On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Ninety

Shaeula jumped down from the jutting spine of faded bone, landing in my arms. I staggered back for a step, then lowered her gently to the ground. My gaze drifted upwards, to the climb we had just endured. Up high above with my greater visual acuity I could see various bone-white monstrosities peering out of the window at us, eyes yellow and rheumy, mouths dripping disgusting yellow and green ichor. Yeah, I’m glad we didn’t stay and fight…

The climb down had been equal parts exhilarating and terrifying, but there were ample hand-and-footholds to use, plus Shaeula had been able to support us with her new toys. Now that we were down we backed away from the building into the centre of the strip, leaving the Territory behind. A few lesser spirits drifted towards us, only to pop into tiny orbs of ether from our strong presence, but the numbers were… Hmm, a place like Vegas should be full of lesser spirits, right? This reminds me too much of Inuyama…

“There are many Territories here-here…” Shaeula muttered, looking around. “But one… one is very strong. As strong as ours. I can feel it…”

“Well, we should stay away from that one then.” I said. “How about we go out into the desert? I dare say we can find things to hunt, I could use a few more levels. And if we find sources of elemental energy, all the better. Deserts should have fire, right? Or maybe earth…”

Shaeula took a while to respond, before nodding slowly. “Yes, it is prudent to avoid courting trouble. We are alone here. We should not bite off more than we can chew-chew. That… creature… from before that wounded you badly should be lesson enough.” With another long, pensive look into the distance of the strip, we crossed out into the desert, which was somehow more… primal… than the Material. There were patches of rainbow sand, glimmering like jewels, while massive rock formations towered into the sky, some nearly as high as the hotels of the strip. In addition large otherworldly cacti were growing in small forests, green and grey, needles as long and sharp as spearheads.

“It’s surprisingly pretty out here, in a rather rugged way.” I observed. Mixed in amongst the dunes I spotted a red glow, and quickly found a Red Etherite buried in the opalescent sands. Crushing it for ether, we continued to move out into the desert.

Rock pillars jutted up around us like teeth, strange long-leaved ferns dangling over the edges, hanging down like kelp, drifting in the non-breeze of the Boundary. Shaeula gazed out over the fields with her gleaming amber eyes, deciding on our route.

“This way-way.” She advised. “I sense great wind energy, as well as elemental fire. It should suit our needs-needs.” As we moved further away from the Las Vegas strip I found several additional Red Etherite ores. I’m jealous. All these resources ripe for the taking. As I dug out another from the sands I opened my mouth to express this, but Shaeula held up one pale hand to silence me.

“Quiet-Quiet.” She hissed softly. “I hear something coming…”

We hunkered down in the shadows of the rock formations, as a group of large desert hyenas padded across the terrain. They were a dirty grey-brown colour, with mouths full of sharp fangs. They were also huge, the size of small ponies. Hmm, native monsters, or… no… They were wearing collars, great bands of rusty spiked metal. That means there must be some intelligence guiding them…

The beasts were sniffing the air, acidic drool smoking on the sands below. Shaeula was letting out faint wisps of elemental wind, preventing our scent from leaking out, but our hiding spot was not exactly great. Drawing out my new spear I gestured to Shaeula, and she nodded. With that her wind changed, blowing strongly, and the faint shield she had conjured blew out, changing into a volley of razor-sharp vibrating blades, slashing into the hyenas. Several fell instantly, decapitated and bursting into shimmering ether. Several others fell, howling in pain, as limbs were severed and torsos sliced open.

I raced out, wind accelerating my own movements, and one hyena died instantly, as my new bluesteel spear tore into it, the edge of the blade humming. Yeah, this is damn good. God bless the kobolds, I hope they can dig us up more of this… A second hyena died, and as a third leapt at me, I slid aside and pierced its heart, slaying it. Shaeula was also reaping a toll, but a hyena at the back of the pack let loose a loud howling laugh, echoing across the desert.

