Rain fell all around. Droplets landed, splashing across the ground, turning it into a fine mud paste. Rain moistened the dirt and mixed the contents of jungle floor, coagulating it all into a thick soup of gore and soil.
Among the blood and entrails flowing in the rivers of mud, roamed the beasts who created the scene. They eagerly leaned down, gnawing on and devouring corpses that only recently had been alive and breathing.
He could hear them rip through the meat and flesh of the corpses around him. Alisson didn’t want to look up. Even if he did, he wouldn’t see anything. The moon was hiding, and the Jungle thus was as good as a black void. Within the abyss, with his face buried in the mud, and with the heavy weight of presumably a corpse over him, Alisson clung to life.
Any other man would break out in loud screams of terror and wailing. Alisson was not like that. His breath slowed to a crawl, his heart barely beat, and his mind was that of the mud around him; Empty. If it weren’t for his ability to be indistinguishable from a corpse, then he’d have been picked out and devoured long ago. He tried not to think about his wounds, or of what led up to that point. Alisson simply kept his body still, and his mind fooled and persuaded into thinking that he himself was dead.
All the while, the roaming beasts, of all types, walked pensively between piles of viscera, feasting silently if it weren’t for their gnawing and chewing upon the flesh of the dead.
Alisson heard one approaching. He didn’t know what it was, what it even looked like, what its combat capability was, but he knew that if he tried to fight it, he would die. So when it bit into his forearm, its razor sharp teeth grinding against his armor, he didn’t scream out in pain. He just tightened his eyes, steeled his mind, and clamped his teeth together. It bit harder and tighter on his forearm, but alas his vambrace was too strong for it. So, it tried pulling the meat out of whatever pile Alisson was under. It pulled and pulled at his arm. At first it was surprisingly gentle, not wanting to ruin its meal, but as time dragged and it became evident that the food was stubbornly not giving in, the beast pulled harder. Alisson felt a crack in his shoulder as his labrum gave way. The beast, with one swoop, pulled Alisson’s arm out of its socket. It kept going. The very flesh of Alisson’s arm started to tear audibly. His elbow finally popped as the bone was ripped from its joint. His wrist, under the bite of the beast, twisted unnaturally, and he heard a bone snap as his forearm finally gave way.
Alisson was shaking under the sensation. He’d opened his mouth, to let thick mud run into his throat to stop himself from screaming out. He knew in that very moment, his arm was a small concession for his life, and he was fully ready to let it be ripped from his body.
He couldn’t exactly say why he was so committed to clinging to life in that moment. With death all around him, in the middle of a black and rainy night, surrounded by beasts, he didn’t know why his mind was so stubbornly alive.
“Alisson! Alisson-!”
“Go! Go! We’ll rendezvous! We will! I promise we will!”
He remembered those words he’d shouted to his apprentice amongst the oncoming inundation of horrors. In that moment, he held them closer than his words to his Lady. His mission be damned. He would make it out of his Jungle alive; with Celis, no matter what.
Maybe that was his reason then, as his arm was ripped from his body, to not cry out, to not expose himself, to not just let the misery and pain go away with death. He’d been overrun by the likes of this filth, and now here he lay, a defeated warrior on a bloodied battlefield; the corpses of his slain enemies all around, the dozens of vile monsters he brought down with him in his final moments with his blade in his hand, until eventually he fell himself. And now here his enemies were, picking the battlefield clean, going from corpse to corpse, body to body, to make sure the enemy was truly dead. Alisson had been on the other end of this ordeal a great many times at the head of his 51st. A battle won came with corpses that needed to be dealt with, so there he’d went many a time, pacing from human to human, subhuman to subhuman, stabbing down into them; And every so often, a body would be jolted to life, as they screamed out suddenly with the life of a thousand men, before fading back into death, for real.
It stained his pride that such filth, beasts of all things in a Jungle like this was what would force him to fall. They had been too many, too quick, and too ferocious to run from. He was lucky to still be alive, that was for sure. The dozen odd beasts around Alisson, picking the area clean of meat, were only the remnants of that massive horde that had destroyed and split Crimson through the middle. At first him and Rei were doing well, they were being pushed north, deeper into the jungle, though they were holding strong in their frantic retreat away from the overwhelming wall of decrepit flesh. Then, setback after setback, wound after wound, turned what was going to be a quick, and tactical maneuver, into a total rout.
Alisson eyes tightened with anger. He knew that Enhérejär was very nearby. With his arm about to be ripped from his body, he had one last chance, to succumb into stillness, or to fight back. This was as good a chance as he was going to get. The number of beasts in the area had shrunk over the past hour.
Alisson had been counting. He counted seven pairs of steps and chewing mouths. That number was down from a large thirty-two sets not ten minutes prior. Alisson’s fist, buried under the mud, tightened, and became effulgent with yellow. By all accounts, it was safer to stay hidden and tucked away. He knew full well that his pride was all that was driving him to fight back. He didn’t care.
With his mind made up, he yanked his arm back, fighting against the beast that was trying to pull it away from him. He pulled his entire body up, lifting the corpse of something up off his back as he was propelled toward his aggressor.
Blood and mud flew through the air as Alisson emerged from the pile of gore, fangs bared.
For a moment time stood still as he came out into the open, into the views of seven beasts. Rain droplets froze in the air. In that moment, Alisson saw every beast that he had to slay around him.
One Spidertail, right before him, taking a bite out of his arm.
Two Roamers, close by at his backside.
Two Ravens, further away, their heads piqued and staring directly at Alisson, spooked.
One Spinter, hunched over a pile of gore.
And one of those humanoid monstrosities from hours earlier; A beast who’d been human not the hours earlier, with their horribly stretched and inverted limbs and wailing distorted faces.
He had to take them out quietly, quickly, and if didn’t get his hands on his weapon, he’d have to do so unarmed. He could see cleanly the shine of Enhérejär peeking out of mud in the corner of his vision, a few meters away.
With no one around, Alisson could use his full hand.
As he punched forth into the beast that had been trying to eat his arm, the area flashed as he activated his Opensen. It clearly disorientated the Spidertail before him, and it stumbled back. With his hand glowing yellow, he punched forward into its chest. As soon as his fist connected, he released the half-dozen Pictun spells he’d been preparing directly into the beast. They shot through its flesh like six spikes stuck through its body, coming out the other side and remaining still, black blood pouring off their bright yellow barbed tips. The Spidertail sputtered for a moment, before it released its grip on Alisson’s arm.
With two Roamers dashing toward him, he didn’t have a second to waste. He slapped a healing scroll on his mangled arm, forgot about it, and turned toward his next two enemies. The first lunged at him. Alisson easily sidestepped out of its way, almost tripping over a corpse in doing so. The second lunged. It was quite a small Roamer, only as big as a child. Alisson slipped behind it, kicking up mud and blood as his shaky feet dug into the paste beneath. Alisson grabbed hold of the second Roamer, and, wrapping his arms around its neck, struggled for a moment before an audible snap was heard, and the tiny Roamer went limp. The first Roamer had landed from its jump and was now scrambling to turn and dash toward Alisson.
Enhérejär was a few meters away. He wouldn’t be able to reach it in time. Alisson drew a knife from his cloak, and surged toward the Roamer. He evaded to its side, slashing through its hide with his pitifully small blade. As it tried to stop itself to attack Alisson, he leapt over its back, and surged for its head with his knife. By the time it turned to Alisson to see he wasn’t there, the Roamer’s neck was impaled from the other side. It struggled as Alisson held the beast down as best he could, stabbing it over and over, twisting and gouging the blade into the creature’s arteries.
