B3 Chapter 297: Rematch, pt. 2
byKaius decided that knowing an indistinguishable patch of sand concealed a beast capable of tearing him limb from limb was an experience he didn’t enjoy.
As soon as Kenva had called out the presence of a soul-signature under the sand, he’d gone dead still. Following her outstretched finger, he bored a hole into the sand with her eyes, desperately searching for any mundane sign of what lay in wait beneath it.
There was nothing — it was as featureless as any other patch of the desert.
He knew it would be unlikely, but it still rankled to have his Skills bested so completely. At the very least, he wasn’t alone. As good as Truesight and Explorer’s Toolkit were, Kenva was a ranger with the legacy skills to match, and even she could only sense them when they were dangerously close.
“Kenva’s asking what you want to do.” Porkchop said — after their last encounter, they’d decided that before they sprung the trap, using his ability to talk silently was their best bet to avoid alerting a waiting ruinbringer.
“We back up, slowly — but be ready for it to pounce as soon as we do.”
His brother nodded and slid his greatshield through the air. Thanks to its enchantments, it had repaired itself somewhat from their previous encounter, but it was by no means in good nick. Twisted chucks of steel curved from its surface, and fired spines had punched nearly a dozen holes straight through.
A poor excuse for a shield, but it was the best they had, and utterly necessary until they removed the ruinbringer’s tail.
Drawing his sword slowly to avoid noise, Kaius took a cautious step back. Every handspan felt like the looming weight of an axe, his whole body tense as he readied himself to explode into motion, and defend his backline with War Haven.
He missed the comforting weight of his scalemail. Even if it had done little to hamper the raw might of the previous ruinbringer — unsurprising, considering it was only a first tier Rare — he still felt naked without it.
Despite his worries, there was no explosion of sand, no chittering war cry heralding a salvo of lethal spines. They backed up, putting a full hundred strides between them and the lurking beast; far enough that he was confident they would be able to prepare their assault without alerting their enemy.
“Stop,” Kaius said softly, some of the knotted tension in his shoulders unwinding. He stepped forwards, rejoining the front line.
“What now?” Ianmus asked.
“Bunker, then prepare a beam to remove its tail. Kenva can take the other.” He switched his focus to the ranger. “War Haven will have stronger barriers the smaller it is, how much space do you need to dodge?”
She turned to Ianmus, eying the distance between them. Taking a few wide sideways steps, she stopped.
“Covering both of us should be enough, especially if it won’t stop us from leaving like you said.”
Kaius nodded. Reaching towards War Haven for the first time, he cast.
Rather than the instantaneous effects of his other spells, mana didn’t immediately rip through the inscription, burning it to ash as it overloaded carefully balanced mana conduits.
Instead, Kaius felt a prompting, and a new sense opened up to him. Instinctively, he could feel the current maximum size of the barrier — a diameter just a few longstrides wider than the distance Kenva had created between her and Ianmus. He also knew that, if he wanted, he could infuse the energy of the spell into an existing structure — something he hoped would apply to their tent with all of its dimensional irregularity.
Impressing his intent on the inscription, he cast, and green motes drifted through his gambeson like smoke.
Clear, but still visible like it was made from high-quality glass, a dome appeared around his back line. Chimes sounded in his mind, a skill notification joining the others that waited for his attention.
Turning quickly, Kaius readied himself for the lurking ruinbringer to notice his outburst of mana. Nothing happened. He breathed a sigh of relief.
“Kaius, do you want me to use a spell similar to what I did with the goblins? I could potentially remove both tails in one swoop, letting Kenva strike directly for a claw or otherwise.”
Pausing to consider the mage’s suggestion, Kaius resettled his grip on his sword. It was an option, but only if it didn’t leave the mage drained — he would rather they took a little longer to kill the beast if it meant having Ianmus available for healing.
“Will it give you mana burn?”
“Probably,” Ianmus replied. “But only for a couple of minutes.”
Kaius shook his head, uncomfortable with the risk even a small period of exhaustion would cause.
A moment later, he felt the growing warmth of solar mana start to swirl behind him as Ianmus worked on his spell. A quick look back showed Kenva still waiting, her stamina charged Horizon’s Lance requiring less time to prepare than their mage’s attack.
An apple appeared in his hand, the least valuable object he had in his ring. His hope was that the ruinbringer reacted to changes in the sand above it. If he could throw something hard enough, it should be enough to bait the creature upwards.
If it didn’t, he always had Stormlash — no way the ruinbringer would be able to ignore that much noise and mana exploding over its head.
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Solar mana continued to build, and he turned his attention to his brother. Porkchop needled the ground, large jade plates moving with him as he worked off the tension that Kaius could feel through their bond.
“How’re you holding up?” Kaius asked.
Hungry glee flooded back. “I missed fights like this, just throwing ourselves at something we have absolutely no right fighting.”
Kaius smiled — it was a sentiment that echoed his own bubbling excitement. There really was no place like the Depths. Spending time in the world above had undoubtedly been the correct move, but he’d long hungered for a challenge like this. It just wasn’t the same when proper fights took weeks of travel to find.
“Me too, buddy; me too.”
“Ready,” Ianmus said, his voice terse and focused.
“Me too,” Kenva added.
Kaius looked back at her in surprise — he hadn’t felt or noticed her drawing, but he supposed he did lack a sense for stamina in the same way he felt mana. She met his eyes, brow furrowed in concentration. Giving him a nod, mana spilled into her nocked arrow and engulfed it in the haze of a magically constructed javelin.
Taking a breath to steady himself, Kaius tightened his grip on his blade, and raised his arm.




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