Rune Waker

by Jamie Hawke

  “A fantasy worth dying for,” Brad whispered with a grin. “But seriously…”

  “Seriously now?” I scoffed. “Don’t worry about it, everything’s under control.”

  I walked back over to Varena, trying not to notice how she was kneeling now, how it was the perfect position to take her from behind. She even seemed to be arching her back, sticking out her ass, and—moaning?

  “Oh, come on.” I turned, covering my eyes, trying not to laugh.

  “Hey, you two let your minds go there first,” she said, and I turned back to see her making her way back down the stairs to us. “All I did was let your imagination have more to play with.”

  “You know that’s not how I see you.”

  “I know you looked. And…” She glanced down at my crotch. “I know you liked it.”

  The growing bulge was giving me away, and I hated myself for it.

  Brad laughed. “Whoa, big guy. Control that thing.”

  I rolled my eyes, adjusting my crotch so that the bulge wasn’t so obvious. We all knew why I was here. A beautiful demoness and my physical reaction to her near-nudity didn’t change that.

  “Find anything?” I asked.

  “Something big,” she replied. “Still growing, so soon even bigger, I’d imagine.”

  “Stop.”

  She chuckled, finally looking away from my pants, and gesturing to the wall. “Yeah, dead end.”

  I frowned. “We already knew that. But is there a way through?”

  “Ever hear of blood magic?”

  “Fuck.” I turned to Brad. “Rock, paper, scissors?”

  He chuckled. “How much blood are we talking about, here? And… since I’m in an avatar, will mine work?”

  “Both good questions,” Varena said. “Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to either.”

  “Then fuck it, let’s see what happens.” Brad stepped up the stairs, earning a playful whistle from Varena as he knelt at the top.

  “That ass,” she said with a wink my way.

  “Okay, first—can everyone stop winking?” I shook my head, appreciating how they were trying to lower the intensity of the situation, but finding it was actually doing the opposite.

  “He doesn’t like winking?” she asked Brad.

  “So he says,” Brad replied with a wink.

  “We’ll have to stop, then,” she said with a wink back.

  I groaned.

  “On it, boss,” Brad said, laughing. He pulled out a small, black dagger from his side, and slid his hand across it. “Fuck! That hurt.” He stared at the wound for a moment of confusion, then shrugged and placed it against the stone, wincing again.

  Nothing happened, but then Varena said, “Oh, right,” and waved her hand so that a stream of red light flowed up and met his blood, then both sank into the wall and faded.

  “You didn’t forget,” he said with a glare.

  “Just a slight delay,” she said with another wink. “For the bullshit you’re feeding my friend, Ryan, here.”

  Brad moved away from the wall, shaking his head. “Fair enough. Um, healing spell, anyone?”

  “I got you,” I said. Though I hadn’t used the spell since I’d learned it, a level one healing spell was simple enough.

  With a hand wave his way and a simple selection of the spell, green circled him and glinted off of nearby dust. The wound on his hand closed up, although it left a scar. Not surprising, I guess, since my spell was so low level.

  “Thanks?” he said, glaring at the scar.

  “What? You don’t have any death magic healing spells?”

  He chuckled. “All of mine involve taking the HP from someone, so if either of you want to volunteer…”

  “No thanks,” I replied quickly.

  Varena simply scoffed, then pointed at the solid rock where he’d rubbed his blood. “Give it a try?”

  “Doesn’t look like anything’s changed,” Brad said, but when he touched the rock, his hand went right through it. “Ooh, wicked.”

  “Indeed.” She gestured him on, catching hold of his wrist before he went right in.

  “I knew you’d come around,” he said, voice conveying confusion, though.

  She shook her head, reaching back for me. “The blood magic will require we all be in contact when going through, unfortunately. Otherwise, we’d each have to cut ourselves.”

  “Thank you for your sacrifice,” I said to Brad as I took Varena’s hand and gave him a wink.

