Rune Seeker

“You want to solo it?” Seena asked him flatly.

“Well, with Left and Right, of course,” Hiral said, and the doubles walked over to stand beside him like they’d been expecting it. Since they’d been in his head as he’d passed through the portal and started considering it, it was definitely like they’d been expecting it – they’d known.

“Is that a good…?” Seeyela started, then waved a hand. “You know what, it’s a D-Rank dungeon. You do you. We’ll watch.”

“The point was for Drahn to see that all of us could pull our weight,” Seena said slowly, though the look on her face said she was considering it.

“You will,” Hiral interrupted. “In the Endless Tunnels dungeon. We’ll still have to run that for him. And don’t tell me you won’t see you if you can burn the whole place down in one fell… fireball.”

“You were going to say ‘swoop’, weren’t you?” Yanily said. “But since we’re already in the bird dungeon…”

“I couldn’t come up with an ant-pun quick enough,” Hiral admitted with a shrug to the spearman. Then he turned back to Seena. “If you’re worried about me, you can keep an eye out in case things go wrong. They won’t, but…”

Seena chuckled. “Fine. Have it your way. The dungeon is yours to play with. Show us what you’ve got.”

“Thanks. Before that, though,” Hiral said and turned to Left. “Could you give us all Path of Butterflies?”

“Of course.” Left crouched down and put his hand to his left calf, solar energy pooling at his fingertips. Barely a second, and he pulled the hand away, the streamer of glowing smoke immediately erupting. From the burst, dozens of pink butterflies swarmed out and zipped underneath the party-members’ feet, leaving a pink glow behind.

Drahn, obviously untrusting of Hiral’s abilities, quick-stepped back to try to escape, but pink footprints followed his every move.

“What the hell is this?” he shouted.

“Check your buff notification,” Seeyela said calmly.

“The Path of Butterflies will let you walk on the air like it was ground,” Hiral explained, then stepped up to prove his point. Around the soles of his feet, pink butterflies zipped underneath to form a solid plane for his boot to land on. He followed the first step with a second, then a third, and finally a fourth, until it left him standing in the air almost five feet up, pink light glowing faintly underneath his boots.

“Does it do anything else?” Seeyela asked, walking up the air to join him, though for her, it looked more like walking up a slope than steps.

“No,” Hiral said. “It’s an S-Rank tattoo because it applies to more than just the Shaper who uses it, and because of its duration – hours. Also, compared to most flight tattoos, it’s much cheaper.”

“Why do we need this?” Yanily asked.

“So you can have the best seat in the house,” Hiral replied, turning and jogging up into the air. Climbing at a forty-five-degree angle, he moved hundreds of feet, then stopped when he had a better view of the surrounding dungeon. “This should be good.”

“Really does feel like we’re standing on the ground,” Seeyela said. “Can we… fall? What happens if we lose our balance?”

“The magic follows intent,” Hiral explained. “You can even sit if you like, as long as that’s what you want.”

“Drahn, you coming?” Yanily called back to the hunter slowly climbing after them. The man’s eyes kept going from his feet to the party ahead of him.

“Can you cancel this ability?” the tracker asked. “Make us fall?”

“No,” Hiral said. “Once it’s cast, it’s your buff. Only you can cancel it… though I wouldn’t suggest that at this height.”

“Great,” Seena said. “Now that you’ve got us here…”

A quick pulse of energy into his Interspatial Ring, and Hiral brought out a small picnic basket. “Wine, cheese, some crackers, and this great smoked meat I found. In case you get peckish while I’m gone.”

“I’m not sure if I should be impressed you prepared, or annoyed I have to share.”

“Who said I only have one basket?”

“Well played.” Seena took the basket.

“One thing!” Hiral said quickly. “The basket doesn’t have the Path of Butterflies. Don’t… drop it.”

Seena was halfway to putting it down when his words sunk in, and she quickly gripped the handle just a little bit tighter. “Is on my lap okay?”

“Should be fine,” Hiral said. “Now then… I’ll see you soon. I’m just going to go over there to get ready.”

“Why can’t you just get ready here?” Drahn asked at the same time Yanily spoke up.

“Emperor’s Greatsword?” the spearman asked.

“S-Rank weapon would almost be cheating,” Hiral said to his friend.

“S-Rank?” Drahn practically choked. “You have an S-Rank item?”

Hiral looked at the tracker. “I have several. Didn’t you get View when you got Party Interface from the Crawling Pits?”

“Yes, but your gear just comes up as question marks when I look at it,” Drahn said. “People can only View your gear if you let them. Obviously, you’re hiding something.”

Hiral looked at the others. “Can you View my gear?”

“Yeah…” Yanily said. “No problem. This is in the guide. It’s a trust thing.”

