"They're awake already!" Astrid called out. "Ready on the front!"
Muti and Skandr followed her command, Lightning Reflexes pushing into both Astrid and Muti. She blitzed forward, her hammer light in her hands as the two brawlers threw themselves forward. Muti's swords flashed towards the brawler on the right, and Astrid shoved off the one on the left. With enough space, the two of them crippled one brawler, allowing Muti to slide past to the ranger. The arrow sunk deep into Muti's side and the Barbarian grunted as she continued her path forward.
With a shout, she swung her swords and engaged the ranger. Astrid grimaced, calling back to Skandr, "Support her! I'm fine here!"
His grunt was all the response he gave, but it was more than enough for Astrid to know that he was doing as she asked. A pair of bolts of lightning flashed over her shoulder and the gnoll yipped in pain. Astrid took the opportunity to weather the blows from the remaining brawler, her shield taking the series of blows without issue. As soon as the kill notification for the ranger appeared in her vision, Astrid knew that was the end and continued taking the hits on her shield.
When the gnoll turned to deal with the approaching Muti, Astrid hamstrung it with her hammer. Hammerstrung, maybe. Whatever the correct term for it, her hammer ripped through flesh and bone as it destroyed the monster's legs and it fell with agonized cries. Muti screamed back at it as she buried her swords in the felled monster's eyes. A second death notification appeared before Muti threw herself at the third, felled monster and Astrid just stepped back and let the wounded Rogue vent her rage.
It was a gory, disturbing affair, but a mere minute or so after the kill notification appeared, Muti stepped back with a groan. Her entire body was splattered with the crimson of the gnolls' blood, but more than that, her face was twisted with pain.
"We're done for the day." Astrid declared. "Each of you collect the spoils from one and we'll be on our way."
"I am not wounded!" Muti protested.
"Did I say that?" Astrid hissed back, getting in Muti's face. In the past two weeks, she'd learned how to work with Barbarians, or, at least, this Barbarian. "I said we're done. That shouldn't have happened, and it's because we're tired and slow. Harvest and get ready to go."
Astrid checked her Status and smiled faintly as she cut the ear and fangs from one of the brawlers.
Total Level: 6 (4,697/10,000)
That was progress, good progress, in fact. Two weeks to get nearly halfway through level 6, and they were being held back a little by Anders. The Guild representative didn't let them kill more than 100 gnolls in a day on their "unlimited" delves, which they'd only approached twice. The rest of the days were like this one, where exhaustion and allowing themselves to fall into routine kept them from continuing on their delve. Muti's injury was potentially one of the worst they'd had so far, but Astrid would never know because the damned Rogue wouldn't tell anyone about how bad her wounds were.
She threw the spoils into her pouch and waited for Skandr to do the same. Muti had slipped hers into the pouch on Astrid's back when she thought the Warrior wasn't paying attention, as had become her custom. The massive Rogue didn't try to ambush Astrid nearly as much as she had before, since Astrid was almost always keeping herself on her toes. Now, to prove how everyone needed to be ready at all times, Muti stuck to sneaking little things into her party members' pockets and pouches.
Astrid allowed her to think she'd won, though if she was honest, Muti did sneak entirely past her perception a couple times. Over half of the time, if she was completely honest with herself. For someone so giant and loud, the Barbarian was too damned sneaky. How she did it this time with two feet of arrow shaft sticking out of her side was even more amazing.
Then, with their day's spoils collected, the party followed Muti out of the Dungeon. Her steps were solid and unworried, though Astrid got the sense that the Barbarian was struggling with the wound. It didn't seem to have gone too deep into her gut, but it would be agonizing, if nothing else.
As they approached their usual exit, Muti growled. Astrid knew what that meant and took the lead while Muti fell in step just behind Astrid's left shoulder, hiding the arrow sticking out of her right side. Skandr walked not far behind the other two, and Astrid heard the telltale crackle of electricity as she walked. All three were ready.
"Oh, it's Skandr's Savages!"
"The Barbarians and the Boy!"
Since the day when Astrid and Muti had threatened the three brothers, a couple of the other weakest delvers around had settled on doing pathetic things like this. Too weak to dedicate their time to delving, too insecure to let newcomers obviously outperform them, they fell to this. It was almost humorous. Almost. It was mostly infuriating. The only thing that'd kept Astrid from lashing out violently was the fact that Muti would absolutely kill people for insulting her and Astrid kept the other hot-tempered woman in check.
It wasn't lost on Astrid that the thing that kept her anger in check after all these years was having to take care of someone even angrier than her. Regardless, she kept her head high as they strode past the three delvers who hoped that a pair of wargs would wander over and give them easy experience. In the meantime, they harvested the red wheat that grew so quickly here in the Dungeon.
