Compared to everything that had happened earlier, the walk about down the tunnel was almost casual. He knew what was ahead of him- at least for a while- and had no real reason to fear. The only obstacle between him and the next room had been He Who Watches, but that very name kind of implied that he would get out of the way.
That was all assuming he was even still there. There wouldn't have been much to watch, after they killed everything and left.
On that note, was the mysterious voice attached to He Who Watches? It seemed fairly unlikely to be a coincidence, but who was he to give odds to something like this? He was from another bloody universe, and it wasn't like that one didn't have crazy shit in it. Hell, the very existence of a relic like the Chikami was absurd enough on its own.
Still, he didn't know too much about magic. As a human, he hadn't really had it on offer before the game with Tet, and omnipotence didn't exactly need an instruction manual, so he hadn't done research into actually doing any of the many magic abilities he knew of.
Even ignoring that, however, The Game gave him access to Enerkinesis, which probably had nothing to do with the magic back home. Some time to experiment would do him a lot of good, but that wasn't really an option right now.
Hopefully he'd find a place to train by himself for a while once Thrak was dealt with. While he could just point Thrak further into the cave, that didn't seem like the kind of thing he'd agree to, and staying behind in a magical cave filled with high level monsters sounded just as bad an idea.
Regardless of his thoughts on the matter, He Who Watches was gone when they arrived back in the cavern. With the impossibly artificial lighting, maneuvering wasn't even difficult, and the pair made their way to the tunnel he'd been standing in the way of.
As they approached, though, a glint of light caught his eye. It was small, from a metal trinket. He had to squint to see it properly, but the result was no less peculier.
It was a ring- a simple gold band with a dull brown jewel atop it. He didn't get any more than that from observing it. Now, Observing it had a lot better success.
Ring - Kembar
An ancient ring, created to aid the Watchers in their duties. Has no effects while only one is worn.
Strange, though not necessarily useless. Even if the first ring didn't do anything, it was probably attached to some quest line he hadn't yet encountered. The rewards for that should actually matter.
Thrak didn't seem to notice it as they passed, thankfully, as trying to compete with him for loot wasn't a fight he was looking forward to. Not that anything he'd fought had dropped any... Terrible design choice for a game, just in general. Levels were nice and all, but he was already beyond the use of the sword he'd started with- it had nothing on the damage output his lightning had, not to mention how quickly it would probably break if he used it full force in battle.
Kinda like his limbs did, when he hit Thrak, though those thankfully were repaired almost instantly by Gamer's Body.
Huh. That's something to look into as well. How damage is calculated could make or break his experience here, and there were a lot of things to consider here. Both a few boxes of nitroglycerin and an Aster- a spell similar to the 'nukes' from Jak's home world- would completely obliterate a normal human body, so would they both do the same damage?
To put it bluntly, he needed time to experiment with a lot of different things, which meant either finding Caelem to dump Thrak onto or finding a chance to escape the orc directly.
The new room they entered actually looked like a great opportunity. Unlike the one before, it wasn't lit up by literal magic, leaving the somewhat smaller space completely dark. The tunnel behind them had been too, but a 'torch' held over his hand took care of that.
Perhaps he could lose Thrak in the inky black that surrounded them? Draga would bet his left kidney (the weaker one, on account of the celebration Exceed held for his 21st birthday) that Orcs had some kind of night vision, but that shouldn't matter if there was no source of light at all.
Safety took first priority, though, and his updated map carried with it a number of red dots that could have signaled almost anything. He'd long since reached full MP, so he could spare a few attacks, but actually using one would give away his position anyway.
In the end, Draga merely followed Thrak a few steps behind as they descended into the darkness. Specifically, they followed a downward ramp leading along the left wall- another thing his map didn't bother to point out, but which was plainly obvious to see.
Now if-
Draga stumbled back a step, having walked into Thrak when he'd stopped suddenly. Not helping matters was the darkness the pair was cast into the moment he lost concentration.
"What the hell?"
Thrak didn't answer him, and instead just planted one of his meaty hands over Draga's mouth to shut him up. Despite his annoyance, Draga didn't bother complaining as it was clear something had spooked him. A quick check of the map confirmed that nothing should have been too close, but he'd long since stopped trusting it to display anything truly important.
In the end, about a second passed in silence before Thrak removed his hand and shuffled off in the dark. Draga stayed down, perfectly content to let the Orc take point.
He kept his eyes on the map, noting a group of six red dots approaching their location. It wasn't direct- with them moving towards the wall where the ramp presumably began- but the intent behind it was clear. What they were, he had no clue, but the complete absence of light from that area had some implications of its own.
