Chapter 67: Friends

Chapter 67: Chapter 67: Friends

Karl didn’t know what rank his dragon was.

That was the funny part. He’d never had it checked. It’s not that he hadn’t bothered. All he knew was that it was heavy, it was hot, and it breathed fire like a furnace with a grudge. It had been tucked in his pouch for a while, among a half dozen other gems, and he pulled it out only when things got ugly.

Things were ugly now.

"Burn," he said.

The dragon swung its broad head toward the beetle boss and opened its jaws. A rolling wall of orange flame poured out and swallowed the quarry. The air shimmered. Bits of shell popped and sizzled. The boss shrieked, a high, grating sound like metal on glass.

It leapt.

The giant humanoid beetle spread a pair of translucent wings that had been folded under its shell and shot upward in a buzzing blur, clearing the fire by a hair.

It hung in the sky for a heartbeat, a black silhouette against the dull gray clouds. Then it folded its wings and dove at Karl, blades first.

"Above!" Karl shouted.

Both owls were already moving.

They shot off his sides like arrows, one on each side, and slammed into the beetle in midair. Talons raked its back. Beaks tore at its joints. The three of them tumbled across the sky in a screaming knot of feathers and chitin, the beetle thrashing, the owls hanging on.

It did nothing.

The owls tore at it for a good 10 seconds. Karl saw sparks fly off the shell. He saw a talon skid off a plate without leaving a scratch. The beetle’s skin was too hard. Too strong. It shrugged off every attack like a man brushing off rain.

One owl lost its grip and spun away.

The boss shook the other loose and dropped to the ground, wings humming, claws spread.

Karl swore under his breath.

He looked across the pit.

The dust around the crater where Jared had fallen was settling. A small, dark figure lay in the rubble, one arm flung out. It wasn’t moving.

Karl didn’t waste any time.

He used his speed, borrowed whole from the tigercat, and the world blurred. The quarry whipped past. Shells flew off his boots. He covered the 200 yards in under 3 seconds, skidded to a halt beside the crater, and dropped to one knee.

"Jared!"

The figure moved.

It was a small, jerky motion, a hand curling against the dirt. A cough rattled out of a throat full of dust. Jared pushed himself up on one elbow, wobbled, and got to his feet just as Karl reached him.

"Ha," he panted. "Ha."

He swayed.

His shirt was torn. His nose was bleeding. His hands hung at his sides, limp and shaking. But he was standing. He grinned a crooked, bloody grin and shot Karl a thumbs up with one trembling fist.

"I wasn’t down," he said.

"You were on the ground, you stopped moving. "

"I was resting."

"You collapsed."

"It was a controlled collapse."

Karl stared at him for a long moment.

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Your hands?"

"They’re fine."

"They don’t look fine."

"They’re coming back." Jared flexed his fingers. They twitched, slow and clumsy, like old rubber bands. A faint prickle crawled up his wrists. "It’s pins and needles. It’s nothing. I’m good."

"You sure?" Karl asked.

[You sure?] the system chimed in.

’I’m sure.’

[You’re lying.]

"I’m good," Jared said, smiling.

[Mana: 1,094]

’It’s fine.’

’I said it’s fine.’

He stood up straighter. Karl watched him with narrowed eyes, then, apparently deciding something, let it go. He turned and whistled.

The two owls swooped back to him, ruffled and angry, and the tigercat padded up a moment later, its tail lashing. A swarm of lesser beetles was boiling out of the craters. They were smaller than the boss. They were weaker. But there were dozens.

"Take care of those," Karl told the owls.

One of them hooted.

"That one," Karl added, jerking his chin at the boss, "we’ll leave for Jared and me."

Jared smiled.

It was small, and tired, and a bit wry. He watched the owls spiral away toward the swarm, and the tigercat vanish in a streak of orange, and Karl turn back to him with a cheerful, bloody grin.

"Why do you do that?" Jared asked.

Karl blinked. "Do what?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Look at me." Jared spread his arms. They trembled. "I’m injured. I can barely move. I’m not at my best. I’m a mess. I was passed out seconds ago. And you’re sitting here, in the middle of an A rank boss fight, telling your beasts to leave the big one for the two of us."

"So?"

