Unbound

Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy Nine - 279

Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy Nine - 279

"Stygian Shadow!"

Isyk, her junior, thrust his spear forward. The area around Ifre's berm darkened to pitch, the light ripped so violently away that the tunnel around it began to frost. Yet still, Ifre could see a dim orange bloom on the other side.

"Isyk, take everyone, turn them back!" She licked her lips, though her mouth was utterly dry. "We have to use another way."

"As you will, Captain."

The shadows exploded, torn asunder by another burst of hungry orange flames. Isyk reeled, his nose bloodied, as the Blessing was rebounded upon him. But Ifre hadn't the time to worry about her subordinate. All three Wurms slipped through her berm like water, not even so much as slowed down by their workings.

Wander's Prowl!

Spear of the Second Flight!

Ifre zipped ahead, taking the lead Wurm under its segmented jaw with her suddenly flexible spear. The metal and wood of it bent and twisted to her Will, easily slipping into the spaces between the Wurm's rocky carapace. It screamed in pain and fury. She twisted her spear before ripping it back out. Dark ichor spouted onto the earth, but she kept moving.

Stab. Feint. Thrust. Dodge. Fighting the Wurms was straining her Stamina and pushing her Agility to the limit. They were fast, slippery, and Night-cursed strong. Her spear found the gaps in their segments, again and again, bleeding them by tiny bits. Yet they were relentless, so she couldn't stop. She had to give her people time to escape. If she could

Screams arose behind her. A wash of heat and light pulled a gasp from Ifre's chest. Wurms emerged from the tunnel, midway down their group.

"No!"

Two more rose ahead too, pushing out of the stone and dirt, and their gaping maws joined the others. Five mouths filled the tunnel with orange light, enough to flood them all with hungry flame.

Blessing of Berm!

Blessing of Berm!

Blessing of Berm!

Ifre spun her spear, each whirling thrust tearing walls from the earth. She poured her Willpower into it, reinforcing her creations with all the Mana and Stamina she could spare.

The liquid fire tore through it all, and vicious heat cut short the screams all around her. Ifre braced.

And waited.

Yet...nothing? She expected flames and pain. Yet all she felt was...cold.

Ifre opened her eyes. And saw a swirling field of frozen clouds among the crumbled remnants of her Blessings. A terrible, dire chill assaulted her Body, forcing Ifre a step back, but she peered into its depths. Blue light flickered among the fog, illuminating the outline of the five Wurms.

"Captain!"

The shocked voice of Isyk pulled her attention back, and she saw that the two Wurms in the rear had frozen as well, entirely subsumed by blue-white flames. Her people shied away from the heat, wincing and crying in alarm.

"What's happening, Captain?"

Ifre felt Mana moving around her, so much that it felt like her people's wards gathering momentum. It hummed through everything.

The outsider...!

He emerged from the clouds of frost, his eyes lit like the blazing fire all around him. He rolled his shoulders, and each arm was outstretched toward the five Wurms around him, as if he were holding them back. "Give me, like, thirty seconds."

What? He didn't even sound strained.

The thrum of Mana increased, until a visible vapor joined the frozen, swirling fog around him. The blue-white fire redoubled and, for a moment, Ifre couldn't see anything except a shimmering haze of incandescent light.

When it cleared, the Wurms were destroyed. All of them. Pulped into a purple mess against the stone walls.

"All of you, come with me!" A familiar voice called from beyond the outsider. A shape in the dark resolved into A'zek, the Farwalker's Companion. "More are on their way, Felix."

"I know." With a curt gesture, the earth folded over itself, grabbing and dragging the remains of the Wurms down into the stone itself. He looked at her and his blue eyes flashed again. "Go with A'zek...Captain Ifre. He'll lead you all to the Farwalker and others."

Ifre gestured to Isyk, and her people started guiding the remaining folk onward. The outside ran his hands across the walls, as if he were searching. Some tried to stop and stare or offer thanks, but gentle prods kept them all moving. A slight tug at her gambeson pulled her attention down. Eigo's youngest was there, looking at the outsider and biting his lip.

"Did the Raven lie?" he asked.

Ifre swallowed, unsure how to handle the question. The boy had said they were going to die, but the Raven never lied. It wasn't in its nature. She ushered the boy ahead of her, joining with him as they moved further down the tunnel. Away from the outsider and whatever else was coming.

"The Raven"

"The Raven only showed the Farwalker death in the tunnels," the outsider interrupted. He glanced at the boy before looking harder at Ifre. "But that's not happening. Not today." He looked past them, past even the stone itself. His eyes gleamed. "Go. Run now."

