Unbound

Chapter Three Hundred And Ninety Eight – 398

Chapter Three Hundred And Ninety Eight – 398

Felix leaned back, letting the stove warm him. The water had cooled him down enough that his overheating body had grown comfortable, but the howling wind of the chasm just outside the dilapidated hut had turned that chill into something more bone-deep. He nursed a mug of mulled wine, holding it close, and watched the owner of the hut over the chipped rim.

The Yttin, named Naos, was bustling about the hovel. He cleaned fastidiously, wiping surfaces and sweeping out stray bits of stone and dirt Felix had tracked in. His hands, and the prehensile appendages upon his back, were never stillthey gripped the broom of bundled reeds, a well-worn rag, and carefully adjusted wall hangings from their hammered wooden pegs. The hovel was all one large chamber, with a narrow bed in the corner and rickety shelves tacked along every flat section of wall. Knick-knacks lined those shelves, polished pieces of stone, a tiny Mana crystal, and even a couple dog-eared books with cracked spines. It was a cozy and clean space, if so very clearly poor.

Embarrassingly, Felix had spent a full minute speaking with Naos before the Yttin had politely reminded him of his state of dress. Felix's Garment had burnt up across his chest and stomach and revealed a large swath of pink skin. He had also learned that his Garment could get stuck in a shape if he fixated on it too muchFelix's Mind had been lingering so much on the battle that it had stayed locked in that disheveled state, a charred and torn remnant of his fight. The moment Naos pointed it out however, he fed enough Mana into it that a new tunic appeared almost instantly.

"So you live down here?" he asked again. "How?"

Naos didn't stop moving, but his copper eyes flashed in amusement. "Day to day, my boy. Day to day."

"All alone in the dark? Seems pretty lonely," Felix said. He took another sip of the mulled wine. The warm liquid felt good on his throat. "How far below Ahkestria are we?"

"Deeper by far than they let most go," Naos said in that amused, almost teasing tone. Clicks trilled at the edges of his words. "How did you find yourself here...Veil, was it?"

"Mhm," Felix agreed, letting a mouthful of wine give him a moment to think. His Mind was just as strained as the rest of him, but even concussed he wasn't about to give his real name to some stranger. "The Temple Knights are rounding up the miners. I don't know why, but I'm not interested in finding out."

Deception is level 34!

"So I saw. But you're no miner, boy." Naos turned, extra appendages lifting his slight, bandage-wrapped body up and onto the bed on the far side of the hut. He folded his legs beneath him and smiled. "No miner could afford such a...curious bit of clothing."

Right. Shit. His Mind really wasn't at its bestFelix hadn't even thought of what his special magical artifact would look like to a poor Yttin. "A gift. For a job well done."

"Oh? Must have been quite the job. I've not seen such clever use of sigaldry in a long while."

Felix blinked. It was there, again. A fitful flash across the Yttin's shoulders and down the spider-like appendages on its back. He had spotted it once or twice before, but dismissed the phenomenon as a trick of the light and his tired eyes. "Naos. That is a...curious name. I feel like I've heard it before."

Felix took another long sip of his wine, and the Yttin shrugged. "A common enough name among my people."

"A hut in the deepest parts of a chasm, where few go. I think I'd go crazy from boredom," Felix said. His Mind felt a bit clearer already, and something was prodding him not to trust this man.

"I keep busy. My people, the poorest of the poor, need services I can provide after all. Healing ointments, splinting broken limbs from rockslides and cave-ins, that sort of thing."

"It'd be easier to do that up above, wouldn't it? Where the miner's live?" That was a guess on Felix's part, but it followed reason that the miners would be living at the bottom most layers. "How would they reach you here?"

Naos smiled. It was just as unnerving as any other Yttin, all thin lips and tiny sharp teeth. "Perhaps I too did not wish to be herded above."

Felix couldn't blame him for that. But did Naos know what was going to happen? "You're a healer...do you have any way to heal Aspects?" he asked.

"It is possible, though quite difficult," Naos said. He had begun pulling small bundles off his shelves and placing them on a cracked wooden tray. "One's Aspects are a confluence of Stats and Tempers. Each varies, person to person...unless you follow one of the guilds or temples, and then they are dangerously similar." Naos pursed his lips, but that humor danced behind his eyes. "I can tell you're made of sterner stuff, Mr. Veil."

