The Hunter went ahead, moving silently and invisibly. After giving him a good head start, it was Hawke’s turn. He rushed in, all his auras up, ready for the worst, and stood at the cave’s entrance. He saw the fire lizards; they looked like Komodo Dragons except with alligator-like mandibles. Their stats were identical:
Fire Lizard
Level 6 Beast (Elite)
Health 240 Mana 180 Endurance 240
They heard and saw him coming, but he got the first shot in, a Hammer of Light that hit one of them for forty-nine points of damage. The wounded lizard reacted just as quickly as its companions. The three monsters took a couple of skittering steps before they drew a deep breath and sent three jets of flame his way.
He sidestepped the first one. The other two hit him dead-center.
His Bulwark of Light absorbed seventy-five points of damage before popping out of existence. That reduced the power of the first jet of flame, but only partially. The second one struck with its full fury. Between the two of them, the twenty-five percent that actually translated into direct damage reduced his Health from ninety-seven to thirty-five. But numbers did not convey what being roasted alive felt like.
Hawke blacked out.
It only lasted a second, just long enough for him to wake up lying face down on the dirt. Much of the pain was gone, thanks to Gosto’s healing – his Nature’s Warmth had restored twenty points already, and Hawke’s Aura of Light another seven – but he still wanted to roll over and die. And die was what he’d be doing if he didn’t get moving. The three monsters were coming at him about as fast as a charging rhino.
He had barely time to recast his Bulwark of Light before the monsters were on him. Only the relatively narrow section of the tunnel kept all three of them from hitting him at once. Two tried to bite him; he smashed his shield into the first one’s snout and slashed the other on its head, cutting it for a measly eighteen points of damage. Their scales were tough as hell, too.
The monster opened its jaws wide for another bit – and a glowing arrow went flying into it. A big ‘43’ rose above its head just before Gosto’s Nature’s Sting landed for another twenty-seven damage. Hawke stabbed both creatures a couple of times; their return attacks ate chunks of his Bulwark’s Health but left him unharmed. Gosto used his rooting spell on the one in the rear while Tava kept shooting the worst-wounded one, trying to knock it out of the fight. Hawke finished it off with another Hammer of Light; its Health zeroed out and a loot baggie appeared over its unmoving body.
The other one breathed fire at Hawke at point-blank range. The rooted one followed suit a moment later.
As it turned out, going through it once didn’t make the second time any better. Things went dark again, and when he came to, Hawke realized one of the lizards had bitten his leg and was trying to roll on the ground, an alligator move which would twist his leg off, just the way someone would tear a drumstick off a roasted chicken. Tava and Gosto had ducked when they noticed the monsters were about to breathe fire, but they came back a moment later. Gosto cast his heal. Hawke noticed it because he was able to set the pain aside and drive his sword into the creature’s eye just as an arrow struck it in the shoulder. He landed a critical hit for over a hundred points of damage; twisting the blade while it was inside the monster’s skull did the rest. Two down. How many seconds had it been? Hawke had no idea how long he had until the next flame attack.
The rooted fire lizard had problems of its own. Kinto had attacked it from behind as soon after it had used its breath attack. The ambush had carved off over half of the monster’s Health, but it had driven it into a berserk rage. Kinto dodged its biting jaws – and walked right into a swinging tail swipe that hit him with bone-crushing force. Dazed, the Hunter rolled until he hit a wall. That fire lizard turned towards it – and drew a deep breath.
No.
Hawke leaped, throwing his shield aside. He knocked the creature’s head aside, pushing it away from the Hunter and hoping to direct the flames away. His timing was just a bit off, however. The lizard had waited before it breathed fire. Waited until it twisted its head, showing amazing flexibility, and its open jaws were aimed right at Hawke’s face.
The world briefly turned into hell.
Thirty-One
This time, he stopped screaming after less than a minute.
Hawke touched his face, his eyes. He’d felt his eyes explode just before he stopped feeling everything. For several seconds, he curled up in a ball and tried not to cry.
“Go to hell.”
“This isn’t a freaking competition!”
Hawke sat up and set the horrible memories aside. He had left three people – who wouldn’t get better if burned to death – back in the cave with a live fire lizard. It had been pretty close to death, though. They must have finished it off before it could breathe fire again. A quick look around told him he had respawned back at the ramp leading down into the Lair, so at least he was only about a mile away from them.
“How long was I out?” he asked Saturnyx while he checked his gear. His brand-new bronze helmet was gone. Probably melted right off his skull. Everything else seemed to be in one piece.
Three Identity points were gone, reducing it to nineteen. Talk about two steps forward and one back. At that rate, he was going to be dead for good. Except… his Identity stat had been at twenty-one last time he made level. He checked his notifications:
For slaying your foes, you have earned 600 XP.
Congratulations! You have reached Level Six! You have gained 6 Attribute points to distribute.
New Life and Light Spells Available.
Your Dodge Skills has been raised to 7.
