"Diurnal Reach!"
Four more bolts of light shot from the Initiate's hand, but not at Felix. The man hadn't even lifted his arm for the shot. Instead, they were sent back toward the wagons, faster than Felix could move to intercept. Toward the miners.
"No!"
Arrow of Perdition!
Felix slammed his open hand down toward the Initiate's exposed back and a crossbow bolt made of gold and blue light manifested in his grip. With a single, smooth motion, he stabbed it's length down into the man's lower back. The bolt sank into the redcloak's flesh, lodging itself directly into his core. With a flash of radiant gold, the armor around the Initiate evaporated back into Mana vapor. Salazar screamed in true, gut-wrenching pain as his strongest Skill was damaged directly.
Arrow of Perdition is level 14!
"You! Fucking! Asshole!" Reaching down, Felix took hold of the edges of the Initiate's breastplate. Screaming in effort, he tore it up and off the man, his voice almost as loud as the tortured sound of bending steel.
Salazar tried to roll away, even managed to draw the longsword at his hip and fumbled a seated swipe at Felix. It was fast enough that Felix couldn't dodge had he even wanted to, but Felix stayed on the man. The blade dug into Felix's shoulder, yet the poorly leveraged swing was unable to penetrate past the thickened plates. Felix backhanded the sword out of the Initiate's grip.
"You're the follower of a god of Light! Where's your mercy? Where's the compassion!?" Felix screamed at the man. His anger felt raw and torn open, a wound he'd been ignoring for way too long. "All you want to do is take and kill! What the fuck is wrong with you people!"
He tore more of the man's armor, flinging him bodily as a pauldron came away in his grip. The Initiate limped into a roll, coming back to his feet with something resembling grace. Blood streamed down his face where the ground had broken his cheekbone and nose, but the hate expressed there was enough to give even Felix pause.
"You demonic cretin," Salazar spat. His eyes were bloodshot, but his gaze was level. "We seek Strength. Order. Above all, we seek Purity and Truth. Your lies of mercy fall on ears deaf to your influence! The Pathless preserves me against your selfish evil!"
"Shut!"
Corrosive Strike!
"Up!"
Corrosive Strike!
Felix screamed as each fist made contact, the second punching through the remnants of his armor. His entire fist broke through the man's chest with a sound like a meaty firecracker. Felix flexed his claws and tore his way out, shredding the Initiate's internal organs all the way down to the man's navel. His emotions were a riot of hate and disgust and rage, so much rage, more than he'd even felt before. He felt like his entire body was burning up, his scales itching fiercely and his core spinning like a mad top of impossible flame.
You Killed SalazarKorith Astandes, An Initiate of the Inviolate Order!
XP Earned!
He wanted to rip and tear and rend and devour this stain of a human being. To do the same to all of them, hunt them all down and end their Order with tooth and claw. He could--
Peace.
He could taste the man's blood already, so close to his mouth. To his maw--
Peace, Felix! Brilliant light subsumed his vision, resolving into dark feathers that wrapped across his face and chest. A horse-sized head leaned onto his shoulder and gently pressed him back. Peace.
Pit's soothing trills washed against Felix, hitching his breath. He wanted to push past the dark pinions before him, but...he breathed. Once, twice. Still, his instincts told him to tear them all apart, like a warning.
"Forged Calm," Thangle's high pitched voice said from nearby.
Purple Mana swirled around Felix's face, and he felt Thangle push down on his riled up emotions. Felix welcomed it, but even if he hadn't, he wasn't sure if he would have been able to muscle past Thangle's Skill. His emotions flatlined, dampened into a grey neutrality. Not quite apathy and a bit blander than contentment. Complacency.
Felix opened his eyes and saw Thangle standing nearby, his hand still outstretched. Sweat poured down the Gnome's face and into his beard.
"Thanks," Felix said. "I-I think I'm good, now."
"You sure? Because that was rather frightening," Thangle said as he peered at him. "You aren't feeling any more...bloody urges?"
