Common Clay

By the time that Clay and the others reached home, they were all tired and worn. The light had already been fading from the sky when they reached the lonely house where they were camping. Clay had been forced to hear a bit of grousing from the others about how hard it had been to find their prey that day, and he started to toy with the idea of taking them into the mines to at least give them some more Soul before they hit the Lair itself.

The air was growing colder as they finally reached the house. He felt a flicker of gratitude as he saw smoke pouring out of the chimney; Captain Goodston had taken to assigning some of his [Guards] to visiting the place and lighting the hearth for them before they got home. It was a small gesture, but a more than welcome one as they stomped their way through the snow and the fading evening light.

Clay paused beside the door as the others piled in. He heard Anne shouting a greeting to the [Guards] inside; tonight it was apparently Fred and Sam, two young [Commoners] who had joined the baron’s armsmen just days before the Lairs had appeared. They were both young and inexperienced, barely able to wield the spears in their hands, but they were both friendly enough. He’d even seen them warming up to Jack and Lawrence, despite their [Classes]. Again, not much, but still appreciated.

As he entered and closed the door tight behind him, Clay looked around the house. It was a cursory examination; he didn’t exactly expect an ambush to happen here, after all. “Anything happen while we were out?”

Fred answered with a shake of his head. “No, Sir Clay. We kept a watch, but we didn’t see any sign of the monsters. I think they’re all still pushed back behind the ridge.”

“And good riddance to them.” Sam grimaced. He’d lost friends who had gone with the baron, and Clay could tell he was still bitter about the misfortune that had befallen his home. “Are you getting close to destroying them, Sir?”

Clay glanced at the others. He’d have preferred to discuss it when they were alone, but there wasn’t that much of a reason to keep it a secret. “Yes. I think we’ll be able to hit at least one of the Lairs tomorrow. After that, we’ll need only another week or so before we can hit the other one.”

Relief showed on both [Guards’] faces. “Th-that’s good to hear, Sir. We’re all ready for this to end.”

He nodded to Fred. “We are too. Thank you for watching our supplies for us. Your support has kept us fighting.”

“I’d give you the shirt off my back if it meant every monster in those mines was dead.” Sam scowled, his face dark.

Anne laughed, slinging an arm around the man. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, pal! After all, you never have paid us back after that last hand of knives and tables.”

The [Guard] winced and shook his head. “I still say you shouldn’t have been able to make four kings with that last draw.”

She reeled back in overdramatic horror; Natalie laughed, and Jack rolled his eyes. “Why, Goodman Tarmill, are you accusing me of cheating? Why I would never stoop so low!”

“Not when you couldn’t get caught.” Jack absorbed Anne’s betrayed look and snorted. “You don’t owe us anything, Sam. Don’t let her get to you.”

Lawrence raised his hand. “I disagree! She has to bother someone, so better him than me.”

“Truly, the mien of a hero.”

“Oh, shut it, Xavien. You were the one who…”

Clay shook his head and sighed as the team began to bicker among themselves. The words had no real sting, and they were more the gripes and complaints of people who had grown used to risking their lives together. He’d have preferred a bit more focus from them, but they had fought hard today, to the point where he was starting to wonder if there were even any monsters left outside the mines.

He thought over his plan for the following day as he shed his armor and weapons. There was only one real branch of the mines left, and if he took the whole team with him, he’d be ready for whatever rush of monsters came at him from it. From there, he’d just need to wipe out the small ones, figure out a way to destroy the Guardian, and then seal the Lair itself. The Soul they would all gain would put them well into the next levels; the last time he’d destroyed a Lair, he’d leveled up twice, as had all of his friends. If that happened again, he’d actually probably outrank the Guardian of the second Lair, something that would hopefully make it that much easier.

With a sigh of relief, he set down his spear and fell into his seat. The aches and pains of the day flickered across his weary body. He’d sleep well once the [Guards] went home, and the watch was set. Then all he’d need to do was…

A bolt of realization swept through him as his ethereal senses began to clamor for attention. He went stiff as he realized what they were telling him. Monsters. Close. Too close.

