He needed to hit the Guardian’s flank — before it could hurt another of his team.
Porkchop tore into the monster that was almost as thick as he was. With his frontal assault, it had no time to shift its attention onto Kaius.
The guardian hissed, rearing up to strike.
An amalgamation of vine and flesh, twisted into the shape of a snake, its maw was filled with a mangled scattering of thorns and fang. This far into the Depths, the magic present in its monsters was growing more and more overt. They were getting harder to kill.
Still, its body was torn, red-tinged sap running in rivulets across scales and leaves both.
It was close to death. Not close enough — not after what it had done to Kenva.
She’d gone down hard. It had barely been a stray blow! Yet when a whipping vine smacked her out of the air, it had snapped her spine like kindling — thorns tearing open her back.
For all of her health and Vitality, she healed slowly without the regeneration skills that he and Porkchop enjoyed. Last he’d seen, Ianmus was already healing her, weaving regeneration spells to speed up her recovery, but both of them were immobile while that happened. The spell was too delicate — too focus intensive — for Ianmus to move her himself. Especially when it might aggravate her wounds.
The twenty-ninth layer pulled no punches.
It would have to be their last.
He and Porkchop could likely have pushed a little father alone, but without the support of a back line, it would have been a risky and slow thing. More than that, even they would have stalled out quickly. It wasn’t just the growing levels and stats of the depthsborn — it was the growing diversity of their forms and bodies; the doggedness with which they clung to life, and the power of the growing number of second tier abilities.
Tearing through the undergrowth, Kaius heard a screech. He reacted instantly, snapping his blade up as the swamp around him came alive. Plants shone with mana as they whipped towards him with hateful fury, striking him with an army of razor-like leaves and cudgel-like branches.
He moved as a dervish, A Father’s Gift slicing from every angle. Again and again he funnelled stamina through Mercurial Reversal, utilising the skill to hasten his parries. Leading with his edge, he used to cut through vines, empowered ripostes directed to neighbouring branches. He mowed his way forward, adjusting his approach.
Heartbeats later, the storm stilled. The Guardian’s skill had expended itself.
It was his least favourite of its abilities, affecting the entire area around the monster. Thankfully, it was the last time it would get to use it. He would make damn sure of that.
Charging back in, Kaius burst through reeds to see Porkchop claws-deep in the snake’s throat. Coils had wrapped around his brother’s chest. Porkchop heaved, using Breaker of Men to rip himself free. Kaius grinned, his brother’s general skills, Landslide of Fang and Talon and Shattering Storm made him far harder to pin down and bind.
With the Guardian facing away from him back, its skull of wooden bone was exposed. Kaius moved. Three Shunts detonated almost in the same instant, rocketing him forwards so fast that the air in front of him felt like a physical wall.
He lowered his blade, the thinnest sliver of VOS filling his mind as runes inscribed inside of his mouth and throat burned. A Father’s Gift blazed like the sun, a layering of Bladerite and Mystic’s Rend empowered to the extreme.
He hit the back of the snake’s head sword-first, enchanted crystal and steel getting through its armoured skeleton to ram home to the hilt. Arcane energy writhed across his sword like a living thing, screaming as it collapsed. Caustic fire blew through, opening a crater as wide as two of his hands.
His sword still crackled, charged with Mystic potency.
The Guardian stiffened.
Even with a nigh-undying body, it was still enough flesh and blood to freeze up from the damage to its brain. Seizing the opportunity, Porkchop dragged the creature’s head down — slamming its jaws into the ground. He rammed his claws into its eye, digging deep.
Kaius heard his blood roaring. He struck again. And again. Every Rend blowing more out of the creature’s head.
It soon stilled, stiffening for one final time.
**Ding! You have slain a Guardian: Serpent of Ag’den - level 304 Amalgam of Vine and Scale!**
**Ding! You have slain a Guardian: Claim personalised reward by taking a portal!**
Kaius didn’t pause to revel in his victory. Ripping his blade free with a wet squelch, he leapt to the muddy swamp below — racing away with Porkchop at his side.
Through his bond he knew they were of one mind: they had to check on their friends.
…
They sat around the circle of their camp that they’d set up in one of the few islands of dry-ish land in this biome, right at the edge of the Guardian’s arena. Heaping food onto a plate, Kaius held it out to their ranger.
It was a simple thing, just some fried meat and vegetables, but a hot meal always helped a hard fight go down better.
