Chapter 149 - Evolution and Adaptation

Leaving the man-made halls behind, Zeke marched forward down the rugged tunnel, barely bothering with even the basic concept of stealth. With his heavy armor and physical bulk, he just wasn’t built for it. Nor did sneaking around sit well with his personality. In a pinch, he could make a passable attempt, but it always left a bad taste in his mouth and conjured memories of his actions in the troll caves. He didn’t precisely regret assassinating whole villages of the vicious monsters, but he wasn’t really proud of it, either. Whatever the case, he had little desire to repeat those actions, even when the situation probably called for it.

All around him, jagged obsidian jutted from the walls. Thankfully, the tunnel had widened enough that it could have accommodated a couple of cars riding side-by-side. Even Pudge was uncrowded. As the party moved through the tunnel, it gradually sloped downward, curving ever so slightly until it became clear that they were moving in a rough spiral. The temperature seemingly rose with every step, and eventually, even Zeke’s durable body began to sweat.

“Hold up,” Tucker said from a little behind Zeke. “I think we should institute fire ant rules here.”

“Potions?” asked Zeke, turning to the big man. There was a lot to dislike about Tucker – most notably that he almost always acted according to his own self-interest, even to the detriment of others – but Zeke still liked having the alchemist around. Part of it was because, in an unfamiliar world, they shared common beginnings. Growing up in central Mississippi, as Tucker had, was little different than doing so in lower Alabama. Their cultural commonalities were comforting in such a strange world.

But it was more than that. Zeke respected the man, and not just because he was obviously an incredibly hard worker who’d spent his entire life pushing the boundaries of his path through the Radiant Isles. In a world where venturing out into the wilderness alone usually resulted in a quick death, Tucker had been doing just that for decades as he tried to advance his knowledge of alchemy. It was difficult not to respect that kind of dedication and capability. On top of that, though, Zeke felt a kinship with anyone who, when faced with a difficult decision, could make the hard choice, like what he’d done with the Jotuns. Zeke himself had repeatedly done so in the troll caves and with the drachnids, so he knew how difficult such a course of action could be. Regardless of morality, if faced with the same choice, Zeke couldn’t deny that he’d have probably done something similar. Though, instead of potions and subterfuge, he’d have probably beaten the giants to death with his mace. But the decision would have been the same.

Tucker said, “I don’t have a huge stock of them after the ants, but it should be enough for now. I’ll have to make some more later.”

He handed out the potions, and, along with everyone else, Zeke downed the swirling, red-and-white liquid. It tasted like peppermint, though instead of a slight tingle on the tongue, it burned all the way down. However, he knew from first-hand experience just how effective the potions were; during the long battle against the ants, he’d endured flames hot enough to melt steel in seconds. Yet another reason Tucker’s presence within the group was valuable. Zeke only wished Abby could see that.

As the potion took effect, Zeke glanced down the tunnel. Every dozen feet, there was a lit torch, though they must have been magical constructs, because they emitted no smoke. Looking more closely at the closest one, he could see the runes that powered it, but they were faint and barely legible. It was the work of an amateur with only the most basic understanding of runecraft, likely gleaned from a book and unsupplemented by an artisan path. Zeke had been told how rare such a thing was, and his every experience had reinforced that perception. With his artisan path at the middle of the novice tier and only a year’s worth of focused study, he could already exceed the mundane runecraft he’d seen among most of the population. And in the back of his mind, he thought that he could give most masters a run for their money. Still, though, there was a long way to go, which was why he spent some time each night reading the book Abby had gotten him back in Beacon. It was only an introduction to the subject, but it had already broadened the breadth of his knowledge considerably. And it still had more to give.

“Good to go, boss,” said Tucker.

“Don’t call me that,” was Zeke’s automatic response as he glanced at the other members of his party. Abby looked anxious but resolved. Talia’s expression was predictably blank, but Zeke knew her well enough by now to know that her mindset was still delicate, after what had happened topside. She’d truly let the monster loose, and it had obviously scared her. Carlos’s expression was similar to Abby’s, though there was a grim determination about him, likely because the matter was far more personal to him than it was to anyone else in the group. Pudge was…well, Pudge was Pudge. He’d found his way to a deep shadow, where he crouched like he was trying to hide.

