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

It was a quiet sound, more of a faint wrapping sensation than anything else. Niles stilled, the leather wrapping of his sword hilt squeaking under his grip. Holding his breath, his heart pounded like a thunderclap. It made it hard to tell if it happened again. Had he imagined it?

Another grinding thud, a feathering resonance he just barely felt with his back pressed against the wall.

There it was again!

His eyes flicked to the nearby delvers. They stood sentinel, but relaxed. Though they weren’t so undisciplined as to calmly chat, he could see it in the way they stood. Further out, through the half open gateway that led into the central chamber, the other delver teams were just as at ease.

He forced himself to let out a slow breath — the tension was getting to him. Even if they were mostly Bronze, there were plenty of scouts, rangers, and rogues amongst their number. They had the stats; the skills. If it was something important, they’d notice first, right?

A flicker of motion caught his eye. The old man’s cat, Yan, he’d called it?

The beast’s ears were pricked up, and for a moment he thought it was staring right at him. It was an intense thing — yellow eyes, filled with primal awareness. An instinct to hunt and watch. It made him feel small. He shuffled to the side. Yan didn’t so much as twitch, the cat’s eyes still staring straight ahead.

Niles’s mouth went dry. The wall.

Another faint resonance shuddered through his back. Yan’s eyes flicked up higher, stopping halfway through the gentle curve where the wall joined the ceiling. The cat’s hackles rose as a barely audible growl rumbled through its chest.

Niles froze, his blood leaden ice. He wasn’t imagining things.

The man in front of him paused. Reaching forwards, he placed a hand on the back of his companion’s neck.

“Yan? What is it?” he whispered.

Looking back at the spot Yan was focused on, the man frowned. His eyes slid down, meeting Niles’ own. The frown deepened.

“What’s wrong, kid? Gotta be something if both you and Yan are spooked,” the man said, softly enough to not disturb the others nearby.

Another grinding thump, this time stronger — just a little. It jolted Niles from his shock.

“I feel something, barely. Some sort of thump, four times with the last just now. Thought I was imagining it, but…”

“But Yan noticed it too,” the man replied, nodding. “Keep quiet, I’ll let one of the delver’s know. Even if it is something, we need to avoid a panic. Hensch, by the way.”

Niles gave the man a shaky nod.

Hensch smiled back, before he turned to the nearest delver, a blonde woman with a thick breastplate who was leaning on her halberd for support. A wave got her attention — she frowned as Hensch waved her over.

Her approach was swift, but from the force of her steps Niles could tell she was frustrated. Most of the delvers were, after dealing with a constant barrage of questions from their charges.

“What is it?” she asked brusquely. “Our latrine rotation isn’t for another hour, and lunch isn’t for another three.”

Hensch shook his head, pushing himself to his feet.

“Not that,” he said, leaning in and lowering his voice. “Both my bonded beast and the boy behind me have noticed some sort of sound or impact through the walls. It might be nothing, or just the battle above, but we thought best to let you know.”

The delver paused, eyes lingering on the floor for a moment before they settled on Niles. She searched his face, as if assessing his trustworthiness. It galled him — a meaningless suspicion based on nothing more than his age and bearing. He clenched his jaw, refusing to look away. He wasn’t a liar.

Another thump, slightly stronger.

“They’re getting louder,” he whispered, jolting away from the wall.

The delver blinked, nodding. “I’ll get my captain — she’s got good senses. Might need to move back into the main room, just in case.”

She strode away, heading for a willowy woman with the faintest of points to her ears. Every step she took ratcheted Niles’ tension higher. Something was happening, he knew it — every part of it demanded action, yet he knew there was little he could do. Not without causing a panic.

In front of him, Yan’s faint growl deepened as the cat bared the faintest hint of his fangs at the ceiling above. Hensch’s jaw clenched, and Niles caught him reaching for the hilt of a knife at his belt. It wasn’t a weapon, shaped more like a cook’s knife than anything else, but it was large enough to almost be called a shortsword.

Hensch gave him a look, and slowly got to his feet. “Maybe it’s best we stretch our legs, eh lad? It’s not healthy to sit on hard stone for too long.”

Niles gave him a slow nod, and pushed himself up.

Halfway through the motion, he saw a flash of dust in the light. The jolt of it shocked him with energy. He snapped to the source. It wasn’t above him, not where Yan had been watching — it was across the hall, a good thirty strides away.

Something yellow streaked down, a writhing lump that was a stride and a half long. Niles watched in horror as the lump dropped to the crowd below. It landed on a man wearing a simple off-white tunic who was staring out into space.

Black mandibles closed around the man's shoulder. It tore through his flesh, bone splintering in a vice grip as his tunic was stained a shocking red. The wound smoked.

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A scream cut through the low hubbub of the crowd, bright and violent. It was piercing, freezing Niles right to his heart. He knew it!

More dust erupted as holes opened in a wide cluster around the first intruder, including right above his head. Niles looked up just in time to see a steady stream of undulating bodies fall.

Pandemonium erupted as the entire crowd was on their feet in seconds. It was chaos, a press of bodies that made it almost impossible to see what was happening.

A weight slammed into his back. It sent a jolt of terror down his spine — had one of the grubs gotten him?

Staggering into a woman in front of him, the weight rolled off — landing by his feet. Another scream to his right stabbed into his ears, before he was shoved to the side as a body desperately pushed through the crowd. The tightness within him coiled tighter as he was hit from every angle by noise and motion. It was too much. Something broke inside of him, leaving only a cold clarity. It was familiar, the same sensation he’d felt when he’d run from his burning home and the baying calls of twisted hounds; when he’d sat through the drunk’s lickings; when he pushed himself on the training field.

