Ward

/wɔːd/

Noun, a magical security and/or alarm system. May be a barrier or illusion designed to protect from, alert of or capture intruders.

Arthur looked at the vine-covered outline of a collapsed building from the sky. By his estimates, he’d been hovering above the forest for around half an hour, searching for any construction that looked like a product of sapient craft.

When he’d almost given up, he found it. His [Mana Sense] had pinged at him alerting him to something that might have been what he was looking for.

Whatever magical signature had been brought to his attention l seemed to be erratic; flickering on and off like some sort of beacon.

Following the approximate direction from whence it seemed to originate, he found an decrepit obelisk leaning almost diagonal to the ground and broken masonry. The structure had been covered by encroaching vines and an overgrowth of shrubbery obscured it from view.

Arthur went in for a closer investigation with his dagger in hand. Starting with the stelae, he cut away the lianas stubbornly clinging to them. Underneath, an obsidian façade that hummed with weak magic was revealed to him.

The structure was made of a single four sided pillar that tapered to a point. At what was once its apex a chipped pyramid shaped crystal sat, dull and dead. Arthur spotted the hairline fractures on its faces presumably the cause of its magic depletion.

On the other hand, the runes etched on the pillar were as ancient as the construction on which they lay. Most of them were defaced or outright degraded from exposure to the elements and didn’t seem to have mana in them.

The little that remained in working condition sputtered like a shorting circuit throwing out the magical equivalent of sparks. He traced the runes with his fingers trying to get a feel for what [Basic Rune Lore] would tell him about the rune craft.

‘Damn, [Basic Rune Lore] just tells me this is an emergency beacon of some kind but not what for...I am guessing it’s something like calling technical support. Must have run out of mana to be this weak; figures, from the way the charging runes are degraded—’

‘I don’t think my etching tools can scratch this surface, 'he frowned as he prodded at the stele with the hilt of his dagger. ‘The wards must need periodic renewal; judging from the way the plants somehow got their roots into the rune work. Damn weeds are hardy pests, give them enough time and they might grow anywhere.

He stood back to take in the entirety of the communication relay, looking from the pillars to the broken wall of another structure.

‘Whatever happened to the relay station’s hut, this masonry is all that remains of it. Well, no matter, there’s nothing left for me here. Let me just try [Diagnostics] and [Basic Repair] on the relay first. It’s a long shot but eh, not like I’m losing anything but time…well then, first [Diagnostics!]’

The skill activated per usual and sent him its approximations of the magical problem that needed solving in front of him.

‘Hmm? [Diagnostics] shows me what can be partially fixed with what I have at hand but where? There are like, hundreds of runes in similar condition.

It will take me a whole week just to look for what needs fixing. Does partially mean temporarily? Ugh, nuances! Let me get done with it then. I’ll just do a blanket [Basic Repair]’

So thinking over, Arthur blasted the whole relay with [Basic Repair] and that seemed to do the trick. Though, that was oversimplifying it; the skill practically tanked a third of his mana reserves in one go and he had to catch himself from stumbling from the overdraw. It felt like the first time he’d tried to awaken the runes in the dagger.

He even got a migraine between his brow for his trouble but what came next left the hair at the back of his neck standing on end.

[Unknown]- this is [Message] relay station designation aerland 12A reporting for routine ward re-enchantment. Relay crystal seems to be bleeding mana; attempt to repair will take 2 days.

Nothing else of note to report except that the runes also show signs of having been tampered with; minor hindrance, no need for intervention for now. Signing out for day one.

[Unknown]- [Urgent Message!], if you are hearing this, please send for the Adventurers Guild. There is a monster infestation on this aerland. I fixed some of the runes yesterday and they seem to have been defaced again overnight; the wards don’t didn’t even stop them. Will try to strengthen the wards tonight, though there is a chance a mana overdraw could affect the relay crystal…

[Unknown]- [Urgent Message!]. I was a fool! This is no ordinary mo….ter i….estation. It’s a Vesper-damned ne.... of mimic…ack widow ..piders. The ..rood moth…. is intelligent and the hive is .. gold rank thre…. at least, if I don’t ma…. it ….rough the nig…. whoever gets this mess…., avoid the ….land and tell the guild!

The message cut out after that then started repeating like a broken record player, each iteration getting worse and worse until the magic gave out and the runes finally went dark.

‘I should have known something was wrong when the aersland was too quiet. Nope nope nope, spiders are the worst but black widow spider monsters? And a whole brood of them?’ Arthur panicked and backpedaled away from the stelae.

