Chapter Two Hundred and Sixteen - 216Rock dust and pulped vegetation blasted outward. The sound was deafening so close, and Felix watched as large, horse-sized hunks of stone fell silently into the fog below. Yet before the debris cleared he could feel his eardrums healing. Sound returned with a strange sort of pop and Felix looked up to see the crystal...still there.
"Shit."
The Belais Crystal was hanging at an angle, half attached to the rocky cavern roof by strands of straining purple mineral. They looked like roots, and they were deep in the stone. Felix retracted his talons and dropped from his perch, extending his wings and shooting toward the dangling crystal. But the mages below weren't idle. A veritable storm of Mana bolts launched at him, filling the air. The crystal, now out of alignment, meant he was somewhat in their line of sight. Despite the distance, the barrage was so thick he couldn't avoid them all, even with Unfettered Volition. He took a few hits to the chest and shoulders, knocking him off course.
Reign of Vellus!
He didn't fire at the mages belowhe didn't even know if the spell would reach that farbut instead at the stone above the crystal. The lightning bolt of kinetic Mana slammed forward and was immediately absorbed by the crystal. It hadn't even budged.
We'll have to do it the old fashioned way! Felix dove through another volley of arrows, orbs, and sizzling Mana bolts, only taking a few hits to his wide wings. Pit shrieked in anger and encouragement. They banked hard to the left and spun, barrel-rolling over the bright flames of a Mana-wrought bola before he made it. His boots hit the uneven top of the Belais Crystal, but despite it's precarious grip it didn't even budge beneath Felix's significant bulk.
More Mana bolts hit the area, but most were cleanly absorbed by the crystal. Felix ignored them and scrambled up the sloped mineral, which was jagged and precarious, like the exposed roots of a tree. The ceiling was pitted and blown out where his grenades had been placed, but Felix was surprised to see that directly above the crystal there were a series of large glyphs. Felix's eyes raked over them, though they were rendered mostly illegible by the removal of the crystal and explosions.
He reached the edge, where the thing nearly met the stone and placed his claws against it. Below, Felix could sense a wild battle; the fight before was vicious, but this was furious abandon. And in the midst of it all, he could see Cal, Harn, Evie...and Vess.
They're running to the right. This angle, Felix adjusted the placement of his hands and feet. I can make this work. They'll be fine.
They had to be.
Ravenous Tithe!
Taking a huge chunk of Essence from the air around him, Felix flared Sovereign of Flesh. Muscle and scales redoubled along his limbs, refreshed and bulked by the excess of Essence to burn. His scales darkened even further, pushing beyond black and toward a boundless sable, and his talons dug deep into the granite overhead.
He pushed. Up against the granite and down, onto the crystal. He pushed with everything he had.
The granite creaked, a protest so loud it drown out the noise all around him.
Push! Pit cried out, flooding him with surety and faith. Conviction.
He pushed.
When the explosion came, Eliza flinched. The successive impacts were less surprising, but no less dire. She watched as dozens of her men were slaughtered by falling debris. Their deaths were meaningless, except that they weakened her resistance against the ravenous Revenants. She cast her Perception into the sky, trying to pierce the thick crimson fog, but it was useless; she sensed nothing until the stones had come within a hundred feet.
She returned her attention to the shield. It was at the breaking point. Her crooked sword was tearing it apart, piece by small piece. The ancient weapon was practically vibrating in her hand, and though its secrets were locked away, it's ability to destabilize Mana was her's to command.
"Once we're through, destroy the appendages. The Broodmother doesn't appear mobile, so hit it from a distance until it cannot muster a defense," she ordered the other Inquisitors.
"That Sorcerer is among us still!" hissed Rutger. "We're fools if we focus on another enemy!"
"We'll die if we do not!" countered Daur.
Eliza struck a sweeping, overhanded blow on the aquamarine shield. The Crescian Bronze soaked up the Mana like a dry sponge. Then, like a piece of crockery, the shield shattered.
"Hah!" she cried out and half turned to the Inquisitors. "We fight the Broodmother! That's an order! Get the Acolytes up here to lay on their"
A louder explosion tore the mists above them asunder, as if a giant had simple wafted away the fog. Far above, DuFont's Perception picked out the purple mass of Belais Crystal. Was it glowing before? Her eyes widened and she hurled herself forward, screaming all the while.
"Move! Take out the beast, now!"
Felix sank his hands into the stone ceiling, the granite creaking around his palms as he strained with every ounce of Strength he had, boosted by every Skill he possessed.
C'mon! FALL!
There was a resounding crack, almost as loud as the grenades, and the stone above him cratered into pieces, and his feet launched the crystal down.
Down.
Down.
+1 STR!
Yes! Felix laughed, holding on now only with his talons. The crystal fell at an angle. Below, the aquamarine shield flickered out completely. It was going to work!
"NOO!" a terrible voice boomed. A figure half as large as the crystal itself burst sideways from the Essence fog: the Pride of Blight. Its hulking body, a mess of muscle and scales, smashed directly into the falling stone. It clung there, its Strength and mass alone enough to divert the crystal's fall into the horde.
Right toward his friends.
Felix didn't stop and consider anything, he simply pulled his wings tight to his body, flipping until his feet pressed hard against the stone above him.
Reign of Vellus!
Reign of Vellus!
He leaped at the same time as he dual casted his favorite spell, and Felix launched like a shot. A bolt of lightning streaking down from the heavens. The ceiling shattered behind him.
You absolute piece of!
The Blight was too heavy, it was moving too fast.
He wasn't going to make it.
No! Cloudstep!
Felix kicked off of the temporary platforms. They were obliterated by each aerial stomp, but he was going down. This time, the density of his Seed of the Unchained Mountain Body was a boon.
Cloudstep!
Cloudstep!
Cloudstep is level 25!
Apprentice Tier!
+10 AGL, END, DEX
Cloudstep!
Felix hit the Belais Crystal like a comet, his powerful Body and Sovereign of Flesh just barely enough to keep him from splattering against it. Sound boomed around Felix, and within that shuddering impact he could feel the basso howl of the Blight. Then he lost everything as they tumbled, freewheeling wildly in the air.