Mythica, book 1, Chapter 25+26.

Chapter 25.

It was easy to follow the progress of the new group of verminkin from where Sabine was perched near the top of the cavern. They were moving toward the central outpost and spreading out to encircle one of the outlying work parties chopping at the giant mushrooms. Using the stalagmites as cover, the verminkin closed in on the work party unnoticed. Once the group of around twenty workers and four guards were encircled, the mounted verminkin walked into view.

A trio of guards reacted quickly to the sight of the four mounted verminkin. It was too far for Sabine to hear, but she was sure there were shrieks of terror as two of the three guards dropped to their knees and lifted their necks in submission to the war party. The final guard brandished his spear and waved to the workers to join him in battle. A half dozen workers joined him, using their crude hatchets as weapons. The others dropped their tools and knelt as the two guards had done.

The rest of the war party emerged from hiding and charged the small group of defenders, a few of them peeling off to take the submissive workers prisoner. Once they saw the numbers arrayed against them, the defiant guard and his half-dozen workers ran for their lives. None escaped, and Sabine got a good look at what those beetle riders could do. One charged the hostile guard, or it seemed like a charge of sorts to Sabine.

The beetle’s pace was more like a slow jog than a charge, but just before it reached its target, the beetle surged forward and impaled the verminkin on its horn.  The verminkin riding the beetle, the largest of the verminkin Sabine had seen so far, seemed to enjoy prodding the impaled victim with his spear. The unfortunate verminkin guard was still squirming, but he couldn’t last long with a giant beetle horn through his gut.

With the last of the opposition crushed, the war party tied up their prisoners and led them back to their cave. The prisoners were also forced to carry the bodies of the fallen, while the war party pillaged whatever tools, weapons, and armor they could. As the war party reached their cave, more workers emerged, and along with the war party, they began interrogating their prisoners. Sabine wished she was closer so she could tell what they were saying, but she wasn’t willing to go into the main cavern just yet.

After a few minutes, a few of the prisoners were slaughtered. The surviving prisoners, having passed whatever loyalty test the war party had doled out, were cut free and welcomed into the group. A dozen workers, along with both guards, were added to the war party’s number.  They left their cave and moved further into the cavern and out of Sabine’s view.

Orren began to fidget and ask questions, but she shushed him and told him to head back into the passageway to write if he wanted to. Sabine wanted to see how long it took the large camps of verminkin to figure out something was amiss. About an hour later, a small group went to look for the missing party. When they spotted the bloodstains and broken tools, they ran back to the camp. From the large tent, several runners were sent out, heading toward the other two camps.

While the runners did their work, a small force gathered at the central tent. It was around a dozen of the larger verminkin guards and a score of armed workers. They waited, and eventually, a similarly sized force came from each of the other tents. They gathered their forces together and the leaders of each group argued and scuffled among themselves. One of the group leaders finally had enough and used his long snout to rip out the throat of a rival. The other group leader knelt and let the victor of the scuffle take his place as leader of the combined force.

Once at the site of the battle, a few of the workers began sniffing around, eventually picking up the trail leading to the small cave. Once there, the group took some time to figure out where the raiding party had headed. They pursued to the far end of the cavern and Sabine lost sight of them like she had done with the raiding party.

“So, what do we do now? It looks like a verminkin civil war is going on down there,” Orren said.

“It’s a little too chaotic for me to head down to the cavern floor just yet. We can keep watch from up here, at least until they send a relief party up to relieve the barricade guards,” Sabine said.

“Uh, Sabine, I think the relief party is here,” Orren said. He was right, a small group including one of the larger guards and four workers was starting to wind their way up the trail to where Sabine and Orren were perched.

“Follow me,” Sabine said, leading Orren back down the passage to the blockade. He helped her drag the bodies from their earlier fight behind the barricade where they wouldn’t be seen as the enemy approached.

“You target whoever’s in the lead with your crossbow, I’ll take the one in the back. Once you fire reload and wait in case one of them makes a run for it. Stop the runners, we don’t want a whole army of those things coming up here after us,” Sabine ordered.

She pulled her crossbow from her pack along with a quiver of bolts for the weapon. She preferred to be up close and personal with her foes, but there was a time when ranged fire was necessary. It didn’t hurt that she was more than skilled with just about any kind of ranged weapon.

