Icarus Awakens

By definition, a phobia is an irrational fear. Being nervous in a narrow hallway was irrational, even if there was only half a meter between the walls and your shoulders. Said space was from Daniel’s high school and the reason he had avoided the stairs it led to despite it having been the quickest way to leave when he was a junior.

This was something of the opposite case. Anyone would be justified in fearing a monster-ridden mine shaft that had already partially collapsed. There was no sign of that here save for the occasional trail of Tak’s blood, but they hadn’t gone far yet. Daniel should be frozen in place, but he walked quickly to catch up to the two others in front of him. He felt fine, irrationally calm despite having every reason to be afraid.

I need to get this power at some point, he thought to himself. Or could I make something to dispel fear? Either way I need to learn some recipes. Formulae. Whatever. It seemed odd to Daniel how hard it was for him to make magical items given he had an entire feature devoted to it. His class should have given him something, but the only items he knew how to make were those he’d designed himself.

Neither invention would be too useful here. He’d refused to make another lightning bolt after what had happened to Hunter and the wings were wrong for the environment. At least his crossbow was well suited. Someone with a bow could hardly keep it drawn all the time, but the stronger mechanical arms of Daniel’s weapon could bear the weight of the taut string for hours. He had to be careful not to accidentally fire it, but along with Snap Shot, it meant Daniel could react to an enemy in seconds.

If there was anything left to react to. Catching up to Tlara, Daniel saw the mass of Kob fully stretched across the mine tunnel like a mobile clot. The avianoid was walking calmly as if the horror in front of her hadn’t ensnared her just a few days ago.

“You’re not going to summon something?” Daniel asked quietly as he caught up. He would have whispered it, but the sound Kob was making as they clawed through the tunnel would have overshadowed his words. It was like a drawn out scratching noise, the combination of roots and stone talons dragging themselves across dirt.

“No point. I’m going to dominate new monsters. Taking out one now would slow me down.”

Daniel glanced at the pouches on her belt. She never took them off, didn’t throw them, and seemed to work far slower than the ones in that game he was thinking of. “How do those work, out of curiosity?”

“Magic.”

“I mean,” he sighed. Daniel was in no mood to continue playing nice with Tlara to get information. On the other hand, Kob was moving slowly enough through the tunnel that there wasn’t much else to do but talk. He hadn’t even needed to run to catch up to them. That was odd considering how fast Kob had charged up the cliff face to fight the root core. One thing at a time. “Back on that cliff, when your beetle died, we could have used your flying creature. You didn’t pull it out.”

“So?” It was barely a response but didn’t contain outright hostility. Maybe the thought of getting new monsters was cheering Tlara up.

“So is there a cooldown or something? And how long does it take for you to dominate something?”

Tlara eyed him suspiciously. “Why do you want to know?”

“I just mentioned one reason with the cliff. And if you’re about to tell me it takes an hour to claim a monster then that’s going to make doing it down here difficult.” Not like Kob isn’t taking it slow though, he thought.

Tlara paused to phrase her answer in the least helpful way possible. “Don’t worry about it.”

“D-,” Daniel grunted in annoyance. He was out of ways to bargain, reason, or plead with Tlara after the antics of this morning. The only thing that seemed to work was his music, which wasn’t the best option when they were ostentatiously trying not to attract monsters. With Kob’s grinding, though, they never had a chance at stealth.

Rocks scattered across the tunnel floor as shapes dragged themselves out of the earth behind Daniel. The sparking torchlight couldn’t fully illuminate the creatures, but it was enough for Identify Creature. Each aura had identical labels.

Shardrock Mole - (1)

His finger brushed against the trigger of his crossbow, though the weapon was ultimately placed on the ground as Daniel prepared to fight at close range. Engaging the approaching monsters hand to claw wasn’t his preference, but he could only carry a brace of twenty bolts on himself and needed to save his shots for enemies his level.

“Six level ones!” he called out while drawing the enchanted dagger. Daniel said something else as he moved his other hand. “Bulwark!” At first, only a small pebble rose from the ground. More stones joined it to gather in the rough shape of a circular shield. It was one of Daniel’s new abilities, his first incantation spell, and tied to his endurance. It could create a shield from nearby material, though it came with the curious limit of not working on ‘worked material’. He supposed it was meant to prevent him from using the ability to make holes in walls, but the rock on the ground worked.

