CHAPTER THREE-HUNDRED NINETY-FIVE

Rezlar

It’s time. He and his friends stand just outside the gates to Lord Thedeim’s territory, each building their courage for what they’re about to do. To onlookers, they appear to be steeling themselves for their most challenging delve yet. Each of them has their best kit, with even Pul having a few nice bits of gear he’s managed to pick up as loot. And besides that, they each have a spatial pouch with over a dozen of Rhonda’s freezebangs, to give them the extra edge they need to be able to delve in the branches of the Tree of Cycles.

Yet all four know that’s only the cover. Their true purpose today is more dangerous still. Not only will they be delving and fighting more difficult denizens than ever before, but they have to fake Rezlar’s death… via a fall from the high branches.

Rezlar trusts in his friends and Lord Thedeim, but he’s still nervous about everything. How could he not be? It’s a dangerous thing to do… and yet likely more dangerous to not try.

Freddie inhales deeply and steps forward, opening the gates before giving everyone an encouraging smile. “Alright. We all know what we have to do, and we all know how to do it. We’ll grab quests once we get into the forest, then we’ll start our climb.”

They all follow Freddie into the cemetery, each nervously hoping Rezlar won’t be staying there permanently after today. Grim awaits not far inside, and he gives them all a nod as they go. It helps calm Rezlar some, but not completely. If Grim isn’t worried, he should be fine, right?

He sure hopes so.

The walk through the graveyard feels longer than usual, though Rezlar shakes his head once they step through to the Forest of Four Seasons. There is no room for doubt now. He believes in his friends and in Lord Thedeim. He silences the little niggling voices in the back of his mind and strides steadily for the aranea grove, looking over the hanging signs for quests.

“Should we all get herbalism ones?” he asks, breaking the quiet tension that has settled over his friends.

Rhonda jumps a little before regaining her composure. “No, we… we should all get ones for our own skills.”

Freddie chuckles and grabs one to gather armory honey. “Then mine’s easy, at least. I don’t think they have much in the way of mining nodes up in the tree, though,” the orc paladin replies, doing his best to project confidence and tranquility at what they need to do today. Rezlar would believe it, if Fiona’s mandibles weren’t constantly twitching as she rides the orc’s back.

Pul takes a quest to butcher a few dire ravens, as well as a quest to kill a couple. “I hope we don’t run into one of those harpies. They give me the creeps.”

Rezlar chuckles as he nods. “They are a bit… unnerving. I hear they’re working on something involving safeguarding loot.”

“I heard about that,” comments Rhonda as she takes an herbalism quest as well as one to clear an armory fort. “I’ve only heard a few adventurers using it so far. Apparently, there are baskets scattered around, especially around the vines to reach the higher levels. If you put loot into them, some denizens will come to fight, and once you win, a harpy will land on the basket, and you can tell it where to take it.”

Pul shudders at that. “All I know is I’ve seen a few sitting on their baskets in the middle of the training yard at the guild, watching people move around. It’d make sense for them to be guarding the loot.”

Freddie nods. “Karn is working on making a better area for them to drop things off, and making them understand he can keep the adventurers’ loot safe until they return.” He smirks as he takes a quest to fight some armory bees. “I hear he’s having trouble with them handing over the stuff, though.”

Rezlar laughs at the image of the skinny orc fending off a harpy as it shouts about keeping the treasure safe. “I’m sure they’ll come around eventually. I believe they’ll be the first denizens working so directly with the guild, so there’s bound to be some growing pains.”

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Silence descends once again as they accept their quests, though this time much more comfortable than the last. They all doublecheck they’re prepared, and take a moment to go over their map to decide their route.

“I think this one in Summer will be our best vine to climb. It’s a pretty popular armory fort, so the denizens can only reinforce it so much before another group comes along. It also means a bit less in the way of loot, but we’re here to challenge ourselves today, not get rich,” outlines Freddie. “We’ll probably want to stick to the well-traveled areas once into the middle branches, and we should be able to do most of our quests there. Depending on how well the freezebangs work, we might try to push for the canopy, but we’ll have to see once we get there, first.”

