NOVEL NEXT 1.86: Cracks
Standing in front of the purple-blue tear in reality, Ethan closed his eyes and put a mental finger on the connection he felt to the space around him, and as he reached out for it, he frowned. It was… almost as if he didn't have a good grip on it. There was a link, sure, but it took a few seconds for him to secure his grasp around it, and when he finally did, he pulled.
And something in the rift—in this pocket world around him—broke.
Ethan wrenched the riftcore out of thin air, and it popped into his outstretched hand, like a bowling-ball of burning ice. It shone blue, with shades of green and gray, and while it didn't feel heavy in his arm per say, it was like he was standing right in front of some sort of magic reactor. The riftcore was literally pulsing with mana, and while it wasn't easily visible, he could see it, like a shimmer in the air around the orb and most importantly, he could feel it through all of his being. Intuitively, he knew he couldn't stay around this thing for long stretches of time.
Might be a good resistance training, though, he thought as he examined the object. Ethan rolled the orb in his hand and looked around. This thing was likely the heart of this space. And now that it had been taken out, the rift was quickly breaking down.
As soon as Ethan had gotten the riftcore, the wind had died out. The sound of waves lapping at the shore went quiet, and when he glanced behind him, the water was as placid and flat as oil.
"[We have to go,]" Ember said, looking up, and Ethan followed her gaze.
Spiderweb-like cracks were spreading across the sky, widening with every instant, and beyond, Ethan could see… nothing. It wasn't even dark. Not exactly. It was like there was not even color. While it seemed black, it was nothing like staring into the night sky. No, it was much more desolating. Much more eerie.
Completely alien.
Ethan found himself transfixed for a second before Ember dug her claws in his calf—or tried. "[Don't look! Let's go! Hurry!]"
That shook him out of it. Ethan jumped and wrenched his eyes away from the phenomenon to find that Ember had already scrambled away and now, she was right in front of the rift, crouched with her ears twitching nervously as she waited for him.
"Sorry! Go, I'm right behind you," he said and briskly jogged after her as he shoved the riftcore in the pouch. The cat gave him one more look before she turned and jumped into the cut in reality, and Ethan followed suit.
After half a second of gut-twisting movement, his scaled soles hit the familiar soft and grassy ground once more. Ethan had expected to need a second or two to adjust to the generally darker and blue-tinted mushroom caverns, but what he found was anything but.
Bonfires of fire and smoke were all around him. In an instant, the scent of burnt flesh and screams reached his ears, and it didn't take him long to realize there was a battle going on.
Ethan was ready to jump into the fray as soon as he made the least bit of sense of what was happening, but as the picture became clearer, he paused.
Huh?
While the battlefield seemed hectic at first, it turned out to be pretty well organized. All around the rift, a space had been cleared. There were earth-made ramparts, behind which people were slinging their spells, while beyond them, those who were better equipped for close-ranged fighting held back the approaching lizardlings and the drakes they rode on.
A quick scan told him there were basically three fronts, one of which had a few silhouettes he recognized as well as one of the larger fire drakes, and Ethan found himself already walking toward them. Both to help out his allies and to get his hands on those drakes.
I do need some fire primagems… Hopefully the looting fire works against those bastards.
Ethan unfurled his wings and readied himself to jump when there was a shudder in the air behind him. In a crouch, he turned, claws ready to stab, only to see the glowing tear in the air behind him slowly close up, like a wound being healed. The process barely took a couple of seconds, but no sooner than the blue glow had disappeared than another gateway took its place. And this one wasn't jagged.
It had hues of purple and blue, and its edges were smooth. Just like the one they'd taken to arrive in this tutorial and before Ethan could do anything else, a prompt popped in front of him.
Main Quest Completed: Gain access to the tutorial's exit
Reward: 1 tier-0 Lesser Arcanum.
Ethan looked at the gateway and grinned, then turned away and dismissed the prompt as he sensed the swirl of power sink into his chest. The transformative magic wasn't the most comfortable, but it was nowhere near as bad as the first Arcanum he'd gotten when this had all started.
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The exit isn't going anywhere. For now, let's give some old friends a hand.
Ethan leaped up in the air and crossed the distance between him and his old companions in a handful of seconds. Ember was already with them, shooting fireballs from behind the chokepoint Audrey and Gerald were holding.
"The scales look good!" he called out to them with grin.
