Evie signed, and Kikri nodded.
She reached out and placed a hand on the nearest tree, whispering all the while. Angry as Evie was, she would have had to be deaf not to hear the gentle melody as the Elf's Skill activated. Motes of green-gold and deep blue Mana flickered and swayed among the branches. Evie looked all around. The trees in a ten stride radius were all...vibrating, ever so slightly. Then, as if on cue, each of the five trees split open.
"Noctis' tits," Evie whispered. The inside of the trees hummed with a gentle song just steps away from melancholy. They were sad but...accepting.
Blind gods, I hate this music thing, she thought with a sniff. Gettin' weepy over trees, now.
Task done, Kikri slumped. Wyvora supported her as she rubbed her temples, likely suffering some Mana drain, and Nevia moved forward. The openings were no bigger than her square, Dwarvish hands, and Nevia walked around to each. A surge of chimes and chill winds assaulted Evie's senses, and the center of the trees all shook at once. The holes had all filled with chunks of ice.
Nevia warned before following her own advice. They retreated to the other side of the street, and the three others readied their weapons.
Evie signed.
Ice Mana surged, and with a shrieking blast the five trees exploded.
Evie shouted, putting all of her Journeyman Body behind it.
"Come and get it, monsters!"
Vess and the others hunkered beside him, waiting for Evie's signal.
"Did you discuss what the signal would be?" Felix asked.
"I am sure it will be unmistakable," Vess said with a thin smile. She was worried, clearly, but also determined. Felix fitted his hand over hers and gave a brief squeeze.
"It's a good plan. Better than most of mine, in fact," he said.
"That is not a...high bar, Felix."
Felix grinned and let out a soft gasp. "Et tu, Brute?"
Vess quirked any eyebrow. "Is that more of your strange native language? It sounds familiar."
"Latin, actually. I've seen it in a few places on the Continent, so far." Felix looked over the edge of the portico they were stashed atop. "I know like, three phrases from school and old movies."
They were both crouching, and Felix tried not to notice Vess' nervously bobbing knee. "You think we can do this?"
"It's a good plan," he repeated.
The night was rent by the high pitched scream of explosions, paired with a basso rumble that hit the air like a drum. The horde collectively flinched, and their team hunched lower in the deep moon shadows.
The flying Arcid rose several stories into the sky, peering in the direction of the sounds, before it gestured sharply to the beasts below it. With chittering howls of excitement, several dozen peeled off and tore down the ruined streets. The flying Arcid, glowing brilliantly in the moonlight, followed quickly after.
Vess signed to everyone, all of them slipping off the roof. She gave Felix's hand a surprising squeeze before she followed.
C'mon Pit. Time to fly.
Harn Kastos was pissed and he'd just woken up. Not only had he been capturedsomething he knew Cal would roast him alive for when she heardbut now it was jawing his ear off.
"Why have you come here, Human?" The slippery Arcid said in a voice that sounded like tar bubbling. "What is your purpose?"
Harn ignored it. He missed his axes. These bastards took his axes. If he had them, he could have had a real nice chat with ol Slippery. And the other one, if he knew where it had gone.
The Arcid moved closer, not walking but sliding on its oversized feet around the ice cage. Slippery shook its oblong head at him, and its three eye fires burned bright. "You are being unreasonable, Human. You have trespassed upon my Master's lands and offer no defense save silence. You are blessed that you were not killed outright, blessed by my great Master who desires to see any and all interlopers in his lands."
Harn snorted. "He's claimin' the Foglands?"
"Ah! It speaks! Glorious," Slippery made a weird burbling sound in its metal throat. It made Harn's hackles rise. "The Foglands belong to my great Master."
"Not accordin' to the System, they don't."
"The System has no control over the great Master!" Slippery shouted, and his spiked fists clattered against the ice cage. The blue-white bars turned brownish-black at the contact, as something oozed from Slippery's metal body.
Earth and shadow Mana, Harn guessed. He wasn't good at picking out the different types, but he'd seen that combo a time or two. Makes things slip and slide. Impossible to grapple. That's where I went wrong. He cursed internally. Shoulda let it burn instead.
Slippery, taking his silence for being cowed, leaned back from the cage in clear satisfaction. "You will come to know your place soon, Human. When my Master peels that armor from your flesh, you too will learn the Truth."
"An what's that?" Harn asked.
"Only power can fix this cursed world, and we've none of it." Slippery practically hissed the words. "Submit, and find peace."
Harn felt the cage tremble, as if it resonated with the Arcids words, but he just grinned. The scars across his face stretched and pulled his expression into a grim specter of a smile. "I was about to say the same thing to you."
Slippery tilted its weird head and weird eyes. "What do you"
Massive gouts of stone and dirt detonated upward, and with a joyous, bloodthirsty shout Harn and the Arcid fell into the dark below.