  “Yeah, whatever.” He led the way, and soon we were through and on another level. Only, something was wrong… The walls were flashing red, a distant hissing sound growing louder.

  “Shit,” Varena said, kneeling and beginning to trace a circle around us on the floor.

  “What’re you doing?”

  “An alarm has been raised, thanks to us passing through the walls. Some sort of wards, I’d guess.” Her finger made a shape that trailed blue light behind it, creating runes at the edge of the circle she made, then she changed hands and did the same with the other but in orange this time. “I’m putting up a defensive shield, psychic and physical, because whatever’s coming… it’s going to suck.”

  I looked up at the far end of the hall where, sure enough, the shadows grew large, the hissing louder. This didn’t look good.

  16

  Hisses echoed off of the walls, seemingly coming from all directions. The lights were flashing in an almost blinding way now, and then the shadows reared up—only, nothing appeared. Just the shadows.

  Then it hit me that what we were about to fight here were the shadows! Just like the shadow snakes we’d seen with the white bunny before. Except these stayed when the light was bright, growing with each flash.

  “Done!” Varena shouted, and she stepped back so that her body was pressed against mine. She pulled Brad close, too, as a wall of green energy flashed around us.

  Suddenly, everything was calm. The lights outside were still flashing, the shadow creatures approaching… but the flashes weren’t bothersome, the sight of the shadow creatures not the slightest bit frightening now.

  “I’ve erected a protective barrier,” Varena explained. “It won’t hold, but should give us enough time to come up with a strategy.”

  “Strategy?” Brad scoffed. “Fight or flight. You have a fifty percent chance there.”

  “Always fight,” she said, “even if you have to run to come back with another way to attack.”

  “No time for arguing over it,” I said, indicating the close proximity of the shadow beasts. Now they seemed even darker, yellow eyes glowing.

  “Right.” Varena waved her hand over a section of the runes she’d made, and watched as more layers formed beyond, the pattern replicating in the ground. “I’m not strong enough to summon anything yet. And those things, they’re worse than the snakes.”

  As if in answer, they reached the first magical wall and began pounding on it, so that within a few seconds it shattered.

  “Shit,” I said, bracing myself, still very aware of the fact that she was pressed up against me. “They’re not playing around.”

  “No, I’d say not.”

  “And death magic?” Brad asked.

  She shook her head. “Might as well be feeding them doggy treats.”

  “I see.”

  “Since all I have is a healing spell and shield…” I turned to Varena, suddenly very aware of her face so close to mine.

  “Right. I’m going to need… a bit of your energy.” She closed the distance, taking me with hands on my face, tongue in my mouth. It was passionate, and in that moment I lost track of why I was there, who I was, or what was going on around me. All that mattered was her, my hands finding their way along her flesh, my—

  “What the fuck?” I said, pulling free as I returned to myself.

  She was staring at me hungrily, bit her lip, and said, “I just need… a bit… more.”

  A glance around showed the walls fading, the shadows close… “Fuck.” My
hands grabbed her by the waist, pulling her back to me as my lips met hers. My hard cock pressed against my pants, begging for release as she rubbed her body against mine.

  “Guys,” Brad said, voice breaking. I looked to see the last wall fading. Then it collapsed as darkness threatened to take over. The edges of my vision went first, then everything was gone, then flashed back again as Varena stood tall, glowing green.

  Her circle flamed up as the first shadow crossed, and it took the form of a man—a man who she quickly kicked the shit out of. A right uppercut sent him back so that he fell from the circle, collapsing to the ground in a puff of smoke that left no remains of him.

  “I’m ready to give up some of mine, too,” Brad said, puckering his lips.

  “Not necessary,” Varena replied, and as darkness took over again, she flashed blue and charged out to meet the next shadow. Runes flared and the wall seemed to go with her, moving outward like a bubble pressed but not popping. And then, with a bang, it did pop. Instead of bubble fluid, though, it was green flame converging on the shadow beast and causing it to roar back, fall to its side as it writhed in pain, and then puff out of existence like the first.

