Chương 33: Chapter 32: A Fierce Guardian

Caution: You have entered Windbinder Keep dungeon, Levels 6-10. All of your party has entered the dungeon. Lock dungeon instance? The prompt appeared to me as the group of us walked into the mostly intact courtyard. Gelidia stared around at everything as if seeing it with new eyes, her gaze full of deep suspicion as Roxala grunted.

"I'm sealing this instance." the Orc-maiden announced, and I got a new prompt. Dungeon sealed. No-one else may enter this instance of the dungeon. Leaving the dungeon will break the seal.

"That seems pretty straight-forward, instance as in it will open multiple instances of the same place if, say, two or more groups go inside?" I commented, and Gelidia squeezed my hand gently. This left us in a courtyard of sorts.

"Right. This is our trial - this way, no outside surprises will be possible, just the challenges we're dealing with. If it's too much, we just leave. This looks like the Delve room." Roxala said.

"Torch - confirm that please, we don't want any funny business " The Sheildmaiden said, and our scout nodded and scuttled to comply. While he did so, I decided to ask a couple questions!

"What's a Delve room?" I asked and Roxala glanced at Felorikaan, frowning as she turned her attention outward. The Wizard, hands in his sleeves, began to explain.

"A delve room is simply a central chamber - a recurring location that doesn't spawn monsters itself. A checkpoint within the trial itself." he said.

"When you say trial-" I began and he nodded.

"I explained this - the World puts forth dungeons to challenge her children, and to disperse and filter mana into the world in the form of leylines - flows of energy, like veins moving blood and rivers moving water. She is a mother that cares, and as any kind mother, she challenges her children." he said like he very much believed in this. I thought about my own experiences. This World had taken me in as well - adopted me as one of her own?

She was definitely challenging me, I felt, but it didn't feel like that all the time. He'd also, previously, explained that mediocrity wasn't something the World liked. Everyone had been so surprised about my Quest as well - even now, as I thought about it, I saw my Quest again before me: QUEST: Survive, Thrive, Be Free! What did all this mean? What was I supposed to do with this? I mean, live obviously, and.. what? Get stronger? Not be mediocre?

I sighed thoughtfully, and I found the wizard tilting his head at me, searching my face a bit.

"What is it, Goldtail? You look like someone who has something on her mind."

"Just my Quest, you know?" I said, and he nodded.

"Survive, Thrive, Be Free, right? That's... a very broad, open-ended quest for her to give." he said, and I nodded.

"She..." he paused, then continued "doesn't do simple gifts as such. You were given a second chance - and a strange one at that, I've never heard of a Riftwalker coming into the world as a Lycanthrope before, that's a curse - a bad one." he said, then, in a thoughtful tone "... Though, seeing a stabilized Lycanthrope like this, I am coming to rethink that." he said.

"Yeah - it's not bad at all. The change every night isn't fun, but... it's getting easier." I said, like I'd told Torch before. Fel reached over and pat my shoulder in an almost paternal sort of way, saying"Good, good." and he smiled at me "You're wearing it well. How are your attributes?" he asked, and I thought about it. [Health: 200/200] [Stamina: 225/225] [Mana: 95/125]"I'm alright" I said "Burnt most of my mana, but... I think Samu is helping me recover?" I asked, since he had a meditation type skill as well.

"Oh yes, I bet it is. A skill like that will refill your mana more quickly while you're, broadly, filling the requirements." he explained. But how was I regaining mana? It said I recovered more quickly when I worked and when I meditate? He seemed to know what I was thinking, because Fel grinned at me and said "Ah, you are recovering because you are meditating." he explained "You are contemplating matters, we are engaging in a shared moment of introspection. I have been recovering as well."

"Oh! That makes sense too. Thanks for your help understanding this by the way." I said, and he pat me again as Torch returned to us with information at last. The hedges were wildly overgrown, and the place was more of an atrium than anything else, with four pathways stretching off and out of sight around corners. One of the paths was very obvious - it lead straight ahead to a huge imposing door after a short flight of gargoyle-haunted - actually, not gargoyles, they were just monstrous birds!

They haunted the steps leading up anyhow, whatever they were, peering inward at it, and they were large! Much bigger than the hawks they closely resembled, more like... eagles or albatrosses in size. They were imposing! The door they guarded was equally impressive, leading to the heart of the keep as it was. It had silver hawk filigree, and a very obvious keyhole. Locked, obviously!

