“This way.” John whispers, waving me ahead as he sneaks low to the ground, eyes nervously flicking from one thing to the next. Caution well deserved considering we’re going to be walking off of the edge of the world. A place from where no one returns.
“So, you’re telling me that she was a dungeon? A goddess, like Selena herself?” Hawk whispers by my side, the feathers on her head shifting about as she rubs her hands together and looks to me for answers.
“A weird one, yes.” I reply. “Oh, and she’s monitoring me through this necklace, so do be careful what you say about her.”
“She’s listening…? A dungeon is listening to us?” She smiles strangely brightly in the red lights of sunset.
“Always.” I reply, with a smile. “Keep it polite, I’m here because I got a little too playful with her. Or she decided this would be a good training camp. Or she wanted to watch me struggle. Or whatever motivates an ancient powerful being like her.”
She shivers but doesn’t respond, returning her gaze to our surroundings.
The paths we walk are not the safest. We tread the path squeezed into the gaps between stone peaks, trickling water wets the ground we walk. There are still steps here, but soon I’ll lose even that illusion of safety.
My boots are leather, attached to the rest of my armour and equipped with a few smaller plates to store mana and defend against attacks. Though most of that mana is actively swirling the cloth part of my armour right now as I’m prepared for the slip and fall that’s almost certain to come.
The lizards don’t have near the same issue, their feet clinging to the stone with much more grip than my own, sharp claws pressing into the ground.
When the stairs fade away, only rough wet slopes are left for us to climb down. I try my hardest to keep myself from falling, but at a certain point, there’s nothing more I can do.
“Are you okay?” Hawk asks as I catch myself on the stone to my side, it too is slippery, and I’m about to fall when she grabs my shoulder and saves me from the long slide down. At this point I’m half convinced that it would just be better to ride all the way down to the bottom, whatever is there.
“I’m not built to handle slopes like this.” I say, trying to force a smile. “The darkness isn’t helping.”
“The ground is levelling out up ahead.” John says, as Hawk keeps a hold on my shoulder. I think the mana density difference between us makes it difficult on her, but she tries regardless.
My skin crawls at her touch, and I feel the absence of my ordinary company that much heavier on my mind. It feels strangely comforting to know that the record Skill Vii gave me is still running.
I’ve left it out of my favourited Skills list, as I’m not intending on doing much with it, but I suppose there are a few evolutions that I could work on later. I’ll probably leave that to others and just steal whatever new Skills they make for me.
Heck, people could make a living out of developing Skills like this. That and we can finally make movies. Would that be good for recruitment, or not?
Shit, I almost slipped.
“I can see something.” John says, from ahead of us. The slope has evened out after a time, and when I look back, I can see the city high on the peaks above us, glowing red with the dying daylight that no longer reaches us.
“What do you see?” I ask.
“Something green.” He says.
“Something green?”
“Plants, maybe?” John replies, his feathers shivering as a gust of wind blows up at us from further down the slope. “Nothing like I’ve ever seen before.”
“You think it’s the edge of the world?” Hawk asks, “Or not?”
“I don’t think so. There’s definitely something here.” John says, as we escape the stone peaks to look out over the world below.
In a way, it is the edge of their world. Everything slopes down from here until we see a forest that goes on far into the distant horizon, green treetops reminding me of the forests of Earth rather than some alien world. I don’t see anything within, but that’s not unusual.
The red lights of sunset illuminate the world below and colour the stone fort that stands tall in the middle of the forest. The stone walls on either side are large enough to make the great wall of China seem like just a fence. It extends wide to the left and right cutting the forest clear in two, and to make things even more interesting, it’s actively defended.
The fort itself crawls with the flying and walking figures of the noble race, while patrols walk along the walls small as ants from this distance, but impossible to miss. While the fort stands tall it’s still below us in elevation, and we’re lucky that none of them are looking up at us right this moment.
“Hide.” I whisper to the group, lowering myself to behind the nearby stone outcrop. The others stumble about to hide themselves too, though they don’t do too well at it, I have to hope that no one saw us.
“What is that!?” John hisses, keeping his voice quiet just in case.
“It’s the edge of the world.” I reply with a light chuckle. “Want to go down there and get a closer look?”
“I… Why are the nobles out here? And that building, that wall?”
“To keep the rabbits out…” I reply, “They’re warriors and that’s a fort. They’re defending the peaks if I’m to guess. I don’t know for sure, but I’d guess that this is also where all your meat comes from.”
“The farms?” John looks down in disbelief, “I thought they’d be… different.”
“Better than cannibalism, which was my first thought.” I say with a shrug.
