Chapter 11 Part 2 of 4 (Patreon)

“Need some time to rest, aren’t you the famous Alvans, able to do anything? My team is ready to go right now.”

“No, we agree that taking a rest would be for the best, we have been running most of the day. Every time we’ve paused some damn Chimora has found us, or we’ve been ambushed by different creatures. Just a few hours.”

“I agree, we have a long way to go, we can’t push ourselves all out in one shot.” Erik said.

“I always heard tales of your body tempering, guess there is a difference between rumors and reality,” Edmond sighed and nodded.

Erik’s fist tightened against his legs, imaging dragging him across the table and delivering a few quick punches.

“Very well, we need to move as soon as possible. The Transition point won’t remain open for forever. If we miss it then we will be trapped here until the next time the realm opens, or we are killed by the local inhabitants.” Edmond left the corner.

Kameela gave them a tight smile and followed.

“I can see why people turned on his ass,” Davos muttered.

Roska shot him a look but didn’t say anything. Erik pulled out his map and put it on the floor, they all crouched down, Davos looked around, to make sure they weren’t being watched.

Erik pointed at their marker and orientated the map and drew a line from where they were to where Marshal had pointed.

Rugrat manipulated the map in silence until a section appeared ‘Beast Fields’.

Rugrat raised his eyebrow to them and traced a circle from where the beast fields appeared to the direction they were heading in.

If it is in a circle, then we’re heading right into the damn heart of it.

They looked at one another with Roskat nodding to Erik and shrugging.

He shrugged and drew the line. What other option did they have at this point.

Rugrat pointed in the direction Edmond had gone and tapped the map.

The trio shared a look, sighing and  nodding their heads. If it came down it, they had one goal. To get home, if Edmond was leading into a death trap, they’d need his map to find a way out of the realm.

Sudden and repeated explosions sounded in the distance, stirring the city.

Erik stuffed the map into his storage ring, catching up with the others looking out of breaks in the warehouse.

A section of the ‘roof’ the forest above caved in, the light streaming in made Erik curse.

His vantage didn’t let him see through the opening, but he saw as aerial beasts swept down from above.

Another group from the realms?

More Aerial beasts dropped from above, they settled down, a few second later, metal plates covered in formations dropped down to the ground. As they settled down, the beasts that had been hiding and watching what was going on boiled out of their hiding places.

The mages and fighters unleashed their attacks, filled with mana it only drove inhabitants that had been staying back, wild.

“Prepare to move in five minutes,” Roska said.

“Got it.” They weren’t going to get a better opening where the city went chaotic.

Another section of the city was hammered from above, being torn away by the airships above to drop their forces down into the city.

Erik pulled his helmet down as everyone rushed to finish up their tasks.

We’ll rest at the next place.

***

They rested in some building, maybe it had been a store or a house, or a crafters workshop, time wore away ownership.

Erik coughed, trying to keep it quiet, feeling tired from the constant running. He took out a pill and swallowed it with a gulp of water. Everyone was feeling the effects of elemental poisoning, they all had high levels of body tempering, but tempering one’s body had to be done in order or it would negatively affect them.

Even the damn elements is trying to kill us.

It had been a week since they left the warehouses they had been constantly on the run. The airships had been fighting for two days and two nights, riling up the inhabitants in the Under-City. Even if they were not interested in the beings that were throwing out mana all over the place like a flare in the darkness, creatures leaving their territory lead for beasts to start trying to expand their own hunting grounds.

The Under-City was well and truly riled up. It had only increased over the days as airships moved above the under-City, striking at the locations with the greatest treasures. Positions that had been dominated for Centuries by the strongest beasts in the area.

Erik could feel the wood element being pushed out of his body, allowing him to relax. The Water element was still there, tempering his body, a constant pain through his body it only added to the throb from the dungeon core shards.

Background pain. Erik sighed, closing his eyes, batting them open so as to not let sleep in.

He shook himself and forced a few breaths, reaching out his hand he moved it through the air. He felt the weight of the air, the fire, earth and metal elements, a hint of the water element. It was like putting his hand in water, feeling the warmth and chill, the currents and pull.

He could identify each element through touch now. He reached out and pulled on the Earth element, dirt and stone started to appear in his hand.

It acted like magnets. One just had to find the right magnet polarization, or element and then increase power to it and the external elements would be attracted or dispersed. Each acted in different way. Earth Element was the most comfortable for Erik to work with. When it combined it created dirt and then stone.

He gathered the metal element, his hair started to rise with the charge and small sparks formed in his hand. He dispersed it and gathered fire, the heat shimmered in his hand, becoming harder the more he compressed the element getting excited and rebelling becoming a small dancing flame.

Erik dispersed it again he breathed and picked up some broken stones.

He focused on the image in his mind, looking at the stones, he could see the elements shifting to his command, shifting the stones themselves, fusing together and dust coming off in places.

Erik raised his helmet and blew on his hand, the dust moved away, revealing grey, black and white stone formed as pyramids. Erik looked closer, the pyramids showed lines of blocks, Erik tilted his hand and the pyramids fell apart, a series of small bricks.

He wiped his hand hearing the wind whistling through the buildings, cooling with the lack of movement and adrenaline in his veins.

Erik drew some fire element into his body, warming himself.

Lee’s lessons feel like a lifetime ago.

Erik played with the elements on his fingers, keeping his elemental draw down. In a place as abundant as the Under City in elements, he’d gained a boost to how long he could last. His ability to sense elements had been stretched as they couldn’t rely on mana anymore. They’d all had to change their training to adapt.

Just if I could project it. I’m missing that part. I can gather, integrating and manifest, but projecting is beyond me.

The wind seemed to be getting closer. Something pulled at the corner of my mind when a roar came from down the street.

Everyone was on their feet in seconds, weapons ready as a pile of debris down the street fell away from the beast that had been under the city’s remains.

Erik looked up at the six legged-two winged nightmare above. It’s mouth had been stained red with blood as it’s eyes were like captured lightning, its body was light greys fading into black with natural silver and metallic strips running down its body, its wings almost a blinding cascade of metallic feathers.

Its body was as large as a house, its head the size of a car.

It’s neck fanned out as it roared, it’s tail lashed out like a whip, creating a silver blade that carved through the city like a train through snow.

Its tail pierced a Rin, unleashing a wave of lighting that cut through several others before it breathed lightning as someone might breathe out normally.

“Move it!” Roska said.

They boiled out of the house as the Rin and the Berin attacked the Dragon, summoning stone and metal spears or calling down a hellish rain upon it.

They moved in their groups, elemental senses stretched to their limit to make sure they didn’t run into other beasts that might be ahead of their head-first dash.

Erik glanced back at the beast as it threw a Berin up in the are, crushing it in a series of tosses before swallowing it down whole.

Blood stained its scales and feathers. Its eyes blinked. Erik swore it stopped on the ground as it let out a roar and jumped into the air.

Not even the piercers thought about interrupting the beast’s feast as they stayed hidden above.

The dragon disappeared into the sky.

“Is it following us?” Rugrat asked as Erik clambered over a pile of rubble, jumping over the other side as the  rest of the teams scanned and ran.

“I fucking hope not!” Robert yelled.

“I hate this goddamn place,” Esther said.

“So much for a relaxing adventure to recount the old days,” Kameela said drly.

There was a screech from above, followed by Lightning crashing through a broken houses and an unfortunate three story building, raining down on Egbert’s barrier as everyone flinched and kept running.

The Dragon flew over them, checking for its prey.