Eramith
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Book 2: Chapter 55
🕑 Added 2023-05-26 13:00:04 +0000 UTCFelix returned his attention to the real world and looked up to finally answer Amani’s question. She wasn’t standing in front of him anymore though. Felix’s head darted around until he found her crouched on the ground in front of the metal plate in the floor, behind him. Worst of all, she held it open just a crack.
“Don’t!”
“What… What’s down there?”
“Close it!”
Amani dropped the door and it made a loud boom that echoed through the floor at their feet causing Felix to wince.
“Jeez. Sorry.” Amani held her hands up in surrender, “Didn’t realize you were so… possessive. You kind of zoned out there for a bit so I thought I would just take a peek. I wasn’t going to take anything, I was just curious.”
Felix sighed, “I was reading the book… Alright look, I’ll tell you what’s down there, but you can’t tell anyone about it, clear?”
Her eyes lit up at the prospect of learning a secret and she nodded.
“I’m being serious. Someone is going to think they’re hot shit and try to go down there and just end up killing themselves. It needs to stay a secret. Hopefully this is the only other entrance…”
“Look if it’s just a vault or something, I’m sure it’s not th-”
“Look, just listen. This entire city, Ky’bel, was built on top of a kingdom. We are standing on a massive ceiling that covers the entire thing. There are Devoured down there too but they’re different. The ones up here are annoying, but dumb. The ones down there are smarter, and have levels starting in the high 200s. They range all the way up to the 600s at least.”
“Bull shit. If they were that high level, you’d be dead.”
The fuck do I say to that?
Felix just looked at her for a few moments, unsure what to say.
I could show her, but I don’t want to have to babysit her down there.
“Alright fine. I’ll show you on one condition.”
“Shoot.” Amani sighed and shook her head.
“We’re bringing Nova, and you have to stay with them at all times, got it?”
“Your cat? Fine, I’ll babysit your cat for you. Where is it anyway?”
Felix reached inwards for his soul bond with Nova and felt them just a short distance away, somewhere on the second level. He was about to fly to them then realized he probably shouldn’t leave the trap door exposed. He also realized he probably shouldn’t use the trapdoor at all. They were currently on the second level which meant the castle on the cliff, with it’s absurdly high level Devoured, was sitting directly below them.
He spent an hour or so with an impatient Amani collapsing the basement around the trapdoor and trying to make it as hard as possible to dig back up. He had to assure Amani more than once that he knew another way in, but she understood the danger of leaving it accessible, if what he claimed was true. Once he was done, he pulled out the shittiest furniture he had and tore it apart, salvaging a large wooden board. He planted it in the rubble and used a fire spell to pyrograph a simple gravestone.
“Who’s John and Leanne?” Amani asked with a mix of confusion and sympathy as Felix stepped back to admire his handy work.
“No one. My hope is people are less likely to question a grave than a large mess of rubble and that they’re less likely to dig it up looking for treasure.”
“Isn’t this whole event supposed to be a tomb raiding event? You think people will care?”
“You might be right about that. One second.”
Felix walked back up to the grave marker and wrote a quick epitaph: “There is no treasure, no loot left. We already cleared the vault and their inventories. Please just leave them to rest, together, in peace.”
“That’s a really sweet sentiment, for your completely imaginary friends that didn’t exist until a few minutes ago.” Amani teased.
Felix just shrugged and started walking in Nova’s direction. As soon as they got to a main road made of the familiar large white bricks, they sped up and began running. Though Felix was supposed to be leading, Amani sped up and passed him. Felix couldn’t help but smile and sped up to surpass her. The competition grew well past where Felix expected it to.
He initially thought she wouldn’t stand a chance just based on stats alone but, fairly quickly he became convinced she had an energy cycling skill, and one much more efficient than his own. His stats still seemed to be higher, but she was ultimately the faster runner when she activated a skill that made her rise a few inches into the air. Her feet blurred slightly and she seemingly sprung off non existent wind with every step.
