Aster Fall, Ch 32: Coldfang Beheaders (Patreon)

Sam sprinted forward, pushing himself ahead with a burst of crystal flame as he launched himself off the upper wall. Another flare of flame beneath his feet slowed his landing as he hit the snow below.

It felt like the snow compacted, shifting to support him and absorb the impact, but he didn’t have time to pay too much attention to it.

The ruins were uneven here, with many stones hidden beneath the snow, which was probably what the priestess had stumbled over. Now that they were closer, he could see the adventurers were all wearing some type of snowshoe.

Since he’d decided to help, there was no reason to hesitate. The adventurers were about two hundred yards away now and he was heading for them at full speed.

Even so, the Coldfang Beheaders were closer to them than he was. The adventurers turned to fight them, forming a tight group around the priestess who was just starting to climb back to her feet.

It made him like them just a bit more than before, since they hadn’t abandoned her to save themselves.

The Coldfang Pack Leader was at the head of the Outsiders and it slammed into the Barbarian-Tundra Walker, who had moved to the front of the group.

The man was holding a huge spear and tried to brace himself against the assault as a shield of golden Stamina flared around his body, but it wasn’t enough to stop the charge.

The crunch of the impact was audible even from where Sam was running, and the barbarian doubled over, sliding backwards as the Pack Leader’s bladed arms swept toward his head.

The Lykaris had a bow in her hand and a series of flaming arrows blasted away from her, sizzling through the air toward the Coldfang to intercept the blow.

The arrows were enough to halt its movements as it raised its arms into the air to cover its face. The icy blades on its arms grew outwards, transforming into a broader shield as they struck. They bored into the ice with sizzling explosions of steam.

From behind the Pack Leader, the howls of the other Coldfangs rose into the air as they closed the gap.

The Lykari were a strange race, tall and thin humanoids with an affinity for Fire and a penchant for fits of rage. Legends said they were descended from fire spirits, or perhaps cousins to the sylphs, but their personalities were very different.

He’d never met one before, but this one was identifiable on sight. She was nearly nine feet tall, and incredibly thin, less than a foot across at the hips, like a tall, angular blade. Her limbs were also longer than a human’s, with joints that looked more flexible. He’d heard they made excellent blademasters and scouts.

This one proved the truth about her race’s inclination for anger as she let out a howling scream and threw herself forward at the Coldfang. A sphere of fire burned around her like she was an orange fireball as twin khopeshes appeared in her hands.

Her attacks were broad, slashing cuts as she darted toward the Coldfang and back out again. She spun back from another angle a moment later, demonstrating a lithe grace.

Her blades struck together, curved back along their paths, and struck again, slicing chunks out of the Pack Leader’s shield, but she was unable to break through it.

A howl rose up from the rest of the Coldfangs as they closed in.

The Wizard-Mage summoned up a violet defensive shield around the group, but it didn’t look like it would last long. He was hurriedly pulling objects from his pouches, activating them in a blur of movement.

Behind Sam, his father, Krana, and Lesat sprinted across the snow, surrounded by the glow of their mana and enchantments as they headed on a slightly different path to intercept the Outsiders, curving around to the left.

A Starfire spell formed in Sam’s hands as he got close enough to help. He targeted the rear of the Coldfang pack as he released it, sending it hurtling forward with a whistling sound as it tore through the air.

The spell exploded among the back rank of the Outsiders, tossing four of the Coldfangs away in a tumble of wolfen limbs and flailing ice blades.

A loud skrreewckk rose up from them with a sound more like an angry spider than the misshapen wolves they resembled. The Coldfangs’ mouths gaped a foot wide as their fangs flashed and blue spittle flew from their jaws.

He had no interest in drawing out the fight, nor in getting into a melee battle with the things.

A wave of 200 Spellflame arrows ripped through the air in front of him as he unloaded every single charge in his bracer.

At the same time, another rippling blue-white sphere of Starfire appeared in his hand as he slid to a halt a few dozen feet from the adventurers.

