Runeblade

B2 Chapter 247: Bonefields, pt. 1

Their walk from Deadacre was a long one—filled with cold wind and frigid rain. The waxed canvas cloaks they had to keep off the weather helped, but it didn’t make the late autumn climate pleasant.

Thankfully, with their stats and gear, unpleasant was all it was. A mild discomfort at most.

If one thing worked in their favour, it was that the local creatures were as beaten down by the weather as they were. Favouring their dens and nooks instead of ranging widely across the plains and forests that surrounded Deadacre. _{𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝙤𝙢}

Combined with their growing strength, they faced far less aggression than they otherwise would have—most beasts willing to let them pass as soon as it became obvious they had no interest in harassing them, or challenging them for their territory.

That didn’t mean there were no fights during their journey. More than once they had spotted a creature of a size and strength that could prove troublesome for the unprepared, or beasts that had grown temperamental under the ministrations of the rising mana. Easy enough for a team of their calibre to deal with, but not necessarily a hamlet, or a caravan.

Spiders the size of dogs, nesting in the trees over a road. A rare direbear, making its den a bare league from a small village. Those were the standouts. Nothing that broached level sixty, but enough of a threat to the unprepared that it felt reckless to leave them.

Small breaks from the monotony, but enough for a few skill levels, and to get the blood pumping.

After three weeks of travel, they arrived at the river that they had spotted on the map, curling its way through meadows and cutting through clustered trees. The weather was thankfully mild, a pallid overcast that muted the colours of the world around them—with only the faintest hint of a drizzle.

It was a good enough spot to try and bag a few deer, or something similar that they could use as bait—the Bone-fields were a bare day’s walk at a casual pace to their east.

Crouched on a gentle rise, Kaius swept his gaze through the trees, leaning on his Truesight to cut through the murky shadows cast from the clouds above. He’d spotted a few larger creatures drinking from the waters on their approach, but nothing since they were close enough to actually strike.

So he sat, and waited—his team clustered around him.

After a quarter hour, it became obvious that the boredom grew too much for Porkchop. He shifted, looking over to Kaius and Ianmus.

“What do we do if Rieker is right? If we’re attacked before we are ready?”

Kaius paused, staring off into the woods as he digested the sudden question. It was something that had sat at the back of his mind, but every time he considered it, he came up at a loss.

Unless it was some common bandits, underestimating them, he really couldn’t see such a confrontation going well. Anyone who had the resources to watch them closely enough to discover their strength, would have the people on hand to deal with it.

He sighed, shrugging. “I wish I had a better answer than ‘fight like a demon, and try to survive’, but I don’t.”

A shallow chuff left Porkchop’s throat, though Kaius could feel the undercurrent of worry that simmered beneath it.

“It’s still probably worth thinking about,” Ianmus replied, leaning on his staff. “For all we can hope that Rieker is wrong, or that we get lucky, we should still act like it’s a certainty.”

“Fine,” Kaius replied. He knew Ianmus was right, but every time he started to think about it, he tied his brain up in knots, and his chest felt like it had a heavy weight dropped on it.

“Most likely contenders? Aside from some ballsy thugs, or the obvious danger of the Onyx Temple, that is.” he continued.

Those two represented two extremes of the threat—one they would deal with easily, and the other one they had no chance against unless they got lucky and were underestimated.

“Local nobility?” Porkchop asked. “I know you always mentioned that they were a large risk.”

Ianmus shook his head. “There aren’t any—at least not with any significant presence. We’d have to get supremely unlucky for the blue-blooded to have noticed us.”

Kaius nodded along to his teammates' words—it was a defining feature of the Frontier. With how low value the lands were, no dynasty of any reasonable ability bothered to exert their influence here directly. Sure, agents and businesses had ties to a dozen dozen powers across central Vaastivar, but there were no strongholds.

Even the governors of Deadacre and Grandbrook barely counted as powers in the truest sense. If anyone of real means took an interest in the cities, their rulers would find themselves ousted before the week was out.

Kaius doubted that the governour himself would have any interest. While they might envy their abilities, they would be far more likely to try to extort the guild for concessions in return for their secrecy—they relied on it far too much to risk damaging their relationship, and Kaius doubted they had the resources to pull off an abduction directly under Rieker’s nose.

He paused, finding himself absent of the simmering tension that normally came with thinking about the danger they were in. It seemed working through it with his team really had helped.

“It could end up being a team of Delvers—corrupt ones. That guy from our first visit did mention that not everyone in the guild was a ray of sunshine.” Kaius said, thinking back on the many, many figures that would have seen them interacting so closely with Ro. Surely that would arouse some suspicions.

Porkchop snorted, flexing his claws so that they dug into the dirt.

“I don’t know about you, but I'm not all that concerned about a delving team from Deadacre. You’ve seen them—unless they have a secret team of tier two Silvers hanging around, we’ll wipe the floor with them.” his brother said confidently, a low growl in the back of his throat.

That was…true. While most of Deadacre’s delvers were putting in the work and growing like wildfire in the current climate, none of them were exactly the cream of the crop. The city was remote, relatively poor, and—from what Ianmus had told him—embarrassingly small. Anyone of any exceptional skill tended to leave for greener pastures quickly.

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“I hate to say it, but what if it is the Onyx Temple?” Ianmus said, his voice low.

“Then we go back to my original plan, fighting like demons.” Kaius replied softly.

He hadn’t sat idle in the months since he had discovered the nature of his enemy—he’d done his research.

They were too competent, too resourceful, and too strong for them to handle. Every report he’d seen implied that they watched, waited, and then struck with overwhelming force.

The only saving grace they had is that they’d be taken alive—a small one, considering what would likely happen under the Temple’s care.

