The dark sand felt like a cool massage on my feet with every step as I slowly shadowsparred, emulating the fight with Corren by memory. Every time I get to the point where I first see that grey Flow-pathing orb however, nothing's there.
"Damnit, I was using this shit in the middle of my fight! What the hell is going on?!" I yelled, kicking the sand. Hundreds of my rat friends scurried away, some retreating straight into the ocean.
"Woah, hey hold on guys?" I said, getting a massive whiff of spoiled-milk that quickly subsided. Slowly, the rats crept their way back over to me.
"I'm not mad at you, just a little frustrated is all. That's my bad." I added, taking a step toward the first brave rat to scurry back over to me. An aroma of mildew and parchment filled my nostrils for just a single sniff, enough to make me check my surroundings for a source.
"…whatever, must be the loops getting to me still." I shrugged off, readying myself to try running through the Corren fight again. Much like this skill-thing, it felt like that speedy pugilist arrived on the wind itself. He was also rather affable to start, even praising me for my reputation. It didn't get violent until after he expressed his deep hatred for Korbin and our faction's rapid expansion. From there, his movement speed using those whistling gauntlets made the entire fight a game of trying to learn his rhythm. Then, eventually, I was able to see the path of his next movement that I couldn't help but notice. Yet again, as I reached the first exchange I recall seeing the flash of light, nothing.
I've tried this method of analyzing the fight flinch by flinch and replicating my movements in hopes to better understand the visual skill over dozens of times now, only to find zero luck in even seeing what was recently inherent mid-combat.
"Hey, I just realized I've never actually asked for your advice." I said, looking down at the bravest rat trying to fend off my billowing frustration. Leaning over, I put my palm out and let the little guy scurry in my hand.
"I know you got some skills, real ones. How did you…how do you make an 'ability' into a 'skill'?" I asked, realizing rats don't actually have system recognized skills. At least not the traditional ones I mingled with, and yet I have no doubt they among any evolved race of rat is thriving all the same. Memories of scuttling through holes made by bombs that dismember my rat brethren flashed across my mind, along with the ingenuity I found in using a large intestine as shelter from the rain.
"…you don't need them, do you? I remember now, you don't train or unlock some new skill out there. You just adapt." I said, slowly placing the brave little soldier back down. Closing my eyes, I restarted the fight in my head. This time however, I treated each action like it was completely novel, no longer devoting myself to emulating the exchange perfectly. Instead, I reacted live to Corren's strikes, at times falling behind in timing but still certainly evading the memory. Finally, the first punch I truly saw via the Flow-pathing had arrived on queue. A spark of grey light flickered across my vision before I felt my neck suddenly whip back and forth.
"…-om. Thomas, rise and shine! It's time to move, I found them." Cassi said as my eyes fluttered open, taking her hands off my shoulders. Korbin was already up, clutching his battle ax and waiting oddly patiently.
"Wait, found 'them'? As in plural?" I asked excitedly.
"Yeah, and it's…a lot of them." Cassi replied wide-eyed.
"Ah, so it wasn't a single talented individual after all?" I sarcastically asked, glancing at Korbin who looked wholly unamused at my teasing.
"Tom, these people are dangerous." Cassi replied sincerely, wearing the gravity in her low tone.
"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling a shift in energy since my meditation began.
"They were fighting over who got to torture, murder, and subjugate which of their prisoners when I arrived. And there's plenty of poor souls in there, surrounded by corpses. Not to mention that abomination I saw skulking around. Everything about that place made my literal spirit feel…wrong. Like I was always being watched from every angle." Cassi said, looking as though she was reliving the entire scene as she explained it to me.
"They sound like fucking monsters." I said, feeling my nostril twitch with rage at imagining what those captives must be feeling right now. It's one thing to slay your foes, it's something entirely different to torture the weak for your own sick pleasure.
"They are, a few more in the literal sense than others. Which is why you're taking point on this one." Cassi said. I nodded, only for what she just told me to hit a full 5 seconds later.
"…oh, OH. Alright, but how will I-"
"I'll be your navigator, so we won't get lost. But Korbin and I synergize too well to send him alone, and I don't really want to deal with those freaks on my own, regardless of my likelihood to beat them. Plus, in my humble opinion-" Cassi began, glancing over at Korbin who's eyes narrowed in response.
