Of the three, my familiar was the first to arrive, the powerfully muscled cat lunging forward at Drace’s instructions and sinking his thick teeth into the Knight’s damaged knee. With a shake, I saw him tear the last shreds of metal that held the armor together apart, causing a brief flare of magic to erupt from the wound before the leg finally gave way, sending the Knight falling to the ground.
No sooner did the creature land than the rest of the party leaped upon it, their weapons flashing remorselessly through the air as they chopped or thrust deep into undead Irovian’s armor, wisps of magic escaping its body with every new tear and puncture. Sensing that the battle was coming to a close, I moved to aid my friends, unwilling to stand idly by and watch while I was still able to contribute, especially when they all had just saved me from had looked like certain death.
It only took me seconds to reach the fallen Knight, during which time the party continued to fill the creature’s armor with countless holes and scars. Yet for all the damage that they had done, the Knight did not want to die peacefully, one of its arms being held in place by Amaranth’s teeth, biting down hard on its wrist, the other with Lazarus’s sword thrust straight through it, pinning it into the ground. The pair visibly strained as they attempted to keep the creature contained as it thrashed desperately to free itself from their holds.
“Destroy its skull!” I shouted a heartbeat before I rejoined the party, sidestepping around Drace who had taken it upon himself to restrain the Knight’s one remaining leg.
“What do you think we’re trying to do, Lyr?” Constantine growled, both him and Alistair coming into view, standing above the flailing Knight. “He’s making it a bit difficult, as you can imagine!”
Ignoring Constantine’s words, I rushed in even closer to help the pair, instantly realizing the extent of their difficulties as the Knight constantly shifted its helmeted head to blunt or deflect the weapons that came towards its face, preventing them from taking advantage of the open wound in the metal. However, with its attention fixed solely at keeping the two of them at bay, it left itself completely open for my attack.
Lunging forward at the Knight, I threw everything I had into my attack, planting my knee directly into its chest as I thrust Splinter downwards through the broken gap in its helmet. I felt a jolt travel up my arm and into my shoulder as the sword tip bit into the Knight’s skull, the bone standing up to the impact for a split second before all resistance suddenly gave way. With the sound of shattering bone, Splinter sank even deeper into the Knight’s head, all movement from the creature freezing as it absorbed what had just happened.
Then without any warning at all, the emerald fire that burned within it winked out, and the armor deflated, leaving me kneeling atop an empty shell of metal. With the creature no longer thrashing, silence fell over the chamber, save for our rapid breathing. Breathing a sigh of relief, I gently pulled Splinter free of the now empty helmet before me, pausing to read the two messages that had appeared in the corner of my vision.
You have slain an [Ætherbound Knight]!
You have gained Experience!
Chapter 35
“Kill stealer!” Constantine accused as I pushed myself up off the disintegrating form of the Ætherbound Knight, the body fading away into nothingness and leaving a familiar loot bag in its place. “I had him!”
“You were taking too long,” I told Constantine, letting out a ragged cough as I parroted the exact words that I had heard him use what seemed like a lifetime earlier. “I wanted to kill him before the sun set today.”
“Very funny,” Constantine grunted while rolling his eyes at my statement, clearly not having missed the reference.
“Is everyone okay?” Drace asked, clearly hoping to put an end to Constantine’s and my bickering before it could really take off. “I don’t think we lost anyone in that.”
“We got pretty close,” Halcyon replied amid a chorus of voices as we all accounted for one another and gathered in a large circle. “Thanks for the save there, Lyr. A few seconds later…”
“And it could have all gone differently,” I acknowledged, nodding at Alistair as he went about his post-battle healing duties, laying a glowing hand on my shoulder. “Thanks for the save on your end too. I thought I was a goner.”
“No problem, Lyr,” the mage answered with a shrug. “That’s what teamwork is for.”
“Definitely,” I replied with a smile as Halcyon’s statement triggered something in my mind. “Hey, speaking of teamwork, did you all notice how…uncoordinated all the Irovians were during the battle? I don’t think any of them moved to support one another even once.”
“Huh,” Drace grunted thoughtfully. “Now that you mention it…yeah. They pretty much all fought like individuals, hell, if I didn’t know better, I’d say they actually fought more like robots, completely without emotion at all. All that was left to them was their fighting ability and basic self-preservation.”
“Well, they were kinda undead-like, right?” Caius asked. “Maybe not quite the traditional necromancer version of undead, but an Ætherwarped version of undead?”
“Maybe that’s what the Ætherbound prefix of their name means?” Lazarus offered with a shrug.
“Could be,” I agreed, once again reminded about just how little we knew about Æther, even after all of our experiences with it. “I’d be really interested to know what caused them to transform into…whatever they were.”
