Rune Seeker

Hiral peered out through the crack in the tower wall, thunder booming overhead as if in response to the challenge bellowed forth by the Princeof the Swamp. The frigid rain still came down in sheets, the wind whipping it back and forth and onto Hiral’s face.

“Are they taking the bait?” Seena asked behind him.

“Can’t tell,” Hiral said, more fire and lightning arcing above the silhouette of the briar patch. “Though they might have an answer,” he added, the tattoos emerging from his skin. Foundational Split brought Left and Right out to join the group, and Hiral turned his attention to them. “Good job, you two. Did the Enemy show up?”

“Something did,” Right said. “Storm was still pretty bad over there, then the Princesounded like it went crazy. Couldn’t see it, but there is definitely a fight happening.”

“Which means it’s our chance to go,” Left said, leading the way out into the rain.

Hiral followed his double out, while the others got Cal comfortably situated on Vix’s back.

“Still didn’t manage to see the Enemy?” Hiral asked while it was just him and Left.

“For a moment, I thought I saw something… but… no. It was just the wind playing havoc with the rain, I think. Whatever the Enemy actually is, it’s fast, silent, and powerful.” Left nodded toward where the battle continued to rage with the Princeof the Swamp.

“Do you think the ten-minute lethargy applies outside the dungeon?” Hiral asked, watching as the night sky lit up.

“I hope not. We need the Princeto buy more time than that,” Seena said, coming out of the tower behind him. “Now, enough gawking. Didn’t you say it was time to go?”

“It is… It definitely is,” Hiral said.

The whole group jogged back to the root-lined path, then turned toward the forest. Barely a few hundred feet, and they left the swamp, the ground turning solid along an almost perfect line.

“Must’ve been some kind of magic involved in that,” Left mumbled to Hiral as they passed under the boughs of the tall trees. The downpour of cold rain was lessened due to the cover, but the wind still howled between the tree trunks like a thing possessed.

Hiral turned back one last time at the flashes of the ongoing battle, more lightning and fire arcing up to paint the sky red and white, then left it behind and followed the curving path.

“I hope it isn’t far,” Picoli said, her fingers twitching like she wanted to summon her Light Darts, but the group limited themselves to the naturally growing roots. There was no telling what would draw the Enemy to them.

“At least the rain isn’t as bad in here,” Nivian said.

After that, they ran without talking, their focus on getting as far from the swamp and the Enemy as possible. One foot in front of the other, the exertion of the run warmed Hiral’s body, fighting against the chill of the rain still falling, but nothing seemed to be chasing them.

“Hey, Vix, hold up—Cal looks like she’s slipping,” Nivian said to break the silence almost two hours later, the dense forest thinning and the trees growing more sparsely. The things still towered into the sky, each easily more than a hundred feet tall, but they also had that same distance between them.

“Harder when she’s not awake to hold on,” Vix said as they stopped to help him.

“You’ve done a good job so far,” Seena said. “Need to trade off?”

“I can take her if you need a break,” Hiral offered, walking over while the others looked around. Thanks to the glowing roots crawling along the ground, the terrain looked pretty flat in all directions, but the lack of cover meant they were getting wet—and cold—again.

“Just give me a second to stretch,” Vix said after Nivian got Cal off his back, and he took a few steps away to reach up high on a tree trunk and stretch his back out. “Ah, that’s the stuff.”

“Let me know if you change your mind,” Hiral said, running his hand along the top of his head to wipe away the water, though it got replaced by the cold rain as soon as his hand passed.

Is this stupid rain ever going to stop? He tilted his head back to look up along the tall trees, whose branches did little to stop the rain splashing straight down onto his face while small forks of lightning crossed the sky. What he wouldn’t give to see the sun, even for just a few minutes. To feel the warmth of it on his skin and…

Hiral’s brain paused as the wind twisted the rain off to the side directly above him, but… something about that wasn’t right. He blinked and rubbed the water out of his eyes, the rain falling and falling and falling. What’s bothering me?

He slowly lowered his gaze to look around at the others as Wule checked on Cal before they got her back on Vix. The rain was falling straight down. There was no wind. So why did it look like there was?

An image of the darkened briar patch floated into Hiral’s mind, the gouts of flame and forks of lightning shooting up at the top of the Prince’s prison. Why would it be attacking up there? Because I’ve been looking in the wrong place the whole time.

