Dimensions Collide: Destiny Bond Chapter 54: An Uneasy Alliance

Chapter 54: An Uneasy Alliance

The day finally arrived. Danjo had co to the decision that he would stick with Fate and the others. It was a decision John didn’t understand, but if that was what Danjo wanted to do, it was what Danjo would do. Due to this, they gathered in the clearing one last ti.

“A few things before we go in,” Fate told Danjo. “I’d rather you didn’t speak of my abilities.”

“Huh? But-”

“Just don’t, ok?” Fate sighed. “It’s sothing others don’t need to know about.”

Danjo nodded slowly. Personally, he’d love to be a battle mage. The ability to be proficient in both casting and fighting was sothing many desperately wished for. It was a genius level of talent that occurred once in a lifeti. He didn’t understand why Fate was hiding his power, but there had to be a good reason for it.

“Rember, this dungeon exists to check out your devices. Officially, you’re soone the guild has recruited in order to make the exploration of dungeons easier.”

“That… that’s the excuse?” John frowned. “You’re serious?”

“What?”

“People are buying this?” John protested.

“...yes?”

John shook his head and muttered to himself. “Deal with it. It’s a story. It’s convenient. Deal with it…”

Fate just ignored his companion.

“Danjo. Despite this being under the guise of being a contracted worker, you know this is training for you, right?”

Danjo nodded firmly.

“Good. If you want to save your sister, you need to prove you can keep up.”

“Um… how about him?” Danjo said, pointing to John.

“What about him?” Fate asked.

“He said he doesn’t do anything.”

Fate glared at John. “Seriously? Why would you say that?”

“What? It’s true,” John shrugged. “I’m like a mascot or sothing. What do you want to do?”

“John, seriously. This needs to stop. I don’t know why you’re so flippant about everything, but at so point, it’s going to cost us our lives.”

John shook his head. “Nuh uh.”

“Nuh- forget about it.” Fate turned to Danjo. “Alright, what did you bring today?”

“Well, there’s the reinforced tents, alarm sensors, communication devices and the electrical barrier… I’m also equipped with my gauntlets and so jet boots.”

John raised an eyebrow. “Jet boots?”

“Well, they’re just boots that I tried fiddling around with… I found a way to get wind magic to co out, which should theoretically help run, but they’re still a little experintal… they don’t do much else.”

John whistled. “Cool. No weapons?”

“O-other than the gloves, no…”

“Hm… that might be an issue. I get that you’re against hurting people, but we have to hunt mana beasts, right?” John pointed out.

Danjo nodded slowly. “Sorry, but I didn’t have ti to prototype anything. They take ti, so-”

“No, no, it’s fine. But for the next trip, I… ah, never mind. There’s no point in bringing it up now. Do you think you can fight?”

“I can do a little bit of earth magic, but I mostly use it at the forge,” the dwarf explained.

John rubbed his chin. “Damn. There goes my party strategy.”

“Party strategy?” Fate asked.

John nodded. He’d put so real thought into this. If he was powerless, he could at least take the role of commander, right?

“There are so pretty obvious roles, I guess. Prota’s a mage, but a squishy one.”

“...squishy?” Fate said hesitantly.

“She’s easy to kill,” John explained. “If she gets hit a couple of tis, it’s over, unlike you, who’s a lot more tenacious.”

“Is that supposed to be an insult?”

“No, no, I’m serious. You can take a few more hits. I- well, there’s no point in explaining it. We don’t have a party set up.”

John looked at Danjo, rubbing his chin.

“I an, if this guy had armour or sothing, maybe, but there’s no point fantasizing over theory.”

Danjo’s eyes widened at that. “Armour…”

“It’s just an idea. We shouldn’t be thinking about that right now, ok?”

Danjo nodded slowly, but a light was entering his eyes as his brain began to think of new ideas.

“The point is, Danjo isn’t, uh… the most useful in terms of fighting,” John finished.