Then he remembered he left his back exposed to the forest. Arthur shuddered and turned around with his back to the relay. He looked around the surrounding tree-line and the underbrush while approaching the hoverboard that he’d left floating a few paces away.

The only sound he heard was the sighing of the wind on the greenery, which sounded eerily like the elegy of a vengeful spirit. That in itself made him a ball of nerves. Keeping his hearing primed for any disturbances that might alert him of movement he slowly edged onto his vehicle; time seemed to crawl.

He was one step away from his hoverboard when he heard the crunching of stone behind him. Arthur froze. Something was perched right on top of the relay station’s pillars.

Whatever it was, it must have been large and heavy enough to chip rock underfoot yet strong enough to get on top of the three pillars. The stelae were thrice as tall as he was. Alarm bells blared, like some magical knock-off of a spidey-sense.

Arthur knew that feeling; he’d felt it twice before and knew better than to ignore it. There was no way whatever was behind him could be bested in a frontal assault at his level.

He had powerful weapons and magic yes, but that was just asking for a death wish. He’d never fought with his life on the line before, and definitely not against a monster whose hive was a gold rank threat.

Arthur knew he’d not get time to get on the hoverboard before whatever stalking beastie he had his back to pounced. Therefore, without sudden movements he touched the Azure Surfer stowing it in inventory.

He prayed to whatever Erythean gods were watching that Aeskyre had packed him healing potions in his knapsack since he’d never thought to check. Not even after she’d told him the rest of the things were up to him to appraise. Woe was he, but there was no time for regrets.

No sooner had he switched the board out for his sword than his stalker hissed and screeched, agitated. To his shock, it spoke.

“AvOid ThE aerlanddd, tELL THe GuILd!” it repeated off-key like mockery from a child. The cacophonous sound was a discordant orchestra of a burst steam pipe, the screeching of nails on chalkboard and whatever eldritch horrors sang for Halloween.

It grated on his eardrums and made the goosebumps on his skin prickle. That was definitely a spider and Arthur cursed whoever thought it was a good idea to give them a pair of lungs.

The youth, in horror, realized that he’d stumbled into the very thing that might have done in the last person on this aerland. This was one, and there was a brood of them somewhere on the Vesper-forsaken aerland.

Not one to appreciate the infernal recitation of a person’s last moments, Arthur released a gust of wind using his Air magic. A directional gust of air catapulted him from a crouch to a full on sprint.

There was a loud thud, followed by an angry chitter as an octet of legs kicked off the ground behind him. Without thinking, Arthur sprinted for the tree line, hoping that whatever was in pursuit would be stymied by the thick underbrush.

Arthur weaved through the woody herbage, scratches and nicks but an afterthought. He had his hand on the hilt of his dagger, ready to draw but he never dared to look back at the creature.

However, the monster did not let a measly grove of greenery keep it from getting at its prey. It barreled full tilt through them resulting in an explosion of sticks and small trunks like a tank through a cardboard house.

“Great, you don’t eat your greens, do you?!” Arthur nervously thought out loud as he ran through the forest. His sharp vision let him see through the sparse light hitting the underground.

The tree canopy overhead was so high up and choked all but the littlest of the noon-day sun. Strewn on the forest floor the rotting leaf cover, brushwood and gnarly roots of the trees made for precarious footing. One mistake here and Arthur was done for, yet there was no guarantee that he could use his hoverboard without running into obstructions.

In spite of the haphazard growth of the trees the arachnid monster kept on coming. The rotten leaf litter crunching underfoot was both a curse and a blessing for Arthur.

On the one hand, losing his pursuer by stealth was out of the question, on the other, he could tell the position of his pursuer by the same virtue that they made noise while skittering after him.

‘Maybe I should burn down the whole forest, I’d be doing everyone a favour; new growth and zero spiders.’ Thought Arthur as he jumped over a fallen tree like a hurdle athlete.

‘No no no,’ he berated himself thinking about dryads and treants, ‘this world’s version of tree humpers doesn’t stop to ask questions and doesn't care for prescribed burning.’

His adrenaline and improved constitution kept him going but sooner all later even his legs might give up the ghost, or his luck would just run out. The shrieking of the spider showed that it was rather adamant about letting him go.

Arthur wanted to find somewhere defensible to hole out and throw a few potshots. Maybe a few [Thunder Bolts] would tell the monster spider that he was more trouble than he was worth but all that changed when more chittering noises echoed from the forest.

