Chapter 70: Fracture - Twilight Maze (End) (Patreon)

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***

“Damn it!”  Kyrian slammed his fist on the wall.

Everyone else remained silent, dealing with the situation in their won ways.

Krag sat straight across from me, looking after the wounded Dibo.  Dibo’s face wasn’t… pretty.  He had cuts all over his face, swollen nearly beyond recognition.  Eyelids were black and blue, closed shut.  His breathing was even shallower than Skaris’ own, who was supposed to be the worst out of all his us.  Dibo’s leather boots and mage gloves had been taken away, revealing fingertips with skin hanging loose and the end, mirroring the wounds on his feet.

I’d seen enough in this world to know what they represented: torture wounds.

It hadn’t taken us long to meet up with Aurora, Eltis and Kyrian.  Even shorter until we found Dibo… or what was left of him.  Baran’s handiwork.

“His Dimension Ring has been emptied out.  No mana potions at all, lad.”  Krag shook his head.  “By the forge, Dibo was holding all the gourds from the monsters too.”

We could piece together what happened easily enough.

Baran in his series of impulsive actions had taken the Mana Potions from Dibo, tortured him for it even.  Dibo probably had a Dimension Ring that was bound to his own mana signature or blood.  Not only were we out of mana and mana potions, we were crippled.  Dibo was wounded beyond recovery and without mana potions, Krag and Eltis were doing all they could to just stabilize the two wounded.

“Why would he do this?...”  Kyrian’s voice was edged with equal parts anger and disgust.

“...habit.”  Eltis’ voice was soft, but I heard her nonetheless.

I stopped pacing, attention focusing down on her like a laser.  Her eyes were covered by a black veil-like head covering that covered the entirety of her face.  A formal head dressing that all believers of the Nine wore for special occasions.

Eltis was preparing for a funeral.

But I had no patience for catering to her culture, no matter how disrespectful it was.

I knelt down next to her, my eyes trying to pierce through the veil and meet hers.  She shied away, completely unlike her previous seductive manner, but I persisted.  Krag growled next to me.

“That’s rude, lad.  If a priestess wears-”

I ignored him.  “Tell me what you know.”

“I’ve told you before.”  Eltis muttered, wiping sweat off of Dibo.

“...You’re talking about the race thing.  About how he hates humans.”  I glanced at Krag and he nodded stiffly.  “The same way that Sarai spoke.”

“You begin to understand.”

“Then explain to me why Baran signed his own death sentence.  Leaving Dibo in this state-”

“Lad, you really think a man who came into a Fracture with the intention to kill his own party didn’t consider the possibility of failure?”

“He must’ve had some kind of escape mechanism.  A [Escape Scroll] or a [Dungeon Worm].”  Kyrian muttered.

“So he escapes with our Mana potions, cripples our mage when we are already out of mana.”  Track laughed, a sound that grated against my brain.  “He has left us for dead.”

No one answered that.

I assessed the situation… and Track was right.  Our healers were both out of mana and so was Kyrian.  He had enough left for maybe a single [Lightning Strike], and after that he might even pass out.  The weather was getting to everyone, many of our cloaks had been ripped to shreds during the last fight.  What we needed was rest, food and to get out of this dungeon.

But we could have none of those things.

“That’s enough of the gloom talk.”  I spoke into the silence, managing to clear it a bit but not completely dispel it.  It was already too late to dispel it… us adventurers, we live close to death.  Dancing with it.  Once our dance partner Death crosses a certain line and takes a step towards us… well, we were already too close to him to begin with.

I knew it’d end up like this the moment the raid failed.  Baran had just given Death the last push, speeding it up a little.

“Rest.  Try to recover what mana you can.  We’ll talk again in a few hours.”  I finally surmised.

I expected everyone to argue back.  After all, it was me who got us into this mess in the first place.  But surprisingly… no one argued.

So we rested.  But it wasn’t all that useful.

Kyrian was the first to start shivering as the snow began to fall down lazily within the maze once more.  Aurora took off her armor, wrapping herself around what was left around her velvet cloak and sleeping underneath her shield.  The warrior was beyond tired, having protected Eltis and Kyrian for the entirety of this raid.  Track nestled against a corner, dozing.  Eltis and Krag continued to look after Dibo.

Neither of the two healers gave Skaris a glance.

I knew why.

They thought we’d die here.

Why look after a dying man when everyone was going to the same place?

