The Runesmith

“Go go go!”

“I’m going, holy fuck stop collapsing the corridors Wayland!”

The whole party of adventurers was running towards what was supposed to be the exit towards the pier. In the back was Roland who with each step was releasing a jolt of magical energy that continued to shoot out thick pillars of earth to block the path behind them.

“What did you see back there, Wayland?”

“Now is not the time, just keep running.”

Orson commented again while running a bit in front of the panicked Runesmith. No one from the party was able to see what came out of that hidden wall but they believed in their current party leader's intuition and started running.

‘I didn’t expect them to be able to fool my radar but it does make sense, how else would they be able to hide their cult down there?’

The reason that Roland was running was linked to his detection device. The moment half of that wall slid open many red dots started appearing on the indicator. Yet this was not the scary part, besides the red ones he could see a different color that indicated a person belonging to the races together with the red ones.

It was clear that an actual Abyssal Cult member was together with a bunch of strong monsters which would complicate things. The monsters were strong in their own right but they lacked intelligence. Their attacks were easy to read as they would just toss themselves at the first person they saw. They gained some intelligence as they evolved but their movements were still mostly basic and locked to their cardinal instincts.

Yet with the appearance of a tamer or a handler the creatures would become ferocious weapons. The flying worm that was ramming into the costly Solarian ship was an example of such a use. Its might could compete with state-of-the-art magical technology that only a powerful faction like the sun church could afford.

‘Maybe if we are lucky whoever was controlling those monsters would let us be and focus on more important things?’

There was a small chance that whoever was behind those monsters would not see them as a large threat but it wouldn’t be so. After the creatures entered the corridors they were now showing up on the radar. The cultists clearly had something to confuse his detection device along with the scouting classes. If they were able to keep themselves hidden from tier 3 thieves then his little runic radar would certainly not be able to pierce through the veil.

“Shit, the entrance be closed thar best be somethin'...Did those bastards break the openin' tool? How are we supposed t' open it now?”

Finally, they arrived at the end of the tunnel yet what awaited them was another wall. Isabela was the first one to notice the hole to the side where the opening mechanism would normally be. She had gone through this part and seen other thieves activating it but now there was nothing there to press.

“Grisalde…”

“I’m on it.”

While looking behind himself to check on the pillars that were blocking the way Roland called out to Grisalde. The large woman didn’t need a direct order as she grabbed her heavy axe with both of her hands. Her muscles started contracting forcing her physique to become even more chiseled than before.

The axe collided with the hard wall but instead of it going through it only produced some cracks. This was not just a simple wall, it was reinforced by the thieves guild to make it hard for anyone unwelcome to descend into their tunnels. Even though Grisalde was a high level gold rank adventurers she would not be able to get through there with only one swing.

“Let me halp ye witht dat lassie.”

Dalrak decided to help out by bashing the wall with his tower shield to produce more cracks. Perhaps if they had a proper sledgehammer they would have been able to get it down in a shorter timeframe but without them, it would take a minute.

“Something is coming… I can hear their voices.”

Senna could tell that a bunch of monsters were arriving from behind them. The rock pillars that Roland produced were hastily created and could only slow them down slightly. To Senna’s surprise when the groans of the monsters got louder they were dampened by some kind of explosion.

This was another surprise that Roland had left for their pursuers. While one leg was used to raise earth up to block the path his other was leaving behind trap spells. They had a similar way of working to his mine scrolls but at a diminished rate. Their biggest drawback was that the mana would dissipate rapidly but for this encounter, they were the perfect mana mines.

“The explosions aren’t stopping them?”

Roland was actually surprised by the fact that their enemies were still continuing with their chase. He expected the tunnels to collapse on top of the monsters after they passed through them to block their approach. But when looking at the ceiling he understood that it wasn’t easy to make this place crumble. Whoever created this tunnel was a master at their craft, bringing down the ceiling would require a much bigger blast than the tier 2 explosive spell that he created while running away.

“Can you get through the door?”

