by Ivan Kal
And then a red circle appeared above the back line, over the casters on the ground. Hexna and Evermou both moved to dodge, but Morgan could see that they wouldn’t be able to do it in time. A dome of light sprang over Hexna as Clara threw a shield, and Evermou flashed with white light as Sumion threw a barrier up on him. A wall of red lightning crashed down on them. Hexna covered beneath the dome, and Evermou was smashed with lightning.
Morgan thought that he’d died, but then realized that he had been an illusion, his real body just out of the way. The initial blast had missed him, but then more lightning started falling from above and crashed right into him. Sumion’s shield exploded, and Evermou’s glamour failed. Morgan saw his real appearance, the elf with brown hair and unimpressive features, one eye glowing red and a scar going down his cheek. He raised his arm as more lightning fell and his hand burst apart. A shield of white light blocked the next few bolts, but Morgan could see that he wasn’t going to hold out for much longer. Monsters in the front line broke through and rushed them.
And Morgan saw Voralla Ohm blink back from the front and into the shield protecting Hexna just as it failed. She raised one arm and a barrage of blue lightning left it, meeting the lightning coming down from above. Her other hand she pointed at Evermou, and more lightning struck out to hit the monsters rushing at him.
It was an amazing display of power. Her lightning was meeting the Rzan’s power for power, shaking the air around it as she negated it, and fired at the monsters at the same time. But even with her power, Morgan could see that it wasn’t going to be enough. One monster managed to get through her barrage, and it leapt, smashing into Evermou as he kept his shield up above his head and pushed him back, his shield moving as they crashed to the ground. The Rzan saw and the lightning intensified and smashed over them. Morgan saw the flash of blue light as Evermou died, and a familiar sensation appeared in his chest as he saw his friends die as monsters overwhelmed them. He saw the front line fighting, Rainor Ohm holding many by himself and killing scores, even as Rzan sent fire and lightning at him. The boss behemoth was rampaging, striking everywhere with its massive four arms as people tried to evade and strike at it, but managed only to scratch its chitin. Someone was going to make a misstep, and someone else was going to die.
Morgan couldn’t watch that happen—he wouldn’t watch it happen. He glared at the battlefield, seeing the other two attempting to destroy the spears that followed them, and he got an idea. He swung around and made a beeline for the front line. He increased his speed, his body burning through the energy stored in the muscles as he dove for the battlefield.
The boss monster smashed its four fists into the ground, shaking it and sending both Nesseya and Ves tumbling. Vall and Borodar stumbled, and the monsters nearly got to them, but Ragnor Raam and Rainor Ohm were there, their swords killing the monsters as they leapt at the two.
He glanced behind, seeing the spear gaining on him and he let it, he allowed it to get just behind him. Then, when Morgan reached the boss’s back, he used Phase Dash. He flew in silence, devoid of everything, and then the ability run out and he was about to smash into the ground. He twisted himself mid-air, fanning his wings wide to slow himself, and his feet smashed into the ground. The four hundred kilograms of muscle and bone that his body was made out of cracked the ground, and he bent his knees to absorb the impact. Monsters around him were sent away by the collision, and one was even unfortunate enough that he landed on top of it and crushed its body. He turned around and saw the boss, the crystal spear impaling it through the chest. It roared, a broken sound that was completely different than what the other behemoths sounded like in life.
I should’ve gone for the head! But in his defense, the monster had been moving, and he hadn’t wanted to miss.
And then Morgan saw Ta’elara flying toward the monster. Seeing what Morgan himself had done, she flew straight at it and then blinked away—the spear following her tried to turn, but it didn’t manage to in time. It punched through the monster’s shoulder, staggering it.
Immediately, everyone started attacking. Borodar, his skin turning red and steam radiating from his body, swung his axe and a wave of red haze flew out of it hitting the monster in the shoulder where the spear punched out of its chest. The broken chitin groaned and cracks spread outward, but it wasn’t enough to take the monster down.
