by Kaden Reed
Marveling at the size of the thing, I wondered at how it thought it could have ever navigated the passageways. Crouched on all fours it was still nearly ten feet tall. I couldn’t tell how long it was from this vantage point, but I knew I didn’t want to find out the answer to that question.
“By the Dungeons,” Niko’s voice trailed off.
“How do we fight such a thing?” Marty spoke up from behind me.
“The same way we fought everything else,” Jax spoke in a confident tone.
“Glaz and Niko, you occupy it as best you can,” Harper started barking orders, “Bog, Jax, Akira, and Afton, you get in there and make sure that bastard dies screaming.”
Akira dressed in form fitting unadorned black leather, hissed, baring her fangs, “if it is a worthy opponent, I will make my Sorah from its hide.”
“Marty and I will keep you all alive,” Harper finished.
Everyone started psyching themselves up. A chorus of, “we got this,” banging weapons on shields, nods and fist bumps went through the Fist.
“Let’s go,” Jax called.
Glazmir charged into the room howling a wordless battle cry. I watched the brown mana engulf the creature and see it squint at the diminutive dwarf, as if it was having a difficult time deciding if he needed to actually take this threat seriously.
Niko followed on his heels, yelling her own cry, black mana sprang up around the twin blades of her ax. Running up to the beast, she slammed the blade of her ax into one of the creature’s front limbs.
Grunting in discomfort, the bear shifted its weight and casually batted Niko aside to send her tumbling several yards away. In my mana sight, I watched as a thin stream of black mana flew from the minor wound on the bears leg and enter Niko’s core.
Several arrows flew past me as I ran into the room. All striking the monster’s face in rapid succession, but most of them rebounded off without breaking the skin.
“Our attacks are having little effect!” I yelled at the group as I skirted the fringes of combat, trying to close in on its flank. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Akira mirroring me on the other side of the room.
Several more arrows flew in from the hallway, two glowing a faint green. The mana imbued arrows struck the bear and sank deeply, yelling over the bellow of the monster, “Bog, the mana shots worked! Focus on that and go for its eyes!”
The bear plodded forward at Glazmir. I winced as he raised his shield to block the incoming strike, stamping his foot just prior to contact, brown mana engulfed him. Expecting him to get smashed to paste, I was surprised when the strike impacted his shield and he went skidding instead.
Shaking his head inside his helmet, “now that be a blow!”
Extending my mana blades to their full length in preparation, which was almost a foot and a half since I was upgraded. Akira and I darted in on the bear’s vulnerable flanks. I went low, stabbing upwards into the gut while Akira leaped onto the creature and began to climb.
Roaring furiously as I slid my blades in deeply and tore at the creature. I found that the thick hide was difficult for my blades to cut. Surprised, I assumed that the increased defense was likely due to the amount of affinities this creature had, since this was my first time facing something with three.
By the time I darted back out of reach before the thing had time to reorient itself, I had only made two parallel gashes, maybe a couple of feet long. It isn’t enough, but at least I can hurt it.
Akira, forgotten as it focused on me as its new primary threat, climbed onto the creature’s neck and held on to the fur on its head as it swung itself around.
Two more arrows whizzed out of the hallway and buried themselves in the thing’s side. The bear seemed to pay as much attention to the arrows as it would to an annoying fly.
“You better run lad!” Glazmir yelled at me.
The thing was starting to slowly gain speed as it walked towards me, which gradually became a ponderous jog.
Agreeing with the dwarf, I turned and started shuffling away, intending to keep baiting it while my teammates hammered away.
The blue glow of a spell from the hallway signified that Jax had finally joined the fight. I glanced at it using my upgraded mana sight that allowed me to see what affinities were blended. Looking closely, I was able to see traces of red in the spell, which I thought might be a fireball. My theory was confirmed a second later when it impacted the side of the bear, engulfing it in flames.
A howl of pain echoed inside the confines of the gray stone room. It was accompanied shortly by billowing clouds of smoke and the smell of roasted meat.
The bear, in obvious confusion about who to attack first, rocked back and forth on its haunches. Finally making a decision, it lumbered in the direction of Jax.
Hoping to go unnoticed, I slipped to the side of the creature that was bathed in flames. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Niko starting to get back to her feet, hefting her battle ax and assessing the situation.
Akira, still riding the monster, chose that moment to climb onto its head and stab at one of its eyes.
Roaring in pain, it shook its head violently, trying to dislodge the white furred Shokari. Digging in her claws, she hissed ferociously as she held on.
Making up its mind, the bear jumped and slammed its head into the ceiling above. Not understanding the predicament, she was in until it was too late, Akira tried to roll out of the way, but only managed to dodge a portion of the crushing impact.
Her pelvis and the right half of her chest shattered under the tremendous force. Falling limply to the ground in front of the enraged monster, it put its front paws out and dropped all of its weight onto the still form of Akira, stomping her into the floor.
“Damn it!” Harper called from the hallway, “Niko! Glaz! Get back in there and distract that thing.”
Both of the front-line combatants waded grimly back into range with the thing. Noticing their approach, it focused on them with pure hatred evident in its gaze.