“Fuck, I’m trying… some shit left a metal grate inside this damn rock…”

Now this was troublesome, he could see the rocky wall crumbling in various places but not going down. Even Grisalde who could probably generate more physical power than he could not break through it. Her weapon was the one that was becoming bent out of shape after colliding with the metallic reinforcement this wall was created around.

‘There is not time…’

“Everyone move away from the wall and cover your faces, I’ll break through it with a spell.”

While it might have been possible to bust through that wall by his party members there just wasn’t enough time. The explosive trap spells were being constantly set off but the red dots on his radar continued to push towards their location. It was clear that these creatures would arrive here shortly and they needed to get outside promptly.

When the other adventurers saw Roland take out a glistering gem to place it on his chest they knew what he was about to do. Without questioning him they all jumped to the sides to give enough room for the beam that was coming. This confused the three pirate-like women that needed to be pulled behind Darlak’s tower shield for safety.

Just like in the village his armor started glowing with the highest concentration being focused on the chest area. The runes had been repaired beforehand which would allow him to fire this beam of concentrated energy at the highest output.

‘I can’t use up all of my mana, the wall is already partially broken…’

This time around the situation was not as dire. He wasn’t against a tier 3 monster that could regenerate itself constantly. The only thing before him was a wall that was reinforced with what looked to be regular steel. Grisalde’s axe that wasn’t of the utmost quality was already able to bend it out of shape, what he needed to do now is aim at the weak spot and finish it.

“Shiver me timbers!”

After hearing Isabela’s surprised tone when producing a sentence that he only expected to hear in pirate movies the beam went off. It traveled at a rapid pace and quickly connected with the middle of the wall. The whole place was instantly lit up in red in the same color as the gem that he inserted. It took a few moments but the beam started to quickly melt through the wall before producing a loud bang.

Everyone covered themselves up to protect their faces from any shrapnel. On the other side of this wall, a large red dent started pushing out before forcing the wall to explode. Most of the produced debris was tossed into the room that was outside while the people on the inside received minor cuts and slight burns due to the heat.

Not long after the explosion, the group burst through the created opening with Dalrak in the front with his shield raised. He was followed by an angry-looking barbarian and three coughing women that were swearing all over the place.

“Shit, fuck 'n shit.”

“Don’t stop, it’s not over yet.”

Right behind them, Senna appeared with Orson following and Roland being the last one. Arcs of blue light were still firing off his chest making it look like he was being electrocuted. Even after sacrificing a big chunk of mana that was giving him a headache he was able to keep focus thanks to his recent upgrade to his pain threshold.

‘Maybe I put a bit too much into it… luckily the runes haven’t been degraded…’

The way forward was now clear but this was not yet over. He felt tired but there was no time to rest, even with a bit of a migraine he injected more mana into his armor to increase his own agility. Even though he was all the way in the back this allowed him to quickly catch up to his party members.

Now the only thing to do was find the ship and get out of this city. His glorious plan of safely traversing through the thieves guild tunnels had been partially successful but it also put them all in a tough spot. If for some reason they couldn’t get to the ship or it had left then their only hope would be to contend with the monsters in the city. Leaving outside through a secret tunnel would be impossible now.

“What is this damn smell?”

Orson wanted to hold his nose as he burst through the door. What he saw inside was a lot of fish products that were giving off a strong smell. Everyone else was also glancing around with Isabela pointing with her sword in one direction.

“Stop lookin' around like idiots, the exit be this way.”

Where all of them came out was at a fishmonger’s abode. Various fish were here and were at various stages of being preserved. Some were in ice, while others were dried or preserved in salt. After the stress of running away, some of the people here started getting hungry but soon they awoke to the reality of the situation as a strange deep growl escaped from within the opening they blasted open.

When they looked in the direction the sound was coming from they saw their party leader’s glowing suit of armor. It was in the process of being enveloped by dark leathery tentacles very similar to the ones of the monsters they all saw in the small village.

Roland was in trouble, even though he activated his agility boost he had been caught by the pursuing monster. He didn’t turn around but when he was about to collapse the exit behind him a tendril shot out from within the darkness and coiled itself around his leg. Even though he was quick with his sword to slice it apart, more of them appeared in a flash.