They waited for the verminkin to approach, but the enemy didn’t appear to be in any kind of hurry. Eventually, she heard the verminkin’s shuffling footsteps near the passageway. The creatures were chattering quietly among themselves as they walked, oblivious to the danger. One of the workers was in the lead, which she left to Orren. She targeted the larger verminkin guard who was positioned in the middle of their little gaggle.

“Orren, take the shot, I’ll wait for you to fire,” Sabine whispered to Orren. He was behind the barricade and up against the wall of the passage, good cover and the angle would let him have a relatively clear field of fire. Sabine was in a similar position on the opposite side of the passage.

With a surprisingly quiet clack, Orren fired. Sabine didn’t wait to see the results and loosed her bolt on the guard who was standing there trying to figure out what happened. Her target started to back away when she fired, and instead of a headshot, her bolt hammered into the guard’s neck. He gurgled and squealed, dropping to the ground.

Sabine didn’t waste any time, she dropped her crossbow and pulled Reckoning off her hip. Her other hand slipped into the buckler’s handle and within a few seconds, she was armed and charging toward the surviving verminkin. The group looked terrified, and she could tell they would make a run for it any second. Orren was still reloading but Sabine believed she could slow them down with her Stagger ability.

Orren had killed his first target, with a well-placed shot in the rat man’s chest. The surviving three of the group started to squeal and turn when they saw Sabine approaching. She pushed harder, legs pumping as she tried to close the distance. Stagger would work out to fifteen feet, and she was still out of range. As she thought about the ability and pushed mana into her weapon, Sabine noticed something strange. In her vision, she could see a dim outline of where the cone would land.

It was easy to line up the remaining three targets with the ability helping with her aim. The only problem was that the verminkin at the rear of the group was fast, and she wasn’t going to catch him in the area of effect. With a grunt, Sabine slammed the flail into the ground, watching as a wave of mana-infused energy rolled forward, hitting two of the verminkin and causing them to do exactly what the ability was called, they staggered.

Sabine swung her flail at the two stumbling verminkin, the weapon caving in the chest of one and crushing the skull of the other. She tried to chase after the third and was almost hit by Orren’s next shot. Orren’s bolt flew barely an inch over her shoulder and toward the fleeing target, but the verminkin were cunning, and this one was bobbing side to side occasionally to throw off Orren’s aim. The bold clattered to the ground harmlessly and it was up to Sabine to stop the final survivor.

“Make sure the others are dead, then join back up. I’m going to run this guy down,” Sabine shouted. She had to hand it to the verminkin worker, he was fast. Not only fast, but his clawed feet found traction on the carved stone passageway much easier than Sabine’s leather boots.

Sabine couldn’t quite close the distance, and when the verminkin worker exited the passageway and started down the trail to the cavern floor, Sabine fell behind. The little rat man knew this area, and she was out of her element. Anywhere else, she could have just outlasted the verminkin’s stamina and eventually overtaken him.

It was going to raise the alarm. Even though the nearest verminkin outpost had already sent a force to track down the rebels, there were more than enough verminkin remaining in camp to give Sabine a hard time of it. Staying by the entrance wasn’t an option, the enemy could very well be on them before Rawhead remembered to check the grate in the cellar to see if they were ready to return.

“I’m sorry Sabine, I missed the shot,” Orren said, catching up to her on the trail.

“No, it wasn’t a mistake, and if anything, it’s my fault. I should have delayed our trip until I had time to train you properly,” Sabine said, desperately trying to come up with a plan.

“We’ll have company soon and can’t stay here. Let’s head to the cavern floor and find a place to hide,” Sabine said.

The pair of them rushed their way to the canyon floor and then moved away from where the nearest verminkin outpost was located. She had no compass or point of reference other than the passageway she entered from, so Sabine used that to keep track of where she was. The ledge and winding path were easy enough to find as long as they didn’t venture too deep into a stand of tree-sized mushrooms.

The closest verminkin outpost was the rightmost when viewed from the entry passageway. To avoid it, Sabine hugged the right wall of the cavern, hoping to avoid notice when the enemy inevitably sent a force to deal with her. Sabine pushed Orren down when she heard the click of verminkin claws on the hard floor of the cavern. They were behind a stalagmite that gave them some concealment from a causal glance, but it wasn’t big enough to hide them completely.

It looked like the verminkin had sent a pair of guards and a dozen workers to deal with Sabine. She was tempted to engage them, figuring they could down the more powerful guards with their first crossbow volley and with some help from Orren, Sabine felt that she could handle a dozen of the relatively weak verminkin workers.

