Oblivion's Peril

by M. H. Johnson

  He turned to Julia, catching her gaze even as she was surrounded by grim-faced men. “Are you ready?” he whispered, she nodding, hearing him with her mind more than anything else.

  “You know I am.”

  “Good.” Val initiated the first step of his plan.

  Congratulations! You have successfully manipulated Highblood Perimeter Shield at 10 different points! -5 to all arcane and physical skill checks! Spell critical failure risk doubled!

  Val grimaced as a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him, the massive army beyond the now crackling force field giving a roar as it seemed the field was about to give out. Yet it had only dipped at near a dozen points, still far too high for infantry to attempt to pass, one or two of the approaching chrome titans shooting sporadically at Bethany’s units as they leaped from the back rows and charged forward, human troops quickly giving way.

  Val flashed a cold smile even as he strove to keep his focus.

  Skillcheck made! Mindmeld holds! Spirit Link holds!

  Grateful to find he could still focus on his targets, he strained his hover-blade to rise high enough to get a clear view... dropping down frantically when the sky was suddenly filled with laser fire, nearly getting himself killed despite the dwarven force shield and the distorted view, the sheer flood of laser fire almost doing him in.

  “Val, are you alright?”

  Val grimaced, picking himself up as the bike crashed to the ground. Bike skill check failed! You've taken 10 points of damage, no significant wound. Mindmeld holds!

  “It won’t work, Bethany. It's like they're honing in on me specifically. Which makes no sense, since I'm just one target among thousands, but there you are.”

  “Shit! Christine’s shield won’t last five more minutes!”

  Val grimaced, feeling how unstable the force field was becoming, the slowly approaching enemy mecha concentrating their fire. Scattered as it was under the influence of Haunting Luminescence, it would only buy them a couple extra minutes at most.

  Val closed his eyes. Doing his best to become one with the acrid breeze blowing through the fields, one with the crackling force field moments from dying out completely, one with the shouts and roars of soldiers anticipating the slaughter to come.

  One with the bike now effortlessly ascending, just an insignificant extension of the frenzied madness all around.

  Val opened his eyes.

  Bethany gasped. Val’s psyche now bonded to her own.

  “Are you ready?”

  “Yes…. Oh gods, is this what it’s like for you? I feel like I’m dying. I’m dead! I’m just a ghost. Nothing at all. This… this is terrible, Val!”

  “Focus!” Val roared. “Can you see what I see?”

  “Yes!” Bethany sobbed. “Yes!”

  “Good.” And that single point of awareness no more significant than a ripple of shadow against the flickering shields focused all its intensity upon the closest battle-mech racing towards them, noting the way the light reflected off the chrome plating above its right shoulder joint.

  Find Weakness skill check: Success! All those hours fusing your soul to dwarven automatons and Dominion mecha have paid off! You will now automatically sense the weaknesses of all Alpha and Dragon-class battle-mechs!

  Val flashed an icy smile. “Fire!”

  And the golden afternoon light was pierced by the flash and roar of twenty Vulcan autocannons firing in perfect sync, tearing into the lead battle-mech and blowing off its right arm as it stumbled back. The battlefield echoed with the pilot’s shrieks as hot laser fire blasted into the sudden gaping hole, flash frying the pilot and the vulnerable inner compartment as the massive mecha toppled over into the suddenly frantic swarm of soldiers scurrying like ants.

  Enemy mech fire suddenly intensified. Not at the wall so much as the crenelation-like openings in the increasingly wavering force field, most scattering wide, the rest glancing off Bethany’s squad harmlessly.

  The shadow of Val locked its mind upon the next closest target. “Fire!” he roared. The afternoon sky lit up with a concentrated burst of deadly fire once more, another battle-mech collapsing in a shower of twisted alloy and ruptured battery packs sending brilliant violet streaks of lightning tearing through scores of soldiers, leaving nothing but flash-fried corpses behind.

