Rune Seeker

The storm raged for hours as the two parties huddled in the room, weapons ready, and waited for something—anything—to come at them.

Nothing did.

But that didn’t mean it was restful. Nobody slept, and they barely took the time to stuff one of the dungeon rations in their mouths.

Finally, as the hammering rain and howling wind receded from Hiral’s ears, the group prowled out of the room, down the hall, and to the top of the stairs. Hiral held up a hand, urging silence as he concentrated on his hearing. When nothing caught his attention, he inched down the stairs, RHCs out, and kept his back to the solid stone wall.

The first floor was exactly as they’d left it, no sign of how or where Left had been killed, but Hiral turned his attention to the far corner. With the easing of the heavy rain, the sheets of water falling over the side of the building had lessened to smaller streamers of water, giving a better view of the alley outside. Wide as it was, it also appeared empty—with no evidence of what had happened to the Troblin corpses.

“I think it’s clear,” Hiral said, though he kept his voice down.

“Send Left next time,” Seena said, joining him as the others filed down to the first floor. “Death is obviously less inconvenient for him.”

“Not any less traumatic, though,” Hiral said, glancing at the double who’d been unusually quiet.

“That’s true. I shouldn’t think of them like they’re… disposable.” Guilt crept onto Seena’s face. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. We’re all coming to terms with everything happening since we came to the surface.”

“Enough chatter,” Seeyela scolded. “Get eyes out those windows. If you see anything, speak up. If not, we’re getting back on the path to the dungeon. The sooner we get to the Asylum, the sooner we get to stop worrying about whatever that Enemy was.”

“Talk later,” Hiral whispered to Seena, then jogged quietly over to one of the torn-out windows looking onto the street.

The rain falling outside had lessened to little more than a gentle shower on the paved road, but he still softly pushed back the water with his Rune of Rejection. A glance out the window didn’t show anything out of the ordinary, or any flashing notification, so, inch by inch, Hiral leaned his head out the window and looked up and down the street.

Lightning flashed in the distance, back the way they’d come, along with the faint boom of thunder, but it did little to light up the town as it had earlier. All he had to rely on was the faintly glowing roots, and they didn’t show him any signs of impending danger.

Moving slowly, Hiral ducked back into the room and stepped away from the window. “Looks clear,” he said quietly, his opinion quickly getting echoed by Picoli and Balyo.

“Still moving as separate groups?” Seena asked her sister.

“Yes,” Seeyela said after a second’s thought. “Not as far, though. Thirty feet tops. Since the Enemy seems to be real, we might as well follow that small snippet of advice we got from Dr. Benza to move in groups of six. I know he said eighteen could get by under their notice, but no need to risk it. It killed Left without him even noticing it was there.

“On that note, Hiral,” she said, turning to him.

“You sure you don’t want more eyes watching?” Hiral asked, but he waved for Left and Right to come over to him.

“I’m sure,” she said.

“Okay, but if we get into a fight, I need to bring them out. I can’t do much with the Shaper tattoos on me.”

“Agreed. If we’re fighting, I want every advantage possible.”

“We’ll be ready if you need us,” Right told Hiral.

“Thanks for everything, guys,” Hiral said before taking his copies’ hands and absorbing them into himself, the tattoos and Meridian Lines appearing on his skin.

“Can you still use your RHCs while combined?” Seena asked.

“Kind of?” he said. “They each hold enough solar energy for five shots, but I normally just recharge them on the fly. With the tattoos on me, I can’t make the connection to do that.”

“At least you’re not defenseless. And didn’t you say something about having bonus stats from Left and Right?”

“Yeah. It’s not all bad, but I miss my runes already,” he said, looking at the rain. “Not to mention Left and Right.”

“It’s comforting having them around,” Seena agreed.

“Everybody ready?” Seeyela asked. “We don’t know how far the dungeon is, and we’re all tired, but I’d like to cover as much ground as we can before we rest.”

Seena looked at her group, then to her sister. “We’re ready.”

Without another word, Lonil was out the door, and the other Growers followed. Hiral, the final one out to watch their backs, took one last look around the room—no sign or clue of what the Enemy could be. Like it was never really here—then followed after Seena.