Danjo hung his head. Fate wanted to rebuke John, but it wasn’t a false statent. Combat-wise, he was pretty limited in what he could do.

“Hey, hey, I don’t an you’re useless!” John said, panicked. “Just that, you know. You can’t really fight.”

Danjo’s head ca back up.

“Your communication devices. How many do you have?” John continued, trying to change the topic.

“I was only able to make three,” Danjo muttered. “Sorry about that.”

“That’s fine,” John nodded. “One for Fate. One for you, and one for .”

“H-how about your sister?”

“She’ll be fine,” John shrugged.

Everyone looked over to Prota, who had fallen asleep under a tree, Kit sitting happily on her head. Discussions like these weren’t really her thing. John would tell her what she needed to do, and that was enough for her.

John sighed and looked at the group again.

“Look. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. We might die. There’s a chance.”

Fate seed mildly annoyed, but he couldn’t argue John’s statent for two reasons. One was that the risk did exist, and there was no denying it. The other reason, however, was that while John wasn’t the most delicate speaker, his advice did co in handy. This would probably be one of those tis. Danjo, on the other hand, was not so used to such things and was, therefore, shocked.

“W-what?”

“What, did you think you were gonna be safe?” John laughed.

“Well…”

“Look, you’ll probably be safe. Just, I don’t know, follow Fate. But if you’re managing equipnt, I need you to be our source of information. Things might go wrong. Might. But if they do, I need you to be able to tell us that, ok?”

Fate turned to John. “You can’t predict sothing like that?”

“No?”

Fate frowned. “Then aren’t you useless?”

“...yeah? We established this already. I told you, I’m the mascot. I just do a little song and dance and cheer you guys up.”

“You predicting our deaths is cheerful?”

“...that’s not a song and dance.”

Danjo watched the two bicker with a confused look, then turned his head to see Prota waking up. She observed Fate and John with a bored expression, then turned to Danjo, who flinched.

Prota was personally alright with Danjo, provided he didn’t talk to her or get closer. Since he had no intentions of doing so, it seed that they got along pretty well. There’d been a few tis when he’d asked her yes or no questions, to which she’d responded with a single nod or shake, and the conversation would end.

This was such a ti.

“Is this… normal?”

Nod.

“Are they ok?”

Another nod.

