Chapter Fifteen: A Light in the Tunnels

"Are you ready?" Varashan asked me.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Then follow my lead. They will likely attack us on sight."

We moved out from behind the tunnel corner we'd stopped to hide behind. Stepping into a wider cavern intersection.

A low growl echoed from the gloom ahead of us, and then four shapes emerged. Thick, shaggy beasts. The size of bears. Muscles like coiled stone. Long, digging limbs tipped with steel-colored claws that shimmered unnaturally in the crystal light.

[Steelclaw – Level 26]

[Steelclaw – Level 26]

[Steelclaw – Level 25]

[Steelclaw – Level 27]

[Steelclaw – Level 23]

I summoned my [Raging Blade] in a rush of mana and fire. The sword blazed to life in my hand, again casting dancing illumination over the cavern walls in a way that was becoming familiar.

The Steelclaws hissed at our light. Looked pained and enraged by it even.

“Gwyn, left!” I shouted.

She didn’t answer with words. Just vanished in a flicker of mana.

If their defense was only okay, but their offense was deadly, I figured it was better to hit them hard and fast--before they could even hit us.

A Steelclaw roared and barreled forward, only to be slammed into by seven hundred pounds of panther wrapped in mana-touched muscle.

Gwyn's shimmering claws gouged fur and skin, striking with more force than I remembered her having in our last fight.

Of course they did. She was in my aura’s range.

I felt it through our link. The raw boost to her physical power. Gwyn had always been powerful and stronger than me Strength-wise, but now she struck like a force of nature. Her claws bit with impossible ferocity, shredding thick-skin-like paper.

And Varashan... he rushed forward after us following only a sleight hesitation.

Once he got moving, he didn’t just fight. He flowed. His spear spun through the air with a dancer’s grace and a killer’s precision.

The moment the Steelclaws all lunged in earnest, he ducked under one, pivoted, and drove his spear clean through its inner shoulder joint. Its angry bellow turned to a scream.

He glanced at his arm as he stuck the monster into the earth itself with a cracking sound. “By the stars…" he muttered, almost startled, as he violently ripped his spear from the beast and then impaled it through one of its flat-eyes "I feel two centuries younger."

I smiled. "Then stay close to me while I fight!"

My blade ignited mid-swing, and I teleported forward in a tight [Mana Flicker], reappearing beneath the flank of a panicking Steelclaw. I slashed into its belly, fire blooming in a chain of sparks.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Then I teleported away again, but not too far, as it tried to counter-swipe me. I launched a fire-ball into its face in response to its failure.

The beasts screeched and toppled at the impact, legs buckling.

“Get down!” Varashan shouted.

I dropped. His spear flew over my head and impaled a Steelclaw mid-pounce.

Gwyn flickered into the air after Varashan's spear landed true. The panther, not much smaller than the steelclaw, tackled the wounded creature down as it was already falling.

Another lunged. I flickered just like Gwyn had and landed a clean [Thrust]. My flaming sword thrust as a straight, hard jab into its open maw. The system pulsed around me as skill-energy flooded my limbs.

The beast reeled back, clutching its shredded face, but didn’t fall.

Gwyn was already on it as well. She leapt high, jaws glistening with her previous victim's blood, and latched onto her new one's throat.

She tore the Steelclaw down.

Four gone.

One left.

The survivor in question hesitated. Wincing eyes flicking between us and our lights. Gwyn snarled low.

“I’ve got it,” I said.

I sprinted forward and activated [Throw Sword].

My blade launched from my hand, spiraling in a blur of flame. But the Steelclaw shifted at the last second, ducking beneath it.

Nope.

I activated [Raging Sorcery].

My blade erupted in midair, but not before it redirecting mid-arc and diving into the beast’s back like a missile.

The explosion that followed shook the small cavern we were in.

Breathing hard, I mana-flickered over to the the twitching body. My fists lit with [burning hands], but I realized I didn't need the spell as the corpses began to glow and break down.

Loot orbs began to shimmer and float up where the bodies had been.

Hell yes. My first real level up in a while, ever since I'd started evening out with the monsters of the dungeons in terms of raw numbers.

I felt Gwyn's happiness for me wash over our bond. I felt her grow slightly stronger as well as the amount of Mana she could draw from me increased.

But other than the soft ping of the System notification: there was silence.

I looked over to Varashan. Who was panting, but had a composed and appraising look on his face as he examined what we had done together.

“Hey,” I said, brushing a sweat-slick strand of hair behind my ear. “How’d I do?”

Varashan met my eyes. The knight’s stern expression softened for the first time since we’d left the city.

“You fight with skill,” he admitted. “But you’re relying on raw power and instincts. You barely used any proper Skills.”

I blinked. “I only have [Throw Sword] and [Thrust].”

He gave me a long look. “That is satisfactory for a battlemage perhaps. For now. But if you are serious about fighting like this, you will need to hone your swordcraft. Once you reach the expert tier in your one-handed proficiency, the System will allow you to start shaping your own style. Or, if any swordmasters still lived… you could have learned theirs already.”

My heart stirred a little at that. Shaping my own style? It sounded… poetic.

But I still asked again, a little grin forming, “So. How’d I do?”

Gwyn licked her paws, grooming the blood off them, and spoke to Varashan: "Just tell her she's a good girl and be done with it. She fought very well."

That, and perhaps the exhilaration of battle that I had no doubt he was feeling as well, cracked his mentor expression for good.

He laughed. It was loud, warm, and fatherly--though I guess he was one after all. “You might just slay the other Rulers yet. And if we loot their claws…” He nodded at the Steelclaws as they finished dissolving into loot orbs, “Tavaryon should be able to forge weapons and armor from them that exceed the second tier. Even with his current tier of smithing.”

His eyes worked, as if he was contemplating something else he hadn't yet revealed to me.

I smiled. “See? I like you better when you’re complimenting me. You remind me of my grandpa when you laugh like that.”

Varashan chuckled. “My own children have not given me the honor yet. But I look forward to the day.” He watched as I stepped forward and begin to loot the Steelclaws. “Clarissa, are you willing to hunt more of these beasts? With your aura... this went far better than I expected.”

I inspected the first loot list, with three more still to come:

>>

[Loot: Steelclaw – Level 25]

• Steelclaw Claws.

• Greater Bestial Shard.

• Steelclaw Meat.

>>

I was quickly picking up a lot of new soul shards. I'd really have to make some new spells soon to expand my kit and versatility. "Sure. Why not?"