Might as Well

The first part of the escort mission was comparatively easy.

They simply headed forward, going around the great menhirs dotting the platform in this eternal darkness, while cat-like monsters made of shadowy liquid and dust tried to ambush them. Thankfully, the scaredy Fitzgerald had at least that much presence of mind to stay still and not endanger them by acting crazy.

Though, Sam could have done without the constant screaming.

“Sir… this is like the fifth one you saw. Is it really necessary to scream?” he asked, exasperated after he destroyed the multiplying monster.

The man at least had the decency to blush. “But, my young friend, is it not thematic, that the dashing hero saves the damsel in distress?”

“You, sir, are not a damsel,” Sam stated while he tried to calm down his twitching eyes.

Fitzgerald just grinned cheekily, then pointed behind Sam. “Another one!”

Sam swirled around and instantly noticed the two monsters stalking forward, maws open and dripping whatever they used for saliva.

“This conversation is not over!” he exclaimed, then he launched himself toward the monsters.

By the time he was finished, Fitzgerald was done with screaming and was curiously peering at something only he could see.

Sam patiently waited until the man was finished and looked ready to move on.

“Ready to continue, sir?” he asked, just to make sure he was correct in reading the man.

Fitzgerald sent him a searching look, then nodded with a knowing smile.

“Indeed, I’m ready, young man. Please, take care of me,” he declared, followed by a shallow bow.

Sam returned the bow, then he was surprised by a notification screen.

‘Finally!’

[New quest acquired!]

[Ride forward to be not killed in nasty ways!]

[Due to the enthusiasm of one Lauren Fitzgerald, you were dragged into a very dangerous experiment. You are beset on all sides by unknown enemies and your goal is to make sure that you and your charge survive the ordeal. We apologize for the screaming!]

[Time Limit: None]

[Penalty: ???]

[Reward: ???]

A very vague quest, but he was at last not flying blind.

Nodding back to the other man, he turned toward the only way they could go and started walking, sword held in a guard position and mana brimming around him, ready to react to the ambushes.

Worryingly, for the next while, they were only met by the smaller variants, which split into two before being destroyed. Sam was worried that after every corner, there would be a bigger one, able to split more times.

As they were walking on a part of the platform that looked exactly like every other part of the platform, with giant menhirs and dust everywhere, when Fitzgerald stopped him.

“Wait, young man.”

Sam immediately stopped and brought up at least two layers of shield, his head turning every which way, trying to spot the enemy.

Then the other man placed a hand on his shoulder and pointed at a spot in the air, barely being able to be seen from their location behind one of the enormous menhir.

“Focus on the air…” came the cryptic instruction.

Sam narrowed his eyes and focused his mana senses on the indicated spot. Instantly, he felt it. The mana at the location was basically undulating as if something was trying to get through the layer of reality that was separating Sam and his charge from the all-consuming darkness.

Then there was a hairline fracture, which rapidly widened into an invisible gap in reality as Sam watched through his mana as a few drops of very familiar liquid were squeezed through the hole before the gap was healed by seemingly nothing.

The liquid fell on the ground and then began to grow and grow until there were three puddles on the ground. Then finally, the puddles began to move, picking up dust as they transformed into the shape of a cat.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Fitzgerald stated with awe in his voice. “The very essence of the dimensional gap, leaking into this dimensional pocket, given shape by the will of the world.”

“Then why do they attack us immediately?” Sam asked as he directed the customary wind blades at the angry monsters as soon as they spotted the duo, cleaving them into pieces.

To Sam’s consternation, Fitzgerald just shrugged. “Maybe the world doesn’t like you?”

“Me? It was you who opened the portal!”

“Yes, but well, I may not be a fighter of your caliber, young man, but even my eyes can see that they always go for you…”

Sam had nothing to say against that.

‘Maybe the system is making sure that I have an easier time protecting the NPC?’ he mused as they continued their journey.

Which didn’t last long, as soon they were beset with even more monsters. However, this time there was an even bigger cat-like monster.

“MEOOOWR!” it roared at them as Sam tried to guess how many times it would divide based on its size.

The previous monsters were maybe twice as big as a normal house cat, but this one was maybe twice as big as the big cats on Earth. It looked like a very beefy and insanely angry panther. Next to it were a few more of the smaller monsters, ready to tear Sam’s throat out.

This time he sent forth a veritable storm of blades, dicing the smaller monsters into chunks. Sadly, the spell only scratched the bigger monster as it launched itself forward.

However, before it could reach Sam and Fitzgerald hiding behind Sam, Lucky launched himself out of a conveniently placed shadow and slammed into the monster’s body, sending it skidding on the ground, almost off the platform.

Then Lucky stood before the duo, growling menacingly at the cat-like monster.

Sam relaxed minutely and called out to his loyal companion. “Watch out for the claws, Lucky!”

Monster and familiar looked at each other, then began to walk in a circle, each of them emitting a low-level growl.

Then, as Sam was about to issue a command to his loyal wolf, Lucky, and the monster jumped forward, forelegs outstretched and claws visibly glowing with magic.

Sam barely blinked and the action was over.

Lucky was standing on the ground and the monster was in two halves falling to the ground. Thankfully, Lucky saw what happened when Sam did the same so he didn't let his vigilance down.

