Rune Seeker

The scenery around the party shifted again while Hiral’s eyes snapped to the Party Interface. He was the only one even close to full health and solar energy. The others were healed, but sat around eighty percent solar energy at most. That wasn’t great if Tomorrow was about to toss them into another battle.

Nothing he could do about it now, though, and he turned his attention to the surroundings that came into focus.

From the outside, the oasis had looked lush and alive. Deeper inside, well, that wasn’t so much the case. Greenery had been shredded, burnt, and torn aside in some kind of ferocious battle that had to have stretched hundreds of feet in every direction. And, there in the middle of the devastation rested the slumped over form of… some kind of flower? Thick vines stretched around it, cuts and tears leaking a thick, blood-like sap from them.

As for the flower itself – the huge flower that had to have been fifty feet tall – it lay flat across the ground. Lily-like petals that still burning revealed where their stamens had been ripped apart as if something had gone in. That proved to be exactly the case, as another Beastman pushed its way out of the guts of the flower, a core radiating power in its left hand.

And this Beastman, it was nothing like the ones they’d fought before.

Clad in a shirt of bronze chainmail belted at the waist, it covered his broad shoulders and torso, falling down to his knees. His lower legs were protected by bronze greaves, and polished gauntlets sheathed his forearms. A helm – like the grinning visage of a Pilgrim? – covered his face, with guards that protected the front of his natural horns, fitting it like a custom-forged glove. Above his head, those horns curved back and around – like a goat’s? – while a beard clasped in bronze hung from his hidden face.

In the hand not holding the flower’s core, he gripped a familiar staff – the Shard of the Lost Epoch – the orange glyphs at the top glowing fiercely like they’d just feasted. That wasn’t his only weapon, either, a brutal looking, spiked warhammer hanging at his waist, backed by a curved pick. Glowing runes encrusted its head, and the energy it emitted made Hiral’s senses tingle.

No, not just tingle – it made them scream warning.

Then, as the Beastman’s eyes settled on the party, two large, bronze shields seemed to materialize in the air beside him. Primitive script ran along the edges, and Hiral could feel the power resonating in them. Not runes – or even glyphs he knew – but something more raw and untamed. Like somebody had forcefully stolen lightning from the sky, leashed it, and then shoved it into the metal.

This Beastman standing in front of them was very, very bad news.

“You came.” the Beastman stated, and the scene seemed to pause.

“How could I turn down the curious invitation?” Tomorrow asked, though it seemed to be rhetorical for the benefit of the party. “Something about this Beastman was vastly different from the others I’d fought. Practically another species entirely. The energy coming off him? A sun compared to the others’ candles.

“And seeing him like this – in all his glorious power – I understood the strange energy clinging to my body. We were both visitors to this world, and this mysterious force was what was keeping us here. By the core in his hand – and the corpse at his feet – he was drawn by the same reason I was. Knowledge.

“We had both come seeking answers, even if we didn’t know the questions. The only problem was, neither of us was willing to share this world.

“One of us had to die.”

“Oh, hell,” Yanily said. “I see where this is going.”

“You’re usually looking for a fight,” Seena pointed out.

“Don’t you feel it?” Yanily asked and pointed at the Beastman. “That old goat is something scary.”

“Scary or not,” Seeyela said, drawing her daggers. “We’re going to do whatever we have to.”

“Now,” Tomorrow continued, her voice taking on a different tone. “Before you worry you should’ve worn your brown pants, this is a simulation. Not the proper power of the Archwizard I faced. As this is an A-Ranked trial, I have adjusted his parameters. Still, for the sake of the story, the adjustment is only slight.

“Survive this to complete the audience participation section of this trial and get some of the answers you’re here for. Fail to survive and… well… I guess it’s not your problem anymore. Best of luck!”

With that, the scene around them unfroze, and the Beastman took another step forward, his hooves lifting into the air so that he floated away from the flower’s corpse toward the group. The glyphed, obsidian shard driven through the skull on his staff pulsed ominously, but he halted fifty feet away.

“You came for this?” He held up the core in his left hand. “I arrived here first and claimed this by right of conquest.” His goat-like eyes hardened within his helm. “My single question is, will you try to exercise that right on me? Try?”

“What if we said we didn’t want it?” Seeyela asked.

“I am afraid I would not believe you,” the Beastman chuckled. “Not with the violence you radiate. Or blood-scent that wafts from you.”

