Unbound

Chapter Four Hundred And Twenty – 420

Chapter Four Hundred And Twenty – 420

Evolution Complete!

Congratulations, Guardian Beast!

First Evolution: Primordial Stormwing!

You Gain:

+200 AGL

+100 DEX

+100 END

+75 INT

+50 WIL

Skills Have Changed!

Do You Wish To Review?

No! Pit let out a joyous screech and emerged from Felix's Spirit in a blaze of glory, ready to reveal his newer, sleeker self to his Companion...only to find himself among the dark, freezing waters of an impossibility. Water was everywhere, a blue so dark it was almost black, lit only dimly by the strobe lights of a tempest.

What happened? he sent, keeping his beak closed against the press of liquid. The water churned violently around him, and he twisted, unable to find purchase. Felix? Felix!

Beside the tenku, Felix floated utterly limp. Eyes closed, mouth open, and for a horrifying second Pit believed him dead. Their bond burned bright however, and Felix's Health was more than half full. It was dropping fast however, and Pit could see why as he toggled through Felix's notifications.

Status Condition: Drowning (Severe)

Felix! he sent again, hoping it'd knock him awake, but the man's Mind didn't even spark in awareness. So instead, Pit paddled forward, sweeping his wings for speed, and grasped his friend by the shoulders with his foreclaws. With every ounce of newly evolved Strength, Pit swam for the surface.

Mighty currents tore at his feathers and fur, tumbling them up and over and around in dizzying circles. Pit flapped his wings, his sleeker Body crackling with lightning summoned up from his Evolved core. Each foot up, however, he lost as those tidal forces had their way. The waters roiled, and the lightning along Pit's limbs was answered in kind in the far distance. A storm ruled outside the waters, and it was lucky it tingled across Pit's newfound senses, because the relentless push and pull of the currents would have utterly ruined his orientation. He hadn't the bulk anymore to throw against the waves, having chosen his Evolution in part to reduce his size and amplify his speed. Agility, however, was of little help in escaping the brutal clutch of freezing waters. And he was running out of breath, despite his newfound Endurance.

Distantly, the chime of notifications slipped through Pit's bond, echoes of Felix's own. Words that made little sense filtered across Pit's eyes.

Challenge Complete!

Congratulations!

You Have Extended Your Authority, Autarch!

You Are Now Lord Of Ahkestria And The Scorched Expanse!

ERROR!

Scorched Expanse Has Undergone Fundamental Changes!

Territory Reshaped...

Recalculating...

Pit shook his head, dismissing the errant messages. They were distractions, and he was fighting to hold in his breath. Pit's lungs burned, aching to suck in life-giving air, foolishly ignorant that the water around them had none to offer. He kicked and flapped and clawed upward, carrying Felix's body. A body that had been reduce to less than a quarter of his Health.

Wingblade!

ERROR!

Wingblade (U) Has Evolved Into Dawn's Advent (Epic)!

Dawn's Advent!

A glowing arc of brilliant white-green and golden energy burst from his wings, forcing itself outward and kicking Pit's body backward through another rushing flow. Pit squawked in alarm, loosing his breath in a wild stream of bubbles before snapping his beak shut again.

The dim light above them faded, turning the depths truly black. Pit jerked his head back just in time to see a writhing, twisting shape diving through the water, it's many, many legs thrashing in upsetting undulations. And it was coming right for him.

Dawn's Advent!

Another arc shot out, burning through the water and leaving a trail of boiling bubbles behind. The creature moved fluidly around the attack, and the next three that Pit unleashed. The thing was fast, offering Pit little chance before it spun around him completely and snapped its hold close. Jaws as large as Pit's entire body grabbed them both, twisting and rolling Pit and Felix as the thing accelerated.

To the surface.

Beef fought against the waves, piloting his shitty, ramshackle boat. Chitin Construction had been handy in forming it, but the last time he'd built anything it had been made out of little plastic bricks. It had required him several dozen tries to make it strong enough and buoyant enough to keep his considerable bulk afloat, and with the tumultuous waves threatening to capsize him it took all his concentration to stay balanced atop the narrow craft. Thunder crashed above, the winds howled, and the water heaved like a rollercoasterbut he held on.

Nevertheless, when Hallow exploded from the depths with his friends in her grip, Beef wasn't ready for the sheer mass of them all. Hallow could float in the waterquite well, in factbut she deposited Felix and Pit in a sodden heap at the base of his craft, and the boat immediately began to flip.

Chitin Construction!

Mana surged from him, manifesting more hard, lightweight material along the hull and sides to counteract their weight. After compensating for his own, Beef had something of a handle on it, it just ate up a lot of his reserves. When he was done the ship was ten feet wide with long pontoon-like skis on either side for stability. He'd seen that in a movie once, but was pleasantly surprised it had worked.

Chitin Construction is level 48!

"Be careful!" he yelled at the nightmarish Hallow. The Multipede wriggled its antennae at him in what he supposed was an apology, before swimming around his expanded boat. "I'm sorry. She could've hurt you...Pit?"

