Chapter 31: 31: The Descent

Danika looked back at him and pointed out, "You can see how much Karma a player has."

Aishin tossed a wink at her and replied, "I can see more than that. Still not my fault he couldn't revive, if someone goes hunting dangerous creatures in the middle of a war, they should accept the risks."

"How many times have they killed you?" Danika questioned.

Aishin apparently tapped a string of emotes because his face writhed through a series of grimaces, and then he said, "Three, they've been really persistent. This time they hired a wizard, they don't have anyone that powerful in the guild."

"Why aren't they going after the person who gave you the contract instead?" she wondered.

He laughed and replied, "I'm pretty sure they have no idea who that was."

"Shouldn't it be the opposing guild?" Danika asked.

"It's more complicated than that, it's a war between two small countries bordering the dwarven mountains. Dozens of guilds have been employed on both sides," he explained.

"Oh," she replied, "who hired you then?"

"Secret," he said.

Danika shrugged and then asked, "Since they think they finally forced you to start over, shouldn't it be okay for you to help me get back down to the witch, as long as you stay away from the wizard's tower?"

Aishin questioned neutrally, "How were you going to get back if I weren't here?"

Danika turned and flew back to him before answering, and then she said seriously, "I won't demand that you help me. But before this, I still had some oil left to escape the aspens if I got caught again, and plenty of Karma to pray for a restore or to revive.

"Ah," he said ruefully, "if I hadn't tried to save you, and you'd had to revive instead, it would have cost you less and you'd already be back safely in the nearest of the Twin's shrines. Sorry."

Danika eyed him and asked, "What would you have done then with no one to remove the dagger?"

He shrugged and looked around before answering, "Risked a random teleport instead of the dagger. But I might have died, that was a huge meteor shower and it's only 12 meters."

"Oh," she said.

He told her, "I'll help, but I've only got about 20 minutes left."

"Oh, it took me hours to get up here," Danika replied a bit glumly.

Aishin strode to the edge of the meadow and asked, "That little town with the tree in the middle, right?"

She nodded.

"It won't take hours, but you'll have to stay close," he demanded.

"Ok," she agreed.

He jumped off the edge.

Danika gasped, and then zipped after him. He tossed something at his own feet and bounced off it, she slowed just long enough to see that it was a throwing star half embedded in the rock, and then dove after him. He used up three more before the slope gentled, but he barely slowed as his last bounce shifted him into a downhill trot.

A couple of minutes later they zoomed past one of the landmarks that the witch had said bordered the silver wolverine's territory. Danika called out, "Wait!"

Aishin paused just long enough to reach out and catch her as she got close enough, and then resumed the reckless pace downward. "Too fast?" he questioned.

Danika squeaked, and babbled quickly, "No, no this is the silver wolverine's territory!"

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He chuckled and replied, "It will live longer if we don't see it."

A few minutes later they slid down a shale covered slope into the grasping aspens. The trees reached for them, but Aishin simply pulled his sword with his other hand and sliced off any branch that moved close enough.

The forest below the aspens actually made him slow down at last, as the trees moved closer together and became larger and sturdier. Danika told him, "You can let go of me. The frogs in the swamp below are the last big hazard." She wondered if they really posed any danger to him though.

"Swamp?" Aishin questioned worriedly as he released her. "How deep?" He didn't stop moving, as he darted nimbly between trees and over overgrown patches of undergrowth.

Danika had no answer for him and admitted, "I have no idea, I flew."

"Can we go around it?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, I don't know," she replied apologetically.

"Damn," he cursed.

When they reached the edge of the dark still water, Aishen finally slid to a halt and gazed out across the swamp. In the distance a frog snatched one of the large butterflies out of the air with its incredibly long tongue and swallowed it.

After a moment Aishen commented, "This must have been really dangerous for you, but it doesn't look too bad," and stepped forward into the water.

Danika flicked up her menu and cast her invisibility before following, as he waded through the shallow water stirring up obscuring clouds of muck with every step. When her invisibility gave out, she landed on his shoulder. He stepped up onto a hummock of vegetation, and leapt for another ahead.

For a few moments they made quick progress, and then they came to the edge of one of the wider pools covered in lilies. Aishen only hesitated a moment before stepping into it and wading forward. His progress slowed after only a few steps.

"What's wrong?" Danika asked from beside his ear.

"The lilies are tangling my feet I think, it's getting harder to move with each step," he replied.

Danika launched herself from his shoulder and observed him for a moment. He took another step forward and the lilies around him bobbed and were pulled forward with him. They didn't seem to be trying to grasp him as the aspens had, there just seemed to be so many of them that they were matted together.

"Can you cut a path through?" she suggested.

He pulled his sword again and stabbed down before sweeping it forward. The lilies trembled and a large leaf directly in his path split neatly in half like something out of an old martial arts film, as his sword lifted out of the water.

He stepped forward again, more quickly, and nodded. The water rose deeper around his thighs as he progressed, until he was waist deep. He glanced back at her and exclaimed suddenly, "Frog!"

Danika zipped upward at the same time as she belatedly recast her invisibility. She felt the movement of the air as the tongue snapped at the spot she'd been a split second before.

There was no time to recover before Aishen took another step forward, and then vanished suddenly as something pulled him beneath the surface. Danika panicked. She threw her light cantrip after him into the water, and caught only a flicker of movement ahead of where he'd been.

The soft chime of a skill level rang unnoticed as she zipped forward and cast it again. This time she found him, a faint figure being dragged by some huge dark creature surprisingly deep below the surface. She threw her next light into the water toward him again the moment it faded, and then was yanked backward out of the air.

Her invisibility had ended, and a large frog had snapped her up. Before a single heartbeat had elapsed, she was swallowed. It was the slime all over again, only it was dark and her skin burned. Danika sliced forward with her claws and her windblade skill.

The frog wasn't like a slime with only a single skin between her and the water, the soft glow of her own dazzle showed the wound in its stomach bleeding through the murky liquid. Danika kicked forward and pulled herself into the wound with her dragon strength. She made another cut ahead of herself, and thrust deeper into the spongy flesh. The third slice brought her out of the frog and into the dark water.

She cast her light and tried to orient herself, and a human hand grabbed her and lifted her from the water.

Danika gasped in long breaths of air while Aishin, who was soaking wet and streaked in mud and blood, said rapidly, "I'm sorry, I have to log out while we're out of combat. I'll do my best to come back for you in six hours."

He released her. Her wings activated automatically before she fell, and he vanished.

Danika cast her invisibility and glanced around frantically. A few meters away, an enormous shell bobbed to the surface.

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