Strong tail winds and safe skies brothers and sisters. May we return home to find all safe and well. We go out to a changed world, one that can never return to what it was previously. Despite this, home remains. Our Lady bids us serve and we shall not disappoint, but before all else remember: if you are in need of aide, you need only ask and we will be there for you. Until the weather calms and we may speak at length again, I wish you strength. – Letter from the Voice Cirrocumulus

Elijah immediately started running toward the source of the scream, only for Niels to appear in front of him. The other man’s hands were up and concern filled his face, but his eyes were hard.

“No. It’s my job to keep this team safe. I will not risk three of you to try to save one. You are all dead on your feet, you go out there and you will die.”

It took everything Elijah had not to force his way past Niels. He was right, they were tired. Exhausted. Going now was dangerous and would, no doubt, be painful. But it would be so much worse if he just left, knowing he might have been able to do something.

The only thing that stopped him was the fact Niels didn’t need his consent. The man was more powerful than him, especially in an exhausted state like this. Realistically, there was no way he could force himself past the wind mage. Still, he was so tempted to try.

Niels must have seen the look in his eyes, because he quickly continued, “I’ll go look for him, I swear. The moment the rest of you all are safe in the fallback point. Right now though, you all come first.”

It was the wrong call. Elijah knew it was the wrong call. Felt it deep inside. Unfortunately, his only other option was even worse. All he would accomplish by arguing was delay Niels coming to Seba aid. Sometimes it was better to make a bad decision now, rather than be forced into making no decision while looking for something better.

Giving Niels a long look, he responded, “Fine. Let’s hurry. Seba needs all the help he can get.”

Turning around, he quickly found Theo’s exhausted form struggling to his feet. Rory wasn’t much better, bent over with hands on knees. Moving quickly, he swept the alchemist into a fireman’s carry while Niels grabbed their youngest teammate.

The fallback point was a small cave that Rory had plugged with a five-foot-thick wall of ice. Inside was all of their camping supplies, along with anything that would slow them down. Located almost a half hour’s walk from where they had fought the Ghoul Lynx, the campsite was just outside of the monsters’ territory. They had hoped that meant it would take the things longer to come after them, giving Hidden Opportunity a real reprieve.

He had argued they should have chosen someplace even further out. Make an attempt at a complete breakaway.

Now Elijah could only kick himself for agreeing to someplace so far away. Every minute was a lower chance he would see their serpentine fiend again. Every step taken was another foot Niels would need to retrace.

It didn’t help that he was the obvious weak link between the two of them. Niels was obviously slowing down to keep pace with him, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. So, he kept his head down, tried to forget the voice screaming at him in the back of his mind, and continued to push himself.

In the end, they made it to their fallback in fairly good time. Twenty-two minutes. If Seba’s life wasn’t on the line, Elijah would have been impressed.

#

As worried as Elijah had been, it still took every ounce of self-control he had to keep himself awake for first watch. They’d barely been able to wake Rory long enough to get an entrance through the giant block of ice plugging the entrance and Theo had been entirely non responsive beyond the health potion Elijah had forced down his throat.

Niels had been as good as his word though, immediately leaving once he saw them all safely ensconced in the cavern with only a small doorway through the ice as and entrance and Elijah standing guard.

He could only hope the Seba would be safe somewhere too.

The man was fast and intelligent, so there was still hope. Or at least that was what Elijah kept telling himself. This was a first for him. He’d never been deployed to an active combat zone. He’d lost friends of course, but never right in front of him. Never when there was something he could do.

He wished he could meditate. It would help calm his nerves. He needed to stay alert though. The others were counting on him. Just sitting here staring at the empty forest would drive him insane though.

Standing from his little stool, he began to slowly pace. He had to be careful not to make too much noise, and there was only so much space, but it helped. A little. He wished he had some paper. Some journaling would do him good.

For the first time in quite a while, the voice whispered to him without apparent prompting, “Would you like to open the notepad?”

