Unbound

Chapter Sixty Four - 064

It was nearly noon by the time Harn returned to the tower.

Slogging up the five floors, the heavily armored man tried to control his breathing...and his anger. His fists creaked on the handle of his axes, metal faintly groaning under the influence of his immense Strength. Even so, Harn's finely tuned Brawler's Body sensed the enemies with spears from an entire floor below.

Happy to give vent to his bile, Harn rushed up the stairs. Unfortunately, he had to stop short when he saw the spears were held by two of the ex-prisoners. They jumped a full second later when they actually noticed him, one of them even giving a pathetic yelp.

"W-who goes there!" The pathetic one stuttered.

The other one, a woman with freckles and dark brown hair, merely lowered her spear and sighed. "It's the Onslaught, Frederick." To Harn she apologized. "Sorry for that, sir. We're all still a bit shaken. Go on in."

Inclining his helmeted head, he brushed past them without a word. Inwardly he seethed. Harn would have loved a fight at this point. His blood was burning for it.

"Harn! Thank Siva you're back!" As soon as the warrior had pushed past the hung blanket, he was rushed at by Evie. She looked around and behind him expectantly before her face started to fall. "Did you...Where is she?"

"Vess still lives, near as I can figure," Harn held out his hands placatingly before pulling off his helm. He was a sweaty mess and his grizzled face was less grizzled and more bearded with every passing day. "I lost the trail near the edge o' the city. That...woman is good, unfortunately."

Evie nodded, not meeting his eye, instead turning to the crowd. The room was filled with the survivors of their rescue mission, most in small knots talking in soft voices. "Well, almost everyone is here. What do you want to do?"

Harn raised an eyebrow. "Almost everyone? Who's missin'?"

Evie didn't answer for a moment, but didn't have to as a familiar voice cut across the crowd. "Maggie's not here."

Harn turned, orienting on the voice he knew so well. "Callie. What's goin' on? Explain."

Callie stood from her seat by the tiered firepit, not so much sauntering as stalking in his direction. She was bandaged up and her armor was beat to hell, but Harn felt an aura of danger around the treasure hunter that he hadn't felt in a long time.

"Mags saved that kid from the Risi Chieftain. Shielded him, the idiot," she spat to the side, the sputum coming out too red. She held her side a moment. "They both got knocked into the sink hole."

"What?" Harn's eyebrows rose and his heart thundered again, readying his Body. "Then what're we waitin' fer? We can get 'em back by sundown."

Callie frowned and lowered her voice. "You expect these rundown dregs to make it back though the giant's encampment, down into the Labyrinth, and back out again? You'd be sending em to die, Kastos."

Harn gritted his teeth, his worry boiling in his guts. But she was right. Even if they left the prisoners here to fend for themselves, they'd likely get found and die. The Risi had increased their patrols a hundred fold, and even Harn had a tough time evading their notice on the way back.

"Someone has to lead these folk outta here," Callie went on, poking her long slender finger at Harn's chestplate. "You and Evie and the Te'thys boy have the best chance at that. Evie told me about the Sworn too, and I bet a dozen crowns that she's already halfway back to Haarwatch. You might even catch her, if she's stupid."

Harn deflated, knowing a good idea when he heard it, even if he didn't like it. He looked around, noticing for the first time that each of the Guilders were ready to go and eyeballing their group. "Fine. You're right. If nothing else, Maggie would want us to get them to safety first." He looked back at the treasure hunter. "What'll you be doin'?"

Callie spread her arms, daggers suddenly appearing in her hands with a blink of purple-blue Mana. "What I do best. Infiltrate and extract. Maggie's down that hole, and I aim to get her out."

Harn nodded, and Evie placed a reassuring hand on his bicep. She turned to Callie. "Make sure you save Felix too. He didn't have to go on this mission. He...Promise us you'll do what you can."

Callie nodded, her eyes serious and her mouth grim. "If he's alive he's coming too, even if we have to drag em."

"You're hurt," Felix insisted, pointing at the obvious giant fang. "Let me help you."

"No, don't touch it!" Magda hissed, pulling her impaled arm away from him. "The poison is strong."

Oh shit. Felix took a step back, the woman's tone more than enough to convince him she knew what she was talking about. Magda grimaced and lifted herself onto her uninjured arm, propping herself up against the stone wall. "Get back while I deal with this. It's ain't gonna be pretty."

Felix took another three steps back, unable to tear his eyes away as Magda braced herself and lifted her pierced arm. Felix's Manasight flickered, it's normal perception still subdued down here, but even so he could identify a thick, powerful vein of power coursing through the fang, unloading a vile mixture straight into her body. With a strangled cry, Magda struck her left forearm against the Labyrinth wall and the stone itself shattered in a spiral of cracks. With a grunt and cry, she did it again. And again. Until finally, with a meaty schlorch the fang dropped from her arm and onto the ground, where it began to dissolve the moss around it.

