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."