Runeblade

With a new companion in tow, they crossed the frontier. As they crossed the rolling, rock-studded, hills that made up the lowlands of the distant mountains, Kaius found that the terror birds had become…something of a local nuisance.

While they were rare before, whatever change had occurred during the second phase had caused them to proliferate like wildfire. Some local animal, catalysed by their awakenings, no doubt.

Regardless of the reason, they were a plague, and one that accosted them in packs multiple times per day. At the very least, it kept their supplies rich with their hearty meat. That, and they were as much of a distraction from the monotony of overland travel as Kaius could hope for.

Yet, even with all the constant battle, their leveling slowed to a crawl. Now close to the bird's own level, they received no bonus experience, and what they did receive was reduced and split with their new mage companion. Even after what felt like a dozen or more packs, they’d only managed to grow to level seventeen. Thankfully, their skills were less impacted, and Kaius had seen a smattering of growth across the board. Especially for his Latent Glyph of Drakthar, which still lagged behind the others, which had grown to level fifteen. Even Lesser Regeneration had grown some. Weak they might have been, the birds packed a hard punch, and with their swarming tactics it was inevitable that he accumulated enough cracked bones and bruises to push the skill higher.

As slow as it felt, Kaius knew that three levels in as many days was still a meteoric pace. Most grew far slower than that, taking on battles infrequently, and only fighting that which they were sure of surviving. With the overwhelming amount of beasts that now roamed the wilds, it was highly likely that this would become the new norm. For those who adapted, at least.

Unfortunately their pace would be impossible to maintain forever, even if they were to fight often against appropriately tough foes. As you grew through the tiers, leveling slowed to a crawl, and finding monsters to fight became harder and harder. Outside of the depths, at least. It was strange, after everything, Kaius expected he would want to avoid that hells damned place for the rest of his life.

Now, he couldn’t help but miss it. The consistent challenge. The stakes. Somehow, despite the world slowly ending around him, he found himself growing bored.

It didn’t help that Porkchop had been growing increasingly more annoyed with how easily they had dealt with challenges. It had gotten so bad, Kaius had taken to guiding them around the groups of the birds he could spot.

Him? Avoiding a fight? A travesty.

Thankfully, they’d been treated to at least one moment where a large pack of terror birds had descended on a herd of strange horse-like beasts, only to fall to a bone cracking storm of hooves as the entire group had charged them at once. That had been a sight to see. Kaius smiled at the memory of their confused squawks turning to squeals of terror as the birds had realised themselves out matched.

Eventually though, they left the lowlands, and entered the grasslands proper. Hills flattened, becoming more irregular, with shallower gradients, as their surroundings became dominated by lush grasses and shrubs that flourished in the moisture provided by regular small streams that wormed their way through the frontier.

Every now and then, a small copse of trees jutted out from the landscape, shaded burroughs visible from leagues away - as long as there were no hills to block the view, that is. Those same trees provided shelter and rest for all manner of animals that made their life on the grasslands. Even transformed to beasts, the surroundings still had a sort of natural serenity to them.

Even if it was still far more open that Kaius was entirely comfortable with.

Thankfully, the nuisance of the terror birds lessened, replaced instead by all manner of grazing creatures, broken up by the odd pack of hunting beasts. Those steered well clear of them, happy to focus on more familiar prey.

He could only hope that they would come across a proper fight sometime soon; all this calm was making him restless.

Kaius looked over to Ianmus, the half-elf mage busy scanning the horizon for more threats as they walked up a slow and gentle incline. Even if the man knew that he had the skills to pick up on any ambush attempts, it seemed that Ianmus’s brush with his own mortality had left its mark. While Kaius wouldn’t exactly call him skittish, he definitely had an air of discomfort about him.

Though, even with only a few days having passed, it seemed the trauma of nearly getting run down by a pack of overgrown chickens was starting to fade.

They hadn’t exactly gotten close, but they had talked. The man had some interesting insights into the nature of the phase change. Apparently, while it was almost certain that the rising mana levels and proliferation of beasts would lead to the wilds becoming all but certain death to anyone who wasn’t a seasoned and strong combatant, or under the guard by such types, it wouldn’t lead to everything leveling endlessly until civilisation succumbed to an endless wave of high tier beasts.

Something to do with ‘natural variation in racial strength and bloodline purity’ as Ianmus had put it. Or, much more simply, beasts could only grow so much before they started to stall, dependent on their species and bloodline. Some rare few would leap the dragon’s gate to evolve further in a new form, but nowhere near most. It was something he had known of in vague terms, but it was nice to see someone confident that it would still apply in these desperate times.

Kaius still wasn’t sure what to make of the man. He was competent, that was certain. Perhaps not in the same league as he and Porkchop, but that would be an unreasonable expectation. Still, he had skills, aptitude, and a razor sharp mind. Those Sunbeams of his were viciously potent - sure, they left small wounds that were easy to heal, but the man was still low level.

Along with his strengthening buff that invigorated and toughened the half-elf’s allies, he had proven himself useful. If that wasn’t enough, the man kept a cool head in battle, and had managed to pull off a raw casted healing spell using his solar affinity. Not quite as fast as a dedicated spell, but it had considerably boosted Porkchop’s Health regeneration after he had gotten mobbed by a dozen terror birds.

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On the other hand, it still felt odd that the man knew his secrets. Sure, it was only the ones that were inevitable to get out, and nothing truly dangerous like his class rarity, Honours, legacy skills, or the fact that they had started the second phase, but it still felt strange for someone who was close to a stranger to know something that could become a vulnerability.

