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The Void Comes
Chapter 6 - Help?

Chapter 6 - Help?

Cade had to protect his eyes from the daylight streaming in through the shuttered windows and through the pieces of the broken front door. He had been reading entries in the Guidebook well into the night, time flying by as he read what was happening from around the world. Apparently one of the Scions had been found and killed by a group of three in New Orleans. From what the entry said, it was a massive distorted alligator, nearly 40 feet long, and had killed their fourth party member before they even knew it was there. They said they had been sucked into an instance without vision of any monster as they walked past a bridge that had collapsed recently. The gator monster had jumped out of the water nearby onto the low swampy area they were crossing, snapping up their 4th member before they could react. The three remaining party members noted they had fought it for what they guessed had been over 10 minutes, a magnitude of time longer than any of the fights Cade and Brandon had been through yet. Must have been exhausting.

Their prizes from winning were absurd too. They mentioned several thousand Void Coins between them, a few consumables and weapons, and a piece of gear among other things. None of them had expanded more than that, much like the other group. The only thing reported from the second Scion was that they had seen it before the instance had activated. They had approached it in a sneak attack, managing to land a blow on it by dropping from a tree before they were teleported into the instance, but the damage they inflicted had stayed through whatever mechanism pulled them into the pocket dimension. Either way, Cade was happy to see that two of them had been taken out on day one. Humanity looked to be showing their grit, but he was worried about the note The One had made about the Scions. He remembered it had mentioned the Scions would grow stronger as time passed, so they would benefit from finding and defeating them as soon as they could rather than wait till they grew in strength. It was a fine balance that they would need to adjust to.

Cade closed the Guidebook and his display, stood up and stretched, and walked over to Kaia’s room. He gently opened the door and whispered Kaia and Brandon’s names to wake them. Brandon was against the bed frame in a sitting position, his chin tucked into his chest. He woke up with a start, but noticed Cade standing calmly in the doorway. Yawning, he stood up and nudged Kaia, telling her it was time to get up and for them to get out of Portland. Cade waited in the living room for both of them.

As Kaia walked out, stretching as she went, she must have momentarily forgotten what had happened the day before. She froze mid stride, eyes going wide and locking in on the destruction in what was once her and Bridget's house. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, moving to sit down near Cade on the couch. Brandon came out, one hand rubbing his eyes, one rubbing his back, obviously not having had a comfortable time sleeping. “Why didn’t you wake me up man, I would have taken the second half.” Brandon groggily asked. “That Elixir you forced down my throat just kinda energized me,” he responded jokingly, “I didn’t really feel the need to wake you. Figured it would be good for you both to get a full night of rest.”

“Alright, if you say so. I’m assuming you didn’t just sit around twiddling your thumbs all night. What did you get into?” Cade nodded to his friend, who definitely knew him too well. Cade went on to explain the shop in a little more detail to them, especially hitting on the food and water options. He told them about the Scions that had been defeated, and mentioned his message to King too. Brandon soon became lost in his display, going over the different things Cade had mentioned.

“Okay, need one of you to fill me in please. You’re talking about all these crazy things like they are normal and I am so lost.” Kaia spoke up. “What is a Scion? What is the “Shop” and what in the ever living fuck happened to the planet?” Kaia had been nearly shouting at this point, fairly so, as she had a ton of questions, and they only had so many answers for her. Cade filled her in on everything they hadn’t gone over up till that point, telling her how to mentally open up the various menus, showed her how to access the shop through the Void Coins, and then pointed out the notification system alongside the Party Menu. He told her to accept his invite into the party, and decide on a nickname. “I think I'll go with my screen name for now.” She said, and in Cade’s display her name changed to Gale. “Hm, good stuff. I need to think of one and change my name, but I haven’t come up with anything that really feels natural yet.” Cade said. “Brandon decided to become a living assassin… Crow, dark cloak, gnarly daggers, pretty strange if you ask me.” Cade teased.

“Oh shut it, you’re just annoyed you still have your boring ass normie name, instead of a super cool new apocalyptic codename.” He responded, throwing a pillow at Cade.

