by Dante King
The same blackened flesh pulsed around me. It clung to the walls and floor, and a few fleshy slits opened and closed over what had once been dungeon cells. Cold power radiated from them, and I recognized the sight of a demonic portal from my earlier travels.
A strangled cry echoed through the chamber from my left. I followed the sound with my eyes and spotted Cinder—I remembered her from the exhibition match—and four other figures in Wysaro garb curled against the wall in an unblemished cell. Spiked bones lanced out from the steel bars to discourage them from approaching, but they looked mostly untouched. Cinder closed her mouth, and her white face stared at me in amazement as I walked closer to her.
“It’s okay,” I said. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
A garbled cacophony of hellish voices echoed from the growths around me. I forced myself not to jam my hands over my ears as they laughed in chorus.
“You’re too late, Swordslinger,” a legion of voices whispered. “The castle is mine. And soon, all of Flametongue Valley will give way to me.”
“Jiven?” I asked.
“No,” they answered. “Jiven is no longer here. We are the Broodmother.”
I straightened up and turned to face the other wall. The organic portals pulsed open, and three enormous creatures pushed through the shimmering veils of energy. They reared their massive horned heads and straightened up in the chamber. Cloven hooves sparked off the stone floor as the minotaur-like creatures leaned forward. Huge arms rippled with corded muscle, and curved teeth protruded from their jaws as they started forward.
I gritted my teeth and let Vigor flood my pathways. “I was wondering when you hellspawn would throw something a little more interesting at me.”
“Lay down and die, Swordslinger,” said the chorus of snarling whispers. “Or join with us. The Broodmother looks after all. We are consuming, ever hungry, and more powerful than anything this plane has ever seen.”
I smiled grimly and hefted the Demure Rebirth. “Allow me to introduce myself.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“We already know everything about you, Swordslinger,” the Broodmother whispered. “Your power, your reliance on your so-called Immense Blades. Your meddling. All of it.”
The minotaur-demons stalked closer. Flames flickered from their nostrils as they snorted and fanned out to cut off my escape routes. Each looked as strong as Kegohr, and I was almost excited to find out if that was actually the case. I lifted the Demure Rebirth, and a small miasma of sand hovered around the warhammer’s head.
“If you already know everything about me,” I said, “then you know how this goes. You sit here and monolog, tell me that I’m doomed and that all hope is lost, then I kick your ass, burn whatever’s left of your little plan to the ground, and walk out of here.”
“We will see, Swordslinger,” the growths whispered. “We will see.”
A gout of flame burst through the entrance to my right and washed over the nearest minotaur. Orange fire danced over the creature’s shaggy gray fur and snuffed itself out a second later. Hamon marched through the archway, drew the attention of the minotaurs, and gave me an opening.
I unleashed a Sandstorm in the midst of the huge monsters. A biting tide of sand hurtled through the confined space, slammed into the creatures, and instantly crystallized into glass. The demon in the middle bared its teeth in an ugly grin and barreled forward to crush me against the spiked bars. I dived out of its path and opened a Mud Geyser beneath its feet. Muck splattered its way over the creature, stuck to its fur, and instantly hardened into clay.
The demon flexed its arms, and the shell of brittle mud fell away from its body a second later. It caught itself mid-rush, swung around to face me, and drove an enormous fist down toward my face. I caught the blow on the Demure Rebirth, and a small shockwave punched outward. The wooden handle trembled under my grip, and Choshi cried out in pain.
“Master, it’s too strong!” she whimpered.
I torqued my hips and rolled free of the creature’s paw. Another minotaur came at me from behind, and I launched myself into the air with a burst of Flight. A pulsing spear of flesh and viscera shot out of a growth on the ceiling and hit me mid-jump. I lost my grip on the technique and smashed into the floor like a ragdoll. Air rushed out of my lungs, and Hamon hurtled past me. Something slammed into him, and he crashed into the wall behind me before collapsing in a flaming heap on a mound of flesh. Black flame cascaded out of the growth and ate into Hamon’s aura.
