Crystal Cage 28

As the light of the sun deepened from an orange to a bloody red, the atmosphere of the jungle around them changed in subtle ways. An eeriness seeped into the shadows. Growing silence gave fuel to the imagination on what the source of rustling within dense foliage might be. Nerves that drew ever tighter during the stress of the day threatened to fray and snap under the pressure of creeping paranoia.

Increasing the intensity of his spirit sight, Orison discovered that unlike the cavern, there was so much life present everywhere that even the outline of rock and ground possessed a faint outline. For Duran and Danny's sake, Orison produced a light but stuck it to the inside of a bowl and kept it pointed at the ground only a few feet ahead. Due to limits of sight, more than once, they had taken one kind of detour or another to keep from running directly into a large group of creatures who had gathered together for safety.

Once night had fully settled in, it seemed as if some danger had passed. With a significant decrease in active creatures, the dangers had lessened by quite a bit but the old instinctual fears within the animal side of the mind presented new obstacles to overcome. Because of their unique visual abilities, Orison and Gan weren't quite as affected but despite having handled the cavern with no real difficulty, Duran wasn't taking to the darkness in the jungle with nearly the same amount of emotional fortitude.

Eventually, the young guardian shared his concern with the rest in hushed tones. "Wick thinks that something is following us."

An equally subdued Gan chipped in, "There's been a time or two that I thought I saw a red dot behind us but it came and went so quick that I thought is was my imagination playing tricks on me."

Orison asked Danny, "Do you know of a creature that can hide its spirit and life signatures from detection?"

The veteran guardian said, "We need to find something to put our backs to immediately. Don't change how fast we've been moving, just start looking for something tall and wide enough to keep us from easily getting circled. It would be best if it's not something we have to worry about something falling on to us from but any wall's better than nothing right now."

Once they had found an outcrop of stone with a depression not quite deep enough to be considered a cave, Orison swept it once.

While Gan took a moment to clear out a couple of potentially dangerous critters, Danny answered Orison's question. "I know of one possibility that would be natural to find around here and two more that it could be. Most likely, it's a shade panther. I really hope it's a shade panther. If it is, once it realizes we're vigilant against it, it'll move on to easier prey. The other two would be... bad news.

"Outside of beginner areas there's a special term for a collection of zones called territories. You won't hear it get mentioned much because it's only talked about when a party encounters a 'roaming terror' and one survives, not often at all. Each roaming terror has a certain area of zones it marks as territory. No one has verified information on the roaming terror for this part of the jungle and I researched it as a possibility for- That doesn't matter.

"What does, is that roaming terrors tend to have two or three of the most iconic abilities in its area as part of its repertoire... If something we can't see starts hitting us with a dark mist or dark rainbow-like mist, then unless you have a hearthstone or some other way of making it to a transporter, there's next to no hope outside of sheer dumb luck. If it's that one, I'll try to lure it away and you try to make as much space between us as you can."

Orison nodded and handed Danny a hearthstone. "What about the third?"

Danny said, "We're not talking about it until we have to or it's morning."

Time ticked by slowly. Once Orison was nearly certain it had been an hour, he checked to find that it had only been around twenty minutes. Duran was still relaying Wick's unease.

The amount of delays that he was encountering had Orison starting to feel anxious about reaching their destination before whatever his intuition was warning him about. Unwilling to let their journey's additional pause be a complete waste, he coordinated with his sub-mind to contemplate the Enbarr portion of his summoner concepts. About an hour later, he felt the right thing click into place and had a sense that he could call forth something usable.

Feeling mentally fatigued, Orison looked around at his companions to see that their nerves were frayed horribly. "Whatever is out there, it's keeping us pinned here. I have a solution, I think."

The young mage focused on his spiritual reserves and attempted to call out Enbarr. A horse shaped outline of slightly green tinted blue wavered into existence before popping like a soap bubble. Frustrated, he tried again. As it wavered, fragile and ghostly, a vague and shadowy outline pounced on it. Instead of a bursting bubble splash of magic enhanced spirit essence, it drew into an invisible spot and disappeared as if it was smoke that had been sucked into a vent.

Orison saw that Danny had grown pale with a faint trace of shaking the young mage's sub-mind could barely perceive. "It's option three, isn't it?"

Danny said, "Sort of. This is just one of its hounds. We've been mark as potential prey but haven't been actively selected yet. I don't know if trying to stay or run is the better option... If you have enough hearthstones for everyone, we should try to leave."

Orison nodded and built a transport model in his space before casting it out. As soon as it took form, the invisible 'hound' siphoned it's energy causing the model to collapse.

Gan asked grimly, "What's it take to bring it down?"

Danny replied, "A hound? Probably around six upper mid range could do it without losing anyone."