“I really have to get one of those,” Hiral mumbled. Then, to test, Hiral looked at Drahn’s bow – which the man had in one hand. Just like the tracker had said, all that came up was a series of question marks.

Huh. I guess that means nobody up on Fallen Reach would recognize what I was carrying. Explains why nobody was asking… I guess. Good to know.

“Something to figure out later,” Hiral said. “And, as for why I’m going over there, it’s because I have a tendency to explode. Left, Right, you guys ready?”

“Sure are,” Right said, cracking his knuckles and following Hiral until they were about thirty feet from the party. “What’s the plan?”

“Right, I want you to handle the Mid-Boss in the village,” Hiral said. “Probably a chief or shaman or something. Left, you’ve got whatever is at the lake. I’ll take the Roc Boss.”

“We’re splitting up?” Left asked, then nodded. “Shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Want us to deal with the trash as well as the Mid-Bosses?” Right asked.

“Won’t need to,” Hiral said. “I’ll take care of them first. I expect we’ll only have to actually fight three things, though fight might be an overstatement.”

“Now I’m getting curious about what you’re going to do too,” Right said, though most of his attention was on the village. “We’re ready, by the way.”

“Good, here we go.”

With that, Hiral activated Double Trouble and Eloquently Enraged+.

Double Trouble+: Double the cooldown on any ability to increase the effects by 100%.

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Note: Abilities with no cooldown are unaffected.

Note (2): Abilities can transcend traditional limits through the use of Double Trouble+.

Eloquently Enraged+: Increase all mental and physical attributes by 150% for 360 seconds (Cooldown: 60 minutes).

Note: After Eloquently Enraged+ fades, all mental and physical attributes are reduced by 25% for 180 seconds.

As soon as he activated the potent combination of abilities, solar energy and power literally exploded off him, forcing even his doubles to take a step back and lift their arms. The double-helix wrapping him through his Second-Skin of Ur’Thulleapt off so that a copy of it rotated around his limbs. Always moving, never slowing, around and around the script circled.

This time, it wasn’t just the script, either, copies of his runes glowed in the air around him as well, their very meaning creating an aura of authority under his control.

Another benefit of B-Rank?

Intuitively, he could feel how activating the runes or applying them to his abilities would be that much easier. That much more effective. Which was just perfect for what he had planned.

First things first – the trash Left had talked about.

Pulling on the power of his Runes of Expansion and Increase, Hiral funneled them through the Rune of Connection to enhance one of his other active abilities. It wasn’t one he’d used often, but it seemed just right for the current situation.

As an afterthought, he added in power from his Rune of Gravity, then unleashed the ability.

Intimidate (Active) – Your mere presence radiates how dangerous you are. Successfully Intimidated opponents will flee or suffer penalties for thirty seconds when fighting you.

A sphere of something exploded out of him, tearing through the air in all directions. It ripped across the village and the lake first, the effects immediate and apparent. Patrols stalking the village collapsed on the spot, the pressure of Hiral’s aura physically driving them to the ground. All along the lake, the surface of the water began to bubble like it was boiling, then flashes of silver seemed to flicker.

One fish, then two, twenty, a hundred flopped belly up as far as the eye could see. With every heartbeat, more of the aquatic creatures appeared, getting bigger and bigger. The first, the weakest, couldn’t have been more than a foot long, but they quickly grew as large as a hundred feet, with mouths big enough to swallow a person whole.

If they were conscious – which they weren’t.

As the rippling sphere continued for the mountain, the double-door of the largest building in the village slammed open. A hulking humanoid draped in a cloak of red and green feathers staggered out, one hand to his head.

“There’s our first Mid-Boss,” Right said.

“And that should be our second,” Left added, pointing towards a massive crab scuttling out of the lake. Like the human, it stumbled from side to side, as if drunk, its huge claws carving trenches in the wet sand as it went.

“Go get them,” Hiral said, crouching down while his eyes traced the sphere of Intimidation just as it reached the mountain. Without fanfare, the smaller Rocs circling the peak simply dropped out of the sky. One moment they were gliding imperiously, the next they were falling.

All but one – the giant Roc near the peak. Even it, however, didn’t appear completely unaffected. Wings that’d been confident and strong stuttered in the air like it’d been smacked in the head with an exceptionally large hammer.

Not far from the truth of what’s about to happen.

With the Roc dazed, Hiral pushed himself into a sprinter’s position, as if he were at a starting block. Then he began cycling Runes of Rejection and Increase into his feet and hands. But, unlike usual when he did this, he took the building power and wrapped it up in his Rune of Compression, pushing it down and holding it from erupting. Over and over, he built the power, then forced it back down into a more pure – potentially more volatile – state. In the palms of his hands and under his feet, pink butterflies swirled like they were trying to hold the top on a boiling pot.

