25. Of Care And Paying Debts
Two days later, after more preparations, Arganan, Frey and Dylas headed to the Water Ruins.
Arganan grabbed any loot he could from downing monsters, as he hoped to sell them off in order to pay back his thirty-thousand pg debt as fast as he could. He really didn't want to be in the red for too long, and he was glad Calista was the one in charge of paying for his medical bills, because if he ended up being Clinic-bound again, things would not end well for him. He even bought a cheap rucksack to carry his newfound things in, whether they be spare arrows or sticks left over from defeating enemies.
Dylas, however, clearly noticed what Arganan was up to. "Do you have enough room to carry everything you've picked up so far?"
Arganan tried to ignore his rucksack getting heavier as they continued on their journey as he looked towards Dylas shrugging. "I'm making it work, so far. Any ideas as of what I should sell?"
"Do you have a hammer?" Frey asked, looking towards Arganan. "You can smash some Aquamarines out of the various boulders in here."
"Really?" There could be gems found in here? That sounded like a nice opportunity.
"Yeah! They sell pretty well."
"Perfect. Thank you."
ARganan thought he heard Dylas groan. "Just remember we're trying to find a Rune Sphere, not a whole bunch of stuff for you to sell."
"Try being in a current thirty-thousand pg debt for accidentally crashing an airship." Arganan managed, raising a brow as he looked towards Dylas. "Also, you're lucky you weren't broke the moment you started living in Selphia."
"Settle down," Frey murmured, but Dylas only shrugged.
"Fair. But still, we have to focus on what we came here for."
"Since the Rune Sphere is, well, a gem," Frey pointed out, "Maybe mining around a little bit might be helpful for finding the sphere."
Dylas frowned, but only shrugged. "Well, if it helps…"
The party continued searching, wandering into the farthest west exit of the Water Ruins. Looking ahead, Arganan realized that there were a few of those sparkly boulders.
And sparkly boulders meant they likely held gems to sell.
His rucksack was filled with quite a few, none of them being Rune Spheres so far, and the more he got, the sooner he could sell them and pay back this debt! Looking around quickly to check for enemies, he made his way close to the nearest boulder, taking out the iron hammer he borrowed from Frey earlier in order to break it. Just as he was about to smash the boulder, however, he heard a roar.
"What the!?" He heard Frey gasp, and Arganan looked up to see the source of the roar —just in time to see a beast, unlike any other he'd seen in the Water Ruins so far, appear before him only several feet away. It had a lion's jaws and a similar sort of feline body, with its legs and a tail, but it had webbed wings extended from its back. The tail, additionally, looked more like a scorpion's tail than a lion's own.
A Chimera? Seriously? Arganan had seen pictures of these documented in old tomes and books, back at Lazulis Castle, but he'd never seen one in real life.
Now, here was a real-life Chimera, right here in front of him, and…well. Obviously, that wasn't good.
The Chimera roared, before it rushed at the group.
"Damn!" Dylas barely sidestepped the Chimera, and same with Frey and Arganan. The former Count immediately got to work, summoning a Healing spell to make sure everyone was still alive and mostly well in the process. Frey managed to secure herself behind a couple of larger, fallen rocks to avoid the Chimera. Dylas, unfortunately, caught the Chimera's immediate attention after its initial attack, and so he was stuck currently fighting it head-on.
"We can't just leave him alone." Arganan muttered, looking between Dylas and the Chimera, shooting lightning and water at each other, and then to Frey. "What do we do!?"
"I don't know!" Frey called back. She made a few fire balls appear, sending it towards the beast, but they missed. Arganan himself managed to summon a few short, temporary barriers to shield Dylas from some of the Chimera's attacks, but the former Count winced as he felt the brunt of the attacks instead, falling briefly to a knee as the shields vanished. This Chimera was too strong for Arganan to hold up a shield for longer than a moment. He had to try something else. Something to make it stop attacking Dylas, so everyone could attack the Chimera full-on without taking too much damage themselves. But what?
He then thought about how he made all the things in the flower shop float at once. Maybe…
"Do you think I can try making the Chimera float to distract it?" Arganan called to Frey.
"What!?" Frey's jaw dropped. "You can do that!?"
The former Count shook his head. "I don't know—I've never lifted a living being before! Only multiple smaller, non-living things!"
