Published at 16th of February 2024 2:21 pm

Chapter 25. A Ranger And A Scout Walking Into A Bar...

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The party broke up into two teams once inside the rift. Nox and Annabelle went on ahead to scout. She had combined Farsight, Arcane Trap Detection, Sense Mind, and a bunch of other minor spells into something she called Danger Sense. Nox had heard of nothing like it before. The unique magic lacked direct combat potential but made her invaluable in dungeons and rifts. Meanwhile, Nox had enough power to put down minor threats and possibly even elites. If things got too hairy, he had enough Trap Foam to stop a beast in its tracks and retreat.

As they walked, Annabelle stopped Nox whenever he got too close to a trap, unstable footing, or suspicious holes. She moved with the grace of an Imperial Dancer and made no sound despite the heavy, leather-heeled boots and the stony ground.

The rift had brought the party to caves and a canyon of yellow stone in the middle of an endless desert. Nox didn’t know whether the ruling entity’s domain ended with the rock structure or extended into the arid wastes. The rift didn’t have much vegetation besides cacti. When Nox found samples with thorny fruit or bright flowers out of them, he took samples. On a couple of occasions, Annabelle stopped him.

“My spells tell me those are dangerous,” she told him.

“It’s fine,” Nox replied. “My Sigil of Immunity will protect me from whatever toxins they carry.”

“That’s not the issue. I just saw a flash of us shredded to bits by those thorns.” Annabelle nodded at the spines growing out of the bulbous plants. “I think these are primed to explode.”

When Annabelle whispered under her breath, the image of her face covered in thorns flashed through Nox’s head. He laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Annabelle asked.

“I just find it amusing how blind your brother and fiance are. You’re amazing. If your magic is this potent at apprentice, imagine how much more powerful it will be at journeyman. I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up clairvoyant.”

Annabelle stared at him. He expected a chuckle or a slight blush, but he got no reaction at all. Instead, she turned her attention to the forking paths ahead. “Thank you,” she said, and they continued walking.

As they ventured deeper into the rift, weaving through a forest of cacti, Annabelle drew arrows on the walls with chalk. It would ensure Lillin and the others didn’t get lost.

“I’m not working toward clairvoyance,” Annabelle said after almost a quarter of an hour of traversal. “My next planet is dedicated to the concept of foresight, but I don’t want to be a clairvoyant.”

“What are your plans, then?”

Annabelle stared at him for a moment again.

“What’s wrong?” Nox asked.

“I don’t often get asked what I want from life,” she answered. “Usually, people tell me what they want and expect of me. Magic is one of the few fields where I have control. No one knows my affinities and talents but me. They can tell me what they want from me, but I don’t need to tell them anything I don’t want to.”

“It’s alright. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”

“What do you want from your magic system?”

Nox shrugged. “I don’t know, to be entirely honest with you. Until a few weeks ago, I didn’t think I’d ever make it as a mage. My only plans involved getting so good at alchemy that I could use my creations to take on an archon-ranked dungeon. Professor Kris says my star’s focus puts me in unknown arcane territory. It's hard to tell where essence glass will take me. For now, I’m focusing more on immediate growth instead of long-term plans.”

A soft whistle escaped Annabelle. “You’ve set your sights high, haven’t you?” She looked him up and down. “An archon-ranked dungeon. I hear you need archmages and expert Aether Warriors to attempt one of those. Why take on such a risk?”

“It’s personal,” Nox replied, and she didn’t push for an answer.

“Life isn’t easy for women outside of the Trade Empire and Imperium,” Annabelle said after another long silence. “We’re restricted from building our systems around powerful magics, so the men can protect their fragile egos. It doesn’t make sense, but that’s just how it is. My mother taught me that the strongest tool in our arsenal is information. Knowledge is power, and when you excel at gathering it, you’re treasured, respected, and left alone. I want to be in such a position.”