“I think we should get moving, right now,” Hiral said, looking back up and then between the spread-out trees.

“Almost done here,” Wule said.

“No time for that,” Hiral said, his pulse quickening as he scanned along the ground… and then higher.

“I’m ready when you all are,” Vix said, taking one last stretch against the side of a tree, but something about the rain above him was… wrong.

Next to the glowing roots winding around the tree, Hiral could see the individual drops falling—constant, steady—but the ones above Vix weren’t dropping straight. They were… twisting, like they were running down something coiled and reaching.

“Vix, look out!” Hiral called at the same time the man stood straight with his arms above his head. Then Vix’s head snapped up to look at his extended arm, where the water seemed to be pooling around his wrist.

Flashing warning notifications exploded in Hiral’s vision.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

ENEMY DETECTED!

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

He threw aside the window as the others turned toward him, and he instinctively reached out for Vix—and the long red health bar above him.

“What…?” Vix asked, and then he shot straight up at the same time the health bar vanished.

Hiral activated his Rune of Attraction to try and hold Vix down—to not lose him like he’d lost Lonil—but it instead yanked him into the air, the sudden shock of it breaking his concentration. Ten feet up in a heartbeat and then Hiral dropped back down, his head snapping up to look as soon as he got his balance.

“What the hell was that?” Seena shouted, the floating book appearing in the air beside her and opening up. “Vix?” she called.

No answer.

“There’s an Enemy here,” Hiral said, drawing his RHCs and aiming them higher up the tree. “Right, get Cal.”

“Sure,” Right said, rushing over and sweeping the unconscious healer into his arms.

“What about Vix?” Wule asked, looking around, everybody suddenly on edge.

“We can’t leave him,” Nivian said.

“We aren’t,” Seena answered. “Group up. Eyes out. We know it’s here. Anybody see Vix?”

Part of Hiral wanted to tell them it wouldn’t matter. That Vix was dead. The bigger part of him hoped he was wrong, and he joined the others in the circle around Right.

“It came from above him,” Hiral said. “Down the side of the tree.”

“What did it look like?” Nivian asked, his shield and whip out as he paced around the group like he was trying to protect them all at once.

“I… don’t know,” Hiral admitted. “I just saw something wrong with the rain, and then he was gone.”

“We can’t stay here,” Balyo said, an unusual edge to her voice. “You saw what happened back in the town. Look at Cal.”

The spearwoman wasn’t wrong, but something was different about this than in the town. This Enemy had snuck up on Vix, instead of simply smashing him flat. Was it a weaker one? Maybe one they could fight? If they had a chance to…

Something smacked into the ground right in front of them with a wet thud, and every head snapped in that direction to find Vix lying there.

The top half of Vix—completely torn in half—with the white of his spine extending beyond the blood and gore that had been his stomach.

Somebody vomited as their brain processed what they were seeing, but nobody else moved.

Hiral’s eyes locked on Vix’s face, on the frozen expression of fear and pain. It hadn’t been a quick or painless death.

“We’re moving,” Seeyela barked. “Nivian, lead the way!”

“But… Vix,” Wule said woodenly, nobody moving despite the order.

“He’s dead,” Seeyela said. “Just like we’ll be if we don’t leave. Now.”

Hiral took a step in Vix’s direction, to at least close the man’s eyes so he wouldn’t have to stare up at the never-ending storm, but something about the rain shifted just beyond him. Up came Hiral’s RHCs and he pulled both triggers, the invisible bolts of force carving small tunnels through the falling rain to rip chunks out of a distant tree.

Missed!

His head snapped left and right, looking, looking… There. He whipped his weapons around and fired. Two more tunnels of force carved through the rain and continued off until they vanished. Missed again. Where are you?

He watched for any changes in the falling rain, and when the wind shifted, he fired again. Two more misses, then again, and again, his RHCs spat their bolts of Impact, hitting nothing. Was it playing with him, or did it actually fear getting hit?

“What are you waiting for?” he called over his shoulder. “Go!”

“Here,” Seena said, and a wooden totem popped out of the ground beside him, immediately rotating slightly to the left.

Of course—her auto-aim totems!

Hiral’s RHCs followed the direction of the totem while the others started down the road, their footsteps splashing in the water behind him. Nothing there. A glance down at the totem revealed it was continuing to the left, like whatever it was tracking was following the party. Hiral narrowed his eyes, focusing on the rain… Still nothing. Why couldn’t he see it in the storm?

