27 - Running Away (Patreon)

Dazien paced only a couple meters away from where Phoenix’s portal had let him out near the place Uriel’s [Fortress of Solitude] had been set up. It felt like the longest five minutes of his life as he was seriously concerned about the emotional stability of their current group leader and knew he would need to speak with Officer Wysmont about his concerns before trusting his party’s safety with the man.

His earliest interactions with Lord Wayland had driven home the fact that as a leader, his top priority should be the safety of his party over the mission before them; that they wouldn’t be able to accomplish any missions if they were dead because he ordered them to take unnecessary risks. He had to consider everything and properly balance the risks with the chance of success before making a command.

At least now he was fairly certain their part in searching the mountains for a potential threat was done as he had quickly informed the other teams that were in the range of the army they had discovered and the very real threat it posed.

Officer Wysmont’s team agreed to return early to debrief them but the others were told to keep searching their routes for any other groups; concerned that there might be other pockets like the one he had described.

The Defender felt relieved when a portal reappeared and Tanner stepped through only a few seconds later. It meant Phoenix was still alive to make the portal.

The runeforged took only a few steps before falling to his knees, however, and Dazien’s worry spiked as the silver color of the man’s hair almost seemed to melt off the strands. Tanner gave a choked cry as he clutched his chest and Saiya was beside him the next moment, surprising the gemite as the Healer hugged him and murmured, “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

The portal vanished another breath later and the fact that the voxen wasn’t casting a heal on the Pack Harbinger was almost more concerning than if the man had been bleeding out in the snow. He knew she would glare at him but he had to get the information as he asked, “What happened?”

Yup. There was the disapproving glare. The Healer’s amber eyes spoke volumes as she loosened her grip slightly and admonished, “He’s in distress, Dazien.”

“Why though?” he pressed, “I need to know what happened so I can inform the others. Were you attacked?”

That seemed to pull the runeforged out of his pained stupor just enough to look behind him at where the portal had been and explain, “There was a Sapphire Caste machina. A large cat that I could feel was attuned to Metal and Fire. It was weird, though… it felt almost like a Familiar but it definitely wasn’t. Almost like a monster too but… more real?” the Harbinger said with obvious confusion as the man surprised Dazien even further by looking up at him, as though he might have all the answers, and asking, “How is that even possible? How can it be one thing but also not that thing at the same time?”

The Defender grimaced and answered with the only honest answer he had, “I don’t know. I’ll let the other parties know to hurry back, though. Where’s the Sense Stone? Officer Wysmont will want to see it and get it back to the city as soon as possible.”

“I put it back in Silvie’s pack,” the Summoner said with a half-shrug, “She always carries my things for me.”

The amethyst warrior internally groaned at that. It meant he had to hope the others would know to make sure the Familiar made it back through the next portal if the siva survived long enough. He didn’t hold much hope for that, however, based on the picture he was forming in his mind.

He whispered to the other groups through the expedition leader’s more powerful ability, “I need quicker backup here. It looks like some of our members got cut off from returning by a Sapphire Caste monster.”

“Odds of winning?” Officer Wysmont asked pragmatically, the echoing effect her ability had on the mental voices slightly distracting him and causing him to shake his head as if to recalibrate.

“Not positive since the report seems inaccurate so 70%?” he estimated based on the combined efforts of Rayna and Phoenix trying to protect a Familiar for five minutes and the assumption that the situation didn’t change, which he knew it always did. Phoenix had called it Murphy's Law during one of their talks when he had mentioned her weird mixture of extreme good and bad luck; that if anything could go wrong it would.

“My team will return to debrief and assess. All teams continue scouting but remain on standby,” the AOA Officer commanded and Dazien returned his attention to the group.

Tanner tried standing only to stumble and cry out in pain once more. Saiya hugged him again and seemed to become slightly panicked as she told him, “I don’t understand what’s hurting him. I don’t know why his appearance changed the way it did.”

Simmon was beside Saiya the next moment, “He has an ability that entwines him more than normal to his bonded Familiar. He’s likely getting backlash from the bond breaking,” the boy explained, resting a hand on the lead Summoner’s shoulder and asking pointedly, “Where’s Silvie, Tan? Did that weird monster get her?”

