Between one moment and the next the hot desert air had been replaced by a humid blanket as the air trilled with the cries of countless exotic jungle birds and the chirp, whine, and buzz of hoppers, crickets, and countless other bugs. Alex took a deep whiff of blossom scented jungle air, a smile coming to his lips even as he accessed Forest Sense, infravision enhanced eyes peering carefully through the trees as the Prince’s sharp commands cut through the air.
“Everyone assume your positions! Fire and Ice shields now!”
Even when the furious cyclone of Linnea’s flame turned lush foliage into blazing leaves and charred trunks, fires put out an instant later as they slowly stepped forward thanks to Hanz and Lieberman’s conjoined cyclone of a howling storm of ice shards five feet ahead of them, Alex could still sense the jungle terrain perfectly in his interface.
Everyone quickly got into position as the prince turned to Alex. “I’m given to understand that you understand this jungle as well as anyone. Do you have any sense where the corrupting formation might be hidden?”
Alex, lips pressed tight with concentration, slowly shook his head. “Apologies, your grace. It might take a few—” His voice abruptly cut off, eyes widening.
The prince’s expectant gaze firmed. “Aspirant…”
“I sense it!” Alex said with something close to awe, not having expected any chance of spotting the forest disturbance without a very thorough search and dodging shadow puma death around every tree trunk. Yet sense it he did, thanks in part to knowing the feel and configuration of those dark stones after delving by Ya Ling’s side, reflexively summoning one of the exquisitely carved obsidian stones in his hand to check… feeling the connection grow even stronger.
His eyes widened. He really was sensing it, reading the forest’s pains beyond Linnea’s fire, the pressure being experienced by the entire pocket realm as if squeezed and crushed by impossible deadly pressure.
“Disciple, that you would dare!”
The Headmaster hissed, eyes wide with outrage as a wincing Alex came back to himself, realizing the grave offense he had no doubt given. Had this been any other situation where his skills weren’t vital…
He instantly made the stone disappear with a deep bow no mysterious seneschal bothered correcting, this time around.
“My sincerest apologies, Headmaster. Please rest assured, I was absorbing all the Dark Qi radiating from the jewel. My unique path renders me all but immune to the deleterious effects of Waste Qi.”
The prince’s expression, fortunately, was far closer to excitement than offense. “Do you sense where our prizes lie, worthy aspirant?”
Alex swallowed, feeling an odd flush come over his cheeks with so many eyes now turned his way. “Actually, yeah. As a matter of fact I do, your Grace.”
This earned the warm smile radiating such benevolent majesty that Alex couldn’t help but feel a lightness in his step before the pleased-looking prince. “Wonderful. Then by all means, aspirant. Lead the way.”
Alex slowly did just that, his gestalt moving as he willed for they were an extension of himself, their wards of ice and fire the protective dome under which they all carefully traveled.
It was all he could do not to flitter ahead through the lush foliage and scout for trouble, yet three quarters of his mind seemed to think that was a very bad idea. And he couldn’t disagree. For at the moment, even with infravision, all he sensed were rapidly fleeing birds, a handful of monkeys, and foliage being incinerated before Linnea’s fearsome heat. So if there were no shadow cats ahead, there was no reason to split away. And if they were so well hidden that he could sense absolutely nothing… then Bullrushing ahead could easily become his death sentence.
So much now depended on the wards of ice and fire surrounding them.
Fortunately, Alex knew his partners were in no danger of running out of mana anytime soon.
Still, Alex kept his fangtian ji at the ready as the tension built, all but tasting the weight of the storm he would summon in a heartbeat, if needed. Then Sulia hissed. “The air is tainted!”
This sent instant prickles of alarm through Alex… before his lips softened in a bemused smile.
“Actually that’s a good sign, Lady Sulia.”
This earned a glare. “Are you mad?”
“It’s because the stones forming the configuration we need to break are in the clearing just ahead.”
It was then that Alex spotted his objective, a jungle glade filled with wildflowers, bushes filled with luscious looking spirit plumbs, and the largest hoard of spirit beasts that Alex had ever seen.
Alex froze as he sensed so many things through the fire and ice wards he now really wished that his gestalt mind had learned to form far more subtly.
Dozens of powerful Shadow Pumas radiating such wicked killing intent, no longer hiding in that clearing. No. They were bristling with rage and killing intent. As for the leader of that pride...
Alex recalled all too well the terror he had felt the very first time a Gold tier spirit beast had roared its outrage after he, Liu Li, and her alchemist father had dared to steel the Silverbells hidden so carefully under the shelter of ancient spiritually-attuned trees.
Of course, Alex had grown in ways countless and profound since then.