#

It had turned out that there was a speech to text function for the notebook, so Elijah had spent long hours monologuing to the Voice while keeping watch. It had kept him sane, he felt. Finally being able to put all his thoughts to writing. Record it so he wouldn’t forget. If the worst came…he’d be glad to have put his memories with Seba to paper before they began to fade.

Just like they had with Jason and Triss.

It had hurt, realizing how much he’d forgotten. He’d started an entire separate entry just to list everything he could remember about those two. Them and the cozy little apartment they’d called home for almost two years before all this insanity began.

Thankfully, before the depressive topic could worm its way too deeply into his mind, Theo woke up.

The other man was, understandably, uninterested in talking. He woke up, saw Elijah pacing, and grunted before shoving Elijah toward the bedroll he’d been using. The man still looked exhausted, like the sleep had only left him more tired, but he was clearly in better condition than Elijah was.

#

It wasn’t until early the next morning that Niels returned, waking Elijah from his fitful sleep with the sound of boots crunching on rocks. The man looked dead on his feet, with deep bags on his eyes and a defeated slouch to his posture. Perhaps most startling of all, a large gash cut through the front of his shirt and he had a freely flowing cut under his left eye. It was the first time he had seen the other man injured.

When they asked about what he had found, Niels could only shake his head before trudging to the bags. Unresponsive to anything else they said, Niels grabbed his bag and walked deeper into the cave. As he went, he pulled a small, leather-bound book from the side pocket on his pack. Beside Elijah, Theo flinched but said nothing else.

#

“What’s that book Theo?”

Elijah’s voice was cold and serious. It was a tone he wasn’t used to. It often felt like the newcomer only had three emotions: somber most of the time, intensely focused when exposed to something new, and calmly amused the rest of the time. What he never was, was angry. Which made it all the more concerning that he was so controlled in his fury.

Doing his best to project quiet confidence, he responded. “It’s the team’s ledger. Every job we’ve ever done is in there. Every victory, ever defeat.”

He paused for a long moment, thinking back to Mathias and his death years ago. “Every loss.”

He didn’t like the look that came over Elijah’s comment when he finished. It reminded him too much of how they had all looked after the Secret Doors dungeon. They had spent weeks afterwards alternatively not believing it was real, blaming one another, and being angry with the world. They couldn’t afford to break down like that now.

Seba was gone and there was nothing they could do. Their only option was to push on and hope that his death had not been for nothing. Finish the job, pay off Seba’s debts, and celebrate the Fidivir’s life.

At least I don’t have to pay up on last night’s card game.

#

Elijah could barely see past the throbbing headache pounding his temples. He should have put his foot down when he heard the scream. Rory and Theo were tired, but they could have pushed through. Made it a few more minutes.

He knew it was nonsensical to be this attached already. To be suffering this much for a practical stranger’s loss. He’d only known the man for a few weeks and he was ready to risk his life on a stupid, last shot, suicidal mission. Seba had saved his life though! Had helped train and strengthen him. Helped give him a real chance in his new life.

And it like always, it hurt to lose someone in his care. Someone he was meant to be protecting.

Desperation and rage warring in his head.

All of those emotions and all that turmoil were going to make him do something stupid. They were giving him terrible ideas now. He knew he should be working to calm himself and to make sure they didn’t lose another person.

Instead, his head just kept screaming that he hadn’t seen a body.

That they didn’t know Seba was dead.

That he could be out there, injured and in need of help.

The real question wasn’t if his current mental state would push him to do something insane. Even he didn’t question what he would do next if he let those intrusive thoughts win. The real question was if he wanted to fight them

#

A few hours later, he knew the answer was no.

Niels had made only one more appearance since then, briefly joining them for food before retreating back to his hiding place deeper in. He’d answered only a handful of questions, but the most important one had been the fact he hadn’t seen a body either. Just a large bloodstain, an absolutely destroyed part of the forest, and Seba’s bag.

It was enough to make up his mind.

