Twenty-Eight
 
“That was dumb,” Diur whispered to him as he continued to do crunches under Alice’s gleeful, malicious eyes. Kon grunted in agreement as his hand pulsed in pain, but the memory of landing a clean hit on his mentor still stood out. She’d even complimented him on his tactics before working him to the bone. With all the energy of the E-Grade beast meat being used, he could function somewhat normally now.
Without the constant flow of energy he wasn’t overwhelmed by his senses, but they were definitely more alert than they had been. Alice had her toes planted on his feet to anchor him as sat up and then back down to the ground, his head touching the ground.
“Do you plan to exhaust him before we leave for our scouting expedition?” Diur asked Alice.
“Need to get him into an energy deficit to ensure he doesn’t become overwhelmed again. With enough time and training he’ll be able to function properly, but that’s time we don’t have. So in the meantime, we do it this way.” Kon groaned at her words but kept up the exercise.
“No grousing. You decided to try for to broad of a concept and this is what you get. Maybe next time you’ll listen to me,” Alice told Kon. There was no real anger in her voice, rather hints of exasperation.
“How much longer?” Kon grunted out between crunches.
“You were fine about a hundred crunches ago.” Kon froze and stared at the Knight while Diur chuckled and walked away. Alice stepped off his toes and Kon got to his feet slowly as his core pulsed in agony.
“Diur, will you go and check the outer area real quick? I need a moment with Kon,” Alice asked the Ulmna girl. Diur grabbed her sword and disappeared in an instant. Alice waited a moment before the Regrowth rune appeared in front of her and Kon bit back a curse as his bones popped in his hand.
“When I give a warning, I am serious. You danced along brain melt territory there and it was very, very, close. If you weren’t the most natural energy manipulator I’ve ever seen, I’m certain that you’d be an empty, hollow-eyed, ghoul right now.” Alice spoke softly but her words cut.
Shame, regret, and embarrassment warred inside of him with pride and defiance. It was a tangle he didn’t really know how to deal with. The compliment she had given had been given casually but it made him burn on the inside with a fierce pride. His own stupidity helped temper it a bit.
“I’m sorry, Alice. I just did what felt right,” Kon whispered. He kept his head down as he felt other things in his body shift slightly, muscles repairing themselves, inflammation retreating, and generally resetting his rather abused body. The glow of the rune faded and Alice sighed as her shoulders slumped down.
“There are many differences between us and cultivators and most of that has to do with how we approach gathering energy. They search for a path that may have already been tread, but look for how they fit on it. How the path attunes to them. We don’t. Science and repetitive trial and error has built us into the fiercest fighting force in the galaxy. I don’t mind a bit of experimentation. But our rules are written in the blood of our ancestors. Those who pushed the boundaries and paid for it. Remember that the next time you decide that what feels right supersedes the knowledge of generations.”
She slapped his shoulder and the two of them walked out of the cave. Diur gave them the barest glimpse before falling back to walk beside Kon as Alice led the way. She kept the pace more sedate than she had the day before, but with all of the healing he’d received, Kon felt like he could go forever. His legs were fresh and his lungs were like bellows, drawing in breath easily as they jogged.
“It’ll rain soon,” Diur warned as they headed closer to where Alice had said she’d felt the presence of others. Alice didn’t acknowledge the comment but Kon was interested.
“How do you know?”
“Smell. The moisture is increasing and its the first sign of rain.” She tapped her nose and Kon tried to sniff hard to see what she smelled, but he couldn’t tell the difference. His colony had been on a rather arid moon where there had never been storms before and then he had lived on the climate controlled ships. This entire fallen world was a new experience for him and if it wasn’t for the fear that had controlled him when he first landed, he was sure he would have been overwhelmed by the overabundance of new stimuli.
“Is the rain like this on all planets?” Kon asked in a whisper. Ahead of him Alice guffawed but didn’t say anything else.
“No. The energy of all the rifts have created a more unique environment. Other parts of the world are even more extreme. There was a rumor that on the ocean floor there is a series of C-Grade rifts.”
“Is that impressive?” Kon asked. It was only a grade above what was on the plateau.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“A single C-Grade rift can be a continent killer if left unchecked. Well…any rift can be a continent killer if left unchecked to grow. They’d eventually reach critical mass and enter the next grade. I digress; a single C-Grade can be harvested for vast amounts of wealth. That is also the line where the rift beasts have gained a level of intelligence. They’re much much larger in general and the energy inside of them can host several treasures and cause the formation of natural treasures outside of them.”
“They’re a lot more rare then?”
“Very much so. And a series of them? All untouched? If harvested well it could see the clan elevated beyond comprehension.”
“But it’s just a rumor?”