Thrak, being a several hundred pound wall of meat, had a much harder time remaining inconspicuous in the dark. He was walking, and each footstep was audible despite a clear attempt to keep them silent.
Sounds like this'll go splendidly. Thrak would probably be fine, really- the dude beat a hundred foot tall stone golem to death, for Tet's sake- but any problems he had would inevitably splash over onto him. Even if Thrak wasn't an element of The Game, and was his own person, the cave was definitely in its influence.
Regardless of that, keeping his silhouette as small as possible and remaining out of sight from down below was in his best interes-
He wasn't interrupted by Thrak, or even danger, but instead a notification that appeared before him.
Background Music enabled; In The Dark - Draco Murdock
Draga lept to his feet, splaying a wave of fire out from his palms and igniting the ground with it. Despite being made of stone, it clung to it and grew, illuminating both him and Thrak.
It also revealed the incoming attack- a set of arrows coming for the both of them.
Draga avoided his easily enough, merely taking a pair of rapid steps to the side, but Thrak didn't bother. The stone tipped shafts embedded into his chest without so much as a flinch on his part.
Then, in a move Draga would never copy, he threw himself off the ledge and towards the enemy.
Buried in the darkness of your sin.
Good to know it's not all instrumental. That wasn't a major concern, though, so he turned to the battlefield instead. It took Thrak two seconds to hit the ground, implying a twenty meter drop, which he was not following. Even though he'd survive, he was better off up here using his ranged attacks as support.
Speaking of, he still couldn't actually see where Thrak or the enemies were. That was easy enough to fix; the flames at his feet flared on command, flowing over the edge and burning a path down to the ground.
Got a warning- should have listened.
By the time they made it down, Thrak had already charged the group and made off with his prize- dragging one of the armored things into the darkness beyond and presumably ruining its day.
The other five were left behind, all identical figures in bronze full plate and touting a blade at their hip and bow in hand. Quivers actually differed from opposite hip and back, but that didn't matter nearly as much as what he saw when two turned back to him.
We've all got some skeletons in our closet,
A convienient lyric to be sure, given the lack of flesh covering the skulls that stared back up at him. At least only two prepared to battle him, since it meant he'd have an easy enough time dodging as he prepared a ranged attack. Still, his eyes gazed to the nameplate above their heads- a but difficult to read from this distance, but visible nonetheless.
[LVL29]
Emmisary of The Underneath
Not that high level, all things considered, and they all shared that name. Definitely a summon or minion of some kind, then, though he lacked any context for The Underneath.
But you're more like the dark one's prophet.
A whistling sound accompanied the firing of two more arrows, both of which were dodged by simply crouching down. Aiming that high up was challenging- and actually impossible, if he laid down next to the wall. Unfortunately, he couldn't aim from there, so he settled for placing his hands on the edge and peering over.
The fire down below spread across the ground at his will- the tug on his mana noticably increasing as he extended its range, even if he could handle it. Against skeletons, fire might not be the best element, but heat turned bones brittle. Since brute force was Thrak's speciality and basically ignored armor... He left it at that.
The shadows dance back from the light.
Sure enough, the flames revealed Thrak a small distance away- bashing in the helmet of a skeleton and allowing its nameplate to vanish. A few more arrows stuck into his hide, to no real effect, while he continued to smash the plates inward. Could he not tell when it died?
Perhaps not- skeletons didn't exactly have vital organs, so they could theoretically have survived way worse punishment than the powderized skull and shattered ribs that one was experiencing.
Yet still things hide from your sight.
Draga blinked- trusting the words to hold some importance as he rolled over to one side. A moment later, a pair of arrows fell from above, embedding themselves into the stone where he'd been.
Had they been arched up while he was distracted? He'd kept an eye on the fight, but there was no real way to guarentee there weren't more of them out there without clearing the whole floor. Annoyingly enough, he might have to do that anyway in search of the exit.
Sometimes a bark is worse than a bite.
Thrak roared- the sound familar to him from earlier- as he tossed the thouroughly defeated Emmisary into its fellows, knocking two of them over. He was right behind it, swinging his leg into a third's lower spine.
Whether it could have held up to the force without the flames turning the bones brittle, they'd never know, but the shower of dust and bone fragments that came out from the fractured armor was a spectacle.
The truth descends like a meteorite.
The two that had originally targeted him were now focused on the immediate threat, and let lose another pair of arrows into Thrak's gut before going for their swords. A quick Observe identified them as seaxes, not that the name meant anything to him.
As before, Thrak was uninterested and simply charged in. Draga kept the flames at his feet, but otherwise kept back to avoid hitting him with any attacks.
Being correct doesn't mean you're right.