Up to that point Felix had avoided using spells because he didn’t think it would be in the spirit of the competition, but she started it. In the end, that was her biggest mistake. As soon as Felix started flying, she didn’t stand a chance. She tried very hard but Felix just floated in the air just in front of her matching her speed no matter what she did. Finally, Felix stopped just in front of a large white stone mansion with pillars, gargoyles and countless corbels, all carved with incredibly intricate designs. Amani overshot him and almost celebrated for having finally passed him when she realized he had stopped. She walked back over to him and doubled over breathing heavily.
“It’s this one.”
“Dammit. I thought I finally had you there. Was I close? Were you running out of mana or… could you have gone faster?”
“Not quite and a little faster.”
“Well, I might have won if you hadn’t cheated.”
“You started it. I wasn’t going to use any skills or spells then you did that whole dancing on the wind thing.”
Amani shrugged and chuckled a little, “Guilty.”
“You have an energy cycling skill, don’t you?”
Amani just nodded, still catching her breath. Felix pulled his flask out of his inventory and offered it to Amani who looked at him a little weirdly before shrugging and taking it. It was still refilling itself with the cold citrus drink that Felix and, according to her face, Amani liked.
“Yours is definitely more efficient than mine. Any tips?”
Amani took a large gulp of air, “It’s a race thing. Part of the whole desert elf thing, body is more efficient to survive in the desert.”
Hey Grim, any chance there was a desert elf in the experiments?
Nope. Not much in terms of efficiency either. It’s pretty much all combat focused. The two you used before were among the only defense focused experiments he conducted.
Damn.
Doesn’t sound like this is a desert elf specific thing though, more like a desert creature thing. You could probably find yourself some other desert creatures in the future.
Good call. We can look for one when we get back.
“Hello?” Amani was waving her hand in front of Felix’s face.
“Oh, sorry.”
“You kind of zoned out for a second there.”
“Yeah, sorry. This is the house.”
“There’s another trap door in there?”
“What? No, Nova’s here.”
“Oh right. The cat… Don’t get me wrong, I like your cat, it’s adorable. I just don’t get why you’re making such a fuss about sticking it on me.” Amani handed Felix’s flask back to him.
Felix didn’t bother answering, figuring he’d just show her soon enough. Instead, he led her around the house into the backyard.
Looking around, there was a massive hole in the side of the immaculately constructed house with a sealed portal at the epicenter. The backyard itself was laid out like an art gallery. There were stone walkways that created a winding path throughout the entire backyard passing by statues and sculptures. Each piece of art seemed to be made of a different material, some of crystals, others metal and some more exotic.
It seemed like a trophy room depicting a sculptor’s accomplishments as well as being a showcase of their art. All around and between the art was perfectly groomed vegetation, grass, flowers and hedges all meticulously placed to accentuate the art itself. It was ultimately beautiful, which made Nova’s actions that much more obvious. Each and every one of the statues and sculptures had a single massive bite taken out of them, some of their shapes no longer recognizable because of it. They found Nova napping on the roof of a gazebo right around the middle of the yard.
As Felix approached, Nova roused and walked on the air towards him. They curled themselves around Felix’s neck and settled mostly on his right shoulder then meowed at Amani.
Hey Nova. Felix scratched behind they’re ear, I need to go back down to the undercity and Amani is going to come with me. Could you keep an eye on her, keep her safe?
Nova responded with the mental equivalent of a shrug and a “sure.” Felix was just glad they didn’t mind. He was dreading the prospect of babysitting Amani and trying to keep her safe. It wasn’t even that he didn’t like her, he found that he actually mildly enjoyed spending time with her so far, it was that he was already having trouble keeping himself alive up here. Down there, he couldn’t be responsible for her life too, Nova on the other hand had a much higher level and had a much easier time dealing with the Devoured.