Yet it didn’t change the fact that when the massive Shadow Puma spared a heartbeat to glare his way… his death was absolutely assured in those eyes of blazing shadow.
“Husband, we must leave, now!” Sulia cried in a voice that seemed so faint and far away.
Yet the impossibly deadly Gold-tier Shadow puma that could have effortlessly ripped through their wards and killed them all spared them only half an instant. As did the dozens of powerful Silver stalkers, clearly all in their prime, facing what had grabbed their attention in full.
Alex’s heart skipped a beat. Already knowing it was only by wild luck that they were not already being torn and shredded and about to suffer massive, overwhelming casualties.
As the low-pitched throaty growl that made Alex’s ears bleed made all to clear.
For the Shadow Puma Lord hadn’t gathered all his men to stalk the human fools who dared to enter his domain. At least not until he had take care of the threat they now faced.
Two score of massive stone hounds that seemed elemental as much as spirit beast, with thick black curls of smoke coming from their nostrils, every bark belching fame.
And the largest of them all, the one the Gold-tier Puma had all its focus on… he gave off fury and might painfully similar to the woodland dragon Alex had once dared to bargain with on a mad run through the forest, so very long ago. A dragon that, thank goodness, didn’t end up roaring for his head.
Unlike so many other powers of the world he had left behind.
And right underneath the massive stone paws of the Gold-tier Stone Hound was the prize that none of the fools who dared to follow Alex had a chance in hell of getting. For their prizes were glittering in plain sight, guarded by two hosts of Silver tier monsters led by leaders of Gold, those prizes infused to a tainted artifact of cursed stone.
Artificer Skill Check Made: You sense a rift’s torment!
Alex shuddered with horror, sensing the awful warping pressure of this construct that was somehow so much worse than the one that had been loosely conjoined in the rift of sand. It was a forced melding of not a dozen but hundreds of what should have been countless overlapping probabilities somehow fused into one continent-sized actuality with such terrible spiritual weight and pressure that when it finally burst…
Alex wasn’t entirely sure what would happen, but he was pretty damned sure that the caldera would be doomed.
Which meant, once more, that the Duo Li clan that had wanted absolute unyielding control, but certainly not the absolute destruction of their home, had been played like fools.
And none of that mattered. Now.
“Back, back, back!” Alex hissed, four voices speaking in curt unison, such was their dread.
Because all that mattered was backing up because once those elemental stone hounds got their scent...
“By all the gods, can you not sense it through the wards? There are dozens of those horrors!” Te Chang hissed.
“The have multiple Gold! There are Gold among their numbers!” Sulia declared in a panicked voice.
The headmaster said nothing, eyes wild with what Alex refused to call panic.
The far calmer prince caught his eye. “We have to retreat. Now.”
Alex nodded, already doing so, he and his friends moving and thinking as one so fluidly that the pressure of their wards immediately abated from the hideous killing pressure of a pair of Golds and scores of Silver about to embrace war.
Yet still, as the awful knot in the pit of Alex’s stomach made clear, the glares he had received had been quite clear.
A stay of execution had not been granted. Merely a momentary reprieve.
“We need to get back. NOW! Once they finish doing whatever they’re…” The deadly quiet of this part of the forest, finally feeling the unbridled auras of the pair of Golds now seeking to intimidate each other, was replaced by ear shattering roars and barks. The ground shook. Blasts of fire tore through the canopy.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The two armies were going to war.
“RUN!” Roared the prince, Alex and his Ruidian companions just struggling to keep up with the pace of multiple deep Silver.
When Linnea flagged, Alex didn’t hesitate to scoop her up. Nor Lieberman, nor Fitz.
Strength Check made! Finesse Check made! You’re effortlessly able to carry your companions!
Even if he had earned a wide-eyed look from a panting Sulia, who soon found herself in her grimly smiling husband’s arms as they tore through the undergrowth, thankfully mostly clear as it was the path by which they had first come. “The boy has the right idea.”
Yet before Alex could even flash a rictus of a smile… the roars increased in pitch and fury, filling nearly half the party with mindless dread.
And then, by some miracle, they were abruptly before the gate once more.
Only at that moment, a heartbeat before they could jump through, did the prince slow to a halt, his look of furious terror becoming one of furious determination. The headmaster itself, wild-eyed like a panicked animal and heaving for breath, somehow managed to stiffen her spine before the prince’s hot glare.
“We have to go through. We have to go through!” Sulia sobbed.
Her husband, just held her, panting for breath, locking eyes with the prince as Alex gently put his gestalt down.
The haunted eyes of a ruler met Alex’s own. “You know what will happen if we can’t gain control of this rift.”