I pushed fire through my Physical channels and rolled away from a demon’s crushing blow. The floor cracked under the demon’s strike, and I scrambled toward Hamon as fast as I could. He lifted his eyes to me and feebly tried to resist as I hauled him away from the growth on the wall.
The minotaurs were using pure heat to dispel my elementalist attacks. Mud and earth were helpless against them. And I couldn’t use Ground Strike down here or run the risk of the magma element either. Cinder and the other prisoners were too close, and if I opened up with every ounce of power I had, they would be caught in the crossfire.
Hamon straightened up, and new flame washed outward around his body.
“You see?” the Broodmother said. “You cannot defeat us.”
“Swordslinger, you should take Cinder and leave,” Hamon urged. “I’ll keep the monsters at bay. If you can get them out alive, then the clan will survive. We will live to fight another day.”
The light caught the dull steel of the bracers I’d taken from Baldwell.
“And what about the rest of Flametongue Valley?” I asked. “You’d sacrifice them?”
Hamon fired off an Untamed Torch at the nearest minotaur to no effect. “My clan is my priority. My honor rests on their survival.”
“See, even when you do some soul-searching, you’re still an asshole,” I panted. “This is bigger than you or me, damn it.”
“You feel it, don’t you?” the Broodmother’s voices cackled. “The despair. The hopelessness. Join us, Swordslinger. Embrace true immortality. True power.”
“Master,” Nydarth said quietly. “Perhaps the little lord is right.”
“Oh fuck, not you too,” I muttered.
The minotaurs charged toward us. I dived into a baseballer’s slide, narrowly missed a stampeding hoof, and pulled to a skidding halt at the other side of the chamber. Hamon dodged an enormous punch, and the minotaur’s fist crashed into the wall. Blood dripped from the growths on the ceiling and fell beside my foot.
Something glistened out of the corner of my eye, and another tentacle burst from the flesh-covered wall. A barb clipped my shoulder and slid me across the floor. I smashed into the spiked bars outside of Cinder’s cell, and pain tore through my back as the bladed edges of the bars sliced apart my armor and punctured my flesh.
Cinder scurried forward on her hands and knees. A dark tendril of hair fell across her gorgeous face, and she quickly brushed it away before she spoke. Her voice had a deeper, almost jazz-singer quality to it.
“Leave us, Swordslinger,” she begged. “Bring the guild to fight this threat.”
I grimaced as I sat up, slipped the Demure Rebirth onto my back, and pulled the Depthless Dream free. “Do you want rescuing or not?” I asked.
“I thought there’d be more of you,” Cinder muttered. “I thought you’d be able to manage it.”
“Oh, there’s plenty of me to go around,” I said. “Don’t worry about that.”
“You’re bleeding,” Cinder said.
I stood up. “I don’t have time to bleed.”
She stared at me in absolute astonishment. “What?”
I waved her away from the bars and sprang toward the nearest minotaur. It swung a wide backhanded punch at me, but a jet of water Vigor through my Physical pathways gave me the speed I needed to avoid it. The Depthless Dream struck the monster in its massive thigh, but the prongs didn’t bite through its fur. I rolled away from a crushing counterattack and heard a cry from the entrance to the dung
eon.
“What the fuck is this?” Mahrai shouted.
“More demons,” I said as I dodged a minotaur’s swing. “Stronger ones this time.”
Her golem appeared out of the floor a moment later, in its new white marble form. I empowered it with a burst of Untamed Torch and then unleashed a high-pressure jet of Crashing Wave from the tip of the Depthless Dream. The stream of water vaporized into steam as it hit a minotaur, and the creature wheeled around to focus on me. A fiery bolt of Untamed Torch struck it between the eyes and slid off its matted fur.
“Augmentation-resistant demons?” Vesma said, horrified.
I joined Mahrai and Vesma near the entrance and nodded. “I can’t seem to get anything working on them. We’re going to have to figure out something new—”
A barbed whip appeared out of the ceiling, and I tackled Mahrai to the ground before it could slice her. We rolled across the slick floor, and she muttered a curse as I propelled her to her feet with a push of my legs. I sprang back to my own feet a second later and grimaced at another bolt of pain from my back.
