They were approaching the Breach. It was quite close to Pūshkinskaya, only a few hours ride. They’d met minor harassment, but it was nothing the vanguard couldn’t handle; So far, Team Crimson had not engaged, and there were no injuries throughout the three teams. The sky had gotten a little darker, but it was still gray and overcast. The trees were sparse and were growing sparser as they continued to ride along. That combined with the leafless state of all of them, made the gray sky pierced right into Alisson’s eyes without much defense, and he had squint to see well.

Celis’s mare had stayed mere feet away from his own throughout the ride, she’d never parted ways with him since they left the city gates. She either wasn’t comfortable parting from him, or was fearful that they’d be split up. Either way her presence beside him was like a heavy and warm shawl over his shoulders, and thinking about it sent shivers down his spine. Her behavior reminded him of how Celis had acted the night prior. It looked as though she’d gone out of her way to make sure they’d have to share a bed. Alisson had interpreted that as her just being skittish, and that the mass of people, all strangers, had made her lonely and on edge. Alisson before had the same feeling even amongst his fratello when he spent some time in a foreign unit, where he didn’t know anyone, and yet they all knew each other. Alisson had decided in the spur of the moment that he’d let her do as she wished, but as he thought now, Alisson was doubting his decision. The fear lingered in his head, that he really had gotten soft.

Alisson frowned and clenched his gauntlets on the reins of his stallion tighter.

“Stay alert, the Breach is coming into sight now.”

Dane, riding at the head Crimson, shouted to the rest of the team. This wouldn’t be the first time Alisson took on a Breach, and from what it sounded like, the adventurers’ tactics were similar to those Sidonian garrison forces had used when they put down Breaches. Fortunately for Alisson, he’d never been on a mission to destroy a hive. If he had, then that would mean Sidonia had done a bad job of culling beasts. Hives only formed three ways, with excess beast presence, a large hole into the earth, or if a Breach had been left alone for too long.

As Dane had said, Alisson saw a large clearing in the forest ahead of them. They had long since left the roads, and had been traveling through the forest, so the formation wasn’t perfect due to horses having to maneuver around the trees.

The Breach itself came into sight when they neared. The floor of the clearing was black, and honeycomb-like.

“Alright, you all know what do! All teams disperse!”

The adventurers were going to pincer the Breach, and have all their mages attack at once from three different sides in order to collapse the nearby soil over the Breach. This was the most a ragtag city in the north could muster; They couldn’t destroy Breaches out right, they could only bury them, to actually burn the superstructure would require far more firepower. It’d take the majority of the Five-Striped mages in Pūshkinskaya launching off all of their mana at once, so it was possible, but the city couldn’t risk having all of its firepower away from the town like that.

Crimson powered on through the middle, straight toward the Breach, whereas teams Auburn and Mystic split off to the left and the right. For now, Crimson’s job was to defend Berein until the other teams’ mages were in position to fire.

Beasts had been following the formation for a while now. The small Roamers weren’t really anything dangerous, so the adventurers hadn’t bothered to engage. Closer to the Breach however, already the beehive seemed to be poked. Swarms of Roamers and other creatures poured out of the ground. It was almost stupid to think merely twenty humans could take down such a large amalgamation of decrepit monsters. The adventurers weren’t here to exterminate every single beast however, all they had to do, was collapse the Breach, they didn’t need to take the swarm head on.

There were now no trees surrounding Crimson, and the Breach proper was but a few hundred meters away.

“Make a hole! We’re holding here until the other teams are in position!”

““Right!””

Dane seemed to consider this area a defensible enough place to hold down. Roamers were closing in from all directions; behind them were the stronger and larger beasts, trudging their way to Crimson. The entirety of Crimson slowed to a halt, and everyone dismounted in a flash. The area was at a slight elevation, like a small hill; Berein and the horses were at the center, and the rest of Crimson took up position around them. Patsel was nearby to the center, nocking an arrow with a hand. Patsel was not an amateur, his bow wasn’t large, and so he carried four arrows in his draw hand, ready to fire them in quick succession. Amelathet had broken off toward the rear, and was mopping up the Roamers that had chased Crimson on their way in. Rei and Dane were facing the Breach, right in the front. Him and Celis were on the sides, to the flanks of Rei and Dane, forming a half-circle around the hill.

“Don’t let anything get to Berein or our horses!”

“Hmph, treating me like a pack animal…”

Alisson heard Berein quip as she hefted her staff toward the approaching beasts. Alisson hadn’t seen her staff before, and suffice to say it was quite unique. Instead of being the usual ‘holy stick’, it looked more like a long and sharpened two-pronged spear.

“Here they come!”

Dane shouted once more, hefting his shield and mace to bear.

Alisson’s eyes narrowed. He could easily break formation and blitz toward the beasts. Him and Celis would easily be able to stay safe whilst attacking them; However, that would be a brazen act of insubordination, and he’d most likely be ostracized for it.

Patsel let loose an arrow, and it slammed straight into the closest Roamer’s skull, killing it instantly. A second Roamer leapt at Dane, to which he easily rose his shield to and caved in its head with a fast swipe of his mace. The way he swung such a long mace so quickly and so powerfully spoke volumes of his strength. Two were locked onto Rei, however one was shot by Patsel, in an obvious act to thin them out and let Rei only deal with one.

It was clear that Patsel could fire his arrows far faster than he currently was, but he only had so many arrows, and so he had to pick his targets wisely to support the team. Rei, armed only with a buckler and not a large shield such as Dane, wasn’t going to be blocking the fully body of a beast anytime soon, and so she momentarily stepped forward into the beast’s lunge, swiping her sword. The Roamers dissected body landed with a thud behind her.

The initial wave of Roamers was handled with relative ease, Alisson and Celis didn’t even have to engage; all the beasts seemed more focused on Rei and Dane. Patsel occasionally shot off an arrow or two to support the vanguard. Alisson was impressed when a particularly large group of Roamers had approached all at once, only to be thinned out by a trio of arrows, fired within the span of a second from Patsel. His draw hand empty, Patsel skillfully dug into the quiver on the back of his hip, grabbing another handful of arrows in between his fingers.

Now that the larger beasts were approaching, things were going to get tougher. Spidertails, Brockerts, all the usual abundance, plus some monsters Alisson hadn’t ever seen before. There was a type that was humanoid in shape, and stood at around fourteen feet. It was very slender, and carried behind it a large, sea cucumber looking mass of flesh. Its flesh was of course a sickly white, tinged with yellow and pink. Its legs were pitifully thin to be dragging such a large mass, and were unstable.

Then was the largest of the beasts, a type that most resembled a spider, or perhaps a scorpion with its numerous legs. It was slower and seemed less agile than the rest, but was far larger, and had an array of scorpion-like stingers attached all over the top of its body, poised to strike. The massive pincers at the front of it could fit and whole person within its grip, and they closed together with angry clicks.

“Tch, we’ve got Shamblers and a Scorpianbug. I don’t like the idea of fighting them all at once-!”

Dane said gruffly after snapping a Roamer’s spine in two with a blunt thrash of his mace.

“I can break them up easily.”

Berein said from behind, tightening the grip on her dirk-like staff. Alisson saw that Amelathet was returning, and had taken up position in between Dane and Patsel as a mid-guard.

“Save your mana. Me and Ferris can break them up.”

Alisson strode forward, twirling Enhérejär nimbly in his fingers. Dane stared at Alisson quizzically, about to open his mouth when Rei interrupted.

“Are you stupid? Don’t try to be a hero.”

She was quite serious, for whatever reason. Dane rose his mace in a silencing motion toward Rei.

“Can it.” Dane set his gaze back on Alisson. “If you’re so confident, then go ahead.”

