Challenge Lost(?)


He barely registers how the surroundings have changed, barely registers how he's now once again crowded with Aegis and Adriel in front of the Inn bulletin boards

"She was... I felt her..."

Aegis was in disbelief, staring down at his hands as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. A man, a Cryptic Riese, notices and looks concerned but he can't even bring himself to look at him, not when Riese, their Riese, who he's known since he was a little kid, had just—

Just...

No. No no no no no no nononono—

"Ugh, I did not block that right..."

He whips right around to stare because no frickin' way—

"Riese?!"

"You did great, though," the not-dead Riese, who he had just seen get ripped apart in a vicious deluge of powerful energy, tells him casually, an easy smile on her face. "Good hustle, you two."

"You're—you're..."

He stops. She was alive—miraculously alive—but... by the looks of things, only barely. That last attack left her bleeding from dozens of still-weeping wounds, visible through the wreckage that was all that was left of her Cryptic uniform.

"But man, that last hit came so close to hitting you," she says, still bleeding liberally from her multitude of injuries. Her dragon looked angry as he flew in circles around her, eyes gleaming with light as his magic began to slowly seal her wounds shut. A losing battle, given that she was bleeding out even as she spoke. "You really need to be more careful back there, Ash. You could've died!"

There was a gash, he notices, at her back, one that had torn through the armor there. Through it, he could see her insides. As he watched, some of her guts spilled out onto the floor. It was oddly mesmerizing and he wants to vomit really badly.

"That's a lesson to be learned," she grunts, rolling her shoulders forward and back. "Alright, break's over. One more time!"

"Wait, don't—"


"Geez," she grumbles in the aftermath of their second battle against the Unraveler Ex. He could see her teeth moving through the hole in her cheek. "I can't believe I forgot to restock my Hero's Diet! Rookie mistake. Alright, wait here for a second, guys, I'll be right back!"

"Wait—"


"Whiffed the timing, I'm so dumb," she huffs. Where her armor normally exposed her abs currently exposed her ribcage and, through those, her lungs. "Again!"


"Does she have a death wish?" he finds himself asking after the thirteenth bout, when their Riese had once again sprinted off to buy another 'Hero's Diet', instructions scribbled hastily on her palm so that she wouldn't forget to come back, never mind the fact that the hand that palm was on was only barely attached to her wrist by centimeters of skin.

By now, he knows from experience that she will at least drink a potion before actually teleporting back home to Falconreach so that she at least wouldn't be on the brink of death on arrival. Just as he knows, from experience, that she only drank the potions to alleviate their concerns and not out of concern for her own welfare. His gaze was fixed on the far distance. "Tell me, does she?"

"Nah, of course not," says a Riese by the fireplace, a male one in the bone plate and robes of a Necromancer.

"Not at all," another female Riese says, this one clad in the dark armor of a Death Knight.

"Why would any of us want that?" a third says comfortably, this one dressed in the rimed garb of an Icebound Revenant, deathly pallor even more apparent in the firelight.

Aegis only looks at him, his gaze numb-eyed, before slowly looking away. He was shivering.

He sighs. "Of course."


"Gah, I mistimed my Illusion—come on, one more time!"


By this point in time, he doesn't know how many times he's seen her fall (saving him, saving Aegis, fighting, always fighting), only that it was a number more than zero, and that was absolutely unacceptable, to him, to Aegis, to her dragon, and to the world at large because—there is just no way he can believe that this is acceptable to anyone.

He's not sure if it's instinct or training or something else entirely when it happens but it does. Somehow, he's already in place before Riese could react, arms extended as he did his best to create the strongest barrier he can muster, his friend safely behind him and the shield both. Safe.

The Unraveler unleashes an attack at full force, pillars of energy bombarding his shield one after the other. His barrier breaks. His armor breaks. He keeps on standing. Riese is safe behind him. Alive. Unhurt. The Unraveler's onslaught is put to a stop as Aegis slams his shield into its back with all the force of a blizzard. Riese is still safe behind him.

It is only then that he allows himself to fall.

Her scream wrenches through the air, through the din that fills his ears. She rushes to his side, her eyes filled with terror like he's never seen from her before. Her face fills his field of vision as his vision blurs into black, horror palpable on her face.

All the same, he is smiling

I saved you.


Ash wakes up to a familiar ceiling, his head pounding.

What was going on? Where was he? He was... he was in a bed, not his own, his Princess' sword propped up next to the nightstand. On a chair near his bedside, Aria was dozing, From the looks of it, he had to be in the Serenity Inn but... how did he get here? And what's that taste?! For some reason, the inside of his mouth tasted a foul combination of health potion and moldy biscuits. Last he remembered, Riese had been asking him... something. What that was, he couldn't quite remember through the pounding in his skull.

"Ash...? Ash! You're awake!"

"Hey, Aria. What are you doing here?"

"I was worried about you! Riese said you got knocked out in a fight."

"Did I?" His head hurt but he forced himself to sit up anyway. Aside from the headache, he couldn't feel any injuries… "How long was I out?"

"A few hours. You've been out since she carried you in." She looked at him worriedly. "What happened?"

"I..." His head was spinning. He could remember... bits and pieces of a fight but whenever he tried to focus on them they just— "I don't remember," he admits.

"Makes sense. You took a real blow to the noggin out there…"

"Riese!" He says, relieved. He hadn't noticed but the Hero had been standing by the doorway the whole time. Once a Rogue... He shook his head. "Are you alright?"