“ Yeah, Yeah. Anyway, we need to purchase some supplies. I bought another of those potions, and wanted to pay you back for the one you used on me earlier.” Cade pulled out the 14 Void Coins and offered them up to Brandon. “Naw it’s fine man, I think we are likely to come across more as we go. And anyway, you can just buy something pretty for me later as payback, with interest.” A grin spread across his face as Cade rolled his eyes at him. Returning the coins to his inventory took little more than a thought. “Alright then, next on the agenda is to decide what we want to do. I think we should get out of dodge. Portland is too hectic and crazy, and the amount of pets alone makes me hesitant to want to stay here, not even counting the people that may want to do us harm.” Cade had thought about this for a good long while last night, but hadn’t wanted to heavy hand any decisions, after all they were a party, and they should make decisions together. Next to Cade, Kaia was obviously entranced by the call and recall function, repeatedly taking either her bow, or the Void Coins from her inventory before recalling them back.

“I’m good with following for now guys. I think I need a little time to adjust to this new normal before I can make decisions. I trust you both.” Kaia absently responded.

“I was thinking we should make a bee line out of town to somewhere smaller and try to secure some buildings. Maybe try to find some other people to organize?” Cade suggested. “I agree, but where to? The coastline? Another town or city?” Brandon asked. “I think we should head South. Maybe head to the southern end of Portland for now and leave from there?” Cade responded. “Let’s aim in that direction and see what happens. We are going to be on foot, so we will need to be careful.”

“Kaia, grab anything you can to bring with us. Clothes, the rest of your food etc. Throw them in your inventory and we will get out of here when you’re ready.” Brandon told her. Cade remembered he had something for Kaia. “Hey Kaia, take this as well, just in case you need some up close protection.” Cade materialized the knife he had saved for her, handing it over grip first. “Oh, thanks. Yeah, this will be useful.” She looked it over for a second, then took it into her inventory.

“Everyone needs to buy some rations real quick. Just one of each for now, but that means we will need to fight some stuff later, get some more coins. Kaia, here are ten, get one of each for yourself.” They all pulled out a coin, pushed at it for the Void Market, and bought some rations. A jug of water and a box of nutrient rich cubes were all it was, but hopefully it should be enough. “Okay, everyone ready?” Cade asked, and the other two nodded. He started clearing the door, pulling the pieces back to let daylight inside. Stepping out carefully, he took a look down both ends of the road, checking for animals or others. Seeing nothing, he motioned for the others to follow him. As Brandon exited the house, he paused and a mote of light formed in his right hand. The Home Stone from before had reformed and appeared in his possession. “Uhhhh… okay so this thing is multi-use? I think we should take a look at the Guidebook or Market later and see if we can find out some more info.” Cade nodded in agreement and Kaia shrugged.

Cade led the way down the street, hugging the sidewalk side, eyes searching for possible dangers. They were able to move several streets down before anything happened, but the first thing they ran into was a couple of people. Or, they looked at a couple of people. From several streets down, they saw someone raise their spear into the air in greeting, and Cade summoned his sword to acknowledge. Cade was just glad to see other people moving around. They continued on but kept an eye on their backs as well, not wanting to risk someone or something sneaking up on them.

Cade led them into a park, thinking it would be a good way to maybe find something to fight without risking other people around. As they moved past the old iron gating, the world flashed. “Ah shit, didn’t think we would be pulled in that quick. Weapons out. Let's do this.” All three of them pulled out their weapons, Kaia nocking an arrow. A loud buzzing sound appeared above them. Cade looked around and saw that they had been moved into a massive clearing within the park, a tree at least a hundred feet tall at the center. It sounded like whatever was making that noise was coming from the tree. He took up a position in front of Kaia, shield forward and sword raised. Brandon had donned his cloak and was attempting to melt into the background. Kaia made a horrified noise as the monster, or in this case monsters, emerged from the tree in front of them.

A small swarm of bees was climbing out of the inner branches, wings moving impossibly fast as they took to the air. They were somewhat normal looking, but the black striping they had was that same pitch black of space they had seen before on the other animals. Above the tree, Swarm of the Forlorn Servant, Spiero appeared. “Guys, this is something new. Be careful.” Cade yelled out. “Kaia, start taking shots at the bees, we need to take their numbers down before they swarm us.”

“Got it.” Kaia drew her bow, arrow lined up along her forearm. She let the arrow fly, but it fell short. She drew another arrow and angled her bow further upwards this time. Cade watched this arrow hit true, even spearing multiple bees, which were about the size of a baseball. “Nice shot, don’t stop if you think you can hit them. I’m going to give you some room and try to draw some my way. Cade shouted over the buzzing. He smacked his sword into the face of his shield, banging ringing out. The bees droned louder and most of them turned towards Cade as he built up a cacophony of noise.

