CHAPTER 39–ADELINE

“Two more, coming in high,” Adeline called to Farris. Even as she spoke, her swords continued their unerring dance, simultaneously fending off three harpies. By their coloring, the monsters had been geese prior to their transformation, but now their claws and beaks alike had become dangerous weapons even as their bodies took on an uncannily humanoid shape. It was hard to say which was more disconcerting, the double jointed wings, the dagger-length talons, or the freakishly human faces broken up by their long beak and fierce yellow eyes.

In response to her call, the skilled warden pivoted, the thorn-studded length of her vine whip extending as she lashed out, giving it the necessary length to grab one of the magically-modified birds out of midair. The harpy barely had time to screech before the finger-length thorns of the twisted, semi-animate whip penetrated its neck and shredded its throat to tattered pieces.

While the first fell in a bloody mass of feathers, Farris had already turned her attention to the second. She crooked her fingers in a claw-like shape, frost responding to her gift and rapidly accumulating on the harpy’s tawny wings. The monster began to flap wildly about, trying to keep the encroaching sheen of ice from disrupting its flight, but before it could make much headway, Farris clenched her open hand into a tight fist. The frost instantly thickened into an inch-thick coating, robbing the harpy of the strength to keep itself aloft. As it fell, Farris was already moving forward, axe in hand, to finish it.

Grinning at the warden’s impressive performance, Adeline turned her attention back to her own fight. A fourth harpy had joined the three she was already holding off, resulting in a cloud of razor sharp talons, pecking beaks, fluttering wings, and piercing shrieks that Adeline’s flickering swords easily held off, her inhuman coordination more than sufficient to defend herself even while watching Farris’s progress.

“Right, that’ll be enough of that,” Adeline growled. She had drawn their attention, and now it was time to put paid to the monsters’ efforts. One of her swords twirled in a lightning fast circle, manifesting a golden quarter dome of energy between her and two of the harpies.

[Shining Shield] - Active, Defense, Support - Create a barrier of energy to defend yourself or an ally. Lesser duration and durability increases to moderate if used on an ally. Lesser focus cost decreases to minor if the target is engaged by three or more enemies.

The shield wouldn’t hold up long even against the lesser monsters, but it bought Adeline the space she needed to flash forward, each of her swords glittering with potency as her defensive motions fluidly turned to offense.

[Critical Strike] - Active, Attack, Luck - Make a special attack with potency increased by two tiers. Potency has a small chance to instead increase by four tiers. Moderate stamina cost is decreased to lesser if the critical effect triggers.

One harpy cawed out its pain as the enhanced potency of Adeline’s attack cut off one of its taloned feet at the knee, but the other wasn’t so lucky. Not only did it dart in even as she cut at it, it had the misfortune of suffering a critical hit from her favorite attack. The bird monster didn’t even make a sound as her sword cleanly cut it in half.

The one she had wounded tried to flap out of her range, but the awkward monster had nothing like the speed needed to avoid an Adept battle-gifted. Adeline simply squatted and lept straight into the air, one sword held aloft, easily clearing twenty feet high before she clashed with the monster in midair. A single jolt was all she felt as her blade sliced cleanly through flesh and jolted through the beast’s hollow bones.

Adeline couldn’t help a grin as she flew through the air, feeling like she would burst at the seams from the joy of the wind in her hair, the sunshine on her skin, and the addicting zip of adrenaline coursing through her body. Her time training Oli had been nice, but she’d be lying if she said it didn’t feel amazing to get a chance to really cut loose–and she wasn’t done yet.

Adeline felt the pit opening in her stomach that told her she had reached the peak of her arc and started to fall back down. As she did, she used the last of her momentum to turn her body, bringing her arms in close to her sides. The harpies she had held off with her shield had only just begun to chase after her, but they were too late. Adeline didn’t even bother with a special attack, simply positioning her swords and letting gravity do her work for her.

She landed in a poised crouch moments before the three harpy corpses hit the ground, white silk skirts fluttering down around her waist as the energy from the jump dissipated.

[Gift of the Vanguard] experienced gained

Experience: 14%

“Show off,” Farris remarked with a straight face. The warden flicked her thorn whip, the weapon seeming to disperse into midair as she ended the flow of quintessence that maintained the weapon.

“What was that?” Adeline asked as she stood up, posing casually for the warden. “It sounded for a moment like you weren’t impressed by how awesome I am.”

Farris rolled her eyes. “Is that all of them?”

Adeline shrugged, looking around the woods in their vicinity. “Seems like it. Rage monsters aren’t exactly subtle.”