What is it on about? He hadn't actually lied since getting here, and while the earlier use of 'truth' had piqued his interest, the most recent lyric was something he'd actually heard before- directed at him, no less. Was this about the quest to reach Caelem...?
Since Thrak couldn't even hear the song, he simply continued the battle, taking a few gashes across his arms before he crushed the two skeletons like paperweights.
And so you've lost another life tonight.
Draga called out a warning before the line even finished. The last two- which had been knocked over earlier- were back on their feet with swords at the ready. Thrak reacted, spinning around to face them, but that didn't make it timely enough.
A blade deflected off of his armored kilt.
Another didn't, and a shower of crimson was all the visual he needed.
Lightning crackled around Draga as he lunged forward- relying entirely on Mathematician's Answer to guide his trajectory. The world seemed to move in slow motion- even accounting for his Acceleration- but he crashed down with enough force to send them skittering off into the distance.
The guitar solo the song had turned into reached its peak when he raised his hands. He snarled, not even bothering to illuminate his foes as he blasted lightning after them. It wasn't hard to predict where they were, nor hard to predict what would happen when an entire MP bar had its way with them.
Bronze could only take so much, just as with stone or a giant turtles skull, and he'd given far more than neccessary to see them dispatched in the moment.
Draga whirled around, facing Thrak and giving him a quick once over. He wasn't a doctor, but... It did not look good. His expression must have shown his thoughts, given how quickly Thrak rolled his eyes and laid down. He didn't speak- though whether that was out of a lack of things to say or to further hide his injuries, he had no idea.
"Dammit, man- what were you thinking?" Thrak didn't answer, which annoyed him further, but he ignored that in favor of taking care of him. He hadn't unlocked any healing skills- ignoring Scales, which could only heal himself- and knew only limited first aid. Lack of materials and differences in species would only complicate matters... He needed something else.
A white glow suffused him, with his soul coming to bare. It was something to try, if nothing else.
His hand came to rest on Thrak's sternum, where the glow brightened as he willed whatever MP he got into it. The Skill may have had a finite cost, but it did give him access to his soul directly, meaning anything else had to be done naturally.
Thrak watched on, his expression difficult to decipher with what little attention he had to spare as he got to work.
"For it is in the minds of others that-" he recoiled suddenly, a spike of pain emanating from his hand despite a complete lack of injury. A quick glance at his status screen told him it hadn't even dealt any damage. Why, then...?
He tried again.
"For it is in the minds of-" Another lance burned its way up his arm. He was doing this wrong... Dammit. Was it personal, then? He was copying Xander's words, and even from the few minutes he knew the guy it was clear they were different. If this had to deal with the soul... "You're really not making this easy on me, man."
The Orc's hand came up to grip his wrist. "I am a warrior, human. All that I cared for was stripped away long ago- you need not save me. This is enough... To die in battle." Thrak's eyes met his, the message clear.
He wanted to die; that was why he was so aggressive. The battle part was probably cultural.
Oh... Draga sighed, standing up and looking down on him. He'd been struck by only blunt force trauma before, minimizing his ability to see any damage, but he didn't look too durable with blood pooling over the floor. Was it all a trick of his eyes, then?
More importantly, though, did he try and save him anyway? Thrak was still an asset to him. An annoying asset, but one that could definitely save him in the future. Saving him against his wishes would be the pragmatic solution, as he'd be forced to go off and fight more things- effectively beating his enemies for him- but it would also literally be torturing him.
Three years back, he'd have been totally cool with such cruel tactics, but did he really want to go back to that? If he was gonna die otherwise, obviously, but nothing he'd encountered was really impossible to deal with if he just secured his retreat- something made trivial by his mana stores and Acceleration.
Draga knelt beside him once more, his hand returning to the Orc's chest. It came alight once more- with a bright orange instead of white. Heat radiated away as he sunk it deeper.
Thrak didn't so much as wince. He closed his eyes, seemingly calm as flesh smoldered and died within.
Your level has increased by one!
Your level has increased by one!
Your level has increased by one!
Your level has increased by one!
Your level has increased by one!
Your level has increased by one!
Your level has increased by one!
Your level has increased by one!
Strangely, the notifications didn't come as any kind of comfort.
As he rose, the guitar solo finally came to an end. The song wasn't supposed to end there, yet it did.
Fitting, he supposed.
Flames enveloped Thrak's body, brought on by his will. It was slow- a testament to Thrak's sheer mass- but nothing dared approach the bonfire as seconds turned to minutes. Only when the skeleton remained, by itself, did he stop.
Without any risk of scavengers trying their luck, it would remain there a long time. It was a traditional burial, if not necessarily from his culture.
Finally, Draga turned away, staring into the darkness beyond. It was time to go.
Onwards and forwards...