CHAPTER 17 – THE AFTERMATH OF GUT PUNCHES

  Aetheris Dungeon – Boss Room – Erebus

  ***

  Gideon didn’t need to be carried anywhere which would have been way too much when he was already listening to several minutes of shit being thrown his way all in the form of L’Sana standing over him snort laughing. At least she was periodically wiping his mucus covered face with a fancy handkerchief that looked like she had taken it from the Dungeon with its extravagant embroidery and the white and pale blue coloring, well that, and the big lettering AL in big letters on both sides of it.

  He luckily hadn’t over-used his Spirit as he had before just emptied it so was only out for a minute or two. The bath he was getting had been going on for a hot sec even before he’d opened his eyes. A few minutes of this and he’d finally mustered enough energy to prop himself up on his elbow and scan everywhere for his Uncle ignoring the Notifications hammering at his vision but all he got was another bath of liquid all over his face then the quickly dirtying handkerchief rubbed roughly, then more laughter and even his eyes needed to be wiped off all the while a leering L’Sana above him continued with her pattoned snort attack. How the hell the woman had that much nasal liquid in her was mind boggling. Did she have a cold or something? At least it confirmed he hadn’t been out very long if he was still getting the snot bath. He tried to look past her and her humor turned to one of compassion.

  “He’s fine Gideon. Ari got to him in time. It was close though. His Health was as far in red as one could go without dying. She’s out of Spirit though so we will have to wait a bit to get healed up. The whole party already went through the few Life Elixirs, one to help her keep Marcus this side of the grave and the couple others to help a bit with the overall fucked up condition we were all in putting the tin cans down.”

  Gideon finally registered that L’Sana was battered and one of the ones that was fucked up. One side of her face was one giant bruise and had to hurt to even breathe much less talk. Her armor also looked battered to shit and she had blood leaking out near her hip. Looked like she took a thrust from one of those big two-handers and since her armor wasn’t rent where the blood was seeping it would have had to have been when she was in her beast form.

  Gideon was bruised and whatever that Astral energy did had hurt his Spirit and his body and unfortunately the only Life Elixir he had he’d given to Marcus against the Jailers. They had been hard pressed in this Dungeon and once again confirmed what everyone had been saying about the Iron Dungeons being accurate. If a party as Elite as theirs came this close to losing one of their party then anything less would have. He would need to throw an order that any party wishing to enter an Iron Dungeon would have to get approval before being allowed to.

  With another Challenge from the System on the horizon they could not afford any heavy losses in their fighting force. L’Sana’s fingers flicked against his forehead snapping his entire head back. Damn, he actually felt that. His emerald eyes found her violet ones and even with her face fucked up with heavy bruising she was still the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  “Erebus to Gideon, come in Gideon?”

  She chuckled and he couldn’t resist smiling back. She put her hands to his cheeks then her own mouth followed to his lips giving him a gentle touch before lifting her head off then flicking him in the forehead again. ‘Ow.’ Damn woman. She chuckled.

  “This was close Giddy. We almost lost someone and you need to take a look at the Fredster. He’s pretty fucked up but holy hell Ari told me no matter how messed up he was he wouldn’t let the Justicar get near her or Marcus. Even with one leg useless and his head all deformed he still held onto an ankle long enough for Danny and I to take the fucker out. And speaking of Danny, holy hell, when Marcus was hurt I had a sec to take a look see and she grabbed the tin can that hurt him and did one of her screamy things right into his helmet with her face a few inches away. Made a damn flat pancake of that fucker’s skull.”

  Gideon needed to get his ass up and check on everyone but his body was sluggish from bottoming out his Spirit. One would think he’d be used to it. Noticing the difficulty L’Sana grabbed him by his shoulder and lifted him up as easy as a toddler. Damn, what was her Strength nowadays? She saw his look almost snorting then flexing a bicep. She was ridiculous. Her voice was filled with mirth but he did see her put a hand to her wounded side from lifting him and then laughing. Blood was seeping from underneath her armor., not a lot but at her level it meant she’d taken a huge hit.

  “I know my strength is impressive and you know I know that you know who wears the pants in this relationship. In fact I’ve had Unra announcing that to the theater audiences before every new film plays every Tuesday and Thursday. Anything more and people would think I’m boasting. (Snort) I am a giver and a sharer I know.”

  She chuckled more. He tuned her out and ignored her otherwise she would keep going. She was like Ari and Freddie that way and it was also a game between them that had begun in the Tutorial within the first days of their bond.

  He slid around her and left her to her snort/chuckling and heard the whispered words that trailed him.

  “Loot time baby. Momma got loot coming.”

