The mud squelched beneath his feet with every pounding footfall. It was slick. Treacherous. He’d need to be cautious — even with his Skills, the slippery muck would play hell on his leverage. At least he could still rely on his Shunt if he needed to rapidly reposition.
Kaius gripped his blade tightly, holding it out low to his side in a bastardised fools’ guard. It would have left him open against any competent warrior, but the slumbering hell-beast across the clearing wouldn’t be as…cerebral. More importantly, the guard was a good set-up for the heavy slashes and cleaves that worked so well against non-human opponents.
Just barely keeping pace with his brother’s charge, he longed to call upon his glyphs. Slumbering as it was, the beast was totally open for him to deliver the fury of a dozen Hateful Nails.
He grit his teeth — it would have to wait until the battle started in truth. The less time the gorespike had to react before Porkchop grabbled it, the better.
Bounding forward, Porkchop hit the ground just a little harder than normal. His pauldrons jostled, clanking as thick orichalchum plates slammed together.
The gorespike jolted at the noise, unfurling in an instant. Its grotesque, too-broad head snapped towards them. Small, pinprick eyes widened; it lurched to its feet and grunted in confusion. It had woken, but the beast was confused — as if it couldn’t quite believe they truly had the audacity.
It was a Gold. The sovereign of its dominion within Vainblood. Kaius doubted if it has ever been attacked in its den before.
They made it another dozen strides across the muddy ground before it let loose a deep, resonant squeal of fury. It shook its head, before its twisted maw opened wide as it roared. Cloven trotters braced against the roots of the tree it had slept beneath. Bark cracked beneath its foot as it kicked off.
The charge came far too late. They were already close enough for Porkchop’s skills.
Moving at a full sprint, Porkchop accelerated. Kaius watched a roiling energy burn within his brother’s chest as he tapped into Breaker of Men. It built with every step, the ground shaking. Orichalcum spikes erupted in a wave just ahead of Porkchop, spraying mud in every direction.
The gorespike didn’t so much as flinch. Glistening red spikes on its back and shoulders glowed with internal light — its own Skill. Aborting its advance, it braced, angling the brutal spines directly at Porkchop’s chest. A pike-line to his cavalry charge.
Kaius’s heart leapt into his throat, but he forced himself to trust in his brother. Porkchop was strong — and even with Fractured Warp, Kaius just didn’t have the mass to divert the beast before the two of them clashed.
Moments before impact, Porkchop summoned his Ephemeral Phalanx and roared. A ghostly shieldwall snapped into existence. Spears levelled, the shieldline charged in time with their master. Crimson spines slammed into the shields, rocking the gorespike back just slightly as they bit into the ephemeral barriers. Ghostly weapons lanced the creature’s rust-stained hide, spilling small rivulets of blood. A small wound — but only the first of many.
With the gorespike off-balance, Porkchop dropped his shoulder — deflecting a spine off his pauldron. It sounded like cannon fire when he hit the beast.
The gorespike staggered back. Porkchop smashed it in the side of its head, his paw formed into a crude club by Jade Crash. Dazing the creature, he dug his claws deep and shoved it back — forcing it a little closer to the twisted briars.
As it stumbled back, its throat was bared for the briefest of moments. An arrow slammed home, the churning mud mixing with a fresh dose of red.
Kaius flew in. Their opening had gone well, but they had to keep the pressure up. This was a Gold beast, with all of the physical advantages of its enormous body. If they let it rally, they might never get it tangled in the briars. They would all be far safer if they could neuter its mobility.
Embers ignited on his hands, Drakthar expelling a deluge of waste mana as Kaius called upon it to deliver a furious salvo. A dozen Nails ripped towards his target. They shattered the air with their passage, filling the clearing with staccato cracks.
Each one sunk a handspan into the creature's flank. The gorespike’s hide tore open, blood spilling in a wave. Kaius hissed in displeasure — vanguard indeed, those shots should have sunk far deeper than that.