  Yet another shadow monster turned on her, fists raised like a Goliath about to pound her into the ground. I had to act, and figured the rune shield was gone anyway. Two steps later, I saw the error in my decision. Our kiss moments before had given her energy, which had to have come from somewhere. In this case, it seemed my ability to walk. Legs wobbling, I went to one knee. That wasn’t about to stop me, though. With a heave, I sent my sword flying into my enemy. As soon as it left my hands my mind went into angelic horde mode and I threw out my hands to cause the extra blades to fly out with the strike.

  My mistake there was that I wasn’t a member of the angelic horde anymore. I wasn’t my avatar. This was me—just me. Yet, for some reason it wasn’t a complete bust. As the sword swept in circles, light flashed from it and it struck as if three swords had hit at once, causing three large gashes of light across the monster. It stumbled back, amazed, and even Varena looked at me with pleased shock.

  “Where’d that come from?” she asked.

  “I… don’t know.”

  Brad hit me with a stamina boost, and I was up with at least enough energy to retrieve my sword from the monster’s chest before the puff of smoke took him. And good timing, too, because two more shadow monsters rose out of the shadows where floor met wall.

  “Try something else,” Varena said. “Like you just did, I mean.”

  I nodded, glad to feel my stamina kicking in even if the queasy feeling of having given so much energy to her still left me a bit dazed. As she moved for one of the creatures and Brad hit me with more boosts, my sword burst into flames and I squared off against the other shadow monster. This one roared and stepped toward me. I braced for an attack, but was hit before realizing what was happening. It hadn’t hit me, but had called on shadows nearby and they’d surged in on me, like darkness that formed a swarm of bees, only there was nothing to swat at.

  “I got you!” Brad called out, and he was moving his hands around, countering the shadows.

  “Thanks,” I muttered, reeling from the pain. The shadows started to come at me again and I remembered my shield, but when I tried to cast it, nothing happened.

  A quick scan showed I was already out of mana! Shit…

  I needed to level up and get to fixing that, and do so quickly. My best bet? Fucking destroy this monster ASAP. So I shouted, putting my all into the strike as I lunged and brought my sword down, into the shadows, only to stumble and realize I’d hit thin air. I spun and realized I’d made yet another error—it’d used a false shadow.

  It hit me and my heart clenched, cold taking over, but past it I saw Varena take out the other one with a blast of blue that that then caused her to momentarily glow gold, a screen popping up by her head.

  Seeing her level up—as I assumed had just happened—made me realize that if I could level up, I might be healed. Whatever this son of a bitch had just done to me wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

  And this time, I refused to be tricked.

  I pulled on my shield, glad to see enough mana had regenerated to let me cast, and then charged into it, swinging my sword up and left, down and around, in every direction, not caring if I got hurt in the process. And I did! Each swing of my blade was agonizing, each movement making me think my heart would explode, that my limbs would stop working.

  The way I saw it, my XP was already close from the others, and these shadow monsters had to be worth some heavy points. So, when I finally landed the blow with my blazing sword and the shadow vanished, it didn’t come as a surprise at all that I’d leveled up.

  I stood tall, golden light showering down on me, and smiled wide. No more shadow monsters that I could see.

  Brad was looking at me, impressed. “Dude, for a low-level noob, that was badass.”

  “It’s like your old self is still there,” Varena added. “Like I mentioned, the hybrid part. Or some of it, anyway.”

  “And you leveled up, too?” I asked as I turned to my screen.

  “Actually, yes.” Varena was looking at my screen, too, and then pulled up her own. “And here’s something cool—we can synch a level up.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “This…” She selected white on her screen, then nodded for me to do the same. “It gives you a boost, since I’m higher level, so you can add one of my lower-level skills instead of me upgrading or unlocking a new one. Not always great, but when there’s a lower-leveled noob in the mix,” she winked at Brad, “it can be extremely valuable.”

