Chapter 65: Fracture - Twilight Maze (12) (Patreon)

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Kyrian was the first to strike, summoning a pair of [Lightning Strike] to stun the one-horned Ice Dokkaebis.

I veered off from the one I had been attacking, aiding Skaris.

Skaris whirled his spear like a martial artist from a action movie film and then stabbed forward in what looked like a single motion but in actuality were multiple thrusts.

“Damn, when did he pick up that Skill.”  

｢ Skaris Deepeater uses [Double Thrust] ｣

｢ Skaris Deepeater uses [Double Thrust] ｣

Skaris must have realized it himself that he was starting to fall behind and practiced this skill behind our backs.  Skills, unlike Core Abilities, remained with the user and had to be mastered.  The skill was paying off, combined with the [Bool Dokkaebi]’s core, a weaker cousin to the [Ice Dokkaebi], he left half a dozen flaming wounds on the creature.

“Grahhh!”  

As the Dokkaebi opened its mouth to roar, I slammed my shield into its nose.

Stunned, it reeled back and that gave Skaris another chance to perform [Double Thrust], this time piercing the creature’s heart and returning it to dust.

｢ [Ice Dokkaebi] casts [Impaling Rime] ｣

The sound of ground cracking was all the warning Skaris and I had before the other Dokkaebi slammed its spiked club into the ground; causing spikes of ice to jut out in a straight line towards us.  Skaris and I dodged to either side and I glanced to make sure Aurora was ok.  She had used [Topple] on the Dokkaebi with five horns and was keeping it down with thrusts from her lance.

｢ [Ice Dokkaebi] casts [Ice Wine] ｣

The Dokkaebi in front of us drank from its gourd and ice formed in the air inches above its skin.  Soon it had an armor made of ice, reminiscent of a samurai from the edo period.

“Skaris! I’ll get it’s attention!”

My sword wouldn’t even make a dent in that armor, but Skaris with his [Bool Dokkaebi] Core could.  

I dodged its homerun strike and went int close.  I found the gaps in its armor, right at the armpits and thrusted with my katana as hard as I could, drawing blood.  It roared and went mad; a stray stomp caught me in the thigh and sending me rolling on the floor; its ice armor had spikes on it and had left a long gash.

｢ Eltis Nacea casts [Heal] ｣

The cut disappeared and I stood up, watching Skaris’ spear melt the creature's armor wherever he stabbed.  Kyrian cast another lightning spell and it streaked in the air like a bullet, flying from the ceiling at a slight angle and electrifying the Dokkaebi within its armor.  Then it turned its eyes to the two backliners and slammed its club into the ground, sending a line of ice towards them.

Skaris was near the point of contact and jumped out of the way but a few stray spikes caught him, lacerating his arms and legs.  My heart dropped as a lone spike pierced through his armor and impaled his leg to the ground.  I had to give Skaris credit though, if it hurt he didn’t show it.  He began to calmly hack away at the spike on his leg.

I rushed in front of Kyrian and Eltis, blocking the spikes from rising from the ground with my [Frost Covered Shield].  Aurora had done it back at the scene of the first monster wave, surely I could-

The shield groaned and the metal shrieked in my ear as the spikes stabbed through it, and through my shoulders.  

Good news? I’d protected the back liners.

Bad news, I was impaled like Skaris was while the Dokkaebi was running this way like a hummer with a tricked out engine.

But I’d underestimated our backliners too much; they had a few tricks up their sleeves.

I’d forgotten that Kyrian had been a mage recruited by the Akka Xaluds, hunting slaves in the Samak Desert.  His usual humble demeanor –compared to other mages– made him seem weaker than he actually was.

Kyrian waved his staff once, muttering under his breath.  His robe lit with the sigils inscribed within.  The robe I bought for Kyrian had a [Spell Enhance] feature; he could apply it to any of his spells to give it a 20% boost.

Wind stirred around the lightning mage.  I knew which 3 Elements Kyrian had chosen for his Mana Cores.

[Darkness] for basic curses.

[Lightning] which was his bread and butter.

Finally, [Wind].

｢ Kyrian Tricilan casts [Tornado] ｣

One of the most powerful things about Wind spells were that they carried elemental damage beyond wind depending on the field.  Since the field was covered in snow…

A twenty-feet tall tornado came to life, bombarding the Ice Dokkaebi.  But the creature was made of all muscle and fat; simply too heavy for the tornado to lift it off of its feet.  But it was powerful enough to force it to hunker down; suppressing it for the time being.  The Ice Dokkaebi wouldn’t take any damage; but there was a lot of snow and it would blind him.