Realizing that the flames were running out of fur to burn and were dwindling, I knew that I had to act fast if I wanted to remain obscured by the billowing smoke.
Seeing another opening, I darted in to try to disable it before the monster reached Niko and Glaz. I opened my arms wide and smashed them together on one of its hind legs, attempting to cut through muscle, tendon and even bone if I could manage it.
Again, my strikes met with a lot of resistance, pushing with all of my strength, I was only able to open a gash less than six inches deep by the time the monster kicked out reflexively. Catching me on my left arm, it spun me around and sent me sprawling to land dazedly on the ground.
I could hear a howl of pain coming from somewhere behind me as I lay face down, trying to catch the breath that was knocked out of me. Attempting to rise, I found that my left arm wasn’t responding to my call. Rolling onto my right side, I quickly saw that Bog and Jax were still in the fight. I could make out the form of several more arrows and about a dozen tiny balls of blue mana with black flecks in its pattern, speeding towards the roaring monster.
The arrows, glowing a faint green, went unnoticed by the monster as they buried themselves in a loose circular pattern into the thing’s chest. Green mana pulsing in rapid succession, I could see its muscles flex and spasm. The beast began stumbling like it was having immense difficulty controlling its front limbs.
The balls of mana cast by Jax slammed into the bear. Each burrowing into its flesh a couple of inches to burst in a flare of black mana. Where the mana touched, I watched as the skin seemed to rapidly turn necrotic. Within moments, thick viscous puss leaked from a dozen places on the creature’s side.
Pushing myself back to my feet, I saw a swirling of blue mana with red and green spirals take shape inside the bear’s throat.
I called out a warning but the howl of rage as it advanced on Glazmir and Niko drowned me out. I watched in horror as a great gout of flame erupted from its open maw, engulfing both of the melee fighters
in its path. The fiery torrent seemed to go on forever, lasting far longer than it should have. Adding to the destruction, small fire tornadoes careened off of the inferno in several directions.
Noticing that one was headed towards me, I lurched off in the opposite direction. As the vortex was gaining on me steadily, I gave thanks to whichever healer chose that moment to hit me with their spell. Within moments I was running back at full speed and curved in a sharp arc, back towards the fight.
Nothing was left of the two fighters but charred remains and a few scattered bits of blackened armor. The bear sniffed over the corpses and, deciding there wasn’t enough to chew on, ambled past. Heading in the direction of the entrance to the hallway the rest of the group was hunkering down in.
As I circled around behind the monster, I found the wound that I had started on its hind leg. Darting in, I channeled all of my rage as I started sawing at it again, hoping that I could finish the job this time and give my team a chance at survival. Vigorously cutting at the leg, I was showered with small bits of meat and blood. Finally, with an audible snap, the muscles and tendons gave way. The muscles visibly bunching up on itself, creating a large hillock higher on its thigh.
Bellowing, its leg suddenly unresponsive and no longer able to hold up that portion of its weight, its body started to roll in my direction.
Managing to recognize that I was in between it and the floor, I jumped and tucked into a desperate roll. Barely clearing the danger as it crashed to the ground.
Sliding to a stop several feet away, I watched it floundered and growl at the air in frustration. Slowly it seemed to pull itself together as it focused on the surviving members of the Fist in the passageway.
With determination, it began hobbling on its remaining legs. Heading straight for Jax and the others, it let out a menacing growl of undeniable fury.
Shaking my head in dismay at the fortitude of this thing, I readied myself to attack again.
From across the room, a sing-song voice that I had heard before cut through the din of combat. In stark contrast to the bestial scene before me, the tonal quality of the unexpected music seemed to shimmer in the air.
Abruptly, lightning arced across the open room from the opposite end of the passageway to strike the bear directly in its head.
Stunned and twitching, streams of smoke could be seen rising from its now ruined face. A loud hiss echoed within the room and I saw a silver sword flash on the other side of the creature. Several blows later, a great gash was opened on the bear’s neck.
In my mana sight, I could see a black aura dance with surprising agility atop the prone monster. It stopped above its sightless eyes and slammed down on the skull. With a loud crack, Shino was revealed with one of his daggers buried into the skull of the bear.
Under the onslaught the beast spasmed several times then went still.
“How about that Dhurin?” the melodious voice called from behind the heap of still flesh.
An unsatisfied grunt answered him.
“Come on now,” a familiar short and stocky Shokari walked from behind the corpse and glowing A7 sprang up next to him. The shaggy gray fur with gold and black streaks marked him as Amani. The brown robe pulled up just enough to shade his face, “it was near enough to dead.”
“You said you would kill it in one blow,” the white and black furred Shokari answered. Banded ring mail that covered his entire body and the katana clutched in his hands indicated he was Dhurin, the leader of the Trinity, “it wasn’t dead.” An A8 popped into existence next to his core when I focused on it.
Amani made a rude sound and brandished his staff, “I think it was dead, or at least on its way to being dead. You two just didn’t have enough patience to allow me my victory,” he sighed theatrically.
Dhurin looked at Shino as he jumped down from on top of the monster, “what do you think?”