The second way led off a curving path around the building, and as we made it to the foot of the stairs of the first path, we could see it curved into a doorway on another building. It too had an obvious keyhole... and was just as obviously locked. The third path led the opposite direction of the curved one, and only went a short distance to a big, sturdy looking wood and iron door, a smaller likeness of the larger one I'd torn down. Also-also locked!

We were totally stumped until Gelidia seemed to think of something. She started walking along, manifesting herself in the cool morning air as she thoughtfully tread the grounds of her ancestral home. It was a big place, sure, but... not all that big, really, not from in here. I figured this courtyard was just an annex leading to further buildings deeper inside the keep, but... it didn't seem too big at all.

The shade led us down the second path where we'd looked already, and then down a dirt path that looked like it was seldom used. Even Torch had missed it entirely, and I found myself grinning with the excitement of discovery! It led to a stone stairwell that was especially dark and foreboding in the early morning light, and as Gelidia stepped upon it, we all heard whispers, voices, too many to be counted speaking into our ears. The others clearly just heard whispery voices...

but I got a more complete experience in high-definition, seeing the spectral mouths that framed the voices, saw a twisting, writhing mass of humanity roiling like fog at the bottom of the stairs. My blood froze, and my heart began to pound - for a few moments I could not escape the indepth perception of their twisting horror before my eyes! A whine escaped my lips and the others looked at me. Roxala was pretty sure she had my measure, and stepped forward. She glowered at me, then...

reached out and put her hand on my head. Her huge, warm hand slid to my cheek and lifted my chin.

"What, Goldtail?" she asked.

"I... I..." my breath hitched as I struggled to free myself from the misty shades at the bottom of the stairs, twisting in and out of each other as a single human liquid to look up at her. I tried to speak, but my throat was dry!

"WHAT?" she barked, and I startled! It was like someone had taken the cursed mirror and thrown it down some stairs - my concentration broke, and I snapped out of my terrified stupor.

"S-shades! There are... there's a mist made of shades, and they're all... twisting together and... it's horrible!" I said, tears beading in my eyes. Fel nodded.

"Ahhhah. Deadmist will be a hazard in this crypt. We must light torches, and keep them lit." the Wizard, our resident expert, explained.

"The mist will be frightened away by flame. Do not leave the light, do not touch the mist, and listen to nothing the mist says - it will lead you into traps, at best. At worst, it will siphon away life force from you." he explained, and produced a torch. Roxala did the same, as did Torch. I didn't have one! Torch, being the awesome man he was, pulled one up for me out of his bag. They put their torches together, and I joined them.

With a muttered word and a raised hand, a blue flame shot from Fel's fingertips and in short order, we each held a lit torch in one hand.

"Miss Windbinder, would you like one? I have an extra." Fel said, and Gelidia seemed to consider it. She looked at Fel, opened her mouth, then looked at me. She sighed, and took one.

"I, of all of us, should not need one... they are my ancestors after all, but... I think more lights would be for the best." she explained, and used mine to light her own. In the sharp relief of the torchlight in the morning, I saw something strange - Gelidia cast no shadow. Oh her torch did, but not the woman holding it. Huh. How had I never noticed that before? It didn't really matter. The group got re-ordered.

Gelidia was a guide now - she'd led us here after all, and clearly knew this place better than any of us did, so she went second behind Roxala. I struggled to block out the sound of the Deadmist, and found that I could - I could simply... turn off Wolf-Ren. As I did, I felt... almost blind and nearly deaf. My hearing diminished, and my nose became... almost completely useless! I was stuck seeing through my own eyes and hearing with the two ears on the sides of my head. I could have made my ears lupine, but...

that might mean hearing the whispers again, that might mean... Roxala shook me gently. and I snapped out of my waking nightmare once again to blink dumbly up at her." No falling behind. Pay attention, Emily." she growled, and I nodded at her"S-sorry" I said sheepishly, and she pat my head as if it were perfectly natural, as if I really were just... a dog.

The shameful thing was part of me liked it - the bit that wagged her tail and said LEADER LIKES US SISTER as she trotted along like a puppy behind the group in my mind's eye. Torch went first, holding the flaming brand outward towards the mist.

It resisted for a moment, then seemed to melt away with the faintest of screams of fright, audible just at the edge of my perception. We followed after, and found our way to a door that was not locked. And of course, what is a big door like that for but to creak ominously! This was the door's big moment! The scene it had trained decades for! And it hammed it right up as a result, giving a CREEEEAAAAAAAAKKKKK that was like nails on a chalkboard, echoing into the abyssal chasm before me.

