The Pinnacle Warrior

Muti

Astrid was impressive. She always had been, and Muti relished the opportunities to stretch her own abilities and prove herself. With Body Surge, Astrid had been able to dispatch the wyvern without too much trouble. Muti herself would do the same, though her weapons were struggling to keep up. In striking the last wyvern, she’d learned that though its wings were relatively vulnerable, its scales were nearly as tough as the Dragon Turtle’s shell.

When the next wyvern approached, Muti held both of her blades low at her sides. Unlike Astrid, with this one, her ranged weapons wouldn’t matter. They could only reach ten meters away at most, and she didn’t need to draw its attention. Instead, she waited for the monster to get closer. With her Shadow Aura constrained only to herself, she knew she was largely invisible to the beast as it approached. Unlike the first, this one appeared to be hungry and desperate instead of imperious, not sweeping from above, but flying at a low altitude straight towards the party.

Its claws were stretched towards Skandr, but he’d long since readied himself for its approach. Winds appeared from above the monster and pressed it down towards the ground. Unprepared as it was, it didn’t manage to keep from dragging its talons in the earth, and slowing down as the party worked to tie it down.

Shadow Touched would strengthen her every move, and Muti dismissed her short sword in favor of her seax. She held it in both hands, keeping her eyes on her target. Power-aligned mana flooded her arms while shadow magic made the shining silver blade change to a dusky gray. Then, just as the wyvern recovered and started to lift off, it raised both wings high in preparation for lift off, and that was when she used Shadow Strike.

Shadow Leap had primarily been a movement Skill that gave a small bonus to damage. Shadow Strike was an attacking Skill that also kept her mobile, and with the boost from the Skill and her shadow magic empowering the blow, she delivered an overhanded chop into the bone of the wyvern’s wing, from the side of the membrane. Her blade cut easily through flesh, and cracked heavily against the bone. The monster squealed as her weapon lodged halfway into that most important part and weakness of the creature, but she didn’t manage to cut it off entirely. Her weapons, wonderful as they were in Iron, were starting to fall behind in performance thirty levels after she started using them. She’d seen Astrid’s hammer’s haft bending with repeated uses, and the whole of their equipment would need upgrades sooner rather than later.

For now, though, the blades would be enough and the wyvern snarled and attempted to retaliate. Instead, Muti used Shadow Strike once more to avoid the tail looking to pierce through her, and reappeared standing on the monster’s back. From the other side of the wing, she chopped again, this time splintering bone. Though she was unable to amputate the limb, her job was done as it could no longer fly with one wing hanging limply.

That test for herself was quickly over, and she moved to the other side, where she cut the membranes to ribbons and distracted the tail from striking the softer targets of the party.

While it was grounded, Felix and Skandr conducted multiple tests regarding how to force its focus to remain on them, which Muti didn’t care to pay special attention to. Instead, she carefully took note of her weapons’ status, noting several deep nicks in the blade.

“We will need to find a person to service our equipment before we complete our goals here, if not to provide replacements.”

The leader came and peeked over Muti’s shoulder, nodding in agreement as she noticed the same damages that Muti had.

“Yeah, I think we’ll maybe clear out three more today than get back up to the surface and talk to the Grove there, see what they might have to tell us. If we can purchase new equipment, at least for us three on the front lines, then we’ll be able to make it longer.”

Muti nodded, then grinned as she gestured at the broken wing. “Yes, I can do what you did.”

“And I never doubted it,” Astrid smiled as she threw her arm over Muti’s shoulder. The Lethal Shadow felt herself smile and lean into the contact, relaxing in the safety and confidence that the leader provided. Astrid did not know that she gave such feelings to Muti, but she didn’t need to. The embrace ended quickly, and Muti went to speak with Felix, who was looking at his shield with an interesting look on his face.

So many interesting things to learn, she thought to herself as she leaned over his head and rested her chin on him. All that remained was to learn it, and to become powerful enough to maintain her safety. It was a perfect position to be in, and she almost drifted off as she listened to Felix mumble a few explanations. Once the Wanderers were ready to go to the next battle, though, Muti was the first to rush off, excited as can be.

***

Felix

“It heals itself. Even if I don’t supply it with mana. I don’t know exactly what kind of material this is, but I’d guess it’s at least as valuable as dusksteel,” Felix explained to Muti. 

“Do you believe it could hold an edge?” she asked, poking along the rim of the shield.

“I wouldn’t know,” he shrugged. “It seems to compress in on itself when struck, so I would think that it isn’t good for holding an edge? But I’m no Smith.”

