Vesna Toth, Tier 1.8 Ranged Fighter – Archer – with Verdant's Valorant (short alt PoV)

The fight started a bit chaotically but it felt like it was going well. The repellant seemed to make the wolves crazed, which was more dangerous for the frontliners.

Heh, there's a reason I'm the ranged.

Vesna pulled her first shot at the last second as Milica strangely charged in when she didn't need to. It wasn't the cautious plan they went over multiple times for the final push to clear the rift.

Once the second wolf started charging, Jovan did a better job of leveraging his backline, positioning himself so they both had a good shot at its side and hindquarters respectively.

Boom, butt bullseye. A shot to the butt for many creatures wasn't that debilitating but she was using a specially barbed arrow which caused far more damage, meaning the wolf lost a significant amount of its power from any attack that leveraged momentum or its bulk.

It is very hard for a quadruped to run with a huge hole in the butt. Or a second one. Heh.

The expensive arrows were harder to shoot and nearly impossible to recover but this seemed like a pivotal moment.

Vesna went to shoot again with a regular arrow but Jovan's blow to the second wolf's foreleg spelled the beginning of the end for the alabaster monster.

Instead, Vesna turned to shoot the wolf on Milica but the woman cried out to wait a moment. Their stout leader landed a blow to its head and it backed off a second, giving Vesna the perfect opportunity.

Deciding not to get too fancy, she aimed for center mass, hoping for a heart shot.

Instead, she got the lungs but it penetrated extremely deeply, likely hitting both of them. It would soon choke to death on its own blood.

As Milica rejoined the fight, their AAIs went down again. It wasn't a big deal for them but for Terry, it meant zero communication.

The wolf fighting Jovan howled.

Why were they sending someone who was so new out into a dangerous rift? It feels rushed and premature.

Milica slew the wolf with a great slash of her axe to its throat, quickly shoving it to the side. The woman kicked at the dirt, presumably in anger at the fight.

The stench lessened, which was a welcome reprieve.

Milica must have kicked dirt on the bag. And not a moment too soon.

Just as she was about to call out in celebration of their victory, Vesna realized that howl had come from a different direction, not one of the two beasts they were battling. Somehow the rift seemed to deaden the travel of sound but Terry was battling his own wolf. And it was far bigger than any they had fought thus far.

Milica and Jovan simultaneously yelled as three more wolves, including one of the far larger specimens, charged the two frontliners. Stefan's [Fireball] at the gigantic colorless monstrosity seemed to splash mostly harmlessly across its fur, creating a beautiful show if nothing more. The flame did catch one of the other wolves ablaze but that one quickly rolled to put it out.

The bigger wolf, likely the boss or one of its two minions, seemed content to let the other two wolves harry and harass her two party members as Milica and Jovan went back-to-back. They were speaking to each other but Vesna just couldn't catch what they were saying.

She knew it was her job to pepper the wolves as much as possible to slow down any charge and make them far easier targets for the frontliners to finish off.

Vesna called to Stefan, "Go for the smaller ones. They are weaker and getting it to two on one is where we win. Lightning first and I can double shot any stunned one!"

She saw him nod out of the corner of her eye and fired a shot two feet in front of the wolf that looked like it was going to charge. That made it flinch back while Stefan fried the other.

She quickly drew two bolts – each specially crafted with a minor [Fly True] enchantment and dipped in anti-coagulants to create a stronger bleed effect – and shot at center mass. One hit its shoulder and the other grazed a back leg.

What's going on? Both should have hit.

The rift boss had arrived suddenly – she hadn't seen it at all – and was placidly sitting on its hindquarters, watching over the battle.

Stefan flung another [Lightning Bolt] and it struck true, only to barely hinder the charging wolf. It managed to avoid Jovan's parry with his greatsword and strike his leg with a claw. His light metal armor dented and he let out a scream of pain.

He won't be walking on that right tomorrow… But why is our magic suddenly less effective? Is something nullifying it somehow?

Vesna peppered the area with mundane arrows, and the white wolves started to look more like porcupines with red skin than their initial stark and intimidating forms.

Suddenly the rift boss' lieutenant charged, and tried to pounce on Milica. She held it off, but only barely. Jovan spun, giving up his backside, to slash from taint to tooth on the great beast. It let out a spray of blood and viscera.

