Ebony's Fable

“Damn monster of a kid. Good job. LOW GARB!” Mike looked upon the sandy desert that turned to an icy one instead in just minutes. The wolves were not too affected thanks to their fur and thick hide, desert wolves they may be but they had some pretty good resistance to cold. Their cold breaths and frosty fur said otherwise. The really good thing was the Arrowtail Scorpions that had their bodies stiffen up and couldn’t even attack or even walk properly.

Ebony made sure to back off a little more from their formation so that the mist didn’t block their sight of the incoming monsters. He couldn’t stay still because of all the attacks but he still got his robes tattered, it was hardly holding itself together.

Ebony spotted a couple more frozen holes in his body, his right sleeves half torn around the elbows. Thankfully, getting Icebody Enhancement on before the wolf’s sharp claws tore his arm off. There was no mana left in his robes or the mana ores attached to his myriad bracelet. He didn’t have any leeway to charge it up either.

Blocking one of the Arrowtail’s piercing tails with the flat side of his greatsword also made it shatter into pieces with just a little metal left on the handle.

He was constantly on the move but his unprotected legs inevitably got caught by one of the numerous, hungry monsters. He was bitten again, the final step pushing back into the circle that Panic Attack held strong. Hector noticed his return and punched the wolf that got dragged along. Ebony fell forward and face flat. He was so gonna get or make one that protected his legs too. With his skills, the little inconvenience shouldn’t affect his movements much.

Hector suggested having 2 or 3 of the Master Warriors to rest while Hector and Scarlet held the line for them temporarily so that they could rotate to rest. Michael could see the benefit but his party didn’t exactly feel safe leaving it to a bunch of journeymen. The situation had mostly stabilised, the attacking wolves and scorpions were sluggish enough that Hector just needed to keep’em off themselves with a double enhancement before the Master Warriors or Scarlet came to take their life.

Ryley, who originally tried to help by giving minimal fire support, gave up soon enough when it got hard to raise his injured arm. He didn’t just watch, with his one good arm he tried to remove the corpses and threw them further away so that the warriors and hybrids wouldn’t trip over one. Hector noticed his efforts and got him to pile their bodies in the same spot, making a makeshift wall of flesh.

It was more useful than any of them expected as a hastily put together plan of action. Possibly due to the increasingly dull movements of the monsters, they didn’t just jump over or even knock the wall of flesh down which was a little odd. Going around instead.

Quite the game changer. Hector personally had many other theories on the irregular actions of the monsters. Even the comparatively dumber monsters of spawned variants shouldn’t be that dumb. New dungeon or not. His best bet was that Ebony’s icy chill affected their brains a little as well.

That got Michael to order 2 of his men to take a break. They needed it, despite their higher endurance the intense exchange where a single mistake could cost their lives never got easy. Michael had been worried about that the most from the beginning but the impressive journeymen who brought them more trouble could carry their own weight and more. His impression of their slightly haughty looking leader improved as well. Respectable.

Ebony just sat up and rested while the others fought. His party members couldn’t hide their bewilderment and concern. Too many holes in that tough robe of his, though the amount of blood on him was little.

He searched around his bag that he left with them for his potion. It was honestly better than nothing so he drank one. While the taste was bitter and sour at the same time, he didn’t feel any different. Thinking that it was just normal off the shelf stuff it probably wasn’t some kind of miracle drug.

The bite snapped the bones in his calf. It hurt like hell, though one would not think that by looking at him. Ebony stopped overestimating himself. He had too many holes in his body. Sustained Optimum Condition or not didn’t let him move like he didn’t have broken bones in his leg. The main reason he survived so long was his legs and movement skill.

The Master Warriors didn’t take long breaks, Michael ordered Hector and Scarlet to stop. Especially Scarlet, Michael could sense that she was going to break sooner or later with whatever the hell was causing steam to rise from her body. Unlike Hector who stayed somewhat safe in their midst, the horrifically fast little girl went and sliced and diced anything in her path. Every one of Panic Attacks’ members told themselves not to get close to the young lady. The fact they got to eat her cooking was a tall tale they could tell for years.

“Hey hey hey, you didn’t get any vital parts pierced did you? You should really get a healer to check you when we get out.” Hector plopped his ass down and asked with worry. The fact that Ebony stopped fighting before them was shocking enough. It was incredibly worrisome for a physical fighter to receive bodily injuries. It didn’t matter if they were a Master Warrior with over a thousand points in Vitality.

