Unbound

Vess' heart roared in her ears.

Those last few strides, just before their relatively tiny force hit the encroaching horde, Vess was viscerally reminded of their fight through the Domain keep. The fear and scent of burning blood was the same, even the glimmer of metallic Mana from Harn's steady axes. Though Vess held her spears at the ready, though she trained all her life for combat, she could not help the chill that crawled along her spine. Racing up the path toward them, the horde was as implacable and as furious as a thunderstorm.

But this was not the Domain.

Their force hit the horde, and the storm broke before them. Sounds too loud to parse, howls and clashing blades all transformed into a thunder that swept the abominations away. Backed by allies that were all High Journeyman or Adepts, it was a massacre of Primordial flesh.

At their head, Shadow Hounds ripped the Revenants to grisly pieces, their incorporeal bodies slipping through attacks just as the lightning sigils fried those nearby. The Elders might not be Master Tier any longer, but they were still Adepts and strong. Elder Regis not only controlled the hounds, but also hurled clouds of shadow that screamed across the battlefield. All monsters caught withing boiled alive. Elder Holt, meanwhile, was hurling fields of lightning that raced from Revenant to Revenant, searing out their eyeballs and leaving only charred ruin behind.

Cal was a ghost, flitting between enemies so fast it was impossible to track her. Even with her upgrades to Perception and her Elemental Eye, Vess was hard pressed to even see what Cal was doing, but the abominations fell before her just as quickly as the Elders.

Bodie and Harn were two peas in a pod, wrecking balls that tore into the bodies massed before them. Corpses were flung, split into pieces or pulped into toothy messes, themselves becoming projectiles the horde had to evade. Atar followed behind them, his head once more surmounted by his Crown of Ignis, and Sparkbolts flying from his fingers. Six or seven of them spun in a tight, protective circle around the mage, and any Revenant that encountered it screamed in agony as their scales and muscle and fats were melted. He had truly grown in strength since the Domain. Vess would have been impressed were she not faced with a thousand opponents at once.

"Down!"

Vess ducked just before a blade as wide as her body whipped above her. The six-span blade caught the face of a charging Ghoul, shearing it's jaw from it's repulsive face. Vess activated her Dragoon's Footwork and evaded the gigantic body that collapsed before them, two of her spears already fending off three other Primordial-Spawn.

The Hand spun in a dizzying arc and decapitated several Revenants before discharging a blast of wind that ripped the feet out from thirty more. He grunted but managed an annoying smile. "Hard to protect you in a pitched battle, Lady Dayne."

"Do better," Vess growled, before leaping.

Pierce the Sky!

Dragon's Descent!

Vess rocketed upward, her Born Trait and Skills propelling her to immense heights, before she and all of her spears came down with calamitous force. Right onto the prone Revenants.

You Have Killed Manawarped Revenants (x7)!

XP Earned!

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Contribution!

Pierce the Sky!

Spear of Tribulations!

An explosion of air Mana obliterated those monsters she had not killed outright, until the field before them was a whirlwind of blood and dark meat.

You Have Killed Manawarped Revenants (x34)!

XP Earned!

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Contribution!

"Indeed," the Hand remarked, using his own air Mana Skills to keep the effluvia from his armor. He pointed to some Revenants struggling to their feet. "You missed a few."

Vess scowled, but turned back to the fight. Just in time to see a bloom of flame in the distance, and, above the approaching multitudes, a figure leaping through the air.

Attached by a chain.

"Evie!" Vess shouted.

From nowhere, Cal appeared beside the heiress. Her eyes tracked Vess' own, and she snarled. "We go!"

"Cal! Hold to—! Noctis' tits!" Harn cursed, coming up beside them. Bodie and the rest weren't far behind. "C'mon! We're plowing our way through!"

"This foolish," Darius muttered, looking upward. "If that boy drops that crystal on us, I'll be hard pressed to save any of us, let alone you. We should turn back."

But Vess was already running. Her friend was in danger, and that was all that mattered.

Stone fell all around Felix as he plummeted from the sky. Two more green bolts of Mana sizzled past him, but he fell faster than they had anticipated and they all flew too high. Felix had a moment to marvel at the large chunks of rock that fell with him, and his eyes picked up on the eight foot wide hole in the stone ceiling.

It worked!

Shadow Whip!

The congealing length of shadow snapped outward, but it was too short. Felix couldn't reach the ceiling, or the walls. He tried dual casting it, but he fell too fast.

Reign of Vellus!

A blast of lightning and kinetic force shot downward, arresting his fall for an all too brief moment. But there was only air around him, nothing solid to push against and he was entirely too heavy for air to be enough. The same was true when he tried his anemically leveled Cloudstep. The Mana scattered the moment his speeding body hit it, dispersing in a crackling cloud.

Shit shit shit shit! Pit! Wake up!

Emerald colored bolts rained all around him, now joined by blue and yellow and orange Mana. The ground rushed upwards faster and faster, the ant-sized horde below growing at an alarming rate. Unless Felix wanted to test himself against terminal velocity, he only had one choice left.