Kenva stiffened as she leant forwards. She frowned, leaning back as she shifted uncomfortably.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
That blow she’d taken had been bad; a solemn reminder that even with their strength and the new wealth of gear they had acquired, not all of their party was as hardy as he and Porkchop. Still, it had been more than long enough since then. The regeneration of her health should have cleared up any lingering issues from Ianmus’s hasty patch job. Perhaps some component to the Guardian’s Skill had caused wounds to linger?
“I’m fine,” she replied, rubbing the small of her back. “just some phantom tingles. I think they’re more in my head than anything else, but it’s still not the most pleasant.”
Porkchop nodded knowingly. “Well, that was a love tap from the hells. I’ve seen it before — some of my cousins getting put in their place by a Patriarch — they couldn’t sit right for a week, no matter how fast they healed.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Kaius nodded. It definitely happened. Hells, he himself had experienced it. Even after Rieker had given him the potion to regrow the fingers he’d lost fighting the siege ogre, he’d spent nearly a week adjusting to their presence again. An odd tinge — like he’d expected them to hurt, even though they didn’t.
Ianmus pushed his food around his plate.
“I hate to be the one to say this, but should we call it here? I know we haven’t made it deep enough for the next Ruthless Underdog Honour, and that it could make things difficult for us to get it before we get to too high of a level — but if that vine had hit Kenva just a stride higher, she’d be dead.”
Kenva scowled, stabbing at her food briskly, “And a little lower and it would have missed me completely.”
Looking over, Kaius locked eyes with Porkchop, who gave him a slight nod.
“That doesn’t change anything,” Kaius said. “While we can still put down the Guardians, it’s taking longer and longer. Porkchop and I are getting more and more injured, and our margins for error are growing smaller — let alone that when we do make mistakes, you two tend to come out worse off.”
He looked at Kenva, who was still stubbornly frowning. “I know you don’t want to be the reason that we call it here, but you’re not. It could just as easily have been Ianmus. Or me.”
“Probably not Porkchop, though.” Ianmus offered.
“You’re godsdamned right.”
Kenva laughed at the joke, before she sighed, slumping slightly. “I know, I know. It’s just frustrating. We’ve been doing so well.”
“That is the nature of a delve,” Porkchop replied. “We’ve been pushing down, not across. There would always come a time where things were starting to slip.”
Ianmus leaned over to pat Kenva on her shoulder. “Come now, we’ve had a good run of it. We’re practically drowning in second-tier artefacts, and all of us have gained multiple Honours for our efforts.”
Kaius nodded, that they had. Even ignoring the motley hodgepodge of artefacts and coin that they’d collected from the slew of Champions, they’d killed six Guardians — two on the twenty-seventh layer. Each had granted them something they were well-suited for them.
He himself was draped in an almost entirely new set of scale mail, and a small collection of items of utility — like his new steel-grey shirt that sat under his underarmour. It was one of his favourites, able to unravel itself to stitch wounds closed. It made it far easier to push through injuries while he healed.
“Ianmus is right.” he agreed, “We’re not exactly walking out of here empty-handed. Besides… aren’t you excited for your class evolution?”
“Of course I am! I’ve been thinking about it for months! I just wish we could have gone a little deeper, that’s all.”
“I think we all would have. Still, it’s kind of a relief that we’ll finally be getting out of here. It’ll be nice to sleep somewhere other than our tent… and see what’s been going on in Deadacre.”
Ianmus nodded. “Not that I don’t love Kaius’s cooking, but at this point I’m dying to throw myself into the Dusty Stables and eat my bodyweight in whatever they have. Maybe polish off a barrel of ale while I’m at it.”
“Gods, don’t tempt me,” Kaius said.
He loved to cook and to feed his friends, but there was something special about eating food you didn’t have to make. Hensch’s was fine fare indeed — the thought of the man’s sandwiches had been damn near keeping him awake at night.
Still, they’d have to get through class selection first — and while it had been the topic of much discussion since they’d left the Crucible, they’d all sort of danced around it. It had always seemed oddly distant.
With the time here for them now, they needed to talk it through. It was a pivotal moment, not just for each of them, but also for their roles in the team.
If any of them wanted to pivot or adjust their focus, it would be good to all be on the same page. They didn’t have the freedom that most delvers did to find an appropriate team. Sure, Silver and higher teams weren’t common, but they were always in high demand. If someone’s second tier class made them a poor fit for their old team, they could shuffle. Not so for them.
Especially since, after everything they had achieved, all of them were likely to receive quite the wealth of options to pick from. There was no doubt in his mind every single one of them had earned Heroic classes.
As his friends picked through their meals and chatted about what they were most looking forward to when they left, Kaius threw up his status — most likely for the last time in the first tier.
