Rising Kite - A story from the world of HWFWM

Bearer of Sanguine Promise looked out over the strange landscape of the astral space, the purple ambient light mixing with the red, flickering glow of the ritual circle in front of him. Finishing his chant, the glow of the circle intensified before another creature manifested, ten spindly insectoid legs carrying a rather small body sporting a long, flexible proboscis. The summoned creature joined the three others waiting for it, the skittering quartet then leaving to search the dunes and alien environment.

“This place is rather troublesome, as it seems to swallow both physical and spiritual traces.” Bloodstalker said, the elf’s voice coming from the ground near where Promise stood. A small red tendril, like an extracted vein still coursing with lifeblood, peeked out of the sand while managing to give the impression of a meaningful look.

“Then I believe that you have a challenge in this hunt.” Promise noted, gesturing to the other two summoning circles. “While our resources aren’t endless, we should still be able to produce enough fodder to flush them out. If you can find them, the rest of us will move in. Do not, I repeat, do not strike at them alone. Even if you think one of them isolated and vulnerable.”

He could feel the scout’s displeasure, and even a bit of defiance in the silence which followed. “I will be off again. See to it that our superiors are thoroughly informed of my contributions.” Without waiting for a reply, the vein retreated back into the ground, soon disappearing from Promise’s senses.

“They’re either fanatically stupid or fiercely competitive.” Promise grumbled softly. “Why can’t some of the competent assets ever be sent to our cell? Some ex-adventurers? I’d even settle for some noble in exile.”

Still, he had a good feeling about this hunt. Their initial scouting had been brief, but hadn’t revealed too many complicating factors except the environment’s tendencies to erase tracks and dampen the range of aura senses. With the amount of bronze-rank summons they had prepared for, it should only be a matter of time, especially with the little surprises he had insisted on leaving in case of this very scenario.

Noticing the confidence of his own thoughts, Promise turned back to the summoning circle. “Maybe just one more pack, even if it is from my own reserves. Just in case.”

“This place is eerie. As if it smothers my aura senses.” Rachel whispered as she walked beside Kite, who could only nod along with her words. It was as if someone had thrown a threadbare blanket over his spiritual senses; you could see through it if you focused, but both range and nuances were still hampered.

Ahead of them, Phiona stood with her back pressed to one of the strange cliffs, keeping watch of a group of three lumbering beasts which were navigating the terrain not too far away. Looking like flayed, bulky simians, the creatures peered around with their two sets of bulbous eyes. Fortunately, they were far enough away to not spot them with sweeping observations alone, and Phiona soon turned back and waved to the rest to follow. In the distance, there was an area where the cliffs stood even taller and more packed together, and it was that landmark which was the group’s current destination.

Following Rachel around the curve of the cliff, Kite suddenly froze as his magical perception showed him something. Something that would be trouble. Phiona had just reached another nearby cliff in order to scout further ahead when a carved magical symbol suddenly lit up above her on the cliff face, Kite’s shout of warning not reaching her in time. In but a moment, the small magical circle’s light went from faint to blinding, before suddenly detonating outwards in a pulse of what Kite assumed to be disrupting force damage as it left the cliff itself almost entirely unscathed.

Phiona’s swift essence did give her ample tools to lessen the impact of even such a surprise, as she rolled away from the blast with only minor damage. But that was not where the true danger lay, as the glow of the circle soon transformed into a small but radiant pillar of red light which shot up into the air. While it started to fade noticeably after a few seconds, it was still quite enough to give away their location, quickly proven true as the trio of monsters which had just passed them by gave off yipping growls and howls as they changed course and started charging towards their location.

“Curses! Strike quickly. We can’t have them on our trail if we are to lose any pursuit!” Phiona called, already in motion and conjured staff appearing in her hands.

“Whimmy, go!” Vista called, mounting the cerberus as it started loping off after the blonde Geller, Glint quickly enlarging to allow Kite and Rachel to do the same.

Ahead of them, Phiona’s staff elongated as she used it to vault upwards before the weapon quickly bent to change her direction and launch her straight at the creature in the lead. One of the ends of the staff impacted with its head, squashing one bulbous eye and sending it staggering backwards. Kite knew the effects from that stunning special attack from experience, and as she had done many times during their sparring Phiona followed it with a flurry of staff strikes, each blow fast enough to make it look like multiple copies of the weapon was bearing down on the beast.

