PW Chapter 276: Reality’s Return (Patreon)

“Move!” Astrid shouted, not waiting to follow her own command. She grabbed Felix, looking and seeing that he was alive, breathing and starting to open his eyes. Hauling him by a belt, Astrid hurled him towards the wall. Fortunately, Guardian’s Avatar had faded, and he was small enough to be tossed a good twenty meters. He tumbled and rolled closer, and Astrid could see the moment when he used his second charge of Recovery Surge. He popped up onto his feet and jumped towards the walls. Muti was just behind him.

Astrid was too slow.

Something tore into her thigh, and she was thrown to the ground. The tiniest part of her that was relaxed enough to make a joke was grateful that at least it was her left leg this time. The rest of her was screaming in a mass of writhing terror and agony. She had no remaining Regeneration charges to heal herself with, and even though she’d eaten a berry that increased her natural recovery rate, she could feel there was something different, something wrong about this. Instead of just being in pain, Astrid felt weakness taking over much more quickly than it should.

“How the hell did you kill Misha?”

Astrid tried to crawl forward, but couldn’t. She glanced down at her leg, where the spear wasn’t there any longer, but a half-meter-long spike stuck straight out. Her blood flowed up the spike, then turning into mist and flowing towards the origin of the voice.

“I guess it took everything out of you to take her out, huh?” Gregor wondered. He still wore that same dark suit of armor, and he glanced behind himself before shaking his head. “Pity she failed. Anyways, I guess we can get to know each other better soon. I can see you’re tough enough to hold on for a while yet. I’ll get you to Giselle before you die, don’t worry.”

He didn’t say anything else as he reached down and grabbed Astrid by the ankle. Felix and Muti shouted on the wall while a bolt of lightning flew towards Gregor. He swiped his spear through the lightning and hesitated for a second. Then, he sighed and shook his head.

“Evenly matched now. We won’t be able to break the siege in time. Time to go”

Then, he was sprinting away. Astrid’s head smacked against rock and ground half a dozen times a second, and she went from afraid and in pain to entirely terrified and her pain forgotten.

“No, please. No. No. No. Please? Please? Let me go?” She started to beg as soon as she realized she was being taken prisoner. Her wounded leg was the one he wasn’t holding, so she couldn’t even kick towards him as she smacked against rocks. She swung her hammer at his hand, but couldn’t get enough leverage. He turned, dismissed his spear, and caught her hammer in one movement before yanking it from her hands.

“It’s not so bad, serving the Marchioness,” Gregor said, his tone conversational as he abducted her. “After all, you’ll probably be able to get a new Class that’s focused on serving a cause greater than your own. Better than whatever your Hammergirl Class is.”

Astrid’s begging became a scream as she tried to punch, to hit, to do anything. His fingers were like bands of steel around her ankle, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t do anything other than make ever more pathetic noises of pleading that went ignored.

Her words came in an overwhelming rush, but before she could do anything else, the spike still sticking out of her leg pulsed even more agonizingly. The blood that flowed out of her and into Gregor went from a thin mist to a thick, malicious thread. Astrid’s resistance went from weak to pitiful as he continued running. Only a few seconds had passed, their conversations happening at speeds only available to people with as many attributes as they did.

Then a shadow appeared, and Muti threw herself screaming at Gregor. Both of her blades exploded with shadow as she slashed at his chest. He swept his arm towards her and smashed his hand through her attack. Both blades bounced uselessly off of his gauntleted arm, and he stared at her, blinking.

“I don’t have a problem taking two of you,” he said, reaching out towards her.

She disappeared into shadow once again, stabbing at his groin as she appeared below him. His knee twisted towards her, again knocking the attack away. He didn’t take any damage, but at the very least, he was noticeably slowed by her appearance and interference. Instead of continuing sprinting, he had to reduce his pace to a much slower jog as Muti attacked three more times.

“You’re not doing anything,” he said conversationally. “And if I catch you a single time, I can tell you that you’re not getting away. You’re going to sacrifice yourself for your friend? I won’t tell you not to, but it might be better for everybody involved if you just move along and realize you’ve lost.”

Muti only snarled in response as she appeared. Her blades flashed once, but this time, she didn’t even get close. Gregor cocked his head at that.

“You’re afraid of getting caught? That doesn’t make any—no. You’re trying to slow me down. Oooh, clever little Barbarian. No, I don’t think I’ll cooperate.”

“She’s done enough,” an unfamiliar voice answered.

A woman whose bearing was very similar to Gabriel’s appeared. She carried a claymore in two hands and chopped towards Gregor. He raised Astrid as a shield, and Pauline, the Knight who had been occupying the enemy supporter, laughed. Then, Astrid flopped to the ground.

Looking around herself, she could see that, evidently, Pauline had a Skill that could let her switch spots with an ally. Her foot was in Gregor’s hand and her blade smashing into his waist. It drew a bit of blood, but he didn’t seem to care about that. He turned, twisting with his whole body, and slammed her into the ground while still holding her by the ankle. She grunted, but Pauline didn’t seem to care.

