Baro the Unshakeable Axe

For one nauseating second, Baro was falling, tumbling through a mound of grinding rock and dirt. The ground beneath him had been devoured. Instinct, forged in a hundred back-alley brawls and a dozen suicidal mercenary jobs, took over. He wasn't thinking, his body moving with a desperation. He twisted in mid-air, his hand finding the familiar leather-wrapped shaft of his axe. He swung. ​The double bladed head swished as it cut through the air. He aimed for the blur of the cavern wall, a sheer cliff face revealed by the collapsing floor. He put every ounce of his strength into it, his muscles screaming in protest.

​The impact was brutal. A bone tingling shock shot up his arm, rattling his teeth and threatening to tear his shoulder from its socket. The axe head bit deep into the rock, sinking a good six inches into the granite with a sound like a loud clap. And then he was just… hanging there. Dangling from his axe in the darkness, the roar of the rockslide continuing its destruction far below him.

​Dust filled his lungs. He coughed, the sound of it ragged. Below, the last of the debris crashed into some unseen bottom, and a heavy silence fell. He was alone.

​“Keito! Elysia!” he yelled, his voice bouncing off the walls of the chasm.

​Nothing came back. Just the echo of his own voice, mocking him in the dark.

​“Dammit,” he grunted, the single word a prayer and a curse. Pain flared in his shoulder. His ribs ached. He was alive, but he was dangling over a black abyss, and his friends were gone. For a moment, a feeling of fear he hadn't felt in years tried to sink its teeth into him. He crushed it without a second thought. Fear was a luxury. Fear got you killed.

​With a grunt he began to move. He swung his legs, trying to find groves on the sheer rock face. His boots scraped uselessly against the stone. Plan B, then. He tightened his grip on the axe with one hand and began to pull himself up, hand over hand, his own weapon handle became his only ladder. His muscles burned, screaming with the strain of his own weight. Each inch was a victory. Finally, his free hand found the top of his axe. He paused, gasping for air, sweat and grit stinging his eyes.

​He could see a ledge a few feet above him, the opening to another passage that the cave-in had revealed. It was his only option. He took a deep breath, found a foothold, and with one last, desperate surge of strength, heaved himself upward. He scrambled onto the ledge, collapsing onto the flat stone, his chest heaving, his body a single, throbbing note of pain.

​He lay there for a full minute, just breathing. In. Out. The simple rhythm a confirmation that he was, against all odds, still in one piece. He finally pushed himself into a sitting position, his back against the stone wall of the cavern.

​“Well,” he said to the darkness, his voice raspy. “That’s one way to leave a party. Can’t say I recommend the exit.” The joke fell flat, swallowed by the silence. He hated silence. It left too much room for other things to creep in.

​He got to his feet, pulling his axe free from the rock. He needed to find the others. They were tough, he knew that. Keito was a damn fine knight, even if he tripped over his own shadow, and Elysia… there was something about her. ​He followed the new passage, his axe held ready. The tunnel was tight, and it soon opened into a vast, circular cavern. The air here was damp and smelled of earth and crap. He could feel something shifting…He wasn’t alone.

​The ground erupted. Three of them, all at once. They were massive, worm-like beasts, their pale bodies thick as tree trunks. They had no eyes, just huge mouths filled with rings of needle-sharp teeth. They screeched, a high-pitched sound that grated on his nerves, and then two of them dove back into the ground, burrowing through the rock. ​One remained, its head swaying back and forth. Baro didn’t hesitate. He charged, his battle cry a furious bark. The worm lunged, its mouth gaping. He dodged to the side, the monster’s teeth snapping shut inches from his face, spraying a foul-smelling slime. As it shot past, he brought his axe around in an arc, burying the blade deep in its fleshy side.

​It wasn't enough. The beast screeched, thrashing wildly, but the wound, while deep, wasn't fatal. Its body was like rubbery leather. Before he could pull his axe free, the ground to his left exploded. The second worm shot out, aimed right at him. He dodged again, ripping his axe from the first creature’s side. He was ready for the third one, spinning to meet it as it burst from the ground behind him, but he’d underestimated their speed.

​He was too slow. The third worm didn’t try to bite. It slammed into him head-on, a battering ram of solid muscle and flesh. The impact knocked the air from his lungs and sent him flying. He landed hard, his head smacking against the stone floor with a thud.

​The world went white, then grey. The screeching of the worms faded, replaced by a different sound. A man’s voice, booming and full of rage.

​“Get up.”

​The cavern floor was gone. He was a boy again, maybe nine years old, lying in the dirt of a training yard. His head throbbed. A massive shadow fell over him. His father, clad in black iron armor, his face full of disappointment.

​“I said, get up! You need to be strong, Baro. Strength is all that matters! No one will be around to help you! You’re a loner, boy, and you’re weak. Out of all my sons, you are the weakest!”

