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

Kaius stumbled forward into a clearing that looked identical to the one he had just left, alone once more.

If it wasn’t an exact clone, it was a close one. The grass was luscious, filled with fronds and seed pods; the scattering of pretty white flowers with yellow centers reached up to his mid thigh. It was a meadow, surrounded by a ring of dense trees and thickets that looked almost impossible to pass. Somehow, he knew that his meagre strength wouldn’t be enough to break through the brambles and brush, no matter how harmless they first appeared.

Yet despite the natural beauty that surrounded him — the shining sun above and the deep purple sky overhead — he barely paid it any mind. With that single step, connection had been restored to him, and it pulled him toward a mind familiar and loved.

Porkchop. His presence returned once more.

Kaius was already running, hurtling across grass that provided far more resistance than he was used to. He saw his brother quickly: a mountain of green, white, and black rising above the thick growth, charging toward him at top speed.

“Kaius. You’re here! You made it — and you didn’t fall to horrors beyond the pale!”

Kaius laughed, running faster instead of answering. When Porkchop was within a dozen strides, he launched into a tackle — slamming bodily into his brother’s chest. The blow wrenched his shoulder from its socket: a spike of pain in his mind that he ignored. Going down fighting, Porkchop reared up and tossed him across the grass.

They laughed — only to stand frozen as an unexpected voice called out to them.

“Kaius?! Porkchop?!”

Kaius jumped in shock, snapping toward the voice. It was oddly muted, despite how close it had come from — but he let the detail slip by as he focused on the speaker. Clean and refined, with that coastal metropolitan lilt he had grown fond of. Ianmus, dressed in pale robes, casting focus in hand. Tall and lithe, he tore across the field straight for them, his face beaming.

Kaius gaped at the man. In all of the forsaken hells, what was Ianmus doing here? Porkchop, he could understand; Porkchop made sense. Xenanra had told them herself that their bond created allowances that others wouldn’t have. Hells, they’d already run into each other once in the Trial of Animus. But for their half-elf mage to be here… that meant something had changed for this trial.

Porkchop was stunned for a moment, but he was less frozen by surprise.

“Mage boy, you made it!” he yelled, bounding towards the man.

“That I did,” Ianmus replied, laughing as Porkchop sent him stumbling back. “It was harder than every exam I’ve ever taken in my life put together — but I made it.”

Kaius could see the weariness in his friend’s face. The ordeal; the struggle he had endured. But also... he could sense that the mage had been reforged. He could feel the palpable weight that seemed to roll off him in waves — something he sensed from his brother as well, perhaps even more strongly thanks to their bond.

Using the sense of Truth and fundamental solidity of his own being that had come from embodying his aspects, he could feel something of the mage’s own renewal where it brushed up against the edges of his own Authority. There was a tension there — not quite a contest of strength, but an acknowledgement. Ianmus met his eyes, and Kaius knew the mage felt it too.

“It seems we have quite a bit to talk about,” Kaius said. He was eager for it. Ianmus had been a staunch ally and a close friend for nearly the entirety of their journey since leaving the Arboreal Sea. If he had been burdened by what he had triumphed over, then Kaius would hear it — and offer his support where he could. That was what a team was for; it was part of his duty and honour as a leader.

But if Ianmus was here, then someone else must be too. They had a fourth. Their ranger, Kenva — Where was she?

She must have heard them yell — they weren’t exactly quiet. Plus, with her Skill, he would have expected her to see them tussle and fight — or at least glimpsed them. The meadow was rolling, but the hills were shallow. More bumps a few strides higher than anything else.

Yet when Kaius looked around, he saw no sign of the ranger. Just grass and white flowers.

She must have succeeded! She was every bit as driven, as staunch and willful as the rest of them!

Porkchop felt his worry and met his eyes. He shook his head. “Do not count her out yet. There may be more we don’t understand. Perhaps she is simply further away — or perhaps there’s benefit to her taking this trial alone.”

Ianmus looked confused for a second, catching only half of their conversation—until he connected the dots.

“Kenva.”

Kaius gave his friend a nod. “Give me a moment. I’m going to check.”

Stepping back, Kaius flicked his attention inwards — feeling for his glyphs. They were there, waiting for him. His mana was locked away in inscriptions: the same ones he had prepared at the very end of his Trial of Animus. They were untouched, ready and waiting.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

He reached for Aelina, tapping into one of his many inscriptions of Expedient Shunt. The chained power within the runes burst free — glowing motes of once-bound arcane might erupted from the glyphs on his feet. A wave of force exploded beneath him, sending him skyward. The grass rustled, yet didn’t tear, and the dirt held firm beneath him as he burst into the sky.

Kaius barely registered it, far more focused on the simple resistance of the very air. It held him back, slowing his ascent. He cast twice more — rising nearly fifty strides into the air.

