107: Ash Biter (Patreon)

The party stared at Vir in shocked silence.

“I think you ought to abort,” Vir said, nodding to their downed comrade. The man was injured and bleeding, but not yet dead. “If you get him to a healer quickly, he might live.”

They nodded and scooped up their friend, heading back in silence. Vir thought he’d have to fight to wrestle the kills from them, but his concern was unwarranted. There were far too many zards to put a badge on each, so he made a V shaped incision in their corpses and piled them up at the side of the tunnel. Even with all of them together, he doubted they’d fetch very much. The Raptor, on the other hand, ought to bring in a bit of coin. He badged and marked its corpse, jotting down the position and approximate time before continuing on.

Vir found it somewhat surprising that his first Ash Beast kill had been so simple. He dared not assume the rest would go down as easily, but he did breathe easier knowing he’d actually killed a beast of legend.

Neel led a handful of paces ahead, on the prowl for any enemies, but they found only marked corpses; the previous parties had done a thorough job.

Soon, they arrived at the central mining shaft, where a line had formed. The mining elevator could handle only three people at a time, and had to be manually raised and lowered via rope. With two dozen people ahead of him, it’d be at least an hour before Vir had his turn.

Luckily, Dance of the Shadow Demon gave him a better option. Scooping up Neel, he quietly sank into the shadows. The mineshaft extended down, far past Dance’s range, but that wasn’t an issue—Vir popped out of the wall of the dark vertical shaft before immediately re-entering another shadow. In this way, only a small part of his body ever left the Shadow Realm, allowing him to ‘swim’ through the shadows with Neel in tow.

His descent went unseen, but to any observer, he’d have looked like a worm, burrowing into the rock, only to reappear some distance later.

The prana density had initially worried Vir; rapid invocations of Dance dried up the ambient prana, but his concern had proven unwarranted. Not only was he deep underground where Ash prana was denser, the overall prana density in the Rani Queendom was greater than what it had been in Daha. He had far more fuel to burn.

Down he went, past the second level, then onto the third. The mine comprised four levels, and while he briefly considered stopping at an intermediate level like most of the other mercenaries had, he knew he’d find the strongest beasts at the deepest level of the mine. The stronger the beast, the greater the reward. It made him wonder how those beasts ascended to the higher levels; the walls seemed impossible to scale.

The dark depths of the lowest level had a different feel. The mine shafts weren’t nearly as well dug, and the brightness of the prana spoke of powerful beasts. Perhaps the other mercenaries had sensed it as well, for he was the only one down here.

Smart. They’re planning on farming the less dangerous beasts higher up.

The place reminded him so much of the depths beneath Daha that it made him freeze up. He recalled the horror of that beast of pure Ash prana, devouring everything in its path. Every instinct within him screamed at him to run. Only when Neel brushed up against his leg, looking up at him with his beady eyes, did he break out of his mental prison.

This isn’t Daha. There are no Prana Swarms here. Or so he desperately forced himself to believe.

The illusion was broken when a blood-curdling scream penetrated the silence.

That wasn’t an Ash Beast…

“Neel, c’mon!” Vir said, running to the source of the sound. Luckily, the tunnels at this lowest level were far more linear and less labyrinthine than the ones above. He arrived at the scene before long… and wished he hadn’t.

Ahead was a wider room, made to accommodate multiple mine carts. In it, a lone mercenary dueled… a human? Vir thought. But as he drew closer, he realized he couldn’t be further from the truth. The creature only vaguely resembled a humanoid. It was, in fact, a horror straight out of a nightmare.

Though it walked on two humanoid legs and had two humanoid arms and a head, that was where all similarities stopped. Its skin was translucent, allowing one to gaze at its deformed skeletal structure. Its head was a caricature of a human’s. Thrice the size, its blood-red eyes burgeoned from their sockets while rows upon rows of sharp teeth lined its mouth. It lacked a nose.

Its gangly, overly long arms ended in hands with fingernails a foot long, and clad in Ash prana.

Once again, it wailed, and Vir had to clasp his hands over his ears to keep himself from being disoriented. Neel took the attack less favorably and stumbled in a daze.

The worst part? This Ash Beast wasn’t in Daha’s bestiary. Apart from its considerable Ash prana signature, Vir had no bearing on how powerful the beast really was.

“Hey!” Vir called out. The man fighting the beast turned slowly, his face devoid of life.

Oh, no… “It’s you? Why did it have to be you?” Vir groaned.

