B4 Chapter 513: Mop Up, Finale
Kaius leaned against the side of the dome, watching as the once battered defenders tore into the trapped ceratin larvae.
It was boring work, made worse by the sticky discomfort of his armour. Blood and ichor had soaked through it utterly, half drying into a tacky paste that clung to his skin with every movement. Worst were the fresh patches, those were slimy.
They also, unfortunately, accounted for approximately half of his underarmour. His Fractured Warp was…indescriminate. While none of the wounds had been disabling, it’d meant a heavy hit to his health — nearly a thousand, though that number was likely to vary.
Thank the gods most of the spatial ripples were directed away from him when he landed. If he had to deal with the full brunt, the spell would be nigh unusable. As it was, it would require a careful hand. Even dangerous, the ability to instantly reposition was valuable beyond compare. He doubted many opponents in the second and third tiers would be ready for instant teleportation, especially when he didn’t have to channel.
Shoving his boredom and discomfort down, he watched the culling continue.
Not all had taken him up on his offer of free experience. Hells, most hadn’t. He would have to be insane to think that mothers with young children, or the elderly would jump at the bit to kill some beasts. Thankfully, those who had stood and fought when they’d had to had come in droves. There had to be hundreds of them, stacked up in two snaking lines that wove back to the main body of the citizens. Most of them had yet to reach their middle years. Even if someone never picked up a blade in their life, they’d have to be a hell of a slovenly bastard not to hit level forty by the time they had a few grey hairs.
That said, they’d gotten better at it, compared to a quarter hour ago. At first, almost every single person he ushered towards the grubs was an anxious mess. Understandable, with what they had gone through, even if Ianmus’s Sanctified Lilyfield had the creatures locked down tighter than a watchman’s chains.
Now, they tore into the piled meat hungrily. Frustration, fear, and anger was vented in a constant heave of descending bashes, spending their hoarded anxieties on ichor and shattered carapace.
Hells, he’d had to start reminding them every few minutes to switch out when they stopped getting bonus experience.
A mental nudge grabbed his attention. Kaius looked over to the entrance of the other breached tunnel, and saw Porkchop looking his way over the top of the crowd. Kenva was lounging next to him — an insurance in case there was a problem that needed a little more delicacy than Porkchop could manage alone.
“Ianmus wants you,” Porkchop said seriously, sending him a location towards the centre of the main group. “He’s found Niles, needs your help getting some information from him. Kenva’s happy to watch your side while you go.”
A jolt of shock banished Kaius’s boredom. Niles? He’d known it was likely that he would have been down here, but he would have thought he’d have been well away from any fighting. The idiot didn’t even have a class!
“Is he injured?” Kaius asked hastily, pushing himself away from the wall.
The sudden motion drew the attention of those waiting closest to him. Kaius gave them a reassuring smile. “I’ve got to check on something. My ranger will look after you.”
“Some sort of mana poisoning. Ianmus has him stable, but he’s delirious — thinks you might have a better shot at figuring out what happened to him,” Porkchop replied as Kaius hurried in the direction he’d been shown.
Mana poisoning? That made no sense. Sure, aspected mana could be dangerous in high quantities, but his body should naturally purge it. With Ianmus stabilising him, the problem should fade on its own. There had to be something else going on.
“Thanks, I’ll try come back soon,” Kaius replied.
Rushing across the dome, Kaius spotted Ianmus quickly. To save time, the mage had gathered everyone with a healing ability into a makeshift field hospital separated from the main group of civilians.
Hundreds of the wounded lay in neat rows as healers rushed through their lines. Some likely just needed time for their health to go to work. Others were more precarious, their injuries obvious even from across the city-square sized dome. The acid burns the grubs had left were vicious, and those who’d been unlucky enough to have a beast fall on them had suffered wounds to their torso’s and necks.
Healers clustered over the weeping holes, everyone from mid-wives to medics using their Skills to bolster Health efficiency and directly treat the injuries while the slow recovery of health went to work.
Grimacing, Kaius put the gruesome sights out of mind and hurried towards his friend. Ianmus was set up in the centre, by the worst wounded. Solar magic flowed from his staff in a constant wave. Tendrils of light brushed against torn flesh and weeping sores, leaving new flesh in its wake.
There, lying next to him, was Niles. He was pale, his features sunken — like he was slowly being consumed by some wasting disease. A dusty grey mana covered him like a shroud. Kaius could taste the magic on his tongue — the cold finality of gravedirt.
