Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  A moment later, the model of the storm updated and shifted, providing Finn with a three-dimensional view of the hurricane and the city. “This is a projection five minutes out,” Daniel said. “I’m extrapolating based on the current flow of mana around that dome and the data streaming in from your UI and Mana Sight.”

  Finn chewed on the inside of his cheek as he watched the screen. As the body of the hurricane struck the city, the model predicted that the superhot pocket of air created by the dome would stall out the storm completely, causing it to begin orbiting the city like a miniature sun – the heat continuing to feed the hurricane and causing it to grow rapidly. Within the span of just a few minutes, the storm would be localized atop Lahab and would become increasingly violent, stretching out across the desert for miles in every direction.

  “Shit,” Finn muttered, nudging his mount and sliding to a halt. He dropped from his seat, his feet sinking into the sopping wet sand.

  Julia signaled the rest of the army. A legion of beetles soon grouped up behind them, and each division began to assume their formations. The Infernal Guard and fighters moved to the front, and the mages took up a position along the interior of the army, where they would be protected if they were somehow flanked.

  Finn didn’t pay that much attention.

  The storm likely still hid their movements from Bilel – at least, for now. And they still had a momentary reprieve from the wind and wet since they were currently positioned within the eye of the hurricane. However, that dome would soon turn the storm against them. In moments, Lahab would be sitting inside the eye of the storm, protecting the hounds instead of Finn’s army, which according to Daniel’s projections, would be standing well within the inner edge of the hurricane.

  “We need to take out that shield and fast,” Finn muttered.

  “Well, I’m open to suggestions,” Julia said, dropping from her mount and eyeing the fiery dome that lingered before them. As the storm continued to push forward, that barrier and the city walls behind it had now come into view. The hurricane was beginning to break apart and start its new orbit around Lahab.

  “If the relic created the dome, then the hellhounds are likely powering it,” Kyyle offered, watching the ring of clouds to their rear. They only had a few more minutes to speak before the other side of the hurricane struck them from behind.

  Finn grimaced. “Yes. That’s still a safe assumption. We couldn’t have anticipated the effect of the dome on the storm, but the plan remains the same. We need to bait the hounds into attacking and then take out as many as possible.”

  “You think Bilel is going to send them out into the hurricane?” Julia asked.

  “Yes… yes, I think he will. We’ll be sitting inside the edge of the storm once it centers on the city. We’re going to start getting pelted by wind and rain. But our air mages can hold off most of that – at least within a localized area,” he added, shooting a meaningful look at Kyyle. The mage immediately pivoted and whispered instructions into the ear of the air mage who stood beside him.

  “We’ll be vulnerable then – exposed to the elements,” Finn continued, eyeing the area around them. “That will obscure our visibility and hinder our movements. If I were Bilel, I’d use that moment to attack.”

  Julia nodded. “So, it sounds like we hunker down and wait.” She met his eyes, determination shining there. “When you give the signal, my people will be ready to move.”

  “Good,” Finn replied. Then he offered his arm, his daughter accepting his grip. He pulled her close into a hug, wrapping his other arm around her shoulders and feeling the metal of her armor digging into his skin.

  “Take care of yourself,” she whispered.

  “You too,” he murmured back.

  Then Julia withdrew, shooting one final glance at Kyyle.

  “You want to make a bet?” the earth mage said, noting the tension in Julia’s shoulders and in the way she gripped her lance tightly.

  She shot him a surprised look. “Really? What’re you thinking?”

  “Well, I say we keep score,” Kyyle offered with a grin, despite the rain and sand that streaked his face. “Whoever kills the most of these hounds wins.”

  Julia tilted her head as she mulled on that. “Wins what exactly?” she demanded.

  “Hmm.” Kyyle hesitated. “Renaming the city, maybe? Or a piggyback ride courtesy of Brock?” he offered with a small smile.

  “Eh. That doesn’t do much for me.” She met his eyes for a moment, holding his gaze. “How about if you win, I take you to dinner?”