Ninja bear, Zeke’s companion thought at him, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. It was a comical image, thinking of a car-sized bear trying to be stealthy, but even Zeke had to admit that Pudge had made great strides in his relatively new obsession that had begun when they’d been hounded by the snow leopards in the mountains.

“Everyone ready?” Zeke asked. They all nodded or gave their verbal confirmation, so he led them down the spiraling tunnel. As he did so, he couldn’t help but be a little impressed. The spiral itself was probably forty yards in circumference, which made it a truly staggering feat of engineering, especially considering that it went on for what felt like a few miles before it opened up into a large cavern. As he stood in the opening, he was reminded of the troll caves, which had been contained many such caverns, with huge stalactites growing down from the ceiling and stalagmites jutting from the uneven ground. However, that’s where the similarities ended.

The entire cavern was composed of obsidian, though rather than unbroken black rock, it had red and white veins of some unidentifiable ore running through it. Through the center of the cavern was a magmatic stream, the source of the heat that had continued to rise with the group’s descent. More disturbing, there were dozens of men and women, all with clothes in various stages of burnt disrepair, swinging pickaxes at the walls and stalagmites. On the far side of the room, there was a pallet with a pile of the red-and-white stone piled upon it.

“What is that stuff?” Zeke muttered, crouching down. With the orientation of the tunnel and the prolific pillars of obsidian obstructing the view, the group remained unseen.

“I don’t know,” Abby said.

Tucker whispered, “I might have some ideas.”

Zeke turned to him and said, “Some idea is better than nothing.”

“I think that might be blood mithril,” Tucker said. “It’s extraordinarily rare, because it’s not naturally occurring. We’re not exactly sure where it comes from, but most of what I’ve seen originated from the Lake of Flames. Most of the metallurgists I’ve spoken to think that it has something to do with demons.”

“A demonic metal?” Zeke asked.

“Not really,” Tucker explained. “It’s more like it’s infused with magic, like those gems you looted from the raptors. There are only a handful of smiths who can work with it with any success, and even then, they can’t really draw out the full benefits. Most don’t bother. Instead, it’s usually just sold to the Church of Purity, who claim they destroy because it contaminates our world.”

“So, it being here, what does it mean?” Abby asked, for once not directing any ire at the alchemist.

Tucker shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “With the demon possessions, the very least we can expect is that the boundary between our two realms is thin here. There might even be a portal.”

“And that’s bad, right?” asked Zeke.

“Worse than bad,” Tucker stated. “There’s a reason so few people visit the Lake of Flames, and it’s not just because of the heat. Any decent alchemist can help a group deal with that. The biggest reason is because there are demons up there that, if they were loose in the world, would wreak havoc across the island.”

“Monarch tier?” asked Abby.

“They don’t have classifications,” Tucker stated. “But you’ve already seen what the least of them can do.” He gestured toward the miners, who still hadn’t noticed them. “Those are the least dangerous thing in the Lake of Flames. Anything else up there is exponentially deadlier.”

“And we might be facing something like that here?” was Abby’s next question.

Tucker shrugged. “That’s all I know,” he said. “But I doubt it. Almost everyone agrees that demons can’t exist outside the Lake of Flames.”

Zeke raised his eyebrow, then gestured at the people in the cavern. As far as Zeke could tell, they had all been possessed by demons, which disproved Tucker’s point.

“Touche,” the alchemist said with a shrug. “I’m going on hearsay and rumor here anyway, so take it all with a grain of salt.”

“What do we do?” asked Abby, looking at Zeke.

“We came down here for a reason, right? That hasn’t changed, has it?” he said. “I don’t want to kill these people any more than you all, but there’s no way I’m getting through that cavern without raising the alarm. Pudge either.”

Ninja bear!Pudge thought.

“Not now, Pudge,” Zeke said. The bear hung his head, so to mollify him, Zeke added, “You’re getting better, though. You’re just not there yet. Keep practicing, and you will.”

“I could get through,” Carlos said, speaking up for the first time in a while. “You don’t have to kill them.”

“I think we kind of do,” Zeke stated. “You saw what they were like. You know there’s no coming back.”