As he sailed to a slow peak, he whipped his head back and forth, leaning heavily on Truesight to absorb every detail of his surroundings.

The meadow they stood in was vast — larger than he expected — and surrounded by what seemed to be endless forest. It must have spanned at least a league across. Nor was it as flat as it had first appeared — there were scattered depressions throughout the terrain. Places in which things could hide.

For instance the figure he immediately spotted far to his left: a short ranger-girl with a pale blue complexion, stomping up an incline with a stern and focused expression, her eyes scanning the area.

His vision latched onto her like a black bloodhound.

“Kenva!” he shouted, waving his hands wildly as he began to fall. He triggered another shunt, bobbing back up into the air. The extra height wouldn’t last long, but with the pace their minds now worked and the sharpness of their senses, it wouldn’t take much longer—

she would hear him. She would spot him.

Yet to his surprise, it took nearly a full second — and another Shunt — for Kenva to see him despite literally screaming mid-air. He saw her jolt in shock, raising a hand to yell a greeting.

But he heard nothing. Only silence.

They were far apart, yes — but with his enhanced hearing and the forest’s utter quiet, he should have easily heard her.

Yet it was like she was mute. Magic — something had cut off the sound around them.

Kaius frowned, blasted another shunt, and waved at her again — signaling for her to join them below.

He let himself fall, crouching low to absorb the impact.

To his shock, the ground beneath him was hard — unnaturally so. It refused to give way, sending a stinging jolt up through his shins and into his spine. It wasn’t enough to cause injury — just a sharp, unexpected zap. But it shouldn’t have been so.

With his growing constitution, his body had become tougher — harder. The ground should have yielded more than it did. The ambient mana was nowhere near dense enough.

“Did you find her?” Porkchop asked, ignoring Kaius’s brief grimace.

Kaius shook himself off. “Yeah. Yeah, I did. She was only a quarter league away, but... she couldn’t hear me, and I couldn’t hear her when she called back. There wasn’t any magic I could sense — natural, cast, or inscribed. It was just silent.”

“The ground too,” he added, stomping his foot. “It’s hard. Harder than it should be. Harder than anything I’ve felt before. But it’s not as mana-infused as what we saw in the depths. Not enough to explain this.”

Ianmus nodded. “I did wonder. I started running toward you guys as soon as I heard you, but I thought you were a lot farther away than you actually were. You did sound muffled. At first, I thought it was the grass playing tricks — but now...I’m not so sure.”

“Whatever it is, it can wait until Kenva gets here. Look — there she is now,” Porkchop replied, bobbing his head to something past Kaius’s shoulder.

Kaius turned to see a distant figure soaring through the air. The ranger was approaching in great, bounding leaps — roots from her Vinestride coiling around her legs as she ran in wide, sweeping arcs. It only took a few seconds for her to reach them.

No doubt, channeling that much power through Vinestride came at considerable expense — but in this case, it was understandable. Kaius didn’t sense any danger, but if there was any chance of threat, regrouping as a full team was the smart move.

Kenva landed with a soft thump. The roots at her feet coiled tightly, absorbing the force. Her chest rose and fell slightly from the effort.

“There you guys are. I don’t know what was causing it, but I couldn’t hear you. Hells, I could barely hear you a hundred longstrides away.”

Kaius snorted. “We were just saying the same. You were silent as a mouse — couldn’t hear a thing. There’s something strange going on with this place.”

“Very perceptive,” a voice said from above.

Kaius jumped, drawing his blade as he looked up at the sudden interruption — only realizing after a heartbeat that the voice was familiar.

Xenanra, standing imperiously above them.

“I thought I would join you,” she said. “This trial requires a hand-on approach. Normally, I would leave you to reunite in peace — to share your stories of toil, trouble, success, and victory. But each of you has endured hardship, and I did not wish the moment to be tempered by a similarity to quickly fading memories of strife’.”

She gestured toward the woods.

“The differences you feel around you are natural. Your inability to sense why is easily explained — because I am isolating this space for now. Beyond that, the reasons and specifics are unimportant; they can wait for our lesson.”

Kaius opened his mouth to ask a question, and the ascendant held up her hand.

“Which is not now. I will take my leave again — allow you to reacquaint yourselves. What lies ahead requires focus and sharp minds — and a good bit of teamwork never goes awry. Better there are fewer distractions.”

Before Kaius could respond, Xenanra vanished — without even the subtle pop of displaced air. It was disconcerting; he was so used to the little signs — when he summoned a Nail, or when Porkchop dismissed his armor.

Shaking his head, he looked back to his team.

Kenva simply sighed, collapsing backward into the thick, luscious grass.

“Nice to be able to bloody sit down and relax for once,” she said. “So, we have divine-mandated story time. Who’s going first?”