  Kyyle’s eyes went wide. “Uh… what?” he answered artfully, clearly letting his shock override his normal mental function.

  “You know, a real dinner in the real world,” she shot back, her smile widening.

  “Uh, I mean, sure… yeah,” was Kyyle’s fumbling response.

  “Good,” Julia replied curtly, starting to walk backward away from him. She shot Daniel one final glance. “You’ll keep score for us, won’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the AI chirped.

  Julia gave them one last salute and then whirled. She sprinted back toward the position where her Infernal Guard was positioned, her feet kicking up wet sand in her wake.

  “Hey, wait… what do you get if you win?” Kyyle shouted after her, but his words were lost to the wind that whipped around them. The gale was beginning to grow as the back edge of the storm caught up with them.

  “Shit…” the earth mage muttered.

  Then Kyyle gave Finn a surreptitious glance. “And you’re… um… you’re okay with that?” he asked cautiously. Apparently, Kyyle found him a little intimidating. It must have been the many, many people he’d watched Finn kill.

  A wide smile crept across Finn’s face. “Yeah, I don’t have a problem with it.” Kyyle started to let out a relieved breath. “Especially since she’s going to kick your ass. You know she just tricked you into handing her a blank check, right? She used to do the same thing to me all the time when she was little. She ate ice cream for an entire week straight after I lost one particularly bad bet.”

  Kyyle sucked in air sharply, and Finn laughed at his reaction. He enjoyed making the mage squirm a little. Wasn’t that his fatherly prerogative, after all? And it was a welcome distraction from what loomed before and around them.

  Even as they stood there and the army settled into position, the inner edge of the storm was drawing closer. The rumbling patter of water striking sand grew with each passing second. They likely had less than a minute before the winds and rain consumed them once again – except stronger this time.

  Which meant that they needed to get moving.

  “Come on,” Finn said, smacking Kyyle’s shoulder and knocking him out of his confused fugue. “Right now, you need to regroup with your mages, and I need to go find the rest of the command group. You’ll have time to worry about your dating life – or lack thereof – some other time.”

  “Har har,” Kyyle grumbled but started off toward his pack of earth and water mages. The group was clumped inside the formation of Khamsin and fighters that lined the front of the army – their position given away by their color-coded robes.

  And then Finn stood alone upon the sands. His eyes drifted back to the glowing orange dome that encircled Lahab. Already, he was trying to contemplate what Bilel had planned. He doubted the demon had been idle while their forces prepared, and it was safe to assume that the Emir had seen the unnatural storm barreling toward Lahab – even if he might not entirely understand what the rain and wind concealed.

  “Game on,” Finn murmured to himself. Then he pivoted on his heel and started off toward the command group.

  Chapter 39 - Fiery

  The wind howled around Finn and his group, the sound a muffled whine as it swept across the glowing yellow barrier that hovered above them. Rain pelted the shield, sloughing off the edge and pooling along the sands. The black forms of the beetles lingered just outside that barrier, burrowing deeply into the sand. Th
ey used their hard carapaces to help blunt the wind and rain, sheltering the group that stood in the center of that protective circle.

  A blast of lightning suddenly struck the barrier – the energy forking across the surface – but the shield refused to give way. With his fingers beating a repetitive rhythm, Abbad maintained the spell. Similar glowing yellow barriers and dark rings of insects littered the expanse outside the walls of Lahab, shielding the soldiers who stood amid the storm. Abbad had moved quickly to direct his air mages, embedded in each division and squad, to maintain those protective barriers to insulate their troops from the full assault of the hurricane.

  The only small blessing was that those shields were likely difficult to pinpoint amid the dense sheets of water and gusts of wind that lingered just outside the shimmering yellow shields. While their troops were now bearing the brunt of the storm as the eye centered on Lahab, it was that very hurricane that now protected them from Bilel’s prying eyes.

  But the air mages’ mana wouldn’t last forever.

  As though echoing his thoughts, Finn saw an amber shield break away from a nearby encampment and start heading their way at a sprint. Within seconds, that protective bubble merged with their own. Aerys and a company of Khamsin entered the ring of insects. The desert folk were drenched, their breathing ragged, and water rained from their armor.