“Don’t move tasty humans, we spot-find you after you fight-kill new leader’s minions. Gnawtooth will speak with you once these traitors are dealt with,” A voice sounded from behind them.

Sabine reached for her weapon, only to have a spear poke her in the back. Risking a look behind, she could see that a score of larger verminkin with spears had crept up on her. Sabine cursed under her breath. She should have noticed them or their life force before they got this close.

“We should probably do what they say, Sabine, they’re not attacking us, at least not yet,” Orren suggested.

“Get that spear away or I’ll tear you apart with my bare hands,” Sabine threatened the verminkin that had poked her. She figured these were simple creatures that would react better to a show of strength rather than complete surrender. Her attention shifted from the spear-wielders to the force that had been sent from the outpost to deal with her.

A swarm of poorly armed workers from this Gnawtooth’s warband emerged from all sides and attacked the party searching for Sabine. The quartet of beetle riders also made their appearance, lending a hand when the enemy threatened to break out of their trap. It was a short and bloody affair that ended with Gnawtooth’s overwhelming numbers wiping out their rivals. The defeated force extracted a toll on Gnawtooth’s workers, killing at least ten before the last of their opponents were defeated.

With the fight over, the four beetle riders moved toward Sabine and Orren. The largest of the four licked his lips, drooling at the two like they were a holiday feast waiting to be devoured.

Chapter 26.

“Where you come from?” The drooling verminkin demanded. He was better armed and armored than the rest, wearing a well-crafted set of studded leather and a steel helmet on his head. Given the gear and the fact that this verminkin’s teeth had been chiseled and sharpened into sharp points, Sabine assumed she was dealing with the leader.

“Gnawtooth?” Sabine asked.

“You can call me master, human meat, but yes, that is what my people call me,” Gnawtooth replied.

“I call no one master, least of all you,” Sabine snapped back, her old refusal to bow to authority had kicked in and despite the danger, she wasn’t going to grovel before some overgrown rat.

“You disrespect the great and mighty Gnawtooth, you will fill the cookpot tonight,” Gnawtooth threatened.

“No I won’t, and if you try, I’ll make sure that you’re the first one I kill. We are not some simple humans lost in the Darkrealm, we are powerful warriors with abilities you cannot fathom,” Sabine said, pushing mana across her weapons and body until it gave off a glow that was visible to the assembled verminkin. Gnawtooth moved his beetle back a few paces, putting more of his worker fodder in between him and Sabine.

“Why you here?” Gnawtooth asked.

“I’m here for treasure, and given that you haven’t attacked me yet, I’d say you’re here to hire me for something. Maybe you need me to help you take out this new leader your people keep talking about,” Sabine said.

“Ha, I like this human, she’s bold-brave. We’ll eat her last and kill-slay her with no pain. You’re right human, we fight new leader that is destroying tribe and if you help us kill-slay him, we can reward you,” Gnawtooth offered.

“What exactly are you offering? My services don’t come cheap,” Sabine said.

“I can give you shiny bits, like these,” Gnawtooth said, reaching his hand out and snapping his fingers.

Another warrior deposited a heavy pouch in his hand and Gnawtooth tossed it to Sabine. She untied the pouch and peeked inside. It was full of coins, mostly copper but a good amount of silver, and even what looked like a few small, brightly colored gems that could be valuable or just fancy glass. These verminkin were like rats and they might value something bright and pretty over something that was valuable to a human.

“Not enough, this is just some copper, I can gather this much on my own in a few hours. Give me a better offer,” Sabine said, pushing the pouch into her storage area before Gnawtooth could demand it back. A quick peek at her coin totals showed the bag had contained a hundred and fifty copper, twenty silver, one small ruby, and seven polished pieces of worthless glass.

“You insult Gnawtooth? Bah, you probably weak anyway, only killed a handful of workers and a guard. Maybe we better kill-eat you and be done with it,” Gnawtooth said. Sabine figured he wasn’t planning to do that, at least not yet, given he and his war party didn’t move.

“Want a test? How about a wager? I bet I can take on one of your big guys there on their beetle and five workers by myself. If I win, you give me another bag like this, and I’ll hear your offer to deal with this new leader. If you win, well, I guess I’m just lunch at that point,” Sabine responded.

“Deal, Bitterbite will fight you along with these five,” Gnawtooth said, pointing to one of the mounted verminkin and five random workers who looked none too happy at being selected. The rest of the war party was excited and happy to watch the fight, especially since they didn’t think they were in any danger.