Orison said, "Well, it isn't attacking. We could try making a straight line for the nearest territory edge."

Danny said somewhat fatalistically, "It hasn't attacked because we're staying put. Eventually, after it shook us up, it would have backed us into a position like the one we chose to put ourselves in. We're the prey it's marked for its master. If we try to run now, it WILL attack."

Orison wiped a bit of cold sweat and said, "Let me see if I have this right. It's not something we can fight and it won't let us run. It sounds like the only hope we have is that its master has found more entertaining prey."

Sitting on the ground as if someone had just cut the tension lines that kept him upright, Danny huffed out agreement with Orison's assessment.

Unwilling to sit and wait to be hunted, Orison dispelled the feeling of hopelessness with wrathful anger. "Like f*** I'll accept that!"

Muttering to himself, Orison said as he built another Enbarr model, "You want to treat my escape attempts like sc**by snacks!? Chew on this f***er."

At the very last moment, as soon as Orison felt the invisible creature latch on to his summon model to siphon it, Orison half ripped off the regulation enchantments on one of the illegal, unfinished concentrated crystal sparks and shoved it into the model.

Throwing himself flat on the ground, Orison screamed, "Brace for impact!"

Gan, who had trained with Orison in another time and place, responded in a similar manner but Duran and Danny had both trained as guardians who used the phrase in an entirely different manner. Crouching behind their shields, they both activated their force fields. Two seconds in, an explosion slammed into their abilities with enough momentum that it lifted them off the ground and embedded them into the rock face behind them. Def and temporarily blind, the two guardians slid to the ground with small traces of blood seeping from their ears and noses.

For the first time, Orison had to shunt away spiritual essence filtering into his space from a kill because his formation couldn't handle it all. The young mage dully registered that fact, along with a trickle of loot and a world message pop-up as he administered medicine to the two injured companions. Upon reading the message, Orison cursed a storm as he handed their care to Gan temporarily.

Furiously cobbling Enbarr again for all he was worth, Orison absorbed the meaning within the world message, "All range raid event 'Wild Hunt' has initiated in the 'Deep Green'. Participate for rare drops or finish in the top ten for unique gifts. Herne the Hunter's current marked prey, the White River Rangers party. Nearest active transporter, the 'Stone Ape Wine Cave' instance entrance."

Barely able to hold one Enbarr and running low on free essence as it was, Orison picked up Duran as Gan used his conduit to make a horse before snatching up Danny. Holding a delicate balance between speed and caution the two maneuvered their mounts with as much finesse as they could muster. With little better direction in choice to run, they pointed themselves towards the distant Clay Barrows.

Four snail trickling minutes later, they heard the distant braying of hounds. A little later and Orison received two party invite requests. He was tempted to dismiss them outright but the messages gave him pause.

The message from an eighty-seven year old 'rift knight' requested to join for participation tokens his son could apparently inherit. The man was close to death and wanted to go out swinging against an incredible foe. As selfish as it made him feel, Orison was more than happy to put a suicidal stranger between his group and their pursuer.

As he accepted, Orison yanked on the beacon to have the old man appear where he was rather than at the relatively close transporter. Upon sensing the transporter's location, Orison was tempted to make a run for that when a partially recovered Danny informed him that all the transporters in the area would only allow for entrance, not exit. Unfortunately, Orison's security breach trick would only allow him to draw people to himself, not allow him to go elsewhere.

In a curtain of light, an old man in evil looking black full-plate looked around in disorientation before locking onto the group that had slowed down just long enough for Orison to confirm that this was what the old man really wanted. The old man's answer was a salute before lowering his visor. With a gesture to Gan, Orison spurred Enbarr back into a gallop. The last sight of the old man was a skeletal horse and two skeleton pike-men raising out of the ground under and to either side of him. In the second message, a twenty-seven year old dragon lancer woman said that her party was on the verge of wiping and wanted to hold an invite as a way to escape a meaningless respawn. At the very least, she thought she could earn some tokens before dying. She also admitted to some curiosity of wanting to see Herne and confirm for herself if one of the fanciful rumors about the enigmatic roaming calamity were true.

Mentally shrugging, Orison accepted. Almost instantly, in a bending of space, the woman appeared. With a wink directed at Orison's party, the woman exchanged her armor and halberd for an extravagant gown and a silk handkerchief.

Unable to help himself, Orison slowed down long enough to ask, "What exactly are you planning on doing like that?"

The woman said, "My great aunt told me that Herne will stop to accept a maiden's favor. Either he will and give you a lot more time to run than a single attack will slow him down or I'll take damage leader with the mother of all uses of the 'reprisal' skill. Win either way."

Mind buzzing with even more confusion than before having his question answered, the young mage spurred back into a full run once more.

