The Pinnacle Warrior

: Into the Next

“That debt was heavier than anything else I’ve ever carried.“ Astrid grinned widely as they passed over the last of the silver to pay off Aarta. “Really, that just… It made it hard to breathe, you know?”

Skandr laughed as he happily patted Astrid on the back.“You’re telling me. I’m the one who felt like he was going to be taken into custody! I was the original guarantor, after all.”

Muti squinted, her fingers idly playing with her golden hair as she chewed on her bottom lip. Astrid and Skandr both looked at her for a moment before she sighed and said, “I can understand… why we did this. It is another Human foolishness, but I understand. Now that I have seen the results, I cannot say that it was a bad idea.”

Astrid‘s eyebrows climbed high on her forehead as she couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. 

“Well then.“ Skandr heartily patted Muti’s shoulder, “We’re on your side! I don’t know if I agree with the sentiment in general, maybe once I have a little bit of space between me and impending slavery. I’ll have a different opinion, but for now I’ll just say, that sucked.”

Three continued speaking as they walked through the streets towards the inn, Muti continuing her usual growling and snapping at people who came too close. In months past, the civilians grew more comfortable with Muti’s actions and merely gave her a wide berth whenever possible. When they couldn’t, they stayed as nonthreatening as possible while she passed and Skandr and Astrid gave their apologies. 

Whispers filled the air about betrayals and dangerous delvers. In the past day, it had become pretty apparent that the party of delvers that had been attempting to ambush Astrid’s party (and probably others) was Pyra’s. None of them showed up after the day when the party was ambushed, and the other party of five hadn’t been delving deep enough for them to have had any reasonable chance of being wiped out. Astrid hadn’t spent much time around that particular party, but the sense of betrayal was still strong. With that stomach-twisting feeling of betrayal came the question of if the two survivors would find more people to help ambush other delvers in town or outside of it. The one good piece of news from all that, if Astrid could call it back, was that Klara seemed to think that this information had helped her to narrow down her suspect list again.

As they walked into the inn, of course, a chorus of voices greeted them, a dozen people seemingly excited to see the party return. Astrid forced herself to acknowledge each person and be friendly, unable to tell which of her fellow delvers were friends and which ones were going to fight to bring her and her party members into captivity. Day by day, Astrid felt her optimism melt away, but with a deliberate force of will, she made herself be more positive and said think of the people who had been kind and good to her since she’d begun delving nearly one year ago.

“You got another irregular yesterday? I don’t know what it is about you that makes all the irregulars show up once you get into the Dungeon, but I’d almost want to join your party just for that!” One man called out.

“Well, beyond luck, we’re also on the third floor, where the access point to the Dungeon proper is the closest, between the third and the fourth floor.“ Astrid responded. “Since you’re on the second floor, you won’t see them nearly as much as we do. Especially since we’re killing every one of them that we can find. After all, it’s good money!”

“Yeah, all right.“ The delver, a man named Samuel, waved her explanation off at that. He smiled and insisted that she and her party pay for at least another round here in the inn sometime soon.

“I don’t need to buy anyone’s approval anymore.“ Astrid waved off the statement with a forced grin. “After all, I don’t get into fist fights with my party members while everyone else is eating breakfast now.”

“Yeah, what happened to that part? Nobody said no to drinks and a show for free! Why don’t you put on a show again?” Samuel smiled, and Astrid felt some measure of meanness in his tone.

“Doesn’t happen anymore.“ Astrid replied shortly, not wanting to give herself more opportunities to snap at the man. He didn’t seem to be particularly ill-intentioned, just somewhat of a jerk in general. Nothing malicious, just… selfish. Instead of continuing to talk, Astrid retired to her room, where she quickly got into her armor and prepared to go out for the day. In order to pay off the debt, they had to wait until Aarta was available, and he wasn’t open for business late at night or early in the morning, when they were typically in Kznietch. As such, the party had delayed their delving for the day by a couple hours to ensure they could pay off the debt without any further delay.

Once they arrived with the declaration that they were paying off the rest of the debt, Aarta shifted from a somewhat congenial tone to one entirely business-like and polite. It was strange how, once they finished with the transaction, he didn’t offer to lend them any more money either. With just a moment’s thought, it was simple to see that the hesitance was something to do with the fact that the party was gaining more and more money in general and there really wasn’t that much to buy in town. There wasn’t any reason to take a loan at this point. 

As Astrid tied her arming cap under her chin and pulled her helmet on, she realized that, as the days went past, she felt more and more at ease while fully equipped in her armor. The iron and steel and leather still weighed on her shoulders, pinched in certain places, and was a dozen or so kilos worth of heavy, hot clothing, but as she was confronted with more and more dangers in her daily life, she realized that she found comfort in safety over comfort.