Her sword disappeared and her right hand snaked out and caught Gregor’s wrist that held her. Pauline twisted with her whole body, breaking his one-handed grip, and he stepped back.

“You already know you were no match for me,” he said, the laconic, relaxed tone fading away. Something distinctively off-putting overtook the man and something cracked as he seemed to stand up tall. “You want to do this?”

“It’s not a question of being a match for you. I will protect those unable to protect themselves, regardless of if it gets me in over my head or not. Now let’s dance, kid. It’s been too long.”

The sword reappeared in Pauline’s hand as she sliced at the man in front of her. She fought like a wall, every movement steady and heavy as Gregor started to bleed an aura that seeped into the ground. Astrid could feel it latch onto the stake still lodged in her leg, and she groaned in pain as her vision darkened.

“Once a bastard, always a bastard,” Pauline accused as she reversed her grip on the sword and planted it into the ground. A steely silver glow burst from her, and Astrid felt the thing lodged in her leg disappear. She gained some greater control over her body, but even as the Skill’s remnant disappeared, she remained wounded. That, combined with the blood loss, kept her from being able to do anything right away, but with a growl, she struggled to her feet. The wounded leg gave out, but Astrid simply leaned on her one functional leg as she watched the two people fight.

Gregor lashed out dozens of times, his spear looking to lodge itself deep in Pauline’s chest. She moved masterfully to keep herself from taking any deadly blows, but she was taking glancing strikes that seemed to pierce through her armor more easily than it should have. She had half a dozen long scores along her arms and legs, and the blood there started to flow more than it should have. Even as her own life seemed to strengthen Gregor, she stood strong.

“We must escape,” Muti said, picking Astrid up without another word. “We cannot participate in this battle.”

Astrid didn’t disagree, and she watched as Pauline retreated under Gregor’s assault. The other woman maintained a large distance between Gregor and the retreating Wanderers, but she also moved in the direction of Purcell. A fighting retreat, then.

The bloody field around Gregor continued to grow thicker and more ominous, and his movements became sharper, more violent. The battle, already in his favor, started swinging completely out of Pauline’s control as the bloody aura started to crawl up her legs and stiffen. She didn’t seem to mind that, instead fighting off his attacks with wide sweeps of her blade.

Astrid could only watch as Gregor roared, swept his spear in a swipe, and created a ring of bloody spears that orbited around him. Then, he stabbed towards Pauline, and every one of the spears flew towards her. She chopped through half of them, several bounced off of her armor, but three pierced into her stomach and chest. She let out a long cry of pain as she started to succumb to the attack.

“We need to go!” another new voice interrupted the fight. Pauline remained on her feet, holding her sword, but everything from her waist down didn’t seem to respond to her. The woman who spoke was, if Astrid had to guess, Giselle. She wore a full suit of gold and silver armor, and she didn’t wait to hear anything from Gregor as she wrapped one arm around his chest and sprinted away.

Following after her, rumbling through the ground, was a thick column of roots. The attack from Greely followed after both of the fleeing enemies, the very ground itself fighting against them. Some of the roots burst from the ground and grew into a massive sunflower, the flower’s head some two meters across. From the sunflower shot out its seeds, each one the size of a grown man’s finger, all of them whistling towards the escaping Adamantium tiers. Giselle’s shield glowed golden and burned through the seeds, but she continued running.

Once Gregor was out of the bloody aura, he seemed to shake himself and then started running of his own accord.

“Greely, you need to help Isaiah,” Pauline gasped as the flower seemed to look at her. “They’ll take him.”

The plant seemed to shake in acknowledgment at that, then it withered and died. Pauline collapsed to the ground, the three bloody stakes still sticking out of her chest.

Rumbling roots, or whatever it was, continued chasing after the escaping enemies, and Astrid could see the forest that Isaiah had created to deal with the Sniper was their destination. Apparently, seeing what was happening, Gregor and Giselle both avoided the forest and circled around it, their speed picking up even further as they did so.

“We need to go help Pauline,” Astrid said, looking up at Muti. “If nothing else, I know you could carry both of us at the same time.”

Muti didn’t argue or disagree, simply stopping and turning to go towards where Pauline lay bleeding on the ground. The Knight lay in a pool of blood much deeper than her body seemed capable of containing. When Astrid and Muti drew close, Astrid saw that her savior had lost consciousness. She made small noises of pain, and the three spikes lodged in her chest seemed to be continuing to draw out her blood.

“See if she has a spatial pouch,” Astrid said as Muti put her down. Astrid ignored the meaning of the splashing sound as she crawled towards her savior’s prone body. “Then, see if she has a potion.”

Astrid herself pulled whatever fruits she thought would be most valuable out of her spatial pouch as she fumbled with the straps underneath Pauline’s chin. After half a second, she realized it wasn’t going to work; they were hidden  and she didn’t have time to search. However, there was a clever mechanism alongside the jaw of the helmet that, if manipulated, allowed Astrid to pull the visor up above Pauline’s face.

