The Grand Weave

"What the fuck is a blood beast? There was no mention of any monster called that back at the guild."

"That's because it shouldn't be here. It's a monster from a rift," I replied with gritted teeth.

"A rift? There was talk of a wild rift being delved when we arrived at the village. But that is several miles in the other direction. Why would a rift monster spawn inside a dungeon?!" he half shouted.

I had a strong hunch, but I didn't answer his question. Instead, my focus stayed glued to the blood beast. A part of me shivered and froze in terror, a feeling of helplessness brought on by the reminder of what had happened. That part was actively drowned out by the bigger half that raged at the sight of the monster. Images flashed by of the team being sacrificed into a circle of flesh, a hall drenched by merciless carnage, and finally, of Sam's face as she disappeared into the void.

I didn't realize I released a growl until I heard it echo around the room. For a moment, I thought the blood beast would notice us, but whatever magic protected safe areas prevented the monster from hearing it.

"What's wrong?!"

Aaron had stepped away from me and had his hand clenched around the hilt of his sword. It wasn't drawn, but the way the man's fingers twitched informed me how tense the man felt.

I shook my head and felt the rage wash away. It was as if the tide came, a wave of emotions that surged and left in the same breath. I wasn't an expert in psychology, but I knew enough to know I had to be going through something. Yet, even if I could recognize and self-reflect on the issue, it didn't mean I could do anything about it at the moment. Thankfully, I had a very real threat that I could do something about.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to lose my cool there. Uh, what do you want to do about the monster?" I asked.

He stared at me for a few seconds before reluctantly releasing his grip on his sword and facing the blood beast. "It's too close to the safe area to risk leaving alone. We need to take it out before it breaches the obfuscation aura. I've never fought one of these before, so any ideas?"

"Biggest issue about the damn thing is that it splits into three smaller versions of itself when you destroy it. If we're quick enough, we can stop the smaller versions from forming, but it's a short timeframe."

"Damn. How do you want to do this?"

"What can you do? All I have is this knife and my familiar. I don't want to summon her so soon, but I don't have any other options."

He shook his head and held up his sword. "Sadly, only Ruina and Oro have ranged skills. I have some basic skills for use with my sword. What about your form from earlier?"

I could use the Spirit Lord's Invocation, but I didn't want to risk it. If I used the skill, I'd be out for at least an hour, and I wanted to let Zharia rest.

"Don't want to risk using the skill when it's not needed," I explained.

He clicked his tongue, then turned and looked at the others sleeping. "We'll have to wake up Andrew. He'll be grumpy and irate, but there's no way around it. Do you know what the tier of the monster is?"

"Probably somewhere around the middle of tier one," I said, giving my best guess.

"At least it's not tier two. Okay, I'll rouse Andrew."

Aaron wasn't kidding when he said Andrew would be grumpy. The man stared daggers at us as he slowly and very reluctantly got up. I had sympathy for the man. Two hours of sleep seemed way too little.

By the time Andrew was awake enough to coherently understand the situation, the blood beast was only a few meters away. We settled on the plan for Andrew to use his rush skill to try and kill the monster in one swing. Aaron and I would also run up and destroy the clones before they could fully form. It was a simple plan, but sometimes simple was all you needed.

"On my count. Three...Two...One!" Andrew said.

The man moved in a straight line with his axe overhead, held in two hands. Once Andrew got within a meter of the monster, it seemed to finally sense him and launched itself sideways. It looked like Andrew was going to miss, but he managed to adjust himself enough to slice off three legs on the monster's right side. A loud hissing shriek rattled around the room.

Andrew recovered from his charge and rushed at the blood beast. Axe met hardened claw as the spider franticly deflected his swings. While it focused on Andrew, Aaron and I circled around the monster. Aaron managed to slice off a leg on the left side but was forced to back away as the other three limbs scrambled in a frenzied defence.

"Damn monster!" Andrew roared.

Aaron used Andrew's shout to lunge at the monster. His sword glowed a faint silver as it hacked off the spider's last leg on its right side. The spider, now legless on one half of its body, was unable to support its weight and toppled over.

Without waiting to see what the others would do, I ran and jumped onto the spider's back. The monster flailed erratically as my weight pushed down on the beast. Using my dagger, I stabbed into the monster's head once, then twice. With my third stab, I slammed the blade deep enough that my knuckles pushed against the monster's flesh. With a dying screech, the spider dropped bonelessly to the stone floor.

As the blood beast began to dissolve and split, I slammed my boot down on a puddle of blood. "Quickly! Before it reforms!" I shouted.

Andrew slashed his axe down on the nearest puddle, the beast already forming six of the eight legs. His swing was enough to splatter the monster into a shower of crimson droplets. Aaron pounced on the last puddle and managed to cut down the arachnid before it finished forming.

