Afilada stood over her fallen foe, but she felt no sense of victory. The rest of her party stood around with their heads hung low. The remainder of her party, she should say. Sabi was quietly sobbing, but Afilada’s keen hearing could easily pick it up.
Sabi was a gorilla person and their healer. She was also becoming a talented mage, and it was this split focus that had led to their first casualty. Ayuna’s broken form was lying on the ground beneath her, silently collecting the normally stoic Sabi’s tears.
The dungeon they were currently in wasn’t supposed to be that big of a challenge for them. Other groups had gone through previously, and most escaped relatively unharmed. There had been a series of monsters to fight as the party made their way along a path in the enclosing jungle.
Pierto had been especially happy after the last monster had left behind its rather impressive club. Not only was it bigger and harder than his old one, but it also had an enhancement that caused bonus shadow damage when it hit.
The final obstacle to overcome had been a large beast, twice as tall as Forto, the group’s tank and a rhino person. Its body was covered in plates of hard keratin, and its meaty fists were the size of boulders. It was bipedal like the Corellians, but its head was more monstrous than anything she had ever seen. Rather than a nose it had an oozing hole in its face, and three eyes in a triangle adorned its forehead. It wasn’t fast, but it was capable of turning quickly. Pierto had discovered that early in the fight when he tried to sneak up behind it.
The monster had turned when the tiger person’s fancy new club had smashed into its calf. Little damage was done, but the creature reacted by swinging its arm around and backhanding Pierto across the clearing. Luckily Sabi had cast a shield over him, or the resulting collision with a tree might have caused him serious damage.
Forto was able to recapture the attention of the ugly monster and prevented it from trying to finish him off while he was stunned. Despite that early setback, they were able to regroup and were able to steadily wear down the final boss. It had turned into a long and frustrating battle because its armor was thick enough to repel most of their blows. It was Sabi, mostly, who was able to inflict damage.
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Her mage class had upgraded to an Icemancer at the opal level. She was able to send large icicles shooting up at an angle that allowed them to slide between the plates of armor and impact the tough skin underneath. She was also using her healer class, which had upgraded to Defender, to shield the three melee fighters.
Seeing how little effect they were having, they had mostly stopped trying to inflict wounds, and instead were merely keeping it away from Sabi. Ayuna, the archer, also occasionally sent an arrow or two towards its face, but it had picked up a fallen branch and used it to shield itself.
The fight had dragged on a bit and Afilada, her impatience getting the best of her, had told Sabi to hurry it up. She started sending the icicles in an almost constant stream, quickly shredding its already damaged chest. Channeling her mana to create an even larger icicle, she planned on finishing it off with this last spell.
It was a sight to behold, the shard of ice grew from the size of a finger to a thick shaft that was longer than Sabi herself. Ayuna was momentarily transfixed by the glittery spear of frozen water and didn’t notice the beast’s desperation attack.
It hurled the arrow studded branch, three meters long and around eighty centimeters across, toward the rapidly forming death blow. Its aim was off, however, and it sailed past the channeling mage to catch the slender cheetah person full in the chest. Sabi was too focused on finishing her spell to shield Ayuna, and the force shattered the relatively frail archer’s ribcage.
Hundreds of small shards of bone tore through her internal organs and she was dead before ever realizing what had happened. If Ayuna had been paying proper attention, she could have easily avoided her wooden demise. Or if Sabi hadn’t been channeling so much mana she could have deflected it with one of her shields. If only Afilada hadn’t been in such a rush to have the fight finished…
Pierto was the first to move. He walked up next to their devastated healer and simply placed his hand on her shoulder. Forto followed suit and rested his giant hand on her other shoulder. Neither said anything, but their shared grief allowed Sabi to regain some control of her own emotions.
That left Afilada all alone. Afilada, the fierce cat person who had been banished from her own tribe because of her bloodthirsty nature. Afilada, the one who thrived on arriving here in the tutorial by killing anybody she wanted and taking everything they had. Afilada, the warrior queen who would one day rule this world, regardless of the cost. Afilada, the sad, lonely girl, with a giant ache in her heart and tears on her cheeks.