“Keep them busy!” I shouted.
“On it!” Mahrai replied.
I reached over my shoulder and activated a skill I barely ever used anymore. Sunlight Ichor. The element of sap sparked through my channels, caught the raw Vigor in the air, and slid over the shallow punctures in my flesh. Normally, it needed sunlight, but my mastery of Environmental Augmentation meant I could draw from almost anything. It wasn’t as powerful as when I used sunlight, but it was enough. A soothing sensation filled my body as the technique closed over the shallow wounds.
A garbled sound drifted from the wall beside me. I frowned, and a memory washed through my mind of my earlier fight against the demons. Kumi’s Song of the Sea had burned the demons, despite its usual healing properties. The Broodmother was a creature of the demonic realm and thrived on death rather than life. Could healing magic break through the elemental defenses of this creature?
I had to try.
I pushed away from the wall. Another tendril of rotting flesh swept from a growth above me and raced toward my chest. I spun to offer it my back, and the tentacle recoiled from the sheen of my Sunlight Ichor. Triumph raced through my body as I rejoined the fight.
Mahrai’s golem strained as it wrestled with a minotaur. The demon’s savage grin widened as it swept the golem off its feet and hurled it at the nearby wall. Black flames washed over the golem and threatened to extinguish its fire.
I drew upon the power of sap again and coated the prongs of the Depthless Dream in crystallized healing magic. The hulking demon threw a punch at my face, but I sidestepped the attack. I rammed the trident into its exposed armpit, and the minotaur howled in pain as my weapon’s sap coating burned through its armored fur and punctured its flesh.
I wrenched the trident free, dived clear of a counterattack, and sent a stream of Sunlight Ichor-infused water toward Mahrai’s golem. The greenish liquid splattered over the ulcers around the construct, and the black fire vanished. Smoke curled away from the blackened flesh, and the Broodmother snarled in a blood-curdling combination of voices.
“I don’t know what you’re doing, but keep doing it!” Vesma shouted.
I couldn’t flood the entire room with water without running the risk of drowning my friends, though.
Another tentacle of flesh burst free of the floor, caught me in the chest, and tossed me across the slick floor. I rolled to my feet, slid to a halt, and thought fast.
I needed to combine my powers in such a way as to drown the entire room in sap, without harming my friends. Yono purred pleasantly in my mind as I ducked a swipe from a minotaur and stabbed its massive thigh. The minotaur recoiled at the blow, and its bloodlust grin transformed into a savage snarl. Its claws dug into my obsidian armor, and I let it lift me into the air. Red eyes bored into mine as the minotaur drew back its free hand to take my head off.
Sunlight Ichor bled from the joints of my armor, and I fed it with raw Vigor. Green spikes of solidified amber punched outward, impaled the minotaur’s hand, and forced it to release its grip. I slammed the trident into its chest to give myself some room to move and retreated until my back was against the cell beside Cinder. Hamon and Vesma distracted the second minotaur with ineffective blasts of flame, and Mahrai ran circles around the third.
“What are you doing, Swordslinger?” the Broodmother mocked. “Leaving your friends to fight your battles for you? Come, strike me down with your fury and your so-called power.”
“I plan to,” I replied. “Cinder, get back against the wall.”
Cinder backed quickly away from me. “Defeat this monster, Swordslinger. No matter what it takes. If you must bring the castle down on our heads, so be it. A creature such as this cannot be allowed to take the valley.”
“I like her,” Nydarth murmured. “Strong-willed and infused with the fire of her people. Have you considered drawing her into your collection of wives, Master?”
“Kill demons now, worry about getting me a date later,” I replied. “Vesma, Mahrai!”
Vesma risked a glance over her shoulder. “What?”
“It’s about to get steamy in here,” I called.
“Is this really the time?” Mahrai demanded.
