Skybound

Author's note: I underestimated how much of my time would be eaten up by the holidays, and as such, burned through my backlog. I'll try and keep the pace, but it may be that I need to take some time to re-up my chapter backlog. In good news, ActualWriter has their charger now, so they can work on chapters again, so expect the west half of the story to continue some time soon!

Also, this is being posted late because I got really busy and forgot-

Mark backed away from the tree slowly, eyes locked on the enormous bug that seemed intently focused on him in return. The air stirred as it's wings started working, building to a blinding speed and churning the air into a local gale. It lifted off the tree just as a spike rose from the ground, impaling the wood where the Griffinfly was just a moment before. Imara swore and the creature screamed again, piercingly high pitched.

"Fucker, stay still," Imara shouted at the thing as she kicked a rock into the air and launched it at her currently quite mobile target. It missed by a mile but several smaller ones were following in rapid succession.

"Imara, spike me!" Mark didn't want to throw his new knife away like that, so he aimed for the next best thing. Imara was quick on the jump too, not even breaking her rhythm of quick shots to make the spike next to Mark. Making shrapnel from a pillar left her feet available for things like that.

With a bash from his forearm, the tip was broken free. Winding up with the stalagmite somehow felt more natural than before, like muscle memory was taking over. The Mana surged out of his arm as he wrenched his arm forward and released the spike, green streaks spiraling around the stone point. The beast tried dodging to the side but the path curved and course corrected, sinking into the side of the beast. Another high pitched roar came from its mouth, now apparent pain swimming with the anger and rage.

"Nice, you pissed it off, I think." Imara continued laying down a barrage of small shrapnel pieces like an anti-air gun while still having time to sass him. Much to her growing frustration, the Griffinfly was still agile in spite of the injury and it avoided the trailing onslaught of flak with a level of grace that, Mark felt, something of that size shouldn't possess. Said grace was currently being used to angle its massive body into a dive right at Mark.

A dive to the floor was all well and good to get away from the charging head; the grabbing feet, however, were another story. It grabbed the back of Mark's shirt in a fly by and took off towards the sky, letting go as it crested the trees and letting his momentum bring him as high as it could before he'd fall back towards the ground.

It was serene, the feeling of floating above it all and seeing the forest lit by what was technically a midnight sun within the Grave Zone. The anticipation of the fall came rising in his stomach, fluttery and worrying, but another feeling of belonging joined it for the short time between the peak of his little flight and the repeated impact of tree limbs.

-6 HP
-2 HP
-1 HP
-3 HP

A series of impacts with branches slowed the fall, resulting in more of a thud with the ground than a splat. In a pained groan, Mark pushed out, "I've never been more happy for bruised ribs..." with an effort of will, he got back to his feet and took stock of the situation, feeling for broken bones. He felt surprisingly fine after a fall like that, perks of Gamer's Body no doubt.

Imara was still doing her best impression of an AA turret, her tracking improving but the Griffinfly was getting better and better at dodging her. It was at least enough to keep it distracted.

Mark moved closer to her before saying, "I've got a plan. If I can get it to dive at me again, can you put up a wall to kill it's momentum?"

A curt nod was her response and another three stalagmites appeared with a stomp of her foot. "More ammo in case the first one doesn't make it mad enough."

The knife had been knocked out of his hands when Mark was jerked into the air, so taking two of them wasn't an issue. With about two-thirds of his remaining Mana, Mark sent both spikes flying at the creature one after the other before breaking off the third spike and getting clear of Imara. The earthen darts sailed through the air and found their mark just as sure as if the beast had been standing still, both stabbing into the its side and causing it to let out an ear piercing screech.

Just like before, the faceted eyes of the Griffinfly honed in on Mark and the beast dived for him with as much speed as it could bring to bear. Unfortunately for the bug, that meant it slammed into a stone wall a few inches thick at highway speeds, shattering the wall and landing just beyond it at Mark's feet.

He held the last spike in an ice pick grip, giving Imara a smile. "How's that for a sense of flair?" Feeling satisfied in his little quip, he drove the spike into the creature's head. It went limp before shattering as all the rest had before.

LEVEL UP!

Boss defeated. You may leave the dungeon at any time.