Current XP/Next Level: 0/4,500
He had leveled up just before dying but had lost all his accumulated Experience. No big deal; people living or dying were the big deal. Hawke went to rejoin his party. No, not his party, he corrected himself. His friends.
He wasn’t going to let them any of them die, and not because of any oaths he had sworn.
* * *
As he jogged, Hawke kept his ‘character sheet’ open and did some investing. Dodging attacks was a function of Dexterity and heavy armor reduced his chances; since avoiding being hit by a third flame breath during that fight had probably kept him alive – for a bit longer, at least – Hawke decided to put three points on that stat, put two into Spirit, which would increase his Mana and Mana regeneration, and one more in Charisma. His Characteristics improved accordingly:
Hawke Lightseeker, Half-Elf (Eternal)
Level 6 Paladin
Health 114 Mana 87 Endurance 108
He also picked a new spell:
Dazzling Light
Time to Cast: 4(1) seconds. Cooldown: 25 seconds. Cost: 15(14) Mana. Duration: Instant. Range: 30 yards. Effect: Creates a bright flash of light that will temporarily disable anyone looking towards it. Affected creatures will be blinded for three seconds, stunned for two seconds, and will have a -5% penalty to any tasks that require eyesight for 30 seconds. Effects will be doubled against nocturnal creatures.
Being able to blind and stun a roomful of critters could make a huge difference in combat, even if it only lasted a few seconds. Stacking ‘debuffs’ on enemies played a major role in gaming combat; having the option made Hawke feel a little better about his chances of not dying again for a while. Twice in four days was two times too many. Even dying couldn’t dampen his growing good mood, however. Leveling up made up for a lot of pain and suffering.
Tava and Gosto met him halfway, more or less. They must have started heading towards the entrance almost as soon as he disappeared.
“You!” Tava said when she spotted him. “Father said you would… But I saw you…”
“Your head exploded, Pa
ladin!” Gosto shouted. “Clear off your shoulders, it did!”
Hawke had to grin at the teenager’s half-awed tone. “Pretty cool, eh?”
A moment later, Tava slammed into him. She was hugging him tightly.
“I saw you die,” she said into his shoulder. “I know about Eternals, but I still…” When Tava pulled back to look at him, her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “Don’t do that again!”
“Trust me, I don’t want to do that ever again.”
And according to the rules of this universe, if I do it another seven times in this dungeon, I won’t get to do it ever again.
Whatever.
He hugged her back. He wanted to do more than that, but refrained. He had to ensure that he wasn’t breaking local taboos first. “I’m glad you guys made it in one piece.”
Their eyes met for a second as they let go of each other and stepped back. She was blushing a little.
“We slew the last monster before it could breathe flames again,” she said, absently playing with her hair. “Father said you would be back. He started skinning the beasts, for their scales make excellent leather armor. Gosto and I, we just couldn’t wait. We didn’t really believe him.”
“She couldn’t wait,” Gosto said. “I knew you’d be fine, but she couldn’t bear to be away from her Paladin!”
I’m not exactly fine, kid, but okay. He noticed Tava’s blush had gotten a bit redder. “How is Kinto doing?” he said out loud.
Gosto shrugged. “Father is fine. He should be safe enough by himself, so long as he doesn’t venture further into the Lair.”
“He is right,” Tava said, sounding glad to talk about business. “A Lair does not reconstitute its minions for days.”
“Yeah,” Hawke agreed, still grinning at her. She looked down but she was smiling as well.
If he’d met her at a bar, he would have tried some of his cheap lines on her. Problem was, messing around with a young woman – especially in a culture where blood feuds were a thing – was something you had to be careful about. And truth was, she wasn’t just someone he wanted to pick up. She was someone he wanted to be with. He would have to go about this the right way, by her standards as well as his. He was looking forward to it.
Burning to death had been bad, but being alive felt great.
* * *
By the time they returned to the fire lizard room, Kinto had skinned all the beasts. A pile of lizard hide squares was stacked to one side.
“Your share, Paladin. Should be plenty to get you a suit of armor if you find an Arcane Leatherworker, or a good deal of silver if you sell it.” He paused for a second. “I am thankful for what you did.”
“I couldn’t do this without you guys.”
As he spoke, Hawke reached the pile of lizard skins. With a thought, he sent them into his inventory, which was beginning to fill up. Luckily, each kind of item only took a single slot no matter how many there were, although that might change if he ever tried to store a hundred items of the same type. The sixteen pieces of fire lizard leather (Enchanted Quality Crafting Material, his inventory told him) filled yet another slot.
There were also three loot bags floating over the skinned corpses. Forty-six silver coins and something very special: a Minor Pouch of Holding with six slots and a maximum weight capacity of a hundred pounds. Hawke tried putting the pouch in his inventory, and it worked. Now one of his precious inventory slots had six sub-slots he could put things in, as long as they didn’t exceed its weight limit. He moved all the light stuff he could into the pouch, freeing up quite a bit of room. He would clear up more slots by selling or throwing away some stuff.