Bellowing, the creature recoiled — opening itself up for another Skill-backed charge as Porkchop tossed it back.
Another twenty strides, and the cruel barbs of the briars would start biting into the creature’s thick hide. They could do this.
Kaius flashed to the creature’s side, Slip Step blurring the world around him. He flickered constantly, a glistening spine sliding harmlessly through the edge of his arm as the gorespike lunged towards him. Kaius bared his teeth, bloodlust surging. Gods, that was satisfying. When he’d first gotten the spell, he’d have been lucky to flicker out of step with reality a handful of times in a single cast. Now, it happened a couple of times a second.
Hellblade Investiture burned; Kaius cut. The edge of his blade ripped through its hide, cutting into the meat of its shoulder. No bone, though, and its flesh felt like hacking at an oak stump.
Kenva was no slouch either, arrow after arrow slamming into the gorespike. The creature’s hide was thick, catching the shots before they could do more than light wounds — but Kenva had the best aim of all of them. She threaded her shots into every rent opened by blade and claw, punching deep into the softer meat. One roared with a screaming wind, buffeting the creature right as Porkchop slammed into it. The Skill-backed arrow gouged a chunk from its shoulder. It staggered, sliding back through the mud — and flinched as briar-thorns scraped along its haunches.
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“First keyseal up! Half a minute until the first spells are ready!” Ianmus called from above, his voice joined by a golden flash of mana.
Kaius grinned as the hungry thrill within him flared to new heights. It had been seconds since their battle had started, and they’d nearly achieved their first goal. Gods, he loved a well-executed plan — especially one that let him wallow in the joy of searing mana and cutting steel.
Dozens of wounds littered the gorespike’s flesh, an endless stream of blood pumping out of the cuts. It was almost comical — an impossible volume that seemed to well up from even the shallowest scratches they had left. It had to be the influence of the Zone Effect. They would have to be careful if it was this severe.
Yet for all it bled, Kaius sensed nothing but a building furor from the gorespike. Its legs stood strong and stable, even the one that Kenva had torn a chunk out of — and its eyes burned with impassioned rage.
Tearing a line across its ribs with Mystic Rend, Kaius was forced to Shunt away as the creature lunged towards him with its jaw open wide. All that bleeding, and it barely noticed it.
That…could be a problem, actually. They usually wore tough bastards like this down, layering wounds and conditions until they could barely stand. Blood loss was a major one — even without afflictions, restoring spent vitality pulled heavily on a creature’s health. But if the gorespike had adapted to its environment, they wouldn’t be able to rely on that. Hells, they’d barely seen any of its Skills yet. This battle was far from won.
The sooner they could toss this bastard into the briars, the better.
“Last push!” he yelled to Porkchop and the rest of their team. “I’ll stun it, you ram it!”
Porkchop only grunted, back claws digging into the muck as the creature bucked its head in an attempt to gore his chest. Jutting fangs scraped across his breastplate with a squeal. The creature didn’t so much as flinch when Kaius hacked into its neck with a cleaving overhand, nor when Kenva’s arrows slammed into the newly opened wound.
It did when an ocean of mana and stamina surged through Porkchop’s body. Primal strength boiled within him. He swelled, joints popping and bones cracking as he grew two strides taller. Ghostly mist burned through the seams on his armour.
Gladespirit. Kaius acted immediately. His brother’s capstone Skill granted him an incredible boost to his physicality, but the Resource cost was obscene.
Lightning wreathed his hands. A forty-point towering crown of antlers sprouted from Porkchop’s head, as glorious as it was ephemeral. The gorespike bellowed, spines glowing with infernal light as it threw itself forward.
Orichalcum plate crunched. One spine punched through, releasing a high pressure spray of blood from Porkchop’s chest. Kaius clenched his teeth, unleashing the fury of the storm. Crackling arcs burned against the beast's skin, coiling through its flesh.
