The Pinnacle Warrior

“That’s a damn optimistic way of putting it.” A familiar voice answered Astrid’s joking question. She couldn’t immediately place it, but when he continued to speak, she pretty quickly understood and forced herself to put on an unbothered face.

“See, this is the problem with you Bronze tiers. You just don’t get that you don’t know anything yet. ‘Sure, let’s just throw ourselves forward into a pack of four times our number, supported by irregulars.’ Thinking that—no, not thinking at all is how you end up dying like a bunch of idiots.”

“Christophe.“ Astrid gritted her teeth as she greeted him. “I know we’re pretty close to your camp, but why are you here?”

“I’m a Steel.“ He said with derision. “One of the things that I do is make sure that little rookies like you don’t die because you’re prideful. You’re welcome. And I can hear the graceless fighting of you bunch from kilometers away.”

“I’m not sure why I would be at all grateful for you coming over and insulting us while doing nothing to help us, and I’m pretty sure that whatever your explanation is, I still won’t care. Now, we’re gonna go to your camp, drop off your supplies, and be on our way.”

Astrid was pretty proud of how she’d managed to keep her temper and made the simple explanation, but Christophe refused to just leave it. Different from when he was extolling his own virtues, now he was insulting her in her party and she couldn’t manage to just tune him out. After just a couple seconds, she was already contemplating violence.

“See, you don’t have a clue about what you’re doing. I mean, you, redheaded Warrior whatever, you’re at least almost proficient with your weapon, but you’re frankly an embarrassment even so. Getting injured like that from a bunch of gnolls? Disgraceful. The Barbarian? Did OK with the rangers, but that’s just because they were stupid. There was nothing worthwhile in what she did, but that’s to be expected of a Barbarian. And you, Mister no weapons? You’re a disgrace. You really should just stop delving today, because—“ 

Astrid didn’t think any further as she swung her fist at the Ranger’s head. Despite her anger, she knew it was going to miss, and he ducked away with a patronizing tsk tsk tsk. “You’re too weak to do anything. I’m giving you good advice, no need to be so angry because you’re weak. After all, any piece of advice you can get from me is worth hours of experience just struggling like the bunch of stupid Bronzes you already are. You don’t even know what you don’t know. Didn’t your Guild representative say that you should look for opportunities to learn from us? Do you think she’s as stupid as you are or something?”

“Astrid, leave off. You already know there’s nothing you can do.” Felix said, though his face was turning red from his held back anger. Muti, surprisingly, was completely silent and just took the verbal lashing. Fortunately, before any comeuppance could come Astrid’s way from her stupid reaction, one of the Warpriest brothers came and made himself known as he pushed through the surrounding fields.

“Get back in the Dungeon proper.” He didn’t say anything more, and his tone wasn’t particularly impassioned, but Christophe turned and did exactly what his companion had said without further complaint, though he sneered at the other delvers as he left. For the first time, Astrid felt like she understood what her mother had said sometimes when she was younger when other kids would insult her when there was a group on their side and she was alone, but not when they were alone. Brighid said that some people were cowards of the most despicable degree, meanspirited and bullies when there was nobody around to stop them or who could stand up to them, but meekly obedient the moment anyone even approaching their level appeared.

“I’m sorry. We didn’t know there would be anybody around right now, and he was assigned to scout in the branch. How long will you five be here?” The man, either Johannes or Leonardo, said.

“We’re planning on spending two days here on the fourth floor.“ Astrid replied with as much courtesy as she could manage. “If we’re going to have to deal with that, we might just go up to the third floor after delving for the rest of today, though.”

“That won’t be necessary. Tristan will keep him in line and none of us will let him back into the branch until we are positive you’ve left.”

After making that assurance, the man nodded and turned to walk towards, ostensibly, their camp. After thinking for a second, Astrid shrugged, looked at her companions, and then followed in the direction where the two men had gone. Inside her head, she repeated whatever she could think of to try to keep herself from losing her temper again. As she walked forward, Skandr stepped beside her and patted her shoulder a couple times. Without saying a word, she forced a grin that was more like a grimace and nodded at him. The party said nothing as they came close to the Silver Wind’s camp. Despite herself, she was impressed.