“Farsight. Foresight. Danger Sense. I can see all of those adding up over time. I’d suggest some method of offense or defense, too, though. Weapons are all well and good, but when you have and can gather valuable knowledge, it makes you a different kind of target. My mother has small armies protecting her diviners and intelligence mages. It doesn’t have to be anything big or flashy. If you like working out of the shadows, then maybe go for poisons, stealth magic, or even mind spells. They’ll combine well with your keen senses.”

“Thank you,” Annabelle said.

“It’s no problem at all,” Nox replied. “I’m sure you would’ve thought of something along those lines sooner or later.”

“No. I mean, thank you for talking to me like a friend.”

“You can’t trust someone unless you get to know them. And not trusting your delving companions will get you killed.”

They traversed the harsh landscape for another handful of minutes before Annabelle stiffened. She spun around, facing the narrow path they had just descended. It put the pair in the canyon’s shadow. Nox followed her darting eyes, struggling to find the source of her concern.

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“What is it?” Nox asked. “Are the others in trouble?”

“No,” she answered. Her hand shot into one of the pouches in her pocket, and she loaded a metal projectile into her glove’s string. “There’s something between us.” The image of fluid shadows and spiked appendages darting out of them flashed through Nox’s mind eye. “We’re being hunted. It must have protection from divining magic or some sort of shadow essence. I should’ve detected it from further away.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Nox said and pulled Annabelle further down the path by the upper arm. “Keep an eye on our rear. I’ll guide us somewhere more secure.”

“There it is!” She exclaimed. Nox neither heard nor saw anything when he glanced over his shoulder.

“How many of them are there?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “The movement is in bursts but fluid. It’s impossible to tell.”

“In that case, don’t forget the chalk,” he told her. “Talk like normal, but keep watching. I want us to be loud when we retaliate. Lillin will hear us and come running.”

As they ventured deeper into the rift, it became apparent that Annabelle lacked practical experience. She and her party had explored ruins and trained against Professor Wolfhammer’s summons. They had never hunted a beast in the wilderness and had never been hunted.

Nox and Lillin had faced enough stalkers in their day to know what to expect. The creatures always looked for the perfect opening and then lunged on the unaware or careless. Pack hunters would often send one or two members ahead to set up an ambush. The rest would pursue the prey into the trap. Stalkers had one tactic in common. They went for all-out attacks, committing everything to a single, killing assault. They lacked the endurance and durability for long-sustained fights.

If Lillin and Nox detected anything pursuing them, they’d stop running. The pair always found the perfect spot where they could put their back to a rock wall or tree. As a result, the predator or predators failed to drive their prey into a battlefield of their choosing. A powerful enough gravity orb had the power to ruin the first lunging attack.

Off-balance creatures ended up vulnerable to grabbing Artisan’s Arms, Nox’s Slow spells, and Trap Foam. Then Nox ended them with poison or a well-aimed shot. If the defenses proved too hard to penetrate, Lillin conjured multiple gravity orbs and used their opposing forces to rip them apart.

Unfortunately, Nox didn’t have Lillin’s destructive control magic. So, he set up a trap when Annabelle located an easily defendable spot—a six-foot deep hole with an opening just large enough for one person to pass through at a time. Nox had no plans for the essence glass fragments and powders leftover from alchemy. However, he had brought them with him in finger-sized vials.

“Please work,” Nox whispered under his breath.

He poured sapphire powder and fragments of glass across the cave’s entrance. Nox emptied most of the vial, making the patch of blue powder six inches thick. He used the last of the ground essence glass to draw a line away from the entrance to where Annabelle waited. Then Nox dropped to his knees, grabbed the rod half of Ratra’s Bow, and poured a mote of mana into it. The weapon that manifested was smaller than the composite bow he usually utilized. Instead, it had the dimensions of a short bow.

Nox and Annabelle waited with bated breaths. As expected of a stalker, the creature pursuing them had keen senses. It stopped just outside the small cave. Shadows hugged the long scaly body, and a flat lizard face poked out of the shifting darkness. Golden eyes studied the pair, and the air suddenly smelled rancid.

