“You’re familiar with earth elementals?” Kyyle asked, his brow furrowing.
“Sure,” Brutus grunted, not bothering to look up from inspecting Brock. “That was the inspiration for my golems. The real deal are incredibly rare, though. Elementals tend to gravitate toward locations with high levels of ambient mana for their affinity. Finding a fire elemental, for example, typically involves a lot of digging or braving an active volcano.”
The fire mage hesitated, his brow furrowing as he whirled back to Kyyle. “How did you come by this guy anyway?”
“Well, that’s another long story…” Kyyle hedged.
“One that we can get to later,” Finn interjected before they could get too far off-topic. “We heard that you managed to capture one of the hellhounds?”
“Who else would be crazy enough to try,” Kyyle muttered under his breath. This earned him a slap on the back from Brutus, the blow nearly toppling the slender earth mage.
A broad grin spread across the fire mage’s face as he met Finn’s eyes. “I did indeed. The merchants that helped me catch it were on board, but these desert folk seemed real skittish when I showed up with the little critter. They’ve effectively imprisoned me on this island,” he added sourly, glancing at the robed men and women that lingered among the nearby pillars.
“What possessed you to do something so… dangerous?” Kyyle asked.
Brutus just gave him an incredulous stare. “Don’t you remember your training, boy? Surely, I beat some sense into you. What’s my number one rule?”
“Always have a glass of lemonade handy?” Finn offered in a dry voice.
“When in doubt, throw a Fireball at it?” That one was from Kyyle.
Brutus’ grin faltered. “Huh. You took away a few different lessons – probably why the guild got rid of student reviews… But I suppose there’s still some wisdom in there. Nothing like staying hydrated, and who doesn’t like a warm fire? But I was going for a different goal here – know your enemy.”
The fire mage turned his gaze back to Finn, that grin reappearing in a flash. “You want to see it?” This earned him a nod from Finn and a hesitant but curious look from Kyyle.
Brutus abruptly pivoted on his heel and marched through the clearing. The Khamsin guards hovered among the rock pillars tensely, their hands drifting toward their weapons as they watched Brutus. “Don’t mind them. They’re just on edge after the last escape attempt.” A grimace rippled across the burly fire mage’s face. “Would you believe these desert folk wanted to put down Betty? Said she was too much of a liability.”
“Betty?” Kyyle asked.
“My name for her,” Brutus grunted.
“How, uh, do you know it’s a her?” Kyyle offered with a curious glance.
The fire mage shrugged. “I saw the woman converted before my eyes. A hound gored her stomach, and she turned into this creature. Not sure what her real name was, but I’ve been calling her Betty ever since.
“And here we are,” Brutus declared.
They had stopped next to a circular pit formed in the center of the clearing. It was at least ten feet deep and fifteen feet wide, the edges of the circle casting deep shadows. However, something still lit the bottom of the pit. Betty lay there upon the stone, her canine body coated in a fine film of flame, the air above her rippling and contorting from the heat. As she noticed the group approach the ledge, she rose and sniffed at the air. Letting out a low growl, the flames along her back flared brightly.
“The Khamsin had me widen and deepen the pit. She shouldn’t be able to jump or claw her way out now, but I still wouldn’t linger too close to the edge. She can get a bit feisty when she senses mana,” Brutus explained, waving at the guards that edged closer to the pit, their weapons fully drawn now.
“Well, their caution makes sense. The hounds are linked to Bilel – the Emir – and the god relic that he now wields. That’s what’s creating these creatures,” Finn explained, waving at Betty.
As Finn noticed the fire mage’s inquiring look, he continued. “The hounds remain connected to the staff and feed it energy, which he can then use to heal himself. That’s why the Khamsin are so nervous and why they quarantined you out here. We don’t fully understand the nature of that connection. If you brought the hound back to the Hive or the Flagship, Bilel could possibly use it to find the locations of the Khamsin city and the guilds’ new base of operations.”
