Runeblade-Chapter 279B2 : Freedom, Finale

Kaius gasped, trunks blurring as he raced through the forest, every heavy step kicking up a torrent of dirt as the ground gave way beneath his strength.

They’d broken free of the encirclement, but even after putting a league between them and their prison, they still had beasts hot in pursuit. They just wouldn’t give up, worked into some unnatural furor by something unknown.

It rankled, and worried him.

“Come on!” Kenva screamed from ahead, vines exploding from her legs as she launched off from a branch high in the trees above, only to unfurl once more—questing for the next branch.

Kaius grunted and kept running, feeling the comforting weight of his blade as sweat soaked his back.

Behind them he heard the distinct crack of one of Ianmus’s spells burning the air, followed by a whining yelp, and the sound of a body tumbling in the dirt. A second later, the mage burst past him as he sprinted forwards—glowing white trailing behind him.

His latest skill, Starlit Alacrity—one that had proven immediately useful in their escape, for all that he struggled to turn while using it.

“Kaius, behind!” Ianmus cried.

Kaius turned, blade sweeping up into a high-guard as soon as the words left his friend’s lips. A beast flew through the air, wide maw open to reveal finger length fangs. Shaggy, with limbs down to its knees, it looked like a hideous combination of an ape and a bear.

Pulling on the mana in his soul, he cut—Mystic’s Rend coating his blade’s edge with a wire of screaming arcane.

The creature swung its clawed hand, each digit burning with an unnatural glow.

Blood sprayed as he split its skull, his skill detonating a second later and eviscerating the contents within.

**Ding! level 81 Tunnian Ambulator - Stonebreaker slain - Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of Insignificant Strength!**

It’s claws still kissed his throat, crunching through layers of scaled metal to rake through his flesh. He grunted, ignoring the white heat of his wound as more blood poured to soak his chest.

More creatures converged on his position, smelling weakness—too many to fight head on, especially when every minute was another that a stray creature on the far edges of the horde would stumble into him.

Even if they had escaped from the meat of the army of monsters, there were still stragglers that moved to the south-west.

None of them had made the trek without injuries. Kenva, her chest soaked in blood from a near brush with death. A maddened horse covered in stone scales had burst out of the trees and kicked her in the chest before he could put it down with one of his precious casts of Hateful Nail.

Ianmus too, his robes were ragged and bloody below the knee from where a pack of cats had mauled his legs.

Even with their strength, their simple capability, a dozen unlucky blows had compounded—slowly but surely draining them of their stock of potions. It was an alarming prospect, one that promised a death by attrition if they couldn’t find a way to lose their pursuers.

It would have been manageable, if there was anything approaching an end in sight. There wasn’t; the beasts just came in what seemed to be an endless tide.

Whatever controlled the horde had clearly no compunctions about forcing their minions to pursue until they collapsed with exhaustion.

Thankfully, they had one respite. By some arcane reasoning which he couldn’t decipher, most of the beasts that were following them had remained in pursuit from their initial escape from the compound.

Of the beasts they had met in their flight through the forest, most only made a few tentative attempts on their life before they were seemingly compelled to continue on their migration to the south-west.

It was a meagre relief. Enough of the creatures focused on them with a dogged vengeance that they had picked up quite the motley retinue in pursuit.

“We can’t keep going like this!” his brother called, summoning fangs of jade as he crushed the neck of a ram that made the mistake of charging at him. Flinging the carcass to the side, Porkchop charged on, using his bulk to crash directly through the undergrowth. “There’s no end to them!”

“We don’t exactly have a fucking choice, do we?” Kaius replied, his frustration getting the better of him when he slapped a rabbit out of the air with his blade—ending its mindless assault. He raced forwards without breaking step.

How did this even happen? What madness had taken over this forest? It made no sense. A mystery that wormed its way into his mind, overshadowing even his worries of the suspicious flight of the compound's leaders — or the risk of future pursuit from more powerful classers.

Originally, he’d thought they might have run afoul of some scheme of a third tier, but with how far reaching this problem seemed to be, it seemed impossible. No story or fable he’d ever heard had prescribed even those lofty figures with such powers. Hells, even the numbers that had assaulted the compound directly would have stretched his powers of belief.

No, it had to be something greater, something more vicious and dangerous than the might of a single man—even one of such power.

But what? The only thing he knew of that could compel such an ironclad obedience in these creatures were the Skills of beast masters. And yet…even a full contingent of beastmasters in the third tier would struggle to affect so many, and that was a proposition so ridiculous he refused to believe it. For one, beastmasters were not so common, nor were third tiers. For two, why the fuck would they be doing this in the bloody Frontier of all places?

Kaius couldn’t figure it out. He doubted he ever would, let alone when he had to focus so much on surviving. For now they just needed to keep running, and pray to the gods that they’d find some way out of this shit.

They were running too low on resources—even with the selection of potions he’d managed to find, and he had none of the time and focus he would need to locate more in the ring he had on his finger.

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As soon as they were out, they’d be slowly whittled down—their resources worn away at until they succumbed one by one. Only his brother had any decent chance of escape, with his natural resilience and obscenely high resources. Fucking greater beasts and their doubled resources—utterly unfair.

“Kenva, any sign of one yet?!” he yelled up to the canopy above.

With an ocular skill even more powerful than his, capable of seeing through all sorts of obstacles, she had the best chance of spotting the one thing that would get them out of their situation—especially with her mana-sight being even more sensitive than his own, and a vantage point from up high.

“Still looking!” she called back, leaping to another branch when a beast started to clamber up the trunk of the tree she was already on.

Kaius grunted in forced acceptance.

