"Vess!" he boomed into the Cursewinds. The sound was swallowed up. "Blighted night!"
A sparking flash lit up the red-orange haze, and Harn focused on it through the slit in his helm. Another, and another. He could feel the clash of metal attuned Skills, just ahead. That's her!
He rushed forward, his Brawler's Physique flared as he ran up the incline of a fallen wall. He paused at the top, taking in the scene in two heartbeats. Dustwights swarmed, facing off against a squad of Legion, Dawnguard, and a Risi Warrior of all things. The squad was pushing them back, but in the thickest of the fray was a lithe woman in white-enameled armor and a spear that shimmered blue through the storm. Vess was fighting two Wraiths, alone.
Descent of the Barbarian!
Harn leaped off the rock, twin axes descending onto the backs of the undead. His axes moved in a blur, his Agility and Strength fueling the frenetic power of his evolved Skill. It had once been his Axe Mastery Skill, but it had enjoyed a rebirth during their confrontation with DuFont. Now he was a blur of silver death, too fast for the Dustwights to avoid in close combat and his axes too heavy to resist. They burst apart in showers of dark sand, and suddenly the Risi Warrior was free of foes.
"Go! Help the others!" Harn grated at the Frost Giant. He nodded and ran toward a Half-Orc struggling with a crackling shortsword.
Harn hewed through the crowd, cutting through limbs and necks with every swing and his axes never stopped. Not until he made it to Vess' position...only to find the girl standing over two downed Wraiths, both of them pinned to the stone with several of her silver Spears. She whirled toward him as he emerged from the battle, but relaxed when she recognized his armor.
"Harn," she growled. Her face was bloody and her armor broken in several spots. "These things will not die."
She was right. He could see their wounds repairing, stitching themselves up by some unnatural power. His teeth grated against one another at the realization. "Damn. Damn!"
"What?" Vess stepped toward him, but nearly lost her balance. "Harn? What is it?"
"More of them got into the Warren," he said, barely restraining his anger. "Darius faced them. If they ain't dying...if they just regenerate..."
Vess' eyes widened. "A lot of people are going to die."
"Yeah."
Pain Resistance is level 74!
A spike of power shot through Harn's core, flaring across his channels and sending a wave of dizziness through him. He twisted, setting his feet so he didn't tip over and rode out the sensation.
"What else is wrong?" The girl put a hand on Harn's shoulder, helping him steady even as she quivered in obvious hurt.
"I'm gettin' real close to Temper. Energies makin' me unsteady," he grunted, then ran his eyes over her. "You look like your about to fall down, yourself." Harn handed her a Health Potion, noticing her's were all depleted. "Here."
She took it and drank it without a word, only grimacing at the sensation of wounds closing.
"That don't look like all of it. Another?" he asked.
She shook her head, the grimace turning darker. "Status Condition," Vess rasped. "Curse."
"Damn." Harn looked at the Wraiths. "Regenerating and curse bearing. Felix warned us of the curse, at least. He never mentioned them bein' so tough."
"Perhaps he never noticed," Vess said before summoning another Spear and jabbing it through the nearest Wraith's chest. The thing writhed, attempting to reach her with its gnashing, metallic teeth.
Harn only grunted. That sounded like Felix. Too strong for his own good.
Then things went silent. The screams and groans of the undead, the clash of magic and Skills, the damn storm itself. A hush descended...before every single creature turned and ran off.
"Is...is the storm leaving?" Harn asked.
On the ground the two Wraiths burst into a frenzy of motion, clawing at the conjured Spears and their own bone-plated flesh. Dark sand poured from them, more with every second. Vess and Harn shared a confused look, as the storm well and truly dispersed.
"They fled. Why?" Vess asked.
A thump shook the earth behind them, and showered Harn with sand. Harn spun to see Felix crouching there, at the center of a small crater in the dune. His clothes were shredded, barely covering his bits, though perhaps that wasn't an issue. The kid's skin was entirely covered in unsettling black scale, and his eyes burned a brilliant sapphire blue. He said nothing to either of them, though his eyes lingered on Vess for an outraged second. Then he stalked forward and slammed his talons into the skulls of both Wraiths. They shrieked, piercing whistles that made Harn flinch, before bursting apart into luminous smoke.
Felix stood, smoke pouring into his Body, before he clawed at the air itself.
"You're mine too," he said. The air shuddered, and so did everyone else, even Harn.
Every injured person he could see convulsed, wracked by an intense, burning pain. In his channels, Harn felt as something was torn loose and extracted from him, an arrowhead of vile corruption he hadn't noticed building within his Body. It seared his channels as it emerged, manifesting in a long moment of excruciating agony.
All of itevery ounce from the Legionaires and Harn and Vesssettled into Felix, who by then practically glowed with malevolent energy. Then it was gone too, pulled into his core as if it never were.
Vess stabbed her spear into the earth, supporting her suddenly weak limbs and Harn was right there with her. That wave of enervation nearly unmanned him, though it passed quickly enough. He straightened with a pained grunt and saw Felix grab her by the shoulders. The girl flinched.
Felix pulled back and his hand shed its monstrous coating, each scale and talon fading to vapor that blew away in the wind. He turned to Harn.
"Get everyone inside. I'm sealing off the Warren."
"Aye." He could do that. "What about inside? Darius...?"
"He's alive," was all the kid said.
Harn hadn't missed the momentary hurt in Felix's eyes at Vess' flinch. It was gone now, replaced by a steady authority. Harn had the distinct impression he wasn't looking at Felix, but at the Autarch.
Stupid thought. It's the same kid.
Felix nodded at them, before vanishing in a burst of sand and rising lightning. Up into the sky and the fading storm.