The gorespike screamed shrilly as smoke rose from blackened wounds. Kaius hurled two more thunderous spells at the creature, forcing its body to seize.
Growling, Porkchop attacked. Massive claws of glittering grey plunged into the creature’s chest, wedging themselves deep in muscle, bone, and natural armoured hide. A basso roar echoed through Vainblood, sending a thousand birds screaming in terror for leagues around. Pulling on every bit of his might, he heaved — rearing up as he tossed the gorespike, a beast almost as heavy as he.
Kaius pulled up short as he watched ten tons of meat scream as it flailed through the air. Twisted canes shattered beneath the creature's bulk as it crunched into the briar patch, dagger-length thorns raking through its hide and painting the grey creature solid red. It hit the ground, rolling back to its feet. Every movement snapped the arm-thick bramble canes, but more and more of them latched onto its flesh, peppering it with wounds and tangling its movement.
“Fucking hells, Porkchop,” he said — though he didn’t stop from sprinting to the edge of the briar. Nails erupted from his hand, slamming into the creature's chest. It squealed.
The beast was a solid ten strides into the patch — far further than they’d needed, but he wasn’t going to complain.
“That spike hurt. Bleeding effect,” Porkchop said simply.
Porkchop raced into the gap, planting himself between the gorespike and its freedom. Gladespirit dissipated as he moved — the cost far too extreme to keep up when it wasn’t necessary.
Kaius didn’t miss that the hole in his brother’s chest was still absolutely gushing blood. It was stemming as the wound healed, but the sheer volume was alarming. Even if it had been caused by a Skill that had left a bleeding affliction, Porkchop had the Sigil of Vesryn’s Pact inscribed on his chest — he benefited from a portion of Kaius’s resistances!
Both of them would need to be careful. Even with their prodigious regeneration skills, too many hits like that would overwhelm them easily.
Kaius tightened his grip on his blade as a terrible scream filled the air. Bound in the cruelest of chains, the gorespike steadied itself, staring at them hatefully. He saw nothing but fiery rage in its pinprick eyes of black. Dozens of thorns had punched through its hide. Every wound in its flesh poured with blood, running down its legs in steady streams.
It puddled in the churned ground, a gleaming lake of red that slowly stretched outwards, watering the surrounding briars.
The gorespike pawed at the ground.
Bracing for its charge, Kaius readied himself to unleash on the creature as Porkchop blocked its charge.
The assault never came.
Instead, an ocean of mana ignited within the creature's chest. Kaius’s heart thumped in his chest, searching for any sign of the Skill it was about to use.
The first sign was the pooling blood bulging upwards. Every drop of red gravitated to the beast’s legs as weeping wounds ran in reverse. Thin rivulets wove their way up the creature’s body, beading on the edges of the chitinous spikes that sprouted from its back and shoulders.
The beads merged, great globs enveloping the spikes utterly as the blood lengthened and stretched, turning into a dozen lashing tendrils. They kept growing.
Kaius held his ground, preemptively summoning a Bound Maelstrom as he watched the gorespike warily. They just had to hold it where it was. The briars were cutting constant wounds in the creature, burning away at its health, and Kenva had never stopped her constant barrage.
Yet every wound just fed the snapping tendrils; lengthening and thickening them. All of the creature’s blood fed the Skill — small streams working their way past him and Porkchop as they gravitated back to the gorespike. With every swiping lash, the blood tendrils cleaved through the canes of the surrounding briars, tearing the gorespike more space.
It was suddenly obvious how the creature had maintained such an open space in the ripping briars. If it wanted to flee, there was nothing they could do to stop it.
And yet, that wasn’t going to be a problem. Kaius could see it in the deadlock stare it held on him and his brother; hear it in the furious, guttural snorts that washed over them like war drums. The gorespike was maddened by their attack — furious at their gall to attack it in its den.
This only ended in death, one way or the other.
Dozens of tendrils snapped towards them in hunger, still fed by the creature’s weeping wounds.
The gorespike charged.