by Dakota Krout
The Mages started forward, moving at high speeds. One allowed himself to fall flat, an inch of space between him and the ground. A gust of wind propelled him forward, and a ringing *boom* trailed his passage, echoing tremendously in the dungeon.
I spoke at Dale and Dani,
Two of the Mages were tearing open small holes in reality, and birdlike creatures — possibly giant wasp-like creatures, depending on if you think birds can have stingers — were pouring out of the rippling portals. I was very excited by this, until one of them was killed and turned out to be merely a Mana construct. No new Mobs for me… I still examined the tears hanging in the air. They had similar qualities to my dimensional bag. These required a bit of Mana constantly, unlike a magical item. Good to know it was possible to create temporary effects without needing an item! I memorized the pattern and watched the fight.
A wave of light passed from one of the infected, the particles amalgamating into a spear of luminous metal. A holy weapon Mage? The spear flew forward, then shattered into thousands of miniature fléchettes, shredding screaming people as they were continuously fired into the fortified area. As the shards of spear struck they shattered further, and those shards hung in the air, daring anyone to breathe them in. Anyone breathing in the dust-like metal clutched their neck, gasping as blood poured out of their orifices.
The Mage zipping around low to the ground had invisible blades made of air surrounding him. He didn’t bother to move his arms or give any signs of attack, simply ramming though bodies. Literally through them. About a foot from where his body touched them, the people would just be violently blended by whirling air. When his flying form impacted the newly-ground corpses they splattered apart, chunks of bodies falling to the ground.
In the first few seconds, at least forty people died. Then my pet Mages retaliated! Chandra stepped forward, face twisted in a rictus of pure pissed-off fury. She began chanting, firing thorns that intercepted the fléchettes with ease. Her focus shifted as she devoted a minimal amount of attention to keeping the attack going. Chandra was a terrifyingly powerful Mage, the only currently known A-rank nine cultivator in the Phoenix Kingdom. Splitting her focus was never an issue, Chandra was a master multitasker!
While her specialty was plants, she had powerful earth and water magic to augment her abilities. She popped open a water skin and drew out all of the moisture, compressing the water and infusing it with Mana. With a poke of her finger, the water moved in a thin stream at unimaginable speeds.
The rock wall behind the Mage split in a perfectly straight line. The Mage himself stumbled, then fell into two halves with a grotesque slapping *splurt* as his entrails slipped out of him. I was watching with fascination. Water could cut through not only a body but stone? I’m sure that the infusion of Mana helped, but was that something water could do naturally at high compression? This had already been a banner day for information, and the fight was just starting! I remembered at the last second to redirect the Mana into my dimensional storage space. I shuddered; that had been too close!
Amber was speaking in a conversational tone, her words subtly making the air thrum. One of the Mages that was summoning wasp-constructs slumped, and his creatures turned on him. They tore him apart a small chunk at a time, his naturally durable body resisting their efforts. Someone glanced at her and she shrugged, “I convinced his mind that he was his own worst enemy. He was already programmed to attack his enemies, so…”
Minya was going toe-to-toe with the wind-powered Mage, and she was losing pretty badly. She specialized in elemental magic, and blasts of fire, stone, and water rained down upon the infected Mage. His whirling wind — infused with unhealthy amounts of Mana — redirected even her most well-timed attacks. Minya was working to counteract the wind with her own ability, but the highly specialized wind Mage was able to ignore the majority of her blows as he counterattacked.
Minya’s skin began to tear as she was assaulted by atmospheric-speed winds. She tried to leap away but the wind caught and blasted her into the stone, imprinting her into the solid granite. She began to scream, but even that was torn away as the air rushed into her.
~Dale~
“Father Richard…” Dale whispered as he slowly raised his fists.
The priest turned bloodshot eyes on the young man. “…Dale. Runnn.” He moaned, tears forming as a sob ripped out of him. Surprise showed in his eyes as his body moved without his consent, a glowing fist soaring at Dale.
Dale yelped and ducked, pushing up instinctively with his hands. He caught Father Richard’s arm at the elbow, surprising himself. Trying to stay ahead of a devastating blow, he gripped the unyielding muscle and twisted. To Dale’s surprise, the priest went flying, landing heavily. The man got back to his feet, totally unaffected.
Father Richard stumbled toward Dale, uncoordinated as he tried to fight the invasive parasite controlling his actions. He threw another wild punch, which Dale dodged again, following up with a one-two combo before putting some distance between them.
“Are you in there, old man?” Dale called at the slightly glowing priest. The only response was a stumbling charge. Father Richard suddenly stopped, shuddered, and looked at Dale with clouded eyes. His steps now were smoother, and his speed increased dramatically. “Oh, shi-”
*Tangg-g-g* Father Richard was now flying backward, and impacted the wall hard enough that he stopped moving for a moment as dust rose in a cloud away from the stone. Dale looked in wonder at Tom, who had landed a full-power blow on the priest as he was running.