“Why isn’t it attacking?” Annabelle whispered. She trembled next to him.

Nox didn’t answer the question. He watched the creature and its body language. It stiffened for a moment before the lithe body dropped into a pouncing stance. It inched a step closer, eyes studying the cave entrance. Then the creature moved even closer.

“What are you waiting for?” Annabelle’s hot breath assaulted Nox’s ear as she hissed.

He ignored her. His hand carefully pulled an arrow from the quiver at his waist. Nox had stocked it with new arrows. They weren’t as high quality as what Professor Wolfhammer had given him. As expected, the projectile did no damage to the stalker. It slid off the smooth scaly hide. However, the arrow sufficiently angered the monster. It lunged.

Galvanizing Touch ignited the trail of essence on the floor. Azure light filled the cave as the glass changed state. The temperature in the cave dropped abruptly, and the giant lizard suffered a direct blast to its underside. Frost spread over the beast’s body, and the black scales lost their luster, turning more greyish. They cracked.

A powerful force pushed Nox onto his stomach, and Annabelle was on him the next thing he knew. The lizard shot over their backs less than a heartbeat later and smashed into the rocky wall. The sound of cracking glass filled the air.

Annabelle scrambled off Nox, and he climbed onto his feet. He knew better than to let his guard down. When she fled towards the furthest wall from the beast, it spun around and spat at her. She screamed and raised her arms, but Nox jumped in the way before the green slime could strike her.

An arrow infused with the Slow cantrip struck the lizard. It tried to rise, but more cracking sounds came from its legs. The stalker’s movements appeared slow and sluggish. Nox took the time to form another arrow but added a little extra to it.

First, Nox created an arrowhead-shaped mana cage. Then, he emptied half of a second vial of powered essence glass into it. Next, he used Galvanizing Touch and Crystallize Essence in quick succession. An ice-cold, rough arrowhead remained in his hand. Ratra’s Bow read his intent, and a mana arrow emerged from the Shaped essence glass, using the Shaped piece as its head.

For the first time since he picked up the weapon, Nox felt it resisted. His muscles complained as he drew the bow to its maximum length. He hadn’t felt as much resistance when using regular arrows. It felt as if Ratra’s Bow was resisting the unfamiliar essence. Before releasing the arrow, Nox infused it with a trace of Galvanising Touch. The projectile flew true, struck the lizard’s neck, and exploded in a burst of azure light. The essence hung so thick it froze the moisture in the air, clouding the creature in a faint mist.

Nox held his breath and felt Annabelle’s hands tighten on his coat. He prepared another arrow infused with Slow. The creature didn’t attack again. When the mist diffused several long heartbeats later, a frost-covered statue remained. Annabelle shot it with a projectile from her slingshot, and the lizard’s body shattered into countless chunks of varying sizes.

“What the hell was that?” Annabelle whispered.

“Some sort of ambush predator,” Nox answered.

“No. Why did you take that attack for me.” She fished a red pill out of her pack and forced it on Nox. “You barely know me. Why the hell would you take the creature’s attack?”

Nox pointed at the tattoo peeking out of the top of his shirt. “Sigil of Immunity, remember? I guessed a lizard would use poison or acid. My sigil protects me from the first.”

“And if it were the latter?” Annabelle asked.

“Acids in a rift of this rank would take a few seconds to act, and I always carry neutralizers.”

“Look. I appreciate what you did, but I don’t need you to—”

“Don’t think for a moment that I’m taking pity on you, Annabelle,” Nox said. “We’re a party, and you’re our support mage. We need your abilities to survive and succeed. Taking a blow for you is in our best interests. I hope you understand that.” He paused, looking out of the cave’s entrance. “Do you detect anything else?”

Annabelle shook her head. “There were a couple of other specimens, but they scattered when you triggered your trap. I don’t detect them anywhere close.”

“Let’s find the others. They need to know what we’re dealing with.”

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