Chapter One Hundred and Forty Seven - 147"She's too good!" Alister ducked beneath a scything silver blade, swooping out of the wall before being reabsorbed. "We can't fight her like this!"
Alister came back to his feet, tumbling deftly as more spikes thrust randomly from the rapidly shifting metal. His father had paid outrageous sums for his son to be trained by the best, not just in Mana Skills, but in all aspects of combat. True, he had often neglected his studies in favor of carousing, but he found himself thankful for his father's stubborn insistence. A first time for everything, he mused.
"Then stay back and let us handle it!"
That commoner, Evie Aren, flashed by him. Her preposterous weapon, a spiked chain of all things, was a blur in her hand. It whipped forward and wrapped around Yvette's outstretched arm, the blades digging into the meat of her bicep. The girl hauled on it, pulling herself toward the Bronze Rank with such speed that Alister barely had time to blink before she hit. Yvette shrieked as Evie dug a dagger into her armored robes, and a flow of battered steel hammered outward. Evie flew back, her chain falling slack from Yvette's arm.
Alister gathered Mana for his Grand Impetus, his core funneling it along his pathways until it pooled at the base of his wrist. With a twist and thrust of his enchanted rapier, the Mana discharged in a smooth bolt of blue-white light; pure kinetic force. It was a Skill Alister was greatly proud of, one that he had developed over the course of many years, combining several ancestral techniques with his own ingenuity. It was powerful, more than enough to dispatch an enemy of his own Tier. However, when it came to those of a higher Tier, it was less than optimal.
The strike put a sizable dent in a stretch of steel, but didn't penetrate.
Yvette gathered herself, having screamed herself hoarse, and shoved her mangled arm toward them. A wave of undulating spikes rippled from the walls, pieces disconnecting and flinging at them far faster than Alister would have preferred.
Avert!
A narrow shield of blue energy sprang into a semi-circle before him, and the projectiles hit it hard. Gouts of stone tore to pieces to either side of Alister as the shield absorbed and diverted the kinetic force, shunting it to either side of himself. An impressive showing, he had to admit, but it was eating through his Mana quickly. The lot of them had been burning their resources ever since arriving in the blasted Domain, and especially since attempting an assault on the keep. Alister stood up, but he was unsteady. His Mana was at 30%.
Arms grabbed him suddenly and Alister found himself hoisted into the air. The uneven flagstones beneath him erupted into jagged shards, a disorienting plume of dust and debris. For an few moments he felt weightless as he looked up at Evie, blood on her brow as she gripped him, but heaviness returned as they both tumbled hard to the ground.
"Ugh, that's hard to do," Aren grunted, rolling to her feet with enviable ease. It was something Alister could have done himself, were he not so tired. As it stood, his process involved more cursing. "Oh good, Vess' turn."
Alister looked up to see Vessilia Dayne, heiress of the Duchy of Pax'Vrell, sail above their heads alongside six floating spears. Three of them zipped forward ahead of her landing, projectiles that Yvette easily deflected. But then the woman followed, and her body fell like a boulder, suddenly speeding up with such celerity that Alister doubted his eyes.
*BOOOOM!*
The earth rumbled beneath them as she hit, spear first. Yvette had blocked it, but the steel screamed as it began to give way.
"C'mon pretty boy! Time to work!" Evie dashed ahead, sprinting toward where her chain had fallen.
"Blood and ash, why are they doing this?" Alister said before limbering his arm and hustling after. "Atar's right! There's no benefit here! Win or lose, these monsters will eat us alive!"
Even now, the steel walls protecting them shuddered with rapid, repeated blows. The screech of claws on steel had become a constant refrain. Once they fell, the Revenants would kill them all. So why were they pushing this? Had they truly been Oathbound into it? That was madness!
More spears came crashing down on the defender, this time accompanied by the lashing blows of Evie's chain. Steel flowed and shifted, moving like water under the Will of Yvette, but the attacks took their toll.
Grand Impetus!
Alister, steps away from the vicious melee, thrust his rapier and released another condensed blast of Mana. This time, the force of it sheared through Yvette's battered shield and struck the Journeyman properly. She hissed, her painted face twisting into something cruel and...it was only for a blink, but Alister couldn't shake the sight of it.
She'd looked...monstrous.
"SCREUAAAAAW!"
A bone-chilling cry cut through the air, followed closely by the bounding form of that strange Dire Hound. Though it wasn't directed at him, Alister could feel a mental Skill wash across the space, targeted on Yvette. The effect failed against her Journeyman stats, but the Hound didn't stop. Sharp planes of air Mana launched outward from it, slicing through the intervening space and putting scratches in the steel wall.
The attacks hadn't the strength to truly injure Yvette, but it all added up. Alister deflected more steel projectiles with Avert, while the others laid into her. For the first time, the noble believed they had a chance to win.