  Gideon was about to smile until he saw Freddie limping towards him. Holy fuck. He looked like some demented parody of what he used to be. He was still in his pitbull shape but his head was completely caved in on one side, one eye destroyed, and his right foreleg was bent sideways so he was limping over to Gideon. He didn’t think Freddie felt pain but he’d never actually asked. No time like the present. He went to one knee and Freddie quickened his pace a bit just like a hurt dog would to get to the loving embrace of his Master.

  “Are you alright Freddie? Does it hurt?”

  Freddie’s voice was utterly distorted as if he was having trouble forming words.

  “Ye..sss….hurts..Electr….electronic systems mal...malfunctioning...causing..spa..sparks to shock ... my data...processors. Equivalent..of...pain. Protect my….Bestie...and Uncle.”

  Gideon picked him up and held him. He couldn’t imagine what Freddie had to go through when he literally had no Class and his Attributes were extremely weak compared to an Iron Ranked Citizen. Based on Ari’s eyes frozen on Freddie and his condition with tears in her eyes Freddie had once more made another big impact on her heart. He was not small but compared to Gideon’s Strength Attribute and his own 6’7” frame, not difficult to carry.

  He felt the rumbling as if Freddie was attempting to groan or cry. He didn’t think petting him did anything but hell he didn’t think his little buddy felt pain either so he threw some pets which seemed to calm him as he stepped closer to the rest of their party. Ari looked like she was wrung out and had a wing that looked broken, hanging limply against her side while Danny, with her mask up, looked to have a fucked up leg, knee down, bent in the wrong direction.

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  His Uncle though. His pallor was ghost like as if he was dead but Gideon could see the slow rise and fall of his chest. They had his armor and undershirt off and the scar on his chest looked like raw meat. He’d been healed but the wound that would cause that was brutal. If it had even been six inches to the left he would have been dead with no chance at being healed.

  Fifth party member coming down the pipe as soon as they got back. His reasoning on trust not withstanding, his choice was gimping them and almost led him to losing the only blood he had left. This entire Dungeon had been a hard counter to Marcus whose whole build relied on messing with people’s emotions and perception. Hopefully Unra found someone good with her competition.

  Ari lifted her snout and sang [The Melody of Crescent Dreams], a haunting but hopeful song tilting through the empty throne room. The bodies of the Aetherborn had been taken back by the System as his eyes took in the room.

  His resources like everyone else’s started pumping up from the song. The Ability had a heavy resource cost for Ari, especially the Iron Ranked version but it was a smart choice as the Resource boost effected her as well and she would still come out on top as far as where her resources would end versus the natural regen she’d have been waiting for, especially for her where Faith was one of her highest Attributes only under Agility. The Ability boosted the regen of whatever one already had so hers would be astronomical.

  Gideon checked the Party Group Status which he literally always forgot existed. Everyone’s Health was fucked, L’Sana at Low-Yellow and climbing. She had an insane number in her Body Attribute. Danny’s was Low-Yellow but wouldn’t get much better until her leg’s break was healed. Natural healing didn’t take care of bone breaks for some reason or another. Ari’s was High Yellow, same reason with her wing broken. His Uncle’s Health however was at Low-Yellow which told him how close to death he’d really been if all of Ari’s healing and a Life Elixir had been poured into him and he was still that low.

  Yisara sent a feeling of warmth and frustration, actually a myriad of emotions. He sensed part of the frustration was the room being extremely well lit, almost overly so. There were very little shadows to speak of. He’d almost guess specifically to counter him. The number of light sources was not normal by any measure. There were the normal sconces they’d seen in other parts of the Dungeon but each one was exuding about three or four times the illumination in addition to sconces up higher on the walls that didn’t seem natural whatsoever.

  He didn’t know if he was being paranoid or if the System Avatar Prime wasn’t still fucking with him or if the Astral Lord himself had just done it to counter-balance an Umbral Scion. There would be no answer coming so the train of thought was a useless endeavor. Let it go for now.

  The other issue he felt within the complexity that was the ancient dragon spirit in his cloak was her inability to grasp any more of her memories or even seem to be able to grasp the ones she’d already shared with him.

  She was definitely more active mentally, at least a bit, over even a few weeks ago but the level of clarity she’d had when she’d shared her name and visions she’d seemed to regress from since. He actually hadn’t shared that moment with the others, L’Sana included. He probably should fix that.

  His troubling reverie was broken by L’Sana stepping past him with a big grin though with another groan as she squatted, a hand going to her side where her leg was now decorated in blood coming from under her Bone Breastplate though it did look like it had slowed a bit. Most of the blood on her greave seemed to be old and dried, still, it made him wince. His own Health even without Yisara’s help was up to Low-Green and L’Sana’s Body Attribute he didn’t know exactly cause she hoarded her [System Template] like State Secrets but it was far higher than his own and so she should be up and at’em full sooner than anyone.