It had been three weeks since the two of them had left Correntry, chasing rumors of a wild minotaur in the badlands west of the trade city. The rumors had quickly proven true, as they found first one, then a second and third village heavily damaged by the passage of the moderate monster.

A similar jump in power as Adept level was for gifted, moderate rank monsters were an order of magnitude more dangerous than the vastly more common lesser and minor monsters. Not only would the minotaur be far more powerful and resilient than a similar monster of a lower rank, it had a notable and potent magical ability, which made hunting it both much easier and far more dangerous.

Minotaurs were spawned by certain lesser ranked magical monsters becoming possessed by a vast amount of rage-aspected magic. Often, this was the result of poaching, poor hunting practices causing the base arcane beast to begin aspecting its own rage magic, but the change could be caused by external factors as well. The true danger that minotaurs posed was that, once spawned, they passively acted as a wellspring of ever more rage-aspected magic.

Not only did that constant aspecting harm the normal magic around it, affecting reagents, crop growth, and arcane beasts that relied on neutral, life-aspected magic, it caused the minotaur’s mere proximity to transform other susceptible animals, leaving large numbers of dangerous, rage-aspected monsters in its wake. This was the second flock of harpies the two women had put down, along with a half-dozen ravagers and a ruin bear–itself near as dangerous as the minotaur that had spawned it.

Farris blew out a relieved breath and slipped her axe back into her belt. As the battle rush wore off, the brunette woman sank down to one knee. Her breathing wasn’t quite heavy or ragged, but it was obvious that she was making efforts to carefully control it. It was an odd reminder for Adeline. Farris was skilled and, after over a decade in Correntry’s protectorate force, arguably more experienced than Adeline. However, the warden was only Initiate to Adeline’s Adept, and the numerous lesser monsters had pushed her much more than they had Adeline. Of course, as she knew how the prideful woman would respond to any offer of help, Adeline didn’t bother to ask before she used one of her passion abilities to help the warden recover.

[Passionate Inspiration] - Active, Support, Healing - Restore an ally’s stamina and focus by a moderate amount. Lesser focus cost.

Farris gave Adeline a pained smile as the effects of the spell sank in, a bit of tension leaving her body even as she blew out a slow breath.

“Thanks,” she told Adeline, her tone only a little begrudging.

Adeline smiled in return. She lifted each of her swords to look them over, ensuring neither had gained any nicks or damage from the fight. Satisfied, she sheathed the rune engraved, eldrite-edged blade, then flicked her silvery astral steel blade, letting it return to its immaterial state. Bound to a small talisman dangling from her wrist, she could resummon the blade at a moment’s notice, but that didn’t make proper maintenance any less important.

“Are you good to keep moving today?” she asked, turning her gaze back to Farris.

Her companion’s dusty face had relaxed a bit as Adeline’s ability helped her get her wind back, and with a huff of breath she stood up. “Yeah. I just wish we knew where this thing was going.”

“Mmn,” Adeline murmured, sharing her friend’s concerns. Most minotaurs preferred to find themselves a range, a territory they declared their own and which they defended to the death–often from the other monsters their own abilities had inadvertently created. But their quarry was clearly on the move, leaving a wide swath of destruction behind it.

“Me too,” she admitted. “But there’s nothing else for it but to keep moving. Let me know if you need another Inspire.”

“The sort of recharge I could use doesn’t come from your ability,” Farris told her, managing a tired, albeit lecherous grin.

Adeline couldn’t help a playful wink in return. The time away from Correntry and the responsibilities that came with her position and her recruits had let Farris relax in a way she had never quite managed to in the bustling city, and Adeline was surprised by just how flirtatious the woman had proven to be.

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“Once we kill this thing, we can find an inn room and not leave for a week. Is that enough inspiration for you?”

“Deal.”

Despite the light words, Farris’s hazel eyed gaze drifted away. Not northwest, along the minotaur’s trail, but southwards.

Adeline didn’t have to ask the warden what she was thinking. She found herself thinking of Oli and the job their trainees had set out on often enough, too.

#

“How do you think they’re doing?” Farris asked.

It was late, far past midnight, before the two had finally decided to stop for the night. With their high stamina attributes and Adeline’s restoration abilities, they only needed a few hours to rest each night, and they were using that to slowly close the gap with their monstrous prey.

Adeline cushioned her head with her hands and stared up at the stars overhead, bright silver points of light set in the impenetrable cosmos.

“They’re okay,” Adeline said, faking more confidence than she actually felt. Beside her, the fire crackled. Distantly, an owl crooned, the chirping of the summer insects and the ambient sounds of the forest all making her acutely aware of the relative silence that yawned between herself and her companion.

