Into the Light (Axe Druid Book 1)

by Christopher Johns

  His shield was out but his sword was away. I had no doubt if this got ugly, he would be able to draw it. There wasn’t much room in here with all of us, but there was an opening to the rear of the cave, yawning like the mouth of a great beast.

  “The Monks at the monastery told me you guys would have finished your training and received word on the next location of one of War’s agents,” he explained as he bent over and started to clear up his makeshift bed. “They told me to head north to see if I could find you guys and bring you back.”

  “For what, Aaron?’ Yohsuke asked. I looked at my best friend and saw that he had relaxed and started smiling.

  “Hey, Erik,” the other said with a wolfish grin. “Glad to see you made it, buddy.”

  “Aaron?!” I asked softly in realization. I bolted to the man and pulled him into a bear hug while laughing.

  This was the first time we had ever met in the flesh. It sucked that it was here, but damned if I wasn’t excited that my friend was okay.

  “What’re you doing here, man?” I asked, holding him at arm’s length. “And what the hell are you?”

  Looking at him up close, I could see that while his skin was indeed the same deep black as my fur, he had a dusting of scales on his cheeks that ran down his neck and grew into full body scales. They looked tough enough to withstand damage. His hands had finer scales, and his nails jutted out like claws. All he was wearing was a simple pair of cloth pants that were tied loosely with a sash and a pair of leather-soled slippers.

  “I’m a Dragon Elf Monk. Here, check it.” He pressed a couple of buttons on his status screen, and I could see his stats.

  Name: James Bautista

  Race: Dragon Elf (Black)

  Level: 12

  Strength: 18

  Dexterity: 40

  Constitution: 31

  Intelligence: 20

  Wisdom: 25

  Charisma: 8

  Unspent Attribute Points: 0

  “Wow,” Yohsuke whispered. “You have the same amount of Dexterity as me, and I’m a level higher.”

  “That was because of the training at the monastery,” James—as his new name would be—explained. “Their training was grueling, but as time went on, my stats increased. I would go out into the training grounds cultivating the skills they thought necessary and fight every day to get to where I am now. I heard you guys got to do some awesome stuff. Wanna talk about it over breakfast?”

  We all sat down and introduced our new characters, going over the things that had happened to us and our quest so far. While the others were explaining our most recent adventures, I started thinking about the kind of training that might help increase my own stats: weightlifting, maybe reading books, or trying to work out how to use magic? Maybe in the next city we could figure some of it out.

  “Well, you guys ready for another dungeon?” James stood and stretched himself a bit.

  “Another of War’s minions?” I asked.

  “Nope, this one is natural,” he explained. “The elders at the monastery told me it was here and that it would be a good idea to try and go through it. They said something about War’s minions not being the only evils in this world.”

  “I’m up for it,” Jaken said. “Better to grind it out while we can and be stronger, right?”

  “Yeah,” agreed Balmur. “Where are we going?”

  James pointed toward the rear of the cave. “Right there.”

  “Wait, you were sleeping there, with the entrance to a dungeon not ten feet away?” Bokaj asked incredulously.

  “Nothing had come out the day before, so I figured it was safe.” He stowed his things in his inventory, and we started into the opening. “Besides, it’s right here and with everything out there being so close to our level, shouldn’t we use this opportunity to get a little stronger and keep the area a little safer?”

  We walked for the entrance with Yohsuke and I both shaking our heads. This was our friend alright—he was the only one to use that kind of logic that we knew of. Goofball.

  Chapter Thirteen

  We walked for maybe ten minutes before we found a group of Goblins, only three, but they had us all surprised. They were all level 14 and seemed to have a class and simple weapons without armor. We had two Goblin Rogues and one Goblin Fighter.

  The alcove they were in was tiny; if not for Balmur leading us, we might have missed it and they could’ve been behind us. He signaled that we should stop and back up until we had a plan. They were sleeping, with the Fighter “watching” the door, propped up on what looked like a little anvil. His version of watching were a pair of eyes painted on the backs of his eyelids so he could sleep, too. Clever. Too bad today just wasn’t his day. The room they occupied was five-foot square, and the guard sat in the entryway.

