Unbound

It was chaos.

Evie rolled beneath the lumbering swing of an Acolyte at the same time she scooted away from the flashing claws of a Revenant. She had hoped to see some action, bored as she was, but this was proving to be entirely too much.

The leaders of her hunting party had followed a pack of Revenants as they had loped off into the distance, just barely able to keep up with the beasts. Soon enough, they had led them to another open tunnel, where the Primordial-Spawn had stopped.

Their lines had clashed almost immediately upon entering the wide causeway. It was nearly sixty paces across, more a road than sewer tunnel, though it certainly smelled of one. Offal and waste clogged the air, competing with the burning crimson sensation of that invisible Essence. She hadn't felt it so strongly since she had left the Domain, and likely that was because the causeway had been filled with Primordial-Spawn.

Acolytes had moved quickly, forming orderly ranks and hefting their polearms. The leading Initiates unveiled their enchanted fire blades and had ordered an immediate charge. Caught up, Evie had little else to do but go with the flow.

She quickly regretted it.

Should have stayed in the back! Evie rolled over the corpse of an Acolyte and pulled and threw the dead man's side blade in one smooth motion. It flew true, between two struggling redcloaks and right into the craw of a screaming Revenant, not killing it but doing heavy damage.

Thrown Weapon Mastery is level 31!

Cal would be so proud.

"Supply line!" An Initiate shouted from ahead, and Evie spun. She caught the wagon being pulled forward by heavily armored avum, but the redcloaks had a time getting the damn birds to come closer to the horde. Evie felt a powerful urge to raid that wagon again and get out of there. "Acolytes! Run for potions! We need healing!"

"Healing? We need the incendiaries!"

The Revenants pressed closer, and the front line of Acolytes started to bend inward. The press of the monsters was too great. Evie knew they couldn't last long.

"Inquisitors!" Came another shout from beside her, and Evie pivoted again so she could look. "On the left!"

Across the huge, arched tunnel was another entrance, perpendicular to their position. A flurry of orange Mana vapor bloomed from the tunnel, and three Inquisitors in full battle regalia came in like a firestorm. Literally. A tornado of flames ripped into the assembled Revenants, catching them from the flanks and hurling their charred bodies in every direction. Something slammed the ground and six blazing lines of fire raced through the horde, searing scaled flesh with impossibly hot death. Behind those lines came a woman in white armor, her head held high and without a full helmet, as if she were marching into a party.

"DuFont," Evie snarled.

The former Guild Elder thrust her hand casually forward and her golden gauntlets flared with yellow light. Another line of flame exploded a section of the Revenants, leaving nothing more than chunks and bone. Yet the explosion also cleared the way for the charge of an enraged Ghoul. It bellowed in challenge, and, for a moment, Evie revelled in the idea of the woman getting trounced.

DuFont met the thing head on, dodging it's massive punch and snapping the beast's elbow. The crunch was so loud she had heard it clearly above the battle. A circle of yellow sigils surrounded her gauntlets before discharging into a weird, blurry flare up. The Ghoul's elbow caved in and its skin baked and ripped apart, like it had been exploded without any fire.

DuFont's got heat magic? Piss, Evie cursed as she dodged between Revenant claws. Heat magic was notoriously hard to combat, and mostly invisible to boot. Where's Felix when you need him? Or even Pit. I could do for some cold magic to ruin her day.

"GRUAAAAWWWUGH!"

While she was distracted, a Ghoul slammed through their lines just ahead. Evie tried to backpedal, but Acolytes with halberds blocked the way. No Initiates were anywhere close, and the line of battle had pushed ahead. She was safe, but not for long. The idiots behind her were shaking in their boots.

Where'd it go? The wagon she'd looted had thundered forward, pulled closer to the fighting by a mad charge of terrified avum. It plunged into the Revenant lines and was soon swarmed by the fighting. Evie could only barely make out its covered top before the press of white armor and rust-red scales took her attention. Blind gods! Okay! I can't do anything here, these morons are doomed. Time to go!

The Ghoul tore a hole in their defensive line. Halberds stabbed at it, but at best they simply got stuck as the creature's flesh regenerated around them. They weren't doing enough damage to it. What they did accomplish, however, was to send it into a powerful rage. The thing's maw, taking up most of it's head spat thick spittle as it roared and swung it's ape-like forearms with shattering results.

Blighted amateurs! Disgusted, Evie reached down and snatched another short blade from a dead redcloak and looked behind her. A handful of the white armored zealots were shaking in their boots, staring at the thing. Stupid monster is in the way. If I'm getting outta here, I need bodies.

"Listen up! We're gonna charge that Ghoul, now," she shouted in her best 'leader voice' and tucked her stolen redcloak around her armor. A few of the men and women behind her still stared into the roiling chaos of battle. She snapped her fingers in their faces. "Hey! Follow me! You'll be fine! Probably! Arms up, double time! Let's go!"

