This is the fixed version of my previous post. You're in the right place :)

I've included a violence warning in this chapter because a part of it is particularly gruesome and really quite frightening. If you don't feel like reading about that, skip from when Aria leaves to the next time the date is put in, you aren't going to miss any strictly critical information. (Those directions will make sense when you read it, and now there's no spoilers up here!)

 

A huge huge thank you to both Eric and Sadarsa, who pointed out some things I messed up fairly badly and that didn't really make sense. I went and edited it to take those points into account, so hopefully it's better now after those extra thousand words. (if not, please comment or message me so I can continue editing it and expand upon the things that need to be expanded upon!)

Alright, try number two of Part Six!

 

-Tas

 

 

 

 

 

Ilos, Day 29

 

A slight breeze floated down the dirt lane, picking up small trails of dust and ruffling the tall grass that lined the path. Once used to carry wagons in single file from the Air Gate, the beaten dirt had seen years of disuse. The wind traveled along the road, touching the small cliff that separated this portion of the hard dirt from the Air Gate as well as the chest high grass on either side of the only route to the lone city on the second floating island. The air had traveled this path thousands of times; disturbing nothing, always the same, yet this time it stirred the folds of a dark cloak.

Solventus Gale strode forwards towards the city of Windwall, bathed by the early morning’s pale light. His dark leather armor whispered softly with each movement, and along with his hood kept off the lingering chill of night brought by the light breeze that wafted along the path. As always, his face was set in a neutral expression, yet such was his frustration that his eyebrows were slightly lower than usual, the curve of his mouth trailing slightly downwards.

He’d been watching for differences from the beta after the girl’s strange reaction at the first gate guardian, yet so far there was only a single thing, and it was this that had him in such a dour mood. The monster who kept the next Air Gate sealed was extremely difficult to finish on his own, yet for now he had no other option but to continue trying until his once companion caught up to him. It was strange that the black-haired girl had yet to find him despite the two full days he’d been on this island. Perhaps she had been scared off by her brush with death, yet for some reason he doubted it. No other champion had been seen either, but the dark-clothed man expected the front runners to appear soon. It was common knowledge that the most power was gained from killing champions, the victims forfeiting all of their items with the exception of those in their largest Storage Gem. The killers gained experience rivalling that received from a gate guardian when successfully defeating another champion; a dedicated group of such people would be able to advance even more quickly than he had. If he was forced to remain on this island for much longer, the lead he had worked for would vanish like the early morning dew, if it had not already.

There was a feeling of Intent, and an arrow whistled through the space his head had been occupying as he pulled back suddenly. As if his thoughts had summoned them, five men stood up in the tall grass that lined the path, shouting battle cries as they began to attack. One of them dropped a crossbow as he rushed forwards, unlimbering his two handed sword.

Before their boots touched the hard dirt of the path, the purple-eyed man had already assessed them. It was a well-executed attack that spoke of practice, the failure of the initial arrow to hit him not affecting the others. It spoke to the skill of these men that he had not sensed them before their rush began; they must have been very successful up till now. He could use that. For an ambush on a more powerful target to be successful, the victim must be overwhelmed, and the sudden strike by five men and the loud shouting would accomplish that goal against most people.

Unfortunately for them, Gale wasn’t most people.

Two came from the left, three from the right. The two to the left were both in medium hide armor of decent quality, one dyed green, the other left undyed. The one in front wielded a two handed sword, the other a pair of knives. One of the three from the right was in heavy armor that had been dulled so it didn’t shine, and was holding a sword and shield. The second man had a spear and chainmail, and the third was in hide armor and hefted a large axe. Windwall was in sight, but too far away to retreat to, and too far for the guards to help him if these men were a serious threat. The Air Gate to the previous island was very close, but there was a small cliff separating him from it. Their equipment, while registering in his mind only as ‘decent’, were nonetheless of equal quality to his own, likely earned through hard questing by their previous victims.

In the event of an ambush, the best course of action was to do the unexpected. The attacking champions doubtless expected him to either freeze for a crucial second, or if he was good to try and defend against them, still remaining caught in the middle. Thus the correct course of action was to get away from a position of weakness, and five against one was not best met without a little subterfuge. The grass was tall enough to hide his form if not his position, and without a clear line of sight he would have advantage.

Gale pulled two pairs of throwing daggers from their sheaths at his legs as he pushed off to the left, throwing them at his target’s chests as he shot towards the two men on that side, hoping but not expecting them to be caught off guard. Without proper aiming, he couldn’t guarantee accuracy if he threw at their heads and the suddenness of the attack was the more important part anyway. The daggers did little damage and failed their purpose, the small amount of discomfort the men felt through their armor not enough to stop them from continuing their charge, prepared for his counterattack.

His blades slid from their sheaths with only the slightest whisper of sound, his pair of Steel Swords glimmering in the morning light as he struck at the two handed sword wielder. One slash knocked the larger blade off course as he stepped in close to the man, pivoting around him and using his body as a shield to cut off the knife wielder. Once inside his target’s sword arc, Gale body checked him, sending him sprawling into the knife man. He continued his pivot, placing the momentarily staggered men between him and the other three and buying himself enough time to sprint off into the tall grass.

The swaying green sea only reached to his shoulders, leaving his head exposed, and even if he crouched, the bend of the plants would not hide his position. Even so, Gale bent his knees, allowing the greenery to hide his body and smaller movements as he sheathed his blades and readied his final throwing dagger, waiting just feet from the dirt path.

