Rune Seeker

As Hiral stood himself up in the air – planes of pink butterflies swarming under his feet – a solar clone split off from him and dashed in the direction of his father. The clones couldn’t speak, use abilities, or really do anything complex, but he’d already told his father what a clone arriving would mean.

The Beast Wave was coming.

At the same time the clone sprinted off at B-Rank speed, Hiral reached out to the others in his raid group over the party chat.

“Wave should be here in the next few minutes,” Hiral said. “Ten, tops, I’d guess.”

“On our way,” Seena said, which was followed by quick affirmatives from Ilrolik and Nivian.

Within short order, the other members of his raid group – and their companions – filled the air above the frenzied camp. More swarms of pink butterflies flitted under their feet to hold them aloft, but the group stood calmly despite the activity below them.

“Remember,” Hiral said, the group having moved another two-hundred feet higher up above the keep to get a better vantage point over the in-progress wall. “Don’t do anything unless we have to to save lives. If they can handle a Beast Wave without us doing anything, that means they have less reason to ask us to hang around.”

“Your father and the Trust already said we could go,” Seena said.

“And the sentiment could change very quickly if this becomes a bloodbath,” Ilrolik said. “Or, if it would’ve been if we weren’t here. Politics.” The old woman tisked at the word like it was poison in her mouth.

“Exactly,” Hiral said, eyes scanning the defenses. Even though the wall wasn’t complete, sections of it stood tall and ready. Atop it, ranged combatants prepared themselves, abilities and weapons close at hand. Those would be ranged damage dealers, buffers, debuffers, and healers. Given the makeup of the last Beast Wave Hiral had seen, the height of the walls would keep them mostly safe, as long as the monsters didn’t make it around to the other side and climb up.

To prevent that exact thing from happening, the tanks and melee damage dealers filled the spaces in the unfinished sections of the walls. There were a few debuffers down there as well, along with a new category of support that had been dubbed ‘area-denial specialists’.

These people weren’t something Hiral had ever really seen on Fallen Reach, and even the Growers from the floating island only had a few – though they didn’t have a separate name for them. No, most of these original area-denial people came from the Hanging Garden. They’d spent centuries – tens of centuries – defending a wall from the monsters in the savanna, and they’d learned very early that preventing those monsters from reaching places they shouldn’t was very important.

Even if the skills didn’t do a lot of damage, the ability to hold monsters in place or herd them into a kill-zone was immensely useful in a large-scale battle like this. Yanily’s Lightning Tether had proven its worth several times in exactly this role, though Hiral’s raid group still had very few of these area-denial abilities.

A quick look in Dole’s direction, and he corrected himself. With the new Shaper in Nivian’s group, they suddenly had a lot more options in that regard.

Moving his eyes from the people hustling to get their defenses finalized, he looked next to the Brass Cannons patrolling. Several of them stood on the walls, ready to rain down their C-Rank version of death on any who attacked. Seena had been summoning them pretty much on cooldown since they’d returned to the keep – and while Hiral had been out of commission before – which meant there were dozens of them down. Beside each of them, somebody stood ready to issue orders to the constructs, a simple chain of command set up to help coordinate the weapons. Really, the opening salvo from those cannons would be devastating if the Chimeras came at them in a tide.

On the other hand, there was a bit of a cooldown between shots, and once the Wave reached the wall – or got past it – the Brass Cannons would be all-but-useless. Their powerful shots didn’t differentiate between friend and foe. Luckily, there were several of Tomorrow’s Sentinels stomping around just inside the wall.

There had been some conversation where the best place for them was – inside or outside? Would they be best served to help break the Beast Wave as it crashed against the wall, saving people from injuries or death? Or, were they the last resort?

The final decision was somewhere in between. They were the backup plan. While they could serve as a powerful first line of defence, well, that would mean less experience and achievements for the people who’d come to the Cradle. Since that was the whole point of being there – danger or not – the Trust had decided to take the risk, with the Sentinels there to support them if needed. Much like Grandmother’s role.