Her people began to run into the dark tunnels, following the harnoq's lead. An explosion echoed abruptly down the path, but when she looked back for the outsider, all Ifre saw was cracked earth. The outsider was gone.

The Raven had not lied. Death had come to the tunnels.

Just not for them.

Pit forced his wings down, hurling air Mana beneath him and his passengers, fighting against the pull of the earth. It was hard, but he could do it. He'd been training for this, after all.

Flight is level 47!

"You can do it, Pit," the Dangerous One said, rubbing at his neck. The feel of her was warm and vibrant, a whirlwind contained, while the others were a collection of conflicting sensations. A cold nimbleness, a rigid heat, and a steady, heavy pressure. The Pretty Killer, the Firebrand, and the Stabby One. He knew their names, the ones they used among themselves, but Pit preferred to think of them this way.

"It's probably Atar, weighing us all down!" Pretty Killer shouted as they ascended, narrowly missing a protruding, scraggly tree. "I saw how much you ate today!"

"Oh, shove it up your aaaa" Firebrand screamed, nearly unseated when Pit had to kick off an annoyingly protruding crag. Only the quick hands of the Stabby One and Pretty Killer together kept him in place.

"Evie, shut up, if you please," the Dangerous One breathed.

Pit screeched, putting them out of his mind as he climbed the mountain. The four of them were shifting now, jostled by Pit's movements; a far cry from Felix's in-sync motions while riding. Yet, with another furious burst of effort, they shot up and over the lowest peak. Air Mana shot off beneath him, Wingblades fired for good measure, to boost them up and over. They surged upward into the star-filled sky.

"Blind gods," the Pretty Killer gasped.

Below them, the valley was awash in flames. It lit up the night, sending huge plumes of smoke into the sky. Hovering momentarily in the thin air, Pit wanted to cry out, but that would ruin their task. Felix had sent instructions as they parted, and Pit knew what to do. Even now the tenku could sense his Companion speeding toward one of the tunnels. He'd reach it in seconds.

Pit tilted his body and tucked his wings. He dove.

The Humans on his back almost screamed, but they held onto control, burying their fear and exhilaration into their grips and breathing. Two hundred feet below, Pit snapped open his wings, letting the rising air currents lift him up and away from the mountain's slope, pushing him out into the valley.

Flight is level 48!

Silver spears manifested around them as they flew, keeping pace despite Pit's increasing speed. He felt something ignite between his wings, and the gathering crackle of heaviness and cold fluidity.

"There," the Dangerous One whispered. Pit's eyes followed her pointed gauntlet, zeroing in on three huge, ice-bound warriors trudging heavily through the burning forest. He angled himself in their direction, but not before noting the placement of six other groups of Reforged slowly spreading through the valley. Searching.

I will fly low. You all drop. Attack in the dark.

Pit sent the thought at his Companion's friendshis own friendsbut only the first two looked at him in shock. The women both nodded at him, and the cold one grinned.

We begin.

Felix burst from the mossy earth, his arrival heralded by a great shaking and booming of explosively displaced rock and dirt. Hurled into the air, Felix's hands were wrapped around the neck of a segmented Wurm, dark with purple ichor, and it was not happy.

"HISSSS!"

Cloudstep!

Unfettered Volition!

Twisting in mid-air and kicking off a panel of solidified Mana, Felix pivoted all of his considerable weight downward. The Wurm, attached to him by his indefatigable grip, had no choice but to follow. It's rocky body crackled and snapped as it bent farther than it was ever meant to, and Felix hit the ground with its mandibles directly under his fists.

The Wurm's face disintegrated into a fine mist of purple gunk.

Before it's body cooled, another surged from the earth, this time directly beneath him at at speeds that rivaled Felix's own. It emerged, jaws agape, only to find a curved blade held horizontally over top it's form. It tore itself apart as it's momentum drove it helplessly upward and through the razor sharp bronze sword. Its two sides spun off to either side of Felix, raining hot offal all over him.

You Have Killed A Wurm (x2)!

XP Earned!

God, that stinks.

Out loud, he said, "That all of them?"

"Yes," came the deep voiced reply. A'zek emerged from the ragged hole Felix's Body had blasted through the earth. "I am surprised. I sense no more in the surrounding area."

Felix cracked his neck. That last fight had been a doozy. The Wurms hadn't hurt him too badlyonly knocking about 10% off his Health and Staminabut it had been a surprise that his Stone Shaping was worthless against them. They simply swam through it. Wispfire and swords, on the other hand, worked just fine. "Why aren't you with the group?"