First Floor The system menu didn't get bothered by darkness - it shone clearly into my view, not blinding me, but certainly visible for a moment as phantom text appeared before me then faded into swirling wisps of faces. In the silence after the creaking door... the sound of something deeper within crashing to the ground was surprisingly loud. It sounded... like the top of a sarcophagus. For some reason, even without Wolf-Ren... that was the image conjured in my mind's eye.

We started into the catacombs, torches held up, and soon our hallway gave way to a cavernous space that opened up on the sides and above, but still there was a path before us, one of carved stones in the shapes of faces. The floor on either side looked like... gravel, or perhaps rough earth? Rubble maybe? It was hard to tell, but as the Deadmist receded... it never went far.

It hovered at the edge of the firelight of each torch, flowing inward towards us where darkness hit, and darting back when we shone the light towards it. Torch formed up beside Roxala, and hissed between his teeth.

"Nearly touched me, it was that close..." he breathed, and Roxala nodded. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Change of formation. Stay close to each other. Try to keep each other illuminated as much as possible." she said, and we became a ring of sorts, fire keeping the mist at bay, the only darkness permitted being the kind between our bodies. Progression down the path like that was slow going. The fire always frightened away the shades, but.. never for long. Not long... not long at all. And amidst our own footsteps, it seemed to me that there were more than our own movements accounted for.

The moment we noticed, the moment we stopped to listen, it stopped too. With my senses turned off, I couldn't pinpoint where it was as we made it to a wall with a doorway that was too narrow for the amoeba party we'd become to go all at once. It had been a straight shot from the entrance to the crypt to this doorway... and I was increasingly certain that we were not alone down here, that something was watching us. Torch went down the hallway first, then Roxala. Then Gelidia as I backed toward the doorway.

Fel went next, almost hurrying in his eagerness to get away from the growing malevolence in the room with us. I was transfixed a moment, swinging the torch back and forth as I glared out at the darkness. And then something long-limbed and pale shot out at me!

I caught a glimpse of long black hair that grew out from the thing's head like a crazy mane, manic movements on a sinewy form and clawed hands before one closed on my head and with a shriek of triumph, it jerked me forward and into the mist, leaving my body to follow along behind like the tail of a comet! It must have thrown me - it had to have, because I found myself flying bodily through the air only to strike something stone with my back on the flat, instantly knocking the wind out of my lungs!

Then, the thing was on me! It grabbed my arms and pinned them, and sank dull, jagged teeth right into my throat as I screamed in pain and horror! Its leather skin was harsh, and its mouth was dry, making the gnash of its teeth as it drew blood from my throat all the more shockingly painful!

"EMILY!" Fel cried, and I could hear Roxala giving orders as I writhed and screamed in this thing's grasp until its teeth bit into my windpipe like a wolf grasping prey, silencing me as it shivered in malevolent delight. My world, already shrouded in darkness, was beset by the hideous Deadmist and narrowed to a tunnel as I began to shiver uncontrollably, as I felt my strength being sapped away as whispers pleaded with me, hissed viciousness into my ears, begged me for things I could not understand.

And then another spirit arose in me, one that clawed its way to the surface in the darkness my mind was becoming. This one was warm - fiery even, and I felt drawn to it inside me, like a frozen person on a cold and rainy night. In my mind's eye, my hand touched the glassy surface... of the mirror. ENOUGH The voice of my Wolf roared through me, and as her voice came, so came her inhuman fury as we switched places.

She roared into my body and into my blood with such force that I actually cried out around the jaws that were suddenly forced open around my throat! I felt my flesh change around the creature's jaws, heightening my agony, and suddenly I found myself pinning the creature's mouth against my throat in a hideous embrace that made the creature try to recoil as I trapped its mouth where it was by leaning into it... and expanding. Strength flooded my body, and with it... rage. Raw, red rage.

I accepted it - gladly relinquished myself to the Beast inside me, and... She used my hand to wrench our arm free, shredding our skin on the ghoul's claws, only to slug it full-on across the jaw. One moment there was a horrible beastie trying to eat me, and then... no more beastie! The word surged back towards me as breath again filled my lungs, Wolf activating my Wolf-Ren once again as I slid to all fours and pain blossomed over my body like the fur that swallowed me in moments!

