BT II - Chapter 27 (Patreon)

Micah trudged through the forest next to Leeka while Jakaw sat perched on her shoulder, chattering at the two of them amiably.  The noon light filtered through the foliage as they made their way back to the teleportation beacon.  They’d spent the last night just outside of the dungeon, darkness having fallen while they had fought their way through the daemons to confront the pontiff.

Leeka pulled a nut from one of the leather pouches she kept around her waist.  Jakaw scurried down her arm, perching itself on the orange woman’s bulging bicep.  She clenched the nut in a double fisted grip, forearms straining as she exerted herself.

With a crunch from between her hands, Leeka opened her palm, picking out fragments of the nut’s shell before offering the remainder to the little monkey.  Jakaw chirped happily, reaching into her hand and stuffing its tiny face.

“You know,”  Leeka said, watching her companion eat.  “I’m not sure what the level was on those gorilla things, but after twelve rooms worth of them, I gained about three myself.  I’m pretty sure I got at least one from the fight with the river kraken too.  If this is how all of your fights are, I’m going to make it to level thirty in no time.”

He pulled up his status, checking on his gains from the last couple weeks.

Age 21 [ERROR] / 35

Class/Level Divine Candidate 51

XP 360,575/1,200,000

HP 8470/8470

Class Specialty

Chronomancer, Enchanter

Attributes

Body 55, Agility 55, Mind 111, Spirit 110

Attunement

Moon 105  Sun 70  Night 90

Mana

Moon 8625/8625 Sun 8555/8555 Night  8595/8595

Affinities

Time 10

Tier V - Foresight 19, Time Echos 3, Temporal Transfer 3, Haste 16
Tier VI - Temporal Vortex 14, Temporal Stutter 7, Stasis 6
Tier VII - Time Leash 7, Weave of Fate 5,

Tier VIII - Deja Vu 5

Wood 8

Tier I - Refresh 14, Mending 13, Plant Weave 21

Tier II - Augmented Mending 20, Root Spears 14

Tier III - Heal 13, Paralytic Sting 6, Explosive Thicket 12

Tier IV - Regeneration 14, Healing Wave 6, Poison Fog 15

Tier V - Panacea 6, Coma 5, False Life 3

Tier VI - Binding Vines 10, Infest 4

Air 7

Tier I - Gale 11, Air Knife 24, Air Supply 6
Tier II - Wind Shield 11, Sonic Bolt 18

Tier III - Updraft 5, Pressure Spear 15, Sonic Orb 14

Tier IV - Flight 14, Wind Blade 11

Tier V - Vacuum 5

Blessings

Mythic Blessing of Mursa - Blessed Return, Ageless Folio

Skills

Anatomy  10

Arcana   17

Enchanting  36

Fishing   2
Herbalism  5

Librarian  5

Ritual Magic  36

Spear   40

-Wind Spear 13
-TITS  22

Spellcasting  50

“Still not enough,” Micah grunted.  “I was over sixty when I tried to fight the third prince the first time, and I was barely able to hold it off long enough to escape.  Even then, it almost felt like it was toying with me.”

“Sixty?”  Leeka choked out.  “What the fuck am I supposed to do to an opponent that laughs at someone that’s level sixty?  Tell it jokes to distract it?”

“Don’t knock it until you try it,” Trevor cut in, offering a slice of dried fruit to Jakaw.  The small monkey jumped from Leeka’s arm and onto Trevor, plucking the food from his open hand.

“Sometimes Drekt and I can help,” he continued, “but when Micah takes on a high level enemy, we usually end up on crowd control or distractions.  I’ve tried bad jokes on a dune strider to break its concentration before.  They did piss it off, but javelins worked a lot better.”

“You’ll have to gain a couple of levels,” Micah replied, smiling slightly.  “But once you do, I think I’ll settle for crowd control.  There’s no question in my mind that the third prince will have dozens if not hundreds of minions.  Fighting the prince itself will take everything I have, and I’m going to need some help keeping them off of my back.”