But what then?
Captain Elwick felt a fury he had never known before. These people, these...monsters in Human guise had invaded the Domain, against the Elder's wishes. They had killed, yes, of that there was no doubt. The bodies beyond the Domain were mutilated with the kind of joyous disregard for life that only the worst creatures possessed. It was clear they were the culprits. It was all finally clear. Elwick knew there was no saving them. No forgiveness.
Just rage.
"REEAAAARG!" Elwick lunged, his sword trailing an icy fog as it moved. His Skill, Ethereal Ice, helped to shroud his attacks to make them harder to perceive and defend against, and he knew it would work against the Onslaught. The man was a legend for his durability and resistances, but Elwick's Skill would overcome him because...because it had to. There was no other option.
"Why are you here, Kastos?" Elwick snarled. He needed to understand. To know if there were more of them.
"Takin' a tour," Harn grunted back, twisting sideways and letting Elwick's blade to pass harmlessly. "Maybe kill some monsters."
"Don't be glib, bastard. You're not good at it!" Elwick pressed the attack, pushing the demoted Guilder back, trying to press him toward the steel wall. "You killed people to get in here! I know that's true!"
"How many have you done in," Harn said. He batted aside Elwick's blade, sending a spray of icy fog back toward the captain. The bastard ducked out of his line of sight as the fog rolled over Elwick's eyes. "How many has Teine had you kill?"
"Enough," Elwick grated. His own fog didn't hurt him, but it did make him lose track of the silver warrior. "I follow orders, that's all."
"Truly?"
Elwick swung toward the voice, but hit nothing. Then his Obviated Body screamed a warning and the captain threw himself to the ground just as a silver blur swept through the space where his neck had been. Tucking a shoulder, the Bronze Rank rolled to his feet and reset himself. Harn advanced, twin axes out to either side. Nearby, the others were engaged with the Iron Ranks and seemed to have the upper hand. Elwick grinned and felt a delicious, giddy bloodlust dance across his veins. Not for the first time a dark, visceral thrill raced through him at the thought of killing.
"I'll have your head this day," Elwick promised, and activated Rimefang's Lament. His Skill made a sheath of preternaturally hardened ice grew over his long sword, expanding the blade by five inches and lengthening it by another foot. "You face judgement, Harn Kastos!"
Elwick spun his blade, whirling it in a wild maneuver that shouldn't have hit anyone, were it not for his Mana Skill. Rimefang's Lament sent shards of dark ice in every direction he spun the sword, each one trailing his Ethereal Ice fog. He felt them connect with Harn's armor. The sound was almost metal on metal, a clashing that rattled out in a rapid beat. The captain surged forward, leading with his sword. He could practically taste the bastard's blood on its edge, on his tongue, filling him with strength and power and---
"Tch."
Elwick's blade hit something immobile, sending a wrenching pain up his arm and shoulder. The fog of his Ethereal Ice washed over the upraised gauntlet of the Onslaught, the sword trapped between his fingers. Ice crawled down the man's hand and vambrace, lines of frost that spread rapidly, but the man stood tall. Unconcerned.
Before Elwick could react, his sword was twisted to the side. Harn's gauntlet had frozen to the icy blade, and the damn warrior used that against the captain. He hauled back, and the blade ripped from Elwick's grip. Without a focus, Rimefang's Lament faded an instant later, and the sword fell to the ground.
"Teine really messed you up, didn't he?" Harn asked, before Elwick felt a punch deform his breastplate and send him flipping backwards. The uneven flagstones came up hard and the Guilder felt his nose break as he tumbled. "I ain't never heard of an Oath makin' someone crazy, though."
The bastard was talking, TALKING, while they fought. Elwick felt his rage suffuse his Mind with a dark, sizzling impulse, to rend and tear and rip apart the silver monster that was slowly walking toward him. A mad urge to taste his blood and...and...
"I'm sorry ta do it, but I gotta put ya down. Yer dangerous, an' I don't have time ta find out why."
"Murderer," Elwick spat, spraying his blood onto the ground. "Thieves and trespassers! Usurpers!"
"Usurpers?" Harn tilted his head, axe held ready. "Usurpin' what?"
Images flooded Elwick's mind as he pushed himself up, his arms shaking with more than exertion. Images of teeth, of eating, of terrible, terrible things striding in the dark. Of a mother...and children cast aside. A part of him cried out, but it was a small part, barely noticed among the crushing deluge of emotion. Of lies and hunger, endless hunger.
A crown of bone.
Screaming, Elwick summoned four more blades made entirely of ice Mana and sent them hurtling toward the Onslaught.
Verglas Edge!
The man bent his arm, protecting his chest and face with it while his other hand wielded an axe. Harn sheared through two of the ice blades with a single strike. He was unharmed. The Onslaught moved toward him.