Runeblade
Chapter 74: The Next Champion

Standing in one of the bathrooms, Kaius activated an enchantment that was set into the wall of an absolutely massive tiled washroom. A moment later hot rainfall fell from the ceiling in a torrential downpour, splashing on the slanted floor to drain out of a grate. It was a clever bit of runework, though he had to admit it had surprised him the first time he had seen it, being far fancier than anything he had seen before. He was used to bathing in rivers, and even on the rare occasions he had stayed in an inn the best he had seen was a bathtub that heated its contents. Even those had still needed to be filled by hand.

Now though, he had no idea how he would be able to live without the strange hot rain. Thankfully, the enchantments were relatively simple, if written in an unknown script. He'd still copied them down as close as he could. You didn't need to understand how something worked if you could replicate it close enough after all.

If he ever had a house he was definitely putting one of them.

Stripping out of his armour and clothes he stepped into the water, dragging his gear in with him to give it a thorough wash. It would have been terrible for normal items, but thankfully enchanted artefacts were made of sterner stuff.

Green rivulets stained the water as it ran along the floor. As soon as he had cleaned the muck off his gear, Kaius placed it on the floor outside of the wetroom. Most of it would dry by itself, but the bits that wouldn't he would towel off once he was done.

Porkchop, having been patiently waiting for the clutter to be removed, pushed past him to take up a full third of the wetroom.

"Are you going to reinscribe too?" His friend asked, looking at the glyph that wove its way around the back of his hand to creep up his forearm.

"Yeah, I need to get as much practice in as I can. I know it's a bit of a drag, but it's worth it." Kaius said, leaning back to let the water run through his hair, scratching his scalp to dissolve some of the green blood that had started to scab.

"It's fine. It's only an hour, and it's important to sharpen your claws after a hunt afterall." Porkchop assured him. With the water flattening his fur close to his skin, he no longer had the poof to hide his bulk. Each and every inch of his body was covered in bulging muscle.

It was enough to make a man jealous. Kaius was pretty proud of his physique, a life of hard training and a diet high in hunted game had made him tall and strapping, but beasts were something else entirely.

"How long do you think it will take until we replace that Champion, do you think?" Porkchop asked as ineffectively tried to scrub at the blood that had been matted into the fur on his back.

Kaius laughed, it had to have been the eighth time Porkchop had asked him that since they had left the manor they'd used as a base camp for the last few months.

"Here. Let me help." Kaius said, walking behind Porkchop to help him cleanse the gore of battle. "I'm not sure, really. There was what looked like an open air temple on this layer of the city, but it looked quite far around the circle compared to where we entered. The goblin I saw definitely looked different enough to be a Champion. We're heading in the right direction, but it's hard to tell much more than that. It's pretty hard to get your bearings when the only two points of comparison were a far off look from a ledge and actually being on the streets."

Porkchop huffed at his non committal response, but still leaned back into his scratching.

"Can you tell me what you remember about it at least?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure it's going to be some sort of caster. It looked like it was in a pavilion that had been turned into some sort of goblin ceremony grounds, and it was wearing a big fuck-off headdress and waving around a staff. There were other goblins there too, so we should be ready for it to be a group fight."

Porkchop's ears perked up at that. "That's different. Sound's fun though."

"Mmm." Kaius nodded. "If a bit risky. I'm also pretty sure there has to be another champion in the next tier. The one before the summit. There's been one on every single layer so far, including the Guardian at the top, so it would be a bit weird if there wasn't one -even if I didn't spot it."

"I hope so. Every extra Champion we can replace here means one less we have to search for when we are done with this biome. The clock's ticking Kaius. You're going to finish off your skills either way, but if we want to get our Honours and potentially even go after the Guardian before our full integration we need to push hard."

"I know," Kaius sighed. "We've got what? Five more to kill before we see if I get an Honour for ten in a group? And then another three for you to get that and the solo Honour. It'll be tight, but we can do it."

They lapsed into silence as the water that rushed over them slowly started to run clear. They had a plan, all they needed to do was execute it. Once Kaius was satisfied that they were both clean, he turned off the wet rooms enchantment.

Once he'd reinscribed and they'd eaten, they would move on. Pushing closer to the Champion of the district.

…

Kaius walked down a paved street, his boots clacking on the impossibly smooth wrought stone that made up the dwarven thoroughfare. The more time he and Porkchop spent in the Depths-made facsimile of civilisation, the more the cracks shone through the illusion.

There were bodies, but only the bodies of soldiers. There was dirt and the weathering of time, but nothing was structurally impacted. There were houses, but no signs of panic or disarray like what one might expect from a city under siege.