Magda pushed herself away, letting her body roll to the right. Her arm pumped out thick red blood with abandon, drenching the stone. "Don't approach it," she panted at him while still lying prone and fetching a bandage from her hip pouch. She pressed on it with her right hand, hard. "That's Rotvein poison. Nasty shit that I haven't seen in years. Not since," she grunted, attempting to sit up to no avail. Felix leaned over and helped her. "Not since that Nymean ruin we found. Bastards."

Felix, his face hidden from her eyes, bit his lip and furrowed his brow as he watched her blood darken the bandage. He felt a sluggish ache in his gut, a sleepy predator sniffing a fresh kill. He reoriented. "Are you...is the poison gonna kill you?"

Magda sighed and pressed harder against her wound. "I'll live. But I ain't gonna be shit for a while. Rotvein does what it says, meant to eat your body from the inside out. I've got an Ironblood Body, second Temper, which is fairly resistant to poisons and wounds; but Rotvein is strong." She coughed, a wracking fit that went on for a full minute. Breathing heavily, she looked up at Felix. "I'm...weakened. This poison is just the final hair on Yyero's darkened backside. Whatever that bastard did to me, it hurt me."

"Grimmar? What'd he do?" Felix asked.

Magda coughed, this time spitting out a mouthful of blood. "The damn giant bit me during the fight. It sounds impossible but he tore a hole in my leg and...ripped out one of my Skills."

Felix felt the ground give way beneath him, his head and gut doing upsetting things with his balance. He stumbled back, suddenly dizzy as pieces started to fall into place. "He...ripped out one of your Skills?" Felix was incredulous. "How? Is that even possible?"

"No clue," she grunted, wrapping her arm with strips of dark paper. Felix didn't recognize what they were. "It's still there it's just...in pieces. Damn near killed me though."

Felix recalled Harn mentioning breaking one's Skills to undue a Tempering...is that what happened? He kept his speculation to himself, but his mind raced. The giant had claimed its transformation was a gift from the "Mother," but what did that mean? Why was it so similar to his Gourmand Title? Hell, the blue chieftain had even said it'd steal Felix's memories. That was explicitly the same as his Lessons of the Past.

What the fuck is going on? Harn said the Mother was some made up religious nonsense, right? This is...it's a weird coincidence; too weird. What's the connection? It came to him, faster than he expected. The Song. The Grand Harmony. The music of the System, whatever it is. Grimmar said that the Mother was down here, and that the...Holy Deeps contained the Song more strongly. Felix paced as he wracked his memories. Then maybe...

Felix listened with that special sense he seemed to have, the one that let him perceive the...musicality of the system around him. Felix didn't have a Skill for it, not stat or icon, but he could do it all the same. He tilted his head, hearing the silent roar of mist, the distant clack of stones shifting, pushing his Perception to the limit. But...nothing. Just silence and stone, fog and darkness.

So he relaxed, kept his mind loose, freeing it from conception and direction. Felix sought to hear the music beyond everything, the burgeoning concerto that seemed to weave in and out of reality here on the Continent. And almost instantly, the song began.

There was a swelling of stringed chords before it diminished, then rose again. Like...like something breathing.

Something immense.

"AYYSHHHH!" Magda cried, her forearm suddenly bathed in steam as the paper she had placed upon it glowed with a series of bright orange characters. Felix flinched and took a half step forward before he realized she was fine.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"Script seal," Magda panted, flexing her left hand. "Seals the wound but it hurts like Avet's hook. Gimme a second to rest and regenerate. My Health is too low to keep moving."

Felix nodded and stepped away, eager to get some distance and think things through. He approached Pit, who had been watching the entire ordeal with a tilted head. Felix felt gentle curiosity and confusion through their pact, as if the chimera were wondering how the big one got injured. Gathering his thoughts, Felix sent back his impressions: fang, bitten, poisonous injury, hurt and weak. Pit's golden eyes met Felix's and nodded before he started to root around the two serpent corpses.

Sighing to himself, Felix toggled his notifications he'd minimized during the aftermath of the battle.

You Have Gained A Level!

You are now Level 21!

+3 to WIL! +2 to INT! +4 to DEX! +1 to END! +2 to PER! +2 to VIT! +4 to AGL!

You Have 5 Unused Stat Points!

The usual stream of energy poured into Felix, but after his Tempering it felt...mild. It was still equal parts pleasurable and painful, a confusing mix that he didn't like to dwell on, but it just seemed reduced in some way. Perhaps if he gained multiple levels at a time it'd feel different. And that has to be the plan now, he decided.Whatever is making that music is down here with us. I'm gonna need all the levels I can get.

