Chapter 88 - Calamity

The next room down had archers.

The hall was long. At the far end, castle towers were integrated into the wall, spanning from the ground all the way to the ceiling. Arrows shot from the holes in the tower. To reach the towers, attackers had to cross a stone bridge, narrow enough that only two could stand side-by-side. Spikes awaited in the moat below.

Spectral arrows shot forth before the group could even think of crossing. The arrows’ shafts were lined with runes, coated with ether.

Vivi raised her sword to block. The arrow clanked against her sword with force, redirected to the walls. She felt the impact in her legs. If an arrow were to land, she'd be pierced right through.

In the middle of the bridge stood a large skeleton with a two-runed sword. Mass and sharpness. The skeleton stood with a defensive stance, waiting for attackers to come.

Its shoulders and rib cage were lined with outside-carved veins. Ether flowed within, coating the skeleton's bones themselves with runic powers. At the skeleton’s core, Vivi saw a large rigor rune. Vivi’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

“Lydi, shoot that one down,” Aang said, while slashing an arrow in half.

That won’t work, Vivi thought. In theory, the rigor rune’s effects would render a discharge of ether useless.

Vivi knew she should have said her thoughts out loud. But she was curious. She’d never seen a rigor rune in action. She wanted to see how the runes would react to Lydi's attack.

Lydi aimed her staff and shot the discharge of ether. Her aim was perfect—the skeleton was wholly coated in the blazing discharge of aggressive wisps of ether.

The veins on the skeleton’s rib cage glowed bright, taking in the wisps from Lydi’s attack. The skeleton’s bones were strengthened. Lydi and Aang watched in confusion as the skeleton only grew stronger.

Vivi smiled, seeing the rune in action. Rigor was a rare rune, used almost exclusively for armor and defensive items. Rigor enhanced hardness and pressurized metal, but the rune didn’t push power outward like traditional runes. Rather, it absorbed energy from its surroundings. When rigor-coated armor was attacked, the rune’s powers absorbed the damage from the blow to use as defense instead.

Rigor powered armor was highly resistant to wind and fire—any attack that relied on constant and steady pressure, such as a discharge of ether. A strong piercing attack, however, could overpower Rigor’s effects.

“I’ll deal with this,” Vivi said. “Protect me from arrows.”

She placed her mithril greatsword back to storage. Lucius. It’s time.

Lucius grinned, then called Abyss Destroyer into her hands.

Vivi went into stance, holding her sword from the hilt as if it were a javelin, and filled the sword with ether. She hadn’t practiced throwing as much as she would have liked, but she’d spent a few hours of free time throwing swords during end cycle. Lucius practiced picking them back up to spatial storage from a range.

The sword flew from her hand with explosive force, faster than a cannonball ever could. The sword hit the skeleton's rigor rune directly.

The skeleton’s upper body blew to bits. Its lower body crumbled, and the monster disintegrated to ether. Abyss Destroyer continued on its path before crashing into the castle tower at the end of the wall.

The crush rune made contact with the tower, and a loud crash echoed in the room. Cracks formed on the tower, dust falling from between the bricks.

Aang and Lydi watched in shock. The tower was close to crumbling upon itself. The cracks eventually stopped growing. The tower barely held.

“That…” Aang said. “That’s dangerous.”

Vivi smiled awkwardly. She knew three-runed swords were powerful. But destructive enough to nearly make a tower crumble?

Lucius focused on calling the sword back into spatial storage. It took him a few seconds, but he managed. As long as the area of impact wasn’t clouded with heavy amounts of ether, Lucius could retrieve the sword from a distance.

The arrows had stopped flowing. The archers seemed to have retreated.

“Well done, Vivi, Lucius,” Aang said. He collected the ether from the skeleton. He frowned. “That one was worth 356 ether. A powerful monster. We can deal with them, but it’s not good that we’re meeting something so strong on the second level already.”

“The levels seem to be intelligent as well,” Lydi said. “The moment the defensive skeleton fell, the archers retreated, sensing that their defense was gone.”

“They never acted like this on our first run…” Aang said. “Vivi, how much ether does that attack cost you?”

“Almost nothing,” Vivi said. “Just the ether of throwing the weapon and filling it with ether.”

Aang looked surprised for a second. Then he grinned. “The power of runeswords, huh?”

“I’d like to save it for a last resort, still,” Vivi said. “If I miss, enemies can take the sword and use it against us.”

Aang nodded. “We're still on pace. Four hours to clear this dungeon. Let’s get moving.”

