself out,” Odelia replied.

“Wow, uh, a thousand. That’s…a lot?”

The others rolled their eyes collectively. The synchronicity was impressive but they had other concerns.

“Anyway. Back on topic. Unless someone has a better idea than wandering these tunnels for days and hoping we don’t get lost, I think our best bet is taking a prisoner and making them show or tell us where to find the rest.”

Lyssa frowned but said nothing. No one else objected.

“All right, good talk.”

Arche stood, still feeling unsteady. Odelia had done much to heal him, but with his profession locked behind a quest, he still hadn’t been able to level. His Stamina and Mana were low.

The others stood as well, Odelia having seen to it that everyone was fully healed.

“So, who’s ready to make some noise?”

“One moment.” Lyssa knelt and touched the corpse of the chímaira.

A moment later, the chímaira sagged inwards into itself, its hide and all heads gone, along with several other various body parts. Arche balked slightly at the display, wondering how high Lyssa’s Skinning skill was that she could skip the process at, presumably, no loss in quality. She noticed him gawking and raised an eyebrow in response.

“I’m a Huntress, what did you expect?”

“No, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. I should have seen that coming.”

They filed out into the passageway, heading away from the cave-in Arche had caused. They walked for longer than was necessary, each of them wanting to put the room behind them. Arche led the way as he was best suited for front-line combat. It was also his idea, so he felt it was only fair that he be the tip of the spear. As he walked, his thoughts turned to levels.

Arche vaguely remembered Lyssa mentioning levels were harder to get once someone chose a profession. His Slayer of the Mighty Trait had made leveling a breeze, so far, but that was only for as long as he fought and personally killed creatures that were a higher level than him. As it stood, his profession was locked until he increased his Divinity, whatever that was.

It had to have something to do with his Divine Body skill, but he didn’t get the feeling the relationship would be quite so straight forward as leveling it. It could be tied to the skill itself, the number of times he activated it, how long in total he had channeled it, learning more about how it worked, the circumstances in which he used it, or any number of other factors. There was no telling without trial and error, and the last thing he wanted to deal with was more Mana Burnout, especially after Odelia’s and Abraxios’s warnings that improper usage could kill him or cause irreparable damage. There would be no quick fix leveling to save him until he had unlocked his profession.

There was one silver lining about the whole situation. For as long as his level was capped at fifteen, monsters that he killed that were stronger would give him bonus experience, which would all come rushing back to him upon completion of his profession quest. There was a tightrope to power in front of him: hunt and kill dangerous creatures, but don’t die while doing it. It wouldn’t be easy, but it could be lucrative. Arche shelved those thoughts for another time. Power had never been his goal and it was time to focus.

“All right, this should be far enough,” he said, coming to a stop. “How are we going to draw them out?”

Abraxios parted his beak in a strange, avian smile.

“Just leave that to me.”

The tengu stepped forward, in front of Arche and several steps past. The tengu held his wings out to either side, the feathers brushing against the wall. Then he brought his hands together in a thunderous clap accompanied by a fierce cry that echoed throughout the enclosed stone space.

Arche opened his mouth in an alarmed shout but couldn’t hear any noise come out. The world had gone from unthinkably loud to eerily quiet in the space of a breath. Abraxios snapped two taloned fingers together and the noise returned.

“Sorry,” the tengu said. “I forget you wingless ones have never braced a thunderstorm.”

“Of course we have,” Lyssa replied, her eyes still closed as she massaged what was left of her ears. “They’re not that uncommon.”

“I meant from inside the clouds.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“All right, enough with the humble-brags,” Arche cut in. “Did it work?”

Abraxios nodded. “Oh, yes. Those who were not stunned upon hearing it will come to investigate.”

“Great. I guess this is a bad time to ask what happens if too many come.”

“If too many come,” Odelia said wearily. “Then I will cave in the passage.”

“Perfect,” Tess sang with a fake smile. “Because that won’t be problematic in any way.”

Arche moved to the front of the group and readied himself, bouncing on his toes. After being relatively helpless for most of the previous fight, he felt restless. More than that, he felt angry. He’d been forced to sit and watch, drained of everything, as his friends had fought and almost died against overwhelming odds. He’d been helpless to stop it. Worse than helpless, they’d had to worry about protecting him. His presence had been actively bad for them.

Not this time.

Arche hefted the Tridory into an overhand stance with white knuckles as he heard the scrabbling of too many feet in the distance, echoing down the passage toward them. Adrenaline and anger mixed deep in his belly, creating a hot blend that traveled throughout his entire body. He was glad they were coming. Glad he had something to fight. Something he didn’t have to hold back on. Something to slaughter. It was time to paint the caves with their blood. Time to revel in their massacre.