So that night, when it was his turn on watch, he was leaving. He would wait until the very end of his shift on watch, and make sure Rory reinforced the ice blocking the entrance before he went to bed. He didn’t want to put any of the remaining team at risk, but he couldn’t risk being stopped.

He wasn’t ready to give up on Seba, not until they knew for sure.

#

Alone, at night, the winter forest was far worse than anything he had ever experienced. If he thought the outer bounds of the forest were terrifying… Well he had never realized how much more bearable having the team behind him made everything. He never would have had the nerve to work his way this far in alone.

The shadows danced and the trees seemed to lean over him as he walked, forming a cage of branches and shadows that made him feel trapped. Just beyond his vision, he heard shuffling and snorting in the darkness. Signs of ghouls hunting prey. Only the crown kept them from trying to swarm him.

It was a constant assault on his mind, but nowhere near powerful enough to overcome the desperate need to reach his missing ally. He let his anger with the entire situation boil forward, driving the fear he felt for his surroundings from his mind. He kept it controlled. A tool to drive him forward and a shield to protect him from other emotions, but never beyond his ability to put away. It did the trick and soon he was making rapid headway under the starless sky and cold, dead branches.

Elijah didn’t anticipate finding his way to be too difficult. He’d gotten as much information out of Niels as he could in their brief exchange, and he believed he could find his way to Seba’s supposed last stand. Even without that information, he had a starting place to work from.

He just needed to make it to where they fought the Lynx first, then follow the trail the cats had left behind. Niels had said the route went northeast until snow started to show up on the ground, and that the area was covered in felled trees and fallen branches. From how much damage had been done to the forest, Elijah didn’t anticipate it to be a particularly difficult tracking mission. The ghouls had been past the point of subtlety when Seba lured them into following him and whatever had caught him sounded as though it was confident enough in it’s strength to not use tricks.

#

When he got to the clearing, he almost wished the trip had taken longer. When Niels had said there was a large bloodstain, he hadn’t expected it to look like someone had popped a human sized water balloon filled with paint. Still, something about the blood felt…off. He assumed it must have been his magic telling him something was wrong, because visually he couldn’t see anything helpful.

For a while he debated what to do before coming to a decision. If tonight was a night of bad ideas, why stop the streak?

Dropping onto the ground right in the center of the largest blood stain, he quickly got into a seated position. Around him the world began to fade away as he began to meditate. Everything else fell away and he concentrated solely on the feeling his magic was giving him. Soon there was nothing else, with even sight fading away.

Around him, beyond his senses, the blood began to boil into a red mist that seeped out of the dirt. Each breath brought a lungful of the crimson haze into the man’s body and his skin took on a reddish hue as the barest hint of his armor materialized. Strange symbols similar, and yet just slightly different, from what appeared when he used his aura began to form in blood fog.

If he had had an actual spell related to sensing or utilizing blood in this way, it would have been far mor efficient. Unfortunately, that was one more thing he had on his list of things to learn that had been deemed ‘low priority’. It was hard to see tracking skills as an immediate goal when you were doing your best simply to live and had a capable rogue right next to you.

It was enough though, and soon he realized what his magic was trying to tell him. The blood wasn’t all from one source, and more importantly the vast majority of it was corrupted. Corrupted like the sludge that pushed its way through the ghoul’s bodies, but with a lot more magic running through it. His armor craved that blood, wanting to consume it for strength and to give him protections against a monster that could leave behind blood so powerful even a day later.

The remainder was much more common, but his armor was no less interested. Not for the power it offered or any unique properties, but because some small part deep in his soul called out to him. Told him this blood was already his, had already been marked and claimed. Slowly, he realized his magic felt that way because his own mana was in it.

This bit, this much smaller bit, was the blood that actually belonged to Seba. The stuff empowered, if only the tiniest bit at this point, by the remainder of his aura spell. Just enough of a trace left for him to identify that there wasn’t enough of that blood on the ground here to be lethal.

Only enough to leave Seba incredibly weak.

