Chapter 94: Emergency Relief

Subject: Caim Location: Riventread - Ouskirts “Why should I run? What’s happening?” Caim asked the fleeing seeker, whose ornate badge indicated he was of a higher rank. The man just shook his head, exasperated, and continued jogging past without another word. Another seeker, who had heard the start of the conversation, was willing to offer more. “I don’t know any more than him, but I’ve never seen blightbeasts just drop dead like that. They are the very definition of unholy tenacity. Add in the rumbling, and you’ve reached the point where you gotta' stop asking questions and take action to save yourself... before you can’t anymore. Get it?” The ground shook again. That was all it took to send the second man sprinting off before Caim could ask any more questions. Caim wasn’t satisfied without seeing some kind of enemy, but he eventually decided just to follow the guidance of his betters. All the others who’d been hunting the outskirts had already done so, streaming toward the border of the festerfont in all directions. That was when Caim heard a voice call out for help. “Someone, please! We have injured here!” Caim could see a limping man in heavy metal armor struggling to scale down the steep face of the highest boulder on the ridge loosely marking the border between the outskirts and body layers of the festerfont. Aided by Flourish’s boon, Caim sprinted out to meet them. He wondered why the party hadn’t just run around to find a more level path. Maybe the inner layers were less flat and more rocky? Perhaps this ridge spanned the entirety of the inner border, joining up with the impassable cleft on the other side? “I can help!” he yelled back, preparing a set of Flourish Beacons to target the man and his party with. A woman limped into sight, much more wounded than the first, supported by another woman who didn’t look all that healthy herself. The girl in front was staring at Caim, squinting in an annoyed anguish at the Initiate's Blightbane badge affixed to the loop on the front of Caim's cloak. She doesn’t think I can do anything, he guessed. Flourish Catalyst Beacon B Assigned Beacon C Assigned Beacon D Assigned Beacon E Assigned Finally in range, Caim rapidly targeted the four of them with Flourish Beacons, calibrating them for healing. Surprised, the man in heavy armor groaned in pain and tripped on his way down, taking a tumble on a couple of boulders before hitting the ground. He was fine. The pain from Flourish doing its work had probably shocked him. Even if the fall hurt him more, he’d be fine as long as he wasn’t on the brink of death. Sure enough, he stood up again and gasped in amazement at what Flourish had done for him. “I feel almost completely fine. This you, boy?” Caim nodded, smiling politely. “Yes. They will be fine, too.” “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” the armored man grimaced. But, much to their collective surprise, their scores of wounds melted away against Flourish's wonderous power. Some of the injuries would probably need further treatment, but the difference in ability and in morale was night and day. “What’s happening that way? Is it a dangerous blightbeast?” Caim asked. The man shook his head with a defeated expression. It didn't look like he had many more answers than Caim did, but he motioned for Caim and his own party members to follow. They all began to jog for the border as a group. “The blightbeasts just… died,” huffed one of the seekers. “Then I almost fell into a sinkhole,” added the formerly wounded girl. "Some seekers did get swallowed up, and... They were just gone. Completely gone, just like that." "We heard things down there... I can't get that sound out of my head." He switched over their Flourish Beacons from healing to endurance, and the greens of the ethereal vines enshrouding their bodies changed to a yellow hue, matching Caim's. Some of them noticed, but they weren't in any state to formulate any questions. “And then we caught a falling boulder. The whole festerfont has gone mad. It’s crazy.” Caim looked back and saw the steady trickle of seekers streaming out had slowed a little. He’d known from Mille and Alice that most people went deeper than the outskirts, but it was still strange to see so many. “I’m going to go help out another party,” Caim explained, seeing another group that needed his sourcetech routine’s aid. “No, don’t!” the woman who looked like the leader shouted. “Even this far out might not be safe. Initiates aren’t supposed to be the ones dying for Seeker Ardent and Adepts. Leave the heroism to the Champions.” “I’ll be fine,” Caim promised. The woman took something out of her pack and tossed it to him. He caught what looked like a bundle of rags and opened them up to find a small necklace inside. It had a small blue stone hanging on a silver chain. The way the stone shone, he got the impression that it carried some kind of arcane enchantment. “We have no mages in our party, but this belonged to a friend who was one. It isn’t particularly valuable, and I have other keepsakes to remember him by, but maybe it will be useful.” He put the necklace on, thanking the stranger. Mages were prone to dying, even more so than the average seeker. Why was this? Caim nodded and sprinted off back to the dividing line between the outskirts and the body layer, closer to his new targets. This party was composed of only three people, and their injuries were far less severe. However, the man in the back was fighting just to keep walking. He was exhausted, and fortunately, Flourish could help with that too. Flourish Catalyst Beacon F Assigned Beacon G Assigned Beacon H Assigned Calibrated for endurance, Flourish would keep replenish this man’s stamina in no time. Caim targeted the straggler as soon as he was within his range. This range was far shorter than that at which an activated beacon could stay active. He didn’t know whether the range would increase as he got more familiar with the Catalyst. He had only just recently started using it on others like this. At this point, he wasn't even bothering to greet his new "patients". Their health came before pleasantries. He targeted them without warning and without explanation, so that he could aid as many as possible, even though he didn't even know what danger lurked in this festerfont. Caim continued his work. Flourish Catalyst Beacon I Assigned Beacon J Assigned Beacon B Reassigned Beacon C Reassigned Flourish could only maintain so many Beacons, and those placed on the other party still remained in effect. As he understood it, these "Beacons" were only remote fragments of the original spell, though a mirror copy of equal magnitude. As the radius from the spell’s host out to active Beacons increased, it would eventually reach a distance limit and deactivate automatically. That had already happened with the Beacon he’d used to target Alice back at the Guild, and he expected it would work the same here. Caim passed his most recent party without so much as a greeting, and searched for more people to help. One of them looked like he was considering stopping Caim from climbing the ridge over into the body layer, but in the end he minded his own business. Caim couldn't blame any of them. Their safety was their priority. Flourish Catalyst Beacon D Reassigned Beacon E Reassigned Beacon F Reassigned He found another party. Considering the first party was safely out of danger, he had already completely deactivated their Beacons and assigned them to three new targets. One was specialized for endurance, and two had "default" settings. Caim saw surprise overtake the faces of the three strangers. They saw him jogging over, and their expressions seemed to ask if he was responsible. He gave a friendly nod. As they were celebrating safety, the ground shook underneath their feet. A tear in the ground appeared behind them, gravel and sand sliding down into the bowels of the festerfont. The strangers didn’t wait to see what was happening. They picked up the pace and climbed up to Caim, continuing past him as the fled for their lives. As with before, he understood. Now wasn’t the time for conversation. It was the time for survival. A shrill screech echoed through the rocky land, and shadows passed overhead. He heard a series of sudden, heavy impacts back in the direction of the festerfont's outer border, but he was too far to see what had happened. Flourish Catalyst Beacon H Destroyed Standing atop the ridge dividing the two layers of the Riventread festerfont, Caim could see what had happened in the body layer. Sinkholes were everywhere, and there were scattered pieces of abandoned equipment. Whether their owners willingly ditched the extra weight, or dropped them when they were pulled under, it was impossible to tell. Caim considered going back. The seekers remaining on the inner side of the ridge were in disarray, shouting to each other and scanning their surroundings in a panic. Caim couldn't help here. He'd done enough, and it was time to leave. However, when a hand shot up from the depths of a section of broken ground near the inner ridgeline, curiosity gave Caim pause.