I vaporized the sap from the tip of the Depthless Dream and pushed pure water Vigor through my internal channels. A spout of water spat from the tips of the weapon, and I added the Vigor of the environment to the technique. A small trickle turned into a torrent of high-pressure water, and it crashed into Hamon’s flaming body. He shot across the room, and steam boiled off his body. He turned to face me, and a fierce Untamed Torch flared from his hands to combat my Crashing Wave.
Determination shone through his eyes as we joined our powers together. A thick blanket of steam filled the room, amplified the smell of rotting corpses, and in seconds, the entire space was blanketed in hissing mist. I cut the flow of water and reached deep into my pool of Vigor.
“A little steam is nothing,” the Broodmother hissed.
“I know,” I said. “I’m just stalling.”
Black fire belched from the growths on the ceiling and threatened to chase the steam away from the room. But it gave me the time I needed.
I called upon the power of Crashing Wave, concentrated it around the Depthless Dream, and infused the dripping water with Sunlight Ichor. I pushed more power into Crashing Wave and formed a wicked-looking scythe of ice around the head of the Depthless Dream. Yono’s clear, infectious laugh echoed through my head as I hefted my new weapon and added a layer of Frozen Armor over my Sap-infused obsidian suit.
The steam cleared, and I stalked toward the nearest minotaur. My body bristled with clear, green-tinted ice, and the enormous scythe glistened in the hellish light of the dungeon.
“Pretty,” the Broodmother sneered.
“It gets better,” I called back.
A minotaur ripped Mahrai’s staff from her hands and pinned her to the floor with a cloven hoof. Mahrai’s skin turned stone-like as she activated her Physical Augmentation. The minotaur’s blow smacked uselessly off her, and I took advantage of the opening. The Depthless Dream swept through the air and sliced through the demon’s arm like it was soft cheese. The minotaur roared in agony and stumbled away from Mahrai’s prone form.
I heard the Broodmother snarl above me, and bone-tipped whips snapped out of the portals to my right. They bounced uselessly off my Augmented armor and recoiled as the healing sap burned away their corrupted flesh. The wounded minotaur roared, dropped to its one good arm, and thundered toward me in a charging rush.
Flight jumped to my will, and I lifted myself into a flip over the demon’s charge. I swung the Depthless Dream downward, and the blade of green ice tore into the creature’s back. The minotaur howled as my attack ripped through its armored fur, bit through its elemental defenses, and splattered the ground with its black blood. The minotaur smashed into the bone-spiked cage behind me and stumbled away from th
e bars with a confused growl. Tentacles shot out of the ceiling to smack me into the ground, but they burned away as the tips touched my new armor. I landed, sprang toward the stunned minotaur, and ripped my scythe across its lower legs. The blade tore through fur and gristle and cleaved the monster in half. Cinder’s eyes widened as I took the minotaur’s legs from its body and finished the monster with a stabbing strike to its chest.
“You stretch yourself too thin, Swordslinger,” the Broodmother taunted.
The portals widened, and another horned head poked through one of the veils of energy. A bolt of fire crashed into the portal, and black fire rose to meet it. Vesma hurled another Untamed Torch at the organic doorway, obscured the portal with more black fire, and forced the minotaur back through the portal.
“Keep it busy!” I called out.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hamon joined Vesma, and they released a torrent of fire at the portals. The Broodmother hissed as it fired back with its own countermeasures. Mahrai’s golem pushed away from the wall, smashed into the second minotaur, and trapped its arms in a wrestling hold from behind. Mahrai gestured, and the golem swung the demon around to face me.
I took a running start, leapt into the air, and used every shred of momentum I had. The Depthless Dream whipped around and cleaved the minotaur’s head from its shoulders. Black blood fountained over the flaming golem and evaporated. The minotaur’s truncated corpse collapsed nervelessly to the ground.
I chased down the last demon, a hunted look its eyes as I cornered it against a wall. Heat haze rolled off its skin, and it reared back. A torrent of silver fire ripped free of its maw and washed over my armor. My Frozen Armor melted in an instant, but the ash plates beneath it held firm as I dived clear of the flames.
“What the hell kind of demon can use Augmentation?” I asked.