Tom was hopping up and down, shaking his hand. “Ow! Ow!”
“Thanks for the rescue, Tom!” Dale called. He hurried to find a better defended position before Father Richard started moving again.
“Sonder.” Was all Dale heard before flying into Tom.
“What?!” Dale yelled at Tom to let him go, but no matter how much they tried, they were stuck together.
“I’ll distract him!” Hans shouted as they were futilely struggling. He was going full out, a glowing line of plasmatic fire highlighting the edge of his weapons. Every movement was smooth, although it seemed that the wind was favoring him by enhancing his movements to triple their normal speed. Hans reached Father Richard, and his body became a blur.
*StabStabStabStabStabStabStabStab*
The priest howled with vexation as his clothes ignited. He took a few swings at Hans, which were easily avoided. Hans kept moving, poking his blade at every weak point possible. During Richard’s howl, a blade poked the back of his esophagus, his gums, and the uvula twice. There was no effect. Richard's body was too empowered by the Mana flowing through him.
Richard locked red-stained eyes on Hans, and whispered a word that could only be understood as, “Sonder.” Hans started to be pulled away, so he landed a double kick to Richard's groin. Again, no effect.
“Really?” Hans yelped as he was also stuck to Dale. “I’ve always wanted to know if Mana took care of that issue, but this isn’t how I wanted to find out.”
Tom looked at the two men he was stuck to. “I am uncertain how his magic works. Is there a weakness?”
Hans sighed as he gained his footing, lifting the other two as easily as a backpack. “He has a weird Mana base. Celestial and infernal users often find odd concepts to bind to.” He shook his head, rattling Tom a bit. “His magic is based on the bonds between people, and how they all interact.” He jumped, avoiding a hurled stone slab. “I had no idea he could use it to physically bond people together.”
“Whatever you say, Hans!�
�� Dale was trying not to get sick as his perspective changed and death missed him by inches. “Just keep going!”
“Sonder!” Hans slammed to the ground, bound by an irresistible force.
“Apparently…” Hans wheezed, “He can bind us to more than… just… each other!” He vomited as the pressure affected his inner ear, splattering bile across the two bound to him.
“This is a terrible way to go.” Dale snarled, shifting his position as much as he could. He was trying ridiculously hard to keep his face out of the growing puddle of partially digested food as Father Richard stalked toward them.
*Whap* An oversized arrow hit Richard, knocking him back a foot. Another hit his face, exploding into flames that blocked the priest’s view for a moment. Arrow after arrow impacted, but none had any more effect than simply yelling at him would have. He raised his hand and Rose flew to him, her forehead binding with his palm. She smacked into it with enough force to cause her a moment of blackout.
Rose came around just as Father Richard raised his hand to strike her. His glowing hand began to descend as Hans screamed.
The priest paused, and Rose went limp. Between them was a glowing ball of Essence. Neither of them could look away, and both were locked in position as the ball of glowing light began to dissipate.
“Chaos Essence!” Hans whooped as he felt a rush of pride for her. Then he only felt terror as Richard began to shake off the effects. Just as the powerful Mage began moving again…
“Done!” Adam screamed, giving the activation Rune a final twist.
~Twenty-Nine~
The world seemed to end in a wave of light as a thunderclap of celestial Essence imbued with a special-purpose reagent tore through reality. The light formed a perfect sphere, ignoring any physical material that got in its way. At ground zero, Dale’s group was blasted to the wall, damaged and healed almost simultaneously. They remained pressed against the wall as the pressure of flowing Essence stripped away layers of skin. They may have screamed, but there was no sound.
There was no time.
The cure was worse than the disease for the infected, tearing large chunks out of them as the parasite tried to abandon them and flee. Again, there was no time. Thousands of bodies caught in the wave of power simply died, and only a fraction of them were within the dungeon’s sphere of influence.
The Mages fighting on the third floor were slammed to the ground, and the deeply ingrained infection nearly tore their bodies to bits. Some of the defenders cried out as unknown sores and spores were eradicated from their system.
As the bodies were forced onto the ground, the light vanished as if it were simply a figment of the imagination. People looked around, their adrenalin pumping as they searched for the next enemy to fight. Almost a full minute passed in silence before a ragged cheer was struck up and joined by nearly all the survivors! Then there was a general scrabbling and rioting as I made another wave of gold wash over the dungeon floor.
I reward those that serve me, even if they do so inadvertently.
My mind turned upon the first floor, watching as Dale and the others, including the remaining Goblins, eased themselves off the ground and stood on shaking legs. They looked around at the destruction that was already beginning to fix itself in amazement. They had survived!