Farris rolled over, so that she could rest her chin on Adeline’s shoulder. Farris’s transition hadn’t softened her body at all. The warden was still a wiry collection of muscles, as taut as braided iron. But when they lay together, she felt warm and solid, a reassuring weight that kept Adeline grounded.

They hadn’t bothered with bedrolls, just laying out a blanket cushioned enough to keep the ground from leeching the heat from their bodies, trusting the early summer air to keep them comfortable. “You think so?”

“Of course. Warrior knows that Oli is better than I was at his age, and he could barely keep up with your recruits.”

Adeline felt Farris’ lips curl into a smile. The expression made the skin of her face shift, and Adeline felt the sudden urge to kiss along the woman’s strong jawline, to feel the flutter of Farris’ heartbeat under her lips.

“Do you think he’s going to be ready by the time he comes back?” Farris asked.

Adeline sighed. She had watched Oli grow so much in the few weeks they had spent together, confidence beginning to blossom as she patiently nurtured him. But by the time he left, even after the cloak she had commissioned for him, he hadn’t been ready to admit that he was eclipsed. He had worn it long as he exited the inn the following morning, undoing the clasps that transformed the silhouette of the garment from solar back to lunar.

“His old man did a number on him.”

“Don’t they all?”

“Yours was hard on you too?”

“He was. Right up until I made it to Initiate and got my officer rank.”

Adeline snorted. While the eclipsed were becoming more accepted amongst the common populace, who had little time or energy to spare on prejudice, they still faced no small amount of judgment from the upper classes. Both the nobles and the merchants who strove to imitate them found their reasons to look down on the eclipsed and celestials alike. The old guard aristocracy still clung to the gender norms that the lower classes had long since moved past. Adeline was still convinced it was a defense mechanism, a desperate attempt to keep their influence and power within their “proper” bloodlines.

In Adeline’s experience, that persecution resulted in two kinds of eclipsed. There were those like Farris, who strove to become great despite what anyone might think about them, to throw their accomplishments back in the faces of those who tried to look down on them. Then there were those who embraced rebellion, giving up the seemingly futile quest for respect from others to instead do whatever they wanted to, with no regard for the opinions of those who presumed to judge them.

By all appearances, Oli seemed like the first kind, but there was a rebellious streak hidden inside the repressed noble that Adeline wondered about at times–his urge to shrug off all responsibilities and do things like jump from the top of the primal hall for nothing more than the pure joy of the sensation.

In either case, she looked forward to the day her squire finally took that next step. He, or she, would always have Adeline’s support, and that of the Argent Order.

#

Adeline lept back, the minotaur’s fist missing her by scant inches, so close that she felt the wind of its passing and smelled the acrid musk of its sweat. She let out a sharp, mocking laugh and lunged forward, the light of her runeblade dimming as it sliced into the monster’s thick-hewn arms.

The minotaur had once been a bull, and it still had the distinctive head, glossy black fur, and massive horns of its previous form. But now it stood on two legs, its front legs turned into muscular, powerful arms that each ended in a three fingered hand. Its knuckles had thick, bone-like ridges, vestigial remains of its hooves, that turned its already dangerous fists into lethal weapons. It was tall enough that its horns nearly scraped the top of the cave they had found it in, and its sheer bulk left them little room to navigate around it.

Farris’s thorn whip wrapped around the monster’s other wrist, but given the brute’s weight, the attack only succeeded in tearing up the minotaurs flesh, leaving behind a shallow shredded wound that quickly began to heal over, revealing the monster’s unnatural resilience.

With a low bellow, the bullman turned on Farris, stooping to swing its lethal, heavy horns at the warden.

It had been years since Adeline received her gift of the hero from the Adventurer, and she didn’t hesitate to throw out a Shining Shield to cover her friend’s flank. Farris was already moving as well, and with a desperate flick of her hand she threw a large chunk of ice at the monster’s head. Their combined efforts slowed the minotaur’s goring thrust just enough that it sent Farris flying, rather than impaling her on the spot. The warden bounced off the cold stone of the cave wall, but she was recovering before she even hit the ground, as Adeline had prepped both of them with a passive healing effect before they struck.

[Blessing of Health] - Active, Healing, Support - Target gains a passive healing effect. Lesser duration and potency is increased to moderate when used on an ally. Duration is only consumed when the effect is active. Lesser focus cost.

Of course, in the precious moments while the warden recovered, Adeline needed to spring forward. She quickly seized the minotaur’s attention, her twin longswords dancing and landing a series of shallow cuts that nonetheless drew the powerful monster’s attention away from the wounded Farris.

