Broker

Chapter 150

Just moments after Greg had sealed them inside the dungeon, Alex and the rest of their small group had found themselves staring at the portal in disbelief. Alex ran his fingers up and through his hair. It was not supposed to play out like this. Not to his mind. They were supposed to go in together, a cohesive unit as always. Greg had always been a kind-of leader for the rest of them, even if Alex chafed at it a little now and then. He was a planner with more foresight than the rest of them. They needed him, and Alex would be damned before he left anyone behind to face danger alone. He drew his fist back before anyone could say anything and slammed it into the vibrant violet field only to find himself against a cracked tree trunk a moment later, his head spinning.

He got to his feet and marched towards it again, “Son of a-” A hand wrapped around his wrist and he whipped his head towards Val who was looking him dead in the eyes. “Let go.”

Val gave him a hard look, “Don’t be an idiot man,” Val said.

Alex tugged his arm from Val’s grip and turned on him, “What’d you call me?” He barked and pointed at the portal, “Greg is out there, he needs us!” He shouted, “We can’t just leave him behind!”

Val frowned at him, “Dude, you gotta chill-”

“Chill?” Alex threw up his hands, “Greg was the planner! He was the voice of reason, are you seriously expecting me to just- He’s our fucking friend! I’m not gonna leave him out there!” He barked.

“Alex, don’t take it out on him, Greg gave us a chance, we need to take it,” Another voice chimed in and Cass stepped in behind Val. 

Alex’s lips twitched, “Who the hell do you think you are? You just get inserted into our group like you’ve always been here and expect me to listen to a word you say? I’ve known Greg since we were in middle school! I don’t know a damn thing about you!” He shouted, “I’m not leaving him behind!” He immediately regretted it as soon as the words left his mouth, his pounding heart stuttering once in his chest as he caught the pained look on the young woman’s face. 

Cass looked away and nodded, “That’s… fair,” She said quietly and turned away, “Do what you want. I’m going to find Lily.”

John, off to the side, frowned at Alex and shook his head while Ollie pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Alex clenched his fists, “I-” He ground his teeth. Damn it, why don’t they understand? I don’t get it!

“Alex,” A small soothing voice rang in his ear and he turned to see Snow looking at him with a sad look in her eyes, “What would Greg do right now?”

Alex looked away, “How should I know? I’m not Greg,” He grunted petulantly before glancing back into those pearlescent orbs. He squeezed his eyes shut and let out a sigh, Damn it. He looked up at Val who held his gaze while Ollie and John moved to follow Cass. “He’d finish the mission if one of us was covering the rear. He doesn’t do self-sacrifice. He’s confident, but he doesn’t want us wasting time,” He said hollowly, he didn’t like saying it, he wanted to fight at his friend’s side. 

Val reached out and squeezed his arm, “He’ll be fine. We’ll see him in no time, yeah?” Val said with a smirk and pat his arm before turning away.

Alex didn’t move for a moment, staring at his feet, “Val, sorry about-”

Val snorted, “Dude, we go back too, I get it,” He said as his steps moved further away, “I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.”

Alex winced and glanced up at the back of the blondes head as she dipped under a branch and stepped onto the path leading into the first ‘passage’ of the dungeon beyond what the scouts had started to call the ‘lobby’. She didn’t look back. Ollie caught up to her and said something with a smile on his face and she glanced at him, returning the expression. Alex let out another sigh, Shit, I fucked that up, He thought and scratched the back of his head before moving to follow the others. 

Val, his hands up behind his head, tilted a bit to listen to something John had to say and raised his voice, “Yo, we need a fuckin’ formation. We don’t got any heals right now, right?”

Alex chewed his lip, “I can regenerate a bit, I’ll take rearguard.”

Val glanced back at him and met his eyes. Alex looked away and felt his stomach twist. I just don’t know what to say. I’m not good at that kind of stuff.

“Alright, Alex is on rear guard, Cass you got the front?” Val called out.

“No problem,” Cass said, “Nothing will get past me.”

