Riftside 3 - Chapter 22

The Ironclad Ravine greeted us like an old, scarred friend, and I smiled at the jagged outcrops of stone veined with metallic quartz. Once it had filled me with trepidation and radiated danger, but now it was a familiar and almost comforting sight. It brought back a lot of memories, some bad, but most good.

“Well, look at us,” Nabeeh said. “Out on our first standard hunt as a full party. Monsters could almost mistake us for an experienced and powerful party!”

I chuckled and glanced at Lan, who despite looking like a sullen storm cloud, had at least walked as part of the group this time.

She kicked at a stone, setting her blue robe fluttering, her gnarled staff clutched tight to her chest, face scrunched up.

“Powerful?” Lan scoffed, looking at the ravine with contempt. “Hard to tell when we’re here to hunt, what did you call it Knut?”

“Rock puppies!” Knut boomed, happily.

“The girl speaks truth, for once!” Roq said. “I am bored of Shardfangs. If I am to get my revenge on the Hive Mind, and save the universe, we must challenge ourselves to the most ferocious beasts out there!”

“And we will,” I said, turning to Lan. “This is familiar ground. Below our level, yes. That’s the point.” I met her defiant gaze. “It’s a testing ground for my new spells, and to see how yours do, before we fight anything huge. If the raid showed me one thing, it was how I’ve been taking for granted how well Knut, Eryn, Nabeeh, and I work together. So, only once I’m satisfied you can do the same do we continue on the scouting mission to see new and exciting places.”

“Quick, little sister,” Knut said. “Splash some puppies with water. Prove strength. I yearn to see what is out there.”

“Likewise,” I said, smiling at my brother. “Unmapped territory and disappearing scouts. Who knows what we'll find?”

“A lot of trouble,” Eryn said. “And hopefully the scouts still alive, of course.”

I tapped a rock with Roq, thinking.

“Alright, I’m going first, and testing out my three abilities, plus Roq’s Mana Leech. Would you bring a few targets, Knut?” I asked as I brought up my list of abilities, checking them once more. 

Knut banged axe and shield together, making a tremendous racket. 

NAME: Explosive Strike

TYPE: Active

DESCRIPTION: Channel mana into the user’s hammer and detonate it on impact, sending a concussive blast through the target that damages and staggers everything in line behind it.

MANA COST: 10

NAME: Resonance

TYPE: Active

DESCRIPTION: Infuse the user’s hammer with mana for a short duration, enlarging one or more parts of the weapon with translucent force and extending its reach. 

MANA COST: 15

NAME: Counter

TYPE: Active

DESCRIPTION: Instantly delivers a riposte at full striking power against any enemy target that lands a hit on the user within their range.

MANA COST: Five per second.

Out of the abilities, I was definitely most excited about Resonance, as it was the craziest. What could I do with Roq? He’d specified no sharp edges and such, but, how large could I make him? I looked forward to testing that out. Would extending the haft even further count? And how long could the spike grow?

Explosive Strike sounded straight forward, while I wasn’t quite sure how Counter would work. It could be massively powerful, it could be barely useful, or at worst, lethal to myself, if it forced me into a vulnerable position.

A baying sounded from the ravine and I found myself grinning as Knut came running back, mock shrieking in fear. I felt as if I could take these on with my bare hands and rip them apart. Which was folly, but damn if I didn’t feel fantastic after the breakthrough. 

I activated Explosive Strike and stepped past Knut, swinging for the first Shardfang.

With a crack, the monster shattered into countless pieces that shredded the other monsters following just behind.

I stood stunned, slowly looking down at Roq in my grasp. 

“Blood for ME!” he cackled maniacally.

*

A while later I’d finished my tests, and we’d seen all of Lan’s spells up close, just hers though, not those of her staff. She’d tested each spell multiple times, and we’d done a few combinations between her and Nabeeh. Lan’s solo spells worked well, doing high damage and she was precise. Her combinations with our fire mage left a lot left to be desired, but it was a start. Their opposing elements didn’t help there, either.

