Frank watched from a distance, hidden behind a burnt-out car, as a giant humanoid shape inhaled and exhaled. Each release of breath seemed to heat the air, even where Frank crouched, over two hundred meters away. In and out, warm, sooty air passed back and forth, whipping at his sleeves.
No doubt this would be uncomfortable enough to disable anyone without sufficiently high stats. If he moved closer, it'd probably start posing problems for him, too. The scale of the monster causing it was immense. It was a husk, revealed as obviously feminine by the shape of its chest, scaled up until it would be over thirty feet tall if it got to its feet. Other than its size and obvious gendering, it looked like any other husk, and at a distance, the system provided no information.
The thought of whether he ought to approach it had occurred to Frank as soon as he'd spotted it, a mound in the distance, glowing slightly. The increased density of wandering husks was already starting to create real risk for him, but he pushed that aside. It wasn't whether or not he should, it was how he was going to.
He considered his surroundings. Obviously, he needed to get as close as possible before he struck. He had already made a circle around it, deciding that running into another husk that could potentially alert others was a worthwhile tradeoff. If he roused that thing, or even just a horde of regular husks, he'd rather be at a distance. Where he was now, was the closest point that offered real cover.
As Frank watched it and pondered, he could see its belly slowly expanding. He frowned. Was it giving birth to the other husks? That seemed likely. That meant he'd have to act quickly or there'd be more enemies to fight. After a brief deliberation, Frank started moving.
He slipped out from behind the car, and stayed low, moving quickly. Without anywhere to possibly hide, there was no point in being overly stealthy. Still, making a lot of noise before he had to would be stupid. The distance closed rapidly, and the air grew hotter. The force of the creature's breath began to blast hot air at Frank like a bellows. He felt his lips drying.
After making half the distance, he was spotted. It had been inevitable, and Frank responded by immediately breaking into a dash, using his kinetics to vault himself forward at every step, closing the remaining gap at inhuman speed.
Field Dungeon Rebirth In Ashes under attack. Husk Broodmother roused. Defeat it to clear the dungeon.
He only briefly glimpsed the prompt, dismissing it reflexively as he barrelled in. It was like running straight into a furnace. With his speed, the Broodmother had only just begun to prop itself up when he arrived and immediately expended a huge chunk of his available MP to savagely hit the creature. He struck first for a leg, hoping to stop it from standing up, with a blow, containing as much force as he could muster without snapping his wrists, aimed square at its knee.
He remembered vividly the gout of flame that had nearly blinded him, months ago, when he encountered his first husk back in that dungeon in Redstone. Even as he made contact he was already prepared to throw himself sideways. His mace struck true, and with a crunching sound, a veritable pillar exploded outwards from the point of impact. Frank could feel the burn on his hands and upper arms, even though he'd managed to launch himself away in time to avoid getting engulfed.
The pain distracted him briefly, but his attention was drawn back to his foe when it gave an incredible shriek. Clearly, he'd come out the better on that one. After righting himself, Frank didn't hesitate. Something like this, if he didn't hurt it before it could fight back, things would go sour. He threw himself back towards his opponent, aiming for the other leg, hoping that the first was sufficiently damaged to hinder its mobility. This time, the husk was ready and as Frank approached, it batted at him with a giant hand.
Unsure how intelligent the creature was, Frank had already decided to try and overwhelm before it could figure anything out. He freely spent more mana, this time using his off-hand to punch at the giant palm. The brief moment of contact was more than enough to break Frank's knuckles, and he grunted out in pain. However, his gambit worked, and the surge of force he transmitted threw its hand back with immense speed, causing it to smack itself in the face, leaving the creature stunned momentarily.
Frank used his good hand to put two hefty swings into its other knee, before launching himself away once more. He glanced around rapidly, worried that other husks would react to his foe's shriek. It proved to be a serious mistake. That half-second surveilling of everything but his primary opponent was enough for it to recover, and to Frank's dismay, he refocused on it just as the flames licking from its eyes started growing ominously, and changed from bright yellow and orange to a deep blue.
His reflexes kicked in, but he acted without preparation, and the sudden burst of force he used was not only excessive enough that something in his ankle popped, but sent him spinning awkwardly through the air. It saved his life, as the Husk Broodmother vaporized the ground he had been standing on before with a destructive beam of fire.
Frank felt and heard the destruction, but he didn't get a clear look at it. Once more, Frank dipped into his rapidly draining mana pool and this time stabilized himself. He landed awkwardly, skidding to a halt and nearly buckling when he tried to put weight on his left foot. Things were not going well.