One of the other monsters was loping up to flank her, growths of clotted blood already starting to grow over its body for a yet unseen purpose, but was interrupted by the charge of Whimmy, who used their mass to bear the creature to the ground. The cerberus ignored the superficial wounds caused by the claws of the flailing monster, instead pinning it beneath their front paws and using all three of their heads to spew flames straight into the monster’s face. The prone beast shrieked under the flames before Whimmy, with Vista still mounted, was suddenly thrown off their pinned prey when the forming blood clots detonated with a series of loud discharges that sent the remnants of the growths exploding outwards like rust-red shrapnel.

Noting that the young master and his familiar was more inconvenienced than actually in peril, Kite left Rachel on Glint’s back as he sprang off her and towards the one of the creatures. While still in the air, he sent a dispelling wave washing over the beast, dissolving the growing clots of conjured blood. Even as he brought forth his spear, the head whistling with his momentum, Kite also noted that his dispelling waves caused a slight distortion of the monster, indicating its summoned nature but also that there was a proper ritual involved in causing it to manifest. Just like during the war, this protected the creature from being dispelled out of hand, and it did not take much of a leap of imagination to see that these monsters probably had the same allegiance as the red horde which had been brought forth during the final push.

But Kite’s wave did at least seem to bring a bit of discomfort to the being, causing it to halt slightly and Kite’s spear to find its mark. The whistling head was vibrating noticeable, easily piercing the tough, hardened skin of the beast before rippling spatial tears burst from the tip. Growling in pain as its left shoulder was shredded, Kite brought forth his personal barrier to deflect the other claw which was swiping at him.

The creature kept its gaze on Kite as he landed in front of it, too late noticing a dark series of symbols having detached from behind his back to remain floating in the air. Sage drove that mistake home with twin beams of resonating force sent straight into the creature's face, one after another, being fully charged since even before arriving at the aperture due to the days spent following Vista hunting monsters.

While injured, the bronze-rank physique proved enough to keep the beast standing, and it started to exchange blows with Kite, most either deflected off barriers or interposed weapons while the rest was at least reduced to mere glancing hits. A slash from Kite’s drawn blade exploded part of the monster’s thigh, and he used the pause in its attacks to begin charging his bracers. It cost a lot of mana, but Kite understood the need for expediency.

The flayed monster had just regained its balance enough to pick up a loose boulder to fling towards Kite, the purple rock barely having left its clawed hands when the bracers touched. The twin tolls of destructive power were unleashed, the first pulse of resonating force sending cracks throughout the boulder and beast alike. Then the blast of kinetic force crushed the stone into shrapnel, driving the shards into the monster's face, arms and torso before the nigh-invisible pulse tore into the beast as well. Parts of its face and torso crumpled in on themselves, and the monster was sent tumbling away a few meters over the sands.

Sensing that its aura was unstable but not still, Kite knew that the pulse had not been enough to close out the fight so quickly. Instead, he called out to Rachel.

“Fair lady, a cloud please?”

“Well, since you asked so nicely!” the Geller called back, one of her hydra heads already spewing out a torrent of acidic vapor which settled over the injured beast that was attempting to regain its feet.

“Wall.”

A moment after Kite’s short chant, walls of force appeared to form a cage around the monster, Kite using all of its available length to form what layers he could, leaving the heavily wounded monster stuck with the vile vapors. Trusting the combination of powers to finish the job, he instead turned on the closest other enemy, already looking quite the worse for wear under Phiona’s barrage of strikes and precisely delivered special attacks.

“Teacher, I’ll be your shield. Go!” he called, bringing out his blade to deliver a slash through his intent which intercepted one clawed hand, the rending force sundering a lot of the bone and tissue. A conjured barrier intercepted a second attack, leaving Phiona free to go even more on the offensive. Between the two adventurers, Kite providing defensive support and inflicting some damage and his teacher’s staff utterly brutalizing the monster’s body. Shortly after his entering the fray, a void-empowered swing of Kite’s staff breaking one of the monster’s knees allowed Phiona to thrust upwards, her own staff glowing slightly as it impacted the jaw of the toppling beast. The focused force of her special attack caused her weapon to pierce up and into the creature’s skull, its aura winking out as what might have been an agonized stumble turned into a limp fall.

As there was no time to celebrate, the pair instead turned to the third enemy only to see Vista tear through its neck with a whirling series of slashes from his twin falchions, the creature’s flesh already sloughing off in places where Rachel’s acid was eating into its body. The one Kite had initially fought was still fighting to get through the barriers, albeit weakly as most of its limbs had already partially dissolved, the spectacle gruesome enough that neither of the adventurers wanted to dwell on it.