Soon enough, he had figured out which part of the clearing had the most of Seba’s blood, and from there he spent long minutes looking for a trail. He wasn’t truly trained in tracking, but Seba had given him a few pointers over the weeks and he had learned a little bit about it back on earth. It proved to be enough.

Everything from small signs like broken twigs to a bloody handprint on one particular trunk. Slowly, so slowly, Elijah worked his way along Seba footsteps. He just hoped he would prove fast enough. The rest would know he was gone by now, and he imagined it was only so long before Niels started looking for him.

After that, it wouldn’t be that long before the powerful mage found Elijah. Then, he might not have much choice but to give up the hunt. He wasn’t sure the others would be in the mood to listen to him. He’d seen how they all accepted Seba as dead. They’d think he was just refusing to accept the truth, tearing apart fresh wounds that they simply wanted to let heal.

No, at the bare minimum he’d need some definitive proof Seba was still alive before Niels caught up. Pushing on, he resigned himself to his mission.

#

He made it in the end, the trail becoming much easier to follow over the last handful of minutes. Not that that was entirely a good thing. It was obvious Seba had gotten sloppy, probably from pain and exhaustion due to the blood loss. Where before he’d done what he could to cover the tracks, now there was a trudging line in the dirt punctuated with blood splatters.

They led to a small cave, nestled in the roots of a tree. Just big enough for a full-grown man to crawl through. At the entrance, a bloody splotch and a discarded, empty canteen seemed to indicate that Seba had taken a small break here. Probably trying to gather his energy before crawling into an unknown hole that he might never come out of. Elijah shuddered at the thoughts that ran through his mind.

Trapped, weakening, at a dead end that you had spent long minutes crawling your way to. Hoping for a miraculous escape, only to realize you had simply filled a grave nature had been kind enough to provide you. He dearly hoped that hadn’t been Seba’s fate. It would have been kinder to have been killed in the clearing.

For a long minute, he stood outside the tunnel. Staring at the gaping entrance and debating his options. Wondering, or possibly hoping, Niels would show up and he’d be able to convince him to go through the tunnel instead. He couldn’t wait forever though, and soon he hardened his resolve.

Bracing himself, he got down and began making his way forward. Around him the earth seemed to condense, drawing toward him from all sides. The smell of loam and the feel of pebbles digging into his hands drowned his senses as he rapidly became unable to see, even with the enhancement of his Ki. It felt like his shoulders doubled in size while the tunnel halved, and he felt them scraping against roots hanging from above.

Still, he pushed forward. There were more important things than the small voice screaming deep, deep inside his mind. Telling him he was going to get stuck, and know one would ever find him. That he’d be trapped here, slowly starving until the rats came for him and he couldn’t fight back.

And eventually, long minutes later when light began making its way into the cave through some unseen entrance and the ceiling began to rise enough that Elijah could at least walk hunched over rather than crawl, a misshapen lump appeared in the shadows before him, he was glad he had pushed through. A joy reinforced when that lump letting out a rattling laugh.

“Just couldn’t say goodbye huh?” There was a hacking sound and something wet smacking the ground before he continued, “Shouldn’t have come out here Elijah. Now you are just going to die too.”

“Hah,” Elijah gave an exhausted chuckle back. “Can’t even say hi without making it about you huh?”

“Well you did come all this way…”

“What happened? Niels only found the clearing, and I can’t entirely blame him for not just thinking you were dead. I saw how much blood was there. Good thing my magic could help me parse out what was yours…”

“I don’t know. Everything seemed like it was going to plan. I had plenty of potions left, the lynx were absolutely obsessed with me, and the deer herd was right were we thought it would be. I was just about to toss the bait and make my escape when what I’m pretty sure was the boss came crashing down from the sky.”

Elijah’s eyes widened at those words, “The boss? Damn, how did the thing make it past Niels.”

All he got in response was another of those rattling chuckles followed by silence. For a moment, Elijah was worried he’d only made it in time to witness Seba’s last moments. Thankfully, a loud sigh and pained grunt as he attempted to reposition himself proved the other man was still alive. Elijah made his way closer, doing his best to catalogue injuries as he approached.

