Aster Fall, Ch 34: A Ruined Building (Patreon)

The building in front of them was a tumbled-down circular ruin, more intact in some parts than in others. What had once been the front wall and entrance was a shattered mess, but the back and sides were still standing and had most of a roof attached.

The snow was piled up a half a dozen feet deep around the sides of the building, like a silent blanket cradling the structure.

Above, the sky was just starting to fade to dusk as Caelus moved across the horizon. From their position now, the blue moon was almost directly above Sun Rest, waiting to fall below the horizon on the opposite side.

As the moonlight touched the mountain, the silver-green energy in the ruins hummed more loudly, its pitch increasing until it was impossible for Sam to ignore. It wasn’t exactly a sound, but instead the vibration of the mana here rising until it was as distracting as a river rushing through a stone valley.

As the moonlight fell, the ruins started to glow in the dusk, the silver-green energy rising up out of the stones to illuminate them. All around, tumbled stones and broken buildings came to life, their forms shining beneath the snow.

It was an ethereal sight, a ghostly, silver-green city sleeping beneath the snow.

“Now,” his father whispered, his hand resting on Sam’s shoulder as the two of them moved forward. To the left and right, the others moved forward as well, with everyone divided into pairs.

Krana was with Lesat to the left, heading up around the corner of a broken wall as they moved forward toward the target. The adventurers were off to the right, divided into two teams with the wizard and ranger together in one and the barbarian and priestess together in the other.

Selis and Obel, and Cesten and Arene, he muttered to himself, reminding himself of their names. If they were going to work together, he should at least try to remember that.

If he wanted to get along with people in the world, he was going to have to make allowances for their initial reaction to his appearance. Maybe his standard greeting in the future would be a death threat. It had worked pretty well on these four.

Get over it or die.

He smiled for an instant before he pushed the thought aside and headed around the corner, keeping the pace with his father.

They’d spent a little while spying on this building, and as far as he could tell, there were at least ten more Coldfang Beheaders here, including one Pack Leader. It looked like half of their force had gone off to chase the adventurers before.

Hopefully, there would be some evidence here that led them to the Grand Flaw.

There were four guards visible on the outside of the building, keeping watch with their long, furred bodies lying in the snow while their heads turned from side to side. Their eyes were a bright blue-green and reflected the light of the moon above.

For now, they were calm. They almost looked half asleep as they kept watch.

On the slope above, the pillar that Cesten’s team wanted to reach was just out of sight around a curve in the stone. It was likely that anything they did down here would draw attention, so he had to make sure to be ready for whatever came.

He could sense the essence in the guards like a beacon, one that was singing with a threat. It was a sizzling presence.

He did his best to keep his own essence calm, trying to hide his presence. So far, it seemed like it was working.

Now.

The signal passed in a wave from Jeric to Cesten. The amulet on Sam’s chest pulsed a moment later with Krana and Lesat’s acknowledgement.

All four teams attacked at the same time, each of them targeting a guard with their swiftest spells and abilities.

A row of earthen spikes formed from the ground beneath the Coldfang on the left, followed by a violet bolt of energy, a sphere of white flame, and a trio of flaming arrows that came in from the right.

A Starfire flew out from Sam’s hand, heading for one of the two middle guards.

The spells hurtled through the air, closing the distance in an instant, but before they could get too close, the four guards let out a roar as they surged to their feet.

A dusky blue shield formed around them as they raised their bladed arms into the air, crossing them in front of their chests.

Their eyes swiveled toward Sam and a pulse of awareness echoed through the essence stars in his blood. An answering pulse came back from him, as he felt their presences pushing up against his senses.

An emotion that was a lot like mockery pressed against his senses as their eyes settled on him.

Damn it. They were waiting for us.

Either his efforts to conceal his presence hadn’t worked or they’d already known they were there. Their passivity had been a ruse.

KraaAATOOOOmmm!

At that point, the attacks collided with the Coldfangs’ barriers, resulting in an explosive impact that ripped through the area.

The force washed over their defense, eroding patches of their shield and ripping through, but it was nowhere near as effective as he’d hoped it would be.

Most of the sound came from the explosion of Starfire, but the other attacks added their own reverberating notes that turned the area around the building into a beacon for anything within a mile or more.

He cursed, wishing he could have raised a privacy barrier, but it hadn’t been possible with the distance.

