by Pirateaba
“I’m sorry.”
Selys apologized again, but Erin just shook her head. Ryoka was already leaving the Guild, and Erin ran after her with a hurried apology for Selys.
This time Ryoka set a course for the gates of the city without even talking. Erin had to walk quickly to catch up. The two girls walked through the crowds of people silently.
They heard the howling begin as they left the Adventurer’s Guild. It was immediately joined by more voices of other Gnolls around the city, so that the streets rang with the sound and Drakes and Humans froze and stared around wildly. But neither girl so much as looked up.
“Well. Ksmvr said he’d meet us at the Ruins. That’s something.”
“I suppose. Do you have anything you need at the inn?”
“Yeah. Give me a few minutes and I’ll be good to go.”
“Good. I’ll help you grab everything. We need food, water, healing potions—”
Erin lifted the bag she’d carried from Krshia’s store. She had healing potions, and the three frying pans she’d brought. Ryoka eyed them but made no comment. After a moment Erin asked the question on her mind.
“You met Gazi?”
“You know her?”
“Yeah. She was at my inn. She helped me out too, when I first met her. She was, um, nice. Do you think she really…?”
“I don’t know. But she was close to those Gnolls and she pretended not to know what I was talking about when I asked.”
Ryoka walked on and hesitated.
“She…bothered me.”
“Was it the eye? That creeped me out a bit.”
“No. It was her. I can’t explain it, but each of those Gnolls that died was beheaded. With a single cut.”
“Oh. She has…a really sharp sword.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
They said nothing more until they got back to the inn. It took them only fifteen minutes, and Erin was gasping for breath when they got there. Ryoka looked at her in way that made Erin feel certain she was judging her. She wasn’t even sweating.
It was cold anyways, not the right temperature for sweating. It didn’t feel like winter, but then, maybe they were in the equivalent of Florida or something. Erin opened the door and jumped back.
Toren stood in the doorway, holding his sword. He stared curiously at Erin as Ryoka raised her fists and stepped back.
“Toren! Don’t stand with a sword in the doorway! Come on; help me!”
Erin pushed the skeleton aside and Toren sheathed his sword and began following her around as she yelled out instructions. Ryoka watched the skeleton warily, but Toren meekly ran about, gathering a few glowing green jars, supplies, and for some reason, several rocks from outside.
“Ready!”
Erin reappeared a few minutes later with a bulging rucksack, and all three frying pans strapped to it. Ryoka eyed the bag. Well, Erin could always stay in the back and carry the food. She had no idea how deep the Ruins were. She had no idea of anything, really.
It was the worst possible way to enter a dangerous area, but Ryoka had no choice. She had to go.
“Are you done? Let’s get moving.”
“Okay. Toren will carry everything until we get there.”
So saying, Erin handed the heavy pack to the skeleton. He accepted it without complaint and staggering a bit, followed Erin and Ryoka. Ryoka thrust open the door and paused.
Several Goblins jumped back, and one screamed in a high-pitched voice. Ryoka nearly threw herself back into Erin before she remembered these were nominally friendly Goblins.
“Rags!”
Erin pushed past Ryoka as the smallest Goblin stared up at Ryoka suspiciously. She smiled at the Goblin.
“I’m glad you’re here. We need your help!”
Ryoka did a double take as Rags blinked in surprise. Surely Erin wasn’t considering…?
She was.
In a few sentences Erin described the message Pisces had gotten, and their mission to enter the Ruins. Rags listened attentively while the rest of her group stared around idly or picked at their noses and ate what came out.
Erin finished with a short plea.
“You understand, don’t you? You’ll help, right?”
Rags thought for a second, pondering all she had heard. Then she looked up at Erin and shook her head.
“What?”
Erin stared down at the Goblin. Rags shrugged at her.
“But they’re in trouble. And you can help! You’ve got a sword and your tribe. We need you, Rags.”