Healing and regeneration didn’t improve in quality with Vitality. Sure one would heal and recover faster with an increase in Vitality. But that didn’t change what they can and cannot inherently heal from. The lizardmen were capable of regrowing limbs by the time they evolved to Master over a span of years or less depending on their level, Vitality and Constitution stats. Humans were not able to regrow limbs, even those Grandmasters.

Hector knew for a fact that it was the same even after they evolved into King Class unless they had Class Fortifications building them for that or perhaps a more unique Class. Though, many other serious injuries would be less serious and were recoverable with a healer or just a decent potion or pill. Surviving long periods of time with a hole in their heart or having half their head or brains chopped off was somewhat possible too, due to high Vitality. It was more of a racial limitation than a stat problem, the Vitality stat didn’t fundamentally change the body.

A Journeyman who got cracked bones was able to recover fully over a long time by themselves, speeding it up with normal medicine and potions. Fractured or completely broken needed to have a healer to check up on them and quickly, or the injury would last and never really completely heal. Greatly affecting the future prospects of the warrior or other physically inclined Classes. Ryley’s arm for example, would’ve been a goner without Hector’s medicine. Improving his skill or raising his archery level might have gotten many times more difficult.

Healers weren’t miracle workers either. A fresh injury was always easier to heal than an old one. Too bad there were so few healers that towns and cities don’t even have enough of them, much fewer parties that have a healer. It wasn’t like there was none, just few.

Ebony ignored Hector, quickly dragging himself over to Scarlet who fell over onto her side. An acrid and sour smell hit Ebony’s nose. He watched as yellowish green liquid dripped right out from under Scarlet’s mask, she was vomiting. And hyperventilating.

“Can you breathe? Is your mask in the way?” Ebony knelt by her side. Worried all her vomit was blocking air out. He didn’t move to remove it straight away, rudeness was one thing but he obviously wasn’t thinking properly since she was breathing so hard. Scarlet was too busy coughing to reply and that worried both of them. Ryley was still busy moving corpses as they rested and Tuffock was still out cold.

Ebony didn’t need to grab her wrist to know her heart rate was unnaturally high now. He saw water washing out from her mask and remembered she had a water mana ore in her mask. He flipped her over on her back and unbuckled her belt and the button on her pants. “Loosen your top too.”. Ebony took her mantle off her shoulders, over her head and placed it over her body, putting one of his rolled up bags he never used under her neck as a pillow.

Hector yelled something earlier when Ebony started unbuckling the weak and defenceless Scarlet who didn’t resist even when he put his hands on her. Something like “What are you doing!? I didn’t think you were such a horny bastard!” Ebony wasn’t listening but it was probably along those lines. Hector also wasn’t so dumb and could see Ebony covered her up and didn’t have such intentions so he was probably just stunned or joking around.

“I’ll help you get your tent up so you can clean your mask.” Ebony realised how hard it was for Scarlet being the only woman in the party after accidentally stalking and peeking at her. He considered that she needed her privacy.

Scarlet faintly nodded and slid her flat, small bag off her back but continued laying there. Clearly Ebony had to search her bag himself since she didn’t have her tent tied to the bottom of her bag like Ebony’s. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t interested to know how a bag with expanded space worked.

“Don’t stare for too long, idiot. Just reach in and grab her tent.” Hector said when Ebony was looking into her bag through the opening. It was weird to say the least. Looking into her bag, Ebony saw all her stuff like the version of refrigerator they had, her stove plus tabletop, a few other chests and boxes. The items looked really small and far away.

Ebony thought that Hector was right that he shouldn’t be looking around her stuff even though he was just interested in the workings of her bag. He put his hand in to feel the weirdness again, her stuff which looked so far away was within touching distance and Ebony didn’t know whether Scarlet was just really messy and didn’t organise her stuff or it was just the weird bag at work. That or he wasn’t using it right and that there was some way to get what he wants easier.

Ebony was at a loss since he didn’t know how or where her tent was in the weird back. So, he just touched around for cloth materials since he was looking for a tent. Pulling out whatever felt right. The first thing he brought out was the dishwashing or drying cloth they used. Then it was a large cloth, likely a towel or blanket. Then he pulled out a silky smooth red lacy top. Ebony would say it was a large camisole or something like that, it was short but wide and he imagined it would only cover her upper chest and not her belly if she wore it. He quickly stopped his imagination from going any further, he needed to regenerate as much mana as he could right now.

Scarlet quickly snatched it away when she saw him pulling her clothing out. Ebony apologised, he also didn’t like it when people touched his belongings so he could understand if she didn’t like it when she touched her clothes.