The arrows hit before the Coldfangs could advance any faster and tore through the Outsiders like a storm of lightning going through a spider’s web.

Explosions of sizzling blue-black blood erupted from their bodies as limbs went flying into the air, some of them even heading in his direction to crash against an Essence Shield that he hastily raised.

A moment later, a wave of earthen spikes from Krana tore through their ranks and then his father and Lesat were there, slamming into the remaining Coldfangs from the side.

It was more than enough to kill them.

The Lykaris and other adventurers didn’t refuse the help. They simply poured on their attacks as they focused on the Pack Leader, which Sam's group left for them to handle.

The Ranger-Shaman continued her flaming dance with the twin khopeshes, and the barbarian joined in, now that he had a chance to regain his feet, stabbing forward with his spear as he tried to break through the Outsider’s defense.

Whirling icy shards broke free from the Pack Leader’s shield as it split back into blades and intercepted the attacks. It was far stronger than the other Coldfangs behind it and proved it as it forced the adventurers back step by step.

The wizard’s shield flared with a brilliant violet as it shuddered under the creature’s blows and then stabilized as the priestess joined in on the defense, her hands glowing with white mana as she poured her support into the spell.

By then, the last of the eight regular Coldfangs had been crushed under Jeric and Lesat's assault and the battle was already decided, but it took a little while to bring it to a conclusion.

Only the Pack Leader presented a real obstacle. Sam kept his eye on it as the Starfire spell floated in his hand, waiting to see if it would be necessary.

As it turned out, it wasn’t. The addition of their force was enough to take the pressure off the adventurers and gave them the chance to slowly wear down the Pack Leader.

The Barbarian and Lykaris took some injuries from being in melee range, but the priestess’s healing magic was already at work on them.

As the battle settled down, Sam took control of the essence in his Starfire spell, slowly stripping it away layer by layer. He couldn’t reclaim it for his essence pool, since it didn’t seem to work like that, but he could send it into his bracer to recharge it.

It would take a little while to refill the artifact, but it was too important of a weapon to ignore. He could have held some of it back, but he had a preference for keeping his essence in reserve instead, especially when he didn’t know the adventurers’ intentions.

Plus, it had been too tempting to annihilate the Coldfangs with overwhelming force.

When everything was settled, he pulled back farther, letting his father take the main stage as the focus of the adventurers’ attention. He had no desire to let them see his features.

If he’d had his preference, they’d leave again at once, but that would probably come across as strange and memorable. It was also tempting was to see if they had any information about the ruins.

“Thank you for your help...” the barbarian said with a frown as he looked between Jeric and Lesat, and then toward Krana and Sam. “Without you, we’d be dead by now, I’m sure.”

Now that the Pack Leader was dealt with, the adventurers pulled themselves together and stood shoulder to shoulder, looking across the dozen or so feet that separated them from Jeric and Lesat.

Farther away, Krana had come up by Sam’s side and was keeping him company, making him look less suspicious. There were a few pings against his amulet, but as far as the adventurers could tell, he was just a reclusive caster keeping his distance.

“Who are you? Are you adventurers?” The Lykaris was looking around the area and at them with quick, darting glances, her hands on her khopeshes. Her long limbs twitched with restless energy, as if it was difficult for her to not move, which gave her every action an unsettling nervousness.

She looked uncertain, turning from one of them to the next as she wondered if these newcomers were dangerous, or even planning to kill them themselves, now that they were worn down.

They’d saved them, but that didn’t mean they were friends.

The barbarian was a tall, muscular man with dark hair who looked to be in his early thirties. His main distinguishing feature was a dark, mottled scar that cut down the side of his neck and shoulder, eventually moving under the fur he had wrapped around him like a cloak.

Whatever healing he’d had for that, it hadn’t been enough. Perhaps he was keeping it as a souvenir.

He was only wearing the fur cloak and a tunic, plus breeches and the snowshoes tied below his boots, making it clear that his Constitution was high enough for him to not worry much about the snow here.