She strode out into the end, fully equipped with her shield on her back and her hammer on her hip. With each step she took, her armor clinked, and her steel shod boots clacked as she strode purposefully through the communal space. As soon as she exited the hallway, Muti darted out to tap Astrid on the back of the head. Seeing it coming, she spun and blocked the “hit“ with her bracer. The Rogue bared her teeth in her best sharp grin as they continued straight forward. At the far end of the room, Skandr stood in his bright leather robelike armor. He stepped comfortably into his position behind and in between the two much larger women. Outside, Benedict idly fingered his flute as he trilled a couple notes. His leather armor was all fastened and tightened, and he carried a second burlap sack on his hip to carry the spoils of the day. He stepped forward while Felix pushed himself off of the wall to bring up the rear for now. His ringed bracers were up against his wrist instead of their usual battle ready locations, but he was just as ready for battle as the rest.

“We ready?”

Low cheers answered her, and Astrid strode forward out of the inn’s courtyard, ready to delve once more.

***

Two days passed in quick succession, and with no irregulars to fight, there was nothing in any of the dozens of battles that took place. With each day of practice, the party worked more and more in tandem, slaying hundreds of gnolls every day without issue. Well, without significant issue. There were, of course, the wounds and injuries from the day-to-day that they always sustained, but more than that was the exhaustion of constant combat. Every morning, they woke earlier than the sun, bought enough supplies to ensure they would be fed through the day, and left to travel for an hour at a steady jog before finally getting to the second floor of the Dungeon. There, they needed to take greater caution until they reached the third floor, where they would finally engage in the hunt.

“No irregulars again today, huh?“ Felix asked as he cut the ear from a gnoll.

“Don’t complain, we’re already seeing too many of them.” Astrid replied. “I can’t speak for all Dungeon branches, but I can tell by how Anders and Klara are reacting to how many we bring back that this is an unusual amount that we’re hunting.“

“And what’s Anders‘s deal?“ Benedict asked as he continued to blow the notes through his flute to use his Song of Healing on the party. “When we first came here, you said we’d be giving our trophies and resources to him. We only see him at most every other day now.”

“Klara told me one day,” Astrid shrugged as she smashed fangs from the gnolls’ mouths, “there’s been an increase in paperwork to be done to deal with the noble Classes’ attack on the Guild. There’s gotta be a huge amount of effort going into figuring out which noble specifically has their sights set on Kznietch, and I can’t imagine that there’s a whole lot of headway to be found there. He’s working a whole lot on that while Klara’s left cleaning up the more domestic reports and conducting the search for additional clues on the assassins’ connections.”

“Yeah, I don’t envy either of them that.“ Skandr said with an exaggerated shudder. “I’m sure that every noble, corrupt or not, has dozens of Scribes higher level and tier than him to keep everything straight.“

“It does not matter who gives me the money.“ Muti interjected. “I only need to be paid so that I may buy better equipment.”

“Yes, we understand that you don’t care about money.” Skandr replied, though it was obvious that Benedict wanted to say something too. The Bard, blessedly, held his tongue.

“Let us continue delving. There is more to kill, more blood to spill.”

“Yeah, ok.” Astrid cut off the conversation as she stood from her own harvesting of materials. “We’ve got another hundred to kill today, and if possible, I want to get more than a couple hours of sleep tonight.”

With that rallying cry, the party stood, brushed their hands clean of the blood of the fight and harvesting, and set off to continue the hunt.

***

In the middle of a fight against a pack of 10 gnolls, Felix twisted around behind a brawler and snapped its neck with one quick movement. As the kill notification flashed in Astrid‘s eyes, Felix whooped and spun the creature’s dead body into one of its companions. No sooner than the other brawler fell did Felix return to taking all of the swarming monsters’ attention while he called out, “Told you I’d win!“

Benedict, while still channeling Quickened Step, bent over, picked up a small rock, and hurled at Felix. It was a common enough occurrence, but in the middle of combat, he didn’t have a prayer of hitting the constantly dodging Bodyguard. When, a scant handful of seconds later, the pack was all killed, Benedict stopped using his Skill and brandished his fist at the Bodyguard. Despite the playful stance, there was some real anger in his tone as he spoke.

“It’s too damn close to matter.“ The Bard grumbled.

“Are you level 8?“ 

“Do numbers even really matter? I mean, they’re just there, right?“

“Are you level 8?“ 

“It’s just a dozen experience.“

“Are you level 8?“

“Yes, you win, I get it! Leave off…” Benedict grumbled to himself as he said as much but Felix refused to stop.

“I guess, and the Great One agrees, that I’m doing more in these fights than you are. You know, since I keep getting the bonus experience and you don’t.”

