Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

"Have you actually gone insane?" Hadia exclaimed at Alim's declaration. "We're not even full Casters yet and you want to take on a Crystal Caste floor boss?!"

"Let him explain, Dia," Jin said with a sigh, gesturing for Alim to continue.

He looked hesitantly toward Hadia's hostile stance, but straightened a moment later and began signing, "While Nawal can't say anything, she could lead the other Fighters back here, and we don't know exactly how long they were here before they arrived. She left her map and notes, but I don't doubt for a second that she can find her way back. That means we're on whatever timer the Fighters decide and they aren't going to warn us about it."

Alim glanced back at the cave entrance again before continuing. "Nawal's notes told us what the boss is, but if my theory is correct, I think we can take it without being full Casters but it will take teamwork."

"What was the boss?" she asked with a raised brow.

He hesitated again, but answered, "A Dragon."

"Are you serious?"

"I'm sorry, but did he just sign the word 'Dragon'?" Karam interjected, those warm brown eyes wide with trepidation.

"The notes said a little Dragon," Alim clarified.

"Oh, just a little one?" Jin sarcastically replied. "That makes it so much better. Hopefully it will only be a little fire incinerating us instead of a big fire."

Liraz tugged at Jin's sleeve to get her attention, then signed, "If we beat the boss now the Fighters will know. They might rush here to go to the next floor." She paused to glance at Alim before adding, "and guard the ascent to kill or capture others."

"Which is why we'll need to immediately ascend to the next floor," Alim agreed with a nod. "No going back afterwards."

"What about all the stuff at our base?" Hadia pointed out. "Even if we leave the big stuff like furniture, and Liraz currently holding all the food to keep it from aging, there are still tools and supplies like the garden there that we'll want to take to establish our next base with."

Jin looked up toward the sky for a moment, thinking through that before glancing at her bracelet to check the time. "We have to leave soon just to make it back there before nightfall. That means either waiting for the morning and the hours it will take to get back with everything, or risking the walk in the dark. Like Liraz said, we can't go back once the boss is dead."

They all glanced around at each other as if gauging what the others would vote for. Jin rolled her eyes, then said, "Raise your hand if you want to risk the night."

Alim and Liraz raised their hands.

Jin pinched the bridge of her nose at another split vote.

Hadia smirked. "Looks like the decision falls to you again, oh fearless leader."

"Please don't ever call me that again," she replied with a heavy sigh. "We'll move quickly and quietly. Hopefully, the Fighters will wait until morning."

"I'm starting to think you're playing favorites," Hadia grumbled with a pointed look toward Alim. "This is a terrible idea."

"They are valid concerns, though. We're risking our lives no matter what route we take at this point, but that's pretty much been the case since day one," Jin pointed out. Her gaze fell to the cave entrance where blood still stained the ground before it. "We forgot about that fact when we found too many moments of happiness."

After a pregnant pause, Hadia sighed and said, "Alright, let's get moving then. We're burning daylight."

The trip back to the base was, thankfully, uneventful. However, Jin had to clamp down on her [Poker Face] as soon as the cabin came into view and the image of Basima standing on the porch with that brilliant smile flitted across her vision.

Perhaps it was a good thing that this would be the last time they would ever be here. She didn't think she could survive however many more weeks that were remaining with the memories taunting her like this.

Jin refused to go upstairs. Instead, she just asked Liraz to grab anything left in her room while she focused on gathering the useful kitchen items. Liraz patted her shoulder in understanding before taking Hadia to make quick work of the upstairs rooms. Alim and Karam focused more on the garden, gathering what supplies and unplanted seeds remained, while also trying to use some reclaimed fabric to create makeshift soil pots that could be easily transported for the already growing plants.

Liraz would be taking those as well, and they hoped it wouldn't accidentally kill the plants, but it was too risky to try carrying them at night when they might need to fight at any moment. They just had to hope that it would work out. They had no idea what kind of environment to expect on the second floor and if it would even be a viable garden location, but it was better to assume it would be.

"So, were there any other notes or information you already have about dragons that I should know beforehand," Jin asked Alim and Karam as she moved to help finish up the garden stuff after the kitchen was finished.