Two tents were set up, with five chairs set out in front of the tents. In one of the seats, the woman, Astrid couldn’t remember her name, sat with a disgusted look on her face. In front of another stood Tristan, his eyebrows furrowed together as he spoke quietly with Christophe. As soon as he saw movement approaching, he pointed off in a direction, not far behind the tents. As the Ranger shrugged in a display of his faked lack of care, he stepped back. As Astrid looked, she realized that she could see the access point to the Dungeon proper behind the tent. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, given that that was what they’ve been assigned to guard and monitor. While she thought about it, Christophe disappeared through the faintly glimmering outline of the portal with just a couple quick steps.

“I’m going to kill him.“ Tristan whispered to his companion, obviously not thinking that Astrid and her party would be able to hear. She decided to say nothing to disabuse him of that notion, instead gesturing for Felix to step forward. He did so, shrugging off the backpack and holding it out in one hand.

“We have a delivery for you. Not sure exactly what’s in it, but it should all be in good condition, as it wasn’t affected by the fights we were in.” As Astrid explained as much, she started to turn to walk away.

“Hey, thank you.“ Tristan jogged forward while he spoke. “I’m sorry, Christophe has just started letting things go to his head and thinking he’s more important than he is. I’m going to make sure he doesn’t get any other opportunities to interact with you for the rest of your time down here on this delve. Leonardo tells me that you’re planning to be here on the fourth floor for a couple days?“

“Yes.“ Astrid couldn’t bring herself to be more open with the dark-haired man.

“Sounds good. If you’re nearby, we can have conversations at your leisure, or you can camp on our site, if you’d like. There’s plenty of space where you can be kept safe.”

“While that’s kind of you to offer,” Astrid turned him down, “we’re here in order to experience our own delve. This delivery is just the first part of the job, and after that we’re going to focus on making sure we get the experience we need regarding spending several days in the Dungeon.” She said nothing about the party’s plans to see if they could push Muti and Skandr to level 11 and pass their next watersheds. Astrid herself would be just a bit under 1,000 experience away from the next level herself once they left after killing about 800 gnolls, as far as the party guessed.

“Sounds like a good plan.“ Tristan nodded as he took the backpack from Felix‘s hand. “We shouldn’t be killing too many of the gnolls on the floor, Ursula‘s set up a couple curses around here that’re keeping their attention off of us. That way, we won’t be impeding your own hunts. You should be able to hunt to your hearts’ desire, and then some. With your permission, we’ll help you out if we hear anything bad happening nearby?”

Astrid ground her jaw against the pride that demanded that she shoot his offer down. Instead, she took a deep breath and nodded in thanks. “I don’t think that we’ll manage to get ourselves back in that same situation, but if it does occur, yes, we’d appreciate being helped out.”

“Sounds good. Finally, Leo and Johannes both use hammers and shields, and Ursula might have some advice for you magically inclined, if that’s something you’re interested in. Of course, not trying to impose, but I would like to show a little bit of our sincerity in these apologies. Honestly, four out of the five of us are pretty easy to get along with, even if the brothers are pretty quiet.”

Leonardo, stood nearby, shrugged a little bit. He wore heavy armor with thick pauldrons, each of which nearly poked him in the ear as he did the motion. When he wasn’t wearing armor, Astrid hadn’t noticed, but the man’s neck wasn’t particularly long and his shoulders were so thick that, with his armor on, he didn’t look to have a neck at all. Even so, with no helmet covering his face, it was a kind visage.

“Well, Mr. Leader over here is telling you things I can do for you, but don’t take his word as gospel. I’m willing to try to help any of you who use magic, of course, but curses are totally different from everything else I’ve come in contact with.“ Ursula stood as she said as much, extending a hand to shake with Astrid. She took it, noting the calloused fingers but soft palm that her father shared. Astrid didn’t know anything about how a Cursificer did their work, but obviously, it took some measure of fine, detailed work with her hands.

“Forgive me for asking, but have you ever spoken with a Talismartist? I wonder if those two Classes are similar…” Astrid asked before she put any more thought into it.

