Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  The result was a partially frozen lake of water and ice that was forming in mid-air, stretching outward for dozens of yards in every direction. The hurricane tried to sweep away that wet and cold – its natural, circular current pulling at the edges of that globe of water. But the sphere was soon far too massive to be swept away so easily.

  As the cloud grew to a blinding sapphire, the air mages started to cast.

  It was just a tendril of yellow energy at first, barely visible to Finn among the massive howling currents of the storm. However, that faint breeze grew swiftly as hundreds of air mages poured their mana into a single all-consuming spell.

  They directed the avalanche of cold and wet forward. It moved reluctantly at first but then began to pick up momentum. It soon streamed forward, blasting through the air with incredible force. Within only moments, a massive surge of ice, water, wind, and rain barreled across the sands. It sped overtop the stone wall with terrible force, the bottom edge of the stream striking the rock and blowing it apart in a shower of debris and shrapnel. Earth mana surged as Kyyle and his mages attempted to repair that damage.

  As the water crested the wall, the earth mages maintained the gravity well, shifting it forward until it hovered above their army. Even so, water rained down on the mages and soldiers. Men and women raised their eyes to the sky, their mouths dropping open in surprise as they witnessed a veritable river jetting just above their heads. It was a stream of water, wind, and ice that stretched nearly fifty yards – sustained by the constant pressure of hundreds of air mages and partially suspended by their earth mages.

  Finn shifted his gaze to the dome surrounding the city, watching as that current sped closer, on a direct collision course with that flickering energy.

  This was it. This was the moment where the shit was about to truly hit the fan.

  Then the current struck the shield.

  The effect was almost instantaneous. As Finn had observed with the lightning, the shield responded dynamically, shifting fire mana toward the point of contact, and the barrier flared powerfully – a massive amount of fire mana channeled into a circle roughly half the size of a football field. And as that frigid water touched the scorching-hot shield… the inevitable happened.

  Steam. A massive cloud of steam formed in an instant, sandwiched between a constant current of cold water and the flickering energy of the shield. With nowhere else to go but up, the steam shot into the sky, forming a column of superheated moisture so dense that it completely obscured the city from sight. That column rocketed up into the air, a pillar of yellow and blue and orange that created a ruddy brown in Finn’s sight.

  And that column of steam spread as it shot upward, filling the eye of the hurricane and creating a massive hot updraft. That superheated air followed the same pattern as the others – cooling, condensing, shedding heat, then condensing again. It began to swirl in time with the hurricane, pushing at the clear circle that hovered above the city. And the storm responded. It began to break apart, the perfect circular vortex devolving into a muddy chaos of updrafts and downdrafts that formed so quickly and erratically that the outcome couldn’t fully be predicted.

  Finn’s eyes shot to the shield, watching that fiery energy flickering more erratically now, fading with each passing moment. And then, in a split second, it vanished. Unimpeded, the current of cold and wet barreled forward and smashed against the city’s gate, causing the wooden barrier to splinter and crack under the massive force of the current.

  “Call the mages off!” Finn shouted at Abbad, straining to be heard now over the chaos of howling wind, pouring rain, and the erratic booming blast of thunder that now echoed through the sky like a drumbeat. “Then have them try to shield the army as best they can.”

  He turned to see Abbad staring at the sky, his mouth open in surprise and his own mana fluctuating erratically – a tendril of dark mana curling through his body. Fear. Finn followed his gaze and felt even his own fire mana retreat in the face of what they had created.

  What he had created.

  The hurricane was breaking apart, losing its stability. Normal storms didn’t form like this. It was nearly impossible to throw around this much heat, and wet, and cold in the real world. There was a natural order to things. But here, such extremes were possible. And in the absence of a regular rhythm and cadence, nature had given itself over to pure chaos.

  Bolts of lightning rained from the sky at random, striking sand, and stone, and rock and sending molten fragments flying in every direction. A blast struck a nearby tower on the other side of the wall, blowing it apart in a shower of burnt rock.