The five men were exposed on the path, the three that had come from the right having made their way around the two he’d knocked off balance. The shield user charged at him with the lighter-armored spearman directly behind him, obviously planning to use the longer reach of his weapon to attack from behind the safety of his ally. The axe wielder matched the tank step for step but a few feet to the side, the goal likely to use his heavier weapon to strike from the side, forcing Gale to defend from two fronts. It was a smoothly coordinated attack, well-practiced and effective, removing a large number of options, not a good sign, but expected of those who specialized in attacking other champions.

As the axe wielder approached the edge of the path, Gale’s hand whipped forwards, sinking the blade into the man’s throat, causing him to drop his weapon and claw at the wound that was already bubbling blood. The shield user continued charging with his spear-wielding backup, ignoring his mortally wounded ally. The man with the knives seemed to be still wondering what happened, and had even dropped one of his weapons when Gale had knocked the sword toting into him. However, the swordsman had recovered quickly, and began to advance behind his armored companion.

Ra. Tu.

The grass in front of Gale withered and decayed, the Death elemental spell consuming the life of the plants and revealing his darkly dressed form even as thick shadow clouded the plate-armored bandit’s eyes. Suddenly blind, the heavy man charged shield first directly into the area, his first step in the slick muddy waste that was the remnants of decayed life sliding forward beyond his control. Rather than waste the time attempting to kill the tank, Gale leapt at him, delivering a kick that hit the upper part of the shield and dropping his no longer needed shadow magic. The strike didn’t do any damage, but the combined forwards momentum, sudden opposing force to the upper part of his body, and slippery surface under him exaggerated his small slip, and he hit the ground with a grunt.

An arrow pierced the air where Gale had been moments before, alerting him to the sixth and seventh members of the ambushing party, a bowman stationed with what looked like a dedicated mage at the top of the cliff overlooking the path. The mage held a ball of fire, but was holding off on throwing it for now, likely not wanting to set the grass aflame and afford Gale the cover of smoke. He’d have to deal with them later. The spear user thrust forward, but Gale was already pulling out his swords, parrying the attack aside with one blade and stabbing the man’s forearm with the other. The leather-clad man lost his grip on his weapon with his now bloody arm, still holding on with his other hand but not in any position to attack. The tank was on his back and was trying to pick himself up, but wasn’t a threat at the moment, and the bow and magic users were trying to line up attacks without hitting their allies. With that in mind, Gale rushed the two handed swordsman, ducking under his heavy horizontal slash and ramming his sword up through the leather armor and into the man’s ribcage, removing it before twisting to reevaluate the situation.

The tank had regained his feet, the spear wielder was trying to re-grip his weapon with one hand, the knife user had recovered his other knife but was trembling in fear at the sudden turn of things, and the swordsman and axe man were dead on the ground. Their formation was in disarray with the knife wielder in front, then the spear user, and the tank in back. The bow and magic users were attacking from the cliff now that he was in the clear, and with the exception of the knife user, the men looked confident in taking him down now that he was back on the path and in view. To them it was still five against one, but then again, they hadn’t seen the flash of a small figure with long black hair running along the edge of the cliff towards the bandits up there.

Fire erupted at Gale’s feet, burning his legs, and he dodged back immediately as an arrow pierced the fire to impact the ground where he’d been standing. Rather than throw his fireball, the mage had just had fire burst from the ground, a move that was extremely difficult to dodge. The archer drew back another arrow and the mage lifted a hand dramatically as the fire spewing from the earth followed Gale’s retreat, the bandits on the path cheering as they fixed their formation. Gale smiled slightly as dodged to avoid the fire, an unnerving expression that quelled the sudden cheers. A shout of shock drew their attention back to the cliff just in time to see the mage fall, a stream of blood trailing from his slit throat. The archer whirled, surprised, only to be taken down by Aria’s long knives, her silken black hair floating in the wind as they both followed the mage off the cliff to vanish from sight into the grass.

Knowing how much the girl hated bandits, he guessed that she wouldn’t leave it at just the two on the cliff and began making a new plan. The men near him no longer seemed confident, their attention on the ledge.

Taking advantage of their distraction, Gale lunged forwards past the tank, striking at the knives in the knife wielder’s hands, then struck the man with the pommel of one of his blades, enough to knock him down but not make him lose consciousness. True to his prediction, a dagger sliced through the air to stick in the armored man’s throat, followed closely by Aria. The remaining bandit turned and ran, and the girl vanished from sight among the tall grass as she chased after him, her slight stature, when bent over, not tall enough to be seen. He heard the fleeing would-be killer fall as he bound and gagged the man he captured with some rope from his Storage Gem, pocketing a Tiny Quick Gem found on the man’s person.

Gale made sure the knots were secure, then heaved the bandit over his shoulder and started heading back towards Windwall, his previous ill temper having evaporated. The ambush had provided him with opportunity and some amusement. Defending himself from those pathetic excuses for champions was, while not trivial, easy enough that he hadn’t had to use more than a tiny bit of mana. It seemed none of them had the ability to cast magic while fighting, a skill that was essential if they expected to take down the best. Their mage had been fairly skilled, able to cast spells without speaking the words of power out loud, but he’d been too busy grandstanding and chasing Gale around with fire rather than just trapping him in a circle of it to notice that he was being almost completely ineffective despite his power. He also hadn’t used anything but fire magic even though he’d had the opportunity to heal the dying axe wielder and keep him in the fight. Should Aria not have shown up, Gale may have had to use a few more tricks, but without a few with the ability to use magic and fight at the same time, the final outcome for the bandits was much the same. At their best they might have been able to press him enough that he used his magic offensively, but he tried to keep magic in a support role whenever possible, it was good for his training to not rely on a resource as exhaustible as mana. The fools had no idea with whom they were messing and had failed to do any sort of reconnaissance on him, and thus deserved their inevitable fate.