"Mm," Felix allowed, taking another long sip. "Why's that?"

"Not many can fight a Grandmaster and live."

Felix froze, cup at his lips. His cores spun, a riot blaring above his navel. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Who are you? Because I know your name is not Veil, no matter what my Analyze tells me." Naos kept moving, now pressing a root vegetable into a small bowl. "Some might consider it rude to lie to your host. Not I, of course. But some."

Felix smiled, his Mind whirling. Hesitantly, Felix reached out with his Affinity...and felt nothing from the Yttin. Nothing at all. Yet more startling than that was that neither his Spirit or Mind hurt from reaching out. His surprise wasn't unnoticed.

"Ah, you've attempted to Analyze me?" He asked, chuckling. A pestle in his hands ground the roots and a sprinkle of glittering Mana crystals. "Or was it something else? I imagine your Mind is already feeling better?"

"My" he looked suddenly at the wine in his hands, and focused his Voracious Eye on it. It hadn't offered up any secrets before, but he'd been so turned around...yet this time his Eye cut through a faint resistance he'd not even noticed before. "The wine."

Name: Panacea

Type: Consumable (Elixir)

Lore: Derived from potent materials, this drink was prepared by a Master of Alchemy in order to cure the ails of those at Master Tier or lower. Provides a measure of healing to all Status Conditions, wounds, curses, and limited aid to Aspects. The lower the imbiber's Tier, the greater the effect.

"You...gave me an elixir," Felix said slowly. His stomach curdled, mostly in sudden worry. The Yttin could have poisoned him just as easily. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Naos shrugged, and poured a putty-like mixture out of his stone bowl. He pressed it carefully into a wide swath of cloth, spreading it evenly. "You are difficult to read, warrior. It is...curious. I did not know your motivations, or even why you fought the Grandmaster of the Desert's Fire. Only that you had and survived. Truly a tale worthy to be told."

With a few deft twists, he closed up the cloth, producing a very large poultice that he carried off the bed and toward Felix. He stood and moved as the Yttin drew closer, but Naos only placed it in a shallow tray above the stove and let it sit. "There. That just needs to warm some. Don't be so nervous, warrior. I've no need or want to hurt you. I am a healer, after all."

Felix wet his lips. The cup he set aside, which earned him a displeased cluck of the tongue from the Yttin. It had helped him, he couldn't deny that, even if there was still some strain remaining on his Mind and Spirit. Felix could hear the hum of Harmony again, and it was powerfully strong in the tiny hut...but was intensely quiet around Naos. That flash of light was there again, on Naos' body, a line at the edge of his Perception. As if he isn't here or isn't

"You aren't Yttin," Felix said. Naos' amused face froze, though he couldn't tell if it was out of surprise, fear, or wariness. Naos. It had clicked, where Felix had first heard the name. "Who are you?"

Both of them stood stock still, their eyes unblinking. Yet before Felix could open his mouth again, a bellow came from the chasm outside.

"Naos! Naos! I need your help! The Temple Knights are pushing deeper and all your friends are running for some reason" A huge form pushed into the room. A half-man, half-bull with sweeping horns, massive shoulders, and shaggy fur. He looked at Felix in utter shock. "W-who're you?"

Felix's stomach twisted. "Unbound," he said. "We have a lot of things to talk about."

Things...happened very quickly after that.

Before Felix could say anything else, the Minotaur had torn across the hut, charging at him head first. Horns crashed into him, smashing a startled Felix off his feet and through the stacked-stone wall.

"Die Paladin!" the bovine shouted.

Relentless Resolution!

The moment they cleared the wall, Felix kicked off of the Minotaur's skull. He flipped backward, arcing twenty feet to land in a sliding crouch. His opponent snorted and shook his head, confused for a brief moment before finding Felix in the driving clouds of stone dust.

"How did you follow me?" he asked, and looked around. Sand and blood matted the fur along his neck and left shoulder, where his stolen Paladin armor had been broken apart. "Only I can get through the stormwall!"

"You walked through the city's protections?" Felix asked. He's tougher than I thought.

"You're not gonna get Naos, Paladin! Not even if there are a hundred of ya hidden around here!"

"There's only me. And I'm not a Pal" Felix was cut off by the Minotaur suddenly appearing before him, meaty arm cocked for a wicked left jab. He dodged, stepping out of the jab's path. "Hey that's Relentless Charge! I used to have that!"

