The climb up was worse than the descent, crazy as that sounded. The fighting had been a welcome distraction to all the death and decay in the air. Not to mention that rotting flesh positively reeked when burnt. Still, the added levels and a casting of [Enhance] made sure she had the endurance to make it back to the top of the quarry.
Which brought Bria to the eighty foot snake in the room. Somehow it had slept through everything, and Bria was content to slowly walk past it. Or at least she was until lights flashed ahead. The floor rumbled, and the snake began to stir. Glancing back, Bria was greeted by an open iris larger than she was tall staring back at her.
[Basilisk Lv. 21]
Oh.
That was just a bit beyond what Bria thought she could handle. The snake expanded, then let out a deep blast of humid air from its nostrils before flicking out its tongue, knocking her over. She scrambled back, getting to her feet as the serpent continued to watch her. Then, its maw opened, and stretched wide in a yawn that dwarfed Bria completely. Cursing, she took off at a full sprint, casting [Enhance] as she ran. No matter what, she did not want to be anywhere near that thing now that it was awake.
Normally, one wouldn’t run towards explosions, but there were good odds that Neth and the others were there, fighting, and Bria wasn’t about to let them stand against whatever it was alone. Plus, they stood a better chance against the Basilisk together than she did alone. Bria cast [Bulwark] just before she crashed through the barricade, and continued out into the open expanse.
Spell light nearly overwhelmed her as she was forced to shield her eyes for a moment while they adjusted. Despite that, she tried to figure out who was fighting. There were two groups squaring off, and several monsters between them that were getting caught in the exchange. More than that, she recognized the robes and staff of one of the fighters on the far side of the room holding the high ground.
Knowing that her friends were in the defensive position up above, Bria refocused on the other group just across the room. She could barely make out the details of the men standing in a defensive formation, but she didn’t need to. This was Ri-durak and his surviving men. One was the masked mage holding a barrier against Neth-amii and Gil-hana’s spellwork. The rest were fighting off another hoard of undead.
And Bria was stuck on the other side of them.
None of the combatants had noticed her, and she needed to keep it that way if she was going to survive long enough to reach her friends. Speaking of which, how were they on the higher ledge when Bria couldn’t see a ramp leading up? The room was exceptionally large, and she hadn’t surveyed everything in her exploration due to limited light, but with all the spells being thrown about, distant sections were finally visible. Immediately, Bria’s eyes landed on one path leading away, and then another, and finally, a sealed door of solid metal covered in rust.
Up top, Kro-ahnk deflected a blast of ice with his frying pan, and nearly stuck a stick in the ground. No, it was a lever. Was that the way to open the door? If so, it made sense why there was fighting over it, and if they believed Bria was still further below…
Which she could easily correct, but then they would just fight harder to reach her. Which meant she needed to do something about Ri-durak first. The man had ten levels on her, which was astronomical. He could probably kill her with a single backhand or something ridiculous like a finger flick. An open fight was too much of a risk at the moment.
The zombie hoard was being cut down almost entirely, which was a shame for her, and a boon for the lower leveled soldiers that Ri-durak was directing towards them. Assuming they didn’t die due to a lack of healing from the accumulated injuries. Could she leverage that? Push them into a forced retreat?
The room held multiple mine tracks with rusted carts sitting upon them, but were any of them useful at the moment? Ri-durak’s group wasn’t standing on any tracks, and she couldn’t see a way to use them to rejoin Neth-amii either. No, she needed a different solution even as she cursed killing all those zombies that could have served as a useful distraction.
Unfortunately, there was already a fitting distraction right on her heels. Hearing the rumbling behind her, Bria took a deep breath and broke into a full on sprint towards the door. Eyes flicked her way from the group, the word spreading quickly to Ri-durak and his masked flunkie.
The soldiers looked her way first, and Ri-durak grinned maliciously. For two seconds. His eyes drifted behind her, widening as she ran not for his group, but for the door along the wall.
“Kro-ahnk! Pull the lever!”
The man stood there for a moment, then his eyes turned to the tunnel behind her just as the snake burst through, sending rocks flying about. Men screamed in panic at the sudden intrusion of a massive monster, but Kro-ahnk quickly realized the urgency. He pulled the lever, and the door reluctantly screeched open.