Even now, she stood back on the balcony of the fortress, looking out over the camp she was responsible for as their General. High above her, on the sheer cliff-face where a massive tree had sprouted during assault by the Chimeric Ex-General, the sapling that had been left had grown over the hours since. Still nothing compared to the huge tree that manifested from Grandmother’s ability – and faded since – the once-small sapling now extended more than thirty feet out from the stone. Thick, strong roots spread around the base of it, latching onto stone as easily as turned earth. Wide leaves of gold and green hung heavy from thick branches, draping nearly twice as wide as the tree was long over the main keep.

This tree wasn’t one of Grandmother’s abilities, but instead some sort of natural growth born of the meeting between her powers and the inherent magic of the Cradle. And, just like what she’d used during the Ex-General’s attack, this tree radiated an aura of protectiveness. It may not have her strength – yet – but it would do all it could to support the people below.

To Hiral’s senses, gossamer-thin lines of Connection ran from each individual leaf to one of the people below – including himself. There wasn’t a buff notification or anything like that, but he could feel how the tree was aiding him. A slight increase to his defensive potential and natural healing, as well as his solar regeneration. Small, now, but the benefits would grow over time as the tree matured. Grandmother had realized that long before the rest of them, and had already pulled together a team of arborists to help care for the tree. Much like Grandfather, up on the Grower island.

Finally, Hiral’s eyes left the tree and went to the last, new addition to the field below him. One of the D-Rank groups had come back with schematics for catapults, and eight of them stood primed and ready. Here, those with classes or skillsets less suited for direct combat would be doing their part. The siege weapons themselves were deceptively simple – once built automatically by the War Table – and had their own minor fortifications around them. An infusion of solar energy would create the ammunition, though manual adjustment was needed to aim and fire.

Hours of practice had gotten the new teams familiar with the operation of the weapons, and one of the most proficient handlers had even gotten an advanced class option from it – though Hiral and the others hadn’t been at the fortress for the evolution. The new Engineer of War had been an Academic who’d tinkered with building things, so it kind of made sense. More than that, it gave hope to others on how advanced classes could be achieved.

Hiral nodded to himself. Between the catapults and Brass Cannons, the initial rush should take a pounding and get thinned out, lessening the load on the wall. Conveniently – or, more likely planned by Tomorrow – different Rank-level areas stood at different orientations to the keep, meaning the groups had a pretty good idea what Rank would come at them from which direction. Once the melee got really intense, that wouldn’t hold true anymore – the keep area didn’t have a Rank-ceiling, so there was no poison to worry about – but it let them plan for the initial attack.

E-Rank enemies would come from the nearest E-Rank area, while D-Ranks would come from the closest D-Rank zone, and so on. There was no B-Rank zone pressed up against the borders of the keep – the highest was C-Rank – so any B’s that showed up would either have to come down the main road, or evolve from merging Chimeras.

These were the reasons Hiral’s group had been asked to stay.

“Looks good down there,” Loan said, breaking Hiral out of his assessment of the camp’s readiness.

“Always looks good before the fighting starts,” Gran said, followed by one of her trademark cackles.

“True that,” Loan agreed. “But… it’s still a sight to see.”

“Just wait until the War Table has a few more schematics to work with,” Seeyela said, but Loan shook his head.

“Not that,” the big Shaper said, his voice oddly reflective. “Makers and Growers standing shoulder-to-shoulder beside Bonders and Undead. Last rotation, if you’d told me we’d be working together – let alone found two new races – I would’ve called you crazy. The majority of the island would have.”

“It’s a big change,” Ilrolik said.

“A necessary one,” Hiral said.

“Don’t disagree with you there,” the Shaper said. “Still, for us old folks, it’s a sight to see. Makes this old heart of mine proud what you all have accomplished. Will accomplish.”

“Don’t count yourself out just yet there,” Loan said to his friend. Though there were decades between their ages, the two had always been cordial, and grown into true friends in the time since Hiral had returned to Fallen Reach. “You’re not that old.”

“Oh, I know I’ve still got a few rotations – years – of adventure ahead of me, but I can only imagine the world you’ll all see in your lifetimes,” Ilrolik said wistfully.

“Assuming we survive the Raze,” Yully said, bringing everybody back to reality.

“We will,” Hiral said, turning from the camp to the raid group around him. Like Loan had said, it was astounding to see the different races working together like this. “We are going to stop the Raze. We are going to find a way to prevent the memory reset. We are even going to take back our world, so we’re not always hiding in small corners of it.”

