Chapter 257 - Just two losers (Patreon)

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POV Tess Hansen

A day has passed since the attack of the Colony and the city is still a mess. Lynthari are left without their new matriarch, Myrra Humans are looking for someone to blame, and rumors about lynthari being invaders are spreading.

Lorven being a traitor, Isola terribly hurt, and Obelia reorganizing her guild and moving it to a different building.

Hundreds of dead fill the streets, many of which are destroyed, and houses are unusable.

It's not a nice look. But it's hard to care for all of that while looking at the situation in our group. Hadwin is dead, Nathaniel is gone, Lily moving like a soulless husk while mumbling that even Nathaniel left her. The twins blaming Sophie for not doing well enough even after they let her use their skill. Kim awkwardly trying to get everyone to get along.

And I as well, feeling my uselessness during all of that. I know that the enemy we faced wasn't weak, yet I still feel that I could and should have done more.

I sigh and look at Maya sitting next to me, both of us in the garden of one of the smaller houses Obelia got for us.

“You are sighing way too much, Tess,” she smiles, but that smile doesn't reach her eyes.

“Not everyone can use their skill to block some emotions,” I shoot back at her.

Maya just nods, “So, what are we going to do?”

“Become stronger, obviously.”

“You are not worried about the Colony?”

“I am, the First One was terrifying. But Nat hurt him badly and knowing him, he is after the ant to finish what he started. Especially after what that ant did to Hadwin.”

“But that isn't the only reason he left,” she says, and I nod.

I continue, “I think it's better this way, Maya, I really do. We started relying on him way too much, and the fight against the First One was a wake-up call. Yes, the situation was terrible, yet in the future, it will probably become way worse.”

“Lily got too attached, Kim followed him like a puppy, and I kept asking him for advice,” Maya counts out, “I mean, it's not that bad to do such a thing, there are bigger groups in Hell difficulty than ours doing team play, but I do agree with you that we might have become too comfortable.”

“Yes, that's why we will be on our own for a while, Maya. We will level up, we will help Lily with Beyond, and we will go and take down the Fallen Hero on our own.”

“And if someone else dies, Tess?”

“I won't allow it. And if anyone won't want to go, they can stay here for the rest of the tutorial, I won't blame them.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Maya pokes my shoulder and stands up, “I will talk with the twins and Kim and help them a bit, will you deal with Sophie and Lily? Both of them seem down too.”

“Look at you, giving me orders,” I stand up, and a tired smile climbs onto my lips.

Maya's expression is gentle, “I think they are not the only ones that need some help and time to process it all, Tess, so think of yourself too, and if you need help, come to me. You can think of me as a knock-off version of that weirdo.”

I'm the one who wanted this group to happen, and I'm the one who kept urging Nat to join it, trying to make us all friends, so I better not let it fall apart so easily.

Having Maya worry about me feels weird, but in a nice way, as she said, with her [Focus], she is at times similar to Nat, calm when someone reliable is needed, and she is smarter than she usually lets on.

And now that Hadwin is… I shake my head and push the thought out. There will be time for me to grieve later, “Yes, let's prove that there was a reason why we ended up in Hell difficulty.”

***

The room where we were transported before is destroyed, walls crumbled, crystal pillars gone. As far as I can see, the tunnels are scorched, and burned, with some smoke still lingering around, and with corpses of ants lying on the floor.

With Myrra, we start walking, our skills lighting the pitch-black darkness, and our senses constantly sent into the area, making sure the tunnels won't fall on us and so we can detect enemies.

Yet there are none, and minutes turn into hours, the never-ending stream of tunnels empty and void of any life.

At some point, we reach the parts where the tunnels are made from the same gray metal that some buildings in Virelia are made of. The indestructible one. These parts are only scorched on the surface, and here we finally detect some life. Ants, most of them barely level ten.

There is no hesitation at all as we kill any ant we detect, no matter how much they run or that they don't even try to attack.

Skills activate, fire burns them, projectiles made of ice pierces them. There is no mercy in our actions, and as we delve into these parts, more of the ants start appearing, and I sense the skill I left on the First One. The connection is weak and really far, but it's something we can use for navigation, and we head in this direction.

Once in a while, we reach a dead-end, either a natural one or one caused by the explosion or by the ants that want to block us as the tunnels made of stone mix with the indestructible ones. We spend days mapping the tunnels and looking for a way through and sometimes even creating our own way.

A few times they try to bury us down there, but the anchors I keep leaving behind us always help, and we teleport before we end up buried.

My domain's reach also expanded, so often I send it as far ahead as I can, creating an anchor in a different tunnel and transporting us there.

Other than ants, no other monsters live here, and the only sounds are those of our skills, or their chitin legs against the gray stone or the tunnels that often connect to it.

I and Myrra both don't talk much and when we do, it's usually only a short conversation.

We reach a point where the tunnels are only blocked with skills, as there are only the ones made from gray stone that even the ants are incapable of destroying, so we just bulldoze our way through the monsters. There is no ant able to resist us, and they are barely trouble against my skills and Myrra's.

The fake Champion candidate Myrra likes to use fire and ice skills, but often she combines them, creating an element that is hard to describe. Myrra calls it Aurora glass, and it's a crystal-like material with reflective areas that change colors according to how she uses the skill.

I sense that she is using one more skill to get the combination, but I don't ask her more and observe her creation. Myrra is creating barriers from it, sometimes weapons. Once in a while, she creates a surface from aurora glass and can step through it and appear from another surface nearby.

I don't understand it fully, but it's a nice way to take my mind off stuff and examine it.