Hector, on the other hand, was getting speechless at Ebony. He was starting to admire the heck out of Ebony. He watched as Ebony stripped the legendary Xeng without getting himself killed or even meeting any resistance from the woman herself. Even taking orders from him to loosen her own top! As if that wasn’t enough, the mad lad even pulled out a pair of women’s lingerie right in front of her! Ebony had gained his full respect as of today.

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Scarlet had an easier time breathing but it wasn’t much less painful for her. Her physical enhancement was not meant to be used for so long. Her heart muscles cramped for a couple of seconds when she returned and fell over and she did not like it one bit. She could still smell her vomit right over her nose. Humiliation.

She couldn’t even gauge her own state of health and needed Ebony to help her. Just his voice and the disgusting amount of concern she felt with her Sublime Instinct was calming her down. Infuriating.

Scarlet hated how Ebony constantly shoved her own weakness in her face. Yet, it was so much easier to breathe now.

He was even considerate enough to offer to set up her tent for her so that she could have her privacy and clean her mask so that she didn’t have to smell her own vomit. She can’t believe she only remembered that she usually just tossed all her stuff inside without care since there was still plenty of space inside after Ebony took her underwear out. Scarlet can’t believe he was so bold! She couldn’t help but feel her already burning face get hotter. It furthered her embarrassment of not tidying her belongings in her bag.

She finally recovered enough to move her upper body when she shot right up to grab her undergarment. Pushing it might be more accurate than recovering. She got her tent out and then watched as Ebony fumbled around with the obviously unfamiliar type of tent. It was quite funny to see him fumbling around like that. So there were things seemingly capable of anything Ebony couldn’t do perfectly either. Well, he figured it out soon since it wasn’t anything complicated.

She was surprised again when he carried her into her tent to place her down. Too weak and stunned to resist his firm arms and the embarrassment that came with it. How will she tell her grandmother that she let their name and reputation be disgraced over and over again like that? She must be the greatest failure and most shameful Xeng throughout their history. It was even worse when she found out that she was feeling oddly happy about being carried and cared for.

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Panic Attack rotated amongst themselves and took turns to rest with Ebony getting back into the fight with a fully compressed Ice Sword and staying within their enclosement. The pressure of attack decreased a lot, with at most 3 to 5 wolf and scorpion mixtures attacking a single one of them. Ebony and Hector worked together, having each other's backs. They could at most handle 2 to 3 at the same time even after they were weakened and slowed so they played it safe as Ebony was also still not really in his best condition.

Ebony’s fully compressed Ice Sword was actually no less hard or tough as his broken greatsword. It was just more fragile and less sharp. Even with all the compression, ice was ice. Getting it hit or hitting it at the wrong angle shattered it if he was at maximum strength with Icebody Enhancement. Once again, there was a problem with the internal structure of the ice sword that was unlike the toughness of his Layered Ice Carapace.

The pressure increased again when Panic Attack ran out of mana to have their enhancement skill on. This lasted for about an hour or two till Scarlet could move around and she rejoined the battle. Hector was down for the count for some time too, Ryley also collapsed, drenched in sweat from the pain he was under. Tuffock woke up in the meantime, he didn’t have much stone on him and his staff’s supply of stone mana was emptied too. He didn’t even have much physical strength to move the corpses but still did his best to copy what Ryley did.

The wall of flesh was already too tall for Tuffock to place anymore so he just dragged them a little further and widened the wall. Some time ago one of the remaining Giant Sandworms shot up from underneath the wall of flesh and consumed a huge portion of the ‘wall’. That played out really badly for them. The monsters now were not really weakened or slowed since Ebony didn’t get every single monster and his mist didn’t really last in this desert and horde.

Two of Panic Attack’s members were lightly wounded before Scarlet joined and they were able to push the horde back with Ebony’s second attempt and effort to freeze them with his regenerated mana. One of the injured ones had his vambraces clawed off and the other a thin slash on his lower ribs. Their armour had done its job well and kept them safe enough to continue fighting.

Panic Attack was under great pressure now that Hector, Scarlet and even Ebony took more breaks. Scarlet because her body really couldn’t take more and she knew that she was already pushing it too much after she collapsed earlier. Ebony had the same reason. Overestimating themselves. Hector just didn’t have any mana left to sustain battle, without mana his own physical prowess wasn’t anything to go crazy about. Weak even. Similar to Ebony.

