...
Invocation is level 37!
Theurgist of the Rise is level 59!
Mana Manipulation is level 47!
Mana Manipulation is level 48!
Felix and Pit both gasped a desperate breath when it was finished, but their Will held strong. A single thread of Mana extended between him and the array he'd improvised. He had done it. They had done it.
Felix let his Voracious Eye roam below, identifying Acolytes and Revenants. The temporary shield was flickering wildly now, likely under great amounts of stress from DuFont. He couldn't see any of his friends or allies. It was time.
Here goes nothing, Pit.
Atar's plan was mad. It was foolish and foolhardy, one of the worst he'd ever devised.
It was, in his own words, 'a Felix special.'
Hah! Atar looked up, trying to find the Unbound above them. The cavernous roof was almost entirely obfuscated by the swirling mists. His mood sobered at the thought of a giant rock falling on all of them. They had to move with alacrity.
Evie, impetuous imp that she was, had already engaged the dangerous Initiate. And she was losing.
As the group raced into position, she fought desperately against the Initiate. The man was lightning on two feet, the faster by far. So much so that he seemed to be toying with her.
Hold it together, Evie! He ran through the plan in his mind once more, but couldn't keep his eyes off the fight. His Perception was excellent enough that he could see their exchange clearly despite the mist and distance. Run! Don't fight!
Evie ducked beneath a sword swipe, but couldn't dodge the man's knee. She tried to block it with her right forearm. The metal shod appendage drove her own arm up and into her chest, lifting her bodily into a counter thrust from the man's weapon.
A Sparkbolt hit the Initiate's legs and the man skittered backward. He looked up, almost as surprised as Atar himself felt. His hand was extended and everything.
"Thought we were supposed to be stealthy, Atar?" Vess shouted, glee in her voice.
"Don't care! Kick their teeth in!" Cal screamed, before blurring forward. The Hand was right behind her.
"Bodie!" Atar shouted.
"On it, little man!" Bodie's easy going voice came to them, the only one to have peeled off in another direction.
Though she landed awkwardly, Evie immediately pressed the advantage, spinning her chain in a deadly dance that the Initiate immediately fended off.
Idiot, Atar groused.
"Open fire!" the Initiate shouted, seeing the figures racing toward them. Atar liked to think there was panic in his voice. There was certainly panic in the fire mage as several hundred Acolytes opened up into a blinding volley of light aspected Mana bolts.
"Ah!" Atar threw up a wave of fire, his Field of Flame turned on a separate axis, and a large amount of the golden bolts were consumed.
"Our turn!" Vess shouted, and her spears screamed through the air.
Bodie slid to a stop, his eyes taking in the sorry state of the redcloak's supply wagon. The two avum were tangled in their harnesses and half broken traces, reduced to chirping in wide-eyed fear and pain. "Shh shh, I'll save you." With a single tug, Bodie tore apart offending straps and freed them. "Run along, sweeties."
Once the giant birds scurried free, Bodie reached down to the overturned wagon. "Strength of Many!" His already impeccable frame filled with muscle, his Stamina and Mana dropping by a quarter as his Strength and Endurance jumped by thirty percent. In a single movement, Bodie lifted the entire thing.
And he threw it.
Crown of Ignis!
Atar's Crown manifested above his head, the outward sign of his mastery of the fire element. Potency flooded his channels as his core redoubled in size and ferocity. The power of it sang to him, crooned of all that he could do, but Atar knew better than to listen. He followed the plan.
Atar had noticed the glyphs painted on several crates that had spilled out of the broken wagon. It may have been a reckless scheme, but it was their best chance.
Sparkbolt!
Harn, Vess, and the two Elders were already facing down the collective fire of the Inquisition, freeing up Cal and the Hand to face the Initiate. They fired back, waves of metal, air, shadow, and lightning Mana hitting the small army with deadly force. But even they paused for a second to see the wagon tumble above their heads and into the midst of the redcloaks.
It rolled in the air, almost frozen in time. Its contents began to spill from it's rent sides, but it was too late.
Just before it hit the redcloaks, Atar's Sparkbolt reached it.
The wagon exploded with such force that Atareasily a hundred strides awaywas thrown off his feet. The redcloaks did not fare as well.
Death and destruction enveloped the company, while the kinetic force of the explosion sent undamaged vials and bottles hurling in all directions. Health, Mana, and Stamina potions scattered to the four winds, but it was the Incendiary potions that ripped up the tiles and heavy roots just as easily as they killed squad after squad of Acolytes. There was even a single, branching bolt of lightning that hit and scattered those few remaining on their feet.
A Fulmination Potion?! Atar marveled, climbing back to his feet. They pulled out all the stops here.
The Initiate was also thrown from his feet, but he was already in a bad way. The Hand hovered over the man, greatsword still sheathed, his bare hands dripping with the other's blood. Evie rushed up from behind him, chain whirling.
"Step away, Hand! He's mine!"
Cal grabbed her from behind, arresting her left arm. "Leave it! We don't have time!"
Another explosion rocked the cavern, and Atar looked around in confusion. Until several massive boulders easily as big as an avum slammed into the ground all around them, crushing Revenants and redcloaks alike.
"Look!" Vess pointed up, and they could just barely see a winged form flying above, before it was assaulted by a rainbow of Mana bolts. "Felix!"
"We have to run! Now!" Cal barked, before taking off. With a terrified look up, Atar followed.
Don't you dare drop that crystal on me!