Aria joined him just before he reached the gates. He assumed she’d looted the bandits of anything valuable before joining him else she would have caught him much sooner. She glanced up into his hood, then raised an eyebrow at the man he was carrying, a questioning look in her golden eyes. She turned to wave at the guards as they passed through the gate. The men gave him an odd look because of the bandit over his shoulder, but didn’t stop him. He'd met many of the guardsmen through the quests he’d done in the time he'd been stuck in this city, and they had some measure of trust for him.

“I’m surprised you’re still here Gale; I didn’t expect to catch you for a while yet. What’s the hold up?” Aria glanced at the bandit. “Also, can I kill him when you’re done?”

“Perhaps… I have a job for him. You can kill him if he makes a mess of it.” Gale looked down at the short girl, noting the dress she was wearing, but not commenting on her choice of attire. “Go and fight the boss of this area’s Air Gate, that way you’ll understand why I’ve been here so long. Come back when you’re done and we’ll talk. Don’t worry; I’ll still be here with our ‘friend’ like I promised.”

She frowned, opening her mouth to question further, but seemed to get that he wasn’t about to say anything else and closed it, nodding sharply instead before splitting off down a different street.

Gale carried his charge to the outskirts of the city to where he’d been staying the past few days. As with most cities in Ilos, there were buildings at the edge of Windwall that were unoccupied and ignored, remnants of better days when there were more people around. No one seemed to care what happened to them, so Gale had claimed one for himself to sleep in. He carried the bandit into his room, tossing him carelessly to the floor before opening his Storage Gem and removing more rope as well as a piton. He quickly removed a knife and cut a bit from the coils, returning the rest to his Gem. The man on the floor, still bound and gagged from the earlier failed ambush, struggled towards the door. Gale coldly attached the new length of rope to the steel spike used for climbing, then leaned down and tied the other end to the bandit’s wrists, making sure it was so tight that it tore into his skin. Gripping the piton, he dragged his captive to the middle of the room, stepping up on solid shadow curtesy of a small restu spell, and rammed the piton into the ceiling. Using restu again, he bent the metal and flattened it where it protruded from the top of the wood he’d shoved it into before releasing both spells, leaving the bandit hanging by his wrists. Gale studied his handiwork with a critical eye as the man kicked his bound legs, unable to reach the floor with his toes. His hands were tied in such a way that he wouldn’t be able to grip the rope he was hanging from, and he was too far from any surface that would give him leverage to try pulling the spike out.

The would-be killer’s eyes widened as Gale unsheathed a dagger and approached, speaking almost conversationally as he made a shallow cut into the man’s arm. “Did you know? We champions are quite the interesting sort. You feel no pain from these cuts, yet the sensation is remarkably unpleasant.” He made another cut on the man’s other arm, this time skinning off a large patch of flesh, causing him to jerk and twist while attempting to shout through his gag. “There are so many things worse than death here. In fact, death is quite the luxury in this world. For instance, I could leave you hanging like this from a cliff, just as you are now, abandoned in an out of the way place, dangling hundreds of meters from the oh so distant ground. Only you and the wind to keep you company. Ah but maybe you’d prefer that the wind not be there? It would take its time slicing into your flesh just as I am now.”

Another cut added to the growing rivulets of blood that were wetting the bandit’s clothes. He was struggling more now, gasps coming through the rope every time Gale’s steel carved another small path across his skin. “That wouldn’t be your only concern though. I’m sure it wouldn’t take long for the thirst to get to you, that dryness in your throat, desperate for any sort of moisture. The only water in your body leaking out through the cuts in your skin.” The blade cut another rent in the man’s clothing. “Then the hunger would set in, a terrible gnawing in your stomach, feeling as though your body is eating itself alive, almost like… a dagger in your gut.” Gale plunged his blade deep into the man’s abdomen, then slowly began to twist it as he gradually pulled it free. The man’s health drained dangerously low, but not all the way. Gale took note that anymore and the misfortunate bandit would be dead. “But don’t worry, you won’t die from it of course, because you’re a champion. What’s a little thirst, hunger and blood loss to us? I’m sure you’d be perfectly fine until someone eventually found you.” Gale then sheathed his dagger. Using his left hand he forced one of the bandit’s eyes open. Then using the fingers on his other hand he dug his way into the man’s eye socket. The bandit screamed as much as the gag let him. “Perhaps if you’re lucky you may even be saved before the carrions have plucked out your eyes ten or twelve times.” Gale synchronized his words with his actions and ripped the man’s left eye clean from its socket just as he finished his last word. “If that’s too much for you, you could always struggle until the rope flayed, I wonder how long a fall it is back down to world below? You’d have more than enough time for your life to flash before your eyes two or three times. Death IS quite the luxury isn’t it?”