“Cool, John and I have flanks, Ollie and Snow should stay in the middle,” Val said as they fully stepped into the open path. 

Alex had been given the small opportunity to peek into the dungeon a little while back so he’d seen the eerie circular clearing surrounded by a literal wall of tree trunks that made up the lobby. The trees went way up into the sky and made it a crazy thought to try to go over them to do anything. Apparently one scout had tried and had gotten attacked by something though they’d had a hard time describing it. He had not, however, seen the actual ‘operating’ parts of the dungeon. They didn’t have anyone who’d been memorizing the paths either. They were flying blind.

That didn’t make it any less breathtaking.

The trees that hung over the initial passage out of the lobby made it impossible to see the sky while the path itself bent just slightly to the right in a lazy curve to block anyone standing in the lobby from seeing further inside. At the end of the passage, though, it was like they’d stepped into something out of a dream. He nearly walked right into Ollies back, the others standing in mute fascination at the awe inspiring view. 

They were standing before a vast forest with tall trees that spread out wide throughout a vast area of beaten undergrowth. Thousands of pillars of wood interspaced among one another with cascading beams of sunlight piercing between breaks in the foliage. He glanced up to see a blue sky overhead, a few clouds drifting past. The trees themselves were a rainbow of colors, mostly green leaves and brown wood but interspersed were whites and reds and even some greens. The leaves were anything from the brightest gold to various shades of purple. The air smelled so… clean.

“Found the path,” Cass said a few feet ahead, pointing at the ground, “Lily said that they had been taking the leftmost route mostly and that the right path led to a dead end.”

Alex looked down at his feet and noticed that amongst the undergrowth there was a clearly marked path of dirt that split off in several directions before leading off into the multicolored forest beyond. The leftmost path looked the most well worn, from the looks of it. He looked up from the path to Cass and opened his mouth. She glanced his way and he shut it, looking down at his feet again, Damn it. He thought as she turned her focus on what she was doing. He fell back a bit, taking his spot at the rear as he tried to work through the roiling emotions in his chest.

It still didn’t sit right with him that they’d gone on ahead. They should have waited for Greg. The others were right, though, on a logical level anyway. He exhaled through his nose and glanced over his shoulder, scanning the area for a moment. Focus on what you’re doing, you can worry about it later, he chastised himself. You’re gonna fuck up again at this rate, what happened to promising to do better? He grumbled as they walked along the path, the forest at their right while they hugged the thick wall of trees to their left that made up the boundary of this area. He clenched his jaw as scales formed along his neck, face, arms, knuckles and legs. Don’t get caught off guard, be ready for anything, breathe.

He took another steadying breath and glanced back over his shoulder, examining the path behind them for any sign of creatures moving to follow them.

“Do we have any intel on the monsters here?” Val asked.

“No, unfortunately, tonight was going to be their first mission where enough time had passed between the last culling and the next to see a few,” Ollie said, “I was really looking forward to Lily’s report.”

“First hand is better anyway,” John said grimly, twirling a knife between his fingers. Leaves falling now and then among the trees to their right.

Cass glanced back over her shoulder, “Snow, can you use your illusions to give us some cover as we walk?” She asked as Alex continued to turn his head from where he had been looking back to her. Snow was nodding and raising her hands to craft her illusion when a bad feeling began to wriggle up in Alex’s gut. He couldn’t see it, but his instincts told him that something was off, it was like a tightness in his legs, an instantaneous flight response. He flicked his tongue out and tasted the air and his eyes went wide.

“Everyone duck!” He shouted.

In the same moment as the others reacting to his command, the leaves that had been falling from the trees to their right pivoted in the air and darted in their direction. Fragile falling fragments became as solid as steel, blades that ripped through the air and embedded themselves in the tree-wall to their left. Behind them, appearing as if out of thin air, were a trio of figures that stood a head and a half taller than even himself. All three had eerie skin that seemed to be both flesh and wood, their faces stiff as boards even as their blazing green eyes all turned to look at him.