Muti nodded back at him, and then wandered off to do whatever it was that she was looking into. She didn’t like to hold still anyways, and Felix watched her wander off without questioning it, even though there’d been more he wanted to talk about. There’d be plenty of opportunity to later, he supposed. He continued to observe his shield, scratching the small cracks that’d formed in the battles he’d used it in so far. Though he could see where the cracks once were, already they’d smoothed over and healed themselves, so he was reminded of the fact that the shield was remarkable. It didn’t provide as many attributes as other pieces of his equipment did, but he didn’t really care about that. Helping him to be a good frontliner, not just a mediocre one, was more important than a couple dozen more attribute points.

A part of him thought about what he’d been like when he first joined with the rest of the party that would become the Wanderers. He’s been quite proud of those braces that he’d use at that time, how they could collapse into a bracelet and be much more unobtrusive. They’d worked perfectly well but Felix tried to think of what the braces would look like now, in Steel tier, if he was trying to defend against the attacks of the monsters they were facing. Could he parry the bite of a wyvern? Of course not, not without some new Skills he’d never heard of. Plus, they’d need to be so thick that they might as well be shields.

Then again, there were plenty of Skills that he had right now that he’d never heard of before, so that didn’t mean much. He wasn’t Astrid, who’d spent her youth eating up every bit of information about delvers that she could manage to find. No, he was a kid who had thought he was tough and gotten onto the streets where he made a nuisance of himself. 

He shook the thoughts of the past from his head, instead focusing on the present. More than his old equipment, he needed to get used to the new. Rather, his new shield. It felt unwieldy in his hands, though he realized that wasn’t the fault of his shield but himself being accustomed to wielding his axe with the assistance of his Skill. Now that he was using a shield without any Skill help, he needed to better dedicate himself to learning how to use the tool. With 10 levels separating them from their next Skill selection, and the obvious jump in strength possible within Steel tier monsters, there would be plenty of fights and time to familiarize himself with this in the next… half of a year? Lots of time to qualify for a good Skill.

To get to the next watershed was nearly three and a half million experience, or so Skandr had said, and a level 50 monster provided 1,500 experience, so 300 to each member of the party. Maths weren’t Felix’s strong suit, but he could see that, at the very least, they would be killing thousands and thousands of monsters to get just to the next watershed to say nothing of getting to the top of Steel. Skandr and Astrid had talked briefly about what each increase in level of the monster they were fighting would provide with regards to efficiency in gaining levels, but Felix couldn’t be bothered with remembering anything beyond 11,600 versus just under 9,000 if they only switched their focus from the lowest end of the first watershed to the highest.

Regardless of how long that would take, Felix also knew that most people never got into Steel, much less past it, and those that reach Steel frequently stayed there for life. Astrid’s mother served as a representation of that, a career soldier who, no doubt, reaped the benefits of bonus experience from killing people to accelerate her growth rate and compounded that with Dungeon delves whenever she could. 

As a different example, the Wanderers were looking at, at most, four or five years to get to the peak of Steel, and that was only if they all decided to suddenly take it uncharacteristically slow.

Astrid was an interesting leader to have in that respect, given how driven she was served to push everybody else to greater height. Benedict was the greatest example of this in action, someone who probably would have stalled out at the beginning of Steel if he had been allowed to. Now, though he groaned and complained about it, he worked just as hard as everybody else to develop his ability to manipulate his Skills and support the party. His jokes and anger were as much a shield as a spear, and he protected his own insecurity under that bluster.

And he was a weepy drunk, which gave plenty of details on that insecurity.

Felix slapped his own cheeks, refocusing on the fight they were going towards. He’d always been prone to losing himself in thought, but this was worse than unusual. Fortunately, there were no surprising monsters around here, only the wyverns and their prey, nightmares. The horses monsters, two meters tall at the shoulder, were quick and could be called dangerous if they were up against a more ordinary Steel tier party. Just as he thought about it, Muti called out and gestured at a relatively close hill. The party all prepared themselves as they waited for what she warned them about.

A small herd of nightmares crested the hill a handful of seconds later, their smoky manes and burning eyes reminding whoever saw them that they were no mere destrier. They seemed to have known where the Wanderers were, as they were already in a full gallop, the dozen or so monsters stepping easily between the ruins of what was once a great forest. Their footsteps thundered on the ground, and Felix rushed to the front of the party.

He braced his shield against his shoulder, just like he saw Astrid do when she was prepared to accept a heavy blow and flooded the shield with mana as he also activated his barrier from Boon of the Protector as well as Raging Guardian. The jump forward with Raging Guardian pushing him made him land with a sort of a shockwave, something he could only barely perceive, but when that wave pulsed out to the nightmares, all of their heads snapped towards him and they flashed with a now familiar Skill.

