Unbound

Chapter Three Hundred And Eighty One - 381

Chapter Three Hundred And Eighty One - 381

Evie's Acrobatics (Common) Has Evolved Into Fleet of Foot (Rare)!

Level Is Retained!

...

Fiendforge Active!

Evie's Fleet of Foot (Rare) Has Evolved into Undine Grace (Epic)!

Level Is Retained!

Evie's Scorpion's Tail (Uncommon) Has Evolved Into Silver Stinger (Rare)!

Level Is Retained!

...

Fiendforge Active!

Evie's Silver Stinger (Rare) Has Evolved into Tooth And Claw (Epic)!

Level Is Retained!

Evie's Chain Mastery (Uncommon) Has Evolved Into Chain of Thought (Rare)!

Level Is Retained!

...

Fiendforge Active!

Evie's Chain of Thought (Rare) Has Evolved into Bonds of Dominion (Legendary)!

Level Is Retained!

Felix couldn't focus on the details of his friend's new and repeatedly changing Skillstoo busy with holding the whole of her core space togetherbut he smiled at the elation he felt in her. That mounting joy was a balm after everything else that had happened. And it made him feel a bit better about the fact that his Fiendforge was directly influencing her Skills. Felix only hoped it was a positive change, and vowed to ask her about them later.

The last Skill, however, struck through his split attention.

New Skill!

Chains Of the Protector (Unique), Level 1!

The best defense is a good offense. Forge chains of ice and metal Mana into a floating shield that can protect as well as unravel to entangle and damage nearby foes. Size of shield and length of chains increases slightly with level, damage deflected increases with level, damage dealt increases with level and Endurance.

Is that...that was the thing the Magda construct was doing. Shields of chains...Whoa. Felix jerked his head back in surprise as a new, glowing collection of power was ejected from Evie's core. It flew in a high arc until it landed somewhere further out, at the furthest point of her core space, where it glimmered and uncoiled. Felix had to squint to make it out, but the new Skill looked like all the rest: a ball of frosty chains wrapped around a glowing, watery center. Still, it was cool to see a new Skill form in someone else's core space.

The joy turned complex at the introduction of the new Skill. All the intense emotions Evie had been experiencing during this process were still raw and unprocessed, and Felix honestly felt like a voyeur. He hated eavesdropping on her Spirit, but using his Fiendforge and stats to help Evie made that a necessity. He still wasn't entirely sure how his Skill worked, but Felix had realized that the best results seemed to stem from following the Will and Intent of his target...and that was impossible to do if he shut down his senses.

3 of 3 Body Essences Formed!

Tempering Has Begun!

In the distance, Felix sensed a powerful influx of System energy coming toward Evie's core. More than that, he also felt an abrupt slackening in the pressure against his Fiendforge. As gentle as he could, he eased off his Skill, letting its pattern silence within his core space...and Evie's own held firm.

Oh perfect! She can handle the rest, I think. He pulled back slowly, letting his awareness of her core fade bit by bit. His Mana and Will retracted, until he floated at the edges of her channels. You got this, Evie.

A hand settled on metaphysical shoulder.

Fire blossomed along his entire body and Felix was halfway through a wild-backhand when his arm was caught. Zara stumbled, her shape turning briefly to flowing water before she stabilized. Shock, pure and unfiltered, flitted across her face before vanishing into her usual staid expression.

"Felix, let us talk a moment."

She led them up instead of out, and it was Felix's turn to be surprised.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Somewhere we can speak without interruption."

Smooth as silk, Zara led up beyond the clouds of Evie's core space and into a greater darkness. It reminded him of his own core, though Evie's was less...refined? There were bits of debris floating around, remnants of Mana or inert matter from her visualizations...he wasn't sure which. Reality got hazy in core spaces, after all. But after a short while, Felix realized they weren't in a core space at all. He stopped floating after Zara and looked around in alarm.

"What is this?" he asked.

"We are...adjacent to Evie's core. Not quite attached to her Aspects, but related," Zara said.

"This feels familiar," Felix said, repressing a shudder. The last time he'd been in a similar place, he had been dragged there by an insane goddess. He pressed himself downward, easily phasing back into Evie's core space. A little of the tension drained from his shoulders, but he still looked up at Zara with a frown. "Let's keep this short."

Zara pursed her lips, giving him a look that might have cowed Felix several months ago. When he didn't respond or even alter his expression, Zara floated down to speak to him at the same level.

"Very well. I would ask you how."

"How, what?" Felix asked.