The Deadmist cloyed and clung to my form as through it, I could suddenly see the horror that had grabbed me, see its eight foot frame, gangling like a big ugly spider, arms and legs bent unnaturally as it crouched, eyes wide with horror of its own as I transformed before it. It wasn't the only one either - there were several other of these creatures that had been skittering towards our deadly embrace, staring wide-eyed as I became a great wolf before their eyes!

Suddenly, their size difference wasn't so marked as it had been. Suddenly I wasn't the soft, helpless prey they'd hungered for. My trousers split in a shower of agony, and I lamented the loss of them. I managed to kick off my moccasins, or, perhaps convince my wolf to do so, but the pants were a lost cause as my legs lengthened and grew muscle, splitting them. The tunic was damaged, certainly, the neck very much widened and torn a bit by my widening throat as blood oozed over it from my bite-wound.

Courage seemed to muster in the creature before me, and he screamed at me - a wordless, horrified, defiant cry of hunger and hatred! Ghoul, Level 8, Terrified, Hungry You have heard the cry of a fearsome creature! Your soul is shaken! My human heart quailed at the sound of these things, but my Wolf had a definite way with words and knew just how to respond! She loosed a roar that literally shook the catacombs around us!, and seemed to knock the stuffing out of the ghoul. A cursed cry pierces the darkness!

Death has come, and your enemies will know fear! I was barely aware that Roxala had staggered under the weight of the sound that had filled the enclosed space, while Torch and Fel had buckled against each other, almost totally overcome by terror. RIP AND TEAR! My wolf could not even possibly have gotten the reference, but I felt our body surge forward even so! The Ghoul wanted little to do with that, and tried to scrabble backward with a wheezing shriek of fright as Wolf turned the game around on it.

Jaws closed on a leg, and with furious strength, we bodily dragged the terrified ghoul back away from its companions. It rounded on us with furious speed, but my Wolf instinctively hardened herself against it, and we lost only a few hitpoints as the claws raked across our still-bleeding neck and face, trying to claw out our eyes. Pain blossomed, but it was about as relevant as a distant thunderstorm as Wolf bit down with a horrible dry crunching noise. Suddenly, the Ghoul's leg was off! She'd bitten it clean off!

She got another grip on the thing's thigh, and... planted a paw on the thing's opposite thigh. Then she, with a single savage, brutal motion, wishboned the ghoul from tail to chest as the thing shrieked in agony. The sheer fury and satisfaction that Wolf felt startled me, and once again I realized how dangerous a monster I actually could be, how... how good it felt to get this kind of destructive vengeance.

Next thing I knew, we were staring up at the other ghouls, our paw pressing on the still nightmarishly alive undead monstrosity's head, pinning the higher-level creature with ease. THEY WILL SEE. With barely any noticeable effort, we crushed the thing's head into an inert paste like a melon with a horrible CRUNCH and SQUISH. They actually jerked back and jumped at the sight and sound of it, their bulbous eyes huge as a lumbering growl sounded from my breast with the fury of a savage beast. They were cowards.

They were beneath my contempt! Was that my emotion, or Wolf's? Was there really a difference? After what had happened, the vengeance, the comeuppance, the fear they were showing me, it was a balm to my heart, a comfort. PATHETIC. FEAST ON US WILL THEY? Then... Gelidia slid her hand through my fur and stood beside me, breaking the spell. She didn't try to hold me, didn't try to stop me, she just...

touched me, gave me her presence and pushed back the mist that clouded my eyes and with them the fell whispers in my ears entirely with the light of her torch. She'd reached me first, of course... and I could feel her necklace around my neck, the choker chain, almost burningly cold. Had she used it to reach me?

"My Hound." Gelidia said as a simple statement, unperturbed by the sight of me covered in the ghoul's viscous black gore. The creature I'd brutally slain only then began to turn to white motes and dust as it despawned, giving up the ghost at last. Ghost. Heh!

"I see you've met the Least." she said, and sneered at the ring of owlish stares. I scraped my paw clean of ichor, and let out a growl that perfectly encapsulated how we both, Wolf and I, felt about the encounter. They'd cost me a pair of pants, and they'd almost eaten me!

"This pathetic assortment disgraced the family as cowards and traitors, the lot. Interred here as a final act of grace, by custom and practice." she said, and she couldn't have harmed them more if she'd rained blows or magic upon their heads. They groveled before Gelidia, and simpered, even tried to crawl towards her on hands and knees.