Pit! I need to do this, bud!

Dimly, within the recesses of his Spirit, his Companion gave a short, consenting chirp.

God, I hope this doesn't hurt you! Felix thrust his arms out to the side.

Ravenous Tithe!

Crimson vapor streamed into him clearing the air around him for hundreds of feet as Essence and Mana raged within. His core began to digest it immediately, but Felix had other plans.

Sovereign of Flesh!

The scales around his body thickened and darkened, while Essence burned through him to fuel it. The ground surged upward, only a hundred feet away.

Etheric Concordance!

Pit shrieked in terrible, crushing pain.

Without warning, Felix's shirt tore from his body, rent asunder by the emergence of two massive wings. It was only his second time using them, but his Body knew what to do. Spread wide, the wings caught the air around him and slowed his descent rapidly until Felix arced his body and flapped. The Revenants below howled in recognition and fury as Felix banked hard, swooping past their flailing claws and back up, into the air.

"Holy shiiiiiit!" Felix screamed, fear and exhilaration warring for dominance. His wings were easily twenty feet wide, tip to tip, bat-like but half covered in ebon and crimson feathers, all threaded through with a glowing cyan. He pumped his wings and rose, shot powerfully into the recovering miasma like a deranged bird.

Blasts of rich, green light ripped through the miasma, hunting him.

Who the hell is attacking me? Felix banked again, flapping harder to get back up to the crystal. But he was foiled, forced to dive and twist to evade the barrage of Mana attacks. He ate those he could, Ravenous Tithe ripping the Mana from their Skill-borne shell, but they were too much for him to eat wholesale. Whoever it is, they're powerful.

Taking a risk, Felix plunged through a thicker cloud of Primordial Essence and emerged into clearer air. Below yet hundreds of feet in the distance, he could see a row of armored men and women atop a landing almost identical to the one he had come in onto. Even from this distance, his eyes had no trouble seeing the medallions they wore, even before his Voracious Eye identified them all.

Guilders, I should've figured. And, Felix swooped below another green scythe of energy. And that's Elder Teine. Shit.

Close after Teine's shot, a new bombardment of spells ripped from their ranks. Those blue, yellow, and orange bursts of Mana flew fast and true, so many that he couldn't avoid them all. Felix winced at the first hit, but they were far weaker than the green spells; they splashed against his transformed skin, barely able to penetrate enough to tick his Health down more than a few points.

That bastard is Master Tier though, why—Felix blinked. Why does he feel weaker? What happened to all of the Elders?

Among the Guilders, Felix sensed a thread, this one blue and green-gold, extending powerfully toward one of the figures below. Information grabbed by his Voracious Eye came to Mind as he wove around the attacks, categorized and flipped through in rapid time.

Mervin, Felix realized. The kid from the woods.

The kid was one of the few not attacking, and maybe that was because he didn't have a ranged weapon, but something told Felix that wasn't it. Felix couldn't sense anything from their Spirits, not from so far away. Yet when he tried, he gets flashes of something from the boy: fear and unease prime among them, along with concern for Felix.

And through that thread, like distant echoes, he heard the sound of Teine's voice. "I want him alive! Do not damage his core!"

Great. That's not ominous. Felix banked hard and swept back into the thicker clouds of Essence. The Essence felt warm and comforting against his scales, his Body repairing itself under it's influence. Felix took another chunk for his stores and to keep his transformation going, before flapping hard for the crystal once again.

"He's...eating the mists! How!?" There was a pregnant pause, before he shouted again. "What are you doing? FIRE!"

Teine's words echoed in Felix's head, transmitted along his connection to Mervin. As annoying as it was, Felix didn't want to be surprised, he kept his senses—and the connection—open. He was safe enough, tucked behind the crystal's bulk. Their Mana bolts hit the crystal and sunk into it harmlessly.

Sheltered, he fumbled out his grenades and placed them as quickly as he could. No longer forced to wedge himself to the stone, Felix put all twenty three grenades along the far side of the crystal. The primary issue, however, was that the near constant barrage prevented him from placing grenades evenly around the entire thing. When he set them off, it would be lopsided.

I just hope it's enough. Felix glanced down, far, far below, and saw the approach of the Inquisition through the chamber as well as his own team's smaller assault. C'mon. Get Evie and get outta there.

"Inquisitor!"

"What!" DuFont didn't bother turning, driving her gauntleted fist into another Ghoul's face before activating the enchantments on them. Blistering heat bored through the creature's weakened skull until it burst beneath her Strength.

You Have Killed A Manawarped Ghoul!

XP Earned!

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Extra Contribution!

"Ma'am, the Guilders are here!" Klark shouted, his burning blade fending off several of the lesser beasts nearby. "They're firing off their Skills!"

That did grab Eliza's attention. She twisted until she had a clear view up, through the burning fog. It was enough to see a multicolored light show streaming across the top of the chamber, perhaps hundreds of spans away. The bolts weren't firing at them, which was a relief, but instead they were being sent...up.