“Let’s hurry down into the forests before anyone sees us and stops us.” I say, “Unless you can think of something better we can do?”
“We could go back to town and tell everyone what we saw?” Hawk suggests, nervously looking down at the fort. “But then the nobles…”
“Will get you either way. Your lives as you know it are essentially already over, might as well dive right into it and see what’s down there for yourselves.” I say, gazing into the dark light beneath the forest canopy. “How are your kind with seeing in the dark?”
“We can see clearly enough.” John replies, “You can’t?”
“Not really,” I reply, slipping from cover and heading down to the forest. “Look casual. If they glance at us, they mightn’t immediately realize that we don’t belong here.”
“You think that’ll work?” Hawk asks, giving me help to walk down the trail, that’s still a little steep for me.
“I can hope.” I shrug. “Sometimes you just have to take a gamble, besides, I doubt that any other nobles will want to see me dead. The one last night was caught poaching and trying to cover his ass, these ones seem to be busy with their work.”
“Poaching…?” Hawk asks, her eyes wide. “What does that…?”
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“Illegal hunting.” I say. “I don’t mean it to be degrading to you. It’s just the way he saw you is all.”
“It… I mean, it’s not fine. It’s not fine at all, but I get it…” She says swallowing hard and shaking her head, she returns her attention to the forest ahead of us, quickening her step.
It doesn’t take long for us to walk down into the forest and lose sight of the great fort. The trees are about the size of three story buildings, and their lower branches are sparse enough that we can see fairly high up.
Though the canopy above does disguise the sky and hide us from the light, there is another light here to replace it. Blue mushrooms grow from the trunks of the tree, they glow bright enough to keep the darkness at bay. I still wouldn’t call it any more clear than the night of a full moon, though painted in shades of blue.
A deep hum underlies every other sound here though only whispers of it touch my hearing. I could easily mistake it for a chant, and not an unpleasant one. What nature of animal or plant, or beast makes the sound, I can hardly imagine.
“What happens to us now?” Hawk asks, as we lose sight of the city behind us. She looks back even so.
“The nobles will get to you. They’ll do whatever they do to everyone who comes out here.” I say. “If they really want to see you dead, then your best chance of surviving now lies in the wilderness beyond those walls.”
“Out there?” He asks, waving a hand out at the forest that’s far past the wall. “How would we survive out there?”
“I mean…” I shrug. “Just don’t die, maybe?”
“What great advice, is that how you’ve made it this far, traveller?” Hawk asks dryly, twitching closer to me as something moves about in the bushes around us.
“Essentially.” I say, turning my own attention to the moving bushes. I draw my pistols and ready a few spells. I’ve found that the bullets from my gun travel much more quickly than my magic, which takes a little time to reach the target. The annihilation, however, cuts right through every obstacle between me and my target.
With practice I can cast it through armour or cover.
‘With practice’ is a rather difficult qualifier when I haven’t the time for it.
The other rebels, seeing my combat ready stance, get their own pathetic weapons ready. Hawk with her knives, John with the noble’s staff, and the other three with a pan, a fire poker, and a large rock shaped into a club.
These adventurous rebels stand as ready as they’re ever going to be when the wild beast shows itself.
Brown fur caked in layers of dirt and muck disguise the true shape of the being that crawls out from around a nearby tree. Two large eyes blink at us from what I assume is it’s front, it languidly steps closer, not seeming to see us as a threat as it tilts a head to the side.
“It looks sort of cute…” Hawk says, tilting her own head at it.
The creature dips it’s feet into the soil and starts casting some form of magic into the earth. I step back quickly and ready to fire at it, while forming a dozen small vortexes that can be cast into annihilation bolts to disrupt the magic if it turns dangerous.
Mana seeps into the earth below the beast but instead of rushing at us, it slips deeper and deeper under the surface. The magic latches onto something before reacting and shifting the earth on the way back up.
An insect the size of a large chihuahua is dragged to the surface, struggling ineffectively against the flow of magic pulling it up. The waiting beast snaps at the bug crunching it in half and swallowing quickly to finish it before anyone can steal it.
The dirt covered beast glances up at us again before continuing in its search for a second dinner.
Finally, a beast after my own heart.
“Well, we’re lucky we didn’t have to fight.” I say with a shrug, “Let’s keep moving.”
“What are we looking for?” Hawk asks. “Are we really going to leave? To… to try and survive out here?”
“Depends. I’m going to go speak to the people out here, which could go bad for you. Or maybe not. That’s up to you.” I say, glaring into the dark.