An air of gloom and impending death descended on the party, inch by inch and grew thicker by the minute.  I could scarcely breath –it was too cold, I was gasping for breath but it felt like all I could suck in were airs laden with tiny ice spikes.  My lungs were starting to hurt and I heard Kyrian and Eltis cough a few times.  Being a mage and priestess, the weaker members were starting to get sick.

Kyrian and I have taken off our own cloaks and covered the lizard warrior, even when I insisted the mage shouldn't, he insisted.  Still, Skaris shivered in his sleeps, mumbling incoherently.

He didn’t have long.

Eltis continued to pray next to Dibo, praying to the Nine, the elven Goddess for them both.  Krag did the same, though he prayed mostly for himself.  

Even the gods in this universe were racist.

I’m ashamed to admit that I succumbed.

Memories came and went, unbidden.

“Ah shit… Ok let’s just the priest behind and use him as bait.  It’s fine.  I’ll just get a new one.”

“...Damn is this TPK?  Tch.  Whew, at least my character lived.  Fuck… do I have to raise new party members? Should I just do a new game?”

“Damn this archer’s useless now.  His basic stats just can’t keep up.  Figures, never should have raised a human archer that can’t use [Aura].  Fuck this guy, I’ll sell all his items and dismiss him.”

“Again?! Ok, I’m going to take this guy into the dungeon and murder him.  Maybe I can recoup my losses.”

The temptation was still there.

As long as I lived… as long as I survived… it’d be ok… right?

This feeling of despair, that the spark of fear that always lay within me spread like wildfire, feeding on all the worries that had been gnawing at me.  All the times I’d ignored Skaris asking for a Core, those memories fed my guilt like kindling.  How I should’ve prepared better, how I should’ve been more careful, how I’d suspected the other adventurers of betrayal but lost sight of the bigger goal: the safety of my companions.

Ironically, this experience made me think of my time killing the [Ujo].  Only a single trash Core to my name and I still faced that nightmare fuel with nothing but a katana in my hand.  Yet now I had 2 powerful cores, the [Unjo] and [Prince Charming] and had managed to screw up worse than ever before.  My body had grown stronger… but my mind had grown weak.  Weighed down by thoughts of debt, gold, wealth and future plans… I’d been stronger as a slave that focused only on survival.

I never killed [Ujo].  Not really.  I’d inflicted it with [Bleed] cuts until I could pit it against the other boss-monster that was in the room.  Still… I’d defeated it.

…What was to say I couldn’t defeat a Grade-8 boss monster?

That was crazy though.  Solo-ing boss monsters were near suicide.  MSS was a party game.  To solo a monster, I’d have to be near completing my build.  Even then the only builds that could solo monsters like that were DPS who would never get hit, or a Tank who could outlast the monster, trading hits for days.  Or… or Knights like me.

Yeah.  It was insane.

So I waited.  I waited and waited.  Each agonizing hour, each unconscious cough Skaris gave in this feverish dreams… I endured it all.

Finally, everyone fell asleep.

I left no tracks as I left the others behind.

Maybe I was insane after all.

***

The [Gi (夔)] was munching on something.

When I got closer, I found what it was eating.  The frozen pieces of Furgrin.

It turned its head towards me, well-balanced despite having only one leg.  Cocking it’s head to the side, the Gi studied me.

I raised my Katana, tucking my shield close to my body and directly in front of me.

Could I do it? Was I strong enough? Did I know enough of its patterns? Were my equipments enough?

I slowly erased the doubts one by one.

…Why was I doing this?

It didn’t matter why.  I didn’t want to be burdened by thoughts of gold, comrades and guilt.  I erased that too.

If the why didn’t matter and either did my doubts, only one thing was left to ask myself.

What should I do?

Simple.  Kill it.

I dashed across the snow, not bothering to waste my mana on preliminarily activating [Aura] or even [Coin Toss].  I even erased the hope that was breathing in my heart, the hope that I might hit a [JAckpot].  I suffocated it till it died.  No more RNG, no lucky encounters, nothing except my sword and shield existed.

The Gi roared, blasting me with a facefull of wind and spittle; charging straight towards me in rabbit-like hops using its single leg.

Fifty paces.

Twenty paces.

Before I could prepare myself the Gi swung its head side to side and unfurled its ear-wings at the same time.

I skipped past the first swing, ducking underneath it and executing a dodge-roll so perfect that I felt its fur brush against my neck, almost tickling.  The giant-stag monster stopped its swing and bayed, creating icicles above me and behind me while blocking me from the front, effectively surrounding me.  The smart thing would have been to dodge to the side, in the space where the monster had left room open.

