Chapter Four Hundred And Ten – 410Sounding his Skill but holding its activation back with his Intent and Willpower, Felix focused instead on pouring clouds of acid-green Mana from his channels. He stood at the edge of the balcony, careful to keep himself from leaning over and exposing himself, though he shouldn't have worried. The chaos below and raging forces of the Primordial's cage the Paladins were contending with had consumed all of their attention. Which meant he had time to prepare, according to Pit's plan.
Twice his Mana bottomed out as he poured more and more vapor into the air, coalescing into green thunderheads that flashed power held in abeyance. They crowded around the balcony and hilt of the Skyslain's Riposte, until he could no longer see the ground far below. At his side, Pit preened his feathers and subtly adjusted the barding around his chest, neck, and forelegs. Then he nudged Felix with a wing. Enough, I think. Take it, he sent.
Felix let the vapor peter out and took several deep breaths. His Mana regenerated fast, but hitting rock bottom again and again was never fun; add in the effort of activating a Skill with the Chant but refusing to let it fully engage and it all made Felix's head swim just a little. Still, he could handle this and more.
Turning to Pit, he gripped the proffered handle of a weapon he usually kept stored with his Companion. He pulled it free, and stepped closer to the edge with a grin. "I'll see you down there, bud."
He stepped out into the air.
Adamant Discord!
A crackling discharge boom through the air, so loud Felix was sure even the Paladins had heard itbut it didn't matter. Felix was rocketed downward, propelled by gravity and hurling force of his Skill so fast that the Paladin's had barely looked up. He landed, booted feet first, atop a set of armored shoulders...and crushed them into the massive crater he tore into the floor.
BOOM!
Before they could respond, Felix was up, speeding out of the crater already swinging his massive, six-foot long greatsword. The Blade of the Fang sizzled through the air, pumped full of Essence and shimmering with its own brand of sigaldry as it caught another two Paladins across the waist and chest respectively. It tore them in half.
Notifications flickered against Felix's awareness, but his eyes sought out the High Justiciar. "Haim!"
"Mr. Veil," said the older man, a frown on his face. He had moved faster than Felix's fall had accounted for, dodging easily out of the way. "You have made quite the mess, Representative."
More Paladins crowded close, their swords and halberds leveled toward Felix's throat. "You're playing with fire here, Haim," Felix said. He flexed his forearm and blood wicked from the edge of the greatsword he held with a single hand. "I suggest you turn around and leave. Now."
The High Justiciar didn't answer him, but his frown did turn into a wide smile. He gestured to his men. "Kill him."
The Paladins rushed forward, halberds thrusting and chopping at him in equal measure. Felix flared his Dexterity and Strength, rotating his Fang in a sharp, wide circle around his body. The sharpened tooth cut through every haft in an instant, before he slammed it downward through the nearest Paladin. Before the holy warrior felt into two equal pieces, Felix already pivoted, swinging his six-foot sword through one and then another Paladin.
You Have Killed A Paladin Of The Pathless (x3)!
XP Earned!
"Stop standing there and kill him!" Haim screamed.
Felix whirled and dashed, a slashing cyclone of death as he advanced on the High Justiciar. The gormless jerk retreated to the line of Inscriptionists that were still scratching out golden lines of sigaldry into the air. He moved and Paladins died, but there were so many of them, and the crimson-armored warriors stopped just dying. Beveled shields of conjured, golden light erupted between him and the Justiciar, while similar constructions in the form of swords and halberds slammed into his body from all sides.
Backpedaling, Felix considered his options his Intelligence and potent Mind firing on all cylinders. He held up the Blade of the Fang...and sunk it, thirteen inches into the tiled flooring. "I was never really that good with a sword," he said, and a haze of black-grey vapor poured from his palms. They spread, solidifying into four ten-foot long coils of thick, shadowy Mana. "Whips though. I've gotten pretty good with those."
He flexed his fingers, and the four whips split into eight, and then sixteen separate strands. Flicking his wrists, the whips lashed outward, each tendril grabbing a Paladin by the breastplate or neck before Felix clenched his fists and pulled. Every single Paladin was hauled off their feet, dragged toward Felix like they were on the losing side of a game of tug of war. More bolts of light Mana struck all around him, but Felix didn't dodge, instead too focused on his magic.
