The Pinnacle Warrior

While they walked up to the Dungeon and as they stepped through the first floor, Astrid continued acclimating herself to the weight of the shield. It was maybe 8 centimeters shorter from top to bottom than her old tower shield, and the bottom came to a point instead of being squared, but even so, it was at least twice as heavy as her old shield. Now, it weighed at least 25 kilos and though Astrid could carry it without much trouble, she was already preparing herself to suffer from soreness once she was actively wielding it for hours on end. She’d experienced that in those early days from training with the shield all day. Even so, with Quick Recovery and her Fortitude, that soreness would quickly disappear.

The first and the second floor passed without incident, though they didn’t see, hear, or notice any signs of other delvers coming through. As such, the gnoll packs were growing somewhat in number, though it hadn’t been long since the abduction and murder of Markus‘s party. As such, there wasn’t anything worth being concerned about for their own safety. Not to mention their “guardian”.

As soon as they’d mentioned to Klara that they would be delving, she nodded, passed off some responsibilities to Anders, and rushed ahead of them to the Dungeon. She assured them that she would be on the same floor as them throughout their entire delving journey, though she wouldn’t interfere with any fights with monsters or their hunts themselves. Only if there were other, unnatural stalkers would she step in.

As they walked on the third floor, Astrid stepped forward and took the front line with her new shield held high. Much more than the tower shield that she’d adapted her stance and fighting style for, this was a shield meant for walking, delving, running, and generally being active. Despite its weight, it was more comfortable to hold in general than her old one due to its design. In fact, Astrid didn’t need to hold it quite as low to ensure she could see over it, which was nice. Despite any differences in form, her Bronze tiered Skill covered the shift without her noticing the difference.

Muti didn’t speak as she pulled Astrid’s attention forward and pointed in the direction of a pack. As they approached, Astrid realized about where the gnolls were at the same time that the monsters noticed them, and Muti faded into her stealth as Astrid and Skandr prepared themselves for the fight.

They were fortunate that it was only a pack of six without a shaman, just enough to warm themselves up. Astrid called the pack’s attention to herself as she shouted and rushed forward towards the four brawlers. Skandr had already prepared his spell, and as the monsters tried to circumvent Astrid‘s presence to get to the mage, his lightning fell from the sky and smashed into all six. There must have been something he’d changed about the spell that made the lightning bring the rangers, with their lower Fortitude, to their knees. Muti blurred from the nearby fields with a cackling cry of challenge, and she quickly dismembered one of the rangers while the other recovered. Astrid strode forward and, in a moment of excitement, smashed her shield’s edge into a twitching brawler’s chest.

She expected the blow to cripple the beast. She did not expect it to kill it. When the shield smashed into its chest, it was forced over so quickly that its chin caught the curving point of the top of the shield. Its throat and neck were pulverized, and it fell to the ground, the kill notification appearing nearly immediately thereafter. Astrid roared in victory as she threw herself at the next closest gnoll. Though they were mostly level 9, just like her, Astrid‘s attributes were higher than theirs, and they were slowed by Skandr’s spell. Her hammer crushed through their crossed arms, and they fell to her assault.

Muti took care of the remaining ranger as Astrid tore through the remaining brawlers without trouble though she looked back at her Lightningmage companion. As Skandr waved his hand and dismissed Astrid‘s concern, Astrid could see that the three of them had destroyed the six gnolls with very little effort. Muti turned back to Astrid with her eyebrows up, obviously curious about what feedback Astrid may have.

“Nothing I can really tell you now. I didn’t do a lot other than kill one with it.” Astrid looked at the forward edge of the shield as she said as much, blood and fur remaining caked alongside the shield. She dragged it idly through the field nearby and rolled her shoulders. “Are you ready to move on?”

Her party gathered together as they strode off to find their next monsters to hunt.

