Chapter 139 - Rathborne

Three skirmishes still raged in the small courtyard. Lyria and her group fought two nobles to the left, Kalcus was holding his own against a group of my allies led by Portus, who was using an offensive martial combat kind of skillset that made his fists blur with energy. To the right, the gravity mage and his ally were once again pushing back Thorn and the others trying to hold the top of the stairs, preventing the mages from getting the high ground against all of us.

I felt oddly calm despite the chaos, reaching my mind into allies and healing wounds, even though I found a few who didn’t have enough mana left for me to heal them with. I blocked a gash on Kalcus’ leg, preventing it from healing easily, assuming he had a way to heal. As I used Devour Mana across the battle, I also summoned my Silver Scream Bow and made two more Hungry Dark arrows. At the same time, I summoned a Forge Echo of the bow and sent it to go help Thorn and his people with the mages. If nothing else, it could serve as a distraction.

Somewhere, outside the outpost, the beast was rushing toward us. If the grommets succeeded, then Vitus and his allies would be on their way, too. My main goal was to get everybody out of here before the beast arrived, and then… well, if I was still alive, I wanted to take a shot at killing the thing myself.

But the first order of business was trapping as many nobles in a cocoon of Hungry Dark as I could manage. Ideally, I wouldn’t accidentally trigger stasis on any of them, leaving us with the two I already had in cocoons and potentially five more if we cocooned all the rest, making seven nobles total.

Granted, we also had Vay’nar who was probably due to break out of his Hungry Dark cocoon any minute now, and possibly even Vitus and his allies as potential backup plans.

“Lyria,” I shouted, “Keep her still!”

Lyria’s upper body pivoted as she dodged a stab aimed for her neck. She bashed it away with her Basilisk’s shield and kicked the noble in his thigh, knocking him to one knee as Naia battered him from the other side. One on one, I didn’t think any of them would’ve had a chance, but my allies were fighting hard and keeping the nobles off balance.

Her blue eyes found mine, wide and wild, but she nodded and moved quickly, gripping one of the guy’s arms. Naia grabbed the other while the rest of their group handled the noble girl who was firing lightning bolts and throwing them like fucking Zeus.

I loosed an arrow from only a few dozen feet away. It was an easy shot, and it sunk home directly between the guy’s shoulder blades. He arced forward, grunting through clenched teeth as it connected. Black Hungry Dark flowed from the arrow, beginning to encase him.

I ran into the fray, using my free hand to project more Hungry Dark in gushing jets that anchored to three points on the man, swirling around him like serpents as the black liquid covered him in seconds.

Lyria and Naia let him go, seemingly worried the liquid would expand to them. As soon as the guy was down, Lyria drew her spear back, as if to finish him off.

“Not yet!” I shouted. “We’re going to need their bodies down here.”

I felt months of trust straining in the chaos of the moment, but Lyria lowered her spear, hurrying to join the others who now significantly outnumbered the surviving noble girl who fought with lightning.

To my right, I saw the gravity mage was sucking Thorn and the others toward his ally, who was opening some kind of portal that looked like bad news. My Forge Echo was aiming a shot, but I mentally urged it to hold its fire for a moment.

I took aim, ignoring the crackle of electricity behind me and sounds of struggle. I shut it out for a few heartbeats, steadying my hands and then giving the mental signal to my Forge Echo.

Now.

We both fired at the same time. The gravity mage spotted me though, raising his hand and warping the air between us so my arrow veered to the right.

I’d been ready for that.

I quickly placed a Reflective Mana Shield at an angle, doing my best to judge the distances. The deflected arrow skidded into my Mana Shield, redirected with even greater speed, and hit the mage directly between the eyes at the same time the Forge Echo’s arrow hit him in the side.

His stasis shield flared and he was yanked up and out of the battle.

Dammit. I’d been aiming for a non-lethal shot, but it was too hard to hit him with the deflected arrow, let alone aim it precisely.

I didn’t have time to worry about it, though, because I heard a collective gasp and a shocked scream from the center group. I looked just in time to see Kalcus, who had turned both arms into six foot, scything blades, use them like scissors to remove a man’s head.

The brutality of it took my breath for a moment as I watched the head pop upward, trailing blood. It tumbled sideways, giving me a momentary glimpse of the eyes, which were still wide with surprise before it rotated and thumped face-first into the dirt. 

