Morgan turned her attention back to Jerry, grimacing at the mocking grin on the thief’s face. She held her tongue as her hands wound through the gestures of another spell. However, her fingers moved slightly slower this time, and her aim was even further off as the next set of beams struck – almost as though she wasn’t trying to hit him.
Jerry vanished again as dark mana washed across the spot where he had been standing only a moment before. Overtop the clash of steel and the sounds of battle that practically vibrated the air of the market, an observant person might have detected a faint laugh echoing through the courtyard.
* * *
Thorn’s fist slammed into Jason, dark energy pouring out of the crystals embedded in his palm. The mana crashed over Jason in a wave of excruciating pain, tearing at his flesh as he was sent hurtling through the air. He landed with a heavy thump. His body created a small crater as it hit the ground, and more fragments of bone crumbled away.
Jason groaned as he lifted himself back to his feet. His left arm wasn’t responding any longer. It took him a second to realize that his armor had been completely destroyed and that his shoulder had popped out of the socket. Gritting his teeth, he shoved the bone back into place. Even with the dampened pain feedback, it felt like his shoulder was infested with fire ants. The minions overlaying his armor were almost entirely destroyed, and he had nearly run out of materials to recast his regular Bone Armor. A glance at his Summon Information revealed that he only had three minions left, and they primarily covered his legs.
Thorn made no effort to capitalize on Jason’s momentary distraction, as though he intended to stretch out this torment. As Jason turned back to Thorn, he saw the man’s yellow eye flicker in the unnatural darkness of the market – taunting him. Jason had tried everything he could think of to overcome the gem’s premonition ability. It didn’t seem to be linked to Jason’s intention, or at least clearing his mind of how he planned to attack hadn’t helped. Planning his attacks further ahead had also proven fruitless. Thorn had still been able to anticipate each move. Although, it wasn’t clear if he had just been able to see each small step in Jason’s plan or if the man’s natural reflexes had filled in the gaps.
That damn eye seemed unbeatable – at least when coupled with Thorn’s natural fighting ability.
“Are you giving up?” Thorn asked, waiting for Jason’s health to regenerate once again. “I can practically feel the sense of defeat radiating off of you in waves."
Jason wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand, black blood staining his pale skin. “Not fucking happening,” he croaked.
Despite his confident words, he felt anything but. He wasn’t certain how much longer he could keep this up, both physically and mentally. Only the weeks spent being brutally murdered by the undead creatures below the dark keep had allowed him to deal with Thorn’s bone-shattering attacks, and it was a strain to keep up with his lightning-fast movements.
A glance to the south also confirmed that he didn’t have long to resolve this fight. The native undead were barreling over the barricades and beginning to push back the Kin. Even at this distance, he could make out Eliza’s telltale red fog wafting across their soldiers – likely the only reason they had managed to hold out this long. Even if he held off Thorn for a few more minutes, his troops would still be overwhelmed if he wasn’t able to reinforce them soon. More and more of the feral undead were already interrupting the fight between Grunt and the nearby Abomination, the pair occasionally forced to pause their brutal brawl to smash the ivory creatures like ants.
He had no choice but to keep going.
“Let’s go. What are you waiting for?” Jason challenged Thorn, squaring off again.
Thorn snorted. “I have to admire your spirit. Others would have broken already. In another time, you would have made a suitable member of the Order.”
“It would be a cold day in hell before I joined you zealots,” Jason croaked. “You don’t care about destroying the gods. This is about you and your pride.” Thorn’s real eye widened, and Jason saw anger flash there.
“Ahh, it looks like I struck a sore spot,” Jason added with a harsh laugh. Then he leaned forward, his dark mana bleeding from his eyes. “You want to prove that you are the most badass motherfucker here? Then shut up and do it.”
Growling in anger, Thorn dashed forward again, and Jason readied himself, raising his staff to intercept the one-eyed man’s attack. As Thorn sprinted toward Jason, a stray arrow darted through the air toward him – the missile flying wide. It was an accident. A fluke shot by one of the Kin amid the chaos that permeated the courtyard.