Mark smiled to himself as he saw the level up notification, pumping his fist by his side in excitement. "Yes! Between the quest and the boss, I got enough XP to level up."

"Nice work. No context for that but, I'll assume it's worth celebrating." Imara rolled her shoulder. "Trying to keep that thing busy was a surprisingly good workout. Definitely got some work to do though."

Mark studied her for a moment, trying to get a read on her before saying anything. She didn't seem angry at herself at least, just like she felt she could do better. "I guess it comes with experience? I've heard about 'battle instinct' before, maybe it's something you develop over time." As he spoke, he went over to the dropped knife, returning it to his inventory.

"If it is, that name needs work. Sounds super cheesy," She noted with a smile. "So, Mister Gamer Man, ready to get out of here? Pretty sure one of those window thingies I saw said we could leave whenever."

"Oh, yea, sure." Mark raised his hands to the sky and both of them left the Zone, leaving Imara confused.

"That... shouldn't have happened. I was about to tell you to wait so I could leave but it kicked me out too. I guess when you leave, everyone does."

"How's is that weird?"

"Usually, Zones just go wild when the owner leaves until someone else claims it. Yours didn't bother."

Mark simply offers a shrug. "Still no idea about any of that."

Imara lets out a sigh. "It's fine. Something to figure out later I guess. Should probably go and get something to eat before everything closes down."

"Still hard to believe all this. Maybe some time to process will help?"

"Dinner's good for that, yea. Might not get to run the bases, but I'm sure I'll manage to keep you entertained while you drink it all in." There was a slightly flirty tone to her words but it was clearly intended to tease. Even still, it was enough to redden Mark's face.

"I'm going to need a blood transfusion if this keeps up," he grumbled quietly. He quickly shook his head to try and focus his thoughts before speaking louder. "Well, I think I know a place that'll still be open, if you don't mind burgers."

"Eating healthy is for the rich, bring on the burgers," she said with a relaxed grin.

With agreement from both of them, they began the trip to said burger joint, a quaint little shop that seemed to be family ran. After ordering and sitting down to wait, Imara let off a sigh as she relaxed into the seat. "Alright, now that we aren't fighting giant bugs, you've probably got a ton of questions. You seem the type."

"I've held back a few, yea..." Mark sighed slowly as he eased open the floodgates. "So... Fish?"

Imara nodded. "Figured that'd be one of them. I don't know if it sounded better in a different language, or if it's just a joke that's gone way too far. Either way, it stuck and we're stuck with it." She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and setting her head on her hands. "Let's make this a back and forth. I think you were going to say something about working for insurance before I put a knee in your ribs. What do you do and why do you hate it?"

Mark was a little surprised by her idea but was game for give and take. "Yea, insurance. I mostly handle paperwork honestly, keeping things up to date in our system so others have things at hand. As for why I hate it, it's not actually the work... I don't mind what I do, it helps people and that feels good, but my boss is a mega bitch. Extra work I have no business handling, talking down to me, that kind of stuff. What about you?"

"I'm a freelancer. I do odd jobs for people in need of someone with earth magic. You'd be surprised how often I end up doing construction work inside of Zones. But there's also tunnel work. Even had one guy try to get me to sculpt a statue but I don't do well with details. Actually brings me to something you should know about. There's a network of people who dole out jobs to different Fish. My work goes through them and they find people in need of my skills. Far as I know, everyone just calls them Fixers but there's probably some big, fancy guild name for them."

"These Fixers pay well, I guess, if that's how you make a living."

"I'd definitely say so. The scale of things in the Ocean is... Larger than in the mundane world. Even basic things can see you living pretty comfortably. Next question: what's with that necklace? Seems kinda girly."

"Oh, uhh... It was my mom's." Mark looked down at it, his hand going to the crescent-moon-shaped piece of jewelry. The piece was set with three gems along the arc, one of moissanite, one of sardonyx, and one and one of tourmaline. At one point or another, there was a little pamphlet of the marketing for what the stones all meant, but that had gotten lost in all the commotion. Mark's smile had slowly faded to a pained expression and his voice had grown lower and touched with a roughness. "My dad gave it to her for their anniversary last year. They both got hurt not long ago..."

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