His name had been Borthan, and he once told a story about the farmland he hoped to one day go back to if he ever escaped slavery. And Kalcus just beheaded him with a fucking smile on his face. Magic sizzled in every direction and my allies continued to struggle for their lives, but for the moment, my vision tunneled, darkening at the edges until I only saw Kalcus.

Red hot anger spiked through me, thumping with each heartbeat.

Time seemed to move more slowly as Kalcus smirked at his bloodied blades, then turned his attention to me in the middle of the skirmish and smiled.

But then his expression faltered. His smug smile turned worried for a moment, forehead creasing as he took a half-step back from me. It was almost like he was afraid.

I looked around the outpost and saw the other nobles had all looked toward me, too. They were watching me like a deadly beast had just stalked into the arena with them, more worried about me than the people they were battling. They had all been fighting with relentless aggression, but for the moment, they all slowed slightly, taking steps back as if recalculating.

My Red Tide Boon. It was far more useful than I’d thought at first.

Kalcus seemed to shake it off, though, idly swiping his arm and knocking away a woman who tried to rush him while he was distracted. He began walking toward me, eyes fixed on me. The people he’d been fighting were battered, bruised, and out of mana down to a man and woman. But to their credit, they all tried to limp after him, weapons dragging in the dirt and eyes crusted shut with blood.

I held a hand, motioning for them all to stay back. From the corner of my eye, I saw the noble with lightning magic gripping a squirming spear of lightning in both hands and jab it toward Naia. With half a thought, I raised a Mana Shield in front of the attack, blocking it and giving Lyria a chance to stab the woman directly in the stomach.

To my right, the gravity mage and his ally were rushing up the stairs as Thorn and the others gripped to the side of the wall, trying to avoid being pulled into a small black hole of energy. I summoned small Mana Shields in front of their legs, causing both nobles to tumble face first and fall, temporarily making the spell wink out.

Kalcus noticed none of it as he continued approaching, arms lengthening and growing serrated edges of razor-sharp flesh. “Helmet,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for this…”

Around us, I could sense that the tide was turning now. I actually saw a noble shout in surprise and go up in stasis, floating upward toward the airship. It was okay, though. We’d make it work with however many bodies we had left when the dust cleared. We had to.

I stalked toward Kalcus, eyes never leaving his.

He grinned. “You know… even if you win, you can’t kill me. All you can do is send me up to the airship. Scary, isn’t it? Knowing that no matter what you do, I’ll be out there waiting for you? Waiting to hunt down you and your little friends one by one? I think I’ll start with—”

I placed a Reflective Mana Shield directly behind Kalcus, one to his right, and one to his left.

He looked to either side, rolling his eyes. “This again? Your little shield box? You think—”

I raised my foot and kicked him hard in the chest. Hard enough to throw him against the Reflective Mana Shield at his back.

Just before he fell into it and would get launched forward, I summoned another Reflective Mana Shield in front of him.

He hit the shield at his back, then was thrown forward, then sideways, and each impact sped him up.

Within seconds, he was a blur as he slammed into shield after shield. The box shook with the force of the rapid impacts, jarring from side to side like a washing machine about to break itself apart.

Magical cracks spidered across the shields in webbing patterns. It was only seconds before one of the shields finally exploded outward in a shower of glittering shards. Kalcus was launched out of the opening with enough force to slam into the ground and launch up a huge cloud of dust.

Somehow, his stasis still didn’t trigger as he groaned, pulling himself up to his hands and knees while blood drizzled from his mouth. He looked up at me, face bruised and swollen. “Doesn’t matter… Even if you win, you still lose.” He coughed blood, pointing one finger skyward as he smiled, teeth stained red. “I’ll just be waiting, thinking about how to make you pay for this. Maybe I’ll start with the redhead first. Then all these slaves. And then—”

I summoned an Elemental Spike of Acidbloom, took another step, and slammed it hard into his head. The stasis field triggered before he could die, so I gripped him tightly. “Everybody!” I shouted. “If you down a noble, ride them up like this. Wait on the airship for the rest of us. I’ll be right back.”

“Brynn! What the hell are—” Lyria began, but the sound of rushing air drowned her out.