"WhaShut up and fight!" the Minotaur growled. His punch missed Felix, but he turned it into a lumbering smash onto the ground beneath them, and Felix saw streams of black, green, and gold Mana burst from his fist. "Chitin Construction!"

Faster than he expected, the Minotaur whipped his hand up, now holding a massive, jagged hammer made out of overlapping plates. Felix put out his hand and caught the maul's hammer head...but the guy was also stronger than he expected. He skidded two feet backward from the blow, and his Health even took a tiny hit. His Armored Skin blunted almost all of the attack, but he still couldn't summon his scales due to lack of Essence. Yet the idea of absorbing more made the abyss within him whimper, the recent influx of water Mana having proven too much too soon.

Damn.I don't know if I can fight him off without relying on some of my more intense Skills. Felix set himself and spread his arms, only feet from the edge of the chasm. "I don't want to fight you, Michael. I'm here to help."

Me too. Let me help, Pit sent.

Not yet, Felix replied, refocusing on the Unbound just in time to catch a complicated series of emotions crawling across his inhuman face.

"How do you know mythat name?" the Minotaur demanded. He drew himself up, steam and spittle pouring from his snout as he hefted his great maul. "Who told you it!"

"I know a lot of things," Felix said slowly. "If you'd just listen"

"How do you know that name?!"

Michael wasn't listening, and he flashed forward with another Relentless Charge. Felix sighed and did the only thing he could think of: he twisted, grabbing the bull by the horns...and kicked off the ground.

Right into the chasm.

"MICHAEL!"

A horrified shout came from above, but it was lost to the howling of frigid winds and the Minotaur's own fearful bellows. That maul swung wildly and thick fingers grabbed at Felix's body with relentless abandon. Felix's left hand was bashed loose, but on the hammer's return strike Felix make a single, sharp gesture.

Corrosive Strike!

The great maul burst apart, crazed by lines of sizzling acid. Michael screamed, his rage turning to fear as the dark floor of the chasm rose up to meet them both. His inhuman hands seized onto Felix's arms, wrenching him forward into a tumbling grapple, and Felix allowed it.

It made his next task way easier, after all.

Adamant Discord!

Lightning erupted beneath them into a column of blue-white light, and their fall was almost entirely arrested. Almost. They hit the rolling dunes of crimson sand like meteorites.

Felix stood almost immediately. The two of them had been thrown apart by the collision, and his eyes swiftly swept the rolling dunes for his fellow Unbound. Fuck, did I cushion the impact enough?

That worry was put to bed when a horned man roared up from a sea of cascading sands. His limbs were bloody, but Michael stood up seemingly without a hitch.

"Good, you didn't die," Felix said.

"I don't die so easily," Michael snapped back.

I don't appreciate irony, universe. Felix spread his senses, feeling out the terrain of rolling dunes shaped by the ceaseless, gale-force winds around them. Cave opening dotted the stone in multiple directions, black eyes in the dim lighting, and source of the winds as well as the sands. These caves lead...outside? Must be how he got in from the Expanse. Still, that'd require a lot of Health or maybe just a crap load of Endurance.

Voracious Eye!

Felix raised an eyebrow as Michael clumsily slid down the dune that separated them. He was bleeding heavily now, but still working ponderously to reach Felix. "You're level 38, but you're only barely out of Apprentice Tier. You've been here a year, right?" Felix asked. "You're Unbound. Your growth should be faster than this, Michael."

And what was with that name?

"SHUT UP! Chitin Construction! Relentless Charge!"

Sand sprayed in all directions and the Minotaur ascended Felix's dune, a new maul forming in his meaty hands. Yet before he could reach the summit, a dozen stone formations shot upward from below.

Stone Shaping!

Michael shattered through several of them before losing all momentum and had to break them apart with his Strength. But by the time he reached Felix's position, he was already gone.

"Now you're running? Realized your magic spells can't break my Body, huh?" Michael spun until he spotted Felix, who was another dune over. "You might be fast, but you can't hold up against my Strength and Endurance. No one can."

"Really," Felix said. He grinned. "Show me, then."

"Nah," Michael said with a sneer. "Cuz I got magic too, noob."

The shaggy Minotaur lifted his hand, which glowed with blackened green threads before they launched outward into the sands. "Hallowed Call!"