“Alright, now we can go down into the undercity. Nova’s agreed to stay with you as well so that’s taken care of.”
Amani rolled her eyes, “So how do we get there?”
“It’s kind of a long flight. Guess we get the rope out again.”
“Can’t I just sit on your back? Or I could stand on you, ride you like a surfboard.” Amani smiled at the prospect.
“Uh…”
Felix suddenly received the image of a statue depicting a man riding a six legged horse like thing with large ram horns with an inquisitive intent.
Yeah, she’s asking if she can ride me.
Nova meowed in denial and hopped off of Felix’s shoulder onto the ground. He got the image of him riding a large metal panther he recognized as Nova’s preferred combat form.
“Ah, good idea. She can ride you instead.”
Nova once again meowed in denial.
You want me specifically to ride you?
Nova nodded, meowed and walked in a circle.
What about her?
He got a sense of, If she has to, she can too.
Can you fly with someone on your back?
Nova mentally scoffed at his question. He figured worst case he could use a spell to lift them all, as long as Nova wasn’t too heavy being solid metal.
“How am I going to ride a cat? Hello… Felix?”
“Sorry. We’re both gonna ride Nova, they’ll fly us over.” He shrugged, “They insisted.”
At that, Nova morphed into the form of a massive metal panther, easily big enough for both of them to mount with space between them. Felix hopped onto Nova and took the front most seat then turned to look at a slightly incredulous Amani.
“You coming?” He said with more mirth leaking into his facial expression than he was proud of when he finally saw her start to concede her disbelief, even if just a little.
Due to Nova’s size, there was almost enough room for 4 to squeeze on their back, which meant there was more than enough room for Amani to sit behind Felix, with space between them. Instead, she sat almost right up against Felix’s back whether due to fear of falling off or some other reason, Felix didn’t know. At first he was worried of falling off as Nova’s metallic exterior didn’t provide much friction, but Nova had apparently already thought of this. They slightly morphed their back to have a rougher texture, much easier to hold on to with just their legs. Theoretically, either of them could have formed a saddle with stirrups and all, but Nova didn’t know what a saddle was and Felix was a little vain and thought this looked cooler.
Once Amani had settled herself comfortably behind Felix, Nova looked back at them, their head turning a little further than was natural. Felix patted their neck and the three of them shot up into the air. It took a few minutes for Nova to adjust to having people ride them, instead of just flying on their own. Simple stuff like taking off too quickly, accelerating, decelerating and spinning through the air. Luckily, Felix didn’t even have to say anything, Nova was more than smart enough to realize what was happening and adjust. After those first few minutes with just a handful of almost mishaps, the ride was smooth and enjoyable. Felix used a wind spell to form a windshield of sorts as they flew outside the city and almost directly west. He also had to assure Amani they were heading in the right direction, more than once.
Nova remembered the way so they simply sat with their thoughts and the sound of the rushing wind as they flew out past the cliff face. Felix was trying to decide what his next step was. He knew he had to find the seals but he also knew there were plenty of Devoured down in Kroterra that he was not ready to deal with at all. He figured he should probably finalize his experiments on his own skin and decide to either spread them to the rest of his body or continue to iterate. After that, he would look into increasing the strength of his bones followed by his muscles. He figured following that order was probably his safest bet.
He was also trying to figured out a good way of dealing with the Devoured. He knew he could fall back on using the axe as they were less resistant to physical damage than they were to spells, but he was still a caster, or at least saw himself as one. By the time they reached the west coast, he had essentially accepted his fate and decided he would look into using spells to supplement his fighting with the axe.
They dropped down the cliff and into the small cave just peeking out above the water. Nova raced through the caves and into what was once a mine. As soon as they entered Felix was ready with a light spell that he cast above them so they could see. Amani backed up and squeezed her arms around Nova due to the winding nature of the caves and mine whereas Felix practiced using force spells to keep his balance.