Adam was unconscious. Rose was checking on him as Hans rolled over Father Richard, searching for signs of life. “He’s breathing!”
Dale ran over, seeing the huge tracts of flesh that were torn out of the Mage’s body. The wounds seemed to be sealing themselves, and Father Richard glowed with internal celestial light. “Will he make it?!”
Hans shrugged. “Anything that doesn’t outright kill a Mage… well, probably won’t. He should have a good chance of coming back from this. It may take a while, but he should be okay.”
Dale whooped, shouting and pumping his fist in the air. Hans smiled at his exuberance. They made Father Richard as comfortable as possible and went to check on Adam.
There was a grim outlook for their friend, though it seemed that Adam was waking up. His eyes fluttered open, and they recoiled at the sight of the whites of his eyes shining a corrupted celestial gold. “Huh..? Whazzat?” Adam muttered painfully, tongue swollen in his mouth.
“His affinity channel for celestial Essence…” Hans whispered in awe. “It’s beyond open. He has a higher than one hundred percent affinity for it… his infernal affinity channel was ripped out! Replaced!” Hans looked sick. “I… I don’t know what this means for you, Adam. I do know that you are corrupted beyond anyone I have ever seen with celestial Essence.”
Nez extracted himself from a crater in the floor. It closed behind him as I noticed the unsightly blemish in my pretty granite. “Ugh…” He moaned as he stretched his back and cracked his neck.
“What? What happened to you?” Hans looked at the man judgmentally.
“He pulled me back down to earth.” Adam breathed heavily. “The blast started directly under me. I went through the hole and was continuing up at a speed I didn’t know was possible. He appeared and wrapped me in static, which drew me back down safely while he took my momentum. He set about saving me at the cost of doubling the force of his own impact.”
“You were conscious for that?” Nez coughed out some rock dust. “It didn’t look like you were.”
Adam looked at him, puzzled. “I was just repeating you. No one was listening to what you were saying for some reason..?” He looked around, trailing off as the others looked at him oddly.
“You read a piece of his recent history off of his aura.” Hans was looking at Adam’s eyes with great interest now. “This could be a very useful ability…”
“You could see the truth in a situation!” Rose babbled, patting Adam on the back and helping him up. “You could save hundreds of people that are wrongly convicted or…”
“How do you feel about card games?” Hans interrupted her by swinging an arm around Adam.
Rose glared at Hans. “He has a new ability that he gained by sacrificing his body and saving all of us, and you want to use said ability to cheat at card games?”
“No!” Hans indignantly took a step away. “I want him to cheat at card games for the both of us!”
Rose looked ready to explode, but Adam put a calming hand out to her. “This is how he tries to come down after a battle, joking in tough situations.” He took a shuddering breath. “I’m ruined for cultivation. There is no way I could rank higher than I am with this level of taint. He is trying to keep me calm.”
“Then again, this ability may be super annoying instead.” Hans grumped as he looked around. “Where’s the Nick guy?”
Nick came out of the stairway just then, grinning broadly and cheering. “You are all amazing!”
“Go downstairs and tell the defenders that it is over.” Dale got out through grinding teeth. “You can at least be useful as a messenger.”
Nick’s face turned red and furious. With shaking hands, he turned around and marched downward.
“Wow, Dale. Where did that come from? That was harsh and uncalled for.” Rose crossed her arms and glared at Dale. The others didn’t try to defend him either. “What if he had just been blasted into the tunnel? I saw him fighting at the start…”
“No.” Dale shook his head. “When he saw Father Richard show up, he slipped away and hid in the Basher warren. He left us to die. I feel no pity for him, and I refuse to rescind my words or apologize.” The others were awkwardly silent as Dale busied himself picking up Father Richard. They started their trek down to the third floor with the few remaining Goblins trailing along.
~Cal~
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“Cal, you want me to just drop out of the Amazon and leave this huge amount of Mithral laying around?” Dani retorted tiredly.
“I’ll get down to the spawn room and come straight to you.” Dani assured me. “I’m sure the Elves will leave soon if no enemies show up.”
“Their Mana will force them to leave it there before they leave the dungeon.”
A smile tinged her tired voice. “I’ll be there soon.” She said aloud.
The group limped into the third floor to see scores of people crawling around on all fours. “What the…?”
“The floor is gold, Dale!” Hans shrieked like a teen girl and dove at the floor.
The group collected coins for half an hour while Dani waited patiently to be let into the fort.
“Go ahead!” Dani sounded a bit panicked for some reason. “I’ll be right down, then I’m sleeping for a week.” The fort gate opened, and Dale’s group — now in more dignified positions — entered. The gold had been cleaned up so I sank into my contemplations, waiting for everyone to leave so that I could repair all the damage.