Crow’s feet and worry lines patterned the woman’s face, and a few strands of gray hair had fallen out of her cap. Astrid didn’t worry about that, instead throwing the berries into her own mouth, chewing once, then pulling open Pauline’s mouth and spitting the restorative items in. The woman wasn’t conscious enough to chew on her own, and Astrid jammed her fingers around Pauline’s gorget to start to stroke her throat. After half a second, Astrid saw her throat working a little, and then Pauline swallowed some of the mashed fruit in her mouth.

“There is one potion within,” Muti said, pulling Astrid’s attention towards her. “I do not know if it will be sufficient. It does not seem to be a healing potion.”

“Either use the potion or let her die,” Astrid shrugged, gesturing for Muti to hurry up and do it. The Barbarian didn’t argue, pulling the stopper from the potion and holding it to the woman’s mouth. Together, she and Astrid forced her to start to swallow, and Pauline’s eyes fluttered.

“That’s not gonna help,” the old woman coughed. “Not healing and won’t give enough stamina.”

“What do you need?” Astrid asked. “Maybe we can get it for you.”

“I trained Gregor, I know him. His Skill needs to be dispelled by something Adamantium tier or higher. I exhausted my stamina and mana earlier, and I know you don’t have a Skill that level.”

Astrid felt her eyes flutter at that. Pauline took a shuddering breath, pushing away the potion.

“That might be helpful to you. It’s a fortification. Give it to your frontliner.”

“So what do we do?” Astrid demanded, ignoring the fragmented words.

“Sit with me, if you would,” Pauline said simply. “I expected to die today, and being able to share some calm instead of it being brutal is a mercy.”

Astrid looked at the three stakes in the woman’s body, each one draining copious amounts of blood from Pauline as she lay there. She didn’t call this brutal? Astrid wasn’t going to argue, though.

“I only got news of the plan,” Pauline continued, her voice raspy as she turned and spat to the side. “I never saw your face. Would you show me?”

Astrid wasn’t going to argue with that and dismissed her helmet. Pauline’s face turned up in a smile.

“Oh, you’re young. I’m extremely glad I could save you. And you? Your name was Muti, correct? Let me see your face.”

Muti did the same, and she seemed to expect some reaction as her Barbarian heritage was exposed. Instead, Pauline’s smile deepened as she cupped both of the women’s faces in her hands.

“So much potential in you. Just as there is in this country. Thank you for protecting the people here. If you meet my family, tell them I saw them in your faces before I died.”

Then, the stakes in her body stopped draining out blood, Pauline’s breath stopped, and her hands fell from both women’s faces. Despite having never truly met the woman, Astrid felt tears burn in her eyes as she watched the hero who had sacrificed her life for Astrid’s freedom die. She knew nothing about this woman, but felt she already knew everything she needed to know about her.

As soon as she allowed the emotion to flow, though, Astrid felt her breath catching in hiccuping sobs, which worsened upon remembering the dozen people she’d killed in her opening attack. So far as she knew, every one of them was innocent and every Class was not one they could have chosen for themselves. And she cut every opportunity they might have had for survival or freedom away in one single movement.

Muti stood at her side, her blades both in her hands as she looked towards the city. Astrid shook her face, clearing most of the tears from her eyes as she tried to do the same as Muti. Towards the city, the enemy army was breaking, and Astrid and Muti stood between them and their path of escape.

“I can’t do much about this,” Astrid said, looking at her leg that still screamed in pain. Now that the bloody stake had been dispelled by Pauline’s Skill, it was recovering pretty well. As far as Astrid could tell, it wasn’t a Skill that, by itself, did much damage, but instead continued to weaken the afflicted person. Her body’s natural recovery rate was so high that she was probably only a few minutes from being able to hobble around, but she might not have that much time, looking at the army.

“You don’t need to,” Isaiah said, appearing with his same off-putting, preternatural stealth. Given that Muti jumped just as much as Astrid did, he really had snuck up on them. “Greely and I will contain them. Return when you’re able.”

Isaiah didn’t say anything more as he stepped forward. He did, however, raise two fingers to his lips, kiss them, and then use those fingers to close Pauline’s glassy eyes.

He stepped forward, the forest of vines behind him seeming to dissolve into the ground. Then, that same forest swelled towards them, the ground rumbling just like it had with the vines Greely had pursued Giselle with. The forest pulsed past underfoot, going to entrap the surviving soldiers, and Astrid and Muti were left alone.

Astrid grabbed a leaf that would enhance her regeneration and stuffed it in her mouth, chewing. The bitter taste was exactly what she felt she needed, and she struggled to her feet as her leg ached in protest. She wasn’t okay, and she wouldn’t be anytime soon, but she was strong enough to reach down, cup a hand under Pauline’s head and another under her legs, and pick her up into her arms.

The older woman’s corpse was already cold, all of the blood having been sucked out by her protégé’s Skill.

“Let’s go,” Astrid said, the words barely able to escape past the lump in her throat.

Then, with a limping step that improved by the second, she carried her savior’s body towards Purcell.