“We need to leave. Mount up. We will risk a dash, then Kite will take the lead. You’re the only one with magical perception of us, and might be able to spot further traps.” Phiona called to them, the group quickly followed. While they have yet to see any pursuers, other howls and roars echoed from among the rock formations.

Rachel once more sitting up behind him, Kite guided Glint to follow in Whimmy’s wake, keeping a tense watch in every direction as they chose a winding path between the strange rock formation.

“While the wind and sand is annoying, I can’t help but appreciate the assistance in removing our traces.” Rachel said from behind him, looking over her shoulders at the quickly vanishing traces of Whimmy’s passage.

No other pillars of light went off during the initial leg of their rushed journey, the only other living things they encountered being a small group of iron-ranked elementals, vaguely humanoid and formed from the colorful sand beneath. The monsters were promptly ignored by the group as they sped by, Phiona calling for a halt once they were out of sight.

“Kite, please take the lead. If my theory holds water, you will have a better chance at spotting those traps at a distance.” she said, looking over them all. “So far, we have done well. Our goal should be to reach that large central formation. It should be more defensible if we are found.”

Kite followed her gaze to the largest visible landmark, seeming to be a more dense cluster of higher cliffs and rocks, probably forming a plethora of crevasses and ravines to navigate.

“Will that not be the obvious choice?” he asked here, his response being a sigh and a nod.

“It might be, but sometimes the obvious choice is still the best one regardless. With the traps out here, we risk discovery regardless.”

“Teacher remains wise.” Kite said, nodding when a thought struck him as he thought of the detonating symbol.

“What is it?” Rachel asked, having picked up on his thoughts.

“I…” Kite began, hesitating a bit before steeling his resolve and pushed forward. “If we are fortunate, I may have a way to circumvent the traps. It is risky, but I believe that it is worth trying.”

“If we alert them, let them come.” Vista said, a mix of eagerness and stoicism in his stance.

“What the young master probably means to say-” Phiona added, giving the swordsman a pointed look, “-is that it is worth a try. Lead on, and warn us if you find an opportunity.”

“Nothing yet?” Bearer of Sanguine Promise asked Bloodstalker, the scout once more having returned to him. Hours after arriving, the group had started making camp close to the aperture, although the progress was slow as the relatively loose ground made for poor foundations for tent pins.

“No. I went to the site of the triggered trap formation as soon as I could, but only got a noseful of rainbow smoke for my trouble. And they had the sense to make a swift retreat. I combed the area for a while, before returning.” Bloodstalker said, looking with obvious envy at Promise’s enchanted pavilion, untouched by the purple dust which covered most of the tents and people around.

“It has been hours. They should soon trigger another trap, or they have chosen to go to ground. But in this landscape, that should let us find them eventually. I will make sure to form sweeper teams. As our scout, I will expect you to range the furthest.”

“And while I do that, will our glorious leader remain here?” the elf asked sourly.

“I am the chief ritualist here, after all.” Promise said with a feigned humble smile.

“Yes, master, you are indeed the fulcrum of our operations. Your greatness will surely bring the sacrifices to us most swiftly!” Crimson said obsequiously from nearby.

Promise groaned inwardly. The gazes of the gods weren’t able to reach them inside the astral space, but it still felt like her words would bring down Fortune’s mischievous side upon them.

“Maybe summon another pack of skitterfiends. Two at the most. Just to be sure.” he thought to himself, looking out over the alien landscape once more.

“Teacher, I see another.” Kite called, the rest of the group halting as he approached the stone cliff and the trap formation he could just make out at an angle from his position. Moving about to get a better angle, Kite stayed as far away as he could while still allowing his bronze-rank perception to clearly make out the rather simple set of circles and runes. Simple for a formation, at least.

As it looked identical to the rest, he did not hesitate, jabbing forward as his spear appeared in his hands, point shimmering with dispelling energies. A moment later, a ripple through the air impacted a specific rune near where several circular shapes intersected, the dispelling pulse making the whole thing dim before powering up again with the exception of the struck rune. He held his breath for a moment, then exhaled as nothing happened.

“That’s the sixth one. Your method seems reliable” Rachel said as the rest walked up. “I didn’t know that you could just disable parts of them like that.”

“You usually need special tools or powers. In my case, it’s apparently like brute-forcing something with great care. At least according to Braid.” Kite said, smiling at his companions.

“That doesn’t make sense.” Rachel said, brows furrowed.

“It is indeed a contradiction, but such were his words. And he is quite skilled with formations, arrays and rituals alike.”

“You’ll have to introduce me to him when we go back, then. I owe him a drink for teaching you this!” Rachel cheered, Phiona nodding along.