He was smiling like he thought Alisson would back down. Alisson didn’t so much as glance at him, his face remained sharp, and uninterested.

“Now would be a good time to show you…”

He gave a flick to Enhérejär, and its blade split into a fan of shards, all separated from each other and hovering in place above the hilt. He didn’t wait to hear Crimson’s reactions, and bolted forward, Celis following from the other side of the vanguard and keeping pace with him.

As they surged toward the wave of larger beasts, the thundering explosions of the other two teams using spells sounded into the distance, and it started to feel like a real battlefield. Alisson could see the colorful explosions out of the corners of his eyes, across the large expanse of open land.

Alisson weaved around Roamers, sidestepping and jumping around them. Crimson could handle them easily, it was the mass of larger creatures that was the issue. Holding Enhérejär behind him like a cavalryman, he chose his first target as one of those tall flesh carrying beasts, ‘Shamblers’ as Dane had said. The particular Shambler Alisson was aiming for lifted their hunk of flesh at Alisson, and the tip of it peeled away, revealing an acidic interior. Alisson knew a ranged attack when he saw it; He jumped to the side on instinct, evading a crate sized splash of acid. It burned through the ground that Alisson had been on, sizzling and hissing.

Before the Shambler could heft its acidic cannon at Alisson once more, he closed the distance with a lunge, bringing Enhérejär to bear in a swing. Enhérejär, despite being split, impacted on the beast’s long legs, and the individual slivers wrapped themselves around the lanky body of the Shambler. Alisson leapt over the hulking mass that was its acid cannon, the slivers now fully separated from the hilt of Enhérejär. Alisson landed on the other side of the beast, and turned toward the Shambler, with a firm whip of Enhérejär’s hilt. As if still connected to the hilt, the slivers that had detached and that had wrapped around the Shambler’s legs suddenly twisted, and an audible crack was heard as the Shambler’s bones seemed to have snapped.

As it was falling to the ground, the Shambler lashed out at Alisson with one of its thin hands, though Alisson easily evaded. As its head neared closer to Alisson’s level, he revved back the hilt of Enhérejär as it was forming into a point within his grip. Once its tiny head was in range, Alisson lunged with a thrust with his makeshift blade, impaling the creature’s head. Enhérejär then split like a flower whilst impaled into the creature, eviscerating the innards of its head. The Shambler’s body fell limp, but now, a new threat revealed itself immediately.

Alisson’s eyes narrowed as he saw a couple dozen Roamers about to collapse upon him from all angles. It was the consequence of breaching enemy lines so brazenly. Thinking quick, Alisson had an idea right away.

He spun on his heel, all the slivers of Enhérejär forming back up onto the hilt, and creating a mass of floating silver that was vaguely shaped like a sword. He impaled the now dead Shambler’s acid sack with Enhérejär. He felt Enhérejär pulsing within his grip; Like a pipette, Enhérejär was sucking up a handful of the Shambler’s acid.

Alisson’s eyes sharpened as he spun, and lashed out toward the wave of Roamers mere meters away. The blade of Enhérejär had entered the sack of flesh as an amalgamation of slivers, but now exited in the shape of a bloated rapier. As Alisson flicked Enhérejär, it opened up small holes where streams of acid flew from. Alisson didn’t have to aim; Enhérejär perfectly opened and closed holes within itself to land a blob of acid on each of the approaching Roamers. Each blob flew through the air, and when it touched the rotted flesh of a beast, it burned through them like a hot knife through butter. The Roamers simply melted, and many corpses slid to halt at the feet of Alisson, with acid still sizzling holes through their bodies.

Not bad…

Before Alisson could stick Enhérejär into the dead Shambler’s acid sack to top off on the potent acid, a Spidertail leapt right at Alisson, over the large corpse of the Shambler. It had purposely come from that side, as to obfuscate its approach. Alisson managed to blur out of the way just in time thanks to his muscle memory and raw instinct. He avoided the body of the Spidertail, but it followed up its crashing entrance with a swipe at Alisson’s legs with its many tails.

A leap over the wave of tails and an aerial twirl easily put Alisson out of the path of the attack. He then launched off his front foot after landing. He thrust with the length of Enhérejär into its torso. Alisson jumped back, detaching the blade of Enhérejär and leaving impaled in its entirety the Spidertail. The Spidertail turned its head to Alisson, snarling. However, it didn’t lunge for Alisson, even though he was standing idle so close by. It stepped a single paw to turn, before it started to shake immensely, and its legs fell weak.

From dozens of pores on the Spidertail, acid leaked out and dripped down the center of its body. The acid released from the blade of Enhérejär quickly burned through the Spidertail. Word for word, the body of the Spidertail melted away, and simply dissolved.

Only the front and hind of its body remained in two separate pieces, splayed across the ground next to a pile of sizzling acid that had used to be its torso.

Alisson held out his sword arm, and the blade of Enhérejär, no longer bloated, recoiled back into the hilt from the puddle of acid like a harpoon. Alisson gave a flair to Enhérejär, and the acid clinging to the blade was easily shaken off, Enhérejär angling and ramping its surface, letting the acid flow off it deceivingly easily.

This acid is good stuff…

Alisson turned and impaled dead Shambler’s acid cannon, again.

He feared initially that Enhérejär would melt from the acid, but it seemed that Enhérejär truly was made of some sort of indestructible substance. He hoped not to be proven wrong, in that keeping the acid touching Enhérejär for an extended time would perhaps burn it. However, Enhérejär wasn’t saying anything. His weapon would let him know if it couldn’t handle something.

Now with an acid-filled Enhérejär, Alisson swept his gaze across the battlefield. Crimson was holding strong against the smaller beasts, and a large portion of the bigger beasts were now locked onto Alisson and Celis, breaking up their charge. He saw Celis about fifty meters away, nimbly evading a Spidertail before lunging at the massive Scorpianbug.

She’s going right in…

Alisson smirked, but his smile faded when he steeled himself, and brought Enhérejär at the ready.

…

I thrust into one of the Scorpianbug’s six legs, each one was about as tall as a house, but I thought that chipping away at its joints would yield some sort of effect. But, my stiletto bounces off the hard exoskeleton pathetically easily, and by body follows, jumping back as a few of its stinger-like tentacles chase me away.

“Tch-!”

I land from my evasion, and sheath my stilettos onto the back of my hip. I sidestep, drawing my baselards and cutting a Roamer in half as it lunged past me.

This Scorpian-bastard is a Bear. The first I’ve ran up against; and as expected, it’s a tough SOB. It was ignoring me, and swatting me away like a bug with its stingers that all stemmed from the top of the beast. It was far more interested in attacking the rest of Crimson, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d either have my bones grinded in the jaws of its pincers; or be crushed under one of its hulking legs.

I evade, and stab to my side, impaling a Roamer’s head with both my blades. I spun the corpse around like I was dancing with it, and threw it off my baselards toward a leg of the Scorpianbug with its own momentum. Of course, nothing happened as the Roamer’s body basically hit a brick wall and slid to the ground with a thud.

I can’t take it out, so I’ll weaken it to the point that I can then. Taking out its ‘point-defense’ stingers would be a good start. I sheath my blades into my wrists, and break into a sprint toward the Scorpianbug. I dodge side to side, avoiding piercing stingers that take out chunks of earth with their loud crashes. I jump up and grab hold of one of the Bear’s massive exoskeletal legs, and climb my up in large bounding jumps. Stingers were surging for me, but I managed to get to the top of its leg and vault forward and onto the Scorpianbug to avoid them.

Time to get to work-!

