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Stannard Berwick
I pulled the trigger on my crossbow, the recoil throwing me backward as the beast core within shot off with a streak of orange. I tumbled away from the blast, but Norgan caught me in time, keeping me from any further harm.
I watched as the beast core rocketed off toward the mass of beasts a ways away. The augmenters who'd worked to herd the monster together scattered, shouting for all to take cover.
Then my spell impacted. The core cracked, and I suddenly felt as my mana burst through the edges of the beast core. A few of the augmenters were sent flying back from the force of the explosion, the wind whipping at them. I felt the heat even from where I was.
A shard of rock flipped toward me, but Norgan leisurely batted it aside with his dagger. He narrowed his eyes, focusing on where the horde of beasts used to be. A ways in front of me, Darvus and Caria caught their breath, settling their nerves as the killshot was delivered. Tessia, ever the warrior, simply gave the whirling smoke a stern look, seeming entirely unphased by the pitched battle we'd been in just a minute ago.
When the smoke cleared, only the charred corpses of mana beasts remained to greet us. The common monster of this dungeon was a lizard-like creature with spiked clubs and a penchant for violence, but now there were none left alive.
I've gotten better at condensing fire mana, I thought, smirking at the results of my spell. There were at least half a dozen A-class beasts at the center, and now there's none.
Norgan whistled in appreciation as he stared at the result. "Impressive display," he said honestly. He helped me up with a solid arm, giving me a light punch on the shoulder in appreciation. "Do you always go flying whenever you shoot those?"
I laughed a bit nervously, working on reloading a low-power round into the chamber of my weapon. "Only with the high-power rounds," I said sheepishly. It felt good to be acknowledged. "The kickback is pretty absurd. It's because I use wind magic to help accelerate it, but that increases the recoil."
"And you've got, what?" Norgan said, his golden brow raised. "Ten that can do all that damage, stuffed into your little bag?"
I rubbed my chin. "Well, nine now," I said. "I need to be careful with my reserves, or else I'll run out. I'm one of the biggest damage dealers for this part of the Trailblazers, so I need to always have a backup."
Norgan flourished his dagger, flicking a bit of blood from the steel edge. A few of the mana beasts had managed to skirt around the back line, but they hadn't been a problem for him.
"Eugh," Caria said from nearby, grimacing at the soppy goop of innards that clung to her gauntlets. "It took me half a year to get the last bit of grime from my clothes."
Darvus snorted. "You should keep the grime in," he said, swinging one of his axes down and beheading a still-twitching lizard. "Tells everyone what you really are instead of that feisty little exterior."
"Little?" Caria hissed, sounding offended. "How many times do I need to say it? I'm not little; I'm petite!" she complained, stomping a foot.
"Saying it over and over again doesn't make it true," Darvus mocked, tossing an axe up and catching it again. "You should know better by now."
"Please, Darvus," Tessia said jovially, striding back from the point of our formation. "Keep talking like that and Caria will wash all that grime into your bedroll."
Darvus looked askance at Tessia. "But as our dear, dear leader," he said, adopting a simpering tone, "you wouldn't let that happen, would you?"
Tessia raised a single gray-silver brow, cocking her head as she stared down the arrogant axeman.
"Would you?" he asked again, this time sounding a lot less confident as he shot a glance at Caria. Caria had a positively devious smirk on her face.
"No comment," Tessia eventually said, striding away from Darvus and back toward me. No, not toward me.
Norgan was leaning against a nearby wall, watching the interplay with a mildly amused expression. The princess of Elenoir scrutinized him closely, tilting her head slightly. "You did remarkably well for your first battle," she complimented, "even if it was from the back line. I'll admit, I expected you to fare a lot worse."
I remembered the first time I met Tessia. I'd been a blushing, stuttering mess as those turquoise eyes held me, but Norgan seemed… unfazed, really. I found myself wondering how any man could maintain that eye contact without their legs becoming jelly. I certainly couldn't.
"I'm more experienced in combat than you might expect, Lady Eralith," he said with a respectful dip of his head. "If you want me to do more, I'm certain I could handle it."
