Runeblade-Chapter 209B2 : Fear, pt. 1

The noise cut through the silence like a knife.

It was shrill, high pitched, and desperate. Hells, it was barely loud—a squeak of surprise that had been stifled quickly. Far from anything that could be described as a clamouring rallying cry, bringing down the whole warren on their heads.

That didn’t stop the wave of dread that rushed through his chest, binding his lungs and throat in barbed wire.

Heart racing, Kaius lurched to the noise before he’d even finished processing what had caused it—sword pulled back for a stab.

A boggart came into view—still as a statue, a haunch of smoked meat held halfway risen to its fangs. It was crouched low, eyes frozen wide as it stared at them in uncomprehending shock.

Kaius’s kick off the ground sent him racing towards it, approaching with the full weight of his swiftness behind him.

It lurched, realising that it was under attack as its surprise faded. A great, heaving gasp expanded in its chest—lungs working like bellows.

A building scream.

Kaius touched the ground in front of it, rolling his shoulders into a desperate stab. Fine and sharp, the point of A Father’s Gift ripped through the intervening space. Flesh and bone parted with a meaty thwack and a kick of resistance, his sword erupting from the back of its head.

**Ding! level 50 Boggart - Scavenger slain - Experience Gained!**

Blood dripped from its point as he let go of his blade, sweeping forwards to wrap the body in his cloak, catching its dead weight in his arms. Heaving the body up, he raced back to his team.

“Leather storeroom—now!” he hissed as quietly as he could, ears straining for any sign that the noise had been caught by the bugbears only a few bends down the tunnel.

As a single unit, they raced to the next room—only fourty or so sides away. Slipping into the room, Kaius hurriedly dumped the body—grimacing as he felt that tacky wetness of blood that had soaked into the fibres of his cloak.

Moving quickly, he pulled hides off the pile that reached up one half of the wall, covering the evidence of their deeds.

With blood roaring in his veins, he moved to the door, pressing himself deep into the heavily shadowed wall. Porkchop was directly across the doorway from him, Ianmus safely hidden behind his bulk.

Unless a bugbear poked his head straight into the room, they were hidden.

Waiting in tense silence, Kaius shifted his blade into a high stance, ready to cleave through anything that stepped through the door. From his angle, he kept his eye on the pantry.

He couldn’t believe it. What on all that was holy was their luck? A thieving boggart being the one to catch them? It felt ridiculous, after all the time and care they had spent creeping their way through the nest.

Swallowing through a dry lump on his throat, he kept his ears sharp for any sign of approach. The bugbears were definitely close enough to hear the shriek, even if it had been quiet enough that he doubted it would have been heard by the boggarts further through the tunnel they had yet to explore.

Staring at the sight of their discovery, Kaius’s eyes went wide as he realised that the haunch of dried meat the boggart had been eating was still sitting in plain sight of the door.

Evidence that something unscrupulous had occurred—even if it didn’t give away everything.

He hardened his heart, readying himself to dash from their cover and secure the meat that might incite further curiosity from any investigators.

Only to hear the sound of approaching footsteps coming from further up the tunnel. Multiple sets of clomping footfalls, echoing on the hard stone.

Bugbears.

He grit his teeth, sharing a look with Porkchop.

“Can you tell how many?” he asked through their bond.

Porkchop nodded. “Four.”

Kaius scowled. If it had been one or two, they would have had a decent chance of taking them out unawares before an alarm went out. With four, it was all but impossible.

Their moment of stealth might have come to a premature end. Still, he wanted to try. If there was any chance they could continue to thin the herd, or get a decent look at the full numbers of the plague, he wanted to give it a shot.

“Steady yourself—we lose nothing by waiting until we’re discovered. There’s still a chance that they just think it's a thieving boggart.” he said, wishing that hope alone would be enough to secure such an eventuality.

The steps grew closer, a new light reflecting off the far bend of the tunnel. Torches. The bugbears were close.

“And if they leave, searching for the offender, and stumble across the dead bodies?” Porkchop asked, tilting his head at them.

“Then we follow—try to take them out far from the tunnel we have yet to explore, and hope that the sounds of our clash do not travel. Fill in Ianmus.”

Porkchop nodded.

With their plan set, Kaius fell back to watching the approaching figures closely, nerves stretched to a breaking point. It was a strange sensation—one that Kaius hadn’t expected.

They’d been handed this mission specially by the guildmaster. Sure, it would push them in ways different than they were used to, and he had an inkling that it was supposed to be as much of a learning experience as it was a true mission, but he had full confidence in their abilities to see it through.

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It was just…stressful, not knowing if they would be discovered or not. He was trying to treat this whole enterprise with a little more care and intention than he normally would, and knowing they might be discovered fell a little too close to something that felt like failure for comfort.

The bugbears rounded the corner—four of them, just like Porkchop had said. Two were holding torches up high, the group searching the hallway for signs of what had made the disturbance.

Much to Kaius’s relief, they weren’t moving with the urgency he would expect if they had thought there were intruders. Instead they looked bored, and annoyed. Like leaving their fire to investigate the noise was a chore.

A good sign—hopefully they would see the half eaten meat, and write it off as a thieving boggart scaring itself in the middle of its heist.

Still, even if they weren’t aware of his team's presence, the bugbears were still ready for trouble. The two holding torches were armed with clubs reinforced with bands of what looked like iron scavenged from a barrel brace, while the others held spears with wicked stone points. They’d clearly been crafted with far more care than the weaponry of the general rabble—even the stone spear-tips looked like they’d been made from some sort of mana-imbued stone, the glinting firelight throwing off a faint green sparkle.

