A Ruined Start

At the top of the hill I could see a good majority of the region. With huge ravines, and rivers. The clouds had begun to move and the higher into the sky the clouds were the more faded and dull they were. The clouds ranged from gray and black, to blood red and a rusted orange. The forest over the hill had large twisted trees, their branches crumpled in ways that created jagged edges and monstrous faces. From the shadows you could see a few eyes glowing in the dark. Before they faded and disappeared for a few moments. And from the furthest mountain I could see two spires rising from the earth. When I turned behind me I saw another two spires. Each surrounded by a fog. But on both sides of me there was a series of ruins and even further behind those were cities.

After staring at the land, I moved down the hill and made my way towards a ruin. But I was stopped by one of my peers.

"Hey!" They called. They had smooth white hair and wide purple eyes. He had fair skin, and wore a grey hoodie and some old jeans.

"My name is Aldurin" He began."Aldurin Millon." I held out my hand and he shook it with his right hand. Keeping his hand on what I realized was an old leather sheathe.

"What's that?" I asked. He smiled before pulling out a longsword. He pulled it halfway out of the sheathe before it began to glow. I placed a hand on his and tapped it. Urging him to put the blade back in its sheathe. He kindly obliged.

"Are you heading to the ruins?" He asked. His tone filled with a peculiar sense of knowledge.

"Yes"

"Then let me come" He had a much needed enthusiasm in his words.

"What do you gain from joining me?" I started. He tried to answer but no words came out of his open mouth. After a few seconds of thought he rested his hands in his jacket pockets and looked at his shoes.

"Maybe an ally or something" his tone was much less enthusiastic as if my words had hurt him in some way.

"Fine, come on." I sighed. His posture immediately corrected itself and he seemed to radiate some kind of light. It was blinding for a moment, but I continued on my way to the ruins.

***

It took us 30 minutes to make it to the ruins and inside were a series of gnomes. About a foot and a half tall. They weren't that different from garden gnomes except for one notable difference. Their hats were mimics.

We moved silently, our heads low and moved quickly. One step at a time.

Crack.

"Shit." I mumbled. I stepped on a stick. The mimics began to scream and I got hit with a debuff. Making my already horrible stats lower by 25%. I ran towards the stairs of the ruins. But one of the gnomes beat me there. Aldurin was behind me and pulled out his sword. He swung it from behind me and I barely managed to get out of the way of it. The mimic grabbed his sword and began to shift into a copy of it.

The gnome took its chance to swing its sword. Missing us both. I took the chance to punch it in the nose and Aldurin slashed it. The gnome began to glow light from its cut and leaped at Aldurin. He closed his eyes for a second and the area in front of him was cut in a blink. Leaving the gnome dead and the mimic barely alive. I grabbed my phone and set it on the mimic. It got absorbed into the phone and placed in my inventory.

"We have more coming!" I shouted. Three more gnomes came from around the corner. One of them threw a rock and hit me in the eye, dealing 4 damage to me and reducing my health by a fifth of its total. The other two charged at us. Both carrying a stick. The mimics on their head shot their tongues at us and missed. We charged at them.

I swung my fist and landed a hit one of the gnomes. Sending it down the stairs and onto the one that hit me with the rock. Aldurin swung at the other gnome and it ducked his sword. It retaliated as quick as it could and hit us both with its stick. Dealing 3 damage to me, and scoring a crit on Aldurin. Aldurin's eyes began to glow red. His skill was being activated.

I recognized the skill immediately. It was a knight exclusive skill: Final Stand. His damage output was gonna increase the lower his health got. I continued to fight and all of the gnomes managed to hit me and reduced my HP total to 4. I swung at them and got a crit. Dealing 10 damage and leaving a hole in the gnome. After I landed that hit.

"Duck!"Aldurin shouted. So I ducked. He swung his sword with both fury and vigor. A lucky crit and his Final Stand caused his horizontal slash to generate wind that cut the other two gnomes in half. He pulled out his phone and absorbed his kills. While I did the same. We spent a few minutes searching the ruins.

I rummaged through the ruins and found a pair of gloves with metal imbedded in the knuckles. There was a faint aura coming from them but I knew my skills weren't going to be enough to actually activate the magic. Aldurin pulled a glass bottle out of one of the chest. The bottle was full of a blue and white liquid. Each one swirling around the other in the bottle. I hadn't noticed but I was now starting to feel the pain from the fight and bruises began to form where I had been hit. Aldurin must've been in the same situation because his arm began to bleed. And it began to fade into his hood.

He reacted quickly and pulled his hood off himself. So the stain was only about the size of a quarter. I grabbed his hoodie and started making my way out of the ruins. Crossing a small bridge at the back entrance and dipping his hood into the small stream behind the building. I used my thumbs to scrub the blood out of the hood. While I'm scrubbing his hood, he crosses the bridge and a notification appears in front of us.

Ruins raided, Calculating contribution:

Within a few seconds another screen appeared.

Contributions:

Aldurin: 65 Crimson Tears

Aeryn: 35 (+175%) Crimson Tears = 96 Crimson Tear

"Why'd you get a bigger reward than me?" Aldurin asked me. Confusion showing in his voice.

"It's one of my class skills." I respond.

"What's your class?" He asks. He starts taking more steps towards me and stops when I pull his hood from the water.

"I'm don't think you should know." I reply. While tossing him his hood, I stand up and look at Aldurin. "And we need to make camp."