Predictably though, the smaller wolves both struck and Jovan was hobbled. Somehow the lieutenant also wasn't quite slain from the blow.

Sharpness enchantment and it still didn't do the job? Really is some anti-magic sarange going on here.

Milica threw her axe at the giant injured beast and it struck but didn't embed deeply, falling out. She dove in quickly to pick it up and hurled it again. The burly woman turned immediately after throwing, not even watching her killing blow.

"RETREAT!" she bellowed and picked up Jovan, heading in the direction of the rift's entrance.

Vesna and Stefan were peppering the remaining two wolves with arrows and spells but Milica threw Jovan at Stefan and picked up Vesna, knocking her quiver astray and spilling her remaining few arrows.

"What about Terry!?" Vesna cried out as soon as her wits returned.

Jovan looked like he might interject but just let out a pained cry instead.

"He got off an AAI message to me that he was able to retreat too. I'm sorry, we just aren't equipped to deal with this. I lost my axe and I think the extra null essence we detected led to this ambush. And the AAI issues." Milica looked conflicted.

"We have to go back and check on him," Vesna said, feeling a welling sense of hopelessness. Damn this rift! Damn the null zone! Why didn't the drain cycle happen as normal!?

"Like I said, he got off an AAI message. Probably got out sooner than we did and is waiting for us outside. We should hurry out to see if he's hurt." Milica went to pick Vesna up again.

"I am fine Milica, it is you and Jovan that aren't. And Terry. What do you mean he got off a message, our AAI was down."

"Yeah, I thought it was down the whole fight," Stefan added.

"Check now, it's back up, right? I bet as soon as he got out of range of those boss minions, it came back up for him. And we are in no shape to fight that boss. We have to go." Milica scooped up Jovan.

"Hold up, we need to vote here!" Vesna was insistent.

"No we don't, we need to march before that alabaster abomination comes for us and finishes the job! It's not supposed to leave its den area! Everything is wrong about this. The repellant didn't work either," Milica pleaded.

"Formal vote. I vote we stay and scout ahead." Vesna put her hands on her hips resolutely.

Jovan looked at Vesna with a tight frown. "I vote go. It's too dangerous to check up on a random adventurer. I know Vesna, he seemed nice – though I only overhead some of the conversation – but he isn't worth it. I'm in no shape to fight."

"Stefan? What would it be like if it were you left there? How would you feel?" Vesna used her best puppy dog eyes.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Honestly Vezzie, I'd feel either nothing 'cuz I'm dead or that I'd want you to get out and not risk it on my behalf. I want to save him too. But… yeah. I don't vote," Stefan finished lamely.

"Ugh! Fine. But we need to report this to everyone we can immediately. Let's go!" Vesna swept up the few things she had dropped and started marching for the exit, not even waiting for the others.

As the four of them exited, the sun had crept well past midday but the land looked just as bucolic, just as peaceful. Even the horses looked bored.

"Wait a moment. I know the rift instance is well past but let me check over the measurements again. Maybe it was a weird anomaly." Milica started taking out her equipment, poking and prodding near the rift opening.

"Even if he was still alive, no one can help him now. We have to wait for him, right?" Vesna looked hopefully at all of them.

"I'm sorry Vesna, I don't think he made it. We can wait here for a bit and send off messages but… Is this your first loss in a rift? The first one is always the hardest. But this is the way it is. It happens." Jovan lightly put his hand on her shoulder. Both looked to the side to see Stefan snuffling by the horses.

Without any corpses to haul back, it will be a long journey back in an empty cart.

"Wait, this is crazy. Come look, the rift is back to totally normal. There really must have been something going on that made the AAI blocking magic and it go all wonky. At least we don't need to hurry and can head back to Velez." Milica showed them all the readings.

Something is bugging me but what?

***

I laughed to myself, spitting up more blood.

There was some symmetry to starting from a baby's level with the local language and my current mode of transport, namely crawling. With an Achilles tendon that finally snapped on my last swing and a compound fracture in the other leg from the last charge and subsequent mini flight, there was no way I could get to the exit walking.

Even using weapons as canes, either the exit from where we entered or the one that would materialize after dispelling the rift reward distortion were both a distant dream.

Have I strutted my last strut? Oh shut up you weirdo brain, you were never confident enough to strut. We'll pretend this is blood loss making us this weird.