"Do you want to try it!?"
"Hey!" The two turned to see Dylas, who was firing beams of what appeared to be lightning at the Chimera. "A little help, here!?"
"Sorry!" Frey yelled back, before a fireball lit up in her hands. She launched a few at the Chimera, hoping to distract it from Dylas for at least a moment. The fireballs hit their intended target, resulting in the Chimera turning to look at Frey and roar at her, but that was when Arganan took a deep breath, concentrated on the Chimera, and…
The Chimera suddenly glowed a soft blue, and it began to float up a few feet in the air. The Chimera roared in protest, sending a beam of bubbles in Dylas' direction, but Dylas easily dodged it before sending lightining right back at the beast. The Chimera, fixed in place by Arganan's power, could only take the hit with a pained roar.
Arganan himself felt the weight of lifting the Chimera as he continued concentrating, or at least that was how he felt. His head grew heavy, and he gritted his teeth, still trying to keep concentrating. "Dylas? Frey?" He hissed, and he felt both his hands shake. "I can't keep it up for much longer! Hurry up!"
Frey gasped, before rushing towards the beast, taking out two shortswords. Dylas shot lightning at the beast one more time, and Frey followed it up with several slashes of the blades she wielded across its lower belly. Arganan couldn't hold up the beast anymore, and he felt a snapping sensation in his head, as if someone just slapped him hard in the face. It reminded him of when Calista slapped him all that time ago, when she stood up against him trying to take her away from Zael after he refused the knighthood.
Arganan fell to his knees, wincing as he hit the stone ground, but he looked up just in time to see the Chimera hit the ground as well, convulsing a few times before bright light shone around it. The former Count covered his eyes, just as he noticed Frey and Dylas doing the same.
As the light faded, there was a blue stone that remained where the Chimera once was. It glowed a variety of colours, and though Arganan had never seen this sort of thing before, it did vaguely remind him of the half of the Outsider Lazulis Island once had…just smaller, that's all.
"Is that…?" Dylas breathed, and Frey nodded, rushing over to the stone to pick it up.
"It's the Rune Sphere!" Frey explained. She smiled softly as she looked down att he stone in her hands, and then looked around, her smile fading. "But there's no Runeys…'
"Runeys?" Arganan repeated.
"Yeah. They're beings that produce runes. When I put down the Rune Sphere in Yokmir Forest, all these Runeys appeared." Frey paused, before looking up at Arganan. "Maybe we're supposed to place this where the Guardians were found. I was at the place where I last fought Amber when I dropped the Rune Sphere there and it started glowing. Maybe I have to go back to where I found Dylas."
Dylas blinked. "Where you…found me? So, that's somewhere in here, right?"
Frey nodded. "Exactly."
"If that's the case," Arganan managed, looking Frey in the eye, "Lead the way, Frey." After all, she knew better about this place than he did.
It didn't take long to navigate all the way back to the Water Ruins' entrance, before heading into the larger clearing where Dylas once was, in monster form. Arganan remembered Therius, Frey and the others telling him about the battle they had with Dylas in monster form, when Dylas was a watery unicorn. He noticed overturned rocks and various pieces of rubble. Were they always here, or were they remnants of the past battle that once happened?
"So, I place it here," Frey put the Rune Sphere down on the ground, "and…"
That was when the Rune Sphere began to glow a bit brighter. Runeys suddenly appeared around the entire group, floating about in the air.
"I knew it!" Frey jumped a bit, waving her arms close to her chest excitedly. "It works!"
Arganan stayed quiet, looking around and seeing the Runeys floating around, transparent and light in their appearances. They reminded him of fireflies, just a little bit, but bigger. And, despite their strange appearance, Arganan himself felt a bit lighter, too. Maybe it was just the effect of being around them, filling this place with life.
"Then next is…" Frey started, but that was when a new voice spoke up.
"Damn! You already found the second one?"
Doug's voice made Arganan pause, his gaze snapping towards him. "Doug." He swallowed. He must've figured we would come here.
The dwarf didn't look pleased, obviously glaring at the three. "I'll be sure to get the next one before you do!"
"Doug…" Frey started, but Doug sighed, before shaking his head.
Dylas' brows furrowed. "Idiot." He muttered. "You're not gonna beat us, okay? Just let us save Venti and stay out of the way!"