​The words were stones, each one a heavy blow. Shame burned in the boy’s chest. He screamed, a child’s yell, and lunged at the armored giant.

​The scene shattered. He was back in the cavern, the taste of blood and dirt in his mouth. He was on his feet, lunging, his axe raised high. The worm, surprised by his sudden recovery, dodged at the last second. His axe blade swiped into empty air, and his momentum carried him forward, stumbling. He caught his balance, huffing, his head pounding in time with his heartbeat.

​The ground shook. He turned, and another memory slammed into him, as real and as painful as the monster’s charge.

​He saw his father’s armored boot, a blur as it slammed into his small chest, knocking him back into the dirt. He loomed over him again, his voice a low, growl.

​“Pathetic.” His father’s foot pressed down on his chest, pinning him, stealing his breath. “You fight with anger, not strength. You will always lose.” He began to draw the massive greatsword on his back.

​The memory dissolved as the present came crashing back. Baro was on his back again, the ground shaking. One of the giant worms was directly above him, its mouth like a well of living razors, ready to swallow him whole. He threw his axe up with both hands, the shaft held horizontally, blocking the creature’s mouth just as its jaws began to close.

​The pressure was immense. The hundreds of needle-like teeth scraped against the steel of his axe head. Slime and drool rained down on his face. His arms shook, muscles straining to the breaking point. And then he saw it again.

​The glint of sunlight on his father’s falling blade. He was a boy, crying, holding the shaft of a wooden training axe above his face, the only thing between him and the hard lesson his father was about to teach him.

​The past and the present merged into one, single, unbearable moment. The worm above him was his father. The teeth were the sword. The pressure was the weight of a lifetime of being told he was worthless.

​Something inside him broke.

​“RRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!”

​The roar that tore from his throat was not human. It was the sound of a caged animal, of pure, untamed fury finally unleashed. With a surge of adrenaline fueled strength, he shoved upward, knocking the massive worm back. He scrambled to his feet, his body screaming in protest, his vision blurring at the edges.

​He could see them both now, standing side-by-side in his mind's eye. The boy in the dirt, small and terrified but refusing to break. And the man in the cavern, bloody and beaten but still standing. They were the same person. They were both survivors.

​He raised his axe, his knuckles white. His father’s voice echoed in his memory. You are weak.

​“No,” he snarled to the empty cavern.

​You are a loner.

​“No more.”

​He looked at the two remaining worms as they coiled, ready to strike again. He saw his father’s face.

​“I will succeed!” he yelled, his voice raw with a lifetime of repressed anger. “I will survive! I am Baro, the Unshakeable Axe! AND I’LL NEVER BACK DOWN!”

​He took a deep breath, and for the first time, he didn't just hold his power back…

“Split!”

​The axe in his hands shimmered, and then it divided. An exact duplicate appeared in his other hand. He now held two massive, double-sided axes. He grinned.

​He charged. He didn't wait for them to burrow. He became a whirlwind of fury. He spun, his two axes a blur. One worm lunged, and he met it head-on, one axe cleaving through its head while the other cut through it in a single motion. He didn’t stop…He pivoted, his momentum carrying him toward the last monster as it tried to dive back into the earth. His axes came down together, severing the creature’s tail, then rose and fell again and again, chopping the writhing beast into pieces.

​Then, it was over. The cavern was silent again, save for his own ragged, desperate breaths. The duplicate axe in his hand dissolved into shimmering light. He stood there, in the center of the carnage, his body trembling with adrenaline and exhaustion. The strength that had flooded him drained away, leaving an aching emptiness in its place.

​And in the silence, a single, tear traced a clean path through the blood and grime on his cheek. He wiped it off and shook all of the sadness off of him, he needed to move. He began to move through the darkness, one foot in front of the other. That was the rule. You get knocked down, you get up. You get lost, you find your way. You never, ever stop moving. Every muscle in his body screamed, a throbbing ache that had settled deep in his bones. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the screaming silence in his head, the space where his father’s voice used to be.

He followed the downward slope of the tunnel, guided by the almost faint scent of rot and corrupted magic. He was a survivor, not a tracker, but he knew one thing… water, always flows downhill. He had to find them. The other two… before whatever was in this mountain found them first…

He was rounding a corner in the passage when a tremor ran through the stone beneath his boots. It was followed by a loud CRACK that echoed from somewhere up ahead. Then another, and another. It wasn't the sound of a cave in. It was the sound of something being destroyed.

He broke into a clumsy, limping run. The passage opened abruptly into the edge of the massive cavern he’d been swept from. The scene was of shattered rock and shadows. And in the middle of it, a narrow tunnel had been carved through a solid wall of debris.

A voice, faint but clear, drifted out from that opening.

Elysia’s.