  “Alright, the Khamsin are ready,” Aerys grunted, not wasting any time on small talk.

  As the Khamsin leader spoke, she gestured at the walls of Lahab in the distance and the glowing orange dome surrounding the city. Lightning struck the dome occasionally, and with each strike, it flickered and pulsed with an ominous fiery light. Yet the barrier remained intact – the damage repairing itself in mere moments. “It doesn’t look like we’re getting through that shield easily, though,” she added dryly.

  “Indeed, that barrier is composed of dense fire mana,” Abbad said softly. A fleeting glance at Finn. “I take it using your Mana Absorption is off the table?”

  Finn frowned slightly as he observed the density of the fiery energy with his Mana Sight. There was enough mana there to cover an entire city. “That likely won’t work. It’s one thing to drain the ambient heat in the sand and air. That amount of mana per square foot was rather small. It’s another thing entirely to absorb this much raw mana.” He gestured towards the fiery shield.

  “So, we do what then? Stand outside the walls and let the storm take us?” Aerys demanded. Another flash of lightning and a blast shook the ground nearby, sending streamers of molten glass flying in every direction. The other mages and soldiers within their protective circle shuffled nervously. “It seems the storm is getting worse.”

  “It is,” Finn replied simply, his eyes never wavering from the city. It was playing out just as Daniel’s model had predicted. The eye of the hurricane was now centered above Lahab. The heat from the barrier both anchored the storm in place and grew the billowing clouds – the hurricane growing larger and more violent with each passing second.

  “Okay… so I’ll ask again. What’s our play here?” Aerys stared at Finn, her eyes demanding.

  He met her gaze evenly. “We draw them out.”

  Finn held up a staying hand as the Khamsin leader started to snap at him again. Then he swiped at the air to bring up his map, rotating the display so that she could view it clearly. “The Infernal Guard are almost in position,” he offered, gesturing at the cluster of orange dots on his map.

  Near the front of the army and directly in front of Lahab’s northwestern gate, Julia’s guard now stood in formation. They had pushed forward far enough that they would be visible from the walls of the city while the rest of the army would still be hidden within the swirling chaos of the storm. For now, the guard hadn’t lit up their armor, allowing the rain and wind to beat against them and relying on their bulk and weight to shield themselves from the storm – the fire mages huddled protectively within the center of the formation.

  In short, they were using Julia and her soldiers as bait.

  With that thought, Finn swiped at the air, pulling up his chat log and typing out a short message to Julia. Now he just needed to wait a few moments longer before giving her the order – enough time to let Bilel think they were settled.

  “The Khamsin and fighters are also waiting on each flank,” Finn explained, tapping at their positions to either side of the guard, those soldiers standing farther back within the storm. “They will be ready to assist the guard at our command.”

  He spared a glance at Kalisha, where the merchant stood nearby. “Are the mechanid scouts in position out in the sands?” he asked. Her mechanical creatures were uniquely suited to this role – able to anchor themselves to the ground and the mana signature of their metallic bodies made them almost indistinguishable from the sand itself.

  “Yes, although their sensors won’t work as well in this mess,” she muttered, surveying a series of screens that Finn couldn’t see. “I had to make some last-minute adjustments so that they only pick up fire mana.” At this comment, the small mechanical spider she had bonded with ground its legs together as though it was pleased with itself – earning the creature a raised eyebrow from Finn.

  “Good,” he murmured to himself, his eyes on the map beside him. The gameboard was set – and now it was the demon’s move.

  “Okay, but why would Bilel risk his forces by sending them out in this mess?” Aerys demanded, sounding exasperated. “Couldn’t he just wait us out within the safety of the city?”

  A small smile tugged at Finn’s lips as he channeled his mana forcefully, letting the burning energy flow through his veins. “He can’t see us easily within the storm. One of these barriers of air looks just like another gale unless you know what you’re looking for. But, most importantly, you’re forgetting who we’re facing.”

