Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 61 - Acting

Mason

“Where the heck did these even come from?!” Mason shouted as he shot another Magic Missile and missed.

“I have no idea. I’ve never seen anything like them before,” Mayry shouted back, trying to knock one out of the air with a strong gust of wind.

Though they had been pretty chilled out while waiting for Mason to regain his clones’ memories, their guard was still up, but they hadn’t expected a fight. Mason had been practising with his Mana Control, and slowly he was getting the hang of making more complicated constructions when Mayry had spotted something high in the sky that was getting bigger fast.

It turned out that a group of winged, half-bird, half-women-looking Monsters had been passing by and had decided that they just had to come and say hello.

Monster – Level 31 Harpy – Ferocious and violent, hell hath no fury like an angry bird woman. Usually found near the tops of mountains these semi sapient Monsters will attack anything they think might be weaker than them, lucky you.

Of course, they were above his level! Why the hell were they even here!? They weren’t anywhere close to the mountains as far as he knew.

The harpies had the upper bodies of women, but their faces were twisted with sharp beaks where their noses should be; their eyes were thin slits and were void of colour. Dark feathers covered their arms and heads while their legs were thin and bird-like, ending in talons. They attacked by shooting razor-sharp feathers from their wings and dive-bombing them with their razor-sharp talons.

For Monsters that were above his level, they didn’t seem very durable; when Mason or Mayry managed to hit one, even just a single attack was enough to kill them. Actually hittiing them was the hard part. They moved through the air like military attack pilots flying in complicated formations that they had hammered into their heads. For the harpies, it seemed effortless, as if it was all instinctual. If they hadn’t been attacking, Mason would have thought it looked awesome. It was hard to tell how many there were as they moved so fast, but Mason guessed about 20.

A harpie dive-bombed Mayry, but a conjured gust of wind managed to redirect it enough for Mayry to jump out of the way and set it on fire as it change directions before it hit the ground. Air had always been the trickiest element for her to manipulate, but since Mason had given her the Ring of the Elements, it had become significantly easier. Even still, the Harpies were just too used to navigating changing wind currents for her powers to throw them off by much. She had several deep cuts and even more of the feathers lodged in her.

Mason was only faring slightly better; his wide variety of ways to attack let him mix it up and surprise the harpies, but even then he was battered and bruised, just as much as Mayry.

“I hate to say it, but I really hope my clone dies soon, some extra power would really be helpful right now.”

He could recall his clone, but he had no way of knowing what he was doing and didn’t want to mess anything up.

Clone Mason

Clone Mason had ripped the sheets off of the bed and laid it out in the middle of the floor. He was putting all the books and everything else he could find into the middle. He needed to get out of there quickly, preferably without dying. Aiden’s journals were bound to contain tons of important information, and he didn’t want to leave them behind.

A faint footstep from behind him made him freeze.

Turning slowly, he saw Aiden standing there. His face was pale, drained of colour, looking like he was about to face down a dragon.

“E-e-elder?” he whispered uncertainly.

Clone Mason stayed quiet and didn’t dare move. He had a choice to make; he could attack, but being a clone meant he was effectively closer to Level 13 than he was to Aiden’s level of 27, meaning he didn’t stand a chance. He could still kill himself and risk Aiden getting away before the original Mason found a way down here. His last option was incredibly stupid and had very little chance of working.

In the deepest, most authoritative voice he could muster, he said, “Aiden.” He hadn’t thought it possible but Aiden’s face got paler and the poor man looked like he was going to wet himself. Clone Mason had no idea what he was doing but decided to wing it. “Why do you hide here, did you think we would not find you?”

He sank to his knees, “Please, spare me. I tried to keep the girl alive, but she kept running off. I know who killed her! I can show you! Please, don’t send me to the pits.”

After pausing for dramatic effect, in which he enjoyed watching the man who had kidnapped Mayry squirm, he asked, “The man who killed Gael, what do you know of him?”

His eyes widened as if he was surprised he was still alive. “I don’t know which faction he’s with, Gael wouldn’t tell me. I know his name is Mason, and he travels with a woman, Mayry.”

“What else.” Mason snapped, really getting into the character, maybe he should give up this whole saving the universe thing and be an actor?

Aiden found his voice a little, becoming slightly more confident, as he said, “He’s gained power fast; he fought Gael a few weeks ago and barely survived, but now he claims he killed her. Last I saw, he was nearing my own level.”

Deciding he needed to wrap this up and find a way out, Clone Mason asked, “Who else have you told of him?”

“No One?” he said hesitantly, seeming confused by the question.

Last question, then he would get the hell out of there. “Do you know where any other ‘Others’ are?”

Head snapped up, stands up cautiously. “I don… Err… Others?…” The look on his face slowly changed from fear to confusion to realisation until it settled on rage. His face was red; he stood up and held out a hand towards the clone and demanded. “Who are you really?! How did you get in here?!” A pulse was emitted from his hand that caused Clone Mason to start feeling dizzy.