Sweeping their eyes across the cavern, the bugbears marched straight for the larder. Kaius held his breath as they looked in, worried that even the faintest noise would give him away.

One of the bugbears holding a torch growled, stepping and waving his torch through the room. As a group, Kaius saw every single one of their eyes snap to the dropped morsel of flesh that he’d been left behind.

Their frustration and anger at the theft was clear, some unintelligible argument of snapping growls and snarls. They split off, entering the store room as they swept it from corner to corner—looking for the offender that would dare to steal from the larder.

Unsuccessful in their search, it seemed like they were at odds about what to do next. Three of the bugbears waved their hands wildly at the remainder—one of the two with a torch.

When one bugbear jutted a clawed thumb back the way they had come, the torchbearer snarled, shaking its head before it punctuated a choked off word with a snap of its jaws.

Its companions shrugged at it, looking between themselves before they turned and left—jostling each other as they set off back towards their camp further down the tunnel.

Kaius steadied himself against the wall, watching them leave as a surprising wave of relief washed through him at the trio's departure. Only a single one remained, staring into the larder with suspicious intensity.

One bugbear—that they could deal with.

Keeping his blade ready, Kaius watched the torchbearer step back into the room. It crouched down, right where he had slain the boggart.

Reaching out with one cruelly clawed finger, it swiped its digit across the stone before rubbing its finger against its thumb.

Blood, Kaius realised with a start as he saw the dark smear that spread between its fingertips.

The bugbear sniffed deeply, before tasting the evidence of their crimes. A cruel sneer spread across its face, revealing yellowed fangs—stubby and short.

Rising to its full height, it snapped in the direction of its departing allies. For a long moment, Kaius was worried it would call them back to assist, only for the monster to turn in his direction and start to walk—club raised and ready.

He swore that its beady and cruel eyes—deeply set in its brutish face—were staring directly at him, tearing apart his secrets. Of course, he was deeply drenched in the darkness, but it was still unnerving.

Glancing across to Porkchop, his brother gave him the slightest nod. He was ready—even if Porkchop couldn’t see the bugbear, he could still hear him coming this way.

Kaius adjusted his grip, sweaty palms making his hilt slick.

Another step brought their enemy closer to its eventual death. Every stride it approached, the light from its flickering and dim torch illuminated more of the storeroom of hides. It was only by the angle of their positions that they weren’t spotted, obscured by shadows and stone.

The bugbear narrowed its eyes at the far wall. Clearly, it had noticed the hodgepodge rearrangement of their stocks that Kaius had been forced to make when he had hidden the body of the thief.

It picked up its place, stomping forward with a face of glowering disgust, fixated on the rounded form that had been stashed beneath stacked leather. Convinced, perhaps, that it had found the cowering thief that had yelped after cutting itself in the larder—too stupid to flee properly.

It stepped through the threshold.

Kaius struck. As did his brother.

Crystal and steel descended with the blurring conviction of final judgement, paired with half-moons of sacred jade that sought to consecrate whatever remained.

There was only the soft sound of flesh parting and the muffled crack of bone giving way. Kaius buried his blade in the bugbears head, the point of Porkchop’s claws punching through the back of its skull.

**Ding! level 62 Bugbear - Brawling Smasher slain - Experience Gained! Bonus Experience for slaying a foe of Significant Strength!**

**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 52!**

**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**

The bugbear’s body went limp, and Porkchop shifted forwards to catch it with an upswept paw.

They’d been quick—striking with enough speed and fury to remove the threat without noise.

Kaius moved quickly, moving the body to a far corner of the room, covering the evidence of their deeds in more carefully stacked leather—using a few sheets of the same to mop up what he could of the blood they had spilled. With his Truesight improving in their trek through the darkness, it stood out plainly to him.

Standing back to assess his work, he thought it good enough to pass a cursory inspection—but it would only last so long.

“That went as well as it could, but we’re on a time limit now.” he whispered, eyes roving the room to see if there was anything else they could do to delay discovery. “Eventually the others are going to get suspicious that our dead bugbear hasn’t returned.”

“We could get lucky, they might assume he’s off beating some boggart half to death.” Porkchop replied.

Ianmus shook his head. “We’d be fools to rely on that.”

“Exactly,” Kaius nodded at the mage’s words. “We check the final corridor—if we’re lucky, we can clear some more sleepers before an alarm goes off. At the very least we’ll know more of the structure of this place before we start an earnest assault.”

Poking his head out of the room, Kaius confirmed that the coast was clear before he waved at his team to join him.

“Let’s move.”

They raced down the cave passage, retracing their steps as fast as they could remain quiet.

….

Drorome watched the young delvers leave, wondering why she’d let Rieker put her up to this. She’d followed him to their post at Deadacre out of loyalty—so many years of delving together were not so easily forgotten—but did he really have to give her so much to do?

At least Kaius had left—it was annoying how active she had to be about staying out of his line of sight. She had no doubt she’d be able to best his ocular skill, but less certain she’d be able to prevent any feedback. Knowledge that something was there would ruin this whole exercise just as much as getting properly spotted would.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

She eyed the stashed bodies, cocking one brow at the slow seep of blood that was running free from the stacked hides.

Shoddy work—but about as best as could be expected considering their general approach to things.

It wouldn’t be long now.