  A third battle-mech lurched to a halt as the top half exploded in scintillating sparks and ruptured titanium. A fourth, then a fifth were literally cut in half, brilliant synchronized laser fire searing right through the seams in the reinforced plating.

  One by one, their enemies were torn apart by the devastating power of twenty synchronized heavy laser cannons. No armor, no matter how thoroughly plated or reinforced, was able to survive the hideous onslaught of so many tank-sized cannons hitting precisely the same spots with pinpoint accuracy.

  And no matter how they tried, the disorganized mass of increasingly desperate battle-mechs could manage only scattered fire at random targets. Lack of coordination, effective leadership, and growing panic was all working against them, to say nothing of the growing disorientation they suffered under the eerie, yet beautiful light all of Highblood Province was now immersed by.

  Val howled in silent triumph, reveling in fierce, savage victory as their foe began to panic, precious battle-mechs being torn apart, one by one.

  And then the shields collapsed as Bethany screamed, jerking Val completely out of Shadowmind.

  43

  “Val!” Bethany’s panicked voice. A dizzy Val held desperately to his hover-blade as it raced to the ground, managing to pull up heartbeats away from the ground, dodging a roaring storm of laser fire as best he could.

  His shields were going down.

  “Titan’s Blast!” screamed the girl he adored so fiercely. The air shrieked with impending death, then an explosion roared through the ether as thousands of jagged tungsten carbide shards shredded hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers. His eyes verified the scene of carnage as he pivoted back around, senses clear once more.

  “I’m sorry, Valor. I tried!” sobbed Bethany. “I just… I just couldn’t hold it any longer. Your mind. As much as I adore you, your mind! I just couldn’t take it. No ego to fuel you with passion and fire. Just a coldness so terrible, an emptiness so profound, and the eyes of a predator glaring at me through darkest shadow! I’m sorry. I just couldn’t hold it.”

  “Bethany, stop it!” Julia screamed in both their minds. “You pulled Val out of Shadowmind! But he’s still linked, he’s still with us! You’ve got to keep firing, you’ve got to keep cutting down those mechs!” A breathless pause as Val swerved back and forth, a moving target as he circled around the rearmost mecha, the concentrated laser fire now scattered and chaotic, thanks to Julia’s terrible spell. “Val, can you lock us on?”

  Val grimaced, knowing the risk he was taking.

  “Lucius!” Val roared, hoping his transceiver still worked and that Bethany was keeping comms on, relieved to hear the crackling reply.

  “I’m here, Overlord.”

  “The force field’s breached! Back up our play while we cut the tin cans down!” Val pivoted around, turning all his focus back on the swarm of enemy battle-mechs closing in even now.

  Feeling the rush as Bethany wordlessly got back in sync, somehow feeling twenty points of awareness, all honing in on the same rushing battle-mech.

  “Fire!” Val roared, a charging battle-mech abruptly lurching back before crashing to the ground as streams of hyper-infused laser fire blazed right through it. Acting in perfect concert once more, the beast of metal and fury that was Val’s party struck again and again. Enemy battle-mechs were sent crashing to the ground to the accompaniment of twisted metal and high-pitched screams before the sharp roar of explosions or the crash of dying titans drowned out all other sounds.

  Only when the hover-blade’s shield had collapsed did Val finally beat a hasty zig-zagging retreat as countless lasers fired his way.

  “Val!” Bethany’s panicked cry as enemy m
echa engaged her own, and all was a disorganized melee of absolute madness.

  Val pulled away from Bethany’s enhanced Mindmeld even as he kept up his far more flexible Spirit Link, feeling his bonuses still echoing through his party even though they no longer fought in perfect concert. Now it was about trying to survive an onslaught of massive vibro-blades tearing right through pristine titanium alloy. Val could hear the screams of one of his own men through their link, panicked cries part of the desperate struggle just to survive that it had suddenly become.

  “Valor!”

  Jump!

  And his bike suddenly lit up with crackling force as a battle-mech's deadly cannon skimmed its side, the bike saved from a direct hit only by the odd luminescence giving everything such an eerie, beautiful glow.