“Wayland!”

The people from the group could see him struggling to free himself, before they could help him they were stunned by the strange scream of the monster holding on to him. The ball of tentacles and eyes finally revealed itself as it started pushing through the opening in the door.

“Shit, this thing looks like the one from the village…”

Roland didn’t need to use his identification skill to confirm the monster's type. It was very similar to the one he previously faced but it wasn’t quite the same. When comparing it to the one the woman from the golden order slew this one wasn’t as fearsome. Even now he was somewhat able to resist the pull of these tentacles which would be impossible against the tier 3 being he faced before.

“It’s fine!”

He called out while moving a hand that was not being coiled around. From his spatial satchel, he pulled out a certain vial with a sun symbol on it. After quickly popping the small cork with his thumb he placed it inside of his palm. There it was surrounded by magically produced water.

‘Common, open it up.’

Considering his situation a normal person would be shivering in fright. Yet thanks to some of his skills he was able to keep calm under all this pressure. The monstrosity with many eyes and a giant mouth was slowly wiggling out of the exit that was blasted open. Suddenly the moment he was waiting for occurred as it opened that toothy mouth to release another deep shout.

Without losing a beat he fired off the orb of water into that gaping mouth. The effect wasn’t instantaneous but soon enough he could feel the grip on his limbs weakening to the point of him being able to get himself free.

“What did you do?”

“It doesn’t matter, just run and leave it there, it's not the only one.”

Roland quickly shouted at the party members to make them aware of the problem at hand. They didn’t need him to repeat himself as they all rushed behind Isabela that had already bolted up towards the only exit. While they were rushing up the wooden stairs to safety they could hear the strange painful groans of the monster that for some reason was unable to give chase after swallowing the orb of water.

The spell was a simple ‘Aqua ball’ that any water mage would be able to produce without much trouble. The vial that was inserted into it contained the holy elixir that Roland had bought earlier from the church. He had seen the effects of divine energy on the Abyssal parasites before it was natural for even the larger ones to have the same weakness. It was similar to a regular human being poisoned, the creature had swallowed this divine concoction that would burn it up from the inside.

“Took ye long enough, get on!”

When on the outside to the surprise of the whole party the ship captain had not run off on her own. Instead, she and her sisters were on top of a carriage with two horses pulling it. It was large enough for all eight of them to get on it with a few members like Roland taking up a spot on the outside.

This carriage had seats in the front for the coachman while also having a spot for a servant to sit in the back. Roland was the only person that was capable of using long-range spells so to make a getaway he decided to take it up. Senna remained on top while Isabela had the rains in her hands.

“Hey, a lot of those ships have left, are you sure we’ll make it?”

Orson asked while peeking his head out of the carriage. Inside were the other two sisters along with Dalrak. None of them were optimistic about getting out of here through the sea but Isabela was confident enough so they were willing to give it a shot.

“Fear not, me lads would ne'er leave without thar cap'n.”

After everyone was together the carriage took off towards the docks. There was a long straight road going down with not that many obstacles in the way besides a few tentacle-slinging spine eaters. The bigger problem was behind them, the moment they got the carriage in motion a loud explosion-like sound erupted behind them.

This was caused by the injured monster that burst forth after them. It was not alone as another similar-sized creature appeared right next to it. The one that Roland used his elixir on was in a bad state, its form was more gelatinous than usual as it was decomposing before them. Even though this one was not the problem, the plethora of other strange monsters behind it certainly was.

It was a truly horrific sight to behold. Some of the larger tentacle monsters pushed the smaller ones out of the way while madly rushing behind the moving carriage with people in it. The streets were deserted as most people had sought shelter closer to the church or the noble district. This caused all the creatures in the area to hyper-focus on the group of eight heading towards the pier where a ship was waiting for them.

Luckily for everyone they had a mobile turret in the form of Roland with them. With his magic runic rod still operational he readied himself to release some of the more damaging spells toward the pursuing monsters. Yet this wasn’t all as from the sides more enemies approached, would the small group of people make it to the docks before every monster in the area got ahold of themselves, or would they fall before their final destination…