Thorn caught sight of the missile only a fraction of a second before it struck, managing to pivot ever-so-slightly. However, the arrow tip still cut a line across Thorn’s cheek, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. The injury barely slowed Thorn down as he re-engaged with Jason, his fists and feet a blur of motion.
Jason struggled to keep up with the flurry of attacks, pivoting to keep his injured shoulder out of reach. However, his thoughts were focused on something else. He couldn’t stop thinking about the arrow. Thorn hadn’t seen that attack coming. What did that mean? That the power of his eye was limited to a certain distance? Or perhaps it only triggered when the attack was directed against Thorn? Jason wasn’t certain how he could use that, assuming either of his guesses were correct.
Before he had a chance to ponder any further, Thorn appeared in front of him, striking rapidly and his good eye flickering with deadly intent. The man intended to finish this now. He wouldn’t back off again. Jason did his best to counter each attack – dipping, weaving, and dodging frantically. He couldn’t afford to get hit again.
Jason’s staff lunged forward, and Thorn sidestepped neatly. Jason immediately pivoted into a swipe, aiming at his opponent’s legs. A short jump from Thorn avoided the blow. As soon as his feet left the ground, Jason swept back with the other end of his staff, summoning a Soul Slash. The obsidian energy lanced through the air toward Thorn. The man twisted, narrowly avoiding the blade as he landed. Then his eye flashed triumphantly, and his fist launched forward.
Time seemed to slow as Jason saw the blow coming, aimed directly at his head. His staff was already moving to intercept the attack, but it was moving too slow. With a sense of dread, Jason abruptly realized he couldn’t avoid getting hit. He could see his death hovering in front of him.
This is it, he thought, closing his eyes as he accepted his defeat.
Yet the blow never landed.
Opening his eyes in surprise, it took Jason a moment to process what had happened. The world still moved in slow motion as his Dodge and combat skills triggered simultaneously. Dual beams of dark energy had smashed into Thorn from behind, the energy curling around his torso and eating into his flesh. Jason could just barely make out Morgan’s form behind Thorn, traces of energy still circling her hands.
In the meantime, Jerry had suddenly appeared, sliding toward Thorn’s legs with his daggers raised and at the ready. Remarkably, Thorn still had the presence of mind to avoid the hit, leaping over Jerry’s blow. His lips curled in a grimace of pain as the dark energy of Morgan’s spells ate through his skin; the crystals embedded in his flesh struggled to absorb the mana and protect him from the corrosive power.
Which left Thorn suspended in the air.
He was open.
Jason had no idea why Jerry and Morgan had come to his aid, his mind wheeling in confusion. However, his body – trained through hours of relentless battle below the dark keep – was already beginning to move, capitalizing on his opponent’s moment of weakness. Jason’s staff arced through the air, the blow centered on Thorn’s torso. As he moved, he summoned a Soul Slash and triggered his staff’s ability, destroying his remaining minions to empower the attack. The skeletal armor clinging to his legs broke apart, dark mana winding up his waist and his staff before funneling into a blade of energy so thick that it was completely opaque.
The scythe of dark ma
na lanced through the air, on a direct collision course with Thorn. The man couldn’t dodge. He couldn’t avoid the attack while suspended in the air. Jason was going to cut the asshole in half. Victory was within reach.
The blow struck with incredible force, dark mana cascading out in a ring of energy that ripped up the nearby cobblestones, flinging dust and rock fragments into the air and briefly obscuring Jason’s vision. A desperate, frantic hope began to well in his chest.
Had they done it? Had he slain Thorn?
As the debris began to clear, Jason could only stare in amazement.
Thorn knelt on the ground, his hands in the air. In his palms rested the blade of energy. The mana had cut into his flesh, and bright crimson blood welled along the wounds. However, the crystals in his hands were eating at the blade faster than it could cut through his skin, creating a protective anti-magic bubble around his flesh.