"Cowards." Muti hissed. "Too weak to tie your own boots' laces. Too stupid to get a party. Unable to stomach the sight of blood."
She spat the last phrase as if it were the most severe of insults, and the other delvers retreated from the vehemence and her imposing stature more than from her insults.
"You better keep these two wenches of yours in line!" One called out.
"Can't believe you'd let them pay you for it, much less that you're paying them!"
"Ugly wenches!"
Even knowing how pathetic these men were, Astrid felt the words cut deep. Beside her anger, shame and hurt began to surface. She didn't deserve this treatment, and, despite herself, they picked at some of her insecurities. She fed the anger more, helping to drown out the deeper, more pained parts of herself, but as she opened her mouth to retort, maybe even to do something about it, someone else chimed in.
"That's how you talk to women? Big surprise you can't convince any of the women in town to drink your beer or eat your meals. You're all pathetic."
Bogdan appeared out of nowhere behind the three men, his face sneering.
"You think we don't know you've never had a lay? You're a shivering child wearing adult's clothes and you—"
Markus's fist drove the wind out of the speaker's lungs. As the man collapsed and lay on the ground wheezing, the Pugilist scoffed.
"Pretty damn weak if you ask me, huh? Now, keep doing your weakling job and keep your mouths shut, or get the hell out of here. You're an embarrassment."
The recovering delver's companions tried to say something, but as the rest of the party made themselves known, they hung their heads, muttering about whoever idiots like them complained about. Probably Astrid. And Muti.
"They're still pulling this?" Markus asked as they all walked up the stairs. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize we had so many goblins wearing human skin around here."
"Are you surprised it was them?" Bogdan's voice was almost comically incredulous. "They've been here for a year and haven't gotten a single level. Of course they're jealous seeing that these 'rookies' are in here showing the 'veterans' that they're weak and stupid."
"Well… yeah, you're right."
"And they're just wrong." The sole female member of their party, Kaya, spoke up. "Have you seen Astrid and Muti's skin? Even though they wear helmets all day, their skin is so clear! I wish I knew your secrets!"
Even though a part of Astrid knew that it was just the praise that Kaya could come up with, she also felt a little warmer inside at the compliment. The Archer was a pretty woman herself, with an oval face and straight black hair, her leather armor complimenting her athlete's thin build. Bogdan couldn't keep his eyes off her as she spoke, a certain light in his eyes that was humorous and a little bittersweet.
As they walked out into the light of the day, the last member of Markus and Bogdan's party, a Physician named Antoni, actually saw Muti's wound.
"Duchess above! You've got an arrow in you!"
Muti turned to growl at the man but Astrid reached up and took the other woman by the hair and pulled her down.
"You will not threaten an allied healer in my presence. You will accept his ministrations right now, or you'll fight me. When I win, I'll get him to tend to you after witnessing you lose a fight because you're wounded."
Astrid knew she was poking an angry warg with that last comment, but while Muti's expression soured further, she also didn't argue with her point. Finally, after maybe 15 seconds of staring each other down, Muti growled her response.
"Heal me."
"Well, I'm not a Healer—"
"Shut up, Antoni." Markus sighed. "Just do your thing. We don't need a whole conversation about it."
"There are differences in how I can treat you," Antoni continued without listening, "and while I aspire to become a Magi-Physician, most of what I can do right now is mundane. For now, I'll remove the arrow and head, apply a tincture, and then, since we're leaving the Dungeon for the day, use my mana to accelerate your body's healing speed for the next day. Do you have any questions?"
When Muti's lip curled again, Astrid stepped forward, her hand raised. The Barbarian lowered her head and grunted. Taking that as a "no", Antoni stepped forward and set about preparing the shaft for removal as Muti removed her armor and shirt. She stood in her wraps, scars on display to everyone that looked.
"Do these scars not hurt?" Antoni asked with a gasp. "They're so thick and gnarled that they obviously didn't heal well!"
"Pain does not matter. They are healed, and I do not feel any unhappiness with these marks. They tell the story of who I am, of what I have defeated, and what victories lie before me."
Muti's tone was final, and though Antoni opened his mouth to speak further, Astrid stopped him.
"I'm helping you to treat her because I think it's important. What you want to say right now? Unimportant. If you want to treat her, you have my support. If you want to question her and her people's beliefs, you'll get no support from me when you step on a lion's tail or three."
With that warning, Antoni finally stopped running his mouth and set about treating her and nothing else. As he worked, Astrid sighed a breath of relief that she'd been able to convince Muti to get any treatment. She took offense to the fact that Astrid could basically take care of herself while she, the Barbarian, needed help. If Antoni'd managed to mess that up for her, Astrid would have been more dangerous to his health than Muti.