“Try not to move too much. I need to give you a more thorough examination, but that ankle looks swollen enough to be broken. Any other major injuries I should know about? Can barely see a thing in here.”

“When the boss hit me. It’s a big cat, probably as tall as your chest, but it’s built pretty much the same as the rest. Only difference is that the thing is constantly dripping blood from where the bone plating meets the skin. When it charged me, a big ball of the stuff built in front of the damn thing and exploded when we collided.”

Pausing for a moment, he seemed to be working to catch his breath, “I’m not sure, but I thought I heard something crack in my chest and breathing has been tough since then. Feels like I’m trying to inhale through a bunch of cloth. Hurts even worse if I try to breathe too deeply. The attack shredded my bandolier too, lost all my potions.”

A large splotch of purple and black covered the man’s chest, visible through the massive hole that absolutely destroyed the cloth and small strips of leather meant to protect him. It almost looked like he’d been shot by a beanbag gun, scaled up a few times. He’d seen those sorts of injuries before, and combined with the what Seba was describing…

“Sounds like you might have hemothorax or pneumothorax,” Elijah grimaced as he tried to look closer. “Basically, your lung collapsed and then couldn’t reinflate because a bunch of liquid or air filled the spot your lung is supposed to go. I have a way to deal with it, but it won’t be pleasant. We’ll want to try one of Rory’s health potions first, but I’ve been talking to him lately and it seems like they aren’t particularly well suited to this kind of injury. It will fix whatever is causing the fluid build up, but might not actually remove the fluid.”

“Oh, a collapsed lung? Is that all.” Another hacking laugh from him before he continued, “Better if you just take off. The cats will probably be here soon. They’ve been testing the tunnels ever since I holed up in here. We don’t have time for you to drag my ass out of here and get me fixed up enough to run back.”

That was a chilling thought. He should have known the monsters would have been able to track him, but this entire time he’d been assuming Seba would either be good enough to get away or all he’d find was a body. He hadn’t thought that they might be taking their time, wearing him down slowly. It didn’t fit with his image of the ravenous fury the things had torn off after him with.

“Nope, not leaving you. I put in all this work making my way out here, I can hardly leave now.” Elijah was only half paying attention as he spoke, scrolling through the system’s shop hoping it would have what he needed. “Besides, lucky for you I’ve got just the things I need.”

Elijah stared at the thing on his purchase screen, second guessing his decision before muttering, “Wouldn’t normally try this, but we’re desperate here. Should be fine, you have your Ki and I’ve got a couple healing potions…”

Apparently he hadn’t been quiet enough, given the wary look Seba was sporting. He clearly wasn’t thrilled, and Elijah couldn’t blame him. He didn’t have the energy to put a good spin on what he was about to attempt, let alone face a happy face about things. The next few minutes were going to suck for Seba, and there wasn’t much he could do about that.

“What, exactly, do you have in mind?” He asked.

“Well, were I come from the solution is…” He debated a bit before chuckling nervously and continuing, “Well, have you ever tapped a maple tree?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Tapped a maple tree? What does that have to…”

Seba, usually cool and collected, seemed to panic a bit as the idea sunk in, “Oh, you can not be serious…”

“Do you want to be able to breath right when the cats show up or not?”

As Elijah watch Seba debate his answer, he began using sterilizing pads to wipe down the catheter. He used the additional control afforded by his Ki to keep his hands from shaking, but he was nervous. This wasn’t exactly something you did lightly, especially for the first time under less-than-ideal circumstances. Hell, he’d only watched the procedure a couple of times.

Still, he felt surprisingly confident he could manage it. From what he’d learned about Ki enhancement as you started completing more channels, the snake-man should have a pretty good feel of his internals while Elijah already had a sureness to his movements that could only be matched by the very best normal earth humans. He was probably machine level precise for most things at this point. Add in the fall back of meditation’s enhanced healing affects and the potions…Well, he didn’t want to jinx anything, but he figured they would manage without too many problems.