“You’re right…Let’s go get him…”

Baro didn’t wait to hear the rest. He half-ran, half-stumbled toward the sound, his heart hammering against his ribs. He burst through the newly made passage and saw them. They were alive. Filthy, exhausted, but alive. Keito was standing with his back to Baro his had reaching out to Elysia, who was sitting down reaching up to use his hand to be pulled upward.

The breath he hadn’t realized he was holding escaped in a harsh gasp. He leaned on his axe, the tough guy act he usually wore like armor completely gone. “Took you two long enough,” he grumbled, the words filled with a relief so strong it almost choked him.

“Baro!” Elysia’s voice was a cry of pure joy. She took a step toward him before Keito’s steadying hand on her arm stopped her.

Keito looked Baro up and down, his sharp eyes taking in the dried blood on his temple, the unnatural way he was holding his side. “We thought you were gone.”

“Takes more than a pile of rocks to kill me,” Baro shot back, forcing a grin. “What the hell happened to that wall? And you,” he nodded at Keito… , “you were right in the middle of the collapse. You should be… well, flatter.”

Keito shared a look with Elysia. “I was,” he said simply. “My leg was broken. Badly…. Elysia… she healed me.”

Baro stared. He looked from Keito’s perfectly fine leg to Elysia, who just gave a small, uncertain shrug. He’d seen battlefield menders, old men who could chant over a wound for an hour to stop the bleeding. He’d never seen anything like this. He walked over and prodded Keito’s leg with his boot, earning a sharp glare. It was solid.

“Huh,” was all he could manage. He scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to process it.

“Well, I ran into some… things. Big worms. Ugly bastards. We had a disagreement.” He left out the part where he’d been thrown around like a rag doll. He definitely left out the part with his father’s ghost whispering in his ear. He shifted his weight, and a sharp, stabbing pain in his side made him groan.

“You’re hurt,” Elysia said, her voice soft.

Baro tried to wave it off. “Just bruised.” But the lie was evident, even to his own ears. He met her gaze, and for the first time, he didn't try to hide the pain. He let her see it. He remembered the feeling of that warm, clean light from her gem.

He let out a short laugh. “So… you think that little magic trick of yours works on cracked ribs and an entire bruised body?”

Elysia’s eyes widened. “I… I don’t know. The first time, I didn’t even know what I was doing. I just…” She looked at her own hands, a flicker of fear and wonder in her expression. But then she looked at him, at the genuine pain he was trying and failing to hide, and her expression hardened with resolve.

“But I’ll try.”

He nodded, bracing himself. “Alright. Do your thing.”

She stepped closer, taking a deep breath. She placed her hands gently on his chest, right over the source of the pain. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the gem on her forehead began to glow, a soft, pulsing blue. The light grew, and a strange energy filled the cavern.

Baro felt a static in the air. The small hairs on his arms stood on end. Then, Elysia’s long, white hair began to lift from her shoulders, floating around her head as if she were underwater, each strand alive with a faint, blue light. A visible aura, shimmering and powerful, wrapped around her, and the very air in the cavern seemed to grow thick and heavy.

Droplets of water began to bead on the cavern walls, on the ceiling, on the jagged rocks around them, pulled from the very stone by an invisible force. They flowed in shimmering droplets through the air, not toward her hands, but toward her, drawn into the swirling vortex of her energy.

The water followed, blanketing his entire torso in a cool, glowing liquid. A deep, penetrating warmth spread through him, seeping past muscle and bone. He could feel the fine, hairline fractures in his ribs knitting themselves together, the deep, ugly bruises fading under her touch. It felt like sinking into a warm bath after a week in the freezing rain. It felt really good.

The light and the energy glowed brighter, holding for one moment, and then receded, flowing back into Elysia.

Her hair fell back around her shoulders. The glow faded. Her eyes, which had been glowing with a blue light, fluttered. Her knees buckled.

“Whoa...”

Keito was there in an instant. He caught her before she could hit the ground, swinging her into his arms. She was pale and breathing heavily, but she was conscious. He held her, his expression a mixture of awe and concern.

Baro took a deep breath. A real, full breath, without a single stab of pain. He was more than healed. The deep, soul crushing exhaustion was gone, replaced by calm. He looked at Keito holding Elysia, at the worry on his friend’s face. He looked at Elysia, who had twice now performed a miracle, and silently thanked her.

“Are you okay?,” Baro said, his voice low.

Elysia nodded slowly but she needed a moment to rest.

“ Don’t let me stop this… we need to keep going. We’re almost there. I can keep going…” she said as she tried to stand up. She wobbled but held firm. Keito looked worried but she stood firm, and nodded at him. He sighed , it looked like he wouldn’t be able to stop her, and so he looked to Baro.

“ Let’s finish this quest and help that village!”

Baro cheered and turned back toward the cave.

“ I know exactly where to go.”