A formless black smoke gathered in front of them, which seemed to flow from each one of the nightmares to their nearest companions until what appeared to be a\ boulder formed of shadowy magic hovered in front of them and they charged Felix down. He pushed mana into his legs, an unspoken aspect to Raging Guardian that kept him from being blown back as he pushed more mana into the shield to pull every single one of the attacks exactly where he wanted it.

That quick flow of Skills and mana use dipped quickly into his reserves, and he was about to say something to Astrid, but the charge came too quickly, and he was driven back half a dozen meters, his feet digging deep furrows in the ground as he crashed through waist high stumps. With so many Skills protecting him, his bones and stance strained, but it was a mere pain, nothing crippling.

The nightmare charge was forced to a stop, and their attention was too focused on him to be able to begin another charge anew, and he twisted with his hips and whole body to decapitate one of the horse-like monsters in one strike.

“I might not be a Hewing Guardian anymore,” he said, his voice, barely more than a whisper, “but I still got my axe.”

He continued chopping at the monsters, but Astrid, Muti, and Skandr took advantage of the nightmares’ broken assault, and started destroying them all with impunity.

Yes, this was what he needed to do, this was what a frontliner needed to be capable of.

***

Benedict

“It doesn’t affect their speed exactly like that,” Benedict explained to a questioning Astrid. “I know you’re thinking about the feathered serpents when you ask how they were slowed as soon as they entered the area of Hasty Rebuke while the wyverns aren’t. The difference is that wyverns aren’t using magic to slither through the air the way that the feathered serpents were. Instead, if they’re diving towards us, it doesn’t change the effect of gravity if their Alacrity’s being reduced. Do you think that if your Alacrity was reduced, you’d stop falling as quickly?”

Astrid nodded slowly, understanding, before she said, “I get what you’re saying, but I think it’s pretty stupid that the feathered serpents were affected in a way that the naiads weren’t. After all, it seems to be basically the same to me if we’re comparing the two.”

“No, it isn’t,” Benedict shook his head. “The serpents use their magic to somehow make the air they interact with solid. The naiads swam through the water and used magic to move the water to attack. The movement of the naiad construct is what you’re asking about and it was entirely based off of their Magical Potency and Skill while the feathered serpents’ mobility is entirely dependent off of their Alacrity. So, one shows effect and the other doesn’t.”

Astrid squinted, but didn’t argue further. Benedict couldn’t blame her, since he felt much the same before he started his in-depth training with Isana. How that affected the information he could understand in retrospect didn’t make a lick of sense, but he wasn’t going to lose sleep over being smarter today than he was yesterday.

“Anyways, you don’t have any more of the venom in your blood. I don’t think that you need to worry too much about getting me to help you out with it just being splashed on you like that if it happens again, but if you get stung, I don’t think that Physique will be able to help you without using most of your charges, so come to me.”

“Nasty venom they’ve got,” Astrid agreed, standing. “Thanks again.”

“It is my job,” Benedict granted as he started idly moving his spear around.

“Do you think you’re actually gonna start training hard with that?” Astrid asked. “I know the Golden Fist, bastards or not, talked to you about using a weapon, and I can see why it would be useful, but I think you’re already doing more than your share in the party.”

“I could be doing more,” Benedict replied, forcing an unconcerned tone. Astrid seemed to take that answer at face value and shrugged, talking for a little bit longer before she returned to the front line. The party had decided to go for one more fight against a wyvern before they got back to the surface and reevaluated what to do with their equipment.

Just a few minutes passed before Benedict was back alone with his thoughts, to his own disappointment. He couldn’t help but compare what the others were all doing to himself, and this was their first delve into a Dungeon branch as a Steel tier party. Muti could teleport, the restrictions obviously much looser than before she’d evolved. Even with an entire tier in difference in quality, her blades cut through the monster’s defenses and her magic, though always subtle and only in support of her physical strength, distracted the monster enough to be able to seize the opportunity and strike crippling blows.

Felix was, despite having taken a Class less focused on being mobile and deadly than before, more impactfully mobile than ever before. He was always exactly where he needed to be, and offered his support to whoever needed it at the perfect moment. All of his Skills working together now served to truly force a monster to focus on him, and they couldn’t hurt him at all with his defenses. The only weakness he had for now was his limited mana reserves, which Benedict and Astrid both helped him with between Restful Reverberations and Immortal Champion’s Physique.