Ah dammit. He was an idiot. Of course, ‘The Other’s’ didn’t call themselves ‘The Other’s’. He pushed his luck too far. Oh well, it had been fun while it had lasted.

Fighting the sudden fatigue that was creeping up on him, Clone Mason, still invisible, slit his own throat and an instant later was gone.

Aiden, seeing none of this, withdrew a sword and started waving it wildly through the air, all the while shouting insults and threats at empty air.

Mason

With just one Harpie left to deal with, both Mason and Mayry are covered in deep scratches, bruises and dirt. The Harpies talons are somehow able to cut through even their Basilisk armour with ease, something neither of them had experiencd before.

The last Harpie is the by far the largest, but after killing the others the duo had fallen into a rhythm. Mayry would distract with blasts of fire and air, drawing the attention of the bird Monsters and while they were’t paying attention to him Mason would teleport mid air and attack their flank.

They tried this method a few times on the last harpie, but as well as being the biggest, it was apparently much smarter than the others to boot. It had some way of detecting Mason every time he teleported behind her.

It mostly ignored Mayry and concentrated its attacks on Mason while either tanking or dodging Mary’s elemental attacks.

Mayry, was starting to run low on energy, so her attack started coming less often, meaning it was now mostly between Mason and the Bird woman.

He was shocked when it opened, and it squawked out actual words, “You killed my children! Needed food! Mountains not safe. You will feed other children!”

The Harpie didn't give me a chance to reply, instead, she flew away. At first Mason thought she was trying to run for it, but when he could almost no longer see her, she turned and flew as fast as she could at him. Mason was ready and braced himself, he would wait until the last second and teleport out of the way, if he was fast enough, he could then send a barrage of Magic missiles at her and finally finish it.

She got closer and closer; Mason prepared to teleport when he was hit with a sudden wave of dizziness; he felt memories of his clones start rushing back into his head. He had just enough time to think what terrible timing his clone’s return had been before the bird woman slammed into him, Talon piercing deeply into his chest.

There was a wave of immense heat and then the smell of burning chicken. the smell made him hungry and then made him feel sick.

Mayry stood above him, trying to pull the Harpie off of him. He screamed in pain as the talons were ripped out. she summoned a potion to his hand, but lacked the strength to put it to his mouth. he check on his HP bar showed that he was very low. Mayry unstoppered the bottle and poured it into his mouth. he relaxed as he saw his health stop decreasing and slowly start to increase.

“Does this mean we’re even now?” Mayry asked.

After he felt his lungs had been sufficiently knitted back together, he protested, “No way! Remember the trolls?”

“Remember what? When you were getting the crap kicked out of you until I stepped in?” She replied smugly.

“Oi! I told you I was just about to make my move!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah”, Mayry Laughed. “Are you okay?”

Coughing up a little leftover blood, he spat on the ground and replied, “Yep, I’m just great! Though we need to get down that hole now.”

He gave her a very quick run down of Clone Mason’s memories and explained what he wanted to do. Now that they knew what was at the bottom of the hole he wasn't too bothered about jumping in, it would probably still hurt like hell, but he knew it wouldn't kill him, especially if he used the wall to slow down his momentum. But first he ushered Mayry into the Trunk.

Once she was inside, he took out his Drake Tooth Dagger, which had thankfully returned when his clone had and jumped into the hole. Holding the trunk in one arm, he stabbed into the wall with the dagger, which slowed him down enough that he had time to skim through his notifications.

*DING*

Notification 1/3

You have slain – Beast – Level 31 Harpie x 11.

You have received 3410 XP.

You have slain – Beast – Level 40 Harpie.

You have received 400 XP.

Notification 2/3

You have received partial experience from party members’ kills.

Mayry killed Level 31 Harpie X 8 - You receive 1100 XP.

Notification 3/3

Level up

Stat points allocated.

Only a single level?! The amount of experience needed to level was rising ridiculously fast! In a few levels, he would need to single-handedly destroy armies to progress or… kill some ‘Others’.

With no time to spend any of his stats, he saved them after he gave Aiden the beat down if he hadn’t already legged it.

With the dagger the only thing slowing his fall, the time it took to get to the bottom was drastically reduced. By the time he got to the metal part of the wall, only a few minutes had passed. Not even the Drake Tooth Dagger would cut through the metal, so he again let himself drop. He hit the ground hard, but the impact only took about 10% of his HP.

He looked around for any sign of Aiden, but all he saw was a glowing red rune that hadn’t been there before. Doubting it was anything good, he raised his hand to shoot some mana at it, but nothing happened.

*DING*

You have triggered an advanced Rune array and have been inflicted with Vulnerable.

Vulnerable.

Effect: Chaos Abilities are suppressed until you leave the area affected by the Rune array.

Well, that wasn't great.