“That sounds like something I can do,” Leeka mused.  “At a very minimum, even if my arrows aren’t doing much, it's not like I’ll be on the front lines.  I can always run for cover if things aren’t going well.”

“That’s the spirit!”  Trevor said, tucking his spear under his arm so that he could scratch Jakaw behind the ear.  “Stick with us and you’ll become an expert at hiding from cover while Micah casts world breaking spells against city devouring monsters.  The most important part is thinking up a story to justify your role in the encounter so that you can score some free food at the tavern after the battle.”

Ravi wandered up to the four of them, bumping Micah’s hand to the side as she slid her hand under his arm.  When he didn’t immediately respond, she pressed her shoulder against him, rubbing her body against his side while purring quietly.

“Jakaw gets pets,” she complained in his mind.  “Ravi is good girl.  Why not pet Ravi?”

Micah chuckled, sliding his hand up the big cat’s neck and scratching her behind the ears.  Ravi began purring loudly, rumbling into his hip as she continued pressing against him.

“Ravi and Telivern think new lady smells wrong,” she continued.  “She still smell like big furry monster from last fights.  Ravi doesn’t like.”

He glanced up at where Anne was leading the way, chatting quietly with Drekt.  They were escorting the woman back to Jakint which meant either a three day hike and hoping no one was overly upset over the disturbance Micah had made on his way out of town, or using the teleportation formation to sneak back in.

Escorting Anne into Jakint now that her Elsewhere granted powers were gone was only a small part of the reason they were going back.  Micah felt a bit bad when he thought of leaving the woman completely undefended.  After all, there were enough predators and dungeon break monsters in the forests outside of Jakint to make the area dangerous for anyone under level ten.

Instead, his primary concern was securing a guide through the Grass Sea.  He remembered vividly how lost he had gotten in the jungle.  Without Leeka’s help, he likely would have been stuck there for months, unable to make it to Jakint in time to help out his friends and family.

“Leeka,” Micah said, interrupting Trevor as his brother told an embellished story about a time they had retrieved a noble’s family heirloom from a particularly nasty dungeon.  “Are you absolutely sure we will need a guide across the Grass Sea?  Heading back to Jakint burns valuable time, and you heard the Pontiff.  He’s right about Dakkora’s tower, if he can finish looting it before I get there, that’s it.  The gods might as well get started on another Karell because this one is done.”

“I suppose theoretically we could try and navigate by the stars,” Leeka replied uncertainly.  “We would only be able to travel at night, and even then it would be slow moving.  In most places the grasses are too high so you’d either need to be flying, or we would need to stop every ten or so minutes to get a read on our direction.  Without any landmarks, there’s no guarantee that we wouldn’t get turned around.”

“That’s true,” Trevor agreed, “remember when we were in the shimmering wastes Micah?  We almost ran out of water because we ended up wandering in circles.  Every time you or I thought we were traveling in a straight line, we ended up curling back in on ourselves.”

“And the solution there was watching the stars too,” Micah mused.  “I suppose we were lucky that Drekt spent some time learning how to navigate via the constellations.  Without that, for all of our levels and blessings, we might have ended up as desiccated skeletons under a sand dune somewhere.  Dehydration doesn’t give a shit how much XP you have.  It’ll kill you all the same.”

“If the concern is about the time we’re spending on the road back to Jakint, there is another option,” Leeka interjected.  “Our tribe trades with a camp of Grass Sea nomads.  They have a semi-permanent camp on one of the Amghul’s tributaries that they call Swiftwater.  I’m not sure we’ll be able to find it without actually following the river, but it’s the only established settlement that I can think of within a day or so of travel from Jakint.”

