When I return, everyone has awoken, and my party has assembled. There’s trepidation as those beloved to me witness the ire drawn across my face, the utter hatred devoid of mercy that’s ready to slaughter everything in my path. My lady worries she’s darkened me somehow, that she has hurt me and soiled my mercy, but it wasn’t her. I don’t have the heart to explain why I suddenly care naught at all to offer any mercy today. My gut roils tumultuously, sickeningly at the thought of what occurred. No mercy. Not today.
Equipping, and suiting up, funnily enough, Lucky shrinks down to his near-spherical form, stowing most of his equipment in his magical scarf, save the scarf itself, and the glacial amulet. Lucky hops into Lu’s arms, as Lu, Lil, and I make our way up towards the aerie. As much as I wish I could show my love to Kinzul to assuage her fears right now, all I can think about is wrathfully decimating the entirety of Vorzog’s Keep. Every last soul that dwells within. I’m sure my wife can retrace my steps, or find out what drove me to this point this morning easily enough, if anyone overheard the conversation in Mount Verdimenn. I doubt she’d be any less full of wrath at the moment if she knew.
I’m struggling to keep from shouting my titles to manifest my Honoris Causa. It’s taking a great deal of willpower to not leap forward into the storm to race into the fray ahead of my party. If I knew the meteor spell already, fully, I’d simply rush ahead, then sic it upon Vorzog’s Keep and be done with the day. There’s some discussion of the defenses that the Keep has, that will prevent us from infiltrating directly to its leaders, but I don’t care at the moment enough to pay attention. Hell, I’m half willing to adopt my shadow form, leave all my gear behind, and penetrate to the heart of the keep, and just go wild with magic and manifestation, tearing apart the heart of their citadel from within.
Reign it in Reggie, you’re edging dangerously close to giving in to Wrath. Your eyes are even bloodshot. Have you even been blinking? Huff. Huff. I suppose not. Ow. It hurts to blink. Yeah, it’ll do that when you don’t blink for several minutes on end. Unclench your jaw, stretch out, and blink a few times, rest your locked and clenched muscles. Huff. Thanks. Anytime. Well, as long as you retain enough sanity to call on your coping mechanisms anyway. Keep it together. You’re surrounded by love. You’ll get justice for Leezahna, and anyone else that those lieutenants have—. Grr. Okay, okay, calm down. My stomach is flopping again. I know, I know, it makes us sick to even think about the implications, even if we’re wrong in our assumptions.
How often are we wrong in our assumptions though? Okay, don’t get a big head, we’re wrong pretty often. Oh. Right. Rattling my skull, I try to reorient. When did we even get into flight? I’ve been trapped in a battle with myself, preventing myself from giving in to Wrath for a while now. Leaning down, I hug Lil tightly from atop him. Lu squeezes me and Lucky tightly to her in return. I’m sorry guys. I’m sorry Te and Illy and Prinny and Veril and Farzhis, for not being cognizant enough to wish you guys safety and luck before we separated.
Telepathically, Lu whispers assurances, “It’s okay sweetie, it’s okay. It was pretty easy to guess what set you off. Everyone understood. I know you went towards Mount Verdimenn, and stopped by the library. You were mostly out of range when you got to Verdimenn, but I sort of picked up on things on your way back. It’s okay. It’s okay. Shh. They understand. No one’s upset with you for feeling angry about this. We all want them to pay. They will. We’ve got this hero. All of us. Always have, and always will.”
I half-frown as my expression saddens. Sighing raggedly, I just lean in to the embrace shared with Lu, Lil, and Lucky. I really, really do wish I had been present in my own mind enough to wish the other party good luck though. I’m so terrified of losing them, and worse, losing them without having ever said, glp, anything kind on what might be their final day.
I need to distract myself from these tumultuous emotions, so I telepathically ask something I should have learned before now, “Guys, what sort of synergy do we have? How are we even going to fight together? I mostly specialize in blowing stuff up with big area effect spells, some of which could really hurt you. I know Lucky’s immune to fire, so Lil could breathe on and around him just fine, and I am too, but Lu isn’t. Neither of you are immune to my lightning, and only Lil is immune to my cold or ice magics, though Lucky’s partway there too. Lucky and I have some neat magical tricks we gained while you guys were resting in the infirmary the other day, but those aren’t enough, even combined, for a whole fortress. Though I guess Lucky being able to blast three cones of cold that will be amplified by his glacial amulet will be pretty cool.”