Tessia shook her head. "No, you're still a new recruit, Norgan. And speaking of being a new recruit…" A rather innocent smile crossed her face.
Uh-oh. I knew that expression well. I felt a twinge of sympathy well up in my stomach as I stared at the unsuspecting victim that was Norgan, but I forced my face to remain even.
"Captain Drogo is over there tallying up the remains of the mana beast corpses. I'll need you to check in with him," she said sweetly.
Norgan's brow furrowed as he stopped leaning on the wall, looking at me for some reason. I whistled, avoiding his gaze.
"This is a trap of some sort," he accused. "I just don't see the net yet."
Oh, it absolutely was. But as great a man as the fire augmenter was, that did not spare him from newbie duties.
Tessia simply waved her hand dismissively. "You agreed to follow my orders, Norgan," she said. "And that means going to talk to Drogo," she added, that innocent smile of hers making her almond-shaped eyes narrow slightly.
Norgan began to walk away, practically radiating suspicion as he went toward where the massive Drogo was looming over the corpses of a few A-class beasts.
"I think he's gay," Darvus said primly, leaning back and using an axe for support as he watched where Norgan walked off.
Caria squawked indignantly, before kicking the axe out from under his arm. He yelped as he fell in a rather unimpressive heap. "Darvus, that's uncalled for!" Caria said, sounding affronted. "Just because you don't like someone doesn't mean you should start making assumptions, or discriminate!"
"Oh, come on, that's not what I meant!" Darvus complained, rubbing at his arm from where he'd landed on it. "Do you need to be so punchy all the time?" he grumbled.
"Well, then what did you mean?" I said, crossing my arms and staring at Darvus. He had a habit of trying to puff himself up and demean those he thought of as a threat to his fragile masculinity in any way.
"I'm not being an asshole, I promise! But he didn't even react to our amazing princess!" Darvus said. "Literally everyone I've met has become either an idiot, a comedian, or an idiot comedian whenever they saw our princess for the first time. But he's just not! It's weird!"
"And were you an idiot, a comedian, or a comedic idiot?" Caria bit back toward Darvus, her ire raised. This time for a different reason, I suspected.
Before Darvus could respond, I spoke next. "Actually, Darvus kinda has a point," I said, snapping my fingers. "He really didn't seem to care that Tessia was a princess, either. Just kinda brushed it all off. And well, most men around Tessia are, uh…" I trailed off awkwardly, feeling a bit of a flush in my cheeks.
He was able to maintain eye contact with her for extended periods of time. That didn't seem very straight to me.
"While I am so very flattered by your images of me," Tessia interrupted, rolling her eyes as she began to set up a small camp with the supplies in her dimension ring, "you're all wrong about him. I think he's already got someone he has his eye on," she said, pulling out a pot from her storage.
Caria immediately oriented on Tessia, abandoning her admonishment of a crestfallen Darvus. "Oh, do tell!" she said, ever the gossip. Her eyes practically sparkled as she zipped over to our team leader. "Can you tell because you're in love, too?" she asked.
Tessia's cheeks went red like a strawberry all the way to her ears, her shoulders tensing as Caria poked at her. There was only one topic that could get such a reaction out of her: the Lance, Arthur Leywin.
"No!" she said a bit quickly. "I mean, yes? It's just a feeling, Caria. I can't explain it, okay?" she sputtered, before burying her head in her hands. I felt the elven princess' face might just melt from how red it got.
"If you want to, just ask him," Darvus bit out, sounding sour as he pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "Loverboy's coming back now, and he looks…" The fourth son of House Clarell narrowed his eyes. "Far less angry than I expected. Huh."
Norgan plodded over to us, his hands shoved in his pockets. In fact, he was whistling a light tune as he strode over. Tessia raised her head from her hands, blinking in surprise at the mage's nonchalant air.
"That was far from the worst beast core extraction and skinning I've done," he said jovially, seeming happy. What the hell? "It's a useful skill to have."