The rain was cold on his scalp before he pulled the hood up. The water pattered on the thin material, and he jogged down the street. There were only two more buildings on each side of the road, the insides dark and quiet through broken windows, and soon his boots were squelching through mud again. He glanced down at his feet, curious about the supposed Tri-Horn tracks, but they’d long since been washed away by the rain.

Back on the narrow trail, the group quickly left the town behind, though that didn’t stop Hiral from glancing over his shoulder every five seconds, half-expecting warning notifications to flash in front of his eyes. None came, and minutes of running turned to hours before the party ahead slowed to a walk.

What’s going on?

The question didn’t need to be asked out loud as Seena’s party caught up, a change to the scenery around them being the obvious cause.

The towering trees they’d been surrounded by for almost the entire time Hiral had been on the surface stopped as if on a hard line or border, then suddenly gave way to short, stubby masses of scraggly branches. The ground, which had been firm—aside from the mud caused by the rain—changed into a boggy mess of small islands amidst watery pools of unknown depths. Glowing plants still wound around the trees and trailed off beneath the water’s surface, creating strange, illuminated patterns. Even the air changed, becoming warm humidity like a wall as they crossed the threshold, and the smell of natural rot crawled up Hiral’s nose.

“Ugh, that’s nasty,” Yanily said. “Do we have to go this way?”

“I think it’s the only way we can go,” Wule said, his voice muffled by how he held his arm up in front of his face. “Look at the path. Seems to avoid the worst of the pools.”

“We could always go back,” Cal said.

“Back isn’t an option,” Seeyela answered immediately. “And don’t trust the path. There could still be deep pools hiding anywhere along it.”

“Or something worse,” Wule mumbled.

“The next dungeon was called The Mire, right?” Hiral asked, though he knew the answer. “Maybe this means we’re getting close.”

“I hope so,” Seeyela said, and Lonil started down the path, his stone club at the ready.

Waiting behind with Seena and the others for Seeyela’s party to get ahead, Hiral scanned left and right along the new terrain. He could still hear the faint croaking of the lizards—ahead as well as behind—but without the tall trees to hide them, where would they come from? Hiral’s eyes settled on the surface of the many pools, water practically dancing from the raindrops hitting it.

Any threats are going to come from there. Nowhere else to hide. But, which one? When?

A ripple along the surface, disturbing the constant light, was Hiral’s only warning, and he shouted ahead to the other party’s tank. “Lonil, on your right!”

The tank turned as something burst out of one of the nearby ponds in a shower of water refracting the light. Up came his club, barely in time to block the jaws of the massive snake, but the thing had to be more than forty feet long—its entire body lined with spikes—and the power of its lunge, along with its weight, threw Lonil into the water behind him.

The swampy quagmire immediately erupted in a fury of splashing waves as the snake’s body coiled and thrashed around Lonil. His party moved to assist, but another ripple tore Hiral’s attention from the struggle.

“Another one coming for us,” he shouted as he drew his RHCs, the weapons swinging up in a smooth motion.

Just like before, a huge snake’s head breached the water, jaws splitting wide with vicious fangs. This time, though, it was met by twin bolts of Impact, the blasts smacking into its body just behind the skull.

The force of the attack stole most of the monster’s momentum, and instead of careening into its target—Wule—like a runaway carriage, it flopped down onto the path, body twitching.

Barbed Swamp Snake – High E-Rank

The name floated above the gargantuan body, rings of hooked barbs running its entire length, and it dazedly lifted its head. Nivian was the first one to arrive. A backhand slam from his shield cracked into the side of its head and sent one of the long fangs spinning into the air, thorns ripping its skin as they tore across it.

The tank followed up with a quick one-two combo from his purple-enshrouded whip, small flames licking from within the wounds left by the thorns. The snake turned hate-filled eyes on him. With his feet planted, Nivian was ready for it when it lunged straight for him, and he caught the attack easily with his shield, hooking one edge of it behind the remaining large fang. Then, like it was a living thing, he snapped his whip out to coil around the snake’s body, just behind the jaws, further holding it in place against his shield.

“Ready!” he shouted.

Ready for what?

Spearing Roots burst out of Nivian’s shield, and directly into the inside of the snake’s vulnerable mouth.