As she ran towards the door, one of Ri-durak’s men stepped in her path. She didn’t have time to stop and fight, so she made the snap decision to draw her knife and throw it at the man. He jumped aside, but she kept running, cursing that she wouldn’t be able to go after it, not with the serpent now engaging those remaining of Ri-durak’s men.
She slid through the opening, and nearly lost her head when it snapped shut almost immediately. A breath escaped her in relief, only for her to jump when something impacted the door, denting it. Right; giant snake was still out there and dangerous as could be. Bria hurried up the path, then climbed the ramp to the next level, and stepped out into the open room once more.
“Neth!” Bria shouted, already moving towards her friend. They caught one another in a crushing embrace as Bria laughed manically. She’d made it, and her friends were alive! “I was so worried.”
“That’s my line,” Neth-amii said, squeezing tight before pulling back. Her purple eyes practically sparkled in the low light. Even Bumble came out, buzzing excitedly around Bria. “When the bridge gave out, you just kept falling. With your level, we weren’t sure you would survive the drop.”
Looking back upon the battle below, all the zombies were smashed, and one of the soldiers sailed through the air before impacting the wall, spraying blood across it. Bria winced as his limp form fell to the ground below.
“Think that will keep them busy?” Bria asked.
“You’re insane,” Neth-amii said with a laugh. “Come on, there’s a way out down this path, we were coming to find you when those buffoons caught up with us.”
“Quite rude of them, I must say,” Gil-hana said with a huff. “They couldn’t even do us the favor of dying after I granted them an opportune moment!”
Well, that certainly sounded like a story, but this was hardly the time to hear it.
Kro-ahnk let out a guffaw of a laugh. “As amusing as all this can be, could we leave before our new friend down there decides we’re dinner?”
Sure enough, the snake had eliminated all of the soldiers save for Ri-durak who was carving deep furrows into the snake’s hide with each swing of his sword, and his masked friend. Despite the power of the serpent, they were keeping up fairly well with the beast.
“Agreed. I’d rather not face the winner of that battle at present,” Gil-hana said with a grimace. “My mana is depleted and I can’t imagine Neth-amii is much better off.”
“Indeed,” Neth-amii said with a firm nod. “Shall we?”
“Don’t need to tell me twice,” Bria agreed.
“Then permit us to egress,” Gil-hana said, moving off with haste.
They retreated from the room as the battle slowly faded into the distance, and Bria marveled at the number of zombie corpses lining the halls as they rose towards the surface. Absently, Bria’s gaze swept over to the running man still clutching his frying pan.
“Thanks for helping,” Bria said as they ran. “You didn’t need to go this far for us.”
The merchant smiled widely. “Think nothing of it! As soon as I heard Nethy was in danger, I had to rush to her aid! She is a valued client after all!”
“Typical profit mongers,” Gil-hana muttered.
Rather than get offended, the man simply laughed. “I would do the same for anyone! You never know who might be a future client! A small loss now could mean big earnings down the road!”
“Why do I tolerate this?” Gil-hana said, then turned a stern glare upon Bria. “I hope you appreciate the danger we just went through for your sake. Though, given your growth, perhaps you do.”
“Oi, be nice to her!” Neth-amii shouted, though neither comment really felt mean spirited. “We’d do the same for you.”
Gil-hana slowed to a stop, watching them as they did the same. Their eyes were wide, and absently, they pushed their glasses up and looked away.
“That won’t be necessary, but thank you for saying it.”
Something about their tone suggested that they didn’t quite believe Neth-amii, but Bria knew it to be true. The shrine priestess had done the same for her when she first arrived in the world. Well, aside from that first bit where she was clearly uncomfortable and tried to send her back immediately. That had only changed after hearing her name was Bria, which brought everything circling around to that one fact that she was actively ignoring.
Level eight meant that more changes would be coming over the next few days as her body adapted fully to the increased stats and shifted towards her ideal form. So, she would become even more feminine in appearance. Would she be able to hide it when returning home, or was that going to be an awkward conversation to have with her parents?
Oh sure, the long hair could be explained as just never getting a hair cut, but her chest was still growing, and now that she thought about that, the itching and aches returned in full force. Sadly [Heal] either didn’t work on that, or the changes were happening faster than she expected.