  He knew the happy mischievous gaze to those violet beauties, knew it like the back of his hand. She focused for a few breaths then plopped down a nice and shiny Ability Shard in front of her partner in crime who literally went from depressed sad to giddy greedy Dragonling in two seconds. It wasn’t like she had something else to do while she was waiting for her lingering song to bring her Spirit back up. Her melodic voice sounded tired but he could still hear the avarice digging into it. He was still happy he’d chosen to give the Familiar to L’Sana. They were two peas in a pod.

  “OMG Sana!!!! For me!!!! You shouldn’t have!!!”

  L’Sana threw a wink in his direction and started putting the Shard away when Ari went to feral beast in about two seconds and utterly forgot her busted wing as she tore across the three feet between them and up L’Sana’s legs and chest as L’Sana held the Shard higher up. A high-pitched growl came from the little Dragonling.

  “Don’t you dare Sana. Give me the bling right now!!! No takes backsies!!!!”

  L’Sana started snort laughing but even that was not enough of a deterrent even shooting directly into the face for Ari to give up on her chase as as she attempted to clamor up L’Sana’s arm even with a broken wing but as soon as she grimaced from attempting to do so the game was over and her Mistress handed her the ‘Bling’ and went to holding her and caressing her while Ari kept petting the shiny in her hands like Gollum from LoTR. L’Sana was still laughing though not quite a snort. She went stern for a moment in her voice though a wink over the head of her Dragonling to Gideon and Freddie and Danny with her still fucked up leg.

  “Now put that away young Lady! We can both absorb them when we get back home.”

  Ari grunted and twisted her head back around towards her Mistress while hoarding the Shard to her chest. Her voice emitted a whine.

  “Ahh C’mon!! I need my bling now!!!”

  L’Sana booped her on her nose.

  “You have some healing to do Ari for our family. The sooner you can heal them the sooner we get home.”

  With the word healing guilt exploded across Ari’s eyes along with hunger for the eternal loot. She zipped off L’Sana’s lap claws lit with silver. Gideon smiled but he still had no clue about the Fredster. Healing wouldn’t work on him. He was considered a Soul-Bound Growth Item. Most of those would repair themselves if given time and that is what had happened with earlier damage but he’d seen nothing quite as severe as the damage his AI Buddy had taken.

  “Are you gonna be alright Fredster? You looked pretty banged up.”

  Freddie attempted to tilt up his severely malformed head towards Gideon but gave up as his neck motors? Were far too fucked up. It did look like a bit of the damage looked a tiny shade better but Gideon didn’t know if that was just wishful thinking.

  “Ye...yes Gid...Gideon. Too dam..damaged to...trans..transform currently. Will..repa...repair within...day.”

  Looked like he’d be carrying his little Buddy home and it looked like it was about time to begin that trek as Ari was healing people faster than he’d ever seen. His Uncle had finally woken with this last batch of healing but was still pretty fucked up. His Health she got up to High-Yellow but looked like he had a pretty harsh debuff going for another few hours from being brought to a sliver distance from a corpse. He might need to carry both of them or travel really slow mo based on how gingerly and decrepit his Uncle was looking as he moved with L’Sana’s throwing help to get him up to his feet.

  He gave his last living blood a stare, both of them connecting eyes or eye in his Uncle’s case, until the old man winked with a smirk. His voice was hoarse but still alive.

  “You can’t get rid of me that easy Nephew. I’ll be here till I pay back the mountain of karma for all my fuck ups with you and my sister and that’s gonna be a while.”

  Gideon wanted to argue the man had already brought that even but kept his lips closed. It wasn’t his place to call that debt. That was something inside Marcus that he himself had to work through. A true debt was within one’s spirit, soul, something no one but the man or woman carrying it could call paid.

  He looked at his fucked up family, every one of them still hurt even with the healing. Ari had drained herself once more and her boosting music had faded. She was conked on L’Sana’s shoulder while she and Danny helped Marcus towards the portal up near the throne. At least Ari had been able to heal everyone else up including herself before bumping dry on Spirit. It was the tick-tock alarm bell to head on home.

  Gideon came up the rear as they all gathered around the portal to exit the place. Just as they entered he saw L’Sana reach towards the gaudy ass throne chair and watched it disappear into her storage. As they began to be deconstructed to be transported he gave her grinning face a look that said ‘Seriously?’. A cut off whisper let him only hear the first couple words.

  “Loot baby...”