“It’s already lost to us. We have to accept that,” Sulia sobbed. “We did what we could. Water cores of silver and gold. It will be enough, Your Grace. It has too!”
The Headmaster’s gaze hardened. Te Chang, still holding his wife, glared right back. The Headmaster sighed, shaking her head. “I’m afraid it isn’t that simple.” She too turned her focus to Alex and his companions, noting the look the prince was giving him.
Alex swallowed, forcing himself to say the words. “Six silver-tier Dark Qi stones were placed in a shattering configuration. A cursed configuration. It wasn’t designed to flood surface levels of a rift with the treasures of the deep… it was designed to rupture the rift entirely.”
This earned a number of blanches and wild-eyed glares.
“How could you possibly know this!” Sulia hissed.
Alex’s gaze turned sympathetic as he took in the drained and terrified mother of four who had already done so much to protect the city her family now called home… and just as clearly was overwhelmed with the horror of how cruel and savage the world truly was, how close her children had just come to being orphans where even achieving Silver wasn’t enough to protect one from being smacked free of life’s game board with a single twist of fortune’s wrist.
“If that configuration remains intact, our home will be flooded with Gold and Silver-tier Spirit beasts, thanks to the awful pressure of countless overlapping versions of this delve forcefully fused together. It will be a slaughter of monstrous proportions and spell the end of the city,” Alex forced himself to say, ignoring the looks of horrified dismay his words earned him.
The prince blanched, his powerful hand reflexively clenching the hilt of his jian. “There has to be a way to stop it!” He turned to the Headmaster. “Lady Shweng Fa. Your artificers… should we be able to find those who could infiltrate the heart of the jungle without alerting those creatures…”
The Headmaster flinched, before seeming to regain her composure, stiffening her spine and dipping her head. “I will see to it at once, Your Grace. I can only pray that…” She swallowed, a haunted gaze looking back the way they had come.
Prince Quiang looked that way as well. “I know. It is a most fearsome task. You need but gather those artificers willing to rise above all others in the service to our city while I recruit the services of a woman who I believe is an absolute perfect fit for this mission.” He flashed a bleak smile. “It goes without saying that anyone who can avert the disaster I now fear is every bit as great as the one we faced last night will be awarded property, stipend, and title. We now have a number of … vacant properties and businesses in need of strong leaders and powerful allies.”
His bitter smile made it clear who he was referring to, Alex having no doubt that the Duo Yi clan had been forced to pay a price even steeper than they had feared for daring to cross their prince.
Yet Alex, to his dismay, knew it was all for nothing.
He swallowed the anxious lump in his throat, forcing himself to meet the man’s haunted gaze. “Your Grace…”
“Speak, my Ruidian friend.”
Alex took a steadying breath, forcing himself to say what needed to be said. “The one you hope to cloak your artificers in shadow is, I suspect, already days away.”
He ignored the flinch and glare this earned him, the alarm in his fellows as he dared cross a line most instinctively understood… never piss off a prince. “Even if she were here… even if our ally might be a match for a Silver-tier Shadow Puma, their king is Gold. Gold in stealth and I’m betting at least high Silver in the stat that determines the fate of so many battles. He’d instantly pierce a certain girl’s wards… then tear out all their throats before they can blink.
The prince ground his teeth. “Do you expect us to do nothing, to simply let those abominations destroy our sanctuary… our home?”
Alex slowly shook his head. Locking gazes with the prince once more. “Right now, at this moment, Shadow Pumas and Stone Dogs are vying for control. Were it otherwise, most of us would already be dead.” He flashed a bleak smile at the hisses and soft curses this earned him from his companions.
“He’s right,” Sulia whispered. “It’s only because they were distracted that we’re even alive.”
Alex nodded. “And the minute the battle is won, one way or another, is the minute this entire delve becomes the territory of Silver and Gold-tier monsters… days, weeks or months before this rift erupts and spills those abominations all over the caldera. Should those Silver tier Shadow pumas escape, the entire city will become their hunting grounds. And if any of the Gold-tier monsters escape…
“We’re all as good as dead,” the Headmaster whispered.
The prince held Alex’s gaze, daring to smile. “But you have a plan.”
Alex flushed only slightly, before lowering his head. “I do. If the artifact can be disrupted, if even a single black jewel can be knocked loose of it’s configuration… we have a chance. Maybe. It would be even better if we could gather them all, like what me and Ya Ling did in the Southern Rift, but the pressure is far greater here. The devastation will occur much quicker. But, well, it also means that the jewels are under pressure.” He swallowed his suddenly parched throat. “A lot of pressure. If the configuration can be disrupted in any way…”
“It will save our home,” Headmaster Shweng Fa declared.