I draw my baselards and slice through stinger after stinger, weaving through attempts to swat me away as I run across the top of the Scorpianbug. Thankfully, the stingers are thin enough to where I can cut through them, despite their exoskeletal covering. If I stay low to its body, then the forest of stingers on top of it have a hard time reaching down to me.

Just when I think it’s easy pickings from here on out, a hear a familiar roar, a when I look to its source, I see that four Spidertails had leapt up to the Scorpianbug’s ‘deck’, level on me. They bound around stingers, surging right for me, their teeth and tails poised to strike.

I didn’t think I’d ever fight on a battlefield like this; on the top of another moving creature against other combatants.

I can’t very well call a time-out because I’m not comfortable fighting in this setting, and neither should I try to engage in the first place; Weakening the Bear is more important.

So, as I weaved through the air, avoiding stingers, a four Spidertails surged for me. I was running the opposite direction of the Spidertails, still cutting through stingers left and right, but I was running out of Scorpianbug to run on.

Tch…there’s no use in sitting cornered. I’ll turn and retreat through them.

I jump and place a foot on one of the stingers, and then push off it, launching myself back the way I’d came. I can’t kill four Spidertails in one motion. No way. Killing one is really the best I can do as a counterattack. I sheath a baselard and switch it out for a stiletto midair. With a Spidertail’s cranium directly in my sights beneath me, I thrust down, putting my entire body into my stiletto.

It pierces, and thanks to no one being around, I unceremoniously unload a few Pict spells into its skull for good measure as I pass over its body and land flawlessly. Before I could even take a step away, I saw one Spidertail lunging at me from out of the corner of my view. I just barely managed to kill my momentum and turn on my foot fast enough to avoid having my torso pulverized. I slashed back on instinct with my baselard as its massive body passed me, though it did little more than leave a large black gash of blood across the side of its body.

I was about to turn and start my sprint away when a sudden force slammed into my backside. It was a Spidertail, body slamming me off of my feet. I was lucky that my spine was still intact and that I could even think after a blow like that. I was sent flying through the air, and I landed, rolling a few meters across the top of the Scorpianbug.

I try to scramble to my feet as quick as I could, but my fear was realized before I could even open my eyes.

A stinger impaled itself in my ankle.

Before I could even scream out, another stinger wrapped itself around my torso, and lifted me high into the sky, and above the Scorpianbug, like it was lifting a feather. The tip of the stinger desperately tried to impale itself into my chest, but my fierce resistance and constant wiggling kept me an ich away from it.

So, as I was high in the sky, my gaze locked onto the stinger not centimeters away from impaling my heart;

The stinger wrapped around me threw me, right through the air. I wasn’t sure exactly where I was as I was tumbling this way that way, but it was evident that I was at least three stories up, and my body froze up in fear upon realizing this. I was already dead, there was little chance of surviving such a high drop. There was nothing to break my fall out here, no trees, and no soft ground.

My realism was soon ditched for brazen animal instinct to survive, and my mind suddenly snapped into perfect thought.

Uh, master Alisson? What to do when you fall from an extreme height? I need some help on this particular homework assignment.

Lucky for me, I have that knowledge drilled deep in me from my years back in Sidonia.

I immediately sheathed my baselard and stiletto, they wouldn’t be too much help in breaking up my fall. For the first few seconds of falling, I straightened out my body, and found out which way was up and down, and put my body chest down. I spread my limbs as far as I could, and then, I watched as the ground neared incredibly fast. Before I got too close, I shifted my body upwards, feet first, wrapped my arms around my head, and prepared to bend my knees for a very rough landing.

I cringed in anticipation in those last few moments, knowing that the sight I saw, of my face buried in my arms, could’ve very well been my last.

All of sudden, I felt a gut-wrenching sensation, like I’d fallen through a layer of slime. It felt like my stomach and all organs just got shoved up right into my ribcage at once. I couldn’t feel my feet, so it hadn’t felt like I’d landed; but on that train thought, perhaps I had landed, and my legs had simply gone numb. Though I could still feel the raging pain of that stinger in my ankle, so that clearly wasn’t the case.

The layer of slime like sensation passed upward through my whole body, but after that, I was back into a gut-wrenching free-fall, however I was a magnitude less quick, and only a few meters from the ground.

I rolled with it, and forgot about it as I hit the ground for real. The soles of my feet screamed out in pain, but I stowed it, bending my likes and compressing myself. After that, I tipped myself to the side, leaving the rest of the momentum to slam right into the side of my body, and be spread out into a larger area.

“Are you alright!?”

I managed to successfully writhe around and open my eyes, so I knew I wasn’t dead. I saw Patsel running over to me, he slid and brought his hands over my ankle, throwing his bow on the ground to his side; His face was wrapped in a panic.

“Ferris! Answer us!”

I heard another voice, and then saw Berein looking over me, clutching her staff.

Ah, she must’ve used some sort of spell to slow my fall…

Before I could answer, as sensation returned back to me, and as I sat up to look around, my eyes sharpened.

“W-wait-! What are you-!?”

I grabbed Patsel’s shoulder, and pulled myself up in a flash.

One Roamer and a Spidertail were headed right for us, naught a meter away, and a few more Roamers behind them. I saw Berein recoiling in surprise out of the corner of my view, and I knew that this wasn’t something that was called for. I pushed my way passed Patsel with one hand, an drew a baselard out of my wrist with the other. I slashed forward, and my blade went right into the open jaw of a snarling Roamer. My baselard cut through their jaw, and continued on into their skull, where the top of its head was severed from the rest of its body.

The Spidertail was now point blank, and was about to take a mighty fine bite out of Berein.

As much as I didn’t want to, I had to use my injured ankle to turn my body’s momentum toward the Spidertail. There was no way I was going to kill a Spidertail with this amount of speed, and at such an angle. Neither was I going to be able to move its body away from Berein and protect her. There was a much easier way to think about this though.

I threw my body at Berein, shoving her away with one hand, and taking her place.

I wrapped my other hand into a fist. At the knuckles of the gauntlet, at each finger, a blot of yellow had been forming. I punched straight into the side of the Spidertail. As my fist impacted on its grey rotten skin, an explosion of yellow went off, my spells unleashing.

The Spidertail was still very much alive as my punch did little more than give it a flesh wound and piss it off. It did, however, send the beast off their four legs, and onto their side to the ground. As it was scrambling to get back up, I drew my other baselard, and descended on the Spidertail’s throat and head, dicing and ripping through as much flesh as I could as it was scrambling like a fallen cow. Tails shot for me, but they quickly slowed, and then, fell mere inches from my face onto the ground, as the rest of the Spidertail finally went limp.

I stood and stumbled back, for my ankle was still screaming out in pain to me. I lifted my baselards by my face, eyeing the few Roamers that were much farther away, but had still apparently capitalized on some sort of short coming on the vanguard’s part. Before I could take a step forward, a trio of arrows twangs sounded. Three of the Roamers were already dead, and the last had an even worse fate. A purple spell shot out from behind me, and impaled the Roamer right through, from head to tail. A split second later, the purple spike-like spell suddenly cracked, and about a dozen dark colored spikes extruded from the spell; Like the thorns on the stem of a rose. The roamer was very much dead as the spell vaporized into bright purple specks, and the Roamer’s body fell limply to the ground.

I turned to see Patsel, his bow at the ready, and right next to me Berein, her staff lifted up despite the fact she was on the ground because I’d shoved her out of the way.

I extended my hand toward Berein, and she looked to me for a moment before grabbing it, and pulling herself up.

“T-thanks…”

She averted her gaze from me.

“You really saved our skin there, Ferris. I was so caught up in healing you that I didn’t support the frontline, and those ones got through.”

Patsel said, guiltily rubbing the back of his head with a wry smile.