Niles ripped his blade from his scabbard. He kept it low — the crush was too tight for a proper guard. Reaching to the pouch at his belt, he grabbed the oily rag he used to clean the weapon, and hurriedly wrapped his offhand before switching to a half-sword grip.

A shrill shriek from the mouth of the tunnel yanked at his attention. He didn’t see its source — too focused on the spray of blood that splashed across his face. The woman in front of him collapsed, a grub gnawing its way through her throat as she desperately clawed at the creature. She was terrified.

“Attack! Civilians, move to the main chamber. Delvers, form a battle line!” someone cried.

He barely heard it.

The growing pool of blood surrounding the woman at his feet yanked him out of the cold clarity he had found. Her eyes went glassy,and the pulsing edges of her wounds stilled. Niles froze. He knew he should move. Should take his blade and ram it through the soft looking body of the grub. Should do something.

Something soft and heavy landed on him. A sizzle entered his ear, followed by a burning heat as something dripped onto the back of his neck.

Barely a heartbeat later, a heavy shove sent him stumbling forwards. He could move again. Spinning, he saw a squirming grub falling to the ground with a savage gash opened in its side. Hensch was standing there, his oversized knife dripping.

The cat, Yan, dashed forwards. Its fangs grew, sinking into the grub that had nearly been his end and tearing it wide open. Iit had already been moving for his leg, hungry for his death despite the gaping wound Hensch had cut through its body.

Hensch’s hand clamped over his shoulder. “Move, lad — this tunnel is a deathpit. Follow me.”

He gave the man a shaky nod, staying close as Hensch waded into the crowd.

It was slow moving. In the sudden panic, few were moving in the direction of the main chamber. They were too focused on escaping from the grubs that werestill falling from the ceiling. By the gods, were they endless?

Every few moments, Hench’s knife would glint, its edge shining like a mirror. Tight stabs skewered grub after grub. Every time he got one, he flicked his blade — tearing open their fragile bodies.

The grubs were everywhere. Half of Hensch’s kills came from skewering grubs that had latched onto people, tearing into anything they could reach. Some stumbled away, trailing blood as they clutched a smoking hole in their arms or legs.

Others simply fell, his actions too slow to save them from a bite to the neck or head.

Who was he? Hensch was too calm, his movements too experienced for him to be anything other than a fighter. But why lounge in the tunnels with the rest of them? An ex-delver?

Niles breathed, moving in the man's wake. Whoever he was, his presence gave him the time to find the cold again. This was what it meant to be a delver — acting even through the worst chaos and danger.

He refused to slack just because he was near someone strong. Complacency would get him killed.

His grip tightened on his blade — tight enough that he felt its edge bite into his makeshift wrapping. He switched back to a low guard — constantly flicking between the floor and the ceiling in case a grub got between him and Hensch.

In all honesty, Yan was doing most of the work of keeping the ground clear. The mountain lion-sized cat was weaving through the crowd with sinuous grace, hunting every grub close. Every time, it would rip into their bodies — separating their heads before it moved to the next target.

Though the rain of larvae never stopped, the crowd was moving now — a panicked stampede towards the main chamber, rather than directionless panic.

It almost made it more chaotic. Every second, someone shoved past him with a scream on their lips — some simply frightened, others with gushing holes that left the ground slick with blood.

Far different from Hensch’s steady steps.

He had to fight to stay behind the man — pulling against the current that sought to yank him along with its path. For a moment, he lost sight of him as a bulky man shoved him to the side, racing between them in his haste to escape.

A streak of yellow and black fell from overhead. The man panicked, all but throwing himself through the crowd. Half a dozen people staggered as he shoved them aside.

In that same instant, Niles heard sudden grunt of pain directly in front of him. Hensch stumbled. The grub had latched onto his thigh, its dripping mandibles coated in the blood.

Niles absorbed the scene in an instant, the familiar ice of his Bloodsong pushing aside the chaos. Hensch’s blade was trapped by his side, arm pinned by a screaming mother clutching a child to her chest. Yon was longstrides away, tearing into another grub.

He had to act.

Tightening his grip on his blade, Niles lunged like he was holding a short spear. The tip of his blade lanced out like a viper, a move he had practiced on the sparring field thousands of times.

Enchanted steel punched through the soft yellow of the creature's body, sliding under the black carapace that coated its head. Writhing, the creature's jaws released.

Niles flicked it down, yellow ichor spilling as the grub hit the ground. Silent in his intensity, he slid into a downwards stab — and threw his whole body weight behind the point of his sword.

Chitin crunched.

The larva shuddered for a final time. System chimes sounded in his mind, more sonorous and potent than he had ever heard before.

**Ding! You have slain Golden Ceratin Larva - Level 36 Seed of Potential!**

**Achievement Noted - You Are Being Observed**

**Ding! Significant Feat of Strength performed under Observation. You have been awarded an Honour: Ruthless Underdog**

Niles forced himself to breathe, reeling as a sudden rush of strength flooded through every part of him. Did the guild know that unclassed could get Honours? It hadn’t been part of the release a few weeks ago.

“Thanks, kid. Let’s keep movin” Hensch said, dragging him from his thoughts. The man limped forwards, one hand pressing on his wound while his other brandished his knife.

Niles forced himself to focus, following close behind. His questions could wait until he’d survived the current crisis. Hopefully the extra five stats he’d just gotten to everything would help with that.