"Welcome back!" Audrey shouted without looking up, and Ethan's brows instantly shot up as the woman's voice resonated within his body. It felt like a mini-version of Scorching Ascension. Could her voice empower him?
Audrey was sporting a set of black scales which deflected a spear stab from a sneaky lizardling right before she twisted and slammed her shield into its face hard enough to send the creature rolling. A few projectiles flew at them, and her bracelets shone for an instant and made the arrows swerve and go straight for her, which she took on her shield and without losing her momentum, she pivoted into a kick and crumpled another as it tried to get past her.
[Human (I) - Level 58]
They've been busy, Ethan noted as he flew higher and began his descent. Gerald had gotten better with his sword, and it seemed like he had somewhat of a similar ability with his own silvery vambraces and breastplate. Enemy spells were attracted to his breastplate, and with every spell that impacted them, the two armaments shone brighter, and his movements grew faster and sharper until he expended them all with one particularly nasty swing that took one of the drake's heads off. He had his own set of brown scales and further behind, right above Ember, Liz hung on with a hand wrapped around a familiar woman's ankle as she shot crackling bolts every couple of seconds. As for the woman herself, she had a pair of buzzing , moth-like wings, and her gold-coloured eyes—which happened to match a golden tiara on her brow—scanned the surroundings, calling out targets while she occasionally pointed a wand and shot piercing ray that incinerated her targets.
Wait…
Ethan narrowed his eyes until he finally recalled her name. Amanda.
[Human (I) - Level 59]
She made friends with Liz?
He'd have to keep an eye on her, but at least she was contributing instead of running her dodge-y schemes and just as he watched them, Amanda called for them to scatter, and Liz dragged herself up, launching herself higher before she kicked the air with her new boots until she reached a burning mushroom-tree's top, while Amanda dropped down lower as a spell flew past her.
[Human (I) - Level 61]
Liz is doing well, too, Ethan thought as he lined himself up with his target before dispelling the wings, and a moment before impact, the lizardling rider looked up to find Ethan's feet only inches away from its face.
Suffice it to say, neither the rider nor the drake had handled Ethan's weight well. The lizardlings died instantly, while the drake survived but was quickly finished off with a mix of fire and claws, the latter of which in the hopes that Harvester's Flames would be enough to get some fire primagems out of the creature. And it did.
Come to papa, Ethan thought as he leaned down and picked up the little red gem.
"Ethan?"
The voice came from behind him. Ethan looked back and found Amelie. She was holding a lizardling by the shoulder while a blue-glowing dagger was embedded through its throat, and little blue bolts were dancing upon her blue scales. She gave him a wide grin. "How was the rift?" she said, right before she blurred and reappeared atop of a drake a few yards away before shoving the dagger in the back of its scaly head.
[Human (I) - Level 62]
Before Ethan could respond, there was an explosion nearby, and a burning, human-shaped form came flying toward him. The man skidded a couple of times and while still rolling, he kicked off the ground with his hoofed legs with a powerful thud that sent him twirling in the air before he came back down on his feet. He was panting, and the yellow-fur across his chest was smouldering. Diego glanced toward him then away, then did a double take when he realized it was Ethan before his lips stretched in a wide smile.
"Welcome back, dude!" said Diego as he hopped from one leg to another. "I saw the message. Let's finish these bastards and head home, alright?"
Then he bounded off toward another contact-zone being held by the high-schoolers and the coach, where a tall man with a club just pulped a drake's head.
More lizardlings came out of the woods, screeching in their weird garbled voices, and Ethan began charging the first fireball.
It was nice to be back.
***
Once Ethan joined the battle, they were able to quickly finish up the remaining lizardlings. It wasn't as if the others had been losing, though. They were doing pretty damn well, considering the number of lizardlings and remaining crazed-monitors. But when Ethan joined, they were just able to wrap things up much faster, and now, Ethan, Ember, the four companions, Diego, and Amanda were looking at the exit. A few paces away, the coach was looking at it as well, but he didn't approach just yet as a few of his students had been injured.
Worry and relief warred in quite a few faces, and Liz was the first to put the uncertainty into words."Where do you think this will drop us?" she turned to him, then glanced at Gerald. "You two are from Charlestown, but I was in New Jersey when this started. Is this going to put us all in a single spot, or are we about to be scattered?"