Several bees flew towards Cade. He managed to cut one of them in half, his sword easily cleaving it into pieces. He turned his body sideways to lower his profile and lunged at the second bee that flew at him. Swiping his shield forward and sideways he smashed it to the side and stomped down on it with his left foot. The bee smushed apart and he had to drop to the ground to avoid getting speared by the lowered abdomen of a third bee. It buzzed past him, nearly deafening his right ear, causing it to ring. He scrambled back to his feet, seeing Kaia loosing arrows he wondered how many arrows she had and made a mental note to ask later. He turned to see Brandon sawing at a tree branch, somehow having made it up the tree and above the main swarm of bees. He made eye contact with him and nodded, Brandon finally managing to cut through the final sinews of the large branch. As it creaked and splintered, the branch dropped and smothered the main swarm, taking them to the ground. As it was falling, Cade was running towards the swarm, “Kill them while they are trapped!” He yelled out to Kaia and Brandon. As Kaia stowed her bow and pulled out Bridget's knife, Brandon dropped from the tree and rolled, both daggers flashing into the tree bough into the bodies of the oversized bees below.

Cade managed to slash and squash several bees with his weapons before a strange high shrill noise rang out above them. The tree started to shake above them, and they all scrambled away. Kaia had her bow back out and had an arrow at the ready. From the tree came a shape that slowly came into focus. It was humanoid, but strongly resembled a bee, or some kind of hybrid. It had the thematic Void black striping against a fuzzy yellow, massive mandibles in place of a mouth, large multi faceted bug eyes, and two long antennae at the crest of its head. It was terrifying to look at and they all shrunk back further. Spiero - Forlorn Servant appeared above the thing as it stretched to its full height, health bar appearing a dark red above it. “Guys, this is definitely a boss. Something feels off here, so let's stick together on this one. Brandon, stealth if you can and see if you can land something big. “Kaia, let's see if you can sink some arrows into it.” Cade calmly commanded.

Spiero clacked its mandibles together, a haunting sound, and the high shrill screech resounded again. A new Status note appeared under all of their names. FEAR, the unexplained condition made Cade wary, and he felt himself shaking. “Cade, I can’t stop shaking. This Fear thing is actively making me scared of it. I can’t line my arrow up accurately.” Kaia shakily got out. “Yeah, same here. I can’t find the courage to charge it. I think it’s some kind of debuff on one of our stats. Not really sure. Let’s just stay close and stay behind me.” Cade responded. He raised his shaking limbs and weapons up towards the creature in front of them. It lowered itself down, crouching with its knees splayed out to its sides as 2 massive opaque wings unfurled out from behind it. “Hey Cade, this thing remind you of anything? Something… Cell like?” Brandon tried his best to joke. “Uhhh… yeah. Unfortunately this thing does look like a bastardized version of that green fucker.” He tried to laugh back.

Spiero lunged forward suddenly, wings moving too fast to see. It had lunged straight for Kaia, who was positioned slightly behind Cade’s shield arm and just to the right of Brandon. Cade felt like he was moving in slow motion as he stepped left, moving his shield to block the clawed fingers coming at Kaia. He figured that must be the effects of the FEAR condition, and made sure to factor that into his movements. Although he managed to get between Kaia and the monster, he was mostly bowled over, sent spinning away as it collided with his shield. Kaia had leaped opposite of him, managing to get out of the way of its continued charge. Brandon had tried to move behind it as it landed, seemingly intending to knife it in the back, but it turned before he could and battered him away with one arm. Brandon had tucked decently well as he landed and looked like he may have made it out okay. Still had to hurt, Cade thought. His own tumble had been enough to definitely leave bruises along most of his left side. That thing had weight to it, and strength to match.

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He tried to swing his sword at it, but the slowing effect of the debuff made it nearly impossible for him to land and Spiero just swept it aside. It also swung its hand down at Cade’s sword arm as it deflected the blow, and slashed all 4 of its claws across his forearm. Cade dropped his sword as he yelled out in pain. Spiero whipped a leg towards him and sent him flying a good 10 feet away. Cade was reeling from the pain of his arm being peeled open, and commanded a potion into his left hand, stowing his shield. He drank it quickly and saw that Spiero was turning towards Kaia. What do I do, it’s going to get Kaia, think… what can we use to kill it? Cade thought to himself. Almost as if in answer, he remembered an item they had picked up from their first fight, the spiderling. “Brandon, catch. Hit it with this!” He called up the Acid Sac and using his left arm, as his right was still healing, he threw it towards Brandon. Fortunately, Brandon was smart enough to gently catch it and turning, threw it at the back of Spiero. It splattered against what would be a spine, and Spiero bucked and screeched louder than before. It fell to its knees and then started rolling around on the ground. As they watched, its abdomen fell apart, the acid eating through it in a few seconds. It stopped moving soon after, and the world flashed as they were pulled out of the instance.