The others glance at Rezlar, making sure he’s ready, and he nods. “Let’s go.”

And so they do. The trek through spring is a good warm up which really showcases how well they all work together. They understand how the denizens fight, what their weaknesses are, and how to ensure their allies can strike those weaknesses. Even the direbear isn’t a match for them, as Pul slips inside its reach to strike at its limbs, numbing them for a few seconds and giving the others an opening and the time to team up to strike heavy blows. They don’t worry about trying to keep the hide intact, at least not yet. They need a few more levels before they’ll be comfortable holding back enough to be able to get a useable hide.

The fight with the armory fort is their first testing of the freezebangs, and the bramble defenses cannot stand to the flash-freeze, while the bees are disoriented by the flash and bang. A bit of kinetic oomph from Freddie and Rhonda sees the defenses breached, and Pul and Rezlar sweep through to deal with the bees. It’s not an easy battle, but by the end, they don’t suffer any wounds a potion can’t fix up.

They take a well earned break as Freddie gathers the honey for his quest.

“Are we… all ready for the next part?” asks Pul, the disguised changeling nervous about what will soon be done.

Rhonda looks nervous, but Rezlar nods. “Yes. It won’t be easy, but we’re as prepared as we’re going to get.”

Rhonda fidgets, taking a few moments to carefully word her reply. “Are you worried about the tension between the mayor and the Earl?”

Rezlar chuckles. “A bit, but this delve is about getting strong enough to deal with that, right?”

Freddie walks up, tucking the flask of honey into a belt pouch. “Is everyone all rested up?”

Rezlar nods and stands, with Rhonda and Pul following, and soon they head off higher into the branches. He knows the branch as soon as he sees it, something about it making his course clear. “Here it is. There’s a lot of dire ravens, so we should be liberal with the freezebangs.”

Freddie nods as Rhonda and Pul steel themselves, and nod with conviction a few moments later. They step forward as a team, Freddie and Fiona creating a wall of shields together while the others lob freezebangs at the large birds before they can take to the air. Even with the initiative and the freezebang potions, the young group is only just able to keep ahead of the dire ravens. They’re fast and smart, able to nimbly dodge the potions once they take to the skies. Rezlar notes the potions going over the edge and the muffled impacts of them hitting the vines underneath.

Freddie and Fiona intercept the attacks from the birds as Rezlar and Pul continue to throw the potions, with Rhonda and Lucas working to detonate the flasks with spells to take the birds by surprise. They eventually run out of potions before they run out of birds, and are forced to handle the last few with more ordinary attacks and spells. But they manage. To Rezlar’s surprise, he’s pretty sure the dire ravens weren’t holding back, either. They actually were able to hold their own. It couldn’t be called a fair fight with them starting it with a barrage of alchemical attacks, but they still won!

They split up to harvest and otherwise loot the bodies on the branch, with Pul and Rezlar checking the bodies together. “Here,” whispers Rezlar, and Pul takes a deep breath.

“Here goes nothing…” he murmurs, more to himself than Rezlar, before his leg flashes out in a vicious kick, catching the noble elf in the center of his chest. Some part of him is surprised at the sheer force of the kick, while another notes that the changeling is already sprinting away, almost vanishing off the branch before Rezlar even reaches the peak of his arc and starts truly falling.

He wants to scream, but Pul must have managed to do his numbing trick with that attack, too. Thankfully, Freddie and Rhonda’s yells are enough to draw the attention of anyone in the area. He has to trust Lord Thedeim has enough witnesses, because he can’t pick them out as the greenery rushes by him, faster and faster.

Rose sits in his pocket, growing more and more nervous as the ground approaches, but Rezlar feels confident as the thicket of brambles grows ever closer. He can see the subtle shimmer of Fluffle’s wings through the thick green, before he closes his eyes and covers his head. Even if he doesn’t hit the ground, he’s going to crash through the brambles before the scion can catch him.

Pain rips at him for a moment before he feels soft wings around him, and he smiles even as he feels the blood welling along the scratches from his rough landing. He’s safe. And soon… he’ll get to see Lord Thediem’s core.