My stomach lurched as I was suddenly being lifted through the air at incredible speeds, riding Kalcus’ body straight to the airship. It was dizzying as we gained speed, but I held tight, refusing to let go.

We finally passed through the bottom of the ship, landing in the lower area. I braced myself for a fight, knowing there might be any number of nobles up here. To my relief, I saw it was empty, but I heard chatter from the upper deck. From what Vay’nar had told me, they’d periodically collect anyone who was removed via stasis, but I doubted they had time to collect the nobles we’d just sent up during the fighting below. They were probably all on the upper deck, weakened and battered, but likely pissed all the same.

I landed with surprising grace as some kind of magic slowed me, dragging me to the side and letting me come down soft on solid ground. Kalcus landed beside me, the blue magic around him flickering as it began to fade.

I didn’t wait. I didn’t give a victorious speech or explain why I was doing what I was doing. I just raised my dagger one last time and plunged it into his chest as soon as he was vulnerable.

His eyes went wide, and then they glassed over, his head slumping to the side.

I didn’t take killing lightly, but I was under no illusion that this man deserved to live. The world was better off with some people out of it, and Kalcus had more than proven he wasn’t worth saving. The only real consideration was how much shit I may be bringing on myself in the future for doing this, assuming anyone found out what I’d done.

Problems for later, I guessed.

I gave his corpse one last look, then took a deep breath.

It was a long, long way down, and I doubted I could count on the cloud magic saving my ass again this time.

But I still had a nearly full tank of mana and a plan that was almost certainly not going to get me killed.

Absently, I noticed a string of notifications, one of which was that I’d already reached Level 4. It was less experience than I expected, honestly, but I was also fighting only Iron Rank enemies in here.

“Alright, please work,” I said under my breath, and then I jumped.

My stomach instantly went to my throat as I fell, gaining speed like I’d been shot out of a cannon.

I could’ve placed a very, very long ladder of Mana Shields every ten or so feet and jumped my way down. But that would’ve taken ages and far more mana than this plan. So I was going with the slightly riskier approach. Basically, the idea was to do what I’d done to my Silver Scream Arrow that killed the necromancer. Sort of.

I fell, arms and legs pinwheeling as I tried to wait as long as I could to start using the shields. The outpost started as a small dot and rapidly increased in size. I fell so fast I hardly had time to react and realize when I was getting too close to the ground.

Shit.

I started casting rapidly, angling each shield slightly to form a kind of ramp. But my first attempt was too aggressive, and I slammed into the angled shield so hard it felt like I’d been hit by a car as my hip made contact and I bounced away, ragdolling through the air for a moment.

Come on, Brynn.

I tried again, going more subtle this time and creating a slowly sloping ramp of Mana Shields. It took every bit of skill I had to place them precisely, because I knew one wrong angle or one misplaced shield could splatter me or even slice me in half if I caught the edge instead of the flat face.

But it was working, I began sloping down a slippery ramp of mana, dismissing shields above me as fast as I summoned them below. In what felt like seconds, I went from free-falling at terminal velocity to slowly sliding to a stop on a nearly invisible sheet of mana.

“Fuck me,” I breathed, looking down.

It was maybe another hundred feet to the ground, and I could see the fighting below slowing. 

But from this high, I also saw something else. Several somethings, in fact.

Vitus and Marcia Anukis were running toward the outpost on foot. Apparently, the grommets had got them the message but failed to get the big pigs to them in time. At least, that was my assumption for a split second before I looked way farther back and saw a herd of animals and grommets approaching.

Very slowly.

The grommets were riding things that looked absolutely nothing like pigs. Sure, they looked… well fed, but pigs? Each “big pig” was a different shade of bright, vibrant color with bushy eyebrows, wide saucer eyes, and rows of rounded teeth and big mouths that seemed to almost be smiling. They moved on hundreds of small, furry little legs, and I’d be surprised if the fastest of them was moving more than two or three miles per hour.

I inspected one.

[Grubbin, Level 3 (Wood)] Grubbins are ground dwelling herbivores. They rarely come to the surface, preferring instead to stay deep beneath the ground where it is safe and the delicious roots they prefer are plentiful. Grubbins are known to be friendly and loyal creatures.