An A3 next to Shino’s core as he wiped his blade on the fur of the bear. Straightening he looked directly at Amani, “it wasn’t dead.”
Waving his hands in the air, “fine, fine!”
Mesmerized by the Trinity before me, I slowly walked over to them, but kept a respectful distance. These were the strongest Khanri I had seen besides Thorn. They had casually killed a monster that massacred three of our Fist and was likely going to kill more before we could manage to bring it down - if we managed to bring it down. From the sounds of it, they even wagered on how quickly they could do it too.
“Oh look,” Amani gestured at me, “a Kit.” Peering at me, he gestured for me to come closer.
Not wanting to be rude, but still incredibly intimidated, I walked up to him without saying anything.
He stared at me inquisitively with his large golden green eyes for some time before Dhurin barked, “Amani, you are scaring the poor lad.”
Eyes wide, his bushy tail twitched behind him, his only acknowledgment to Dhurin’s admonishment. Then suddenly Amani perked up, “he is an Enigma!”
Both Dhurin and Shino stopped what they were doing and stared at me.
“So, this is the one Thorn spoke of,” Dhurin sounded thoughtful.
I met Shino’s gaze and he nodded to me, “I knew we would meet again.”
Still unsure of what was going on, and them not asking any questions, I held my tongue. Behind me I could hear the approach of the rest of the surviving members of my Fist.
I knew exactly when Marty recognized who had come to our rescue, “by the Dungeons!” A giddy squeal fountained from behind me, “it’s the Trinity!”
He ran up to the shaggy Magus, “Amani! I loved how you laid out the members from the Selanora Dungeon with one spell during the Championships! So cool!”
Amani seemed to preen at the praise until Dhurin called to him, “you didn’t kill all of them with one spell either.”
Marty appeared to take no notice of the comment as he ran to stand in front of Dhurin, “the captain of the Trinity! I have been a huge fan as far back as I can remember.” He reached out and poked his arm, “I can’t believe you are real.”
He ran to Shino, “you…,” his voice trailed off, probably remembering when he first met Shino, in which he killed all of us to start the Trials.
I have heard a common saying among the Khanri I have met, you never forget your first death.
The white diamond on his chest stood out in stark contrast to his black fur which seemed to ripple in the light as Shino knelt and spoke softly, “I remember you little gnome. It warms my heart to see you among the Khanri.”
Marty stood staring into Shino’s golden eyes for a long moment, then making a decision he nodded at him, “thanks.” He turned to address the group as a whole, “I have had your posters on my wall at home since I was little.”
He scowled at me as I reflexively chuckled at his words, then he amended, “fine - since I was littler. Happy?”
Jax broke in, “Thorn send you?”
Dhurin nodded, “aye, there have been incursions in every section. Some worse than others. We had to clear two other monsters similar in power to this one on our way here.”
Harper frowned at the news, “have any Aku been sighted?”
Amani said, “none so far, but we have watchers out. We will know when they arrive.”
“They have been trying something new,” Jax added, “we found a Hand in this section a few days back.”
Nodding Dhurin added, “I heard. It is unsettling news. We will have to change how we raise our Kits.”
Working past my trepidation I asked the Trinity, “how do you know when the Aku arrive?”
Amani looked at me, “some of us have spells that we can set in areas of the Dungeon that trip whenever something over a certain power threshold enters the area. It isn’t perfect, but it usually means the Aku are attacking. Although,” he gestured at the nearby corpse, “something like this could set it off too.”
Thinking furiously, “so if your alarms go off. Do the spells reset themselves? Or do you have to cast them again?”
Amani nodded, “not bad for a Kit. You have a good head on you. It is likely the Aku might have figured out a way to corral powerful beasts into our Dungeons to trip our alarms. That is why everyone is on high alert. With our spell network compromised, right now would be the ideal time for the Aku to attack and our response would be limited to whoever is nearby.”
As he finished speaking, a black and green portal opened behind us, bathing us in a sickly light.
“Ah good,” Dhurin drew his katana and turned to face the portal, “I was worried that we would have a long wait.”
Chapter Fourteen
The Ambush
“Justice? What use do the dead have need of Justice? They are beyond such petty desires. No, justice is sought by the living, which use the dead as their justification to make even more dead. Only the morally corrupt could think that the dead would ever desire another living being having their life forfeited for such a fickle thing like justice.”
- Dhurin on the cycle of revenge
Standing in numb terror, the portal seemed to open up into a cavernous area, unlit by any source of light that I could see. Blinking into my mana sight I could make out figures through the portal running in our direction. Dozens of them.
I stumbled backwards as I was gently shoved against my chest, “now is not the time to freeze up young one.”
I looked up to see Dhurin’s stern visage and quickly told him, “I could see Aku through that portal.” Glancing back through the portal again, “a lot of them.”
Amani purred happily at the news, “this means I won’t have to hold back!”
“Go and prepare yourself,” he pushed me again and sent me stumbling towards the carcass of the bear laying in the middle of the room. He turned and addressed Jax and Harper, “take your Fist and support us. We will face them here.”
Shino drew his blades and spoke to the surviving members, “be ready for any of them that manage to slip by us.”