It was the next hacking fit that decided it. Barely able to speak, hand grasping at his chest, Seba nodded his agreement. The man was able to tell him that it was the left lung that was giving him issues due to a quick scan with his Ki, so Eljah quickly had him leaning over to expose the ribs.

Hands above his head, the remains of his shirt quickly being cut off, he asked, “You ever do this before?”

Elijah flicked his eyes toward the other man’s face, briefly meeting his eyes before returning to work. Pulling out another sterilizing cloth, he began wiping down Seba’s side. As he did, he slipped into the bare edge of meditation, trying to feel the other man’s blood flow. Around him, his aura activated and he did his best to connect with the mana leaving his body.

“Not this exactly, no.” He hedged, “But I’ve done similar treatments”

Yeah, putting in an IV is REAL similar… He thought to himself. Then he tried to move away from that train of thoughts. It would hardly help matters.

“Alright, don’t move Seba. Tell me when I get to your lung.”

Instantly, it was like the man had been paralyzed. Not a twitch came from him. Elijah gave his teammate one final scan, with his eyes and his mana sense, and felt confident he knew where to go. It was like back in the clearing, he could just barely feel the blood in Seba’s veins and could make out a small pool of the stuff where it shouldn’t be. With smooth and controlled motions, he began inserting the tip of the catheter.

Seba’s only reaction was a slight his of pain. To be fair though, it probably wasn’t notable amongst the cacophony of feedback from his many bruises. Elijah maintained a steady pace, slowly inserting the thing until Seba told him to stop.

“It’s there, what now?”

Elijah didn’t need to answer as a brownish yellow liquid began to drain from the tube. Elijah tried to stimulate the flow using his aura, and it seemed to have some affect. He would need to look at other options for controlling and sensing blood more directly, it seemed like a very useful skill, but this would do for now.

More than his minor contribution though, Seba realized he could use his Ki to begin reinflating his lung. This put pressure on the fluid, and quickly increased the speed of drainage. Between the two of them, Elijah anticipated most of the fluid being gone within two hours. Much faster than on earth, when it could take a day or more.

Unfortunately, two hours ended up being longer than they had.

#

It was Seba, with his far more powerful conventional senses, that noticed them first.

“Shit, they’re coming down the tunnel.”

Seba was matter of fact it, barely even changing his tone of voice. Elijah didn’t trust it. They both knew with that tube in his side he was worse than useless. Any unnecessary movement could jostle the thing or cause additional injury. If Seba tried to get him to flee again, they were going to come to an impasse.

Deciding to strike first, he quickly began speaking, “Alright, we’ll just have to do what we can now and finish the treatment later.”

He dropped one of the health potions into Seba’s lap.

“I’ll hold them off as long as I can. The more time you have to drain, the more help you’ll be. Don’t take that thing until I give the signal. When you do, we’ll push them back and make a break for it. Sound like a plan?”

For a moment Seba seemed like he was going to argue before he gave in.

“Yeah, you got it Elijah. Just tell me when and I’ll yank the spigot and take the potion.”

“Good, which way are they coming from?”

“Same way you did. It’s a pain since there is plenty of room for them and not so much for us.”

In the few minutes he had left, Elijah began piling dirt in the tunnel on that side. If he could get even a little bit of a barricade it could help matters immensely.

“Any chance they’ll come in from the other side?”

“Not sure, but they haven’t tried it yet. One more thing I don’t like about the situation. Feels like the damn things are trying to herd me out of the tunnel.”

“Well, we’ll have to deal with it later. I still think that’s are best escape route, no way we’re making it past a group of those things in that tiny tunnel.”

“Agreed. Get ready now, the first one’s on its way. Thirty seconds.”

Elijah backed off a little and summoned his armor, accumulated blood from various fights squeezing itself out of his armor to join the blood pouring from small cuts along his body. What appeared to be a ruby on his melt melted, contributing even more of the crimson liquid. True to Seba’s word, one of the hell cats came screaming and yowling out short seconds later. It slowed briefly at the piled dirt, but quickly forced its way through. Before it could get more than a step out of the tunnel though, Elijah hauled back a foot and punted it back into the tunnel.