“I really don’t know a whole lot about them.” Ursula shrugged. “Happy to learn, though, since maybe it’ll be something I can apply to my own magic as I get towards my next Class evolution in a year or two.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.… Your fingers feel like my dad‘s, and he’s a Talismartist. Anyways, we’re gonna get back to delving, unless any of you four need a break.“ Astrid turned to look at her party when she said as much, Muti being the first to shake her head in denial. Of course she wanted to keep going. Felix rolled his shoulders and checked his bracers, then seemed to be ready. Skandr was fine, but Benedict sighed as he looked back and forth.

“I shouldn’t have hoped one of you would say you wanted to break. My mana’s pretty low, below half. I should get some rest, make sure that I’m closer to top shape before we run into another pack like that one. If we’re not ready, I won’t be able to do much.”

“You probably shouldn’t have—”

“We appreciate you wanting to help,“ Astrid cut Tristan off from whatever advice he was going to give, “but we don’t want it. We are just Bronze tiers and you know so much more than we do, but our sights are set past where you are now. No need to keep on the journey if we’re just going to be spoiled every step of the way, right?“

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have been quite so easy to make everything so easy for you in response to my party member generally making an ass out of himself.” Tristan bowed his head. 

“Thanks. So, with that offer still standing, is it OK if we just take a short break here after we go collect the trophies and materials from the monsters we just hunted? Just long enough for Benedict to get back to full.”

“Of course.“ Tristan smiled as he nodded.

***

Tristan

This girl was a spitfire. More “eyes on the prize” than he was back in the day, but he could appreciate it. Pretty deliberately turning him down like that? Good sign. That said, he did feel bad for them because of Christophe. The moron was getting worse, more and more insufferable as he gained levels, and that he’d managed to, somehow, qualify for a prestige Class made him more convinced he was going to be the best, even if he wasn’t the only one in the party to have done so. Every day, he seemed to have more trouble fitting through doors, given the size of that stupid head.

“I like her.” Ursula said with a little smile.

“Yeah, she’s a pretty good leader.” Tristan agreed.

“No, not her. The Barbarian. She kept her head down, but she was looking at everything. Aware, always looking for threats. More protective than I expected, but given how she must have had to run away from her homeland and now is probably hated by four out of five people she meets, it’s not surprising that she’s latched onto a party that accepts her.”

“Oh.” Tristan chuckled a little bit, realizing that he hadn’t really paid attention to the other four members of the party. They were good enough to be down here during the surge in irregulars, but he hadn’t learned any of their names. That girl, Astrid, was either purposefully or subconsciously putting herself in front of the rest to make sure that she could protect them. Or maybe just to take the glory and credit, but that wasn’t what he thought she was doing. Well, her intentions didn’t really matter. Instead of worrying too much about it, he turned to Leo.

“Anything you wanna add?”

He shook his head. That was no surprise, and the Warpriest settled back into his chair. With Johannes, those Iron delvers, and Christophe all just on the other side of the entrance to the Dungeon proper, there really wasn’t much for them to do. As such, each of the members of the Silver Wind were taking the opportunity to rest however they wanted.

“I’m not too busy…” Ursula raised her eyebrows at Tristan.

“They’re gonna be back here in like five minutes. That’s far from enough time”

She pursed her lips and turned to Leo. “I’m not busy…”

“But you are being dumb.” The Warpriest didn’t give any further answer, and Ursula sighed dramatically as she settled back into her camp stool with a pout. Tristan, clearing his mind, refocused on wrapping the thick silk around his forearms and knuckles. They probably wouldn’t be necessary any time soon, but in case they were, he’d be ready.

Because if somebody came to kidnap delvers, he’d start cracking skulls. Blood washed out pretty easy.

***

Once they harvested all of the materials from the 19 corpses, the party returned to the Silver Wind’s camp. The three people they left behind were just where they’d been sitting when they left, but there was something different in the air. A faint sense of awkwardness, or unhappiness, whatever it was, Astrid couldn’t place it. Instead of acknowledging it, though, she just turned to Benedict and said, “Let us know when you’re ready to go.“

Then, Astrid again allowed the pain in her legs to come forward to the forefront of her thought process. Despite how she’d been angry at Christophe, he was right in saying that she’d been far from at her peak in that fight. Every time she was surrounded, she ended up getting hurt like this, and she just didn’t know what to do about that. She’d lost her cool in this last fight, and though that was what had allowed her to kill the shaman and a couple other of the brawlers, it also ended up with her just letting two gnolls savage her hamstrings. That wasn’t what she wanted to do, and despite the stories told of Barbarian Berserkers and all they could do, she didn’t want to be someone who lost all their sense when they were fighting. Instead, she would like to maybe get some magical skills, and continue on this path that she was carving already.

