Aster Fall, Ch 16: Hunting Bandits (Patreon)

“Can you see their trail?” Sam asked as he turned toward Krana. “How far did they run?”

The party was gathered in the inn, looking out the window toward the distance where the Iceblood Guild had gone.

The essence stars in Sam’s blood were singing, pushing his senses to alertness, making his mind and movements accelerate.

He didn’t want to wait for them to come back, not if he could find them while they were injured and take care of the problem.

It would be best to cut down any trouble before it could start.

“Those three, yes,” Krana agreed as she looked out the window too,her eyes shading to silver. “I’ve been keeping an eye on them since they fled. They’re about a dozen miles away, in a cave at the edge of the valley, on the lower slopes.”

She raised her hand as if waving away fog in front of her eyes, frowning slightly.

“They seem to be alone so far, but I get the feeling that they’re waiting for someone. There has to be more of the group around somewhere, but I haven’t found them yet.”

“It would be best to get them before they can meet up,” Sam agreed. “Then we can prepare a greeting for their backers.” He paused as an idea occurred to him.

“Can you see much about the cave? Have they been living there?”

The answer would help to explain the guild’s infrastructure.

“There are a few barrels and supplies in it, but not much else,” Krana replied, shaking her head. “Some type of temporary area, which means it’s not where they’ve been living.”

“So it’s a hideout or a supply point,” Sam mused, rubbing his chin as he looked out the window, before he asked his next question.

“How injured is the sorcerer? Did that ice effect fade?” More importantly, he was interested in whether the essence was still there.

At the rate the sorcerer had been wasting it, it was probably gone by now.

That one pill had held at least twenty points of essence, if he compared it to his own spells. Ten or so for the ice wave and another ten for the transformation into a sort of ice golem.

It might do other things as well, but he’d need to examine it in person, as well as the sorcerer who’d used it.

“The ice is gone, but he’s not dead,” Krana replied as she continued to look at the bandits with Far Sight. “It’s hard to tell the extent of his injuries, but he’s still burned at least. It didn’t heal him all the way.”

“Good. Let’s go take care of them before their friends show up,” Sam suggested, flexing his hands as he looked back around the room.

He didn’t like the idea of splitting up, but it made more sense for his mother and sister to stay here. That meant at least one or two others needed to stay too.

Jeric looked at his wife and daughter, and then toward his son, a frown forming.

“I’ll stay with Aemilia and Altey,” Krana offered, as she saw the problem. “With the defensive amulets you made, and our spells and other artifacts, we’ll be fine. It’s unlikely they’ll dare to attack the inn anyway.”

Jeric gave his wife a long look and it wasn’t until Aemilia nodded in agreement that he gave a sharp nod of his own.

“Alright,” Jeric replied, “then it’s Sam, me, and Lesat. We should be enough to take care of those three.”

“We won’t let them get away this time,” Sam agreed as he thought about the last fight. He wanted to finish what he’d started with that sorcerer.

The thug was vile and the world would be a better place without him, so he had no hesitation in killing him.

It should work better this time, even if the sorcerer had more of those pills. He hadn’t been that powerful, even at Level 48.

His primary class was a Merchant, so he got Intelligence and Charisma attribute points at each level. A sorcerer also used those two attributes, which was probably why he’d chosen it.

The more important thing for a sorcerer was the quality of his magical bloodline and where he’d gotten it from.

He’d used frost magic, like in the pill, so he was some type of frost-aligned sorcerer.

“Iceblood....” Sam muttered, thinking through the connections that were already visible.

Why was the guild using that name unless it meant something, and perhaps the same something that was tied to the sorcerer’s class?

Sorcerer was an uncommon class and it usually ran in families. It was also nearly always a primary class, tied into that family’s bloodline and whatever mystical nature they had.

To acquire it as a subclass meant something interesting had happened, like a blood transfusion, something to transfer the magical nature from a source to the new sorcerer.

He rubbed his chin again, wishing for a moment that he had a beard to tug. Unfortunately, there was no sign of stubble on his face. The transformation into an Outsider had removed that.

It was just a hypothesis, but he’d give it better than even odds that the sorcerer’s class had come from the Iceblood guild’s backer.

Somehow.

Why else would a small-time thug be running around with a class like that? It must have also come with a significant cost, if not to the sorcerer himself then to the backer.

That was something he would have to look into.

As for the pill, even if he had more of them, that sort of thing had to come at a cost too, which was why he’d only used it when he was close to death.

If it hadn’t been Sam’s first time using Starfire, he probably could have killed him with that one hit, even through the defensive artifact, but the rune he was using to hold the spell together wasn’t complete yet.

It was the beginning of a new path for his crystal flame, one that had come to him as a mix of studying natural runes and his practice with forming them from his aura.

The dream he’d had of the stars had shown him the missing piece, although it had taken him a few days to realize it.

A rune wasn’t just a symbol, it was a concept. In almost all ways, the concept was more important than the rune itself.

