Chapter 47: Catching Up

  The System text faded away, leaving only the uneasy quiet of fractured light and wind sighing across the hillside.

  Then the ground trembled beneath them. It started as a low, distant vibration that rattled loose stones near the biome’s edge. Then it swelled up, a rumble that rolled through the mountain’s belly. The air itself seemed to thicken from the resulting pressure.

  Then, an ear-splitting screech tore through the sky.

  It wasn’t the shriek of a beast Alex had ever heard before. It was older, deeper, and threaded with aether in strange currents. Every audible note set Alex’s teeth on edge. It scraped against his skull until he was forced to screw his eyes shut, clapping a hand to his ears. Even Obby hissed angrily in his head.

  “Oh, lovely,” the pebble muttered dryly. “That doesn’t sound remotely horrifying.”

  Alex swallowed hard, staring toward the mountain’s heart. “That’s her. The Queen.”

  Every eye moved toward the crumbling fortress of stone that loomed over the center of the mountain.

  “Gods above. I was kidding about the T-Rex thing… that sounds way worse.” Garret muttered, his face pale.

  “Doesn’t matter what it is,” Eric said, “That’s what we’re heading toward, so we need to be ready.”

  Nobody argued those facts, but nobody liked it. The silence that followed was long, broken only when the crystal biome began to stir. Shapes emerged from the prismatic forest, blurry at first, then clear as wounded figures stumbled into the light of the plains. Their armor was cracked, their clothes torn, and faces grim.

  Alex’s breath caught in his throat, then released in a rush. One by one, he counted them. Kate, pale but upright. Zach, silent as ever, with his shadow clinging to his footsteps. Rynel, leaning heavily against Cole’s shoulder. Sarson trudging behind, sword dragging, but still breathing. Selka was close on his heels. Doran and Devon came next, each with dark bags under their eyes. Myrae was after them, her hair dishelved, the normal grace of her steps marred by a limp. And finally Ghrukk, the ork was bandaged, bloodied, but somehow still radiating that monstrous presence of his even with half his weight resting on the shaft of his weapon.

  Alex let his eyes sweep the group again, just to be sure. Everyone was accounted for. His chest loosened, just a fraction.

  “About time,” he whispered.

  The hillside quickly became a tangle of voices, sighs of relief, and shouted greetings accompanied by the creak of battered gear and weapons. The two halves of the raid squad closed the distance between each other, their movements sluggish on both sides, like survivors crawling together from the sea after a storm.

  Kate was the first to speak, wiping grime from her jaw with the back of her hand. “Crystal biome. It was like fighting inside a kaleidoscope while being hunted by things that shouldn’t bend that many directions at once.” She grimaced. “And yes, Garret, there was a giant crystal predator. Not a T-Rex. More like… a centipede made of blades.”

  Garret made a strangled noise of despair. “Are you kidding me? That’s even cooler! I would’ve killed for a fight like that. Wait… how did you know I was thinking of a T-Rex?”

  Kate rolled her eyes and scoffed.

  “Trust me, you're glad you weren’t in that fight. You’d have died in about four seconds,” Selka muttered, still supporting Sarson as he trudged forward.

  Rynel managed a weak grin. “Three, if the thing was in a bad mood.”

  That got a chuckle from the group.

  Zach didn’t laugh, of course. He only leaned on his spear, pale eyes scanning the hills. But even he didn’t pull away when Peter clapped his shoulder in greeting, and that was almost the same thing.

  Meanwhile, Allie was already fussing over the wounded, her kit spread across a blanket, fountain-water vials lined up neatly beside tinctures and poultices. Her brow furrowed as she inspected Ghrukk’s bandaged arm, the Ork scowled but didn't shove her off. That alone was proof of how bad he was hurting.

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  “I’ll say it,” Lance collapsed onto a nearby stone as if it were a chair. “We all look like shit.”

  “You look like shit more than the rest of us,” Garret shot back immediately, slumping next to him.

  “Difference is I make it look good,” Lance fired back, drawing a groan-laugh from Peter.

  Alex left them to banter, his gaze drifting to Holly. She’d settled down a short distance from the others, Tom-Tom tucked against her leg, both of them worn out. When she caught him watching, her smile was faint but warm.

  Eric, ever the commander, finally spoke up over the chatter. “Alright. We’re not marching on the city like this. We rest, cultivate, and heal. Everyone patch yourselves up and recharge. We’ll need everything we’ve got for what’s ahead.”