“You sound so sure of that,” Yully said. “Almost makes me believe it.”

Loan barked out a laugh. “Spend some more time with Hiral, and you’ll learn that once he sets his mind to something, it happens. Not always quickly, but…”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“You could’ve left out that last part,” Hiral deadpanned, then looked back at Yully. “And, I am sure. Not just because of me though. Because of all of you. The people we’ve gathered here, we’re the chance to make these things happen. And I don’t think any of you is willing to squander that chance. We’ll succeed. That’s all there is to it.”

Nobody said anything while Yully mulled over the words, though she did look to the Growers in his party. Nearby, Yanily, Seena, and Seeyela all gave subtle nods of support to his words – to his ideas – and the healer finally smiled. “I was already on board – I joined the group after all – but it’s reassuring to hear our young raid leader so sure of himself.”

“Sure of us,” Hiral clarified.

“Yes, yes,” Yanily said. “We’re all going to save the world. Wow, that sounded sarcastic, but, uh, it wasn’t meant to… we really are going to save the world. After we deal with this little Beast Wave.”

“Which is breaching the edge of the woods,” Left said. “It’s about to begin.”

“Thanks, Left,” Hiral said, giving his group one more look-over, before turning back to the coming battle. “Nivian, your group has the right flank, over there where the C-Rank area is. Ilrolik, you’ve got the E- and D-Rank border. Just because the monsters are weaker there, don’t be any less attentive.”

“We know,” Ilrolik said. “Our E- and D-Rank people are also weaker, and have a lot less options to get them out of trouble. Things can go bad for them quickly.”

“Exactly,” Hiral said. “Seena’s group will stick to the middle, in case any B-Rank monsters come up the road, or either of you need support. I don’t expect the latter to be true, but it’s best we’re ready for it. One more time – don’t act unless you need to.

“If we can get through this without doing anything, that’s the ideal outcome.”

“Plenty of people down there are growing to strong,” Seeyela said.

“Speaking of people down there,” Hiral said. “Is Caleon helping with this wave?” He hadn’t heard much about – and nothing from – the healer from Seeyela’s old group. Since she’d surprisingly joined them in the Cradle after leaving the Asylum where she’d decided to stay by herself, he hadn’t once seen her. Not even wandering around the fortress area.

“Probably not,” Seena said slowly. “Did we tell you she left her new group?”

“No,” Hiral said, one eye on the distant woodline for the coming monster surge. “Did something happen?”

“Not as far as we can tell,” Seeyela said. “She just… decided to leave. Wule thinks she was starting to like them, and it scared her off. She didn’t want a repeat of last time, so she quit.”

“Did she join another new group?” Hiral said.

Seena shook her head. “We haven’t seen her in a while, but the rumor around camp is she’s out exploring on her own. Her old group said she was looking for something out there, but they don’t know what she was talking about. One of them thinks it wasn’t something physical she was looking for, but peace of mind from what happened to her before. Either way, from what we’ve heard, she barely ever comes back.”

“She’s out there fighting on her own, somewhere,” Seeyela said quietly. “Well, as one her own as she can with that mirror of hers. Maybe we should take it away. Make her sit down and talk to us.”

“Everybody copes differently,” Yanily said. “Who are we to say what way is better?”

“This can’t be healthy,” Seeyela insisted.

“Any more unhealthy than sitting alone in an Asylum grieving over what she lost?” Yanily countered.

Seeyela didn’t have an immediate answer to that. “I still think we should do something. She’s our friend. We’ve all lost enough; I don’t want to lose any more.”

With how true that statement was – and how much they all agreed with it – the party stayed silent.

Sentiment in mind, Hiral glanced down at the wall where his sisters stood, conveniently at the border of the central and D-Rank areas; a spot Ilrolik’s group or Seena’s could easily reach.

“It’s time to see how much they’ve grown,” he said quietly. “So I don’t have to worry.”