Natalie glanced at him with a frown. “Clay, what’s—”

“They’re here! Arm yourself—”

His warning came just a fraction too late. Even as he reached for his spear and shortbow, the front of the house suddenly exploded in flame. He heard the crackle of flaming pitch slamming into the sturdy wood, fires eating deep into the material. One of the windows abruptly burst inwards as a stream of sticking flame washed through it and into the room.

Half out of their armor, and with their guard down, the team spent precious seconds staring in shock. By some twist of fortune, the flames had missed most of the people in the room. Lawrence yelped as a patch on his sleeve caught alight, but most of them were unmarked.

It wouldn’t last. Clay grabbed his spear and headed for the door, already beginning the [Chant] of Vanishing Ember. The door shook as something smashed against it from the outside; he could hear the scrabbling of a devil’s claws as they fought to withdraw and attack again.

He didn’t give them a chance. With a warshout, Clay kicked the door out of its frame and charged outwards. The cold bit at him as he entered the winter cold without his armor. A gust of frigid air pierced right through his shirtsleeves, despite the inferno of flame at his back.

{Valor increases by 1!}

Clay found himself in an apocalypse. There were flame wretches swarming all across the northern part of the town, their flaming spit already leaving the vacant buildings at the edge of Rodcliff ablaze. At least a dozen flame devils were slithering among them, belching more fire and snapping out their tongues at any passing creatures they found.

Worst of all were the five flame horrors at their rear. He could see red light in their eyes, and their gargling bellows urged the rest of the horde forward. Clay grit his teeth at the sight. He couldn’t just pull his team back and defend; there were too many monsters. They had to attack, to make sure that this horde was exterminated so that the monsters couldn’t pull back. To show any hesitation would be to let the creatures try to pick off the [Commoners] as they fled south.

So he didn’t hesitate. Instead, he threw himself forward, still shouting into the bitter cold as his spear came around in a beautiful, lethal arc.

The blade caught a pair of flame wretches in the act of leaping at him, cutting the life from them in brief bursts of blood. He caught a flame devil too, the one that had tried to batter the door down. His spear met it above its left front knee and chopped through in another spray of blood. Clay spun, smashing aside another leaping wretch before delivering a final crushing blow to the crippled devil’s skull.

As it fell twitching to the ground, Clay switched [Chants]. Extinguishing the fires would plunge the area into darkness. They needed to light to see, to fight. As much as it pained him, things would need to burn for that to happen. For now, the Canticle of Ice might skewer enough of the enemy to even the odds some.

He continued his wild charge into their depths, cutting down enemies as he went. The lizards were coming around behind him; he could sense their intent to surround and destroy him. Clay snarled in defiance of their murderous, swiveling eyes. They might have caught him by surprise, but he’d faced this before. They’d regret ever facing him this night, if they managed to survive at all.

There was a shadow to those words, however. The last time he’d faced a horde, he’d been at a lower level, true, but he’d also been prepared. His feet had been firm on the ground of the Tanglewood, not half buried in the snows of this place, and he hadn’t been exhausted from fighting all day either. Already, the temperature was slowing his movements, sending flashes of pain through his cheeks and fingers as the half-melted snow clung to his boots.

Then lightning crackled behind him, and another difference made itself felt.

All around him, the lizards abruptly fell back as his team charged into battle around him. He could almost see the power of [Mentor] and [Leader] settle over them. Their magic glowed brighter, their movements were quicker, and their blows broke the enemy into pieces.

Jack charged in right at Clay’s side, his knives claiming three different wretches in less than five steps. Anne danced through the lizards to his left, her sword slicing through a devil’s hide with brutal finesse, even as she laughed at their attempts to set her alight.

Nearby, Xavien charged into a cluster of wretches, scattering them with his shield and mace, even as he lashed out with his [Charms] among them. Lawrence was right behind him, sending tendrils of earth and clouds of darkness in all directions while he smashed monsters to the ground with his staff.

For a moment, there was no sign of Natalie—and then a javelin shot over Clay’s head to punch through the skull of a devil ahead of him. It flopped to the ground, unused flames spilling into the snow. Clay grunted in satisfaction as he drove even further into the horde, his spear rending, crushing, and tearing as he tried to close with the horrors still lurking behind the rest.

