Riftside 2 - Chapter 47

The rhythmic sound of hammers slamming down on wood echoed around us from the walls of Sentinel Station. The frantic energy of the days after the siege had subsided to a more measured pace that more resembled every other ordinary day. The gate had been patched up and reinforced, and guards were helping workers install another ballista next to it. More were being erected all around the wall, and were in the opening stages. The guild had ordered a hundred ballista bolts from our smithy, but wouldn’t advance any of the money. Only pay on delivery. It was a good thing, as it allowed for Pa and Torsten to work on something else in the meanwhile, too. Even if it wasn’t much, at a hundred bolts, the amount would definitely help.

An unusual energy filled me as we waited for Edwin’s party. One where I knew that if we managed to come back alive, everything could end up being alright. 

“Are they coming or not?” Roq grumbled. “My smashing surface grows bored! Among other things.”

“They’ll be here, Roq. They didn’t even know about it two hours ago. Who knows where he had to go to find Alex.”

“Preparation is secondary to execution,” Arclight said, clearly talking to Eryn. “Observe Isaac’s methods so we may adapt and surpass him. Today.”

“Make sure to get more kills than anyone else, Ash. You need the experience points so we can become the future leader of Dawnwatch!It is a role reserved for us by birthright!” Roq said. 

I rolled my shoulders to settle the weight of my armor. Fifty mind gems split among two parties. The fate of much more than the Steel & Scale hung on a knife’s edge. The scrutiny of Corwin and the Guild. It felt heavier than any armor.

A familiar figure detached himself from the guards near the gate and jogged over. 

"Hey, Garret," I said, grateful for the scavenger’s distraction.

“Hey guys, girls,” Garret said, nodding at us. “What’s going on, Ash? Heading out on a mission?”

"Big hunt. We're going after a red-rated target. A Crystal Giant.” 

There wasn’t any point keeping it secret, as either we’d win or it wouldn’t matter if others knew where the monster was.

Garret's eyes widened slightly. 

“A red-rated giant monster? I know you guys are strong, but just the four of you?”

“No, we’re going with Edwin’s team,” I said. 

“Commander Edwin putting together a raid?" Garret asked. “Mind if I stick around and ask if I can join as a scavenger? Things are crazy slow with almost no missions going out. Hard to make progress towards my class gem when I’m perpetually stuck doing guard duty for silvers.”

"Actually, Garret," I said. "I'm leading this one."

Garret froze, his jaw slackening for a fraction of a second. Shock, then disbelief flickered across his face before settling into a grudging understanding. 

"You?" Garret finally managed. "Leading... a Red-rated hunt?"

“Yup,” I said. “And Eryn just got classed, too, so we’re all adventurers now.”

“No!” he said, looking wide eyed at Eryn. 

“Yup,” she said, flashing her pretty smile. 

“Oh, wow! Congratulations!” he said, and shook his head slowly, a wry smile touching his lips. "Portal piss. Times change, eh?" He looked among us. “Not long ago you were both half my level.”

“I’m grateful for finding a great group to support,” Eryn said, “And that they in turn took care of me.”

“Indeed,” Garret said. “Don’t get me wrong. Nina and Finn are great, but they aren’t as focused on making adventurers as I’d like. But…guess you’re the one I should ask about a scavenging spot, yeah?” 

I felt a pang of awkwardness as he turned to look at me, remembering him leading my first scavenger team. 

“Yes, but we won’t be bringing scavengers today, sorry. It's too dangerous. This is more like a mini-raid than a hunt." I clapped him lightly on the arm. "It's not the place to push your luck."

He sighed, the sound heavy with frustration. 

"Yeah, yeah, I understand." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "Damn gem. Feels like the whole world's put on hold waiting on a lucky drop while the real fights pass me by." He forced a smile. "Alright. I better get back to it then. Happy hunting, guys. Bring back something impressive." 

He gave a nod to the rest of my party and headed back towards the wall, resuming his patrol.

Eryn watched him go, her expression thoughtful. 

"Makes me grateful," she murmured, touching the bow slung across her back, covered in a cloth bag. "Being an adventurer and not having to watch from the sidelines, wondering if I’ll ever get my chance. We all know our situation is a bit different, but if you hadn’t been sweet on me, someone else might be here in my stead right now. Just shows that sometimes you need to be cute, too, not just lucky."

“Hmph. Some of us are still waiting for our chance,” Roq grumbled, the familiar complaint about his level cap surfacing. “Stuck! While lesser beings advance!”

Just then, Commander Edwin and his team stepped out from the portal and made their way over to us.