When Luni asks, “It’s okay my hero, sweetie, do you trust me?” it hits me like a stab in the gut. Of course I do.
My Anchor smiles warmly my way, and nearly giggles when she instructs, “Then just do what I say, when I say it, nyeh.”
I’m the one forced to giggle when Lu attempts to blow a raspberry during high speed flight, resulting in her making blech sounds when she realizes she sputtered all over her own face. Still, as much as she’s now grumping that only she gets to have fun at my expense, the absolute butt, I’m worried for us all the same. I can somehow sense the new areas of Worldstorm release as Kinzul is allowing herself to drop control over small pockets of the Worldstorm above, or at least near, certain fortresses and keeps. We’re actually about to pass over one in a few moments, or, well, within a fairly close distance to one.
It doesn’t really come as any surprise when an adult Red peaks its head above the clouds, as it carefully skirts the constantly arcing lightning. Glancing at Lu for permission, when she gives me the nod, I leap off of Lil while donning the appropriate gear. Lil knows to veer away so that Luni doesn’t get crisped by a breath weapon. My task is much simpler than maintaining a prolonged flight above the Worldstorm. Poor Lil has to keep at a high glide for hours from location to location.
There’s almost a wicked sneer across my face as I call out my challenge, “Hail foe, I offer you and your lord one chance at mercy, for I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I suggest you fetch them for parley, unless you’d like me to use your falling corpse to send my greeting.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
At first, there’s no response to my statement, at least not until my Honoris Causa fully manifests. I’m pretty certain that the Red crapped himself or herself, because I heard what sounded like a falling projectile. This isn’t even one of the major fortresses, but it’s part of our new strategy to demoralize and confuse Terrorzin’s ground forces, to take down the leadership core at every location that we can, as we make our way to our actual targets on a given day. There are no ancients at this fortress, it’s one by the name of Shlendtikuar, another powerful Draconiac, with some young-adult dragons in their service. It’s almost not even worth my time to try to carefully harvest the dragonforce of the few dragons within, since I’d have to do it during freefall from above the Worldstorm.
When three more adult dragons, closing in power-wise to ancient dragons show up, ridden by three spellknight Draconiacs, I can’t say I’m not at least a little surprised. Once again, our information network is underinformed, at least slightly. Still, there’s something that sets ancient dragonforces apart from adults, or even elder adults. I’m so, so, so very glad that I placed the brainblast-aegis enchantment on this circlet that slots along my helm.
While I recognize some of the spellwork being thrown my way, and I’m unaffected by some of their mid-tier to higher power spells, due to having an enchantment that blocks psychic energy attacks, I’m not entirely safe. Chains of shadow lash at and bind me from seemingly nowhere, locking me in place. Well, locking my physical RS2 body in place. I almost giggle when several of the assembled dragons lunge in order to take advantage of my seeming vulnerability. These ones hadn’t seen my Honoris Causa manifest, they only sense my dragonforce.
Manifesting the full physical aspect of several of my limbs, and my Void Dragon breath weapon, I rend at the snouts, scapula, and wings of the two Blues closing in on me. When they realize I’m not entirely helpless, while my smaller body is locked in place, they withdraw, slightly battered and beaten, in order to charge their breath weapons. Heh. Now is when things get fun. Careful Reggie, don’t get cocky now. You’re still physically locked in place by magic, and even raven-porting might not manage to free you from the enchantment.
Calling out once again, I offer, “Since your scout didn’t deliver my message, I’ll deliver it personally, now that you’re here. I am Reggie Shellcracker, Titled and Aliased, yada yada. You may call me Schism, and I’m here to demand that you accept my mercy, abandoning service to Terrorzin.”
There’s snickering and sneers from the assembled dragons and Draconiacs. Well, you can’t say Reggie Shellcracker doesn’t at least try to grant mercy, even when I’m pissed to all hell. Also, maybe stop talking about yourself in the third person in your own head Reggie. It’s one thing to do it for the whole titling and manifesting process, but it’s an entire other ballgame when you’re doing it to yourself in your own head. Erm, hah, true. Regardless, here comes a barrage of breath weapons that thankfully, I don’t need to waste S P preparing for.
