Chapter Three Hundred And Eighty Nine – 389"Close the gate!"
Felix hollered with all of his Journeyman lungs as the Dustwights threw themselves at him. He paid them little mind. They couldn't penetrate his Armored Skin, let alone his transformed hide, and his Blade of the Fang reaped them like wheat. The Wraiths were more of a concern, but that was why he was still running his Adamant Discord. He had to pulse the Skill to take care of the more powerful undead, but the rest were tossed about like leaves in a storm. The glut of galvanized links filled the tunnel with crackling light, each tie to the undead snapping in such quick succession it felt like he was inside one of those plasma balls you could buy at a mall.
Just way, way more violent.
Flesh burst and sand scattered with each pulse of his Skill, the Mana ebbing and flowing within his core as his regeneration replenished what it depleted. He could hold them back for a while, even with the extra effort he Wraiths cost him.
A plaintive warble came from within his Spirit, but Felix quashed the argument before it could begin. "I know you want to fight, but now's not the time!"
I am growing! the tenku sent.
"I know you are, but...there! See?" Felix's gaze flicked back toward the distant gate. The smallish section at the bottom had started to slowly close. "They're all in and closing up! Either you fly ahead without me, or stick around and we'll get in together. Your choice!"
Fine, Pit chirped. It was weird, hearing the sheer sulk in the sound.
Felix grinned, too relieved to feel bad. He dropped his Adamant Discord, and kicked off the stone. Cloudsteps formed beneath his feet, pushing him back ten and then twenty feet as he accelerated. Time to go!
A bellow like a dying, thirty-foot walrus shook the air. Stone dust drifted from above, and even Felix winced at the utter volume of the cry. He looked back toward the horde, and spotted another undead.
"What the actual fuck," he hissed to himself.
A huge, hulking creature on par with the largest of Frost Giants ripped through the horde of undead. Its body was covered in bone plating and cruel, hooked barbs along its shoulders, back, and the outside of its limbs. Many of them even glowed a deep blue and looked...almost crystalline. A face that was nothing more than a dark, iron skull roared at him.
It looked like a gladiator from hell.
Voracious Eye!
Name: Dustborn Behemoth
Type: Primordial Spawn (Lesser)
Level: 73
He'd barely had time to read the notification when the Behemoth tore through the crowd of undead. Sand and limbs flew in all directions, its barbed spikes catching and ripping through its alleged allies. The thing was fast tooFelix barely had time to bring his Fang to bear, but he managed. The Blade shimmered bright green and Felix brought the sword up in a diagonal slash across its chest and knocked the thing back a single step.
It didn't even flinch.
Still roaring, the Behemoth caught Felix in a devastating backhanded slam. Committed to his own attack, Felix had no choice but to take it head on, and he gasped as he was crushed into the roadway. The ground cratered around them both, and his gasp became a shout of pained surprise. Blood splattered from his nose and mouth.
Faster than Felix could track, the Behemoth swung down again. And again. Each time smashing him further into the crater.
Status Condition: Broken Rib (x3)
Status Condition: Internal Bleeding
Status Condition: Punctured Lung
The Behemoth opened its massive, iron jaws and roared in triumph. It slammed both fists down a final time, exploding the ground for twenty feet in all directions. Stone dust obscured the crater, and the cacophony of the other undead quietened to a low rumble.
"Ooh ow, my bones, ahh," Felix rasped, as he rose from the gel-like stone just outside the attack's range. The rock firmed beneath his feet, and he wobbled, holding his ribs gingerly. "I'm giving you shit, but that hurt a lot. So, uh, credit where credit's due."
"FEEEELIX!"
"Oh I don't like that you can all talk," he muttered. The Behemoth's muscles bulged, snapping through several of its bone plates, and it leaped forward. "Nope! Not today!"
Adamant Discord!
A cord of connection, larger and thicker than all the rest, snapped into place between them. Felix shoved, hard, and the kinetic force and lightning demolishes the Wraiths beside it. Yet the Behemoth was only forced back by a single, staggered step.
"See ya!" Instead, Felix was sent hurtling back with all the force he had mustered.
