The Pinnacle Warrior

“If I use the spell again, I’ll be totally out of commission.” Skandr panted. “I can use my Skills, but even then, I’m scraping the edges of my capacity.”

They hadn’t killed as many gnolls as on the higher, weaker floors, but still, their progress had been solid. Astrid pulled up her Status to check just how much experience she was at now.

Status

Name: Astrid 

Class: Warrior (Bronze)

Total Level: 9 (392/13,000)

Attributes

Current

Per level growth

Power

53 (+1)

+5

Alacrity

34 [+7]

+3

Fortitude

54 (+1)

+5

Magical Potency

14

+1

Self-Mastery

15

+1

Acumen

15

+1

That was good progress. 50 some gnolls dead, and over 350 experience from it. That meant that, on average, they were fighting monsters that were at least level 8. In this short time they had yet to run into their first shaman, and Astrid knew it was just their luck that they would run into one before they were able to retreat and allow Skandr to recover his mana. She turned towards the Lightningmage.

“Just in case,” She began but was cut off.   

“I’ll take a draught.” Skandr smiled with a shake of his head. “I’m well aware that there is a good chance that we are about to have the same unfortunate thing happen to us that always does.”

Muti threw her head back and laughed to the sky. She didn’t say anything, but she was obviously of the same opinion as she remained focused entirely on their surroundings as she cut the ears free from two rangers. Once Skandr had finished drinking, he rolled his shoulders, looked down at his armor, and sighed.

“And how sure are we that I absolutely need to keep this armor this color? I’m not a fan of this ‘nearly getting shot’ thing.” He kicked at an arrow on the ground that’d bounced off his chest. “The damn colors are getting me seen every time they look.”

“It’s your life. If you want to run that risk, I suppose I won’t stand in your way, but I might just end up taking that debt out of your skin. After all, we’ve spent basically 3 gold on you at this point. You better damn well be grateful.”

It was an old, tired conversation. The first few times that Astrid had joked about it, Skandr had been immensely apologetic, but she had brushed it off every time, honestly unconcerned with it. With each new day, week, and month that she spent with her party, Astrid grew more and more comfortable with sharing debts, futures, and life in general with her party members. Now, Skandr just rolled with it, and was able to laugh about his previous stupid decisions.

“Well, everyone does say that I am the pretty one. Maybe I need to take this pristine, beautiful armor and make it less noticeable. After all, you two just blend into the background, don’t you?”

As with Skandr, that was a statement that, months ago Astrid would have snapped at, but now she could laugh instead. She waved her hand dismissively in the Lightningmage’s direction and said, “Well, now that you seem to have remembered how to bathe, people just aren’t keeping their distance from you because of the stench.”

“Yes, you should keep yourself clean. However, you Humans… You put too much effort into making yourself smell like flowers. It is unnatural!”

“Flowers are plenty natural. At least, they are where I’m from.” Astrid grinned as she ribbed at Muti.

The Barbarian didn’t engage with Astrid’s joke, instead perking up for a moment. When Astrid turned her attention back to yanking gnoll fangs free, a fingernail-sized stone cracked into her helmet hard enough to set her ears to ringing. As soon as she did that, Muti crouched back down. Astrid and Skandr both knew what that meant, and settled into crouches themselves.

“How many?”

“Seven. I was wrong for making that noise. The pack is moving… differently. I may be wrong, but I believe that they have a shaman with them that is using one of its Skills.”

“I shouldn’t have even thought it to myself.” Astrid muttered, cursing her own thoughts. “Duchess grant me greater wisdom than I have had until now.”

“Thinking stupid thoughts again?” Skandr laughed under his breath. “Dunno if we can blame you or me for my own pessimism.”

“This is not a trial. This is an opportunity for us to grow and to shed new blood. With luck, we will be able to find victory and successful bloodshed at the same time.” 

“Whatever thoughts we have about that don’t matter now. For now, Skandr, I hope that you’ve recovered enough mana to use two of your spells.”

“I’ll make sure I can do that or whatever else we need most.”

“Then all there is to do is to prepare ourselves in case they find our trail. Muti, circle around the side, but not more than a couple meters. Your assignment is to close in on the shaman as fast as possible and kill it. The aura will be our first priority.”

“That is always my assignment. and it should be, because I am the best at it.”

