14) Show me what you got

The day had faded away and night began to creep into the world, the moons took turns reflecting the light of the sun some distance away, shadowing each other in the sky. The air hung heavy in the room where Skye, Ellie, And Kai laid lumped on the floor.

The lack of food and water was bad enough, now a layer of pain and mana depletion carpeted everyone here. The last hours of daylight no one really made a move or spoke much, from time to time one of them would murmur to themselves, most likely replying to their soul orb or asking it a question. The conversations didn't last long, no one had the energy for that.

Skye had dragged himself back to his roots sticking out of the wall and reattached himself to them. They weren't giving him any energy but they were accumulating water for him. He wished he knew how to share it with everyone, but deep down he didn't know if he would. He was happy the choice wasn't there for him to make. 

Kai seemed to be the worst off, the pain of Elli's wounds was transferred to him in order for her to heal, a truly selfless act. They seemed to have a deeper bond of mutual respect than Skye first realised. The more time he spent with these two the more he was certain that he wanted them as teammates.

The decision to join up with Claire was one made on the spot with no investigation. She was just the first person he met, and didn't want to continue doing this alone. Lucky for him she turned out to be a really hard working soul, always a bit bubbly and pointing out the silver linings in it all. If he had to choose he would choose her again.

Now he was choosing these two as well.

"Hey"

His husky voice echoed through the walls and broke the hanging silence. Sure he was getting water, but his throat was still dry.

"Would you two like to be my teammates? I got one other person back at the base named Claire and she's a delight, I promise you'll like her."

Kai was the first to reply.

"We don't even like you."

Elli replied 

"Shut up Kai"

Kai seemed to take her suggestion on board, letting her continue.

"That's the whole goal of this phase it seems, to find teammates, and you two are the only people I know. No, that's not right.."

She paused for a second.

"You two risked your lives to save me. I wasn't going to make it, I took a gamble and I lost. I would be dead right now if you two weren't there. So yeah, I'll join up with you Skye. I can't speak for the other one, but I would really prefer it if you did too, Kai."

She spoke openly and honestly, it seems like she was still a bit shaken from the experience. Ellie really came off as a confident and bright person, deep in thought, like they were planning a few moves ahead at all times. It must have rattled her a bit that not only did her plan slightly fail, but it almost cost her something as valuable as her life. 

Kai followed her.

"I was going to be a dick but I can't really do that now can I. Sure, I'll join your team. But the second something better comes along I'm gone."

Skye let out a shallow chuckle

"Alright, welcome aboard. Happy to have you in team Valkyrie."

Before their names could form under Claire's in the corner of his vision, Kai chimed back in.

"Nope, no, no fucking way. I take it all back, I'm not joining anything with such a stupid name"

Skye was obviously joking but Kai's name disappeared before it was able to form, turns out it was just as easy to leave a team as it was to join one.

"He's joking Kai, there is no way anyone would choose that name for their team."

"He better be" Kai replied "because I swear to god if I get known as the guy from team Valkyrie at any point I'm killing myself and taking you all with me. You saw how I made that sword explode, and that sword meant something to me. I'm not above a good ole suicide bombing."

Everyone let a little laugh out, as much as one as they could muster with the condition they were in. Skye didn't laugh as much as everyone else though.

Okay team Valkyrie is officially off the table I guess…

Skye thought to himself, he was a bit disappointed. 

— 

With nighttime upon them Skye quickly realised he had made a mistake and why everyone else chose to sleep during the day. Sure Kai warned him, but no one really explained why. It was going to be impossible to sleep. 

While the roaches seem to know not to come near the ring of protection, the specters didn't share the same shared train of thought. They tried their best to get in. The three sat in the middle of the ring, right above the hatch to the underground rooms.

Every few minutes a scream would erupt from the corner of the room, a ghost would appear and make their way towards them, only to seize in pain and disappear again, as if they were being exorcised from the world. But they would be back, again and again, coming and screaming and leaving. {Writers note: That's what she said}

A few slivers would drop from time to time when a ghost finally took enough of a beating that they would die, warping into themselves like they were being sucked into a black hole in their chest. That's where the sliver would manifest and Kai would quickly claim it. He said he did all the work on these so these ones were all his. Everytime wishing for a new sword as he broke them.

"By the way, Ellie, what were you able to get from the storage room?"

Skye didn't think of asking before, too concerned with the price they had to pay to get the stuff to care about the stuff itself.

"Oh, that's a good question, I just grabbed everything I could get my hands on. They were all lined up on shelves so it was pretty easy to push them into my storage, which feels full to the brim actually. Maybe that's why I miscalculated the amount of mana I had for those jumps."

She put her hand on her hip, creating a circle with her arm and body, causing the space inbetween to shimmer in the glow of the runes. She reached her hand into the space and it disappeared completely. One by one she started to pull out everything she had in there.

They started to organise what she grabbed into piles. There were 10 uniforms made of cloth, 5 light leather armour sets, 2 waterskins that were sadly empty, a leather whip that broke into strands at the end, and 4 round shields with leather stretched across the top and a metal spike in the middle.

"Also had to grab this"

She took out a recurve shortbow and a quiver full of arrows carefully and placed it on the floor

"If any of you want to teach me how to shoot a bow now we can both have one."

Both of them paused and looked around at each other. Neither had any idea what they were doing but didn't want to admit it. Skye coughed and looked to the side.

"Sorry, I'm more of a staff guy."

"Yeah he's a dick with a stick and I'm going to take this."

Weapon wise, other than the bow and arrows, the whip was the only thing there, which was quickly claimed by Kai under the justification that he lost his sword to save her so she owed him one. No one really wanted to fight him on it, they didn't know how to use a whip to begin with and would most likely end up hurting themselves. Skye hoped he'd see Kai whip himself a few times in the learning process. 

The armour set consisted of a chest protector that also covered the right shoulder, and arm guards. The sets were all tied together and stacked on top of each other for ease of storage, causing some issues when trying to detangle them. 

While it seems like this castle has been abandoned for a long time the gear was in pretty good condition, giving credit to their creators. The team put on what they could, strapping the shields to their backs or arms and practicing how to get it off and on quickly. Skye could wield his spear with one hand, Kai with his whip and shield, and even Elli finding a way to strap the shield to her arm and still being able to use the bow. 

She practiced nocking in an arrow a couple times, which looked awkward at first, but once she got the hang of how to move it between the bow and shield she started to make it look easy. Having the ability to block and return fire was a good idea, probably something Skye wouldn't have thought about. He would have just strapped it to his back like Claire did with hers. 

Skye summoned his chest piece into the material world and took it off, connecting the shoulder guard to it with his roots. It only took a bit of fiddling to finally get it to look somewhat presentable. The words flashed before his vision, giving him another choice.

[Replace {Heart Felt Protector} with {Half Heart Full Protector}?] 

[Yes][No]

Skye paused for a moment and looked at the words floating above. What caused this? It was just like when he had the option to change his original staff. Was the catalyst of these changes his roots? 

Of course he decided to go ahead and improve it. The leather on the shoulder piece changed to match the colour of the chest guard, gaining more of an earthy tone rather than an aged leather look.

Looking at them now you would think that they were adventures, or at least people who knew how to defend themselves. Maybe if they faked it til they made it, they could survive. Now that they looked the part, they just had to do the part