“Oh…”

~~~

Dungeon raid. A privilege available to adventurers B-rank and above, a task that could potentially allow one to gain fortune, artifacts or strength, filled with mana beasts and dangers. A group of ten people were about to enter one today.

And three of them didn’t seem all that pleased.

There was visible tension between two out of three of the groups, naly Fate’s group and Draco’s group. The other three people, Kenina, Azar and Cyrus, if John rembered correctly, seed to be dissociating from each other.

Taken from , this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Fate had a clear dislike of Draco, whereas Prota simply preferred staying away from the young noble. John's expression was like that of soone looking at a mangled corpse. He would’ve displayed open hostility had Fate not told him to behave.

The noble, on the other hand, seed to have a feeling of disdain towards Fate’s group. It wasn’t really malice; it was more like finding out that your house had a few cockroaches in it. Disgust and annoyance were so of the feelings that ca to mind. He would snarl and shake his head every ti he looked over.

“Are you sure I can’t kill him?” John pleaded. “Co on, surely no one will care if he dies.”

“His subordinates?” Fate pointed out.

“We can just kill them, too!”

“They’re just doing their job! You want to kill them for doing their job? And what about his family?”

“Then we distract Draco, lure him away. We just say he died in the dungeon!”

“You think they’ll believe that?”

John sighed. “Fine.”

He looked disappointed, though. Prota smacked the back of his head.

“Hey,” John complained, but left it at that.

“Alright, looks good,” the guard at the entrance said, looking up from a sheaf of papers. “You’re all verified. Best of luck.”

The group shuffled as they entered the dungeon.

“Just to be clear, I have no intentions of joining you commoners,” Draco announced with a sneer as soon as they were inside.

“Yeah, yeah. I got a parting gift for you,” John sighed, flipping Draco off.

“You-!”

Draco’s knight dragged him off as the young noble kept yelling, even after he was no longer within sight.

“Well… that’s been dealt with,” Fate said awkwardly.

Only seven people remained. Fate’s party and the three rcenaries.

“Uh… Kenina, Azar and Cyrus, right?” John said, turning to the extras.

“Yeah. I’m Kenina,” a man with a rough beard said, raising his hand.

He was wearing knuckle dusters on his hands and a bag on his back. His eyes were covered by scraggly hair, but they were visible enough to see the circles underneath.

“Nice to et you. I’m Azar,” the woman with long black hair announced.

She was wearing laced leather boots and fishnets underneath shorts, with a short top. Twin daggers hung at her sides.

The last one, probably Cyrus, was wearing a mask that covered most of his face. He was wearing light leather armour and gloves, which made sense considering the bow on his back.

“You are?” Cyrus said in a quiet voice.

“Um… Fate. Danjo. Prota. John,” John said, pointing to each person respectively.

“Yeah. Cool stuff,” Kenina grunted. “So, what now?”

John shrugged. “Do whatever the fuck you want. Why’re you asking us?”

The three of them looked at John casually, but he could tell. They were sizing him up. It was good that he was the one they were judging because he was definitely the least threatening of the group. Well, probably.

“Sounds good. You guys can head on out first,” Azar said with a smile and a wave. “Maybe we’ll run into each other soti.”

Fate was going to protest, but John started pushing him towards a tunnel. This dungeon was much larger than the one they’d been to previously, so there were multiple paths one could take right from the start.

“I thought we wanted to keep an eye on them?” Fate hissed as soon as they were far enough.

“Uh… not really? It’s probably better to just avoid them altogether. We want to test Danjo’s stuff out, right? Let’s camp, hunt a few monsters, see if we can find anything useful, and then leave. Why pick a fight?”

Danjo nodded enthusiastically at that one. He was all for avoiding any fights they could.

“...fine,” Fate sighed. “Honestly, that makes sense. I just didn’t expect sothing like that from you.”

“What’s that supposed to an?”

“Well, I thought you’d want to fight them. Try to take them out early, sothing like that. Strategically, that’s the best move, right?”

Prota nodded in agreent. She wasn’t as against it, but that was more like John. She, too, was confused. It was unlike him to avoid sothing like this. If both she and Fate had anticipated an early fight, it was quite surprising for the one in question to go against their expectations.

“Just think of it as a change of heart. Co on, there’s no point in discussing this any longer. Let’s go.”

Fate nodded hesitantly, but in the end, it was the easiest course of action.

[Prota]

Prota flinched as the ssage ca up on her system. She still wasn’t entirely used to it, so it was a bit of a jumpscare every ti one ca up.

[I’m much better at dealing with people than monsters]

John looked back at her, and she cocked her head to the side. What did that an?

[So if you can, protect yourself more than , ok?]

Prota’s eyes widened. John had lied. He wasn’t trying to avoid conflict. He was anticipating it. Waiting for it.

But why wasn’t he telling Fate? Why was he hiding this from the rest of the group? She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to have figured this out, but she had, and so a decision was presented to her.

Was she supposed to let everyone else know? Or did she go along with John’s plan?

~~~

A few hours later, a few acid spiders had been taken care of. Fate had let Danjo deal with one on his own, just to see how Danjo felt about fighting, and it went about as well as anyone would have expected. Danjo was afraid, but as Fate reminded him of his sister, it seed to give Danjo a boost of courage. The boost of courage wasn’t enough, though, and Fate inevitably stepped in.

The dungeon was ant to introduce B-rank adventurers to dungeons in general, so it was much easier than the one Prota had been in earlier. Despite Danjo being similar to a D-rank adventurer, he was doing alright with help.

Prota, on the other hand, was bored. She didn’t realize it herself, but she missed the thrill of a life-or-death fight. Knowing she couldn’t die was becoming ingrained in her. She’d been trained in it so much that she was starting to lose her instinctual fear of dying, and without that, everything else beca a bit more dull.