  They all grumbled varying agreements. The group spread out across the hillside in small clusters. The faint glow of the dungeon ceiling cast them in hues of silver and blue. Some laid out bandages and balms of their own, or lined up to see Allie. Others sat cross-legged, focusing inward, guiding aether back through empty mage cores. Weapons and armor were polished in silence, pieces of broken shields replaced with quick repairs.

  For a little while, there was peace.

  Garret entertained himself by sketching his “imaginary fight” with the crystal T-Rex in the dirt, complete with roaring sound effects. Peter humored him, shaking his head at each exaggerated detail. Henry sat nearby in stillness, but his rare half-smile suggested he didn’t mind the noise.

  Across the camp, Zach sat sharpening his spear’s blade, but Kate watched him with something softer than her usual iron stare. Selka dozed with her head in Sarson’s lap, one hand still gripping the hilt of her dagger.

  Alex finally decided to settle beside Holly. For a while, they said nothing, just leaned shoulder to shoulder, listening to the quiet rise and fall of the other’s breathing. The hillside quieted as the hours slipped past, the squad settling into the practiced rhythm of recovery. The faint hum of cultivation filled the air like a kind of music. Eventually, Tom-Tom was fast asleep and Holly got up to cultivate and train while they had the time.

  He ended up finding his own spot and sat cross-legged a apart from the others, Obby resting on the ground beside him like a smug little paperweight. He let his breath slow down, blood and aether cycling through his body in tandem. Cultivation with his [Condensing Spiral Technique] was second nature to him by this point, so his conscious focus was on the half-finished siphon plate that sat in his hands.

  The etched glyphwork shimmered faintly as he fed energy into it, the channels greedily pulling on the energy in his arm before he cut the flow, marking some flaws and correcting the resistance. It was slow work, like trying to get a leaky pipe to stop dripping while the whole house flooded, but progress was progress.

  “Another hour or two,” Obby declared in his mind, “and you’ll have something usable. Assuming you don’t burn your aether channels out fiddling with it like an amateur plumber.”

  Alex ignored him. Mostly. He guided another thread of aether into the plate, forcing it into alignment with the crude framework of his body’s aether channels. Sweat slicked his brow, but the lines flashed brighter, closer to syncing up with his internal system. His next artificial gate was coming together, piece by aching piece.

  Nearby, Holly was stone-still. Her eyes shut and breath nearly stopped altogether, but the air around her rippled with the quiet roar of stormwinds. Aether surged through her like a tide, spilling from her in waves of translucent silver before curling back over head and being absorbed once more. Her braid lifted slightly, strands of hair caught in an invisible current as her body glowed faintly.

  Then it hit, a crack of air pressure like thunder muffled by a long distance. Her aura grew sharp enough that the others glanced up instinctively. The silver wind condensed around her, forming briefly into a spiraling gale before vanishing into her aethergate.

  Akex smiled, he didn’t need to see the System screen that shone in her vision to know what happened, he could see it in his [Aether Sight]. She had just pushed through to the next stage of Adept Tier.

  Tom-Tom perked up with a squeak, tail flicking rapidly as he danced around her and shouted praise. Holly opened her eyes, silver light flickering in her irises before it faded away. She exhaled, then grinned faintly at Alex. “Guess I’m due to carry you for a while.”

  Alex chuckled hoarsely. “About time.”

  But before the rest of the squad could settle into their congratulations, another flash of power surged across the hillside. Kate’s presence sharpened like a blade's edge folded over itself, her aura burning golden-red, brighter than the campfire. She had been cultivating silently as well, and now the System answered her, too.

  She stumbled to her feet, sweat dampening her hairline, then smirked at the astonished faces around her. “What? Did you think I’d let her get ahead of me?” She jerked her chin at Holly, who raised her eyebrows with a faint grin.

  Garret let out a low whistle. “Well, shit. Two breakthroughs in one day? Squad’s looking stacked.”

  “Stacked enough to maybe survive what’s waiting in that city,” Eric said.

  For a while, the mood shifted into a lighter tone, the worry eased by the revelation of progress. Henry resumed his meditation with earnest, his broad shoulders rising and falling like ocean waves. Peter and Lance compared notes on their last fight, trading insights about footwork and aether reinforcement. Even Zach cracked an almost-smile, though it might’ve just been the shadows lying to Alex’s eyes.

  They would need to venture into the city soon and bring an end to the dungeon run. But Alex still felt like they would run into problems. There were threats waiting for them, and he didn't know if they would be able to handle them. He just prayed to the Aetherian gods that they could.

  "Let's get moving then," he finally said. "It's time."