The Fall Of The Tribes

by Philip Read

  Our passage is slow and careful with Om and Wagner at the head of the precession while Volvox and I cover the back. I don’t think we like each other much but I do respect the man’s abilities. Asger leads the spear wielders, I can’t express enough how deadly the man has become with a spear in hand.

  He and Caden both have show phenomenal improvement in their pursuit of mastering the spear and so far the seems to be no cap on the utility of the weapon. But even with all these various weapons armed against this creature I suspect it will be an axe that eventually ends it.

  The tunnels are dark so eye sight isn’t much of an asset in here. The stone of the walls is of a variety I have never come across before and it sweats a black tar that makes it difficult to breath. There are occasional green glowing algae on the walls our side tunnel entrances but the Aldermen guide was adamant we follow the man tunnel straight through.

  It isn’t very long before we reach some door of an ante-chamber large enough to accommodate our entire raiding party spread out shoulder to shoulder. The beast stands before us in the middle of the large rounded room in all its horrifying glory with tentacle like projections slithering across it’s neck and back like living snake’s each with a mind of its own.

  It gazes at us with its eyeless face made of bone that is reminiscent of hard bleached stone. The thing looks like a huge black 900 pound mass of muscle and tentacles standing at 2m at the shoulder.

  We arrange ourselves in our attack formation with the shield bearers at the front ready to take the hard hits, the fast damage dealers like me go to the flanks. The spear wielders are right behind the four shield bearers at the front and we all move forward, our auras flared as we all actively use them to enhance ourselves.

  “Are you all ready?”

  We stumble in surprise when the thing projects into our minds in sweet feminine tasting voice that belies the seething mass of destruction before us. There seems to be more going on here than initially meets the eye.

  “Excellent.” It says it’s miasma rising from the floor at its feet like mist.

  We rush forward fast and the thing lashes out with its tentacles stopping the shield bearers cold in their tracks with a single tentacle each. The is a ringing coming from the two shields made of regular iron but the artefact shields hold solidly.

  The damage dealers arrive next and I feel the tentacle before I even see it as I dodge and roll trying to get past it but failing. I eventually meet it tentacle to nodachi expecting to cut into it but my blade is also stopped cold as my cut becomes a block.

  I notice the spear wielders have been pushed back as well and someone throws a javelin that disintegrates as it passes into the dark miasma without the protection of being sheathed in aura.

  It seems this is going to be one of those fights that at the end of which none of the survivors will have any moves kept secret from one another. It will take everything each of us has to face this thing, I think even as I call the Rage to the surface.

  *

  The creature doesn’t let up one bit and barely moves from where it is standing as the tentacles do all the work. My movements have never before been at these speeds as consistently as they have been in this fight but the Rage has a way of somehow preserving stamina even in the worst of situations.

  It’s now using two tentacles to keep me at bay and I’m proud of myself for pushing my opponent to such extremes. My nodachi has woken up from her deep slumber as well as she now hums happily everytime I deflect trying to get to the body of the creature.

  So far Om is the only one that has gotten the closest, his berserker powerful beyond normal measure for any person not yet even a tier 1 awakened. His shield long since reduced to splinters like it was made of the wood used to make potato barrels instead of the black iron I know it’s made from.

  The other shield bearer who wasn’t fortune enough to wield an artifact shield now quivering with flayed skin and broken arms at Haige’s feet. Everyone has pulled all the stops and I’ve finally seen the little monster lurking within Volvox as he fights for his life.

  I roll and slash and duck and slash and spin and stab even as my blade circles around me in a feat of acrobatic flexibility as I take out a tentacle that was heading towards Om. The man is a beast of power and skill as he moves his stone hammer like a staff, delivering devastating blows that would have long since crushed any other opponent.

  The thing has still hardly moved with ten people trained in the Academy and the Conclave compound, war veterans of the War With The South and still its hardly moved from its spot. There is no one not giving their all, everyone is in constant motion in seemingly choreographed preplanned moves as we compliment each other with our actions.

  Soul suppression is as high as I can manage and everyone else that has passive skills that eat away at a foe are at it, giving their all. Volvox’s little spirit or daemon or whatever is possessing him is out and about spitting our noxious fumes at the creature and shreeking now and again in a wail that makes even me feel like I’m at the edge of despair.

  Wagner’s experience is showing as he is the least wounded of all our group besides Haige. The merest touch of the tentacles on skin enough to melt the skin off like undorning a glove. He roars again as he tries to push forward but another tentacles comes in from his left to knock him clean across the room.

  That seems to be the opening Om needed though as he takes just a single ponderous step forward to deliver an uppercut hammer blow who’s concussive force lifts the massive creature slightly into the air.

  A screech from the thing pushes us all back again as our eardrums bursts and we stumble back. Everyone that isn’t a Barbarian in the Rage, Volvox and Susanna are on their knees seemingly struggling with something but they are both up one after the other a moment later.

  Susanna seemingly still dazed and trying to retreat towards Hiage, but Volvox just seems really pissed off. I grin as I try to redouble my efforts, my blade now honed in a mixture of aura, spirit, soul.