Felix was still recovering from hearing someone say "noob" unironically when the sands exploded all around him. Six bone knights wearing broken Paladin armor rose from the sands, swords and axes in hand. He swept them with his Eye and dismissed them out of hand. He didn't even try to stop them as they scurried up the dune toward him.

"You can do more than this," Felix said. Michael's eyes widened before narrowing angrily. "I've seen it, man. You're going to need so much more to handle me."

"Fuck you! You want it all?" The Minotaur practically glowed with necrotic Mana as a thickened cord shot off toward one of the caverns. "Take it all!"

A wave of sand rolled out of the dark, a veritable tsunami of granules, and within it was a massive shape of overlapping plates. The wave surged and broke across their position, forcing Felix to use his movement Skill to evade and stay upright. As the sand settled, a huge centipede reared up into the air, easily the width and length of a subway train. Eyes glowed with blackened-green light as it's mandibles flexed with small crashes.

"Michael. You have called us?" it boomed into the air.

"PvP time, Hallow! Enemy at twelve o'clock! Kill!"

"As you wish."

The creaturean undead Multipede according to his Eyesurged forward, the spikes and horns atop its skull slamming into Felix's dune like a falling tenement.

Relentless Resolution!

Cloudstep!

Cloudstep is level 50!

Journeyman Tier!

You Gain:

+5 AGL

+5 DEX

+5 PER

Felix skidded atop panels of crackling Mana, only just able to stay ahead of the Multipede's dangerous thrashings. Perhaps he might have survived its hit, but with his Aspects still strained and his scales unavailable, Felix wasn't interested in finding out. He had other tools though.

Cardinal Flame!

Red-gold flames burst along the undead insect as well as the undead knights that scurried across the sands toward him. The knights froze, their bodies burning, but the Multipede shook it off. The knights writhed in pain, and so did Michael.

"AHHh! Hallow! Stop him!"

Convergence!

Pit screeched in joy, finally free as he materialized in a flash of blinding light. Michael shouted, throwing up an arm and creating a shield of chitin, but Pit wasn't going for him. He descended on the undead knights instead, unleashing a slew of Wingblades and Frost Spears.

The knights were crushed, instantly.

"No!" Michael wailed, flinching as if he'd taken the hits. "Those took so long toWhat the hell is that?" he demanded.

Felix shrugged and grinned. "Attack dog."

Michael bellowed again, and the air shook with it. Felix felt a debuff try to worm itself into his Body, but he shrugged it off just as the Multipede slammed down onto his spot again. He dove, rolling out from under the body slam and only catching one of the creature's sharpened legs across the back. Felix grunted in pain but kept moving, racing to meet the furious Minotaur raising a shield and hammer at him.

"How are you so fast?" Michael yelled, swinging the hammer for his head.

Felix ducked it easily, and jabbed his palm up into the weapon's haft. It snapped and the head flung off into the dark. "Michael." He spun out of range of a shield bash, kicking off another Cloudstep to redirect around the bull warrior. "Michael why are you so weak?"

Felix sundered his shield with a single, unpowered strike.

"I'm not!" Abandoning his split shield, two new hammers appeared in his hands, each the size of a great sword. He swung, sending geysers of sand with each missed strike. Felix danced among the hits, barely trying.

"You're Unbound. You should be stronger," Felix said.

"You don't know anything!"

Crackling explosions and opposing shrieks filled the air behind them, and Felix could tell Michael was distracted by the battle between their friends. Whatever Hallow was to him, it was easy for Felix to see Michael cared.

He caught the Minotaurs hammers and dug in his fingers, holding them in place. "We don't have to fight," Felix said.

Michael heaved on the weapons, but was unable to budge them from Felix's grip. "How are you so strong?"

"Do you have bad dreams, Michael?" Felix asked. "Dreams that feel real?"

Chthonic Tribute!

With a herculean effort, Felix pulled on his Skill. The hammers dissolved into smoke and were pulled into Felix's channels, burning him all the way.

Sovereign of Flesh!

Blinding agony seared across every nerve ending, but Felix forced the Skill to engage. Black scales erupted across Felix's neck and chest and arms, a midnight void in the dark chasm. His eyes blazed with blue fire.

"You..." Michael's eyes widened, and despite his bull face and grisly affect, he suddenly seemed incredibly young. "It's you."

"Like I said," Felix said, grimacing through the pain in his core. "I think we need to talk."