  Finn saw spiraling columns of energy forming, pulling down out of the clouds that swirled above them. They formed along the immense and irregular downdrafts created by all of that heat and steam. And there wasn’t just one. Dozens were developing across the city.

  Tornadoes, Finn thought weakly.

  The nearest spiral touched down just inside the gate. The funnel of wind and rain ripped apart what must have been a cart sitting on the other side of the wall and hurled the wooden fragments up into the air, adding to the swirling mass. Even as he stared at the tornado forming before him, Finn could feel rain splattering his face and wind pulling at his robes more forcefully as the hurricane fully broke apart… removing the safety of the eye.

  “Abbad, snap out of it!” Finn shouted. “Order the air mages to stop. Then fucking get them to shield us or we’re all going to die.”

  The former librarian shook himself, sparing a single frantic glance at Finn before following through on his order. Meanwhile, Finn pulled up his in-game chat window, typing out a frantic message to Kyyle and Julia. The process made all the more difficult by the way the storm howled around him now, causing the loose flaps of his robes to snap and pop.

  A glimmering yellow shield soon formed above the army, growing quickly in strength as the air mages shifted their focus, blunting the wind and rain slightly. Almost as soon as it formed, a lance of lightning arced through the sky and cracked against the barrier. Finn flinched involuntarily as the bolt landed only a few feet above his head, watching in awe as that energy arced out in a concentric circle above him, the energy crackling along the edges of the shield.

  Then he was pushing through the crowd. Aerys appeared at his side, a small contingent of Khamsin flanking her. “Are these the consequences?” she shouted.

  Finn just nodded.

  “Where are we going?”

  He pointed at the gate. Julia’s Infernal Guard stood before the cracked and crumbling barrier, Bilel’s fiery shield now gone. In front of those darkly armored men and women, a truly enormous column of stone was forming from the ground, rising out of the sands as though it were being birthed by the desert. Finn could see nearly a dozen earth mages surrounding the column of rock, flanking it on either side as they funneled their emerald energy into the stone.

  As the spell completed, Julia shouted orders at her unit – her words inaudible to Finn at this distance as he shoved forward toward the frontlines. Yet her guard must have heard her.

  A dozen of the heavily armed Khamsin sheathed their weapons and then stepped forward, grabbing at makeshift hand-holds that had been formed along the sides of the column of stone. Only moments later, their armor was awash in flames as their fire mage partners channeled Imbue Fire – the tendrils of flame flickering and flashing as the mages rapidly increased the temperature to bolster the Khamsin’s strength.

  As one, the Infernal Guard heaved the stone battering ram from the ground. Then they shifted their attention to the gates, the wooden timbers standing tall and thick before them. At some unspoken signal, the Khamsin started forward. Their mailed boots pounded at the sand, and their arms surged as they carried the massive battering ram. They didn’t walk or shuffle forward weakly. They picked up speed steadily until they reached a dead-on sprint, barreling toward the gate that loomed before them.

  And then they struck home.

  Finn had suspected
it might take a few blows to blast the gate free. But he had dramatically underestimated the combined strength of the Khamsin and the fire mages.

  The battering ram blasted the gate off its hinges, splintering the wood in an instant and ripping rocks free of the nearby walls as the gate rocketed forward. It crashed against a nearby building, partially caving in what might have once been a storefront.

  The Khamsin paused for an instant, as though confused at what had happened.

  That’s when Finn finally made it to the frontlines. He could just make out a new noise above the howl of the storm. It was a gut-wrenching sound – full of fury, and hunger, and unbridled passion – ripped from the throats of creatures that had been perverted and tainted by the flame.

  A legion of flaming hounds barreled down the street before them, the raindrops sizzling against the heat that permeated their skin. They were all teeth, and fang, and claw as they sprinted toward the ruined gate.

  Only to find the Infernal Guard waiting, their feet planted firmly in the sands, and their plate awash in a brilliant fire of their own. A barrier of air mana hovering just above them, and an army of mages, fighters, and Khamsin stood at their backs. A roar ripped from their throats – the sound filled with hope and the promise of battle. The flames around their bodies soared into the sky, pushing back at the rain and wind.