Shadow Whip is level 47!
Every tendril of shadow Mana flexed like a bicep, and each snagged Paladin was lifted bodily into the air...and then Felix began to move.
Shadow Whip is level 48!
The warriors screamed as Felix rotated his shoulders, twisted his hips, and wielded them as the world's weirdest flail. Armored bodies crashed down into conjured shields, shattering them to pieces and knocking more Paladins aside like gruesome bowling pins.
"Fusillade Flash!" cried dozens of voices all at once. More of those elongated bolts of light coalesced and shot at Felix. He twisted and interposed the bodies of his captives for most of them, but a few still found their mark. His Body shrieked in further strain as burns burst and bled across his chest and legs. The Aspect struggled to keep up with his movements and applied stats, fraying rapidly.
I need to get closer now! he thought frantically. Then, from above, he heard a faint whistling. Pit!
A barrage of long, one foot diameter spikes of ice dropped from above, slamming into the hundreds of Paladins and outright killing several. Pit's Frost Spear, dropped from above and through the cloud of acid, they were a cloudy green that soon brightened to a virulent purple-yellow as each and every one of them exploded.
Paladins fell back, the closest felled by shards of jagged ice, but even those thirty feet away were hit by the wash of sizzling, noxious acid. Their screams escalating, turning to wails of pain as more Frost Spears dropped, each of them exploding again with similar consequences.
Etheric Concordance is level 78!
Etheric Concordance is level 79!
Etheric Concordance is level 80!
New Sub-Feature Unlocked!
Confluence - The fastness of your bond has revealed the ability to combine certain Skills between Companions to create something new or unusual. Experiment to find out more!
Yes! Pit bugled in joy. It worked!
Hell yeah! Felix celebrated, spinning his homemade flail into the breach of howling Paladins. Pit had been convinced he could do such a thing, but hadn't been entirely sure what the result would beChimeric instinct only guided him so far, Felix supposed. With a grunt, Felix released the Shadow Whips, letting the majority of them fly forward, right into Haim's scowling face.
The High Justiciar slashed his own men out of the air, his blade swiping them easily off to the side. He was fiddling with something in his off-hand, with
The Regalia! Felix's heartbeat sped up, but he was already running into the momentary gap of confused defenders, Blade of the Fang returned to his hand. "C'mon Haim! Come and fight!"
"Not quite yet, Mr. Veil," said the yellow-eyed Justiciar. "I will be with you afterah, yes. This."
Suddenly the Paladin was limned by a slick, golden glow. It sparked to life across his entire body and weapons, like a sun was setting directly behind him...and it spread rapidly to every other Paladin around them. Felix's eyes took that in as well as the crystalline case of the Regalia, which was settled neatly into that box of golden Mana in the middle of his intrusive array. Refusing to pause, Felix surged forward.
Adamant Discord!
Lightning blasted at his back as the connections to the defeated Paladins hurled Felix forward, six-foot greatsword held like a goddamn lance. The air screamed in Felix's ears as he crossed the last twenty feet with incredible speed and hit Haim square in the chest...only to be stopped dead. Felix gaped at his weapon, the tip of which hadn't even penetrated the thin layer of golden light.
Haim laughed, and that scar across his chin stretched his smile into something vicious. "You cannot hope to defeat us, Mr. Veil. Your power cannot stand up to God's own Light."
Felix wet his lips, still leaning his weight into his blade. "How about a little darkness then?"
"What?"
"BEEF'S HERE, MOTHERFUCKERS!" came an ear-splitting roar, and from the other end of the chamber the seven foot Minotaur waded into battle...with a horde of Risen at his back. "PAYBACK TIME!"
"What? The Unbound!" Haim screamed.
"Eyes on me!" Felix shouted, dropping the tip of his Blade and punching forward...his fist glowing with a golden-azure haze.
Wild Threnody!
Arrow of Perdition!
His fist met the Justiciar's breastplate and unlike his blade, it caught Haim off-guard. The jerk was thrown back from Felix's sheer Strength, but that damn light dispersed his Skills and any real damage.