“And the nomads will be able to help us?”  Micah asked.  “I can understand that they know the area better than an outsider, but that doesn’t sound like it would be all that useful.  When I think of local guides, I’m generally thinking of people that know the landmarks and lead you from one to another en route to your destination.  If there aren’t any landmarks, I’m not sure what locals can really add to the situation.”

Leeka shrugged, offering her arm to Jakaw before she answered.

“They can certainly find their way around the Grass Sea.  They have a caste of blessed that they call pathfinders.  The nomads really don’t talk that much about what goes into the blessing, but as best I can understand it’s at least Uncommon and it doesn’t have any combat elements.  Pathfinders can navigate the Grass Sea, but they aren’t terribly strong in fights so the nomads protect them as if they’re made from precious gems.”

“That doesn’t make it sound like it will be easy to convince a pathfinder to help us,” Micah replied with a frown.  “In fact, the way you’re talking about it, it might be easier to just kidnap one of them and force them to guide us.”

The three of them stopped talking for a second to watch Jakaw run up Leeka’s arm and pause on her shoulder.  The little monkey chittered happily before ascending her braid and perched triumphantly atop her head.

“I don’t know Micah,” Trevor said, breaking the silence.  “Trying to use a reluctant guide sounds like a good way for us to end up marching in a circle for a week while the guide’s friends organize themselves for a jailbreak.  Maybe we try the kidnapper route if everything else fails, but I’d suggest slotting that in somewhere after plan B.  Somewhere around D or F preferably.”

“We’ll try Jakint then,” Micah responded, biting back a sigh.  “I don’t like wasting time, but if there are pathfinders for hire in the city, we have to sneak in and give it a try.  I’m sure whoever it is will be happy about us sneaking them out of that nightmare, and it just seems like a much better bet than trying to track down an encampment and convince a pathfinder that the nomads need to abandon their duties and help us out.”

Eris ran by, chased closely by Esther, evidently playing a game of tag.  A half second later, Ravi bolted from Micah’s side, tackling Eris to the forest floor and letting Esther touch her.  Eris sputtered in indignation as Esther ran away giggling once again.

Micah shook his head, a half smile on his face as he jogged up to where Anne and Drekt were chatting.  He dropped into step next to them, listening in as Drekt continued talking about one of his favorite teahouses in Jakint.

While waiting for his turn to speak, Micah turned his attention to their surroundings.  He frowned as they passed a fallen tree covered in purple mushrooms.  It looked a lot like another downed tree that they had encountered about an hour ago.

“Anne,” He interjected as Drekt finished discussing a preferred floral tea blend.  “How far are we from the teleportation beacon?  I know that it took most of the day for us to get to the dungeon the first time, but it feels like we’ve been walking even longer than that this time.”

She froze, indecision on her face.  Micah frowned, a faint sense that something was amiss tracing gooseflesh across the back of his neck.

Then Anne’s legs burst into green flames.  She sprang from the ground, landing on a branch some fifteen paces in the air.  Micah began muttering the words to a spell, but before he could finish, her entire body ignited.

“So you finally noticed?”  Anne spat the words, her face twisted with exhaustion and pain.  “You might have taken most of my ichor and abilities, but no mere blessed could undo the holy rituals the Pontiff performed on me.  I played my role, distracting you long enough for him to get a head start across the Grass Sea, but now it’s time to end this farce.”

On either side of the trail, the forest shimmered.  It was as if he was looking at the world through a pane of smudged glass that had been abruptly cleaned.  Suddenly the world grew clearer, and with it two dozen forgotten appeared on either side of the path.

As one, the hands of the front rank of enemies erupted into green flame while behind them, figures in the same bishop robes they had found Anne in began to weave complex runes in the air with streaks of green light.

“There are no pathfinders left for you in Jakint, Micah Silver,” Anne continued, sinking down to one knee on the tree branch as the fire around her guttered out.  Despite her boasts, it was clear that his ritual had robbed her of most of her power.  “The Pontiff took two and killed the rest.  It was all a trap.  From the moment you captured me and knocked me unconscious the Pontiff has been monitoring my location and listening to your every word through my ears.  He knows everything.”