“According to him,” Carlos said, gesturing to Tucker. “I have no idea if he’s mistaken or lying.”

Zeke took a deep breath. Throughout their time within the keep, they’d encountered a few groups of the possessed people, killing them all. As a result, Carlos had become increasingly more distressed the whole way down. Clearly, he didn’t want to shoulder the responsibility for killing so many, even if it made sense.

“He’s not mistaken,” Zeke said, reaching out to grip the man’s shoulder. He gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I don’t want to do this anymore than you do, but –”

Carlos jerked away, and Pudge moved like lightning. In an instant, he was behind the newcomer, a low growl emanating from his throat. The moment the bear’s growl hit Carlos’s ears, he was enveloped in deep shadow.

“Stop!” Talia hissed. “We don’t need to fight each other!”

“I don’t want to fight,” Carlos said, his voice still a harsh whisper. “But I will if I have to.”

Abby stepped between him and Zeke, saying, “This has to be done. You know it. I know it. We don’t have to like it. We just have to do it.”

Carlos looked past her at Zeke, who still hadn’t moved. He hadn’t even reacted. He didn’t have to. He had gotten his measure of Carlos, and if it came down to it, he felt confident that he could endure whatever skills he could throw at him. And if that happened, he would put the man down. He didn’t want to kill him, though, and he would try not to, but sometimes, mercy just wasn’t a viable option.

Carlos must have seen that in Zeke’s expression, because after only a few seconds of taut tension, his shoulders sagged, and he hung his head. “I’m not weak,” he muttered. “I know you all think I am. I’ve killed before. Probably more than any of you. I don’t care about that when they’re bad guys. But…but these aren’t bad people. They’re just normal people who were…who were put into a horrible situation. Does that mean they deserve to die? No. I want to help them.”

“They’re already gone,” Zeke stated. “You know that. You just don’t like it. None of us do.”

The other man raised his head, then pushed his dark hair out of his eyes. Then, he said, “You’re right. It has to be done. There’s no sense whining about it.”

Zeke nodded, saying, “Okay, so here’s the plan. Talia and Pudge, you’re flankers. I’ll head straight in, grabbing their attention. When they gather up, Abby and Carlos, lay into them. Tucker, your job is to make sure that nobody comes in from the other tunnel. In an enclosed space like that, your grenades should be pretty devastating. But don’t use anything that might bring the ceiling down. Flankers, keep on the edges of the fight, and make sure nothing slips around us. Everyone, be flexible. It probably won’t go exactly according to plan.”

“It almost never does,” Tucker said. “But we’ll be fine. There are only a hundred of them or so. But they’re stronger than the ones we’ve fought so far, so…you know what? Never mind. We’ll be okay. Sure. Go team.”

He punctuated the last sentence with a light fist pump. Resisting the urge to tell the alchemist that this was neither the time nor the place for such levity, he said, “Alright. No sense waiting. Let’s get this thing going.”

Zeke activated his various skills, applying [Avatar of the Beast] to Talia and Pude, whose fighting styles would most benefit from the extra stats, before refreshing [Mark of Companionship] on everyone.

With that, Talia and Pudge went to the sides, weaving through the stalagmites and keeping to the shadows. Carlos and Abby stayed behind, while Zeke and Tucker strode forward. As he moved past the tree trunk-sized stalagmites, Zeke activated [Leech Strike], enveloping his fists and mace in a diffuse red mist. Then, he checked his last skill, [Unleash Momentum], which he’d been building on for days. It was at maximum capacity, so he resolved to hold it in reserve as a trump card in case they encountered something truly powerful.

Or if they got into trouble, though he didn’t expect that. A hundred enemies was nothing compared to the hordes of monsters he’d fought in the recent past, and he was confident in his group’s capabilities. Even Carlos had proved himself stronger than normal.