"That would be my preferred method of killing you if you are so accommodating. Of course I could always just hand you over to the guards as well. I’m sure you would enjoy the next few years in a dank stone cell, not allowed to die. Such a trivial method, it only takes a bit of coin placed in the right purse.” Gale dangled his coin pouch in front of the bandit. “Perhaps with a little more coin I could arrange a cellmate for you. I’m sure you’d love some company while chained to the wall. Someone that likes to cut and peel at another’s skin? I’m sure he would enjoy how champions heal any injury within a day or two and take his time with you. Day. After day. After day.”

Gale made another small cut on the bandit’s cheek. The man’s sweat dripped down his face, his eyes full of tears, a sweet expression of pure terror. Good. Pulling his blade down from the man’s face, Gale turned away, continuing to speak in a conversational tone. “You could spare yourself that kind of fate though. You see friend, the boss of the next Air Gate is a little difficult for harmless little me. The beast is a giant bird that likes to push away its enemies with a strong gust from its wings then fly off into the distance when it’s injured. Of course it can only push away the enemies in front of him, so I want you to be that enemy in front. That way I can leap on to its back and finish the job. Simple right? You don’t have to fight it, you don’t have to do anything other than get its attention, and I’ll make that easy for you. I’ll even pay.” Gale turned back towards the man, smiling slightly while giving his coin pouch another shake. “You bandits like money right? I’ll pay you part up front, and promise I won’t kill you like your friends. All you have to do is get the bird’s attention and you’re free to go.” The smile vanished as if it had never existed. “But if you don’t, well there are plenty of cliffs around here to hang you from and I don’t particularly mind hunting a runaway if you decide to flee. This really is your only option if you want to get out of this unscathed.”

The bandit was nodding rapidly, his entire body bouncing up and down with the force of it, but Gale turned away and began walking towards the door, ignoring the man’s muffled shouts. “I won’t make you decide now; I know it’s a tough decision. How about I let you get used to how it feels to be hung up by your wrists for a day? I’ll be back tomorrow morning; I hope to hear the right answer from you then.”

Gale allowed himself a small curl of his lips as he shut the door, leaving the man alone with his blood and his fear.

 

 

Ilos, Day 29

 

I spotted Gale leaning against the front of one of the abandoned houses on the outskirts of town, lit by the evening light. Even mostly in the sun, the shadows that were seemed to cling to his dark cloak that covered his armor and weapons, his hood hiding his black hair and shading his expression. I headed towards him, a bit surprised at his presence. There was very little to do out here, but then again he’d likely already done all the quests in this area, especially one as easy and rewarding as patrolling the edge of town for a few hours in exchange for a Brittle Tiny Spell Gem, which is why I was walking around. I was still a little scuffed from my encounter with the giant bird boss, having tumbled a significant distance from the wind when I’d injured it enough to make it fly away. Gale had probably tried two or three times by now.

“I can see why you’ve been having trouble. Unless you’re an earth mage, that wind is going to send you flying every time. I tried to use Light Barrier, but I couldn’t sustain it for the whole gust of wind and still got thrown. I’ll bet we can do it tomorrow when I’ve slept and filled my Spell Gem so I can hold Light Barrier long enough.” I stopped, glancing around for that rotten piece of scum that dared call himself a champion. I considered those that attacked other champions in order to advance themselves the filth of the world, even if it was the fastest way to gain items and experience. “By the way, what happened to that bandit? Did you kill him without me?” I frowned up at the darkly-dressed man.

His blue-purple eyes, deep as the evening sky, trailed across my body, but I didn’t feel anything off about it. I usually hated the feeling of men’s eyes on me, partially because I knew exactly what was running through their heads, but I could tell this was different. He was looking at my equipment, noting the weapons I had on display and even a few I didn’t before coming to rest on my face. “It isn’t very womanlike to be upset over not being able to kill someone, but no he’s back there where I left him. I made him a deal and am giving him plenty of time to consider it.”

A couldn’t stop a smile from forming; having Gale around was something I hadn’t realized I’d missed so much. He was so straightforward and uncaring I could just say whatever came to mind. “It’s nice to have you to talk to again. What kind of deal?”

“He’s going to be a distraction. I should be able to finish that bird if I can be behind it when it uses its gust, but that isn’t possible when I’m by myself. Even with two people it would be difficult to stay on opposite sides. So I’m going to pay this no name bandit to keep the bird’s attention, if I use some shadow magic it should be trivial. From here it should be relatively easy for one of us to remain behind the beast and give it the finishing blow. If he runs, kill him. If he doesn’t agree to help, I have other plans for his fate.”

My eyes drifted off to the side and I absently brought a hand up to my mouth as I considered. It should work. The effect of the gust was roughly conical and directed at towards me, so if we could be on opposite sides when we got it low enough one of us would easily be able to dispatch it. Even as good as we are, that’s not something easily predictable, and if the bird can turn and catch us both, we’ll lose it. The distraction of a third target would greatly increase our chances. Still, letting that kind of parasite live… I nodded, dropping my hand and refocusing on Gale. “That sounds pretty solid to me, though I’d like to kill him whether he runs or not. When will this be? I’d like to do some of the quests around here, or at least get some sleep.”

“Tomorrow morning. It’s part of the deal that I let him live, but if you are so set on putting an end to him do it after we’ve killed that bird.”

I frowned, twisting my mouth. Nothing but good could come of removing such a disease from Ilos, at least for a while, but… Everyone is starting new here, and our word is our bond, especially with nothing to check us if we go back on it. I sighed with resignation, a little put out. “Well I can’t make you a liar now can I? Our word is one of the few things we have here. Are there any quests I should make sure to do here before tomorrow? Or a good inn?”