Micah looked back and forth at the forgotten forces, chewing his lower lip.  Then his eyes darted to where Eris and Esther stood back to back, weapons at ready and determined expressions on their faces.

He might be able to win the fight on his own, but it would require high level destructive magic that would ravage the entire area.  Taken by surprise like this, there was no way that he could assure their safety.  Worse, at least the bishops were capable of soul attacks meaning that even Trevor and Drekt weren’t safe.

A victory that cost him his family wasn’t anything to brag about.  On top of that, winning the fight would earn him nothing behind a handful of experience.  If Anne were telling the truth, and he had no reason to believe she wasn’t, fighting his way through to Jakint would only serve to leave him trapped inside the chaotic city once more.  Somehow, even further away from Dakkora’s laboratory than he was right now.

“Any last words, Silver?”  Anne sneered down at him.  “Fighting the Pontiff is futile, but I suppose you at least should get some credit for your tepid successes.  They were much more than any of his other opponents could manage.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t fix you,” Micah replied, reaching up with his free hand to touch the Maarikava fangs built into the shoulder-guard of his armor.  “Unfortunately, I won’t have the luxury of trying a second time.  I apologize.”

“A second time?”  She shrieked, motioning with a hand toward the forces that were encircling Micah.  “Take stock of your situation.  You’re surrounded and outclassed, I doubt you’ll survive for more than-”

He lost track of what he was saying as the Astria activated, pulling him back in time.  Green flames re-appeared around Anne as she jumped off of the tree landing next to Micah as the rest of the forgotten disappeared.

The world accelerated, reversing itself faster and faster, dragging Micah away from the ambush and up the trail.  His surroundings blurred as hours passed in seconds.  Only when Micah found himself in the dungeon did he push back against the Astria, forcefully breaking the force of the enchantment.

The fangs dimmed as Micah staggered, gasping for breath from the energy he’d expended to stop his backward trip prematurely.  Quietly, the Astria began gathering mana as it began its week-long effort to recharge.

“Are you all right?”  Drekt asked, reaching a large hand out to stabilize Micah.

He nodded, the brief spell of disorientation fading as he oriented himself.  Micah was in the converted boss chamber of the dungeon.  Trevor, Drekt, Leeka and Anne were standing in a circle while Eris and Esther played games with Ravi.  Ostensibly, Telivern was watching over the two of them, but Micah knew that the stag was more exasperated than observant.

“Anyway,” Anne said.  “I was saying that we should head back to Jakint.  I’ll never make it through the forest on my own, and if you are seeking to cross the Grass Sea, you’ll be able to hire a guide in the city.  It won’t take that long if you use the teleportation runes that-”

Micah’s spear erupted from the back of her neck, ripping out Anne’s throat and severing her spine in one clean thrust.  Her eyes erupted into hatred, glaring at him a half second before her body was consumed by familiar green flames.

“What in the name of the Sixteen!”  Leeka shouted, jumping back.  “Micah what the fuck are you doing?’

He sighed, retracting his spear and wiping its tip on his thigh to cleanse it of Anne’s blood.  Looking up at Leeka, he grimaced.

“It was all a trap,” Micah said woodenly  “She was going to delay us and lead us into an ambush.  Even redirecting us to this dungeon was only so that she could buy the Pontiff time to get a head start.”

“But how could you know?”  She asked, looking from Trevor to Drekt for support.  “One minute you’re normal, the next you stumble and kill her out of hand.  How do we know that you haven’t been possessed or something?”

Drekt put a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head silently.

“Because I used time magic to escape her ambush,” Micah replied.  “Jakint is closed off to us.  All of the pathfinders are dead.  Our only option is to set off into the Grass Sea on our own in search of Swiftwater and hope for the best.”