MM - Chapter 261 - WINNERS AND LOSERS

A bitter snort escaped Raine’s nostrils. “Don’t be so dramatic. I only knocked them out.” His chin gestured toward the crumpled forms of the other aides. “Besides, you idiots attacked me first. Lucky I only rattled your skulls a bit.”

Lucius’s earlier concern was forgotten and replaced by a surge of frustration. He shook Kenry’s shoulders, voice tight. “What were you thinking? You could have been killed, or worse—” His rationality came flooding back at the realization that his financial slavery would be much more difficult to dispel if its cause was reprisal to an assault. The fact the crime was carried out by none other than his personal aide was particularly damning. Lucius’s tone shifted, cracking like a whip. “Imbecile! What kind of thrice-blessed fool does one have to be to attack Lord Alaric? Have you lost what little sense you were born with? Please tell me one of these others put you up to this madness!”

Kenry blinked, the world swimming in and out of focus. He stared past his master at Raine, then back to Lucius, expression one of profound confusion. “Lord Alaric?” He mouthed the words as if they were a foreign language.

Lucius rose and stiffly bowed to Raine, desperately hoping this wouldn’t result in an even heftier debt. “Thank you for sparing them, My Lord. Please know that I had nothing to do with this foolishness.”

Raine crossed his arms, gaze unreadable. “I know you didn’t. Otherwise, your debt would have been far steeper.”

“Debt?” Kenry pushed himself up on one elbow, wincing. “What debt? What is this villain talking about?”

Lucius’s face flushed with a mixture of anger and panic. “Silence! You will refer to Lord Alaric with the respect he is due! Another word from you, and I’ll dock your pay for two hands!”

Kenry’s eyes flew wide. He nodded, first slowly, then with the frantic enthusiasm of a man realizing his entire world had been upended while he was unconscious. Lucius straightened, planting his hands on his hips in a weak imitation of authority. “Good. Now get the rest of these scoundrels on their feet. Then, await my commands at the villa.”

As Kenry began rousing the other groaning aides, Raine’s attention shifted to the rhythmic crunch of armored boots on paved stone. The squad of 3rd-tier guards rounded the corner, their expressions stern. To Lucius’s complete shock, they bypassed him entirely, trotting directly to Alaric and snapping crisp salutes. The lead guard spoke, his tone professional but laced with a hint of doubt. “Appreciate you going easy on them.”

Raine huffed dismissively. “I said I would.”

“And we can consider this matter settled?” The guard pressed, thumbs laced behind his belt.

Raine nodded solemnly, though his lips betrayed amusement. “You’ll not hear of it again, not from me, anyway.”

The truth dawned on Lucius. He raised a finger at the guards. “So that’s why you didn’t intervene! It was a setup from the very start!”

“Setup?” Raine scoffed. “Hardly. More a… simplification of otherwise annoying legal proceedings.”

Another realization struck Lucius, his gaze growing distant. “She knew… Lady Elowen knew from the start, that’s why she paid you so easily.”

“Obviously.” Raine rolled his eyes, grumbling internally. That girl was dead set on dragging me into her schemes. At least I made her pay for it. Shouldn’t have let myself get so broke.

The guards chuckled, and Raine politely dipped his head. “Gentlemen. Lady. Lucius, we’re done here.” He strode toward the staging grounds aside the distant keep, leaving the young noble no choice but to scramble after him.

Lucius’s thoughts were a jumbled mess as he tried and failed to put all the pieces of the evening’s events into a coherent mosaic. He was so lost in his own head that he didn’t realize where they were going until the vast, echoing tunnel of the inner wall swallowed them whole. The air grew cool and damp, the distant booms of the battlefield bouncing all around. “Where… uhm…” Lucius began, voice barely a whisper. “That is, are we going to collect your guilders, My Lord?”

Raine stopped so abruptly that Lucius nearly collided with his back. His eyes narrowed at the boy. “Enough tripping over every word. In the future, do not open your mouth until you know precisely what needs saying.”

The young noble’s lips parted, a protest forming and dying in the same instant. He snapped his jaw shut, a long second passing before he managed a curt nod. “Understood, My Lord.”

“Better,” Raine acknowledged. The single word of praise was unexpected after their interactions to date. The lightness Lucius felt in his chest at hearing it only further confused him.