Astrid didn’t need to say anything more, and the party settled into position. For now, while they were still unsure about if they would be found, they stayed together. After about a minute, Muti turned to the others and nodded. Skandr’s hands filled with the flashing spheres of Lightning Reflexes before he pushed it into the other two members of the party. As soon as the buff was on her, her eyes wild with excitement, Muti suddenly disappeared from Astrid‘s awareness and the Rogue walked into the surrounding fields. At least, that’s what Astrid assumed she did, as she had no idea where Muti was.

Before long, the faint snorting and terrible attempts at being quiet from the monsters was audible to Astrid. They were making a direct line towards her, as far as she could tell, and she would need to prepare herself to hold the line against at least three if not, four or five gnolls all at the same time. The Skills that the shamans had were known to everybody who had ever entered the dungeon near Kznietch. At least, any delver worth their pay. There were three possible, only one of which could be used at a time, and they were a supporter first and foremost. The first and second Skills they used were much one and the same: an aura providing a boost to either the gnoll’s Power or to their Alacrity. The third was the one that Astrid was most concerned about, though, as it did both while reducing any inhibitions the monsters might have. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like the shaman was already using its bloodlust aura. Instead, it was merely the Alacrity aura for now.

Despite her confidence, she quickly learned that that was bad enough, and Astrid cursed herself for her hubris as four brawlers burst from the fields nearby and lunged towards her. Her shield groaned as four fists smashed into it again and again from a pair of brawlers on her left. Even so, Astrid‘s attention was instead on the other two attempting to circle around her hammer on the right and flank her. The first took a glancing blow from her on its shoulder and danced back with a yipping cry of pain. The other brawler, fists held high, darted in and smashed two heavy blows into Astrid‘s right shoulder as she exposed herself for her first attack. It hurt and would bruise, but Astrid was more than tough enough to weather the pain.

Although she threw her elbow back at her attacker, it did little. Her enemy danced back just enough to make her expose herself to gnolls on her shield. One, as had to become very common for her, threw itself on her shield in an attempt to drag it and her down. The other, as her shield dipped from the sudden weight, leapt over it with its jaws slavering towards her face. Thousands of gnolls had attempted the maneuver, and with a repositioning of her footing, Astrid managed to get enough leverage to lift and smash the rim of her shield into its ribs and duck under the leap.

Not for the first time, Astrid chuckled as she felt the second part of Steady Load coming into effect. The gnoll on her shield was weighing her down enough that there was another boost to her Alacrity, and with her increased speed, she was able to catch one of the gnolls in the jaw with her hammer. It went down, insensate. The other three continued towards her, but Skandr was finally ready with his spell.

“Get down!”

Astrid fell to one knee, allowing her shield to rest on the ground for a moment as a thick curtain of lightning shot overhead and then split into two forks that screamed towards the ground. The spell, for the most part, didn’t threaten her and Muti, but the few times they’d been hit were dicey. While she protected herself, Astrid looked at Muti’s battlefield. Two rangers stood behind the shaman, their bows held ready to engage in battle. Surprisingly, the shaman wasn’t some wilting flower as Astrid had been led to believe. No, it held its relic in its left fist which glowed with a sickly yellow light. Its right hand held a sharpened bone knife about 40 centimeters long, and it was engaging with Muti in a nearly even battle as she was forced to dodge the arrows that came her way. All the while, a constant chanting howl came from its throat, even through the lightning.

As the spell stopped falling from the heavens, it was time for the party to turn the tides. Astrid rushed forward and smashed her hammer into two skulls in quick succession, the winded one that had been smashed in the ribs by most of Astrid’s Power and then laid out by the lightning, and the only partially conscious one she’d already wounded. Two death notifications flashed in her vision as she turned her attention to the other two monsters.

The other brawlers struggled back to their feet, and Astrid felt the moment that the shaman’s focus shifted to the bloodlust aura. Despite the jittering of their muscles and the obvious pain that both were feeling, they re-doubled their furious attacks toward Astrid even before they’d managed to get all the way to their feet. Most notably, the one that had been favoring its left shoulder now didn’t seem to care that it’d sustained an obvious wound there.

They remained just as fast as they had been while under the influence of the Alacrity boosting aura, but the force of their blows had increased markedly. Instead of being able to easily weather the blows against her shield, Astrid had to brace herself to keep from being pushed back by the ferocity of only one of the brawlers as she heard wood and its own bones cracking with each blow. It snarled over the shield as it continued throwing itself forward with a maniacal determination, eventually holding on with one arm while the other flew wildly in her head’s direction. The other, not held back by the solid wall of steel and wood on her left, threw itself at her, its hands grasping for her hammer.