After he was done, he realized that he wasn’t the only one to level up. Tava had hit level five and Kinto had reached ninth level. The Lair was paying off big time, as long as you didn’t mind risking death multiple times.
Kinto Primes
Level 9 Hunter
Health 106 (276) Mana 108 Endurance 96 (225)
Tava Kintes
Level 5 Ranger
Health 66 Mana 71 Endurance 66
Those level five bonuses really made a difference. No wonder it took so much experience to get there.
“Never thought I’d move forward in the Path again,” the Hunter said. His expression didn’t change much, but Hawke thought there was some emotion behind it. When Kinto had been in his prime, he could have handled most of those elites by himself. Hawke wished he had known the Hunter back then.
“Is there a way to reverse old age?” he asked Kinto. “Magic, or alchemy?”
“Yes, for those who can afford such. Thousands of gold denars, or magic beyond the Fifteenth Level, both of which are ways of saying the same thing: that such things are beyond the means of a middling Adventurer like I used to be.”
The Hunter closed his eyes for a moment, maybe remembering better times. His usual frown was back when he opened them again.
“I grew old before I became rich. That is the way the Path ends for most of us.” He turned to Tava. “Which is why watching you and your brother walking it does not fill me with joy. I had hoped a taste of the Adventurer’s life might dissuade you.”
“We are doing fine,” Tava said. “Hawke has stood by us. We have done well, thanks to him. I hope we walk the Path alongside him for a long time.”
Kinto noticed the way his daughter was looking at Hawke and his expression became a little sourer. That was just the sort of mess Hawke had been hoping to avoid. The surest way to piss off a man was to have his daughter become interested in you. He met the Hunter’s steely gaze and didn’t look down. It wasn’t exactly a challenge, more of an ‘it is what it is’ non-verbal message. After a few seconds, Kinto threw up his hands in exasperation.
“You earned the lizard skins, Paladin,” Kinto said. “Earn what you take – or what is offered to you – and there will be no problems. If you do not, you will have to answer for it.”
“What are you talking about, Father?” Tava said, but Hawke simply nodded.
He might be a stranger in the Realms, but he understood Kinto just fine.
Thirty-Two
Is Undeath an Element, like Light or Darkness?
Hawke wasn’t sure what any of that meant, other than Undeath was bad news. And that if Saturnyx could sense the Mana Node through her Undead radar, they must be within a hundred yards from it. He whispered a warning to Kinto before he could go much further down the next corridor. The Hunter returned and Hawke informed him that they were near their goal.
“What else can you tell us, Paladin?” Kinto asked.
Well, Saturnyx?
Not an Undeath Orb?
Hawke wanted to ask what the eight Elements were, but the rest of the group was waiting for him to say something. He relayed what the sword had told him. Everyone’s expression turned grim upon hearing the news. The fight with the fire lizards had taught them just how deadly Lairs could be, and they were getting close to the final boss.
“This Lair feels a bit small, doesn’t it?” Hawke commented.
“It has been active but for a few weeks at the most,” Kinto said. “In six months, it would have attracted twice as many minions. In a year, we would have needed no fewer than five of six Adventurers, and all of a higher level than when we started, or we wouldn’t have survived the first few encounters.”
“Well, now th
ree of us are fifth level,” Hawke said. “Which means we can form a party, right?”
Kinto nodded. “Three is the minimum size for an Adventurer’s Party. We will only receive the most basic boons from such bond, however, and Gosto will gain nothing.”
“But it will help. Better than nothing. Let’s do it.”
“And you should lead it,” Kinto told Hawke.
“You are four levels higher than me.”
“I would have to reach the tenth level on the Path before a Party I led received better boons than under you. We gain nothing if I lead.”
“You still have a lot more experience than me.”
“But you have given thought to what other Adventurer Classes do, and how they work together. All I ever did was concentrate on my Path. In battle, my thoughts revolve around what I must do, and little else. I have seen you, Hawke. You see fights as a whole, instead of your own corner of it. You will make a better leader.”
It’s not the same, Hawke told the sword, but he didn’t have the energy to argue. He’d been fighting real monsters for a whole four days, so he guessed that made him as qualified as the angry old guy, a woman who was too stubborn to quit, and a teenager who still didn’t quite understand that he and his family could all get killed while they walked ‘the Path.’
“All right,” he said out loud. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with here. Kinto, check the next room, if you don’t mind.”
* * *
What they were dealing with was yet another chamber and another trio of fire lizards guarding it. The Undead were in the next chamber over.
“Well, that’s just great,” Hawke said. “I don’t suppose you have another bottle of fire salve, do you? Maybe one with some deodorant mixed in?”
About the only good thing about his death was that the stinking concoction hadn’t Reincarnated with him. Although now that they had more fire-breathing monsters to deal with, Hawke wished that he was still covered in it.
Twilight Templar (The Eternal Journey Book 1) Page 18