Alex dipped his head, not taking his eyes off the prince. “That is my sincerest hope.”
“But those abominations will surely kill us the minute we launch our attacks!” Sulia whispered.
Alex nodded. “And that’s why I need to do this alone.” He turned to meet Linnea’s gaze, gently pulling out of the mind meld, though keeping her gift of infravision. “Though you and I still need to keep our link, your infravision might just be key.”
Linnea’s eyes were wide with anxious worry. “Alex please! I know you think you can break it, with your mad gifts and wild luck… but you know it will probably kill you!”
Alex flashed a bitter smile. “Trust me, Linnea. It was only a matter of time.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Linnea said desperately, not even caring that she was implying he should shirk the fate of a city before it’s ruler. Strangely, the prince didn’t seem to take offense.
Alex gazed fondly back at her, brushing a tear from her emerald green eyes. “As a matter of fact, yeah. I do.”
“Alex…”
He gently held her when she sobbed and squeezed him tightly.
“You know how fast I can blink through the forest, and the trees hide my presence. If anyone’s going to succeed at this, Linnea...”
“Don’t kid yourself, Alex! There are two dozen Shadow Puma and two Gold you would be antagonizing if you dared to shatter the warping prize they clearly wish to control for their own ends!”
Alex chuckled mirthlessly. “Then I’d better be as fast as I damn well can.”
Hanz gathered his now sobbing cousin into his arms.
The prince’s smile was radiant with hope, pride, and admiration as he gently squeezed Alex’s shoulder. “If you can do this for us, Alex… you would be feted and honored as the hero you are by the entire city.”
Alex blinked at that, a momentary flash of alarm turning to an odd feeling of wonder. Somehow sensing that his hero’s mantel was now thick enough, resilient enough, that yes… yes, he truly could stand tall and proud and be loved and cherished by at least a tiny city lost in endless desert and not immediately be targeted by spite-filled gods. The mantel he had… the sacrifices he had made… really were enough to see him through.
Alex closed his eyes, absolutely hating that awareness.
Hating the knowledge that he now had something he could truly look forward to.
A life he could live free of fear and malice.
A family he could have without having to constantly worry about their very survival.
Honor, glory… even happiness.
They could all be his.
And he was about to risk it all on an act of insanity, not just walking but racing at full speed along the Path of Peril once more… when he finally had things worth fighting for. Worth living for.
When he wasn’t haunted with the bleak realization that oblivion WAS the mercy his life promised, the only mercy, so why not push himself to insane heights yet again? And grow stronger… ever stronger…
As if his enemies had finally realized that there was a price to be paid if his only relief, his only solace, would be watching them all burn.
And now, by some unexpected miracle, it was different.
It could all be so different!
And he was about to throw that away.
Because whether he liked it or not, whether it was fair or not, the fates of almost half a million souls now rested squarely upon his shoulders.
Alex closed his eyes, centering himself, before he turned back to his boon companions and friends. “If things start to change, if the land seems to stretch and shift… flee through that portal as fast as you can. If you hear sudden roars and shouts, like the entire jungle’s about to erupt in chaos, leave as fast as you can.”
Alex flashed a painful smile. “Honestly, I just need Linnea to stick around as long as it’s safe to aid me with heat vision. But the minute I role the dice and do what I can only hope will work, things might get a bit crazy so… yeah. I’d rather it just be me that falls than all of you.”
The Headmaster gazed at Alex for long moments. “We will stay as long as we can, our wards protecting your paramour for as long as we can maintain them, hero.”
Sulia bowed her head in humility and respect. “And once again you prove that there is far more to being a hero than manipulating paper cranes.”
Alex smirked. “Actually those were really good lessons, and goodness knows I need all the practice I can get.”
“Well, I promise you this, Alex. When this night is done… my students will be paying you the respect you deserve.” She solemnly bowed to him. As did everyone save for the duke himself.
“We all will, hero,” said the Headmaster.
Alex didn’t know what to say to that, so he merely bowed to them all, before addressing the prince once more. “It’s time, You’re Grace.”
The man dipped his head. “Hunt well, hero. We will hold for as long as we can. The moment we sense Gold-tier pressure, however…”
“It’s fine. If furious Golds are charging for the rift entrance, I’m guessing it will mean that my mission was a glorious success...whether or not I’m around to enjoy it.”
“Alex!” Linnea sobbed, before her eyes widened, caught utterly off guard when Alex held her tight and kissed her fiercely.
Before letting her go with a final sad smile. “Goodbye, Linnea.”
And before she could say another word, he was gone.