He’d seen the affinity everywhere in the dome, but it was scattered. Around Niles, though, it coursed in a flood.
Seeing him in such a state opened a hole in Kaius’s belly. Gods, what had happened to him?
Speeding up his pace, he arrived quickly. He dropped into a low crouch next to Ianmus, eyes roving over Niles’ sickly form.
“What happened?” Kaius whispered.
“No clue,” Ianmus replied, before he sent a Ray of Tender Recovery splashing over Niles body.
The boy murmured, shifting in his daze, but nothing more.
“His health keeps dropping like a stone, it’s all I can do to keep him topped up. Some sort of death-adjacent mana keeps gathering around him. Someone who was near him said his symptoms started after he killed one of the mutated ceratin, but none of them had the ocular skills to see the mana, or what might have caused it. It might be an affliction, or he’s done it to himself. ”
Kaius looked at Niles with a deep frown, unable to squash the cloying weight that he was somehow responsible for their current state. Why had he been fighting? Even if he was working towards a combat class, and had some good skills, he should have been nowhere near the front. Had he lied about his age? He knew Niles still had a few more years until his class selection, but he looked old enough he might pass as a fresh classer. Just.
Wincing, Kaius banished the thought. Besides, he couldn’t fault Niles, not when he would have done the same.
Leaning forwards, he gripped the boy by the shoulder, jerking him sharply.
“Niles! It’s Kaius, I need you to tell me what happened.”
Groaning, Niles’ eyes fluttered open. Wide and unfocused, they rolled in his sockets, before finally settling on Kaius.
“...Kaius?” he mumbled, struggling to sit up before he slumped again a moment later. His eyes fluttered closed.
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Kaius growled. He needed the fool’s attention.
“Niles! Focus on me!” Kaius snapped, Eirnith burning on his temples as he cast Compel Obsession. He only had two more copies of the spell left, but to the hells if he was going to let an unclassed kid die just because he was stingy with his magic.
The spell hit Niles like a slap. He gasped, eyes snapping open as he focused on Kaius with unnerving fervour.
“What happened?” Kaius pressed, “Where’s this mana coming from?”
Niles gaped at him blankly for a moment. He blinked, eyes refocusing. “...it guided me.”
Hells, he was still delirious.
“What guided you!” Kaius hissed.
“Mana.” Niles said slowly, chewing every syllable. “Got…a skill. Is it….good?”
Ianmus whipped his head towards Niles, his stare as hard as cold iron. “What’s the skill called, Niles. I need to know.”
Niles blinked slowly, turning to stare at the mage. He frowned, as if he was fighting to recall.
“Sepulchre…Attunement.”
Ianmus jolted as if he’d been slapped. “Stupid! Should’ve bloody known,” he hissed, before turning his attention back to Niles. “Take the skill!”
Kaius watched niles blink slowly, an anxious knot in his belly. What in the hells was an attunement skill, and what did it have to do with Niles condition.
A moment later, Niles gasped. Mana flowed out of him with the breath, an ashen fog that slowly began to disperse into the surrounding air. He slumped a moment later, slipping out of consciousness.
Ianmus watched the change and sighed in relief. “Thank the gods,”
“Mind explaining what the fuck just happened?” Kaius asked, still watching Niles warily.
“He got an attunement skill, though I've no idea how, let alone for an obscure death-adjacent affinity I’ve seen mentioned maybe once. They’re vanishingly rare, I’ve only met one other person with one — the valedictorian when I was a second year at the academy.”
Ianmus paused, gathering his words. “They act like a cross between an enhancement, resistance and manipulation skill. They’re…dangerous to acquire. First you need to be lucky enough to have or form an innate link to a specific mana type — though forming one of those with a death affinity? That usually only happens to people who have lived closer to death than even you, Kaius. Those who brushed it, and returned changed.”
Ianmus gave Niles a long and thoughtful look. “After that, you need to actively strengthen that connection. That, as you’ve seen, leads to a mana of that affinity being attracted and absorbed. Without the skill itself, you end up rapidly poisoning yourself — especially in a place like this where it's of a high density. Now he has it, he’ll come right in a few minutes.”
Kaius gave Niles a dire look. What had happened to the kid? They’d chatted a few times, in fits and spurts. It was clear he was an orphan, that he lost someone in the initial waves of beast attacks — but the grim tone in Ianmus’s voice suggested that wasn’t enough. That it had to be personal.