“Are you sure this is an exit?” Bria asked.
“Yes,” Gil-hana said. “It isn’t well known, but I suspect it is how Ri-durak and his men set up their ambush.”
“The grumpy one is correct! I smashed a few mean guys on my way in.”
Neth let out a sharp laugh at Kro-ahnk’s statement, and really, Bria could appreciate it to some degree. Granted, she knew that it probably meant that he had killed them. Bria was a killer too now, and wasn’t that a surreal thought? Just an hour or two earlier, she had plunged a knife into a man’s chin and ended him.
She could spiral later.
The sun blinded when they finally emerged from the dark cavern, and surprisingly, Kro-ahnk’s cart was there waiting. Several knights laid dead around the entrance, and she pointedly ignored the bodies as she took a deep breath of the fresh air, uncaring of the scent of horse manure still lingering. They were out of that rot-filled cavern and free to go somewhere far away.
“We shouldn’t linger,” Neth-amii said. “Ri-durak won’t die fighting. If he isn’t certain of victory, he will flee.”
“And he would follow us,” Bria said, following her logic. “Is there anywhere we could go to avoid him?”
“Cliffside is an option,” Kro-ahnk said cheerfully. “I have a delivery to make.”
Well, that solved that. Or rather, it would have if Neth-amii hadn’t visibly flinched at the mention of the town. Still, they all hopped onto the cart, and Kro-ahnk set the horses into motion. They all sat down for a moment, though Neth-amii curled up, resting her head on her knees.
“Any objections?” Gil-hana asked softly. Bria briefly glanced at her friend, but Neth-amii looked away as she shook her head. “Good, Krow, I trust you know the way. Neth, could you help me cover our tracks? I’d rather neither of us be completely out of mana should they attempt to follow.”
Shaking out her hands, Neth-amii clenched her fists and let out a shaky breath. “Yeah, I can do that.”
Pausing, Gil-hana leaned forward, getting right in Neth-amii’s face. “Are you certain? Something seems amiss beyond having left your fiance for dead.”
“He isn’t—”
“But he is,” Gil-hana insisted. “All official records show that you were promised to him some five years prior. Your parents both signed off on it.”
“They did,” Neth-amii whispered. “Because it was a better look on them to marry off a daughter than to disown someone who used to be their son.”
Silence hung in the air, and Bria could only stare. Neth-amii was like her? Several interactions and statements suddenly made a lot more sense, as did her shift in acceptance back at the shrine. Worse, Neth-amii had lived through Bria’s newest fear.
“They reside in Cliffside,” Kro-ahnk said softly. “That is why you do not want to go there.”
“Yes,” Neth-amii said, leaning back against the cart. Bria scooted closer, pulling her into a gentle hug as a show of support. “I ran away from home when they delivered the news. I was level seven at the time and my changes were getting obvious. It’s how I wound up at the Shrine, because the law protected anyone who was sworn in service to it.”
“Incredible,” Gil-hana said. “Level seven at fifteen is quite impressive.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Neth-amii said, now sounding exhausted. “Each night I would slip away into the woods and find monsters to slay. I did so for years, and my parents did nothing to stop me, likely assuming it would benefit them. It wasn’t until they learned why I was so desperate to reach level ten that they took action.”
“Then, should we pick a different town?” Kro-ahnk asked. “It’s farther, but Coastridge is an option.”
As much as she wished to do so, Bria wasn’t sure what she could say to make it easier on her friend. Worse, she couldn’t help but wonder how the same conversation would go with her own parents. Would it be possible to just stay on this side and never return home? Probably, but that felt like running from her problems. Besides, there was enough going on this side that Bria wouldn’t have to worry about it for quite some time.
“No, we can go to Cliffside,” Neth-amii said with a sigh, settling the matter. “Just, I don’t think I’ll be sticking around for long.”
“It is safer for us to travel together,” Gil-hana said with a frown. “Or is this about the object you stole from my research collection?”
The librarian was giving Neth-amii a significant look, and Bria couldn’t figure out what they meant by it. After a moment, Neth-amii reached into her own pouch and pulled out a pendant with a rather familiar design.
“Yes, I think I’ll follow Bria back into her own world for a time, at least until things calm down a bit more.”