The Pinnacle Warrior

“You know, you all were the origin of all this falling apart. Things were working out pretty OK until you started pushing other delvers to work harder. Got them out of their slowed, comfortable lives.” Anders’s voice was a familiar one, but there was something about the way that he spoke that sent a chill down Astrid’s back. Instead of his usual congenial, if dispassionate voice, there was a hatred-filled twisting in his voice that had Astrid standing and pulling out her hammer. The rest of the party wasn’t quite so quick to draw arms, but Muti pulled back to stand beside Astrid as she spoke.

“Anders. Can I ask what you’re doing in the Dungeon?“

“We have no time for this. Force them to sign the contracts and we’ll extract.” Maria’s voice was harsh. She leveled a gaze at Muti specifically, an obvious, specific hatred in her eyes as she did so. “We have them all right now, so we won’t kill the Barbarian, but if I have my way, she’ll be whoring instead of delving.”

“Well, the lady in charge commands, and I follow.” Anders chuckled as he pulled a thick ledger out of nowhere and, without having to flick through the pages, opened it to a specific page. “Astrid, if you’d be so kind…?”

He offered a pen for her to write with, and despite knowing how terrible of a situation this was, that she shouldn’t listen to them, a part of her said that she probably should. After all, he was… A good person? She groaned and tried to shake off the feeling. Muti didn’t hesitate to draw and throw her side knife as soon as Astrid started moving forward. The blade flashed through the air, but faster still was Maria, who was suddenly there in the path and caught the knife in her teeth. She made a grimace of a smile at Muti, then shook her finger disapprovingly as her teeth crunched through the steel.

“The beasts never learn, do they?” She asked Anders.

“No, they don’t.”

They didn’t exchange another word before Maria disappeared again, though not seemingly to sprint somewhere so quickly as she had before. Instead, she fully disappeared for about three seconds before she stood behind Muti and smashed her fist into the Rogue’s spine. Muti was thrown forward four steps, or at least, about that distance. With that hit, she was paralyzed and fell with unfeeling legs. Breath wheezed out of her and she made a horrible low, piteous sound. Her visceral keens of agony filled the air. As she lay there, unable to move her legs, she tried to roll over, to do something, but she couldn’t. With that sudden violence, the stunned silence that had settled over the party was dispelled as Benedict, knees visibly shaking in fear, still stepped towards Muti as he sang his Song of Healing.

“Just so you know, I would prefer if you didn’t do that.“ Maria said conversationally. “I was hoping to continue to listen to her whines. I’d call it prettier music than what you’re making right now, though I like your style.”

To his credit, Benedict didn’t stop, instead going to his knee beside their injured companion as he continued to tend to her. Luckily, Maria shrugged and didn’t seem to want to hurt Benedict the way she’d wanted to cripple Muti. Meanwhile…

She knew she was unable to do anything. She knew there was nothing she could do to a Steel tier Assassin, given that Maria was the Class that she seemed to be. Even so, Astrid squared her shoulders, roared, and threw herself towards the enemy.

“You probably have some beast blood in there, don’t you? I mean, look at you.” Maria’s words came almost as an echo before the Assassin slowly dodged three of Astrid‘s attacks, and then, with casual grace, swiped her hand and broke Astrid‘s right elbow. She screamed in pain and rage as she swung her shield wildly at the enemy. It went wide, of course, and Maria clicked her tongue disapprovingly as she took one step back, then with a flick of her ankle, broke Astrid’s left knee outward. She crumpled, wheezing in agony, and allowed herself to shed the tears in her eyes. She felt her face twist as she asked.

“Why?”

“Why does everybody ask that?” Anders asked with genuine curiosity as he stepped back forward. “Do you think that a noble house established hundreds of years ago doesn’t have more resources than we do? Do you think that having an established system that isn’t just ‘go into the Dungeon and hope you don’t die’ isn’t preferable to what you have? But that doesn’t matter. Go ahead and sign this contract, we’ll get you out of the Dungeon, and we’ll get you to your new home.”

Despite everything, he spoke as if everything he thought was reasonable and wise, and when he held out the book, Astrid wanted to sign it again. She stretched her hand out and groaned in pain as she instinctively reached her right arm out, her broken elbow making her gorge threaten to rise in pain. That feeling of compulsion had faded when Muti threw her knife, but now, without distractions, she felt her mind fogging again, even ignoring the agony of her broken joints.

“There’s no way that this is going to be unnoticed!“ Felix screamed as he put himself between Astrid and the traitor.

“That’s why we’re taking you out with us.” Anders explained as if to a child. “Felix, please. Sign the contract and we’ll all be on our way.”