"How did you accomplish that," she said, gesturing below them. Evie's core spun about, a crazy complex ring of multiple Mana types. "I could hear the Grand Harmony interplaying among her being, but yours is...it is opaque to me in a way that I find disconcerting, Felix."

"A little Will and Intent, but mostly it was two of my Skills," he said with a shrug. "Cardinal Flame for the Mana control and shaping, and Fiendforge. It's a Unique Skill."

"Fiend...forge? You spoke of Cardinal Flame, but I do not recall mention of this other, let alone that it was Unique." Zara tapped her lips with a long, ochre finger. Her hair looked like flowing water in the darkness, lit up by the flashes of power below them. "What can it do?"

"It was after I...survived my Omen Path. It allows me to shape the Paths of others, and apparently also means I can influence people's core spaces. I did the same for Atar." He grinned. "Worked so well both times, I hope I can use it on all of my teammates."

"...Impossible. That is not a Skill that should exist, especially not under the System itself. It has...restrictions..." Zara took a breath, and had she been less self-possessed, Felix was sure she would have slapped her own forehead. "Unbound. Right. The impossible does not figure into the calculus of your life, does it?"

Felix just shrugged again.

"How did you know to do this? To form her core in such a way?"

"I didn't," Felix said, nodding to Evie's shining form below. "She did. I just...listened, I guess." He laughed. "It's a lot less impressive in that sense. I'm a...battery, I suppose. Feeding her enough power to achieve what she always would have."

"She would not have done this alone," Zara said.

Felix blinked. "What?"

Distantly he heard a scream. Zara looked up too.

"That is coming from the external chambers," she said, concern creasing her brow. "Who"

More agonized howls tore across them both, accompanied by a sudden and intense fear. Below, Evie's Temper suddenly bucked.

"That's Alister!" Felix shouted. "Watch Evie!"

He hurled himself from Evie's core space.

"FELIX!"

Felix rose from the darkness and moved. He surged up, cracking ice and sand from his knees and tearing his Garment apart, but it barely registered.

Screams filled the air.

Five undead scrabbled across the chamber, crowding in from the twisty corridor. Their wide mouths and grasping claws scrabbled across the sands, held at bay by a plane of raw force Mana. Alister was on the ground, curled over Atar's still-unconscious form. His arm was upraised, bleeding and shaking as the undead slashed and scratched. Cracks splintered the shield, and the mage cried out.

The shield shattered. Alister shouted.

Felix was already moving. He leaped through the bursting shield and took the foremost Dustwights to the ground. They wailed in his face, but his hands throttled their skinny necks, cutting off the sound with a dry creak. The other three immediately dog-piled on him, their teeth and claws slashing his Garment further, but ricocheting from the scales that burst along his back and arms.

They were not enough.

Emerging talons tore undead throats apart, raining dark sand from the ragged wounds. The others he seized with fire.

Cardinal Flame!

Red-gold flame burned them, limning their withered bodies in carmine light that did little to hurt them. It had a terrible effect on Health, but these things were entirely Stamina-fueled. His claws would have to do, then. Seconds later, he stood among the shredded and twitching remnants of their bodies, and ate them all.

Chthonic Tribute!

"You good?" he asked his friend.

"Y-yeah," Alister said, looking at Felix's claws and shuddering. He was shakya clear sign of Mana drainbut despite the bleeding his Health wasn't too bad. After a lesser Health Tonic, even that went away. Atar was unharmed, thankfully, and Zara still hovered over the Tempering form of Evie. "Those things came out of nowhere. I-I don't know what's happening up above, but it cannot be good."

"No, it's not," Felix growled. The Leviathan's bones blocked his Perception and Affinity from reaching too far beyond their location, but the sounds of shouting and screaming hadn't stopped. The echoes of battle fed into their chamber. "I'm going up. Stay here."

Alister was downing a Mana Potion, already on his feet. "No, I'm coming with you."

"Someone has to protect them," Felix said, jerking his chin at their prone friends. "Zara is watching over Evie as she Tempers her Body, and Atar is still coping with his changed core. Here." Felix handed over two more Mana Potions from his satchel. "I'll block the door, but keep those shields handy. Focus on destroying their heads. If nothing else that'll disorient them. Hopefully I'll be able to stop any more from coming down this way."

Alister clenched his jaw, frustration clear on his face and Spirit, but nodded sharply. "Very well. Kill them all, Felix."

Felix only grunted as he stalked into the corridor, using a casual Stone Shaping to block the doorway. It was only a hardened sandstone, but it'd give the undead pause at least. He ran.