I took a deep breath.

And jumped backwards all at once, getting the ice spike out of my shoulder and freeing myself.

Pain threatened to overwhelm my senses as I almost blacked out.  I refused to look at my shoulder, I knew that it would just confirm the reality that there was a gaping hole there.  As I struggled to come to my senses, golden light fell like ashes around me.

｢ Eltis Nacea casts [Heal] ｣

｢ Eltis Nacea casts [Pain, Pain, Go Away] ｣

I knew that Eltis was attempting to rid me of my pain… but her spell, [Masochism] was a debuff.  It decreased the [Pain] stat… meaning my passive, [Arcane Masochism] would cancel it out.  Sure enough, the pain didn’t disappear at all, instead I felt the passive thicken my skin.  I felt a bit slower, duller but it was in my mind; my [Defense] stat had simply risen.

Skaris had freed himself long before me.  With a snarl he engaged the Ice Dokkaebi that was still wrestling against the [Snow Tornado].

“Unf!”  

Aurora grunted in pain, around thirty paces away from the rest of us.  She’d been keeping the strongest one at bay.  Like it’s weaker one-horned cousin, it had used its [Ice Wine] ability; but instead of armor it had formed two wicked looking curved scimitars in each hand.  The monster roared and spun like a top, sparks flying off of Aurora’s shield as she met the assault head on.

Making sure Skaris could contain the monster, I rushed over to help.

“Aurora!” I called out to alert her of my presence.

She saw me, waited for the move to end.

Then as soon as it ended, she used [Topple].  The Dokkaebi, 8 feet tall and weighing roughly 500 pounds, fell over like a baby that suddenly forgot how to walk.

I sped over, slashing the monster half a dozen times as it fell and half a dozen more after it fell.  I spun to the side, leaving a long gash along its side.  The Dokkaebi roared and its white pupils shone with rage, the frozen horns on its head began to glow.

That… wasn’t supposed to happen.  Was this guy a variant?

The Dokkaebi swiveled its head and a clear white line shot out from between its horns, razing the ground and heading straight towards me.

｢ [Ice Dokkaebi] (Variant) casts [Destruction Beam] ｣

Snow evaporated on contact, steam rising up like a cloud and enveloping us.  The last thing I saw was Aurora get between me and the beam and grunt with effort, crashing her shield into the floor.  My meager Mana Sense tingled as I felt her reveal another ability; her shield giving off silver light.

｢ Aurora Vetilian casts [Perfect Guard] ｣

[Perfect Guard], a Core ability that dropped from [Revenant Knight], a Grade 5 monster.  It was notoriously difficult to use because the skill was only about .1 seconds long.  But if you got in the guard position –rooting yourself to the ground like Aurora did– you could increase the skill duration to .2 seconds.

The beam crashed into her shield and disappeared, supercharging her shield.  As the last of the beam was sucked into her shield, Aurora shoved it to the side like backhanding someone with it.

The true value of [Perfect Guard] lay in the fact that it was a 2-part ability.  Once the user pulled off [Perfect Guard]...

｢ Aurora Vetilian casts [Perfect Retaliation] ｣

Aurora brought her shield back in front of her and held it with both hands, bracing herself. Her shield fired off a beam twice the size of the Ice Dokkaebi and hit it dead center, incinerating its stomach with sheer concentrated mana.  Aurora stood in the snow, her cloak billowing and the shield giving off steam; watching as the Ice Dokkaebi fell and became nothing more than dust.

The others joined us after finishing off the last remaining one.

The five-horned variant dropped a Core.

“It’ssss a Core.”  Skaris noted, still looking to see if it was something he could take.

It contained [Ice Wine].  While a versatile skill, it was more useful on an archer.  Also it would clash with Skaris’ current element of choice; Fire.  I shook my head at him.  It wasn’t anything he could use.

Sometimes it was like that.  You killed a rare monster and it dropped a Core, but the abilities weren’t right.

“Feh.  Fine.”

Since no one wanted the Core, we stored it in one of Aurora’s Incubators and continued on.