The attacks killed two of the four, including one of those hit by Starfire, but the other two survived. The Outsiders’ heads tilted back to the sky as they let out another roar, further ruining any attempt at stealth as they alerted everything inside the building.

A surge of more Coldfangs poured out of the ruined wall that made up the face of the building, their blade arms raised. The wall was broken enough that they were outside in an instant, eight of them joining the two still alive.

He was expecting the ten Outsiders to charge forward and attack, but strangely, they didn’t. Their eyes glittered with a cold malice and a sheen of threatening blue energy ran up and down their ice blades, but they held their position.

Thud.

The ruins trembled as something inside the building began to move, sending out a deep, muffled echo. Strangely, the stones beneath the blanket of the snow didn’t shift at all, and neither did the mountain beneath his feet.

The sound was unnatural, felt more in his blood and essence sense than in reality. His father frowned, turning toward the sound as well, which meant that Sam wasn’t the only one to hear it.

ThuuUUdd.

It came again, even louder, as something large forced its way out of the ruined building. The first glimpse of it was of something with scales. It was green, with striations of white and grey mixed in, like lichen that was growing where the scales met.

A large, bumpy head forced its way out of the ruined building, letting out a roar as its mouth dropped open to reveal a set of fangs twice as large as the wyverns he’d seen before.

Its head swiveled towards them as large grey eyes swirled, hidden deeply within hardened ridges of green scales. They held a deadly, shining light.

Greystone Basilisk. Outsider. Level 68.

The Outsider forced its way out of the ruins, shouldering aside slabs of stone and snowdrifts. The building was barely able to hold it. Every moment or two, another thud echoed out in the area.

Its eyes were the size of dinner plates, dominating its bumpy, scaled head that resembled a lizard’s. A series of rough, stubby spikes rose out of the back of its skull like a mane and continued down its spine.

When it was fully revealed, it was nearly forty feet long and almost fifteen feet wide at the shoulders. It had four legs, similar to a lizard. The bumpy green scales with grey and white growths along them covered it from head to tail, with darker scales on its back and sides and a pale, white-green underbelly.

Its tail was long with a bone club and spike at the end, and it lashed at the ground as it walked. As it struck the ground, the thud rang out again.

There was a dense glow of essence around the thing’s head and tail, and from the pressure it was giving off, it was clear the basilisk was the strongest enemy he’d ever faced.

If it had to fight a wyvern, unless the wyvern managed to fly away, this thing would pulverize it. Its scales looked at least twice as thick as a wyvern’s, along with whatever abilities it had as an Outsider.

Now that it was free of the building, its gaze lashed around the area, taking in everything that was happening. A long, rolling hissss came out of its mouth as it saw them, followed by a wave of pressure.

It hit their senses like a tidal wave, rolling over them with a crushing intent that tried to lock them in place.

The essence stars in Sam’s blood and his crystal flame both surged in response, pushing outwards as his battle aura surrounded him instinctively, along with a massive wave of crystal flame that spiraled around his body.

He could feel the aura trying to sink into him, weighing down on his limbs and lungs, but his defenses pushed it back with a competing pressure, burning it away.

Essence-Based Attack Detected.

Ability Analyzed: Aura of Paralysis.

World Core Alerted to Outsider Presence....

The Guardian Star suddenly spoke up, followed a moment later by the cold voice of the World Law that resonated in his mind.

Non-Authorized Essence-Based Entity Detected.

Analysis received from Guardian Star of Sam Hastern.

Outsider Identified: Escaped Prisoner from Aster Fall World Seal.

As the closest Authority of Law, you are tasked to eliminate it.

Time Limit: One day before other authorities are summoned.

Elite Tier Reward Available.

“This isn’t good.” Beside him, his father’s face was strained, but he was still moving and able to speak. His Constitution and Earth class were enough to withstand the basilisk’s Aura of Paralysis, but past him, it looked like the others were in more serious trouble.

“Nearly everyone is frozen in place.”

The basilisk outleveled most of them by fifteen to twenty levels, and its aura was wreaking havoc.

Sam didn’t have much time to analyze what the World Law was telling him, but it was clear that this Outsider was different from the Coldfangs. It was the first thing he’d ever encountered that made the Guardian Star react like this.

Because it had escaped from the Seal.

That meant every other Outsider so far had come in from somewhere else.