Finally it went limp after a whole three seconds.
By this time the Sprinter had gotten to its feet and was taking a single step toward Alisson. The two ravens had taken to sky, fleeing. With one more step, the Sprinter would close the distance, and its long arms would come crashing down to flatten his body. He had to get Enhérejär, fast.
Alisson dashed to the gleam of his weapon. He saw it pulsating, as if beckoning him toward it. He dove into a summersault across the ground, picking up Enhérejär. With his weapon he now rose as the crashing arms of the Sprinter came, kicking up a torrent of blood and mud into the air. He lunged forward, impaling one of the Sprinters legs. Enhérejär bubbled with yellow as he passed in between its legs, twisting its knee around with him as he pulled Enhérejär like a lever as it was gouged into beast. The beast collapsed passed him, like a giant it fell face first into the muddy ground.
Alisson’s real target was now before him. The humanoid-hybrid-beast. It was already surging for him – He’d forget the Sprinter for now.
The beast was roaring at him as it jumped, its two front appendages swinging. Alisson stabbed forward with Enhérejär, releasing a Pictun spell at it with his thrust. His rapier was stopped dead as it hit the flesh of the beast. Alisson’s eyes widened in surprise. It was like he’d hit a brick wall – But how? It was so thin, it seemed to fragile, its very flesh was rotted and red with blood, how did it have the durability to withstand an attack like it was made of tempered steel?
The yellow Pictun spell pierced the beast, but did nothing more than that. It’s movement wasn’t hampered, and it didn’t even recoil.
Its arm came swinging around, crashing against Enhérejär. Sparks flew, as if its arm was made of metal. Its other arm came, before he could step away; He was sent tumbling back across the ground. It leapt side to side toward him as Alisson struggled to get to his feet. Just as it was upon him, about to swing once more and cut him down, a blue bolt slammed into it from the side, blowing the beast to smithereens.
Alisson’s eyes widened in a crazed gut-wrenching realization.
As Rei came barreling into Alisson vision, slicing the beast in half with a glowing blue blade, sweat rolled down his forehead.
Shit! Shit! Shit-! You’re supposed to be dead!
With his Opensen activated and having used his spells, he couldn’t play this off – Rei wasn’t stupid. So, as the corpse of the humanoid beast fell to the ground, he brought Enhérejär up and prepared for anything. Rei paced toward him slowly, staring him down with a large frown, her face twisted in disgust. Rain fell, and she was covered in blood and mud like he was. She must’ve have been hiding like Alisson had.
Her blade glowing with an aura of blue, she lifted her arm out to the side. The Sprinter Alisson had knocked down was getting to its feet, but without even looking Rei launched off a bolt right into its head, and the hulking giant fell limp into the ground.
She then lifted her sword, at Alisson.
“You look like shit.”
She said, the roar of the rain almost drowning out her voice.
“And so do you.”
Alisson replied, tightening his grip. Her face twisted up into a scowl.
“Not that, I’m talking about that shit that’s glued to your head and poking out your ass.”
“I know what you’re thinking…-”
Alisson started, but Rei was quicker.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t blow your head off, cat ears and all, you fucking snake!”
“Listen-!”
“Shut up! Split-tailed swine!”
Her blade glew brighter.
“Let’s put our difference aside for now…Be reasonable, Rei. It’ll do us no good kill each other out in this godforsaken Jungle. We’ll die if we don’t work together.”
“Oh, ‘we’ll’ die. I’ll be fine. It’s you who’s been dead weight. At least now I know why you let Dane get slaughtered like that...I’ll kill you here and now. No one needs to know.”
Rei was not giving in.
Alisson frowned. In that moment, he made a decision.
“Were it so easy…”
Alisson wouldn’t be turning Rei to his side anytime soon. He wouldn’t lose to her. But he would lose to the Jungle without her. He needed to pick his words very carefully.
“Oh really? Who do you think you are!?” Rei spat.
Alisson closed his eyes.
With this, I sentence you to death. No matter what happens, you will die before another soul lives to hear your voice…I’ll use you and then throw you away like a piece of trash.
“I, I…”
He opened his eyes, and stared directly at Rei, his face twisting into a scowl.
“I am Alisson Vi Nuam! Field Marshal of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Sidonian armies! I am the best swordsmen in all of Sidonia!”
Rei’s eyes widened. He stepped forward, bringing Enhérejär up to his face.
“You will not win! Mark my words if you dare fight me you will die a fool’s death! I have slaughtered entire battlegroups and armies! Defeated immortals and gods! You have no chance!”
Alisson kept walking toward her.
“However, I am asking you in this moment, not as a Sidonian, but as a fellow being of intelligence and reason…”
He held out his hand.
“Divided we will perish, together, we may have a chance to survive this night. I humbly ask that you fight by my side. Just for this moment, let us cast aside our differences and unite against a common enemy, for a common goal.”
She stared at him, eyes wide, in total surprise and shock she stood frozen.
“After we get out of this…we can share a drink, laugh about it, and go our separate ways. You understand? No more people need to die here.”
Her arms fell limply by her sides, and she stared down darkly.
“You…you expect me to just forget my allegiance to humanity? To fight side by side with a monster like you?”
“Yes.”
She sighed.
“Fucking Sidonians…always with your ‘logic’ and ‘reason’…”
A long moment passed as Alisson stood a meter away his hand extended.
“…I hate you. I’ll never forgive you for what you did to Dane.” She looked up to Alisson, her sharp eyes simmering blue. “But…Fine.”
She lifted her blade up in a flash toward Alisson.
“But as soon as we get out of here, I’m going to shove this sword so far up your ass you won’t be able to-!”
“I understand. Thank you for making the correct choice.”
Alisson bobbed his head, and he lowered Enhérejär. Rei scoffed, and lowered her blade, then twirled it around by her side as she turned away.
“Best swordsmen or not, I can still kick your ass. Don’t forget that.”
Alisson’s eyes sharpened. This needed to be corrected right away. Although Alisson’s words were almost entirely false – About him being the best and about defeating immortals, and about being in command of three armies – He was still above Rei. He knew that. The gap between them however, was far smaller than his words implied. His flair for the dramatic had been just that; Dramatized. Rei needed to know full well that he was the alpha here.
“Just try it.”
Alisson said darkly. Rei flashed a glace at him, shrugged, and in a flash, rose her sword and launched off a spell, directly toward Alisson’s head. She was only a meter away. Evasion was not an option. This was exactly what Alisson was hoping for.
He rose Enhérejär, caught the spell, twirled on his heel, and sent it flying back at Rei’s feet within the blink of an eye. The blue bolt exploded at her feet, and she stumbled back. She gave Alisson a wide-eyed stare. He withdrew a cloth from inside his cloak, and wiped down Enhérejär of blood and mud.
“I’m much better at slaying human filth such as yourself than monsters. Don’t test me.”
Rei clicked her tongue, but turned away in submission. As she did, the howl of beasts echoed through the bloody ditch that the two of them had fought themselves into.
“Alright. Let’s get moving. I know you’re a selfish bastard; But I’m going to the rest of Crimson first. I’m not leaving them behind – I don’t care what you say.”
Alisson shrugged, and followed in Rei’s wake.
“That was my intention as well. We’ll be safer if we can round up more manpower.”
Rei gave him an irritated glare out of the corner of her eye.
“And I’m not lying about what I said…I will kill you after we get out of here.”
