Alvis was the first to react, of course.

A ripple of sound seemed to hammer into Erika’s ear as he smoothly drew a pair of Thunderers from his breaches, firing them again and again, puncturing head after head.

Erika, her form human again as her well drained dry, didn’t feel the slightest twist of odium in the air meaning this wasn't a divine art just pure skill as he reaped the twisted creatures even as they burned.

“Form up!” He howled the sound echoing from the stone. “SHIELDWALL!”

Tents exploded, some actually ripped apart as they occupations rushed to obey, stone and steel met as boots thumped and axes clattered. Alvis kept firing, screaming directions and commands, as the delvers formed up, cutting the vault in half with their bodies. Erika had been skilfully scooped up and deposited inside the line. Alvis nodded at her as she stumbled past but otherwise kept shouting, more of the things were falling from the ceiling and… and running up from the door, which was hanging open and entirely undamaged.

“That wasn't you was it?” Erika asked Katlin as she stumbled into her shadow. Kara had appeared at some point and Erika had thrown an arm around her neck, too tired to even feel embarrassed at the closeness as she put all her weight on the stronger woman’s back.

Katlin shook her head jerkily, reloading her crossbow as she did. “No no NO, I did it perfectly! Didn’t even leave a gap in the defences… how!”

“We couldn’t find the key.” Spat Erika slumping against Kara even more. “They could.”

Katlin froze, then snarled and tapped a handful of runes hanging from talismans around her neck. Her next shot carried with it a wall of force that seemed to expand from the bolt and swept across the floor like a tidal wave pushing monsters, tents, stone and torches alike into a twisted pile of wreckage against the far wall.

Alvis took the development in stride. “The Gothi cleared us some room, you and you move up, your three bunch together, both flanks angle back… Erika can you take out the wall.”

Erika froze for a moment not sure she’d heard right, after a moment and a gesture from Alvis she saw he was actually serious. “The huge thick stone walls? No no not at all, I drowned my well killing those first ones.”

“By Hels Hate,” Swore Alvis before turning around. “Ammeris, can you?”

Ammeris didn’t even look smug, just scared and tired. “Yeah yeah I can, got a few pastes that turn into heat when you mix them, lots of heat. I can melt out…”

“Do it,” Alvis said. “They’re waiting for us out the front door, we’re taking a different exit… were is Sigurn?”

A heartbeat went past, then another, a few of the flanks looked around then someone gasped.

“By the gods!” It was Bjorn looking over the counter that had once served to do admissions into the vault by the looks of it. Turning away with a pale face the veteran ranger gestured behind himself and gagged.

Alvis ran over, looked across the counter and then nodded. A second later he reached over and pulled Sigurn out, hauling her up and over the stone slab and letting her flop onto the floor… she was covered in blood.

“What… what… but she’s a silver!” Erika managed to gasp.

Alvis heard her. “We’re still human.” He said simply examining her, from where Erika stood, she could see the wound, a huge laceration across Sigurn’s throat long enough to reach from ear to ear… but it was shallow? Very shallow.

Alvis sighed again. “She hates when people find out.” He muttered so quietly that only Erika could hear, a second later her drew a bottle from a pouch and cracked it open below the corpses nose.

Which sat up and swore.

A few people screamed, more jumped or swore and one who was currently wrestling with a insect-person monster apparently deciding he liked the monster better and shoulder charged away with it across the room.

“What happened.” Growled Sigurn, her smile absent for once and her voice a deep rough grumble.

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“They poisoned or ensorcelled you, rest of the guards as well. Slit your throats and stashed you, would have done us in as well but the vitki woke up.”

Sigurn snarled, like a real bear, a rumble roar deep in her chest. “The others?”

Alvis shook his head but said nothing, Sigurn snarled again, even louder and leapt to her feet. The wound on her throat had healed itself almost completely… almost…

“That’s why you have an odium potion!” Shouted Erika, then she cringed back when people turned to stare. “Ah… sorry.”

Sigurn didn’t seem to mind, or notice, instead she grabbed her weapons and hurled herself into the insect-things. Twisted flesh and blighted carapace soon spiralled upwards into the air as Sigurn stood before the stairs, like a champion of old, holding the line alone.

The delvers cheered and charged, the shield wall moving, driving the monsters back. A second later light and heat surged as the back wall began to bubble and run. Those already injured began to form up near the hole as Ammeris scampered to-and-fro hurling options at them, the enemies and the wall all equally.