In the seconds of tense conversation, Hiral got View to activate.

(Boss – Beastman) The Archwizard (Unknown Rank)

Both Tomorrow and the PIMsView called this thing an ‘archwizard’ like that was some kind of title – and the staff’s flavor text had suggested something similar – but Hiral really had no idea what that word meant! Unfortunately, something about the body language of The Archwizard floating there told him he was about to get a lesson on it.

“Fortunately for you,” the Beastman started, looking around. “I am rather curious about this plane. Fascinating place. Is it one of the endless hells? Perhaps a celestial plane? Another world I have yet to visit? Ah, perhaps we are on a demiplane hidden from me by a rival?”

“We have no idea what you’re talking about,” Seena said.

“Perhaps,” the Beastmansaid, beard-braids jangling as he spoke. “Perhaps not. It doesn’t matter: I will take these answers from your bodies. Or your souls. Hence, why you are lucky.”

“How is that lucky for us?” Yanily asked.

“Were you unlucky, we would not still be speaking,” The Archwizard said. “Everything here has been delightfully hostile. And now, delightfully, dead. You, however, seem to be able to string words together. How about this? You will teach me about this world in the oldest and most reliable way – conflict. Show me what you have to offer, and I might teach you something as well. Also, since you seem to want this.” He held up the flower’s core, then flicked his hand to toss it behind him. The core stopped midair, held by an invisible force, before multiple layers of light surrounded it. “Should you somehow manage to defeat me, it’s yours by right of conquest.”

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“Still not saying we want it…” Seeyela started.

“I want it,” Seena immediately interrupted, eyes locked on the floating core.

“Then we get it for you,” Romin said, leaning forward and then bursting straight ahead. The ground shook with his three, heavy steps before he vanished in a blink – the same Charge ability Wallop used! – to appear directly in front of The Archwizard. Runes of Impact surrounded the horn he lowered to gore straight through the Beastman, and there was no way it could be…

WHAAAAM, Romin’s head slammed into something a finger-width away from the hoveringBeastman’sbreastplate. Something unseen. His momentum vanished – just like that – and he came to a dead stop.

The Bonder shook his head like he was dazed, then looked up. “What?”

The Archwizard leveled his index finger at the bottom of tank’s chin like a hand cannon.

“Oh…” the Bonder started.

A bolt of silver light blasted out the tip of the Beastman’sfinger, slamming into bottom of Romin’s long snout. There was a crash like thunder, and Romin was ripped from his feet, the earth exploding beneath him. The transformed Bonder would’ve likely been hurled upward, if something didn’t immediately flash in from the other side – something vaguely in the shape of a semi-transparent fist – cracking against the tank’s forehead. The Beastman’s head tilted slightly. There was an impact with no sound and this time, the Bonder shot back the way he’d come.

Fifty feet and he finally hit the ground, skidding before he bounced and rolled to a stop in front of the stunned party.

Somehow, his health had barely dropped ten percent in the Party Interface, and Hiral almost let himself breathe a sigh of relief. Then he noticed the Shield of Peace buff Left had given the tank, and that relief nearly turned to despair.

The Archwizard’s attacks had done ten percent of Romin’s health through an ability that was supposed to prevent any damage.

“Close combat,” the Archwizard said. “Not a terrible idea against a wizard. Usually.”

“Gran,” Seena started. “Heal Romin. Yan and Hiral…” she cut off as the Beastman appeared in front of her, a shimmering fist the size of a barrel winking into being beside him.

A flick of his hand, and the fist drove into her side. Bone crunched as her body folded around the blow, her eyes widening in shocked pain before she got batted away like a loosed arrow.

“And now I know who your leader is; that will not do. It would appear that you need a lesson in combat,” the Beastman said, his shields slipping smoothly into place to block Yanily and Right coming in at him from both sides. Despite the power of their blows – an Aspect-infused Skyfall+ and Right’s full-on swing – the shields didn’t even shudder. There was no gong of impact. No shockwave. They simply erased – or absorbed – the attacks.

At the same time, Hiral Exchanged himself with Seena – saving her from crashing into anything in the oasis – and Rejected himself back toward the fight. Left, thankfully caught the flying party leader, and immediately applied the Waters of Frey while Gran moved to help.