Really might explode doing this…

To deal with air resistance and friction, he cycled his Runes of Unsealing, Sealing, Reduction, Separation, and Expansion. A sleeve of disconnectedness formed around him. Part of his mind marvelled at how easy it had become to weave multiple runes at the same time, creating complex effects simultaneously. And the buffs sure helped, with the presence of the external runes making the reality around him act like it wanted to be altered to his whims. Hiral shut those thoughts down for the time being, with Left and Right already halfway to their targets now, though, he couldn’t wait any longer.

Time to go.

WHOOOOOSH, Hiral launched like he’d been shot by a ballista, the air literally howling and tearing as he rocketed through it, though he felt none of it ensconced in his personal bubble. With so much force, he didn’t even need to add more pulses of Rejection to keep himself going, and instead focused entirely on the Boss quickly growing in his vision. The damn bird was big.

Which just meant he’d need something equally large to put it in the ground. Except, he’d launched himself too fast. His bubble of separation from the natural laws worked too well. He’d already closed most of the distance, and there was no way he’d be able to ready his plan in the time he had.

Unless he gave himself more time.

Without a second thought, Hiral streamed solar energy into his Runes of Time Dilation and Time Contraction. Immediately, the roaring wind at his hears silenced. The ground below stopped speeding past, and the massive Roc paused mid-flap. In the back of his head, the natural flow of time clawed against his hold over it, demanding to charge ahead normally, but he held it at bay. While it would quickly build in intensity and pressure, he had a few seconds before it became a problem. So, he went to work.

Arms out to his sides, he reached within himself and began directing his solar energy. In his left hand, Hiral spun the power of his Runes of Impact, Increase, and Separation. To his right hand went the Runes of Breaking, Expansion, and Energy. Reality shifted around his body, the external manifestations of his runes rewriting the laws of nature to catalyze his creations.

The raging masses of destruction in each hand fought to break his hold on them. To flail and annihilate anything they touched. Alone, each would probably be enough to end the Roc ahead of him, but Hiral wasn’t finished testing yet. He still had more paused time. Instead of letting the cores of devastation individually have their way, he grabbed hold of them with his Rune of Compression.

Pressing down with his will – and the power hinted at by his external runes – Hiral forged the unstable creations into palm-sized balls of power whirling within his hands. Even in paused time, the balls screamed as they spun, tearing at the air and leaving expanding rips in the sky on both sides of him.

Not… done… yet…

Leaning hard on the bonuses he was getting from his cooldowns and the control they were giving him, Hiral spun a line of Connection between the spheres in each hand. The thread snapped taut – the two spheres each becoming half of something greater – then he was out of time. Ahead of him, the Roc hung frozen thanks to his runes, but he let his grip on them go, and the normal flow of time clicked back into place.

The huge bird’s eyes hadn’t even followed his movement – it had no idea where he was – and as Hiral streaked for the center of its back, he swung his arms around in front of him. A split-second before he hit the Boss, his cupped hands came together, and his runic spheres combined.

When he’d fought his first Roc, he’d tried something similar, and it had proven effective, breaking bones and blasting the bird out of the sky. The second time he’d tried the same thing – against the giant Elite Roc that’d almost eaten Seena – the blast had washed harmlessly off the thing’s ability-resistant feathers.

The beast in front of him was clearly a step above even that giant Roc. Then again, so was his latest attempt at runic combination.

The moment the two spheres met, they exploded in size thanks to the Rune of Expansion. From the width of a grapefruit to nearly a hundred feet in diameter in the blink of an eye, the surprised Roc was bent backwards around the glowing sphere. At the same time, a nearly infinite number of razor-like blades of Separationsevered muscle and tendon, while pure Breaking dissolved tissue, and Impact powdered bone.

Red and green feathers – stronger than steel – broke and parted beneath the unrelenting force as they filled the sky from the collision. Then, they were all that was left – the huge sphere bursting from Hiral’s hands to carry the Roc’s torn body towards its mountainous home below.

Where Hiral expected the chaotic orb to smash the Roc against the hard stone of the mountain and call it a day, it instead persisted to grind its way through the Roc. Spinning and tearing, with the Roc pressed against the unyielding stone, the orb practically disintegrated the creature in front of it.

And, yet, it still wasn’t done. The solid rockface that looked as if it’d stood against countless millennia of weather and hardship parted before the destructive force of Hiral’s attack. Separation sliced the bonds holding the rock together, while Breaking turned the smaller pieces straight to dust. Within just a few blinks of his eyes, the orb had burrowed its way down into the heart of the mountain.

Well, that wasn’t quite what I was…

The tether of Connection he’d formed between the two spheres snapped in his mind, and all hell broke loose.

There was a flash of light deep within the tunnel carved out by the sphere, and Hiral had just enough time to wonder if he’d overdone things before the entire mountain vanished within an expanding dome of energy that shook the entire dungeon.