A trap designed to bring me straight into its swinging head attacks.

I backpedaled into the icicles and the moment one touched my back, I sprinted forward before it could pierce me.  To an onlooker, it might have looked like I had been the one to summon the icicles but I knew better.  One wrong step and I’d be skewered; lung, stomach, shoulder, head… any one of them could be lethal.  But I’d abandoned reason long ago; abandoning myself to the momentum of the fight I slammed my [Lunar Shield] into the Gi’s forehead.  The shield, shaped like a Crescent Moon, was wicked sharp, reminiscent of a talwar and left a long gash on the creature’s forehead.

Pirouetting, I slashed sideways, forwards and diagonally, gray aura fixed on my Katana.

Blodo began to fall, creating spots of ice where they fell.

“MUUUOOOOOOOOWWWUUUUH!”

｢ [Lunar Gauge] Threshold Met (1 / 8) ｣

｢ [Lunar Shield] increases [Defense] ｣

The Gi stumbled back and I did the same, none of the icicles had pierced me but they didn’t hurt the monster either.  A natural defense to its own element, [Ice].

I readied myself for its next pattern, holding the [Lunar Shield] out in front of me.

“Come on.”

14 years.  14 fucking years of playing this game.

I could solo it.

I had to.

The Gi’s bull-charge slammed straight into the shield and I felt my ribs snap from the impact.

｢ [Lunar Gauge] Threshold Met (2 / 8) ｣

｢ [Lunar Shield] increases [Attack] ｣

｢ [Lunar Gauge] Threshold Met (3 / 8) ｣

｢ [Lunar Shield] increases [Attack] ｣

If I hadn’t angled my shield into the downwards into the ground; I would have been sent flying.  However, distance was a weakness in my build.  Apart from [Hateful Wound], I had nothing else that could hurt the monster if it chose to keep away.  So I baited it into this charge and the moment we made contact, angled my shield downwards and slammed its face into the frozen battlefield.

It had worked because the Gi lay on the floor, dazed.

As my attack buffs flowed into me, my gray [Aura] sharpened even more; turning more like my jagged katana.  

I was cheating, using my [Attack] buffs to imitate later stages of [Aura] which I hadn’t mastered yet.  But I was a Player, and words like cheating held no meaning for someone whose friend was dying because of a poor choise he’d made.

For a split second, the Gi’s eyes looked up at me.  Innocent, full of life and something forever sensitive about them… the look an animal gives you right before its slaughtered.  A deer.  A cow.  A pig.

I ignored it and plunged my sword into its eye.

It screamed in pain and sent out a pulse of ice-elemental Aura so dense that the liquid in my eye instantly froze.  I echoed the monster’s scream as it felt like my eye was being stabbed all the way through by a needle so long that it was reaching the back and it continued to drill into the back of my head.  Absently, I saw bits of frost beginning to cling to my boots and armor.

From my blind-side, its wing slammed into me and sent me flying.

The moment I landed, I sunk into the shadows and used [Shadow Blink], appearing immediately next to the monster’s head.

Stick close.  Hit hard.  Hit fast.

Kill it with certainty.

I slammed into it with my shield which was less of a crescent and more of a half-moon now, leaving three neat bleeding lines down its side with my katana.  The Gi danced around; trying to stomp on me.

My ears pounded and I tasted blood, dripping down my eye and into my lips.  I blocked out the noise and taste, focusing on the feel of my Katana and my shield instead.

｢ [Lunar Gauge] Threshold Met (4 / 8) ｣

｢ [Lunar Gauge] Threshold Met (5 / 8) ｣

｢ [Lunar Gauge] Threshold Met (5 / 8) ｣

｢ [Lunar Shield] increases [Defense] ｣

｢ [Lunar Shield] increases [Defense] ｣

｢ [Lunar Shield] increases [Defense] ｣

Each time the buffs stacked on me, I felt stronger.  Strudier.  Immoveable.

Finally, the shield was in the shape of a Full Moon.

｢ [Lunar Gauge] Threshold Met (8 / 8) ｣

The Gi cried out and stomped on me.

The hit should’ve flattened me to the ground and broken bones, leaving my lower half into nothing more than mulch.  Fresh food for the monster to feast on.

Instead, I lifted my shield and took the stomp straight on.

