Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  2,000 damage taken per second.

  I can handle more.

  He pushed his absorption even further. Tributaries of fire had formed along the circular area of the absorption as the energy raced back to Finn. Those smaller streams pooled and collected, creating rivers of flame that merged… and then merged again. Where the fire was the densest, the ambient heat had begun to melt the sand, carving molten furrows in the ground. Steam drifted upward as super cold air pressed in on those rivers of flame.

  From a bird’s-eye view, it looked like Finn stood at the center of a flaming wheel of energy, the fires creating branching spokes that all led to a fiery core. And in that space, the heat had become so intense that the fires now flickered with a blue light along Finn’s skin, the very center of the wheel beginning to turn a blazing white.

  He could barely think now – his thoughts blurry and incoherent.

  There was only the searing pain.

  The flash of soothing healing.

  The fire and flame.

  “You hit the inversion point!” Daniel screamed in his ear. His damage taken now equaled his healing received. If he pushed any further, he ran the risk of killing himself almost instantly. Just a second’s delay in the next healing spell would be enough.

  “The healers have 30 more seconds of mana!”

  Finn needed to maintain this for just a bit longer.

  He pulled that heat into himself, into the gem in his hand. It was too bright to look at directly now, almost blinding. He just had to hope it could hold more.

  He poured the flames into that gem as quickly as he could, using it to absorb the rivers of fire rushing toward him and enveloping his body. Gradually, the accumulated flames began to recede ever-so-slowly, leaking into the crystal.

  “10 seconds!” Daniel screamed.

  Just a little longer…

  The flames had almost begun to dissipate, and Finn could just barely make out the area around him now. But his vision was blurry, and red notifications were flashing in the corner of his vision.

  “Stop now!” Daniel screamed.

  Finn canceled his channel.

  The last healing spell struck him, healing his ruined flesh. His UI reported that he was topped off, and yet his body still burned with agonizing pain, his mind not quite able to keep up with the constant stream of damage and healing.

  The world around him was frozen. Each breath sent out a dense cloud of cool vapor. Finn suddenly realized that the burning he felt wasn’t the fire… it was the cold – a cold so intense that it seared his skin and caused his bones to ache.

  Yet Finn could barely focus on that.

  He squinted at the gem embedded in his hand. That crystal shone like the sun, holding so much energy that the mana had begun to leak into the hand itself, causing the limb to pulse with an intense light. Ambient tendrils of fire curled around his fingers, sparking each time he moved or shifted the limb.

  System Notice

  You have reached the limit of the Focusing Prism embedded in Translucent Flame. If you do not release this energy soon, the limb may experience permanent damage.

  Finn swiped the notice aside, ignoring the shivers that wracked his body. He could just barely register that Julia was rushing toward him, and walls of stone were beginning to rise from the ground around him. The healers looked haggard, their robes burnt and singed, and their skin flayed despite Kyyle’s barriers – but they were alive.

  Unfortunately, Finn didn’t have enough time to wait for Kyyle to finish building the earthen wall around himself.

  He raised his translucent hand high into the air.

  And then he unfurled his fingers and cast Molten Beam.

  An enormous ray of fire erupted into the sky, spearing more than a mile up through the air. The beam was nearly three feet thick, the heat so intense that it scalded the skin around Finn’s left arm even as he cast. He felt a few feeble healing spells strike him as the healers realized he was venting the pent-up energy, using the small remnants of mana that they had managed to regenerate.

  The beam kept going, hitting the lower edge of the stratosphere. Clouds formed around the column of energy in an instant, swirling around it in a whirling vortex.

  Then the energy petered out, and the dome of rock fully encircled the group. Julia was at his side, holding him upright while Kyyle and Brock lingered nearby, the earth mage frantically attempting to reinforce the dome of rock around them. Finn could just barely make out the faint emerald outlines around each of the healers as they hunkered down beneath their earthen bunkers.