That was what he’d been missing when he’d been trying to draw the runes before. He’d been trying to copy the lines first, without trying to replicate the more important concept behind them.

As soon as he switched his effort around, it had started to work better.

A simple rune was a simple way of transcribing that concept into the world, giving it power and life.

A more complex rune relied on the same concept at a deeper level. It took more energy and understanding to form it, and so its effect was also greater.

Even at the Expert stage of both Aura of Crystal Flame and Flame Strike, he was stretching the limit of what he was capable of right now just to form the most basic concept of a rune with his aura.

That meant it was good practice.

It wasn’t quite the same as trying to draw a rune with his talons. Instead, it was based on remembering the concept of the rune itself, and then filling it with his aura, letting it become a rune as it grew.

It was a multi-layered structure. The difference was that he was no longer trying to force the rune into existence. He was building it from the ground up after laying a proper foundation.

The most important step was understanding the concept itself, since without that, the rune was only lines.

The star concept came from his dreams, where he’d seen them hanging in the void. They had a primal force that had embedded itself in his mind. It was only a fragment of their real nature, but it was still a true concept.

It wasn’t complete in Starfire because he hadn’t mastered the basic meaning yet. He knew what the rune should look like and what the concept should feel like, but building it from his aura was more complex.

Each concept was an entirely separate idea of its own, which meant that if he wanted to use a different one, he would have to go through the same learning process again.

For now, star was a complex and powerful concept, one that would help him to channel his crystal flame.

It was an excellent place to begin. He was just going to have to practice until it came more smoothly.

Fortunately, there were a lot of targets in the valley to help.

“Let’s head out then,” he suggested, nodding toward his dad and Lesat. “We should be able to catch up to them in an hour or so.”

“We’ll leave the horses here and go on foot,” Jeric agreed with a rumble, his arms folded over his chest as he looked out the window toward the cave that was in the distance, too far away to see. “Less chance they’ll spot us that way.”

A moment later, everyone exchanged a few last words and then Sam, Jeric, and Lesat were off, heading out of the building.

---

The cave that Krana had seen was about an hour away on foot. Their steps were light and quick as they jogged toward it. Their Constitution was high enough that running for that distance was no trouble at all.

Emerald-green grass and flowering alpine meadows flickered past them as they moved, leaving the road behind as they headed cross country.

On the way, Sam’s mind was filled with patterns of crystal flame as he considered how to improve Starfire. The star concept was a permanent part of him now, but he needed to practice forming the rune in his aura.

From what Henar had said, the Iceblood Guild was going to give him plenty of targets to practice on. The brewer hadn’t been sure how many people were involved with the guild, but he did know that there were more than just these three.

From the sound of the attacks over the last year, Sam figured there had to be at least a dozen or them, and perhaps twice that or more.

Krana’s directions were easy enough to follow as they continued to run, their boots thudding nearly silently on the grass and dirt.

Before long, a sharp spur of stone came into sight as they neared the edge of the valley. It was about a hundred feet above the valley floor, part of a prominent shoulder of the mountain that loomed above them.

The cave was located at the bottom of that mountain, concealed behind a snow-streaked pine grove, just beyond the edge of the valley proper. Above it, the wild slopes of the surrounding mountains held dominance over the area.

Unlike the valley behind them, snow covered this area in constant drifts and flurries. The ground all around was coated in a layer nearly a foot deep. It was a sharp contrast from the gentle, early summer weather of the valley.

No one lived this far out, not unless they’d been exiled. This was the domain of the monsters and beasts that lived in the cold.

The opening to the cave was hard to spot, even with Krana’s guidance. The entrance was hidden in a patch of shadow below an overhanging rock, making it look like nothing more than another part of the mountain.

The blowing snow here had already covered over any tracks that the bandits had made on their way in.

The three of them didn’t speak. They just looked at one another and nodded. They’d already discussed their plan on the way here.

Lesat and Jeric spread out to the sides, taking up positions on either side of the cave mouth. Jeric’s eyes went distant for a moment as his Earth Sense extended into the cave, and then he looked back at Sam and gave him a single, firm nod.

The bandits were still inside.

A spiral of crystal flame poured out of Sam’s body, rising into a spiral all around him as he poured essence into his spell. A dozen crystal flame arrows separated out from it and then he started to condense a sphere with a flickering rune at the center.

He was planning to throw another Starfire into the cave, to finish this quickly.

SKREEEE!

At that moment, however, the piercing screech of something large and angry sounded from up above on the slope of the mountain above the cave.

A moment later, a ten-foot-long, green and white-scaled lizard with two bat-like wings and only rear legs swooped down from above, crashing into the area in front of the cave.

It had a long, bony head with prominent fangs jutting out from its mouth that gave it a cruel smile. Its wings were nearly twenty feet wide, twice its length. Its tail stretched out behind it with a sharp bone spur on the end, which could be used both for clubbing and impaling.