They continued in silence, emerging from the tunnel onto the battlefield proper. Night had fully claimed The Divide. The chaos of the day had transformed into a different kind of siege. Arrays high on The Wall cast stark, sweeping floodlights across the blighted ground, creating islands of visibility in a sea of slithering darkness. Empowered Blasts streaked overhead like vengeful comets. Each intercepted Venom Shot blossomed into a firework of sizzling acid, briefly illuminating the scuttling Rabinoids.

Astra’s cohorts were stationed on both sides of the gate, fighting on with grim determination. Raine made no move to join them. He stood at the edge of the light, waiting. The tension stretched until Lucius was on the verge of breaking his newly sworn silence. Just then, a figure of living shadow dropped from the sky.

Lucius jerked back as Pamalaiha landed before them without a sound. She was so thoroughly cloaked in her shadows that it was impossible to discern anything more than a humanoid shape dropping to one knee. Her voice was a calm whisper that nonetheless cut through the clangor of the battlefield. “A fifth made it in time.”

Raine’s expression remained unchanged. “Good. Bring all five. We will begin straight away.”

Lucius’s gaze darted between Alaric and the shifting mass of shadow, his mind struggling to process the exchange. When he looked back, the space where the woman had knelt was empty. He spun his head, searching the darkness, but she was gone as if she’d never been there. He’d been watching Alaric all day and never once noticed the woman. He could only shake his head in resignation; the man had more hidden pieces than there should be on the whole board.

Nearly ten minutes of uneasy silence passed, punctuated by the screams of men and monsters. Then, five whole cohorts, their armor battered and their faces etched with exhaustion, gathered behind the shieldwall. They represented only a fraction of Astra Infernum’s forces, yet they were more than Raine hoped for. He would have been content if three cohorts managed to push all their members to level 12 this quickly.

He stepped forward, arms raised for silence. “Excellent work finishing early. As promised, I will now teach you the first of Astra's stances: Resplendence.” He paused, gaze sweeping over their eager faces. “Before we begin, adjust your expectations. There is nothing miraculous in what I am about to teach you. You will not suddenly find yourself able to scale walls with your fingernails, nor will you defeat martials above your class after a day’s efforts.”

He gave them a few seconds to understand that even more hard work was ahead. “While not flashy, Resplendence is fantastical in its own way. This stance, and all the movements within, do not come from Earth. They were painstakingly developed over decades within ZionLine itself. They are a cornerstone of my own strength. Without them, I would be half the man I am today.”

If he didn’t have their undivided attention before, he certainly did now. The mystery of how he learned the stance alone was clawing at their minds, but he didn’t elucidate. “What you are about to learn,” he continued, voice dropping, “is the most optimal method for your body and mind to adapt to rapid, significant alterations in your attributes. Which, as I am certain you are all now painfully aware, is a major challenge when leveling as quickly as we are.”

A wave of murmurs and nods passed through the assembled guilders. They knew the truth of his words intimately. Each of them felt like a raw recruit again, their bodies as ungainly and uncoordinated as a teenager after a sudden growth spurt. They were only level 12, and the unspoken fear of what would happen at higher levels, when attribute gains compounded, was a heavy weight in their thoughts.

“This is the first form.” Rain flowed from one hold to the next, pausing for two full seconds at each position. To the untrained, the movements looked like a strange fusion of Qigong and peculiar, off-balance gymnastics. While breathing as easily as if he were standing still, the explanation continued. “To those of you with a careful eye, you will notice the subtle oddities tucked within each movement. An intentionally over-extended joint here, a deliberately unbalanced weight distribution there. Do not ignore them. They are the key. They will play a vital role in the future, allowing for rapid calibration of neuromuscular pathways as your attributes ascend into the thousands. We will go through each basic movement several times before adding counter-Discipline to each hold. Let us begin.”

* * *

Raine made Lucius participate. His official duty was sentry, using his 2nd-tier skills to shoot down any stray Venom Shots that the casters in the wall missed. The true purpose was to give the young noble a visceral appreciation for the hell his guilders were enduring on the field. They were all in this together, protecting the kingdom. Allowing even one stray Venom Shot through to claim a bit of extra Superiority was a dereliction of duty that needed to be set straight. 

Including Lucius was only a slight modification to the original plan: letting the regulars learn the hard way, in the field, under fire, as the core group had. As for Fizgore and the others, they were at the very front, sweating right along with everyone else. After all the levels they gained throughout the day, they needed the practice more than anyone. 