“I never claimed to be an honest man, and I will lie until my tongue is cut off so long as it serves as a means to a goal. You should never forget that about me.”

I felt my eyebrows rise slightly at that, but the surprise was quickly replaced by a thread of fear and disappointment. If he had no compulsion against lying, how could I trust anything he put in that letter he left me after the Plantea boss? I didn’t want to be ditched again, even if I could make my way on my own easily enough.

“As for quests and an inn, you will need to look into them yourself. I have chosen this place as my residence for the time being and have no need for an inn, so if you need me I shall be here.”

My eyes flicked at the house behind him. So he’s staying here? That bandit is probably also in one of these buildings, there’s no way Gale would let him out of sight. I nodded when he finished, not having expected any information out of him anyway and not feeling like continuing the conversation any further after that bit about lying. Why is that bothering me so much? “Alright, though I doubt I’ll have a reason to come back until tomorrow. I’ll meet you outside the West Gate an hour after sunrise tomorrow unless you’d rather meet elsewhere.”

“That is fine. I will see you then. Ah, and Masso,-“

“Aria.” I muttered, more out of reflex than anything.

“-I might be a liar but not a single word in that letter I left you was meant to deceive. Take care.”

I’d already opened my mouth to reply when his words hit me. Closing my mouth, I dropped my head to hide the smile curling my lips, closing my eyes for a few seconds as I savored the warmth deep in me that those words brought. I can’t go giving him the wrong idea now, I have an image to maintain. Turning on my heel so my hair caught the air enough to drift over my shoulder, I started back towards the inner portion of Windwall. “You too Gale.” I raised a hand for a second in farewell. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

My hand came up to my chest, drawn to the comfortable warmth in my heart as I walked back into town to look for an inn. I could do another quest or two, but I’d need my rest for tomorrow. Christ, what’s wrong with me? I hardly know the guy! He won’t give me information, he insults me at the drop of a hat, hell, he still refers to me as ‘rock’. He doesn’t care about the world around him, often refuses to talk, and he’s probably got as much interest in me as I do in him. We’re acquaintances at the most, and that’s likely a stretch.

So why can’t I get those night-purple eyes of his out of my head?

 

 

Ilos, Day 30

 

I met Gale outside the western gate of Windwall, the one closest to the boss. I hadn't done much after the patrol quest during which I met Gale, deciding to head to bed rather than try to force myself to do more after that mildly disturbing conversation. Thankfully it seemed like whatever weird feelings I’d had yesterday were gone with the night, and I felt nothing out of the ordinary as I inclined my head in greeting towards him, though he had definitely garnered some goodwill towards me with what he brought with him.

The bandit he’d carried off the previous day was there, looking a bit the worse for wear, but that wasn’t what drew my attention. The man was on a leash! A literal, honest to God leash, made up out of rope and tied around his neck. I couldn’t stop a snicker as I partially covered my mouth with a hand, dropping it after a second to reveal my grin. “Alright, it was worth not killing him to see this. So he’s going to take the windblast for us in exchange for letting him live?”

The filth glared at me, obviously humiliated that he was on a leash of all things, and probably also because a little girl was making fun of him. There were some benefits about looking so young, and having the ability to be extra insulting was one of them.

“Yes, that is all he has to do to be free of us. Perhaps he’ll learn that wronging others only begets harm to one’s self. That and a good ambush requires one not to drop his blade in a daze.”

I looked at Gale, back at the bandit, and then burst out laughing. I still wasn’t used to the tinkling, melodious laugh I had now, but it couldn’t stop my mirth. “You- You mean to tell me, that this guy was so surprised that you fought back, that he actually just dropped his weapon?”

The waste of living flesh snarled at me. “Hey you little bitch, I’d like to see yo-“

My smile and laugh vanished like mist and I moved in close before he could do more than flinch, one of my throwing daggers less than an inch from his eye. “Don’t make me regret not killing you, because I still will.” I snarled. “Now do you want to continue that thought?”

He shook his head, eyes never leaving the point of my dagger.

“Good.” I vanished the knife back to its sheath with a flick of my hand as I pulled back. “Now let’s get going. I can still kill him if he runs right?”

Gale looked at the man, the tiniest smirk on his face. “Don’t worry, my bandit friend. Everyone is bad at something. For you, it’s that you’re weak in battle. For Masso here, it’s that she has trouble killing weeds. Oh but don’t laugh, she has no trouble killing people.” He said coolly before turning to walk off towards the boss area, dragging the human-shaped bag of filth with him.

I let out an indignant noise, not that I was actually angry, it was his bluntness that I liked after all, but I still had to react out of principle. “Hey! That’s not fair. I was exhausted, and fighting solo against a Plantea boss with a blunt weapon, and I still almost took it down!” I took a few jogging steps to catch up. “And my name is Aria, not Masso.”

He looked down at me, raising an eyebrow slightly. “Yes well, who was it that thought it was a good idea to fight a Plantea boss with a blunt weapon while being exhausted? That is partially why I’ve grown so fond of the name Masso. You are rather coarse, hard headed, and all around inelegant, this bandit suites the name Aria better than you. But I suppose I can stop using Masso if it displeases you so much.”