“But…”

He held out his hand wafting a blue aura, and his face turned serious.

Understanding the gesture, I nodded, and knelt, eyeing the frontline as an intense cooling sensation came over my burning ankle.

“They’re having a hard time down there, but it would have been much worse if you and Alavier hadn’t split them up like that.”

Patsel said, eagerly grasping his bow with his free hand, obviously planning to go right back to firing off arrows after he was done healing me.

I could see what Patsel was talking about, Dane, Rei, and Amelathet were in extreme proximity with the beasts. Dane was holding them off like a wall, his shield out and his mace never not swinging, bashing in beast after beast with his immense strength. Not like Lady-Salchyon levels of strength though, obviously. She could probably cut that whole damn Scorpianbug in two with one swipe…

Amelathet was fighting off the horde like me and Alisson would, by figuratively ‘dancing’ around and with them, abusing her speed and agility, picking her fights intelligently. She wasn’t scared to break formation and be surrounded by beasts temporarily.

Rei was a mix of the two, with her bucker and short sword. Bobbing to and fro, blocking or evading and then following up with a guaranteed killing-counter in one motion. She was even holding her short sword like a dagger in some instances.

Alisson wasn’t too far away. He was so close to the frontline that he was less like a skirmishing unit and more like someone who’d strayed too far out of formation. It was evident that the mass of beasts was forcing his hand, and he was tactically giving ground, but he wasn’t having a hard time. Well…that’s Alisson for you…

“Dane! I’m going loud! There’s no point in being stingy is there?”

Berein hollered.

“That’s fine by me!”

Dane yelled in response, though I could barely hear him as his voice was projected forward and then eaten up by the swaths of horrid creatures before him. His armor was covered in black blood, and he was never not in contact with some sort of live beast at any given moment.

“Alright then.”

Patsel stood up, and turned. Though his voice wasn’t deep or imposing at all, he started firing arrows before I had even blinked. His draw arm moved fast, comparable to Alisson’s swordsmanship.

Following Patsel’s arrow fire, Berein fired off a barrage of those spells of hers. They soared like magic missiles above the swaths of beasts, before abruptly turning and shooting down, every stream of magic impaled a single beast with precise accuracy. Following the spell’s turn, each one exploded outwards like before in their thorn-like fashion, catching a few more beasts in the surrounding vicinities of each spell.

During Berein and Patsel’s barrage of ranged support, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a blue shining light shooting high into the sky on the other side of the Breach. It was a flare; one of the teams were in position.

With the beast swarm thinning out considerably, the only real threats approaching us were that Scorpianbug, and few Shamblers by its side. A composition like that isn’t something we can let too close; The Bear would easily disrupt our defenses and the long-range attacks of the Shamblers would further destroy our cohesiveness.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I unsheathe my baselards, and head into the fray.

…

Alisson nimbly weaved over the top of a Brockert. As he fell down its backside, Alisson swept Enhérejär vertically, releasing the last of the acid that it’d absorbed. The corrosive acid quickly tore through the beasts hard outer shell, and soon it was split in half, all before it had managed to turn to Alisson.

Alisson hadn’t the luxury to bathe in the satisfaction of a kill however, a Spidertail leapt at him almost as soon as he’d hit the ground. He managed to sidestep, and impale the Spidertail with the length of Enhérejär. As the massive body passed Alisson however, it was not limp, and charged at Alisson, swinging a paw at him. He managed to again evade, but the tails of the beast followed, and were going to impact on him. He drew a throwing knife with his off hand and diced through a few of the tails, clearing his escape.

He sunk back into stance, about to finish off the Spidertail when a blue stream of magic slammed in to its head, like a wispy bolt. Its head was incinerated and it was knocked off its feet, clearly dead.

“Let’s wrap it up! We need to deal with that Bear!” He heard a familiar voice call to him.

When he looked, he saw Rei, her sword pointed toward the dead Spidertail, and wafting blue vapor, evidently, she was the source of the spell. Understanding the order, Alisson pulled back within the formation of Crimson, taking out a couple Roamers that tried to lunge at him on the way.

Crimson’s area of defense had significantly shrunk when the large wave of beasts had made contact with the vanguard, Rei and Dane had given up a lot of ground to stay safe; As result, all the members of team Crimson were quite close together. Dane, Rei, and Alisson stood close together at the front. Enhérejär, now no longer filled with acid, split its hilt open into a buckler into Alisson’s left hand; It’d be easier to defend a still place with a shield just like the other two of the vanguard.

The adventurers were very obviously bewildered by Enhérejär, but in the heat of the moment, no one bothered to ask.

Amelathet and Celis made up the mid-guard, mere feet behind the vanguard. Behind them, were Berein, and Patsel, close by to the horses.

“Any ideas? We can’t meet that Bear and those Shambler’s head-on!”

Rei shouted as she swat away a Roamer and blocked the attack of another, to which Alisson stepped in and killed.

“No, we can’t. We’ll take the fight to them.”

Dane declared, caving in a Spidertail’s skull with his long mace. The fact that the adventurers had been so easily able to chat throughout the combat was a testament to their veterancy.

“Mount up,” Dane continued, “And we’ll deal with those Shamblers on either side of the Bear, after that, we can focus all our attention-!” Dane rose his shield to block the body of a particularly large Roamer. Amelathet stepped out of formation from behind him, and easily killed it with a stab of her falchion before promptly retreating back. “…Berein’s magic can take out the Bear, we’ll distract it until she has power to.”

“Sounds good! Let’s go!”

Rei sliced at a Roamer, one of the last in the immediate area, before turning and pointing with her sword toward the horses that were within Crimson’s formation.

““Right!””

The rest of the team acknowledged, and everyone scrambled to mount up on their horses. Within only a few seconds, the entirety of Crimson were riding forth to meet the final aggressors. It was certainly imposing staring down a Bear whilst riding right toward it.

“Alright! Rei and Alavier, take the left! Me and Ferris will head to the right! Amela and Pat, stick with Berein – Kite the Scorpianbug away!”

Dane shouted his orders, and the team fanned out accordingly. Rei and Alisson veered to the left. In the hierarchy of the team, Rei was the second in command, meaning that he had to listen to her.

There were three Shamblers on the left, and two on the right of the Scorpianbug. Already, the three on left were raising their acidic cannons at him and Rei.

They fired.

“Scatter.” Rei said coolly.

They split up, and the three bolts of acid soared in heavy arcs toward them; though they were easily evaded. Rei was heading for the far left Shambler, and Alisson the far right, the nearest next to the Bear. His stallion bolted as quick as it could, its serpentine path left blobs of acid crashing down next to Alisson at every turn.

Sprays of corrosive liquid flew right over Alisson’s head, but he managed to keep his cool despite the fact that one drop of the acid could bore a hole through his head to the soles of his feet.

As he approached his target, the Shambler lifted their cannon toward Alison once more. This time though, Alisson knew very well that at this distance, evasion was impossible given the speed of the blast of acid. Alisson would lighten the load for both him and his stallion.

He leapt forward, and his horse veered away and past the Shambler as Alisson himself impaled the torso of the slender and tall beast. By the time the beast had fired its cannon, Alisson was already climbing up the Shambler’s thin body, using Enhérejär like an icepick. The Shambler was certainly a thin monster, Alisson was easily just as wide as it, though it towered over him, standing at about a story high. Within a few seconds, Alisson had reached its head. Alisson lifted Enhérejär up, and stabbed forth into the skull of the Shambler. That alone was not instant death for something with such a large head and body, especially since it was a beast; Enhérejär split whilst inside the beast’s flesh. That seemed to do the trick.