The thing clawed and scratched at his leg, trying to find purchase, but his blood and bone armor repelled the claws. With nothing but a few gouges to show for its effort, the thing went flying back into the darkness. There was a clatter of bone impacting clatter and this time two yowling voices could be heard deeper inside, but it seemed Elijah had successfully repelled their first attempt.

“That was easy.”

Seba grinned at that, “Careful now, they probably won’t be so excitable on their next attempt.”

If the advice hadn’t been so obvious, it would have been prophetic. This time, the angry beast came crawling out of the tunnel slowly, swiping at anything that moved while hunched up. Its rear paws were braced, and Elijah doubted he could force the thing back with another kick. Instead, he summoned his blood weapon.

With the advancement to Intermediate, his Blood Blade had transformed into something called Blood Armament and he had transformed it into a Ki Art. With the change, he could now enhance any weapon with his blood, including his shield.

Small streams of blood extended from various points on his arm and a veritable river poured from one of the Bloodwells present now that his armor had been activated. The majority of the flows ran into the back of his buckler and rapidly expanded in a crystalline framework. Soon what he held was closer to a small shield rather than the barely plate side sized buckler he had had before. A few streams broke off and surrounded his short sword, almost more of an afterthought.

Jamming the shield into the entrance, he blocked off the monster’s advance. Using the small blade, he wrapped around the edges of the shield and took small stabs at beast. Around him, the red glow from his aura’s runes began to intensify. He wasn’t good at killing monsters, but he didn’t need to do that now. He just needed to buy time, and that was his specialty.

#

It was over an hour later that he finally hit his limit. His aura had been at work the entire time, eventually hitting its limit in inhibiting the felines, and he’d done everything he could to limit his energy expenditure. Unfortunately, the simple fact was that he only had so many reserves of mana, ki, and plain old muscle. He wasn’t fully tapped out yet, but any longer and he wouldn’t have enough energy to run.

With a shout, he pushed his blood shield forward and expanded it slightly, entirely blocking off the tunnel. He’d been slowly bleeding the beasts this entire time, and he had more blood to work in his Bloodwells than ever before. Quickly, he gave Seba the go ahead to pull the catheter and down the potion.

Over the next two minutes, he kept the lynx bottled up while Seba meditated to get himself into the best state possible. With a small gasp, he heaved himself to his feet, even as the cut in his side closed and his other injuries receded. With a nod, he indicated he was ready.

“Three…,” He counted slowly, steadily. “Two…One! Go!”

With a heave, he pushed the shield as far as he could. The lead cat was knocked backwards, entangling itself in the limbs of the monster behind it. With the affect of his aura, the two were hopelessly tangled in a mess of limbs, and it would take time for them to pursue while also blocking the advancement of the others.

With a reckless abandon, they began rushing toward the tunnel exit in a half crawl, half run. Limbs scrambling, they clawed at the dirt to extract every bit of speed they could manage. Behind them, howls and screeches of angry felines filled the tunnel, but they did not yet hear the sounds of pursuit. In front of them, the fresh, chilled scent of winter air pierced through the damp, heavy reek of loam.

With a shout of joy and laughter, they burst from the tunnel and prepared to flee into the forest. The only problem was a pair of massive, predatory eyes in the underbrush. With a shiver, goosebumps raised along his spine and Elijah suddenly empathized with mice discovering Triss waiting just outside their hole.

It appeared the boss monster had not been satisfied with merely sending Seba fleeing. It had been waiting to finish the job. Behind them, the sounds of claws on stone and earth told them they were about to be flanked from both sides. In front of them a beast they had no hope of killing paced.

“Told you you should have just left me…” Seba said with a hint of sadness and resignation.

“And I told you it wasn’t happening. We’ll just have to stall for time until we see a chance to break for it.”

