by Aaron Oster
Breathing out quickly, Grace used her Expand Blows, her hands growing larger so she could get a better grip. Then, she increased her density and pulled with all her might. At first, nothing happened, and Grace just stood there, her muscles straining and face growing redder by the moment as she hauled for all she was worth.
Then, with a loud, grinding sound that set her teeth on edge, the door slowly began to open. Of course, as soon as it did, the beasts inside noticed, and a rumbling growl echoed out, bouncing off the walls and likely notifying every beast within a mile that someone was here.
Sweat beaded on her brows and back as she hauled back again, pulling the door open just a bit more. Lumia shrunk suddenly, then flashed through the crack, going to engage the beast guarding the scrolls on her own. Grace hauled back harder, the door grinding so loudly that it blocked out the sounds of fighting that had just begun from inside.
One more heave saw the door open wide enough for Nathan to slip in, and although Grace wanted nothing more than to sag to the ground in exhaustion, she released her hold and slipped into the room behind him. Of course, being much smaller and slimmer than Nathan, she more walked into the room than squeezed, but once she saw the scene unfolding within, she suddenly had a very deep desire to turn around and leave.
In her hybrid form, Lumia was tangling with a massive hairy beast that looked to be equal parts lizard, pig, and cat. It was very obviously an advanced beast, and one that was giving her some trouble. Luckily, the throne room was large enough that the blasts of fire coming from Lumia and the splashes of purple acid being projected by the beast didn’t come close to reaching her.
The other beasts in the room, however, were barely being held back by Nathan. These beasts looked like smaller, tamer versions of the larger one, which explained why the lizard-pig things hadn’t already eaten them.
“Close the door!” Nathan yelled, snapping Grace from her stupor.
Having not heard a word from him all day, it was a stark reminder of the peril they were currently in. More than that, Grace could feel the converging beasts with her Aura Sense, and seeing as she didn’t want their position to be overrun while Lumia and Nathan were tied up, she moved to close the door.
Her muscles strained once again, but this time, having abandoned all attempts at remaining stealthy, Grace used her Sound Burst to give her a little something extra. Small blasts of sound ejected from her chest, stomach, and knees as she hauled back, giving her the little extra push she needed to get the door moving again.
Pulling the door closed from this side was not easier than it had been from the other. Exhausted as she was, it was actually more difficult. The Sound Bursts helped, but not as much as she’d have liked, and by the time the horde of beasts came charging down the corridor, she’d only managed to get the door closed about halfway.
Panic began to set in as she saw the horde and began pulling harder, straining for all she was worth to pull the heavy door into place in time. If she’d been hoping that the beasts would crash into the door, slamming it the rest of the way shut, she’d have been disappointed. The beasts were far more intelligent than that, and instead of smashing into the door as she’d hoped, the lead beast came to a skidding halt, forcing those behind to do the same.
A beast looking like a mix between an oversized badger and ferret slid massive claws into the crack and began to pull back. Seeing as Grace’s strength couldn’t even hope to match that of the beast’s, she soon found herself sliding forward, kicking at the ground in hopes of keeping the door in place.
She cursed, releasing her hold on the door and using her Siren Scream, knocking the beast back but not really doing any damage. She lunged, seizing ahold of the ring and hauling back on it once more. It felt like the muscles in her arms and shoulders were at the breaking point, and Grace began to scream as she pulled on the door for all she was worth.
A single claw slid through, slicing into her leg and causing her to cry out in pain. She stumbled, dropping to the ground as blood welled up from the wound. Another claw slid in, and, cursing to herself, Grace leaped back to her feet, kicking down at the claws and using her Sound Burst.
They gouged deep into the stone, and using her Expand Blows, she lashed out, punching the door with all her might. Her increased density stopped her from breaking the bones in her fingers, and with the claws out of the way, the door finally slammed shut.
44
Grace turned, placing her back to the door and sliding to the ground, panting hard, and her gaze blurred with a combination of sweat and pain as she watched the remaining battle unfold.
Lumia flapped around the beast, tearing massive gashes in its sides and burning its hide with bursts of crimson fire. The beast had managed to damage her as well, burning several patches of her scales off using its powerful acid.
Nathan wasn’t having an easy time of it, tangling with eight beasts, and although several of them lay dead, his injuries were beginning to accumulate.
Grace clicked her tongue, using what little remained of her RP to use one last Echolocation. The soundwaves bounced throughout the room, giving her a detailed layout of the area and showing her the location of the items they’d come for. Knowing what she had to do, Grace forced herself to her feet, wincing in pain as more blood pumped from her wounded leg.
She’d endured pain in her training and knew that as far as they’d come, they could not afford to fail now. Not when they were so close to their goal.
Half limping, half jogging, Grace made her way around the room, skirting the battle as best she could and hoping that she didn’t become a victim of a rogue shot. In a battle like this, she would stand little chance of survival, which ate her up from the inside.
Despite the knowledge that she’d only started a few months ago, it still bothered her that she was so weak relative to the people around her. Morgan had assured her many times that she was probably the strongest fourteen-year-old alive, but right now, that wasn’t good enough. If she were going to be useful to her Kingdom and her friends, she couldn’t merely be the strongest for her age. She had to be the strongest, period.
