Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty – 260
Felix blinked as the Intent vanished. It had been far easier than he expected. His own Intent had broken the honed edge of it into harmless pieces that dissolved into the ambient Mana. The Aurochs, however, neither stopped or even slackened their pace. They thundered by, still stampeding away from whatever had so frightened them.
The Tier II beasts were being taken down, but there were so many. At least four hundred, all of them rampaging east, through the forest and...into Haarwatch.
...You cannot coddle them...
Perfect recall let him almost hear Zara voice again, and Felix scowled. This was the second horde he had fought, the second heading east for the city. It was unlikely to be a coincidence, not with how his summer had been going. No, Haarwatch should expect to see more and more of these...unless someone stopped them.
An Aurochs ran by, a little too close to the group, and Felix flared his Adamant Discord. The beast was hit by a blast of kinetic lightning, forces that lifted and hurled its shelled body up and over it's own herd.
You Have Killed A Shelled Aurochs!
XP earned!
A soft trilling sound rippled through his Affinity, and Felix saw the Haarguard flash with a brief pulse of System energy. The Grand Harmony was swirling around them all, as they leveled up from this encounter. The sharper pings of Skill levels cascaded like chimes, coming from his friends as well.
Strength from adversity, huh Zara? Felix clenched his jaw. But too much adversity doesn't grant you strength. It kills you.
He wanted the Legion to grow stronger, but what would they do against so many Tier II beasts? More than just the Legion was at risk now. They would surely die, and the Aurochs would end up within the city, where they'd kill even more. The Aurochs would annihilate what little remained of the Wall Quarter. Unless they completed the Wall and restored its reserve of power, Haarwatch was practically undefended.
If I have the power to stop it, I'll stop it. No more deaths.
Influence of the Wisp!
Stone Shaping!
Mana poured from Felix, a torrent to dwarf the amount he'd used to build the battering rams. Colored violet and orange, it swept outward in a flash, leaving behind a blue fire on the Aurochs. They were instantly Enthralled, their Willpower overwhelmed by Felix's own, and froze in place. A second wave of dusty brown Mana sent a series of stone spikes upward, piercing their skulls in a single, precise casting.
You Have Killed A Shelled Aurochs (x342)!
XP earned!
Influence of the Wisp is level 48!
Influence of the Wisp is level 49!
Stone Shaping is level 58!
Not today.
"Blind gods," the Orc whispered. Davum, according to Evie's Analyze. She was bad with names. His tusks at least were neat. They were white and shone in the dappled sunlight. "He killed them all. With a single spell."
"Two spells, actually," Atar said from some distance away. He glanced over his shoulder at the falling monsters, and Evie bet he was using some weird mage Skill. "Fire, earth, and...augmentation. Yes."
"Interesting," Alister added. He had sheathed his rapier and was shouldering his pack again. "Didn't know he used augmentation magic."
"Kinda makes you feel pointless," Nevia panted, and only her friend Kikri kept her standing. She was particularly slender for a Dwarf, Evie noticed, and seemed to have low Stamina as well. "How does he even have that much Mana? I'd keel over tryin' to affect that many targets."
"He cheats," Evie said with a crooked smile. Not really an answer, but good enough by her estimation.
"He isn't cheating, Evie," Atar said in his "professor" voice. "In fact, I think I've figured out how it works. See"
"Twin's teeth, I'm bored already," Evie complained, before pointing the guards at something else. "Ooh look!"
The Auroch corpses that littered the trampled forest turned to sudden, sparking vapor. It was very different than the usual black smoke of a monster decomposing. If Evie were forced to describe it, this was...it was like a house fire, smoke and all, trapped and funnelled. It sped toward Felix and just...vanished.
"Did he just" Kikri started.
"Yeah."
"How di"
"Don't worry about it," Evie said with smile and a shrug. She slung her arm around the Elf. "We'll never get to use it anyway. We're not cheaters, yeah?"
"...Right," Nevia said in a distracted sort of way. She looked from Evie to Felix to Atar. "But wasn't that Mana? And what was"
"My core space...hold on, let me check," Felix said. He dove his senses down into his core, where his stacked rings of flame spun in opposition. They looked fine, as did the Skills revolving around him, and the ribbons of light braiding beneath it all.
The growth, however, the piece of Divinity that he had stolen from Vellus, that quivered. Felix pulled himself closer. It resembled roots or veins and was a dark crimson, threaded through with pulses of colorless light. It shook, pulsing like a heartbeat, while those lights flowed up and down its branches in a slow and steady pace.
The Shrine, he realized. It's reacting to the Shrine.