The Shambler bobbed forward and backward for a moment, before falling over like a felled tree. Alisson held onto the top of the Shambler, riding the corpse down the large height. As he reached the ground, he heard a tremendous rush of air, headed right for him.

Alisson jumped away on instinct, only to see a crashing foot blow a crater area of the Shambler’s corpse. It was one the Scorpianbug’s massive legs, and its body was very near to Alisson.

I have its attention!? Why!?

He thought it was hellbent on following its prior path, even more so thanks to the fact Berein and the others were kiting it, but it was evident that he was wrong in his assumption. As he landed from his evasive jump, swaths of the Scorpianbug’s top mounted stingers soared for him. He turned away from the Bear, and ran like hell. There wasn’t much hope in escaping a Bear without a mount, mostly because what ground Alisson could cover in fifty steps a Bear could cover in one.

Alisson zigzagged left and right, leaving a trail of stingers impaled into the ground in his wake. At least he was fast enough to evade those.

He was coming up on the second Shambler of the three on the left, though it had its back turned to Alisson, and was evidently focused on Rei. He knew this from the familiar puffs of blue smoke wafting at the edges of Shambler, those were of Rei’s attack spells. Alisson couldn’t see any signs of another Shambler, so it looked like Rei had dealt with the other.

To hell with this.

Enhérejär started to form into a backsword.

Alisson slowed his pace, and careened his head back toward one of the stingers that was soaring through the air at him. He was almost at a complete stop, and hopped to the side of a stinger that crashed into the ground. With his off-hand, Alisson reached out to the stinger, and wrapped his arm around it as it started to retract. Alisson held on tightly, as was pulled up and into the air along with the stringer. He’d risen almost two stories by the time the stinger slowed to a halt, either because it was at its apogee or perhaps the Scorpianbug had noticed that Alisson was catching a free ride.

Regardless, Alisson loosened his grip on the hard exoskeletal stinger, and leapt off. Pushing himself with his legs off the stinger, he propelled himself horizontally over the last Shambler.

Alisson was for a few moments in a gut-wrenching freefall. He would’ve been lying to say that he wasn’t scared of missing his mark and dying in that very moment; but as his altitude dropped, and the Shambler’s tall body drew closer and closer, Alisson knew that the beast’s fate was already sealed.

With Enhérejär having already formed a cutting edge, Alisson twisted his body, and threw his entire weight and speed into his weapon within his fall.

His velocity significantly slowed. That was because Enhérejär ripped straight into the Shambler’s head, and then continued to tear into the beast’s body. Alisson slowed almost to a halt by the time Enhérejär was half-way through dissecting the Shambler’s thin body; So he pulled Enhérejär away and leapt off the dead beast.

Alisson hit the ground heavily, but was immediately met with the sight of more of the Scorpianbug’s stingers surging for him. There was no turning and running to gather up momentum, Alisson was already in its sights. The best he could do was stumble back and away from a couple crashing stingers until one landed right in front of his feet, shattering the ground and unbalancing him. In the process of desperately evading another stinger, he fell back on his unbalanced footing, right onto his back.

Alisson’s eyes widened as three stingers surged for his downed body all at once. There was no way he could evade, all he could do was roll to a side, and clench his eyes tight.

He heard a brilliant screech of an impact, mere feet away. When he peeked open his eyes, he saw Rei standing over him, her buckler raised at the stingers. From it radiated a circular blue film, like an extension of the buckler. It looked like the Obice spell at first, but’s its radial emission was unique from the Sidonian shield spell. The three stingers were caught dead in their tracks, one was on the buckler, and the other two were struggling to push against the shield radiating outwards from the buckler.

“Don’t worry. Rei The Hero will keep you safe!”

With those brazen words, she lifted her short sword and fired off a trio of her attack spells. They flew through the air in their long wispy streams with extreme speed before crashing into and severing the stingers that were attacking them. The stingers pushed against her shield, now separated from the rest of the Bear, fell limply to the ground.

Rei extended a hand to Alisson, to which he warily grabbed hold of and pulled himself up with.

“Come on – We need to distract the Bear for Berein.”

Rei said, as if she’d never shouted those perturbing words from before. After that, she broke into a sprint toward the Bear. Head on, no evasion, and zero fear. Alisson was almost moved by her brazenness. He got to his feet, but he held back for a moment instead charging headlong like Rei. Alisson’s intent was obvious. He didn’t have many options when fighting a mountain being that he was an antipersonnel expert. The Bear’s exoskeleton was hard, he doubted Enhérejär would do more than bite an inch into its hard shell, even if Alisson threw his entire weight and speed behind his strike. His spells were all off limits except his shortrange teleport and invisibility spells. His wind spell was also of his own creation, so it wouldn’t be recognized. Alisson doubted that even if he were to pour all his mana into a barrage of his Fult spells, they’d do near nothing to the mountain-like creature.

Alisson followed in Rei’s path, but on the way, he stabbed Enhérejär into the Shambler he’d first taken down.

His ability to use the acid thanks to Enhérejär was his lifeline against that monster. Enhérejär sucked up acid as quick as it could, and quickly became bloated. He hurried to pull Enhérejär out and continued toward the Scorpianbug.

As he approached in a full sprint, he saw Rei firing off more of her powerful attack spells from her short sword. They slammed into the body of the Scorpianbug over and over, each one creating a cloud of blue smoke with their loud crackling explosions.

The Scorpianbug turned, Rei’s spells evidently getting its attention. It took Alisson a moment to realize, but the spells she fired impacted all around one of the Scorpianbug’s massive legs, evidently, she wanted going to sever that leg.

With his acid, Alisson should be able to do the same to another leg. By taking out the Bear’s mobility, they took away it’s initiative and limited its options. Him and Rei weren’t going to take down a mountain, but they were a part of a team, that, combined, had the means to do so.

…

That’s one Shambler down. Dane should have the other one dealt with. I managed to perform a slice on one of its legs as I had passed by, and it fell face first into its own open acid cannon. Needless to say, it died pretty quick. The second Shambler on our side was indeed falling when I rode there on my mare. Though I saw Dane, dismounted, throwing his shield onto the ground.

“You okay?”

I ask as I pull up by him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Bastard’s acid melted through my shield and almost got to me too, but I managed to break its knees and smash in its head.”

Dane replied. I looked over to his shield, and indeed there was a small blot of acid bubbling right in the middle of it. The shield would still be able to be used with a small hole in it, but not while acid was making that said hole. Dane now hefted his large mace with two hands, and it looked more fitting than him just holding it with one due to its size.

“We need to take out a leg or two for Berein – The Bear is big but I’ve seen Scorpianbug’s duck when they see artillery spells – They’re a lot smarter then they look.”

Dane extended his hand toward him, evidently wanting a ride since he’d needed to dismount to attack, and his mount was far off by now. He was pretty heavy due to his armor and size, but my mare was a strong gal. I gave him my hand, and pulled, even though I don’t think I actually did much due to how heavy he was. Once Dane was behind me on my mount, we rode toward the front of the Scorpianbug, toward the leg most nearest to those massive pincers of his.

“I should be able to crush through its exoskeleton with my mace – Just keep those stingers off of me.”

Dane said as we neared. Yeah, I can’t break through its leg. Climb up it? Sure. But not sever it. I think the only way I could to that would be to use all my mana on Pictun spells, but I can’t very well do that right now.

Me and Alisson would be helpless against this thing. Even if we unloaded all our spells and stabbed it all day in its vitals, I don’t think we’d be able to take out a sizable enough chunk to kill it. My mare quickly neared, and Dane dismounted with a thundering weight. It felt oddly reassuring to have an ally who makes such a loud noise embodying their mass of strength. As soon as Dane started slamming his mace into the trunk-sized leg, I could see the exoskeleton already cracking. As opposed to other attacks upon it, the Scorpianbug immediately reacted, fiercely. It started turning to us, and its head was coming to bear, its pincers clicking angrily. The few stingers that did soar for Dane were easily cut down by me. The forest of stingers atop the Bear had ceased to be, it was now only a few blades of grass that were mostly without their deadly tips.