Yes, I strained.  Yes, I bent my legs and felt my bones creaking in protest.  All that power had to go somewhere.

But it failed to wound me.  Nor did it hurt.

My [Defense] was too high for that.

You see, the Knight build is good because even if you build 100% tank, you still manage to do damage with [Aura].  Quite possibly, it might be the only build that you can take until late-game while playing Solo without a party.  Except that I didn’t build a Tank… I’d built a DPS character.  The only reason I could take this attack head on were all the [Defense] buffs stacked on top of me plus the fact that the Gi was more of a Caster boss, who used its environment to its advantage.

But like all caster-types, it had a critical weakness.  Close-ranged combat.

So I didn’t dodge the strike, risking it all to block it just so I could stay close to it.

Finally I activated the ability of the end-game gear on my arm.

｢Lock casts [Tidal Force] ｣

I brought my shield arm down like yanking on the reins of an animal.  The mana in [Lunar Shield] reacted to my target like a magnet, using the Moon’s gravitational force to bright the Gi’s head –hanging more than 10 feet above me– crashing down to the floor, snout first and bending roughly 90 degrees.  Bone snapped and sharp teeth mixed with molars tumbled out of its mouth.

[Tidal Force] was a pulling ability; with all the momentum of a  8-ton truck behind it.

Now the real value of [Lunar Shield] was showing.

Once the user used one of the Full-Moon abilities, either [Tidal Force] or [High Tide], the shield returned to its Crescent form.  In the process the user lost all the buffs he had stacked… in the form of debuffs to cancel them out.  

8 debuffs stacked in a row as my [Arcane Masochism] exploded in an array of buffs.

｢ [Lunar Shield] decreases [Defense] ｣

｢ [Lunar Shield] decreases [Defense] ｣

｢ [Lunar Shield] decreases [Attack] ｣

…

｢ [Arcane Masochism] cancels [Lunar Shield] ｣

｢ [Arcane Masochism] raises [Attack] ｣

…

｢ [Arcane Masochism] raises [Speed] ｣

[Attack], [Defense] and [Speed] came to me in equal amounts; the [Aura] on my sword growing larger and sharper –almost as big as me– losing its gray-ish color to turn true black; a black so dense that it seemed to absorb what little light remained in this maze.

[Dazed], the Gi struggled to stand up.

Shk! Shk!

Two neat slices and its ears were amputated with surgical precision.

Then staring straight into its eyes, I stabbed it through the chest; where I knew its heart beat from the rush of blood I could hear.  

Blood flowed like water.

As its eyes went wide with pain, the monster gave a long moan.  Another moment passed by, our eyes staring at one another, one full of fading life and the other with the ecstasy that came from the feeling of survival.

The [Gi] turned to dust, leaving behind its Core and a Plurality.

Chkkkkk

Chkkk chik chik chii-chikkkk

The Exit Portal opened up next to me and I knew it was finally over.  The exit portal should’ve opened up for the others as well.

Stepping through the portal, I finally escaped this dungeon with the knowledge that I was leaving this Fracture with more power than I could have hoped for in my wildest dreams.  But that knowledge was soon stifled by my eagerness to check on Skaris and Kyrian.

I just hoped they'd believe me when I told them I had no idea how we got out of the Fracture.

***

Track had stalked Lock the moment the swordsman decided to leave.

He could only guess where Lock was going.  The man was soft and his eyes were full of nothing but sorrow for his companions.  Self-blame, guilt and shame radiated in equal parts.  Yes… a weakling.

Yet, there was something about the swordsman…

So Track decided to follow Lock, to help him kill the boss of this dungeon.  If the [Aura] that Lock showed before wasn’t a fluke… then there was a chance that the two of them could kill it.

Turned out that Lock didn’t need help at all.

The man fought like a pure block of swordsmanship.  Flawless technique.  Perfect execution and 0 hesitation in his movements, his step and each stroke of the sword like a master painter drawing on a clean canvas.  If there ever was a textbook for how one should kill a monster… Lock Slaveborn would fit the bill.

So when the Exit Portal opened up next to him, Track didn’t bother hesitating to hop in.

Tracks Fade with Time, the best swordsman of his clan.

Disciple of Brilliant Stones in River, the first disciple of Nearnigh the [Sword Saint].

Tracks Fade with Time… the 2nd [Sword Saint in Training] exited the Fracture, eager to share with his master what he saw.

Without a doubt, Lock Slaveborn was another Sword Saint candidate.

***