The two of them deftly climbed up the muddy ditch, and melted into the forest undergrowth. The rain would hide their scent, and wash off the blood from their bodies. The mud would further insulate their smell. The rain would also make them harder to hear. Avoiding contact as much as possible was the name of the game. Even if him and Rei were the two strongest members in Crimson – She could probably beat Celis – They were still just that, two. Against a swarm, even Rei would probably run out of her damned bottomless mana supply, and Alisson’s mana was of course out of the question.
If the two of them played their cards right, the beasts were the least of Alisson’s worries. His chief threat was Rei herself. He wouldn’t give her the chance to backstab him. There was a reason he was following her after all. Whereas she might see Alisson as a submissive follower, he was really a soldier guarding a prisoner on a death march, urging her forward with his presence.
…
Linking up with Crimson would be tough. Frankly, Alisson didn’t know where the hell they were. They pushed somewhere north and off the road, and that was about it. They had ran and retreated for god know how many kilometers. Rei didn’t have the message spell like Berein, neither did Alisson. He had the Telepathy spell, but that only worked in a couple hundred feet radius and he doubted any other adventurer had the spell anyway.
They only had one clue. Why had the horde chasing down him and Rei left so quickly after defeating them? A speculative answer was their only lead; That the beasts had been attracted toward the rest of Crimson, and broke off in their direction. Henceforth, him and Rei, while avoiding beasts in the cloak of night and rain, followed in the thousands of footsteps of the swarm. The rain was quickly washing away their tracks into mud, so they had a limited time. However, the more they followed the tracks, the more reinforced the idea was.
The tracks followed a consistent spline curve toward the north. They were chasing down a moving target, and as such their path was a small, but noticeable, curve over numerous kilometers.
Him and Rei weren’t slacking. They were double timing it across the Jungle, at a consistent jog at any given moment. Alisson had to admit, his skills in forestry had certainly improved. Whereas once a week ago he was stumbling and tripping over creeper vines and roots, he now deftly vaulted over fallen trunks and glided across brambles.
Despite their quickened pace in having only two people with minimal combat, they were probably only going the same speed as the horde, probably slower.
The rain had been gradually slowing down as the night was coming to a close – Bad news. Him and Rei had been able to avoid confrontation through the night, but now they’d stick out like a sore thumb once their scents and sounds permeated through the Jungle. Worse yet, the tracks of the horde they’d been following were almost gone, and were extremely hard to spot thanks to the rain. The general direction however, as him and Rei had seen, was still a constant curve, following what they could only assume to be Crimson.
“So…What’s a Nekomata doing all the way up here?”
Rei whispered under her breath as the two of them crept through the Jungle brush.
“Nothing that concerns you. Don’t worry, I’m not here to kill anybody – I’m here in Freigat to find something is all.”
He didn’t see any point in not telling her. The truth would keep her a little more on his side. And besides, he wouldn’t let her run her mouth after he was done with her.
“And what would that be?”
Alisson gave a glare at Rei. She rolled her eyes.
“Didn’t think there was anything worth looking for in this damned place…But if you’re here, it must be important…”
Alisson didn’t respond, and continued to creep behind her through the quiet dawn. The sun rising, and the brighter sky reflected that. Alisson was unaffected by not getting any sleep for only a single day, Rei on the other hand, Alisson was surprised she didn’t even ask for a breather.
It wasn’t long until beasts inevitably showed themselves.
They had gone quite far north relative to adventurer norms. As much as Alisson didn’t like not being in control of manpower, he was lucky that the beasts were pushing Crimson deeper. There was a reason adventurers didn’t get too deep into Freigat, and why they were so methodical and cautious. The beasts at the outer edges of Freigat were bad enough in their numbers, but here, it was different.
The area was noticeably more devoid of those large trees, and more and more did Alisson see the stray stream or boulder. One would think that this more open space would allow for even more beast presence, but in reality, the beasts were actually less in number in individual packs, as Rei had explained.
The Roamers before the two of them were not white. They had odd colorations in their skin. Tinges of red, pink, blue, and sickly lavender showed in small pigments in their hide. They were a larger in body mass, and at first glance, that seemed to be the only meaningful difference. Though, Alisson saw clearly, their paws had sharpened and elongated claws, triple what he was normal of a beast, most all of them had odd spikes on their backs, and from their mouths dripped a corrosive acid. At their feet, their hide changed colors rapidly, he could imagine that they could easily use a passive camouflage. Their skin was thick, and without deformities or patches of fur, they looked healthy, fit, and most of all, intelligent. The way the group of four roamers paced before him and Rei, circling them, eyeing them up. There was something about it. They were snarling to each other, picking the two of them apart with their eyes.
Him and Rei stood back to back, eyeing the beasts, clenching their weapons, ready to strike.
“Now!”
Rei whispered, and dashed forward in an explosive motion. Alisson did the same, the both of them surging for two beasts each. Instead of breaking and charging Alisson, the beasts in his vision, did the opposite. They retreated, standing to their hind legs and jumping back. Alisson was so shocked that he stood staring at them with wide eyes for a moment. Breaking his daze, the two snarled at him, before making a growl akin to choking. They then promptly spit a fist sized blob of acid toward Alisson with unexpected force. Alisson managed to roll away and evade, the two projectile attacks missing cleanly. They burned through the ground where Alisson had stood.
This, was looking to be an issue. Not only did these beasts retreat to pick their own fight, they did so using a ranged attack. This ranged attack was not the large burst of acid that came from Shamblers, enough to cover a couple meters with liquid death, no, these two attacks were small, precise, and well-aimed. That alone was a large signal to Alisson about these beasts.
Instead of charging in, Alisson held up his guard, and advanced slowly toward the beasts, eyeing them down. On the way, he impaled the pool of acid on the ground with Enhérejär.
Seeing this, one beast charged forward, while the other snarled with a familiar choking. Alisson was forced to give up his ploy and raise Enhérejär up to meet the charging beast. As he did however, the charging beast suddenly veered and dodged away from Alisson, completely breaking off it’s attack. In its wake, the other beast spat forth its acid.
Alisson’s eyes widened.
Tch…So we’re gonna play it this way then huh?
He just barely managed to scramble to the side and avoid the sizzling green blob of death. Mid evasion, the beast that had broken off its charge now veered and leapt toward him with incredible agility. Alisson was initially going to redirect its body away from him by simply turning on his heel and letting beast past him with a push, but he realized that wasn’t an option when he saw the Roamer’s massive frontal claws, poised directly at him.
Straightening his footing as fast as he could, Alisson turned, and lunged directly at the beast. He didn’t want keep on being the defender here, he needed to do some damage. As much as he usually killed Roamers in one action, it seemed that these were going to need some weakening beforehand. So, he didn’t try to aim from the Roamer’s head or its neck – Even if he did, its hardened claws were in the way. Alisson didn’t think that was coincidental. He aimed for the paw of the Roamer; Enhérejär gouged itself within its front leg as he narrowly passed it. Enhérejär broke into two, Alisson unable to pull it out of the beast as he passed. He was now left with a stub of a rapier. The beast stumbled as it fell to the floor, but it stood defiantly on its remaining three legs – That was before Alisson used an Aleveron scroll. The red spike came from meters away, and the beast, although fast, didn’t manage to dodge it completely thanks to its wounded leg. The spell had been aimed for its chest, but ended up striking one of the beast’s hind legs, pinning it down.
Perfect.
As he expected, the second beast was now lunging for him from behind, spitting at him simultaneously. He sidestepped, and batted at the acid with the last of Enhérejär. Although it seemed stupid, to strike a liquid projectile, Alisson’s hope was not to block it, his sidestep already secured him of that.