  And Finn now stood among them, the plated soldiers giving way for their prophet until he stood on the frontlines. Ripping away his bandage, his eyes glowed like embers. His flaming crown floated atop his forehead, and more flickering fire curled through the crystalline surface of his left hand as he readied himself.

  The soldiers seemed to pick up on his presence and were bolstered by it. He heard their cry change from a guttural roar to a rhythmic chant, which spread through the ranks of their army like wildfire. It was a chant he knew all too well.

  Najmat Alhidad. Najmat Alhidad. Najmat Alhidad.

  Now it was time for him to prove he deserved that title.

  Chapter 41 - Elemental

  The pack of hellhounds bore down on the Infernal Guard in a wave of gnashing teeth, their paws tearing at the wet sand and flinging the damp particles in every direction. They had been squeezed together by the narrow roads of Lahab and the natural funnel created by the gate. The effect was a living river of flame that swarmed toward the army’s frontline.

  Rain was already beginning to fall on Lahab as the hurricane destabilized. The water sizzled as it struck the flaming bodies of the hounds, sending more streamers of hot moisture curling up into the air. With the hundreds of hellhounds that surged toward them, this new updraft was already beginning to form another spiral of clouds above the battlefield – the storm just waiting to grow and retaliate further.

  Yet Finn couldn’t focus on that right now.

  “Hold! We need to keep their attention. Don’t give an inch!” Julia shouted, her voice amplified by a nearby air mage. The orders carried across the front line, sounding over the noise of the storm. Thunder boomed, and lightning continued to strike the nearby walls and towers of the city, cleaving the stone blocks apart and leaving burnt patterns traced across the rock.

  The Infernal Guard shuffled in place, planting their feet firmly in the wet sand. Their thick plate armor was awash in flame, the fire mages lingering just behind them. The frontline hefted heavy iron tower shields and locked the edges of the metal barricades together, creating a shield wall. Julia had formed them up into two lines: the first focused on blunting the incoming hounds and the second ready to lash forward with their lances – using any openings to aim for throats and exposed parts of the beasts’ underbelly.

  As the advancing pack of hounds rushed forward, the earth mages behind the guard finished casting. A surge of emerald energy swept through the air – the effort of dozens of earth mages acting simultaneously. That mana coiled along the buildings to either side of the roadway, seeping into the sandstone bricks.

  And then, as one, they pulled.

  With a series of thunderous cracks, jagged lines formed in the stone walls along either side of the roadway – the bricks trembling and dust billowing out into the street. The hounds didn’t pause or hesitate. They only continued their headlong charge. With another massive shove and a flare of emerald energy, the stone finally gave way. The buildings farther down the roadway began to collapse – three- and four-story storefronts and homes caving in. Spiraling towers crumbled, and sandstone bricks rained down upon the road.

  The ground trembled as several tons of rock crashed into the hounds that streamed down the street. Those bricks crushed their bodies, the flames offering little protection against the considerable weight. A few hundred of the hellhounds were buried in the makeshift landslide. The rubble sealed off the end of the street, bottling the remaining hounds behind a wall of rock.

  The beasts in the lead had escaped the destruction and cared little for the loss of their brethren. They neither slowed nor stopped their frenzied charge. The advancing line struck the Infernal Guard with a savage ferocity, throwing their entire weight upon the line of tower shields that stood before them. Yet the guard remained steadfast, bolstered by the Imbue Fire being channeled by the fire mage handlers standing just behind them. They shoved back with their shields, blunting the hounds’ charge and sending many of the beasts toppling back into the rest of the pack.

  As the hounds struck, the second line of Infernal Guard shifted forward, lances spearing between the holes in the shield wall. Those metal tips sliced into exposed flesh, impaling one hound’s throat while another sliced a creature’s belly open. Ruddy orange blood soon coated the wet sand, creating a haze of fire mana in Finn’s sight.