The lizards seemed to melt away behind him, but as he looked up, he saw the horrors inhaling as one. It occurred to him he’d never actually seen them breathe fire; his fights against them had normally ended far too quickly, before they had the chance to use it. He noted, in a detached kind of way, that they all seemed to be focusing on him. Perhaps they had all come to Rodcliff specifically to track him. Had he really gotten that close to the Lair?

The Canticle of Ice completed just as the horrors released their flames, the lesser monsters slithering out of the way as they sent five streams of devastation washing across the snow. He didn’t bother to strike at them; a single strike wouldn’t help if he was incinerated. Instead, he drove the ice spears into the ground just in front of him in a half circle, forming a frigid barrier between him and death.

He saw it immediately began to melt, withering before the attack like dew before the sun. There wouldn’t be much time before he was exposed to it again.

So he began the Words of Refrain. The abbreviated [Chant] activated just as the first streamers of pitch began to slip past the barrier, and he drove another wave of ice into the ground to act as yet another barrier. Fatigue dragged at him, but he ignored it and began the Words of Refrain again. A wretch leapt at him, and he swatted it out of the air, turning slightly to deliver another pair of strikes with the blade to eliminate its companions. At this rate, he’d have no chance to push forward, not if they stayed focused on him.

Then a pair of javelins tore over his head, and he jerked in surprise as one of the horrors staggered, pierced through the legs. As it staggered, a second pair of javelins slammed into its skull, setting its swiveling eyes rolling. He heard Natalie call out one last shout, and a brilliant red bolt struck from the night sky to smash the thing flat.

As their companion fell, Clay saw the horror’s mouths snap shut. He thought he could sense a moment of confusion in their features, especially in the one that blinked as a slingstone struck it in the head. They backed away slightly, as if considering retreat for a moment.

Then Jack leapt into the air, pulled towards them by Pursuing Leap. The [Knave]’s knives glimmered in the firelight, and Clay could hear him roar with an exultant shout. He took a step forward, wanting to strike out at the horrors with another Canticle of Ice to claim one more.

“Clay, cover us!”

He looked to the side and found Anne falling back. She was drawing back an arrow on her longbow, and both Xavien and Lawrence had their own magic gathering in their hands. Clay grimaced and unleashed his own [Chant] into the lizards just ahead of them. The glittering ice spears impaled a collection of devils and wretches that failed to get out of the way fast enough. Those who were left tried to scatter as he dove in among them, already ripping them to pieces with his spear.

Clay caught flashes of Jack’s fight through the smoke and monsters. The [Knave] was drawing blood with every slash, cutting through the thick hide of the horror as if it was nothing. It staggered, squirting flame from its eyes. Jack was ready; he dodged and spun, always staying close and always attacking.

One of the other horrors turned, its mouth opening up. Its eyes were fixed on Jack, which meant it didn’t even twitch when Anne’s arrow struck it square in the eyesocket. The arrow hit harder than he’d ever seen; he remembered the [Burglar] mentioning something about a [Feat] called [Decisive Shot]. As the horror collapsed, he had to admit the technique was well named.

A second later, another of the horrors suddenly found itself speared through the jaw by Xavien’s newest [Charm], something he called [Ice Pick}. The horror was lifted high in the air, dribbling gobs of flame. Bolts of lightning lashed out to strike it, even as the spike began to shrink and melt. He heard Xavien shout in triumph and risked a look back.

Which meant he caught sight of the moment when a flame wretch spat fire directly into Lawrence’s chest.

The moment seemed to stretch out. He saw the pitch spread out along the [Occultist]’s torso. Lawrence had been caught in his shirtsleeves, just like Clay. A wretch’s fire breath would burn through the cloth and melt the skin beneath in a heartbeat. There was a flash of horror and recognition in Lawrence’s face as the fire struck him, as if the man knew he was doomed.

Then Lawrence smirked, and he dissolved into smoke, along with most of the bodies at his feet.