Thanks to his bat at the acid, some of the liquid stuck to and ran along the stub of Enhérejär, where it then leapt off and toward the beast as his hand swiped through the acid. The small amount of acid Alisson managed to usurp into his own use did little more than blind the Roamer as it passed Alisson. It landed, and gave a rigorous shake to its head. The acid seemed to have little effect on the Roamer – It’s hide seemed resistant and there was far too little of the deathly acid to bore any sizable wounds.
That was all Alisson needed though: to blind it. Because of this, it didn’t see the red spike coming as its head was blown off from its body. The beast fell to the ground after a moment. Alisson scoffed as he walked toward the remaining beast, still pinned to the ground by his previous spell. It was struggling furiously to get to its feet.
He prepared to lift Enhérejär up, to finish it, when the Roamer suddenly looked down at its hind leg, and spat a bolt of acid. The acid spit melted through the leg that was pinned down within less than a second, and the beast looked up to Alisson and lunged for him, freed.
Alisson stumbled back, completely surprised. He rose Enhérejär up toward the beast, preparing a barrage of magic. Before another second passed however, a shining blue blade cut through the Roamer’s head. Rei entered his peripheral vision in a blur, and slammed into the beast’s body, pushing it away. The heavy corpse landed with a thud next to Alisson – if it had fallen on him, he’d have probably been crushed.
“Tch…don’t get cocky with these ones, you’ll die like any other rookie.”
Rei said, sighing, having apparently dealt with the other two beasts.
“I would’ve been fine…”
Alisson remarked, bending down, and reconnecting the blade of Enhérejär back with the hilt from the corpse of the most recently slain beast. Rei rolled her eyes.
She was about to open her mouth when a rustle behind them cut her off. Out of the undergrowth, a dozen meters away, came a swarm of familiar creatures. At least a dozen of those human-turned monsters emerged from the undergrowth, rushing them. Each one seemed more grotesque and deformed than the last. Their rotted skin was falling off by this point, leaving a horrific white puss beneath.
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“Eyes up!”
Rei said, brandishing her blade, already reassuming its former blue aura. There was no running these inhuman monstrosities, they were far too fast. They had to turn and fight. Just one of them was a challenge, but a dozen? Him and Rei stuck close, and with their weapons raised, met the onslaught of flesh. Alisson’s rapier, like last time fighting these beasts, didn’t even scratch them. It’s like they were made of metal. He struggled bobbing side to side, evading their lashes until Rei would step in and with a single slice, cut down a beast with her glowing blade.
“Alisson! Imbue your blade!”
She’s right! The Zeslowaffen enchantments!
Alisson, stepping back and out of the way of lashing limb, dug into his cloak, and withdrew one of those so called weapon enchantment scrolls. He didn’t have a moment to apply it, so he leapt back even further. Landing, he activated the scroll, running along the length of Enhérejär as he did. It left a green trail in the air, until suddenly it seeped and stuck onto Enhérejär, swiftly turning colors into a virulent purple. With a beast encroaching, he was ready to test out this mana-enhanced blade. He dashed forward, and met the beast’s attack with a swipe of his rapier, slicing with its cutting edges.
It worked better than expected. Enhérejär passed through the creature’s limb as though it were butter, severing it from its body. Alisson wasted no time turning and remising(1), dicing through the beast’s center and killing it instantly. With this newfound cutting ability, he easily managed to stay on even ground with the beasts, now able to sever limbs to defend himself and weaken his opponents.
It was a liberating fight. He was able to show Rei just what he was made of. He’d had his Opensen activated the whole time he’d been with Rei, and now he was able to truly show her how much strength and agility he had. He twirled over beasts, slicing at them midair, landing and evading, redoubling left and right, sifting in and out of attacks. The battlefield was clear in less than a minute, him and Rei dicing through the beasts.
The two of them sat still, on guard, breathing heavily.
“That was probably a good chunk of these human-turned beasts in the area…”
Rei said, heaving a sigh.
“Where do they even come from?”
“Nurseries. That’s my bet.”
Alisson scoffed.
“Where did those egg looking things get such a name? What are they Nurseries for?”
“Adventurers.”
Rei said tersely, and they were left in a moment of silence.
They were quick to vacate the area, and continue on their path. As they did, Enhérejär steadily lost its purple shine.
“Those things were easy to kill with a little mana, right?”
Rei remarked.
“Yes…what exactly are you doing when your sword glows blue like that? I’ve never seen magic like that.”
Alisson asked as the two of them dashed through the jungle undergrowth. Rei in response slowed to a halt.
“Listen, it’ll be better if you know how to do this too, come here for a second.”
With that, she waved him over to a small boulder. With some cover, she kneeled.
“That weapon enchantment scroll is a big scam. You can imbue mana into your blade yourself.”
“What?”
Alisson tilted his head in confusion. Rei frowned.
“For being the best Sidonia has to offer…well…” She shook her head part way through her quip. “…That’s expected, of course you wouldn’t know about this, I made it up myself.”
Alisson scoffed.
“If so then why doesn’t everyone else do that? It seems like a handy spell.”
Rei sighed.
“It’s not a spell. It’s pure mana.”
Alisson’s face twisted into surprise.
“That can’t be, the amount of mana you’d need for that would be…and your body too, wouldn’t you go up like a -?”
Rei shook her head.
“I don’t want to talk about it. Right now, just focus on yourself.”
Alisson frowned. He didn’t appreciate Rei keeping secrets.
“How much mana do you have left?”
Alisson shook his head.
“Not much.”
“Then use the rest of it. Focus it into your rapier.”
Alisson looked down to his blade, and then to Rei.
“Is that all?”
She rolled her eyes.
“I don’t know how to explain it, I’m not a teacher, just figure it out.”
Alisson shook his head.
“If I don’t know what to do, I can’t do it very well now can I?”
“You Sidonians really are just wind up toy soldiers, you can’t even think for yourself at all…”
She stood, and the two of them moved out at a brisk pace.
Alisson was thinking all the while. About Rei. The various spells she used, her vision enhancing one, her night vision one, and now this…just what was she hiding? She had to have an incredible amount of mana to be sure, but then on top of that, somehow manage to store all of it. Maybe she had some sort of special equipment…or maybe some technique she was hiding. Well, whatever it was, Alisson doubted he would ever find out with her tight lips.
…
“Tch! Where the hell are they! It feels like we’ve been running around in circles!”
“We probably have…”
Alisson responded, irritated. It’d been the better part of the day, and still they hadn’t seen any traces of Crimson. Well, ever since the tracks they’d been following had gone cold. They’d been searching the area to no avail. All the while being pushed to the brink of death, fighting waves of beasts. Alisson’s armor was scarred, and so was Rei’s. The both of them had open wounds as they stood, being healed by scrolls.
“They couldn’t have gone any further than this, so then where the hell are they!”
Rei exclaimed with anger. Beasts were already roaring, ticked off by her loud shouting.
The land before them was what him and Rei had concluded to be the point of no return in Freigat. They must have been quite deep in to see this. Before them, was a large drop off in the land, they were at the top of a cliff, over looking canyons thousands of meters below. He couldn’t see very well thanks to canopy of trees below, but there were rivers and ravines running all around. If it weren’t for the Ravens and various other flying beast circling above, it would be a magnificent sight. All until one would then see that one of the canyons below was inundated with moving flesh. Alisson at first thought that the ground itself was moving below, but on closer inspection, it seemed to be an enormous number of beasts, all pent up in the box of the ravine at the base of the cliff.
A large Roamer emerged from right behind them, growling. Alisson stepped to the side, and gave the Roamer a kick as it passed, sending it flying over the cliffside.
“Maybe they fell down.”