  One of the hounds locked its eyes on Finn’s, two blazing fiery cores that burned with an insatiable hunger. Up close, the creature was larger than a wolf, coming almost to waist height. It was easily more than a hundred pounds of dense, flaming muscle, rending claws, and tearing fangs. It lunged at him, jaws snapping.

  An orb of dark metal struck it from the side with a twitch of Finn’s fingers, the sphere immediately melting into a ring that wrapped the hound’s neck and held it suspended for a scant moment. With a leap, Finn launched himself into the air, his foot touching briefly against another flaming sphere. And then he was past the shield wall, his gaze centered on that hound.

  He wanted to test something… something that he suspected he would need if they were to prevail in their siege upon Lahab.

  Finn surged forward in a fluid movement, his left hand dropping its channel and coming up under the hound’s head in a vicious uppercut. His crystalline fingers shifted and morphed as the limb swept forward. The hand tapered down to a fine, needle-like point, and the crystalline blade stabbed up through the bottom of the hound’s jaw, severing its spine at the base of its neck.

  With the limb still embedded in the hound and fiery blood raining down upon the sand, Finn’s gaze fixed on the fire mana surging through the creature’s body.

  And then he commanded that energy to return to him…

  Fire mana poured from the hound’s body, spiraling up Finn’s arm in a flash of mana. Yet the Focusing Prism swiftly absorbed that energy, and the mana seeped into the crystal with barely any resistance. The mana drained from the hound’s body in a flash, and its fiery aura abruptly winked out – leaving only dull orange and red flesh. Finn felt a faint burn as the Mana Absorption took its toll on his body, but the damage was quickly healed by his natural regeneration. Finn’s gem soon shone with a fiery light, the mana swirling within its depths and glowing ominously.

  He stared at that crystal, his thoughts spinning. It seemed his guess had been right. He might not be able to drain the hounds’ mana from a distance, but once he punctured their skin… that was another matter altogether. Finn’s glowing eyes shifted back to the wave of creatures before him. All he saw was a river of available fire mana, just waiting to be harvested.

  With that thought, he fully abandoned caution and swept forward, d
iving into the pack of gnashing teeth and rending claws. His world soon devolved into a whirlwind of flaming canine limbs and thick orange blood. The Infernal Guard stood just a few feet behind him – a dense wall of fire mana in his enhanced sight that blocked off the gate and held off the creatures that made it past Finn. Their lances stabbed through the air, and thick, soupy blood soon coated the ground in a miniature lake, barely seeping into the already-saturated sand.

  Finn knew only the flicker of his fingers. The words drifting from his lips. The cut and slice of his new hand. His metallic orb smashed a hound to the side. Another beast lunged at him, its claws deflected by the layer of molten armor that rippled down his arm. Finn retaliated, pivoting under the hound’s weight. A faint yellow highlight appeared in his vision – Daniel assisting as he floated above Finn’s shoulder. He struck at that target, his crystalline hand spearing into the creature’s chest and striking its heart dead on. The fires leaking from the animal soon wrapped up his arm and seeped into the crystal there, replenishing his own mana and adding to the crystal’s reserve.

  “Behind you!” Daniel chirped, and Finn spun.

  He flattened his metal orb into a disc, the hound’s claws raking against the metal shield. With another twitch, the disc pivoted and spun up to speed before launching forward. The makeshift sawblade sliced cleanly through the hound’s forelegs, exposing bone and muscle. Another swift blow and the hound slumped to the ground.

  Finn wove and danced and spun – a vortex of fire and death.

  And when he looked up again… he stood in the middle of a pile of canine bodies, their forms slumped against the sand, and the telltale flicker of flames no longer coating their bodies. His chest was heaving, and his heartbeat hammered in his ears. Finn’s molten eyes surveyed the area around him. The gem embedded in his left hand pulsed and flickered.

  The hounds were beginning to wane, their numbers diminishing, and reinforcements were unable to come to their aid with the mountain of rubble blocking the road ahead. Which meant it was time to press forward.