  Yet Val had already flipped off, that half second warning of dire peril that Danger Sense had given him saving his life yet again.

  Agility roll made! No damage taken! Have fun facing off against another battle-mech, Val. It went so well the last time!

  Val grimaced even as a massive construct of titanium and death charged him.

  Perhaps their enemies now understood that with the tricky light, they needed to close. There was no way he could outrun it.

  And Val did the only thing he could.

  Psi-shield activated to full diameter and boosted, 150 Psion reserved! Synergized Mageward activated! Skill-check successful: Synergism complete!

  His scintillating shield of magic and force held before him, he charged the massive beast of chrome and steel racing his way. It’s deadly laser fire ripped through the ground just behind his feet as he flew like the wind.

  Boosted Psiblade activated! 200 Psion reserved. Perception and Quickness combined stat check: Success! You’ve dodged being pulverized to a smear!

  Knowing just where to hit as he dodged a pounding foot crashing against the ground, his boosted blade cleaving effortlessly through the reinforced alloy as he ducked his head and raced past to the shrieking sound of his enemy crashing to the ground.

  Congratulations! Psiboost is now Rank 2!

  And Shadow smiled, now one with the furious storm and frenzy of battle once more.

  The low-pitched roar of a recovered hover-blade momentarily drowned out the shouts and clang of battle, the sound increasing in frequency before fading out of hearing just as the bike itself seemed to flicker out of existence, becoming one with the growing shadows and gloom.

  Soldiers, flooding past furiously battling mechs, were blindly shooting at the now carefully positioned ranks of Blackenthorp soldiers, the trenches and embankments they had dug before proving a life-saver against the storm of blaster fire sent their way, excellent cover and odd illumination both serving to protect Val’s troops. They were thus able to crouch down with good cover and lay down what should have been withering fire against the horde charging forward even now.

  A horde whose charge continued unbroken despite the growing panic Val could feel from his men, protected as the enemy was by a leading wave of heavily armored shield men, carrying before them perfectly reflective shields the size of ancient Roman scuta. They might have cost a fortune to make, but were priceless in their ability to deflect almost all laser fire, save for the massive battle-mechs which were all locked in titanic melee, some distance away.

  Swords unsheathed in gleeful anticipation of slaughter, melee being one arena where Val’s Haunting Luminescence would do his men no good at all, the enemy troopers united in a roar.

  Replaced by screams and horror as scores of heavily armored shield men collapsed to the ground in geysers of blood and gore, cleaved neatly in two so fast their companions caught no more than a shadowy glimpse of oblivion as they tripped over the heavily armored bodies of their companions before suddenly wilting under Blackenthorp fire.

  And Shadow smiled as his bike screamed past, Psiblade arm fully extended still, sparing a single glance for the scene of slaughter behind him. Scores of armored soldiers cut down, the thousands following behind suddenly tripping over their allies before collapsing themselves under a hail of laser fire their limited armor couldn’t hope to endure.

  Val had cracked the shell, and the yolk sizzled and fried under a thousand blazing points of light, the entire battlefield rank with the sickly sweet aroma of cooking flesh and the stench of freshly spilled blood.

  “Val! The rear! No, don’t worry about me, they’re breaking through the lines!”

  Julia. Val could taste the panic in her mind. They were still joined by Spirit Link and Mindmeld both, Julia somehow able to endure the darkness of his mind far better than poor Bethany had.

  Val squeezed the throttle, tasting the sudden desperation in the air.

  A panicked scream.

  A voice he knew all too well.

  Elise. At the compound. Waves of enemy soldiers had blitzed past poorly defended trenches, the shields crashing before Blackenthorp could finish deploying his men.

  Even now the massive storm of soldiers were attempting to burst through the reinforced doors, lasers fired by the dozens slowly melting through the lock.

  Tasting how perilous the hour was, Val knew he dared hold nothing back. He tightly squeezed one of the many drinking flasks he had purchased in the Silver District, now filled with far deadlier fare than what the original crafter had intended.

