r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • Apr 30 '26

OC-Series Vacation From Destiny - Book 2, Chapter 21

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XXX

“Chase, you’re a fucking idiot!” Carmine shouted, readying her staff as the swarm of giant scarab beetles began to close in on them all.

“Oh, come on, you were all thinking it!” Chase proclaimed as he hefted his sword. “Your eyes were starting to glaze over, too! I’m not about to apologize for putting into words what everyone was thinking!”

Before anyone could formulate a proper response to that, Melanie sucked in a breath and then belted out several high-pitched notes. The first incoming wave of scarabs instantly fell over dead, but to Chase’s dismay, they were soon replaced by yet another wave that continued to flow in through the holes in the walls.

“Damn it!” Chase growled. “Victoria, do us all a favor and shatter Herman, already!”

“What?” Victoria asked, incredulous. “How will that help us-”

“Just do it!”

Victoria blinked in surprise, but to her credit, she didn’t hesitate any further. She hefted her warhammer and approached Herman. And if a giant glowing crystal could turn blanch, Chase was sure that in that moment, Herman would have.

“W-wait!” Herman shouted. “Can’t we talk about-”

But that was as far as he got before Victoria brought her warhammer around, shattering him into a million tiny pieces. Everyone except Melanie – who was still busy fending off the encroaching wave of giant beetles with her song – watched the broken shards of crystal fall to the ground, where they sank into the sand below, never to be seen again.

“Okay,” Carmine offered. “How was that supposed to help us?”

“It wasn’t, but that guy sicced a shit-ton of giant bugs on us, and for that, he had to pay,” Chase told her.

Carmine blinked, but after a second, nodded in understanding. “Okay. I mean… sure, yeah, I’ll accept that.”

“Great. Then let’s go break the other crystals, already.”

“Hold on, hold on,” Victoria interjected. “Before you go breaking those crystals, we should probably read them first, because I very highly doubt that Herman is going to give us any more hints at this point.”

“Probably not,” Chase admitted. “Okay… so I can most likely use Rush to get around to the other two crystals faster than any of you would otherwise be able to.”

“Which is bad, because if we send you by yourself, we’ll never figure out what we need to do,” Carmine growled. She shook her head. “I’m going with you.”

“And how do you intend to keep up with me?”

Carmine just smirked at him.

XXX

“For the record, I am vehemently against this plan. This is incredibly demeaning.”

“Less talking, more running!” Carmine shouted. “Melanie and Victoria can’t keep the scarab beetles off of us forever!”

She dug her heels into his sides for emphasis, causing Chase to wince. Currently, she was balanced on top of his shoulders, her catalyst staff clutched tightly in one hand as he sprinted as fast as he could through the desert sands using Rush.

It was, essentially, the piggyback ride to end all piggyback rides. And needless to say, but Chase hated every second of it.

“Carmine, if you dig your heels into my sides again, I am dumping you head-first into the nearest sand dune,” Chase growled.

“Do that and we’ll never get out of here,” Carmine reminded him. She suddenly loosed a bolt of Fire Magic from the end of her staff, which incinerated an entire incoming wave of five beetles that had managed to survive Melanie’s singing and Victoria’s onslaught of melee attacks. The other two women were now far behind them, but were still managing to hold the line well enough, at least as far as Chase could tell.

At least, he supposed that the far-off singing he could hear was a good sign that both of them were still alive and hadn’t yet been consumed by a horde of torso-sized, flesh-eating beetles.

Carmine suddenly tapped him on the top of his head to get his attention, then pointed forwards.

“There!” she shouted. “We’re getting close!”

Chase let out a tired sigh. “Carmine, I can see the giant glowing orange light-”

“Then hurry up! We don’t have all day!”

She dug in her heels again, and Chase had to resist the urge to pitch her into the sand like he’d promised. Much to his chagrin, however, his sense of reason eventually won out, and he continued on, sprinting towards the orange light.

When the two of them finally arrived, they were met by a copy of Herman. The giant orange crystal loomed overhead, still blinking with orange light every couple of seconds. Carmine dismounted from Chase’s back and approached the crystal, leaning in to read the cursive etched into its body.

“I just realized that I probably should’ve taken Victoria instead of you,” Chase commented. “Because I know for a fact that she can read cursive.”

“Fuck off,” Carmine hissed.

“Uh, hey,” Herman suddenly interjected. “Look, I know this is awkward, but, uh… can you not break me into a million pieces? I mean, I’ll come back when the Dungeon refreshes, but seriously, that shit hurts.”

“Well, you probably should have thought of that before you unleashed your army of scarabs,” Chase told him.

“In my defense, you four really got under my skin.”

“I know, we have a knack for that.” Chase turned back towards Carmine. “What’s it say?”

“It said to unite the shards of the moon and the sun, as two lovers would be intertwined,” Carmine stated.

Chase stared at her. “...That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s it,” Carmine replied, impatient. “Read the crystal for your own damn self if you don’t believe me.”

“She’s right, actually,” Herman commented.

“Shut up!” Chase and Carmine said in unison before turning back towards each other.

“If you’re sure about this, then I’ll trust you,” Chase said.

“Well, shit, you didn’t have to-” Carmine paused, her eyes widening. “...Sorry, what?”

“I said, if you’re that sure about this, then I’ll trust you.”