Watching the boy stir, Kaius left his questions to the side. Everyone had secrets — he knew that more than most.
“...Kaius?” Niles questioned, shakily pushing himself up. “What happened? Are we still under attack?”
Kaius gave him an easy grin. “The city, yes. We’ve dealt with the problem down here though. How are you feeling?”
“Utterly terrible.”
Letting out a laugh, Kaius shook his head at Niles. “Better than dead, and you came uncomfortably close. A good thing we managed to get you to take that Skill.”
To Kaius’s surprise, Niles slumped in disappointment at the mention of that. His eyes went glassy, a tell tale sign he was reading his notifications.
“You’re upset? Why? From the sounds of it, an attunement is quite rare.”
“It’s good…I just wanted Identify.”
Kaius looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “You already have a skill with an ocular component — you’ll likely get some form of analysis by Silver. Besides, that’s what teams are for. You’ll be fine — better an attunement than dying from mana poisoning. Just take some time to figure out what the skill means for your build, and try your hand at a good last skill.”
Niles paused for a moment, before giving him a slow nod. “I got offered another. Gravestrike. Rare.”
Kaius shook his head. It sounded like a weapon enhancement passive — it would be a waste. Between Vesryn Bladedrills and his Attunement, Niles had a good shot of discovering a better one.
“If you remember how, you can always unlock it again later. You’ve got nearly two years left, and once you’ve unlocked some decent control over mana, especially over a specific affinity, there’s plenty of interesting skills that can pop up with experimentation. I know a fair bit about infusing your blade with energy, I can share you a few shaping exercises — though I don’t know how it will interact with an Attunement, but I'm sure Ianmus could give you a few pointers there. Still, there’s no reason not to try for an Unusual, or if you’re lucky, another Unique.”
Niles nodded thoughtfully, relaxing just a hair. A moment later, the boy lit up. “Oh! That’s right! I got an Hono—”
Kaius hissed, his eyes widening as he cut the boy off. He looked around, only relaxing when he saw no sign of anyone hearing what Niles had said. An Honour? That was a mixed blessing — it would be fantastic for Niles future growth, and the extra stats might even help with acquiring an exotic skill, but it would make it all the harder to keep unclassed Honours from falling into the wrong hands.
It’d get out eventually, but as far as he was aware, the guild planned to wait until the hubbub around open access to legacy skills died down. They didn’t want overconfidence causing any accidents, or worse, those who hungered for power and prestige forcing kids into the depths.
“Don’t spread that round. We don’t need kids getting themselves killed, yeah?” Kaius said, giving Niles a meaningful look.
Maybe he should take the kid to Dawntown when they stopped by for a visit on their way to the Dukedoms. It’d be a hell of a lot easier for him to find a team of similar capabilities there — hell, he’d be well placed for some of the other Honours their younger generation was working towards.
Niles gave him a shaky nod.
Kaius sighed, running his hand through his hair. “Listen, we’re only going to be down here until the last of the grubs have come through. There’s still a siege up top, and we’ve already taken out the hive queen that was spawning them. Ianmus can fill you in on why we’re trying to keep that quiet, and once this is done we can take you someplace where there are others trying to push the boundaries in a similar way. If you want that, that is.”
Niles let out a shaky breath, and nodded. “I’d like that.”
“Good, then I need to get back to watching the tunnels — can’t let Porkchop do all the work,” he said, giving Niles a smile.
As he stood up, Ianmus caught his eye. “I’ll need about half an hour to stabilise the rest of the worst cases, they’ll be fine if I leave them to the medics after that.”
That was fine by him — judging by the numbers they’d seen on their journey here, it’d be another quarter hour on top of that before they’d finished clearing out the last of the ceratin larvae.
Kaius made his way back to the tunnels, relieved that the issue with Niles had proven easily solvable. He liked the kid — he had the kind of grit in him that meant he would go far, if he put in the effort to train hard, and temper the worst of his reckless impulses.
Snorting, he couldn’t help but acknowledge he was being a mite hypocritical.
Regardless, he itched to get back up top. Staying here until the job was fully finished was vital, but it irked him to sit around while others were actively spilling blood in the defence of their homes. Having no way to contact Ro and check up on the situation only worsened the feeling.
He lay a steadying hand on the pommel of his sword. The Tyrant’s time would come soon enough, he could feel it in his bones. Now that they’d bested its final ploy, all that was left was to face it directly.