"How are you so… fine?" I said incredulously. One of the first things that new recruits were forced to do was work through the corpses of the defeated mana beasts, extracting their cores and salvaging what materials they could. It was a particularly gruesome job, especially because spellfire usually left a bloody pulp instead of an intact body. Many of our new recruits were farmhands who thought they could easily deal with the bodies, but what was left behind after fire, stone, wind, and water struck a mana beast's body was barely recognizable as anything other than sloughing gore.
It was a good way to desensitize newbies to the blood and gore without true danger.
Norgan looked at me with a raised brow, before unsheathing his dagger. He flourished it deftly, spinning it through his hand in an impressive display of dexterity. "I was forced to live in the forest along the Sehz for a month and a half when my mother first started training me in magic," he said, his voice becoming a bit more serious. "When you're forced to hunt for yourself, you learn pretty quickly how to skin a charred corpse."
A strange silence settled over the group as we each individually processed that information. "I guess our hazing isn't as effective on someone who hunted for themselves," Caria said, sounding genuinely disappointed. "But we have another question for you, Norgan," she said, her face darkening as it took on a serious cast.
Norgan's hand paused from where he'd been twirling his dagger, and I thought I saw a note of real uncertainty flash over his face as he stared at Caria. His hand tensed on the dagger, his stance shifting subtly. "What is it?" he asked.
Caria leaned forward, clasping her hands dramatically as her iron stare bored into Norgan. "Are you in love with anyone?"
Norgan blinked. Once. Twice. "What?" he asked stupidly.
Tessia visibly struggled not to laugh as I stared aghast at Caria for her blunt question. Darvus snorted at Norgan's blank expression.
"You see, Darvus here thought you were gay because you didn't become an idiot around our wonderful princess," Caria explained, throwing her childhood friend under the carriage, "but Tessia thinks you've got someone already in your heart. So what is it?"
"Oh," the long-haired augmenter said, seeming to not have expected this at all. Then his brow furrowed slightly. "Well, love is kind of a strong word. For now, at least," he said after a moment, before dropping down on a jutting rock to stare at the pot Tessia had set up for our dinner. "Lady Eralith has a good eye. And Darvus is an idiot."
"Ha! Come on, tell us more!" Caria prodded. "Tell us what she's like!"
Norgan stared intently at the base of the pot, his burning eyes tracing the outline of the logs. "I could tell you a lot of things," he said with consideration. "But really, I'm not sure if anything I could say would do her justice."
Tessia leaned in slightly, clearly interested in learning more about our newest recruit. Darvus pretended to inspect his axes, doing his best not to look too invested.
And Caria? She squealed like a child being presented with her first mana beast pet. "Come on! What's the thing you love most? Just off the top of your head!"
Norgan visibly considered, before he sighed deeply. "She's used to keeping everything to herself," he sighed. "When we're together, that persona kind of… breaks away, despite the fear. And I guess I like seeing what's beneath those layers."
Darvus gagged in exaggerated disgust, while Caria gasped. "Oh, a romantic! You have to tell me how you met! I bet it was romantic, too!"
Norgan smirked, flicking a finger. A small ember flashed from the digit before igniting atop the wood in a flare of light. "Sorry to disappoint you, but it really wasn't. She tried to rope me into being her employee on our very first interaction," he said fondly. "I turned her down, unfortunately for her. She had to work a lot harder after that to dig her claws into me. But once they were there… well, they aren't going anywhere."
That seemed enough to finally get someone else's attention. Darvus scoffed in dismay.
"Norgan, you're going about this all wrong," Darvus said with sudden seriousness, leaning forward and adopting a severe expression as he interjected into the conversation. "If you want to get in the bed of an older woman of that type, there's a specific way to do it. You can't just roll over so quickly. Take it from me: you've gotta make it a fight, first! Make her feel like she's earned being the lion!"
The arrogant son of the Clarell House flexed his muscles in an exaggerated way, seeming proud of himself as Tessia sighed in annoyance and Caria scoffed.
Norgan, contrary to all expectations, threw back his head with laughter. "Darvus, if you tried anything like that with her, you'd be lucky to see the sunrise with your precious parts still attached. Or your head. I think I'd like to see you try!"