“Heh, or we see a chance to cut the fucking things head off.”

It seemed Seba wasn’t ready to give in without a fight after all. Elijah was glad for that. This might be their last few moments, but at least they weren’t going to the void scared and alone. He didn’t want to die either, but if he had to choose at least this was a death worth having. If he had his way, he’d at least make sure his friend made it out safely.

#

Over the following minutes, they fought with the boss creature. Elijah had been expected the beast to perform all manner of trickery and magic with the blood that freely spilled from its hide. Or at least another blood bomb similar to what Seba had described. Thankfully, it appeared Elijah’s own magic was superior and the blood merely served to reinforce his own protection.

With that gone, the beast was simply large, fast, and incredibly strong.

Elijah managed to keep its focus by repeatedly stabbing towards its face and attempting to blind it with the shield, while the ghoul lynx circled him like a school of sharks smelling blood. Thick crimson plates covered him, and he was amazed to find it resistant to all but direct blows from the boss and essentially impervious to the lesser monsters. Not to say he could do anything to him either.

Out in open ground, the lynx only suffered minimal affect from his aura and the boss seemed nearly immune. Their heavy bone armor meant his only chance at hurting them were blows to the eyes, throat, or stomach and each guarded those points carefully. Even if they didn’t, he was rapidly tiring and he didn’t like his chances of hitting such small areas.

He wasn’t formally trained in a sword, he just did his best. With sweat in his eyes as they drooped from exhaustion he could barely see. The weapon felt clunky in his hands, moving slower than he expected. He had fallen back to wild swings meant to make him appear large and threatening. He didn’t know how long he could keep that up though.

In the shadows and treetops around him, Seba sprinted, swung, and flung himself about like some kind of demented monkey. Whenever he could, he’d fly in and attempt to stab one of the creatures. Most of the time, they would manage to ward him off. Despite that, he had begun leaving small cuts that hissed and festered with unknown poisons. Nothing that seemed to truly bother the creatures yet, but a sign of at least some headway.

He couldn’t keep it up forever though. Elijah doubted his lung was fully healed and more than once he’d seen his companion clutching at his side in pain. It didn’t stop him though, as he continued to push him self through the tears running down the small patches of scales around his serpentine eyes.

They had only been at it for maybe ten minutes, and they were already losing a step. It was as Elijah worked to formulate a plan - hoping for something, anything, that could see them out of this – that he heard it. A whistling sound coming from above them. One that the boss was already responding to and that he had only moments to identify.

With a grin, he realized what it was. Thinking back to days earlier, he prepared a repeat. As the boss gave its attention to the sky, he threw himself forward. Ducking under great, clawed paws, he slammed himself into the beast belly and began stabbing for all he was worth. The lynx around him roared and charged, attempting to gut him while he focused on his attack. Seba stabbed at the things with reckless abandon, hoping to defend him and draw their attention.

With a final shriek and a BOOM, a form came hurtling through the air and slammed the massive cat boss onto its side. Elijah himself was thrown end over end, along with Seba and the smaller lynx. Looking toward the crash site, he beheld the great beast taking long, wracking breaths. As if teleported there, two swords now emerged, one each, from the beast’s throat and eye.

Kneeling on it, holding the weapons, Niels glared with a hatred Elijah had never before seen in the man. With a final, vicious tug, he turned and wrenched the weapons from the monster. It let out a piteous mew, attempting to claw him with ponderous swipes of its paws, only to be rebuffed with savage hacks of Niels’ blades.

Around them, the lynx that had been sent flying began to fade back into the jungle, apparently deciding that things had become too dangerous for them. Seba almost wished he could do the same when Niels turned on them and he saw no decrease in the other man’s anger.

With a final look around the clearing, he seemed to take control of his emotion. Letting out a deep breath, his expression melted to one of concern laced with joy as his eyes caught Seba. The rogue was still laying on the ground, panting, but was obviously alive and mostly well.

“I see you found our missing teammate. Thank you Elijah.”