Samuel Graves and the Akemic Chronicles

End Result?

It had all gone to s**t so quickly.

One moment, they’d been slinking down a water-filled hallway while muttering to each other, eyes and ears keenly aware of the rather disturbing silence that permeated the dungeon.

The next they’d been screaming as a hole in the ceiling had disgorged a swarm of ravenous rats, thousands of them seemingly erupting from the narrow opening as if they were being pushed out through a firehose.

Wheeze and Samuel had been in the lead, and they’d been swamped within seconds. Samuel had fallen backwards, torch sizzling as it fell into the water and plunged the group into darkness, the only sounds being their screams, the splashing of water, and the chittering of the hungry rats.

“Dammit!” Elena shouted over the chaos. “One has me by the ears, help!”

“Get off!” Wheeze bellowed, swinging his sword about with wild flails. “Get ‘em off!”

Skelly was quiet, grunting occasionally as he struck at the swarm with his cudgel. Needles was hefting Samuel out of the water, swearing.

“We need light, kid!” He cried, shoving past the Clockwork Caster as he tried to help Elena. “Not gonna last if we can’t see them, do something!”

Swearing, Samuel fumbled about with his bag. “Get a new torch, this ones soaked. I have the flint and tinder, hurry!”

A pair of hands shoved a new torch into his hands, and he raced against time as he wrapped a bit of cloth he tore off Wheeze’s cloak. “Sorry, I’ll fix it later!” He called out. He upended a flask of oil over it, dousing the torch (and his hands and robes) in the slippery agent.

He passed it to whoever was closest, pressing the flint into their hands. “Light it, I’m soaked!”

The resulting spark did it’s job, the torch crackling to life as it was lit. Skelly gripped the handle, showing that he’d offered his wooden cudgel as a torch when they were in the midst of the panic, and begun swinging it down on the rats clinging to him as if they were a second coat.

They were grisly, each perhaps half a foot long and covered in mold. Skinny to the point of emaciated, their red eyes glinted in the new light as they hissed and dove off the Druid into the water, eager to escape the fiery wrath he was raining down on them. Swinging the impromptu torch wide, he struck a rat that had clambered up onto Samuel’s shoulder off, the squeaking pain cutting short as it splashed into the water nearby.

Wheeze and Posnev were thrashing, doing their best to knock the worrisome vermin off them as their tiny fangs and claws drew thin cuts leaking streaks of blood. Needles had dunked himself beneath the water and emerged rat-free, only for the swarm to begin climbing him once again.

“Enough of this!” Skelly growled, throwing his hand high before releasing a pulse of green energy in a shallow wave. “Anti-Life Shell!”

Samuel felt the energy wash over him, as well as a weak compulsion that told him to retreat away from the source of power. He was able to shrug it off, as were the others.

The rats instantly went from aggressive to terrified, leaping away as if the very maw of Hell had opened behind them. Swimming away, the group finally had a chance to take a few gulping breathes as they checked themselves over.

“Okay, who’s injured?” Skelly asked, still holding his glowing hand high. The skill was being maintained, shedding a faint green glow over the surrounding fifteen feet around him. “Line up, let’s get bandaged up before something comes calling after all that racket.”

Needles frowned. “Freaking rats, what in the Hell caused them to freak out like that?”

Skelly shook his head. “No clue. I’m a Druid, but I never invested points into Animal Speech, seemed like a waste.”

“That sucked!” Wheeze whined, rubbing some blood out of his eyes. A long cut above his right eye was leaking horribly. “Tha’s was nuts!”

Samuel wrung out the front of his robes, wiping his oily hands over the damp cloth. “At least you aren’t soaking wet now! Goddamnit, I’m freezing!”

Posnev whined with both heads, they’d collective gaze lingering down the hall where the majority of the rats swam off.

“Dogs are right,” Needles said, scowling. “Think they’re gone now, or are we gonna get jumped the moment we push on?”

“No clue, now hold still.” Skelly said, pulling a roll of gauze from his side pouch. “You have a number of cuts and we don’t need you bleeding out on us.”