His foe seemed to need time to recover, from the way it just glared at him, and Frank kept an eye on it while cataloguing his current state. Most of his hair was singed, his left ankle was toast, his right hand was broken, his left wrist ached, and he had burns all over. Even through his stats, his lungs burned from the acrid air, and he'd already depleted a significant portion of his MP. He wasn't nearly dead, but if not for his ability to move himself via magic, he'd probably die helplessly the moment the giant husk was able to fire a laser out of its eyes again.
He hadn't been expecting that. There were different kinds of bosses, and bosses that spawned more enemies were usually not so potent on the attack. This thing was almost certainly responsible for the destruction of Seattle, previously. He couldn't imagine how a group of people struggling to figure out what was going on, without any experience, would have done anything but be slaughtered. Frank didn't have time to ponder though. Even as he began to drink the health potion he'd brought with him in his now damaged bag, two problems occurred.
First, the big baddie he was currently carefully watching began to try and get to its feet. Second, backup started to arrive. A variety of husks, including, to Frank's chagrin, at least two wielding bows, began to arrive, sprinting full force onto the scene. It only took a split second for Frank to decide how to react. He ran. He had no idea whether the boss was seriously injured or not. He hoped he'd crippled it, but the current situation was not going to go in his favour. With any luck, it wouldn't be something that quickly regenerated, and with it crippled, and its location known, he could devise a plan to finish it.
He'd deal with that later. As soon as he was safely away from here, even, but it was time to go. Frank forced himself to down the entire potion in one go. The moment he'd gagged it down he started launching himself back towards the water. He could feel his flesh knit and mend uncomfortably as he sped away. Getting out was a lot quicker and easier than getting in was. Without the need to be stealthy, or to conserve his mana, Frank basically ejected himself, speeding up in stages. He hadn't had the opportunity to try it out yet, but there was no reason he couldn't just launch himself away at high speed and then apply force to slow himself down to a safe velocity before he landed.
Given the imminent risk of a laser beam, Frank chose to do it now. A few applications of force spread across the back of his body had him going highway speeds. Unfortunately, his mana expenditure left him unable to sustain flight. He gained a big chunk of distance, used most of his now meagre reserves to land, and then just started sprinting the old-fashioned way towards the bridge. He didn't want to take the boat because, in the unfortunate situation where the boss he'd just fled from was able to follow, he'd be a sitting duck trying to paddle across the lake.
Maybe soaring through the air like that would have been exhilarating in a situation less fraught with danger, but for the moment, all that was in Frank's head was not getting roasted. Luck appeared to be on his side, this time, as the broodmother was unable to chase, and the regular husks were left behind in the dust. He'd spent most of the day exploring, but leaving took him a scant twenty minutes, from the time he leapt away until he reached a checkpoint.
To Frank's surprise, they'd decided to hold the end of the bridge away from them. A bunch of cars had been pushed over to form a makeshift barricade on the road, and two dozen armed men and women were arranged there half a dozen keeping watch, and the others loitering while they waited their turn. One of them turned and pointed as Frank approached, and they readied their spears, swords, and axes.
Frank stopped up a fair distance away and hailed them.
"May I pass through?" he asked, plainly.
"Oh thank fuck you aren't some fancy new enemy," a woman said, taking the lead to speak for the others.
"Could be one of those skinwalkers we got warned about," someone else replied. "Haven't seen one yet."
"John's got twelve wisdom. If the guy explaining it to us was right, either he's human or he's high enough level to kill us all anyways," a third voice chimed in.
"Look at you, acting like you know what the fuck's going on," the woman turned and said, glaring. She turned back to Frank, and her glare faded. "What the hell are you doing out here? You look like you got right fucking singed too. You manage to walk through all those flaming buggers?" Her accent was weak enough it wouldn't be noticeable. Only her word choices gave her away as British.
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Frank shook his head. "Boated over, explored. Tried to figure out what exactly was going on here." Frank realized at her words that he had almost no hair left anywhere on his body. He touched his hand to his face. The potion had healed him but hadn't returned his eyebrows, which he was now aware were gone.
"Seems like a pretty stupid idea. How'd it go? Find anything?" She asked him.
"Giant husk, gives birth to other husks, has laser beam eyes," Frank explained succinctly.
"I hope you're lying, that sounds horrifying. We did hear something in the distance, that wasn't it, was it?"
"It was, I ran," Frank told her.
"I suspect if you didn't you wouldn't be here." She frowned suddenly. "It's not chasing you is it?"
"As far as I can tell, no," Frank said.
"Well, we'll find out, or we won't. What's your name?" She asked him.
"Frank."
"Alright, give me a second, this is a little weird. If a giant flaming husk comes chasing after you in the next three minutes, just go, I guess," the woman said. She didn't offer her own name. Instead, she walked over a short distance, and Frank saw her grab a tin can, which was, on closer inspection, attached to a string. Then she shouted into it, before placing it to her ear. Some sort of conversation occurred, with her listening with the cup against her ear, then speaking into it. Frank watched curiously.