Thorn raised his eyes to meet his, and Jason no longer saw any sanity there. Only madness glimmered in his good eye. With a clench of his fists, Thorn shattered the blade, and the dark mana broke apart, streaming into his palms. Before Jason could react, Thorn kicked a foot forward tripping him and rolling on top of him, and his hand clenched around Jason’s throat. At the same time, Thorn spoke harshly, his voice sounding gravelly. “Stop, or he dies.”
Jason glanced to the side to see Jerry standing there, his blades drawn and ready to strike. Behind him, orbs of dark energy floated in front of Morgan, ready to launch forward. The pair both froze, Jerry’s daggers hovering in the air and Morgan’s fingers slowing.
“Interesting,” Thorn said quietly, each breath costing him. They might not have slain the man, but they had hurt him. Even now, Jason could feel Thorn’s wet blood trickle down his throat.
“I should have expected as much from you,” Thorn spat, his lone eye shifting to Morgan. “Once a traitor, always a traitor, huh?”
“Fuck you, sycophant,” Morgan spat, her fingers twitching.
“Language. A lady your age should show more propriety,” Thorn replied with a crazed grin. “I suspected a double cross. But how did you know my eye couldn’t anticipate your attack…?” he trailed off, his brow furrowing in thought. “Ahh, it was the arrow wasn’t it? You were using your farce of a battle with this insipid fool,” he said, gesturing at Jerry, “to watch for a weakness.” The two stood mutely, glaring at Thorn.
“Clever, but, as you can see, it wasn’t nearly enough,” Thorn declared. “It will be fun to test you both once I am done with the boy. I will enjoy pushing the pair of you to your limits – pressing you until you break. And then, I will crush what remains of this corrupted city.”
Jason was only partly following the conversation, despair threatening to overwhelm him.
This was it. It was over. They had lost.
From his prone position, he could see the ghouls rushing across the courtyard as the remaining Kin were pushed back toward the keep. He could see his people falling. One of the feral undead leaped onto an undead soldier, ripping his body apart in a frenzy of bone and blood. Even Eliza’s healing cloud couldn’t save him. He could see the ruined remains of the marketplace around him. The entire area was riddled with ivory bone and pockmarked with craters, and more than one building ringing the market had entirely collapsed.
Then his gaze shifted to the keep. It wouldn’t stop here. Once the ghouls had claimed the rest of the soldiers in the courtyard, they would carve their way into the keep – searching for a way to quench their insatiable hunger. They would slaughter the civilians hidden there until they reached the mana well tucked away below the fort. Then they would drain it dry. Even now, Jason could sense the well’s power, and he knew the feral undead could feel the same energy calling to them.
Jason hesitated, an errant thought occurring to him as he felt Thorn’s grip tighten around his throat. The man’s voice sounded muted and distant as he spoke to Morgan and Jerry. Was there a limit to how much mana Thorn could drain? With that question came an idea. It was crazy. Insane really. But they also had nothing else to lose – not anymore.
Jason locked eyes with Jerry, the innkeeper’s pale irises watching him and following his gaze toward the keep. He saw something in the thief’s gaze – some sort of recognition as their eyes met. It was almost as though Jerry knew what he was thinking.
Ever-so-slowly, he saw Jerry’s lips move, mouthing two words.
“Do it.”
Jason closed his eyes, his fingers twitching slightly as he shifted under Thorn. The man was still focused on Jerry and Morgan – continuing his mad rant. He seemed oblivious as Jason used the small gesture to pull up the menu for the mana well below the keep. Perhaps his eye only focused on attacks or threats directed at Thorn himself. Maybe Jason had been right.
This time, Jason didn’t plan to strike at Thorn – at least not directly. He shifted down the menu with another twitch of his fingers, hovering over the option for “Miracles.”
“What are you doing?” Thorn suddenly demanded, turning his attention back to Jason below him. His twitching must have alerted him that Jason was up to something. “You think to escape this? To escape me? Don’t you understand? You have lost. I am going to destroy everything that you have ever cared about. I will rid this world of the Dark God’s corruption myself. It is inevitable.”
Jason tried to reply, but he struggled to form the words with Thorn’s tight grip on his throat. “What was that?” Thorn asked, mocking him as he leaned closer to Jason. “I couldn’t quite make that out.”
