Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty Six - 236Mana filled the night with the sounds of screaming. Bestial roars and unintelligible gibbering were met with inchoate shouts and shrieking cries. Skills clashed as crimson blood and dark ichor was spilled in equal measure.
The shield wall disengaged from the horde, but it was not clean. With only a handful of those at Bronze Rank or above, there were too many points of contact to cover them all. Ice warriors, monkeys, and bugs all hit their lines and trampled dozens if not more of their warriors. Vess could only clench her teeth and attack. There was nothing she could do.
Just follow the plan!
Jagged chunks of earth and sand swept upward, slicing through the legs of a line of rapid monkeys. Vess took the opportunity to leap backward, dispatching another of her spears to explode their ranks. "Full retreat!"
Her people shouted in recognition, and a piercing command sent a streamer of crimson flame to light up the night. The monsters didn't flinch as they marched through it, but at least a few of them succumbed to the inferno.
Vess, meanwhile, ran for all she was worth. She caught up with the Tin and Iron Ranks quickly, spinning her five remaining spears to deflect the spray of spectral flames that chased them. They were running out of time. Thangle had to be ready, now.
Sweat dripped down the heiress' face, but she ignored it. A flex of her Will sent her spears outward, stabbing into the overturned streets as banner-less flagpoles. Atar and Alister hustled beyond the edge of her range, the last of their people to pull back. Columns of blue force and flowers of carmine flame flowed behind them, yet still the Reforged charged after.
Seven heartbeats, Vess thought, eyeing the horde with growing panic. That is all we can give you, Illusionist.
Will you make it work?
The monstrous Arcid tore through the weakened Wall like paper, stumbling powerfully into the Wall Quarter. It's feet smashed inns and taverns in equal measure, and it's immense girth put holes in the streets themselves. The Wall barely even paused it's mad charge.
Zara's aquamarine power had flooded outward, marking it's metal flesh with sigils the size of houses. They proved ineffectual, however. Metal eroded beneath the waves of her power, scooped away by the inevitable coursing of the seasons, yet it regrew. The creature's impossible Body was an engine of furious discordance, a sonata of spite.
"You will not escape me!" Zara spat, and rode the line of her power across the sky. Light flared behind her in ribbons and she lifted her hands high above her head. Swirling orbs of aquamarine script manifested above each fist to the peal of twelve bells the size of a man. "Seizure of the Solemn Vow!"
The orbs unfurled into writhing cages, flying from her hands to impact the gargantuan Arcid. The tendrils of script slipped around the construct before igniting with green-blue flames as they snapped into a rigid formation. The creature stopped.
"I have you," Zara hissed from the air around it. Her spell had grabbed it, but her hands trembled. "You'll go no further, abomination!"
The Arcid turned its helmeted head slowly to regard the Master Tier mage. Noxious fumes emanated from the creature not unlike the black smoke of monster dissipation. But this was an acrid pollutant that smelled of an arrhythmic tattoo, beating against the insides of Zara's temples. It's eye-fires met her own, and the effect redoubled, until she was barely holding onto the containment spell. Her Analyze flared.
Name: Apollyon
Type: Archonic Construct
Level: 73
...
A titanic caterwaul sounded from the Apollyon's chest and raced up the hollow thing's throat. The cacophonous shriek met her harmonic spellform...and pulverized it, instantly. Zara lurched backward, concentration destroyed as her Skill unraveled before her, and by the time she recovered the Apollyon had already begun to move.
With quickening steps, it stomped into Haarwatch, demolishing everything in its path. Zara stifled a frustrated scream. It was headed for the battle.
For Felix.
Activating the Song of Fury.
It was all the warning Felix received, before an outburst of oppressive yellow Mana discharged from DuFont. It was the same Mana Skill she'd been tossing around before, but amplified a hundred fold. Cal shouted something.
Stone Shaping!
Reaching deep, Felix pulled up a ten foot thick wall of conglomerated rock between them and the Inquisitor. The wave of heat Mana struck the wall with the force of a bomb, and the stone splintered a half second before it exploded.
Stone Shaping is level 51!
Stone Shaping!
Stone Shaping!
Stone Shaping!
Stone Shaping is level 54!
Wall after all, Felix threw his arms up in rapid success as the blooming heat refused to be denied. He pitted his Intelligence and Will against the force of it, but it was not enough.
"What is this!?" Felix screamed.
"I don't know!" Cal said. "Evie! Harn! Get her out of here!"
"No! I'm not leaving you!" Evie shouted back. Her chain whipped about in the volcanic winds, barely restrained by her gloved hand.
"Harn!" Cal screamed as Felix erected another wall of stone. The warrior grabbed Evie, his armor having cooled enough. Evie screamed, but Harn hauled back and stumbled into a plodding run.
What is the Song of Fury? Felix strained to hold his wall together. Beyond the curved expanse of it, he could sense the entire mansion ahead of them igniting. Smoke choked the sky, pressing ash into the storm clouds. Even the rain was gone, evaporated as it hit the expanding bubble of heat.
Felix could hear it, the Song. And by the look on Cal's face, so could she. "What is it?" she asked, but Felix shook his head. It sounded like a melding of harmonics that felt far less like the System and more...Primordial.
"It's her Authority! She's done something," Felix grunted as the wall cracked. His Mana drained out of him like a sieve as more liquid stone flowed to fill the breaks. "I can't Analyze her from here, but this is way stronger than I thought she'd be!"
"She's boosting herself!" Cal said. Her own eyes glowed with smoky shadow and deep sienna. "We need to stop her now! Can you draw her in?"
"Okay! Yeah!" Felix said, juggling his options. "I'll open the way!"
With a surge of Will, the stone beneath their feet parted into a dark passage. Felix quested ahead, boring through the top layers of the city streets with his growing magic.
Stone Shaping is level 55!
Cal dashed forward, while Felix desperately tried to hang on and weaken the nova burst of heat.
Ravenous Tithe!
Yellow Mana surged into his channels, scorching him before being deposited into the spinning center of his cores. The abyss ate it up, but it was like reverse acid reflux with every bite he took. And it barely lessened the punch of it all.
Mantle of the Long Night!
Purple-white Mana surged from his burning pathways, soothing them before frosting them entirely. A maelstrom of arctic winds manifested around Felix with himself as the eye of the storm, and each iota of frozen Mana turned to visible steam upon meeting DuFont's heat. Felix pushed back against it, shoving his Will and Mana at the Skill until the air itself began to shriek.
Mantle of the Long Night!
Clouds billowed outward, ice turned to water turned to steam. Felix screamed and the Skill pushed out further and further.