The fire augmenter leaned back, a wicked smirk on his face as his orange eyes shone.
Darvus glared at our newest recruit in turn. "You should stop imagining me without my most powerful asset," he said haughtily, crossing his arms.
Norgan scoffed lightly. "I don't need to," he said smugly. "After all, you clearly carry two big axes because you have no sword to mention."
I coughed abruptly, hacking and sputtering in surprise. Even Tessia laughed at that one, while Caria forgot how to breathe from the counter.
Darvus' eyes flashed in challenge. "Okay then, little dagger," he countered, "l'll take you up on your challenge to prove the worth of my words. When this battle is done, I'll show you exactly how to charm a woman like that." Darvus pointed an arrogant thumb at himself. "So when you do eventually get with your oh-so-pretty company leader, you'll only have Darvus, fourth son of House Clarell to thank!"
Caria finally took this opportunity to sock Darvus hard in the stomach. Utterly unprepared for the pint-sized powerhouse's strike, he wheezed as he doubled over.
"You crazy," he wheezed, staring up at her with betrayal deep in his eyes, "you crazy bit–"
"I will hit lower next time," she declared, her cheeks burning from a slight flush. "Don't give me the excuse, Darvy."
Caria glared down at him, and Darvus chose life as he opted to not finish that word. Instead he groaned, muttering to himself in a pouting way as he clutched his growing bruise.
I chortled. For all Darvus' tough talk, Caria still had him beat. But then I looked at Norgan.
His expression was gradually falling, something sad and empty taking its place. The playful banter seemed to suddenly sap the life from him instead.
"We'll get you through this," Tessia said to Norgan as she noticed what looked like… regret. Despair. "It isn't easy being a soldier, but I–and my team–will make sure you survive. It's okay to be nervous, too."
Norgan nodded slowly, turning away slightly. "Yeah, thank you."
The conversation trailed off as our group stared at the cookfire, a strangely melancholy sense taking us all over.
—
A couple of hours later after we'd all broken for lunch, the Trailblazers continued down the dungeon's twisting pathways. Occasionally, we had to fight a small wave of beasts, but with the aid of experience and teamwork, we cut through all monsters like wheat through butter.
Drogo called a halt to our procession with a raised hand, staring at two diverging tunnels in front of us. Whispers spread throughout our number as uncertainty took hold.
After all, this tunnel wasn't here the last time we'd been through this dungeon. And unexplained alterations to dungeons was characteristic of Alacryan intervention.
Drogo stared at the tunnel, his brow furrowed. "We'll need a scouting team to check the path a little ways ahead," he said seriously, turning back to look at us all. His eyes roved over the many individual teams that composed this slice of the Trailblazers.
I knew before Drogo's eyes settled on our group that we were going to be selected. Tessia had proven herself many times over to be a tactical commander for situations like these, making her a prime choice. Furthermore, she was likely the strongest individual mage of all of us, considering her status as a silver core.
Sure enough, our captain called out for the head of our unit. "Tessia Eralith," he said seriously. "Will you and your team scout the path ahead and report back should you spot anything else amiss?"
Tessia nodded seriously, her hand firm on her rapier. "I will, captain," she said. "Give us a moment to plan before we go."
Drogo nodded, the burly man turning away. Tessia looked at Norgan first, lowering her voice. "Do you think you can do this?" she said. "It wasn't part of the original plan for you, and we don't know what might be down that tunnel."
Norgan nodded seriously. "I came here on a mission, princess," he said resolutely. "And I'll do all I can to get that done."
Tessia's brow furrowed slightly, but she eventually nodded in turn. "Alright then," she said. "Try to keep up."
Caria clacked her gauntlets together as she stared at the tunnel, the entrance like the yawning chasm of an abyss. Darvus snorted as he held his axes, his eyes focused on the darkness beyond. I swallowed as we began to walk toward the tunnel, my footsteps suddenly far more audible.
I was small for my age. I hated to admit it, but it was true. But I felt even smaller as I stared up at the rim of the stone above me. I felt like a morsel of food entering willingly into the gullet of some giant beast. I'd fought countless monsters, but there was still something terrifying about the unknown.
