Kal'o Kir stood on the edge of the cliff that hid their village down below in the crag of a twisting ravine. She looked over the endless desert and watched as the red sun dipped below the horizon, signaling the end of another day. Before the sun could set completely a figure appeared, outlined by its sanguine glow.
As the figure approached Kal'o Kir spoke, "Cutting it a bit close today, aren't we? If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not lose my bond to something as ordinary as the chill night, Dar." While her tone was one of jest, her words held a measure of genuine concern. The heat of the daytime desert turned to a frozen wasteland when the fell moon arose and the spirits of pale light ravaged the surface.
"You don't have to wait so long for me every time, Kir. I've been out enough that I've memorized the amount of time it would take to get back to the village. I found some good stuff today in a crag I don't think anyone else has discovered yet."
Kal'o Kir shot a glance down at the village before asking, "Anything that would help with your goal?"
She could see him clench his fist around the handle of his axe, "I can hardly expect to miraculously encounter materials that would allow me to slip past a realm lock, can I?"
Kal'o Dar was one of the clan's most promising gatherers, gifted at sniffing out treasures hidden in the rocks obscured beneath the sands. It was why he'd been given one of the clan's only spatial beads, and gifted with the equipment of a warrior above what his level would suggest.
And yet despite how much everyone looked forward to his future endeavors, he held a secret within his heart. One that he could only ever share with Kal'o Kir.
It was said that in ages past the vishan had traveled the wastes as they pleased, free to thrive and prosper on a world belonging only to themselves. That was before the enemy from a realm beyond their own had touched down and rapidly expanded.
That was the extent of history that Kal'o Kir knew or cared about. She was much more concerned with the present, with the war that had raged since before she was born and would likely continue after she died.
She wasn't sure if it was that original enemy or one of the multitude of others that had arrived in the ages since, but one of the myriad factions that warred over their world had put a realm lock in place. A realm lock was something that restricted inter-realm travel, meaning that even if the vishan wished to leave their home in search of a new one, they were unable to. They lacked the military strength to defeat all of their enemies and didn't even possess the knowledge of how to disable a realm lock.
Though, most of the vishan couldn't care less about such a thing. They'd never been a people that traveled infinity and were stubborn when it came to embracing new things. Kal'o Kir had no doubt the realm lock had been put in place not for them, but as part of one of the other faction's campaign against another, one that could benefit from inter-realm travel.
Despite their diminishing presence on their homeworld, the vishan had never given up their endless crusade against the enemies that littered their planet. A tribe of warriors they fought anyone who looked like they had stuff worth taking, and protected their own territory with a fierce possessiveness. No matter what, they would not give this land, the land of their ancestors, up for anything. If ever a direct assault came upon them it was their solemn vow to paint the sands red with the blood of every last warrior before they buckled.
And that was why Kal'o Dar was something of an outsider among his people. Unlike the rest of them who sought only to reclaim the endless desert for themselves, Kal'o Dar looked up at the stars and saw beauty. And he wanted a piece of it more than anything.
"The chief brought up a possibility at the summit today. One that would help you achieve your goal," Kal'o Kir said as her bond walked past.
Her words brought him up short, "The heck are you talking about, Kir? You and I both know the chief would never even consider something that would help get our tribe out of this shitty situation. I think the old bastard loves how cornered and beaten down we are, like it gives him some kind of rush any time we win a fight despite how broken our forces are."
"Of course, he only sees the idea from his own perspective. But anyone with half a brain could see the opportunities it presents."
"Well don't keep me in suspense."
"He wants to host a tutorial, with our tribe serving the role of overseers."
"What? Why would he want to… Wait, you don't mean he intends to-"
"Yeah, he wants to use all the brand new initiates as a way to boost the levels of the tribe. And apparently hosting a tutorial gives access to a special type of transfer, allowing us to travel to an unoccupied world and completely bypass the realm lock."
"...But something like that wouldn't allow me to leave this place, not in the way I want. I'd simply be trapped under their chief's rule in a new realm, made to slave away harvesting materials to propagate this endless war. And besides, I wouldn't want to do something like that to some helpless initiates."
"If we aren't under the threat of a realm lock the the chief won't have any say in whether you stay or not. We could disappear into the wilds, find a terminal, and go wherever we want from there. As far as anyone else will know we died out in the wilderness."
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Kal'o Dar smiled, "You know, hearing you say 'we' may still be the strangest part of that whole idea. I remember the days when you cared for nothing but the next battle."
"I still love combat, more than almost anything."
"Almost, huh?"
"Yeah, almost."
Kal'o Dar looked down at the village then back towards her, "Alright, we'll go with your plan then. It'll be awful to be the hand that subjects a bunch of initiates to the chief's twisted ambition, but it's comforting to know it'll be the last thing I ever do for that bastard."