Finn crouched beside the lip of the pit, peering down at Betty and activating his Mana Sight. He could see that the hound was awash in fire mana, glowing a brilliant orange and red. However, now that he wasn’t distracted by Bilel or fighting for his life, Finn had an opportunity to examine the hound more closely.
He could make out six glowing clusters of energy spread through the creature’s body, those nodes tainted with a reddish hue that Finn recognized immediately – the staff had corrupted the Najima. Perhaps, as they slayed each traveler or resident, the hounds were spreading the infection. That would sort of make sense and be consistent with both Brutus’ story as well as the accounts that Kalisha, Malik, and Abbad had provided. Even more interesting, all six of the hound’s Najima were now attuned to a single affinity, and there was no fluctuation in their mana signature.
“It’s still generating its own mana,” Finn said aloud, Kyyle tapping away at his terminal as he took notes. “It has all six Najima, but they only produce fire mana and are covered in the same infection that I observed in my own Najima,” Finn continued, rubbing at his left arm instinctively.
His attention shifted to the surface of the hound’s body, where he could make out streamers of orange energy curling away from its skin and drifting off toward the east. “It’s also continuously channeling its excess mana back to Lahab. There’s a thread drifting away from its body and heading due east.”
“I’m starting to see why you made those adjustments to your eyes,” Brutus observed as he watched Finn. “You can get all of that at a glance now?”
Finn looked over his shoulder at the fire mage and saw his energy rippling uncertainly, an ivory tendril of mana curling through his body. Hope, most likely, but for what reason, Finn couldn’t quite fathom. Perhaps the fire mage was starting to buy into the same myths and prophecies as the Khamsin.
“It’s rather useful. In humans, I can also pick up on their emotions – the concentration of affinities fluctuates based on their mood,” Finn replied, turning back to Betty.
Kyyle noted Brutus’ startled expression, “It’s only slightly disconcerting. It’s sort of like hanging out with a human lie-detector sometimes,” he offered, a teasing smile on the earth mage’s face. There wasn’t much that made the fire mage master uneasy.
“So, how did you catch it?” Finn asked as he turned his attention back to the hellhound. It now paced the pit, staring up at him with unblinking orange eyes.
“Lured it into a cage,” Brutus grunted. “Nothing special.”
“Lured it?” Kyyle repeated. “How’d you manage that?”
“See for yourself,” Brutus replied.
His fingers moved rapidly, and a ball of fire suddenly appeared in the bottom of the pit – Brutus channeling a Fireball at the edge of his control range. The hellhound immediately whipped around toward the source of the fire, its eyes trained on the glimmering orb. Its hesitation lasted only a second. Lunging forward, it shot toward the flames, the muscles in its legs rippling powerfully.
At the last minute, Brutus shifted the orb, and the hound ran headfirst into the wall of the pit. A resounding crack echoed through the clearing, and the stone crumpled from the impact, fractures spiraling up through the rock. The hound listed for a moment, clearly dazed.
“Why did you—” Kyyle began with a frown.
“Just wait,” Brutus answered softly.
The hound shifted in place, its head coming into view. The blow had shorn the flesh from the side of its snout, revealing small glimpses of ivory bone beneath. Yet no blood trickled from the wound. Inst
ead, the fire along its face flared more brightly. A twitch of Brutus’ fingers and the Fireball swept down near the hound. It snapped at the energy with a vicious jerk of its ruined mandibles, consuming the flames in a single gulp. As soon as the fire entered its body, the flesh along its face knitted itself back together with surprising speed, and the excess energy poured out of its body – drifting off to the east.
“Huh,” Finn grunted. “So, it’s attracted to sources of fire mana, it can consume the flames to heal itself, and it’s funneling that extra energy back to Bilel.”
“I wasn’t aware of that last bit, but you’re right on the first two points,” Brutus said with a nod. “Betty here will chase flames tirelessly and can repair even mortal injuries if she has access to some mana. She seems to prefer the flames, but she’ll actually devour any type of energy.”