As for the Lykaris, she was wearing a ranger’s leathers, a tight-fitting suit of mottled browns with some embroidered leaves edged in fire. It looked like her race’s penchant for flames extended to their clothing as well.

Her features were angular with sharp planes that marked out her cheeks and eyes. Like her limbs, her face was longer than a human’s, resembling a stretched-out blade.

The Wizard-Mage was a middle-aged man with sandy brown hair whose face was streaked with sweat. He was slightly overweight and bundled up in layers of furs, on top of a warming artifact that was gleaming around one wrist.

From the look of it, he was the worst off of the lot in this weather.

The half-Water Spirit Priestess was a slender woman with bright blue eyes and ivory skin that gleamed with a subtle inner light, almost as if there were water mana shining outward from her skin.

It was hard to tell her age, but from her posture, he’d put her closer to thirty than to twenty, or perhaps older. Her features were delicate and composed, despite the brush with disaster.

Her gaze moved past Jeric and Lesat to settle on Sam, and he saw her frown as his amulet pinged again.

“We’re not adventurers,” Jeric replied, shaking his head to deny that. He barely held back an expression of distaste. “We’re here looking for Outsiders, to make sure they die. That’s what you just fought, so we helped. There’s a Flaw here, somewhere, and we need to find it and close it.”

His words were direct and blunt. He'd hooked his hammers back on his belt to be less threatening. His hands were on his hips as he looked from one of them to the next.

There was no reason to hold back their mission, especially since it was one that would put them in the good graces of most people in the world.

“You’re with the church?” The Water Soul’s expression perked up as surprise and doubt flitted across her face. “You don’t look...quite like a church team.”

“No, although we do have a Paladin with us,” Jeric replied, shaking his head. “The information about the Flaw is new, and she’s off in Highfold gathering more troops. We’re here scouting the ruins for the exact location.”

“I see...” the barbarian said, relaxing a bit as he heard their purpose. He looked between them and then the Water Soul, gauging her reaction, and then nodded. “Let’s split up the experience here and then we can talk. We’ve seen a couple of things that might be useful to you.

“These aren’t the only Outsiders we've seen here and we were wondering what was going on.... If there’s a Flaw, things are going to get worse. Even without the church or the World Law conscripting people to help, it’ll be hard to avoid that.”

The barbarian's tone suggested he'd prefer to stay far away from the Flaw and any Outsiders. He looked at Jeric’s forthright expression and then toward the others, his gaze stopping on Sam for a moment with a trace of puzzlement, but his worries were fading now that he’d heard their purpose.

He just wanted to leave as quickly as possible, so he didn't get wrapped up in it.

“We'll tell you where we saw those Outsiders, and then maybe you can help us with our goal,” he said, now that he was fairly sure they weren’t bandits.

“We’re looking for a specific formation here in the ruins, which is useful to Selis and Arene. It’s supposed to have the ability to enhance elemental affinity." He nodded toward the Lykaris and the priestess.

“There’s no reason to keep that secret...since it’s where the rest of the Outsiders are that we saw.” He grimaced as he considered the opposition they were facing in getting to it, as well as that he'd have to get close to a Flaw.

“Maybe your Flaw is nearby and we can all help each other out. You deal with your target and we'll deal with ours.”

With that, the two sides relaxed a bit and turned toward the corpses, gathering the experience from them together.

There was no silver bubble of experience from them this time, perhaps because they weren’t near a Flaw, and the World Law was silent, but there was a typical party split of experience between everyone there.

As far as the World Law was concerned, all eight of them were a group for this battle.

You have used your Class abilities to slay enemies of Aster Fall.

You gain 542,720 Class experience.

Congratulations. You are now a Level 58 Battlefield Reclaimer.

Class Experience: 7,164,940 /  7,540,000

You are now General Level 58.

Total Experience: 7,188,190 / 7,540,000

You gain +2 Aura, +2 Intelligence, and have six free attribute points to distribute.