After killing dozens of the monster and not getting a single mind gem, we crossed the ravine and for the first time, set off into the flatlands beyond.

The jagged, familiar terrain of the Ironclad Ravine gave way to a raw and desolate expanse with the Steelhusk Forest receding behind us. These badlands were worse than what surrounded Dawnwatch. The sun baked down mercilessly as if it held a personal grudge, and if it wasn’t for having a water mage with us, I’d have turned us back after a few hours and the first few engagements with unfamiliar monsters, thinking we’d need more supplies to go find the scouts.

Surrounded by a dust-ladden wind, we utterly destroyed a dozen waist-high and shaggy-haired scorpions. Those not finished by the girls struggled to penetrate Knut’s thick armor with their tails, and I used my ranged abilities to stay safe, to Roq’s great frustration, and if we’d slaughtered them any slower, I was sure he’d burst into his Primal Form. But into our storages the Slip Scorpions went, just to see if Pa could use them for anything special.

But they weren’t fast, and there were no sign of our missing people.

Later, where sand ran like water, several Dust Urchins, which moved surprisingly fast, attacked out of nowhere. Lan’s water spells tore straight through them before I could even get a hit in, and she was a lot happier afterwards.

At least for what only felt like a few minutes, then she started to complain again.

“Are we there yet?” she asked.

“No,” I said.

“Are we there yet?” she asked again.

“No. And if you keep asking, I’m not even turning around once we do get there,” I said.

“But this is so boring!” she groaned, hanging her head and balling her hands into fists.

“This is adventuring!” I said over my shoulder, revelling in the raw power of my newly forged body. The miles walked, the scorching sun, and the deadly monsters were but an appetiser. I yearned for a real challenge.

“We’ve gone quite far, though,” Eryn said. “I doubt the scouts would have made it here.”

“Not quite. We can go further and still make it back before nightfall,” I said. “And besides, with my second breakthrough completed, I’ve started thinking more about how we can actually defeat the Hive Mind.”

“Stuff with Glowcaps and fire arrows?” Knut asked. “One big boom to save world, eh?”

“Perhaps,” I said. “The most important thing is we’re stronger now. I’m stronger. I think I could hurt it. Truly wound it. If we set up the right kind of fight, an unfair one, with all of us against it? I think we could actually win.”

“You talk about the Hive Mind as if it’s a single general leading an army,” Lan said. It wasn’t a question so much as a challenge. “Is it?”

Before I could answer, she fired off another.

“And if it’s as powerful as Mara claimed, why is it still here? Why hasn’t it just… won?”

“Those are excellent questions,” Nabeeh said, turning to give Lan a smile that was all sharp edges. “And we’d be happy to answer them. Right after you tell us about that moody-looking piece of driftwood you call a staff.”

Lan’s expression hardened, her hand tightening on the gnarled wood.

“Nabeeh,” Eryn said, her voice soft but with an undercurrent of steel. “Stop. We’re not gatekeeping knowledge of the enemy. She’s part of this party and deserves to know what she’s up against.”

Nabeeh threw her hands up in a gesture of surrender. 

“Fine, fine. I’m sorry. I’m just tired of all this damn walking. If I wanted to be dusty, dry, and tan, I’d have stayed home.” She glanced at Lan, a smirk playing on her lips. “But a little trust goes a long way, little storm. See how well we treat you?”

I ignored their exchange and focused on Lan.

“It’s complicated,” I said. “From what Roq has told us, we need to think of the enemy as an empire, not a single entity. There are local Hive Minds, like the one here, which are like generals. Then there are greater ones above them, and a central one that rules them all.”

“A pustule on the skin of the universe!” Roq said. “The one we face is an infant playing at war, sent to this backwater world to cut its teeth playing offense. Its betters are engaged elsewhere, likely against foes that would make you bipeds look like rock puppies before the might of…ME!”