“Yes. And it’s underwater and nobody likes to deal with water rifts if they’re not from an aquatic world.” Diur shuddered at the thought.
“Hush you two. We’re getting close. Try not to alert them.” Alice slowed down and started walking carefully. Kon followed in her footsteps and they closed ranks. The forest changed from one tree to the next, suddenly they were staring across an open expanse of clear cut ground. Tree stumps sat about in neglected decay, the trunks having been pulled off to the side to build a primitive wall.
Black armored goblins walked about in lazy patrols and Kon saw a pair of drones flying overhead. Alice lifted a hand and a rune fragment appeared and a subtle wave of energy washed over him, cool and liquid. Diur stifled a gasp and Alice held a finger to her lips. The small fort was roughshod and poorly constructed, but rather large.
“A shuttle for sure is in there,” Alice said, eyes suddenly hungry. She spoke in that flat, soft, non-whisper voice that prevented sound from moving. Even still, she kept her eyes locked on the drones that flew overhead. They were long and had a pair of wings with a rotor as they hummed around in circles above the cleared out area.
Kon estimated the fort was in the middle of the cleared out area with an easy hundred meters of cleared space on every approach. He looked at some of the stumps and saw signs of battle. Scorch marks from laser weapons or chewed up chunks of earth and tree from kinetic. There had been fighting here, but nothing had managed to get close to the fort.
They watched for hours even as the predicted rain began to fall. The goblins didn’t care, they just started leaping from tree trunk to tree trunk to avoid the morass of soupy earth. Without the foliage and active tree roots, the water turned the soft ground into an impenetrable bog within minutes.
A pump started up, coughing and sputtering and suddenly a geyser of water erupted over the side of a wall, spewing water in a crescent toward the edge of the forest on the other side. Alice rose soundlessly and walked away, Kon and Diur sticking tight to her hip as they sank deeper and deeper into the forest.
“Sloppy. Only a pair of drones and foot patrols for security. I think we have a chance of actually breaking in,” Alice said as she sat down in the hollow of a tree. The pelting rain was mostly absorbed by the trees here, but occasional drops would sting Kon’s shoulders or face.
“They took heavy losses attacking my clan,” Diur whispered. She spoke softly and calmly but there was an anger there that Kon could see.
“Or it’s one of several small forts they’ve set up. Doesn’t matter. I want that ship and the comms gear. That Peak D-Grade is getting closer, but it’s shy. I’m going to go bop it on the nose and give the wolves a little surprise. I want you two to go back to where we were and get ready. Things are going to move fast,” Alice warned them.
“I thought we were just trying to weaken them? Not eliminate them?” Kon looked at Alice with suspicion.
“I didn’t realize they’d be this poorly organized. We take advantage of enemy mistakes. Just be ready to move.” Alice looked at them and when neither said anything she disappeared. Even with his enhanced senses he couldn’t follower her momentum.
“Stay near me until you get a better weapon.” Diur looked distastefully at his shattered spear with the D-Grade claw on it.
“How long do you think it’ll take her to come back?”
“I don’t know. She’s a realm above me and the creature is supposedly on the edge of her ability to sense. Could be several kilometers there and then back. Could have nothing more than a few minutes. Just stay quiet and low to the ground.” Diur’s hand was wrapped around the pommel of her sword tight enough that her knuckles popped out and were white. Tension radiated off of her as she glared in the direction of the fort.
“I don’t want us all getting killed on some last minute plan is all,” Kon muttered. Diur looked at him incredulously.
“From what I’ve gathered you’ve done that almost repeatedly already with your cultivation. You trust yourself to venture into the unknown, but not your master to lead a warparty?”
Kon grimaced and shook his head. He did trust Alice. Trusted her to look for a fight that didn’t need to happen.
“That’s doing her a disservice. You’re nervous and scared because you’re not in control.” The thought was a needle to the bubble of angst he had been building. When he had built his nodes it had been his own work and not relied on others to do it. Following his instincts and trusting in how he felt the energy flow through his body. This was just waiting for Alice to show up with some monster and exploit chaos.
“Relax and calm yourself. The first time is always the hardest. Trust in your seniors and stay with me. When one of the goblins goes down, take their rifle.” Diur commanded his attention with ease and then they were heading back slowly and carefully toward the edge of the camp.
They reached the edge line of the forest and Kon paused. There was no sing of the patrolling guards. Or of the floating drones. Icy cold fear washed through him as he whirled, instincts screaming in alarm. Diur grunted in surprise as her legs folded underneath her and she hit the ground with a soft thud. The wide barrel of a laser rifle was pointed at Kon, the reflective mask of the goblin mercenary showing his own startled face.