Emotions flickered through me as he spoke. Mild annoyance from his blatant criticism faded into pleasure at being called coarse, hardheaded, but especially inelegant. It was nice to be able to be those things around someone else. That vanished into anger, I might not exactly like being a girl, but that was my name, and I had grown rather fond of it. I certainly didn’t appreciate being told a cowardly disgusting bandit would fit my name better than I did! However, even that paled with his last sentence for some reason. I’d honestly never even thought he’d stop calling me ‘rock’, much less offer in a way that made it seem like he cared even a little.

“I-“ I trailed off, unsure of what to say. Why does it matter to me if he cares? I don’t like the name, I should tell him to call me Aria. So why am I not saying anything? I felt small and confused and vulnerable, drowning in a whirlwind of emotions I had no experience with navigating. I turned sharply away from Gale’s deep purple-blue eyes, my hair swirling around and cutting off his view of me. I pressed my lips together, trying to find the calm in the eye of this particular storm and failing. “Let’s just go get the boss. I really need to kill something.” I said, my voice clipped, before striding ahead.

“Alright Petra, let’s go.”

I couldn’t stop a short laugh at that one. He had yet another translation of ‘rock’ to call me by in backup for Masso. I knew it couldn’t be that easy. Yet even with just that short sentence, he’d cleared away the raging emotions that had been swirling within me.

We walked the rest of the way to the field the giant bird seemed to frequent in silence, but my thoughts were anything but quiet. How does he do that? I know I’m a lot more emotional than I used to be, but why is it only him? Am I so reserved around the Ilosians that I can’t help but let it out around him? Is it just that he just gets under my skin really easily? Is it because I know I can relax my guard around him just a bit and stop acting like a model champion and girl? Or maybe it’s just his brutal honesty that’s rubbing off on me despite his talk about lying.

I shook my head, dismissing the ponderings over my wildly fluctuating emotions in general and around Gale in particular. Now was not the time for deep thought, I had a floor boss to take down.

It seemed like the only change between the beta and now for the giant bird was the addition of its fleeing mechanic. No boss had ever even tried to leave the field of battle before, so I hadn’t been expecting it when the thing blew me away and flew off the day before. I’d managed to get a Light Barrier spell off and hold my ground under a hastily conjured slanted wall, but the force drained my mana quickly and the tail end of the gust still threw me a few hundred feet. That meant I needed to have a full mana pool when we injured it enough that it tried to flee, just in case the bandit wasn’t enough of a distraction.

Unfortunately, that made things difficult. The bird had a number of attacks, and not all of them were easy to avoid. It could of course use its beak and talons to attack, and did so constantly, but the hardest part to deal with were its feathers. Not only were they almost metallically hard and sharp, but the thing made a habit of whipping its wings forward and dislodging some of them towards you like flying swords in a rough arc. That particular one was very difficult to dodge and I’d used a lot of my mana deflecting those feathers until I figured out I could get above them more easily that go between. Rather than use magic to block, I could just use it to make tiny platforms for myself wherever I wanted for the fraction of a second it took me to push off of them. And thus does double jumping become a reality.

Like many Air Gate guardians, the bird was massive when compared to any other non-boss creature on Ilos. If I had to guess, I’d say its wingspan was well over one hundred feet, as large as a medium sized airplane, and with a body to match. It wasn’t particularly fast or strong or smart, but it was big. Thankfully, it was also fairly easy to predict, and I hadn’t taken a scratch when I’d fought it the day before. I was hoping for a repeat of that, but with less wind and tumbling at the end.

As big as it was, we spotted the bird from a good ways away, and altered our path to head towards it. I glanced at the bandit, still attached to his leash, and felt a stirring of anger. It was people like him, people like the former Duke and especially his mage advisor in the city of Travant, people like those who knowingly involved themselves in slave trading like in that forsaken place, they are the ones I hated. Ilos was wonderful, the people generally got along and helped each other through hard times, the land was as beautiful as it was varied, and it was a place where the actions of one could make a difference. Yet those people stained this pure place with their greed and their lies, and I loathed them for it.

The bandit group from earlier had killed their way up to the floating islands, stealing what others had worked hard for and using the corpses as stepping stones and a shortcut to greater heights. No doubt that they had planned on racing to the front, and after killing those furthest along with their number advantage, sit there and ambush any who came after them, stopping the advance of the champions as a whole for their own benefit. They could have probably camped on the first floating island and ambushed anyone who came through the Air Gate there quite easily after making sure they wouldn’t be attacked from above. It was because of people like them that I was forced to first consider other champions potential enemies rather than potential allies.

Now is not the time. I reminded myself, my fists unclenching as I sought and found the calm emotionless void of the Stillness. I shrugged as I mentally checked over my equipment, feeling each throwing dagger under my dress, the slight swing of the potions on my belt, the weight of the quarterstaff on my back, the coolness of my necklace and metal armlet, the shifting that was the long knives at the small of my back, the small pressure on my hair that was my wolf head clip.

Gale pulled the leash off the bandit’s head and nudged him forward, weaponless. The man looked at us, flinching back from our cold concentration. He knew he was dead if he didn’t do as he was told. We walked past him, side by side, and began to accelerate towards the boss, silent as shadows.

It didn’t notice until we were already striking its head.

The bird reeled, unable to defend itself against such a sudden onslaught as we struck quickly to take advantage of the stun effect that an ambush provided. Quickly enough, the thing recovered and we slipped into a more balanced and sustainable pattern, much like switching sequences of steps as the tempo of the dance changed.