Ianmus was personable though, Kaius had to give him that. Once the magi had gotten over his understandable apprehension about their intentions, he had been more than happy to prattle about a dozen different implications of glyph-binding. How he only wished he could be around to see the faces on some of his old teachers when it eventually became common knowledge. Apparently there were whole schools of thought surrounding the place of magic and spellcasting in the wider system that would be thrown into disarray.

That, and the man was sure that there would be insights that could be used for free casting - sacred geometry was already used in more complex weavings of raw mana, though it did not make use of runes in truth.

Kaius didn’t quite understand the thrill the man got from that, but it was an interesting conversation to have nonetheless - at least the uses of sacred geometry were, the academic side was a little dull. If Ianmus didn’t immediately high-tail it to the Greenseed Dukedoms after they arrived in Deadacre, he was almost of the mind to strike up a lasting friendship with the man. The half-elf clearly knew much more than him about magical theory, and having an academic already privy to his magic to bounce ideas off would be mighty convenient.

They reached the top of the rise, and immediately Kaius noticed something…interesting. Little more than a brownish fuzzy blob at the bottom of the hill and a little ways across the flat grasslands. Still…it looked large, and he knew of only one such creature that made its home in this part of the frontier that was so prodigious.

He honed in with Truesight, his vision sharpening.

The monster came into view, one he recognised instantly. Legs as thick as his chest, tapering down to shining metallic cloven hooves. A body, built like a bulls, but as thick as a barge and with a jagged ridge of knobbly vertebrae that pushed up against its skin and draped in a thick, matted, brown coat. A heavy head, currently bent down to tear apart a bush in a single morsel, leaf and wood ground into a pulp between molars close to the size of his fist. Two silvery tusks angled out of its mouth, tapering to a fine point and perfectly situated to smash and gore whatever fell afoul of its territorial anger.

An Irontusk, the undisputed kings of the grasslands surrounding Deadacre.

They were beasts that bred true far before the phase shift, and thankfully solitary and rare. Most were placid when left alone, mostly thanks to their poor eyesight - get close enough for one to spot you, and they were liable to crush you into a paste.

Most importantly, they were huge. Easily half as big again as Porkchop was with his evolved form.

They were also strong. Kaius grinned, identifying the beast.

Irontusk Vagrant- Level 49:

Beast, Brawler

Finally. What he had been waiting for.

His heart quickened, senses sharpening as the soft wind sent a tingle shooting across his skin. A longing want of violence began to croon, soft whispers of glory alighting in his mind.

Porkchop stiffened, feeling his desire. “Where?” he asked, because there was no question of what. Not after their bond, not after so long sharing in the delight of vigorous battle.

“Irontusk, down there. Level forty-nine. You seen one before?” Kaius replied, leaning forwards to point so that Porkchop could see.

Ianmus started at his words.

“An Irontusk? That’s a high level for this area, though perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised with the way things have been going.” he said, shading his eyes from the sun as he peered in the beast's direction. “I think if we circle around that copse over there, we should be able to avoid it.” Ianmus finished, gesturing to a small circle of trees far off to their right. Away from the Irontusk.

As one, he and his bond-brother turned. Kaius’s brow furrowed as he looked at the magi with naked confusion on his face.

Ianmus kept walking for a moment, adjusting his course before his head whipped over to meet his gaze as the magi realised that they hadn’t changed direction to match. He returned their look, expression quizzical, before understanding dawned.

The mage looked back to the irontusk, before returning to meet his eyes. “No. You can’t be serious!” he asked, jaw flapping open.

“Why would we not? That’s the first proper bloody fight we’ve seen in days?” Kaius asked, blinking in genuine confusion.

Ianmus spluttered. “It’s level forty-nine? And the size of a small cottage?” he tried.

Porkchop tilted his head. “Exactly?”

“You…might die?” Ianmus pleaded.

“That's how fighting works?” Kaius responded.

Smacking himself on the forehead, Ianmus groaned, before he pinched the bridge of his nose. “In what realm do you have a chance against a level forty-nine? You have to be pulling some kind of joke here.” the magi asked, on the verge of pleading with them.

Kaius didn’t get it. That was roughly the same level gap they had had with the Guardian, and this was a common beast and they had classes now. Well, that was a bit of a lie, he did suppose that Ianmus knew none of that. It was still fun messing with him, just a bit.

“...This one? It’ll be tough, but that's the sort of fight that could push us to our second skill in one fell swoop!” Porkchop attempted to explain, following his lead.

Ianmus looked between the two of them, his eyes wide with disbelieving horror. “By the gods you’re actually serious. Are the two of you insane?! I know you are strong, and must have good classes, but this is plain idiocy.”

Kaius frowned. “It’s not.”

Ianmus started to talk, but he cut the man off with a raise of his hand.

“Look, if I don’t fight something more challenging than a drunk toddler, I'm going to go insane with boredom. Irontusks are tough, and hit hard, but they are pretty slow, and have shit senses. I promise you, we will be fine, it’s not like you need to join if you don’t want to.” Kaius said, his tone resolute. Teasing or not, he was serious about needing a good fight.

Ianmus huffed, narrowing his eyes. “Can you swear that this is not some bravado fueled cockup that will get us all killed? Are you genuinely sure you can take down something that far above you?”

Kaius smiled. “Without a scratch? Absolutely not. Without losing any more fingers? Absolutely.”

The half-elf groaned. “You’re going to do this no matter what perfectly rational reason I give to avoid the damn thing, aren’t you?”

“Yep.” Both he and Porkchop replied in unison. No way were either of them going to skip out on a fight that juicy.

Ianmus rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll try to keep it blinded.”

Kaius grinned, feeling the heat of his blood pulsing with wild abandon in his veins.

“Fantastic.”

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