A creature had stood up from the tangle of limbs, and it looked like the Chimera but only in the vaguest sense. Gone was the hulking brute twice as large as any horse, and in its place was a sleek-looking creature with lithe muscles and powerful, if soaked, wings. A black, hawk-like head tilted at him, and were it not for the luminous golden eyes Beef would have thought another Chimera had stolen Pit's barding.

"You're...different," he said. "So much smaller. You look like a race horse or something."

"Stop gawking and help!" Pit spat, before his own golden eyes grew large. Beef started back.

"You can talk?" Beef stared at the Chimera stupidly, his Mind stuttering at what just happened.

Pit, however, screeched. "Help him!"

Beef rushed forward, stepping carefully. With Pit out of the way, the Minotaur realized that Felix looked different now too. Before he'd basically looked like a muscular Human, but now he was closer to Beef's height but far more slender, with wide shoulders and a face that looked just a touch...off. Dark, midnight scales decorated his arms, coating his hands and feet. Most concernedly, however, was that he didn't seem to be breathing at all.

"Oh god, uh, uh, I can do CPR," Beef said. He'd seen it done a few times on the internet. He laced his two hands together and pressed them against chest, just below his sternum, and pressed without even budging Felix's body. "Are you kidding me?" He leaned forward, putting all his weight behind the chest compressions...and still nothing.

Frustrated, Beef stood back up and reached out a hand. A newly made great maul formed in his grip, sizzling with blackened-green Mana vapor, and he lifted the weapon straight up into the air before slamming it down as hard as he could atop Felix's chest. The blow was so strong that Felix slammed down into the deck, cracking it deeply before rebound back up in the air. Hallow coiled about them tighter, lifting the boat above the water level as Beef brought the hammer down again and again.

And again.

Until, with an awful gurgling noise, Felix spat up a geyser of water from his lungs. Coughs wracked his entire body, curling him up on himself as more and more liquid dislodged from his lungs. His eyes remained closed throughout the entire process, but he was breathing.

"His Status Condition vanished, but his Health isn't budging," Pit said. He crouched closer and nudged Felix.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Beef asked. "Hallow?"

The Multipede leaned over the craft as the waves continued to roll across them all. She opened a set of her lower legs and gentle deposited two odd swords on the deck of his ship. One was a giant tooth, and the other was curved like a weird fishing hook. Interestingly enough, another weapon was in Felix's right hand, clutched so tightly his knuckles were white. A dagger made of bronze, with a purple gemstone set in the pommel. The Spirit spoke. "It is unclear. His Body is unlike any I have experienced and his organs are...they are strange. His heart beats too fast for a Human to survive, and his skin is burning hot. I do not think it is a fever, however."

"Is he Tempering?" Beef asked. Last time he remembered getting anything close to sick was when he was forming his new Body.

"Yes," Pit confirmed. "He is an Adept, now. Or will be."

Beef whistled. The guy's Strength was something else, and he could hardly imagine how he had changed if his Body had transformed like it had. "We need to find Naosfuck, I mean Isla. If she can't heal Felix, no one can. Hallow, can you do the thing?"

"Of course. Please hold tightly," the Spirit said before uncoiling from around them and moving toward the back of his impromptu craft. At the same time, Beef repaired the cracked hull with Chitin Construction, at least keeping the thing from immediately sinking.

"Definitely hold on, Pit," Beef said, only to see Pit already laying across Felix's body and snugging himself up against the sides of that boat. "Ah. Good. Go for it Hallow."

Hallow undulated at the rear, her immense strength and grace driving them forward. With a near-silent whoosh of displaced water, his ship shot forward.

"Be prepared to move them," Isla declared, bustling between cracked tables. Her poultices were running low, but a number of the Yttin had offered to make more, and so she focused on applying the Chant. Her voice rose, echoing a glorious design she'd once dreamt of as a young girl, one that called to mind the halcyon days of youth when nothing hurt and everything lasted forever. The poultices answered in kind, glowing with a vibrant potency that immediately seeped into dire wounds.

Sixteen patients began to heal all at once, and Isla sagged from the effort. She looked at her assistant and gestured at the patients. "Get them to the resting cots."

"Of course," Vess said, manifesting her spears to quickly and efficiently cart each patient into the nearby recovery tent.

The storm had cleared, but more voices were coming closer. Among them were cries of pain and unintelligible pleas. Isla was exhausted, but she knew her role in these sort of fights. Drawing herself ramrod straight, the Chanter lifted a hand a beckoned. "Bring them in."

A shield of chains dropped from above, turning aside a spear of light. Hrask and Klagg gasped in relief as they met the eyes of a slender Human woman.

"Don't worry. I got this," she said, just as the shield exploded into individual strands of chain.

The Paladins shouted in alarm, light and fire blooming, but clearly none expected the chains to wrap themselves around every one of their limbs. A second shield appeared, doing the same, until all four Paladins were trussed up tighter than a pig to market.