“Indeed. I know little of formations, but what I have picked up is that forcing it dormant to remove a small key piece then having it power up again without registering the change does feel like cheating. But I don’t mind when I am the beneficiary of said cheating.”

“It should only work on the most simple ones, at least without guidance.” Kite said. “But I also have the good word of several young masters, mistresses, sect initiates and disciples that I am apparently cheating quite often.”

“Oh, Kite, you are doing so much more.” Vista added, grinning fiercely. “You are giving us a battleground. Remove enough of these and we should be able to start hunting the hunters without having them all bearing down on us. Just like the Ghost Brotherhood in the stories.”

“While I will have to agree with Vista, we still need to take down several more before we can consider ourselves somewhat safe. And we need a safe space, or at least as safe as can be found here, where we can fall back and rest.” Phiona said.

“Then let’s get to it. And see if we can’t kill some monsters while we’re at it. Our young master here might dissolve into rainbow smoke if he goes another hour without.” Rachel added.

One of the monsters’ proboscis turned to Kite again while it was rapidly skittering about, sending its thin, crimson tongue shooting towards him. As proved by a hole in his armor, the thing was both wickedly sharp and blindingly fast for its bronze rank, the first of the attacks having bitten into Kite before he even managed to bring up his barrier.

But now a little while into the altercation, Kite thought that he was finding the creature's rhythm. Skittering on ten legs at what seemed a constant and rapid pace, it would still always change direction just before attacking again.

“Ward!”

The darting red tongue impacted against his ward and started to retract, but Kite was already swinging in a counterattack of his own. His staff, head swirling with spatial tears, swung through the air as its blow was projected towards the agile monster. The scores and cracks in the stone around them was proof of the trial and error that had been part of Kite attempting to hit the rapid foe with his projected strike, a process which now paid off. Distance made void, the strike crunched into the creature's side as two of its spindly legs broke and the carapace of its small torso was cracked and started leaking a black ichor. The echo of the attack came a moment later, further hampering and hobbling the foe.

“Glint would have been excellent against these.” Kite thought idly, longing for his familiar’s restraining globes of water against the relatively light monsters. “Let’s just hope that something comes from Rachel’s and Glint’s little project.”

His wide range perception and aura senses told him that he had so far been struggling the most with the quick opponents. Both Vista and Phiona possessed the swift essence, their essences matching in all but their weapon of choice. And having both bearers of the master confluence fighting in tandem like that made Kite feel fortunate that they were his companions rather than foes. Blades and staff seemed like an extension of their wielder’s souls as they whirled about, keeping track with their monstrous foes. Where Vista was the whirlwind, shredding through his vicinity like a relentless gale, Phiona was the lightning strike, unleashing sudden violence with precision in the blink of an eye.

There were currently five of the monsters left, although hopefully their efforts would soon cull their numbers. His left thigh aching with the injury and bleeding profusely, Kite still kept his stance firm. As another of the monsters were skittering his way to strike in tandem with his wounded foe, Kite took another breath and tried to grasp the elusive focus he had experienced before.

“My path will not be shifted by the world-”

He planted his feet, stance ready. Mind relaxed yet somehow still coiled to react.

“- but learn from it.”

Both monsters darted closer, razor tongues shooting for his vitals.

“Ward! Wall!”

One of the piercing limbs impacted a barrier almost exactly at the same time as the other was severed by the swing of a curved saber. Both creatures attempted to scramble back, but found themselves caged in by walls of force which had appeared around both them and Kite. Legs scrambling for purchase on the barriers, the injured one suddenly twitched and spasmed as a white beam carved a smooth, round hole through its torso. Sage’s other charge was spent on a burst of healing for Kite to help stem the bleeding and start closing the wound in his leg.

The monster now having a lot less room to maneuver, Kite remained calm and tried to stay within the weird balance of the calm which he had managed to find once more. Even as it dove for him, he calmly acted on multiple fronts once more, staff appearing to swat the beast aside even as he conjured another barrier to ward off an attack against Whimmy’s flank. Another strike against the monster caught with him in the confines of his force cage sent it half-broken to the ground, Kite immediately releasing the walls shortly thereafter to send another projected slash to intercept another tongue lashing for the familiar. While resilient, the Cerberus was the least agile of those fighting the pack and so far where Kite’s barriers had made the most difference.

“This is taking too long. We need to finish up and retreat. Unless Rachel’s idea has worked out that is.” Phiona called as she disappeared, appearing a second later as multiple spindly legs cracked in her wake.