Why am I thinking as we and us?

I could at least follow the tracks to where the reward distortion should be. The boss and her minions – I unfortunately got close and personal enough during the fight to tell it was a she – had come from the direct opposite direction from where we approached.

At least they were right about sensing them.

Shortly after my pyrrhic victory, I had called out for the people who had abandoned me, hoping they had only backed off to rally and would save me. But I realized my folly.

We hadn't attracted more than one other wolf when we were fighting the entire rift, no matter the noise level. Somehow, we had multiple wolves at once, not even coming up on the boss?

And the boss almost never left its den area in every recording. So why did we suddenly need to fight eight wolves at once?

Why didn't they have a healing potion on them if I am supposedly so important? This just all smells fishy.

I can't even drag myself out immediately because they'll probably be waiting to finish the job…

Accepting I was probably approaching my ignoble end through blood loss, either slow or fast, I just kept crawling.

The den area was littered with bones. Why do rifts create fallen leaves? Or corpses that the beasts supposedly killed? It's weird.

Realizing I was probably entering analysis mode to delay the inevitable anyway – usually it's just to delay writing that email. Heh, still would rather be here than dealing with Mark; or Caren – I managed to push myself into a seated position on a low-slung boulder, high enough to swipe at the distortion.

I hesitated.

It was like I could feel the pulsing of the rift with my spirit.

I need something that will help me get back alive. Please spirit of the rift, whether fake or real, this is the first good thing I've had in years. Don't take it away so quickly.

As I felt a crescendo in my soul, I swung my hand forward and went to close my eyes. Luckily, I had a second thought about limiting my vision for superstition reasons as I collapsed back to the ground.

A beautiful sight, my potential savior?

I managed to stick my hands out to catch the falling bottle.

Small, glass, containing no more than a few sips of a green liquid that somehow refracted hundreds of shades of the color, mesmerizing me for almost a minute.

I coughed, painting the grayish white rock that might be my final resting place red.

Oh yeah, the internal bleeding…

An ability to identify this would be helpful before I just take it.

Then again, this is the rainiest of days, what more could I save it for?

Pulling the stopper, I poured the liquid into my mouth.

And nothing happened.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" I roared into the air. "I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF THIS BULLSHIT! I FINALLY CAN HAVE COOL ASS POWERS, I HAVE ACTUALLY FUN PEOPLE TO TALK TO, I CAN BUILD A GODDAMN INTERESTING LIFE! AND THEN THIS!"

I coughed again, but this time only from straining my voice. I went from yelling at the sky to looking at myself.

Wounds started to stitch themselves shut and I could do nothing but stare in awe. Feeling a tendon reattach was a truly disturbing experience, even without any accompanying pain.

The bone sticking out of my leg sucking back inside didn't exactly hurt but I still almost threw up.

And then I laughed.

And laughed.

And started cry laughing.

I was still jebbie-d, but now I had a fighting chance.

"Eh, might as well just talk it through out loud. Rubber duckie this biatch." I started pacing and thinking.

"Were they all in on it? I don't have a great answer either way… I am pretty sure Milica was: thinking back, that scent bag was pretty clearly a lure. But they all did abandon me. Maybe at her word though, she was yelling the most…

"I can use my AAI again, when did that turn on? Wait, did she do that too!? Man, they really set me up to die. But why not just kill me the second we got in, especially if AAIs were blocked. No record, no questions… Probably not all of them then.

"What to do, what to do? If she's waiting out there, even without her axe, I am probably not a tough fight for her. I'll go collect the weapons and… maybe I should collect all the corpses too? Might be worth something? Or a great distraction to drop on someone's head. Wile E. Coyote it up.

"I might be a bit delirious from the blood loss. Yeah, best to sit down and maybe eat? I wish I had that infinite clean water bucket…"

Taking an hour to rest and reflect and trying to guess how long my likely killer would wait outside, I ended up washing my hands as best I could with my jug and eating the bread and cheese Vana gave me. It was only passable cheese but somehow it was the best meal I had ever eaten.

It was a reprieve from my last meal.

Thinking back to the problem at hand, I was pretty sure Milica would convince the others I died and to take off relatively quickly: it would look weird to wait. Unless the rift was still about to break.