“Hey guys?” Wheeze said, concerned. “Where’s the mutt?”

Everyone paused at that before looking behind them, where Elena had been with Posnev.

She was gone.

“s**t!” Samuel swore, slapping the water. “Where the Hell did she go?”

“Maybe she ran?” Needles offered with a shrug. “Women are afraid of rats, right? Maybe she bolted and is hiding, like with the Trog?”

“She would have come out by now, I imagine.” Skelly mused, wrapping a weeping scratch on the warrior’s arm. “Now hold still!”

“Hey, stop the first aid and help us look for her!” Samuel snapped, sloshing back to check some of the rooms they’d passed. “Elena!” He called.

Skelly splashed some of the dirty water at him. “Be quiet, you fool! Are you trying to call the whole dungeon down on us?”

“’E has a point, don’t ‘e?” Wheeze asked, stepping around Skelly and Needles. “Somethin’ musta’ grabbed ‘er.”

“She likely slunk off!” Skelly argued. “Think about it! She was terrified of being down here, wasn’t she? And she’s a sneak of some sort, could easily slip off when things got hectic!”

“Yeah… makes sense,” Needles said, eyes weary. “Besides, she’s an Elf, keep that in mind.”

“What does that matter?” Samuel demanded, looking into the closest room.

Wheeze hesitated, exchanging a worried glance with Needles. “Well, I don’t like it, but… Elves aren’t big into teamwork, y’know?”

“She was Half-Elf!” Samuel spat, sloshing back the way they came. “And she hated her Elven half! No way she just cut and run, she has nowhere to go!”

“She has a mountain of treasure upstairs.” Skelly deadpanned. Everyone stopped to look at him as he continued. “She couldn’t take all of it, but ten or fifteen of those ancient coins? She could live off those for months, if not years. She snuck out of here and climbed out.”

The group was silent as they processed the idea, Samuel quickly discounting it and being the first to speak after several tense seconds. “She didn’t. Something took her.”

“She was by Posnev before the attack.” Skelly countered. “He would have alerted us if something snuck up from behind, but not if she snuck off.”

“That… does make sense.” Needles said, dread filling his voice.

Wheeze growled. “Dammit, you tellin’ me that she is makin’ off wit’ our gold?”

“Unless you think you can climb something that only an Elf could pull off, I suggest you save that anger and focus it on whatever else we bump into.” Skelly said dourly, packing away the soiled medicinal supplies he’d used on Needles. “While I doubt we have anything to fear beyond a few meager undead, I feel we’d best push onward. Wheeze, let me treat your wounds before we have anything else sneak up on us.”

Wheeze complied, complaining of the sharp pains coming from the claw marks. Samuel frowned, deciding that he would look around a bit more while they patched themselves up. “I have to take a leak, watch my back?” He said, motioning to the side room they’d found nothing in.

“Hurry.” Skelly said in response, pushing a vial into Wheeze’s hands. “And you! Stop complaining and take a pain-relief tonic if it hurts so damn bad!”

Wheeze nodded, yanking the wax seal off to down the potion. Samuel rolled his eyes and slipped into the room. It’d clearly been a storeroom, what with the built-in shelves on the three walls. Stepping through the water as quietly as he could, hiked up his robes and started to relieve himself.

He needed to think.

She wouldn’t just run, would she? He thought. She’s had a bad life, and clearly her grandmother did some s**t that made her especially afraid of anything to do with Infernals. Not that they don’t sound terrifying enough as it is…

He finished and lowered his dirty robes, taking a moment to marvel how the originally white garment was now more of a muddled gray and brown. If… if this isn’t a dream, and I’m stuck in some video game? I should probably get another outfit. Or three.

Turning, he pulled up his skill screen and checked his statistics. He’d gained fifteen experience from the rat swarm, it seemed, and he now had forty to spend. All his current skills would need a few hundred to bump up. Thinking back on what he’d found in the “Equipment” skills, he decided to investigate the various other trees he’d been ignoring.