However, that boredom soon vanished as she watched Danjo’s devices co to life. He threw a few balls onto the ground that sprang up into tents. Inside were cushions and pillows. The cloth had been treated with magic and blunt force resistance, so they were more secure than sleeping out in the open. It was bare but comfortable.

A few tal devices ca out next, and he planted them on the ground. They imdiately turned to the colour of their surroundings. It wasn’t perfect camouflage, but you’d have to look for sothing out of place to know they were there.

“Um, Fate, would you mind stepping over one of those?” Danjo called out.

Fate obliged, and a bright flash lit up the caves, blinding everyone except for Danjo, who’d been prepared.

“Um… I think it works.”

Last was the electric barrier. Danjo set up a few poles that he’d been carrying around and then pulled a device out of his bag.

“Ok, everyone, this is it,” he said nervously.

With an audible gulp, he pressed the button.

Nothing happened.

“Uh… is this supposed to be doing sothing?”

“Well theoretically, if sothing passes through, it should shock them…”

John nodded. “So we just need to test it out, right?”

Before anyone could stop him, he walked up to a pole and walked through. Or, at least, he tried. He yelped as he was shocked and fell down, his hair standing right up.

“John,” Prota said as she looked over him. “Stupid.”

“What?” John protested.

“Idiot,” she pouted. “Throw a rock.”

John turned to Danjo.

“Um… that probably would’ve worked, yes… I’m not at the point where I can differentiate between object and animal.”

“Rocks aren’t conductive to electricity,” John muttered, but it didn’t seem like anyone heard him.

Fate stifled a laugh as John sat up. Prota pounded on his head like a drum as if trying to beat sense back into him.

