“That could be why then,” I offered. That was some deep meta gaming though. Fuck.
“I got the axe proficiency, though. That extra point will hold until I level up some more, right?” Fainnir looked a little worried.
“It makes sense that it would because you met the prerequisite to keep it,” Yohsuke explained. “Next time you level, you’ll likely be able to pump it up to second level and get a weapon ability as well. Those can be pretty useful.”
“Thank ye!” He looked happy, and it made me smile. He was getting his wish, alright.
“Why don’t you sit and see if there’s anything new about your class, any spells or abilities you may have gained while Zeke and Balmur go check the area for hidden chambers?” Yohsuke winked at the smiling Fainnir, who nodded and began navigating again. “Muu, I want you skinning these wolves while they’re gone. This time I want you to do it as quickly as possible. When Fainnir is done, he can help you.”
Muu grunted and offered a half-assed salute that James playfully kicked him for.
Balmur nodded to me and we made our way around the room with little trouble. There was a tree that caught my attention, the bark of it was really nice, and the leaves made noise as a slight breeze ruffled the branches.
And before you ask—yes. There’s a breeze down here. I couldn’t tell you why, but each individual floor felt more and more like it was its own ecosystem or world. All the elements were here, hell the rooms were even well-lit thanks to the lichen that grew on the roof, providing light that was a shade off from natural sunlight. I wanted to collect some, but I didn’t know if it was possible.
Yo, Bokaj. Come check this tree out, man. I called through our earrings; his woodworking craft might assist him in identifying the wood for us.
Where you at? He returned. Looking around, this portion of the room was as much the same as the rest of the room, and I didn’t really know.
I marked it on the map for you, Balmur replied and turned to me with a smile. “A simple spell that Nic taught me. See, since it’s not attached to a quest, it would normally be hard to do things like that. But, with this spell, so long as someone is in the same party as you, you can share locations on your map with them.”
“That’s fucking sick, man.” I had to look surprised because, in no small way, I was. “We might need to see if there are ways to make a combat application for that spell.”
A moment later, Tmont and Bokaj worked their way through the bushes to our location.
“Huh.” The woodworking ranger began looking over the tree in ways I wasn’t even sure why. “Well, it does look weird. I won’t know what it is until I cut it down and work with it for a bit. Let me go see if I can get ol’ Jaken to help me chop this bad boy down while you guys keep looking.”
I shook my head and called Fainnir to us, and when he joined us, I told him, “Watch how I do this.”
He nodded enthusiastically, then I turned to my work. I spread my feet wide at shoulder’s length apart and brought Magus Bane into my hands, then brought it behind my shoulder like a batter at the plate. I swung the bat and activated Cleave as metal met the wood, and the chop sank deeply into the tree. Two more strikes with all my strength saw the tree felled and I turned to see an awestruck Fainnir marveling at me.
“It’s all in the hips,” I nodded to him, and he mouthed the words reverently and took his own axe out to begin training. I snorted then turned back to a grinning Balmur.
Balmur and I nodded and went back onto our trail. While we walked, I had something to say to the other man that I needed to talk about.
“You know, Balmur, we went through a lot to get you back, man, and though I may have said at some points that I was glad to have you back, that doesn’t quite cut it.” He was quiet, looking ahead as we moved, but he didn’t look uncomfortable or anything, so I continued, “I’m excited to have you here. And I’m happy that we were able to get to you. I just wish it had been sooner. We all do.”
“I know that, because I wish you had as well,” Balmur’s soft voice took on a jaded edge that was gone just as quickly as it had come. “The only things that kept me strong in there were my memories of home and my fiancée, my Gatsby, magic, and the hope that you guys were coming. That last one waned at times, I won’t lie to you about that. There were times I wanted to die, but when they came close, I would think about you all and how I needed to be there for the team.”
I nodded. There were times I had those same thoughts, though they hadn’t saved me from the things that he had gone through.
“They would torture me for hours a day,” he added quietly. “Hours on end and they would laugh while they did it.”