A bush rustled ahead of him—right next to Ianmus. He lurched forwards, kicking off the ground as he cleaved towards the coming foe. A spider lept free, meeting his blade in a shower of ichor.

**Ding! level 67 Deathfang Spider - Toxic Fang slain - Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of Insignificant Strength!**

Flicking the muck from his blade, he kept moving. He’d hoped that they’d find an entrance to the Depths soon. It hadn’t taken them long to realise that a delve was the only real way they were going to escape their current predicament. They didn’t have the numbers to stand and fight, and there was no way that they had the Resources to run all the way to Deadacre—let alone what fate they might bring to any travellers they ran into even if they could.

Gods, he wished that he’d had the sense to pick a spell for Drakthar that was built for dealing with swarms of weaker foes. As much as he loved Stormlash and Hateful Nail, they were best suited to individual enemies of great strength, not a horde of weaker creatures that would drown him in their spilled blood.

The nature of his class already limited him in extended ongoing engagements where he couldn’t rest—he would gladly admit that not taking the opportunity to shore that up had been a mistake.

“I see one!” Kenva suddenly screamed, her voice rising high in excitement.

As the words sunk in, Kaius nearly stumbled as the heavy weight that was lifted from his shoulders. The insidious drowning reach of futility retreated, his pace quickening with renewed vigour.

“Oh, by the light of the spire, thank the gods.” Ianmus panted.

“Where?!” Kaius called out.

“I can just barely see the mana glow through the trees! This plateau starts to drop again soon—it’s below us, maybe another quarter league!”

Kaius nodded, setting his stride and pushing himself to move as he felt his sweat soak into his gambeson.

…

Grunting as he booted the carcass of a dead boar, Kaius ripped his blade free from its shoulder and ran on. Blood dripped from his blade—crystal and layered steel dyed a deep crimson from the remnants of his ongoing slaughter.

They were almost there.

Their descent down the hillside had been a rough one. Seemingly every one of their pursuers could smell that they had almost reached safety—a new savage furiosity driving the beasts forwards into their flanks. He’d had to drain the last of his charges of Hateful Nail just to break their way through a full pack of wolves that had suddenly descended upon them from the side.

An especially painful expenditure, since he’d long since cast the last of his Stormlash.

They had to almost be there.

Even with his sharpened sight, Kaius had no idea where they were heading. The underbrush was dense, tangled bushes and brambles mixing with shorter trees to create a natural veil that obscured his vision—rendering his ability to see far into the distance useless.

Kenva, at least, insisted she could still see it—if partially only because of being so high in the canopy above.

It was a strange feeling, for one so used to navigating through the forest. It left him feeling…unsettled. Though, he did have to admit that this was far different than the Arboreal Sea he had grown up in. Old growth, and large beyond compare, the trees of the Sea blanketed the ground below, inhibiting much of the brush that he was struggling with now.

Ahead, Ianmus suddenly turned, as the mana he wove with his staff crystalised into a hazy sigil. Light flooded free, settling around Kaius like a blanket—sinking in to revitalise his fatigue and fill him with new fire.

A moment later, Ianmus blitzed sideways in a burst of light—narrowly avoiding a deer that leapt free from the brush in an attempt to gore him. The beast brayed loudly, before it peeled off and sprinted at the whims of whatever compulsion drove them to migrate.

**Ding! You have been Enhanced - Sundrenched Strength!**

Kaius groaned in relief at the reprieve, quickening his pace just a little more.

“Thanks!” he called, slipping sideways as a blurt of doom in his mind warned him of an approaching attack from the rear. He whipped back.

A boar. He cut through the muscles on its shoulder, sending it crashing to the dirt.

“Kaius, we’ve got a problem!” Kenva called.

His heart fluttered. What the fuck could it be now, they needed this break.

“What?!” he yelled back.

“The delve, It’s still below us!”

“So?” Porkchop replied.

“The hill isn’t dropping fast enough—I think it’s down a cliff!” Kenva replied, before she let out a groan of frustration and lept straight up—punching out of the canopy.

“Fuck!” she screamed in fustration. “I saw it, it’s definitely down a cliff, and worse, it’s layer twenty-five. We’re going to have to bank right!”

Ianmus started cackling in front of him, still running as he swatted a leaping squirrel out of the air.

Kaius couldn’t help but howl too. What were the fucking chances?

“We’ll take it!” he called up.

“What? Are you serious? I saw what you can do, but a layer like that will chew us up in a day! Plus, it’s off a bloody cliff!”

Kaius kept laughing, struggling to believe the fickle hand of fate.

“We don’t have a better option, and we’ll be fine! We’ll level quickly!”

Kenva made a sound like she was being strangled, but made no move to change their heading.

Soon, the trees started to thin, and Kaius got his first glimpse of their path to freedom.

A ravine had split the earth, the ground dropping away like a titan had taken a swipe out of the forest with a great axe.

Deep in its reaches, a river coursed—violent and angry.

“Oh by my Matriarch's tail, this is ridiculous.” Porkchop groaned, staring at the monolith of grey stone that erupted from the middle of the rapids below, a circle of dense runes engraved on its surface.

They glowed with a brilliance in Kaius’s mana sight.

A portal.

Kenva launched from the trees, halting next to them at the edge of the ravine.

Kaius looked down at the drop. Gods, it was far.

“Well, at least this time I probably won’t break my legs.” he sighed, eying the deep blue water below—plenty deep enough that they wouldn’t hit the bottom.

“What?” Kenva said, looking at him sharply as he started stowing his armour in the storage rings on his fingers. She quickly followed his example—hearing the baying calls of their pursuers fast approaching.

Her words only made Ianmus laugh harder.

“I’ll tell you later, now come on!” Kaius replied.

He jumped, a scream of exhilaration on his lips.

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