“Yeah, yeah, my bad,” John muttered as he combed his hair back into place.

~~~

With a temporary camp set up, the group wandered out, looking for monsters to hunt. Fate left with Danjo, while John left with Prota.

“John,” Prota called out cautiously.

“Mm?”

“You… want to hunt those people, right?”

John stopped and turned to Prota. “What makes you say that?”

“Nn… John thinks they’re following us, right?”

“Well, probably, yeah.”

“Then why did John tell Prota to protect herself?”

John crouched down and put his hand on her shoulder.

“Look. I’m much better at dealing with people. You’re… well, you’re not there yet. Besides, you’re still scared of people, aren’t you?”

Prota flinched. Was she? She didn’t think so.

“Just because you can kill them doesn’t an you’re not afraid to do so. Or am I wrong?”

Prota’s arms dropped to her side as she thought about it. Was she afraid to kill people? Every ti she’d fought, it’d always been to protect John or complete a task assigned by him. But during those tis, while she did consider herself to be weak, she’d never really thought that she was reluctant to do so.

The bandits. The assassins. The dwarf. Was she scared of them?

“I didn’t think we’d be fighting other people this often this early on, but… well, I can’t be right all the ti. Look, all I’m saying is that you’re not ready yet.” John sighed. “You hesitate, Prota. Just a little, every ti you attack. It’s not a lot, but better fighters will jump on that. Mistakes like that are the difference between life and death.”

Prota nodded slowly. She didn’t get it, but what could she do?

“I… damn,” John sighed.

He didn’t know what to do.

Suddenly, a hissing sound caught their attention as three snakes slithered out of a tunnel. It was a welco distraction for both of them.

“Here. Monsters, right? I can’t fight these guys. That’s up to you. But people… let deal with them, ok?”

Prota nodded as John sat back. She closed her eyes and focused as the fla in her hands turned blue. With a wave of the hands, the fire stretched into the shape of an arrow.

“Go,” Prota muttered, and the arrow flew forward, piercing through the head of one snake.

The other two imdiately lunged at her, venom dripping from their fangs. A gust of wind pushed her out of the way in ti, the acid causing her eyes to sting and water up, but she closed her eyes and felt for the cores, clenching her fists and surrounding their heads with water.

With a catalyst already present, she clenched her fists and froze the water, crushing their skulls, the sound of ice snapping and crackling as the snakes fell to the floor.

“...hm,” John nodded. “Guess the lessons are paying off after all.”

He got up and walked over to Prota, patting her on the head. “You didn’t use your staff or anything either. Your mana control is improving a lot.”

Prota was surprised. “John knows about mana control?”

“Mm… a little bit? There are a ton of fantasy novels I’ve read, and a decent number have sothing or another about mana control. It’s not uncommon.”

They continued to go down the tunnel, fighting off various monsters along the way. Prota still had to stay alert, but it still just didn’t feel the sa. It wasn’t that the enemies were weak. It was just that Prota was too used to fighting against enemies far stronger than her. Now that her enemies were of average level, it felt dull.

Despite the feeling of boredom that constantly bothered her, there was one more thing she couldn’t stop thinking about.

Were there really people after them?

She had to check.

Her sensitivity to mana was good enough that she could check for mana cores without closing her eyes now, so she kept following John as she scanned the area for people. She could sense a few mana cores here and there, but they didn’t feel like souls. They were probably mana beasts. Weak ones, at that.

“Prota,” John said quietly.

The small girl snapped to attention but was relieved to find that John was only warning her about the orc that was in front of them. She rembered the first ti she’d run into one of these. It’d been terrifying. Even now, she could feel the hairs on her arms stand up. But she knew.

She could take this one on for sure.

Frost gathered as she summoned a Blossom of Ice, the flower forming in her hand. Mist spilled to the ground, gathering as the spell grew larger and larger.

With a cry, she flung herself forward, throwing the spell with all her might toward the orc’s face. It hadn’t been expecting an attack, so the spell imdiately made contact, exploding in the monster’s face and coating it with ice. She threw her arm back, bringing up a large rock, then brought it up and smashed it into the beast’s head, shattering it.

Prota landed lightly on the ground and looked back at John, who was clapping politely. However, she froze up as she saw his expression change.

“Prota! Look out!”

She spun around to see a headless orc charging towards her. What? Wasn’t it dead?

It swung its arm in a wide sweep, but she wasn’t fast enough. She felt the impact hit hard, knocking the air out of her lungs as she was smashed into the wall.

“Prota!” John yelled, charging forward. It didn’t matter, though. The orc fell to the ground, dead.

Prota’s mind was hazy. Did orcs have that ability? Were they capable of continuing to move after death? She could hear a ringing sound as John’s voice yelled her na. It sounded so distant. The pain was supposed to be there, but it didn’t hurt. Her vision swam in and out as John ran up to her, grabbing her shoulders.

Eventually, she began feeling a tingling sensation in her fingers, and the fog in her brain cleared up. Right. Mana recovery. She felt the staff on her back and drew mana, casting mana recovery again and again. Eventually, she could feel sothing knitting itself back together in her body.

“...you ok? Oh, thank god, ok, you’re fine,” she heard John’s out-of-breath voice pant. “Seriously, don’t do that again. That scared the shit out of .”

He sighed and crouched in front of her, helping her up, muttering the whole ti.

“I didn’t expect the orc to do that. Is this a different breed or sothing? I should ask Fate about it…”

Prota’s eyes snapped open. Dust was still settling behind them, but sothing moved.

Sothing was there.

“John,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, but he was too absorbed in his thoughts to hear. “John.”

From the dust ca Kenina, the knuckle-duster-wielding man, his fists raised high. There was no doubt about it. He was attacking them.

“John!” Prota yelled, but she was too late.

He wouldn’t be able to react in ti.

Ti seed to slow down as Prota felt herself move. The instinct to protect John made her hands raise up, an icicle forming in the air, ready to fire, but for just a split second, her body froze up. Sothing overca her desire to protect John. The icicle began to move, but it was too late.

tal t head, and John was knocked flat on the ground, unconscious.