Chapter 23: Slugging Match

Kaius faced off against the Champion, eying its battered form with an intensity that only came from knowing that his continued life required it. The once regal creature was a sorry sight, its coat sodden with blood, great rents parting its flesh to reveal muscle and bone beneath.

He couldn't see it healing anymore, its regeneration too spread thin to have a noticeable impact on any one individual wound. It was a testament to both its physicality and its sheer bloody-minded spite that it kept fighting despite the state of its wounds.

Kaius knew he wouldn't have looked much better. He was utterlysoakedin sweat. Despite his tonic being enough to keep hisStaminatopped off, the resource did nothing to prevent the sheer exertion that a fight to the death brought. Every system within him was in tune, pumping nutrients and adrenaline ridden blood to his muscles. Soaking his skin to cool him down. Downregulating unnecessary organs.

His backached, the healing scratches and torn muscles in his back steadily reknitting as his bolsteredHealthburned to seal the injuries. It did nothing for the blood that had fountained down his back, soaking his clothes and gumming up the ringlets of his mail. The more it dried, the more uncomfortable and painful it became. Skin and fabric merging together into a singular monstrosity that pulled at his wounds with every movement.

It held no sway over him, his entire mind bent with fanatic focus at the bear as they circled each other.

With a roar, the bear broke first. Hauling itself forward, one paw scythed towards him. Its claws leaving a now familiar trail of glimmering light, Kaius reacted the moment it activated its skill - blade already moving into position. He dropped into a hanging guard, sword high in front of him as he met the incoming blow.

Once again he levered off the power of the strike, capitalising on the bears flagging energy to divert the slashing clawsjust enoughto send it sailing over his head.

**Ding! Parry has reached level 6!**

The system notification did little to distract him, he swept through the parry and landed a devastating chop against the bear's shoulder. Savaging the joint to its core. Once again his blade glanced off the bone, the bear's empowered body too reinforced for even runic steel to contend with.

The bear moaned in agony, favouring its left leg as its wounded one fell limp, too injured to take its weight. Another torrent of vital fluids joined the growing collection of wounds that the Champion sported.

Kaius eyed the beast, watching the way its chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. The way it shook, unexplainable by its latest wounds. He had noticed it earlier, the way it paused to collect itself after every use of its skill. Now, the difference was exaggerated. It looked… drained.

“It must have emptied its Stamina with that last one. It’s fucked!”Kaius realised, his mouth twisting into a sinister grin at the turning fate of the bear.

Advancing with a limping gait, the Champion approached him. Any mortal animal, or magical beast, would have long since fled by now. Only the omnipotent conditioning that constrained all depths-born monsters forced it onwards, ensuring it would fight till its last breath.

Despite the ruined leg, it was stillfast, closing the distance between them with a snarling snap of its jaws. A slide of his back foot had its teeth chomping at empty air, Kaius using the close distance to drive his sword home into its chest.

He whirled away, the bear’s snarl quickly petering out into a wheeze as foamy blood frothed from its mouth. It forced its failing body towards him, unnatural rage giving it just enough energy to raise up and try to swipe him with its remaining paw. Kaius ducked under the blow, the bear’s arm shaking as it tried to control its momentum.

It landed on the stone with a heavy thud, front leg buckling under its weight. Kaius darted in, landing another heavy cut on its arm. It collapsed. Bloodsong rising to a new height, he screamed his victory to the air.

He rushed in, eager to finish off the opponent that had pushed him so hard. The ailing Champion tried to push itself to its feet. Its leg shook as its rose, a low and heavy rumble gargling from its throat as more blood welled from its mouth. It slipped, losing traction on the growing pool of blood that spread on the stone floor beneath it.

Kaius drove his sword deep in between its ribs, sliding in behind its shoulder to stab deep towards its heart. The bear let out a final shudder, falling limp as a desperate gurgling gasp escaped its throat.

**Ding! Warforged has reached level 19!**

**Ding! You have slain a Champion: Sunborn Cave Bear - level 24 Verdant Defender! **

Kaius watched the still body of the slain champion, a thousand aches dragging at his attention. He ignored them, taking a moment to bow his head in solemn respect for the creature that had put up such a fight. The visceral glee of violent combat left slowly, his heart rate slowing. In its wake it left behind leaden limbs, a heavy exhaustion settling over him.

