The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 146: Ravens

Crucis looked over towards the centre of the plains, as it grew visible through a long, twisting valley. The battle was growing louder there, as monsters began to overwhelm the many players trying to resist them. The major Guilds began to give up and fight each other instead, and two large groups of players were fighting on one side of the plains. One side was gaining a clear advantage. He squinted to try and make out the details.

A large shadow suddenly dropped across the dusty plains and rocks, making it look like dark gauze had been draped over them, as a black shape appeared in the air above.

After hovering quietly for a few seconds, blotting out the light, the Night Raven swooped down in one movement and grabbed a player from amongst the fray.

Crucis could vaguely make out that this player's name began with 'A,' but no more than that.

The player began to struggle, heaving from side to side desperately, but the bird simply flew on uncaring. At a high enough altitude, the player went faint, and the bird began to easily bite through his or her head as it disappeared into the distance.

Crucis guessed that the large bird would soon be back, to find more prey who were low on Divine Mana. A few players in the centre were still refusing to fight other players, even though the monsters were becoming too difficult to use as a consistent and safe source of Divine Mana, and the raven was hence becoming a more frequent visitor.

As Crucis and Starfighter walked through the East, avoiding the crowded centre for now, Crucis remained concealed in trees and bushes when possible.

Soon, a level 50 warrior named [Manxeander] saw Starfighter alone, and ran up for a fight. Carrying a large sword, he set upon Starfighter, who used his own sword to parry near his body, and bound the two swords together with the curved blade of his Haladie.

In a moment, Crucis emerged from the bushes with [Agile Step], and easily beheaded Manxeander.

He noticed that he had received an extra reward from this kill, the [Urn of Apollo]. It increased resistance to damage from heat and fire, and could make it easier to explore high-temperature areas where HP would otherwise be drained quickly by the heat.

On their way down the hill, Starfighter had picked up the [Urn of Boreas] from another kill, which increased damage in icy places, and reduced the slowing effect of the cold.

While they hadn't yet had to venture into extreme conditions, several rewarding higher-level areas required heavy resistance to the elements in order to enter safely. Some contained dazzling infernos, lava pits swarming with powerful salamanders, or icy tundra. As such, these items could be quite valuable in the long-term, to give a leg-up in exploring those areas.

Soon, they came to a cross-roads, where the largest path forward led directly towards the central plains, and was bordered by several large boulders. Starfighter gestured Crucis to keep away from this path, because it was likely that some groups were hiding behind these boulders and preparing to ambush players on the path.

Sure enough, as soon as a group of six level 50-55 players began to walk down the path, they were set upon by nine Hashin pouring in from both sides.

The familiar figure of Dr1fter led five players from one side, and a female Hashin named [Immisera] led the group from the other side. She wore a black-and-white mask that almost looked like it was smiling, but not the typical Assassin's hood. Instead, her light-brown ponytail flailed out behind her, with a few blue highlights dyed on, as she rushed forwards more enthusiastically than others.

Crucis hadn't heard of her earlier, but she seemed to command a large amount of respect among the Hashin, who followed her closely despite her slightly manic haste.

Although she was nearly set upon by two opponents as she rushed in, her comrades quickly leaped in to block out danger.

The Hashin seemed to be quickly taking charge of the fight.

Crucis and Starfighter, meanwhile, hustled quickly towards the leftwards path, heading towards the South.

The land spreading on both sides of this path was like a large, white desert, with huge, frail sand dunes rising across it. Weaving mazily between these dunes, they kept an eye out for anyone approaching.

Soon, they heard another player trying to sneak through the sand, coming up from the South. This player was audibly struggling as they made their way over the dunes, with the sand slipping away from under them.

As the player began tiredly climbing another dune, Crucis quickly rounded a neighbouring dune to the left and attacked this player from the rear. At his sight, the player's feet began trying to turn, but as the sand give way could only lose balance and slip. His feet kicked desperately, trying to find some sort of footing, but merely passed through the soft sand.

Crucis easily caught him and slashed through his throat.

"It sounds like there's a few players between the cliffs up ahead," Starfighter said, catching up.

Crucis perked up his ears, then nodded. "Yeah, though they're mostly spread out to avoid danger from each other. We should be able to take out a few at a time. Let's go."

As they approached the large cliffs, which formed a wall on three sides of the valley, large, flat rocks rose up on each side of the path and grew into the towering, brown-red mountains which grew over the cliffs.

Crucis suddenly gestured at Starfighter to pause.

"Wait a moment, I saw something moving on top of that rock," he said, pointing to a flat rock on the left of the path. "I think there's someone there setting an ambush."

"Has he seen us?" Starfighter replied.

"I don't think so, he seemed to be facing the path quite intently."

"Alright, should we get up closer and see if we can attack?"

Crucis took in the situation for a moment, then replied. "No, wait. There's someone walking down the path from inside the valley. If this guy is planning an ambush, then maybe he'll come down to attack them. We just need to stay close, then we can attack him once he's down."

They crept up behind a large sand dune, which hid them from the player on the rock, and watched across the path in anticipation.

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