Chapter 33: Hostile Negotiations

A clone of shadow scaled the exterior of the devastated temple as Szesis watched through the copy. Both human and spriggan were in rough shape, clearly injured from a life and death battle.

Didn’t I throw two humans down into the Mythhold? There should be another… Oh, there it is.

The second human appeared with a flash of light a few moments later, Szesis immediately dismissed him as dead. He doubted anyone could lose that much blood and guts and walk away alive.

But both human and spriggan tried everything they could to save him. Szesis’ attention was drawn to the plant monster.

A blight creature that can heal? Now that is quite the oddity. And to try and heal a human at that… did the poor thing hurt its head from the fall?

His quarry weren’t going anywhere fast, so Szesis spent a moment to see if he could find X. But after a few minutes of searching the formian didn’t seem to be nearby. The orc winced, rolled his shoulder, then swapped places with his shadow clone as it hopped down into the temple.

Wounded as he may have been, as a second strata incarnate there wouldn’t be any danger. Szesis suspected he could fight them while sleeping.

He landed with a soft thud and conjured his blade of shadow. To his surprise the human mage seemed to be breathing, well it wouldn’t make a difference.

“Gentlemen, tree. I’m so glad you made it.” He said with a confident smile. “I truly hope, for your sake, you have what I need.”

“No.” the dark haired human said, his tone lifeless. The man didn’t even turn around, very rude.

“No? I can definitively say that's the wrong answer!” The orc sneered. He pressed the tip of his blade into the back of the dark haired human's neck. He brushed aside matted braids and let the edge draw a trickle of blood.

“So tell me human. What exactly do you mean by no?”

“We didn’t find anything. I doubt it was there to begin with.” He grinded out through clenched teeth.

“Come on now… If you’re going to lie, don't make it so obvious.” Szesis tutted mockingly as he lightly kicked one of the medium grade mana shards littering the bloody ground. He drifted the tip of his blade to press against the neck of the crouching spriggan.

“Reassess your answer boy. Or I'll kill this odd blighter and make you watch your friend bleed to death right before your eyes.”

Finally the human turned to face him. Szesis relished the look of fury, hopelessness and bitter resentment on his face. “A mana geode, and a large network of tombs. The lower floors will be littered with undead by now.”

“I see, I see.” The orc nodded. “That is disappointing, I hereby declare you failures. You may now beg my mercy for your worthless lives.”

“Why… Why did the world start shaking?” The spriggan asked.

Wait a second…

“You can talk huh? Fascinating, very interesting...” Szesis said conversationally. Then he back-handed the spriggan through a pillar. “Don’t you ever play games with me child. We’re not in the Darkwoods, I don’t have to pay lip service to your status.”

The human at Szesis’ feet tensed but wisely chose not to try anything. As the dust settled the plant monster rose shakily to its feet. “Didn’t… play. I… couldn’t. Learned while I was down there.”

The orc grunted. “Quick learner huh? Then why don’t you explain your failure?”

“No failure. The building was falling apart.”

“If you want the myth.” The human muttered. “Ask the skeletons, they might know.”

Szesis cocked his head and let his sword vanish into motes of darkness. He crossed his arms.  “Continue.”

“Silver eyes, able to summon glowing weapons. The undead clearly had the class depicted on all the murals and statues. There’s a death-attuned dungeon in the depths of the Mythhold, though maybe it came from even further down.”

The orc contemplated the story. But it couldn’t be correct, could it? Not a chance.

“That's impossible. How can undead have…” He trailed off. “Oh… Son of a bitch. No wonder the undead are so ahead of the game. Those bastards have been cheating this whole time.”

“Cheating…?” The spriggan asked hesitantly.

“Yes! Cheating. No other monsters can obtain auxiliary classes so easily. If the undead have been turning powerful humans and monsters… Fuck! Do the other factions know? And if they do…” Szesis began to pace, deep in thought.

“There was an undead enslaver down in the dungeon.” The human stated blandly.

The orc froze. What? So the formian woman wasn’t nuts after all? “How big?” He snapped.

“As big as a small building…”

“So the queen was here... No wonder the princess was so excitable.” He muttered.

“Princess?” The spriggan asked. “Another ant?”

Szesis waved the question away. “You think I did this to the city? Nah, it was an awakened ant called X. Around level one fifty, maybe sixty.”

Both man and spriggan tensed. He ignored them both. I suppose it is partially my fault. Oh well!

The orc yawned and stretched. “Alright. For relaying such intriguing information you get to live. Best of luck with the blond one.”

Then he vanished in a puff of shadow.

===

Another ant. Something so powerful it nearly brought the city down on their heads. Leif thought as he trudged through the shattered city. Marcus was unconscious and slung over his back while Sieg used his shoulder to walk.

To call his exhaustion bone deep wouldn’t be metaphorically incorrect. He and Sieg had chosen to find someplace away from the city centre to rest. The sheer level of devastation was shocking. Giant lines had been carved into the streets and split buildings in half.

If the battle had destroyed the other end of the teleportation circle… Best not think about it.

Leif wanted to exit the city and return to where he had left the hundreds of animals that had followed him. But if he was honest with himself the possibility of them making it that far without collapsing was next to none.

He was totally drained. If it weren’t for the innate healing of his [Amber Blight Spriggan] class Leif suspected he would be a corpse several times over.

Fascinating how such an innocuous part of the class's perk was so helpful. He contemplated, half delirious. Then he saw something that made him certain he was hallucinating. He skipped a step and almost fell, Sieg cursed and stumbled.

Two deer. Two stupid, idiotic, insane deer. They emerged from an alleyway a dozen or so metres away and stopped to stare at him.

Leif stared back.

Sieg grumbled and regained his balance. Then he too stared.

For thirty seconds this moment of frozen time extended. Then Leif broke it. “What the fuck are you doing here?”