"-I think you react correctly toward this level of wrong." Cass said, flashing a smirk in my direction. Korbin sighed, shaking his head as he paced in a circle behind her.
"I think I catch your drift." I said, spinning my sheathed twinblades at the connected hilts like a staff.
"Good. We'll be headed roughly 300 meters east, where we should be able to see their hilltop-base of operations relatively quickly, given the massive concentration of zombies surrounding the hill." Cassi replied.
"Wow, that floating eye of yours must have insane range." I said, popping up to my feet.
"Hm? Oh no, I had to get a little closer to spot it from a Birds Eye view." Cassi replied walking toward the edge.
"That's insane, how did you get past th-" looking down, my jaw slumped down wide open at seeing next to no zombies mulling around below.
"Where the fuck did they all go?!" I asked, spinning back to see if the horde had wandered away.
"Took care of them while you two took your little naps. These ones have zero concept of coordination, especially if you kill them quietly." Cassi casually answered with a shrug.
"Oh damn, I didn't know that. Good work." Korbin said with a chuckle, slowly uncrossing his arms and scanning around the valley.
"I know. You both also blew through nearly a full hour resting, so we should get moving asap. I don't know if they intend to relocate for the tectonic shift." Cassi quickly replied, gesturing for me to hurry and get down first.
"What? Cassi, why would you let us rest that long?" I asked, feeling a little upset at letting my guard down for that long unprotected.
"I'm not your mom. You too were asleep, and we're winning as long as we're alive…" Cassi began, her eyes shifting between the two of us.
"…aaand you two are still mad because..?" She asked, clearly reading at least my frustration.
"We're almost done." I said.
"We're missing the fun." Korbin also replied, the both of us answering nearly in unison.
"Suddenly pretty glad I put this 'responsible Tom' on point." Cassi said with a grin. Sufficiently at my limit with them both, I slid off wedging my hook along the ledge and repelled back down to the ground. Korbin made his way carefully down the wall rather than use any skills, while Cassi simply leapt off after me and used her watery movement skill to land smoothly into a gliding stop. After a few minutes of waiting for Korbin to casually climb down and cutting through the couple zombies that spotted us, I led them both eastbound. The flat, dry landscape quickly transitioned into hotter, greener rolling grasslands after a brief 5 minute jog.
Pacing through the knee-high greenery, a large clustered group of zombies meandered clumsily over the next hill. One of them snapped their shinbone mid-step, collapsing with next to no physical reaction outside of gravity doing its thing and tumbling down the hill. Korbin laughed aloud at the scene, immediately getting the entire back line of the small horde wandering below's attention. Dozens of rotting corpses gargled and growled as they made their way up the natural incline, many tripping over one another causing huge pile ups.
"This is…kind of sad. I hope they're not conscious in there." I said, releasing my sheaths and separating my blades at the hilts.
"Doubt it, at least not these ones." Korbin said, tossing a stone spear through one of the zombies' skulls. Cassi pressed her hand into the small of my back while brandishing her staff.
"No time, point-man. Do your thing." Cassi commanded, shoving me hard as she finished. With no time or much desire to refute, I used the free boost of Flow to propel me off the hillside. Skull fragments flew from the first zombie's skull under my leaping head kick, swiftly following it with several stabs and slashes to the surrounding undead.
*BOOM*
A bright orange flash accompanied the roar of Korbin's fireball, blasting into a group of undead launching several burning limbs hurtling through the air. Ripple Striding past a legless corpse crawling about, dark fluid and squelching groans filled the air as I cut through a row of zombies. A couple leaked through at my sides forcing me to slow down and take out some stragglers, Korbin and Cassi managed to hang a few paces behind keeping the walls of our path clear in the process.
A hand roughly grasped at my side as I checked on the other two, the undead culprit immediately earning electrified steel pierced through their soft temple. The jolt of urgency buzzed through my brain as I felt my focus key in on the horde I pushed further and further into, as the stench of rotten flesh grew stronger by the moment. The sheer volume from the undeads moaning, gargles, and growls quickly grew exceptionally loud.