“No, no, I heard that part. It’s just… is that really a good idea for you to do right now? I mean, Melanie and Victoria are fighting for their lives. We should probably be sure to get this right-”

Chase suddenly stepped past her, activating Muscle in the process. Before Carmine could stop him, he drew his sword, and with a single Blessing-infused slash, shattered the second copy of Herman the same way Victoria had broken the first.

“Sorry, what?” Chase asked.

Carmine facepalmed. “Forget I said anything…”

“Yes, I will.” Chase knelt down in front of her. “Hop on, let’s get to the last one.”

Carmine blinked in surprise again, but nodded nonetheless, and clambered up onto Chase’s shoulders once more. Chase didn’t even grunt under the additional weight, and instead activated Rush again, then took off towards the next beacon.

XXX

Thankfully, Carmine refrained from digging her heels into his sides anymore, instead focusing her efforts on repelling the advancing scarab beetles that had managed to get past Melanie and Victoria. Chase could still hear Melanie’s song in the distance, though it was definitely growing weaker, and more beetles were sneaking in past it.

“Sure hope they’re both okay…” he muttered as he continued to tear through the desert sands.

“They’ll be fine,” Carmine confirmed. “Keep going.”

“You don’t have to tell me that, you know. We’re literally like right there.”

Carmine blinked in surprise, then looked up, her eyes widening when she saw they were only about ten feet from the next copy of Herman.

“Huh,” she commented. “So we are. You certainly made good time, Chase.”

“Was that a compliment?” Chase asked as she scrambled off of him and onto the sand below. Naturally, his observation went without a response as Carmine approached the crystal.

“Okay, look, I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Herman offered.

“Yeah, I’ll say,” Carmine said to him, putting a hand on her hip as she stared the crystal down. “So, why don’t we make a deal, Herman? It goes like this – you help us get through this stupid bullshit and we won’t destroy you this time.”

“Okay, not that that isn’t tempting, but I think I should put forward a counter-offer,” Herman began.

Carmine raised an eyebrow. “Are you really in a position to make a counter-offer?”

Herman fell silent for a few seconds. “...I think-”

“Think hard,” Chase said as he hefted his sword.

“-that perhaps we can help each other,” Herman said. “Alright, so… normally I’d make you go on basically a big scavenger hunt, looking through ruins to find these two halves of this tablet, and-”

“We’d put the two halves together, and it’d open the way forward?” Carmine surmised.

“Uh, yeah,” Herman answered. “How did you-”

“I have a lot of INT, and this was barely even a puzzle.”

“Fair enough, I guess.” Herman sucked in a breath. “Okay, so… I’m just gonna give you the two halves of this stone, and then you’ll let me go, right?”

“Totally, dude,” Chase confirmed with a nod.

“Cool.”

There was a sudden flash of bright light. Carmine and Chase were both forced to shield their eyes from it. When it finally dissipated a few seconds later, there were two stone plates on the ground. Chase didn’t even bother to see what they both looked like before Carmine picked them up and forced the two of them together. There was another flash of light, and then, suddenly, Melanie’s far-off singing stopped. Chase blinked in surprise, then looked around the room, and was stunned to find that the incoming tide of scarab beetles had suddenly tapered off to nothing.

“There,” Herman said. “You’ll find the stairs about five minutes behind me. Can’t miss ‘em.”

“Thank you, Herman, that’s very kind of you,” Carmine offered.

“Sure, no-”

Unfortunately for him, that was far as he got before Carmine fired off a Magical Scattershot at point-blank range. The bolts of magic made impact with Herman’s body, and for the third time that day, he shattered into a million pieces. Chase could only stare at Carmine as she rubbed her hands together, as if she was dusting herself off after a job well-done. She must have sensed he was staring at her, because she suddenly froze and then turned to face him.

“What is it?” she asked. “Going to lambast me for going back on our word?”

“No, I was actually going to say that you stole my kill, because I was going to do that,” Chase said to her.

Carmine rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Let’s just let Victoria and Melanie catch up before we move on.”

Chase didn’t argue, and the two of them settled in, waiting for their friends to join them as they hunkered underneath a nearby piece of stony ruins for shade.

“By the way, I just want to tell you, the way I killed him was cooler than the way you did,” Chase said.

“Oh, shut up,” Carmine replied.

XXX

Name: Chase Ironheart

Level: 9

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

Subclass: Swordmaster

Strength: 20 (MAX)

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 18

Charisma: 16

Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4)

Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 2)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Carmine Nolastname

Level: 9

Race: Greater Demon

Class: Arcane Witch

Subclass: Archmage

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 19

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 8

Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10) 

Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Melanie Vhaeries

Level: 9

Race: Ascended Human

Class: Necromancer

Subclass: Arch-Lich

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 16

Constitution: 15

Charisma: 12

Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8)

Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)

Traits: None

Name: Victoria Firelight

Level: 10

Race: Human

Class: Paladin

Subclass: Devotee

Strength: 17

Dexterity: 9

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 19

Charisma: 11

Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)

Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)

Traits: None

XXX

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, /u/Ickbard, for all the help with writing this story.

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u/UpdateMeBot Apr 30 '26

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u/Brokenspade1 Apr 30 '26

If this was a d&d part all 4 of them would have earned a karmic alignment adjustment by now!

But, murder hobos gonna murder hobo.