The crooked hallway was tight, but Felix moved as fast as he was able, kicking off corners to increase his speed. The bone held strong, though the stone shattered in a few places. He slowed only once, when a dozen Yttins fled past him.

"What's going on?" he asked, but only got terrified clicking in response. They ran back the way Felix had come.

Crashing sounded ahead, far closer than before, and Felix's head whipped toward it. Damnit. He increased his pace, rapidly hurtling around another two corners. I need to be faster. He promised to himself that his next free points were going to focus on Agility and Dexterity. It was past time those stats caught up with the rest.

He turned a final corner and nearly ran straight into another collection of the undead.

"GRAAOU!" they hiss-moaned. The creatures stumbled before him, flinching with every step, but they barely hesitated to attack.

Felix ripped through them like paper.

How the hell did they get past the Leviathan's influence? The shaman had assured him they wouldn't come close, and it had proven true before. What changed?

Then he saw.

Dustborn Wraith, three of them, down the hall. The tore into two Yttins while slashing at more Dustwights to force them forward. The undead were being driven, like murderous cattle.

Chthonic Tribute!

Luminescent smoke poured into Felix as he ran, and flame burst along his limbs.

"Get off of them!"

Vess coughed up blood onto the dusty stone. It was a brilliant red, compared to the dead winds raging around her, glowing with blood and life Mana. So very different from the Dustborn Wights she had fought. She'd killed two of them, but that hadn't been enough. Vess had thought she could take the creatures, but the claw buried in her gut spoke otherwise.

"Y-you...mi-i-ine," the Dustborn Wraith whispered to her, and Vess was so shocked she barely felt her body being slammed into the cliff again. She couldn't seem to move properly. "Mi-i-ine!"

They talk!?

Her Mind whirled, too groggy for thought, but that burned at her consciousness. Her Health slipped away, not terribly fast, but inexorable. Her potions were shattered on the ground, stomped by clawed feet, the first clue that these undead were not like the rest.

A mouth of fangs opened above her, and dimly she felt its Spirit. It was...happy. Sadistically so.

You Have Been Cursed!

Status Condition: Dustborn

D-dammit, the curse. Vess could feel its tendrils reaching into her, spreading across her Body like a wildfire. It burned with a sun-baked heat, like sand in her veins.

The Wraith leaned forward, pushing its bone-plate covered face toward her own. It sniffed deeply. It...hesitated. Between them, Vess felt an echo shudder into being, like the tread of someone down a city block, heels clicking against the cobbles. A...something...approached, distant and indistinct, vast and powerful and so very, very old. She shuddered, quaking so hard she bit right through her tongue and did not care a whitall Vess could do was stare at the call of it. The echo strengthened, a cry that threatened to split her apart if it drew any closer. Blood dribbled form her mouth. It called

"FULMINATION!"

Lightning took the Wraith in the chest, followed oh so closely by a massive ice-forged axe. It tumbled off of Vess and into the sands, spewing dark sand from its torso.

"Lady Dayne! Are you" a sharp gasp cut the voice off, and a woman around her own age leaned over her. "H-here, ma'amer, milady. Your Grace!"

A Health Potion was fumbled to Vess' lips, and she gratefully drank it down, letting the alchemical magic flare through her channels. Her descending Health began to rally, leaping a full five hundred points from that one vial, but it did nothing to touch the curse that burned through her Body.

Not enough to stop a Dragoon, she thought with a fierce burst of anger. The girl, Pava, handed Vess her spear and she nodded in thanks and leveraged herself to her feet. Not enough by half.

A Dwarven Blade, a Risi Warrior, a Henaari Dawnguard, and a Half-Orc Arclight surrounded the Dustborn Wraith. Lightning peppered the creature, though the Half-Orc was all but breathing in Mana Potions. He was running out, fast, but his companions had Stamina to spare. They swung and thrust in an irregular tempo, none of them giving any quarter to the slashing claws of the hunched Wraith. Sand leaked from its body in lieu of blood, something Vess had notice from the other Wraiths...the same Wraiths that suddenly emerged from the raging dust storm around them.

Not dead. Blighted undead!

"Two more?" Pava said and gripped her own longsword. "I need to help them."

"Not alone."

"Ma'am?"

Vess snarled, bearing her bloody teeth. "A Dragoon fights together."

Wyrmling's Call!

Spear of Tribulations!

A spectral dragon's head formed around Vess' own, and its roar blasted the Cursewinds around them in a forty-stride bubble of quaking air.

You Have Taunted A Dustborn Wraith (x3)!

Silver spears manifested around her, seven floating in the storm. "Go!"