A flicker of something, maybe understanding, or perhaps fear, crossed Lan’s face before she masked it again. She had one more question, her voice dropping to a near whisper. “The ones it defeats… what happens to them?”

“They are unmade. Used as parts,” Knut said. “Made into monsters. Lucky ones, or unlucky, become like Roq and Arclight, while others are like—”

“HALT,” Arclight said, so loudly it blocked out the rest of what Knut said. “Foes.”

I held up a fist and the others stopped.

The wind howled through the rock spires around us, suddenly sounding like a lament.

“What is this foolishness?” Roq demanded. “I sense nothing! The air is clear of foes! Have your wits finally abandoned you, bow?”

“Of course you haven’t,” Arclight said. “You’re too busy prattling. Ever since that assassin nearly took our wielders, I check everywhere. All the time. Three monsters are coming from behind. Two from each flank. Three more are waiting for us ahead.” Her mental voice was laced with contempt. “What do you think I’ve been doing staying quiet, spiky rock on a stick? Taking a nap? Enjoying you talk?”

“Enemies around us,” I said, for the benefit of Nabeeh and Knut who couldn’t hear Arclight. “Not for the first time. But where are they?”

I glanced around us, seeing nothing but the unbroken brown dirt ground far around us.

“In the ground,” Arclight said. “Where the dirt moves.”

“The enemies are coming from below,” I said, and turned, jogging back the way we came. “We’ll deal with those behind first. It’ll leave us a way out and create some distance to those waiting ahead.”

Knut ran up alongside me, with our backline falling in behind. 

“Let me guide a shot, wielder,” Arclight said. “I am close to level nine, and relish the chance of showing Vannash’ what a true soul weapon’s breakthrough is.”

“Sure,” Eryn said. “Guide my shot. Hold on.”

I’d seen Arclight do so a few times in the past, with the first one being a shot at the Domitius assassin, so I slowed to a jog. 

Eryn stopped and angled a shot nearly straight up, making us all draw up short. “Snipe,” she muttered, and then her bow glowed with Prism Shot. 

“Attacking sun and moon?” Knut asked.

“Good one, puny biped!” Roq said. “Foolish bow mistakes star for enemy and sky for ground!”

Eryn’s bow twanged, and I immediately lost sight of the arrow.

“What do we do now?” I asked. “While the chance is small, I’d rather not take an arrow to the head.”

“Watch as we draw the enemy into the light,” Arclight said, and a moment later, three arrows thudded into the ground not far ahead of us.

Electricity crackled, and three monsters burst from the ground, their bodies convulsing so hard they shook themselves up out of the dirt.

“Yuck!” Lan said

They were called Glowcrest Emmets and were the size of a large hound. And while my sigil marked them in a weak yellow outline, their white exoskeleton were inlaid with veins of pale green bioluminescence. Each had a line of stiff plumes along their back, which looked like feathers, making them look larger than they were.

“Nabeeh, Eryn, put them down!” I said. “Knut, take the left flank, I’m going right. Lan, you hold off those from the front if they get here first.”

Without waiting, I jogged towards my targets, wanting to engage them away from the girls. 

I heard Eryn shoot and Nabeeh calling out ‘Immolation’ and felt certain the monsters would be dead. 

“Can you sense them now?”

“Of course,” Roq said. “I was just a little busy earlier. With…whatever. Let’s just massacre these nuisances. I wonder what they taste like, though. Haven’t had ants before.”

“You might not have any now, either,” I said and cast Ironburst as soon as I spotted the two disturbances in the ground. The oversized ants were pushed up out of the ground, dead, each pierced with multiple Steelhusk spears. 

“No fair!” Roq said. “I need a taste. These are new monsters. I…I… I might find out where they are coming from!”

“Fine.”