The man was none other than the mercenary who’d challenged him to a duel the previous night. And if his performance that evening was any sign, he was far out of his depth. Vir hoped to find an ally to aid him, but instead, he found a liability.

“Just stay back and try not to get yourself killed,” Vir growled, stepping up to confront the beast. Whether or not the guy recognized Vir, he obediently complied.

In fact, he ran away entirely, screaming “Ash Biter!” as he fled, leaving Vir and Neel alone with the enemy.

Well, I guess I know what it’s called now…

He had just one advantage—they weren’t in the Ashen Realm. The prana was denser down here, yes, but it shouldn’t be anything compared to the Ash Biter’s natural habitat. That made it weaker, or at least it should.

The creature lunged at Vir, biting at him viciously with its oversized maw. Without Prana Vision, he would’ve lost his head. Or a limb—those fingernails were sharp.

Despite being shrouded in darkness, and although Neel’s light should have been the only thing the Ash Biter could see, Vir found himself targeted with pinpoint precision.

Vir threw himself aside, barely avoiding his end. It felt like every ash Beast he encountered had mastered cladding their limbs with prana—something he still hadn’t figured out.

Neel was upon the Ash Biter in an instant, clawing at the creature’s back, trying to take a chunk of flesh out of it.

Unfortunately, its skin was far more durable than a human’s, and so Neel settled for plunging his fangs into the creature’s back, latching on as the Biter wailed and snapped its jaw into the air.

Guess that’s why they call it an Ash Biter…

That was all the opening Vir needed. Prana Vision told him that the Biter had no heart—that its primary organ seemed to live within its head. But if it was anything like a human, its skull would be difficult to pierce through, especially for his iron katar.

So instead, he aimed for its neck.

Vir Leaped into the Shadow Realm and appeared directly in front of the Ash Biter, surging upward at incredible speed.

And yet, the Ash Biter somehow noticed. It twisted away at the last moment, deflecting Vir’s blade away from its throat and into its chin.

The blade penetrated, ramming upward through its mouth… but the damage was superficial. Where a normal human would’ve been writhing in agony, the Ash Biter calmly swiped at Vir, forcing him to let go of the stuck blade and Leap to safety.

Two chakris flew out of Vir’s hands before the Ash Biter could follow, but its prana-armored limbs stopped them dead in their tracks.

“Neel!” Vir cried, ordering his friend back to his side. The bandy was still desperately clutching onto the Ash Biter, but Vir didn’t want his friend that close to an enemy who could bisect him in a single strike.

Neel disengaged and came running back, and the Ash Biter finally went on the offensive. It Leaped to Vir, forcing him to defend. His steel bracers caught the brunt of the Ash Biter’s assault, deflecting blow after blow, but Vir knew it was only a matter of time before the beast broke through his guard.

Neel chomped down on the Biter’s leg, distracting it, which gave Vir the perfect opportunity to grab his katar. He twisted the blade as he brought it out.

This time, the Ash Biter roared in pain, biting at the empty air. It switched its attention back to Vir, but it was too late. He’d already Leaped into the Shadow Realm.

If a single Leap wasn’t enough to take it down, that just meant he needed more. Vir exited a shadow several paces away, directly behind the Ash Biter.

Once again, Neel distracted the beast, biting its legs and darting off before his opponent’s claws could hit him. It was a dangerous gamble; eventually, the Biter’s claws would connect, and that would be the end of Neel.

Vir wasn’t about to let that happen. Having Leaped into the shadow, he leveraged the momentum to shoot back out. But instead of attacking the Ash Biter, he kicked off the ground, Leaping again, quadrupling his speed.

His katar slammed into the back of the Ash Biter’s neck with superhuman speed. Against such force, not even the Ash Beast’s prana-empowered skin could hold. The blade struck true and sunk deep… and kept going until it severed the Ash Biter’s oversized head from its body.

The beast paused, and for a horrifying moment, Vir wondered whether it could survive without its head.

But then it collapsed to its knees before falling over, dead. This Ash Biter would bite no more.

Aroooo!!! Neel howled in victory.

Vir fell to his knees, echoing the Ash Biter just moments before. He let go of the breath he’d been holding and let his katar clatter to the ground.

For the second time in as many hours, he had felled an Ash Beast. For the second time that day, he realized just how tiny, weak, and insignificant he truly was.

And with that realization came the understanding that if he dared press on any further, he needed to be stronger. He needed a Prana Blade. And after witnessing the Ash Beasts up close, he had a few ideas about how to obtain it.