"So why?" Jared said. "Why work with me even now?"

It wasn’t an accusation. It was a real question. He had a catch in his voice that he couldn’t quite hide. He kept thinking of the way Karl had spoken at the bedside, and the lighter, and the speech about being an individual. He kept thinking of the pat on the shoulder.

’What does he want from me?’

[That’s a good question,] the system murmured.

Karl smiled.

It was a small, simple smile, with none of the lopsided charm. It was open and tired and honest.

"Isn’t it obvious?" he said. "I’m trying to be your friend."

Jared stared.

The wind ruffled his hair. A beetle shrieked in the distance. The smell of smoke drifted over the quarry. He stood very still, and a slow, wary warmth spread through his chest. It wasn’t trust. Not quite. But it was something close.

He smiled first.

"Well," he said, "you have a wild way of trying to make friends."

"It works."

"It’s weird."

"It’s effective, it’s the only way I know how."

"It’s very weird."

Karl laughed.

Jared lifted his hand.

It shook a little. The fingers were still numb. But he held it out, palm open, steady enough. Karl looked at it. He frowned. He didn’t understand. For a long moment he just stood there, staring at a hand held out in front of him like a gift.

Then Jared spoke.

"Friends?"

The word hung between them.

Karl’s face changed.

He blinked, once, twice, and a strange, soft, startled look crossed his features. The easy grin slipped. His mouth moved. Then, slowly, deliberately, he reached out and took Jared’s hand.

"Friends," he said.

They shook.

It was a quick, firm grip, rough with dust and sweat. Karl’s palm was warm. Jared’s was cold. But they held on for a heartbeat longer than they needed to.

[Aww,]

’Don’t.’

[It’s very sweet.]

’Please don’t.’

[I’m telling you, if I had a tear duct...]

"So," Jared said, letting go. "What’s the plan?"

Karl rolled his shoulders and turned to face the crater.

"We take it down," he said.

"That’s it?"

"That’s the whole plan." He grimaced. "Honestly, I don’t have a better one. That boss’s hide is almost impenetrable. I’ve been hitting it for 10 minutes. The owls did nothing. The tiger did nothing. I even tried my dragon, and I don’t think it had much of an effect."

Jared frowned.

"Your dragon?"

"Yeah."

"You have a dragon?"

"I’ve got a few."

Jared turned.

He didn’t know why. A strange prickle crawled up the back of his neck. He turned his head slowly, as if pulled by a string, and looked across the quarry to where a shape stood in the smoke.

He saw it.

A huge, heavy shape, black as a cooled lava flow, standing on four thick legs. Two blunt horns. A thick tail. A pair of amber eyes, burning in the haze, fixed on the sky.

Wingless.

’Is that...’

He couldn’t finish.

His heart stopped. His breath caught. He stood frozen, staring across the dust, and every thought in his head went white.

Karl snapped his fingers.

The dragon vanished in a swirl of red light and dropped into his hand as a glowing gem. He tucked it into his pouch without so much as a glance.

"Anyway," he said, as though nothing had happened.

Jared kept staring at the empty air where it had been.

[Rex,] the system said, very softly.

’I know.’

[Rex, breathe.]

’I know.’

He breathed.

"The beetle seems to be capable of flight," Karl went on, ticking off his fingers. "It has sharp blades. A lot of them. It excretes a substance from its mouth that explodes when it wants it to. A spit bomb, basically. That’s what I’ve seen so far. Of course, that doesn’t account for any other abilities it might have." He shrugged. "And that hide."

Jared swallowed.

"Is that all?" he asked, in a thin voice.

"Yeah," Karl said. "It’s not a lot."

He smiled.

It was the same cheerful, careless, boyish smile as before. It wasn’t hiding anything. It wasn’t asking anything. It was just a smile.

Jared looked at it for a long time.

"For me," he said slowly, "it’s a lot."

Karl’s smile widened.

"The two of us, though?" Jared said.

He looked up, and a faint, fierce light flickered in his eyes. The boss was circling above, wings humming, blades flashing. A hundred feet away, a hundred beetles screamed. His hands were numb. His mana was almost gone. He was tired and bruised and terrified.

But he had a friend.

"The two of us?"