  I activate my limit break and launch myself with everything I have and more even as my right leg is shattered at the tigh by a tentacle. Om’s example has shown me that I will not get a hit in without sacrificing my body.

  My slash is deep and leaves a long mark across its it’s bone face that has it screeching again and stumbling back even as another tentacle to the chest caves in my sternum as I fly back pushed my the force of the blow.

  I land in a heap trying to roll and rise by my leg not able to support me as pain radiates through me. I can hardly breath and I can see the white soft tissue on my chest before the red droplets of blood cover it quickly.

  I try to stand looking up and I can see that my bloody example has been followed as all the tribesman sacrifice their bodies to get hits into the now injured creature as it reels back. I grin at the sight of it struggling, this is a worthy warrior, and if I die it will be a worthy death.

  I rush in again with a little hop and limp as it’s distracted and flare as much spirit and soul as I can onto the point of my monster. Honing her point with everything I can concentrate as I push her as hard as I can into the creatures chest.

  Booomm

  An explosion of light and sickly darkness spreads out from the thing as in pushes us all back and turns into a shapely woman with no eyes that seems to have been dipped in a black oil.

  She waves her arm and every single wound I have sustained starts itching, I look down to my chest as I realise I’m somehow being eaten alive. She moves to lift her hand again but I instinctively just throw my nodachi at her with everything I have.

  Asger does the same with his spear, it being an artefact it retains it’s spirit honing even when not directly in his hands.

  Our weapons pass through her miasma and pierce into her flash without a problem. She frowns as she looks at us, then speaks in an unwholesome disgusting language before utter and complete darkness envelopes us all.

  Someone screams a loud bellow of pain and indignation that can
only be achieved by a berserker. I know exactly where she is though because she still has my zanpakutō in her flesh and I do something I’ve never before done. I summon my blade back to me while it’s still embedded in someone’s flesh.

  There is a sizzling sound and then I have my monster in hand again, the darkness slowly receding as the creature’s presence is now gone from the chamber, just gone. The wounds stop spreading and we all stand a moment looking around just to ensure the thing is really gone.

  The is a shredded twitching body on the floor but my soul sense tells me he’s still alive even as Haige reaches him. He looks like just a sack of meat and bones so I can’t really tell who it is and frankly I don’t want to know.

  ‘You have completed the wondering dungeon of the Lilithian Daarksider. You each now have immunity from rot mana effects and can walk the path to unlock dark miasma.’

  Something seems to whisper into my head like the voice of my friendly deity of knowledge did that first time in the tent at Isis’ shop. Looking around I realise that everyone is hearing the same thing, then a fire in my chest seems to blossom painlessly like a lotus and spreads outwards to the rest of my body.

  Slowly my body starts to heal itself as my skin becomes luminous and comfortably warm from the inside. Everything starts to fade to my eyes as but another sense seems to be opening and enabling me to see 360° all around me much clearer than I ever did with my eyes.

  ‘Because you chose to banish her and not kill her she has gift you with dark awareness, you will never again be blind in the dark.’

  I’m not the only one that is healing but I think I’m the only one that can see everything so vividly.

  Everyone’s berserkers reced and as we are reeling from that, the purirst ether I have never imagined fills the room like a cold north wind. Rocking all us at our cores as it infuses itself in us hungrily and there is nothing we can do but enjoy the burning bliss of an ether influx.

  I had nearly forgotten that dungeons are useful for this very reason, their pure absorbable ether but none of us knew this was a dungeon. I’ve never even heard of a dungeon with only a single creature and with ether influxes only when completed.

  The painful wonderful feeling is like being tickled till you want to cry, painful but enjoyable. And I spread my arms wide as I enjoy it, letting it all in and suddenly I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut as I reach and surpass the treshhold I needed to Awaken.

  Chapter 70

  Sachihiro

  Our traveling from the Aldermen Foothills and back on our route towards home is mostly uneventful. Om and I are on the cusp of Awakening after that fight and secret dungeon, I’m actually already holding in my Awakening, delaying it for when I get home. We travel fast with our new mates and their life’s possessions which frankly aren’t much to speak off.

  Ingwe is a very quiet woman and I’ve learnt is only 19 years old this year, barely a child in the greater scheme of things. She likes to run and scout at the flanks of our traveling party and I always find my eye wondering there trying to spot her. We haven’t yet managed to find a mutual connection between us and our sex life is still a bit uncomfortable.

  I honestly had no idea sex could even be uncomfortable, but I discovered she was a virgin and her expectations of what should happen during sex were just… barbaric to me. At least Om is lucky his new mate just joined him and Ava and apparently does everything she does. She seems to be enjoying her role of teacher.

  Teà says Ava’s teaching the girl things she hopes will scandalize Keira when the second mate does them in her presence. Om is a lucky bastard sometimes though.

  We are about to enter into the border of the lands controlled by the conglomerate of cities collectively known as the Nexus. They love industry here as they try to produce everything they can that is in demand and trade or act as intermediaries of trade with everything they can’t produce.

  They have farmlands, vast areas of land dedicated to the cultivation of a single plant in massive amounts for profits in trade throughout Pangaea. They travel in large caravans with their goods to established markets and have guilds dedicated to finding and monopolising new markets in what they call ‘patent discovery periods’ where no other competitor in their sphere of influence competes in trade with that new group of people or resource.