  “I’ll allow that wink,” I said, hitting my white and looking to see that, yeah, I had my own point plus a few new white skills to choose from. I’d also received four new points to assign to upgrades. Having recently seen a need for mana, but also feeling my defense needed a boost, I assigned three to mana and one to defense, so that the screen now read:

  Level: 4

  Class: Human Hybrid

  Attack: 4

  Defense: 3

  Speed: 4

  Mana: 6

  And going through my spells, I decided to use my first point to upgrade healing. Looking over my white options, I’d expected to see more angelic spells, but it was fairly low-level stuff, and instead had a physical shield option with increased magic resistance, an angelic light for seeing in dark places, and one that was called Rune Waker.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  Varena glanced over, and grinned. “You saw what I did back there? Well, that unlocks it.”

  “Hell yes, I’m choosing that.”

  She held up a hand. “To be clear, you have to unlock that path just to be able to do the rune spells. You don’t actually get to do anything other than at a basic level until you add more upgrades, unlocking rune spells in the other colors. It’s a bit of a sacrifice now for more to come, but if you master it… Rune mages can be incredibly powerful.”

  “A rune mage?” Brad laughed. “Fucking A, man. Do it.”

  He and I shared a mind on this, and I quickly selected it. I’d always loved the idea of runes, plus having seen how badass they’d been under Varena’s control, I was sold. Having upgraded, my spell list now said:

  Spells

  Blue: Psychic Shield Level 1

  Green: Healing Level 2

  White: Rune Waker – Unlocked

  “This is going to be fun,” Varena said, licking her lips as she looked me over. “But for now… if we don’t get out of here soon, we’re going to have much worse enemies on our tails. The white bunny, for one, might even have been alerted.”

  We all agreed, so got moving again. At more than one turn we were sure we’d been found, but were able to get by with small illusion spells from Varena or shadow manipulations by Brad. She told us of a place she was fairly certain the white bunny wouldn’t know about, where he’d never find us. Soon, we were moving along a path that seemed to be o
utside—dirt on the ground, walls of rock that led up high with a crack of light way above—before entering the fortress again through a hidden entrance.

  “This is it,” Varena said, but then froze, staring straight ahead.

  Someone was there ahead of us, I could tell. Two someones, it appeared, based on the two heads showing in the silhouette, so either that, or a two-headed monster. We approached cautiously, ready for anything.

  It was Arturo! He leaned against his staff, a white rabbit head on the top. “Miss me?”

  “How the fuck…?” Varena started.

  He chuckled, then waved his hand over the rabbit head to show it was actually a goblin. “I wish. Just an illusion spell.”

  “But you’re alive,” she said, voice catching, revealing her confusion.

  “It was close,” he admitted. “I quickly learned there was no way I’d be able to take them on, although I did manage to take out two of those shadow snakes.”

  She nodded. “Those are some of his favorites.”

  “You sound like you kinda miss the bunny,” Brad noted.

  With a glare, she turned from him back to Arturo. “How’d you escape?”

  “Charm, wit—” Arturo started, but suddenly she had him by his monkey fur, pinning him against the wall.

  “Talk.”

  “Whoa, is it so important?” Brad asked, stepping up. “He’s here, right? Come on.”

  When he looked at me, I shrugged. “Actually, I’m with her on this one. For all we know, the bunny took him over. Body snatchers-style.”

  Brad hadn’t apparently considered that, because now he turned to Arturo, frowning, and leaned in to stare at the man’s eyes. “Looks legit.”

  “So, Arturo,” Varena said, holding up a hand that started to glow with purple magic. “Are you… legit?”

  “Shit, come on.” He frowned, then nodded, saying, “Can we get out of here, at least go somewhere quiet so I can tell you all about it?”

  She hesitated, then nodded, dragging him along. I felt her—I couldn’t wait to hear how he managed this one.