Memories of the void stretching out into the distance came to him from his dreams, and the Outsiders’ desire for the stars. They weren’t just in the prison of the World Seal. They were still out there somewhere among the stars, wherever they had first come from.

The other side of the Nexus.

He didn’t know what they were doing here or how they were all working together. They could be trying to free the prisoners or the basilisk might have escaped due to the presence of the Flaw.

Whatever it was, he had to stop it.

He couldn’t imagine this thing stomping its way through the Ice Sylph village, heading for his mother and sister.

That was all he had time to consider as the basilisk turned its head from side to side, studying them as its jaw gaped wide, revealing teeth the size of Sam’s arm and a pointed, grey and pink tongue.

Its tail rose into the air and slammed to the ground with another great, resounding thud that shook through his bones. It let out a roar as spit flew from its jaws, making the Coldfangs in front of it shake as the force passed over them.

The roar mixed with the Aura of Paralysis and became an attack all its own. When it hit him, he felt the sonic vibration of it trying to shake him apart, as well as that heavy, deadening pressure from the aura trying to sink into his limbs.

The basilisk’s abilities were a powerful combination for fighting crowds, paralyzing them and then shaking them apart, and that was before its size and strength came into play.

Whatever place this beast came from, it was beyond dangerous.

The essence stars in his blood formed an internal network that was resisting part of the pressure, but it wasn’t enough by itself. The formation there wasn’t complete and it wasn’t able to operate efficiently.

However the ranks of essence worked, this beast was much stronger than him.

His Aura of Crystal Flame and essence pool took up the slack, pouring out of his body and pushing aside the attack as they gave him the space to move.

Beside him, his father was surrounded in the golden gleam of stamina and his Earthen Shield. His veins stood out in stark lines against his muscles as he pushed forward, his hammers in his hands.

His Constitution was still enough to resist, but it wasn’t clear how long he could endure it.

“We have to stop that thing,” Jeric growled, looking to both sides as he pushed forward. “Or we’re all going to die. Sam, you figure out a way to shut it up and get rid of this pressure, if you can. The others aren’t handling it well. I’ll work on the Coldfangs and try to lead it in a circle. It can’t be that fast in all this snow.”

With that, Jeric let out a roar of his own as he burst into movement, racing bravely across the top of the snow toward the basilisk.

He was a tiny figure compared to its bulk, but the weight of his presence in Sam’s mind was much more important.

A spike of true panic passed through Sam for the first time in months as he saw his father running into danger. Even against the first wyvern, as bloody as that had been, he’d been confident in fixing things.

Now, he wasn’t so sure.

Ahead of him, the Coldfangs split into a wave that charged forward, their clawed feet carrying them on top of the snow. The basilisk was the main force, but these were the scouts, light and quick, to harass the foe.

If he didn’t deal with them, they would end up pinning his father down.

He unleashed every charge he had in the Starflame bracer at them, sending a wave of 200 star-tipped blue arrows hurtling across the snow like a field of sparkling meteors.

Their bladed arms rose and blue shields surrounded them again. At the same time as he attacked, he saw other attacks coming in from the left and right.

The Coldfangs were in a loose half-circle and explosive impacts rippled across their shields, tearing through the gaps.

Starflame arrows exploded around their legs, backs, under their feet, and shattered chunks of their barriers, tearing holes for other arrows to rip through.

Shattering eruptions of blue and white light, star-like bursts as each arrow exploded, and then flares of Earthen spikes and other spells all arrived at once.

A flare of yellow Earth magic sprang up from his left as Krana’s spells struck, letting him know that she’d managed to resist the aura and was still there.

Next to her, Lesat was having a much harder job of it, straining to move as the enchantments on his armor and shield buffered him from the attack. There was blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

The adventurers to his right were less successful, but there was a shaky violet bolt that came in from Obel, who was doing better than Selis. The Lykaris seemed to be frozen in place, her skin turning grey.

Past them, Arene was slumped forward, her hand outward as she tried to ward off the basilisk’s aura, but she hadn’t managed it completely. Half of her arm was also turning grey. Cesten was next to her, his legs braced as he raised a spear into the air to throw.

Useless, he growled as he pushed them out of his mind.

His father was the only one he needed to worry about.

The snow flickered under his feet as he raced forward, his battle aura springing out from the partially-completed essence formation.