  Their biggest and most flourishing market however is the slave trade. Every month there is what is known as the Meat Market where people are paddled on the open market like trinkets. Its so blatant here and the misery so stark in the slaves’ eyes that I always itch to end their suffering with a quick slash but of course it isn’t my place to do so.

  We pass through the farmlands being tilled by slaves on the beautifully cobbled road maintained by slaves with large manors widely spaced from one another also built by slaves. The road itself is like any other stone road i guess, what makes this one significant is how long it stretches. Connecting all six cities and going all the way to the closest city in the territory of Gallia.

  An offshoot of ancient Romanæ that survived the fall of its motherland, Gallia is a territory known as a country. Learning from the fall of Romanæ it carefully skirts the line between a democracy and a monarchy by following a form of government termed a constitutional monarchy.

  The lands of Nexus are beautiful and the the cities are clean and well organised because it is a land where no slave rests and they have them in abundance. Even the little towns between the cities are more or less the same in their policies and treatment of slaves.

  The half elves running these cities are cruel in their treatment of them but not one of their slaves is a an elf, a fae or a half elf. They protect their own but the humans, the demi-humans, the dwarves, orcs and other creatures can be found amongst the Meat Market of the 6 cities.

  We enter one of those 6 cities for a day of rest and resupply before continuing our journey towards the ocean coast. Ever since we reached these lands and walked through the popey fields Ingwe has been very close to me and looking at the majority of the slaves I can see why.

  We enter the Nexus city of Eono to no fan fare and some speculative looks from the inhabitants and are avoided by the slaves busy on their tasks. The cobblestones of the city streets are rounded and painstakingly hand painted into what I assume is an artwork easy to see from above, or the tall building at the center of the city.

  The city is clean and beautiful if one only looks with their eyes and nose but not with their auras, I think the inhabitants of this place must be aura dumb. I move closer to Ingwe as we walk towards the accommodations Gerard organised for us in advance.

  Luxury private accommodation in a palace that has turned into an inn, able to accommodate our large party easily enough but at high costs. Money isn’t really a problem for us though, somehow the conclave has plenty of money and they aren’t stingy with it at all.

  The Civitas provides an allowance, a small one to be fair but when your accommodation and meals aren’t paid for that coin quickly piles up and besides, we’ve been using the stela for trade at the Den and it has great value here on Pangaea. We pass into The Palace courtyards and are immediately accosted by a tall lean human in a flamboyant hat.

  “Welcome to The Palace good sirs, you will all be residing in the south wing it has been cleared for your use. These slaves will be at your service for the duration of your stay and escort you each to your rooms.” He says with a flourish.

  “We do not require slaves or servants.” Wagner says before starting to walk forward again.

  I’m standing with my hand clasped tightly around Ingwe’s wrist because I felt her aura spike and saw her reaction at the sight of one of those slaves before she visibly schooled herself. I think its the first time we’ve ever touched in public, by she barely notices. Visibly swallowing her saliva and trying not to look at the young man with his head down amongst the other slaves.

  “I want these 5 to serve me.” I say pointing at 4 random slaves but making sure the fifth is the one I
ngwe clearly recognises.

  She visibly stiffens by my side but I ignore her looking straight at the cleaver eyes of the steward now trained on me like a predictors.

  “Of course sir.” He says after a moment and claps and the army of slaves disperses leaving behind only those I chose.

  *

  At the south wing or whatever we choose our own rooms since we have the entire wing to ourselves. We check the rooms thoroughly for spy holes and false wall, even find a few but nothing that seems to be in regular use. The isn’t much we can do against magical spying but that’s just life.

  “May we have a private bath drawn please.” I say to one of the slaves as I chose a room with a very silent and passive Ingwe behind me.

  A bath doesn’t even have to be drawn, it takes less than 2 minutes for them to fill a tub through the piping in the wall.

  “Do whatever you want to do, eat, get some sleep, whatever.” I say not sure what to do with them now but I need to talk to the quiet Ingwe.

  I grab her by the wrist and lead her to the steaming bath. We are both grimmy from many days of traveling on foot, me more than her though. I close the door to the bathing chamber and sight as I take my clothes off slowly.

  She watches me interested, preoccupied and wary. Our one and only sexual encounter didn’t go so well back at her village, she just turned around lifting her loinskin expecting to be mounted. A convenient and attractive sight, but not very intimate in the way I expect to be with a mate, especially a new mate.

  “I know you don’t understand me, that’s okey, hopefully you can understand my intentions and actions. Just stand right there and let me do everything okey?” I say as I stand before her already semi erect for her to see.

  I run my right hand across her left shoulder gingerly, delicately. Her skin is soft and yielding, smooth and without blemish, her colouring interesting to say the least. The contrast between us is stark but complimentary I think.

  I run my hand up and down her arm, my cock now hard as I touch her looking into her eyes. She moves to turn around but I stop her, holding her still a moment before standing closer so my cock rests on her naked belly and I continue touching her. Using both hands I knead into her shoulders and neck.