Alone it was merely useful, but in combination with Telekinetic Reach, it could become a mobile barrier. That combo cost more mana than it was generally worth, but it would get better once his endurance reached 20. While his reserves only deepened every class level, the level disparity to endurance was making Construct Shield cost more than normal.

Since he needed to save his mana as much as his bolts, he just levitated it up to his arm and gripped the rough handle he’d mentally shaped while casting the ability. Shield acquired, he turned to face the monsters.

The things loping from the darkness were shorter than he was, but thicker, quadrupedal, and asymmetrical. Each of these ‘moles’ had powerful front legs ending in three claws sheering the earth as they moved forward. The pace was slow, only slightly faster than Kob, and would let Daniel easily run if they didn’t block the exit.

Tension squeezed Daniel’s lungs as he readied himself. Claire’s parting spell was edging out fear, but adrenaline had more than just an emotional effect. He found himself thinking of the skabs, freezing as they rushed at him. It was more than being underground, it was the concept of being this new person combined with what he had to do setting him on edge. Ignoring the disparity of his past and present life was easy when he didn’t have to kill.

“Well, they’re fucking useless,” Tlara said, no hint of doubt in her voice. “Don’t worry about saving one for me.” Daniel looked at her with wide eyes. Sure, she was level three and they were level one, but she had no monster out. The avianoid was more of a general than a soldier, relying on her creatures to fight the enemy. She didn’t even hold a weapon as she stood next to his shield. What was she doing?

When the last enemy entered the torchlight Daniel had his answer. Tlara’s eyes darted toward each one and the moles recoiled in pain as small eruptions of flesh popped across their forms. The damage wasn’t catastrophic but it was distracting, both to the moles and Daniel. Talons that would have broken skin if he wasn’t wearing armor shoved him forward. “Now would be a good time to hit them!” Tlara squawked in his ear.

The lead mole was getting its bearings when Daniel punched out with his dagger. Holding the shield was restricting his movement and would have been a problem if grace was called for. With his improved strength and level advantage, it didn’t matter. The magical steel stabbed clean through its almost triangular skull and hit brain. The sensation was nauseatingly similar to when Daniel’s hand had clawed through a ringcat of its own accord. The mole was dead, outright.

Kob was creeping around the walls to reach the enemies, keeping the almost exaggerated slowness that marked the giant as of late. The mole’s pace was olympian comparatively. Is this how bad level disparity can get? Daniel couldn’t help but think as two moles attacked him at once.

The shield was raised in time to block one, but the other bludgeoned its way through the terrible guard Daniel attempted to make with his right arm. Abilities and features were something, but they couldn’t make up for the gap in experience and grit that separated Daniel from those who had earned all of their powers. He should have tried to step back or lean into one opponent to throw off the timing, but all Daniel could do was fend off one of the attacks.

The majority of the mole’s front foot was made of a substance similar to a hoof, shaped into the claws it used to dig. Toughened leather could withstand small knives and even glancing sword strikes, though the mole’s claws pierced through as easily as Daniel’s knife had the skull. The attack was crushing and knocked him back. He looked down, expecting to see himself disemboweled from the force of the blow, and saw that the claws had only given him shallow wounds. Painful, but Regeneration would take care of it in an hour or less.

“That’s the problem with shit armor. You get tougher than it,” Tlara observed as she raked into a mole with her talons. Her hands didn’t have the extra punch or feral length Daniel’s ability afforded but parted the mole’s flesh despite this.

Daniel wanted to say something. What, he wasn’t exactly sure. Both moles in front of him moved to follow up until the one closer to the wall was torn apart by vines that had made it to the party’s backline. Two knives flew out to the other from the mass, though this wasn’t the doing of Kob. Khare, having regrown to a clump about the size of a large dog, was nesting within the much larger giant. Of everyone, they would be the most comfortable to ride within their larger kin. There wasn’t much Khare could do beyond fire weapons, fulfilling the role of a turret on the battleship that was Kob.

There wasn’t much to it once the shock of the initial hit was over. The moles had barely put up a fight. Tlara had ripped one to pieces with her talons, with Kob and Khare tag-teaming the rest. The last had attempted to dig away to no avail. Daniel didn’t even hold his breath for an advancement notification from his phone; that had been way too easy.