I glanced over next to him and saw that his left eye was starting to pale a little and lose its coloring. “Not to be rude, but is it time to feed your eye again?”
He blinked and nodded, reaching for his jar of…snackrifices to the eye. He pulled one of the specimen’s out and held it by the optic nerve in front of his left eye. A spectral set of jaws leapt out of it, and the eye was gone. His eye’s color returning even though he grimaced and began to sweat a bit uncomfortably. He took a moment to collect himself, and I stood by in silence as he paid his price.
“Thank you.” He glanced left and right before we continued on. “It was hard.”
“No doubt,” I put a hand on his shoulder and spoke softly. “You know, you can leave the hard things to us for a while, right?”
“I know.” He smiled up at me, and I let my hand fall away. “It helps. Being in the thick of things at times. Distracts me, like the magic I’m mastering does. Though, I didn’t know that the gods would send someone to replace me so soon after I was gone.”
I halted us in the grass for a moment in shock, “That’s not what happened, man. Muu coming was always meant to happen, but he got home and crashed later than the rest of us did. I swear.”
He dismissed the notification that my oath had given him. “Then that’s what it was. I don’t not like him, you know, Muu? He’s fun to be around, and more than a little crazy. I kept that thought to myself because in my heart I knew it wasn’t his fault, but I still couldn’t shake the fact that it just felt like maybe…I’d been replaced? Like someone had counted me, out and I had no say, y’know?”
“I can’t possibly know.” I shook my head, a little bit of defeat and guilt settling on my chest. “I wasn’t there with you. But if you ever want to talk about it, I’ll listen. We all would. And I know that with us pushing him to get stronger faster, Muu took a lot of our shit in stride, especially from Bokaj. We weren’t going to give up on you.”
I looked over at him. A soft tongue of air rustled his black and purple beard, and a single tear fell from his good eye.
“We never will,” I added quietly, I worried for a second that he hadn’t heard, but he nodded and whipped his arm across his cheek, and the evidence of our moment together was lost.
We took our time, and twenty minutes later finished the room. Other than that one tree, there was nothing else in the place of note.
We returned to the others and reported in. I was happy to hear that Fainnir had a new ability.
“Earth Shards, lets the caster throw a small spike of earth at a target that will shatter on impact.” Fainnir read aloud. “It has a much smaller mana cost than me Earthen Spears, and it will be a good replacement when all me daggers be spent!”
“You try it yet?” He shook his head, so I pointed to a tree and ordered, “Cast the spell then, Fainnir. Let’s see what you got.”
He took a steadying breath and cast his spell, his hand whipping forward and the shard thudding into the ground two feet in front of him, shattering like broken glass.
“You have to focus on the shard coming from your hand and treating it like a throwing knife,” I stepped over and cast Winter’s Blade as I swept my hand out and launched the sword-like spell of ice into the tree where it burst apart a heartbeat later. The tree was hurt, so I cast Regrowth on it. The wood
repaired instantly, and the bark did too. It also seemed to grow a little healthier from my Druidic touch. Cool.
Fainnir closed his eyes and cast the spell once more. It didn’t quite hit the tree, but it was much closer.
“We can work on that, but that doesn’t mean that you forget about the rest of the tools you have, hear me?” I wagged my finger at him menacingly. “You use those knives when you need to conserve mana, and you have your axe.”
“Yessir!” The dwarf gave me a smart little salute, and I growled at the others behind me.
“Who the fuck taught him that?” The others just grinned back and pointed at Fainnir.
“I learned that some of ye were in a thing called the ‘Marines’ from Uncle James, and when Muu did that, it seemed like a weird salute, but it be meanin’ respect, right?”
I floundered for a moment, trying to find the right words to say when Yohsuke interrupted, “In a way, yeah. The way you meant it conveyed respect and agreement to the order given to you, but Muu? Not so much. You can do it sarcastically too. Better to do it sparingly, right?”
Fainnir looked around in wonder, “S’complicated.”