"Pretty neat, huh?" the man who'd been chided earlier said. "Was my idea, honestly. I wrote a book about acoustic telephones. No one would publish it. Said it was a stupid idea and no one would find it interesting. Look at me now though."
"Do you have to tell literally everyone that this was your idea?" One of the others asked, sighing.
Frank, on the other hand, was impressed. This wasn't something he'd encountered previously, but the more he thought about it the better the idea seemed. Especially once people were high enough level that their senses improved. "What's the range?" He asked.
"About a third of a mile. We've got a relay going across the bridge, and the plan is to put up more," the man said, proudly. "Eventually we'll have the ability to send messages all over the place super quickly."
Frank nodded. The man took that as a sign to start explaining how it worked and its history, which was unfortunate. A few of the others their groaned, but fortunately, he didn't have much time to lecture before the woman finished her conversation and walked back.
"Troy Fairson says he'd like you to meet with him," she said, a bit oddly, as if she was confused about something. "He'll meet you at the other side of the bridge."
Frank wondered what had brought on that response from her, but simply nodded, and headed across the bridge. A straight path had been made right down the middle, cars pushed to the side, and it didn't take too long for Frank to run across. Troy greeted him on the other side, a few of his men standing behind him.
"Frank, good to see you safe," Troy said, warmly.
Frank nodded. "Are you here on behalf of the Provisos?" Frank asked.
"Yes. We need to debrief you on what you encountered, if you are willing, of course."
"I planned on doing that anyway. Can you send someone to fetch my team, and then I can tell everyone in one go?" Frank asked.
"Of course," Troy said. He motioned to one of his people, who jogged off, presumably to find a bicycle. "You saw the 'phone' we've set up, yes?" He asked after the man had left.
"Yea, it's pretty clever," Frank responded, and Troy motioned him to walk with him.
Troy nodded. "The man who suggested it did us a great service. Would it be okay if we set one up that goes to your base? It'd make communication much easier, and lower risk. For the time being, it's a risk to send someone to communicate with your group, but we'd only need a few relays to get to our area of control. Apparently, we can get the range up to a couple of miles if we set it up properly."
Frank agreed immediately. There was basically no downside. "Seems like a good idea."
"Excellent," Troy affirmed. The pair continued to walk, and after some silence, Troy got to the main point. "I couldn't help but feel alarmed at your proclamations earlier before you left, and you've returned, alone, missing your eyebrows, and apparently unsuccessful at accomplishing your goal." He looked Frank in the eye. "Do we need to start evacuating people?"
"Probably won't matter either way. Where are they going to go? You are cut off in basically every direction, except out to sea. Can you sail them somewhere safe?" Frank said. There really wasn't much purpose, in his opinion. It'd just slightly delay their demise if they fled. There was nowhere to go with the North and South cut off by unknown forces. heading East during the beginning of winter would be equally foolish. Plus there would be skinwalkers in that direction.
"Oh no, nothing like that. We don't have the resources to get everyone here away. Some people might make it across the bay towards the military base, but we still haven't heard from the military at all, concerningly, so I'm personally pretty pessimistic about the odds of there being safety there. If any group was going to make it through in large numbers and stay organized, it'd be the military, in my opinion. Something had to have happened over there. We haven't sent anyone after the first guy didn't return."
"Honestly, we heard what you did with that dungeon from Rina, and have decided to do the same. If it comes to it, we'll pack as many people in as possible, to buy us time to train them up. That'll give us a month, according to what you've suggested in your documents. We are already moving supplies near the entrances we've found." Troy said, openly.
Frank didn't respond immediately. Lots of them would die if they actually did that. But it was worth a shot, probably. After thinking about it, he said "I'd be ready to do that, just in case."
"What about the tower?" Troy asked. "You'd treated it as if it was different from the other dungeons."
"Since you can't leave without clearing it all the way, it'd be suicide for people to go in," Frank opined.
"Unfortunate."
"You haven't met anyone from the military?" Frank asked after a moment.
"No one from the base, except a couple of soldiers who happened to be in town. More than a few vets made it, but they were already here."
Frank had the beginnings of how to deal with the broodmother husk, provided it didn't heal by the time he returned. "Throwing this out there, but are any of them trained spotters?"
Troy looked at Frank for a moment, trying to parse why he'd been asked that. "I don't know. Unlikely, but I can ask."
The conversation then pivoted towards Frank. Troy scratched his head as if he felt awkward, then just asked Frank. "How do you actually know all this? Everything you've told us has so far been entirely accurate. We caught two skinwalkers just yesterday, travelling from the same way you came, amongst a group of twelve others." There was a short pause, and Troy continued, this time showing the awkwardness on his face. "You aren't dumb, but I know a genius when I see one. You can tell. You aren't that. There's plenty of people as smart as you, honestly. I'm not trying to be rude here, just doesn't make any sense for you to be so much better prepared than everyone else. Do you see where I'm coming from with this? I read people pretty well. It's why I'm the guy dealing with you. You aren't even the smartest person in your party, all things considered."