Gan said, "It makes you wonder how much of this world we truly understand."

Danny, who had managed to upgrade from sack of potatoes to legitimate passenger, added, "There are numerous stories of unexpected interactions with the more intelligent species of creatures. Random acts of kindness, overtures of friendship and even romantic interest have been documented. Some beast-kin tribes even-"

The tension relieving conversation came to a sudden, heart dropping end when the booming laughter of a baritone man preceded a loud crashing of debris and snapping trees. Less than a second later, the party was informed of the rift knight's death. The absurdness that the dragon lancer woman had managed to instill into the situation had been wiped clean as grim determination returned.

As the braying of invisible hounds inched closer and closer, there was a pause of silence that lasted for nearly a minute before the woman voluntarily left their party. That silence lasted for a half-minute more before the hounds began braying again. The distractions of time that the woman and old man had bought Orison's group weren't in vain but it wasn't enough either.

According to Danny's studies, a roaming calamity rarely left the zone in which it spawned. The major problem that they faced at the moment was the sheer size of the zone that they were in. No matter how Orison did the math, only two people on Gan's conduit in mount form had a possibility of making it to the border. His new grasp of Enbarr wasn't enough and was actually causing Gan to slow down in order to pace him.

Doing some hard pros and cons listing, the young mage made the best call he could. Having Danny reach his conduit meant not only having a fourth step climber's support, it also meant unraveling some of the mystery behind the old genius artificer and his daughter. Out of them all, Gan would suffer the most if he had to respawn. It could possibly spell the end of Gan's ability to climb at all.

Orison reasoned that if royals had a bit of saving grace the first time they died then adopted First Family couldn't be worse and might even be better. Depending on how it all played out, Duran might even improve some in a brush with death as long as he didn't actually die. And ultimately, it was Orison's call to come here knowing that the area was a huge risk. Now that it had turned out to be one they couldn't handle, he should take some responsibility for it.

Over the nearing sound of invisible dogs, Orison said, "Listen up, and I want no argument. Everything I'm about to say has been reasoned to the best of my ability and I won't be touched or moved by anyone ignoring it. I'll be p*ssed... Gan, I'm dropping you and Danny from the party. You're responsible for getting him to his conduit. If sh*t gets dicey, use the hearthstone you have to leave whatever mess you're in and wait for me at Clay Barrows. If you don't want all of this to be meaningless, Danny, you'll try your damnedest to reach your conduit."

Protest broke out as soon as Orison stopped to take a breath. With little time left, Orison yelled, "Shut the f*** up!... I've got a First Family spark and so does Duran. You're leaving. That's final. Don't listen to me and see how I handle it!"

With that said, Orison booted Gan and Danny from the party list. With one last hurt look behind him, Gan sped up with a frowning Danny clinging on to the scout.

Orison looked a little over his shoulder. "Duran, you keep on this horse until it fades and then you keep running until the hounds catch up to you. Until the very last second you still live, don't give up and believe you can survive. And whatever you do, don't circle back to me unless this thing is somehow miraculously over. If you can safely manage, get to Clay Barrows, if not, go to Emris."

Duran said, "We both have First Family sparks, I'll go wi-"

Orison interrupted. "Go and spoil my plan, accomplishing nothing? Just do as I say this time Duran. I have my reasons."

As he had Enbarr lower its head, Orison swung a foot over before rolling to the side, urging the summoned horse to sprint on. Unpracticed in the maneuver, it wasn't a graceful landing but the young mage managed to find his feet with little more than a few bruises and scrapes. Orison couldn't see the hounds but the pounding rushing past him felt like a stampede of yearling calves.

One of the invisible dogs passing nearby, snapped at him. The hand that Orison threw up in instinct was missing two fingers and bleeding profusely. The young mage hit it with a heal and did a hard check to keep from cussing.

Channeling his anger in a different direction Orison yelled, "Is this how it's to be then, false lord, hide in the shadows like a base born highway man as your mindless beasts pillage for you?"

Two of the invisible hounds that had crouched to pounce on Orison, frenzied by the smell of his blood, whined a weak protest as they obeyed a deep baritone command to heel. A ten foot tall giant of a man in padded scale mail looked down at Orison from a monstrous nightmare steed as he came into view.

"The irrelevant and powerless always rave the maddest and loudest at the end of the hunt. Think you to be granted any special privilege? Will next you beg for life? By what authority do you impugn me?"

Orison adopted as much haughty arrogance as he could. "Why, I'm a proud son of the heavens, slave. Where you were cast low to serve, I was raised high and granted a seat at their table. Will you now strike me down for being of nobler line? Shall you prove yourself no better than the beasts that serve you by silencing your rightful superior?"