It was a hard fight for both of them. Adeline’s abilities were far less immediately impactful than most Adept battle-gifted, as both her gift of passion and gift of the hero were packed with support abilities, powers that were at their best when used on an ally rather than herself. Farris had a more confrontational skillset, but her gift of thorns was only Apprentice level, unlike her gift of the skirmisher and gift of frost. Her combination of gifts also made her far more dangerous when outnumbered, as they had been against the harpies, rather than fighting the singular, powerful threat of the minotaur.

Still, their efforts were showing. Farris’s gift of the skirmisher made her more dangerous as the fight dragged on, each of her blows enhanced by her Hindering Strike, slowly lowering the minotaur’s strength, speed, and coordination. Farris soon rejoined the fight, both women fighting conservatively, relying on the passive healing and shields of Adeline’s gift of the hero to stay alive while Farris sapped away the powerful monster’s attributes.

It may have had strength and resilience to spare, but as it lost the reflexes, accuracy, and balance tied to its speed and coordination, the two were able to get more daring with their attacks. Finally, Adeline felt the monster had been slowed enough to end it.

“Farris, now!” she called.

The warden danced back and lifted a hand to the broad blade of her battle axe. Runes along the curved edge lit up with a cold, white-blue light as she used her quintessence to activate the spellblade, coating her axe in a massive wedge of heavy, razor sharp ice even as Adeline used her most powerful buff on the warden.

[Heroic Surge] - Vanguard, Hero - Active, Support - Grants an ally a major boost to all physical attributes for a minor duration. Major stamina and focus cost. Ability has a three day cooldown.

Enhanced by the Surge, Farris leapt forward, twirling her heavy, ice-rimed axe as if it weighed no more than a child’s toy. The minotaur lifted an arm in a clumsy attempt to fend off the incoming attack, but the woman nimbly ducked under the block, her feet sliding as smoothly as if she was skating on a frozen pond.

In single motion, Farris sent her axe arching upward with all the momentum of her charge, then brought it back down directly between the bull monster’s horns.

Adeline’s eyebrows went up. The bullman’s skull was apparently impressively thick, and likely reinforced by some level of innate potency, as rather than cleaving straight through the minotaur's head, the axe blade had merely lodged a handspan into the bone. But apparently, Adeline hadn’t quite seen all of Farris’ tricks yet.

The warden gave the staggered monster a fierce grin, then slapped her hand against the thick ice coating her blade. The minotaur seemed to freeze in place, its red-rimmed eyes wide–and then thorns of pure ice shot out all over its body, shredding it from the inside out.

Adeline blinked. “Well. Don’t see that everyday.”

“What was that?” Farris called back. “I couldn’t hear you over the sound of-AAH!”

The warden's attempt to brag was slightly spoiled as, with a series of detonating cracks, the minotaur’s body weight broke through the ice riddling its body, and it collapsed to the cave floor in pieces.

“Smooth.”

#

“That’s odd…”

“Wha-at?” Farris’s breath hitched as she stooped against the cool stone wall, stretching and working her sore muscles while Adeline’s abilities slowly healed her.

“Look at this.” Just behind the minotaur's head, in the thick meat of its shoulder, was blackened sigil, carved into its muscle itself. One of the ice thorns had marred the design, but from what she could make out, Adeline was sure that it wasn’t the work of a human hand.

Farris approached, tilting her head as she inspected the mark. “Is it… a rancher’s brand? A holdover from when it was a bull on a farm?”

Adeline shook her head. “No. Look at those curves, the angle there…” she trailed off as she studied the remains of the mark.

Farris sounded troubled when she replied. “Do you think it had something to do with the way it was rampaging about?”

“More than that. I’m not an expert on it, but I think… I think this is hag magic. I think a hag made this thing.”

“A hag manipulating rage magic? I’ve never heard of something like that.”

“Me either.” Adeline stood up, but continued staring at the mark, troubled. “This is bad.”

“We need to find the hag that did this,” Farris agreed.

Adeline shook her head. “No… I mean, well, yes, we do. But we need to bring in someone else. Hags are bad news, and if one is messing around with magic like this… I’m not going into that blind.”

“What's the big deal? I thought hags were supposed to be casters. They have a different relationship with magic than even human mages do, or something like that.”

“But not like this,” Adeline said. “Corruption, destruction, pain, sickness, that’s all normal for hags. But rage-aspected magic? That’s wild magic, just like hunger. There’s a reason no archetype gives access to wild magic. It’s not supposed to be possible for an intelligent being to use such base, primeval magic–the only ones who ever have are trolls.”

“But trolls are from the Feral World,” Farris pointed out. “Hags are from the Chained World. That shouldn’t be possible.”

“You’re right. But here we are.”

The two women traded a worried look, then turned back to the minotaur. Without another word, they turned and started back to Correntry.