  There was no light spell cast here for this one, since almost all of us had some version of Darkvision. I don’t know why the Rogue had cast it earlier; maybe he just thought it was a good idea at the time. Balmur had his Dwarven Rock Vision, an ability that allowed him to see clearly underground. Well, I guess we weren’t technically underground then were we? Hell, if I knew, but it seemed to be working.

  We had Balmur go in first, using the shadows to his advantage and shadow stepping into position over the sleeping body of the Rogue on the left. He held both his hand axes out and at the ready when he nodded to Bokaj, who had a bead on the sleeping forms with two arrows nocked. James slid around the Goblin on guard and took a position over the other, and we were about set.

  Jaken stepped in front of me, and Yoh stood off to the side, watching for any others who may try to ruin our fun.

  Fireball was out of the question—too many friendlies and too much noise. That also took out Lightning Bolt because it was too bright and would blind us, so I cast and held the only other spell I could—Frozen Dagger. The held spell only cost twenty mana, and with our tank standing in front of me, the light the spell gave off was blocked. After the fourth pulse, Jaken stepped aside at a hiss from me, and I unleashed the frozen projectile at the green thing. Balmur and James struck swiftly. Then Bokaj released his arrows. The Goblins weren’t all dead; after that, it took another couple hits from the two party members inside to kill the Rogues. The Goblin Fighter took minor damage, only about fifteen percent, but had a status I hadn’t seen before. It looked like ice cubes, and the Fighter moved very slowly.

  “Nice frozen debuff, man,” Jaken whispered to me and set to work attacking the Goblin before the status effect fizzled out. Once their targets were eliminated, Bokaj, Balmur, and James turned to the Fighter and helped finish him off.

  So, with the spell a little stronger, I could cause detrimental effects as well. I’d have to save that for a rainy day.

  CONGRATULATIONS!

  Your experimentation with spells and abilities has increased your intelligence by 1. Further experimentation and implementation may yield more damage, detrimental effects, or upgraded spells. Good luck, traveler!

  WELL THEN, I screamed in my mind.

  I looked, and sure enough, my intelligence had gone up one. Oh, I was going to play alright. I chuckled, and we looted the corpses and found some garbage. I did take the small metal daggers the two Rogues had so I could practice enchanting on actual weapons that I didn’t care about. We got a couple silver pieces and gave them to Yohsuke to hold until we could divide it up later.

  We headed on down the tunnel, putting the alcove and entrance behind us. After a ten-minute walk, we found a larger room, about twenty feet around with two different tunnels leading in opposite directions. I saw two Goblin Rogues of the same level as the ones we had defeated standing outside the right-side tunnel. Balmur walked into the room first and still hadn’t noticed the two Goblins. They were watching him intently and drew their weapons.

  I wasn’t about to let him walk into this trap, so I cast Frozen Dagger at the one to the left of the entrance. It dodged it easily. The best part was that it alerted the rest of the group to something being
wrong, and they were all alert now.

  “Two Goblin Rogues by the right entrance, same level as before,” I said before shifting into panther form and bolting at them.

  I swiped at the one who had dodged my spell attack. It dodged again and cut my arm, taking twenty HP with it. With it having done damage, the Goblin’s stealth dropped, and it became visible. I shouldn’t have rushed them because as soon as his friend was visible, the other Goblin stabbed me in the back and dropped me to half health. I dropped to the ground instantly, and Feral Rage kicked in hard.

  “Fuck!” Yohsuke shouted, the need for silence abandoned. “Get away from him. He’s gone feral. Jaken, get those heals flowing.”

  “On it!” Jaken reached, out and golden light wrapped around me.