The runeforged seemed to suddenly register the physical absence of the large and normally quiet siva that always made sure to keep to the background, “Silvie?” Tanner called in confusion, looking around for his Familiar, “She was right behind me. She knows to enter portals right after I do if I’m not riding her.”

Dazien felt his frown deepen and he tried to correct it, not wanting to worry the others further, as he stated simply, “Only you came through the portal before it closed again. Your Familiar didn’t follow-”

“No!” the runeforged yelled at him, getting worked up again, “She knows to follow me! She always follows! Silvie’s a good girl!” His rising voice caused the other members of both their parties to come closer to see what the commotion was about and Dazien worried about the others’ anxieties overloading his Healer again but she proved resilient.

“Of course she is!” Saiya cooed, as though trying to calm a child having a tantrum, and suddenly Dazien had a new fear about what might happen to Saiya should her bonded Familiar die during combat. Maybe he would have the seagull stay a bit closer to the backline in the future. He wasn’t sure anyone else in their party could be as comforting as the Healer, whose soothing aura washed over them while she added, “She’s a wonderful girl.”

“The best!” Tanner corrected as his voice broke, “We were running and clear of the monster. She should have come through right after me. She… she’s not…”

“Tan,” Polissa began with pity in her voice, “I’m sorry but you must feel it. Denial won’t help-”

“I’m not! She’s not dead!” the man screamed, tears streaming down his face, and shocking all of them. Po was the only one the Pack Harbinger was ever deferential towards and, based on the cinderen’s own expression, Dazien guessed that she had never been yelled at by the smitten leader.

Tanner managed to push Saiya off him and stand, still clutching his chest with a hand as he pointed a finger at Polissa, “You never understood the difference the Bonded have from the Summoned!” the runeforged yelled, the hurt obvious in his words and trembling body, “You never understood that the risks we take are so much more when death is the end! When there is no coming back with a quick ritual!”

The three members of King’s Dream all tensed at that proclamation and Dazien had to admit that he understood exactly the frustration that Tanner was feeling now.

“Silvie has to be alive!” Tanner said again, sounding more like a plea than an actual belief. Dazien almost wanted to give the distraught man a hug himself until the portal opened again and the runeforged turned to look at it, yelled “Silvie!”, and jumped through it before any of them could even process the idea of stopping him.

Rayna seemed to almost switch places with Tanner as the bard stepped through at exactly the same time and the portal seemed to almost implode on itself, sending everyone staggering backward from the magical backlash.

Dazien groaned as he rolled himself over to look towards where the portal had been and he reopened the communication channel to Officer Wysmont, “Updated odds: 30%. A portal just imploded with a compromised Mister Neired and Noble Wayland on the enemy side.”

“Team Attitude Plus, return to the rendezvous point post haste to support. All other teams begin returning for debriefing,” the expedition leader’s voice echoed to all the party leaders.

The Striker quickly jumped up to look around, “What happened?” she asked in confusion.

“We’re dealing with an idiot, apparently,” Uriel growled, as they all pushed themselves off the cold and wet ground. Dazien then had an additional worry as he quickly looked over to make sure the Mage’s calming earrings were still in place.

“I swear Phoenix was right behind me! She was literally flying through the air towards the portal-”

“I’m talking about Tanner,” the larger cinderen grumbled, brushing snow slush off gray clothing, and Dazien released the breath he was holding when he spotted the glint of gold cuffs adorning the long tapered ears, “He caused the portal to overload.”

The bard seemed to process those words as wide eyes went from the small blast area where the portal had been then over to the look on the Defender’s own face as she stated, “Well, he’s totally dead.”

“Was the weird monster really that bad?” Simmon asked in confusion.

“Well, there were two of those but I wasn’t talking about them,” Rayna clarified as she gestured towards him, “It’s just that King is going to kill him when he comes back without Phoenix.”

As if saying it had made it true, a bright flash of light appeared from the center of the campsite and they all turned to see a stricken-looking runeforged on his knees with a saddle bag slung over a shoulder and one half of a torn scroll in each hand.