Again, Rags shrugged. Erin didn’t speak Goblin and Rags wasn’t speaking, but she got a definite sense of indifference from the small Goblin. What had the Horns of Hammerad ever done for her? Why should she risk her neck?
“Rags, please. They’ll die if we can’t get to them. Remember Ceria? Remember Calruz?”
Rags scowled at Erin and turned away. Her attitude seemed to indicate that if there wasn’t any food or chess to be had, there was no point in being here.
That was the last straw. Erin had listened to grouchy Zevara, surprisingly unhelpful Klbkch, Krshia and the idea that Gazi was evil, and a room full of useless adventurers. Her patience finally ran out. She snapped.
“Hey!”
She grabbed Rags bodily and lifted her up. The Goblin shouted in outrage and tried to break free, but Erin just glared at her.
“I’m asking you for help. You owe me. I’ve fed you and given you help and even the sword and shield! I even made Pisces teach you magic! Now I need help saving my friends.”
Rags growled at Erin and kicked at her. Erin bit back a yelp as one bare foot kicked her in the chest. Hard.
“That’s it.”
The small Goblins grabbed at the sheathed short sword at her waist, but Erin just turned her upside down and began to shake. The Goblin’s head and body bounced around wildly as Erin shook the small Goblin, shouting loudly.
“Help—me! Help—us!”
She lifted Rags up and down by the ankles, so that the small Goblin bounced up and down like a bungee jumper. To Ryoka it looked like one of the rides at an amusement park that send hapless riders down a hundred feet per second out of the sky, except here no one was amused. Except for her and the other Goblins, of course.
“I’m not gonna stop until you say yes! Say yes! Say it!”
The Goblin screamed and tried to bite and punch at Erin, but to no avail. Erin whirled Rags around by the legs in a circle as the Goblin screamed. Ryoka had done that as a kid with her father, once or twice. But it had been her holding on as he whirled her around by the arms, not the legs. The way Erin was doing it to Rags was a lot faster, more dangerous, and a lot less fun.
At last, Rags screamed something loudly and Erin stopped. The girl glared at the Goblin as Rags hung upside-down in the air, even greener than normal.
“You’re going to help? Promise?”
Rags nodded weakly. Erin dropped her.
The Goblin landed with a thump in the grass. For a second Ryoka thought she was going to run, but when Rags pushed herself up the Goblin could only stagger around drunkenly.
“Run away and I’ll throw a rock at you. And you know I’ll hit you.”
Erin threatened Rags. Ryoka wondered how credible that was—Erin didn’t seem like she was the athletic type, and Ryoka seriously doubted she’d ever played baseball. Maybe softball, at best. She didn’t seem like the competitive type.
Rags glared at Erin, stumbled a few feet away, and threw up noisily in the grass. She paused after vomiting up a considerable amount of undigested food, thought for second, and then threw up again.
Erin stumbled as she turned, dizzy from the swinging herself. She nearly walked into another Goblin. Rag’s small posse was alternating between glaring at her and staring at the vomit in the grass with curiosity or hunger.
Maybe they were protective of their boss. She didn’t care. Erin glared at them.
“You wanna fight? Huh?”
The G
oblins looked at their leader, still noisily being sick in the grass. They looked back at the Destroyer, slayer of the skin monster, provider of pasta and free drinks. They backed up quickly.
Rags was nearly done puking. The Goblin wiped at her mouth and said something in her scratchy language. Erin pointed at her.
“You’re helping. No arguments. You and your tribe—”
Erin hesitated and turned around. The area was already emptying out of Goblins as they ran away.
“Damn it.”
Ryoka glanced at her. The girl’s earlier amusement at the spectacle had evaporated like the other Goblins.
“We’ve got to go. Why do you want the Goblin, anyways? Even her tribe wouldn’t be much help.”
Erin disagreed.
“She’s got a sword and a shield. Plus, she knows magic.”
Ryoka paused.
“…She does?”
“Yeah, maybe not as much as you, but some. And she was the one who killed the super-evil-skin-worm monster that was leading the undead.”