  I whirled on the Goblin behind me and whipped my right paw out to catch it’s stupid, grinning head. The green creature bounced off the wall with a fractured skull next to its HP bar. It didn’t get up. The red of my vision set in fully, and I leapt onto it, taking it into my jaws and shaking my head furiously while trying to beat it to death with my paws. The Goblin behind me stabbed me, trying to help its friend, and I turned to get to it. Something black was in my way, and I batted it aside to get to my prey. I heard cursing and saw golden light out of the corner of my eye, but the Goblin was trying to sprint away from me. Further enraged, I bounded off the wall to my right, smacking the gold-light, metal thing beside it with my shoulder. I caught the Goblin and pushed it down with my left paw. I went to bite it, but the Goblin in my mouth got in the way. I spit it out and lunged, digging into the soft underbelly of the creature beneath me. I bathed in its screams, music to my ears. It raised its weapon to try and strike me, but I hissed at it and batted the metal aside. I buried my teeth in its face, biting down as hard as I could and tore it back. The blood trickled out of the wound, and the foe was vanquished.

  My vision was still red, and I lifted my nose to the air and breathed in deeply. To the right, where the Goblins who had stabbed me came from was a scent that wafted up my nose. I crouched and slunk forward as quietly as possible. The room at the end of the tunnel was small, but there was another Goblin Shaman holding a book. I crouched and pounced, landing on the creature and knocking the air out of its body. It began to glow, but a purplish bolt of dark light slapped it in the side of the head and went quiet and still.

  It still had HP so I bit into the back of its neck and twisted, with a sickening crack resounding off the walls. The red in my vision began to ebb, and the bloodlust left me. Yohsuke stepped into the room and approached me cautiously. Once I shifted to my fox-man form, he relaxed a bit.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked softly.

  “You got James pretty good when you pushed him out of the way,” he explained. “You knocked Jaken out when you wall ran at the other one. To be honest, I thought it was badass, but if the rooms are small like this, the whole party is going to be in trouble if you go feral like that too often.”

  I looked at the little room and noted another tunnel at the back.

  “I’ve got an idea on how to mitigate that,” I said. “Let’s go check on the others.”

  We went back and talked it out. There were no hard feelings over what happened; it was just dangerous.

  “Awesome,” Jaken said, rubbing the back of his head, “but dangerous.”

  “Sorry, man.”

  “No worries, brother.” He laughed and held his fist out to bump knuckles.

  “This split is going to be an issue,” Yohsuke stated. “No matter where we go, there’s going to be the risk that there is something at our back. What do you guys think we should do?’

  “Maybe we split up for a bit?” Bokaj suggested. “I mean, we have two people who can act as tanks. Balmur and I are used to working together, and with Jaken taking the hate and Tmont to try and sniff out the stealthy Rogues, we could do pretty well. The way you all made it seem earlier, James, Zeke, and you are thick as thieves so you guys know how to function as a team.”

  “Yeah, we do,” I agreed but shook my head. “Every table top game I’ve ever played has punished people for splitting the party in some way, shape or form. If you all want to do this, I’ll take it, but we have to have a system in place.”

  “We contact each other every couple hours at most via Mental Message to update each other on things,” Balmur suggested, “and if there’s something that is too crazy for us to tackle alone, we call for backup and sit on it until the other team arrives. If there isn’t a response to a Mental Message, the other group comes running.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Yohsuke grunted and looked to James and I.

  The idea was sound enough that I couldn’t complain too much. James nodded, and Balmur and Jaken gave a thumbs up.

  Jaken, Balmur, and Bokaj would go to the left, and we would go right, with Balmur and I communicating to each other through our Mental Message spells.

  “Now, let’s get this loot, eat, and then we can get this show on the road.” Bokaj rubbed his hands together excitedly.

  We had looted the bodies, then rested, and ate a small lunch. Yohsuke, James, and I had gone back to the room I had cleared while I was enraged and looted that Goblin. The book it had was a tome that none of us could read, bound in leather and inked in what was probably blood. Yohsuke stowed it for later, thinking we could find someone to read it and tell us what it was.