Potential imprisonment made Kaius feel all the more dour, made worse by the gray clouds and drizzle that seemed to be a reflection of his mood. Still, if they were captured alive, there would be opportunities to struggle.

He wasn’t one to simply consign himself to woe and death when there was the chance of seizing his fate in his own hands.

“I suppose if it does happen, I should keep some of my spells in reserve—Slip Step and a Hateful Nail might be all I need to get us out of a cell and steal a set of keys.” Kaius mused.

Seemingly unconvinced, Ianmus frowned. “There are ways of dealing with magic—formations, and artefacts that will stop us from calling on our Stamina and Mana.”

Kaius shrugged. He was familiar with the formations in question—they were a staple for any jail or holding cell, and Father had covered them extensively—if broadly. The theoretical applications of runecraft had been far more important than the specifics of their construction.

There was one thing he did know—they worked by binding the resources into the centre of the person subjected to their effects.

“Glyphbinding should still work—they’re famously limited. If they worked by preventing the flow of mana at all, they’d invariably disrupt their own function.” he replied.

Porkchop chuffed back, as Ianmus’s eyes widened in realisation.

“Then we have an extra set of fangs, hiding in the bushes.”

Ianmus nodded. “It’s not much…but it’s better than nothing. What of the rest of us, then?”

“I think, no matter how diligent they are, they will underestimate us—me and Porkchop especially. Just stay alert, keep strong, and be ready to act as soon as I do. If we are captured I have no doubt we’ll have to suffer through a month or two of care before their guard drops enough for us to have an opportunity.” Kaius said, returning his attention to the tree line.

“Besides, they’d need at least high Steel to handle us—potentially even fresh Silver’s, Porkchop and I are gaining more than double the stats of someone with a Rare class. The increased stat gain of the second tier will offset that, but I doubt anyone that strong is cheap enough to be assigned simple guard duty. If we’re quick, and quiet, we might be able to fight our way out.” he finished.

Ianmus sighed. “So in the end, it comes down to hopes, if’s, and maybe’s.”

“Always has, Ianmus. It always has.” Kaius said, shooting him a quick grin.

Afterall, it wasn’t like they could reduce their risks more than they already were. There were few missions suitable to them any closer to the city, and even if there were they would risk being seen with how many delvers were crawling the countryside.

Before he could continue their chat a flicker of movement drew his attention back to the river. Two deer, nervously making their way to the water.

“There!” Kaius hissed, pointing his finger to their far off forms. “Our bait—you sure you’re up for taking them out from this far?”

“Of course I am—you’ve quite literally watched me hit targets twice as small from double the distance.” Ianmus replied, mildly affronted at having his abilities questioned.

“I suppose I best ready myself, then.” Porkchop said, digging his claws into the earth as he prepared to chase down their prey if they survived Ianmus’s attack.

Kaius grinned, seeing the amber glow of solar mana start to coalesce around his friend’s staff.

After this, they’d be able to move on to the Bonefields—and the fight he’d been hungering after for weeks.

…

Trekking onwards, with two deer slung over Porkchop’s back, the Bonefields revealed themselves as an unending dense stack of monoliths, masquerading as a mesa. Red spires of rock, sandwiched close together with weathered trails and fissures worming their way through their maze-like clusters.

At first, Kaius had wondered why he could see no sign of the legendary remains that had given the region its name. That is, until the cloud cover above broke, and a ray of sun revealed a wall of stark white, nestled deep inside of the monoliths.

He thought it was stone at first—too broad, and too large for his mind to process what he was seeing. Watching it with curiosity, Kaius realised his mistake as they kept moving, and his changing angle revealed the distinctive shape of a rib.

It stopped him in his tracks.

It was…impossible—gargantuan and huge. Of course, everything they had read had said that the skeletons in the fields were large—but he’d assumed it would be something the size of an irontusk, maybe a little larger.

With the size of the rib, the creature it had come from would have been apocalyptic in scale. Even the drake they had felled would have been a small beast compared to whatever leviathans had roamed these spires in aeons past.

“Fascinating, isn’t it.” Ianmus said, after coming to see what had halted him.

“I…You knew they would be this big?” Kaius replied.

“Only rumours—it’s one of only a handful of oddities in the Frontier, and with its proximity to Deadacre, it is rather famous amongst the more adventurous scholars. Only as a curiosity though—there’s nothing of true value in its depths.” Ianmus said.

“Do you think they were dragons?” they were the only things that he could conceive of being that large.

Porkchop snorted at his words. “Dragons aren’t the only things that are titanic—I've even seen a few beings that big myself at the outskirts of the Deep Sea—and they are far more common in the deep reaches, from what I've heard. Besides, dragons are solitary, so it wouldn’t make much sense for it to be a whole graveyard of them.”

Kaius kept staring at the bones, until his companions urged him on—unable to free himself of the thoughts of mountainous creatures walking the lands. There was a certain level of awe that he couldn’t rid himself of—a curiosity about the beasts that had left such a mark.

As they continued walking, Kaius found himself catching small glimpses of similar remains every few minutes, hidden deep in the craggy red stone. Not all were of the same scale as that first rib, but none of them were small. Large enough, at least, that he questioned how they could have ended up in the tight passageways between the rocks.

Most were too small to pass through, but there were plenty of paths that they could have walked through two abreast. Even those may as well have been hair-thin fissures to the original inhabitants of the fields.

With the map they had procured, it only took them another hour to find the natural road that would lead them to their chosen battle ground. Wide enough that they could comfortably walk in a line, it wove its way through the stone—a natural highway that would take them to the plateau where they would make their stand.

Kaius picked up his pace—the imminent promise of battle overwhelming his curiosity as his blood grew heated.

It promised to be a significant one—even with the dramatically rising experience costs of each level, so many high level beasts promised to push them far along their path to safety.

He just hoped it hadn’t come too late.