She stumbled over a fallen piece of rubble and fell, skinning her palms on the tough stone. Normally, this fall might have jarred her – maybe left a bruise – but in her exhausted state, her body’s defenses just weren’t up to the task of protecting her.
Wincing at the pain, she stumbled back to her feet, then winced again as the beast Lumia was fighting let out a squeal of pain. A moment later, the wall to her left exploded in a shower of rubble and dust, sending her stumbling forward.
She turned in alarm to see Lumia pulling herself from the wall, a massive ball of purple fire forming between her palms. Despite the fight she was still putting up, she could tell that the drake was having a tough time. In a confined space like this, and having to keep her smaller form for maneuverability, taking on a beast like this was a tall order.
Grace had no clue what Morgan was thinking, leaving a beast this strong for Nathan and his garrison to take down. But, if she managed to reach the hidden chest, they wouldn’t need to.
Bracing herself, Grace began running toward the dais where the throne had once been. There, buried beneath a slab of stone, was a chest containing several dozen portal scrolls. It was the reason they’d come here in the first place. The lifeline for Katherine and the others trapped with her in the bunker and a way to prevent a war.
A snarling beast broke away from Nathan right as she reached the dais, and Grace turned as the creature bore down on her. She had barely regenerated enough RP to use a single skill, so she had to make it count. When the beast leaped at her, she extended both hands and used Siren Scream.
Her muscles vibrated, and the soundwave blasted out of her palms, slamming into the creature and hurling it back through the air. Had it been on the ground, she might only have succeeded in knocking it back a few feet, but airborne as it had been, there had been nothing for it to brace itself against.
The a
ttack would probably do little to no damage, but it gave Grace exactly what she needed in that moment — time.
Stumbling up the stairs, she fell to her knees and wedged her fingers beneath the stone slab. Then, with a mighty heavy, Grace hauled it back to reveal a wooden chest. Reaching in, she dragged the chest out of the hole, flipping open the latch and fumbling one of the scrolls free.
It felt like it took forever to get it open, pull the stopper from the small vial wrapped within, and pour the liquid mana onto the scroll. A portal flared to life before her, and Grace staggered to her feet, making sure to get a good grip on the handle of the chest.
“Run!” she screamed, then ran through the portal, dragging the heavy chest behind her.
She exited a moment later, finding herself back in City Six, in the office that Naff had been using while he’d been stationed there.
Tai looked up in surprise at seeing her come through. She’d been sitting in Nathan’s chair, her legs kicked up on his desk and picking at her nails with a knife. Before she could remove them, Nathan stumbled through, bloodstained and battered but still alive. Lumia was right on his tail, and the portal slammed shut behind her.
However, it didn’t close before a line of acid managed to burn a furrow in the ground, splitting Nathan’s desk in half and leaving Tai to stare down between her legs, at the spot where the acid had stopped not two inches from her.
“Okay,” she said, looking up at the exhausted and blood-soaked group. “Someone is going to have to tell me what I missed out on!”
“Sure,” Grace said, giving her a bloody grin – she’d smacked her lip on the edge of the chest when she’d stumbled in. “So long as you gather up the men. We have a mission to finish, and the hard part is over.”
“I think you mean we have a mission to finish,” Nathan said, straightening to his full height and moving over to his destroyed desk. “You are not coming with us.”
“Like hell, I’m not!” Grace snapped. “We only managed to get through this entire thing, thanks to me!”
“Of that, there is no doubt,” Nathan said, kicking Tai out of his chair and bending down to fish some bandages from his desk. “But this battle is not one in which you can offer any help. You’d just get in the way.”
Grace opened her mouth to retort when Lumia unexpectedly came to Nathan’s defense.
“He’s right,” the drake said, already having shrunken down to her smaller size. “We saw how strong the enemy forces were, and although your skills were invaluable in retrieving the scrolls, going into a battle like this would be foolish at best.”
“But… but…” Grace stuttered, trying to find some rational reason to allow her to go along.
“The drake is right,” Nathan said. “You were invaluable in our mission to retrieve the scrolls. Now, lay down, rest, and allow us to do what we do best.”
“What he said,” Tai said with a grin.
“What the hell are you still doing here?!” Nathan snapped at her. “Go gather the men, now!”
Tai jumped, gave a clumsy salute, then vanished from the room so quickly that one had to wonder if she were secretly hiding a teleportation skill of her own. For all Grace knew, she was, but she wasn’t about to ask.
“I want to be there,” she said stubbornly, crossing her arms and glaring at Nathan.
The commander just shook his head and let out a sound of disgust.
“Fine!” he snapped. “But if I catch you anywhere near the battle, we’re going to have words when this is over!”
“So long as I can come,” Grace said, hiding a triumphant grin. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to go fix my hair. Where can I find a pail of water and a mirror?”
Nathan blinked, a mixture of shock and disbelief written on his face.
“Ignore him,” Tai said, appearing at her side from nowhere. “Men don’t understand the time and effort it takes to look good.”