Clay blinked, and the wretch squawked in surprise before Anne turned and picked it off with an arrow. Then she laughed and pointed, and Clay jerked around to stare at the horrors again.

Lawrence was there, dashing in at a horror that was frantically trying to turn and face him. A gesture from the [Occultist] trapped its limbs in stone tentacles, another wrapped its mouth in chains of air and storm. Then he raised his staff and brought it down on the horror, striking it just behind the head, where spine met skull.

The impact was brutal enough that even Clay winced. Lawrence struck it twice more in exactly the same spot before turning to engage the rest of the remaining lizards. Jack had finished with his target, tearing enough holes in its hide that it simply collapsed and burned in the snow. Xavien had killed his target as well; the horror collapsed in a twitching heap.

Natalie unleashed another pair of red bolts of power, this time blasting across a half dozen wretches and devils. Anne began putting down the larger lizards one at a time, while Xavien sent stabs of lightning to pick off the wretches that were still squirming through the snow. The lizards were starting to scatter; with the core of their horde eviscerated, the wretches were fleeing. There couldn’t have been more than a dozen or so, but in amongst the buildings of the town…

Clay raised his voice over the sound of Jack slaughtering the last of the devils. “Hunt down the wretches and put out the fires! Make sure that they can’t get closer to the [Commoners]. Let’s move!”

Nearly an hour later, the team gathered again at the burnt-out shell of their former base.

The fires hadn’t consumed everything, but the entire front of the house was virtually a loss. Fred and Sam had moved most of their equipment to the back of the house, so all of their weapons and armor had been saved. Both [Guards] had survived, though they had been a little worse for the wear, still coughing smoke out of their lungs.

Most of Rodcliff had survived the assault, though at least eight buildings had burned, some of them down to a pile of rubble. The [Commoners] had all survived, but half of them were terrified enough that Captain Goodston had needed to bar the road in order to keep them from setting out into the frozen night with their belongings on their backs.

Now, when the last wretch had been hunted down and the last house fire extinguished, they gathered in the ruins and tried to catch their breath. The Captain was there as well, giving them worried looks. Clay tried to ignore the pain of the cold and the fatigue tearing through him. “Anyone injured?”

Xavien shook his head. “A few got burned, but they are stable now. My [Charm] is out of uses, however.”

“Most of the houses were empty. Except for ours, of course.” Lawrence shook his head and shivered a little. “Were they after us?”

“Seems likely. I must have gotten too close to the Lair.” Clay grimaced as he looked around at all the damage.

Natalie coughed. “I don’t agree. It could have been because the valley and the forest are both relatively clear now. Both of slimes and lizards. A hunting party wouldn’t run into opposition the way they would have before.”

Jack scowled. “So we might have to fight slimes next like this? That sounds… unpleasant.”

“I agree.” Clay looked around the circle. “I say we end the lizards tomorrow, as planned. Then we begin our assault on the slimes the day after. If we kill enough of them, they won’t have the numbers to commit to something like this.”

Anne had her arms wrapped around herself. Xavien had already healed at least one wound on her, from a wretch that had gotten a little too close. “Are we going to hold up in a fight like that? We’d have to get really lucky for that to work.”

“The [Burglar] speaks the truth, Sir Clay.” Captain Goodston shrugged. “Even if you manage to purge most of the monsters, some might slip through to the town.”

Clay thought it over for a moment. “Not if we camp outside their mine entrance.” The others blinked in surprise, and he shrugged. “It’ll be for a couple of nights. We’ll have plenty of firewood and supplies, and we’ll put them under siege. Like we did with the ridge.”

Xavien nodded slowly. “It will be even more effective, since they will only have one exit. I agree.”

“Will we be able to hold off against a real assault, though?” Natalie shrugged as the others looked at her. “The slimes have always been the tougher monsters, and we haven’t worn them down like we have the lizards. If there had been ten horrors tonight, or fifteen…”

A brief silence fell as they considered her words. Then Clay smiled. “All the more reason to wipe out the first Lair, then. We’ll all gain a few levels and be more than ready to keep fighting afterward.” He looked at Captain Goodston. “Captain, do you have a place where we can sleep for the night?”