"You sure insinuating I'm dumb is going to get me to open up?" Frank asked him.
"The fact you asked that question means you know what I mean. We are talking lives here. Life and death. If there's some trick to finding more information, or there's something that's been telling you, you'd be helping out everyone by revealing it." Troy said.
"Nothing I can share with anyone else," Frank said simply.
Troy frowned. "That's unfortunate." He didn't push Frank for more after asking but switched topics instead, moving the conversation to a mixture of small talk and hints that things were going poorly. The fact Troy was suddenly so pushy was evidence enough of that. Something must've changed between the last time they spoke. Given that that was not long ago, it didn't bode well.
Frank didn't have much to tell him though. The discussion eventually moved back to Frank's sudden need for a spotter.
"Why do you want a spotter, anyways?" Troy asked, curiously.
"I'll explain that in front of everyone. It'd be very helpful in taking out the enemy I found across the water," Frank told him.
"Well, we can probably find you some equipment. There's some antique stuff that'll probably work pretty well if it hasn't been looted. Museums have pretty quickly become important to check out, and I remember there being a couple of military museums in town that might have something." Troy told Frank.
It was pretty obvious to Frank that Troy was holding back his own curiosity. Even though Troy had been pumping him for information almost non-stop, he had avoided broaching certain topics directly, perhaps figuring Frank wouldn't be too keen on revealing certain secrets.
He'd find out enough to satisfy his curiosity, soon enough, Frank thought.
They eventually arrived in the downtown proper, passing through another checkpoint. It seems the Provisos had made the decision to tighten their perimeter and cede control over some of the area for now. Frank agreed with the decision. People might end up a bit cramped, but the less that needed to be defended the better. Walls of cars would block the low-level husks, but smarter, higher-level ones were a possibility.
Arriving at a large hotel, Troy led Frank inside. "This is the current headquarters, we'll use the banquet hall to have the talk, but while you wait for your allies, I'm going to go ahead and get someone to get you a change of clothes. Everything you have on is kind of singed.
Frank nodded. "I'd appreciate it, and some food."
Troy nodded and beckoned to one of the people standing in the foyer. "Fetch some clothes and a meal for Frank here," He said curtly, before turning to Frank. "Large?"
Frank nodded, and the man Troy singled out walked off into the hotel proper. Troy then led Frank into a room on the first floor. After racking his brains a bit, Frank figured out it must've originally been a staff room.
"Relax here. If you need anything, there'll be someone posted outside. I'll come and let you know when your companions arrive." Troy paused for a moment. "He's not a guard by the way. Didn't want to give you the wrong impression. You want to leave, I'm not throwing anyone at you." Then he left, and Frank found a plush chair to sit down on while he waited, both for his clothes and meal and for the discussion he was going to need to have.
---
Ghulam could barely remember making it to Snoqualmie pass. He'd stopped at several towns along the way, and the people there had all been happy to see someone from somewhere else. He'd even met people who'd already spoken with Maria's party. They'd passed this way already, heading for Seattle, just like that stranger, Frank had said he would. It'd taken him time. Much longer than he'd wanted to. The snow made things very difficult to handle. He'd had to stop and barter for supplies three times. It had been slow, but steady progress, though, until he reached North Bend.
He hadn't noticed the silence at first. Even moderate snowfall dulls sound. The town had been deserted, as far as he could tell, which was very concerning, but at the same time, meant that he could potentially resupply and leave immediately, instead of having to do work in kind or trade something. It wasn't until he'd made it into the actual town, looking for a grocery store, that he abruptly realized just how quiet it was.
Then the voices started whispering. They seemed to emanate from inside his own mind, and they berated him for his cowardice, for his failure. How could he have the temerity to approach Maria after what he'd done to Hugo. Wouldn't he just let her down too? Might as well kill the whole family. Better to just stay here. The pass was already snow-covered, and without any plows, it'd be too risky to cross.
Before he'd realized it, he'd sat down, and tossed his pack aside, wallowing in his own guilt. He'd closed his eyes, contemplating whether to move forward or to stop here and when they opened again, he'd found himself covered in an inch thick layer of snow, his nose frostbitten. The pain is what rescued him, the dull ache of his newest wound cutting through the fog and fugue that weighed down his mind.
His first reaction was to panic. His second was to look for his backpack, and the third was to move as fast as he could out of there. Unfortunately, with snow on the ground, it was a brisk walk. From there, it was all a blur, walking out in the late evening and staggering his way up the road. He only really collected himself when the sight of the snow-covered chateau appeared before him.