Once her weapon was slowed, it wrapped both arms around her right arm and started trying to bite madly through the pauldron on her right shoulder. Astrid felt her chain mail holding under the deforming pauldron as the gnoll’s teeth fought to dismember her. With a roar, she headbutted her attacker, and despite the bloodlust and frenzy, it reeled. She didn’t stop, smashing her head into its snout and face two more times until it fell back, its face a bloody mess. With a scream, Astrid lifted the brawler while it still clung to her right arm, then twisted and smashed all of her weight, its weight, and its companion’s weight on her shield into it.

Under her body, bones broke, and organs ruptured. It coughed blood up onto her helmet’s face, and the other, now on top, continued to fight to get through her massive shield. There was no death notification for the gnoll underneath her, but it was out of the fight as its arms twitched and tried to fight back ineffectually. As such, Astrid twisted her body enough to again get leverage against the monster clubbing desperately at her shield with two obviously broken hands. Then, she threw her shield arm to the side as she disregarded the agony of tearing muscle in her shoulder.

The gnoll was thrown free, and though Astrid’s arm screamed in protest, she lifted her shield as high as she could manage to as she rushed to finish the job.

“Skandr, help Muti if she needs it. I’ve got this!”

Without waiting for a response, Astrid faked a lunge forward before retreating when the gnoll threw itself forward to pull her down by the shield. As it staggered, she smashed her hammer‘s head into its ribs. It crumpled, though she nearly did too as her movement threw her shield wide and tweaked her already aching shoulder. The Warrior did not wait or hesitate, and as the gnoll struggled to get to its feet, she lifted her hammer high and smashed it down into its head with a roar.

The death notification came. Turning, the crippled, wheezing, dying gnoll still twitched as it tried to get at her, its eyes blazing with hatred and insanity. Her hammer finished and destroyed any feeling that remained in the ruined husk of a body. With it came another death notification.

Looking at Muti, Skandr had not gone to support her in direct combat, but had instead shot a lightning bolt at each of the three gnolls she was fighting. With them further slowed, not just by his localized storm spell, but instead by their own individual lightning bolts, the Barbarian stabbed deep into the shaman’s throat. The consistent growling and gnollspeak stopped, and the aura faded. The shaman wasn’t dead, and the rangers, their minds cleared of the effects from the bloodlust aura, seemed to be getting second thoughts about continuing to fight. The Rogue refused to take prisoners or show mercy. Muti screamed and threw her messer sword forward. It buried itself in one of the ranger’s chests, striking with such force that it knocked it to the ground in a wheezing pile of fur and blood.

The other ranger turned to flee, but Muti burst forward and leapt onto its back, bearing it down to the ground. There, she stabbed repeatedly with her short sword, and though its jaws tried to strike her back, she was entirely unharmed when the kill notification appeared. She grinned widely.

“Blood and victory!” she cheered and Astrid chuckled as well.

There was no shortage of things that, as she thought about it, Astrid realized she disagreed with Muti about, but despite everything, she was coming to understand the Barbarian woman. A part of her wanted to ask about what Muti’s opinions were on slavery, on why Astrid‘s father had been treated the way he was, and so many more things. As she spent more time with Muti, she saw the humanity behind the veneer of brutality and violence. 

She would ambush Astrid whenever she got the chance, throw rocks at her when the Warrior wasn’t paying attention, and absolutely clobber her during training whenever she got the chance. She was a person raised in a violent society, and she would defeat someone even if she would hurt a person she, ostensibly, cared about to achieve victory. Astrid had learned that lesson when she’d gotten her shoulder dislocated while grappling and didn’t surrender fast enough.

But Muti also fought fiercely for Astrid and Skandr’s safety. She took pride in Astrid learning how to properly do a warbraid and she laughed more heartily than anyone else Astrid had ever known. The Rogue gave counsel wise beyond her years, and listened carefully to everything that one of her trusted peers said. It was as if Muti experienced all emotions twice as strongly as Humans.

With all this, Astrid simply didn’t understand what she could believe from what she had heard about the Barbarians. Of course, her father had no reason to lie, but what did Muti think about everything? If the Rogue approved of what her father had suffered from merely for being born in the Hordes’ land, she knew that it would be nearly impossible to  continue to delve with the Barbarian. There was a reason that she hadn’t mentioned to her parents that one of her party members was a Barbarian, because she had no idea how they’d react.

So, instead of thinking about difficult things, Astrid raised her right hand while her left shoulder screamed in pain.

They set about claiming their trophies, including the bone knife and token from the shaman, and Skandr sighed as he sat down. 

“Should we get to the stairs? At least to recover a little?”