Alisson said, eyeing the flailing beast as it fell. It hit some rocks on the cliff, and part of it splattered into a black mist, before tumbling to the bottom and ending up a mangled stain.
“Or were pushed off by the horde…It’s not a farfetched possibility now that I think about it…”
Alisson remarked.
“You’re right, Patsel’s slow fall spells would allow them to escape a swarm, no sane beast would jump off a cliff trying to follow them, it’d be a good way to get free of them.”
“Maybe they knew about this cliff then…” Alisson thought. He’d long been thinking that Celis had commandeered Crimson in his wake, and had been driving them deeper in his stead, but perhaps they were going deeper because of this cliff.
Rei nodded. Another beast emerged from the undergrowth, and spat a bolt of acid. Rei turned and slammed her blade directly down onto the beasts skull. It didn’t stop moving, so Alisson turned and ran it through with his rapier. Only then did it stop struggling.
“Where would they go afterwards…It doesn’t look like there’s any easy way up this cliff once you go down it...”
“I’d find a hole, and stay put until the horde chasing me has left.”
“They wouldn’t be easy to find if they’re hunkered down then…”
He mused.
Like it or not, he had to regroup with Celis. That meant having Rei, someone who knew his cover, to be reunited with Crimson. He didn’t like it.
Maybe I drop my charade on all of them, and force them all under my orders…no, Rei would rally Crimson and they’d fight back, we’d only end up killing them…If Rei was out of the picture however…
“Something on your mind?”
Rei tilted her head at him.
“…N-no, nothing. Let’s get moving.”
…
The journey down the cliff was an arduous one. It was already midday. For the first time since entering Freigat, Alisson could see the clear blue skies above him. It was surprisingly good day for being so close to winter. It’d been a couple hours since they started down the cliff, and so far Alisson’s stomach was tightening more and more. He didn’t know what it was, he just had a bad feeling.
Almost stumbling off the side of the cliff face and thus falling to his death, Alisson managed to sidestep a Sprinter, and stabbed it in the back of the knee. It stumbled to one knee, and in doing so went right off the cliff. It managed to turn midair and grab hold of the edge. Alisson was quick to leap over, and dice through its long fingers with the cutting edge of Enhérejär. It fell silently to its death thereafter.
He turned to face numerous more beasts, all staring him down, growling. They all saw what had happened to the Sprinter, and wanted no part in it. With his back against the cliff, it was certainly an interesting fight. Alisson didn’t like interesting fights. His mind was already full enough on cortisol as it was. Beasts tried to use long range attacks on him, either acid or spikes came soaring his way. The acid was useful – Alisson was absorbing it with Enhérejär and launching it back at the beasts. Since he’d shown them this, they of course resorted to not attacking him with acid, the bastards.
So a tense standoff they were in, neither side wanting to attack, with Alisson’s back against the cliff, he had more leverage than he thought. Him and Rei all the while inched further and further down the cliffside. At times the path began to shrink to less than a few feet. Alisson didn’t exactly appreciate having a rock solid wall to his back, a cliff of death in front of him, and beasts to his sides, inching nearby. He had to burn through quite a few scrolls to stay alive, the shielding ones for blocking those damnable spikes, and the attack spells for retaliating. Those shock spears especially proved useful, the lightning chaining together and leaping from foe to foe.
He hated to admit it, but Rei had his back throughout the endeavor. He covered one side, and Rei the other, as they inched along the cliff face.
“There – A landing.”
Rei whispered, and Alisson nodded in confirmation. Below them was a good sized plateau of rock. The beasts by this point were almost breathing down their necks, peering down from above, growling. They were all massing there, above. Him and Rei had the same idea because of this when they saw the landing.
Rei jumped first, and Alisson followed. It was only a couple dozen meters drop. Alisson easily managed to land on the landing by digging Enhérejär into the face of the cliff to stop himself. As soon as the both of them were on the landing, Rei lifted up her sword toward the edge they had been on mere seconds before, and fired one of her attack spells. The spell broke the relative quiet the day, and slammed into the cliff face above. The rock immediately shattered and cracked. It gave way, bringing the dozens of beasts atop it falling down in an avalanche. He could see the tumbling bodies of beasts as they passed by.
“That should keep them busy for a while…”
Alisson muttered. He was silently thankful to have Rei and her apparently limitless supply of mana on his side against the beasts of Freigat.
“Now then…”
Rei suddenly pulled Alisson close, right in front of her chest. She rose her blade out in front of him, pointing toward something below.
Alisson followed the tip of the short sword, and saw what Rei was indicating. It was but a dot in his vision – Rei’s Telescopic View spell must’ve been quite effective. He could make out the vague of figure of beasts clawing at a wall in the canyon below. The certain canyon in question that Rei was pointing too, was the one filled to the brim with wandering beasts, all just pacing in random direction, bumping into each other and what not. All except for one place, against a stone wall, where a dozen beasts seemed to want something inside the rock, and were pounding heavily against the it.
Alisson’s brow rose in realization.
“That has to be…”
“Mm.”
Rei nodded, taking her hand off Alisson’s shoulder to his relief.
“They’re down there, they must be holed up in one of the caves.”
“Sounds like the best bet.”
Alisson nodded.
“With that many beasts though…” He continued, “They probably blew the entrance, locked themselves in…They’re not able to escape.”
“Maybe they went deeper underground…no…the tunnels under Freigat are a death sentence, they’re not stupid enough to do that.”
They sat in a moment of pondering, staring at the mas of beasts hundreds of meters below.
“Tch…If only we could communicate with them…”
Rei clicked her tongue.
“Now that’s just taking the fun out of it.”
Rei gave Alisson a look. She sighed, and looked back to the canyon below.
“I don’t like this.”
He shook his head.
“Me neither.” Rei nodded. “But the way it’s looking…”
Her voice trailed off. Alisson shrugged with an exhale.
“It seems to be our only choice…”
Rei sighed once more…A moment of silence befell them. She suddenly snapped her head up, and put on a steeled, confident smile.
“Gah…Why are you moping around – You’ve got a hero at your back!”
She pointed to herself with her thumb. She then stared an eerie glare at the canyon below.
“…Rei the Hero will save them all, don’t you worry. There’s nothing I can’t defeat!”
Alisson looked at Rei warily, mildly disturbed by the sudden change in her attitude.
…
The plan itself was stupid, idiotic, braindead even. If one of Alisson’s apprentices came to him with such a maneuver, he’d give them a straight F for tactics. Maybe he’d bump that grade up to C- however, based solely on bravado.
An hour had passed in preparation before the party started. Now that it had kicked off, with roars and growls flooding his vision, bravado was really all Alisson had.
“Come on you rotted rats! You want breakfast? You gotta catch it!”
Rei shouted, slamming her sword into her buckler repeatedly. Hundreds of meters below, the beasts that once roamed idly now roared and clawed up at them, locked onto Rei. They piled atop one another, getting a surprising amount of the way up the wall; But it was no matter. The beasts wouldn’t be climbing up the cliff face anytime soon. Despite being him and Rei’s focus, they were of no threat. It was the beasts that came from above and behind them, further up the cliff, that were the problem.
While Alisson dealt with these, Rei created a racket, drawing attention of the beasts in the ravine below. Place to place they did this along the cliff. It was the traversal between the cliff that was the problem. The thin ledges and sharp rocks were all he and Rei had to keep from falling into the mass of flesh below.
Alisson jumped from ledge to ledge, vaulting over and climbing rocks in his path. With one hand he held onto his life, and with the other, defended his life from the beasts that leapt from above, diving stupidly toward him. He either shoved them away off the cliff, or impaled them in the air. He leapt up, and grabbed hold of Rei’s gauntleted hand, pulling himself up.