When the shimmering chime of the experience notification faded away and the energy settled into his body, he divided the free points between Intelligence and Aura, which left him with 126 in each attribute.

With the Starflame Bracer, he was up to 132.

He kept finding himself in larger battles that lasted for a while, which meant that he needed to increase his essence pool.

When that was done, he turned to the monsters and tore the essence stars out of their corpses. According to his father, the stars pulling free from the corpses and flying to him were visible to others, but the flaring light and auras that he saw weren’t as intense for them.

They just looked like small flickering stars.

Racial Essence: 832 / 1,000

Attribute Gain Quantified By Aster Fall Standard.

Strength increased by 2.

Constitution increased by 3.

Agility increased by 1.

Intelligence increased by 4.

Aura increased by 4.

The essence stars locked into place, expanding the essence constellation in his blood, expanding the network further, but when it was done it still wasn’t clear what the final form would be.

One more big fight and....

“What are you doing?” the Water Spirit interrupted with a frown, walking closer to him as she watched. The enemies were dead, but she’d never seen anything like it before.

“My class is unique...Battlefield Reclaimer,” Sam replied, trying to hold back his irritation at the disruption as he gave the excuse he’d come up with. He didn’t bother turning around. “I’m reclaiming part of their energy to use in battle.”

It had the advantage of even being true in case someone was trying to detect that, like Lenei, although what he was actually doing was far more important.

Unique classes were a well-known topic in the world, although rare, and he was offering up the information easily enough. If she kept pushing, it would be impolite, like prying into his secrets and asking exactly how much mana or Constitution he had.

Asking that sort of thing wasn’t appropriate, not unless you were someone’s student or a very good ally.

“I see...” she said slowly, before her words turned in a direction he hadn’t expected, her voice sharpening as she tried to stare beneath his hood. “Are you really working with the church...Outsider?”

A sharp feeling like a drawn blade surged in his awareness as the priestess’s hand slashed out toward him.

Sam turned toward her as a wave of anger ran through his chest, his hand slamming up against hers as he gripped her wrist, halting the descent of a silver dagger in her hand.

Crystal Focus had outlined the movement in sharp detail, and she was far weaker than he was, but she didn’t stop there.

Her other hand came out with another knife and slashed toward him again, which he knocked away with his bracer.

He spun in place, twisting her arm around and down as he threw her away from him. She landed half a dozen feet away, upside down in the snow.

“Traitor!”

The Lykaris’s shout echoed through the air as her bow came out. Before he could say anything, three flaming arrows headed in his direction.

The arrows crashed against a hasty Essence Shield as Sam’s hands rose into the air, the heat from them creating weird purple-orange sparks as the energy from the Lykaris’s flames hit the shield.

The anger in his chest reverberated with the essence stars in his blood, intensifying as it flowed from star to star like an echo, cycling through his blood and returning again, growing stronger with each beat of his heart.

A surge of overwhelming pride, the desire to conquer everything before him, and volcanic wrath came with it.

How dare this weak thing challenge me.

Before he could think about what he was doing, a pulse of crystal flame flared around him and he shot toward the Lykaris as his battle aura rose from his skin.

She was drawing the bow back for another shot as his talons stretched out around her neck, seizing her in a death grip. She was too tall for him to raise from the ground, but his arm was locked in place as she rose onto her toes, trying to back away from his grasp.

KrgghhkkK. A choked sound issued from her throat.

When she wasn't able to escape, a halo of orange flames surged up around her skin as she tried to fight back.

The flames washed against his hand like questing fingers, filled with her unique mana signature and some element of jittery, frenetic energy.

They tried to stab at him like little daggers, digging at him, but they failed to even touch his skin as the flames washed over him, flowing away with no effect.

Another choked sound came from the Lykaris.

Sam’s grip was tight as he held her at arm’s length, stretching her out as high as he could reach, but the wrath that was flowing through him was so intense that he couldn’t form his thoughts into speech.

All that came out of his throat was a low, reverberating growl.