It's just a cave, Stannard, I chastised myself, gritting my teeth at my foolishness. There's no need to get all ruffled. Stop being a coward.
As expected, the tunnel wasn't any different from the dungeon outside, even as we continued on through it. It sloped downward for a ways as we all followed it, but otherwise…
I stared up at the ceiling, breathing a sigh of relief. My nerves were always–
My eyes widened as they caught on something far above. Two burning orange stars illuminated a metallic texture that clung to the ceiling. A sort of avian mana beast made entirely of bronzed metal stared down at me, those fiery eyes seeming to pierce my soul.
I halted in my tracks, my breath catching. How did I not sense it before? The thing tilted its head, looking at me as if I were prey. It wasn't that big–maybe the size of a falcon, but…
My eyes wrenched themselves away from the construct, just to land on something else that was clenched in its sharp beak.
It was a beast core. Not just any beast core, but one I recognized. One I'd imbued not three hours ago.
The monster's eyes glimmered with intelligence. I felt my heartbeat stop as I put two and two together.
"Everybody, run!" I screamed suddenly, my legs shaking as I stared up at the metallic beast. Everyone jumped in surprise, looking back at me. "It's going to blow–"
The avian beast whipped its head, throwing the volatile core at the ceiling behind us. The core smashed into the ground, shattering into a million pieces.
And releasing the spell within.
The cavern was suddenly awash with heat. I felt a hand snatch my collar, grabbing it and cinching tight as it clasped my armor. Norgan threw me behind him, bracing himself against the tide of flames as he threw a hand out, conjuring a barrier of fire around us both. The edges of my very own spell singed his arms, fighting to break through the torrent.
For a second, all I could see was orange. All I could feel was overwhelming heat, my metal armor cooking me inside. Norgan's teeth clenched as sweat dripped down his brow, his hastily conjured fire barrier struggling to stand against the overwhelming power packed into the beast core.
I almost forgot to breathe as the torrent of mana slowly dissipated. My hands shook from where they clutched the dirt, my gaze locked on where the pathway back used to be.
The ceiling had caved in from the explosion, leaving a hundred tons of debris between us and the rest of the Trailblazers. I felt strangely numb as I gaped, still flat on my ass.
"What the fuck!" Darvus cursed, glaring at me. The rest of the team had managed to get clear of the initial blast radius. "Why the hell did you detonate one of your rounds right here, Stannard?! We're trapped!" he seethed, a mix of panic and anger warring in his face.
"I– I didn't," I said numbly. "I mean, it was one of my rounds, but a mana beast… There was a mana beast on the ceiling that had one. I don't know how!" I said, feeling shellshocked. I struggled to think, not understanding how this could have happened.
Caria seemed just as surprised as me, her eyes glued to the only exit that was now barred from us. She stared at it mutely, her mouth agape with uncomprehension.
Tessia looked just as panicked herself for a minute before she forcibly calmed herself. "This isn't as bad as it looks," she said slowly, gathering her breathing. "The tunnel may be blocked, but–"
Something streaked out from the rubble, zipping past Norgan and me in a bronze blur. It shot past our team, heading further down the tunnel in a sinuous weave.
"That's the beast!" I said, jumping to my feet. Suddenly, adrenaline coursed through my veins again as my focus narrowed. To my credit, my legs barely shook. "It's the thing that detonated that spell!"
Darvus snarled, hefting an axe back as he focused on the retreating metal beast. His muscles visibly flexed as he clenched his hand in anger. Then he hurled one of his weapons at the small creature, the axe tumbling end over end in an unerring line. "Take that, you metal bastard!" he yelled angrily.
I thought for a moment that Darvus' axe might actually hit the monster, but a fireball–also aimed at the metal beast–collided with Darvus' axe in midair, causing it to detonate. The Clarell son's weapon was sent spiraling into the floor, embedding itself there as the avian monster screeched in a way that sounded distinctly mocking as it disappeared into the darkness.