As if Hiral’s words were a cue, the Chimeric Beast Wave began their charge. Howls and cries from the monsters filled the air, with a dozen different Chimeric strains racing for the walls. Where, before, it had mostly been animal-type Chimeras, Troblins and Squalians also joined the mix this time. Weapons in hand, the two new additions to the field would change things up, depending on how intelligent they proved to be. If they had many abilities they could use, it could change the tide of…

“Fire,” a chorus of voices said at the same time to Hiral’s high Atn, and the Brass Cannons and catapults both roared to life.

The clearcut area – nearly half-a-mile – between the under-construction walls and the edge of the forest made for a deadly area to cross. No hiding spots, with uneven ground that prevented anything from getting up to a full sprint. Even C-Rank monsters would take a dangerously long time to cross. And that was exactly what the cannons and siege weapons were counting on.

D- and C-Rank artillery lit up the air, straight lines from the Brass Cannons, while glowing spheres of magically-created ammunition arced gracefully. At an absurd range of about two-thousand feet, both the cannons and catapults proved to be quite accurate, hitting their targets in practice about sixty percent of the time. Beyond that, accuracy dropped to barely twenty percent… unless the horde of enemies was so thick it was impossible to miss.

Like the Beast Wave rushing out of the woods now.

Explosions lit up the far side of the clearing, landing like the staccato of drums within a hundred feet of the treeline. And where the artillery landed, Chimeras died. In droves.

Monstrous body parts disintegrated beneath the opening salvo from the cannons, shattering the front lines of the rush and further cratering the ground. Howls meant to intimidate quickly turned to shrieks of death and pain, then silenced entirely beneath the catapult-shots arriving a second later. Between the one-two-punch from the artillery, hundreds of the Chimeras ceased to exist, not even having a chance to merge into something stronger at low health.

Hiral’s focus stayed on the dissipating energy and fallout from the attack – miraculous survivors already rushing out to continue the mad dash toward the wall – while he glanced at the notifications scrolling past. He wasn’t getting experience for attacks from the siege weapons, but it looked like that was just because of his level compared to the creatures that had been killed. Mainly E- and D-Rank enemies, with what looked like a few low-C-Ranks as well.

On the plus side, since it was just the level difference preventing him from getting experience – and he didn’t do anything – that meant the others waiting at the wall would be benefitting from softening up the opposition. In more ways than one.

Catapults cranking back below him, and Brass Cannons waiting on their cooldown to fire again, gave the Chimeric assault precious seconds to swarm across the open space at the wall. Having seen the new siege corps – as they were calling themselves – practice, Hiral could tell the cooldowns wouldn’t be enough time for the attackers to make it more than halfway.

The only question was how the Brass Cannons and catapults would deal with the more spread-out crowd rushing at them. It was still crowded back by the woods as more creatures continued to emerge, but aiming at them would leave too many Chimeras to make it to the walls.

He got his answer in the next second, with half-a-dozen Brass Cannons lancing their powerful payloads into the front line of attackers. Were only that many off cooldown…? Even before Hiral had a chance to finish his thought, six moreCannons fired their blasts deeper into the horde. Then came six more, and six more again, the shots staggered, with each consecutive volley aiming about a hundred feet further back than the previous.

The catapults’ shots arrived next, not nearly as precise as the cannons, spread like somebody had taken a handful of stones and just tossed them. Or, seeing the results of how the volley devasted the ranks, maybe that was intended.

Again and again, the artillery pounded the rush, killing hundreds of Chimeras in the long seconds it took the first to reach the wall. There, practically alone, without its monstrous brethren at its side, that initial Chimera got put down with Yanily’s favorite prejudice – the extreme kind.

The group at the opening the monster approached moved with surprising coordination, intercepting the loping wolf to make sure it didn’t get past. At the same time, efficient debuffs layered over the weakened monster, while pinpoint ranged attacks put it down. In less than three seconds, the monster was dead, body steaming where it fell.

The defenders didn’t celebrate their victory, eyes already turning to the next monsters sprinting out of the kill zone.

Area-denial abilities lit up the space in front of the wall, and Hiral couldn’t help but smile when he saw Milly’s own spiked barriers acting as funnels into coordinated traps. The monsters who didn’t turn fast enough impaled themselves on the vicious spikes, while those who made it between the two walls found themselves in a whirling tornado of fire and metal shards.