Evie took off at a jog, reducing her mass to save on Stamina and slipped between the thrashing edges of he redcloaks. Behind her, she could hear the Acolytes start moving, their discipline and lack of leadership driving them forward. Just as she had hoped.

"We're taking down the Ghoul! Focus your fire on center mass! Chest and belly!" Evie held the short sword to the side, only knowing the very basics of its use and determined not to let it trip her up. "It heals fast! Distract it! I'll take it from there!"

As they drew close, several other Acolytes were hurled across Evie's path but she leaped nimby over their flying corpses. She didn't even slow down, though a few of the ravaged bodies had hit her followers. Not gonna be the last thing they get hit with.

The Ghoul loomed ahead, still howling into the crowd of frightened redcloaks. As she drew closer, Evie marveled at just how big it was—far bigger than the Ghouls she'd face up above. It had been the one to hurl those corpses at them, and it wasn't done. More wide, sweeping swings of it's fists sent recloaks flying in all directions. Pikes and halberds and spears all stuck in the abominations' flesh and spells of fire and light crashed against it's natural armor like waves on a beach.

But it's hunched. Protecting its belly. To the Acolytes behind her she shouted, "Shoot at it's abdomen! Core shots! Use your light thing!"

"Diurnal Reach?" One of them asked, breathlessly.

"That too! Fire!"

A volley of bright, golden bolts shot from behind Evie, causing her to yelp. It was way more than she expected. She glanced back and saw that a whole damn company was following behind her, just as a second volley of bright bolts shot out.

"GREEEAAAAAAAAAKKK!" The Ghoul screeched in obvious pain, hunching further as more than a few of the barrage hit its weaker underbelly.

Now! Evie grabbed the bottle from within her cloak and hurled it. It flew straight and true, thanks to her Dexterity, passing between the nasty thing's teeth. A muffled explosion sent the Ghoul's rocking backward, and a wash of flames poured from it's half-closed mouth. It let out a choking scream and stumbled.

Manawarped Ghoul is Dazed!

"Fire again!" Evie yelled. She could see the wagon, just beyond the Ghoul. She could make it.

"Diurnal Reach!" A hundred voices rattled off the same spell, and the field became engulfed in a golden radiance.

Evie ran forward, whipped her cloak back from her legs and dropped into a slide. The hard leather plates on her thighs and knee scraped across the even tiles, and her Agility did the rest. She zipped through the Ghoul's legs like a shot.

Yeah! She had made it through. The wagon was only a dozen strides away, and the Revenants were pushed back. She'd done it.

Then something slammed into her back, hurling Evie from her knees and into the thinning pike line ahead. Pain hit, like fire in the veins. Frantically, she reduced her weight and twisted her body, able to evade most of the spears, but not the shield wall. She hit hard.

Ough. That's-that's gonna bruise.

"GAAAARRRRUUUEEEEKKK!"

The Ghoul charged for her, regardless of the hail of light bolts that drilled through its flesh. It knew who had hurt it and was smart enough to know about revenge.

Great, she thought, rolling drunkenly to her feet. Her bell felt well rung. Burnin' redcloaks can't even distract one Ghoul.

Her chain dropped from her shoulder, unspooling onto the ground with a resounding thud.

"I'm done playin' then."

"My god, it's a massacre," Piotr whispered.

Mervin swallowed sour bile and tried to force his stomach to quit heaving. It wasn't particularly effective, though he had little left in his guts to empty. He'd waste much of it in the twisty tunnels they'd just escaped. Their group was much reduced by the sickening traps that were everywhere. Once they had crossed the secret entrance in the sewers, the one Teine had found, it was as if Avet himself was putting his vile finger on their spines. Men and women died to clouds of acid, hidden blades, and crushing pitfalls. Once they faced a field of lightning so strong he could still smell the char that one of the Bronze Ranks had become.

Mervin shuddered. What laid before them was even worse than what they had just endured.

Over the thick, ornately carved railing, a thick red fog drifted in massive clouds. Apart from the huge statues and winding pathways down, all that drew their attention was the flash and burn of Mana Skills and weapons below. Thousands of Revenants clawed and roared, so far down that simply looking made Mervin a little dizzy.

They were hard to see through the fog, but a group of people, only a few, were facing off against the horde. Power swirled around them so strongly that his Sentinel's Regard flared hot, a sure sign of extreme danger. Revenants fell before them like wheat before the scythe, a clutch of shadowy beings taking point.

"They're tearing them apart," Lars marvelled. "Whoever they are, they're at least Adept Tier."

"Won't last long," Garin muttered and gestured at what was clearly the Nest. "Against that? Not even our Elder would survive with so little support."

"Look! Sir!" A Bronze Rank pointed over the edge. "Are those Inquisitors?"

A wash of golden flame came from a tunnel they could just barely see, and new swathes of Revenants perished in an instant. More flashes of light and the distant clang of weaponry drifted from below.

"Ah, so all the players have arrived," Elder Teine said. His voice was a little tight, and maybe he leaned a little heavily on his cane, but he was in good spirits. He glanced below at the white armored figures just barely peeking into the central chamber. "I do hope they brought more than that."