After preparing himself for battle, Zeke summoned his shield and gripped his mace, picking up his pace and leaving Tucker a few steps behind. Pacing himself at a light jog, he made a beeline toward the closest of the demon-possessed people. Out of habit, he inspected the woman:

Selina Dean – Level 12 (22)

Zeke cocked back his arm and brought his mace down with every ounce of his strength behind it. At the last moment, the woman – or the demon driving her – sensed that something was wrong and shifted to the side. As a result Zeke’s strike, which was aimed at her head, collided with her shoulder, and he was rewarded with the sound of crunching bone. However, whatever else the demon had done, it had obviously done something to nullify pain, because it did not react the way Zeke had expected. Instead of collapsing to the ground in a heap, it rolled with the blow and brought its pickaxe at him in a horizontal swing. Zeke barely got his shield up in time, and the possessed woman’s makeshift weapon clanged off the chitinous surface. Zeke was pushed back by the strength of the attack, but he quickly regained his footing and pushed forward, swinging his shield in a backhand blow that caught her in the injured shoulder. Zeke didn’t waste any time in following up with vicious, overhand strike that found its mark in her forehead, crushing it into pulp. Instead of brains, though, a grey-black mush splattered against the obsidian floor. She collapsed, dead before she hit the ground.

“Strong,” Zeke muttered, watching as the other demon-possessed miners reacted to the commotion. In seconds, they were, one and all, rushing toward Zeke, who responded with a challenging roar. They reacted with unnerving screeches that echoed through the cavern.

“I think you got their attention,” said Tucker, slipping off to the side so that he could bypass the melee and keep an eye on the other side of the cavern. One miner noticed him and started to charge; Tucker wasn’t having it, though, and he tossed a glass globe at the possessed man. When it broke upon his chest, a series of green, thorny vines wrapped themselves around him, slithering around his arms and legs and sending him to the ground. The possessed miner fought against the vines, but they kept growing until he was encased from head to toe. But it didn’t end there. Instead, the vines kept squeezing, and after only a few more moments, blood and black goo seeped from between the green tendrils. The possessed miner’s screeches ended a couple of seconds later.

Though he was surprised, Zeke couldn’t spare any more attention, because the horde of miners had begun to arrive. He set his feet, and the battle began as he blocked the attacks he could, but accepted the ones that wouldn’t be too debilitating, trusting in his combined endurance, vitality, and the effects of [Leech Strike] to keep him alive and fighting. It was a painful way to fight, especially with his armor barely clinging to its shape, but he was an old hand at suffering. So, he pushed that pain to its own corner of his mind, sequestering it away so that it couldn’t affect him. Soon, though, the wounds began to pile up, and even his prodigious stats and the steady stream of stolen vitality was outpaced.

One of the pickaxes came in at a horizontal angle, and Zeke, having just blocked an overhand strike, couldn’t get his shield down in time. The head of the pickaxe buried itself between his ribs, which on its own, wasn’t so bad. However, when the miner yanked it free, taking a couple of ribs and a good deal of flesh with it, Zeke couldn’t contain the scream that erupted from his mouth. He regained his focus only a second later, but that brief distraction, along with the fact that he had a hole in his torso, was the beginning of the end for him.

Even as he fought, lightning strikes fell all around him. Carlos’s shadow spears erupted from the ground, impaling the miners, but they didn’t go deep enough to stop them, much less kill them. Even when he used that eruption skill of his, the blades only managed to wound the possessed people, rather than kill them. And he even caught a few glimpses of Talia and Pudge, fighting just as hard as him. But the possessed miners were far more durable than any of them could have expected. They were falling, but not so quickly that they couldn’t still overwhelm Zeke’s group.

Something had to change, and something drastic. Even with a steady stream of vitality from [Leech Strike], Zeke was fighting a losing battle. As an obvious result of their possession, the miners didn’t even react to their injuries. By comparison, the cumulative effects of Zeke’s wounds steadily weakened him, propelled in large part by the gaping hole in his side.

Ever since the first days in the troll caves, Zeke had found the runes that governed his [Leech Strike] skill infinitely intriguing, and he had spent countless hours studying them. Even so, he only understood them on the most superficial level. However, in that moment, even as he fell further and further behind the assailing miners, Zeke had a spark of inspiration. Changing one, little glyph. That was all it would take. He wasn’t certain exactly what it would do, but every instinct, likely prompted by his artisan path, screamed at him that it would result in a more powerful skill. So, even as he defended against the deluge of descending pickaxes, Zeke sank his consciousness into the runes. Without his full concentration on the fight, more attacks slipped through the cracks, but not so many that they could do him in. He hardly felt the gouging cuts, the bits and pieces of his flesh being torn from his body by the pickaxes. Something far more important held his attention.