I snorted and muttered, “Yeah, it is, kid. Yeah, it is. Let’s go see what else is going on with this plot.”
Fainnir looked worried. “Ain’t no one here be plottin’ on me uncle, aye?!”
The others howled with laughter, and Muu ushered Fainnir aside as we moved toward the boss room of the floor. I heard a bewildered, “ooooh,” and Fainnir was quiet once more.
Once we were inside the room, the door slammed shut behind us, and the light above us grew silvery in color, casting a bright light over the cave-like walls and a slumbering figure the size of an SUV in the center of the room.
What was the saying? Let sleeping bears lie? Bokaj offered as we stared at the snoring creature.
I blinked, oh no. What had that fool just begun?
Well, this is going to be a grizzly situation. Muu snorted at his own joke.
I smacked his arm lightly. You forgot to paws for effect.
“Would you three stupid assholes shut up?” Yohsuke asked out loud, making the bear snort and sniff a little.
“Uh oh, he’s waking up, Fainnir bear your arms!” Muu cackled as the others groaned audibly.
Ursula the Bear level 7
“This is seriously an unbearable time for this kind of humor,” I shot back and whistled as the creature stood to his full height. “Dicks, Fainnir may not be koala-fied for this fight.”
“Bear with me!” Fainnir surprised us all and cast Earthen Spear in unison with Pebble, goring the beast's front two paws in a single strike.
It roared in rage, and red coated his body, prompting Fainnir to yell, “Bea, run distraction!”
She gave a little barking hiss at me after I had given my mental order for her to obey him and ran through the bear’s legs. It tried to reach down for her and through his legs, tottering precariously.
“Oh look, a yogi bear.” Muu howled with laughter, and Jaken snorted.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” James said, working himself in, “But this could get uglier than Zeke. We need to pay attention.”
“You’re right.” I tried to stop giggling enough to take a full breath that didn’t hurt my aching sides. “You’re right. We really need to stick our claws into this situation and get straight to the honey here.”
“Oh, that was lame.” Muu slapped my arm.
“No need to be so polar about it,” Balmur interrupted and sent the two of us into a laughing fit that saw us on our asses. A blast of frozen air washed over both of us, I glanced back and found Maebe staring coldly down at us.
“Ope.” Muu and I both stood and coughed into our hands. I released a trickle of flame aspected mana into the air to warm everything. I offered a hand to Muu in front of my body. “Put’er there, boo-boo.”
“Sure thing, Yogi.” He grinned. “No pic-a-nic jokes, though. Otherwise, our ranger may have to try and arrest you.”
We had been distracted enough that Fainnir’s implementing his own plan had flown under the radar. There were spiked traps all over the floor from Pebble, and Fainnir threw his knives at the bear’s head to distract it. Bea launched herself off a back wall and landed on the bear’s shoulder. She dug her envenomed claws in and passed poison into him, but it did next to nothing. The bear reached up and flicked her off his shoulder, and she careened toward the wall.
I cast Renewing Flames on her and watched the damage pile on. The regen was enough to keep her from being incapacitated, but she was severely shaken and dazed. I cast Regrowth on her just to be safe, and her health climbed up. I turned my gaze back to Fainnir. He had run out of his throwing knives and was now on his axe.
“Fainnir, one well-placed shot can ruin an enemy,” Yohsuke called out. “Think of a place that will do the most damage or make it so that your opponent will do what you want them to.”
The line of Fainnir’s body went rigid as the new information was presented to him. He reached up and pulled his cowl forward and moved as cautiously as he dared.
The bear, having realized that his opponent was gone, glowed a deeper red, and it roared in the direction it had last seen Fainnir. The dwarf’s form froze, and I thought he had been feared, and I might have to step in, but I waited. The bear crashed back down onto all fours, the pain seeming to be dulled, and Pebble waved his arms in front of him to try and get his attention.
That didn’t work, the bear scented the air, and the great head turned slowly in Fainnir’s direction from only ten paces away. The cloak’s hood fell from a blast of hot breath as the bear caught the dwarf’s scent, his eyes growing wide in glee. Then Fainnir’s hand was in motion, arm moving like a pitcher’s in a major league game. A single Earth Shard flashed forward in the pale light and hit the bear’s snout.