  Kyyle finished the barrier without a moment to spare. A whine could soon be heard outside the rocky dome, swiftly growing in strength.

  That whine soon turned to a howl as the wind whipped around the stone. The sound rapidly grew so loud that Finn and his companions were forced to cover their ears. The rock shield began to tremble and crack, forcing Kyyle to continuously channel his mana to keep the dome from completely splitting apart.

  Finn used his Mana Sight to look past the walls of their enclosure and witness what was happening outside, barely able to prop himself up with one arm.

  A massive wall of yellow air mana was streaming past. The current was almost a mile wide, whipping across the sands with the force of a hurricane. That wind soon swept the super-cooled air forward and drove it toward the dense brown mass of heated moisture that lingered along the horizon, sending it streaming up toward the rising sun.

  Finn’s experiment had been impressive. They had created a miniature storm front in a cavern, roughly the size of a football field.

  But that paled in comparison to what he was now witnessing.

  The cold current of air struck the heated vapor and created a maelstrom of energy so dense that it fully filled Finn’s vision, drifting off toward the corners of the horizon. That mana merged and diverged – coalesced and broke apart. It was a chaos of energy on an almost incomprehensible scale.

  He saw a tornado form, the funnel of cool air striking the sands and whipping up the emerald particles. Then another. And another. The storm sucked up the sand and added that energy to the heat and cold and wind. And only seconds later, the tornadoes blew themselves apart, the updrafts and downdrafts forming and vanishing in an instant.

  Then the currents began to stabilize.

  Finn witnessed the heated vapor rise into the stratosphere. He observed clouds beginning to form. However, this wasn’t a small column of clouds in an underground cave. This was a truly massive storm front that stretched outward for nearly a mile, expanding with each passing second, spiraling up into the air to form an enormous bank of clouds.

  The clouds turned darker and darker as the storm kept growing. It sped along, forced forward by an artificial current of cold air created by the air mages. That wind only paused for a moment as the second line of air mages stepped forward to replace their brothers and sisters in arms. Then it pushed at the storm front with renewed vigor, forcing it to grow, to expand, to move toward the east. Toward Lahab.

  And then Finn saw it.

  The first drops of rain began to splash against the sand just as the second group of air mages finally ran out of juice, and the winds abated. Kyyle dissolved the rock dome encircling them, which allowed the rest of the group to finally see what they had created.

  An impossibly dense bank of clouds now covered the eastern horizon, blotting out the sun and rising and growing further. This world’s natural currents were beginning to grab hold of the storm – filling out and bolstering what they had created. Rain beat heavily against the sands as that storm front marched east.

  And amid that rain, Finn observed gale-force winds. Tornadoes forming along the ground, forced along on downdrafts of cold air. And he could see lightning arcing through those clouds, striking the ground and leaving molten patches in their wake. As the sand cooled, it formed intricate glass sculptures that mimicked the branching path of the lightning.

  Finn’s brow furrowed as he watched the st
orm’s movements. He had expected the clouds to be pushed along in a straight line. Yet he could have sworn that they were beginning to spin… to pivot and swirl. Perhaps a function of the collision of the artificial current the air mages had created and this world’s natural airstream? Either way, the storm front was slowly coalescing into a giant revolving mass of wind, heat, cold, rain, and lightning.

  “Holy shit,” Kyyle muttered from beside him.

  Julia was shaking her head now, her eyes wide and afraid. “We… we formed a hurricane,” she muttered, her voice disbelieving.

  Finn could see that she was right. They had created a hurricane, a small one at least. But even as he watched the front, he noticed that it was continuing to grow, sweeping out across the sands. He could only imagine what would happen when this… this thing struck Lahab and the dome of fire that Bilel had formed around the city.

  He expected it would be catastrophic.

  The healers around them were simply staring, their mouths agape. Several spared the occasional glance at Finn, and he observed a mixture of fear and hope surge through their bodies – the dark and light energies colliding and mixing.