Night is bearing down on us, but the glowing mushrooms seem to grow brighter the darker it gets, their blue light making it seem almost as if we’re deep under the water. That deep chant only grows stronger as we quietly delve deeper into this wonderous forest.
I wouldn’t mind having a holiday home built here, the atmosphere seems just right for meditation. Perhaps when I get the time for a holiday, I can seriously consider it.
“This is madness…” John whispers, clutching his staff tighter as he glares ahead, leading us through the forest. “Total madness.”
“Welcome to the universe.” I reply, focusing my mana into my eyes. I’ve been putting effort into building up my eyes, but for the moment I’ve succeeded in nothing more than making them a little bit hardier, a little more difficult to gauge out, or pop. Even now the darkness is no brighter for my efforts.
Perhaps when I reach a proper liquid stage of development.
“There’s something ahead of us. Hide! Hide!” John hisses, hiding behind a tree. The rest of us imitate him, hiding behind trees, or bushes, or anything we can find. I just drop to the ground and crawl behind a root.
“What do you see?” Hawk asks, as I crawl forwards trying to take a look at what it is that he’s spotted.
“Nobles.” John whispers.
Thankfully, the group of nobles are so confident in themselves that they’re loud, bright, and making a fuss without care. They battle a beast larger and more ferocious than any we’ve yet seen in this forest.
“Get out of the fight Olly, get to the back and keep watch, damn it!” The leader of the group shouts at one of his members. “If you don’t get your shit together, Olly, you’re going to get us all killed when we’re sent to patrol the other side of the wall!”
“Fucking fine.” A man says, retreating from the frontline and taking up stance closest to us. He grips tight to his spear glaring at the battle that’s still raging between his teammates.
“Olly?” John whispers, “He’s still… why’s he… he’s a noble now…?”
I ignore him and focus on the battle instead.
The pack of nobles are fighting against a beast that seems too large for the forest where they now fight. It’s scaled and feathered—a distant cousin perhaps—it leans in towards the frontline nobles nearly catching one in its vicious maw. The teeth nothing at all like ordinary teeth, but instead long and fleshy fingers tipped in bone.
“Don’t be so slow!” The leader shouts to his frontline, “And attack when it’s overstretched, don’t just retreat in fear.”
“Yes, sir.” The woman replies, bouncing a few steps back and recovering as she summons a new bloody tip onto her long spear.
The battle grows rather dreary from there.
Under the command of their leader, they surround the beast, leaping at its side and slowly stabbing it to death. When the beast is put onto its back foot, the leader rushes in for the kill.
He pulls a pair of long knives from his waist, coats them in his own blood, and leaps tall into the tree line, falling back upon the neck of the tall dinosaur-like figure. In one swift move, he slices through the back of the beast’s neck, riding it down to the ground.
“Gather and drink it dry.” The leader shouts, “Except for Olly and Greg, who’ll keep watch.”
“Come on, sir. I haven’t had blood in ages.” The one who’s not Olly shouts back.
“You had some this morning, Greg, stop whining and keep an eye out for anymore beasts coming our way. If something bites your ass because you’re looking the wrong way, you’ll be whining a heck of a lot more.”
Greg grumbles, while Olly just sighs and turns around to face our general direction. He stiffens, and though it’s dark, I’m sure he’s seen one of us.
“Hi, Olly.” John says in a low whisper, waving to his friend, who’s now a sentry for the ‘enemy’.
“Shit.” Olly whispers, looking between Olly and his group. “Fucking… I’m going to take a piss!”
“Don’t go too far and keep your eyes open.” The leader shouts back. “I don’t care if you’re mid-stream, you pick up that spear and get fighting.”
“Yes, sir.” Olly replies, walking towards us and stopping only a step short.
“Olly?” Hawk asks, trembling before she leaps at the man. “You’re alive!”
“Quiet!” Olly hisses. “What the hell are you all doing here? And John where did you get that weapon?”
“I…” John shakes his head, pressing his hand against his temple.
“We killed a noble and skipped town.” I say, standing up and leaning against a tree. “Nice to meet you, I’m Kyra. I think there’s a lot we have to talk about.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Skills & Stats
~Mana Form:
Current mana density: 890 units
~Mana distribution:
Catagory Current Max. Defence 32% 32% Offense 0% 57% Mana Sense 0% 72% Recovery 0% 30% Gluttony 0% 26% Misc. 0% 42% Efficiency 32% 89%
~Favourited Skills:
-Chip Shredder
-Multi-mind
-Tag
-Mana surge movement
-Reactive defence
-Fire burst punch
-Annihilation magic
-Mana form flow fixer
-Branching magic