Some of us groaned audibly, but the stone shrapnel from the spell flew in all directions, including the beast’s eyes.
It reared and called out in pain, blood flowing freely from the wounds. Fainnir and Pebble both bolted forward. Pebble’s arm shifted and turned into a spike that he thrust into the side of the bear’s knee savagely, and Fainnir’s axe flashed twice from behind the other leg near the hamstring. The bear crashed down onto the ground, and suddenly, I knew Bea was coming for him. Her call was deceptive, from more than twenty feet away, the bear’s paws left its face to slash at the air in her direction, but she had used her ability to leap off the air and into the space above it. She attacked the back of the bear’s neck savagely, latching on with her fangs as tightly as she could and shredding with her legs and foreclaws. A keening, whining growl tore from her throat as she shook her head and yanked to and fro.
The bear tried in vain to reach up and rid himself of the nuisance on his back but failed. And fell after Pebble and Fainnir really went to town on his legs.
Finally, the bear tried to drag itself forward, snuffing and growling as it swung its paws back and forth.
“End it, Fainnir. However you have to,” Bokaj called to the dwarf.
“Ye fought well, Mister Bear!” Fainnir shouted, and the bear turned toward him. “Die well!”
Rather than going for the kill himself, he had opened up a path for Pebble to spring forward and crash into the bear’s right eye with his morphed arm.
One final roar of agony echoed throughout the cave-like room and then silence. I watched, pride blooming in my chest, as Fainnir knelt next to the bear’s head and said a soft word. I heard it, the small prayer to Fainne that this creature’s end of his walk along the Way had been truly worthwhile. That it had fought well and had earned a place on the Mountain.
As he stood, all of us nodded to him, Maebe taking it on herself to say, “Congratulations, nephew. You have grown swiftly. Continue this growth, and you will soon surpass what limits you think you have.”
Fainnir looked proud, but sort of deflated, and he used his hand to sop up the blood for the door. As he began
to pass me, I reached out and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “This feeling of loss, this hurt you feel at having to bring this creature down—never forget it. It never gets easier. There will be times when you feel your heart hardening to death, and that you may be more comfortable with it. Don’t. Let. It. Seriously, let it pass through you as you experience it, and don’t dwell, but don’t let it consume you either.”
He frowned and sniffed, before nodding. “Aye.”
I turned back in time to see Bea take a running leap for the spot that Muu had just cleared as he cleaned the pelt from the meat.
“God damn it!” I shouted, “Another one? At least let one of us help you, fuck.”
She growled as I joined her, but I just tossed her away from the hole and clawed my way through the meat of the corpse. The squelching, hot mess of it was loud as hell, and I worked my way well up to my shoulder and a little beyond before feeling something solid clinking against my nail.
“The things I do for you familiars.” I snarled and dug a little deeper into the beast’s carcass. I grasped the item and yanked it as hard as I could.
The squat, hard crystal came free with one final gout of blood and viscera to which I heard Fainnir retch.
“Is this what you want, you greedy thing?” I glared down at Bea, and she eyed the crystal hungrily, licking her lips and clicking her teeth loudly.
“Fine, here.” I tossed it down into her wide-open gullet, and she swallowed it happily.
ALERT!
Your familiar has found and consumed a monster crystal. This has resulted in there being a mutation to her abilities.
Ursine Power – The consumer of this crystal gains no added ability, but rather ability points to strength and constitution in exchange for a slight decrease in dexterity.
+3 strength, +4 constitution, -2 dexterity.
Do you accept? Yes? / No?
Oh man, that was actually a pretty decent trade, considering. But I figured I would ask her, “You okay with that, Bea?”
She chirped and gnashed her teeth happily and began to lap the blood on the ground, bits of gore and meat being gobbled up too.
Into the Darkness: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Axe Druid Book 4) Page 40