"You don't get it." Doug snapped back at Dylas, glaring at him, before looking towards Frey and Arganan. "Listen up! I won't let you win! Got it?"
Before anyone could answer him, Doug rushed straight out of the room.
"Doug!" Dylas almost broke into a run after him, but Frey gasped, grabbing him by the arm. Dylas tried to tear himself away, but Arganan shook his head, looking towards Dylas.
"There's no point, Dylas." Arganan managed, looking Dylas in the eye. "He's not going to listen."
"Maybe he'll listen after I beat some sense into him." Dylas retorted, a growl leaving him.
Arganan knew, as much as he understood that Dylas and Doug just didn't get along, and this whole situation wasn't helping, he also knew that this was a fight that would likely not end well. "I don't think it'll help. Nor will me or Frey running at him to straight-up lecture him. I know you're angry, but this isn't worth the effort. Trust me."
Sometimes, going after anyone when they were already like that wouldn't help the situation. Arganan knew from experience (the hard way) with Calista. The last thing he wanted was a version of that happening with Doug right now. Whether Doug told the truth about Ventuswill, or had it all mistaken, Arganan didn't know. Neither did Frey, or anyone else. But this wasn't a good time to pursue further conflict. Especially when the other wasn't listening.
Arganan knew that for sure, because he knew he once didn't listen, when he should have.
Dylas inhaled sharply, but it was a slower, heavy sigh that left him, head bowed as he stopped any and all efforts to get out of Frey's hold. "Sorry."
Frey let go of Dylas, frowning softly as she lowered her hands to her sides. "I'm sorry both of you had to see that."
"We should have expected it." Arganan reassured the Princess, looking towards her. "You're just trying to save Venti. We all are."
"I know, I just…" A sigh left Frey, before her gaze flickered up at the other two. "Thanks, both of you. I really appreciate you coming with me."
"You're welcome." Dylas managed. Arganan also gave Frey a nod of acknowledgement, before Dylas spoke up again. "But, what now?"
"Well," Frey looked down at herself, then up at the other two, "I think we all deserve a good rest. How about I pay for all three of us for a bath at the Bell Hotel, when we get back? I'm sure it'll help soothe any bruises we got from all of this."
Arganan blanched, recalling the time when Vishnal saw him with all the scars. "Um…actually, I appreciate the offer, but I think I'll pass. I probably should head back and get some sleep."
"Hold it." Dylas' gaze snapped towards Arganan. "Don't you usually use the bath on a semi-regular basis? I've passed by you before."
The former Count swallowed. He almost forgot that he and Dylas had a talk about the Bell Hotel, just after both of them had individual baths the one time. "Well…you know, having a thirty-thousand pg debt puts a dent in that routine, and I really don't want to rely on Frey…"
"I insist." Frey immediately spoke up, and as his gaze snapped towards her, she gave him a look. "The last thing I want is Jones complaining to me that you're all worn out from this trip. And I know how hefty his medical bills can be."
"Frey, Calista pays for my medical bills as is. I won't be in debt from that, I'll be fine."
"I care about you, as a friend." Frey also added, before giving him wide doe-eyes. "And as much as you care about me getting hurt, I don't want you to get hurt either. So…please?"
Arganan knew he couldn't exactly back out of it. Taking a deep breath, he slowly nodded.
"Very well." He managed, and despite the odd hilarity of Frey and Dylas persuading him into letting Frey treat him and the others to a bath at the Bell Hotel, he grinned. "Okay. Just this once."
"Yes!" Frey fist-pumped. "Let's head back!"
As the group started leaving the Water Ruins, Frey going ahead of Dylas and Arganan to start the airship, Arganan heard Dylas speak up.
"Hey." Arganan turned to face Dylas, who offered him a nod of acknowledgement. "Thanks for earlier. With that Chimera, and Doug."
Arganan shrugged a little. "You're welcome."
"You feeling okay?"
The former Count took a moment to assess himself, looking down at himself. He didn't feel as heavy-headed as he did earlier, when using his powers, nor did he feel like he was about to pass out. "I think I'm okay. Sore, but fine. But thanks for checking on me."
"No problem."
And with that, they headed back to Selphia, intending to get some rest after all that happened.