Norgan's outstretched hand clenched as his face wrinkled in agitation, clearly irritated that he'd missed his mark. Darvus glared at him, before marching forward with his sole remaining axe clenched in his hand. "Great!" he said mockingly. "And now the thing that trapped us here got away, all because you can't aim for shit! If you would've just let me deal with it, then we'd at least have the taste of revenge to sate this crap!"
Norgan didn't back down from the Clarell's attempt at intimidation. His hand rested solidly near his dagger as he matched Darvus' stare. "Well, I'm sorry that I tried to help!" he bit back. "Maybe you shouldn't immediately start pointing fingers. We're all trapped here, if you didn't notice!"
A vine cracked like a whip between the two of them as Darvus' mana flared. They turned to look at Tessia, whose outstretched hand glimmered with green particles of mana as she reined in her plant magic. "Enough!" she snapped, glaring at Darvus. "Arguing and picking fights won't get us anywhere in this mess. But it's not the end of the world. Dungeons rarely have dead ends, and if that mana beast was willing to try and trap us here, it has likely got an escape route of its own."
Darvus' hand clenched as he lowered his axe, still covertly boring holes into Norgan. "Fine," he said, before marching over to where his other axe was embedded in the floor. "Just tell the forest dweller not to fire spells willy-nilly, and keep his hands to himself."
Tessia turned hard eyes to Norgan next. Her lips pursed as her perfect gray-silver brows furrowed, visibly concentrating. "Norgan," she said after a minute, "could you go check down the route a little bit as I assess the damage here?" she asked.
Norgan seemed to still, sensing something hidden in Tessia's words. Then he sighed, walking back toward Caria. "Got it, Lady Eralith," he said with a tired sigh.
Tessia looked at me sternly. Normally, I might have blushed or felt self-conscious under that stare, but the aura of severity that radiated off of her banished any of that. "Stannard, how many of your high-power rounds do you have right now?"
I blinked, cursed, then fumbled to look through the pack at my side. When I opened up my bag and began to count the beast cores within, I felt my teeth clench. "Only eight," I said. "I don't understand how that mana beast got one of my cores! It doesn't make sense."
Tessia's suspicious eyes flicked down the tunnel where both that bird and Norgan had disappeared. "You're right," she said slowly. "It doesn't make sense."
I shifted uncomfortably, not understanding her meaning. "What are you thinking?" I asked, feeling a strange sort of dread sift under my skin.
Tessia's bright turquoise eyes snapped back to me. "Stannard, when you first met Norgan, did he ever show you his lower back?" she asked seriously.
I shook my head. "No, he said he had scars down there he didn't want us to see," I said. Then the implications of her words and suspicions caught up to me. "Wait, you don't mean that Norgan is an Alac–"
Tessia pressed her hand to my mouth, cutting off my next words. I felt myself blush as she kept narrowed eyes focused on where the golden-haired augmenter had disappeared. "Quiet, Stannard," she said, before removing her hand.
I swallowed nervously, looking anywhere but the elven princess' eyes. "But he showed us organic magic," I said in a hushed whisper. "You told us that the Alacryan mages used runes to channel their effects, not our ways of forming mana. That should mean he's in the clear, right?"
Tessia's eyes visibly dilated as she let out a curse. "Stannard, that information is reserved for only the highest echelons of the Council and specific Captains. I was only told because my grandfather wanted me to be informed," she said sharply. "All most captains know is that the Alacryans have tattoos, not that the tattoos are the source of their magic."
The obvious conclusion began to quickly settle into my bones. A chill creeped its way up my spine as I trembled uncertainly. "Then that means that Norgan either knows information only privy to the Council…"
"Or he's an Alacryan spy," Tessia continued gravely, "sent to sabotage us in particular."
—
My steps felt like lead as our group continued down the passageway, my thoughts a mess. Tessia's words and conclusions made perfect sense, and I couldn't think of any other way that a beast core had managed to find its way into the beak of some mana beast, except by someone extremely close to me.
But Norgan saved my life from that explosion, I thought, not wanting to believe it. And the words we shared around the cookfire… That felt real, didn't it? There's no way he just faked that.