In short order, the two halves of the monster began to bubble forming two marginally smaller monsters. Though one of them was rather deformed with three eyes and a tail growing out from the middle of its back.

“Again, Lucky!” He called out, which was acknowledged by a quiet huff as the wolf eyed the approaching enemy.

“Yeah! Go vicious wolf!” cheered Fitzgerald while looking at the fight with stars in his eyes.

Sam could only roll his eyes. “Take the left one, I'll deal with the right one!”

“Wuff!”

And then there was carnage…

In the end, the bigger monster divided twice more, creating eight house cat-sized monsters which were easily dispatched by Sam's magic.

Their journey seemed to stretch endlessly as they once again reached the end of the pocket dimension where Fitzgerald performed his magic and in short order, they emerged into a new realm.

Fortunately, in this new dimension – still grey, dusty, and covered in giant rocks – something changed. Barely visible from the spot where they emerged, this time Sam going first and catching the runemaster before he could faceplant, was an elevated spot.

It was circular and in the middle was a giant crystal slowly pulsing with unearthly blue light.

Naturally, when Fitzgerald saw it, he lost all rationality and started running toward it.

Sam let out a few quiet curses but he had no choice but to charge after the mad scientists.

“Lucky, scout!” he called out on the way as he took in the sights of this dreary dimension he realized very quickly what was going to happen.

He followed the other man as he climbed up to the elevated ground and approached the crystal while Lucky vanished into the shadows.

For a minute he watched as Fitzgerald pranced around the crystal while he kept his senses out for the monsters. Thankfully, Lucky made sure to clean up the smaller ones skulking around.

“What is that, sir?” He asked while making sure to keep a healthy distance between it and himself. He was in no mood to figure out how to cure fantasy cancer just because he stood too close to a shiny crystal.

Fitzgerald very much didn't share his unspoken concerns as he was all over the crystal, running his hand over it and Sam even saw the man sticking his tongue out as if contemplating licking it before shaking his head.

“This, my young friend, is something very amazing! A shard of material soaked with dimensional magic.”

“A way out?” He asked in turn.

Fitzgerald raised a hand and began casting, once again summoning myriad runes that appeared and vanished extremely fast.

“Maybe…” he finally declared. “It appears to be the thing that is anchoring this entire pocket dimension here. My device seemingly targeted its frequency when opening the fracture portal.”

“So, don't destroy it?” Sam asked.

“No, I don't think we would enjoy that experience,” the other man replied with a chuckle. “However, it does provide us with an excellent chance to escape this rather welcoming locale…”

“Let me guess, the act of doing that would attract all the monsters nearby…” spoke Sam with a weary voice.

Fitzgerald said nothing just slightly turned toward him and touched his nose while grinning.

Letting out another sigh, Sam turned around. “ Give me a few minutes to prepare…”

“I need five minutes to start the spell!”

His first action was to use earth magic to raise a rampart around the area of the crystal was while scattering all of his remaining runic plates. When he had thrown out the first one, the master of runes made a noise but Sam was too occupied to deal with that.

Unfortunately, five minutes flew by rather fast and as Sam was strengthening one side while giving orders to Lucky at the same time, Fitzgerald called out.

“Prepare yourself!”

A moment later Sam felt an enormous pulse of mana causing him to turn back to the crystal, just in time to see the light within the crystal explode, flooding the area with sickly blue illumination while blinding him for a second.

As he blinked out the spots from his eyes and grumbled about lack of warnings the light from the crystal shot up in a column of light piercing the ‘ceiling’ of the area.

There was no noise, no sound, yet Sam could have sworn that he actually heard the barrier between the dimension and whatever was on the other side crack.

Instantly, very familiar mana began to trickle and then flow toward their location. Instead of drops of foul liquid, there were veritably fountains all around the area expelling a large amount of the shadowy liquid which immediately began spawning monsters.

Once again proving that the universe was out to get him, or at least the game system, some of the monsters came with wings. Some were very stubby and malformed, clearly impossible to use for flying but a decent percentage of the monster horde had proper wings.

Grumbling once again he closed his eyes and spent a few moments just centering himself, then as he sensed the approach of the first wave his eyes snapped open and he launched a bubble of wind encapsulating the crystal, the concentrating Fitzgerald, and the created ramparts.

It was basically a globe of storm, hopefully enough to at least slow down the flying monsters.

Lucky’s job was to watch out for sneaky monsters that could avoid Sam’s senses as well as to occasionally take out some of the bigger monsters.

He watched as the first flying monster reached the barrier, only to splatter into countless drops of the same liquid it was made out of.

Sadly, those same drops fell on the ground inside the barrier and instantly began to wiggle toward each other, intent on forming a new monster.

Then the rest of the monsters arrived and Sam’s world became a whirlwind of action. Drenched in monster ‘blood’ he simply destroyed everything that came before him. Both wind and shadow mana sang in a glorious duet as Sam wielded both elements to communicate his wrath to the enemy.

For every enemy he had slain two others took their places. And when those were slain? Two more formed from their remains. They were not strong but they were many…

Sam relished in the feeling. He didn't have to aim or think about weak points, he just had to let go and watch as magic happened…