***

For the rest of the day, we exclusively hunted Grade 8 or Grade 7 monsters.  Since Aurora was level 30, she wouldn’t benefit from hunting Grade 8 monsters anyways.

As a result, Skaris and Kyrian finally hit their Third Sanctification… level 30.

“ONCSSSEEE MORE I GROW SSSTRONGER!”  In the typical beastman warrior fashion, he roared into the air; his scales glowing red.

“Skaris, you’re attracting all the monsters.”  Kyrian was much calmer.

“Damn… it’s not like the people of this world have a clear concept of levels either.  I guess I could ask her if she passed her Fourth Sanctification… though it’d be rude.”

On the other hand, I hit 25… the level to finally unlock [Aura].  Except there was a problem: there was no one to teach me.  Usually in game, you could learn [Aura] by hitting stat requirements, the level cap and then speaking to a Knight who had already unlocked [Aura].  Then through dialogue and quests, you could unlock the ability to use it.  Just like how other racial traits had stages –Orcs could deepen their connection with their totems and Beastman could delve deeper into their elemental arts– [Aura] also had 5 stages.

I was brought out of my musings by Aurora.

“Mr. Lock, I’d like to talk to you.”  Aurora pulled me aside.  “Mr. Skaris is growing tired.  I believe Mr. Kyrian and Ms. Eltis are running dangerously low on mana.  I advise we rest.”

She was right.  Skaris, our only DPS who had Fire Damage that could pierce through the tougher monsters, had holes in his armor that had to be repaired back in town.  I winced, seeing all the dried blood on him.  The blood stains were crusted over, blending parts of his skin that had scales.  He was sitting on the snow; leaning on his spear and breathing hard.

“Ok.  Let’s go rest.”

“Finally, I can get out of these clothes.”  Eltis complained, staring down at her bloodsoaked robes.  Most of them were ours, not monster’s.

It didn’t take long until I found another temporary shelter near the last remaining Neung-uh’s room.  I made sure we hunted near it; keeping an eye out.  But from the look of things, it looked like Dibo didn’t know about the room.

This temporary shelter was a large stone cube, built into the walls of the maze itself.  We settled down and it wasn’t long before Skaris had a fire going.

“Try to sleep.  I’ll keep a lookout.”  I settled myself near the heavy stone door, peeping it open just a bit.

Murmuring thanks, they rolled out their bedding and laid down.  Within seconds, their breathing turned rhythmic and calm; Aurora even snored.  I continued to stand vigil, holding my sword in my arms and peeping out of the crack.

“It’s too quiet.”  

Like the calm before a storm… Something was happening in the dungeon.

Baran was nowhere to be seen and neither was Dibo.  Our hunting was going smoothly as well.  This was exactly the reason why I was lulled into that sense of false security in the first place.

“Arrosh would never let me relax like that.”  I thought of Arrosh again.

Damn.  I wished I knew where he was.  He could even teach me to use [Aura]-

Wait a minute.  Arrosh couldn’t use [Aura].  He was an orc and [Aura] was a skill exclusive to humans.  Orcs became Berserkers, not Knights.  So then why did Arrosh take me on? How could he even pass on the [Sword Saint]’s skills to me if he couldn’t teach me how to wield aura?

Damn it… most Knights belonged to Turina.  I doubted there were adventurers at Grade 5 or 6 walking around with Aura under their belts.  The reason was simple: even if the stat and level cap requirements were met, you had to gather money to pay off a knight or a school.  If memory served me correctly…

“Damn… 7,000 gold in debt and I’m already thinking about spending 50,000 gold.”

With 50,000 gold I could buy some lower grade Pluralities.

I sighed.

“Are you unable to sleep?”

Aurora’s green eyes stared at me from her bedroll, the dying embers of our firepit reflected within them.

“Yeah.”  I tore my eyes away from her and stared out the door.  “You should rest.”

There was the rustle of cloth and metal, indicating that Aurora had gotten up.  She walked to the other side of the fireplace; leaning against the wall with her hands on her knees.  “Mr. Lock, I’d like to know more about you.”

I coughed.

If this was back in the Real World, I would have killed for a girl who looked like Aurora to say that to me.  But here in MSS… I could only think one thought: what did she want from me?

“I’m not good at talking about myself.”

She shrugged.  “Neither am I.”

An awkward silence ensued.

“Perhaps I-”

“I can-”

We both began talking at once then stopped, staring at each other.  I shrugged and gestured at her to continue.