Speaking of Astrid, she was a damn cheat. Most of the time, she was a better healer than he was, then she would jump off like a damn Mithril tier, flying a dozen meters in the air to smash into an escaping wyvern and destroy it in the air. Her new Spectral Gravitons, too, were amazingly useful, though they all realized before long that it was best used as effectively an attachment to the head of her hammer, though that couldn’t diminish the other utility the Skill offered.

Then there was Skandr, the Archwizard. The skies did whatever the man wanted, though he grumbled about not having enough time to study and update his spells. Apparently, everything he’d been doing until now was painfully inefficient, and he couldn’t wait to show what an Archwizard was really capable of as compared to a “mere” Wizard. As if snuffing out the Skill of a monster nearly 10 levels higher than himself in a single word wasn’t impressive enough.

All to be compared to Benedict. The guy who sang and the monster slowed down a little. Yippee. Or, he could help his allies boo-boos go away with another song. What luck.

And if he wanted to be more useful in battle, he’d need to be trained by one of his damned allies to be able to do anything other than be a liability. It didn’t matter how many times they said something like, “wow, you’re so useful, we wouldn’t be able to do it without you,” he knew the truth. He was a weak link, and he was a liability more than an actual help to these people he looked up to.

Fortunately, the next wyvern was close, and it wasn’t long before Benedict was forced to pull himself out of his thoughts.

***

Skandr

With no small amount of trepidation, Skandr allowed the words to fall from his lips as he chanted the amended storm killer spell. He couldn’t think of another name for it, but he knew he wasn’t going to be saying that name around the rest of the Wanderers until it was an entirely different spell. After all, they would think of a storm that killed, not a spell that killed storms. The final syllable left his lips and Skandr swept his hand slowly through the air to create the finishing sigils. 

He moved his hand slowly, even for a Bronze tier, as although he’d been astounded by what Saul could do in the same movements, he also knew he was years of practice away from being able to do what his senior Wizard could. The gleaming trails of sigils that he left with every movement of his hands was astounding. Skandr’s fingers were far from capable of keeping up like that. Instead, he moved even slower than if he’d done it the way he initially had. While learning, this was an inferior way to trace out the sigils in the air, but once he was practiced, his spells would be faster, more efficient, and more potent. He was more than willing to slow himself now to build up those possibilities in the future. 

The spell was complete, but Skandr’s left hand’s fingers continued tracing repeating sigils in the air, staying its activation. Keeping his feet planted maintained his Boon of Fortification’s boost, and the spell begged to be released, but he kept it under his control with the sigils in his left hand. That served as a slow drain to his mana, but it was worth it to have it ready as the party threw themselves at the wyvern. This one was tougher than the others they’d fought, but they were also finally taking time to better understand the monster’s Skills.

They’d learned that the purge Skill was a once per battle Skill. Maybe it was too costly or had a cooldown, but the single surge also gave it a short time of immunity to the other Skills that affected it. Skandr noted that its scales linked together when that happened, which he supposed was a physical representation of whatever Skill it was using. 

Astrid threw herself at the wyvern as it tried to fly away, her hammer and shield both dismissed as she tried something Muti had suggested. She wrapped both arms around the base of one of the monster’s wings, only barely managing to get both arms around it as she struggled to find leverage. Skandr’s right hand prepared a spell to drop the monster from the air as Astrid’s legs flailed. She twisted and spun, but didn’t manage to do anything meaningful to the monster that continued climbing higher as its head and tail lashed for her. 

With another twist of her body, she vaulted to stand on its back and ran three steps before jumping to the ground some 30 meters below. She fell in a roll and a grunt, but didn’t seem any worse for the wear as Skandr pumped a heavy amount of his health into the spell he was brewing. Somehow, Astrid recognized what he was doing and rushed over closer to him while shouting, “Anyone else who wants a charge of Physique, come here!”

Felix and Muti both came close while Benedict waved them on, and Astrid waited for Skandr. He pushed more of his health and stamina into the spell, feeling his vision cloud and his knees shake as he sacrificed a part of himself to strengthen the attack. Then, he pulled his cloud companion out of his hood and formed it into a javelin of red lightning and boiling mist. With a thought, the spell shot out and smashed into the wyvern as it flew, blowing its wing clean off.

“Duchess above,” Astrid breathed as she spent a charge of Physique. Health exploded into Skandr, and his sagging eyes and sick stomach became healthy all at once. He watched as the wyvern spiralled to the ground with weeping screams and decided to stop maintaining the hold on his storm killer spell. It used its little storm, but with half of its body scorched and one wing obliterated, it was too crippled to do anything with that opportunity. The party set in on it and Skandr walked forward, watching as the monster was put out of its misery. Then, Astrid turned to the rest and asked the question they’d all been waiting for. 

“Are we ready to get to the surface?”