  He met her eyes, his mana flaring, and his eyes aglow. “Bilel isn’t a man. We’re facing a demon. A demon that places no value on human life… He drained and used your people for decades. He won’t hesitate to use the hounds the same way, especially since he knows that he has us outnumbered and still believes he can replenish any losses using our casualties. His goal – his only goal – is gathering more fire mana.

  “So, we use that against him.”

  With that statement, he hit send.

  Seconds later, a patch of fiery energy bloomed in the distance.

  Then another. Then a dozen more.

  Soon, Julia’s entire troop was bathed in flames as the fire mages partnered with each of her Khamsin channeled Imbue Fire, wrapping the metal-clad Khamsin in ribbons of fire.

  At his daughter’s command, they marched forward toward the gates of Lahab. The Infernal Guard gave off such a dense glow that the flames were even visible amid the storm. The flames burned away the rain that beat down on the soldiers, and their heavy armor kept them firmly rooted to the ground, even as the wind pulled at them. Maintaining their formation, the group kept the more vulnerable fire mages to the center of the pack.

  And then they waited.

  Seconds ticked past with no reaction from the city.

  “I don’t think—” Aerys was abruptly cut off as the city’s gates swung wide.

  And through that opening poured a ravenous horde of hounds. The creatures sprinted across the sands, their paws sending up streamers of steam where they touched the wet earth. They barely seemed to notice the storm. Hundreds of the flaming dogs raced across the open field outside the gates, paying little mind to the hurricane.

  Although, in Finn’s enhanced sight, the effect of the storm was more telling. The rain was suppressing the energy put off by the hounds. The wind and wet tore at the flames that enveloped their limbs, and that energy dimmed noticeably even as a cloud of steam rose above the horde, creating a muddy brown cloud in Finn’s Mana Sight.

  Perfect, Finn thought. His guess had proven correct.

  As the hounds sped toward the Infernal Guard, Finn typed out another message – this time t
o Kyyle. And then he said a silent prayer to the goddess. Now all he could do was wait, watching the glowing line of fire mana in the distance and the horde of red dots that now filled his map as they advanced on his daughter’s troops. At a guess, there were at least a few thousand of the beasts in this wave. If they closed with the guard, they would be overwhelmed. And yet Julia’s soldiers didn’t move an inch as the creatures barreled toward them.

  Seconds ticked past, and the hounds raced toward the guard.

  And then the first line of creatures simply vanished.

  “What… what just happened?” Aerys asked, staring at the nearby map as an entire group of the hounds winked out of existence.

  Finn’s smile widened as he observed the fluctuation of earth mana in the distance.

  “Kyyle happened,” Abbad said softly, his brow furrowed.

  Finn nodded, his thoughts racing… already on his next move. Another line of the hounds vanished, and he glanced to the side, noting Aerys’ confused expression. “Kyyle is directing the earth mages. The ground is composed primarily of sand and is now saturated with moisture from the storm. Using Dissolve at a low energy level is just enough to destabilize the ground, creating a massive patch of quicksand.” That trick had just barely saved their life when they had taken a plunge into the Abyss. “Once the hounds are sucked under, another group of earth mages solidifies the material and crushes them.

  “It’s a deathtrap…” Finn murmured.

  And brilliant, he added to himself. Although, Julia likely wasn’t going to be happy with how many “points” Kyyle was scoring right now.

  Hundreds upon hundreds of hounds perished in mere moments, and Finn’s eyes darted to the barrier encircling Lahab. He saw the shield wane ever-so-slightly. It seemed his guess had proven right. Bilel was using the energy from the hounds to sustain the shield.

  As Finn looked on, the next wave of hounds didn’t sink into the sand, nor did their dots disappear from the map. Finn glanced up in alarm and saw a shimmering yellow barrier now coating the ground in front of Julia’s forces. Bilel had joined the fray, most likely using the cluster of fire mana to help identify the position of his hounds. He was coating the sand with a platform of air mana, allowing his minions to skim overtop the ground.