  And to the west, Finn saw their army finally crest the line of dunes. Thousands of mages, fighters, merchants, and Khamsin appeared along that ridge, riding atop a legion of dark insects. However, the advancing line of their army drew to a halt as they observed the colossal storm front that they had created, wind now whipping fiercely among their ranks and carrying streams of cool sand down into the plateau where their group lingered.

  With a grunt, Finn shoved himself back to his feet, his companions following his lead. Tendrils of fire still curled around his arm. The gem – not fully extinguished – glowed with a dull light, and a burning crown hovered above his brow.

  He witnessed their army – his army – beat their hands to their chest as they saw what Finn and his companions had created. The energy rippling through the soldiers’ bodies flared – fire and light shining above the rest. Passion and hope. Even from this distance, Finn could hear their shouts, the combined voices of thousands of men and women. Fighters, merchants, mages, and Khamsin joined together in a singular purpose and behind a single man.

  The Prophet of the Flame. And now… the Stormbringer.

  “Najmat Alhidad. Najmat Alhidad. Najmat Alhidad,” they chanted, the sound a call to war, a march to battle, a verbal drumbeat that would carry them east.

  To Lahab. To the demon king and his army.

  And toward Rachael.

  Chapter 38 - Storming

  The wind tugged at Finn’s robes, whipping the cloth and making even the simple act of sitting astride his beetle much more difficult. It also carried a mixture of rain and loose sand, creating a maelstrom of wind, earth, and water that smashed against the advancing line of their army. And still, their beetles plowed through that mess of wind and wet without slowing.

  Overhead, dark clouds swirled in an ominous circle, the hurricane only continuing to grow – the winds picking up strength with each minute that ticked past. The storm front now stretched for miles across the deep desert. The constant crack of thunder caused the very air around them to vibrate. And that deadly drumbeat punctuated the occasional fork of lightning that struck the sands, sending up a shower of molten glass with each impact.

  As he pulled the wraps more tightly around his face and mouth, Finn spared a glance to the side. A legion rode along beside him – a swarm of smaller black beetles encircling dozens of the larger queens, and resting atop their backs were mages and merchants, divided by affinity and specialization. His map hovered next to him, the clusters of soldiers neatly divided, labeled, and color-coded – Kyyle’s borderline-OCD notetaking paying off in a tremendous way.

  Their forces didn’t shy away from the storm. Instead, they rode directly through the back edge of the hurricane. They set a relentless pace as the water soaked into their clothing, and wet sand coated their armor, attempting to outpace the storm.

  Even now, Finn could see a clearer pocket of mana up ahead – the eye of the hurricane lingering just a few short yards away.

  Only moments later, they burst through the inner edge of the storm…

  The winds abruptly abated, and the relentless shower of water and sand slowed and then stopped. Finn’s eyes went wide as he witnessed the spectacle that swirled around him.

  A dense bank of clouds created a whirlpool around the army, sheets of rain beating down upon the sand only a scant few yards away. The blue, yellow, orange, and green energies blended to create a nearly impenetrable wall of mana. No matter how hard he tried to peel away those thick layers of mana, Finn couldn’t see through to the other side of the storm, nor could he see Lahab’s walls approaching in the distance – there was only wind and rain and the bright-amber flash of lightning.

  Which was perfect. The storm would hide them from Bilel, after all.

  “Everyone is in formation. The Infernal Guard stand ready,” a voice shouted to Finn’s left. He glanced over to see Julia riding up beside him, keeping her beetle as close as possible. The eye of the storm was much quieter, but the rumble of thunder and howl of the wind whipping past still made conversation difficult.

  “The fighters and Khamsin have also joined our forces. Malik and Aerys are leading them, and they’ll take their cues from me.”