The monster reared back, its jaws splitting open to reveal foot-long fangs and a long grey-white tongue that lashed around like a whip before it released another high-pitched shriek.

Ice Wyvern. Level 46. (Alpine)

Sam stared at it for a moment, even as he started to pour even more essence out into his spell, redirecting it toward the new threat.

It was a far more dangerous opponent than the bandits inside the cave.

How had an ice wyvern suddenly appeared here?

Had it followed the bandits here, waiting to attack them and make a meal out of them...and now that it had seen Sam and the others, it wasn’t willing to let them steal its prey?

He wasn’t sure, but that was the only thing that made sense.

Based on its size and level, it was a juvenile wyvern, but it was no less dangerous for that.

Even a young wyvern was strong enough to kill almost everything at its own level. Their scales were as hard as mountain stone and their claws sharper than most swords.

At this age, it shouldn’t have many abilities besides its physical body, but that wasn’t much consolation. It was a monster that was built for killing everything around it.

Their simple hunting mission had just become a lot more complicated.

His father and Lesat jumped backwards, their weapons in their hands as shielding spells surrounded them.

Without hesitating, they took in what was happening and attacked the wyvern from both sides.

Unfortunately, the thing was fast.

It spun in place as its tail whipped around. The bone spur on the end cut through the air as fast as a striking viper, heading for Jeric.

At the same time, its wing lashed out to the other side, whistling like a saw cutting the air as it headed for Lesat. The wing was edged with bony spurs that could tear through unprotected flesh as easily as a saber.

His father and Lesat dove out of the way, hurling themselves out of range of the attacks in ungainly somersaults as they sacrificed finesse for speed.

They went rolling across the ground when they hit, twisting themselves into another roll as they tried to put more distance between them and the monster.

At the same time, the screech that the thing let out was more than loud enough to alert the bandits inside. A moment later, the three thugs came rushing out from the entrance, surrounded in a blur of energy from their abilities.

The three of them stared around the area, taking in what was happening.

The brawler and the half-giant looked none the worse for the battle a couple of hours before, but the sorcerer was still burnt across most of his body. Whatever else that ice pill had done to him, he hadn’t been able to heal much yet.

The sorcerer’s eyes were wide with surprise as he saw who they were.

“Kill them!” he shouted.

For a moment, Sam thought they hadn’t noticed the wyvern. He was surprised it didn’t take advantage of that opportunity to seize one of them and take off with its prey.

Then he saw the wyvern responding to the command, ignoring the bandits as it headed after his father, chasing him across the snowy grove in a flurry of lunging steps..

At that point, everything clicked into place.

This thing wasn’t hunting for food.

It was a guard.

He’d never heard of a monster working for humans before, and he had no idea how it was possible. Had they tamed it somehow or seized control of its mind?

He didn’t know of a class that could do that with monsters. There were Beastcallers in the world, but beasts and monsters were different.

Humans were only food to monsters.

The wyvern’s instincts should have rebelled as soon as it saw them.

He couldn't help putting together the wyvern's presence with the essence in the snow. It was a thought on the edge of his mind, putting the two strange things together.

He didn’t have any longer to think about it, since at that moment, the wyvern lunged again, snapping at his father. Its fangs were half a foot long, with easily a dozen of them along its top and bottom jaws.

Its attack splintered off of a golden-yellow shield as Jeric rolled wildly out of the way, but the shield wavered. The wyvern’s attacks were incredibly powerful, the strength behind them like a mountain collapsing.

At that moment, the bandits joined in on the attack, charging forward behind the wyvern. The brawler headed for Lesat again as the half-giant raced after the wyvern, heading for Jeric.

The sorcerer raised his arms as a swirling, icy-blue wind gathered around him, forming into a gale.

A surge of intense alarm shot through Sam like a lightning bolt.

This was not good.

His hand dropped with a flick as he released all twelve of the crystal flame arrows that he’d prepared, hurling them toward the sorcerer. They hissed through the air with crackling trails behind them.

An instant later, they slammed into the ice storm that he was summoning, tearing holes through it as they headed inward.

Seven of them broke apart as they shattered the storm wind, but the remaining five flew through, crashing against a shield that surrounded the sorcerer at the last moment.

The bandit staggered, his hands flailing in the air as he tried to control the backlash from his spell.

Sam didn’t have any more time to watch him as his Crystal Focus spread through the area, tracking the movement of everything around him.

Just then, the starfire spell that he’d been condensing finally came together, with four layers of crystal flame surrounding the intense, white rune at the center that was still only partially complete.

He raised it as he turned toward where the wyvern was chasing his father, holding the concept of the spell tightly with his soul.

At that moment, his hood fell back from his face, revealing long, curving horns that stretched back from his forehead and brilliant, crystal blue eyes with slit pupils that tracked the wyvern’s movements.

All around him, the snow burned away as his crystal blue aura flared higher, leaving him standing alone in the center of a swirling sphere of power.