The harnoq leaped atop a large, solitary stone. It was at least thirty feet up. "They are being met by my Companion and the...Matriarch."

Felix grunted in surprise. "She deciding they're worth saving?"

An unreadable emotion flashed across A'zek's Spirit. "We must find the last flight of Henaari. They are no doubt in as much danger as this group."

Felix bent over and wiped his Crescian Blade against some plush looking moss before resheathing it. The night was growing lighter and...smokier.

"Over there," A'zek said. He nodded to the northeast. "The other tunnels are this way."

"Into the fire, huh?" Felix asked, but the chimera was already running. "Good thing I've got resistance."

Having Agility and Perception as high as Felix did was a curious and wondrous thing. When he moved, truly moved, it was like nothing he'd experienced. It was like moving through a world on pause, as his Perception fed him ten trillion bits of information and his Agility moved his Body fast enough to make use of that information. Enough sensory details to make a lesser man's head explode from the pressure. But because his Intelligence was even higher than Perception and Agilityand he'd Tempered a powerful Journeyman MindFelix had no issues with processing any of it. The result was a Felix shaped blur that tore through the trees and gathering smoke, plunging straight into the raging fires.

Abyssal Skein!

A'zek was behind him, somewhere, but once they started moving all Felix had to do was stick to the sides of the valley. As the Void crawled out of his core space and enveloped him, Felix became like a ghost flitting through the flames. He could somehow feel his own presence vanish, cut off by the skin of Void-stuff around him. Or maybe just...spread out into the world around him. Faded.

Abyssal Skein is level 46!

Hm. So not separated, but spread thin into my surroundings. Less active camouflage and more like...I dunno. Magic, I guess.

He saw the Reforged first. Huge andto himponderous, they each carried conjured ice weapons and swung them with a steady monotony that cleared through redwood-sized trees and low hills. They didn't give any indication that the raging fires bothered them at all, often wading through patches of smolder underbrush in their relentless sweep outward.

Felix ran up the side of the cliff, his feet sure and powerful. It was hard not to crack to stone beneath him, but he managed, letting his presence to mostly get eaten up by his Skein. Felix could sense that others were out there, moving farther abroad. Before him was not the only place on fire, and the Reforged gave off such a glimmer of ice Mana that they were, ironically, like a torch in the night.

Pit. Have you begun?

Yes. A flash of sense images filtered through their bond. Fire. Ice axes swung. Impact and pain, but not Pit's. Six fight.

There are another eight to the north east of you. Be careful. I'm going to save the last group now, he sent.

Stay safe.

You too, lil pig.

Felix crept along the cliff face, his uncanny Dexterity keeping him balanced atop ledges thinner than a finger, while his Strength supported his considerable bulk. It wasn't much farther, the tunnel, just around another two bends and he could see a grove of tightly grouped trees and thorns. Similar to the illusion that hid the encampment, this had clearly once hidden the tunnel's entrance, but the Mana of the array was shattered. Burned. Four Reforged stood close by, ranging between fifteen and twenty feet tall, while among their feet almost a dozen Hoarhounds prowled.

Ten hounds. Four Reforged. And, Felix narrowed his eyes. One Arcid.

The fire-attuned Arcid hunched at the entrance to the tunnel and was shouting something in a guttural language into its depths. Felix didn't understand the words, but the creature's twisted Spirit rippled with aggression, anger, and a deep, unsettling craving.

"Tua effrata! I give you until count of ten, little wanderers!" It's furnace-like body creaked and groaned with every shift, and a white heat flared up within the grates on his chest. "Ten counts and then I will be not so merciful!"

"The creature baits them," a voice said behind him, and it took all Felix had not to jump. "What does it aim for?"

"How do you keep sneaking up on me?" Felix asked. A'zek didn't reply, only stared at the Arcid with hate in his dark, liquid-seeming eyes. "He probably wants to know where your Companion is, or the other leadership. You've all been a bit of a thorn in their side, right?"

"The Farhunter has needled them to discover their purpose, yes."

"Needled too much, maybe." Felix didn't say what he feared. That his Mark had led them there. He swallowed. "Whatever the reason, we're here to stop them. Without the Wurms they're hampered by the tunnel sizes; they can't get in, but for some reason the Henaari can't just leave the other side."

"Tunnel may have been collapsed," A'zek suggested.

"That'd make sense, and would explain why all the Wurms were at the farther exit rather than this one first." Felix bit the inside of his cheek. "They collapsed this and then moved on. Okay. Okay, I think I've got a plan."

"Tell me."