I sighed, replaying what Scarbo had told me when I asked him if the big pigs were fast. He’d said their speed was “surprising.” He was right, of course. But they were surprisingly slow. Not fast, like I’d assumed he’d meant.

Despite everything, I almost laughed.

But my attention was pulled away from the reinforcements by something far less welcome. It was a giant winged worm maybe a mile or two away from the outpost. It had a rounded face with concentric rows of razor-like teeth that seemed to go all the way down its throat. It was covered in green scales, almost like a huge insect mixed with a dragon. It jumped high, tucked its wings, and spun, burrowing beneath the ground before bursting into the air again after tunneling some distance.

I watched it explode from the ground a few seconds later, uprooting trees and sending a plume of debris drifting high into the air as it spiraled, wings tucked, and then gave them one massive flap of the veined green wings. It soared even higher, reached the apex of it’s arc, and then corkscrewed back into the ground like a fucking skyscraper with the grace of a gazelle.

[Burchakan the Cursed (Gold) Level 50] This infamous beast was once a well-known scholar and accomplishment guide enthusiast. Two centuries ago, he famously discovered an accomplishment that would grant either a Divine, Demonic, or Cursed reward. After nearly bankrupting himself to pay for an expedition of powerful adventurers to help him earn the accomplishment, he was said to enter a deep depression when he saw his reward was, in fact, cursed.

“Weeks passed, and the stories differ on what happened next. But they all agree that Burchakan eventually claimed his cursed reward, and the rest, as they say, is history. Legend claims the one who defeats Burchakan the Cursed will be rewarded with a cursed item of their own, and tales of his tragedy are often used to warn of the dangers of cursed items and the temptation they cause.”

I shook my head. Whatever he was, he was Level 50 and Gold… And he was massive.

I jumped down from the last shield of my ramp, landing maybe fifteen feet below. With the subtle improvements to my body from leveling and ascending to Silver, the impact only jarred my ankles slightly, even though it would’ve surely shattered the bones of an ordinary human.

I wasted no time jumping from shield to shield, pausing at the top shield, which was about twenty feet above the courtyard. 

It was about twenty mongrels against two nobles down there, and I doubted the nobles would even sense the arrows I was about to fire on them from up here. With any luck, I could incapacitate them quickly and start getting my friends up to safety.

I knelt, summoned three fresh Silver Scream Arrows from the quiver, loaded them with Hungry Dark, and started firing.

The first shot was a direct hit, catching the lightning mage between her head and shoulder. Lyria recognized it this time, directing the others to jump on her and hold her down while the Hungry Dark did its work

The second once again veered away as the gravity mage refused to go down. He was easily the most dangerous of the whole group, even including Kalcus, I realized. The damn bastard just wouldn’t die, and he was single-handedly pushing back Thorn and several others.

I tried one more shot, but he easily deflected it.

I jumped off the final Mana Shield, landing near Lyria’s group so hard I kicked up a ring of dust. They all looked toward me in shock, but I was already healing the minor damage to my legs and sprinting toward the gravity mage as I summoned an Elemental Spike of Hungry Dark.

I saw Vaynar emerge from a room at the top of the wall. He was brushing remnants of expired Hungry Dark from his clothes. He saw me, smiled, and began gathering green magic to his hands.

Fucker.

But instead of aiming at me, the screaming skulls that left his hands arced toward the gravity mage, who waved a hand and sent them veering off to explode against the outpost wall in a plume of green flame.

He noticed me, gave a wink, and then worked on another spell.

I sprinted toward the gravity mage, dagger in hand. His head jerked to the side as he saw me coming. He flung a spike of something I could barely see except for the way it warped the air around it.

I bounded upward, using two Mana Shields to quickly raise me at least ten feet in the air, easily dodging the attack and then leaping from the second shield toward the mage.

He turned completely to face me and gestured, dragging the black hole of energy toward me. I felt it tugging me sideways, but I summoned a fresh Forge Echo of my Hungry Dark dagger behind him and let it do the work.

I landed hard on my side, missing my jump attack by several feet and having to grip the ground to avoid getting pulled into the hole, but my Forge Echo caught him from behind, stabbing joyfully as more and more Hungry Dark jetted from the wounds, quickly encasing the man and finally shutting off the spell.

He fell in a cocoon, and for the first time, the courtyard fell almost silent.