Yeah, taking them all out before they could alert their handlers was always a long shot… Even so, we did not stop attacking, and the rest of the enemies were taken out. I scooped up the ether, transferring most of it to our Territory and burning the rest to aether to restore my supplies, then turned to Shaeula. “I think we should go…”

We sprinted out across the desert, my leg still aching a bit from the nearly healed wound I had suffered in the Boundary at Inuyama. Shaeula followed, her short legs churning the desert sand. Her yukata wasn’t really made for running, so I had to slow a bit to allow her to catch up. As I did so a volley of barbed arrows struck the sands where I was about to be. I staggered to a halt, Shaeula bumping into me. Wow, lucky. Fortune strikes again…

From the surrounding terrain a mob of creatures appeared, looking like some sort of dog-beastmen, though they were nothing like kobolds. They were kind of cute, these… not so much…

They stood over six feet tall, with dirty grey-brown fur covering their human-like bodies, though they had massive, twisted hands, and their heads were those of hyenas, with staring yellow eyes, filled with madness. They carried bows, spears and other melee weapons, and were wearing armours made of dirty hyena pelts reinforced with rusted metal plates. They had surrounded us from multiple sides, and were barking out disgusting laughter. Another pack of hyenas were held in chains by several of the monsters, straining to be let off.

“So, you ready?” I asked Shaeula, and she nodded.

“Very well-well, let us show these ugly mutts who are their betters.”

Drawing deep on wind I unleashed a volley of invisible slashes at the archers surrounding us on the rocky outcroppings. They were slaughtered before they even knew what was killing them. The hyenas came racing towards us, only to explode into bloody chunks and then ether as they ran into the barely visible wires of wind Shaeula had thrown up around us. Without decent ranged attacks such as elemental abilities, their numbers mean nothing…

“Remain focused. Do not let arrogance blind you.” Shaeula warned as she swept away a group of onrushing monsters.

“I know, I know…” I agreed. “I like to think I do learn lessons, if slowly…”

********

“Well, that was fun…” I drew in a lungful of air, still wondering if it was really necessary with my Astral body. Old habits die hard, I guess… Beside me Shaeula was sitting on the ground, white legs peeking out of the bottom of her yukata. The hyena beastmen had thrown themselves at us en-masse, but with their archers dead and me sniping any that tried to flee with drills of wind, they had been fodder for the deadly cage Shaeula had surrounded us with. Still, their numbers were great and their ferocity shocking, so they had fought until the end.

Still, our wind energy held out… There had been gains as well, my level climbing by one, a welcome boost. We had also obtained a pleasing amount of ether. Still… “So, we don’t have all night. Shall we press on, or retreat?” I held out a hand, helping Shaeula to her feet.

“I am curious to see this wind I sense in the distance.” Shaeula replied. “I can feel a strange power from it-it. It would be a shame to leave my curiosity unsatisfied.”

“All right then. We could cut across the desert proper I guess to avoid more trouble. I don’t feel safe amidst this stone jungle.”

We headed further out, the rock pillars sinking into dunes of glowing sand. Small roving packs of desert scorpions and strange walking cacti that shot foot-long barbed spines tried to bar our path, but blades of air or my spear were more than enough to take them out. While we moved across the sands I spent some of the aether I had extracted to continue healing my leg, and the pain I felt putting my weight on it had almost faded to nothing. Although I am constantly feeling a strange chill  in my lower body, near my chakras. Is it related? Maybe I shouldn’t overdo the healing…

Another swarm of scorpions came scuttling over the dunes, dozens strong. Still, without intelligence they ran headlong into our traps, sliced apart by humming strands, those in front driven to their deaths by the press of bodies behind. As Ether filled the air, I received yet another level-up. This is an unexpected bonus. This trip was more for money, but I won’t say no to free levels!