For a moment they stood, exhaling heavily, looking down over the ravine.
“This is working a lot better than I thought.”
Alisson said, his chest heaving with fatigue.
“Ah, so you’re the pessimist. Of course things will go the way I plan, I can’t very well protect everyone if they don’t.”
Rei replied, smirking in self-satisfaction. The beasts ebbed and flowed below, clawing over each other, growling and shrieking their bellows. There had to be at least a thousand of them, and they were all pushed up against eh ravine walls, looking up at just him and Rei.
Alisson glanced to the beaming content Rei. Just what was with her and her damned exclamations?
Well, Alisson didn’t question it. Not when she was fighting side-by-side with him. He reciprocated her optimism with a wary smile.
The sudden blur of a beast leaping from above came a moment after, as if mocking Alisson’s prod toward positivity. The Roamer fell directly onto Rei, grappling with her. She smashed her buckler into the side of its head, and impaled its side with her shortsword, but it wouldn’t quit. A rapier flew through it skull, and the Roamer went limp in her arms. She pushed the beast aside, off the cliff. The beasts below happily devoured the corpse in a feeding frenzy.
“Well, here’s to roasted Roamer for tonight’s meal.”
Rei said smugly.
“As if we would be ever be treated with meat…”
Alisson muttered with a small smile.
Rei banged her sword and shield together a couple times, before setting off in a sprint along the rest of the cliff face. Alisson was quick to follow in her steps. Beasts were gathering above as well, but they were reluctant to try and leap of the cliff to attack. If the cliff face even slightly evened out, then no doubt would the dozens of beasts above descend on them. Because of this, him and Rei purposely stuck to edges that were as slanted into the cliff as possible.
Rocks below crumbled with the two of their hectic vaulting and running. A piece of land under Alisson cracked, and shattered; his foot slipped down the cliff. He reached up to try and grab the rest of the cliff, but instead a hand met his own. Rei peered from above with a tender smile, like she was a mother.
“Now how many times does this make it?”
If I were in the lead, then it’d be you in my position from me weakening the rocks instead…
Before Alisson could quip back, a loud snap resonated throughout the cliff face.
Above, the rock wall was shattered, and within less than a second, would be covering them both of them. The beasts above must’ve weighed it down too much.
Rei’s eyes narrowed, and her once laid back expression sharpened into stoicism. With a single pull, she lifted Alisson up with one hand, and pulled him passed herself. With that, she jumped back as well. Rocks and dirt fell and engulfed the ledge that they were on mere moments before. Alisson hit the ground of the landing, and scrambled to his feet when he heard more gut-wrenching cracks above.
He dashed to desperately get out of the way.
“They’re knocking down the cliff from above on purpose! Bastards!”
Alisson cursed.
“Then get up there and stop them!”
Alisson tilted his head in confusion at Rei while they were in the air. The second they were on stable ground again though, Rei grabbed Alisson by his sides.
“Wh-wha-wha-!?”
With that, he was thrown up. He flailed his arms midair as his body was sent up the side of the cliff. Rei didn’t throw him very far, a couple meters at most, but it was still impressive.
Alisson quickly cleared his mind; he now had a very specific task. His body was a vector, and his mind a cog, his very being a weapon to kill.
He impaled the side of the cliff with Enhérejär, and stopped himself from falling. As he climbed the side of the cliff, more and more of the rock basin cracked and gave way above – Impaling the cliff with a rapier wasn’t helping either. A few seconds later, and time ran out. The beasts above collapsed that section of the cliff, and all the rocks that Alisson was using to climb, suddenly became loose, and suspended in the air.
He didn’t have much in the way of freefalling mobility. Enhérejär could act as a grapple hook to a small extent, but it couldn’t pull his body all the way up to the cliff and past all the falling rocks. Alisson closed his eyes, and focused the last of his mana into a single spell.
With a bright flash, the immediate area became as bright as the sun. In the next moment, Alisson was above the cliff, behind the dozen beasts who had been pushing down the rocks. His teleport spell had just drained him of his mana, but in return, he’d just gained the positional advantage on these beasts. He landed and charged into the beasts. They seemed to be disorientated from the bright flash.
Alisson impaled skull after skull in a flurry of thrusts. When the beasts counterattacked, he used slashes to cut through their limbs and weaken them. After that, it was simply a matter to finish them off. The assortment of Roamers and Spidertails were dealt with within a matter of a few seconds. Ravens dived down for him, but by the time they reached him, he already mopped up the beasts, and their little surprise strike was easily dealt with. Alisson through a couple of his knives directly into the Raven’s wings without setting off their spells. The Ravens were knocked off their coordinated strike, and Alisson easily impaled them as they soared toward him.
He grabbed his knives, and broke into a sprint down the cliff once more.
So far, him and Rei had ran along about half of the canyon’s cliff, and for that, half of the ravine below was completely empty of beasts. The other half, however, was a cesspool. More beasts were coming, so he found Rei on the ledge below and regrouped with her, sliding down the edge of the cliff face.
“Just a little more and we turn this place into one big barbeque.”
Alisson nodded.
“There’s a lot of them coming from above, let’s wrap this up.”
The two of them continued on as they had been, drawing the attention of the beasts below. The mass of flesh only became more and more agitated as they realized they couldn’t reach him and Rei. More and more did Ravens soar down to attack, getting impatient.
That swarm that Alisson had heard while he was up above the cliff had arrived, and it was enormous. Alisson couldn’t tell the exact size of it, due to not having line of sight with them, but the sheer amount of vibrations from the rock above and the amount of roars that filled the air were immense.
All the while Alisson grew more and more uneasy. There was that feeling in his stomach again, that something was going to go wrong. But nevertheless, he pushed on with Rei.
It didn’t take long to reach the other end of the canyon. Thanks to them staying on the lower ledges of the cliff, the massive horde above them was kept safely away. Every so often, a body of beast would blur past them into the ravine, either out of bad luck or stupidity.
There was a waterfall before them now, and the cliff face had suddenly opened up. If Alisson looked east, he could see where they had started, about a kilometer away.
The real objective however, was right below them in the ravine. All the beasts in the canyon were all gathered up, so much so that they piled atop one another almost up to the height of the cliff. Oddly enough, the horde of beasts above them were gone. Alisson couldn’t hear their roars anymore. He was left with only the sound of the rushing waterfall beside them and of the hundreds of beasts below. It was eerie somehow.
“Well, what are you waiting for?”
Rei gave him a shove with her elbow.
“Right…”
Alisson dug into his cloak, and retrieved a single scroll. A Reysarke Beam. He pointed the sheaf of paper squarely at the tide of beasts below. He stood there for a moment, the beasts in his sights before his readied scroll.
He took a deep breath, and prepared to fire.
A deep rumble shook at his feet, and his eyes widened. The quake was familiar – It was that of a Basilisk. That’s all Alisson had time to realize before the ground he stood on shattered, and from behind came barreling the black body of a massive black serpent, shattering the cliff face. He was sent into freefall, rocks flying through the air all around him. The Reysarke scroll, having already been activated moments before, fired. Due to Alisson’s flailing arms, the beams swiped across the other side of the canyon, missing the mass of beasts below as intended.
For a moment, Alisson cursed in anger. Had they really just wrangled up all the monsters together only to fall into them and be eaten alive?
He cleared his mind. Alisson was too far away from the cliff to try and maneuver back to safety. He didn’t have the mana left to teleport, and rocks around him in the air were far too small to warrant grabbing onto. He was going to have to face the horde of hundreds of beasts below head on.
