Rune Seeker

Chapter 58: Skill Evolution

Not even ten minutes after they’d defeated the group of Lizardmen, the party was back on their feet. Everybody had at least eighty percent solar energy, and Left had been reabsorbed back into Hiral.

“Expect more Lizardmen,” Seena said, then looked over at Yanily. “And what are you doing?”

Yanily spun his spear around in front of himself from hand to hand, slowly at first, but building in speed as he went. “That Lizardman spear style—it got me to thinking. My Reed SpearStyle is so straightforward. Having another option could really… hah!” He stopped spinning his weapon and gave a fist pump. “Skill evolution!”

“You just learned the Lizardman spear style?” Vix asked.

“Dancing Spear Style, it’s called,” Yanily said. “Going to have to try this out a bit and train it up. Balyo is going to be so jealous.”

“We can use that,” Seena said. “You can teach it to Balyo and help prepare them to deal with the Lizardmen. Give them an easier time than we had.”

“Awww, do I have to?” Yanily asked.

Seena crossed her arms very slowly.

“I’ll show her first thing when we get back. Was totally planning to even before you said anything,” Yanily quickly amended. “Ah, shouldn’t we be going? Only two and a half hours until the dungeon forcefully ejects us after all. Hop, hop. Let’s move.”

Seena just shook her head, gesturing for Nivian to take the lead, and the tank quickly fell into his familiar position.

“You’re telling me all of your fighting styles are taught through abilities?” Hiral asked as he moved up beside Seena in the group formation.

“Taught? Not exactly,” Seena said. “As soon as we get the ability, we gain all the knowledge to fight. Our PIMs even automatically condition our bodies with the necessary flexibility and muscle memory. It’s like we always knew how to do it.”

“So, Yanily and Vix… they never had to train to fight like they do? It literally comes naturally?” Hiral said, his eyes wide.

“Yup. That’s not how it works for you?” Seena asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him.

“Fallen’s balls, no. I’ve trained for years to fight. Since I couldn’t shape my tattoos, I spent all my time learning every way to fight I could find. With every weapon we had.”

This time, it was Seena’s eyes that were wide when she looked at him. “You’re saying you don’t have an ability that taught you how to fight like that?”

Hiral just shook his head.

“The way you move… it’s all…?” Seena couldn’t even finish her sentence, apparently.

“All practice. Hours and hours and hours and more hours of practice.”

“That’s absurd,” Seena said.

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“Pretty sure that’s my line.”

“What about your RHCs? You don’t have a proficiency ability for them or something?”

“No. I’m just using a hand-crossbow style I learned,” Hiral said. “These are honestly way better than that. I mean, I don’t have to stop to reload, but the basics are the same. Mostly.”

Seena just shook her head, but by that point, Nivian had reached the newly created path. “We’ll pick this up later. If you learned to fight like that, maybe you can teach the rest of us. We’ll have the time when we get to the Asylum.”

“Sure. Then you can get some spontaneous abilities and show me how to do it better,” Hiral said jokingly, but he drew his RHCs. “Let’s finish this dungeon first, though.”

The group climbed the slight slope where the ground gave way to find a heavy stone road leading off through the swamp.

Hiral’s eyes instinctively followed the road as it passed through the scraggly trees, around behind the dark briar patch towering on the left, and further, further, further, to what looked like a city sprawling on the side of a mountain. And there, carved into the peak of the mountain, was a giant lizard with a snake intimately wrapped around it.

“Yup, they’re going to be pissed,” Yanily said.

“I don’t want to fight a whole city of them,” Vix said. “Can we please not fight a whole city of them?”

“Think of the experience.”

“A whole city? In two and a half hours? It’ll never happen,” Wule said.

“I don’t think we could even reach the city in two and a half hours,” Hiral said. “It’s miles and miles and miles from here. Is it actually part of the dungeon?”

“That would make it massively bigger than Splitfang Keep,” Seena said. “And Hiral’s right. That’s too far. We should expect a Mid-Boss way before that.”

“We following the road, boss?” Nivian asked.

“Yes, but watch out for ambushes,” Seena said. “Hiral, keep an eye on the water. Just because there’s a road, that doesn’t mean we won’t have to deal with more snakes.”