Cade saw the FEAR condition disappear and was able to move more freely. He stood up and moved over to where Kaia was being pulled to her feet by Brandon. “Nice throw man.” Brandon said to him. “That was all you, I was basically useless.” Cade motioned to his right arm, which was caked in blood, but was visually healing as time went on. “Gonna have to buy some more potions; those things are invaluable, even if they do take time to fully take effect. I’ll bet the later ones are much better.” Turning to Kaia, he pulled her into a one armed hug and checked her once over. “You hurt, Kaia? We can get another potion if need be. Just tell us.”

“No, I’m slightly banged up, but my health bar barely even took a hit. Thanks for protecting me there, that was terrifying.” She breathed a little easier as she said this, and turned to give Brandon his due credit for killing the thing. Brandon had a far off look, Cade guessing he was looking at his prize rewards from the fight. “What did we get? Anything good?” Cade asked as he also pulled up his inventory. Newly listed in his inventory were the following;

* Tough Chitin

* Forlorn Servant Token

* 200 Void Coins

“I got a lot of coins, some chitin, and a Forlorn Servant Token?” Brandon responded, obviosly having earned the same things as Cade. “I got all my arrows back except one, and then the same prizes as you guys. I also ranked up my Dexterity stat to E, what does that mean?” Kaia asked. “We still don’t really know but I guess the assumption is along the same lines as Tabletop stats, as they grow we can do more with our abilities?” Cade responded, clearly unsure himself. “But I did rank up my Intelligence, not sure how that connects, but maybe it’s because we made some plans and saw them through? I feel like I should gain more Durability the way my arm got mangled again, but whatever, a stat boost is good regardless.”

“Yeah, my Strength increased, I'm guessing it might be related to cutting that branch off, striking the little ones, and then trying to pierce that things back?” Brandon shrugged as he said, but they all knew they would have to figure out what the stat increases actually meant. Cade figured a long read of the Guidebook might have some helpful information for them, and if not it couldn’t hurt to check up on things tonight.

“Alright, let’s keep moving. My arm is healing decently, but I'm not sure I can swing a sword right now. I’d like to give it some time before we get into another fight, otherwise it’ll just be my shield. Let’s keep heading south for now, and try to avoid what we can.” Cade peered around the corner at the end of the small park as he said this, and waved them over to cross. Scurrying across the road, heads scanning around as they went, they managed to get almost 10 blocks before anything happened. As they turned towards a new street, they started hearing a faint yelling coming from a storefront a few hundred feet away. They all looked at eachother, Brandon raising his hand to his ear to listen, “I think someone is in trouble, I can’t tell exactly what from, but what’s the plan; go investigate or stay away?” He said. Kaia kept looking back and forth between the sound coming from the store and the two boys. “We have to go help. If we were in trouble I would want someone to come help us, just like how you guys came and saved me.” Cade was wary, but found himself agreeing as he listened to the loud yelling. “Yeah, let’s go. We can get there and take our time, no use rushing into something unless we have to. And if it looks like we can’t help, we will leave immediately.” Brandon nodded in agreement, his Seax’s appearing in his hands. “How's your arm, good to go?” He asked Cade. Flexing his fingers, and testing out his wrist, he called his gladius to his right hand. “Yeah, I think I can manage. Seems like I have proper function back. Still, take it slow. Let’s go.” All three moved quickly down the street, Cade noting that the store the noises were coming from was a liquor store, and noted to loot what he could if the fight went well enough.