Space cleared around the group, and as the verminkin moved back, Sabine began to push mana into Reckoning, empowering a Stagger. Once it was at its maximum charge, Sabine shifted focus to her feet. An empowered kick should be more than enough to finish off a verminkin worker. The verminkin got themselves sorted before she could empower her feet, but if she could deal with this lot quickly, it might be better to not waste any more mana than was necessary.

Sabine didn’t wait for anyone to tell her to go, once the other verminkin and Orren had backed away, she charged. The five workers opposing her tried to back away, and Bitterbite, the one riding the beetle, urged his mount forward where it gored one of the reluctant workers. Sabine slammed her flail into the ground activating Stagger. The wave of force pushed out, causing the four surviving workers to collapse on the ground, but the beetle weathered the effect easily enough. Multiple legs made avoiding these types of attacks much easier.

Bitterbite grunted a command to his mount which skittered its way toward Sabine. It wasn’t nearly as fast as a horse, and she had little trouble dodging the charge. As the creature passed, Sabine slashed into one of the beetle’s legs with the edge of her buckler. The hit barely scratched the surface of the giant insect’s exoskeleton, but when the mana released, it shattered the limb and left the beetle stumbling as it tried to recover its balance.

Pushing past the beetle rider, Sabine began to rain blows down on the workers who were trying to regain their feet. One after another, they fell to her attacks, and by the time she finished off the last one, Bitterbite had his mount back under control. The beetle now had an awkward gait and was struggling to close the distance with Sabine.

Pushing the maximum amount of mana that she could into Reckoning, Sabine waited for the beetle to close in. Instead of dodging past or rolling under the monster-sized insect, Sabine met it head-on. At full arm extension, and with the handle and chain of her flail taken into account, the weapon had a surprising reach. Timing her attack was second nature to Sabine, something she had done hundreds of times in her old life, and something she reviewed hundreds of thousands of times while in the void after her death.

The head of the flail met the beetle’s head, and Reckoning won the contest, and the head of the creature exploded into a cloud of gore and pieces of chitin. Bitterbite, who was in the process of thrusting his spear at Sabine, was hurled over the front of his mount. Landing face down on the hard cavern floor with a meaty slap, Bitterbite never recovered his wits before an unenhanced blow from Sabine’s weapon ended his life.

“I’ll take that second bag of treasure now, thank you,” Sabine said with confidence.

She had put on quite the display, but in doing so, she had depleted her mana reserves more than she would have liked to. Her mana was down to 68% but it was ticking up nicely. She could see threads of dark mana floating away from her victims and into her core. There wasn’t any of the light mana that she had gained from the goddess down here in the Darkrealm, but it seemed that as long as she had enough total mana, she was good to go.

“You fight-kill good human. You now help me kill the usurper and take control of tribe,” Gnawtooth said as the tossed another bag of loot over to Sabine. Placing the new bag into her inventory, Sabine could see that it was about as good as the last one, except for all the “gems” were just cut glass this time.

“What do we get if we help you?” Sabine asked.

“I give more shiny things and let you leave here without my people stab-killing you,” Gnawtooth offered.

Sabine considered her options. To reject his offer was going to lead to a fight with the entire war party. On the other hand, Sabine was sure that Gnawtooth would turn on her once her usefulness had ended. She was going to have to play this right if she wanted to get herself and Orren out alive. As things stood, Gnawtooth had a numerically weaker force, when compared to this new leader. Even with Sabine’s help, he was likely to lose his little play for leadership unless he knew something she didn’t.

“Do you have the numbers to take on this new leader?” Sabine asked.

“We are better fighters than the weak ones that follow the new leader, but don’t worry, we go now to get more. Come on, you agree to fight for more shiny things, and we go to the work camp and get more warriors and workers to help us,” Gnawtooth said.

“Agreed, three more bags when the new leader is defeated, and I’ll help you at this camp if you need it,” Sabine agreed.

Gnawtooth nodded his head rapidly in response before barking orders out for his force to move. Sabine and Orren were placed in the center of the war party, her new employer wisely decided to surround his newest employee with loyal forces. At least their position gave Sabine a chance to take stock of Gnawtooth’s forces.