The bodyguard swayed where he stood, trying to keep his fists up, but he took an unsteady step forward. At that same moment, a miniature sun exploded into existence overhead and flashed three times, like the heavens had an eye that blinked. Maria, who stood next to Astrid where she lay on the ground, cursed as she saw it.

“The Silver Wind is coming.“ No sooner had she said it that Tristan appeared with a crack of lightning in front of her. No words were exchanged, and Astrid couldn’t see exactly what happened, but the sound of wind whipping while he pursued the Assassin was overwhelming. His fists blurred through the air, leaving guttering fires in their wake with every movement he made. Maria disappeared, going off somewhere, but Tristan seemed to have a lock on her position and blazed forward, grain flying and bursting into flames in the air as he followed her trails.

“Oh.” The word was more of an involuntary noise than any attempted communication, and directly thereafter, one of the two Warpriest brothers made himself known. 

He hefted his shield, pointed his hammer at Anders, and abjured, “You are judged guilty.”

With his words, a harsh light smashed onto Anders from the heavens, but he raised his book over his head and made dozens and hundreds of papers fly out of the book to stop the attack. Then, seemingly unwilling to say anything more, Anders shook his head. Then, he put his entire forearm into the book, grabbed something, and threw it up into the air. From the pages coalesced an army. A dozen wargs the size of horses, two faceless archers, and what Astrid could only assume was a drake all appeared. Each was formed of countless pages that continued to rustle and swirl together to hold together the full body of the summons.

“My brother! To me!“ The Warpriest cried as he lifted his hammer, set it ablaze a painfully bright white, and smashed it into one of the wargs. The pages burst into flames, burning, but not to ashes. The paper beasts swarmed him, but he didn’t fall. Instead, he held himself steady, his shield and hammer flashing and smashing away every attack without apparent effort. With each of his strikes, paper exploded into pulp and fell from the air.

“Now now, be good puppies.” Ursula said as she appeared, her fingers dancing and making smoky signs in the air. “If you’re disobedient, you’ll be whipped.”

As she said the word whip, the smoky manifestations of her curses formed to look like coiled whips, and they all went out to burn themselves into the wargs necks. The beasts didn’t react, but they did slow by half from the impact. As the curses settled into the summons, Ursula squared her shoulders, growing a little bit taller as she flitted forward towards Anders.

His eyes widen in panic, but he held his ledger out in front of himself, open towards the Cursificer, and an explosion of pages flew out towards her. Ursula forced herself to stop, the pages flowing out of Anders’s vicinity to continue to pursue her, but she dodged to the side with an unnatural Alacrity.

Astrid continued to watch, groaning in pain as she nearly activated Quick Recovery, but then the other Warpriest was there. “Be at peace. You shall be healed.”

He didn’t hesitate to place a hand on each Muti and Astrid, their bodies becoming whole in just a few seconds. Muti immediately tried to stumble to her feet, but her knees were a little shaky as she tried to recover.

“I shall help my brother, keep yourselves safe. This is not a battle you are fit for.”

Then, without another word, he settled his shield and hammer, glowed with an intense light, and leapt forward like a meteor towards the drake that was in the act of savaging his brother‘s leg. Though his blood stained the pages, the other frontliner hadn’t moved from where he stood, both feet still firmly on the ground as he battered the beast with burning light. Several of the wargs had been dismantled entirely into fluttering shreds of paper in the air, though the two archers were focused on Ursula. She had yet to take any notable wounds, while the two brothers focused on working together to control the more dangerous, larger paper creations.

“To my goddess, I dedicate my victory!” Anders screamed as he reached back into his ledger, the pages seemingly only half depleted, and threw another flurry of pages into existence.

“An Iron and a Steel my left asscheek!” Ursula scoffed as she retreated back to near the awed Bronze party. “Listen, I don’t know how, but he’s high Steel tier, around Klara‘s level. He’s higher level than any of us, and Tristan‘s stuck with that Assassin, making sure she’s not going to kill any of us. If any of you can do anything, you better damn well do it, because Christophe‘s in the Dungeon itself, picking off a group of drakes that I’m sure this bastard over here’s somehow controlling.”

Astrid raised her hands helplessly, looking down at her hammer and shield, while Muti nodded once resolutely and slipped into the nearby fields. As she disappeared into Stealth, Felix also pursed his lips.

“I’ll try.“ Skandr said, standing up and twisting his hands into a familiar sigil.

“You probably won’t be able to do anything to him. His summons are weaker than him, at least in attributes, so you might be able to do something there.”

The Cursificer didn’t seem to have anything else to say, and the entire time while she was speaking, her hands drew complicated curses into the air. As she finished her sentence, so too did she complete the curses. Both smashed into the drake that was still holding on to a brother, a dark smoky trail going from the paper beast’s body to the two Warpriest brothers. With the appearance of the curse, both raised their hammers and smashed them into the center of the beast’s body with an explosion. The papers burst into flames and the smoky trail to each brother thickened to ropes the size of a fist, and they both grew broader in shoulder as Ursula‘s curse took effect.