The growth felt...heavy, a significance he hadn't appreciated before. Seeing it matched up against the destroyed Shrine, the way Mana was flowing, it weighed on him. He flared his Adamant Discord and could feel a pull, as if it were exerting a strange sort of gravity. It meant...something, he was sure.
Maybe it's just a Geiger counter for Divine radiation? That made sense. At the very least, that made avoiding such Shrines in the future easier.
He returned to the real world.
"Well, I can't get closer to it, and I'm not sure I want to try," Felix said. "Better to leave god stuff to the gods. Right?"
Harn chuckled. "A good attitude to have, were it several weeks ago. Bit late for that, kid."
"I can't argue with that." Felix smiled, though he didn't feel it. "Regardless, we should move on. I don't want any of the others stumbling on this. I've no idea if that bloodgate works both ways or not."
Not too long ago, the bloodgate was what brought him out of the Void. He'd hate to find out later it could send folks back. No one deserved that.
They traveled only a bit farther after that. When the last rays of the sun dipped below the mountains they had started to climb, Harn called it. They found a shallow cave, one that smelled of nothing more than dirt and the bare wind, and started to unpack.
"Why not press on through the night?" Alister asked, echoing a sentiment from the Haarguard. They seemed somewhat annoyed to be stopping with so much ambient light still available. "I was told this Quest is somewhat time sensitive?"
One of the guards gasped, and Felix could almost hear their Minds start whirring.
"Time's not on our side, that's true enough," he rasped, giving the noble a hard look. Alister grimaced and inclined his head in apology. "But the dark ain't friendly, least of all here. I'll not have you all caught unawares in the night, fog or no."
Setting up camp was extremely simple when everyone was vaguely superhuman. The ground was easier to sleep on and everyone required a bit less sleep anyway. To give himself some space, Felix used Stone Shaping to dig a bit deeper and added a hook to the tunnel so that they couldn't be seen directly from outside the cavern. He wanted to close off the cave completely, but was thankfully stopped in doing so when Evie pointed out they'd all probably suffocate. Harn had brought a few wardstones to obscure their presence, at least a little, so it was largely unnecessary anyway.
No fire was allowed, the usual precaution for exploring hostile lands. They had trail rations with them though, so food wasn't an issue. A sort of salted meat, bread, and plenty of water. It wasn't particularly tasty, but then Felix didn't need food that much any more. He still needed some of course, but his Vitality made him extremely resistant to both hunger and thirst, so for the moment he left the rations for the others. He'd also eaten all that Mana and Essence from the Shelled Aurochs, so his needs were met.
While the others ate and settled in, the guards continuously cast pointed looks at one another. Felix noticed it early on and knew why. When it didn't stop, he decided to nip the gossiping in the bud.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
Kikri and Davum, who were trading glances above Felix's head, started in surprise. They looked at Felix, then at the others sitting nearby. Davum nervously tapped his tongue against his tusks. "There is a Quest?"
Exactly what I thought. "Yes. It's my Quest."
"Quests are both rare and almost always difficult," Kikri began. She too looked nervous. "We"
"We weren't told it was a Quest," Kylar whined over the Elf. Well, not whined exactly, but it felt that way to Felix. The man had a definite sulk to his voice. "Iwe would have appreciated some honesty."
"Honesty's got nothin' to do with it. You're guards, yeah?" Harn grunted. When the swordsman nodded, Harn leaned forward. "Silence means less lips to flap the truth of things. You weren't told, because you weren't trusted."
Kylar tried to surge to his feet, but his cousin Vyne held him down. The others just looked like their parents had yelled at them.
"The plan was always to tell you once we'd made camp," Harn continued. He jabbed a thumb at Alister. "Knacht just spilled the beans a bit early."
Evie clapped the noble on the back. "Good job, fancy pants!" She looked at everyone else and sat down among them. "Now that no one can go runnin' back to Haarwatch, and all the snoops have been left behind, how's about we talk about that Quest then. Eh Felix?"
Felix smirked. Leave it to Evie to vaporize tension, just by being herself.
"It's dangerous, I'm not gonna lie," Felix began. "But that's on me. I don't expect any of you to take on those dangers, not fully. It's my Quest, and I'll see it through."
"That a load of guano, Felix, and you know it," Evie said, and was echoed by Atar of all people.
"We're here to help, not sit in the back while you investigate an ancient magical artifact alone." Atar brushed a stray lock from his forehead.
That made a lot more sense.
"Atar means well," Alister said, only to receive a sour stare from the fire mage. Alister merely patted him on the head. "But yes, we are here for you, Felix."
Vess merely met his eyes and nodded.
Felix coughed, clearing his throat for some reason, and smiled, at all of them. Even the Haarguard. "Right. Well, then let me explain."