“Perhaps I can ask you questions.”  The silver warrior continued.  “Where are you from initially?”

“Samak Desert.  I was a slave under the Samak Horde.”

“No.  I meant your hometown.  Before you were a slave.”

Damn.  How was I supposed to answer that?

“...I don’t remember.”  I didn’t meet her eyes.  “It’s the truth.”

She didn’t say anything to that.

Damn.  Way to go me, you’re just a master at small talk.

I cleared my throat, glancing her way.  “Why are you in Jayu?”

Say what you will about Aurora, she was smart.  She knew what I was getting at immediately.  “I am not affiliated with the Vetilius House in anyway…. Despite what people might assume.”  She stared into the fire and managed to look sad despite her eyes and lips not moving an inch.  “I’m running.”

“From your family?”

“From everything.”  The corner of her lip curled up, a smile but not really.  “Bastards of Great Houses are not treated very well, Mr. Lock.”

“My turn.  How did you meet Mr. Kyrian and Mr. Skaris?”

“Skaris was a slave… though we were in different groups.  Kyrian was working for the Akka Xaluds for the time.  You should ask him for his story later.”

“Who were your first comrades?”

Thinking of Lety and Clover brought the familiar frustration; summoning the laughing face of Arione.

“A girl… from Zimmskar.  She… We decided to go our separate ways.  Another girl, an elf barbarian from the Delirious Jungle.  From Jayu.”  I thought of Lety, seeing a little bit of her in Aurora.  Both were beautiful beyond common sense but carried themselves with casual power.  The beauty they exhibited wasn’t sexual, though there was that too.  It was like watching a storm, a hurricane or wild horses running up a hill.

The beauty of a warrior.

“You two are alike.”  I finally finished.

It was her turn to cough.  “Perhaps we should talk of less…. Personal things, Mr. Lock.”

“Agreed.”  I cleared my throat.  “Who taught you how to fight?”

Maybe she had a Knight she knew in Jayu.  Who knew, if I couldn’t get her to join the party later I could goad her into getting her Knight to teach me [Aura].

“Back in the Vetilius House, we all undergo basic training once we are of age.  The best among us are granted gifts, in the form of Cores and Items.”  She played with the Dimension Ring around her finger.  “I received my first Core that way.”

It had to be [Perfect Guard].  A rare Core like that… Aurora was strong but not that strong.  There was no way she could be part of a party that raided a Revenant Knight Dungeon.

“And you, Mr. Lock?”

I smirked.  “An orc taught me.”

That caught her interest.  “Truly?”

“Truly.”  I frowned.  “But now… he’s missing.  I’ll have to look for him sooner or later.”

“Show me.”  She said.

“Eh? Show you… what?”  

She shrugged.  “The swordsmanship of an Orc.  In Turina, we are taught that they are savages, knowing nothing of the Arts of War.  But I’ve seen your swordsmanship.  It’s…. Rough.  But there was a certain grace to it.  I wish to see how a student of an Orc Swordsman might wield the sword.  A warrior’s curiosity.”

Aurora made a good point.

The first [Sword Saint], Nearnigh, was a self-taught Human Swordsman.  Then he taught Arrosh who was no doubt a Berserker at one point in his lives… and once again, he taught me, a [Player] in a human’s body.  If there ever was a Sword Style with a messed up family history, mine was it.

“I’ll make it quick.”

I got to my feet.  “What should I show her?...”

“He… didn’t teach me anything in particular I realize.”  I told her, hoping to back out.

Her eyes showed me she wasn’t having it.

I sighed. 

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes.

I once again summoned the Mind’s Sword that Arrosh had taught me.  Holding my katana perpendicular to my body, I opened my eyes while holding the image crystal clear in my mind.  The swords had to be in sync, they weren’t two separate entities; they were one.  Then I dove in, become one with the sword themselves.

The sensation came easy to me; I’d been practicing after all.

I concentrated, focused and strained; relaxing at the last second as I began the Movement.

The dying embers of the fireplace crackled; the sound of heavy snowfall outside accompaneid my swing.

The Katana, chipped and jagged, became enshrouded in Black Mana, wavering like the current of a river or the tides of an ocean.

I finished the cut and the mana broke.

Aurora took in a sharp breath, between a gasp of surprise and one of fear.

｢ Locked used [Cut](Aura) ｣

What… the fuck?

***