It hadn’t been nearly an hour, and she didn’t want to keep dealing with the pain of her injured legs, but Astrid also wasn’t about to ask Benedict to use more of his mana to heal her and then extend the waiting period. Instead, she could just wait until Quick Recovery came off of cooldown and she could use it again. She stood and moved deliberately, slowly, with her eyes closed, thinking and going through different motions of what she might do when she was surrounded. Blunt Weapons Mastery and Shield Wielding both worked to inform her movements, but even so, it was no mystery to tell that she was far from knowing what exactly to do the next time she was surrounded and under attack.

“Can I heal you?” Leonardo’s question shook Astrid from her reverie, and she opened her eyes and looked at him. He didn’t repeat his question, but he did maintain eye contact with her.

“Yeah, sure.” Astrid replied, as she stood still. Leonardo didn’t move, though he did mutter what sounded like a prayer. As soon as he finished the prayer, a light descended on Astrid from above, and she felt her whole body recover, from the shredded muscles all the way to mere soreness. After just a few short moments, she was back to peak health. For the first time in a while, she rolled her shoulders back and took a deep breath. Before doing anything else, Leonardo asked another question.

“Do you want to learn?”

Again, Astrid had to struggle against the pride that lived inside of her, but instead of turning him down because of her hurt feelings from what Christophe had said, she nodded once. Then, without saying anything more, she settled into position with her hammer and shield at the ready. Would he try to spar with her? Beat her down? Show her a kata?

He didn’t say anything, but Leonardo shifted very slightly the way he had his shield braced, where it wouldn’t tire him out as quickly as holding it just a centimeter further from his body. The way that his body lined up with his knees, everything about him was how she held herself in battle, just perfected. Astrid mirrored the stance, but he narrowed his eyes a little.

“You’re too tall. Wider legs.”

Astrid understood what he was saying and shifted her stance to be wider, adjusting for her much higher center of gravity. Leonardo came forward and gave her a quick shove in the hip, then in the knee, and then in the back, each time making her adjust the way she stood a little bit, making her just that much more steady and ready to fight. Even so, he wasn’t satisfied with mere standing, and he, again without speaking, continued to guide her through different movements to make sure that she would be able to react to multiple enemies at once. Leonardo demonstrated the ways to twist and to shift his position with quicker, smaller steps, making sure that his shield covered much more than just half of his body. The way he held his arm allowed him to cover over two thirds of his body without having to pay any special attention. Astrid understood, and her Bronze tiered Skill took over in a quick moment. She noted to herself as she adjusted his own actions slightly for her own posture, allowing for her longer arm and differently shaped heater shield to be wielded even better as a weapon.

For another 20 minutes, Leonardo pushed Astrid through that same stance, tweaking every time she shifted even a little bit out of position. Before long, he squinted and nodded once in approval.

“Trust your Skills if they tell you to do something different, but when you’re fighting here on this floor, that should be enough.”

He didn’t say anything more as he retired back to his seat. Only then did Astrid realize that Ursula had given a little bit of counsel to Skandr and Benedict while Tristan was talking with Felix about how to return in counterattacks with his parrying. Muti lurked nearby. Then, just a few minutes later, the party was ready to move along. When Astrid turned to Benedict to demand that he ensure he was ready to go, the Bard rolled his shoulder, and Astrid only then saw a small black tattoo on his neck. The swirls somehow made her feel sick to look at, but when the man saw her looking, he chuckled a little.

“Ursula gave me this. It’s a curse against herself, giving me some of her own mana regeneration. It’s just a couple percent of her own, but I’m already up to full.”

As soon as he said that, Ursula chuckled and snapped her fingers once. The ink turned into smoke and blew away, and she pressed her fingers to her lips and blew a kiss at Muti, who still stood near Benedict and Felix while seemingly thinking about what the Pugilist’s instructions meant, and how it could carry over into her own fighting style.

As they cinched their packs back on, and Astrid made sure that the sled was firmly on her shoulder, the nameless party left the Silver Wind’s camp ready to experience their next fight on the fourth floor.