Morgan had to dodge to the side as a monster tried to tackle him, his wings moving over his shoulder and his claws biting into the monster as he switched his bow to a sword. He pulled the monster back with his wings, and stabbed it in the next, severing its spinal cord and then twisting his blade to separate the body from head.
A flash of light alerted him to a ball of fire heading his way and he raised his wing, blocking it. The skin and scales covering it had come from a drake, and were resistant to fire. The Rzan were still taking advantage of his location, though, and Morgan knew that he needed to get back to the air and keep them occupied. He saw Ta’elara already doing the same, and he spun in place, hitting nearby monsters with his wings to stagger them and give himself room. Then he jumped up and began beating his wings, gaining altitude just as a bat pack began heading toward him and Ta’elara, preventing them from focusing on the Rzan in the distance. Lucius was still trying to shake his spear, but Morgan saw him heading for the boss.
Morgan flew into the pack of undead bats, his sword stabbing down as he grabbed another with his hand crushed its head with his superior strength. More tried to attack him, but he stabbed the claw of his wing into another’s throat, catching the claw on its collar bone and pulling as they tumbled through the air. He stabbed his sword into its head and then kicked it off with his legs as he spread his wings wide. With the bats dead, he turned around in air, and saw Lucius heading for the back of the boss. The people on the ground were putting all they had into it, trying to take it down, and the chitin, now broken by the spears, was cracking.
Lucius headed at it and then banked, turning around it sharply as he sent a burst of wind at its back to change his direction, as he had no blink of phasing ability. The boss behemoth felt the air and moved, turning around faster than Morgan thought possible, its hands swiping out.
Morgan saw Lucius’s eyes go wide as he crossed his hands over his chest, but then the monster smashed a fist into him, sending him flying across the platform with a sickening crunch. The spear smashed into the monster’s throat and it moved a step back.
Morgan beat his wings, hoping to somehow reach Lucius before he smashed into the ground, but then he saw a shape on the ground. Sumion ran and flashed forward across the platform, faster than Morgan could hope to have, and he knew that the Nel would either reach him or not and that there was nothing that Morgan could do. He turned his head around, seeing Ragnor Raam up on the shoulder of the boss, his two swords glowing as he stabbed them into the crack that the spear made in its neck. Rainor Ohm appeared on the other side and did the same.
Morgan saw that they had a way to defeat the boss now. He saw Ves shout and her bear turned into the Eldritch Abomination before slamming into the boss. Then, using her new trait, a portal opened next to her. From it walked out a monster, black as night and covered in a tough-looking carapace. One of its arms was larger and longer than the other, and had a spike instead of a hand. Her new summon, coming from some eldritch location, charged and stabbed its spike-hand into the boss’s right leg as the bear held down the right. The boss raged and tried to shake off the summons along with Ragnor and Rainor—but then Ragnor’s swords flashed with light and he sent two crescents into the widened wound, splitting apart chitin and opening a gash into the monster’s body. Morgan saw that they had things well in hand and turned his attention to the Rzan. They were still under their dome, the shield that let things out but not in, as they cast their spells in the air at Ta’elara and at the ground group. Beyond them, lights flashed as the Tower Master fought the Herald, cracks of thunder and beams carving up the other side of the massive platform.
They saw him, their hands rising in his direction, but Morgan used Phased Dash. He moved through darkness, and then reality returned as he flew over the Rzan, who fired a bolt of lightning at him. The spell smashed into Morgan’s chest and made his muscles twitch. His wings twisted, and he crashed on top of one of the Rzan, swinging his sword hand widely. He cut into the lizard-person, and as the effects of the lightning on his body abated, twisted it, killing the Warlock.
There were fourteen Rzan inside the dome, all wearing identical robes…except one. He looked like he was the leader, the one who had cast the lightning barrage that killed Evermou. Morgan had thirteen Warlocks between himself and the leader. Casters, magic users—none of whom excelled at close combat. In truth, neither did he, but his Combat Form was massive and powerful. He threw one of the items in his hands to the other side of their formation, to its edge, even as he threw the body of the lizard-person still impaled on his sword to the Rzan in front of him, who had a smaller versions of the crystal spear formed and ready to throw.