Ryoka stared at her. Erin threw up her hands.
“It’s true! Why does no one believe that?”
—-
They met Pisces waiting at the Ruins. The mage was antsy, and he hadn’t brought anything but his customarily dirty robes. He didn’t have his usual sneer though, and he was nervous. Possibly the only person more nervous than him was Ksmvr.
“I would deem it far more prudent to remain behind, Erin Solstice. You are no warrior, and the Ruins are dangerous.”
“They’re my friends. I’m going in there.”
Erin glared at Ksmvr. The Antinium wavered, and then sighed.
“Very well. But remain behind me at all times.”
Rags glared at the Antinium as he looked down at her, and then at Toren.
“You have chosen an unusual group.”
“No one else would come.”
“I see.”
Ryoka ignored the two and marched up to Pisces. He looked at her with the expression of someone trying to recall her name. She didn’t care.
“Did you get another message from them?”
He shook his head.
“Possibly something is blocking Ceria. Or her mana might still be low. It is possible if she is…wounded.”
“Right then, let’s find her.”
“I suppose so. But there’s a ah, problem.”
“What’s that?”
He nodded at the vast entrance to the ruins.
“The guardsmen won’t let us in.”
After the attack on Liscor, a palisade and deep ditch had been dug, and the guards at the entrance to the Ruins were now twenty strong, armed with arrows and torches and even a Drake mage in robes at the back. The guardsman in charge stared at Erin and the others as they marched up.
“We’re going in.”
The Drakes and Gnolls stared at Erin as she stood in front of them. One of them laughed, but stopped when no one joined them. Their leader, a Drake with maroon scales shook his head.
“No one goes in or out. Zevara’s orders.”
“She knows we’re going in.”
“She does?”
“She does.”
He shook his head.
“I can’t let you in without word from her.”
“That is regrettable.”
Ksmvr called from behind Erin. He shook his head.
“We should return to the city. It would not do to stand in defiance of the law.”
Ryoka opened her mouth—for what, she didn’t know. A threat? She wasn’t sure of anything that would work. But Erin just narrowed her eyes.
“You’ll let us in.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll hurt you.”
The Drake stared at Erin. She glared at him. He had nearly a head of height on her not counting his helmet, and he had a spear and nineteen guardsmen at his back. All Erin had was a frying pan. But he remembered where Skinner had died and he had [Dangersense] too. The look in Erin’s eyes made him reconsider his next words.
“We will send word to the city. If you’ll wait.”
Erin pushed him. The Drake stumbled back and nearly ran into the sharpened wall of stakes. Erin stomped past him without another word, and the others followed. Ryoka stared open-mouthed at her back and then hurried to catch up.
The Ruins were dark, and the open stone doors were just as foreboding as before. But despite the ominous blackness from within, Erin knew there was no turning back. But she did have a thought.
“Um. Did anyone bring a candle?”
“[Light].”
Pisces and Ryoka said it at the same time as Rags muttered something. Three orbs of shimmering light flew upwards as all three blinked at each other.
“Good, then we’re…good.”
Erin looked back into the Ruins. Here be monsters, she thought to herself. Nasty, undead monsters. This was the place where Skinner had come from. This is the place where countless adventurers had died.
Death lurked below, waiting. But so too did the Horns of Hammerad. There was no choice. Erin took a deep breath.
“Ready?”
Pisces looked green, but he nodded. Rags scowled at Erin and Ryoka and the ground. Toren’s sword was already drawn and the skeleton scanned the dark entrance.
Ksmvr stepped forwards.
“Allow me to go first, Miss Solstice. I will scout ahead and signal you when it is safe to proceed.”
“No. We go in together.”
He hesitated, but Erin pushed past him. Ryoka blinked in surprise. Erin walked into the darkness of the ruins, and then turned.
“Well? I can’t see anything if you guys don’t follow.”