As they got closer the shouting grew louder and louder, with the individual’s voice clearly coming from a man. They snuck around the back and noticed that the door was destroyed, pieces lying all around the inside of the back entrance. Long claw marks could be seen on many of the pieces and along the frame of the doorway. Cade saw Brandon fade slightly out of sight, his cloak effect taking hold. He could still see Brandon’s health bar in his display, so he wasn’t worried, and it seemed like the stealth was not quite perfect to him and Kaia. They had all called their weapons, Kaia deciding to wield her knife for now, seeing as it was fairly close quarters. They could hear a crashing noise, like someone or something was trying to break down a door inside. Cade noticed a window further down the outside of the building and decided to peer into it. What he saw made him hold his breath. Standing inside on two massively muscular legs was a giant mole, or at least a horribly grotesque rendition of one. It was using its massive front claws to slash into a metal door on the opposite side of it from Cade. The thing had no color except for the tan colored paws, and the quicksilver color of its long claws. It had no eyes and even the head of the monster was that same black colorless void. No noise escaped its mouth, but the snout of the thing was moving unnaturally in all directions as it bared down on the door.

Cade went back to his friends and quietly filled them in on what was going on. He reminded them to buy some potions in the Void Market, noting that this thing had claws that looked even more dangerous than the Forlorn Servant had. They each purchased a couple of the basic potions, and moved to attack. Cade had instructed Kaia to ready an arrow, and for Brandon to stealth as close as he could, hoping they could get off a surprise attack on it before they were taken into the instance. Not knowing if this would work, he was ready to move in quickly to defend them. They decided they would move in when Brandon attacked, Kaia would fire an arrow immediately, and then they assumed the instance would start.

Cade could feel his heart pounding in his ears as he waited for the signal, but he knew Brandon would be taking his time in order to avoid the broken glass and other refuse on the ground around the mole creature. Less than 30 seconds must have passed before he heard the grating of metal being torn apart, and he realized that the creature was basically through the doorway. As the doorway fell, the man on the other side had taken up his cries for help again. Come on Brandon, get to it before it sees the guy, or this might go much differently. But unfortunately for them, his line of thoughts was correct. The doorway took one final massive claw and fell apart, hinges exploding inward. Cade could barely see the man on the other side, clearly having locked himself in a small office of some sort. The world flashed, and they appeared inside of a warped version of the liquor store. Half of the building was behind what seemed to be a massive version of the doorway the mole thing had broken through before. Brandon and Kaia appeared right next to Cade, the man on the other side seemingly unchanged in his relative position to their party and the creature in front of them.

A health bar appeared above the mole, the words Void Talpa appearing above it. No information appeared above the man, but he had drawn what looked to be a long spear. The mole stood still, it’s elongated snout moving even faster than before, probably taking all of them in. “Brandon, stealth and see what you can do. Kaia, start firing and don’t stop until it turns towards one of us. Don’t hit Bran…Crow. I’m going to try to intervene between it and the spear guy.” Cade ran around in a long semi circle, glass crunching under his feet as he stayed far enough from the creature to avoid the deadly looking claws. Kaia had already fired 3 arrows into the back of the mole before Cade was between it and the other person. The mole hadn’t moved, and its health clearly hadn’t taken much of a hit from the arrows. Cade guessed whatever its hide was made out of was stronger than he had guessed. Cade moved his shield into position and called back “You need to work with us to beat this thing before we all lose.”

“But… What am I supposed to do? I haven’t fought anything and I don’t know what I’m doing.” the man responded. “Get up, get your spear pointed towards it, and wait. Go for its face if you can, the rest of its body is crazy strong.” Cade spat out, annoyed that he had to likely also babysit a grown man. Turning, he saw the man rising to his feet, spear shaking in his grip. It had the look of a spear used by Leonidas in 300 - five feet of wood with a triangular metal blade at one end, the other capped with a blunt metal cap.

“CADE!” He heard Kaia yell out, and turning saw that the mole had disappeared. There was no sign of it beyond a small bit of dirt that had been upturned where it was standing before. “It’s underground, get together, quick.” Cade shouted out at his companions. He couldn’t tell where it was, there was nothing to give him a heads up on where the thing was. Kaia quickly joined him, beelining straight towards him and the spear wielder. Brandon was still stealthed, but Cade could faintly see him to his right, about 10 feet away. They all stepped back towards the spear guy, watching the ground for where it would come out of.