Felix grinned as the world was whipped into blurring shapes. Perhaps he could have fought the thing, but he wasn't willing to try. Not at the moment. With a grunt, he shoved his hand down onto the ground below, jamming his talons into the stone ramp as he flew. Four narrow furrows ripped into the stone, slowing him down until he jerked to a sudden stop just outside the gate.
Can't believe that worked, he thought as he stared at his hand. His talons were a bright, cherry red and sizzled in the air. He looked at the Behemoth, who was only now recovering from the staggering shot of his Adamant Discord. Felix raised his still-sizzling talon and flipped the damn thing off.
Pit squawked in alarm and Felix hopped backward, ducking under just as the gates closed.
*KRAKOOOM!*
Through the split second the huge gate door was swinging closed, the Behemoth rushed forward. Its massive bone claws, hit the metal gate hard enough that Felix flinched backward and the damn thing dented. Someone screamed. Cracks spread across the inside of the gate, though it was closed, spreading wider and wider as the furious impacts hit one after the other.
"Out of the way!" someone shouted, and a man in golden armor and an orange tabard shoved his way toward the side of their strange chamber. Felix felt the whisper song of a Mana Skill, and the sounds cut off completely. A complex network of arrays ignited within the chamber, cutting off all sound and arresting the cracks before they spread. The man nodded at the gate. "There. Bastard is cut off."
Felix wiped a smear of blood from his nose. "Well. That was..." He paused and quaffed one of his heavier duty Health Potions before checking his Status. His ribs had mostly healed and the internal bleeding and punctured lung had gone away thanks to his accelerated Health regeneration when he held Sovereign of Flesh. It had eaten through a lot of his Essence, but Felix wasn't about to complain. With a sigh, he let his transformed skin fade back to normal. The cracked ribs would heal up eventually, but he sensed new people among them. Terrifying midnight scales and fangs weren't the best icebreakers.
The entirety of their company was contained in the long chamber, though it was a tight fit especially with the space the Frost Giants took up. Felix didn't sense another door or even passages beyond the walls of the space, but the wards could have been throwing off his Perception. It wasn't worth worrying about just then, so he sought out his friends instead. "How is everyone?"
Atar, Vess, Harn, and Zara were nearest him, and all four looked in bad shape. Wounds covered their exposed skin, and the in the case of Harn, his armor was dented all to hell. Zara especially looked bad, and Felix's nostrils flared in recognition.
"Shit, Zara" he started, but she cut him off.
"I'm fine for now, as are our people. The efforts of the Claw have proven more solid than I hoped. Few were injured, and only a single death," she said. Felix felt the last word like a blow to his gut. He had feared it, but hearing the results of their fight was a burden he'd hoped to avoid. "I believe we have other, more immediate concerns."
The Naiad's eyes flicked sideways and Felix saw a young...deer-woman step out of the crowd. Around her were six Humans in similar armored robes in orange and gold. Both shades were almost precise replicas of how the Mana for fire and light looked to his Manasight. The deer-woman cleared her throat.
"Right. This is Fiammetta, a Disciple of the Temple of the All Burning Flame," Atar said wearily. "Fiammetta, this is"
"A representative of the Territory of Nagast," Zara interrupted, a hitch in her voice. The way she was holding a hand to her side concerned Felix, but he didn't miss what she was doing. He nodded at the deer-woman.
"A pleasure to meet you," he said and activated his Voracious Eye. The woman was a Faun, a sort of deer-person in the same way Zara was a water-person.
Lore: Fauns are believed to be descended from nature elementals in the First Age, and often have characteristics in common with the bestial creatures of the wilds. A nomadic people, little is known of their deeper histories even to themselves. Much as Goblins and Hobgoblins are close cousins, many believe Fauns are closely related to Alseids, Nixies, and Naiads.
All in all, cool information that told him relatively little. She was level 61, had less than half of his own Health total, and hadn't yet fully reached Journeyman Tier. Why she was in charge was a mystery, as he could sense the others with her were all well into that same level of advancement. Perhaps, he thought, there are other considerations for leadership in the Temple.
"Nagast," the woman said, slowly. "I have heard of this Territory. It caused quite the commotion recently, did it not?"
"So I hear," Felix said, before shaking his head. His Mind spun, and his Deception flared within his core. "I'm Silas Veil, diplomatic representative sent on behalf of the Autarch of Nagast. The commotion you mentioned is exactly the reason we've been sent on this mission."