‘Shit in a creek! It was corralling me to its brood mates. Don’t panic, don’t panic. There is only one way out of this. I know the route back to the steles like the back of my hand. He looked for something that might give him an edge over the spider and settled on blinding and disorienting it with a [Thunder Bolt] spell.

The loudness and sudden brightness could draw more pursuers to him but he would get the chance to get his hoverboard going. Flight close to the ground with so many trees and undergrowth was, however, going to be threading the eye of a needle.

He waited for a chance when he had an unobstructed view ahead of him, lobbed a [Thunderbolt] behind him and slid across the leafy litter. The monster spider, blinded by the flash of light and peal of thunder up close couldn’t arrest its momentum in time and barreled past him.

The human sliding across the forest floor on a carpet of leaf litter managed to pull off his plan but he was accorded a front seat view of his pursuer. He got an eyeful of the bristly underside of the arachnid’s abdomen as it glided above his supine position.

“That is one ugly keister!” he yelped as he scrambled back the way he came. He could have used the chance to gut the monster’s underbelly, but his battle instincts were shoddy; only people with enough experience could pull off such a thing.

The creature shook its atrocious cephalothorax and let out an enraged screech that made his ears bleed. ‘Great, now it's pissed,’ Arthur made himself scarce, switching the Azure Surfer out while at it. He powered the mana engine through his own mana pool, as he turned tight corners.

As he lost his tail, the echoes from the forest grew even louder, exacerbating his dread; the nondescript aerland was a deathtrap. Coasting above the leaf litter with an engine whose sound was not so dissimilar from blowing wind, Arthur was hopeful that he’d slip away—and he did.

There was no jinxed end to the pursuit, no spider dropping down from the trees at the forest’s edge. Or worst of all, an unfortunate encounter with the brood mother like some sick idea of a cosmic joke.

It was anticlimactic, but Arthur was thankful for small mercies as he climbed into the sky as he left the [Message] relay station and it's unlikely wardens behind.

With terror fueling his flight, Arthur reached the next relay station before the day had waned, and the cool blue cloak of scintillation that was a starlit night took over.

After the adrenaline had worn out, Arthur had laughed himself hoarse from his escapade. It was the cathartic sort of guffaw that bled out the tension and weariness from a close brush with death.

As he made himself comfortable, with his plane seat, for the furnishings in the relay station hut were but bare masonry, he remembered the day’s occurrence. Arthur recalled his encounter with a creature whose mere malevolent gaze would have swept the ground from the feet of those faint of heart. He shivered at how lucky he was to have not frozen in terror when he beheld the monster’s visage.

It's dark chitin that looked hard enough to deflect a mundane blade, wicked fangs and chelicerae that would have crushed him while they were pumping him full of venom. Thinking about the speed spider's bristly hair like a swarm of many caterpillars made his skin crawl.

While the details were fuzzy, [Eidetic Memory] made sure his brain had content for prime nightmare fuel. He fell into a fitful sleep that night to the sound of humming magic from [Message] relay obelisk

Morning welcomed Arthur with an aubade of bird songs. The first he’d heard of it since he’d come into this world. Daybreak was alive with the sounds of trilling and all manner of calls from little critters; diurnal creatures were already up and about before the dew had even dried from the grass.

Mist hung low to the ground but the first rays of the sun were already giving chase. He would have appreciated the ambience for its resemblance of normalcy but he was anything but pleased. In his sleep deprived state, it might as well have sounded like a racket.

While his mind was flagging from nightmares about spiders, his body was not sore from the previous day’s exertions. He didn't, however, have the luxury of time to just sit on his haunches and twiddle his thumbs.

‘Lovely neighbourhood,’ he scoffed, taking in every sound of creatures out and about as he emerged from the hut. He scratched at his day-old stubble as he watched a squirrel-like creature with bat wings come foraging close to him.

A bona fide flying squirrel . It seemed used to the goings and comings of people like Arthur or so it seemed. ‘What I wouldn’t give for a cup of coffee.’ He yawned as the little creature skittered away and took flight.

He went to freshen up at a fountain built into the hut’s wall. Morning ritual done, Arthur checked his maps and compass for his bearings and as was his wont, inspected the hover board for flaws. He stowed away the plane’s seat and blanket, gave the inside of the hut a once over before he headed out.

Before he departed, he went to catch a glimpse of a fully functional [Message] relay. Much to his dismay,the diaphanous barrier of a protection ward stymied his chance of a look up close.

Arthur only caught the blurry twinkle of a hundred runes from afar as the ward gave off a hostile impression . Content he’d sated his curiosity however little, he jumped onto the Azure Surfer and took off towards his next destination.