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Kal'o Kir shook herself out of the memory. She stood in the center of a clearing within the forest, waiting for her adversary to arrive. She'd allowed herself to delve into the blissful past as a reminder of all she'd never see again. The fury that remained in her chest of the knowledge that she'd never again see her beautiful home, or be able to spend time with Kal'o Dar. She needed that fury, that drive, if she was to beat Eve.
She regretted ever allowing that human to leave the mountainside cave uncontested. In the span of that single day, she'd leapt from the level 40 barrier to level 47. They were now even in levels, but it was more than that which Kal'o Kir feared.
The raw talent that Eve possessed was something almost beyond the realm of comprehension. In generations of vishan warriors, Kal'o Kir had never heard of anybody being able to ascend even three levels in a single day, let alone seven. It had taken Kal'o Kir two decades of training and work to rise to the strength she had now.
Still, no matter how much potential she has, I have the advantage when it comes to actual combat experience.
She wanted to say that thought comforted her, but she knew it'd be a lie. It was a simple fact of reality that the strongest dominated, no matter how much experience one might have.
Kal'o Kir couldn't even reassure herself that she held the tactical advantage. While she'd stipulated that any ranged attacks or traps would be seen by her associate and result in Phil being killed, she still had a gnawing feeling in her gut.
She was playing along like a puppet on strings, and there was nothing she could do about it. It was like she was being swallowed by the endless sands, and this was the only handhold available to her. Like it or not, she had to grab on. Or she'd be sucked under for good.
Something alerted her to a change in the atmosphere of the clearing, though she wasn't sure what. It was subtle, yet she knew that any change at all indicated the enemy approaching. She'd cleared out all the nearby monsters, so all that should have remained was the stillness of a forest when a predator lay in wait.
Kal'o Kir's instincts suddenly screamed at her to dodge, though she had no idea why. Her body moved with the refined agility of a warrior bred for battle as she threw herself to the side, right as something crashed down on top of where she'd been an instant before.
She felt something rip through part of her leg as she moved, no doubt some shrapnel from whatever projectile had come within inches of killing her. Her rage burned all the hotter inside as she steadied herself.
Those fucks! I specifically said any ranged attacks were forbidden. Damn it, so this was nothing more than a trap after all! Fine then, off with the Phil's head.
She raised her arm, about to signal her associate to execute their captive when she saw something move within the cloud of dust the falling projectile had kicked up.
"Hmph, so you moved."
"You…!" Kal'o Kir was shocked at the figure of Eve crouching within the small crater she'd created.
How high up was she? Where the hell did she fall from? None of the trees are tall enough to generate that kind of momentum, and I would have seen if she'd jumped into the clearing.
"I have something for you, from him."
"What?"
Eve reached into her inventory and pulled out a weapon before throwing it at Kal'o Kir. She instinctively stepped back to dodge the projectile, but it wasn't thrown with lethal intent. It fell to the ground at Kal'o Kir's feet, where she got a good look at it.
It was one of their tribe's axes, one that had been through what looked like a hundred or more battles. Her eyes opened wide when she saw the barely recognizable engraving in the handle just below the axehead.
Kal'o Kir's fury changed, from a boiling rage to something much fiercer. Everything around her faded, leaving only herself and Eve. On the surface she was still like water, but underneath she felt a force ready to explode.
Without any further words, she leapt forward, swinging her axe down at Eve.
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What the hell was she thinking, leading with a big opening move like that? How the hell did she even get that high?
Devon had gone over the plan with Eve before they split up. Eve had presented the axe as planned, and now she had Kal'o Kir's entire focus. Most likely the vishan would be oblivious to all but the most obvious changes to the environment around her.
If she notices anything awry in the forest just outside her clearing it could cause her to act unpredictably. But at the same time, if Eve had managed to instantly kill her then all of the other pieces of this situation would have acted just as unpredictably.
He mused over the situation as he watched the conflict unfold from a concealed spot within the forest. Though as much as he'd have loved to watch two level 47s duke it out to measure their strength against his own, he had his own task to attend to.
Devon turned his attention to the strands of delicate silk that was his alarm system. It was one of the settlement's most interesting discoveries, a select few people had a profession that allowed them to collect spider silk. The applications of the material were still being tested, but Devon had found it to be the perfect tripwire.
In Devon's mind, there were several optimal conditions the vishan would likely have for a spy. From everything he'd heard of their conversation the first night, he understood they valued strength. But strength without connections wouldn't make for a very good insider, so whoever they chose needed both. Or even better yet, strength and influence.
One of the threads snapped, prompting Devon to say, "I knew it'd be you, Zane." He turned and saw the man standing less than ten feet away from him, a look of absolute surprise on his face.
In truth, Zane's name had come up from every member of the hunting party that had brought the corpse that Kal'o Kir had been inside as it was transported into Arkania. He wondered how long Nix had spent thinking of the possibility that her second was the spy, or if her blind trust had forced her to discard the thought immediately.
"How did…"
Devon didn't give him a chance to finish the sentence before he dashed forward, the bone architect's blades drawn.