Birds cawed overhead as Fred and Pebble were walking through the forest. They were consistently looking up to try to spot Fred's floating lantern through the leaves. The forest emitted a fresh scent that gave the evening an electric air. Brisk winds bellowed underneath the flying city, creating ominous howls above the trees.
Pebble looked up and admired Aegis in all its glory. There were hundreds of stone buildings and a few actual glass skyscrapers scattered amongst the city's skyline. The city was held up by a flying set of stones that were carved to look like dragons holding the city on their backs. It was golden hour and the light gave a warm welcoming glow to Aegis, making it look like a holy city with its own halo. The shadows were long and dramatic, caressing the land with its dark embrace.
Oddly enough, Pebble noticed that the sun was setting in the north. The sun continued to set and was now behind the city. The woods felt dark and eerie as the city's shadows stole the light from the Heroes' path..
The Heroes felt exposed in the evening winds. Pebble pulled a lantern out of his inventory, "Thankfully the King really did provide us with a great care package." He said as he held the lantern in front of him.
"Yeah, pretty neat. We just need to follow my lantern and regroup. Do you have any idea how far away Devil's Gouge is?" Fred replied.
"I know it's supposed to be quite the trek according to Puffy." Pebble said as he peered through the trees in search of any stray wildlife.
"Are you worried about getting jumped? We are directly under the city, I'd imagine this would be a pretty safe area, wouldn't you?" Fred was not worried, but Pebble's energy was contagious and he was starting to get antsy watching Pebble.
"Yeah, we are directly under the great and mighty City of Aegis!" Pebble said in an oddly performative manner, "But, at the same time, the chilly wind, sudden lack of light, heart still pumping adrenaline throughout my body from the free fall, the scary birds, not to mention the fact that we are chasing a light source through trees right now. Everything just seems a bit like a set up in a horror movie all of a sudden. I'm sorry for having my guard up." Pebble voiced his concerns and they both stood in silence for a moment.
A branch cracked in the distance and Pebble summoned his axe while continuing to hold the lantern with his left hand. Fred backed up next to Pebble, "Okay yeah, f*ck that, you're right!" Fred said as his eyes began twitching.
"What are you doing?" Pebble asked.
"I don't know, I'm just trying to see if there's anything that I can do right now that I might have missed earlier." Fred's voice was cracking. "I can't use my skill because I already have the lantern out, but Puffy had lots of tools at once! If I can at least summon a flying dagger or something, I'd feel a lot better."
Pebble stayed on guard and waited as Fred dove through his skill tree.
—
Rori was a twenty year old thug with a red hood over his head. He lurked behind a bush and stared at two people who fell from the city with parachutes. He looked to his left at his brother, Lue, "A'ight Lue, tonight we need to get out clean. No mucking about and most definitely no signature mark. Any sort of lunacy like that, and I'll kill ya myself, you heard? Brother Dowel taught us all what being too noisy can lead to. We aren't here for hate, we are here for survival."
Lue looked at Rori with rough, tired eyes, "Aye, I just want to eat, Rori. I'm not interested in any twisted fantasies or dark impulses. I just want to eat." Lue pulled out a small knife and stood up. As he stood, he snapped a branch that was under him.
"Rookie mistake, Lue." Rori grumbled quietly.
"Aye, look." Lue pointed at the bigger looking warrior standing next to the elderly wizard. He had an axe now. "When did he 'ave that there axe, say you? You dun suppose he's one of the new Heroes?"
Rori's eyes were wide with shock, "Nay, I seent it. He wielded the axe straight from the aether, have you. I say we let these ones go."
Lue slowly lowered himself back to his crouched position and looked up at their would be targets. "What in the world?" Lue could not believe what his eyes were seeing. The senile wizard was climbing on the warriors back like a child going for a piggy-back ride. "I..I just… Are you seeing this, Rori?"
Rori indeed did see the odd behavior that they were displaying. He nodded slowly, "Maybe we do continue with 'em?" As Rori finished his question, the warrior's legs shone with a red glow briefly then he started sprinting away at inhuman speeds with the wizard on his back.
"What the f*ck." Lue dropped his knife.
"We need to warn Hudson." Rori said urgently.
—
Fred looked through his skill tree, but even if he did find anything, he still did not have a skill point to invest. Pebble eventually snapped him out of his fruitless endeavor and told him to climb on his back.
"You want me to climb on your back? Look, I know I played it up with the 'touch me like you did before' gag, but that was a joke." Fred held his staff defensively..
"Bro, you're being so weird, just get on my damn back." Pebble rolled his eyes and Fred shrugged before complying. Once Fred was on Pebble's back, Pebble activated Sprint and they sped out of there like a bat out of hell.
"Can you see your lantern friend?" Pebble called back as he sprinted through the trees. Pebble used to love space films when he was younger and he currently was reminded of those movies as he weaved through the forest at incredible speeds.