"Damn, that was probably a lie too! She did the measuring of the rift levels herself and acted kind of weird. I really am a fool." But man was that also a rush… "No, don't start gambling with your life, the money for your retirement was bad enough…"

My AAI kept shutting down when I was within about 200 ft (60m) of the final fight. I realized there was probably a device and spent a while to search.

As I passed through the ending battlefield, my chest gave a 'YARP' and I forgot I had thrown a knife – extremely poorly of course. "Mark it down Risto, more throwing knives training!"

I finally found a small cylindrical object that almost looked like a drink shaker from a bar but without a clear way to turn it off.

"I can't figure this thing out so into the ring it goes. Wait is that a good idea?

"Eh, if it blows up I won't even know I was a dumbass." I stowed it in my ring and my AAI winked back on as I smiled. "Evidence." I started recording what I could.

"Might as well make a bit of a profit too."

I went to collect all the wolf bodies but thought better of it. My ring only had 250 cubic feet of storage before it would start puking everything out. That would mean I could only carry a few of the bodies back with me.

"Or I could ferry them all to the exit? But then if I push them out ahead of me, will I signal I'm coming out and let them get the drop on me? Huh…"

As I went to the body cart and ferried the dead wolves, I pondered and slowly probed the ring. It felt slightly more powerful – the vendor had said it would take essence. I dropped off the last of the bodies from the cart and then poked my ring again spiritually. It felt like the space was about perfect for the eight dead wolves of the final fight and Milica's axe with a bit of room to spare.

Collecting the bodies from my 'triumphant victory' as well as everything else presumably Milica dropped, I realized I had no idea of the direction of the exit from all the tracks I had trampled through. And the tracks seemed to disappear over time.

"Damn, I'm lost. At least a bit. I can follow my tracks but that will be difficult. The weird ass flakes keep covering everything…"

Instead, I reached out with my spirit, blindly searching in the dark.

First, I felt the exit at the wolf den and I just barely felt the exit at the entrance to the rift in the opposite direction. But what's that third thing?

It felt like a hollow spot in the flow of the essence of the rift. Rather than something, it was the absence of anything that caught my attention. It was close to the exit by the den so I wandered towards it.

After 20 minutes of searching, I found an almost colorless flower against the backdrop of nothingness. The white leaves had faint purple tracing through them and the center – which I could only see if looking from the perfect angle as the curled in petals covered it – was a vibrant riot of colors, dominated by purple but with blues, oranges, reds, yellow, greens, and browns across every shade imaginable and somehow subtly shifting even as I watched, almost like a nebula over time.

It's like a color test page puked into a flower. But pretty.

"How do I preserve you?" With no real idea, I just dug it up, roots and all, and put it into my ring. It was time to get home.

***

Shield and morningstar at the ready, I charged out of the rift.

My moment of disorientation cost me dearly.

But only to my pride. Tripping over a rock and the subsequent faceplant were witnessed by no one.

The sun was setting and it would be a long journey back, mostly in the dark. It was still pleasant enough but would get chilly.

I sent off a blast of queued messages to Gabor, Tiesa, Jasna, Risto, and, potentially against my better judgment, Councilor Illeva.

The message started the same for all of them: [Survived the rift but there was an assassination attempt. Am physically unharmed as far as I can tell. Not sure who all is involved. Tell NO ONE until I am back. I will let you know when I am close to Velez and will fill you in. Setting back on foot.]

I additionally asked Gabor and Tiesa to meet me to the north of the city.

Thus began my long and anxious journey down the road back to my new home.

***

While my legs felt perfectly fine, I still went at a relatively slow pace. Mostly because I didn't want to test either and be proven wrong. There are good bets and there are bad bets; that is a low upside, high downside bet.

I also was slinking through the brush by the side of the road, trying to stay hidden. It was doing a number on my pants and my ability to spot an ambush.

Tilda is going to have so many jokes about my pants when I show up. Oh sodus, need to let Vana know. Nope, can't let anyone know, going to have to eat another night of Tilda causing trouble…

The six hour walk back to Velez gave me plenty of time to reflect. And have Darko Drills playing in the background.

I swear I heard Milica yelling something about back. Probably retreat. Can't be this information blind with the language.

Settling into a rhythm and limiting the racket I was making as best I could, I traipsed back to Velez, hyper aware of every sound in the night.

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