Runeblade

Kaius sat at the writing desk in the mezzanine library, staring at the finished inscription of his newest runic hymn. He itched to test it out and saw no reason to wait.

"Going to test my new spell," He said to Porkchop as he rose from his seat. "fair warning, it might get a little loud."

Porkchop grumbled and rolled his eyes at him, but made no real move to protest from where he lay at the foot of a bookshelf. Grinning to his friend, Kaius moved over to the bannister and leaned out over the laboratory below.

He thrust his hand out, aiming towards one of the many tables full of glassware. If everything went to plan his new spell should punch through the first obstacle before detonating a handspan past it. Or in it, in the case of unruly depths-born.

With a flicker of intent he reached for the tightly secured packet of mana held within his linked glyph. Now familiar golden light spilled from his hand as his reserved mana was unleashed, running through the circuits of his new spell hymn in moments only to burn out the inscription with the force of its throughput.

A dark blue needle materialised at the tip of his finger, similar in shape to his Arcane Dart but a fraction of the size. It hung in the air for a fraction of a second before it shot forwards, crossing the distance between it and the table he had been aiming at in moments. There was a small thunk as the needle shot clear through the wood with a shower of splinters.

Kaius held his breath as he witnessed the impact. Hoping, praying, that it would work. A heartbeat later there was a violent boom as his spell detonated. The force of the aggressively expanding mana punched a hole the size of his head clean through the table, sending wooden shrapnel flying through the room. Glass implements shattered, both from the explosion itself and the high velocity shards of wood that had flown free.

Staring slack jawed at the results of his test, Kaius eventually managed to digest the sheer destruction that he had managed to pack into one tiny needle. Pumping his fist in the air he let out a whoop of success and jumped over to Porkchop to rustle the fur on his friends head.

"Did you see that! It blew clean through the table!" He yelled in excitement as Porkchop growled and snapped at his hands.

"Yes I did, now stop messing up my fur!" Porkchop grumbled, nipping one of his fingers.

"Sorry about that." Kaius pulled his hand back with a shake and gave his friend an apologetic smile. "But seriously, that was awesome! It should work way better than Arcane Dart against regenerating lumps of meat. Hopefully it should blow holes straight through them. Plus it still only costs thirty mana!" He gushed.

Thankfully Porkchop looked at least somewhat interested. At least once he took an actual good look at the ruined table and shattered glass below. Kaius knew his friend had little interest in actual runework, but everyone loved a good explosion.

"I'm going to get the rest of these inscribed and then we can press on." He said, rushing back to his seat at the small reading desk that sat against the wall.

Within moments he had his inscription stylus pressed against his flesh once more, moving quickly over his skin as he drew rune after rune with practised ease. With a new weapon to use against the quickly healing monsters that were present in the Fleshwarper's Laboratory Kaius felt far more at ease about their exploration.

While common depths-born were no longer any major threat to him, not with his growing collection of artefacts and skills at least, the abomination they had just slain had raised an issue. It took too long to kill. The looming deadline to get their last Honours and slay a Guardian hung like a weight from his neck. While he was confident that they would be able to handle even a full contingent of flayed horrors, if their focus was split he was far less sure in their ability to deal with them in the same manner.

If they weren't able to hack off the monster's limbs and then focus it down, they would be forced to drain their Health the old fashioned way. Such a slog would slow them down drastically. He hoped that with his new spell they would be able to avoid that. If he could remove or cripple limbs from a distance, it should give them the time and space to pick off horrors one by one. Even when faced by a group.

Kaius took a slow breath, clearing the idle distractions from his mind. That was unimportant right now. His runework needed his full focus, lest he make a mistake and was forced to restart the spell from the beginning.

…

Standing by one of the exits from the laboratory they had entered, Kaius did a final check of his gear. He tugged on buckles and fasteners, his scalemail rustling as he ensured it was fully on tight. Reinscribing his spells had taken the better part of an hour, slightly longer than normal as he was still not as familiar with his new hymn.

By the end of it Porkchop had gotten restless with impatience, and had taken to tearing pages out of the many nonsensical books that lined the walls. Even now his friend lurked behind him, eager to press on into the biome. Kaius suspected that his lack of Honours was starting to get to him. Thankfully Porkchop should at least get his first before they had fully cleared the laboratory of threats. Of the two biomes they had explored they had seen four Champions in each of them, and Kaius had no doubt that they would have missed at least a few in the winding warrens that were the Depths.

They had decided that Porkchop would have a shot at soloing the Champions they had come across. Kaius didn't exactly relish the idea of watching his friend get torn to shreds by some empowered fleshy horror, but the fact that he would be waiting on the sidelines and ready to jump in if something went wrong made him feel a little better about it.