A flutter of excitement burst against Felix's chest like a wave, and the Nym turned to see his Companion digging frenetically at the body of a Greenfyre Serpent. The first of the two was slowly evaporating into that greasy black smoke, its stink already filling the hall. Their bronze-like scales had been resistant to damage, though it seemed the lack of living energy within it weakened it's endurance, and Pit was already paw deep in the elemental's entrails.

Elemental, Felix realized dully. Of course he's excited.

Felix reaches down and tore the corpse asunder with his bare hands, congealing blood spilling like thick slurry onto the floor. Soon after, the Nym felt more than heard Pit crunch into an elemental core. A thrill of power vibrated through their pact, and Pit gained +2 Agility. Felix frowned. No Skill this time.

They moved onto the second serpent. A few strikes and this one split open too, Pit diving forward again. The tenku emerged covered in blood and offal, but his one uninjured wing pushed the entrails away from Pit's face, revealing a flickering green and orange crystalline core. Greedy pig that he was, Pit chomped down without waiting a second. A ringing chime undercut by the basso percussion of a gong announced a different result than before:

Your Companion Pit Has Learned A New Skill!

Poisonfire (R), Level 1!

A defensive Skill, it burns Mana and Stamina to provide an offensive barrier. Increases physical damage and inflicts damage on anyone attempting to harm the caster. Damage increases moderately with Skill level.

Briefly, Pit activated the new Skill, engulfing his body with a flickering green flame. It was an exact replica of the serpents' own ability. Felix grinned, happy that his Companion had a defensive Skill, even though it'll need a lot of levels before it's very useful. At least now Pit has a better Mana pool and can make better use of this sort of thing.

Felix's thoughts trailed away as he watched the serpent's blood drain out onto the floor, quickly turning into that putrid smoke. He silently bemoaned that his vials were missing and a brief, wild thought flashed through his mind: of himself on all fours, lapping up the blood from the ground. Like an animal.

He shook that image off and stepped away from the serpent's corpse. He paused and thought. It doesn't have to be blood, I know this. It's just Mana, which happens to reside most heavily in blood. What if I use the fang?

The off-white ivory of the fang still sat in the corner, surrounded now by a footwide radius of charred moss. The idea of touching such an object with his bare hands...unwise, to say the least. So Felix got clever. Asking for Magda's skinning knife, he peeled off a few of the brown-bronze scales on the nearest serpent, building a collection of twenty of the palm-sized scales. Then, using Reign of Vellus, he lifted the fang up into the air to hover gently before him.

Azure lightning crackled and discharged around the fang, and Felix could feel Magda's questioning gaze on him, but he ignored it. Using his impressive Strength, he took the scales and bent several of them around the base of the fang, forming a handle of sorts. But they kept slipping off, the metallic scales not sticking to the fang in any meaningful way. Inspired by a sudden and perhaps mistaken thought, Felix realized that his Reign of Vellus could produce lightning; perhaps it could also produce an arc? Flaring Reign of Vellus through his hands, Felix grimaced as his arms were deluged with a flood of crackling pain. The scales bent and deformed under his Strength, and slowly Felix could feel them...mushing together.

Pain Resistance is level 32!

He kept adding scales, building up the casing around the deadly fang, and applying his improvised arc welder again and again. A flurry of blue and gold lights gathered at the edges of his vision as his arms shook and electricity tried to eat through the flesh of his hands. Then finally, blissfully, it was done.

New Skill!

Lightning Resistance (Rare), Level 1!

You touched lightning with your bare hands! That's insane! Keep it up! Damage reduction increases with Skill level.

Heat Resistance is level 20!

Pain Resistance is level 33!

Felix winced as he peeled his hands off the burning hot metal and set the entire thing down. The fang was covered in a metallic sheath that left only the last four inches bare. Feeling proud of his creation, he quickly Analyzed it.

Name: Crude Poisonous Fang Dagger

Type: Piercing

Lore: Made from bits of a Greenfyre Serpent, it still retains a powerful amount of poisonous fire Mana. Contains 4 charges of Rotvein Poison.

Improvisation is level 6!

...

Improvisation is level 11!

Immediately ideas swirled in Felix's head on how to make his little danger dagger better, but he set them aside. He had what he wanted.

"What was that all about?"

Felix turned to see Magda standing tall on the path, looking far better than just a few minutes ago. If it weren't for the damaged armor and large script bandage on her arm, Felix would have assumed she was perfectly healthy.

Ironblood Body sure must be something.

"I wanted to take the fang with us. See if I can improve my Poison Resistance with it. So I made a...a handle, I'd guess you call it." Felix explained with a shrug. Magda nodded, seemingly impressed.

"That's smart thinking. The scales will restrict the effect a bit, and...of course, you already Tempered with Poison Resistance right?" Felix nodded and she started walking. "That'll help level your Skill, if you're careful. But do it on the way. We've still got a lot of walking to do before we get to the center."

Feeling slightly nonplussed, Felix started walking, Pit close to his heels.