DuFont gasped.

There was something with massive wings flying near the ceiling, but what truly set her eyes gleaming was the absolutely gargantuan Belais Crystal it hovered around. With that much crystal, she could buy a small kingdom she could—Eliza shook her head and dismissed the thoughts. She hadn't the time for greed, though a part of her quailed at the thought of leaving it behind.

"They're not attacking us, and that's all that matters at the moment," DuFont shouted back at Klark. The boy was a useful aide, but he worried entirely too much. "Focus on the fight. We need to push forward, toward that!" Eliza gestured to the squirming mass of the Broodmother, still churning out eggs amid the chaos. "We kill that, we claim the Nest! New marching orders! We push for the Broodmother!"

That Authority will be mine!

Dervish!

Evie's chain whirled around her body, blowing her cloak back in a wind of cold steel. The spiked chain met the claws of the onrushing Ghoul and batted them aside before wrapping tight around its leading arm.

"You shoulda kept fighting the redcloaks!" Evie shouted, before spinning and applying her leverage. The weight of the stone beneath their feet flowed through her and into her weapon, becoming three times as heavy. The Ghoul was caught off balance and fell atop it's own tangled limb.

Bindings of the White Waste!

Four more chains, these made of purple white Mana, shot from the ground and into the Ghoul's prone flesh. The creature bellowed in pain.

"Stay down!" Evie hissed and blurred forward. She flipped over the Ghoul's struggling form and landing on its back. She stabbed downward with the short sword still in her off hand, but the tip skittered off the beast's armored hide. "UGH! Ghouls are the worst!"

Scorpion's Tail!

Beneath her, the Ghoul let out a wail of pain as her Skill reshaped the spikes on her chain into longer, jagged blades. It wasn't a Skill she made much use of, but she liked it a lot.

Scorpion's Tail is level 44!

Not bad, not bad. Evie grinned.

Then, abruptly, the world was inverted.

"GRAAAHHHH!"

Exploding upward, the Ghoul surged with immense Strength and hurled Evie straight into the air.

"AHH BLIGHT!" Evie hollered. She was thrown up and behind the Ghoul, but her mad ascension was cut short by the very chain that she still clung to; more importantly, it still clung to the Ghoul. For a brief, strange moment, she hovered in mid-air.

Then she stole back the weight from her chain, put it into herself, and pulled.

Scorpion's Tail!

The Ghoul screamed in pain as the elongated blades dug further into its flesh, and when the chain began ripping up it's belly and shoulders, it went mad with agony.

*KRUUNCH!*

Evie hit the stone tiles and shattered them, yanking on her chain. Before her, the Ghoul spun, pulled around by the jagged weapon lodged across it's torso and forearm. "I told you," Evie panted, blood dribbling down her lips. "You don't want to fight me."

Dervish.

Evie hauled back at the same time, her heavy body too much for the Ghoul's weakened flesh. The chain went wild, writhing in her grip like a living thing, and the beast's belly was sundered completely.

You Have Killed A Manawarped Ghoul!

XP Earned!

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Extra Contribution!

Huffing an unsteady breath, Evie let her chain just lay on the ground for a moment. Behind her, people stirred, and the battle raged only strides away; but here, in that moment, Evie needed a break.

"Good job, Acolyte," someone said to her as they clapped her on the shoulder. Evie started and found herself looking into the features of an older Initiate, one she recognized. The one that had given Felix so much trouble. "A little...unorthodox. Where'd you get the chain? And why aren't you in your regulation kit?"

"Er uh," Evie managed, approximating a Harn-like grunt. "It broke."

"What? How—"

Another Initiate was screaming. "Harnsworth! The Inquisitors are pushing ahead! We have to move, now!"

"Very well," the old man muttered. He turned back to Evie, but found her gone. "Where did—?"

"Harnsworth!!"

"Argh," he cursed, before turning to the Acolytes milling around him. "Forward march! Into the breach! We go to save the city!"

A ragged cheer met the Initiate's words, but Evie didn't stop to hear any more. She was already slinking through the ranks and nursing her shoulder. The Ghoul had wrenched it good.

Stealth is level 48!

So close to Journeyman, she hissed. At least she'd have something to show for this fool's errand. The line of redcloaks moved passed her rapidly, leaving only the wounded and a few guards administering supplies. The wagon, much battered and featuring two extremely keyed up avum, was only a dozen strides away. Folks with white sashes passed out red vials among those not already dead, and Evie licked her lips.

Maybe more than something.

Keeping her head down, she made it all the way to the wagon without anyone saying a thing. Silently, she swung up into the driver's seat and grabbed the reins.

"H-hey! What are you doing?" Someone shouted.

"Sabotage!" Evie shouted back and snapped the reins. "HIYAHH!"

The avum squawked in terror and bolted, hauling Evie and the entire supply wagon straight into the front lines.

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