  Finn nodded in acknowledgment, his thoughts racing. The Infernal Guard would be instrumental in dealing with the hounds – their fire mana naturally drawing the attention of the creatures. The other melee troops would then need to reinforce Julia’s troops, picking off the hounds from the flanks and taking their orders from Julia.

  Delegation was going to be essential for this upcoming fight.

  Kyyle chose that moment to pull up next to them, his mount creating a spray of wet sand as he skidded into position with Brock drifting along beside him. Apparently, the earth elemental had no difficulty keeping up.

  “How are the mages?” Finn asked him.

  “Abbad has positioned an air mage with each group to maintain communications. He’s currently with Aerys in the command group,” Kyyle answered, flicking at the air.

  A series of raid menus promptly appeared in front of Finn, the groups neatly divided by their capabilities – healers, fighters, merchants, etc. Although Kyyle hadn’t stopped there. He’d taken full advantage of the game’s UI, highlighting the air mage inserted into each division and then into the smaller squads that comprised each division, creating a network of mages that would allow the command group to relay orders quickly throughout the army. It was a clever workaround for soldiers that couldn’t rely on the in-game chat.

  “Abbad has ordered the air mages to focus on shielding our troops from the storm and airlifting any casualties to the rear of the army where the healers and merchants are positioned. They should be able to heal them and repair their equipment as needed,” Kyyle continued.

  “And what about you?” Finn asked, side-eyeing the earth mage.

  Kyyle met Finn’s inquiring glance with a grin. “I’m going to be directing the rest of the earth and water mages. I’ve taught them a few tricks over the last couple of days. Consider us your crowd control and terrain manipulation group.”

  Finn wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or worried by that. But, knowing Kyyle, the earth mage would likely deliver in a big way.

  He took a deep breath, his eyes skimming the many different displays that were now opened before him. This next fight was going to be different from their previous encounters. In other battles, Finn had been able to enter the fray himself – stand on the frontlines. However, he was no longer being asked to fight – at least, not directly. And even if he did, killing a few hounds himself certainly wouldn’t sway the tide of battle.

  No. This time around, Finn was being asked to lead.

  Even as that thought crossed his mind, Daniel chirped a warning at his shoulder. “The outer edge of the storm has just reached the city,” the AI reported, picking up
the presence of fire mana using data from Finn’s UI. Julia immediately turned to the air mage that rode at her shoulder, signaling the woman to alert the rest of the army. Their forces soon began to slow – ensuring that they stayed within the storm’s eye.

  Finn’s gaze snapped back to his map, and he could see that the AI was right. Daniel had superimposed the storm over the terrain, using Finn’s Mana Sight to produce a more dynamic map. If he requested it, he suspected the AI could also shift into an isometric view and give him a rough three-dimensional model. Although, for now, there was no need.

  He squinted as he peered to the east, trying to peel back the dense layers of mana that made up the hurricane. Only seconds later, the walls of Lahab began to drift into view, emerald sandstone standing out sharply against the energies swirling through the storm. And just in front of those walls was the telltale glint of fire mana. As Finn focused on that energy, he saw it expand high into the sky, drifting up and over Lahab and forming a massive, flaming dome around the city.

  “Good gods…” Julia muttered as the edge of that shield came into sight.

  Finn just shook his head, a similar thought rebounding through his mind. It was one thing to see this on the video back within the safety of the Hive… and another entirely to witness the sheer scale of that magical shield firsthand.

  As the edge of the storm struck the fiery barrier, Finn could see the mixture of air and water slam into the heated shield. The storm grew thicker with each passing second, a chaotic cascade of clouds swiftly beginning to rise – only to cool moments later and begin to condense. Even more interesting, the barrier appeared to stall the storm’s march across the desert. Finn could have sworn that the swirling clouds were beginning to rotate around the city itself. As the rest of the storm front continued to barrel forward, Finn felt a sudden worry gnawing at his gut.

  “Daniel…” Finn began.

  “I’m already on it, sir,” the AI replied, picking up on the concern in Finn’s voice.