Equipping my cursed greaves, I push outward on my internal electrokinesis. Thankfully, the enchantment locking me in place is broken because of either the line of sight being broken by a massive ball of lightning, or the electromagnetic barrier that forms in a sphere around me as I push outward while lightning from breath weapons and the Worldstorm seeks me. Free to move from the location I’d been trapped in the air, I don’t think anyone expects it when I fly into the first Red’s face, and unload a massive spherical discharge of electricity, stunning them so thoroughly that they fall tumbling into the Worldstorm below, skirting the edge of the hole that’d opened in it. They’re decimated by acid, winds, and further lightning during their fall.
It’s not even worth trying to make it to ground level to harvest that dragonforce. Pity. I swap back to my non-cursed leg armor. To say I’m a bit surprised when an ancient Red comes soaring, roaring out of the fortress below in response to the death of the one I’d sent tumbling, would be an understatement. Once again, our intelligence is woefully inadequate. Could this be a visiting lord? I glance towards the horizon where Lil is now a tiny spec swooping circles, waiting for me to finish up what should have been a few moments worth of activity. I might have to use up some resources after all. Maybe.
As the ancient Red unleashes a blast of flame at me that sends the adult Blues, and even the remaining adult Red back, I just calmly call out my challenge once again through the roar of the blaze. I doubt anyone can hear me though. When I allow my Void Dragon manifestation to launch a haymaker at the snout of the ancient Red, it does a smart thing that I haven’t seen any dragon do before when they’d charged a breath weapon. He closes his mouth, and stifles his breath. His loosing of a wild roar of frustration at my seeming impertinence for surviving his breath weapon unscathed leaves me rolling my eyes. I’m about to reiterate my challenge, and offer of mercy, when another visitor arrives from below.
As an elegant ancient Green shows up, I know better than to take lightly the combination of breath weapons that can occur. I should probably go immediately into adamantite body form, but I haven’t collected many shavings since I’d used up so many in the last offensives. I’d been letting the volunteer Draconiacs and kobolds grind them down into powder as spices. Let’s check on what we have access to off the top of our head for the day, eh Reggie? Yeah, we’ll pop into a brief, exceedingly brief moment of retrocognition. It’s painful to use when I’ve got my Honoris Causa manifested at all.
[*]1/1 Conjure 12 meteorites, small but still potent.
[*]1/1 Conjure a greater elemental for 2 minutes.
[*]3/3 Conjure a slowing field.
[*]3/3 Emit a blast of frost in a cone.
[*]3/3 Shadowy Evocations of ~4th tier.
[*]3/3 Shadowy Conjurations of ~4th tier.
[*]3/3 Skin of Stone.
[*]RS2 Subform’s.
[*]1/1 Fire Knife.
[*]1/1 Ice Knife.
[*]1/1 Lightning Knife.
[*]1/1 Frostburn’s Slashblast.
[*]5/5 Raven-porting.
Alright, so, first thing’s first, let’s get a handle on how well this Skin of Stone spell handles explosions and attacks from ancient dragons. At least we don’t have any acid dragons in the mix. Layering the Skin of Stone spell over my enchanted armor defenses doesn’t leave me feeling as sturdy as even being naked in my adamantite body form does. Still, when powerful stone elemental magic manifests and encases your foe, far, far above the ground, thankfully it gives pause to even the ancient dragons, as they realize I’m more than just some annoyance with a dragonforce.
One last time, shall we? As I begin calling out my titles and challenges once more, I realize I shouldn’t have even bothered. Alright, I’m done screwing around. I can’t even ask Lil, Lu, or Lucky for help on this, because the ancient Green’s breath weapon could kill them if they inhale too much of it, and that’s to say nothing of the explosion that could rock them wildly into the Worldstorm if the ancient Red ignited that breath weapon. Thankfully I know they’ll be at least slightly cautious about igniting the Green’s breath weapon, since it might knock themselves or their subordinates into the Worldstorm as well, as there isn’t a whole hell of a lot of safe area to drop down through yet.
I really didn’t anticipate there being so much power awaiting being baited out, and willing to rise above the storm at this location. It’s not supposed to have any ancients at all. Wait. Is that Luni flying my way, holding Lucky? What in the everloving—. Argh. Te gave her the runic clip with the flight and lightning powers.