Including Gnawtooth, three beetle riders were remaining, and while Sabine didn’t have any trouble defeating one, the new leader’s verminkin were likely to be easily overpowered by the insectile cavalry. Just over a score of warriors were present but Sabine saw several of the warriors leave to scout the path before she started counting. Thirty-five workers were left of Gnawtooth’s force. All told, the size of Gnawtooth’s “army” was likely only a fraction of the size of the enemy force.

“Sabine, do you think they speak common?” Orren asked.

“A few maybe, but if you whisper, we should be able to speak without them knowing,” Sabine replied.

“Is this course of action wise? I don’t want to second guess you, but getting into the middle of verminkin civil war seems like just about the craziest thing we can do. To make matters worse, we seem to be signed up on the side that’s losing,” Orren said with more than a little panic creeping into his voice.

“It’s not like we can just say goodbye and leave, and I don’t think I can take Gnawtooth’s army out on my own. We’ll play along for the time being and try to work it so these two forces keep killing each other. Every verminkin that falls makes our task a bit easier. For now, keep quiet and follow my lead. Remember, these things respect strength, so don’t show any concern or weakness,” Sabine said.

As they approached the nearest base, it appeared that Gnawtooth’s claims were valid enough. They ran into one additional work party working on gathering patches of small mushrooms and edible lichen. It was only ten workers and a single guard, but they dropped to their knees and offered their throats as soon as they saw Gnawtooth’s war party.

Instead of heading directly toward the base, Gnawtooth walked his forces around the perimeter, gathering up three more work parties. The last work party fought against Gnawtooth, but once the dust was settled, Gnawtooth had grown his army a fair bit. Sabine had participated in the fight, using both her crossbow and flail to good effect. Her actions must have caught Gnessos’ eye, and after they cleared the last group of hostile verminkin, Sabine finally gained another rank of the god’s favor.

Sabine Giroux.

Revenant, Rank 3.

Gnessos’ Favor: 47/1500.

Mana: 87%.

Traits:

1. Call of the Grave. This ability has improved. You can now choose which type of grave you are looking for. Options include consecrated ground, unmarked mass graves, and single graves.

2. Eyes of Undeath. This ability has improved, and the range has increased. You may now sense mana when used by others.

3. Soulbound. A portion of your power has been siphoned off and given to your advisor Hamish. Speak with Hamish to discover if he has gained any new abilities or knowledge due to this infusion of power. Normally, you can only summon Hamish once every 24 hours. When you attain a new rank, this timer is reset.

4. Enhanced body. By attaining rank 3, your revenant body has improved. These improvements are a percentage increase over what the body possessed when it was still alive.

Strength: +35%.

Durability: +20%

5. Translator of the Fallen. Your connection to the realm of the dead allows you access to many things. One of these things is the ability to learn the language of any soul that has passed through Gnessos’ hands before.

Abilities:

1. Manipulate Mana. Your mana capacity has increased and mana efficiency for all abilities has improved by 23%.

2. Rapid Healing. This ability has improved and you can now select which area of your body receives priority healing.

3. Stagger. The cone of effect for this ability has increased to a 16-foot cone.

4. Rage of the Revenant. When things are most dire, you may choose to summon the rage-filled spirit of the body you now wear. The ability will flood you with power and generate mana at a surprising rate. This power you are granted is not without its drawbacks, as the forces empowering you also will tear you apart. While under the effects of Rage of the Revenant, you will merely be a passenger in your body, unable to affect it in any way.

The increased mana generation will last for only 60 seconds, but the ongoing damage from your rage-induced actions will continue until the target of your rage is defeated. Rage of the Revenant can only be activated once every 6 days and only when you’re facing imminent destruction. Only one target can be selected for your rage, but you will target any opponents that get within range or try to prevent you from reaching your target. When your target is eliminated, your body will need time to recover and will be vulnerable to other foes for 1 minute.

Equipment:

1. Reckoning. Bound to the revenant that summons it, Reckoning cannot be used by any other. Should someone try to take the weapon from you, they will be immediately afflicted with a necrotic curse until they release the weapon. If lost or destroyed, Revenant will slowly reform in the land of the dead until it is ready for you to summon it once more.

This weapon will amplify any mana infused into it by 13%. Reckoning can create crushing and piercing damage, but more damage types may be unlocked as you gain Gnessos’ favor.

This weapon will grow in power as you do, but beware, such powerful devices often contain a will of their own.

2. Mask of False Life. When worn, this mask allows your undead form to take on a normal appearance, one that has already been selected for you. This item also grants the Rapid Healing ability. Should it be removed, that ability will also cease to function.