Arche didn’t know when he had started moving, but he found himself running through the passage. The others called out his name from behind, shouting for him to stop, to come back, but there was a pulse in his veins that spurred him on, a thrill. His blood was up and his vision was red. What lay ahead was the answer to all his problems, for the time being. The enemy was approaching and he was ready for them. Here, at last, was something he could do.

Something he could kill.

Arche rounded a bend in the passage and saw the beastmar approaching. The passage was long and straight, thirty paces at a glance, and wide enough that two of the multi-legged beastmar could run abreast, or three of the normally proportioned ones, but they would have great difficulty fighting on top of one another. Arche dug inside himself and channeled a sliver of his Divine Body skill, directing it into his arm. His arm glowed with a bright, red light, lighting up the passage. He skipped a step and threw the Tridory. With his suddenly enhanced Strength, the trident flew impossibly far for how short the ceiling was and punched through the first beastmar unfortunate enough to block its path.

The line of advancing beastmar buckled as those rushing behind tripped over their fallen comrades. Arche never stopped, continuing his rush forward. With a small expenditure of Mana, the Tridory flew back toward his open hand as he closed the distance, dripping with black gore.

An arrow sped past his head, burying itself into the throat of a beastmar and it went down in a tumble of flailing legs. Arche slammed into the horde, thrusting and stabbing with his spear before turning it like a quarterstaff to block or displace. As confined as the passage was, the stack of injured or dead beastmar slowed the rest down, who pushed against their brethren, knocking them off balance in turn and making them easy prey to Arche’s spear.

And prey they were. Hot anger flooded Arche’s hands and feet, giving him strength. Everything, every repressed emotion came tearing out of him with frightening intensity. The beastmar were strong and hateful, but most were not especially fast. Arche wielded the Tridory in both hands, constantly adjusting his grip to change his reach. One moment, he was fully extended to tear out a beastmar’s throat, the next he was right up on them, hand practically gripping the blade as he used the Tridory to disembowel, to stab, to rip. Tess appeared beside him, adjusting her movements to flow with his as her daggers made short work of anything that slipped inside of his spear.

“Malaka! What is wrong with you?”

Her voice was quiet beneath the blood pumping through him. It didn’t matter. There were beastmar to slay. Arche thrust forward at a relatively humanoid beastmar wielding a large kopis. The beastmar deflected the spear thrust to the side and into one of its allies, before sliding the small sword against the shaft and toward Arche. Arche let go with one hand, channeled Divine Body into his arm, and lashed out with his fist faster than the beastmar had expected.

Crimson light bathed the narrow corridor.

The creature brought the kopis up into the path of Arche’s fist. Arche saw the motion and snarled. A little bit of steel against the full weight of his Divine Body? Child’s play. He threw even more Mana into his fist and pushed through. Knuckle met blade and persevered. The sword shattered and Arche’s fist continued through, found the beastmar’s face, and shattered that as well.

He deactivated the skill a moment later, his Mana flagging at less than half. With it gone, much of Arche’s anger faded as well. It washed out of him, leaving him cold and tired. Still, the beastmar came.

The full weight of his stupidity bore down on him. He’d abandoned his allies and rushed toward the enemy, giving up any strategic position they might have had and forcing the rest to follow along after him or abandon him to a deserved fate. Stupidity was too kind a word.

“You’re right to be mad,” he grunted, narrowly blocking a spear thrust. “I shouldn’t have run off. I couldn’t stop.”

“What are you talking about?” Tess spun behind Arche and came up on his other side, driving a dagger into a beastmar’s armpit.

“Later, please.”

He thrust the Tridory up toward the necks of a two-headed beastmar, but somehow managed to thread both through the prongs of the spear instead of skewering them. With the press of a button, both heads were severed as the trident condensed back into a single-pointed spear.

“No! No, we cannot finish this later. Why are you being so reckless? This isn’t just your life down here. All of us followed you and I want to know that you’re not leading us to our deaths.”

Arche hesitated, just for a moment. It was enough for a beastmar to rake its claws down his arm, drawing hot blood. He stabbed it through the face in response but the damage was done.

“Not intentionally.”

An arrow skipped off the ceiling and hit a beastmar in the eye, making it howl and scrabble at its face even as Arche stabbed it in the chest. He almost missed the opening, as distracted as he was.

“Holy shit, what a shot!”

Even as it fell, another took its place in what seemed an endless supply. Arche gnashed his teeth, feeling the fighting spirit rise again. A thin wind blew around him and Tess, buoying them and making their movements faster and more precise.

“How many are left, can you tell?” Arche gasped, his attention completely taken by a beastmar with two spears that was trying its best to turn him into a kebab. One of the spears slashed his leg, but he managed to pin the other to the wall with one arm and slam the blade of the Tridory into the beastmar’s chest.