As before, I took the role of tank, attacking the eyes as Gale struck for its neck. Maybe it should be evasion-tank? I keep its attention and stay the focus of its attacks, but I’m not actually getting hit. The boss would still attack him, but I could make myself the target it most wanted to kill, drawing the majority of the potential damage. With his twin full sized swords, Gale could still slightly out-damage me, and I was still slightly more maneuverable and harder to hit because of my size, thus the division of our roles. It was the little things that counted, and even the smallest advantage could not be passed up when it came to a battle where a single solid hit would likely kill you. If one of those sword-feathers took me through the chest, I was dead, a talon in my stomach, dead, getting eaten or hit in the head with that beak, definitely dead. By keeping its attention and allowing Gale to really lay down the damage with his swords at a rate I couldn’t match, we would kill the boss faster, and thus there was less chance of something unexpected happening, like either of us making a mistake.

At first we were off step, an opening I provided before he was ready closing before he could take advantage, Gale attacking before I did and drawing its attention to himself, the pair of us coming too close together and both being forced to dodge a swipe of talons or an arc of feathers. Slowly we synchronized, the mistakes that lessened our combined damage output becoming smaller and fewer before stopping altogether.

The minutes ran into hours, and the giant bird began to retreat slightly from us, severely injured but not yet ready to truly flee, a point it had taken me more than twice the time the day before to get it to. Gale broke off to get the bandit in position while I continued alone, giving him time to set up before the crucial moment. I targeted its body more than its neck or head, but mostly defended, have a relief from the continually compounded pain in those places while I waited. It didn’t take long.

Gale moved around the bird, ending up behind it and slightly to the left. He motioned, and the bandit ran forwards shouting as loud as he could. As soon as the thing’s attention shifted, I flung a trio of throwing daggers at the beast’s neck, sprinting around to the right as I did so. The bird shrieked as the blades embedded themselves in previous wounds, the sudden and intense pain prompting it to flee. It brought its wings up, then sharply down, the massive surface area pushing the air into a compressed blast that shot forwards into the bandit, lifting him from the ground and tossing him across the field like a ragdoll.

I crouched, using cires to create a slanted glowing barrier above me, bearing the intense pressure of the wind that was present even outside of the main blast, swiftly draining most of my mana. I could see Gale’s similar cover through my somewhat transparent one, made of Shadow rather than Light. It was a struggle to breathe in my shelter, the air howling around me in its intensity. However, rather than fly backwards along the ground like it had before, the bird shot mostly upwards, a bit past Gale but out of reach of either of our thrown weapons, even from the top of our jumps. It would be impossible to take down unless we could get to it.

In the Stillness there was no frustration, no annoyance, only clarity as I thought about what we could do to bring it down. With the mana I had left, I couldn’t create a big enough attack to cripple the bird, and it was out of reach with physical weapons even as high as I could jump. I could use cires to create platforms to get up there, but I would then be out of mana and fall to my death, though I could get down if I could just get up…

It was only seconds after the boss had flown upwards. I saw Gale standing and looking up at the thing, and the pieces fell into place. I slotted my quarterstaff in its holder and sprinted towards the black-haired swordsman just as he glanced away from the bird, meeting his eyes and shouting.

“Boost me!”

He understood immediately and crouched down, crossing his swords above him at their bases and forming a Shadow Wall spell under him. My foot impacted the intersected blades of his swords. He jumped, the Shadow magic shot upwards under his feet, and I leapt from my metallic foothold, all three efforts completely in sync. I felt the damage hit me, my body, powerful as it was, unable to handle the kind of forces involved. The familiar yet still unpleasant sensation shot through me as I left the launch, not enough to impair me but still removing about fourth of my health. Damn that’s a lot of damage, but I’ll take that trade if I can kill this thing. My small body, weighing so little, shot upwards as if fired from a cannon, directly at the retreating bird.

It saw me and veered to the side, trying to evade. Not fast enough! In one smooth motion I drew my long knives and stabbed them into the wing as I blew past. Unable to take the force, the wing ripped open, freeing my knives and allowing me to continue into the air in a rough tumble. The world spun crazily, but it wasn’t the horizon line that mattered, it was the bird’s wing, and I kept track of that one thing as I flipped. I may have done enough to make it fall, but I had to be sure.

The grips of my long knives felt smooth as one and then the other flew from my fingers, the lightest of pressures guiding them at the wing. Even as the first slid towards the boss, my free hand was already reaching for a throwing dagger, smoothly sliding it from its sheath as the second long knife left my grasp. I felt my core clench and my legs shift against the wind, muscles tensing under my smooth skin, proving me with the offset force to throw the dagger, then a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, each unerringly streaking towards the heavily injured wing.

Even before the last impacted, the appendage was starting to fold and I knew that I had won. The boss would fall back to the floating island, and if the fall didn’t kill it Gale would. Pleasure, raw and intense, powered through me even through the Stillness at the knowledge that I’d accomplished something that was almost impossibly difficult with just Gale and I, and that the execution had been fucking awesome.

Now I just had to survive a thousand foot fall.

I twisted against the wind, correcting my rotation by fractions as I spun end over end, steadying myself just as I reached the height of my climb, and then I was falling. I spread out my arms and legs like I had seen skydivers do, allowing the system assist to guide me to the correct position. Magic was the only option to stop myself, but I had the feeling that the forces involved would be too much for the mana I had remaining if I tried to let myself down directly.