Even the goblins. Especially the goblins. Bunched up, clustered into little groups. Always far enough away from each other that they could engage them in peace. Loitering in streets, in front of houses, but never ransacking them.

It was eerie, but also comforting. A reminder that the desolation of a lost city was all just a mirage. That people still existed, somewhere up above. He'd thought he was inured to the ennui of isolation, what with living in the wilds. It seems he had underestimated the impact of the small encounters with hunters, and he and his father's irregular trips to the villages.

Thank god he'd met Porkchop. No doubt he would have already lost his wits completely if he'd had to do this entirely alone.

Porkchop was right. They needed to pick up the pace. It was the only way they were going to collect enough Honours to challenge the Guardian before they got a class -the Honour that was bound to exist for that feat was something he was far too greedy to pass up. Beyond that though, he just needed out. He missed the sun. The cool western breeze that rolled in from the far off sea.

Most of all, he needed to look for his father. He couldn't do that trapped down here. Every day he was stuck narrowed his chances of them reuniting again. With how long it had been, they were already far too slim.

They rounded a bend in the road. Far off down the street, Kaius spied small green figures meandering across the thoroughfare, lazing about without a care in the world. Goblins. Only just barely visible with the enhanced acuity of his True Sight.

Well, it was as good an excuse as any to bring up what he had been thinking.

Kaius whistled, catching Porkchop's attention as he halted. His friend shot him a questioning look.

"I have a proposition to make. Down there-" He pointed toward the gang of depths-born, "-are some goblins. I think we should go around them." Kaius held his breath, waiting for Porkchop to protest.

Instead his friend shot him a knowing look.

"You want to rush the champions." Porkchop stated.

"I do." Kaius said bluntly. "We need to be moving faster. Plus, most of these depths-born are no match for us anymore. I'm barely seeing any growth to my skills."

"Kaius. You had me at 'I want to fight more Champion's, faster'," Porkchop replied, jostling him as he headed to one of the alleys that would take them to an alternative route through the district.

Kaius sighed in relief, thanking the gods that Porkchop agreed with him, and set off after his friend.

…

After making the choice to avoid further encounters with the general riff-raff of the city, their pace had exploded as they crossed the district in record time. They camped in manors as the crystal sun above dimmed, and set out early each morning to walk the dusty and abandoned streets of the residential district.

Eventually, they found what they were looking for. Far off in the distance Kaius saw the road they walked on lead straight into a massive open space. A handful of streets converged into a crossroads, an open plaza surrounded on all sides by buildings taller and more opulent than any he had seen so far, with artistic crenulations and massive stained glass windows adorning their fronts.

At the centre of the plaza was what they had been looking for. A large raised pavilion ringed by monolithic columns that supported a vaunted roof of shaped stone. There, at the centre, he saw their target.

"I see the bastard." Kaius called out.

In the centre of the pavilion stood a goblin on a raised dais. Withered and decrepit, it was wearing a massive headdress that must have added full strides to its height, made up of bleached bone and glittering metal scraps. It waved a gnarled staff too and fro, directing three adherents with religious fervour as it positively glowed with mystic might.

Porkchop's ears perked at his words, swivelling towards him. "It's a Champion?"

Kaius focused his True Sight.

Spiritcaller Grikx - Level 24:

Champion, Depths-born, Magi, Low Race

Goblin Adherent - Level 20:

Depths-born, Beast, Minion, Elite, Low Race

"It is, and a mage to boot. There's also three minions, all elite like the warg was." Kaius said, relaying his replaceings.

Porkchop shot him a look. "A mage? Will you be able to handle it."

"It's a shaman. Probably an affliction or elemental specialist. Between this-" He rapped his cuirass with a knuckle. "-and my resistance skill, it's going to replace me a terrible match up." At least he bloody well hoped it was an affliction specialist. He still had one more healing skill he needed to earn, and he was getting tired of turning down offered skills. Afflictions would be perfect to practise manually increasing the efficiency of his Health.

Though, the shaman wasn't the only issue. "I'm more worried about the elites. That warg we fought on the outskirts was a piece of work, and there are three this time."

They'd have to take them out first, and Kaius was under no illusions that that would be easy. Though, if Porkchop could keep the shaman occupied with his Spell Resistance, then Kaius was confident he could handle them. They looked to be normal sized goblins, not hobs, and that meant he had the height advantage.

The real question was if he saved his spells to deal with the shaman, a well timed bolt could make all the difference against a caster.

"Okay," Kaius said. "Here's what I think we should do."