"'Course I am," she says with an awkward little laugh, unable to meet his eyes. "How about you? I treated your wounds before bringing you to Twilly, but… how do you feel? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Really," he says, at her skeptical look. "I have a headache but aside from that…" He flexes his arm forward and back. "I'm all good."

"Still." She looked unconvinced. "You should probably take it easy for the next couple of days. Twilly said so. After all, you were pretty concussed before…" her voice trails off as her eyes met his. She swallows, before continuing. "Ash, I'm really, really sorry. When I asked for your help, I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I swear, I-"

"Hero, Hero—Riese!" Her eyes snap to meet his, hers wide and scared and filled with self-recrimination. He does his best to smile. "It's fine. Really, I knew there were going to be risks when I agreed to come with you. This is all just part of being an adventurer, right?" He waits until she nods, even if it did seem a little half-hearted on her part, before forging on. "I just got knocked out. It happens, right?"

"I guess so." She still didn't seem too convinced but he took it as a victory that she conceded even that much. "Anyway, I... brought you a little something," she says nervously, all in a rush. "Here. I made these while you were out. Take it. It's the least I could do."

It was a small but heavy picnic basket. Even before opening it, he can smell cookies.

Honor obliged him to refuse the gift as unnecessary, to reassure her that he doesn't blame her at all for what happened (whatever it was) but...

She made great cookies. Besides, it would be even ruder to refuse a gift, wouldn't it?

"You really didn't have to but thanks," he says, fishing out a cookie and taking a bite. Oatmeal chocolate chip, still warm and fresh and fragrant. "Mmm."

It was a little-known fact but, outside of battle, her hobbies included cooking, needlework, and other such crafts. Apparently, it was just more practical given how often she had to camp away from civilization but she did once privately admit that she also just found it relaxing. According to her, baking was almost as relaxing as sharpening her knives. Very high praise, coming from her.

"How did I get knocked out?" he asks, once he's finished his bite, looking up at her as he offered Aria the basket, with Aria happily taking a cookie for herself. "My head's still pretty fuzzy. I can't even remember what we were fighting!"

"Ah, you were knocked out because of… " She frowns before shaking her head. "Honestly, it doesn't matter. I can't even remember. When you got knocked out, I was so scared for you, I just… anyway, it probably wasn't anything important," she says, smiling. "Again, I'm really sorry for getting you hurt. Really."

"It's fine! Risk of the job, right?" Something feels wrong in a way he can't quite put his finger on. Surely he was forgetting something important? Earlier, when she invited him to go on a quest, wasn't it for—

What was it again?

Before he can ask Riese, she frowns and crosses her arms, not at him but at—

"Adri, I told you, we have cookies at home. Don't take Ash's!" Her dragon slinks back away from the basket, looking rather grumpy. Aria giggles at the sight of him. "Don't give me that look, I made a separate batch for you." Then she turns to him, a rueful smile on her face. "Hey, I'm really sorry but I should get going. Dinnertime, y'know? Very big deal for dragons."

"I understand," he says, smiling. "Thanks a lot for the cookies. I'm really sorry I couldn't be of more help with... " His voice trails off and he looks at her expectantly.

"The quest, yeah," she says distractedly, eyes fixed on her dragon following behind, still staring at the cookies. "It wasn't anything important. Honestly, I'm more upset you were hurt."

"It's fine! Really!" He feels like he has to repeat himself. "Even you get knocked out sometimes, right?" Though, in all honesty, he can't remember the last time she was defeated in battle. Even now that he's an adult and an established hero in his own right, there are times when she just looks... invincible. Silly, he knows, but he can't help it, she's been his hero since he was a kid. "It's no big deal."

She looked unconvinced but still smiles. "If you say so. For now, get some rest, okay? Even if things didn't turn out too well, thanks for the help."

It is only when she's gone that he finally remembers something he's forgotten.

He forgot his Princess' birthday yesterday!


omake (?)

Back in the Inn at the Edge of Time, the Eternal Epoch Riese stares at the door where her past self and Aegis had just bodily hauled out Ash's unconscious body and sighs, staring down at the pages of her journal where the words NEVER BRING ANYONE BUT ADRIEL TO THE INN were written. Had just been written, in her past self's case. All because of the incident with the Unraveler Ex...

Again, without meaning to, she sighs, calling the attention of the innkeeper, the Avatar of Time Riese.

"Is something wrong?" she asks.

She shakes her head. "Nothing's wrong with me now, it just... honestly, after seeing what just happened, it just really gets my goat that, well..." She fiddles with the locket around her neck, her expression conflicted. After seeing her past self's panic as she hauled Ash back home, it felt almost disrespectful to even think of it but she couldn't help it. After all...

"It just really gets my goat that after I got my Eternal Epoch stuff, it was so easy Adri and I beat it by ourselves on the first try."


Sometimes you just gotta own a calendar.

I actually beat Exraveler with Cryptic recently, no guests (for obvious reasons), "just" a fully trained dragon. It was surprisingly easy (no potions/Hero Diet), considering how unbeatable the thing felt on release (even with hilarious 200 Protection only dragon shenanigans). Either it's because of all the new equipment options or because of nerfs I didn't notice. Or both. Both is probably the right answer. I mean, it could also be that I've improved but I wouldn't bet on that.

Ash was a trash guest, btw. His shield didn't work then. Pretty sure it still sucks. 40 BPD is basically nothing.

Headcanon reason for no guests in the inn is that seeing Ash 'die' in the inn, even if it was only temporary, was so traumatic that she refused to let it happen again. Though personally, I absolutely used guests as meatshields when Exaltia Apex first came out

Anyway, I enjoyed writing this. I hope someone liked it.