***

Klara 

Klara watched as the party ripped through their fourth pack of gnolls. These ones were led by a shaman, but it was obvious that the party had long since acclimated themselves to fighting a pack under these circumstances. Muti, her armor a patchwork of its previous form, remained focused on picking off the rangers, but that was fine, given how Astrid was taking more of the frontliner role in the party. 

Instead of focusing on killing as fast as she could, Astrid‘s focus was obviously on capturing as much attention as she possibly could, especially that of the shaman. As it lunged towards her again and again with its bone knife, she kept her shield in between her and its blows, the bone chipping against the iron until, with a roar, she allowed two brawlers to strike her on the back as she launched forward and bore the shaman to the ground.

Klara’s invisible eye above the party watched as Astrid dragged the edge of her shield through the gnoll’s throat, it’s blood painting the ground underneath them. The same two brawlers threw themselves on Astrid’s back, trying to bear her to the ground, but it was obvious that her Power attribute was high enough that they were incapable of doing so. Instead of collapsing, she covered most of her head with her shield as she threw one away and it rolled across the ground. Its companion continued to try to kill her, but she screamed as she moved her grip on her hammer to be just below its head. Then, with the heavy steel ingot in her fist, she smashed into the gnoll’s face twice. It tried to raise its guard, but her strike snapped its bones, and it threw its head up in pain.

Klara couldn’t hear what was happening, but she watched as, with the shaman dead, the party killed the other gnolls as the bloodlust aura faded. The Guild’s representative nodded appreciatively, recognizing that this was a party of three absolutely dismantling a pack of eight. If they ended up getting these other two delvers to join their party, even if only for a while, then… The Lightmage found herself, smiling, excited to see how they would delver further into the Dungeon. She allowed herself to get lost in the thoughts for these three’s future instead of allowing herself to continue to be lost in the rage regarding the actions taken against Markus‘s party.

The sight of the two young men’s bodies crumpled on the floor of the inn had Klara gritting her teeth hard enough that she heard the bone in her jaw creak. One was shot in the throat, the other poisoned. This wasn’t like what had happened to Skandr, that somebody slipped something into his water. That had been a mirror tranquilizer instead of a deadly poison. Both arrows, if that had been the method of application as she suspected, reeked of nightbane to her enhanced attributes. Though it was far from something strong enough to be deadly to someone in the Iron tier or above, the nightbane was deadly to Bronzes, especially non-physically focused delvers of this level.

As soon as the last of the gnolls was dead, Astrid checked with her two party members. She’d done this after every fight, and more and more, Klara was seeing the potential that the girl had. She could be a solid leader. At least, when it came to terms of battle command. Klara suspected that Astrid would never be much of a public face of a party, though.

For a moment, she allowed her mind to wander only the slightest bit as her eyes watched for a full kilometer in every direction from the party. These were the only delvers in this entire part of the Dungeon, and Klara would die before another saboteur managed to harm someone else in her jurisdiction. If only she could trust that there was anyone strong and driven enough to make sure that those same protections were extended to the town at the same time. All that she needed to do was wait another seven days, and then she could leave in-Dungeon operations regarding this insidious enemy while she continued to follow the trails she had found so far. There was nothing damning yet… But she was getting close.

And then, heads would roll.

***

“Three on your left!”

“I know, I’m fine!”

Astrid answered Skandr’s warning by raising her shield, loving and cursing the feeling of the burning in her shoulders and back as she did so. Every movement that she made was a testament to the growth and the power that she now wielded. Not a single sound other than the pleasant crunching of her enemies attacks smashing ineffectually against her shield answered her. Then, while they fought to get around the wall of mana-blessed iron, she would strike out with her hammer or the shield itself and deal death. She wasn’t able to fully let loose as a finisher just yet, but she was an absolute force, and a part of her wondered what kind of Class she would be able to evolve into.

Three pairs of fists crashed and crumpled against her hammer, pulling her from her musings as a pair of jaws came from behind and attempted to hamstring her. She struck down with the pointed bottom tip of her shield, sending it through the biting gnoll’s spine and killing it immediately. The other three lurched forward, two fists sneaking past the shield and striking her in the breast and stomach. With her fortitude, it hurt, but the wind wasn’t knocked from her and she brought her hammer sweeping through in a counterattack, breaking a wrist while driving the other attacker back.