Two of them carried bladed weapons in their hands while the third was unarmed and seemed more frail than the others. It threw its hand out in Alex’s direction with a barely audible hiss of unintelligible words and vines ripped from the ground at his feet. He threw his arm forward on instinct, extending it and grabbing onto the tree nearest to the group of three as the hard wood began to wrap around his legs and pulled. The force of the movement snapping the vines before they could harden into restraints and carried him across the distance on a collision course with the three.

The two blade wielders raised their weapons, ready to intercept him and he released his grip on the tree, throwing both arms up to defend himself as his feet went out for a skidding landing. Somewhere off to the side he heard an explosion of sound. His feet hit the ground and he braced himself, setting his jaw. 

CLANG!

A pair of blades clashed against his arms and he glanced up into the eyes of one of the two blade wielders. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of yellow and the gleam of a long metal haft as the other blade wielder was pushed back and away from him. Cass whipped her leg out and kicked it in the chest before driving her shoulder forward in a tackle, pushing it further onto the backfoot. He turned his attention back to the one engaged with him and pushed up and away with a grunt, sending it stumbling back as well. “Val! John!”

“Right!” The two called at the same time. The sudden blast of a rocket engine activating as a red blur crossed his vision. He ducked beneath Val’s speeding body, his friend whipping his entire body around in a tremendous kick that collided with the blade wielder’s head, pulverizing it. At the same time, John closed the distance like an olympic sprinter, his knife at the ready as he swept towards what Alex assumed was a ‘caster’ type whatever-the-hell these things were. His knife moved so fast it left behind rigid lines of light for a heartbeat before a low croak of pain sounded, the frail monster dropping to its knees and gaping at its missing hands.

Just as John swiped his knife across it’s throat, the other blade wielder came soaring through the air to crash at Alex’s feet, its body covered in crater-like wounds that looked eerie on its wood like body. It didn’t get up.

Alex let out a sharp breath, it had happened so fast. If he’d been a few seconds slower, who knows what those leaves would have done to the others. They weren’t as durable as he was, save maybe for Val and his armor and Cass in general. 

He glanced up at Cass as she approached from where she’d engaged the blade wielder, her hammer slung over her shoulder. He met her eyes and she looked away from him, a frown on her face. Damn it. I gotta do something about this.

“Cass,” He said, clearing his throat. She looked up at him with a stony stare and he rubbed his neck, “I- I shouldn’t have said that. You’ve been really trying to fit in and I was just-” He groped for excuses but found none, “I’m sorry about what I said. You’re one hell of a badass, thanks for coming with us.”

She stared back at him for several heartbeats, the others getting out of the way. She walked over to him and he realized for the first time that she was just as tall as he was. Was it her ability? He’d seen her get bigger at one point but- she flicked him in the forehead and he nearly fell onto his back, a smarting spot forming at the point of contact. He reached up and grabbed his head, “Ouch! What the-”

“Now we’re even,” She said with a smile and reached down. He squinted at her and then at her hand before grabbing it. She pulled him to his feet. “I wasn’t exactly friendly to start with either,” she admitted. “You guys have made this… better, and you haven’t said anything about, you know…” She trailed off.

He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head, What is she talking about? He blinked, “Oh right! You’re related to Liberty or something, yeah? I completely forgot!”

The others blinked in unison and their eyes went wide before Val barked out a laugh, “Who the fuck cares? You aren’t her, obviously.”

Cass looked at them all in bewilderment, “You… forgot?” Her shoulders sank and a look between weariness and relief washed over her face. 

It was Snow’s turn to laugh, “Well! At least this heroic rescue mission won’t be awkward anymore,” The small girl pointed out, “We should get back to that by the way.”

They all exchanged a look and nodded. Alex clenched his fist and gave Cass a nod while the blonde gripped her weapon tightly and returned the gesture, marching back to her spot in the lead. Alex set his jaw and firmed up his resolve, this wasn’t going to be easy, but if anyone could do it, they could.

Hang on Lily, we’re coming.