Only moments after he said it, more armored soldiers poured in from side passages, cutting into the frenzied throng. They met plenty of opposition, however. Ghouls were demolishing everything in their way, and there were hundreds of them.

"Pathless forfend," Mervin whispered to himself. "What have we walked into?" He looked up from the killing fields and panned the gargantuan chamber. It felt bigger than anything he'd ever seen in his life, save the mountains themselves. Huge statues were carved with incredible detail up the sides, and in the center there—wait. What is that?

A flurry of shapes swarmed the ceiling, creatures with wings of bone and ropy tendons he'd seen before: Rooks. A weak, flying variety of these Revenant creatures. But something else was up there, something with two long, strange arms.

"Sir?" Another Bronze Rank said, pointing up. "Sir, what is that?"

Mervin focuses his Sentinel's Regard. The whole of the room was a wash of danger that he couldn't even begin to parse, but as he focused his Perception on the figure, he felt his Regard tilt wildly. Mervin's vision went white as a keening sound tore through his Skill, and his knees almost gave out in terror. If a Revenant was a mad beast, and those Ghouls were death walking, then that thing on the ceiling was something else entirely.

A blast of blue-white lightning sent two dozen Rooks falling from the sky, and Mervin gasped in sudden recognition.

It's him. Felix. The Blue Eyed Fiend.

"Siva Grace me with your light," Elder Teine murmured in smug satisfaction. "The Fiend has joined the fight! Now things are getting interesting!"

Hanging from the ceiling was more screaming in terror than Felix had anticipated, and his expectations hadn't been very high.

"AHH!"

Swinging wildly on his Shadow Whip was a visceral experience, more so when being attacked by a hundred flying murder birds.

"Get away!"

Reign of Vellus!

A blast of lightning and kinetic force demolished a chunk of the nasty things, but it felt like there were always more to take their place. Twisting his body to avoid several dive-bombing him, Felix flared his Unfettered Volition and shot out a new Shadow Whip. He couldn't keep his movement Skill running all the time or else he'd run out of Mana trying to handle so many spells at once. If he were on the ground that wouldn't be much of an issue, as his regeneration was insanely fast by this point.

A lot harder to manage Mana when it's the only thing keeping me from falling to my death. Felix felt sweat pour down his back, trickling beneath his shirt, before it was wicked away by the wind of his passage. He swung low then back up toward the ceiling again, just barely brushing it with his head before throwing his other Shadow Whip forward. The ends of the Whips could expand and grasp things, a trick he'd learned a long time ago. Lucky for him, the Nym had left the ceiling filled with natural textures and crags; it was easy to find purchase, swing to swing.

Reign of Vellus!

Another blast of Mana shot out, frying yet more Rooks that were beginning to try Felix's patience. They weren't a true threat to him, but they were a distraction. And he had enough of those.

Evie. Vess. He looked down, searching for them in the morass of violence below him. A thrill of dizziness and fear crackled through his instincts, but Felix muscled it down with a nudge of Willpower. He couldn't afford to be afraid of heights, even if it was extremely reasonable in this particular situation. They'll make it. They have to.

One final swing got him to the huge, purple crystal, and Felix had to make a quick decision.

Sovereign of Flesh!

His skin erupted in scales and plates while his fingers burst into black talons. Shunting a portion of his Essence into them, they pierced the granite around the giant crystal while his enchanted boots found easy purchase against it's lightly textured side. Felix wedged himself in the gap between the ceiling and the stone, surprised that there was such a large space at all. The whole thing was far bigger than he had estimated. From the tunnel it had looked to be the size of a two story house, but up close Felix realized that it was more than five times that size.

Holy shit. Pit, you seeing this?

Within, his Companion shifted and chirruped tiredly. Felix felt the tenku was stronger, but their Spirit Damage remained.

Focus. Felix snapped his attention back to the expanse of purple crystal before him. Reaching into his bag, he freed one of the many rudimentary grenades he had created. They were little more than rocks that he'd heavily Inscribed with force and fire sigils, along with an array connecting them all into a greater whole. Pure simplicity. Once they were fed enough Mana, they'd explode and hopefully tear holes big enough to knock this thing out of the ceiling. Felix regarded the crystal and the small stone in his claws.

Gonna need to use all of them, I think. He had exactly twenty four, as the twenty fifth one had been used to test this batch. Not much more could fit into his satchel. It was enchanted for self-repair not infinite space, unfortunately. He reached out and notched the granite with his talons, creating a narrow groove he could wedge his grenade into. With a little push, it fit well enough. As long as it doesn't fall out.

Screams echoed from below, terribly distant but nonetheless galvanizing. He had to hurry.

There. Twenty three to go.

The only warning Felix had was a rush of vibration, but his senses screamed at him. He shoved off of the ceiling and out into the open air, just as huge bolt of bright green Mana hit the crystal. And his grenade.

Shit!

*KATHOOOM!*

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