Her shoulder was killing her, every movement of the shield and agony, but Astred didn’t care. She was the key to her party’s success right now. The brawlers simply couldn’t get through her defenses, and whenever there was a shaman there giving them the bloodlust aura, though their blows drove her back and forced her to be fully on the defensive, she was entirely unwounded. The few arrows and strikes that had managed to pierce her defenses were quickly healed or reduced to mere annoyances through her use of Quick Recovery. Yes, this was the form of Astrid Warrior, the daughter of Brighid Spellblade and Savraba Talismartist!

As Muti blazed past and hamstring the remaining two healthy gnolls, this battle was finished. The two melee fighters took out the gnolls with pitiless blows as Skandr kept an eye out, just in case.

“I know that we’ve talked about this. I know what your answer is going to be. But really, Astrid. You’d be one of the best frontliners that’s ever existed. If you just… You know, decided to do it.” Skandr raised both his hands in surrender before she even made her response, but his opinion was obvious, even without him saying as much.

“I’ve always said what I wanna be. It’s not gonna change now.”

“I know! I know! I’m just saying that I think it would probably be a pretty good option for you to do that. If you wanted.”

“There is honor in following a path that suits you.” Muti’s answer was surprising to both of her party members. She continued, “Victory is found not only in the defeat of your rivals, but in your own ability to remain undefeated. You lack some of the advantages that others have, but your skill is becoming more and more impressive with the weapons you wield.”

“This pack takes us to… How many, Skandr?” Astrid asked, deliberately changing the topic. She couldn’t wait to see how much better she could perform while delving once they had a true frontliner here to take the attention, pull the aggression, and allow her to fully focus on destroying every monster she could get her hands on.

“That’s the twelfth pack. 88 total. Five shamans, for an additional 50 copper in earnings, so in total, just under 8 and a half silver.”

Astrid pushed the visor of her helmet up and rubbed at her forehead. “So two days worth of interest…”

“Well, is the shield doing enough to justify it?” He retorted.

“Yeah, it’s doing enough to maybe give me another point in Power from holding the damn thing.” Astrid patted the shield lovingly as she said as much. She put it on her back as she set about taking the trophies from the gnoll corpses. Each of the three delvers now carried heavily blood stained sacks on their hips to fill with fangs and ears, and all three were doing their part.

“I do not understand why you complain about getting what you want.” Muti narrowed her eyes at Astrid as she said as much.

“It’s not that, it’s just really heavy!”

“Is this not something that assists you and your skill?”

“Not quite. I’m much more than twice as heavy as my armor and shield together, so it doesn’t give me any additional attributes.”

“You fight like a Warrior and you are a warrior. There is no reason to complain, it cheapens your achievements.”

Astrid allowed herself to smile at the compliment. It was probably the highest compliment that Muti could pay her, and she wanted the Barbarian to know she realized that. “Thank you, Muti.”

“Well, we’re still gonna be doing this for a while, won’t we? Do you need to take a little break?” Skandr asked, and Astrid‘s pride demanded that she snapped back, that, of course she didn’t need to take a rest, but instead, she grunted with a quick nod.

“I wouldn’t mind a little bit of a break, allow me to recover a little. If I push myself too hard, I might actually injure my shoulder.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” He nodded. “I probably should take a little time to recover my mana. I’m not close to running out, but I want to make sure that I am closer to full than I am to half, just in case something happens.”

As they sat there, resting, Muti continued to pay attention to their surroundings. After about 10 minutes, Astrid was feeling fine, but Skandr obviously wanted to take a little bit longer, and there was no reason to tell him no just quite yet.

The Barbarian perked up, and Astrid heard her sniff deeply several times. Then, with a surprised look on her face, she called out, “I smell something familiar.”