Remaining in his fragile state of calm, Kite made a thrust with his spear towards the maimed monster left in his teacher’s wake, a void empowered strike ending its thrashing where it lay a couple of meters away, Phiona moving on to help Vista clean up the few remaining foes.

The battle took place in the shadow of one of the larger cliffs, part of the formation they had seen from afar earlier in the day. Even as the remaining two monsters were dispatched, Kite found enough of his mental capacity remaining to take in the alien corridors formed by the purple stones, the weird ambient light playing tricks with his mind. Part of his instincts told him to avoid the treacherous place with its ravines and weird geography, but there was still something calling to his senses there. Barely noticeable, but having grown just a little bit stronger as they had drawn closer.

As the last of the skittering bloodsuckers fell, Vista slicing it into multiple neat pieces, the young master turned to the others. “Surely we can allow more of them to find us? I have caught my stride rather well by now.” he said, Kite’s magical perception picking up the steady, powerful glow of his boons having been allowed to properly build up.

“We have been at this for hours. The frequency of the packs have increased, and I would assume that is not by chance.” Phiona said, giving him a meaningful look. “You may be the whirlwind, Vista, but no storm lasts forever.”

“Then I will be the first.” the young noble said, holding Phiona’s gaze for a moment before relaxing his stance. “At least one day, so I swear. But for now, I will have to admit that you are right. Let us return and see what Rachel and the carp has been able to accomplish in our absence.”

“As it turns out, my acid can indeed be used in digging. Am I not the epitome of utility?” Rachel called proudly from where she stood on the bottom of the small lake, the rather murky purple-tinged dark waters being held at bay from her in a cylinder, courtesy of the glimmering carp floating along with her.

“So there was something down there?” Kite asked, hope in his voice.

“It was indeed.” Came the triumphant reply. “I don’t know how far it goes, but there is definitely a tunnel continuing down.”

“Then we should move at once. Even if it proves to be a dead end, Glint can help us resurface should we need it.” Phiona said, wading out into the water before waiting for a reply from the others.

“Come here you lot. It’s time to adapt your size to the task at hand.” Vista said to his familiar as he dismounted, receiving a slobbering lick from one of the three large tongues before Whimmy shrank down to their more modest form, quickly splashing out into the water after Phiona.

Kite took another look around the surrounding ravines, the howling wind being the only thing greeting him, before he too joined the others. There, at the bottom and to the side of the lake, was a smooth tunnel leading down into the stone at an angle.

“You did an excellent job in sensing this, little beauty.” Kite praised the preening carp. They had almost passed the lake entirely when first arriving at the area, but Glint had been quite insistent that she had sensed something. That something had been a series of rather wide cracks leading into the ground, and after some initial scouting where Kite shared the carp’s senses they had determined that there was probably some kind of natural tunnel below.

“It took the better part of two hours digging this out, so let us hope that it’s worth it.” Rachel said. “Who would like to do the honors?” she finished, gesturing towards the hole. All of them would have to crawl on all fours, but Kite had thought that it at least grew wider further inside.

“I suppose it will be the junior’s duty, as such unpleasantness often is.” Kite eventually said with a sigh, getting down and crawling inside after producing a glow stone to light his way. A few meters of smooth tunnel soon gave way to more natural surroundings, the rough purple rock surrounding him on all sides. There were some forks and twists, most leading to obvious dead ends or passages too thin to pass through, but one in particular looked promising as it began an upwards slant. Continuing along it for another minute, Kite could turn back and once more emerge with a smile on his face.

“There is a cave, and what I believe to be more tunnels. It should even be above the water level inside, if I am not mistaken.”

“Then we should have our hideout, at least for now. Lead the way, student, and may we finally get a moment to rest.” Phiona said, smiling.

Not long after, the murky waters of the small lake had stilled, leaving no trace of the adventurers’ passing down beneath its depths.

Bloodstalker would have hummed in thought, had he been able to in his assumed form of creeping red tendrils. Seeing the adventurers so cleverly disappear beneath the lake had given him an appreciation for their resourcefulness.

“It’s almost a shame that they will have to become mere blood sacrifices. Having people like them serving beneath me would guarantee the rise which I have been denied for so long.” he thought to himself.

Bloodstalker knew that Promise would want to know of this as soon as possible. But if they really thought they had found tunnels down there, the cramped and dark environment being perfect for a creeping form to isolate and maybe even eliminate strong opponents one after the other…

Bloodstalker’s form couldn’t chuckle either, but it would not have been hard to imagine it as the web of vein-like tendrils started off towards the lake as well, entering the murky depths. There was an opportunity here, after all.