A low rumbling was all they heard before almost instantaneously it burst out of the ground underneath Brandon. It impacted him, bending him in half by his stomach as he was launched, landing in a heavy heap just behind the spear wielder. “BRANDON.” Cade yelled out and Kaia screamed as they watched him land. His health had taken a massive hit, landing just below halfway. Cade turned and yelled angrily at the spear guy, “Cover him, get your ass over there and make him drink this.” He handed him one of the elixirs from his inventory. “Cade, it's gone again, it went back under!” Kaia yelled out to him. She had put her bow away and had drawn the knife back out, standing protectively over Brandon as the other guy poured the potion down his throat. Cade barely had time to react as he heard the rumbling in front of him, angling his shield down and bracing as best he could as it erupted lightning quick from below. He had made the correct decision, but was still forced into the air, his limbs cartwheeling around him as it sent him flying. He landed hard on his side, but hadn’t sustained any serious injuries. He stood up, coughing as he realized several ribs were broken. Wheezing as he made it to his feet, he saw Kaia open eyed and staring his way, and nodded, hopefully communicating to her that he was alright. Brandon’s health had marginally improved, but one of his legs was bent in a horrible direction, taking him out of this fight.

The mole had retreated back underground, and Cade hobbled over to where they were gathered around Brandon. “Everyone, pick a side, we need to hole up and get it as it comes out.” They each set their weapons in a direction, the spear wielder digging the end of his spear into the ground, spear tip at the ready. The rumbling started up again, moving around them, clearly choosing a target. Again without warning, the ground exploded, but this time they were ready. It had chosen the spear wielder as its target, and as it erupted upwards again, it found itself impaled face first onto the spear. Cade turned and slicing downwards, cut twice in succession, decapitating it while it struggled to remove itself from the spear. Its head parted from its body, falling to hit the ground, and the world flashed again, returning them from the instance.

Cade dropped his sword and fell to his knees, the pain from his ribs and side coming all too fast to remind him of the beating he had taken. Something was different this time though. He wasn’t back in the real world, not quite. They were still in the overly large version of the liquor store, but the monster's body was no longer there with them. Cade looked over to see Brandon with his eyes open, Kaia holding him up. The spear wielder was looking off into space, eyes unfocused. “Cade, open your menu. Something new is happening - says we get to pick an ability.” Brandon croaked weakly. Cade called up his display and saw that the Ability section was rapidly blinking, same as the normal notification. He acknowledged it and a new series of text appeared.

Congratulations - You have reached the rank of E. You now have access to Mana Generation. You will be given a selection of abilities to choose from. Select one:

* Flowing Blade: A blast of Mana Generation will extend from your blade in the direction of your swing. Cost: 3 Mana. - Distance can be changed at the cost of more mana.

* Shield Burst: Concentration of Mana to your shield and feet, propelling you forward a small distance at rapid pace and strength. *MUST UTILIZE SHIELD TO USE* Cost: 8 Mana - Distance: 12 feet in direction of shield.

You have been given the option of a third skill at a higher rarity.

* Chain Flare: Your sword separates into many pieces, allowing for maximized range and flexibility utilizing a mental command. Cost: None. Distance: Total length will increase as Strength and Intelligence stat are increased.

Cade was in awe at the idea of a new ability, but before he could choose, he heard Brandon cry out, “Cade, what is he doing? STOP HIM.” Cade closed his menu and whipped his head around in time to see the man's spearhead protruding through the front of Kaia’s chest. He had a grin on his face, and he said only one word. REAP. A noise escaped Cade’s mouth as he watched the spear withdraw from his friend, blood flowing too quick for Cade’s comfort. “Wh… WHAT DID YOU DO? GET AWAY FROM HER.” Cade shouted out. He started to move towards the man, reopening his menu and selecting Chain Flare. He swung his sword towards the man as he raised one hand, a flash of light, and the spear wielding maniac blipped out of existence, Cade’s sword hit empty air and he dropped his sword. He ran to Kaia’s side, Brandon crawling towards them, loud sobs escaping him as he lamented the attack on their friend. Cade pulled out his remaining elixir and dumped it into Kaia’s lifeless mouth. Brandon appeared beside him and pulled out his two elixirs, dumping one on Kaia’s chest, and one into her mouth. Cade couldn’t breathe. Brandon had wrapped himself around her body. They both saw her health, nothing remained. She had been murdered by the man they had saved. They sat there for what seemed like an eternity, neither saying anything. Kaia had a blue light above her, a wisp above her abdomen that hovered a few feet in the air. Cade didn’t want to acknowledge it, fighting with himself on whether to reach out to it or leave it be. After another length of time, he reached his arm out and found what he had hoped he wouldn’t. All of Kaia’s items were visible to him. She was gone. There was no option for anything else except to loot the items she had. He closed his eyes and sat back, not wanting to loot his friend's body.