"No other notes," Alim replied, brushing the dirt off his hands before signing. "The lore I know is a bit spotty too. There are a lot of different types of dragons but most can fly and have some sort of breath attack. Not always the fire kind," he added with a pointed look toward her.

"My world had different kinds of dragons like that, too, but the most common version breathed fire."

"There have been quite a few dragon bosses in past Seasons," Karam mentioned, as he carefully lifted one of the plants onto a large piece of cloth spread out on the ground next to where it had been dug out from. "Fire, Ice, Lightning, even Metal—"

"Metal?" Jin interrupted with an incredulous look.

"Yeah, it almost acted more like a cough that sprayed tiny metal pellets out so fast that most things caught in the path died or got punched full of holes."

"Huh," she replied thoughtfully. "Never heard of a Shotgun Dragon before, but I guess I could see it."

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"I think technically every element has a variety of Dragons attached to it," Karam added. "Not as many for the Magical variety and I'm not even sure if the Divine types are possible."

"What do you mean by Magical variety? Aren't they all Magical?"

Alim interjected this time when Karam gave him a pleading look. "He's talking about the categories of magic. Yes it's all magic but Magical refers to a subset of magic types. Elemental and Divine are the other two categories. Most of our abilities are linked to a subtype of magic; it's what's listed as the Type modifiers in the displays."

"So what are they? Or is the list so large that I don't really want to know?"

He snorted a laugh but continued explaining, "There are ten Elemental types: Corrosion, Earth, Fire, Gem, Ice, Lightning, Metal, Plant, Water, and Wind. Then there are ten Magical types: Arcane, Blood, Covenant, Dark, Death, Dimension, Illusion, Life, Light, and Song. Elemental types are usually more common than Magical but that doesn't mean less powerful."

"What about the Divine types? Is that what my new Void ability falls under?"

"Yes, which really are exceptionally rare, Jin," he replied, meeting her eyes to try to emphasize this point. "You might not understand since you'll likely get more by having a Divine Aspect as part of your base, but in this case its rarity makes it more powerful. Less things will be resistant to it."

She nodded along. "So, what are the other ones?"

"Radiant and Time. Some clergy are more likely to unlock the former since the Celes is supposedly full of it."

"Let me guess, the Abyss where the demons live is full of the Void kind."

Alim and Karam both nodded at that though Kar murmured the correction, "Daemon."

She rolled her eyes. "Are people going to start assuming I'm evil then because I have the Void Aspect?"

The two men glanced at each other for a long moment before shrugging in unison.

"Well, I guess it's not like it really changes much," she muttered.

Liraz and Hadia rejoined them at that point, finishing up what they could in the last light of dusk. All of them paused at the edge of the trees to take one last look at the cabin that had sheltered them on this first floor and the memories both good and bad that would be left behind with it. For Jin, it was filled more with laughter than tears and the sound of Basima's voice would forever remain behind with it.

Alim's hand on her shoulder drew her attention to him as he signed in response to the thoughts she realized he shared. "We're not leaving her behind." He patted his heart and then hers before saying, "She's coming with us right here."

Jin nodded and turned to the forest, this time refusing to look back.

Luckily it wasn't pitch black darkness as they moved through the eerie forest. The mist was actually lessened and the moon was shining through the canopy. It was still slow going however through the underbrush while trying not to get ambushed by a monster.

While Liraz's tremorsense helped ensure they would be aware of anything approaching on the ground, they wouldn't be so lucky if something dropped in from the tree branches or, gods forbid, could fly. They hadn't run into any fliers since that first day when there was a Fangwing awaiting inside their cabin, but they also had never been out at night before.

Nobody dared to speak as they moved, falling back on minimal Whisper signs to communicate anything. Only a handful of times did Liraz gesture for them to alter their course to avoid a monster roaming around.

When they were only about thirty minutes out by Jin's estimate, they met a monster that they definitely hadn't expected. Liraz froze, pointing toward their right and quickly signing, "Something is charging us. Bipedal. Moving fast!"

Jin pushed her back behind the group and moved to place herself between the oncoming threat. Hadia moved in front of Alim who was already guarding Karam. Their [Mana Barrier] shields were all up still this time, having been much more cognizant of that after the last disastrous time.