My eyes still hurt, my sight is hazy, and I feel my head also isn't fully back to normal, so my passive constantly runs, fueled by my thermal energy. It´s slowly healing the aftereffects of Mana Wavelength Iris, the trait that allows me to see into the world of mana more than before. But at a cost, as these things always go.

Would I have gotten this trait offered even if I had spent more stat points on my physical stats that might have made my body more ready for a trait? Or would I haven't been offered it at all if I had gone that way?

It's something I want to know and might learn further in the future, as well as controlling the black mana. During the fight against the First One, I was able to use it and let it flow through my body, using that mana to power my skills that have become much more powerful. Most likely something akin to picking Potency over Amplification for a Mana upgrade.

“Anything interesting going through your mind, feral one?” Myrra asks, both of us sitting in the middle of a straight tunnel that stretches on for what feels like forever.

A break we took after the ants tried to drown us and then suffocate us. Surviving it took a toll on both of us.

“Usual stuff, my skills and such,” I answer her.

She smiles a bit and leans against the wall, “It's already been days, aren't you missing your group?”

I think about it for a bit and then give her an honest answer, “A bit.”

She fixes her hair a bit and her tail continues to sway, “I noticed it before, but you are not easy to get to or open to someone. You might joke with them, and spend some time with them, but there is still a distance you like to keep. Tell me, are you scared of letting people close?”

Instead of answering, I ask her, “Why are you here, Myrra? Is it really to kill the First One to protect lynthari, or do you want to take revenge for the matriarch? Or maybe you want to take revenge for yourself? Too ashamed of your fears during the fight and inability to do more?”

Our eyes meet and neither of us avoids the gaze of the other, the silence almost threatening. After a few frustrating days down there, both of us are a bit touchy.

Myrra stands up and takes a few steps towards me, her tails standing up in a threatening manner and her pupils wide open. Both of her canines show their full beauty. She is really angry.

“What, not used to a human talking back to you?” I add to the fuel and I see her hand closing into a fist, veins popping on it.

So I add a bit more, “Or maybe you were scared of responsibilities? You didn’t want to end like your matriarch, tied to her title, and wanted your mostly careless life?”

Some mana starts leaking from her and she opens her mouth, “You think it might be your fault that that man died.” She takes another step closer. “But you don’t feel that much sadness so that worries you and you also decided to run. Hoping they either become strong to not die easily and you can befriend them or they die now before you get too attached.”

Myrra lowers herself, her eyes in line with mine, “Come on, Feral One, deactivate that fucking skill and try to say those words to me again.”

I feel my heart beating wildly just at the thought of turning off [Focus].

She squints her eyes, her mouth turning into a smile, “You won’t do it? So why don’t you attack me instead?”

“Fuck off,” I just say instead.

Myrra starts laughing, “Such words lack an impact, hearing them from someone hiding behind skills.”

“Said the pampered lynthari that kept annoying people because they were so fucking bored. Hiding under their matriarch's skirt, instead of dealing with the Calamities. Maybe if you guys didn't fuck around all the time and actually did something, she would still be alive.” I say and watch as her face changes.

I continue, “Did it hit too close? Go on, why don’t you attack me?” I mock her.

Myrra does just that. She swings her fist at me and I duck under it, immediately following it with a kick that Myrra dodges with a speed that I barely track.

As on cue, we both use our mana at the same time to strengthen our bodies. Neither of us uses any skills as we decided beforehand and we just attack each other, using our bodies.

Her fist hits my face and makes my head flail back and another punch hits my chest, sending me against the wall. She is faster than me, even while I use the entirety of my mana to strengthen myself. Myrra is someone who seems to specialize in dexterity while I’m mostly constitution and strength.

A few more hits against my chest and one more to my face, the last one drawing blood. They all hurt, but I hold on and when she attacks again, I let her hit and grab her arm.

Our eyes meet for a second and I bury my knee into her belly, having to lift my knee high up because of her height.

Myrra gasps for air and my fist hits the bottom of her chin and this time it's her head swinging backward, only for it to return and she smashes her forehead against my face, breaking my nose and I stagger backward, blood flowing.

But I still hold her hand and kick her, this time aiming for her crotch and the kick connects.

Myrra groans in pain, a shock on her face. “You little bitch,” she gasps and punches me two more times before I avoid the third one and punch her side, finally letting go of her.

More mana roars through her body and she dashes immediately.

For a long minute, we exchange punches. It’s not pretty and we barely bother to avoid hits since it's as if the pain makes us forget. Blood is drawn, bones are cracked, and we throw each other against the walls while fighting in the long pitch-black tunnel that is only lit by the light of my thermal orbs floating nearby.

Two beings over level 200 fighting using fists only like some drunkards.

And as the fight progresses, I notice that my hold over [Focus] becomes weaker and my attacks change in the same way Myrra also becomes more aggressive.

We kick, we scratch, we bite. Myrra spits blood from her mouth into my eyes in an attempt to get an advantage. I punch her neck. She chokes me and I break her finger.

In the end, I send a last punch against her chin and she staggers and falls, face against the ground.

With a sigh, I lean against the wall of the tunnel and slide down to the ground, my entire body hurting, bones cracked, wounds all over, yet I do not use the passive and breathe heavily.

From the ground, Myrra lifts her bruised face and our eyes meet. Both of us have the same expression.

Just two losers.

Unable to stand up and while still looking into my eyes, she starts using her arms to pull herself closer, crawling towards me. She reaches me and then just puts her head on my thigh, turning away from me, and curls up. Her body starts shaking.

Slowly my bruised and bloodied hand reaches down and I gently caress her hair without saying anything.

***

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