The spears hit the dead body and Morgan triggered the item. The dice teleported him to the other side of the formation, behind the Rzan, who were looking in the wrong direction. His blade stabbed into another Rzan from the back, and he picked him up and impaled the second Rzan nearby through the first.
A wave of fire hit him from the side and he grimaced, then folded his wing over to protect that side. But the fire still burned his leg, scorching the surface layer of the skin. He cursed himself for not adding the chitin of the mature behemoth over it, but he hadn’t had the time. His skin was the same leathery hide that the behemoth used, only altered to look like human skin, but it wasn’t as strong as it could have been. Morgan kicked the two corpses from his blade as another plume of fire came from the other side, forcing him to cover himself with his wings. His feet and back had been scorched, but just because he hadn’t had the time to add chitin to this form, it didn’t meant that he hadn’t done anything else to prepare.
His Phase Dash came back from cooldown and he jumped to the side. Darkness brought relief from the fire, although he hadn’t felt much pain, as he had made the nerves in the skin intentionally less sensitive. Reality returned and he was in front of another Rzan. The Warlock’s hand was in his blood pouch and his other gesturing. Morgan lashed out with his wings, pulling him forward and stabbing him in the chest. He rushed forward and jumped at the second as he threw the corpse to the side to distract the others.
Suddenly, chains of red crystal grew out of the ground, tangling up his wings and his limbs, preventing him from moving. The shield above them flashed and Morgan saw Ta’elara raining down fire on it from above, attempting to break through. Lucius was back in the air again, his swords swinging and sending blades of wind at the Rzan. On the other side, on the ground, Nesseya had run ahead of the ground group dealing with the last of the monsters. Her flail was smashing into the barrier, and most of the Rzan, along with their leader, had turned to deal with them.
But one approached Morgan.
He could see its reptilian eyes boring into his, heard it speak in a tongue that he didn’t understand. The blood from its pouch flowed over its hand, and then into the air, where it solidified into a spear. Morgan flexed his muscles, hearing the crystal chains groan. A few broke, and the Rzan saw he had to hurry. He pulled the spear back and got in close to impale him, but Morgan opened his mouth wide. A spray flew out of his maw, and a moment later Morgan brought his teeth down, hitting his top teeth onto the bottom. The flint hit the steel, and a spark ignited the spray. He opened his mouth again and pushed out all the air in his lungs out as the two nozzles in the back of his throat sprayed the chemical.
The Rzan had no time to react as fire hit him in the face, scorching him in seconds and burning the skin off his face. In three seconds, Morgan emptied the sac in his chest and the fire stopped. The Rzan dropped down to the floor, dead. Morgan winced as the inside of his mouth was burned away. I should’ve thought some more about that. He had added it on Ves’s insistence, mostly because she thought that it’d be cool if he could breathe fire.
But his mouth and lips were twisted and deformed, melted from his own action. He bulged his muscles, burning the last of his stored energy, and the chains shattered. Immediately he triggered his Combat Form again, spending almost the last of the mass that he had in his bracelet to heal up and restore the energy to his body.
He looked around to see the shield around them cracking, the Rzan focused on hitting Ta’elara and Nesseya. And then the shield broke, and Nesseya ran forward. Ta’elara started raining down fire and the Rzan raised smaller personal shields. Morgan beat his wings and took to the air, his hand turning into a bow as he started firing Energy Arrows down at the enemy.
In the distance, he saw the ground group running to help, the monsters behind them unmoving on the ground. The Rzan were being pressed, and Morgan could see victory near.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Up close, Morgan could see just how much more powerful the Rzan leader was. His spells came faster and hit harder. He was more powerful than Ta’elara, perhaps even Voralla Ohm. He was fighting off everyone at the same time; his subordinates were only there as distractions. Morgan tried to fire at him, but every time he did, one of the others would rise a shield to intercept his attack.
