Chapter 56 Bronze

I fell fifty feet. I fell far enough and fast enough that it would have broken me six months ago. It had broken me six months ago. Not this time, not with all the strength, dexterity, not with all the stats that had been granted to me as a level ten avatar of the Stone Epoch.

Still hurt. Still turned my legs to jelly. But I wasn’t lying broken on the floor, my vision flashing red to tell me I only had one hit point.

So. Silver lining.

I smelt it before anything else. Brine. The sea salt air. I was far, far from the Disputed Lands, the world of stone and vandals. I was somewhere else entirely. It looked like I was in a room. It was beautiful, actually, built from stone. But this was not the rough, hewn rock I was used to. This was smooth, so white as to be luminescent. Limestone. I put a hand to it as I looked around the rest of the room. A real wooden bed rather than a sleeping area covered in furs. A wooden table with papyrus. Papyrus. I went over and saw that the system allowed me to read it, despite clearly being written in some dead language. There was a symbol at the top: that of a trident and wave joined together.

The city will fall. The Drenched cannot be stopped, to fight them is to die. The Cult of Tiamat is the only way to survive. Go with them. Your uncle will know. Leave the city tonight. Do not look back.

I left the letter, my brow furrowed. I looked down. Of course. Naked again. I opened up my HUD and saw my character portrait was back, apparently having forgiven me. I opened up my inventory. Empty. I looked at my hotbar. Everything was gone, all except for Midnight. I tried to equip it.

[You do not have enough spirit to equip this weapon. Raise your spirit to wield this in the Bronze Epoch.]

I sighed, searching the room, and found some simple clothing. A white tunic and sandals, slipping them on. Slightly itchy, I wondered when they’d last been washed as I felt a tremor beneath me.

I opened up the party chat function. I had left, pursuing Ironclad through the Gate without telling Miggy or Ayla where I was going or why. The last thing I wanted was for them to think I’d abandoned them, but when I opened it, nothing. No Miggy. No party to speak of.

Closing my eyes, reaching out to Larry. Only silence returned. I’d left them all behind, thousands of years in the past.

I was through the Stone Gate. I was on my own. No, not on my own. Ironclad was here, somewhere. I would find him; I’d kill him properly this time. No more fucking games. Then I would find a way back home, back to Kaleas, back to the people I loved. I knew I could, after all Kaleo had told me he’d advanced several epochs before returning.

I would do the same.

There again, that tremor. Like a tiny earthquake. What was that? Then I heard shouting. Voices were raised. I narrowed my eyes, looking towards the door. Turning the handle, I walked through and into the apocalypse.

Or the nearest thing I could’ve imagined. I was in a city. No more villages, no more mud huts. A real city, built from limestone, a coastal city with docks and walls, expanding further than I could see. It was beautiful, actually, the kind of place I wish I could’ve afforded to visit back home.

But it was burning. Half the city had been put to the torch. I was high up. The city had been carved into the side of a mountain, a winding trail leading down, winding between homes. Thousands of people were moving and fighting. I could hear the distant clang of metal. Metal weapons.

I couldn’t see what they were fighting, but I could see where they were coming from. In the distance, along that beautiful golden shore, something was rising from the ocean. Thousands of somethings. An army of somethings. And they were the ones destroying this place.

My quest log pinged with a new notification. I opened it and saw that all of my Stone Epoch quests were gone, replaced with a single quest. There was nothing to it, no explanation, no detail. Just a single word.

[Survive.]

Then I saw him. Adorned in a simple cotton tunic, just like me, but unmistakable. That hard, angry face. The face that had promised to kill everyone and everything I loved. Ironclad, further down the mountain. He was looking back, but he wasn’t looking up. He hadn’t seen me. Good. I would end this before it even began.

I ran down the winding steps. I was the only one running in this direction; every other person was running the other way. Away from whatever this invasion was. I didn’t care. Wasn’t my fight. Ironclad was moving through buildings, some burning, others crumbled entirely. I sprinted. He was being cautious. Good. That meant I could catch him.

He was only looking forward, so I caught him completely unawares, tackling him hard to the ground. I had no weapons, no armour. Just my fists and my rage. I had to guess he was the same, having arrived here moments before me. We barrelled, tumbling over and over, until he pushed me away. We both got to our feet, taking a fighting stance.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

‘Not so confident now, are you?’ I spat. ‘Didn’t think I’d follow, did you?’ He didn’t reply, but I could tell from the look on his face that I was right. This wasn’t part of his plan. A city under siege, robbed of his weapons. I activated keen eye and-

Wait. Keen eye was gone. I frowned. All of my abilities were gone, and when I looked to Ironclad, I could tell he had come to the same conclusion. Above us, something that looked like a fireball came crashing down, shattering the building nearest to us to debris. A dozen people ran past, one of them looking at us like we were mad to start a brawl here.

I guess we were. It was a beautiful cobbled square, with a fountain at its centre, some god or famous nymph spouting water. Ironclad stood opposite me, circling around the fountain.

He was hesitating. I saw it. The flicker in his eyes. He had lived in the Stone Epoch for God knows how long. Years. He had acclimatised to it, had become one with his abilities, his armour. Without it, he was disorientated. Thrown off-balance. I had no such reservations. I had come bloodied and naked into the Stone Epoch, immediately set upon by a sabretooth tiger.