"The dishonored dead." she said, and there was something approaching... pity in her voice. NOT ANOTHER STEP Get away from her, you bastards! The deep, savage snarl that flowed up from parts unknown within me had the ghouls cowering back again as I rolled a half step towards them, unwilling to break Gelidia's touch on my arm. Were there people in these... these wretched things? Were these people? Then it hit me. How had Gelidia spoken to the Guard captain?

How had she made the citizens understand her if they were out of control monsters? She had power over them. She was their... mistress, I supposed, the Lady of their lands, the... duke's daughter, the one who would have inherited things one day. Bowing and scraping, they cowered back from me and hissed in fright as their eyes reflected the torchlight of the other oncoming adventurers.

Fel and Roxala paused in their approach, seeing the scene, And Gelidia turned her head to them to nod at them as she pet down my neck to my ears, giving them a tussle. My tail wagged a bit, and I felt curiously comforted, inside and out, by the cool touch. I'd often noticed how much it helped me... but it was more marked than before. It made my fury melt away. Not completely, but... it helped. I was... We... we were dangerous when roused. We were not safe creatures. But shit... who was, really? Anyone could snap.

I wish I could say I'd never snapped before. Note like this, but... I was not blameless. This had all come from inside me - Wolf just used it. I remembered the Raiders, and... I remembered the way he'd died after I'd surprised him with a baseball bat. I remembered the noises he'd made as he died, gagged to death on his own tongue. Turns out... there's a little bone in your throat, and the blow with the bat had snapped it, collapsed his neck.

The memory horrified me - sure, objectively I knew he'd tried to kill me, and he'd have made it take longer out of sheer spite... but... that didn't change the fact I was far from a blameless person. His death hadn't been quick and I'd felt the same sort of grim satisfaction as I did now. Maybe that was why the World had offered me the Red Hand? Maybe this... exactly this right here, was the reason. I felt sick. What if this had been a person? Wasn't it already a person?

HE WOULD HAVE EATEN US Yeah, but- HIS DEATH WAS SWIFT Not as swift as it could have been! THEY SAW Is this what we are? A killer? Are we going to kill anyone who crosses us? Are we going to revel in blood and death, sister? My mental image of myself sank against the mirror to my knees, horror seeming to sap my strength away. There was a pause... and I heard my Wolf's claws click click click on the floor of my mindscape... before her face pressed against me through the mirror.

OF COURSE NOT wolf said, and her my mental image of her nuzzled me as she relinquished control again, offered me back the reigns. WE ARE NOT A KILLER. WE ARE NOT PREY. WE PROTECT THOSE WHO ARE OURS. We're... we're a guardian. We... protect others. SOMETIMES THAT MEANS WE MUST KILL my wolf said, and I knew... she was right. BE STRONG. WE ARE A TEAM. I AM WATCHING OUT FOR US. she said. TRUST IN ME AS I TRUST IN YOU. I do.

"Are you alright?" Roxala asked, as I began to change shape again. The crypt's cold air suited me fine, and Gelidia kept her hand in my hair. Even if it hurt, it also suited me fine. This time... my senses would stay on. The mist... was mindless. It wasn't a person, I realized, it was... just another part of the test, like... the ghouls. They cringed and stared at us and as my face became human again, I nodded, never taking my eyes off them.

"I'll be alright" I said, and my throat had a raspy burr to it. It was already mostly healed, but... it burned and ached dreadfully. I spat a foul taste out of my mouth, and found a... hideous bone chip and a bit of mummified tendon there, along with some of the foul black ichor. It tasted... like rotten meat and spoiled milk - disgusting! Some notifications were waiting for me, but I let them bide. For now... I just wanted to get out of this room. Even so, I checked my status.

[Health: 140/200] [Stamina: 190/225] [Mana: 90/125] I'd... definitely felt that. I had no idea how much damage the Ghoul had done, but... it had felt terrible, like it had almost killed me - I assumed this was the case. Rising, I looked down at my shirt and bottomless body. With a sigh, I adjusted, pulling off the belt and adjusting the tunic. One shoulder comfortably slipped out, and it became like a single-shoulder dress, and I pulled my other arm out of the sleeve, leaving it free. Not ideal...

but it nearly hung to my knees, so it was probably fine. You'd see worse on the street every day, apart from the blood and ichor! Man, I needed clothes.