“Skandr, Astrid, Muti, what will it take for me to convince any of you to hold him down while I put rocks in his mouth? I can… well, I can’t promise a whole lot, but I promise that I’ll do what I can to make it worth your while.”

“Woah woah woah, we’re still in the Dungeon. There’s no reason for us to get somebody hurt in here, is there? No way you’ll endanger us this way?”

As Felix put both hands up and kept his eyes on every one of his party members, Astrid asked Benedict, “Well, you’re the one who suggested we all pool our funds, so I can’t think of a whole lot that you might be able to offer me. After all, he’s the one who let me finally get into a finisher role instead of continuing as a frontliner.”

“I can’t hold him down,“ Skandr chuckled, “so I can maybe offer a couple Lightning Bolts. Maybe three copper a hit?“

Muti was the only one who didn’t try to negotiate. Instead of anything else, she just rushed towards the Bodyguard with her hands outstretched and ready to grapple. Astrid laughed as she saw the panic and then determination flash through the smaller man’s eyes. She couldn’t remember exactly what the attribute growth was for Bodyguards, but she could say for sure that the Class was more Alacrity focused than Power, so, paired with the two-level disparity between them, Felix didn’t have a prayer.

He threw a couple quick punches and held himself behind his ready guard, but Muti dodged the two hits before feinting with a heavy overhand blow and instead switching that into an upper cut that, instead of landing on his chin, caught both of his raised blocking arms in the crook of her elbow. Felix fought to wrest his arms free, but in that brief moment, where both of his arms were trapped above his head, Muti wrapped her other arm around his torso as she hooked a heel behind his legs. He’d drilled wrestling with Muti for hours since he joined the party, and, just like every time before, he was quickly outmaneuvered and stuck on his back on the ground, though Muti had shifted the way she lay on him to keep his face clear.

“Oh, yes.” Benedict savored the moment. “Finally, justice.” 

Without further ado, he leaned down, grabbed a 3 centimeter rock, and bent down over the prostrate and struggling Felix. Despite himself, Felix laughed at the situation, trying to negotiate, “OK, OK, you’re totally right. A dozen experience, that’s nothing. I shouldn’t have said anything. I mean, you’re the reason why I’m alive. Right?”

“Methinks you rely too much on your silver tongue, friend.” Benedict didn’t say anything more as he put the rock into Felix‘s mouth. As soon as it was in there, Muti pushed off and left Benedict basically stranded right next to a jokingly angry Felix. As the Bodyguard spat out the rock into his hand, Benedict realized just what situation he was in and looked around himself in betrayal.

“Maybe negotiations are a good thing.” He attempted as his eyes begged his companions for assistance, but even before he could begin to step away, Felix forced the Bard to focus on him as he stepped forward and took Benedict’s neck in the crook of his arm. The other three party members ignored his cries for mercy as Felix rubbed the slimy rock on the grumbling Benedict’s face.

Less than 10 seconds later, Felix stepped away, saying, “You could have been shown mercy, had you been willing to show it. Instead, here we stand, two losers of the fight, not a conqueror to be seen.”

“If I wanted to sing a song about pyrrhic victories, I would.“ Benedict said as he wiped on his face. “I’ll let you be the Bard for those songs instead. They’re no fun.”

All five of the delvers smiled as they enjoyed the brief moment of rest while they strode off to their next destination. After all, they were here to kill monsters, and that’s what they would continue doing.

***

With another irregular being dragged along, the party returned to the inn earlier than usual. They had come across a couple packs with more gnolls in them than before, and with their two lowest-leveled party members having reached level 8, they could take on even more dangerous situations than before. As they stepped into the inn, most of the other delvers all around them were already engaging in joking talks and their own dinners. The quiet, comfortable sound filled the air, and Astrid relished in the warm air from the two fires burning in the room. While Astrid watched Felix go to get one of the representatives to evaluate their irregular, Klara stepped out of her office. Ordinarily, she would walk directly to the bath, and that was what everyone expected. Instead, she stood in front of the bar and looked out across the assembled delvers. As they realized that she was ready to address them, the room quickly went silent.

“I have two things primarily to speak with you about. There is a third that you will care to hear about, but it is not the reason for me to speak. Even so, I’ll start with that one. This third reason is merely to report that the investigation into those who harmed and abducted some of our own is ongoing. There has been some progress, but nothing concrete. I apologize for the delay, but unfortunately, our enemies are careful.

“On the other hand, with one of our party’s recent return with yet another irregular over their shoulders, it is time to announce that the Dungeon proper is undergoing a minor surge and, to go hand in hand with that, there has been no small amount of foreign interest coming from within that section of the Dungeon.”