(Second Book Complete!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

Ianmus was having a really bad day. He knew he should have turned back when the system had updated, or at least headed to one of the semi-maintained roads that connected Mystral with the rest of the continent.

In his defence, the idea of seeing all of the variant evolutions when animals were shifted to beasts sounded fascinating, and he hadn’t quite expected things to go this badly.

Which they had, hence his slapdash sprint for survival.

A raucous cacophony of squawks and chirps sounded from behind him. Ianmus grit his teeth, fighting against the burn in his lungs as he forced his legs to move, to hurl him forwards with every shred of energy he had.

He’d thought a jaunt through the wild would be exploratory! The kind of thing that a true adventure was made of. Why, he might even have had some glimmer of insight into these strange new Aspects that the system had woven into existence above his soul.

In his defence, as soon as he had realised just how quickly he was getting out of his depth with the rapid leveling of beasts, he had adjusted his course, trying to cut towards Deadacre. A piddly, hodunk, backwater of a city it might have been, but it had walls. Which sounded really, really fucking good right now.

**Ding! Magister’s Dash has reached level 33!**.

The ding of his movement skill levelling brought him a little relief, allowing him to squeeze just that much more speed out. Every good Magi had one, but he was proud of managing to be offered a lauded Unusual purely due to his own practice and efforts. Most of his non-legacy skills were like that.

Too bad it wasn’t helping.

Another quick look over his shoulder showed that his pursuers had gained on him, thick taloned limbs dashing lightly over the grass.

Of course he ran into a bloody flock of terror birds right as he decided to head to safety.

He’d only managed to Identify two of them, but both of them were level nineteen. That had been when the fear set in, that crippling cold fluid that washed down his spine, sapping his strength.

He stood no chance, not as a level twenty magi with no front line. All of the combat casting practice in the world wouldn’t help in that scenario.

He started to channel, weaving his mana and pushing it into his Sunbeam skill. He stumbled, losing track of his footing as he focused on keeping his mana stable and steady. Gasping at the lurch, Iamus just barely managed to keep his stride.

It still let the birds gain on him.

The sunstone that capped his staff shone with brilliance as his skill clicked into place, fully charged and ready. Turning mid sprint, he aimed his staff at the front runner, firing off a lance of pale yellow light.

Without checking the result, he looked to the front and kept sprinting. The bird squealed in pain and rage, but there was no sign of a deathknell. No kill notification.

Dread and regret clawed at him. He’d been such an idiot. Valedictorian of the Sunspire, as a scholarship student no less, and he’d still failed to heed the system’s warnings.

He knew, knew, that he only had a handful or so more shots of Sunbeam left. Against one, maybe two, terror birds? Possible. Not against a flock though. He was doomed. Doomed to a fate of being run down and eaten alive. What a fucking travesty.

A roar echoed through the valley. One filled to the brim with bloodlust and a loudly announced promise of violent death. It chilled Ianmus to his bones, raising the hair on his neck in the way that only a superior threat could.

Gasping involuntarily, he forced himself to keep running. Hoping, praying, that whatever fell fortune had found him this time had decided that the terror birds would be more entertaining company.

Behind him, he heard a flurry of skidding steps as his pursuers squawked in outrage, wheeling around to advance on a new greater threat.

Ianmus suppressed his sigh of relief. Whatever the reason, whatever it was, he couldn’t waste the opportunity. He wouldn’t stop running until he was safe in deadacre, sat in front of a fire with a glass of rich red in one hand, and a good book in the other.

Then he heard the war cry.

It resonated with a deep bass, like the voice of a general leading an army into battle. It promised death, and thrummed with a glee that was impossible to miss.

It was a person’s voice.

Ianmus’s gait faltered, his head snapping over to the source of the sound in shock. He slowed, then stopped.

He stood there, jaw slack, as he watched an absolutely magnificent beast, garbed in leather and some kind of green stone armour, tearing down the hill side. A man was astride its back, draped in gleaming steel scales, with a longsword held victoriously aloft.

The terror birds had fully rounded on his saviours, tearing across the open ground to meet them at the base of the hill.

Struggling to process what he was watching, Ianmus saw the armoured beast beneath the man let out another bellow and accelerate. Heading straight for them. It wasn’t slowing. Whatever it was, it intended to trample the flock. Thick crystalline claws dug into the earth, powerful muscles engaging to keep the pair on target.

Wait. Those claws. That body plan. Could it possibly be? No, he had to be mistaken. Ianmus rejected the notion utterly, there was no way that one of them would be seen outside the Arboreal Sea, let alone armoured and carrying a man. Obscured as it was by armour, and charging at a full clip, it was hard for him to be sure of anything.

Then a bolt of lightning snapped into existence, grasped firmly in the rider’s hand. Ianmus stared at the raging torrent in disbelief. He had to be dreaming, that was it. Or the birds had already caught him and were tearing into his entrails as blood loss made him delusional.

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Because that man hadn’t channeled. Which was impossible. Spells needed to be channeled. Some might be quick, but they all needed to be channeled. No one could just summon lightning bolts instantly. What the fuck!

Uncaring of his disbelief, the rider hurled the bolt, cracking it like a bullwhip towards the leaders of the flock. The spell raged with such intensity it was blinding, both to his mana sense and to his eyes. Ropes of writhing plasma coiled around the leader as it shrieked in agony. Boiling blood spurted from its mouth and eyes, as more arcs cracked from the main bolt to bind two more terror birds.

They succumbed just as quickly, collapsing to the ground, dead.

Iamus gulped. Maybe…maybe it was a high level delver? It would explain the speed of his casting.

The stone armoured beast crushed the flock beneath his bulk, shattering bone and severing flesh as the mount lashed out with claws the length of shortswords. Then the rider leapt, lashing out with another bolt of lightning to smite more terror birds, even as he pirouetted through the air to land daintily on his feet.