"There's a second one following the first!" Liraz said in a harsh whisper while signing to Alim but making sure Jin and Hadia heard her.

Jin's spear was already at the ready, but she was surprised by the face she saw. It was the Whisper she had fought outside the Trial that had fled. She wasn't sure what his name was, but as soon as their eyes met he became a blur of silver.

Her eyes couldn't follow his movements as he threw a dagger straight into her [Mana Barrier], which rebounded but shattered the shield. It wasn't enough to slow him down as he lunged into her a moment later, making her fly back into a tree. He was so much faster than she remembered. That had been over a week ago, though, and she could only assume his power had grown.

But hers had grown, too.

She swung downward as he continued chasing after her, not concerning himself with the other Servant in his pursuit. He dodged the slash of the spear's tip and was about to lodge his dagger in her throat when a blur of black and gold slammed into him from the side, knocking him off course.

In the enemy's place was a stranger. A man almost a foot taller than her with short golden hair, dressed in black, and a smattering of freckles across his tanned cheeks and nose. He held out a hand toward the one that had tried to kill her and a spray of glinting needles shot out from his palm, peppering the Whisper, who screamed from the pain.

The stranger's gaze turned to her and she was surprised to see they were just as golden as his hair and looked familiar. He gave a small smirk, but his tone was firm as he ordered, "Run. Take your team and go!"

She didn't argue, they were so close to their goal and the back of her mind was telling her that this man was safe, but she couldn't place why she felt that. Running back to her group, she met Liraz halfway as she reached a small hand out toward the stranger and called out to him, "Brother!"

Jin did a double-take, the connection finally made as she stopped beside Li. "Pax?" she called back in question.

The enemy was standing back up already, but the golden-haired Whisper looked back over his shoulder and said, "Take care of her for me, Killer. I'll meet up with you once I've cleared my list."

She nodded, grabbing Liraz's hand, and pulling both of them back to the others to start running the last mile to their goal. The sound of hand-to-hand combat receded as they moved and she refused to look back, fearing that she would hesitate and want to turn back.

Liraz was whimpering softly but whether that was from fear for her brother or the harsh pace for her shorter legs, Jin wasn't sure.

Relief filled her when they reached the clearing, but it had still been hours since they had last been here despite feeling like the tragedy that had occurred here had been merely minutes before. She couldn't relax until they were inside the cave and the entrance would seal.

Hadia had reached the entrance first and walked through the sheet of darkness, disappearing from view. One fear down, nobody else was inside yet. Hadia reached out a hand from the darkness and Alim gestured for Karam to take it next.

Once he vanished as well, Alim gestured for her and Liraz to go. Jin pushed Li forward to take the floating hand next and then she grabbed Alim and shoved him forward, not wanting to argue about who went last. She'd never be able to live with herself if some random arrow from the darkness claimed any of them while she was safe inside.

When they were finally all safe inside the darkness of the cave entrance, they all finally relaxed and slid down to sit and rest. Jin and Hadia were breathing the hardest, their endurance not quite as good as the others who had an Aspect bonded to their Fortitude already.

Jin glanced back at the entrance and suddenly understood how the Fighters had been able to ambush Basima so perfectly. While the barrier had looked completely impenetrable from the outside, inside it merely looked like a slightly tinted sheet of glass, easily able to see and hear anything on the other side.

If Jilani and Nawal had been resting in here just like they were now, they would have easily been able to spot them from the tree line. If the leader of the Fighter's Pain Sect—who Jin recalled being that large woman named Buster—had been watching her own Champions from outside the tower at the time, it would have been all too easy to trigger the Bounty on the enemy that had moved closest to the entrance.

Jin looked away, not wanting to continue that chain of events further. Focusing instead on what was next, she asked, "Is everyone okay?"

Liraz looked back out the entrance and signed her own question instead. "Will we wait for him?"

She shook her head. "I don't think he's coming. He might have figured out where we were heading, but he mentioned a list to clear, which I assume means he has his own agenda right now."

"So on to the floor boss?" Alim signed to them.

Jin nodded. "Yep. Time for the big bad boss fight."