  Shadow streaked by the tightly packed cluster of soldiers readying themselves to blaze through Highblood manor, and no doubt butcher everyone inside. A single toss and the momentary shadows lifted, only to be lit with blazing fire moments later.

  Fire generated from an explosion he tried desperately to control. But the arcane link he forged to the explosion radius also forged a connection with his enemies trapped within that radius, allowing the screams echoing through the ether to roar through his mind as well.

  Shadowmind holds! Careful, Val. The cost of trying to control that explosion almost blew through your cover! Then it’s only seconds before an entire field of enemies blows through you!

  Val winced at that even as he rode through the pain. The disadvantage of using the only hover-blade on this field was that he made an eye-catching target. And for all that he trusted his dwarven armor and force-shield, knowing from personal experience how hard it was to hit a dodging target, he saw no reason to tempt fate with a thousand blasters aiming his way.

  Then he heard and felt the explosive roar at his back, an echo of the silent screams that had been piercing his mind a heartbeat before.

  Skillcheck: Success! You’ve managed to turn your enemies into bloody paste, without allowing concussive force to backblast right through the door you were trying to protect! Congratulations! Meta-Magic Feat Stabilization is now Rank 4! Your ability to stabilize hideously potent brews continues to improve!

  Val flashed a cold smile. He had revealed his trump card.

  Now his enemies knew that the red who dared the Shadow Path used exothermics to achieve his goals. Of course, who knew how many would actually understand it, let alone believe it?

  “Valor!”

  Panicked screams.

  Julia’s voice.

  And enemy soldiers were still charging forward, heartbeats from flanking their rear trenches.

  A flash in the corner of his eye.

  The last of Blackenthorp’s soldiers was finally through the gate. But if the onslaught of enemy troops hit the trenches before his men could position themselves, it would be too damn late.

  Gunning forward, Val roared toward the enemy troops, some few looking strangely his way, as if feeling the sudden intensity of his gaze, and Val had already pivoted and turned, streaking away, but not before tossing more presents the soldiers’ way, flashing a bleak smile as the field of battle roared with the concussive force of exothermics, toxic mixtures of Elementium and Silbion so unstable they had been held steady by his will alone.

  Silver flasks allowed to unleash sweetest destruction the moment they landed at the feet of dismissive armsmen, abruptly erupt
ing in a cacophony of blood and death.

  “Val!” Julia’s scream. Sheer panic.

  Heart hammering in his throat, Val raced across the compound, desperate to reach her before it was too late.

  44

  Julia was alone, facing off against a man wearing golden armor as brilliant as the corona of crackling power radiating from his soul. And for a split second, Val understood the blind fanaticism he had seen from so many enemy soldiers, glaring at him with mindless hate. For a single ugly heartbeat, he wanted nothing more than to abase himself before this towering titan as waves of fear and adoration washed over him. But the ugly sneer on the monster’s face as he lashed out with Psiblade against the woman Val loved burned all those foul thoughts away.

  Save versus Adoration made! Save versus Intimidation made! But maybe you should be scared, Val. It seems like you aren’t the only contender who dares to walk the Path of Kings!

  Val’s eyes locked upon Julia, her entire contingent of defenders butchered to the last man as the tyrant slowly closed. But what truly amazed Val and lifted his spirits beyond the terror he felt for her was the Psiblade and force-shield Julia had brought to bear, her dwarven sword still sheathed, successfully countering her enemy’s savage onslaught. But only just. Only because she defended even as she retreated. Stumbling back from a shallow gash upon her right thigh, the best armor Christine could afford protecting her daughter no better than paper against a blade that could cut through reality itself. It was a sight that filled Val with awe and terror, and so many questions. But now was not the time as the giant of a man laughed his contempt, lashing out once more with his blade.

  “Call out for your lover again, wench! Let me hear you scream!”

  Hideous finesse and terrible strength jerking aside his beloved Julia’s shield, caressing her belly with oblivion’s kiss.