They were all up on the airship or incapacitated.

Cheers went up once the others realized, but I knew we didn’t have time to celebrate. I got to my feet, produced all the rope I’d had the crafters make from my slip space and tied some to the gravity mage’s cocoon and dragged him roughly to join the other cocoons. Slowly, the others stopped celebrating and watched me with confusion as I made a pile of cocoons at the center of the courtyard and worked on making hasty rope handholds for each.

Vitus and Marcia Anukis came tearing into the courtyard, but slowed when they saw the scene.

All around, tired and exhausted allies raised weapons and gathered together, trying to form a protective ring around me.

Vitus slid his huge axe from his back, looking almost comically heroic as he scanned his eyes across the scene. “The grommets said you needed us here.”

I knelt, infecting each of the cocoons with Touch of Sapphire. “Yeah,” I said. “The tournament is about to go to shit in… probably less than a few minutes.”

“What’s going on?” Lyria asked.

“I made a deal with them,” I said. “They were never going to let any of us actually win this thing. I realized it pretty early on. Our only shot was finding a way to escape this hellhole with our lives, and this here is our best shot,” I said, giving one of the cocoons a kick.

All around, the others exchanged confused looks.

“Look,” I said, raising my voice so everyone could hear. Vay’nar and the others were joining the group now, having had to circle around the destroyed staircase and descend from the other side of the courtyard. “I couldn’t explain all of this before. They’ve been watching secretly, and I didn’t want them to know the plan. But it’s really pretty simple. You’re all going to ride these cocoons up to the airship. Yes, there are possibly still some nobles waiting up there and they’re possibly pissed, but they’ll be weak. Tell them you’ll drop them off unharmed if they cooperate. If they don’t, you’ll outnumber them, so kick their asses or shove them over the edge.”

I saw the worry and concern all around.

Tamrin cleared his throat. “You want us to just give up, Brynn? We ride them up to the airship and we don’t win, right?”

“None of us win, Tamrin. They released something to make sure of it. They call it the beast, and when they let it out, they shut off all the viewing portals. Think about what that means. They’re doing damage control. We broke their system, and they’re not going to let it happen. Even if we managed to kill that thing, they’d just send something worse for us once they found out. But right now, they can’t see what we’re doing. This is our chance to borrow one of their airships and get the fuck out of here. To escape.”

I saw the first signs of hope as people began nodding excitedly. 

“He’s right.” 

“—better than what we hoped for when we were brought here.”

“—about my family, though?”

“Your family want you dead or alive, Hera?”

The conversations happened fast, and within moments, all I saw was resolution as I looked around the group.

Vitus let the butt of his huge axe rest on the ground, drawing my attention. “So why did you bring us here, Helmet?”

“Because I wanted to tell you something now that there’s no one watching,” I said. “We could’ve eliminated you, too, but we didn’t. Remember that.”

Anger flashed in his eyes for a moment, and Marcia stepped suddenly toward me, reaching for her sword. But Vitus held out a hand, stopping her before she could approach me.

“Maybe we’ll find out if you’re right eventually,” Vitus said. “But I will remember that you held up your end of the bargain.”

“Good.”

There was a chorus of womps and reedy, high-pitched shouting coming from outside the courtyard.

Everybody tensed again, getting ready for another fight.

I held up a hand, waving them off. “It’s just grommets,” I said.

And at that moment, the grommets inched into view as if they were moving through molasses. Their noble mounts grunted and made sounds of immense effort, froth forming at the corners of their smiling mouths as they squirmed and squiggled into the courtyard. Two to four grommets rode each, their eyes wide with excitement and fleshy pink arms waving.

“We are feeling… heroic,” Grimbo said with a small smile.

If any of the grommets had a clue of what danger was coming, they showed no sign of it.

“Grommets! You have to get out of here. Something huge is coming. Can those pigs use your tunnels?”

Scarbo smiled. “He is asking if the big pigs can use our tunnels?” He let out a high-pitched, scratchy laugh. “The pigs are making tunnels. It is how we are finding them!”

“Okay, great,” I said. “Get out of here, now.”

The grommets didn’t seem bothered by the orders to flee just as they were making their grand entrance. They all kicked at their grubbins, urging the things to turn back around and slowly make their way toward the tunnels outside the outpost. 