At to this, the Scorpianbug tried to lift its leg and flick Dane away, but of course its movements were heavily telegraphed and even the sluggish Dane was able to step away and continue the attack. When its head finally came to bear toward us, I realized why this hulking beast was so aimless in its attacks. There were arrows in all but one of its dozen eyes. As I saw its face, this last eye too was impaled and blinded by an arrow, and the Bear was left without vision. The Scorpianbug screamed out in a thundering loud click, and tried wiggling its body frantically. Since it was so large though, its desperate attempts to shake off Crimson were more like an elephant shaking off water to dry itself.

I brought my baselards up, preparing for the need for me to go and distract its head.

The Scorpianbug suddenly lurched and stumbled on its left. When I looked under it the body of the Bear, I saw that two legs on its left were collapsed, and it was hopelessly trying to hold itself up with one last leg on that side. Not long after, the Scorpianbug fell face first into the ground with a quaking fall. Dane had successfully smashed through the Bear’s frontal leg, and was eating away at it from the bottom up. In total, three legs remained, which were all extended frantically trying to get the beast back on its feet, though it seemed its body was far too heavy for that, and it was as good as immovable.

Dane stepped back, about to say something to me, when a wave of purple entered my vision. It was one of Berein’s spells, though much larger, about as large as the Bear. It pierced right into the front of the immobile Scorpianbug, and cut through in large undulating waves through the length of the beast’s body. The spell then split outwards with he thorns of a rose, and only then did the screeching and struggling of the Scorpianbug finally come to an end.

When the spell dissipated, there was a large ravine through the center of the Bear, sizzling and scorched and completely severing it in half.

After dealing with a few stragglers, me and Dane regrouped up with the rest of team Crimson on the hill from out previous defensive position. I was happy to be by Alisson’s side again.

“Fine work everyone. It’s not over yet though.”

Dane said, scanning the battlefield with sharp eyes. The few beasts that were still alive were either limping away with wounds or crawling across the ground, their bodies decimated. There were a few that simply watched Crimson from a distance, before turning tail and running.

“Another flare.”

Rei said calmly, holding her shield side by side to Dane.

“Then Auburn and Mystic are both in position – Berein, you know what to do.”

Berein nodded sternly, and closed her eyes, focusing. I haven’t seen proper artillery spec’d mages for a while. Powerful spells, but a hell of a long casting time. Berein is definitely a step above the mass trained mages seen in armies though – Those guys are like glass cannons, the only thing they can do is recite spells from the backlines or dump mana into magic cannons. I saw Berein use smaller scale spells, so it’s evident she can fight for herself. That, and her blade-like staff looks like it’s not only just for show.

It was quiet for second, before suddenly I heard a loud cough. When I looked, I saw Alisson on a knee, holding his mouth with a hand. Blood was running down his gauntlet.

Without thinking I took his side and cast a healing spell on him.

“Are you alright? Are you sure you don’t have any wounds?”

Patsel asked, asking what I was going to ask. As I saw it, Alisson was spotless, not wounded in the slightest; So then why was he coughing blood?

“I’m fine.”

He answered Patsel. But in a lower voice, Alisson muttered to me,

“…I’m starting to think this cough isn’t a result of my wounds…”

I frowned at his words.

A few moments passed, before all three teams shot up a red flare. Exactly five seconds passed in dead silence; Before of course the mages from each team unleashed their spells all at once at the soil surrounding Breach.

…

Needless to say, the Breach was caved in. The barrage of spells caved in the kilometer wide gash in the earth, as the displaced dirt fell over the blackened honey comb, burying and returning it beneath the ground. The mages obviously didn’t have the power to destroy the superstructure of the Breach itself, it was really more like throwing a cup of dirt over an ant colony.

Alisson was fine as he said he was, and no one from dared question the cough, maybe they saw it as a personal issue or something. Still, it is quite odd, his cough.

After the success, the adventurers were quick to regroup and set out. We’ve travelled through the rest of the day and set up camp for what was looking to be a quiet and long night. The three teams drew straws and Crimson was chosen to be the first watch for the night.

Defensive stakes were laid out in a small perimeter around the three teams’ tents, and all the campfires were long extinguished as the other teams had already eaten and gone to bed. The moon was hidden behind the clouds, and so the only light source was a small mage light that Berein had set up that glowed dully; To which the members of Crimson sat around, on a diligent watch of the perimeter. The camp was in effect, dead. It’d take an extreme scrutiny to pick out the twenty-odd adventurers here. That was really the best option in lands like these. It was either fight day and night through hordes of beasts, or decide to slink away into the darkness of the night, and pray that the call of crickets and owls were enough to mask your presence. Wait, and whisper, cowering in the dark at nature’s mercy. It wasn’t uncommon for the odd Roamer to suddenly leap out of the undergrowth, fangs bared to tear out an unsuspecting traveler’s throat, without warning.

Despite Crimson’s idle whispering to pass the time, everyone was weary of a sudden overwhelming presence, and so the air was tense. Prepare for the worst; Hope for the best.

“It’s only be a few days to the hive from here, and nothing serious is on the way, so it should be smooth sailing from here on out.”

Dane muttered. In this quiet hour of night, everyone’s breath was visible as they exhaled and whispered.

“How big a hive are we talking about here anyway?”

Patsel asked, sitting near Dane. Amelathet and Rei were out patrolling the perimeter, and Berein was reading from a book near her mage light silently. Everyone was taking turns patrolling, and soon it’d be me and Alisson’s turns.

“Class four…maybe five, reports aren’t specific. It’s a big one though. That’s why the Guild sent three Five-Stripe teams in the first place – No chances.” Dane, tending to his shield with a cloth, continued, “We’re spread thin enough as it is and here we have such large hives popping up back to back more and more often recently.” Dane rubbed the hole in his shield that was burned through by acid earlier in the day, “Unless more Five-Stripe teams appear from empty air, Pūshkinskaya will continue to get more and more cornered…It’s only a matter of time.”

I hadn’t heard the uber-confident commander of Crimson, Dane, act so pessimistically before then, and I was a little taken back.

“Well hopefully that time is past our careers,” Patsel flashed a wry smile, “Right? Unless another country steps in to help of course. I’ve heard everybody in Pūshkinskaya riding more and more on that hope.”

Like Dane, Patsel was also oddly more serious than he was before. Though I don’t know if that was just due to the atmosphere, where I could hear the cacophony of whippoorwills and thrushes vividly in my ears compared to the mutterings of Dane and Patsel.

”Hmph. As if the Caliph or the Prince see any value here. They just come through with armies like crossing an open field – they don’t help at all – They just come and go.” Though Dane said this calmly, his fist was clenched. Maybe he has some sort of beef with them. Thinking this, my eyes were drawn to the two bear ears on his head. “Of course no beasts are stupid enough to try and challenge the armies except for maybe some of the larger hordes but…We’re all on our own. If the people of the north want help and protection, well, there not gonna find it much in Tarakia.”

“And what of the other cities and countries? Pūshkinskaya is one of the larger hold outs, if it falls, I can imagine the rest of the settlements would be quick to lose hope and follow.”

Patsel said, talking quickly in suspicion.

“Hah, no…” Dane cracked a smile. “Humans are too stubborn to give up like that…we’re like cockroaches – The beasts won’t ever be able to kill us all.”