"WHAT ARE YOU!?" Fred shouted.
"Nevermind that, just point to the lantern!" Pebble ignored his cries.
Fred attempted to point but almost immediately fell due to the wind and G-force he was currently experiencing, "You're just going to have to use your own eyes for this one buddy." He said as he held on for dear life.
Pebble squinted and looked up through the dark woods and looked for any light through the leaves. After a moment, he got a glimpse of it and it wasn't too far away. He had to divert directions slightly, but that was no problem.
"I see it! We will be there in a couple seconds!" Pebble yelled.
"Already? What are you, a sport bike?" Fred felt like he was going to puke.
After a couple more seconds of springing through the dark woods, Pebble arrived in a clearing directly underneath Fred's flying lantern. The lantern bobbed happily at the sight of its creator, but stayed above the clearing. Pebble looked at his friends and noticed that Phil and Bard were back to back in a battle stance.
"Yo, what's going on?" Pebble shouted across the clearing.
"We are under attack! An arrow came out from the bushes!" Phil replied, the tension in his voice made Pebble flinch.
"What? Where's Puffy?" Fred shouted.
"He's right above us!" Bard pointed up briefly.
"What's up guys?" Puffy's parachute was caught in a tall tree and he was dangling three stories up in the air.
Pebble slumped his shoulders, "So far, this new life seems like a mess." Just then, a man jumped out of the bush right behind Pebble with a black smith's hammer. He jumped in the air and was planning to drop the hammer on Pebble's head, but Pebble turned around and grabbed the man's wrist firmly.
The man tried to pull away, but Pebble might have well been a stone statue, "Are you trying to kill us?" Pebble questioned the bandit.
"Let go of me you bastard!" The bandit shouted.
"I GOT HIM!" Fred swung his staff down in a vertical arc and cracked the bandits skull open. The bandit's eyes went wide and Pebble immediately let go of him with a gross expression.
The bandit spun in place for a brief moment before attempting to walk forward and stumbling to the ground, "Wow Fred, you really got the sucker." Pebble said as he looked down at the bleeding bandit. The bandit started to choke on his own blood, "This is really fucked up."
Fred looked horrified as he looked down at the human man he had just murdered.
<+100 CP>
<+250 Exp>
<1500/1600 Exp to level 6>
"Don't freak out, his plan was to kill us. I think you did the right thing." Pebble tried to console Fred.
"Right. I just swung on instinct. It's hard to forget, but this was a good reminder that this isn't a video game." Fred looked at the dead bandit. "Speaking of which, I just leveled up apparently." He said in a slightly cheerier tone. Fred was level 1, so he only needed 100 experience to level up.
"Did you just kill that man?" Bard yelled over. Right then, a bandit charged at Bard with a dagger, stabbing him in the back.
"BARD!" Pebble yelled. Pebble noticed a party icon appeared in his system and Bard's health was flashing.
The bandit removed his knife and went in for the kill and Bard was too shocked to react. Pebble screamed incomprehensibly and kicked his foot through the ground, sending a layer of rock shooting at Bard. He had activated his Rock Throw Augment to give Bard the stone armor.
The layer of stone shot at lightning speed at Bard and wrapped around him instantly. Instead of looking like a gladiator, the stone armor was shaped like a jester this time. The bandit's blade hit the armor and chipped. "What is this!?" the bandit shouted as he attempted to retreat.
"Oh no you don't!" Puffy said as he summoned a flying knife and pointed at the fleeing bandit. The Knife nodded excitedly and darted over to the running man.
"No!" He shouted as the blade hovered in front of him, "No!" The blade shot forward into the man's gut. "Ah, f*ck! Ahh! No!" The blade pulled back into the air and shot back into the man's gut again, "Please, god no! Please!" The blade continued until the bandit stopped complaining.
<+100 CP>
<+250 Exp>
<1750/1600 Exp to level 6>
"MmmMMMmmMMm" Bard was trying to talk, but couldn't be heard from within the armor. In fact, the armor wasn't moving at all. It was frozen in place in the exact pose that Bard was in before the armor covered him.
Phil started slithering at surprising speeds towards the woods, "I see another one!" He shouted.
"Phil, wait!" Puffy and Pebble shouted at the same time. Fred pointed for the lantern to follow Phil since he was now running beyond their line of sight, but a few seconds later the party relaxed.
<+100 CP>
<+250 Exp>
<400/2400 Exp to level 7>
"Ay, I got his ass!" Phil shouted from the woods before dragging the body back into the clearing. Phil had stabbed the blade down into the man's nape, killing him instantly. Phil dropped his body and slid back over to his friends.
Pebble felt a little less guilty about his deeds considering he has not killed any humans yet, but he knew that his friends were most likely processing some serious trauma right now.