“Maybe we’ll find out,” Halcyon said, pointing towards the large crystal that still hovered a top of the dais beside us, showing no reaction to the battle that had been fought around it. “Some of the technology here looks to be intact; there’s no telling what we might—”
“Erm,” Constantine loudly cleared his throat while giving both Halcyon and me a pointed look. “I know you guys are big on this whole magic and lore thing, which is great, don’t get me wrong, but do you guys mind if we start sorting out the loot? I mean, that bag is just sitting there, begging to be opened and the rest of us are all just standing around…”
There was a moment of silence as everyone’s attention focused on Constantine, then shifted back towards both Halcyon and me, faint echoes of agreement filtering through the air.
“We did just fight three dungeon bosses,” Alistair said, speaking up in a small voice.
“So there has to be something nifty inside it,” Drace added, trying and failing to hide a bored tone in his voice.
“Ugh, you guys have no patience.” I grunted, waving a hand dismissively at the loot bag and inviting Constantine to sort through it.
“This coming from the guy who looted the Moss Snakes while we were all still dealing with the wounded?” Sierra asked with a grin on her face as both she and Constantine stepped towards the bag.
“You guys had it under control,” I replied dismissively. “I was just being efficient.”
“Well, you and Halcyon have the magic and lore conversation under control right now,” Constantine shot back as he untied the bag that had been sitting on the ground and began sorting through it. “Now the rest of us are going to be efficient and see what loot dropped.”
Without wasting another second, Constantine then began to pull several items out from the bag, pausing only to hand them over to Sierra or one of the other party members as we all gathered around him to watch, the item descriptions appearing in our vision.
Blackened Iron War Mace
Slot: Main Hand
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Good (+15%)
Damage: 30-45 (Crushing)
Strength: +5 Constitution: +5
Durability: 160/160
Weight: 2.5 kg
Class: Any Martial
Level: 15
Blackened Iron War Axe
Slot: Main Hand
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Good (+15%)
Damage: 30-45 (Crushing)
Strength: +5 Constitution: +5
Durability: 160/160<
br />
Weight: 1.5 kg
Class: Any Martial
Level: 15
Blackened Iron Assault Shield
Quantity: 2
Slot: Off Hand
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Good (+15%)
Armor: 175
Strength: +3 Constitution: +3
Durability: 180/180
Weight: 3 kg
Class: Any Martial
Level: 15
Blackened Iron War Knife
Slot: Main Hand or Offhand
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Good (+15%)
Damage: 25-40 (Slashing or Piercing)
Strength: +4 Agility: +4
Durability: 120/120
Weight: 0.5 kg
Class: Any Martial
Level: 15
“That’s actually a pretty great haul!” I exclaimed with surprise as Constantine finally pulled the last item out of the bag. “The first time we didn’t get any crafting components either.”
“Considering how brittle and charred the armor that all of the Irovians were wearing was, I consider that a good thing,” Drace replied having exchanged both his old weapon and shield for the War Mace and Assault Shield. “I don’t think even you would have been able to salvage that stuff into something I’d trust my life with. Whatever happened that transformed their bodies, it sure did a number on it.”
“I guess that’s true,” I said, looking around the group and seeing that Alistair had laid claim to the other Assault shield as well as the War Axe, none of the other party members having a use for the melee oriented weapons. “Nice to see that these weapons are enchanted though, unlike the ones we found upstairs.”
“The Knights and Battlemage were probably the leaders of the attacking force,” Constantine commented, holding the Battlemage’s weapon in his hand. “Makes sense that they would get the best gear.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, watching the loot bag on the ground disintegrate now that it was empty, its sole purpose for existence having been fulfilled.
With the loot out of the way, our attention then shifted back to the chamber that we found ourselves in, all of us splitting up into smaller groups as we wandered off in our own directions. Given each of our magical specializations, it was only natural that Caius, Halcyon and I grouped up together as we explored the room, choosing to start our exploration on the far side of the chamber where I had originally seen the pile of shattered crystal.
“Whatever was here looks like it exploded from within,” Halcyon said to both Caius and me as the three of us scanned through the crystalline debris. “Look at the wall; you can see bits and pieces of crystal embedded in the stone.”
“Good eye,” I replied, inspecting the pockmarked wall in more detail and seeing that it also appeared cracked and burnt as if it were exposed to intense heat. “Maybe it was another set of crystals?”
“That would then explain these metal fragments here,” Caius noted, bending down to pick up a flat, inch thick, fragment of metal that had several runes inscribed on it and showed it to the both of us. “Looks kind of similar to the rings on the still intact crystal over there.”
“Hmm,” I said thoughtfully as Caius turned the broken piece of metal over in his hand. “I wonder what they’re for.”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Halcyon replied as he bent down and picked up two metal fragments from the ground. “Maybe it has something to do with regulating the Æther stored in the crystal? Or somehow shifting Æther from its liquid state that we see in the Ley Line into whatever state it is in the crystal?”
“Either is a good theory,” I stated, glancing at the two shards of metal that Halcyon was holding and seeing that both of them bore similar runes to the piece that Caius had picked up. “Though I wish we could read whatever runes were inscribed on them.”