"Tooth and Claw," the woman uttered, and the chain in her hands came to a malicious life. It coiled and lifted like a serpent, the spikes and blades along its length gleaming with silvery Mana. "You ain't escaping again."

The Goblins ran, not bothering to look back or even at one another. Anything to get away from the cruel Paladins and the vicious, cold death from that small, slender woman.

Atar twitched on his cot, his Aspects awash in visceral pain. Jagged marks ran across his Body, slashes of affliction that bled a dull gray through his flesh. Peopled bustled by, sheltering from the devastating storm and hurrying to see the healer, but Alister refused to move. Dim as his consciousness was, Atar could sense him, a worried presence at his side with rags and potions at the ready. He wanted nothing more than to embrace his partner, to tell him he was fine, but exhaustion gripped Atar like a vise. He could no more walk upon the moons than sit up.

How am I still alive? The unanswered thought tore through him, again and again. Atar remembered little after summoning his Astrum Revelation, and what there was had a layer of fog over it all, as if it had happened to someone else. What did I do?

Alister stood up and started talking to someone in white and gold robes, and the two of them stepped a distance away from his cot. Fiammetta. She spoke of Paladins attacking again, and Atar felt rage kindle in his chest. He wanted to speak, to reach out, but he couldn't. Instead, a small white flame kindled in his vision, and not for the first time. Atar couldn't bear to move, but he could focus on it as it swirled atop his sternum.

Go away, he insisted.

you could destroy them all, it said. paladins deserve nothing less.

Atar gritted his teeth. Go away!

burning is very, very easy. please. i can show you so many things, Atar V'as.

With a titanic effort of Will, Atar shoved the flame, turning it to a burst of flickering sparks. It vanished, and true exhaustion claimed him again.

In the distance, perhaps a half mile away, a towering edifice loomed. Crystals gleaming orange and green-gold and white-green filled the majority of the structure, one that Beef recognized with a gasp.

"That's...that's Ahkestria," he said. "Look! The layers are visible! The crystalline sections have been blasted apart in hundreds of places..."

The storm chose that moment to break, releasing the captured glow of the midday sun. Beams rained down, sparkling across the choppy waves and absolutely glimmering atop the jewel-like City of Embers. However, that was the only pleasant thing he could make out; the city looked devastated, and huge plumes of smoke rose up from the highest layer to stain the otherwise unblemished sky.

"The Paladins attacked," Pit said from his side. His head, now closer to Beef's chest-height, tilted to the side. "But did they win?"

"Only one way to find out," Beef said, and urged Hallow to push them a bit faster. The journey was putting deep cracks in the boat almost faster than he could repair them, but he was sure they could make it. "Sooner we get to the city, the sooner we find Isla. You're sure he's fine?"

"He is stable. Fine...I don't know about fine," Pit admitted. "It's been two hours, but still he sleeps and"

A bright notification edged in gold filigree slammed into all of their vision at the exact same moment. It rang like a bell and did not stop.

Territory-Wide Announcement!

By Right Of Challenge And Fair Combat, Felix Nevarre, Autarch of Nagast Has Claimed Authority!

All Hail, Autarch Felix Nevarre!

"Huh," Beef said, a little numb. Then his eyes bulged. "He...he's the king of Ahkestria?"

"Just get us to the city," Pit instructed before he curled up against Felix's side. The Chimera had sounded tired and angry at the same time.

Beef glanced at Felix, his arms now half covered in those dark scales. The change was spreading.

"Hail the hero, hail the savior of the Deep, hail the hand that wakes," said a deep, melodic voice.

The Minotaur spun, maul manifesting his his grip, and found himself looking up in shock. Another, much larger ship had come upon them without a whisper of sound or warning. It looked to be made of bone and was complete with sails and everything. Standing among the craft were a number of tall, wide-chested folks wearing strange, somewhat moth-eaten garments, and upon their back twitched a number of long weapons. There were at least twenty of them spaced evenly around the deck of their ship, but the one in the lead spread his arms as his eyes flashed a brilliant, glowing copper. "Hail the guardian, hail the Beast Who Walks The Skies, hail the claws that protect."

Pit perked up at that, looking between Felix and the newcomers. "Klzix?" the Chimera asked.

The leader nodded and smiled broadly, an expression of unrestrained glee. "We have come to welcome you both to the End. May we all survive the Blackened Skies."

"Uh, right," Beef said, before whispering at Pit. "They're friendly?"

Pit shrugged, then nodded. "Maybe."

"Come! Come! We have room for you all, even your hidden friend," this Klzix said, pointing at the dark water where Hallow had vanished. "We shall take you to Ahkestria!"

"We are just fine here, I think," Beef said, patting the uneven side rail he'd slapped together. Unfortunately, his chitin boat could take no more. The cracks that had spread throughout its shape finally gave way, and water started flooding the deck. Pit squawked and dragged Felix's body away from the encroaching liquid. "Oh. Shit. I guess...I guess we could bum a ride."

"As it must be," Klzix said, and bared a wide, crocodile smile of sharp, white teeth. "Let us walk to the End, together."