The others hesitated, but then they walked forwards. Ryoka passed into the darkness and shivered. Her tongue was in her mouth and her heart was pounding. She was afraid. For the first time she was truly afraid. Of the unknown. Of what she did not know. Of being too late.
But she had to go.
A dirty [Necromancer], a Goblin, an undead skeleton, the Prognugator of an Antinium Hive, an [Innkeeper] and a City Runner walked into the Ruins. It sounded like the beginning of a joke, but what would the punch line be?
Gazi the Omniscient sat with her back to a slope several hundred meters away. Her main eye pointed into the back of her head as she tracked the progress of the strange group as they descended into the Ruins.
Let’s see. By primary classes they were…
A Level 16 [Warrior] Antinium.
A Level 22 [Necromancer] with various mage class levels.
A Level 8 [Warrior], Level 6 [Mage] and Level 10 [Tactician] Goblin.
A Level 11 [Skeleton Warrior] carrying an ruby enchanted with [Terror].
A Level 18 [Innkeeper] Human.
And a level-less Runner Human.
A joke, then. Something about Ruins? Or the undead. They could be humorous. Gazi frowned. She’d work on it while she waited for them to come back out. She had plenty of time.
But then, she could hardly wait. She was patient, had been patient, but now Gazi was buzzing with anticipation. She polished her sword, humming quietly, waiting. A tightly sealed scroll with a glowing rune etched onto a wax seal sat in the grass next to her.
It was finally time to go home.
2.04
It was an odd procession that walked down the empty halls of Liscor’s undead ruins. Not that the ruins were undead; rather, they were infested with the undead.
In theory. No one had seen a corpse yet, living, undead, or just dead. But they were ready.
Still, it was an odd group Ryoka found herself walking with. And an odd formation as well. She hadn’t given it any thought when she’d known she was going in to find her friends. Ryoka had assumed she’d be running into the ruins as fast as she could, avoiding traps and monsters every foot until she found the Horns of Hammerad.
It would have been a suicide run in any case. What would she have done even if she’d found them? Carried them out on h
er shoulders hundreds of feet while dodging monsters, armor and all? She couldn’t even lift Calruz.
She hadn’t been thinking. That would have killed both her and the people she had come to rescue. She had to do that.
Some thought then, had gone into the procession that walked through the ruins. The group had decided to walk two abreast, so that no one was without a partner, but also so they were staggered out in case something came from behind.
It felt like one of those horror movies to Erin, but at least this time she’d placed herself in the middle. And they were walking together, not with one idiot stuck in the back where no one could hear them. Even so, she kept looking over her shoulder every few minutes.
Somewhat predictably, Ksmvr was stuck in the front with Toren. No one wanted to walk with him and Toren could see just as easily in the dark as in the light. Pisces and Rags walked in the rear, theoretically furthest away in danger but hypothetically first to be stabbed in the back. But between Rag’s ears and Pisces’ paranoia, ambush was unlikely.
That left Erin and Ryoka in the center. They walked together, looking around as they passed from room to room in complete silence.
That didn’t mean their group was silent of course. Ksmvr glided through the darkness like a ghost, but Toren rattled when he walked. Pisces muttered to himself as he shuffled and tripped over his robes, Rags scuffed along and Erin—
She literally clanked as she walked. Ryoka wanted to ask what all the frying pans were for, let alone the bag of rocks but she was too busy looking around in the darkness.
She and Ksmvr would have to do most of the fighting, depending on how useful this Pisces was. She almost wished she could tell Erin not to come. Her and that Goblin—how useful could they really be? Ryoka kept worrying as she searched for the first shambling corpse.
But no one came. No monsters, no undead, not even any dead bodies. The emptiness of the ruins was unnerving, and the strain took its toll on everyone.
After about ten minutes of heavy breathing, pounding heart, and jumping at every shadow, Erin couldn’t take it anymore. She looked at Ryoka. The tall girl was walking quietly, bare feet padding on the stone floor as she tried to look in every direction at once. Erin cleared her throat and Ryoka jumped and glared at her.