“I… I said you talk too fucking much,” Jason croaked. At the same time, he tapped at the menu with one hand while grabbing hold of Thorn’s arm with the other, holding him in a death grip and refusing to let him go.
It was like the floodgates had opened. Jason had channeled mana before – even in huge quantities. However, the power he felt flooding through his body was like being dropped into an ocean or surfing across the black expanse of space. It was a force of nature that defied definition and swept away his consciousness on a tsunami of pure, unadulterated power.
Jason had tapped directly into the mana well below the keep. He hadn’t asked for a portion of the power stored there. He demanded everything. He had taken not only the energy he had stockpiled over the last few weeks but all of the mana that had accumulated from the deaths of hundreds of native undead and the Kin. The well had been bursting at the seams, the liquid mana threatening to overflow the bowl.
And now it was his.
Jason didn’t cast a spell. He didn’t try to summon a clever minion. Instead, he merely turned what was left of his fragmented attention to Thorn. The man was struggling in his grasp, trying to pull away as he pummeled Jason over and over again, breaking Jason’s bones and ripping and tearing his muscles in his desperation to get away. Yet Jason felt no pain. He felt nothing. His body was a living, breathing vessel of dark energy.
“Welcome to the darkness,” Jason intoned quietly.
Then he released all of that power directly into Thorn.
The obsidian energy rippled up his arm and into Thorn in a catastrophic wave of force. For a fraction of a second, the crystals in the man’s body ate hungrily at the power and Jason was beginning to wonder if even this avalanche of energy wasn’t enough. However, his fear proved unnecessary. As the crystals reached their limit, the gems exploded in a violent torrent of blood that showered Jason’s face, ripping holes in Thorn’s hands and limbs.
As the gems detonated, they launched dark mana out in a wave of energy, releasing all of the power that they had stored. It looked like Thorn’s body had been punctured by dozens of Morgan’s beams at the same time. The energy crashed through the marketplace, blowing holes in buildings and carving deep furrows in the ground. Any ghouls or soldier too slow to move out of the way were obliterated by the wave of pure force.
A moment later, the energy stilled. A sudden quiet had descended over the market and Jason felt Thorn’s ruined body slump against him. Surprisin
gly, the man was still alive; his eye fixed on Jason – filled with a mixture of unbearable pain and frustrated rage. His limbs were nothing more than ruined flesh, and he was unable to move, simply twitching against Jason as his blood stained the ground around them.
Then Jason heard a roar filled with rage and hunger. The feral undead had sensed the wave of dark mana and dense tendrils of energy still lingered in the area around Jason. As one, they pulled away from the Kin, driven into a frenzy by the concentrated mana that they sensed in the air. The horde descended upon Jason and Thorn from every direction, their limbs flailing at the air as they fought each other to be the first to drink from the source of this wellspring of power.
Within only seconds, the ghouls were there. The feral undead yanked Thorn away from Jason, ripping and tearing into his flesh in search of the dark mana that still riddled his body and spraying the air with his blood. Suddenly, Jason felt a jerk, and he was being pulled free of the mass of limbs and blood. His vision began to fade, his mind finally slipping away into the blissful retreat of unconsciousness.
Chapter 61 - Surprising
Frank stared at the massive skeletal hand that had erupted from the ground. The surface of the strange object resting in its open palm shimmered unnaturally. The ivory hand jutting up from the earth had to be nearly fifteen feet across. Alexion had ordered his remaining troops to retreat as the hand and wrist emerged. The golden-clad sociopath was now struggling back to his feet, along with the few straggling Nephilim and Confessors that remained.
Frank’s thoughts were a whirlwind.
He had been ready to die. Ready to lose everything after his men had fallen.
Now he knelt unharmed on the broken ground, staring at a skeletal hand that had appeared out of nowhere, his eyes fixed on the unusual silvery object resting in its palm. He recalled the universal system message he had seen. It had described a global quest for the gate. It had also mentioned his guild’s reward for conquering the outlying villages. Their reward had been a gate piece.
Awaken Online: Dominion Page 65