  We moved on shortly after. James had pocketed my portion of the gold because I wouldn’t take it as part of trying to say sorry. He just shrugged, and we moved on. I led us on, since I could see the stealthier Rogues with my True Sight. It was an ability that let me see invisible things, creatures, or objects and the true nature of shape changers. I hadn’t had a need for it before, especially since no one ever tried to hide anything with magic that I could think of in Sunrise.

  I didn’t see any creatures as we moved, so we pressed on. After our first check in with the other group, we got to a mushroom covered area. The chamber was large, more like a field than a cave. I guess you could call it a cavern. Maybe the Goblins cultivated these for food?

  “Hey, some of these are edible,” Yoh said while he picked at a patch. He took some and added them to his inventory.

  “Since we’re here, and this looks like a good food source, there has to be some Goblins nearby,” James said as he looked around. “Maybe let the others know that we found this place, Zeke?”

  I nodded and cast the spell, “Hey guys, we found a mushroom cavern. No sign of anything bad yet, but we thought we should let you know what was up. Be safe.”

  “You got it man,” Balmur responded. “Let us know if you need us.”

  We found a group of about twelve level 4 Goblin Pickers after a little walking. They wore nothing but loincloths and were currently snacking on their latest harvest, having a lunch of their own. We couldn’t leave them behind us in case one of them saw us and tried to attack us unaware, nor could we let them go and risk them telling their master and bringing the whole dungeon down on us. We had to get rid of them. It was a a slaughter.

  I’m not proud of what we did, but it was a necessary evil. I just hoped that at the end of this, the truth about their ties to these “evils” in the land became apparent because no matter how vicious these little things had been on the mountain and here so far, I couldn’t get their frightened visages off my conscience.

  Through my memories of the event, Kayda recalled that it was a raiding party of Goblins who had stolen her real mother from her and had no issues snapping up the little green creatures. She was a brutal monster at that point right then. I wasn’t proud of her actions, but I wasn’t going to deny her the sense of justice she could try and take for herself.

  Chapter Fourteen

  We had come across another room where I saw hidden enemies, and the others only saw one Goblin Ranger level 15. I had forgotten about one of my natural Kitsune abilities—Fox Fire.

  Fox Fire – Caster summons and controls faerie fire, able to sh
ape it into any form desired. This spell lines hidden creatures and objects in flames that do not cause damage but reveal location. Range: 60 ft. Duration: 10 minutes. Cool down: 10 minutes.

  I thought about the spell I wanted to cast and willed it to spark on one Goblin Rogue who immediately began to freak out and run toward his other stealthy friend. The clueless Goblin was promptly tackled, and the faerie fire spread to him. Both lost their shit and began to try and roll around on the floor. The flames didn’t die out, but the Ranger nocked an arrow while trying to figure out what was going on. It began to shout at the other two in a high-pitched and clearly irritated voice.

  Yohsuke nodded at me, and we both sent a spell at the Ranger. My Frozen Dagger caught him in the shoulder, while Yoh’s Astral Bolt hit him right in the temple, doing critical damage. The Ranger’s HP dropped to seventy-five. It shook its head and sent an arrow flying right at Yoh, but a black, clawed hand snatched the arrow out of the air and whipped it at the Goblins still rolling around on the ground. It hit one, doing minor damage, but it brought the thing closer to a frenzy because it hadn’t felt pain before with the flames. Now it did, and it freaked out more. The other Goblin who was rolling around stopped abruptly, stood, and then kicked his friend before pointing at us. He motioned to the flames and spat on the ground, then began to advance toward us with his injured friend in tow.

  “I’ve got the Ranger,” James said and closed the distance between them. The Rogues made to follow, but Yohsuke sent another Astral Bolt flying that smacked the lead Goblin right between the eyes. Its eyes crossed for a second, and then it was wobbling right at us.

  Changing his weapon from Astral Sword to Astral Spear, Yoh drove the bladed tip at the green creature, but it sidestepped and tripped.

  “He’s confused!” Yoh shouted, and we both fell on him quickly, my friend’s blade stabbing swiftly, joined by my great dagger. The Goblin’s HP drained, and it lay still after a few seconds.