He pushed against the portion of the glyph that he wanted to change, and predictably, it resisted. At first, it felt like he was pressing against a brick wall, but he redoubled his efforts, and he was rewarded by the barest bit of movement. He let out a wordless, mental scream of frustration and struggle, and a moment later, the rune broke. His skill winked out, and the stead stream of vitality that came from [Leech Strike] disappeared.

Suddenly, the cuts and scrapes that had seemed so inconsequential were life-threatening, and he lost even more ground to the possessed miners. But Zeke hadn’t come so far, he hadn’t endured so much pain and hardship just to give in when all seemed lost. He would fight to his last breath, if that’s what it took, and hopefully, his efforts would mean that his friends might escape with their lives.

The cave was a storm of skills. Tucker’s grenades had joined the cascade of magical powers, carving a divot in the surging group of minors. Abby’s lightning bolts descended from the ceiling, but they weren’t nearly as powerful as they might’ve been – a result of fighting indoors, Zeke thought. Carlos’s spears of shadow were the real standout – a tireless effort that had already killed a dozen or more enemies. Talia was a blur as she darted between the possessed miners, her skills decaying flesh with every swipe of her claws. But it wasn’t enough. Even Pudge, as strong as he was, was hampered by the durability of the miners.

Zeke fell to his knees, blood flowing freely from a few dozen wounds. His side was still the worst of them, but he’d also taken a blow to the head that blurred his vision. A massive chunk of his thigh was missing as well, which was why his leg had given out, sending him to his knees.

Was this how it was going to end?

“No,” he muttered, coughing up blood as he pushed himself to his feet. He wouldn’t give in. He couldn’t. It just wasn’t in his nature. So, he turned his mind back to the broken rune, searching for a solution with every ounce of his attention. Even as the monsters decimated his body with their pickaxes, his concentration didn’t waver. Leveraging both his ability to compartmentalize pain and the power of his path, he dove into the rune.

Suddenly, he saw it all so clearly. He knew what he needed to do. He knew how to do it, too. It was so simple. So elegant. He mentally stared at it for a long second before the pain he’d so far ignored declared its urgency. Shaking himself from his awestruck state, Zeke got to work, dragging mana from his core and forging a glyph to replace the one he’d destroyed. It was almost identical to the old one, and it was so easy that it took barely a few seconds. But when he finally forged that last bit, a surge of power swept through him.

Notifications popped up, but he discarded them. There was no time to revel in whatever gains he might’ve made. There was a job to do.

So, Zeke concentrated on the new rune, and his fists began to glow. There was no mist – just blood red light that traveled up his mace until it became a beacon amidst the chaos. He pushed himself to his feet, and his ravaged body nearly betrayed him. He swung his mace. He couldn’t muster his full strength. Not even half. But it was enough.

A blade of red light erupted from his mace, sweeping through the minors and stealing a bit of vitality from each of them. That vitality streamed back into Zeke, healing the least of his wounds. The miners staggered in mid-swing, suddenly missing a good portion of their life energy. But Zeke wasn’t done. He swung again, this time with more strength. His target dodged the attack, but it didn’t matter. The red light arced out again, stealing even more vitality from the possessed miners and feeding back to Zeke. In two swings, he’d healed everything but the most serious of his wounds – the one in his ribs and the missing chunk of his thigh – but even those had gotten significantly better. They were completely healed two swings later.

That was the turning point of the battle. With Zeke back to full strength and the miners weakened by the new version of [Leech Strike], the tide quickly turned. But the possessed were still a pain to dispatch, lasting for quite some time before the last one fell under the group’s combined efforts. When the proverbial dust finally settled, Zeke sank to his knees.

The rest of the group approached, but it was Abby who asked, “What was that?”

It was Tucker who answered. “I think our boy just evolved a skill mid-fight,” he said, grinning a tired grin. “Right?”

Zeke finally looked at his skills, and though he was more exhausted than ever – largely because his mana had dipped to critical levels, he managed to faint smile. “Something like that,” Zeke said.