Under Thangle's spell, Felix managed a smile and let his transformation fall away as he stood. Scales were reabsorbed by his body and his fangs fell out of his mouth as they were replaced by his normal, flat teeth. Thangle blanched at the sight and took a single step away from the fangs as they turned to wisps of smoke upon the ground.
"I'll be fine, I think," he said as Pit's big head came to snuggle against his own. "Where're the others?"
"The effects will wear off in a bit, but until then you'll feel a bit," Thangle made a wobbling motion with the flat of his hand. "Odd."
Felix felt fine, really. He display showed the icon of a steady, winding river and claimed he was under the effects of Forged Calm for the next five minutes. It felt kinda nice, really. He hadn't realized how volatile his emotions had become, but now that it was flatlined for him, he could see the weirdness of it all. Pit walking at his side helped too.
The others were close by, which was readily evidenced by the wreckage of the other half of the work yard. Divots were blown out of the flagstones and huge, serpentine gouges were torn up from the wood and stone buildings around. Felix was surprised he hadn't noticed it all during his fight, but the tall wagons had blocked his line of sight and must have been muffling some of the sounds. Evie and Vess were both standing among eight surviving Acolytes, all of them unconscious on the ground and wrapped in manacles.
"You certainly made a lot of noise," Vess commented as Felix, Pit, and Thangle turned the corner. "Is the Initiate take care of?"
"Yes," Felix said, his voice hitching slightly. "There are too many Acolytes here. Did we miscount?"
"Dunno. They must've arrived later with that guy," Evie jutted her chin toward what was left of a man with an Initiate's sword. He had been stabbed into the second story of a workshop, and then parts of that story had been blown up. Felix spotted pieces of him here and there. "They put up a fight, but the Acolytes couldn't do much. Still, Vess didn't want us killin' a bunch of folks if we could help it so," she gestured to the tied up Order members. They looked secure enough that they wouldn't be going anywhere even if they were awake.
"We can try them for crimes against the city at a later date," Vess stated, her tone one that allowed no argument. "We shall jail them for now."
"Where though?" Evie asked, exasperated, as if they'd already had this conversation.
Vess opened her mouth to answer when the air was split by the sound of muffled explosions and terrified screams. Felix whirled on the sound. It was coming from the mine shaft.
"Come," he ordered, before taking off like a shot.
The flagstones cracked beneath each step as his weight slammed into the earth, each stride hurling him forward faster and faster. Pit and Evie were close behind, while Vess and Thangle were no doubt on their way. He couldn't be concerned with waiting on them, and for once Felix was aware this wasn't an emotional response. Forged Calm was still in effect. It felt like simple logic, especially considering the narrow space of the mine shaft.
"Pit, stay out here or converge?" Felix asked, and received a disbelieving snort in response before the tenku disappeared into white light that jolted into Felix's chest. "Evie, we go in hard. Stop the redcloaks however we can, save the miners, and get Rory out. Good?"
"Sure. Kill the redcloaks, something, something, then done," Evie grinned, her legs whipping faster than his own. "My kinda plan!"
Sovereign of Flesh!
Pain bathed him as everything twisted and crunched within his body, but Felix didn't stop running. Unfettered Volition didn't even let him stumble as his skin blackened and swelled into matte-black scales. Sans boots, his feet were clawed, elongated ever so slightly enough that his tread actually improved.
They hit the tunnel quickly. About ten feet tall and fifteen feet wide, it wasn't the smallest of fits, but neither of them would have a lot of room to maneuver. Despite the torches that were lit along the walls, they needed a second to adjust to the dimmer light. Even Manasight wasn't immune to the weakness of eyesight, at least not at their stage of advancement.
Which is perhaps why they didn't see the trap until they were nearly on top of it.
"Look out!" Felix cried out and threw himself up and over a section of stone that abruptly radiated brilliant orange mana vapor. A wall of fire erupted to fill the entire space like a curtain was drawn up from the floor. Evie dropped to all fours and increased her mass, slowing herself down considerably and stopping before she hit. Felix, on the other hand, burst straight through it.
The Song of Absolution is level 56!
And right into a wall of white-enameled steel.