The snake’s whole body spasmed as points of purple flame punched through the top of its head and bottom of its jaw from the inside, the back end churning the water in its death throes. Solid roots wrapping Nivian’s feet and shins prevented him from getting catapulted deeper into the swamp from the fury of it, and also kept the head in one place.

Just what Vix and Yanily needed. They swept in from both sides, and their blows landed simultaneously at the nape of the monster’s neck. Spear and fist hit with such force, they cleanly severed the head from the rest of the body, and Nivian ripped his shield away, tossing the decapitated head to the ground.

One second, two seconds more, the body thrashed, then finally fell still. Hiral kept his eyes on the surrounding water. Where they were two, there could be more, but his attention returned to the first attacker.

Water pulled aside by three Gravity Wells, the monster sat in a coiled mass, its barbed body wrapped in a crushing grip on Lonil. Anybody other than the stony tank would’ve been quickly ground into formless paste by the pressure and spikes—and from the looks of things, Lonil wasn’t doing much better.

Red blood seeped from between the coils of the snake’s body, and though he held back the deadly jaws, pain etched Lonil’s face amidst his concentration.

Picoli and Balyo attacked where they could, though Picoli’s abilities lacked the punch or accuracy to end the fight, and Balyo couldn’t risk using her signature move with Lonil in the line of fire. That just left Fitch, and though his sword cut long scars along the snake’s body, the way it writhed kept him from landing more than one hit in the same place. The damage would wear it down, eventually, but Lonil didn’t have that long.

The head isn’t moving as much, but he can’t reach it!

Luckily, that wasn’t a problem for Hiral. He took aim, fingers squeezing one trigger then the next in quick succession. One after another, the bolts carved narrow tunnels in the falling rain to slap into the back of the snake’s skull. Though the first did little visible damage, scales blasted off with the second. The third drew blood, and the fourth tore off flesh big enough to stick a hand in. The fifth and sixth widened the hole to expose the white of bone, while the seventh and eighth echoed with cracks that sounded over the furious struggle.

But it wasn’t enough. Even with the grievous wound, the snake squeezed tighter on Lonil, the man’s head arching back from the pain, and Hiral was out of shots.

I’ll need to split… even if it risks bringing the Enemy.

Before Hiral could activate his Foundational Split,though, pulsing Light Darts swarmed into the hole he’d dug in the back of the snake’s head, alternating between purple and their usual white-yellow.

No damage? No, something is different with…

The Darts exploded in a concentrated blast, evaporating the rain in a small sphere and throwing the top of the snake’s body in the opposite direction, where it slapped into the spongy ground with a wet thud. The head sagged, jaws caught on Lonil’s club, and then, all at once, the strength left the coils wrapping his body.

“Ugh,” he groaned as the long corpse uncoiled from around him, revealing dozens of bloody wounds.

“Wule, Cal,” Seeyela ordered, and both healers immediately moved to his side, warm pulses of solar energy washing out of them and over the tank.

“Any more?” Seena asked as she came over to join Hiral, her gaze roving across the swamp.

“I don’t see any,” he said. “Doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”

“It doesn’t. Everybody keep your eyes open.”

“If they were any more open, they’d fall out,” Yanily responded.

“How is he?” Seeyela asked as Fitch and Vix helped carry a staggering Lonil back to the path.

“Not great,” Cal said. “We can treat some of the wounds, but we’re going to need time to deal with the worst ones. Those barbs tore him up pretty badly, even through his Stoneform.”

“This doesn’t seem like the best place to set up camp,” Seeyela replied.

“I might have a better answer,” Hiral offered, his eyes settling on something glowing distantly down the path. “I think I see one of the archways leading to the dungeons.”

“How far?” Seeyela asked.

“Five hundred feet,” he answered.

“You’re sure it’s the dungeon?”

“No. It could be more of those glowing plants, but from here, it looks like the runes on the arch.”

“Can’t hurt to go,” Seena said. “If it’s the dungeon, we found a place to treat Lonil. If not, it can’t be worse than here.”

“You’re right. Nivian, you take the lead this time,” Seeyela said, and the group set out for what was hopefully the dungeon entrance.