In response Patsel smiled wryly in good humor.

“Do you think the same goes for them, the beasts?”

“Probably…who knows what the hell is beneath the ground – Not just below our feet directly, but even deeper, where no one has been. All I know is, monsters gather underground for no apparent reason, and out comes a big ole black hole, spewing beast after beast…and if they amalgamate close to the surface for long enough, then a hive forms, and from there monsters just seem to appear endlessly…”

Dane went quiet.

“…Is that all?”

I asked. He was probably making a point, but I had a doubt that perhaps that’s all even a veteran adventurer knew about beasts.

Dane looked to me smugly.

“Of course not. An encyclopedia of every ungodly piece of walking flesh is mandatory for every adventurer. I’ve seen a lot of different beasts. Some I’d rather not remember, but thankfully the majority of days you don’t often see that kind though, the bad kind.” Dane paused for a moment, before looking back to his shield. “There’s also that theory that’s gone around since I started adventuring. That beasts grow and evolve if they survive encounters – Like us. That they get smarter and tougher, and unrecognizable from their original forms… it’s a stupid thought on paper but…we can only guess what they do when they’re out of sight.”

I swallow. Even though logically my mind was at ease, Dane’s ominous words and tone shot some sort of animalistic fear through my brain. No one said anything for a few minutes after that.

“What was that about…the ‘bad’ kinds of beasts…why are they bad? What are they?”

I finally broke the ice and I asked about one of Dane’s words that was clinging to my mind. My imagination was getting the better of me; even though I knew for a fact that Dane was probably just expressing his distaste for a type of monster that didn’t accommodate his fighting style.

But contrary to my predisposition, Dane brought his head at me smugly.

“All that skill and fearlessness on the field…and here you are sounding like a scared child asking about a scary story.” He shook his head with a smile.

I was a little insulted by his referral of me as a child, especially since I’ve been growing so much recently too. I saw out of the corner of my vision, Berein peering at me with her big purple eyes over the rim of her book for whatever reason.

“But,” Dane took a deep breath. “When I say ‘bad’…It’s not anything I can really point to…How do I put it…It’s the beasts you can’t see, the ones that are smart enough to pick their fights and always win – That’s why you never hear about them, because nobody survives to tell the tale. They’re experienced, lived for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, and they know how humans act. They’re not like the Roamers you see every day…I can’t help but look at a dark tree line and fear that one could be watching me. That kind of beast don’t fight with adventurers much…they’re smart enough to know they can get meat far easier by picking off weaker humans – We’re not worth the risk to them. Or at least, that’s what I like to think.”

Dane, despite uttering such portentous words, flashed a smile at the end of his remarks.

“Mm.” Patsel quickly shook his head in agreement to Dane before looking over to me, “We’ve seen some of that kind once before…” He looked to Dane, to which Dane shrugged.

“You can tell them, it’s not like it’s valuable information.”

Patsel looked back to me and Alisson, eager to tell a tale

“…We were out on commission to cull some beasts near a village only a few klicks from Pūskinskaya…It was a small place, maybe, a hundred people at most. When we arrived though…The whole village was set ablaze, smoke rose into the air and we could see the columns of smoke from miles away. When we got closer to look for survivors, the night was more like the middle of the day thanks to the brightness of the flaming buildings. We didn’t see any corpses, or any blood, and neither did we see any Roamers or the like – It was like the villagers evacuated and set the place on fire. But then, Presír called out to everyone – She was still in Crimson at the time – And we saw at the edges of the horizon, them. Two of them. Tall, taller than trees by at least five times, and thin too. They were black, and we could barely make them out were it not for the light of the flaming village. They had to be at least a few miles away. At first we thought they were trees but then they started walking away, and we could make them out to have legs and that they stood upright. But, there wasn’t much we could infer from a couple towering figures cloaked in the night.”

I was listening to Patsel’s words with a knot in my throat.

“So? What did you do?”

In response Dane took over with a sigh.

“We couldn’t do anything – They were just too far away and at the time, we thought that we were all crazy. They just turned and walked off. I don’t know whether it was them passing below the horizon that made us lose sight of them, or that the light of the burning village didn’t reach them after that – But the way they disappeared like they did…We didn’t bother to report them in; No one would believe us Three-Stripes at the time, obviously. Hell, you probably think we’re crazy too.”

I shook my head.

“I’ve seen crazy stuff too…I understand.”

I say, sharing the adventurers’ feelings. In response to my little remark, they were pretty bewildered. Even Berein shot wide eyes at me. Maybe it was the way I said it, or the fact that I was much younger than them in their eyes, but they were suddenly much more intrigued by me.

The camp was silent for a long while after that. Patsel was examining his arrows, Dane wiping down his mace and shield and both me and Alisson were silently performing maintenance on our blades. All Alisson ever did during maintenance was clean Enhérejär, but he was so meticulous and careful that he always took just as long as me – Even though I was both honing and cleaning four separate blades.

I was left with the stories and thoughts of Patsel and Dane to dwell on as I sharpened my baselards. Vicariously imagining what they saw and felt, was enough to shut me up for the time being.

Amongst the deafening symphony of the night, I heard two pairs of footsteps approach. I already knew who they were, so I didn’t bother to look.

“Anything?”

Dane asked, not pealing away his gaze from his prior work.

“It’s quiet.”

I heard Rei’s steeled voice. Her words were contradictory to the flood of bird and bug calls wafting through over the dark sky.

“Hmph.” Rei dropped down and sat near the mage light along with Amelathet. She peered, intrigued, at me and Alisson. “Now that we’re all here…you mind explaining yourself, Alavier?”

In the heat of the moment and the tenseness of traveling the dangerous roads, Crimson hadn’t questioned Enhérejär. I was expecting them to explode with fawning questions and dropped jaws, but they evidently proved me wrong in their restraint.

“Yes I suppose this is a fitting time…”

Alisson whispered, speaking for the first time since the battle. It’s amazing how quiet he is when it’s not just me and him. When he doesn’t have to talk, he really is just as quiet as me; The two of us have been simply listening on to the rest of Crimson silently. It’s only recently that I started talking to them.

Alisson warily gave glances at the other tents in the perimeter.

“Now…” Alisson set his eyes on Crimson. “…You must promise me that you tell this to no one. This is our little secret, okay?”

Alisson spoke softly, even compared to the other adventurers. He was not only whispering quietly to keep hidden from beasts, but evidently because he didn’t want the other adventurers to hear his words.

The members of team Crimson all looked on at Alisson with anticipation, like they were about to hear some ancient and forbidden knowledge, which wasn’t far from the truth.

“I have…A legendary weapon.”

“Well that much is obvious!”

Amelathet said in a loud whisper with a smile.

“To be sure.”

Alisson remarked with as he set a hand on Enhérejär, and held it up toward the mage light so that the adventurers could see. Enhérejär suddenly clicked open, and the blade of the rapier peeled open into a flower-like shape.

“It can take any form I choose, and…” The blade of Enhérejär detached from the hilt with a click, and then spun in midair slowly. The flower shape of the blade split even further and melded into an extraordinarily complex sphere made up of dozens of detached and floating pieces, all mesmerizingly rotating and softly floating. “…It can detach and operate independently at my will.”

The members of Crimson were speechless. They were staring at Enhérejär’s display, with wide eyes and open mouths. Enhérejär was clearly showing off. Whether it was reveling in the attention or not, I couldn’t tell.

Enhérejär quickly collapsed back into a blade and like a harpoon surged back into Alisson’s grip, to which he quickly pulled Enhérejär out of the light. The adventurers were still speechless for a long moment after that.