And then a cloud of red mist rose around him and, like a tornado, grew up into the air at Ta’elara. Morgan saw her spin into it before she was thrown to the side. He grimaced and fired his Energy Arrow and Rain of Arrows, preventing the other Rzan from attacking her as she tried to stabilize before hitting the ground.
Morgan could see that he was going to be ineffective from the air, and he saw Nesseya smashing one of the Rzan’s head with her flail. They were winning. The Warlocks were long-range combatants, their undead being what had made them more dangerous, but up close they were limited.
Diving to the ground, he headed for Nesseya. A Rzan threw fire in her path, and she blocked with her shield, a blue energy forming over it and protecting her as she used one of her abilities. Morgan’s bow changed to a sword and he swooped, hitting the Rzan shooting fire at Nesseya.
She shouted, sending forth a red wave of force, stunning the Rzan, and then she charged ahead. Her flail swinging and taking a head of another Rzan. Morgan followed, throwing a grenade from his waist, rolling it low on the ground. The explosion killed another.
There were four more Rzan left alongside the leader, and Nesseya was getting close. Then the leader cast a spell and a powerful shockwave ripped outward, smashing into her and sending her back, nearly into Morgan himself. He dodged to the side and readied to throw another grenade when the leader gestured. A whip of red crackling energy snapped out faster than Morgan could comprehend and wrapped itself around him. The leader snapped with his hand and the force picked Morgan up, then slammed him into the ground hard, disorienting him. Then he was thrown into the air, the whip untangling itself as he flew to the side.
Morgan twisted in the air, beating his wings wildly in order to stabilize, and finally managed it after a few seconds. Down on the ground he saw Nesseya stand and charge ahead again. Ves was riding her bear with her summon following next to her, running ahead of the rest of the ground group. Morgan headed in her direction—and then everything changed.
The leader gestured with his hands and chanted a word. His four surviving Warlocks twisted and their heads ripped off, their blood flowing out of their bodies like a river. The blood on the ground and that of the corpses flowed as w
ell, as quickly as a river breaking through a dam. It all flowed back to the Warlock leader, and he grew, turning into an avatar made out of blood. Towering even over Morgan’s height, he was at least five meters tall.
Nesseya paused and the blood avatar pointed its hands at her. Morgan was flying in line with Ves, but behind Nesseya, as a wave of force smashed forward. Hitting Nesseya’s shield, it sent her flying back before continuing, hitting the bear, throwing Ves from its back. Her summon smashed into the ground and disappeared in a dark mist. Then, the avatar of blood focused and brought both hands close to its chest. An orb of dark-red energy with black edges formed in front of its hands, and a moment later it extended them and fired.
A beam flew out of the orb, and everything turned red. Morgan saw Nesseya use her most powerful defensive ability, the Great Bulwark, and a shield manifested in front of her. When the beam reached her, however, it didn’t even slow. A heat wave spread from the beam and expanded, the beam itself burning her defense before hitting her. Her body melted, the parts hit by the beam vaporizing nearly instantly, and the rest of her followed.
In less than a fraction of a second after the beam had been fired, the heat wave reached Morgan in the air and his skin blistered immediately. He saw the beam heading for Ves and time stopped.
His body was burning so bad that his Mind Space triggered on its own. He saw the stone beneath the beam melting, and he saw his vision blurring slowly as his eyes were being burned out—and he wasn’t even in the path of the beam. Ves had her shield raised, but it wasn’t going to help.
Morgan took in his surroundings as much as he could without moving his eyes. He saw Ta’elara behind the avatar, her staff raised high as she prepared to attack, but she was too late. The ground group was behind Ves, in the way of the beam as well. He panicked as he saw the beam still moving, but quickly he realized that his Mind Space was still working—the beam was just so fast that it was crawling forward.