Alex offered a politesmile,  Ming gave a curt nod to Nabeeh. While Isaac smiled at Eryn and glanced at the covered bow on her back, and Rowan, hooded and silent as ever, simply just stood there and observed.

Edwin and I shook hands. 

"Alright, Ash," he said. “You faced down the Juggernaut when I got pushed out, and you’ve grown faster than any adventurer I’ve met. You’ve earned this shot in my book." he said with what looked like an honest smile.. “Besides, you know where the monster is, so you can take the lead. Lay it out for us."

I took a breath, forcing down the sudden surge of adrenaline mixed with a healthy dose of imposter syndrome. It was natural to us humans, whenever we were put in a position of power we previously didn’t have access to, or even responsibility. In all honesty, I hadn’t been looking forward to it. I was young and inexperienced compared to Edwin, but then again, we’d fought our share of battles.

Riftrot, they're all looking at me like ducklings to their mother. Don't mess this up, Pa's forge… 

"Right. Thanks, Commander." I turned to the combined group, projecting a confidence I didn't entirely feel. "Okay, listen up. Eryn and I scouted the Echoing Chasm a while back. Entrance leads down, opens into many chambers. We encountered different types of Crystalkin, both Strikers, Vanguards, and Weavers."

I quickly summarized our previous foray, including how the Strikers exploded on death, the Weavers attacking, buffing, and healing through the crystal formations , and the effectiveness of blunt force. 

"Deeper in, we found a massive chamber,” I said. “Looked to be hundreds of them milling around, though we didn’t stay around to count.” I shared a glance with Eryn. “Because at the bottom, sitting on a stone throne was a giant. It looked big enough to easily poke its head over Sentinel’s walls.”

Eryn nodded her confirmation. "The Weavers are priority targets. Their heals worked quick, and we don’t know if there’s any range to their spells through the wall crystals, though we only saw them cast spells in line-of-sight.”

Isaac spoke up. 

"Fought crystal golems out Star Peaks way once. Tough bastards. Started stocking up on blunt arrows with heavy heads after that. Blunt force, like Knut's mace or your hammer, Ash, delivered from afar.” 

“Brought Glowcaps,” Knut said, arms crossed. “Make shit go boom.”

“Excellent,” Isaac said, grinning. “If their explosions work half as well on the Giant as they did when you shoved one into the Juggernaut, Ash, this'll be easy."

"Don't jinx it, Isaac," Ming said dryly, before turning her attention to Nabeeh. “Think lightning or fire works best to cause structural failure in crystal?”

Nabeeh smiled, a hint of challenge in her eyes. 

"Fire solves any problem.”

Ming narrowed her eyes and smiled.

"One of the key things to do is to focus fireon the healers,” I said, bringing the discussion back on track. “We outlived them for now, so getting there should be easy as long as we don’t get sloppy. For the giant? We’ll have to adapt. I have no idea about its capabilities.”

“Alright,” Rowan said, the single word raspy but clear from beneath his hood. He wasn’t a man of many words, but he knew how to kill monsters.

“Boring! Let’s go and smash things already!” Roq said. “Don’t you remember how satisfying it was seeing them shatter for the first time? Just imagine the look on their faces when you smash me into the shin of that giant and it just SHATTERS! Topples over on its ugly face and then we hit the back of its skull, put me inside, and we explode the whole thing into chunks!”

“Unrealistic and inefficient,” Arclight said. “We should slay every exterior sentry before setting up the perfect kill shot. A Steel Scuttler arrow to the forehead perhaps? Maybe even pry for weak spots first and alight that perfect shot.”

“You will NOT steal this kill from me, stick thrower,” Roq said, voice low and threatening. “It is mine. I saw it first.”

“And the last thing it will see is my arrow coming right for its face,” Arclight said, not even deeming it necessary to raise her voice above his.

Right, ignore the bloodthirsty hammer and the killjoy bow. Stick to the plan. 

I looked at Edwin. 

“Anything to add?”

“The scavenger who survived the party that was wiped out by the Giant,” Edwin said. “He mentioned to Harold and I that crystal spears shot from the ground. I thought perhaps he’d come down with a case of the warrior’s heart, but hearing what you saw the Weavers do…” He shrugged. “Something to watch out for. Crystal spikes don’t have to be unique to the weavers."

"Alright," I said. “And no, they do not. Now that I think about it, what if they’re drawing their abilities from the big one? Then he might be capable of it all. And if there are other types hidden down there? A full-on attack is impossible. We will need to clear room by room and then draw groups of them out before we even attempt the attack.”