***

Vesper yawned, leaning against the battlements atop Zand’s outer wall. Defense duty was stale again. Monster attacks had grown increasingly rare during the last few months, to the point that not a single monster had attacked the walls for the last week.

For a facility that thrived by killing monsters for ether, the lack of attacks was catastrophic.

Vesper stood beside two wolves, Andorr and Venix. Both were big men, sitting half-asleep on the stone, their bows and quivers laying on the ground next to them. Both men were friendly enough, but Vesper couldn’t consider them friends.

A few paces to the right, a guardsman snored on a rocking chair, pipe still in mouth. His name was Braxon. He’d carried the rocking chair up to the battlements a few days ago, after the fourth day in a row of no monster encounters at the walls.

Vesper sighed, watching his sleeping comrades. Vesper, too, was a wolf, having ranked up from a nimrod around a year ago. The life of a nimrod hadn't suited him in the slightest. Joining gangs… Hunting monsters… Squabbling with other nimrods… Vesper couldn’t keep up. He had always been a calm man, who enjoyed the cycles of the daylight gems more than the activities of his day.

Defense duty had sounded like a good way to escape the messy life down below. Vesper had worked hard to earn the trust of the guards, progressing toward the rank of wolf.

The promotion from nimrod to wolf had very little to do with one’s strength. A wolf needed to be competent enough at killing monsters, but if strength alone qualified for a promotion, people like Aang and Bwern would have ranked up to wolf long ago. Yet, every gang leader was still stuck at nimrod.

In reality, ranking up to a wolf was entirely a game of trust and bribery. For a promotion to happen, three guards had to vouch for a nimrod's trustworthiness. With the three vouches gathered, either Uundref or Wheryn, the leading Stewards, had to approve of the promotion.

That was how Vesper got his rank. He’d bribed guards with ether, giving them compliments, while subtly hinting that he was interested in joining defense duty. A few weeks of this, and he’d been offered a spot on the wall.

Defense duty was better than killing nimrods. Life as a wolf was the closest thing to the calm life Vesper desired.

Yet… It was still stale. Depressing. Even on the most action-packed days, when countless monsters used to attack the walls every day, Vesper felt empty. He earned wisps of ether, gave them away to guards, and the cycle continued. Life was calm, but it was also meaningless.

I dreamed of building a life with someone… Vesper thought. To start a family. My own farm…

When was the last time he’d even talked to a woman? He used to have crushes; used to feel emotions toward the people of his village. These days… He barely even felt anything when one of his friends died.

Suddenly, Braxon flinched awake. He appeared surprised for a second, then his eyes grew concerned. He got up from his chair and glanced into the forest of the fourth level.

“What is it?” Vesper asked.

“I sensed something,” Braxon said. “Something is coming.”

The woods were empty. Vesper couldn’t sense anything, looking off into the distance. He was, however, locked at five hundred ether. Braxon’s perception of ether was far wider. He sometimes sensed small monsters approaching the walls.

“What, finally something?” Venix asked. He stood and grabbed his bow.

Braxon’s eyes grew increasingly concerned as he stared off into the woods. Vesper tried to see what the man was looking at.

A pair of green dots appeared within the dark shadows of the trees, peeking out from the treeline. More appeared, spread all across the woods. Vesper watched, frozen in place, as more green red dots filled the woods. In total, there must have been over a hundred dots, and more kept appearing.

“Are those eyes?” Venix asked.

A brighter green glow shone at the very middle of the treeline, on the path leading out of Zand. Vesper squinted by its brightness.

The monster revealed itself. It was tall, reaching at least fifteen feet. Its lower body was made entirely of raging fire, like a skirt of ethereal flames. Its head was an elk’s skull. Green glowing eyes stared up at the wall.

“Dear mother of ether…” Braxon whispered.

The monster lifted its staff, pointing it up at the wall, directly at Vesper's station. Upon command, hundreds of monsters appeared from the woods, attacking Zand’s wall.

Braxon gritted his teeth. “Call for the Stewards! It’s an emergency! That’s a Twilight—”

Suddenly, a discharge of ether shot from the monster’s staff. A hole burned into the side of the battlement as the discharge destroyed the bricks. The attack hit Braxon and Venix head-on. The guard burned, disintegrating to ash instantly.

Vesper fell on his back, eyes wide. He let out a scream.

He was alive. Quickly, Vesper grabbed his bow and ran for the stairs. There was no way he would be defending any walls at all against that.

Zand was being attacked by a calamity level boss!