I turned back just in time to see two more of the creatures burst from the ground, throwing themselves at Knut. They jumped surprisingly high, and fought with some tactics, as one went left and the other right. Unable to protect himself both ways, and likely expecting his plate mail to keep him safe, Knut was hit straight on his chest when the ants sprayed him with milky saliva.

I jogged to rejoin the girls, confident in my brother’s ability to slay the two ants, and it took me completely by surprise when Knut stopped moving and toppled backwards, falling flat onto the sands.

“Knut!” I shouted.

“Forge Anchor!”

I slammed Roq onto the ground, and Steelhusk roots rose to trap one of the two ants now chewing on Knut’s armor.

Then I swiped out Blisterbrand and called out “Hammer to the Face!”

Without waiting for the spell to load more than a second, I threw. My backup hammer hit the second ant in the face, crashing straight through its body, sending a plume of dust into the air from where it landed.

Eryn was already on the way to Knut, and had cast Warden’s Embrace on him, though what good it would do after he’d already been hit, I didn’t know. 

“These three are dead!” Nabeeh called.

“And I’ve got these,” Lan said. “Just leave them with me and don’t get in the way.”

I didn’t care. If she wanted to get struck down, then fine. I had the strength to kill these, and wanted to see what I could do to help Knut. 

“Lan!” Eryn snapped as she shot the ant I’d rooted through the head, point blank. “Get over here, now! Use your Drown spell to wash away whatever it is they sprayed on Knut. Ash, you take the ants.”

“Agreed,” I said after taking a second to calm myself, knowing she was right. “Lan, go.”

“But—” she started saying and after letting out a frustrated growl, she did as told.

“I should have thought of that myself.”

“Nah,” Roq said. “She’s the healer. Let her be the brains. With your new body you’ve got brawn for days.”

Three lines in the sand raced toward us. 

“I’m just not used to seeing him fall like that. You think he’s okay?”

“How about you let me taste one of the monsters and then I might be able to tell you, eh?” Roq said. “Kind of hard to know what that was from looks alone.”

“Fine.”

Nabeeh stepped up beside me.

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Flame Trap on the left one. I’ll deal with the two others,” I said.

She nodded, and a second later, two thirds of a bug blasted out of the ground, its plumage burning merrily.

“Resonance,” I said, and pushed the mana into Roq, making his hammering surface glow blue as it grew to be the size of his satin pillow. “Smash.”

Roq glowed golden.

The two ants burst from the ground, opening their mandibles. A tube poked out from their cheek. It had to be where they spit their liquid from, but that didn’t matter.

I was already swinging Roq in a two-handed sideways strike.

“Wheeee!” Roq cheered as I smacked him into one ant, blasting most of its body, and then striking the second, too, with the same motion.

Before they could recover, I hit them with Roq, spike first, through the brain, one after the other. 

“They are delicious! Citrusy, and kind of like an extremely bitter lemon pie, with a carapace instead of crust,” Roq said.

“What did they do to Knut?” I asked loud enough for everyone to hear, turning to see my brother lying on the ground, his torso covered in a perfect sphere of water.

“Nothing to worry about,” Roq said. “It’s just a toxin that shuts down voluntary muscle control. With his vitality, he should be fine, even if his lungs struggle a bit. Should wear off in a few minutes. Faster since Lan is kindly washing it away. Good idea, Eryn.”

“Thank you, Roq,” she said. “And are you sure of the timing?”

“With my knowledge of bipeds  and their internal organic workings and the yummy bites I just took out of these zesty bugs? About eighty percent.”

“Arclight,” I said. “You sense any more coming?”

If we were all impacted as easily as Knut had been, or caught off guard, I didn’t relish a protracted fight. It could get ugly, fast, and all of us could have turned into chum.

“Why ask her?” Roq said. “Think she knows there’s a whole colony nearby, one which we have to go destroy, or they might help the Hive Mind overrun Sentinel Station?”

“What?” we all said in unison, including Arclight.

“Exactly,” Roq said, smugly. “See? I’m just better.”