The brothers blurred towards the remaining wargs, destroying them before too long. Unfortunately, this gave Anders time to reach a hand out towards the paper still fluttering all over the battlefield and, with a pull of his left hand, all of the paper not currently being used by his summons flowed back towards him. Ursula rushed forward, disregarding the flurry of arrows that she partially dodged to only take in her shoulders in order to get closer to the Scribe, or whatever he truly was, but it was too late. The papers, those that hadn’t been totally torched or destroyed, were returning back into his ledger.

While it happened, Skandr threw his hand into the air and called lightning down onto the main body of the paper. A dozen small fires burst out, and Anders turned his attention towards the group of Bronzes.

“Sweet Duchess above.“ Astrid breathed as Anders held two papers between his three fingers and flicked them towards the party. Astrid stepped forward and leveled her shield in front of her. Though she trusted in the mana-blessed iron, she made sure to give the shield a strong tilt as she stood in front of her allies. It was good that she did so, as the bones in her forearm cracked under the force of the idle attack that had been set her way. The papers flew overhead, lost elsewhere, and Anders screamed his rage to the sky.

“I have sacrificed my present and my future for this! I will not fail even if I fall!”

The three Steel delvers closed in on him, Ursula sketching a long, sinuous curse in the air as the brothers both issued judgment on him. The burning pillars of light smashed into him, but Anders didn’t seem to mind as his skin burned and his face melted. Instead, he ripped his ledger in half and threw all of the hundreds of papers into the air. They split and grew in number until there were thousands and thousands of them all assembled into the faintly regal form of a human with a crown.

“My goddess… To thee I deliver… power.” With Anders’s last words, his body exploded into sheets of paper that formed together to the shape of a scepter of paper. It stood tall under its own power before beginning to move up into the 5 meter tall representation of Anders’s “goddess”, but something got in the way. Muti threw herself forward with a scream and cut into the paper scepter. A couple pages shredded under her attack, though most held firm. The damaged scepter continued to rise and Muti rushed away while the construct waved the scepter in a circle above its head and created a halo of paper that swiftly folded itself into hundreds of head-sized arrowheads.

“Get back!“ Ursula commanded. “There’s only so far the attacks can get, so get out of range!”

“Muti!“ Astrid didn’t need to make any commands as she gestured for the Rogue to come with the rest of the party as they fled. Muti didn’t hesitate, sprinting as quickly as she could manage away from the battle that had started out of their league and was quickly growing even out of the silver winds league. Astrid and the rest of the party jogged a little, making sure that their fifth party member could catch up, and as soon as she was close, Benedict blew into his flute to the tune of Quickened Step and the party sprinted away as fast as they could manage. Unfortunately, the way up to the third floor was behind the summoned paper monstrosity, so instead, they ran towards the Silver Wind’s camp.

“Is that really Anders? How does a Scribe do that? What the… I don’t…” Felix asked a dozen questions that became more and more unintelligible as they continued their run, and Astrid had nothing to add. None of it was making a whole lot of sense at the moment, but it didn’t need to make sense for her to know that they were in danger. As they strode into the middle of the camp, the sounds of battle echoed across the entire floor. Astrid thanked her lucky stars that there hadn’t been any gnolls around making things more difficult, but then she thought of the hits that she had seen each of the Silver Wind give and take, and she realized that maybe they weren’t too concerned about the attacks from Bronze tiers all around, friendly or otherwise.

The party stood together, panting in seeming solidarity as they looked for somewhere to be as safe as they could manage to rest. After all, they had no idea where Maria and Tristan were, or who had won that fight. Then there was a question of what Ursula had mentioned offhandedly about Christophe. Was he fighting? Was he somehow in league with the others from the noble? There were so many questions, and who could they trust?

A groan of pain pulled Astrid from her thoughts. She held her shield back up, ready to attempt to protect herself, though she knew it would be nearly impossible to do so if it was Maria, and looked for the source of the sound. It was too human to have been a monster, at least any of those that exist existed around here. When she peeked around the tent, she saw Christophe slumped, mostly out of the entrance into the Dungeon proper though he slowly slipped back towards the dungeon.

“Something’s pulling him back!“ Astrid said as she rushed forward, grabbed him by under both of his arms, and heaved backward. There was some resistance from the other side, but then, whatever it was pulling on him seemed to give up. Astrid pulled and saw the savaged state of his legs. Something had been chewing on him, and he’d lost consciousness, partially in the branch and partially in the Dungeon proper. As she pulled his leg all the way in, though, she saw that his foot was still in its mouth. With her help, the drake entered the branch.