As the Basilisk’s body flew far past him, crashing into ground that wasn’t covered in beasts, Alisson had his plan. Armed with his last Reysarke scroll, for he’d given the other two to Celis, Alisson planned to come crashing down into the ground as the Basilisk had. He fired the scroll directly below him.
We may have had a setback, but that doesn’t mean I can’t execute on what I’ve already set up.
The bright undulating beam vaporized through the mountain of writhing bodies below, if only for a moment. Despite the power of the spell, to Alisson’s dismay, it did not pierce all the way through the flesh of the beasts as he’d hoped; There was only a burning crater in the figurative mountain now.
Now only a measly few dozen meters above the beasts, Alisson improvised. He prepared the last of the shock spear scrolls and enchanted Enhérejär with his second to last Zeslowaffen scroll. The moment before his boots hit the face of the top most beast, he deployed a barrier scroll. A dozen bursts of acid were immediately absorbed by the barrier, and it collapsed the next second. Alisson had already leapt from it, trying to get as far way horizontally from the pile of beasts as the Basilisk had. If he could do that, then all he had to do was flee from hundreds of beasts instead of fighting hundreds of beasts.
Now that he thought about it in his mind, his prospects didn’t look all that much better.
Having jumped, and with dozens of beasts already reaching and leaping for him, new acid and spikes already being aimed at him, Alisson let loose all of his shock spear spells below.
Quite literally rolling thunder ran across the anthill of flesh below. The mass amount of lightening chained and roared through body to body, zapping and frying creatures alive. The smell of burnt meat assailed Alisson’s noise immediately. A thick cloud of smoke rose out of the charred bodies of the beasts. He could imagine that many more layers of beasts below the visible outer one had been zapped as well, though he wasn’t intending the spell to be his ace, rather to simply distract the beasts – It was far harder for an amalgamation of creatures to chase one person with a layer of literal deadweight on them no?
He only had two barrier scrolls left. He wanted to conserve them as he did with mana fro his Obice spell, but there was no use in that if he was consumed under a torrent of rotted hide and fangs.
Twice he fell toward the beast mass and twice he deployed the barrier spells to use as a pad to leap further away from the already collapsing mountain.
A quick glance at his backside told him he wasn’t only running from the monsters, the cliff, thanks to both the Basilisk and Alisson’s misfired Reysarke beam, was now in full collapse. It looked as though Alisson hadn’t gone very far horizontally from where he was up on the cliff a few seconds before, but in reality, the cliff and the beasts had moved in tandem with him.
With a virulently purple Enhérejär, and with no barrier spells left to avert combat, Alisson now fell upon the creatures at his feet. Thanks to his horizontal efforts, he was at the base of beast pile-up, and only a few of creatures, the weaker ones at that, were present.
He easily diced through them upon his arrival, growing every fonder of Enhérejär’s enchanted cutting power. Blood filled the air, and Alisson’s cloak appeared more like a whirlwind behind him than a clad curtain.
Finally after a full ten seconds of slicing through beasts, his feet met solid ground. Alisson continued forward, eviscerating anything and everything in his path, fearing death at his backside. A trifecta of familiar explosions sounded behind him, and a before long he heard a call.
“So you made it!”
A blue explosion blew away a beast at his side and Rei took its place, her blade shining blue and covered in blood.
She just keeps on defying death now doesn’t she…
She must’ve blew her way through the beasts with repeated use of her spells. Alisson didn’t see her after the Basilisk, but she must’ve utilized his second Reysarke scroll’s effect to quickly bore down to the bottom of the beast mountain, and then bore her way out. It’s what Alisson would’ve done in her position anyway, and her dirt covering body showed for it.
“This day just keeps on getting worse and worse!”
Alisson shouted.
“Suck it up! Look there! This hasn’t been in vain!”
She pointed her sword at something in the distance for a moment. Alisson realized it as the collapsed cave that him and Rei had theorized Crimson to be in. It was blown open. That confirmed it. They had escaped with the help of him and Rei, with or without knowing it.
There was a small path out of the large ravine they were in, a smaller ravine from which Alisson could see the bright green of flora and sparkles of water, that’s probably where Crimson ran to. It was north, but for the time being, it was better than trying to climb up a currently collapsing monster infested cliff. The two of them double timed it to the crevice in the canyon, it was about a kilometer away, in other words, less than five minutes away. Right now, with beasts and rocks in an avalanche behind them, it was very hard to think that they had more than thirty seconds.
Doable.
Now that they’d ran a good portion away from the wall of beasts, it started becoming evident of just how good a job him and Rei had done of bunching them up. The area in front of them was practically barren of enemies. It was just a matter of sprinting fast enough to keep away.
He must’ve of been running at least forty kilometers an hour, double how fast he usually did, but even that wasn’t enough to outrun the faster beasts. With some preparation, it was easy to evade them and dice through them with his enchanted Enhérejär mid sprint. All the while Rei would periodically fire off barrages of her attack spells, decimating the pursuant beasts behind them, significantly slowing them down. Within about ninety seconds, they were at the crevice, and what he saw affirmed to Alisson that Crimson did not know about him and Rei being in the area.
There was a great gap in the canyon, smoldering with smoke, newly made. Crimson must’ve blown up the path to deter the beasts, but they had inadvertently hampered him and Rei. There was a river hundreds of feet below in the ravine, and Alisson saw that this canyon was in fact layered – There was another set of massive caverns below the ravine he was already in.
From the way it looked, he’d have to use his sole flight spell to cross it – There was no jumping this massive gap in his path.
He looked to Rei beside him. She didn’t have anyway to cross this. He closed his eyes.
…I guess this is where your story ends…Farewell-
She grabbed onto Alisson mid run,
“Go! You’re first!”
With that, she threw him forwards. Again, he was sent an incredible distance thanks to her strength. It wasn’t enough to clear the man-made moat ravine, but it was enough for him to reach the other side. His body acted on its own, and he impaled the cliff face with Enhérejär.
His eyes shot wide when he looked behind him, to see Rei falling toward him, reaching out her hand.
…You…you…
From her trajectory, she was not going to make it, she was far below himself. Without thinking, Alisson pulled Enhérejär out of the cliff face, and descended a few meters, impaling it once more into the rock. He then turned and reached out as far as he could. Alisson just barely managed to catch Rei. Their gauntlets were interlocked tightly. He could see her smiling up at him.
Only then did Alisson have a moment to think.
…You…
She had thrown him first on her own accord. Since Alisson was lighter, and she was far stronger, it was only natural. And by extension, she expected him to help her. She’d put her faith in him without even thinking, and used him.
…You idiot-!
Alisson knew what he needed to do. He told, no, ordered his hand to unclasp Rei’s. But instead, he simply stared at her with wide eyes, sweat mounting on his forehead. His hand shook, as if a thousand weights prevented him from moving a single muscle.
…Why? Why can’t I do it!? Why…! Why did you trust me!
He clenched his eyes tight, and suddenly steeled himself.
Think of the mission. I have a job to do. It’s necessary. She needs to die. I was only using her.
For a moment, he face assumed a disgusted expression, and his sudden hesitation evaporated. His body felt light, and he suddenly found himself clenching his teeth together in either anger or fury. He opened his eyes, in a demeaning glare. For that brief moment, he saw only an insect in his path.
He loosened his hands.
…It had only been a second since he’d caught her. Rei’s smile faded, and her eyes opened wide. It was not a look of hatred, nor anger or disgust; it nothing that Alisson had been expecting. It was confusion. As Rei slipped away, past the point of no return away from Alisson, his expression broke into realization of what he’d just done. He stared blankly, his mouth parted slightly, at Rei for a long moment.