“First rule,” The Archwizard continued. “Telling your opponent your plans is a tactic, but not a sound one. Second,” he started while his shields rotated to seamlessly block Yanily and Right’s continued assault. “Anything can be a weapon, but proper weapons will serve you far better.” His head snapped in Gran’s direction. “For example…”

Up snapped the Shard of the Lost Epoch, the eyes and obsidian shard glowing fiercely before three identical, orange glyphs scratched themselves into the air in front of it. Almost instantaneously, beams of black-and-purple scythed the air to strike Gran before she even realized they were coming.

Purple light pulsed around the vampire, the grass and plants in a circle around her immediately wilting, blackening, and turning to mush in the blink of an eye. As for Gran, she… didn’t even stumble.

A quick look to make sure nothing else was coming her way, and she was beside Left and Seena, crimson needles darting out to begin healing the other woman.

“Fascinating. That was a poor example, it seems, but it segues us nicely into rule three,” The Archwizard said without missing a beat. “Adapt.” Up whipped the skull of the staff before the Beastman slammed the butt of the weapon down to the ground. As soon as it touched the earth, an angled pillar of solid stone burst out of the clearing right beside Gran, slamming into her side like a huge, earthen fist.

Her body flattened against the side of the pillar as it continued to emerge at ridiculous speed, growing to sixty feet tall in a heartbeat. Then, just as it seemed to reach the pinnacle of its expansion, a bolt of lightning that would make Skyfall look tame tore down from the clear sky to meet the pillar. The explosion shook the oasis, flattening nearby trees that had somehow survived the original conflict and showered the rest of the space in fist-sized chunks of broken stone.

“Will you stop talking and pay attention to me!?” Yanily shouted at the Beastman, lightning and thunder dancing around his spear as he whirled, only to get blocked by the shield at every turn.

“Then earn my attention, my boy,” the Beastman said offhandedly, eyes never leaving where his combination attack had met. Then his head whipped to the side when Seeyela appeared with a Bamf, a bloody – but whole – Gran in her arms. “Rule four,” he continued. “Learn your opponents’ strengths. Then unmake them.”

Another gesture with his staff – this time in Seeyela’s direction – and a prism of light formed around her and the healer instantly.

“Unmake this!” Hiral shouted from right above the goatman, Greatsword of Amin Thett coming down with the weight of a building behind it. The fallen-star form of the weapon howled with power, trailing Yanily’s lightning, and powered by a dozen bursts of Rejection. Blocked in by his own shields, the Beastman would have to try to parry the heavy blow, or open himself up to Yanily and Right. Either of those options worked for Hiral.

The Beastman apparently had an option-three, vanishing a second before Hiral’s sword cut through the air right where he’d been. Then Hiral reached the ground, his sword cratering the earth and sending out a shockwave of broken stone in every direction.

He felt Right and Yanily leap away in his sensory domain, and the Beastman appeared higher up where Hiral had just come from.

“I believe I already told you rule one,” the goatman said. “Though, you almost used rule five – honor in combat is a fallacy.” True to his words, leg-sized spears of ice formed faster than Hiral could turn. “We are trying to kill each other, after all.”

The spears raced for Hiral’s back.

Not wanting to find out just how much they’d hurt, Hiral burst forward on Rejection. Straight toward the two shields that swiveled around to block him in. His plan to trap The Archwizard in his own shields had clearly backfired, and the rain of ice-spears just feet away from him meant even he wouldn’t be able to dodge all of them.

Runes of Piercing, Expansion, and Decrease flooded out of him even as he reached the shields, crouching on them with a touch of Attraction, before launching directly up towards the falling ice. As soon as the magical constructs reached the field Hiral had thrown in front of him… well, nothing visibly happened to them.

They continued on, the ones he couldn’t dodge reaching his body and pummeling him with force even as he pin-balled his way through them. Pummeledbut didn’t pierce! Dull pain radiated in a dozen places, but he was already past the wave of ice shards, and the Beastman didn’t have his shields.

Hiral’s fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword, and he began hauling it around as he closed the distance.

Somehow, though, as if in slow motion, the Beastman spoke, his words coming out crystal clear in the seconds between seconds.

“Very good, but the sixth – and final – rule invalidates the others.” The Archwizard’s eyes met Hiral’s. “Nothing matters in the face of overwhelming power.”

Just as Hiral closed to within twenty feet of his target, a tempest of force, flame, and lightning roared to life around The Archwizard.

And around Hiral.