A sharper voice rebuked me from within as our group of five nervously descended further into the dungeon. If he's a spy, of course he could fake those things, I thought sourly, berating myself. Hell, Norgan's probably played us all for fools. And you let him because you're an idiot who gets a little happy at the barest bit of praise. You were the one who let him into the camp, after all. It's your fault if anything goes wrong. And he manipulated you, making you think that there was another just like you out there.
A strange light appeared at the end of the tunnel, making our group slow in apprehension. My hands clenched around my beast core launcher–from apprehension, fear, or anger, I couldn't tell.
"Keep close," Tessia said, showing none of her suspicions or plans on her face. "We don't know what's up ahead, so keep on your toes!"
Caria crashed her gauntlets together, resolve burning in her eyes. Darvus scowled at the end of the tunnel as he flourished his axes, while Norgan simply settled his stance.
I should have guessed it, I thought bitterly. He's too experienced, clearly. First battle, my ass.
Norgan must have sensed my attention because he turned back to look at me. I held his eyes for a moment–those burning, swirling eyes–before I forced myself to turn back to the tunnel exit.
It's not confirmed yet, I reminded myself, swallowing nervously. We still need to make sure.
Tessia strode forward out of the tunnel, and we all followed. Caria gasped audibly as the cavern shifted in its entirety. Darvus whistled in appreciation, his glare washing away in awe.
I almost dropped my core launcher in astonishment, gaping like a new recruit as I saw the cavern.
A massive expanse of clear crystal covered the stone like scales, refracting from a hundred floating lights. Orbs of vibrant cerulean flickered and bobbed like curious fireflies, drifting about like snow on the wind.
It was like a garden of protruding spires, each seeming to glimmer with purpose.
And what was even more strange was that there were no mana beasts within the expansive cavern–at least none that I could sense. This felt like the prime location for a boss monster of some sort, but–
"Over there!" Caria said, pointing animatedly. "I think I see something smoking over there!" she exclaimed. "What is that?"
Our group focused in the direction Caria was pointing, and I immediately felt myself pale. A massive lizardlike creature the size of a small house lay dead in a heap. Once, it must have been covered entirely in reflective spines of crystal, but now they were cracked and broken. Its eyes stared up emptily at the sky.
A hole was seared straight through its chest and out the other side, an unerring line burned through the flesh without care for anything in its path. The rims of the wound didn't bleed, the entire wound cauterized from the heat of whatever had killed it.
"Damn," Darvus cursed, his eyes wide. "That's an AA-class beast at least, and it's just… dead," he said, sounding unnerved. "But what killed it?"
I felt a flash of deja vu as I stared at the corpse, thinking of my first interaction with Arthur Leywin. The scores upon scores of mana beast corpses, all piled around him…
I blinked as Norgan stepped past the group, withdrawing his knife and kneeling by the large monster's head. He proceeded to prod the creature's skull with the point of his dagger, observing the way the flesh moved. "It hasn't been dead long," he said seriously. "Probably only an hour at most, considering how rigor mortis hasn't started to set in around its face. If we want to find what did this–"
Tessia's rapier flashed, the green-patterned steel arcing down near Norgan's hand. Her weapon smashed the dagger from his grip with contemptuous ease, before the tip snapped back up like the jaws of a serpent.
The point of the elven princess' blade drew a line of blood from where it sunk ever-so-slightly into Norgan's throat. Her turquoise eyes were deathly focused as she kept her intent locked solely on the disarmed mage in front of us.
Darvus immediately grabbed his axes, but he seemed momentarily confused by our leader's actions as she held our once-companion at swordpoint. Caria yelled in surprise.
I moved to the side, trying to flank the two. I raised my beast core launcher, aiming it at Norgan's exposed back. My hands were surprisingly steady as I aimed down my sights at the man. My heartbeat rose in my ears, my nerves threatening to overwhelm me.
"Tessia, what's going on?" Caria said, shifting into a fighting stance as her eyes snapped between Norgan and her. "What are you–"
"Norgan," Tessia said sharply, "You are going to show us your lower back. And if you don't, I'm going to thrust my rapier through your neck."