“What the hell are you still doing here?!” Nathan roared again.
“Relax,” Tai said, waving him off. “The troops are gathering in the square. They’ll be ready to move in ten. I know that won’t be enough time to fix your hair, but I’m sure you can make it look better than it does now.”
Grace gave the woman a grateful nod, and together, they left the room, leaving an extremely baffled and clearly aggravated Nathan to stare after them.
45
Morning found Morgan running along at a steady clip, his feet pounding rhythmically over the hard-packed ground as he made his way toward the ring of volcanos on the horizon. He wouldn’t reach his destination for many hours yet, but seeing them put his mind at ease. He still had no idea whether what the old troll had said was true, but at the moment, he had to believe it was. If it weren’t, there would be no time for him to try finding the correct location on his own.
Despite having eaten a meal just a few hours ago, he found that he was once again hungry, his stomach beginning to rumble and cry out for food.
He knew why, as running was far more taxing on his body and reserves than flying, and while he debated taking a small detour to a nearby town, he decided that he simply didn’t have the time.
“Have you noticed it yet?” Sarah asked unexpectedly.
“Noticed what?” Morgan asked.
It seemed that every time she was able to, she spoke. Trying to calculate the time between when she spoke with him had proven ineffective. There didn’t seem to be any uniform amount of time, so all he could do was wait for her to speak.
“Your senses,” Sarah said, and he could hear the grin in her voice. “They’re getting better.”
“What do you…?” he began to ask, only for the realization to hit him like a ton of bricks. “You mean last night and now!” he exclaimed.
Sarah didn’t reply, but she didn’t have to for him to understand. He was so used to having his senses open and constantly being able to feel things that he hadn’t even thought twice when his initial scan of the gnome’s garrison camp had actually worked. He’d been able to tell how many figures were on the wall as well, and now, he could sense the presence of a nearby town, despite the heavy reiki in the air.
It wasn’t as clear as it normally was back home. Instead, it was like looking at the gathered forces through a film. But, where he had felt near-constant pain when attempting this before, now he barely felt anything, which made him wonder. Was he getting stronger, or had the gnomes somehow managed to lessen the flow of reiki in their lands?
Whatever it was, he would definitely try and find out, though right now, he needed to concentrate on pushing his growing hunger down and remaining focused on the task at hand.
He ran through the early morning and afternoon, stopping only for a few minutes to stretch and rehydrate at a small well – the entire countryside seemed to be dotted with dozens of them.
The Arcane Kingdom wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting, although, seeing as he’d never been there before, there wasn’t really much for him to expect in the first place. For some reason, he’d pictured it as being full of stone and developed as far as the eye could see. Instead, it seemed to be made up of vast swaths of grasslands, though there was nary a tree nor stream in sight. Perhaps that was why there was such an abundance of wells, to assure that travelers always had somewhere to rehydrate.
One thing he noticed was that the further in he traveled, the warmer it became. Weather in the Brutal Bayou had fluctuated, with days that were relatively warm and humid and nights that were on the chillier side. Here, the days and night had been much the same — warm at all times.
He inhaled deeply in the midafternoon and finally smelled something a bit different, something that showed how close he truly was to his destination. Of course, actually seeing the fire mountains grow larger as the day progressed was more than enough, but the stench of rotting eggs truly signified his arrival like nothing else could.
It was early evening when Morgan began his run up the side of the nearest volcano. Surprisingly enough, t
he air began to cool as he climbed, so by the time he reached the lip of the crater, it was almost pleasant. Despite what he’d been expecting at the top, Morgan was surprised to find the volcano dormant.
The crater was sealed over with layer upon layer of solid stone, and from where he stood, staring out over the boiling lake, he could tell that none of the others seemed to be active either.
Steam rose high into the air, and he could see small bubbles popping on its surface. The air was rife with the stench of sulfur, and as he squinted, he could just make out the outline of the volcano in which the third Well was supposedly located.
Descending on the opposite side of the volcano, Morgan reached level ground within a few minutes. He accomplished this by leaping off the tallest cliffs he could and taking the landings. Falling no longer had any effect on him, it seemed, as the planet’s gravity could only pull him down so hard, and his body was now at the point where it was tough enough to survive the landing.
The air began to heat up as he dropped, so by the time he finally made it to ground level, both the moisture and heat had risen to the point where it was clinging to his skin. Of course, Morgan barely noticed it, but the steamy air was beginning to seep into his clothes.
He began to walk along the shore of the boiling lake, looking for some way across. He could sense something different from the center of the lake, from the volcano itself, right at the peak. He wasn’t sure how he knew, as he couldn’t see any thickening of the reiki in the air, but yet he still somehow knew.
After just a few minutes of walking, Morgan could tell that the likelihood of finding a path to the volcano was probably slim at best. So, letting out a long sigh, he did the only thing he could and dove into the boiling lake. As soon as he hit the water, Morgan began to sweat, which was saying something.
The water was so hot that he could feel the heat, which made him wonder just how hot it was. If the water was at the point where it was hot enough for him to notice, it should have been impossible for it to maintain its liquid form. Unless… it isn’t water, he realized.