Finn’s gaze snapped to Brutus. “Really? Maybe she’s attracted to casters in general then,” he murmured to himself.
The fire mage rubbed at the back of his head, his expression sobering. “Indeed. During that clusterfuck back in… I mean, during our escape from Lahab,” he amended with a wry twist of his lips, “the hounds seemed to attack anyone, but they would focus on those with a high magical aptitude regardless of their dominant affinity.”
“Hmm, maybe it needs people that already have a decent mana pool and regeneration,” Kyyle observed. “That would make sense if it’s converting their Najima and channeling mana back to the staff.”
Finn nodded slowly, but then winced as another thought occurred to him. “Which means it can probably convert any type of mana to fire…” He trailed off, staring down at the hound. “Well, there’s one way to test that,” he continued, waving at Kyyle.
The earth mage took the hint, and soon a tendril of emerald energy wound down into the pit. Betty immediately pounced on the energy, snapping at it with her jaws. Finn watched as the earth mana wound through her body – a single streamer of green amid the orange and red. Then it reached her Najima, and he looked on in fascination as the hound swiftly converted the earth mana to a glowing orange and red before sending that energy hurtling back toward Lahab.
“Yep, definitely converting other types of mana,” he muttered. Finn leaned back from the pit, chewing on his lip as he processed that information.
“Can you absorb its energy?” Kyyle asked. “We might as well give it a shot.”
Finn’s brow furrowed at that. He had tried to absorb mana from the ants back in the Abyss but hadn’t been successful and his experiments with draining mana directly from Kyyle had all failed. His theory was that an organic creature’s body insulated them from the absorption – or possibly their Najima were responsible. Whereas the staff likely bypassed those defenses by infecting and transforming the Najima themselves.
Although, he agreed that it didn’t hurt to try using Mana Absorption.
He focused on Betty, tugging at the flames that coated her body.
However, as the seconds ticked past, nothing happened. He had only succeeded in draining some of the ambient heat from the air around the hound, the coils of fiery energy winding around his arm before pressing into his skin.
“Nope,” Finn said with a frown. “It seems I can’t just drain the hounds dry.”
He wondered idly if the process might work if he broke the skin barrier or stabbed directly into the creature’s Najima. Finn glanced down at his new crystalline left hand. If he repurposed the limb into a blade, that might work. Although, he didn’t really want to test that theory on their only living specimen.
“Hmm, it looks like she hates cold – or perhaps just water mana in general,” Kyyle observed, watching Betty. The hound had indeed been immune to Finn’s Mana Absorption, but her flames had dwindled as she remained in the pocket of cold air that Finn had left behind. The hound quickly paced to the other side of the pit, hugging the stone wall.
“Interesting,” Finn murmured in reply. He’d have to log that weakness away.
Finn rose from his perch beside the pit and stared down at the hound. He rubbed at his temple, and his thoughts raced as he processed what they’d learned. “So, let’s summarize. Bilel has sic’d these hounds on anyone still inside Lahab – I’m guessing he started with the palace guards and staff to create an initial group of the creatures. They can then spread the infection and convert people into new hounds. They tend to target mages, although it sounds like the conversion isn’t guaranteed – at least according to Aerys. The hounds naturally generate mana and funnel it back to the staff. And they can heal from consuming mana. The only upside is that they might be weak to cold or water mana.”
“Except there must be thousands by now, and we’re fighting in the middle of a desert,” Brutus offered in a dry voice. “And even if Bilel doesn’t manage to convert a person, it sounds like he still benefits if the hounds consume their mana. Who knows how much energy he’s collected by now.”
Silence lingered across the clearing, broken only by the occasional snap and whine of the hellhound in the pit below them. A question was lingering just at the edges of Finn’s thoughts, insistent and demanding. He had been putting it off for some time now, pushing it to the side in favor of more immediate problems.
But now, he couldn’t ignore that question any longer.
How the hell were they going to fight Bilel?