I gestured for everyone to group up. “Okay. The beast is a Level 50 Gold. We have no chance of killing it. Our only hope is riding these bodies up to the airship.”

“What’s the plan once we’re on the airship?” Lyria asked.

Vay’nar spoke. “Each airship is controlled by a Windrunner. They all belonged to an island nation, but were captured and brought into servitude. Promise them freedom, and I imagine they will gladly steer the airship wherever you ask them to.”

“We’re going to fly to Riverwell,” I said.

That got a sharp look from Lyria. “Riverwell? Why?”

“Unfinished business,” I said simply.

She looked like she wanted to argue, but decided to nod instead, falling quiet. 

“Okay, the stasis magic is slippery. When it triggers, use the ropes and hold on tight. If you lose your grip, you’re dead. And once you get up there, the noble you’re riding will wake up, but they’ll still be inside the cocoon. If you can, drive to another one of the airships and throw them to it.”

“We should kill them,” Thorn said with surprising venom in his voice.

“That’s… an option,” I said. “But we have a much better chance of walking away from this and staying hidden if we give them less reason to come find us. If we murder several nobles up there, they may send a fucking army after us. Right?”

There was a pause, then some grudging nods.

I took my first real look at the faces of those who had survived, grimacing when I realized Erasmus wasn’t among the living. Neither was Sylara. I only had to take one look at the pain etched on Thorn’s features to know exactly what that meant.

Damn.

But I saw Zahra, Ramzi, Lyria, Thorn, Portus, Yolo, Tamrin, Old Torgen the tomte crafter, and Naia among the survivors.

I had wanted to save everyone, and I hadn’t succeeded. But I knew even this many alive was a victory of sorts, and I had to take comfort in that.

“It’s time,” I said, claiming my Touch of Sapphire from all the cocoons and once again hitting full mana. I didn’t bother healing the damage caused, knowing it would just make them less of a problem up top if any of them got out of their cocoons and caused problems.

“Alright, go!” I shouted. “Use the ropes. Everybody get a good hold before you stasis them so we know we’ve got enough nobles to ride up.”

Everyone moved quickly, forming groups around each noble until we were sure everybody was accounted for.

I saw Vitus watching me with an unreadable expression. Behind him, Marcia’s expression was definitely readable. She didn’t trust me.

The ground shook so hard we all stumbled sideways, which seemed to urge everybody into action. The beast was going to be here any second.

“Now!” I shouted.

One by one, groups of my allies were lifted into the sky, dragged upward by glowing blue cocoons. In seconds, I was with the last group, gripping a noble along with Lyria, Vay’nar, Zahra, and Ramzi. 

“He really wasn’t lying,” Marcia said, pursing her lips. “They aren’t going to try to attack us…”

“I told you,” I said. “Help us, and I’ll make sure your team is the last standing in the tourney.

“Okay, hold tight,” I said, grabbing the noble as well. Lyria met my eyes for a moment, gave a nod, and then I stabbed him. But as soon as I stabbed the noble, I let go and grabbed Vay’nar, keeping him on the ground with me as well.

The noble jerked skyward, taking Lyria, Ramzi, and Vay’nar with him to the airship.

“What the hells!” Vay’nar shouted in annoyance as he landed roughly on the ground instead of riding up to safety with the others.

“Sorry,” I said. “You’re my escape plan if I can’t kill the beast.”

His already pale face went a shade whiter. “Kill the beast… are you mad?”

Vitus was scowling. “You said it yourself. It can’t be beaten.”

“It probably can’t, but I have one trick up my sleeve. Something I want to try. And if I’m wrong, I’ll ride Vay’nar out of here. And, like I promised, that’ll still leave you and Marcia as the last two standing.”

“We’ll help,” Vitus said.

I shook my head. “Sorry. I doubt either of you can do shit against that thing. I’ve seen it. So, if you don’t mind, stay out of my way. If I was you, I’d actually start running now. It should be here any second.”

Marcia and Vitus shared a look of bemusement, but I was already jogging out of the front gate, gesturing impatiently for Vay’nar to follow me.

The ground shook. An inhuman screech cut through the air, so deep and powerful it vibrated through my chest. The sky went suddenly dark as a massive shape passed overhead, blotting out the sun.

It was time.