I’ve grabbed a good number of caster skills, as well as the Equipment one… maybe I should look into some other skill sets? He thought, checking the other class lists. Let’s see what Skelly is working with, I guess? He seems confident…

He opened the Druid skill list and started flipping through the cheap ones. He smiled when he stopped one that looked too good to be true.

SKILL: MINOR MEND

PASSIVE: N/A

ACTIVE: MAY EXPEND A SMALL AMOUNT OF ENERGY TO CLOSE A BLEEDING WOUND PAINLESSLY. REDUCES THE CHANCES OF INFECTION BY 20% IF PERFORMED WITHIN ONE MINUTE OF RECEIVING THE WOUND.

COST: 25 XP

This could take some slack of Skelly, if I nabbed it. Hell, for twenty-five points, why wouldn’t I take it? Samuel smiled at the slightly translucent screen, pressing the “Select Skill” option.

His vision was suddenly invaded by a larger screen swathed in red.

“What?” He yelped, surprised.

The screen bore but two sentences, surprising him at their intensity.

YOU HAVE SELECTED A SKILL FROM A DIFFERENT CLASS.

YOU MAY ONLY HAVE ONE SKILLSET FROM ANY CLASS.

The screen flashed three times before shrinking away, leaving him at the Minor Mend skill screen again.

“Huh,” he said, backing out of that menu. “Guess I can’t cross-class… bummer, having some extra healing would have been helpful.”

“Sammy, you comin’?” Wheeze’s voice echoed from down the hall, as did the smack that had to have been against his head. “Gah, what?”

“Stay quiet, you i***t!” He barely heard Skelly’s whispered growl. “You’re going to bring something down on us with you screaming out!”

“Calm down, I’m coming!” Samuel called back, smiling as he heard Skelly choke and growl. Saving those points for now, I guess…

He sloshed down to what remained of his group, fighting back a snicker as her spied Wheeze. His arms were wrapped in thick layers of gauze, with another few wraps around his head under his greasy bangs. He looked even more tired than usual, eyes narrow and watery as he yawned.

“You good?” He asked the warrior as he approached.

Wheeze shrugged. “Been a long day, an’ we ain’t even close to done I ‘magine.”

“The wounds aren’t helping you, I would wager to say…” Samuel said, looking at Needles.

He had similar wraps around his biceps and shoulders, as well as one over the scarred half of his face. He gave a weak grin. “Didn’t see one screwing up my pretty side, so it needed some more work. First time losin’ that eye has actually not bit me in the ass, as he had to wrap me up good and proper.”

“If you had that eye,” Samuel said, looking to Skelly as he finished patching up Posnev (Pos had a long gouge between his ears, it seemed), “you probably would have seen the rat humping that half of your face.”

Needles shrugged carelessly. “Yeah, probably. Ain’t getting’ the eye back, so not gonna worry about it.”

“How’d you lose it?” Samuel asked.

Needles frowned. “Ask me if we get outta here, it’s a good bar story.”

“I could use a drink…” Wheeze grumbled.

Samuel smiled, slinging an arm around the two warriors bandaged shoulders. “We get out of here and sell those coins? I’ll buy the first round, as well as the second, so long as Needles tells me how he lost the eye.”

The two grinned, Needles elbowing him to get out of the impromptu hug. “Yeah, sounds like a plan. But be warned, we ain’t cheap dates!”

“And we ain’t jus’ gonna loosen up wit’ a few drinks,” Wheeze laughed, clapping Samuel on the shoulder. “The mutt maya been a loose find, but we’re pretty tough to get ta bend over.”

“I, uh, wha… I, me and E-Elena weren’t l-like that!” Samuel sputtered, shoving away from Wheeze. The two warriors brayed with laughter before Skelly silenced them with a snarl.

“Silence, you fools!” He growled. “You can plan your post-dungeon pub crawl later! We have to get moving if we want to get out of here before nightfall!”

They all quieted down and formed up into their ranks again before pressing in, Posnev now alone as they brought up the rear.