A large fist emerged from the swelling mass of beastmar and collided against Arche’s chest, knocking him back and off his feet. The Tridory ripped free from his hand, lodged in the ribcage of the beastmar he had killed. Tess danced backwards toward him, trying to slow the press of monsters but she couldn’t keep them at bay by herself.

“Eight.” Tess ducked a swipe from a hand that had at least seventeen claws.

She twisted to the side and stepped off the wall in a graceful maneuver that let her reach high enough to slash the throat of the beastmar towering above her.

“Seven.”

Arche got to his feet. He drew his xiphos in a fluid motion, then jumped back into the fight.

“On your left!”

He wished, not for the first time, that he had picked up a shield somewhere along his journey, but he had to make do with what he had. Activating his Power Attack maneuver, he brought his forearm up and channeled Divine Body to give him the extra strength needed to arrest one beastmar’s arm against the wall. He brought his sword down and managed to sever the entire arm.

The beastmar screeched but Arche wasn’t done. Twisting and thrusting the xiphos into the creature’s other shoulder, Arche severed the tendons and rendered the limb useless. The beastmar lunged toward him, trying to bite him with a face that was a foul cross between a man and a frog. Arche lost his footing and landed on his back. The beastmar descended onto him, biting and gnashing. Arche grabbed it by the throat to keep it from tearing into his face and used his feet to kick it over his head, back toward Lyssa and the others behind him.

“Keep that one alive,” he barked, not waiting to see if the others were listening.

The move had left Tess to fend for herself against two smaller beastmar simultaneously and their combined assault had proven more than the dexterous Rogue could handle. She let out a cry of pain as claws tore into her side, though she exacted her retribution in blood. Arche dropped the sword and summoned the Tridory to his hand. It impaled two beastmar as it flew to him, ripping through their bodies like they weren’t even there. An expertly placed arrow from Lyssa took another in the throat, dropping it before it reached either of them.

Arche thrust his spear into a beastmar’s stomach as Tess’s throwing dagger caught the last in the throat. At long last, the fight they had picked was over. A host of notifications awaited Arche but he shelved them all for later. He picked up his fallen sword and placed it safely into his inventory. He winced at the few wounds he had accrued but none of them seemed serious. He was slowly staining his clothing red, but the bleeding was only trickling a few health every five seconds or so and would stop before long. Tess let out a wet, raspy cough.

Arche turned toward her and froze. The Tridory slipped from his hand and clattered against the floor.

The armor around her side had been torn open and there was a jagged slice of white poking through a gaping wound. One of her ribs had snapped away. Tess slid to the ground, both hands trying desperately to hold her insides back as a puddle of blood grew around her. Arche was at her side a moment later, his hands over hers.

“Fuck! No, no, no, no, no, stay with me.”

He put pressure on the wound, his panic rising. This was far beyond anything he knew how to deal with.

“Odelia! Stay with me, Tess. Odelia!”

The halfling knelt next to Tess’s other side, her hands weaving complex spell patterns. Tess’s breathing grew ragged and painful. Her face quickly losing color. Arche kept his hands on the wound until Odelia pushed him out of the way. Brilliant light burst forth from the halfling’s hands and sank into the gash in Tess’s side. Arche held her hand, his eyes darting back and forth between the wound and her face.

This was his fault. All of it. Why had he run off? What possessed him to do something so fucking stupid?

Arche’s stomach clenched as Odelia worked complex spell forms over and into the wound. He had been the one to rush forward, chasing some ridiculous feeling and desire to prove himself, and all it had done was endanger the lives of his friends. It had been reckless, stupid, and pointless. There had been no thought to it. None at all.

“Come on, please. Please, stay with me.”

Tess’s ashen face turned toward him, slack from exhaustion. Her lips twisted into a small smile, then her eyes closed.

“No, no, no, no…” Arche felt his throat start closing up.

“She’s not dead,” Odelia said quickly, still pumping golden Mana into the wound. “Just lost consciousness.”

Arche felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. At first, all he saw was a blur, but he blinked a few times and his vision cleared to see Lyssa standing next to him, her face creased in pity and compassion. Arche stood; Tess’s hand fell limp into the dirt. He backed away, his breath coming in short spurts. Lyssa grabbed him by the shoulders and kept him from sliding back down to the ground.

“Calm, Arche. Calm yourself.”

He barely heard the words. Tess’s face, her slight smile, her blonde hair stained red, all of it was burned into his memory. Her blood coated his hands, as surely as if he had dealt the wound himself. It was too much. He couldn’t…

The emerald light faded, startling Arche out of his spiral, and Odelia slumped to the ground, her Mana spent. The halfling took a couple labored breaths before speaking.

“I’ve done what I can to staunch the bleeding, but the wound is deep. It damaged several organs and I’m out of Mana. I’ll continue doing all I can for her, but it’s up to her, now.”

Arche held his face in his hands.

“What did I do?”