Nodding in satisfaction that his armour was properly fitted he turned his attention back to the door they waited by. Unlike the door that had led them into this laboratory section, this one had no bolthole so they had little idea of what they would find on the other side.

"Ready?" Kaius asked, turning back to Porkchop.

"Yeah." Porkchop nodded. "Though I did want to ask how we are going to keep track of the way back here? We do want to go back to the dwarf city for our Guardian battle right?"

Kaius nodded. Both of them had grown highly familiar with the twisting mess of pathways that the Depths were so fond of. Luckily, the solution was pretty simple.

"With this." Kaius patted the hunting knife bucked at his hip. "If we carve a symbol on the inside of each door we pass through, we only need to keep taking doors that we have marked to eventually make it back here."

Porkchop grunted, apparently satisfied with his answer.

"No promises how long it will take though," Kaius said with a grin. "You know how big these places get."

"Unfortunately." Porkchop replied with a grumble.

"Ready then?" He asked, setting his hand on the door's latch.

"Let's do it."

Kaius took a moment to steel himself before throwing open the door, revealing another room that was similar to the one they were leaving. Though, this one did lack the easy opulence of a mezzanine library. Tables lined the walls, laden with alembics, mortar and pestles, and a dizzying array of alchemical glassware.

A quartet of massive glass tanks filled with black sludge towered up to the ceiling, this time standing proud in the centre of the room. Below them, bracketed spigots jutted out over four large tubs, each filled with more of the liquid.

The smell of the room hit him like a wall, stinking of acrid chemicals and the sweet stench of rot. Scrunching his nose, Kaius stepped into the room and drew his sword in a smooth motion, holding it in one hand to keep the other free for casting.

His eyes open wide as he stayed alert for any threats, taking in the almost clinical set up of the equipment arrayed throughout the room. He relaxed as he saw no trace of any horrors or other abominations. There was a chance one was hiding behind the tanks, but he suspected that it would have come for them at this point. Abominations generally weren't the smartest of creatures, and the flayed horror had given him no reason to second guess Father's council.

"Gods it reeks." Porkchop muttered as he moved in behind him.

"Must be the black liquid. I wonder what it's for?" Kaius asked as he looked at the thick liquid that slowly bubbled like mud spring in the tubs.

As soon as the words left his lips a meaty arm burst out of one of the black filled tubs, thickened alchemy clinging to flayed muscle as it grasped the edge and hauled itself upwards. Great globs of the unknown mixture stuck to its flesh as it rose to its full height with a groan, slowly dripping off its body to land back in the tub with a plop.

Kaius's arm snapped up as he instantaneously reacted to the threat. He might have falsely thought the room to be clear, but nearly a full year in the Depths had honed his senses to a razor edge. He never fully let down his guard these days.

Three needles shot from his hand in rapid succession as runic hymns dissolved on his skin in a burst of golden light. Porkchop ran past him, rushing for the depths-born abomination.

Made of hyperdense unaspected mana, the needles sunk deep into the flesh of the flayed horror's chest with ease. Half a moment later, the impact trigger he had designed activated, letting loose the barely contained chaos of the unstable working.

Gouts of disintegrating flesh, splintered bone, and blood erupted from the monster's torso, the explosions tearing plate-sized holes in its chest. Savage glee surged through him as he saw that the spell had torn clean through the monster, revealing the glass reservoirs of fluid behind it. Though now the iron reinforcement was stained red with splattered meat. His Bloodsong rose.

The horror gurgled, unnatural regeneration gelling blood around the edges of its wounds, sealing them off as its regeneration worked to restore the missing flesh. Kaius cackled; his plan had worked. With the flesh removed, no longer could it simply seal the wound. Instead it had to drain its Health to fully regenerate the missing flesh.

That said, even gaping holes in its chest seemed to do little to deter the creature. No matter, he knew what to do. Kaius snapped off a final needle before Porkchop could finish closing the gap and throw off his aim. It sank into the flesh of its leg, just above the knee.

Another percussive blast echoed out, stoking his blood lust as the eruption of viscera cleanly amputated the monster at the knee. It groaned, falling forwards to topple over the edge of the tub, only just barely catching itself on its hands.

Porkchop was on it in moments, hardened claws sheathed in mana blades tearing into the exposed muscle of its head and cleaving through the bone below. It writhed, senses ruined.

Kaius was already moving, settling into a two handed grip on his sword as he sprinted across the room. Skidding to a stop beside the prone form of the horror he started to hack at one flailing arm, severing it after a couple of hard chops.

It was easy after that. Almost routine. He cut off the limbs and made sure they never fully regenerated, and Porkchop put his digging claws to grizzly work as he gouged out great chunks of flesh and bones from the monster's torso. It didn't last long.

**Ding! level 16 Flayed Horror slain**

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