With the beast gone, a sense of frustration and disappointment surged over me. Suddenly it wasn't enough. A single blood beast dead was not enough. All I wanted at that moment was to find another of its kind and dissect it limb from limb. When the flash of emotions settled down, I found that my jaw hurt, and it took me a moment to realize I was clenching it hard enough my teeth were creaking.

"Are you okay, Cyrus?" Andrew asked hesitantly. The man stared at me with a worried look on his face. Aaron looked at me in concern, but he had his hands at his sides rather than on the hilt of his weapon.

"Yeah. I'm alright now. Fantastic job, by the way. Even if the monster dodged, slicing off three legs in a single swing was pretty awesome. That movement skill of yours seems handy," I said quickly.

I tried to shift the attention away from myself, and luckily, Andrew moved on from my random mood swing. I didn't know if I was suffering from some form of trauma, but I really didn't want to deal with it at the moment.

"My first skill. Low tier and has its flaws. But it's saved my life more times than I can count. I'll have to shift the skill to be more flexible before I reach tier two, but that will be a slow process for the next few years."

"How'd you get it?"

He paused and scratched the back of his head. "That story is a bit complicated. Nothing interesting, just long and confusing."

I chuckled and gestured around the room. I dramatically emphasized the blood-stained floor and the still-sleeping siblings. "Not like there's much to do around here."

The three of us settled in next to the siblings, and Andrew told his tale. He was a surprisingly good storyteller, and I found myself relaxing as the hour went by. I questioned if he needed to head back to bed, but he waved his hand and said he was already up. Shrugging my shoulders, I passed around some warm food and cold drinks and tried not to think about my earlier episode of rage.

Several hours passed, and eventually, the siblings woke up as Aaron went to bed. Beyond a lone goblin-looking monster, nothing bothered us as the morning rose. Ruina was ecstatic over her new tier and spent most of the time teasing her brother over it. I didn't know the entire situation, but it looked like Oro was the reason I found them in such a precarious position. He wore his shame openly and had the good graces to accept the ribbing from his sister. From the snippets of banter, I had a sneaking suspicion that Oro was usually more of an asshole than he was now.

Looking her over, I didn't see much of a difference Ruina's new tier had on her body. Of course, I didn't know her that well to begin with, but my memory was sharp enough to notice some surface-level changes. For one, her eyes were now a lighter green with random specks of white around her iris. And noticeably, her skin was smoother. Random scars and scratches I saw on her face and hands had disappeared entirely.

The effect of magic in this world would never not amaze me. No matter what happens in the future, I swore to never lose the wonderment I felt whenever I saw magic actively changing the world around me. Even if this world was slightly different in how mana worked, in my mind, skills were spells, and spells were magic. It only reinforced my acceptance of this new life. Sure, maybe someday I'd like to revisit Earth and see Sam's family again, but I would never want to go back permanently.

Eventually, the peaceful time spent in the safe area had to end. Ruina alerted us to a group of monsters heading up from the second floor at the same time as Oro called out about another group heading down from the first.

Andrew woke up Aaron and called everyone together. "What are we looking at? Ruina first," he said.

She had a worried look on her face as she glanced back at the stairwell. "Massive group of nagas. At least twelve of them, along with the witch from before. I think she's leading them. We have less than a minute," she explained.

A round of curses resounded at the revelation. Andrew gritted his teeth and nodded at Oro. The brother cleared his throat and sucked in a deep breath.

"I'm not sure. It looks like a pack of skrell, but they look weird," Oro said carefully.

"Weird, how?" Aaron asked.

"I'm not sure. They're blood-red from head to toe. Some of them have weird spikes growing out of their skin. And they look bigger and meaner than the ones we killed yesterday."

I looked around, and nobody said anything for a minute. With a horde of monsters breathing down our necks, I summoned both of my familiars and pulled out my dagger. "I don't know what a skrell is, but they sound better than an entire group of nagas. The witch, alone, almost killed us," I declared.

Andrew glanced at the others and pulled out his axe. "Very well. Everyone, weapons out! It's time we left this dungeon. I want to sleep in a real bed," he ordered.

The sound of hissing came from the lower stairwell, and the darkened hallway lit up with an orange glow. Not wanting to waste any more time, Andrew slung Aaron's pack over his shoulder and moved the other man along. When we neared the first step heading up to the first floor, the sounds of grunting and nails on stone rang through the tunnel.

What I saw was something that looked remarkably like a goblin from fiction. Short, big-headed, and covered in leathery skin. They looked bulkier than I imagined, but it was the crimson dye to their skin that set off alarm bells in my head. Spikes that were remarkably similar to the ones growing out of the wolf-like blood beasts sprouted out from the monster's body.

The slitted, red eyes incited a burning wave of heat across my body. At that moment, I wanted to tear into the monster's throat with my teeth.

I heard the others shout my name, but it didn't matter. All I cared about was how the first skrell's face was ripped off as my claws tore into its flesh.