“Well I guess that explains why I saw you with a rapier, buckler, backsword, and arming sword…here I was thinking I was seeing things…”

Dane muttered, blinking dumbly as if not believing what he’d just seen.

“That’s not all…” Patsel started, staring starry eyed at Alisson. “Didn’t you see how he diced through Roamers while the blade was split and all around him? It was like he was in control of the wind itself using it like that!”

Patsel whispered with childish amazement. He was usually the most calm and collected, but he was suddenly now the most immature and expressive one of the group.

“I feel a lot safer to know we have a Legendary weapon wielder on our side.”

Amelathet said, impressed. Rei by contrary was frowning bittersweetly.

“You just stole the position of the most expensive weapon from right under me.”

Rei said, and she drew her short sword, and extended it toward Alisson.

In the light like this, examining the blade with purpose, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. The blade of Rei’s short sword had an odd wavy and banded pattern to it.

“This, this is-!”

Alisson’s face twisted up into shock.

“Sidonian Steel. Best steel you can get your hands on.”

Rei answered, clearly liking Alisson’s reaction and taking pride in it. I too had an expression of shock, and for good reason.

Sidonian Steel can only be made in Sidonia, since we’re supposed to be the only ones who know the technique. The steel can only be made with resources that are imported from the empire’s outer lands, namely wootz. That’s why in Sidonia, we call the steel ‘wootz steel’, since its mainly made of wootz ingots. Wootz is made from the fiber of a tree not found on the mainland, and a mix of other materials – But I’m not exactly a smith, so I don’t know all the details in the forging process. Using these materials not found on the mainland, with techniques bestowed upon us by our Lady, wootz steel is a reality for us, but not for humanity.

Wootz blades are tougher, more resistant to shattering, and can be honed to a more perfect edge than normal steel. It’s one of the reasons I trust my stilettos more than my baselards – They’re treated and checked out by my fratello with wootz, unlike these baselards that I very literally picked off some dead guy – Who knows where they’re from or how they were made.

Though, the problem still persists.

How the hell did a human get their hands on a wootz steel blade?

“Where…where did you get this?”

I could hear Alisson’s Sidonian tongue just barely being held back, as he was tempted to call the steel by its Sidonian name.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She smiled slyly.

“Hmph. Well wherever you got it, it’s still a good blade.”

Alisson’s face quickly straightened, and he handed the sword back to Rei with a frown, evidently annoyed that she wasn’t going to shine some light on why the hell she had some of our steel. But ultimately, it would arouse suspicion if we showed too much interest. Our current mission takes priority over going off on our own whim to investigate this. The most likely answer is that she picked it up off a fallen Sidonian, or that she bought it from someone who did. That’s the best we can hope for – If it turns out the humans somehow have the means to make our technology…

“Well we’ve procrastinated enough, who wants to patrol next?”

Rei said, sheathing her blade and stretching her back.

“I-I’ll go.”

Berein said suddenly, closing her book and getting to her feet. I looked to Alisson, he shrugged, and continued cleaning Enhérejär as he had been; As opposed to me, being done with all of my maintenance already.

Everyone else had already gone out, so it was either me or Alisson.

Er…I wanted to stick with Alisson, but Berein beat us to the punch.

“I’ll be your second then.”

I say, and rise. I didn’t bother looking at Crimson and just walked off into the darkness. Berein was quick to follow. The both of us reached the perimeter of wooden stakes, and started down it. Away from the mage light, the darkness of the night engulfed me. The little light that did come from the moon was obstructed by clouds, and then further eaten up by a dense canopy of leafless trees above. I almost couldn’t see where I stepped.

“H-hey…Ferris?”

Berein suddenly tapped the side of my shoulder and walked up by my side. I looked to her, and was a little irked by her physical contact.

“Thanks again for protecting me back there.”

Her tepidness was quickly replaced by her more open and familiar side. Seeing her happy face in the dark, thanking me for something I’d almost forgotten about, made my stomach swell in pride of my actions. Though I found it odd that she was still even talking about that…did me pushing her out of the way really leave such a big impression on her?

“It was nothing.”

I say quickly and look away. The more I talk to Berein, the more I realize how similar I am to Alisson acted when he didn’t know me too well.

“Er…”

Berein muttered, apparently taken back by my prompt dismissal.

“…What was that spell you used when you…punched that Spidertail?”

At first I thought Berein was acting weird because she was some sort of crazy magician that wanted to know my spell, and then, I realized that she may have very well recognized my Pict spell, and my heart jumped in fear.

But, I calmed myself when I noticed how she asked her question, it was less like she cared and more like she was just trying to make small talk. At least, coming from my experience, its how I’d sound if I was trying to converse.

Either way, I had to make something up on the spot.

“Ah…It’s, it’s a close combat spell I made…I call it, Crystal Burst…Y-yeah.”

I nod to myself. Spells made personally and not passed down are usually named something normal by their makers.

“That’s amazing…you’re not a magician but you still had the time to make a whole spell…”

Berein said, looking to the ground as if questioning herself. I sigh quietly. I didn’t think there’d be so many close calls in our cover being blown…first that wootz steel blade that Rei had, and now it turns out that Berein had caught a glimpse of me using my Pict spell. Though thankfully, it looks like she only saw the explosion of the spells, not the actual form, which was what I was going for by punching the beast instead of shooting it. A yellow explosion isn’t exactly an accurate indicator for a spell.

The rest of the walk around the perimeter was uneventful, though Berein walked ahead of me with a face of glee and contempt, like she was proud of herself for whatever reason.

***

Addendum

Grr…Why did Alisson not let me sleep in the same sleeping bag as him? We’re in a private tent after all…He let me sleep with him last night so why not now?

As I laid on my side, staring angrily at Alisson’s sleeping backside from a separate sleeping bag, I had bitter thoughts from dismissal of me. I knew that I had to catch as much sleep as I could for the coming few days of travel to the hive, but I couldn’t for the life of me even shut my eyes. I was just staring at Alisson with malice. Though eventually I sighed and relaxed myself.

He seemed to have bought my made up reason for sleeping with him last night hook line and sinker, how he thought that I was unsecure or whatever. But now, he hadn’t even brought it up or asked me. The thought of sharing a sleeping bag with me was either out of the question for him, or maybe he wasn’t as comfortable sleeping with me as I’d thought.

For a moment, I saw Alisson as he was; A dark figure in the night, his body and face obstructed from my view, and his thoughts and feelings completely alien to me.

I shook my head.

Regardless, it feels like I’ve lost a big portion of comfort for the night. I’d been looking forward to it the whole day…being so close to someone.

It was like a treat that kept me going for the day, like a carrot dangling right before my eyes. That thought suddenly made me picture myself with bunny ears. Along that train of thought, I then suddenly wondered how I’d look with my Opensen. Assuming I unlock it at least. Would I be cute with ears like that on my head?

I rolled my eyes to try and get the thoughts of my own appearance out of my head.

The last time I obsessed over how I looked, I saw all the minute details in me that I hated, that no one else saw or cared about. It’s a bad trap to fall into.

I tried to clear my head, and in doing so I became more aware of my senses. I heard not the grumblings of my mind but now the loud cacophony of the night, and my nose pricked. That scent…in an enclosed tent like this, I vaguely smelt Alisson, as if I were much closer. My mind being clear, the scent quickly filled my head and I felt a little dizzy.

I let out a large exhale, my breath visible in the cold air.

In the place of my missing warmth, I thought of Alisson in my head, and with his scent, however vague, inundating my mind, I stared hazily at him as my breath sped.

My hand moved on its own.

I jumped as a sudden electric shock ran through my body and I gasped, my eyes widening. My shoulders were quivering, and my breath was now ragged.

W-what was that…?

…It felt…k-kind of good…