As soon as he was ready, Antoni was finally ready and pulled the shaft from Muti's obliques. A full 7 centimeters or so had been buried in her flesh, and the sucking sound it made as it was pulled free turned Astrid's stomach. Thankfully, gnolls didn't use barbed heads on their arrows, so the removal was mostly making sure there weren't any shards of wood or filth inside the wound. Whenever Muti opened her mouth to say something, Astrid said, "Careful."
The Barbarian's complaints died when Astrid cautioned her, and before long, the wound was dressed and Antoni looked into Muti's eyes.
"I am going to place my hands on your wound for about one minute. Do not move. Do not touch me. Stay still, and the recovery will not be lost in healing strained muscles, bruises, and the like. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
Antoni didn't say anything else as he placed both hands over the gauze that'd been bound onto Muti. He didn't say a word, but simply stood there in the field, eyes closed tightly, for a minute. Somehow, nobody else in the area seemed to think it was the right time to speak either, so it was spent in slightly awkward silence instead of quiet conversation. Astrid merely looked out for anyone approaching and was pleased when she didn't need to shoo anyone away. She'd made good friends and a party in these weeks, but she really didn't need to make any more enemies.
"There we are." Antoni pulled his hands away and wiped a sheen of sweat from his face. "That should be more than enough for now. I managed to focus it quite well as your Fortitude is relatively high. So, you should be ready for a half day's rest tomorrow as well as resting for the rest of the day today."
Muti grunted as she pulled her tunic and then her armor back on. Despite everything else, Astrid could see her gratitude and expressed it in the place of her companion.
"We appreciate it, Antoni. How much will we owe you?"
"It will be 12 copper." He shrugged. "The greatest cost is the gauze, but there's only so much I can do about the costs."
"That's totally fine. I'm happy to pay the price." Astrid pulled the coppers from her coin pouch, but Muti scowled and reached into her own. Passing over the payment, the Barbarian then stalked forward to keep an eye on their surroundings as they returned to town. With so many people here, many of them those who she only hardly knew, the Barbarian obviously wanted to get some space.
"Let me know what you see. We're depending on you." Astrid said and Muti grunted in acknowledgement as she paid close attention to everything around them.
The remainder of the two parties stayed together as they walked back to the town. Once Muti was far enough away, Bogdan asked, "How do you deal with her? She's inscrutable."
"No, she's just not human." Astrid spoke just loud enough that she was sure Muti could hear. "I've quickly learned that she just isn't like us. Her values and thoughts are different, and that's just a result of her upbringing and people. If you listen to what she values, you'll see that speaking with another person isn't difficult."
Bogdan's eyebrows twitched, and Markus raised his hands in a placating gesture.
"No offense intended."
"Nor did I take any. I was just letting you know how, if you wanted to, you can get to know someone else in the future using the same way."
Markus and his party changed the subject, and Astrid didn't mind it. These people had been respectful of her and Muti, and they weren't attempting to be asinine or anything. Instead of making a fuss, Astrid spoke comfortably with the others about their delving on the third floor.
"The packs are almost always awake on the third floor, and there's never less than four. Usually five or six." Markus explained. "Having to focus on killing as many of them as possible as quickly as possible has become more and more important. Honestly, I think we should probably go back to the second floor and just take a little more time to maybe get to level 9. Unless we got a frontliner…"
"She's still saying no." Skandr said, a little defensively. "We're doing well, and she's not a frontliner."
"Thank you, Skandr." Astrid agreed. "I hope you find someone who can keep up with you, though."
"Keep up with us, she says?" Bogdan snorted. "You don't see yourselves? You're doing more than we are on a higher floor!"
"So it's easier, even if there aren't as many monsters to kill." Astrid completed the thought. "So don't think that we're anything special."
Even so, she thought of the conversation she'd had with Klara. They were faster than their peers, but were they fast enough to be considered impressive? Was she too prideful, thinking of herself on the same level as the Golden Fist? Of course she was.
As their steps took them into the city's walls, Skandr looked at Astrid, who, with a sigh, handed over the payment for his portion of the spoils for the day. Then, leaning in as she passed it over, she spoke.
"If possible, I want you to come to my room tonight." Astrid whispered to him. "I have a couple questions to ask."
"Can we not and pretend we did?"
"No."
"... Alright."
"After dinner, come by. Knock."
Skandr nodded and jogged off, in a different direction and at a different street than the day before.
"Is he in debt to a gang?" Bogdan asked.
"None of your concern, really." Astrid replied with a smile. "Are you coming back to the inn right away?"
"No, we've got a couple errands to run for now." Markus answered her instead, scowling at Bogdan.
"Then perhaps we'll see you in an hour or two at dinner."
Astrid nodded them away and accompanied Muti as they walked towards the inn. As they walked in, an unfamiliar face greeted them.
"Astrid Warrior?" The man asked Muti. She shook her head and pointed at Astrid who stepped forward.
"Yes? How can I help you?"