Thankfully, the tonic he had consumed still boiled away inside of him, expending its energy to bolster his recovery. It did nothing for his fatigue, more rooted in the mental strain of his focus being stretched to its maximum for so long, rather than in any physical malady.

Stumbling away from the corpse of the Champion, Kaius approached the pool that housed the glowing oak at the centre of the cavern. He couldn’t help but stare at it, soaring so high overhead. Scintillating geometrics shifted and pulsed over its bark, hanging over the scene of his battle like some ageless observer.

Arriving at the pond he collapsed to his knees, wincing at the impact. Pulling off his stained gloves, he cleaned his blade in the water. Methodical as he washed the steel, his hands dipping into the frigid water to pour it across his blade's length. It played on the soft glimmer emitted from the runes scribed on its blade.Endurance, Hone, Permanence.Simple things, Ykkardian, some of the first he had been taught.

His father stood in front of him by a split boulder. They had found it a few weeks prior when they had packed up camp to move to a different section of the forest, for what had felt like the thousandth time. Father had been ecstatic. It meant another excuse to avoid a trip into town. No need for paper when you've got a bloody rock.

Frustration bubbled up, Kaius failing to suppress his slight scowl at yet another month of being denied another chance of trying Illendra’s fresh bread while he relaxed by The Stoat Oak’s fire.

“You listening boy?” His father asked with a gruff voice.

He jutted back to the split stone with his chin, thick brown beard swaying in the wind.

“Pay attention” He gestured to what may have well been a swirling knot of string traced out in charcoal for all he could make sense of the image. “You asked me to do this. So now we’re going to commit. Or would you like more resistance training?” Father asked him with a slight grin.

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Kaius blanched, rapidly shaking his head.

“Good. Now, Ykkardian is a relatively simple dialect. Strong, self contained sigils. Large vocabulary. I think it could be a good contender for you.” Kaius forced himself to stare at the image, regretting ever telling his father his plans for his class. It was all curving lines, with the odd hard straight line carving through the mess.

“Though, it’s got a messy syntax, and is pretty terrible for higher order networks.” He continued, arm sweeping to draw a pointing line at some section of the rune that was indistinguishable from the rest.

“If it's bad for networks, wouldn't it be a bad choice then?” Kaius asked with a furrowed brow.

Father shot him a grin. “It might. Or its powerful and self contained nature could drastically simplify the process. There are other candidates though. Which is why, now that we have such a helpful writing space, we will spend the next few months here learning them!”

Kaius groaned, sinking his head into his hands. Father simply laughed at him in response.

His eyes focussed, Kaius shaking his head to escape the memory. He stared into the pool. A young man stared back, weary and blood-soaked. He lookedtired, shaggy dark brown hair flattened into streaks with a combination of oil, sweat and blood. His eyes were haggard, bags covering cold green orbs that held a shard of steel within them.

He swiped his hands through the water, ripples wiping away the confronting sight.

“Need a godsdamned bath.”He thought as he peered down at his stained clothes. Cleaning enchantment or no, hehatedthe feeling of blood soaked clothes on his skin. He eyed the pool, testing its icy temperature with his hand.

“I’ve had worse,”He shrugged.

Quickly stripping off his gear, Kaius dived into the crystal clear pool. He surfaced with a gasp, almost launching himself back out of the water as the cold kicked him in the chest. The once crystalline water darkened, reds and browns slowly emanating away from him. He ducked back under, scrubbing as hard as he could at his face and hair.

Once he’d done the best he could he pulled himself out, skin puckering as the air brushed his wet skin.Rapid Adaptationmight mean that he was basically incapable of actually suffering injury from all but the most severe mundane temperatures, but it did absolutely nothing for his comfort.

He settled back down by the edge of the pool, taking his time to work out the worst of the blood and grime from his clothes. It was slow work, the stains already having worked their way deep into the fibres.

“At this point I would be willing to fight another bloody Champion if it meant I had a bar of soap.”He grumbled to himself.

As he worked the clothes, filth flowing free in great clouds to discolour the surrounding water, Kaius thought back to his fight with the guardian. Bubbling energy welled up in him at the thought of the raw fury with which the creature had pursued him.