“Damn, this is just like my hometown. Wilderness areas have tons of monsters. Tokyo by comparison is starved for resources. I’m so jealous. If I lived out here my level would be way higher.” As we watched the last few scorpions scuttle away or bury themselves in the sand I continued to complain, though my spirits were still high. “I bet there are all sorts of Territories in the desert, sunken temples, stone circles, all sorts of mystical sites… exploring them would be exciting and profitable, I’m sure…”

“Once more, I must remind you that meeting me is of far more value than a handful of levels-levels.” Shaeula sniffed. “Besides, we have only explored but a short distance from our Territory. We do not know what foes we shall find on our borders…”

“True. Oh well…” we continued our trek over the dunes. It was then that the dark sky seemed to brighten a little. I rubbed at my eyes, but it did not change. Squinting, I pointed out the strange light to Shaeula.

“I believe that is our destination.” She agreed, her mystic eyes easily seeing it in the far distance. “It is… rather impressive.”

Picking up the pace we hurried across the sands towards it. As we moved across the dunes we noticed that the encounters with native beasts dwindled to nothing. The sands themselves were now devoid of rock formations, just endless shimmering grains, which seemed to be… vibrating?

The view is stunning. I wish Eri and Aiko were here to see this. Though I guess that the danger kind of outweighs the spectacle… As we continued to run across the shivering sands a faint rumbling, grinding noise could be heard, a series of vibrations running up through my legs, making it hard to walk. Beside me Shaeula was stumbling to a halt, her legs cramping.

I’m getting a bad feeling about this. Wait, sand, vibrations… oh shit… Grabbing Shaeula quickly, heedless of where, I suddenly jumped, channelling wind and aether to take us further into the air.

“Where are you touching, you brute. If Eri knew you were molesting my chest, she…” Shaeula began squawking, but I silenced her.

“No time for this. Start using your wind to push us towards our destination. I’ll keep us in the air.”

The mental image of keeping us lighter than air was quite tiring, and consumed a decent amount of aether while holding it. Seeing the deadly-serious expression on my face Shaeula complied and we began to drift through the air. As we moved the ground erupted where we had been standing, a huge eyeless maw ripping out of the sands, vast circular rows of teeth grinding like a drilling machine. Yep, called it. Bloody sandworms! Is this Dune?

The massive beast thrashed around, swallowing up mountains of sand, before sliding back into the ground, unsatisfied. As it vanished from view, leaving a great crater that quickly filled in, I was reminded of the Jaws of the Questing Beast that the Raven Knight almost killed me with. Yeah, I am definitely not good with huge toothy maws.

“Your instincts are good as always, master. I would not have liked to have ended up as food for such a disgusting creature. Such an end-end would not be befitting a princess such as myself. Still, perhaps you should… move your hands, yes?” she gazed at me and I realised one hand was cupping her bottom, my other on her rather modest chest. Flushing, I shifted my hands to a safer spot.

“Sorry, that was an accident. I just wanted to get us airborne as fast as possible.”

“Hmm…” Shaeula was flushed too, and she looked away, chewing on her lip nervously. “For your honour I will believe you this time, my master. Though you should be sure to compensate me with delicious alcohol when we return-return, else I might have to make mention of this to Eri. She would be most wroth with you, I fear-fear.”

“I know. I’ll be sure to treat you tomorrow. We’ll hit a bar when the girls are doing something else.” Changing the subject I looked down at the dancing sands. “Still, I guess that everything has a downside. There may be plenty of prey out here, but there are also monsters like that which dwarf anything I’ve seen in Tokyo. That was white-wyrm-class for sure, and I doubt there is only one…”

“Indeed, we should be grateful for what we have-have.” Shaeula agreed, forehead covered in sweat from moving us rapidly through the air. Below, the ground was starting to become rocky again, white and brown stones rising from the sands, so it was likely safe to descend. As we reached solid ground we both sighed in relief.

“So, just where…” I trailed off, as now I could more clearly see where we were headed to. A vortex of green and yellow energies was swirling high into the air, like a waterspout, only of jade and citrine.

Now that… that IS a sight to see.

Beside me, Shaeula grinned. “It reminds me of the lands of the Fae. It is rare to see such rich elemental seams here in the Boundary. Normally they lie-lie deeper within the Astral proper. Yet here it is, ours for the taking, no?”

Looking upon its splendour I could only nod. Yeah, I want it. With such energies I could make the breakthrough I am so close to… “All right then, lets claim it.”