“Gotcha,” Hiral said, and the party started down the road.

They didn’t have to wait long for the first attack. Another group of five Lizardmen came running down the road toward them barely two minutes later. Just like before, a sorcerer trailed behind four warriors, and it stopped to lift its hands in the air, where fire started to rotate above.

“I’ve got the sorcerer. Hiral, bring out Left and Right,” Seena barked. “Nivian, grab as much attention as you can, and Wule, blast them with your rod until somebody needs healing. Vix and Yan, you know what to do.”

“Got it, boss,” they all said, practically in unison.

Nivian blurred forward into the group of four running Lizardmen while Hiral activated Foundational Split. The tank caught the first warrior with a heavy shield-bash, slamming it to the side and off the road to fall into the swamp. The second and third took lashes from his whip and turned angry eyes in his direction. The fourth, well… Hiral shot it in the face while it was distracted, and it fell back, where it rolled on the ground in pain.

Vix and Yanily were at Nivian’s side a moment later, and a ball of solid cold sailed over their shoulders to slam into one of the warriors. With the four-on-two advantage for the party, Hiral turned his attention to the Lizardman in the swamp.

Already getting up in the knee-deep water, the Lizardman hefted its spear to join the fray, but Hiral’s blast to its shoulder staggered it to the side. It took another bolt to the chest as it turned toward him, and then it got its weapon spinning in front of it. The dancing spear blocked Hiral’s third and fourth shots, but now that he’d seen it a few times, he simply aimed lower and drilled the warrior in the knee.

With Left and Right running ahead to join the front line, Hiral calmly walked toward the Lizardman off the side of the road, pulling his triggers one after the other as he went. Around and around went the warrior’s spear, still blocking three out of four of Hiral’s shots, but every one that got through hit it with enough force to push it back a step.

By the fifth hit, the spear wasn’t spinning nearly as fast anymore, barely blocking half the shots, and the tenth hit finally dropped it dead into the water.

Durable bastards. How are the others doing?

Like the first sorcerer, this one dangled on Spearing Roots that had burst out of the swamp on both sides of the road and impaled it in several very uncomfortable places. Two of the three warriors were on the ground and didn’t seem to be moving, though the final one was somehow holding off both Vix and Yanily.

A quick aim and a pull of the trigger blasted the warrior’s ankle out from under it, toppling it to the ground, and the two damage dealers leapt in to finish it off. A stab and a punch, and that was the end of the fight.

“Any injuries?” Seena asked.

“No,” Wule said. “I went full offense there.”

“These lizard guys really don’t like those cold blasts you’re using,” Nivian said. “I had to work to keep their attention. Maybe they have a weakness to it or something?”

“It did seem to hurt them quite a bit,” Wule said. “One of you should play healer, and I’ll be a damage dealer for the rest of the dungeon,” he added with a laugh.

“Make Left do it,” Yanily said. “He can walk around with that banner.”

“In all seriousness,” Seena said, “that was really well done. Much better than the first run-in we had with them. Good job, all. Hiral, did I see that one blocking your shots?”

“Yeah,” Hiral said. “I got used to it, though. Their spear style is fast and versatile, but it’s also pretty predictable. I won’t have as much trouble with the next ones.”

“Unless they change things up, I don’t think those groups will pose much of a threat again,” Nivian agreed.

“True, but…” Seena started.

“Don’t get cocky,” they all said in unison.

“We know,” Nivian added with a smile.

“Oh, look. More experience is coming,” Yanily said, pointing toward another distant group of five Lizardmen running down the road toward them.

“They won’t get to us for a few minutes,” Hiral said, looking at the distance. “Actually, it might even be around the same amount of time as between the first two groups.”

“Like the endless Troblins we faced in Splitfang Keep?” Seena asked.

“Except these are Elite,” Hiral said.

“Elite experience, you mean,” Yanily corrected.

“Okay, team, time for a little farming,” Seena said. “Let’s find out if they’ll just keep coming, or if there’s a limit to them.”

“Yes!” Yanily said, and the party took up positions to wait for the Lizardmen to arrive.