“Donovan might be able to if we bring him back enough pieces,” Halcyon pointed out. “Or one of the other mages…assuming we trust them enough to show them.”
“Trust being the keyword in that statement,” I replied doubtfully, scanning the ground and finding another metal disk fragment lying amid the crystalline rubble. “But I think you’re onto something. If we can recover enough pieces of these shattered disks and reassemble an intact one…”
“...then we can try building our own Æther Crystal using the crystals that we recovered from the Tower!” Caius exclaimed excitedly. “I…don’t really know what we’d use them for yet, but we could figure that out afterwards!”
“Æther Crystal,” Halcyon repeated as if testing the word. “I like that.”
“Worse come to the worst, we can also try copying the runes on the disks around the still floating crystal,” I said enjoying the pair’s excitement as I stooped down to pick up the metal shard that I had seen earlier. “But that’d require us to draw it out on paper…or figure out a way to disassemble the thing. If we can find enough pieces to rebuild a disk back in Aldford, I can then use them to make a mold and cast it as one piece, rather than handcrafting from a sketch.”
“Sounds like a plan to me!” Caius said enthusiastically, the three of us then beginning to sift through the piles of broken crystal in search of the metal disk fragments.
With the three of us working in tandem, it only took us a few minutes to scour the area, recovering over three dozen different fragments of the inch-thick metal, the largest concentrations of the pieces appearing to center around each individual dais that the crystals had once sat upon. Taking pains to keep each collection of fragments separate depending on which dais it was found at, we split the shards between ourselves, ensuring that we didn’t accidentally mix pieces together that were found in a different location.
It was going to be a tough enough puzzle reassembling the fragments of the disks, and we didn’t want to make it any harder on ourselves than it was already going to be.
“Hey, are you guys done digging through all that?” Sierra’s voice called out from across the chamber. “Because we’re blocked in here by another door, and none of us want to poke any of the crystals on this box without one of you checking it for magic.”
“You mean taking the blame if something goes wrong!” I called back, straightening from my bent over position and looking in the direction of Sierra’s voice, which was coming from the other side of the crystal.
“You already used that one today Lyr,” Sierra said, sounding disappointed in my reply. “You need to work on some new material.”
“Doesn’t make it any less true!” I exclaimed while turning to look both at Caius and Halcyon with a raised eyebrow.
“I think we’ve found all the fragments that we’re going to find,” Caius replied, sensing my silent question. “If there are any pieces left, they’re too small to find or buried in this wall somewhere.”
“But we won’t know for sure until we try reassembling the disks,” Halcyon added as the three of us left the damaged portion of the chamber and began walking towards the other side, passing by a coiled Amaranth, who had decided to take up residence directly under the large Æther-infused crystal and was basking in its light as he would the sun.
Shaking my head at the cat, I turned my attention back towards the other side of the room, seeing that the entire party had gathered around the strange rectangular pillar I had spotted earlier.
“This is the only thing that looks like anything resembling a switch,” Sierra told us as we arrived. “Aside from a few stone workbenches over there, there really doesn’t seem to be that much in this room, even before whatever happened to this place, happened.”
“I see,” I replied, scanning the other half of the chamber, seeing both the
workbenches that Sierra had just mentioned as well as a door, identical to the one we had seen upstairs, set into the far wall.
“Best guess I have is that either this place didn’t get a lot of traffic,” Lazarus said. “Or, more likely, that they got far enough warning of the attack that they cleared out as much stuff as they could.”
“And locked the door behind them,” I added, looking back towards Sierra, then at the crystal filled pillar.
“Looks like it,” the red-haired elf replied.
“Well, let’s see what we can do about that,” I said while activating True Sight and seeing several of the crystals set into the pillar begin to glow. “Hrm, well, whatever this thing is, it’s definitely active.”
“I’ll say,” Caius muttered as both he and Halcyon moved up to stand beside me, the rest of the party backing away a step to give us room.
“So,” Halcyon began, waving a hand at the alien array of crystals set into the pillar. “Any idea where to start? Poke one of them and see what happens?”
“I guess,” I replied with a shrug, counting seven active crystals on the pillar, with another nine crystals lying dormant. It seemed that whatever method that the Nafarr had used to label their switches, or crystals, in this case, had died with them, leaving no visible indication to what any of them did. “I don’t have any better ideas, to be honest.”
“You know we can hear you guys, right?” Constantine called out from behind us, his voice sounding nervous. “You aren’t exactly filling us with a lot of confidence right now.”
“Relax,” I said soothingly, waving a hand in a reassuring manner over my shoulder where everyone could see while picking an active crystal at random on the pillar and reaching out to touch it with the other, feeling a familiar warmth travel up my arm. “I’m a professional at this sort of stuff; don’t worry.”
Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online Book 2) Page 45