Fucks SAKE these things are annoying.
Feeling myself growing impatient with the sheer quantity of death walking among me, my boot kicked off a zombie's shoulder lifting me above the crowd. The rolling hills limited my vision, as a large dip cut off my vision roughly 40 meters ahead. Unfortunately, a small army of undead shuffled between here and said hilltop.
How the fuck did they get THIS many bodies?
Lightning erupted from the ends of my slapping twin blades, ripping through a row of living corpses with one lightly charged Lightning Bolt. My feet hit the dirt the moment the skill triggered as I swiped back out, decapitating a pair of zombies on either side.
*BOOM*
Korbin's fireball reverberated through the ground on impact, sending another cluster of burnt limbs and corpses aloft as I continued carving a path out of their seemingly everlasting horde. Ignoring the wafting heat, my focus remained trained on the countless undead as another dozen bodies fell in even more pieces in my wake. Then another, and another, until the sheer body heat triggered a searing pain across my back. Finally, my chains wrapped around a final zombie's neck as I tossed them over my back before popping out of the massive horde. Standing atop a hilltop, I peered back to find Korbin and Cassi had fallen a little further behind. The metallic collision of my blades rang out as I covered the two of them with a few Lightning Bolts, keeping the path clear enough for them to traverse up the hillside.
"Hot damn that's good cardio." Korbin exclaimed with a heavy exhale.
"We're lucky we found a soft spot in their second layer. Refill your resource pools then let's keep moving." Cassi said, tossing mana potions at the both of us. Korbin and I shared a confused look at her urgency, though I suppose getting home sooner than later sounds pretty damn enticing. Especially if I got to see it without…well, if I got to see it in real life. Seeing as though I hardly used more than a quarter of my mana, however, I went ahead and placed the potion into my internal storage space for later. Korbin chugged his down however, though I assume he has mana potions of his own in reserve.
"We still heading straight east from here?" I asked Cassi, who adopted an inquisitive look as she scanned the high grassed rolling hills surrounding us. Her head locked onto the thick, silver forest in the distance.
"Yeah, but keep your head on a swivel. The third layers where they've got taller, far more cognizant undead than those drones back there." Cassi answered.
"Really? How tall are we talking?" I asked curiously.
"My height on average, but they all kept a hunched posture. Many walked on all fours using arms that could reach their shins if they stood straight up. They also had significant muscle mass throughout their limbs for how gaunt their bodies were, and all of them had this huge hole where their nose ought to be. It's like someone just ripped them all off." Cassi rattled off, staring blanky past me as she explained.
"Well shit, that feels like a pretty important detail to omit before we left the pillar." I replied while picturing the creatures.
"Would it have really changed a thing other than wasting our time?" Cassi asked with a sigh.
"…no, I guess not. If one of them would've snuck into that horde and taken me out though, bet you'd feel real silly." I countered after a beat.
"Oh yeah, because one less powerful person to worry about in this event would really give anyone grief." Cassi replied with a smirk, waving her hand as she walked down the hillside.
"Come on, before the drones behind us learn how to reliably climb steep hills." Cassi added. I looked over at Korbin, who was summoning stone spears and batons he merely tossed into the grass once he was finished.
"You didn't listen to a word of that, did you?" I asked him as I walked after Cassi, feeling a sense of responsibility from having been put on point.
"…huh? You talking to me now?" Korbin said, dropping the half made stone dagger from his palm in surprise.
"Figures." I replied, rolling my eyes.
"You're SO the last one to talk. Do you have any idea how many separate debriefs I've had to write for your dumbass exclusively? I'm genuinely shocked you can remember to put clothes on in the morning." Korbin quickly shot back, walking alongside me stride for stride wearing a devious smirk.
"Which is what makes your aloofness so fuckin' weird, dude. I know it doesn't really matter at this point but, are you feeling okay?" I asked, raising a brow at my old friend.
"Fine, why do you ask?" Korbin replied in a far more chipper tone. I sighed at him for the antics, and wordlessly jogged ahead to take my assigned place at the front. My mind raced with insults and jokes to deflect Korbin's bullshit with, finally feeling a good one come to me when some shuffling came from atop a tall silvery-leaved tree ahead.