Knut grunted, gesturing vaguely towards Edwin with his mace. 

"Giant is big monster. Will need big storage."

Nabeeh caught Edwin's eye again, a playful smirk touching her lips. 

"Always practical, our Knut. Talking about big things when they’re already so apparent.”

Edwin cleared his throat but ignored her. 

"Everyone understood the plan?” he asked, unable to fully let go of his commanding role. “Stick together, communicate, focus fire. Ash has the lead." 

He gave me a final nod, one that showed me I had their trust.

***

On the way there we shared details on some of our abilities, refreshing what we knew and discovering some new things. Isaac was especially interested in Eryn’s Snipe ability and kept asking her to demonstrate. So when we finally arrived at the Echoing Chasm and we saw a Striker and a Vanguard standing at the entrance just like last time, Arclight relayed a message to me.

“My wielder asks to get the first kills, taking out the guards to show we belong with this group.”

“Sure,” Roq said.

“First off, that’s up to me. And secondly, what gives, Roq?”

“Eryn is the partner of my wielder. I will not have anyone doubt her abilities. And if she misses, perhaps she will rethink her choice in weapon,” Roq said.

Of course…why else would he go ahead with the request?

“Eryn, can you take care of the guards?” I asked, stopping at the edge of the forest, further back than we had drawn them last time.

“My pleasure,” she said and opened the bag, pulling out Arclight.

Ming gave a whistle, likely sensing a familiar lightning, or just because it looked like something worth ten thousand gold.

“By the Rift’s hairy backside!” Isaac said. “Where in the bells did you get that?” 

“Ever heard of Lysander Wilkens, the bowyer?” I asked. “Pa invited him to visit, made this from the carcass of Arclight, the lightning…monster we brought in.”

“May I…?” Isaac asked, taking an involuntary step closer.

“No,” Eryn said simply, her focus already narrowing on the distant targets. 

She drew an arrow from her quiver, one of Arclight’s own creations, forged from Steel Scuttler essence.

“Ohh, right. That was rude of me,” he said and stepped away. The archer looked crestfallen, and it was all I could not to chuckle. 

Eryn planted her feet firmly just outside the tree line and she nocked the Scuttler-forged arrow, and took a deep breath.

“Not heading closer?” Ming asked, her gaze flicking between Eryn and the distant crystalline figures guarding the cave mouth.

“Nah, I’m good here,” Eryn muttered, the dark fletching brushing her cheek as she pulled the string back. 

She held the draw, Arclight’s limbs taut, the arrow tip pointing straight at the monster. One second. Two.

Isaac frowned, rolling his thick shoulders.

The air around the arrow began to crackle as Predator’s Patience activated.

"Snipe," she murmured, the word barely audible, but I felt the shift in her stance, the utter stillness that settled over her.

Then tiny sparks of blue energy danced along the arrow and I knew she’d activated Prism Arrow.

She let the arrow fly, a dark streak against the grey rock, trailing faint blue sparks. Mid-air, it fractured into three projectiles. One continued straight, slamming into the center mass of the Crystal Striker. The other two struck the Crystal Vanguard, one high on the chest, and the other near its thick neck joint.

The Striker didn’t twitch. It simply disintegrated like a glass statue hit by a hammer. No explosion.

The Vanguard stumbled back a step from the double impact, blue lightning arcing across its crystalline plates where the arrows struck, which was likely a result of Static Arrow’s extra lightning damage.

Then it too collapsed into a pile of inert crystal shards.

Two kills, one arrow.

Just like that.

Isaac let out a low whistle, his eyes glued to Arclight. 

"Pull me backwards through the Rift... Been a long time since I saw shooting like that. Or a bow like that." He shook his head, a mix of awe and maybe a little professional envy on his face. "Splitting arrow? Lightning charge? And that power..."

Edwin grunted as he looked from the pile of shards back to Eryn. 

"Impressive, Storm Warden. Very impressive. You have both precision and power."

Ming tilted her head, observing the lingering blue sparks dissipating near the cave entrance. 

"Interesting energy signature," she commented, mostly to Nabeeh. “Clean lightning. Focused. Efficient. I like this girl even more now.”

“Hmph. Flashy,” Roq grumbled. “But effective. Good. More experience for us eventually. Now, can we get to the real smashing?”

Pride swelled in my chest as I met Eryn’s gaze, and saw the confident smile on her lips.

Yeah. She belonged  right here with me. Right here with us. Right here in the raid.

"Alright," I said. "Path's clear. Let's move. Knut, Edwin, you're on point."