Dazien clenched his teeth at the prediction and grimly wondered if Rayna was a prophet because he was absolutely going to kill the idiot who was willing to abandon a party member to die alone.

Phoenix used [Pull] to make sure Tanner stayed with her as the blast from her meteor so close by tossed them further down the mountain and she panicked for a brief moment that they might fall to their deaths from the cliffside she had slowly navigated earlier but it looked like she finally had some luck as they landed in a soft snowbank in the direction of the valley she had planned to head towards.

The Wayfarer sat herself up to look around at the devastation her meteor caused and never got over the odd feeling the sight of snow on fire gave her. She didn’t see any movement other than the flames at first so she quickly tried to help the idiotic runeforged sit up as well. Both of them ended up facing each other on their knees as she held his shoulders and asked, “Are you injured? Can you move on your own?”

“Where’s Silvie?” the man repeated blearily, obviously not completely with her, and she grabbed his face to make him focus his gaze on her.

“Silvie fell to another monster, Tanner. It came out of nowhere before she could follow you through the portal,” she explained as concisely as she could, “Now, can you move?”

“What? No,” the Pack Harbinger said, finally focusing and shaking his head, “You’re lying!”

A loud roar came from the flames followed by a thunderous crack, which she had only ever heard in movies before. The sound echoed through the mountains as the snow-laden mountain peak began to shift.

“Tanner! We have to move now or we’re both going to die! Now move!” she yelled and attempted to get the extremely solid Sapphire Caster to stand.

He shoved her away and yelled back, “Silvie has the Sense Stone! We have to go back for her!”

The Astromancer yanked the bag she had grabbed from the siva corpse off her shoulder and slung it over his instead, causing him to give her an angry look as he yelled, “Why did you take this from her?! You really are a trai-”

Phoenix used [Ruler of Relativity] to [Pull] her hand to his cheek and slapped the man with a crack that rivaled the mecha-cats’ roar. His shocked look of pain and anger gave her the silence she needed as she held his gaze and said, “Silvie is dead. I took the bag off her corpse. Now be angry at me. Hate me with all of your soul. Abandon me here and use your emergency scroll.”

He finally reacted by numbly grabbing the scroll clipped to his belt, still on his knees as he looked up at her, then slowly unfurled and held it open to tear as he threatened hollowly, “I’ll do it… You… you should have died instead of Silvie…”

Another pair of mechanical yowls distracted her for a moment to glance over in time to see the two Sapphire machina moving through the dying flames and the beginnings of an avalanche higher up the mountain. She just had the worst luck sometimes.

The Wayfarer gave the runeforged a sad smile and said, “That’s right, Tanner. If I could have died in her place, I would have. Not even really a hard choice for me. Now I’m gonna make sure I make that choice for you instead.”

Then she put her hands over his and helped him tear the scroll in half.

A bright flash of light later and she was running, encouraging herself in her mind “I can do this. I’m good at running away. Bravely running away.”

Phoenix sprinted down the mountain, away from the pair of feline terminators, as fast as she could without flying off the mountainside with her [Ruler of Relativity] fueling her steps. She quickly realized that, even on fire, the mecha-cats were definitely faster than her but they didn’t move as well in the snow that her [Snolf Paws] easily traversed.

Even those tricks, however, didn’t seem to be enough as she pushed and pulled herself across the snow in her mad dash to outrun both monsters and the mountain itself as the avalanche of snow rumbled after them. She employed every tactic she had learned from the Six Sacred Stances of her Weapon Wielding Warrior forms to maneuver around the rocky terrain and large beasts for the four longest minutes of her life, needing to use her mana regeneration tattoo as well as her saved up [Starlight Qi] in a glitter bomb to keep her going.

Phoenix didn’t succeed in remaining completely unscathed as the claws managed to score her multiple times in various places before she was finally able to conjure her portal again and lunged through it. At the sight of her friends near the center of the camp, she tossed both fists into the air and squealed, “YATA!”

That caused everyone to turn and stare at her but her moment of embarrassment was quickly interrupted as a heavy weight crashed into her from behind and she felt not just claws stab her in the back but also large fangs sink into her left shoulder as she fell down on the cold stone ground.

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