The scale armoured rider dashed in, eviscerating another member of the flock with a masterful stroke of their blade, diving into the thick of the melee with a grace that belied mastery.

A magi cum blademaster, he really had seen everything.

Then the rider turned towards him. “Run you fool!” he screamed, before pivoting around a desperate hammer peck to fly back into battle.

How the hell had he dodged that, he wasn’t even looking!

A moment later he processed the man’s words. It struck a war up inside him, he longed to run to safety. And yet…that fight. It looked glorious!

I mean, he was a magi, it wasn’t like he would go diving into the thick of things… And he had been looking for a good way to test his latest spell that he’d learnt a few days ago. Sundrenched Strength would surely make their job a little easier, even if they did have it well in hand…

Ianmus made his mind up and sprinted across the hill, circling behind his new front line. Let no one say that he, Ianmus, valedictorian of Sunspire, was a coward.

…

Kaius felt the power of two consecutive level ups flow through him. Terror Birds, the system had called them. He didn’t find them all that scary.

Porkchop had shattered their formation, stone and fury breaking bones like twigs as every lash of his claws ripped through feathered flesh. Kaius kept up just fine. His first two casts of Stormlash had killed six of them outright, potent lightning and storm mana frying the beasts from the inside out as his metamagic ruined their internals.

Blood sprayed as he tore through the vestigial wing of one of the avians, biting deep into its chest beneath. The beast howled in fury, rearing back to slam its strange axe-like beak towards him in a vicious peck.

Doom swirled, multiple skills working to plot out the exact path of the attack. He slid to the side, drawing his razor sharp sword across the bird’s neck. Hot vitality fountained, feeding the earth.

As he spun, he caught sight of the robed man running across the hill, angling behind them. Kaius rolled his eyes, that is not what he had meant when he told the man to flee.

Returning his focus to the battle, he whirled his sword around into a full weighted swing, cleaving the head from the terror bird that already accosted him.

**Ding! level 18 Terror Bird Pursuer slain - Experience Gained!**

Kaius frowned at the notification. To close in level for a bonus, which he’d come to realise had to be very significant if the stark difference in leveling pace was anything to go by.

More notifications dinged in his mind as Porkchop eviscerated two more. Then, out of nowhere, Kaius was beset by heat. A nourishing one, that brought with it the smell of sweat and worked muscles, the power of labour under the hard sun.

**Ding! You have been Enhanced - Sundrenched Strength!**

It felt hot, rich, and potent. Vitalising. New power flooded his limbs and he dropped his head back and laughed. He took it back, the magi was alright in his book.

Two terror birds swooped in to capitalise on his momentary distraction. Lurching back to focus, Kaius fended one off with a swipe of his sword. The other was too fast, slamming its axe-like beak down towards him. Too late to dodge, he shifted, sliding his feat so that the headbut landed on the heavy layered armour of his pauldrons.

The terror bird’s head snapped to the side with a chirp of fury, heavy head clacking against metal as its strike was deflected. Bones creaked, but did not crack. By the gods was it strong. The feathered freaks might have been feeble, but they packed a mean punch.

**Ding! Tempered by Dissonance has reached level 23!**.

Uncaring of his wounds, Kaius slammed into the avian, forcing it back. Seizing his blade in a half-sword grip he plunged its point into the bird’s eye, dropping it like a rock.

**Ding! level 17 Terror Bird Pursuer slain - Experience Gained!**

Still no level. Kaius growled in frustration.

The other bird, the one he had fended off, attempted to claw him with its massive talons, only for a snapping beam of radiance to lance its face. It pulled back with a screech, a scorched hole burned into its flesh.

Kaius didn’t let the moment go to waste. He stepped in, hacking at the distracted monster’s neck. It went down not long after.

**Ding! level 16 Terror Bird Pursuer slain - Experience Gained!**

With barely more than a handful left, the terror birds looked scattered and fragile. Broken. Porkchop snapped another up in his jaws, closing his bite around its neck. A viscous heave tore the head free, blood gouting through the air.

The rest of the flock flinched.

Kaius grinned. Time to mop up.

Condensed electric fury snapped into existence, his third Stormlash whipping out to boil the blood of two more terror birds. Unfortunately, the remnant beasts were too spread out for him to catch a third.

Muscles seized as current and resonance tore through the delicate organs of the pair. One of their eyeballs burst, smoking feathers blanketing the region with the scent of scorched flesh and smouldering keratin.

The crackling thrum vanished as his spell winked out of existence, two more smoking corpses joining the pile.

**Ding! level 17 Terror Bird Pursuer slain - Experience Gained!**

…

**Ding! level 19 Terror Bird Pursuer slain - Experience Gained!**

Still no more level. Just how big was that bonus?!

Their spirits shattered, and the remaining terror birds broke, sprinting back the way they had come as they screeched in despair. Porkchop let out a bellowing roar of victory, rearing up on his hind legs as he announced his might.

Feeling the rabid song in his blood start to ebb, Kaius grinned. It was still too quick and too easy for his liking, but it was still better than endless walking.

Still, the potent energy of the magi’s enhancement still coursed through him. Kaius walked over to his bond-brother, who had already dismissed his thick plated armour, and clapped him over the shoulder.

“Come on, let’s go say hello.” he whispered, before turning to find the robed mage standing a little ways up the hill, leaning heavily on his staff as his chest rose and fell with slow intensity. Poor guy must have been run half ragged during the chase.

Porkchop grunted, but stuck to his side, curiosity at the new figure drifting across their bond. Kaius grinned at the man, trying to keep his body language relaxed and friendly.

“Hey! Nice to meet you!” Kaius yelled, raising his arm over his head with a wave.