The demon had already collected a legion of hounds, which provided a nearly infinite source of mana. To make matters worse, the hounds could also effectively digest other sources of mana and convert that to fire mana, feeding that energy back to the staff. Bilel might as well be plugged directly into the fire pylon back in the Forge. Finn suspected the amount of mana resting at his fingertips was roughly in the same league.
The hounds could also detect or sense mana. In which case, the Khamsin had a natural advantage. They would be more difficult for the hounds to sniff out, and most were completely immune to the conversion – at least if they had been purged by the mages and not born into the Hive. However, the fighters and mages had no such luxury, and they would be easy for the hounds to detect – even if Finn insulated the fighters and mages from the conversion with his Forging. Worse yet, every casualty would just feed more mana to Bilel, the hounds feasting on that mana and then converting it with their Najima.
Which left the demon himself.
Finn wasn’t certain whether Bilel could access the mana in the staff for offensive purposes, but it almost didn’t matter. Even if the staff only allowed him to heal himself, the demon’s nearly infinite source of fire mana would make him effectively immortal. And that was putting aside that Bilel was an incredibly powerful and experienced mage in his own right. One who’d had the better part of a century to drain and store mana from the mages that underwent the purge. After their last confrontation, Finn doubted they could take him in a straight fight even under normal circumstances. Not that it mattered. Even if they could somehow bypass the legion of hellhounds and take on Bilel directly, he would simply repair any injury almost instantly.
In many ways, it was like fighting the corrupted all over again. They either needed to strike so hard and fast that Bilel simply couldn’t out heal the injuries. Or they needed to attack his stockpile of energy at the source, depleting his mana before they confronted him directly. That first option seemed impossible – or, at least, incredibly unlikely. Finn wasn’t aware of any weapon in their arsenal that could pump out the kind of damage needed to obliterate the demon. Which led to an inevitable conclusion…
“We have to take out the dogs first,” he murmured.
At the surprised glances from Kyyle and Brutus, he elaborated. “There are simply too many hounds, and the fire mana that Bilel has accumulated is far too great. Even if we tried to assassinate him directly, he’d simply heal any injury.”
Kyyle was nodding now. “Which means we have to cut him off at the knees. The only way to undermine or limit the staff’s healing power is to take out the hounds first.”
“Exactly,” Finn said.
“Uh, sure, and how exactly do you propose to do that?” Brutus offered. “I saw the carnage in Lahab myself. We’re facing an army of these things. And they’ll heal their own injuries and send mana back to Bilel with every kill.”
Finn shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“A distraction, maybe?” Kyyle offered. “We might be able to use the hounds’ hunger for mana against them. Lure them into a trap.”
“Assuming Bilel can’t control them directly,” Finn replied.
“If he is controlling them, then he has a rather feral personality,” Brutus grunted. “There was often no rhyme or reason to the hounds’ attacks. They just seemed to scatter among the back alleys and roads, attacking anything that crossed their paths.”
“Maybe there’s a limit to how many of the hounds that Bilel can direct at once,” Kyyle theorized, tapping away at his console again. “Like a control limit.”
Finn cocked his head at that suggestion. That certainly seemed plausible.
“Either way, that’s only one of our problems,” Finn interjected. “How do we go about attacking Lahab in the first place?”
He waved at the eastern horizon. “Bilel has the same enhanced sight that I do – that’s where I learned how to do this,” Finn explained for Brutus’ benefit, gesturing at his eyes. “Except he’s had at least a century to refine and train his sight, and he’s already indicated that he can see far outside the city walls. It’s safe to assume he will see us coming long before we reach Lahab.”
“He could just sit safely inside the city and send the hounds to intercept us,” Kyyle said slowly, following Finn’s line of thinking. “Attrition works in his favor here.”
“Plus, he could sling spells from the city walls to help support and reinforce the hounds,” Brutus grumbled. “If he’s as powerful as you say he is, that could be a problem.”
Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3) Page 38