The fight had been stupid. Reckless and unnecessary. Yet he was not quite sure he had ever felt soalive

“I think I might be developing a bit of a problem.”He thought to himself.“Pretty sure most people don't feel like they’ve had one too many cups of jappa after a fight like that.”Yet even if he disregarded the simple joy of testing himself, it was hard to deny the sheerresultsof the fight.

Fourteenskill levels from a single fight. It was frankly ridiculous. If he made a habit of it he might need to reassess his time lines on how long it would take him to get his next skill. Months felt far too long now, and that figure was after factoring the strange boost to skill growth he had already seen in the Depths.

Emptying his last boot, he got dressed quickly. The wet clothes were disgusting, but as he drew them close to his skin they rapidly warmed. Simple enchantments, but more than welcome at times like these. Thankfully they would be dry soon.

He held up his chain shirt, shaking it out to eye the tear on its front edge and mid back.

“Not exactly what I would call ideal…”he thought to himself. With no blacksmiths available, and no way of repairing the chain himself, he would have to make do with the way it was now until he could find a replacement.“The tear in the back, at least, I could thread together with some twine. Not that that would do much to stop a sword..”

A swirl of colourful movement caught his eye, the reflection of the fruit that had dragged him into this cave in the first place. It pulled his attention away from his thoughts. He hastily threw on his chain, hopping slightly on the spot as he shrugged it over his head.

Wriggling his arms through the sleeves, he looked up at the fruit hanging overhead with gleaming eyes. The silent nudging fromExplorers Toolkitredoubled, waking from the recesses of his mind where it had lain dormant during his battle with the bear.

It was time to collect his reward.

Kaius stood with his hands on his hips, starting at the wide trunk of the oak tree that rose out of the pond. While a mundane oak would never be seen growing out of a pool of water, they also didn't glow gold, and nor were they covered in a bark that roiled with shifting geometric patterns.

No, he doubted that the Depths cared about such things. The tree was shaped like an oak, so it was close enough to be one in his opinion.

A very large oak tree indeed.

Currently, that was his issue. While its main arterial branches were more than thick and dense enough for him to easily climb, the lowest one was still out of his reach. That meant scaling its trunk, the same one that was hovering over an icy cold pool of water.

Kaius threw his head back in defeat with a groan.

Circling the tree a few times, he found a spot where the distance from pond-edge to trunk was slightly shorter, maybe ten strides at most. Backing up from the waters edge, he hopped up and down, shaking his limbs to loosen them. Setting his feet into a wide stance he kicked off, racing to the pond's edge.

Arms pumping, he planted his foot on the pool’s edge, driving his heel hard into the ground to send himself up and over. A yell of excitement slipped out as he wheeled his arms, trying to stay upright as he rushed over the water below. The trunk rushed to meet him.

Kaius hit the tree chest first with a heavy exhale, air forced out of his lungs from the collision. Arms snapping around the trunk, he jammed his fingers into the wide crevices that snaked their way through its thick bark. His legs kicked as he scrambled for footing, the sound of splashing water echoing out as his booted foot traced the surface of the pond.

He dug his toes in. Forcing himself upwards with a grunt, he shimmied his handhold a little higher. He squinted, this close to the tree the thin patterns that glowed on its surface were almost blinding. After a moment he gave up, closing them completely as their unpredictable shifting grew nauseating.

Shifting his grip higher, he hauled himself up a little more.

Stride by stride he ascended the tree, until one of its thick branches tapped him lightly on the top of his head. He forced himself to open his eyes, doing his best to ignore the way the room swayed in time with the morphing shapes on the trunk.

He looped his hand over the branch, his back burning pleasantly as he hauled himself up onto the limb. From there it was simple for him to clamber from branch to branch, finally reaching the one that held what he hoped was a natural treasure.

He crawled outwards, keeping himself low and centred. Kaius savoured the feel of the bark, Enjoying the slight crumbly give it had under his fingers. He’d always like climbing.

Finally he reached it. A single thick stalk held it fast to the branch from where it hung. It was even more mesmerising up close. Glistening from internal radiance, the fruit was almost impossibly round- a dozen shades of reds and yellow swirling across its surface.

This close it was impossible to block out its scent. The smell of spring growth was almost palpable. Even withoutExplorer's Toolkitscreaming in his mind he would have found it almost impossible to ignore the urge to snatch it up and claim it for his own. A wide grin split his face as he stared into its swirling form.

“I can't wait to see what it tastes like.”