It was an astonishing result, and a meteoric climb in little more than a year. Especially for his Latent Glyph of Muthryn, Throat of VOS. After making use of it at every opportunity he could, he’d made great strides in honing his control of the ineffable great rune, tamping down on the totality of what he drew upon. He’d even managed to extend its use further than his spells — just like the way he’d used it to empower his sword Skills this very fight.
His efforts, and the sheer volume of times he’d used Redoubt of the Speaker, had been well rewarded, the skill nearly doubling in level.
Status:
Name: Kaius
Dynasty: Unterstern
Age: 20
Race: Human (Dynastic, Greater Beastblooded) - +1 Con, Str, Wil, and free stats per level
Layer Reached: 29
Class: Runeblade Initiate - +3 Int, +2 Con, +2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 Vit, +1 Wil per level
Level: 200 (Evolution Available!)
Resources:
Health - 12,980/12,980 (80.5/min)
Stamina - 12,810/12,810 (94.1/min)
Mana - 16,070/16,070 (108.6/min)
Free Mana - 12,970/12,970
Reserved Mana - 0
Stats:
Constitution - 1298 (630 + 134 + 70%)
Vitality - 805 (340 + 134 + 70%)
Strength - 1281 (620 + 134 + 70%)
Dexterity - 941 (420 + 134 + 70%)
Intelligence - 1607 (700 + 164 + 86%)
Willpower: - 1086 (420 + 164 + 86%)
Stat Points: 0
Aspects:
Pillar Corporus: The Struggler’s Madness
- Reinforcement: Titan’s Marrow
- Seed: Forged in Endless Strife
Pillar Mentis: The Veteran’s Edge
- Reinforcement: Glass Mind
- Seed: Campaigner’s Reason
Pillar Animus: The Ceaseless Warrior
- Reinforcement: Purity of Self
- Seed: Hardened by Life
Class Skills (10/10):
Latent Glyph of Drakthar (Heroic) - 200
Initiate’s Glyphic Bladerite (Unique) - 200
Latent Glyph of Aelina (Heroic) - 200
Mystic’s Rend (Heroic) - 183 > 200
Latent Glyph of Vyrthane (Heroic) - 132 > 181
Sigil of Vesryn’s Pact (Unique) - 142 > 183
Latent Glyph of Eirnith (Heroic) - 117 > 159
Mercurial Reversal (Unique) - 115 > 145
Runeblade Hymnfocus (Heroic) - 75 > 104
Latent Glyph of Muthryn, Throat of VOS (Heroic) - 49 > 93
General Skills (10/10):
Rapid Adaptation (Heroic) - 200
Liturgical Bladeform: Primus Ordo (Heroic) - 200
Explorer’s Toolkit (Unusual) - 200
Tempered by Dissonance (Heroic) - 200
Truesight (Unique) - 200
Tonal Weaving (Unique) - 200
Resonance Amplification (Unique) - 200
Lesser Regeneration (Unusual) - 200
Uncanny Dodge (Unique) - 200
Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus (Heroic) - 200
Hymnbook:
Glyph of Drakthar -
- Stormlash (Tier I - 120 mana)
- Hateful Nail (Tier I - 100 mana)
Glyph of Aelina -
- Yellia’s Slip Step (Tier I - 80 mana)
- Trusant’s Expedient Shunt (Tier I - 100 mana)
Glyph of Vyrthane -
- Warhaven (Tier I - 1000 mana)
- Bound Maelstrom (Tier I - 200)
Glyph of Eirnith -
- Zone of Discombobulation (Tier I - 300 mana)
- Compel Obsession (Tier I - 350)
Glyph of Muthryn -
- Redoubt of the Speaker (Tier I - Variable)
Formationbook:
Sigil of Vesryn’s Pact -
- Unbroken Through Suffering (Tier I)
Honours:
Born for Slaughter (Bonus)
Sublime Prodigy - Glyph Binding (Bonus)
Birds of a Blood Soaked Feather (Bonus)
Persistent Survivor (Minor) (Bonus)
Kingslayer (Major) (Bonus)
Ruthless Underdog (Bonus)
Ruthless Underdog II
Trailblazer II (Bonus)
Hordebreaker
Ruthless Underdog III (Bonus)
Persistent Survivor IV (Minor) (Bonus)
Paragon (Major) (Bonus)
Daring Challenger (Minor)
Triarch (Bonus)
The Wheel Turns
Paver of Ways (Bonus)
Hordebreaker II
Massacre II
When Killers Meet
The Mighty Stand Alone
Spellchain II (Bonus)
Bound Artefacts:
A Father’s Gift - Growth Longsword (Epic, T1)
Continue Tempering for Growth Conditions!
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