Elsewhere, chains of force or lightning, roots springing from the ground, or even powerful gusts of wind slowed and disoriented the monsters. Hiral just chuckled at the group of twelve Chimeric Troblins dancing in unison. Arms up to the side, step-step, arms to the other side, step-step.

Then the fireball hit them, and, well, that was it for their dance routine.

Nat’s getting better and better at that… which is oddly terrifying.

Despite the coordination of the defending forces, however, it wasn’t going perfectly for them. Where they had powerful and versatile abilities, the Chimeras had sheer numbers on their side. It was called a Beast Wave, after all, and the monsters used that advantage to the fullest, literally using the corpses of the fallen as shields – or in one case, a ramp.

Near one section of wall on the D-Rank front, a huge crowd of some kind of howling, Chimeric monkey had made it to the wall. And, even though they had been cut down in brutal numbers, there were always more right there waiting for their chance. With each that fell, the pile in front of the wall quickly grew. Five feet. Ten feet.

Defenders at the top quickly realized what was happening, but what could they do? If they held back, the monsters would leap up anyway, and they were too far from any of the ‘breaches’ in the wall where construction hadn’t finished, so they didn’t have ground support.

In the corner of his eye, Hiral spotted Ilrolik’s group moving closer, readying themselves to intervene.

“Hold…” the party-leader’s voice said over the raid chat. She was ready to move, but she also wasn’t going to act too early. Ilrolik was an old and experienced Shaper – a teacher to many – and she had never been an easy one. Might be why she gets along with Loan so well. She’d give the young ones below her a chance to save themselves first – even if it meant a few black eyes and broken bones.

Within thirty seconds, the pile of corpses stood fifteen feet tall – already half-way up to the walkway on top of the wall. Thirty seconds more would see the group overrun by the swarming monkeys.

In a twisted sort of way, it felt a little nostalgic to Hiral, memories of the monkeys from The Buried City coming to mind. They weren’t much higher rank than the people on the top of the wall there, but they did have better gear.

The one thing they didn’t have, though, was allies.

Even as more and more of the monsters rushed what looked to be a growing way past the tall wall – and a chance at getting claws on the people harassing them – more defenders likewise rushed towards the sortie. First came a powerful blast of wind, hurling every creature standing atop the pile – and the whole top layer of corpses – twenty feet back, and clearing the space for a heartbeat.

In that second, a wave of liquid – like a living, watery serpent – sprung from the hands of a Grower nearby, darting up and over the crenelation, to douse the entire stack of bodies. That was as much as the defenders got done before more of the monkeys arrived, hooting, hollering, and rushing ahead before their building ladder could be cut off from them. Within seconds, the whole space was writhing again, long-fingered hands reaching for a way to scale the perfectly smooth wall. When they didn’t find one, they got to climbing on each other’s backs with renewed vigor.

The defender’s window of opportunity had closed abruptly, leaving the Chimeras sensing victory an instant away.

That was, until another Grower standing calmly above the writhing mass snapped his finger. There, at the tips of those fingers, a small lick of flame sprung to life, and the monkeys seemed to pause. Nostrils flared as they drew in deep breaths, a smell wafting up from their feet – one that wasn’t made from water.

Almost casually, the Grower flicked his hand, dropping the flame toward the pile below him, while dozens of monkey-heads seemed to watch it in slow motion. One – smarter than the rest – stretched out its hand to try and catch the flame, but the fire jerked aside like it was a living thing itself. Again and again, the flame dodged the increasingly frantic grabs of the monkey, then zipped straight down to vanish between the limbs of the corpses it stood on.

For a long, drawn-out second, all the monkeys stared down, their breaths held. When nothing seemed to immediately happen, they began to let out a sigh of relief. The pile itself seemed to do the same thing, except this sigh was made of flame and fury.

Like the bonfire it was, the corpse pile burst alight, charring the dozens of monkeys standing right on top of it, while sending twice as many more dashing back with their own limbs aflame. On top of the wall, the defenders that had taken cover in the second before the whoosh popped back up to continue their assault.

All along the length of the wall, similar situations played out, the ebbs and flows of battle presenting opportunities for growth and challenges to overcome. And, each and every time one group got in trouble, another was there to help pull them out.

But, never once over the course of that Beast Wave did Hiral’s raid group need to act.