The [Guard] snorted. “One place? The rest of the town is practically trying to start up a lottery to decide where to keep you. For some reason, everyone in Rodcliff wants to have an adventurer nearby after tonight.”

Jack snorted. “Even a [Knave]?”

“We’re a long way past seeing that, Sir Jack.” Goodston smiled at the way Jack’s expression betrayed astonishment. “You’re all out there fighting, and we got a good look at it tonight. Nobody’s going to mutter about [Classes] or anything else while you’re here. I promise you that.”

The [Knave] seemed suddenly overwhelmed by emotion, and Anne cleared her throat. “Ah, perhaps it’d be better for us to stay in the tavern. That way, most people could feel safe?”

“A wise decision Syr Anne. I’ll go get everything ready.” Goodston nodded to them and then turned to go. He paused for a moment, looking back. “I know it’s a fool thing to say, but even so… be careful out there. We don’t want you killed, brave fools.”

Then the [Guard] walked away, his shoulders hunched against the cold. Clay watched him for a moment and then turned back to the others. “He’s right. Tomorrow’s going to be dangerous. We’ll set out a little later, since we know right where we’re going, and we’ll know what we’re fighting. Get whatever gear you need and be ready. Tomorrow’s the beginning of the end of our mission in Rodcliff.”

They didn’t leave Rodcliff until the sun had climbed high into the sky.

Clay had been awake far earlier than most; his various [Experiences] meant he had far less need for sleep lately, and Sam Evergreen had taught him the value of an early start. It had given him plenty of time, at least, to obsessively check and recheck their supply of food, water, and ammunition for the journey ahead. He spent some time walking among the other [Commoners] while the others slept, trying to encourage them and reassure the fearful.

It was surprising how many of them listened to him. Back in Pellsglade, he hadn’t really been considered persuasive by any means. In Rodcliff, however, the townsfolk seemed to relax when he told them it would be over soon. Inwardly, he just hoped that he wasn’t giving them false promises. Any fight was a risky one, and the prospect of facing another horde in the claustrophobic conditions wasn’t something he was looking forward to.

Whenever he was tempted to delay the attack, however, he caught sight of another burned building or a frightened child, and his resolve grew firm. However things were going to go, it was going to end that day.

They made good time crossing through the forest. There were no wretches or slimes waiting for them, something that Clay considered a good sign. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any monsters close to Rodcliff yet. As they crossed the valley, they still didn’t encounter anything until they were nearly to the mines, and even then it was only a bare handful of small ironslimes that died quickly and easily.

Once they reached the mines, Clay had the others stack their supplies in the mouth of the shaft that led to the Lair. He had them check their equipment, making sure armor was secure and weapons were ready. As they each gave him a nod, he grinned. “All right, there’ll probably be about as many lizards here as there were last night. I’m betting the Guardian called everything it could to defend the Lair, so be ready for anything.”

Natalie nodded. “We’ll handle the lesser creatures, Sir Clay. Just worry about the Guardian.”

He sucked in a deep breath of the cold air, and let it out. It didn’t help dispel the memories of the last Guardian he’d fought. “Just take care of yourselves. No crazy risks or gambles.” Clay ended that sentence looking at Anne, who sighed and rolled her eyes. The others all chuckled, but he could sense their nervousness. “We have more fights waiting for us in the other mine, and people waiting for us back home, so don’t get yourselves badly wounded here. Once we finish with this Lair, we’ll set up our camp outside the other mine and dig in for the night. Any questions?”

Jack raised a hand. “If I manage to kill the Guardian, do I get a statue made for me?”

Clay snorted. “Maybe? You’d have to ask the Captain, I guess. Just… don’t try for it out of nowhere. We don’t have to work alone in there, and we’re stronger together. Last night showed that better than anything.”

He hesitated, and then continued. “It’s been a true honor. Now let’s do what needs to be done.”

The humor fell away from their faces, and their expressions were lethally serious as they nodded back. Clay took one last fresh breath and then turned to the mine. He could smell a distant hint of sulfur wafting from the depths. Setting his jaw, he began the descent towards the Lair.