Varak’s elites learned the fastest; their impressed wonderment at each new revelation proved that Resplendence was far more complex and beneficial than it might appear at first glance.

By the time Raine dismissed everyone for the night, Lucius was bleary-eyed and swaying on his feet, his Elemental Power utterly drained from the constant vigilance. He was given strict orders to return to the staging field before dawn, then released along with everyone else. Astra's members who failed to make the cut retreated through the safety of the tunnel in dejected silence.

For most, the challenges of hunting the level 25 Rabinoids had been too much. Their orders seemed straightforward when issued by their battlemasters: runners with the highest completion rates for Lunge, Dash, and Leap were to start each attempt by pulling stray Rabinoids so the rest of the raid could finish them off.

Upon actually trying to pull those orders off, reality crashed down upon them with brutal force.

Just separating one monster from the swarm was a monumental task that ended in death more often than success. The sprint that came after was a dozen times more dangerous. The runners’ focus had to be perfectly split between the snapping mandibles at their heels, the execution of their skills, and the treacherous, cratered ground that could easily snag a boot. A single misplaced step meant death. The Rabinoids were over double their level, meaning they were far faster, forcing a constant, zigzagging dance with the reaper. As if that wasn’t enough, the runners had to drag their quarry through the still-burning remnants of Empowered Blasts, using the environment to burn away the creature’s health.

All the while, strategically positioned healers along the ever-shifting route had to actually land their ranged heals on a frantically sprinting runner to keep them alive through the gauntlet of fire. Finally, once the beast was weakened, the rangers and casters had a window of perhaps two seconds to unleash a coordinated volley and kill it before it crashed into their lines. If any step in that complex chain failed, people died. Multiple people.

The coordination required was beyond anything they had ever attempted. Raine had not brought them to a leveling paradise. He had brought them to the crucible he promised. This was The Divide—the chasm between those who had what it took to become the elites Astra needed, and those who did not.

He stood at the mouth of the tunnel, catching the eyes of those who had enough pride left to meet his gaze. He saw their struggle, their frustration, and their fear reflected back at him, and knew exactly how they felt. He couldn’t count the times that he had been millimeters from success, only to be dragged down by the failure of others. Among these defeated cohorts were individuals who only needed fertile ground to flourish. The chance they desired so fervently would come tomorrow. But as always in the world of martials, it would be up to them to grasp it.

Soon, he was the last one on the field. Not expecting a reply, he sent quick messages to Elana and Charles, requesting updates on the crafters and the guild hall. Then, he logged out.

Raine awoke to a barrage of sensations. Carter City’s morning light failed to breach the shutters protecting Mel’s room, but the thermal lamps built into them still splashed a semblance of warmth across his bandaged body. He’d recovered considerably in the short time his physical form had been sleeping. Muscles, skin, and bones that once screamed at the act of existing now ached pleasantly from the acids that accompanied natural healing processes.

Flowing through his blood was the telltale tingle of vital nutrients; no doubt the culprit of his rapid improvement. The surprising part was how many nutrients remained in his system. With quick healing, he would have gone through triple or more for the same results.

Good thing I didn’t burn through them. The old-fashioned way is definitely more efficient. If I can afford to wait…

The experts from the Coalition of Masters were undoubtedly ready to demand his time. As far as Raine was concerned, they could wait—after all, Vought still hadn’t delivered a third of the promised vital nutrient supply from their first deal, let alone the second. If the Coalition wanted his help, they needed to pay up first. These people were used to pushing everyone around and getting their way, but Raine wasn't about to fold so easily.

The supposed injuries from their little initiation stunt would only buy him so much time. They would know better than anyone how fast he should be healing right now.

No point trying to trick them. I’ll keep healing at this pace so my cells can load up for the next tempering. I should have Pamalaiha recheck my blood, see if I’m ready for that second dose of ReGen. Wonder how crazy the results will be after all the changes to my body.

A soft chime sounded, and Mel’s door hissed open, revealing the girl herself in all her beautifully freckled splendor. There was a questioning glimmer in her eyes—a silent desire to ask a question that he didn’t know. A genuine grin pulled at Raine’s cheeks before she said a word. It didn’t matter what she came to ask of him. Even if she desired the whole world, he would hand it to her on a silver platter if she kept smiling at him like that.