Ebony helped to get the wall of flesh back up with Hector during his break. Every little bit there did help and it wasn’t like Ebony was so tired he couldn’t move, his stamina almost completely full. Mike got all of the journeymen children to rest easy now.

Even with all the pressure on the Master Warriors they didn’t despair. The horde of 7 to 8 thousand was almost completely taken care of by this point. Each had gained 2 or 3 levels because there were still monsters at least 10 levels above them, a crazy speed for them. There were dozens of scorpions and hundreds of desert wolves left right now. The end was in sight and the Master Warrior stuck on to the little pride they had to handle the rest.

Then one of them fell over, Ebony only heard the sharp swish of air being pierced after the second Master Warrior of Panic Attack fell down as well. Unmoving. The sound repeated, then Ebony heard 2 following bangs that echoed along. A familiar sound he hasn’t heard since coming to Elcra. It sounded a lot like a gunshot, one that Ebony heard in a movie and when his mother somehow got a hang of one and tried shooting him with it. Though that was only a small handgun and she didn’t mean to hit him with it. Well, hopefully, she didn’t mean to actually shoot him with it.

“CORI! BILTON! WHAT HAPPENED! WHO’S THERE!” Mike screamed and scanned the area. He obviously heard the sound, he managed to catch where the sound came from and noticed the direction of Bilton’s fall was the same as Cori’s. While Ebony couldn’t catch that because he wasn’t looking and they weren’t close to him, Michael saw the small shadow flash past. It hammered into Bilton’s shoulder pads and flung him off his feet for girs, he was caught by Rodrig.

Cori on the other hand flew sideways with two new holes in his body.

Everyone had their guard up and closed their formation tighter, shields high up. Ebony had time and mana to cast 2 spares, though not fully compressed, they were better than nothing at 5 layers each. No one but Tuffock rushed to check up on them. Ebony would guess that either Cori or Bilton, which he just learned the names of when Michael shouted their names, was the first aider. If they had one anyway, that or the other three were busier looking out for who attacked them.

They were all very clear on the monster types here, nothing on this floor could have done that. It must be someone. Yet, no more attacks came. It was silent again. Not a shadow in sight. At least not in Ebony’s sight.

“A projectile went straight through his body. Lucky bastard, his intestines weren’t hit. Just a flesh wound. The other one is a little worse, tendons torn and upper shoulder blade pierced, with fragments stabbing his flesh. Holding a blade or shield might be tough.” Tuffock or perhaps Tuffock 2 didn’t take long to diagnose. It was truly lucky that the guy called Cori didn’t have any holes in his internal organs, bleeding was easily stopped and a potion was drunk. He could move and help with the remaining monsters.

Ryley was actively looking out for anything suspicious or anything that moved. The Master Warriors may or may not have higher Perception than him but he still has the best eyesight with his skill. Fortunately, he had regained some mana from not shooting any arrows and his sight skill didn’t take much mana.

He recognised the sound. It was a burstbow, a lousy weapon of choice that has gotten more popular over the past few centuries or so his family had taught. The main three types of ranged archers nowadays were the traditional archers like him with bow and arrows which almost every Elven archer used.

The crossbow which some warriors or rogues carried as a sidearm and ranged option rather than a dedicated Classer with it. The ones who’d Class with crossbows as their main weapons must have a really good smith that made really good crossbows or they just made a dumb choice.

The last was the burstbow. Burstbowmen was a Class that was made widely known over the past few centuries. Some craftsmen, probably Dwarven. Ryley thought, invented the weapon. It propelled smaller projectiles at a much higher speed than a crossbow.

The traditional bow and arrow required the most skill and talent to learn to use. It was the most flexible of the three in terms of control of power and trajectory. The crossbow needed some training to aim well, power dependent on the crossbow itself rather than the user. There was still rate of fire and reloading to take into account. The most delicate and expensive one’s could fire multiple rounds before needing to reload but traditional archers didn’t look well upon the use of crossbows unless used as a sidearm. Weirdly enough.

Burstbows were almost looked down upon at the time it was first used. Hardly any training or skill was required to use it. One didn’t even need strength to shoot just like the crossbow. The much higher speed and power of the burstbow ridden over the crossbow many times over. The imperial army loved the thing, it was much easier to outfit an army with it when it didn’t require much training to use.

Burstbows were mostly noisy and explosive. Stealth was completely out of the question for them, they said. Ryley almost chuckled, here he was, having no idea who shot it. Not even the shadow of the culprit in sight. Who was the incompetent teacher who told him that? He was so getting fired when Ryley got home. Supposition.