Erika for her part was still somewhat reeling from the revelation of Sigurn’s power, who’d have thought she’d meet a Chosen?

Despite the fancy name (the full name is Chosen of the Bringers of the Dawn) it basically just meant that one of the gods really liked Sigurn, probably the same one she worshiped to gain her divine style so Magni. They gained special powers based on the strengths of their gods, just like each of the 9 levels of a divine style had exactly 3 divine arts within it (and always the same 3 for each god), a chosen always had 3 powers. The 2 were something thematic like… for magni something lightning based probably… but the third was always health, a Chosen was incredibly hard to kill thanks to their regeneration, as fast as a trolls without all the cursed stone being needed. However, they did drain odium just like a vitki did, filling a sort of fake well that their Aesir granted them which only cast on spell, but it was a damn good one. Erika vaguely estimated that level of self-regeneration to be on par with a fifth-tier spell but with the obvious benefit of it triggering automatically.

Erika felt somewhat small as she saw a warrior using a spell that any flesh shaper would love to use whilst spinning an axe the size of a small droog around her head like a child’s wooden sword.

Ignoring the pointless feeling Erika dashed back up the room, boots skidding across the expensive stone tiles. The injured were already being moved out of the glowing edged hole in the wall and Erika knew she couldn’t be any more help than them, this was the second time she’d Drowned her well in as many months, she’d never done it once in her life before! These delvers were a bad influence.

Stumbling around a tent Erika saw people being passed hand to hand out of the hole, Ammeris was throwing something at the molten stone that set it hard and cold… Kara was waiting, Erika saw her face light up as they half-collided.

The constant rumble of thunderarms echoing from the stone made conversation impossible but Erika nodded at Kara who swept her up and carried her bodily through the hole, there was a time for pride and it wasn't now. More and more followed them, pushed back but retreating in good order, delvers wit bows, then spears, then the shieldwall walking backwards in lock step… finally Alvis leapt from the hole followed by Sigurn and Ammeris.

Erika saw something small and shiny fall from Ammeris’s hand as she fell, clattering away across the bank vault.

*CRISSSSH*

Erika had never heard a noise like it, a sort of scraping groaning, growing, growl that echoed all across the moving city as a wall of ice filled the hole again, catching a half dozen of the insect-people things in its deadly embrace as it flowed up and down the wall evenly, smothering and covering.

Erika gave it a 7 out of 10, not a real spell but even she could admit it did the job and was… reasonably… impressive.

Ok very impressive.

“Very impressive.”

The voice practically slithered into Erika’s ear, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere, echoing through the moving city in time with the citybeasts distant footfalls.

Alvis shot at it.

The voice said “ow” as Alvis unloaded another thunderarm somewhere over Erika’s head, she couldn’t see what was happening but she didn’t much need to. She could feel it in the air, the odium, moving.

“Vitki.” Erika gasped as behind her a figure rose from the rooftop, flesh and bone twirling and merging and sewing back together.

“Rude.” Said the vitki, her head already fully reformed, as fast as Sigurn… faster, a regeneration spell set on a contingency. Contingency was an unaligned spell of the fifth tier and regeneration like that, full resurrection within a few seconds of having her brain blown across a wall… sixth tier?

“Si…” Erika managed to check out before the world moved, delvers started running again, insect things poured out of the buildings, Erika chocked on her words as Sigurn leapt past crackling with divine lightning… but the vitki wasn't there anymore, moving faster than an arrow she hurtled down the street and…

Erika looked down at the bone blade now pinning her shoulder to the wall… she’d expected more pain to be honest… oh there it was.

Erika screamed and screamed, thrashing and making her wound even worse as the vitki walked away from her, the tendril of bone and sinew that her arm had become regrew another blade before Erika’s eyes. There was only one type of vitki who could do that, one specialisation, all vitki could learn all spells of course but your first ignite mattered the most, it set the tone, using magic like that? Fluidly like her own limb.

Erika coughed, sucking air into stinging lungs, the white-hot pain of her shoulder didn’t go away but she needed to tell them, she needed to.

“Seventh tier…. Life shaper.” Erika said, looking up at a vitki stronger than her mother for the very first time.

“Spot on darling.” Said the meridian licking her fangs as they split apart her gums. “Incidentally… I'm going to skin you alive.”