Daniel’s exposed midriff was the only casualty, more an annoyance than anything else. “That was pretty much suicide for them,” he remarked as he saw the bloody remains on the ground. “Why did they attack?”

“Because they’re fucking monsters?” Tlara asked as if she was speaking to a toddler. That could be an acceptable if blunt answer, but Daniel sensed there was more to it than that.

Right, back to bitchiness, Daniel bitterly thought. Tlara’s edge had almost come off during the fight, only to reemerge once it was over. “So,” he replied with forced joviality. “Think you want a level three version of those?”

Tlara cocked her head to the side as she looked closely at the most intact mole. “Eh. Whatever. I’ll take it if we find one.”

“Move,” Kob ordered, as the mass of vines recollected in front of them and continued its march. Both followed and continued the sparring conversation.

“What kind of monsters do you look for in general? Are there rare monsters better than those generally of their level?”

Tlara gave him a familiar glare and asked, “Why do you fucking care?”

“I’m just curious.” Daniel shrugged. “Come on, we talked about my class on the way here. I haven’t talked with another Beastmaster and I’m just curious.”

…

Tlara stared at him for about a minute before saying, “Things like that ringcat of yours aren’t worth shit. They’re a basic monster that can’t do anything something else can't do better. I need something with unique or useful abilities. A fucking dragon would be amazing because of how much it can do. I need things that cover a lot of areas. Flying, climbing, invisibility…”

“You have an invisible monster?”

Crest, he’s annoying, Tlara thought. He just wouldn’t shut up. She was trying to hear above the noise of Kob’s movement for any approaching creatures but Daniel kept dragging her attention back to him. First with that stupidly loud Focus, now with his loudly stupid questions. Of course she didn’t have an invisible monster. Invisibility wasn’t something monsters got until level 3 at least, everyone knew that!

At least she’d gotten something over him today. She planned to hold out until someone more important came to bargain for her help like the acting headwoman, but they had sent Daniel and the Artificer had been obnoxiously stubborn. That was odd given his earlier behavior. She’d hoped prying questions would get him to turn away and get someone else to deal with her, but he’d proven adequate in fending off her questions with clever wording. Tlara wasn’t above breaking deals and would have with Daniel if her position right now wasn’t precarious. She could afford to make him an enemy but couldn’t say the same of those who allied with him.

Whatever. Tlara honestly didn’t mind talking about her class. Bragging could be a more appropriate word that she wouldn’t choose. It was just a simple fact that Beastmasters were the most versatile of any. The strongest too, with the right powers. The best class overall. Tlara’s Stasis Pouch feature did come with a terrible cost, restricting how many monsters she could use at a time and how often she could bring one out. Still, it was one of the strongest features a Beastmaster could obtain, and at level nine, well, it wasn’t worth thinking about that now.

She had to get there first. She had to get out of the Thormundz first. She had to stop walking to her death in this mine, but all these things were based on factors outside her control and Tlara hated that. At least bragging made her feel better. "No, I don’t.” Yet, she mentally added. “I barely have anything. And yes, there are ‘better’ monsters. Until recently I had a decent assortment of level twos.”

That bought her a few good seconds of silence before Daniel thought of another question. “So, if you were level six, could you dominate the dragon everyone’s worried about?”

The thought of that made Tlara’s feathers ripple as if cold air had blown on the skin beneath. That, now that was a fantasy she really couldn’t afford to distract herself with at the moment. “Sure. I’d do a lot of things at that level.”

“Then there are Beastmasters out there with creatures like those under their control? That sounds OP.” The man tried to piece together the ruins of his leather coat and sighed when the flaps came apart to expose his abdomen. “That attack you did though, that was nasty.”

“It hit hard because they were fucking weak.”

“What does it do to things on your level?”

Tlara shrugged. “Slows them down mostly. A lot of what I do weakens instead of kills. Makes it easier to dominate.” She smiled, recalling one that bucked that trend. Tlara considered keeping it a secret, but maybe a little mollification would do Daniel some good. “But I have one that...” she trailed off. She’d heard it later than she should have, but she was still the first to hear it. Somewhere, echoing down the mine shaft, was music.