The falling bodies of beasts shook him out of it. He reluctantly broke his gaze with Rei, and scrambled up the side of the cliff.
He shot one last glance back down the ravine. All he could see were the falling bodies of beasts as they tried to chase him across the gap, but fell instead. If the fall didn’t kill her, the torrents of beasts would. Alisson shook his head, and broke into a dash down the crevice.
Time passed in gut-wrenching silence. He kept on looking up, expecting to see Rei beside him, but there was no one there. Not even the beasts followed him anymore. His sprint slowed, his shoulders hanging low. In the shade of the rocky canyon, with nothing around but silence, he stumbled to the wall.
It all happened so fast. From when she’d thrown him to Alisson letting go of her. A couple seconds at best, and in that span, he’d gone from having an ally, to not having one; And it was all the result of him. He slid down the wall, breathing erratically. Before long, a salty liquid dripped down onto the dry rock below.
What are you doing! Get up! Get up!
His critic shouted at him. He himself didn’t know why he was crying. He stared inwardly at himself, his entire being save one dark shadowy place screaming at himself that was he was doing was wrong, weak, soft. He’d done the right thing, it was for the greater good, but no matter how many times he repeated this to himself he couldn’t stop crying.
…
“Lucky that Basilisk came when it did, or we would’ve been stuck there forever!”
Cleff said, a hand on his heart.
What had ensued in the past couple minutes was a mad dash out of the hole that Crimson had buried themselves in. Me included. Yippee. As much as I advised against it, nobody was taking the advice of me, just some little rookie, to heart. And for that, they went and got backed into a corner. It was a real miracle that we were able to escape.
We retreated down to the lower levels of the canyon, I was surprised to see the spiderweb like rock formations, how the sun shafts shone through the dust and a rock, illuminating the canyon less and less the further down you went.
For now, we’re safe. Everyone around me is breathing heavily with fatigue. That is, Berein, Amelathet, Patsel, Cleff and Jachne. We’ve gotten no word from Rei or Alisson. It’s making me nervous. I can only stare out into the labyrinth of winding rock before me, clenching my weapons tightly.
“You can thank the gods later…Right now, we need a plan.”
Amelathet said. She had since taken over as the de-facto commander with Rei and Dane being absent, being the most senior member. She’s not exactly a great leader, and it shows in her muddled, vague plans and orders. It’s not much better what I could do though…I wouldn’t know how to direct anyone without Alisson, especially humans.
“The cliff is toast, there’s no way we’re going to be getting back up it anytime soon with all the beasts around it.”
“This canyon offers some pretty good cover from the beasts though, we don’t need to rush getting back south, we can take our time going around the broken cliff.”
The adventurers bantered to each other.
“Hopefully we can find Alavier and Rei on the way back…”
I muttered aloud without thinking, staring off. Having been the first time speaking in the whole day, the adventurers went silent and stared at me. I felt their eyes on my body and I suddenly became extremely uncomfortable.
“It must be tough without you brother, right?”
Jachne, the large feline adventurer said to me, sitting across from me against a wall.
Not knowing how else to answer, I only nodded slowly, frowning with my shoulders high up by my head.
“Tch, enough talk, let’s eat up while we can.”
Cleff said, waving his around, as to dissipate the awkwardness I’d brought on. With that, the adventurers set into the motion, lively chatting with each other. I could tell that their nervous conversation was driven by fear. I silently sat alone away from the rest of the adventurers. By the edge of our little hole in the canyon, with a massive ravine before me, and took off my backpack and set it by my side.
Alisson…
I begrudgingly gulped down some the hard and stale tasting rations, frowning as I stared out into the sun shafts piercing the upper canyon. I heard steps, and Berein suddenly dropped down by my side. She sighed. Accidently, we both shot each other wary glances at the same time, and ended up making eye contact.
I averted my eye quickly, already uncomfortable. Berein on the other hand, didn’t.
“So…um…”
She tilted her head at me, trying to find the right words.
“I’m…I’m sorry for, for what I said back at Pūshkinskaya…”
“Huh?”
I looked to her blankly. In the moment after, I suddenly remembered what she was referencing. I brought my hands up, flustered.
“O-oh that! I was just so surprised was all, I wasn’t offended or anything…haha…”
Berein’s face lit up immediately.
“R-really? Thank goodness…S-so does that mean…”
She suddenly leaned forward on my side, putting her hands on my lap and looking up at me, inches away from my face. Taken aback, I was on the edge of almost falling of the edge, trying my hardest to stay away from Berein.
“What are you two love birds doing over here~?”
I felt a pair of weights on the top of my head before I heard Jachne’s voice.
I was squeezed in between two humans. The sheer embarrassment and discomfort I felt in that moment was exponential, and I could only sit still with a burning red face, my eyes twirling.
“You all make such a racket.”
Amid the lively conversation behind me and the two adventurers invading my personal bubble next to me, a serene and refined voice cuts through it all like a knife through the air. I looked up.
“Alavier!”
Amelathet shouted, relieved.
Around the corner of our little indent into the canyon, Alisson peered, his arms crossed. He probably heard us with his Opensen.
“Yes, yes, we’ll have time for celebrations later, after we scavenge what we can of this mess.”
Alisson said, striding forward into the now silent group of adventurers. His voice was commanding, and steeled, like nothing could oppose him.
I smiled to myself.
“While you were all hiding in a hole, me and Rei ran distraction so that you could escape.”
The adventurers were in an awed silence for a moment as Alisson stood tall, sharply staring them all down.
“T-that was you? Y-you kited all of them?”
“Yes. And because of that, you all are alive.”
“…Where’s Rei then?”
Amelathet finally asked, her arms crossed.
“She,” Alisson averted his eyes. “She didn’t make it.”
Everyone stared at Alisson, suddenly guilty, before he spoke up again.
“…Don’t take it as your fault. She was the one that wanted to go through with a plan like that…She died with a smile on her face, knowing that she was saving all of you…”
Another uncomfortable moment of silence past when Amelathet suddenly clicked her tongue.
“…This expedition just gets worser by the day…Dane, now Rei.”
“Daren…Varets…Frecych…”
Jachne suddenly said, slowly listing of the names of some adventurers.
“Gareth…Sedsir…Navaro…” Cleff followed. “At this rate, we might be all that’s left…”
Alisson shattered the atmosphere with a sudden a loud, booming declaration, full of confidence and authority.
“Then let us not waste the lives of our comrades. For if they were vain, then we’d only be killing them once over. We’ll have the time to mourn later – We can make it; we can escape this damned place. The storm has passed, now we just have to find our way back to shore.”
The adventurers all nodded resolutely, following in Alisson’s lead.
“Now…I’d like to have a word with my sister if you’ll excuse me.”
Alisson said suddenly and quietly, turning to me. I promptly stood up and followed Alisson away, much to the worrisome gaze of Berein. Around a bend, a good distance away from the adventurers, Alisson turned back toward me with a dark face.
He didn’t say a word. I couldn’t see his eyes, obscured by his hair.
Without warning, he hugged me, burying his face into the top of my shoulder.
“Ah?”
I was surprised to find myself not as overwhelmed as I’d thought. I only stared at him with a small smile, reciprocating his action slowly.
After a good minute, Alisson lifted his head, and place his lips near my ear. He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t find any words. He took a step back, and fixed his bangs with a finger as a girl would, looking away with a guilty frown.
“…Thank you.”
He quietly mumbled under his breath.
***
1. The remise is a renewal of an attack in fencing. It is performed after one fencer's attack has failed, either because their opponent has parried or has missed.