My brain flickered through calculations, flipping through what I’d learned in college at a faster rate than I’d ever managed before. I weighed around 100 pounds, which was about 45 kilograms, and with the density of air, a normal drag coefficient of one, and a cross section area of maybe point eight meters squared given my five foot height, I had a terminal velocity of 27 meters per second. If I hit the ground at that speed with, say, a tenth of a second to stop, that would be 270 meters per second per second of acceleration, multiply by my 45 kilos to get 12150 Newtons, or about 2700 pounds. There’s no way I’m surviving almost a ton and a half of force, not yet anyway, and even if I slow myself down with the rest of my mana, I’d still take a huge chunk of damage.

However, if I could shift my velocity sideways, I could bleed off the speed by tumbling across the ground. Not the best option, but it beat a sudden stop that I didn’t believe I could survive. I angled towards the edge of the island, then once I was halfway down, twisted to land my feet on a rail of light I created with cires. The rail was rough enough to slow me down, but not enough to damage my boots, and slanted downwards, continuously appearing in front of me and vanishing behind as I slid down it, going ever faster. I watched Gale dispatch the fallen bird as I slowly increased the angle of my rail, keeping as much pressure as I could stand on my legs. My hair streamed behind me with the wind, my dress fluttering wildly as I slowly leveled out just feet from the ground and immediately let the rail vanish, pushing my feet forward in anticipation of impact. As soon as they hit I tucked in and rolled, allowing myself to tumble across the grass until I came to a stop.

A trip across a soft field, even rough and at speed, wasn’t enough to do more than give me a minor scrape or two. This tiny body might be tougher than I thought; maybe I could have survived that fall. I mused absently as I stood up and brushed myself off, dropping the Stillness now that it was no longer needed. A smile bloomed on my face as I walked towards Gale, the excitement of combat, the rush of power that was experience being applied, the glow of pleasure from doing something extremely difficult, all rushing to the fore.

The Air Gate activated in the distance as I approached the purple-eyes swordsman, raising a hand to give him a high five, to share my joy. “Great job Gale. That was a hell of a boost!”

He ignored my gesture, walking past me towards the bandit. “I’m not one to be peppy.”

I couldn’t stop a short giggle, there was no other way to describe the sound, and dropped my hand, buoyant mood unaffected. “Why does that not surprise me?”

I strode towards the body of the giant bird, hearing the clink of metal behind me as Gale counted out coins to the bandit along with a warning. “If you try to ambush me again, I’ll be sure to see you hanging from the nearest cliff.”

I glanced back to see the man, much the worse for wear after being hit by the wind blast, hurriedly accept the money, nodding vigorously, and then flee as though Gale was Death himself. Grinning to myself, I crouched down and began gathering what I could from the corpse of the boss. Unlike other games, bosses and other creatures didn’t drop weapons or armor unless they were using them, but they did have claws and, in this case, feathers that could also be sold. While profitable, the main reason for killing bosses solo or in a small group was because they had Elemental Gems and Elemental Stones embedded in them that made them so powerful. Four Elemental Stones could be combined into a single Elemental Gem, and most bosses only had a single Stone more than the previous one.

The Elemental Gems weren’t really all that useful as of yet, but once I returned to Ilos I could get certain Ilosians to embed them in my armor or weapons to give them additional elemental properties. A staff with a Fire Elemental Gem set into it would burn whatever it hit a little and also cause the user to deal more fire damage with Fire Elemental spells. Any piece of armor with an Elemental Gem would reduce unwanted effects of that element slightly, the wearer taking less damage from any spells of the element cast against him. There were other effects too, like a Fire Elemental Gem set in armor would also increase your body’s resistance to heat, even from non-magical sources. Gather enough of Elemental Gems of a certain element, and it would be possible to become completely immune to it.

I ignored the blood that coated my arms as I carved my way in towards the center of the beast, extracting two Air Gems and six Air Stones. As Gale approached, I tossed him one of the Gems and three of the Stones, holding up the matching set I kept for myself to show him I’d split them evenly. I waited for his silent acknowledgement before beginning to pluck the feathers off of one of the wings, moving them to my inventory to sell later.

We quickly worked at clearing the corpse of anything sellable, splitting the loot roughly evenly but not overly concerning ourselves with making it totally fair when there was so much. Like every other dead thing in Ilos, the bird would decay into motes relatively fast, meaning a few days for a creature this size. Windwall would know we had defeated the boss when they saw the body, and trade would slowly begin again without the threat of attack by an unbeatable creature.

I absently wondered what had happened to the previous towns we’d visited. Trade existed throughout the mainland of Ilos, but as we traveled upwards and unlocked the Air Gates, old routes would be reestablished, and the half-dead cities that existed on the islands would begin to grow once again. It was obvious Windwall had once been fully populated, but something had happened to cut the city to less than half of what the walls could hold. From what I’d seen, the fields around the place couldn’t even produce enough food for the people that still lived there, yet the city still had enough to eat at all times.

It didn’t add up. The citizens in Windwall should be starving to death with only the food they produced themselves, so why weren’t they? If I spared the time to really investigate, I might be able to find something out, but they seem to be getting along just fine and there’s no reason for me to sacrifice getting stronger to satisfy my curiosity.

Once the boss was stripped of anything valuable, Gale and I locked gazes, my golden eyes meeting his night-purple ones, and together we nodded. There will be time for mysteries later. For now it’s time to train, to advance, and to gather the strength we’ll need for the trials ahead.

In unspoken agreement we accelerated into a run, racing towards the Air Gate under the late morning sun and dashing into the shimmering curtain of rainbow light.