Because the totem didn’t turn on a vertical axis, only a horizonal one! He was looking too low!

Hiral shifted his attention up, but didn’t pull the triggers. There was something moving through the rain in the air, eerily similar to how his bolts of Impact carved through it. Sleek and fast, it swept through the open air, over, around, then down toward the fleeing party.

Silent. Flying. And invisible!

Hiral’s weapons came up. He fired repeatedly, shot after shot carving through the air, though he wasn’t aiming at the absurdly fast target. Every time he blinked, he lost it in the rain. No, all he could do was put a barrier of shots between it and his friends. One after the other he fired, now running after the group as he did it.

Apparently, they noticed his shots firing overhead. Seena slowed and popped another totem, which instantly turned to the left, out of the ground. A gesture at her book, and firebolts began streaming out of the totem’s mouth to zip through the air. Like Hiral’s shots, they didn’t hit anything, but they gave him an idea where to look.

He fired off bolts as quickly as he could, trying to predict where the totem would aim next. A wall of Spearing Roots likewise erupted from the ground off to the side of the party, the wood glowing with infernal fire, but still they didn’t seem to hit anything.

“What are you even shooting at?” Yanily shouted. “I don’t see anything!”

“It’s invisible!” Hiral shouted, and suddenly, the totem darted left, the bolts of fire cutting off as the party crossed its path. “Look out!”

“You just said it’s invisible!” Yanily complained, but Seeyela had apparently seen the totem’s movements, as she threw out a Gravity Well on that side of the party.

No sooner had the Gravity Well formed in the air than three hydra heads lurched out of it, turning like the totem did to spit fire and lightning through the rain. Another totem quickly joined it on the ground on that side, the first collapsing into dust, and more firebolts tore through the rain with the hissing of evaporating water.

Hiral, meanwhile, kept his eyes on the way the rain moved. The others hadn’t spotted the phenomenon yet—he’d have to explain it later, if there was a later—and he needed to use it to get ahead of the Enemy.

Why don’t I see a health bar? Why could I see it before? Of course, because it takes a second or two to show up.

Throwing out the questions that weren’t helping him, Hiral focused on the pattern set out by the totem’s fire spitting. The way it moved, the constant stream, the speed… It was all consistent, which meant…

Hiral pulled both triggers at the same time, lining up his barrels with exactly where the speeding entity would move, and twinned bolts of force tore through the rain. And then the totem stopped spitting firebolts while Hiral’s bolts shot off into the distance, hitting nothing.

What? Is it gone?

He watched the totem as it continued to rotate—is the Enemy just out of range?—but then he looked at the Gravity Well and, more importantly, the hydras. All three heads turned toward the sky and breathed out fire and lightning. Though the blasts didn’t strike anything, Hiral aimed his weapons higher up and fired.

The Enemy was flying too high for the angle of the totem to hit it, and with the entire sky above him, Hiral didn’t have a good place to aim. Instead, he fired almost wildly on the chance one of his random blasts would hit where his aimed shots had missed. Still no strikes, so he followed after the party as it continued to move down the road.

The old Gravity Well and totem vanished, new ones springing to life ahead of the people, and Hiral kept his shots zipping over his friends’ heads. Light Darts burst to life and then swirled around above the group like a halo—a razor-sharp, saw-like halo.

How long could they keep this up? How far did they have to go?

Hiral passed the attacking hydra heads, one eye on them as they aimed toward the sky, then did a double take when the lightning-spitting head turned from the other two and breathed its deadly payload in a different direction. What? The Gravity Well vanished, then appeared again further ahead by the racing party—Seeyela was summoning it each time they got out of range.

And, again, one of the heads was aiming in a different direction. Was it broken? No, of course not…

“There’s more than one Enemy!” Hiral shouted at the same time the lightning-spitting hydra head angled down to the opposite side of the party—and below the protective halo of Light Darts.

Picking up his speed as his words sank in, he aimed his weapons to the right of the group and pulled the triggers as fast as he could. Lines of impact tore through the rain—but so did something else.

A shimmer in the downpour, barely more than that, sliced through the air, and then Picoli rocketed out the side of the group. The woman’s feet caught on a root, flipping her head over heels to tumble to the ground in a violent, rolling mess.

And then the screaming started.

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