Calling out to my foes, I joke, “I don’t suppose at least you would be willing to surrender? I’m a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, and Void Dragon Honoris Causa. If you’re at all interested in mercy, let’s talk this out.”
Snirk, fat chance. I had to at least try. One of the death-knights shouts something in that alien brain-melting hiss of draconic speech, and I’m left clenching my jaw, stretching my neck, and rattling my head. Yoof, their responses are all in draconic as well. Crap. I wonder if I could find a way to learn that. The language barrier thing hasn’t bit me in the arse in quite a while. I guess it was bound to crop up again at some point or another.
Crap crap crap. Okay, quick leap back, dive low under two of the incoming attacks, the fourth one without a blade is spellslinging, enhancing her female ally’s agility, and her two male allies’ strength. Not great for me. They’re immune to my telekinetic grips. Thankfully, they aren’t so powerful that they instantly shatter my T K Squares that I use to block up to three strikes at a time, at least not yet. I conjure my squares between the fingers of the runeworker at the back, messing up her runes, as she’s forced to figure out where she can move her gauntleted hand when there are invisible forces blocking it that I keep shuffling around to enclose it from several sides.
Phooph. Okay, breathe Reggie. I wish you had worked on generating that breath-weapon organ. Yeah, me too pal. Whoopf, here come the dragons. I want to come up with a strategy before I start blowing all my resources like my raven-porting, so I’m going to let my adamantite body take some hits while I figure things out.
Oh. Well. This is nice to know. Adamantite is apparently unaffected by acid, at least acid of this strength. The dragons are also not strong enough to do more than knock me a little off balance, or send me skidding slightly. Friggin’ hell this spell is fantastic. Crap on a cracker Teuila, I love you for making me prioritize this spell.
Trying to calm my breathing, and still the racing of my heart, I begin to ignore the dragons attacking me, despite the fact that they’re quickly wearing down my adamantite form. Those energy blades will probably cut right through my armor, and me. I need to see if I can even parry them. Okay, good news, yes, Frostburn can parry them, bad news, all three death knights who aren’t working magic are stronger than me, and far more skilled than me in swordsmanship.
Oh? They’re dodging out of the way of the acid as their dragon allies spin around to get me back in their streams. That’s handy to know. Even if they simply don’t know whether or not their armor is good enough to take it, that’s still extra moves they need to make. I need to get to the back and take out the one focusing on casting, before she manages any major enchantments, or figures out it’d be better to hit me with a high tier evocation.
Keep my movements minimalistic, give myself brief, minute corrections with a T K Square before I send it back to move around her dominant hand. I’m through the line of foes, thanks to their hesitancy to remain in the line of fire of acid breath, and even the enchantress at the back attempts to leap backwards away from both the breath, and me, but I conjure a square behind her elbow, and her back, causing her dodge to be completely ineffectual. She didn’t have the leverage to smash my T K Squares. Her offhand is doing something, but I’m focusing on her main hand to keep her from bringing any high level spells to bear.
Frostburn is ineffectual at slashing at or stabbing at her armor, though I’m able to mess up her attempts to dodge. Her offhand brings itself in, swiping, nowhere near me, and I’m knocked reeling, sideways into the hallway to my left. Ow. She has a blade of invisible T K Force. Of course she does. Everyone else has some kind of magical energy blade, why wouldn’t she? Okay, I need to buy myself a few moments’s reprieve, get my head on straight, and take out the acid dragons so F F S can come help me. Focus on the things I can whittle down and finish first. Maybe I’ll be able to use their heads and breath organs as weapons telekinetically.
Righting myself, I dodge around the woman dashing at me with her offhand extended, but it’s a feint, she’s switched hands, and is swiping with her mainhand. I was at least observant enough to notice her tossing the invisible blade from one hand to the other, by the way her hands moved, since I’ve been keeping very detailed track of them.
Crap, the others are starting spellwork now that I’m tied up over here. It never ends. Wait. Actually. Remember how we won back in Eimsas? Humans only had about a thousand mana, and they could only cast spells at the one hundred mana level. Could I just make this a battle of attrition, where I keep costing them S P by screwing up their runework, a few points here and there? They might be able to get some spells off, but they’re not going to summon a meteor in here, and I can dodge most rays, lines, and bolts. As long as I keep them from buffing themselves and each other up with long-duration enchantments that make them more difficult to manage, I might be able to do this. Eventually they’d be left with just their weapons and armor.
Dodge low Reggie, dive at her feet, take the edge of her swing to drive you downwards into her ankles, topple her over, good. She wasn’t expecting that. Smash her helmet on the way down with your fist and as much E S P as you can muster. Whew. She looks slightly disoriented as I’m dashing back through her allies, screwing with their runework with my T K Squares. Leaping into dragon’s mouths Reggie, it’s a habit for you. Yeah yeah. Theirs aren’t quite big enough in these half-hallway-sized forms to climb into, but it’s enough that I can weather their stream of acid, cling to their nostrils, and jab Frostburn at their eyes, and throats repeatedly.
It isn’t very long before the first acid dragon falls, and the second screams in anguish, losing his partner. I beg F F S to come open up the chests of the acid dragons for me as I work at finishing off the second one, while trying to keep enough of my senses split to be able to continually use my T K Squares to interrupt runework of three high caliber sorcerers behind me. The fourth, the T K-swordswoman, leaps off of one of her allies shoulders towards me, swinging a very telegraphed two handed blow, but I’m not exactly in a position to dodge, since I’m clinging to the face of the second acid dragon.
I feel a little horrible for this as I Q C R to the Ravenfeather-coat, and raven-port away. We watch in abject horror as she seems to stare, feeling the same emotion, as her heavy, force-empowered strike caves in the snout, and the frontal-cranial plate of the dragon I’d been battling. It’s utterly gruesome as she topples, falling with the dragon whose scream of anguish has become a wail of agony. The dragon’s entire face and head is smashed with unstoppable force into the hard stone floor, shattering his jaw beneath the T K-swordswoman.
We hate ourselves a little bit for this, because Olashax did a similar thing, making Teuila strike her allies. Only, Teuila’s allies were innocent people who wanted nothing to do with the death and destruction that was being wrought. We don’t feel quite that bad, as the three of us take a diving velocity at T K-swordswoman, becoming adamantite Reggie again on the way down. We continue to drive her forward into the cranium of the dragon whose skull she’s caving in as we slam into her back with an L B B T K S L assisted E S P. Hell Reggie, I know the acronyms are shorter, but that’s a nutsoid series of letters. Lightning Boost Burst Telekinetic Square Leap into an Electro Shock Punch just sounds too wordy though.
T K-swordswoman does the work for me, unwittingly, unwillingly, as I drive her and her massively powerful T K spellblade into the rest of the cranium of the second black dragon. F F S is arriving, just in time, and she’s here to help me get at these dragonforces while they’re still hot. Then we’ll be two on four, much better odds, as I continue to screw with the runework of the three behind me. They begin to succeed at their first series of spells though. A swirling serpentine dragon formed of fire bursts forth from all three of them towards me and F F S, and I’m left giggling as I make sure to lay atop the T K-swordswoman with my arms wrapped around her, feeling the pleasant warmth of their most dangerous spells.
T K-swordswoman calls out the alien brainmelting hiss, likely begging her allies to call off the spell, and her call becomes a cry of pain, which becomes a scream as she begins to bake inside her armor. I feel horrid for this. I feel like a complete monster for giggling a few seconds ago. It’s literally kill or be killed though. Since T K-swordswoman is too disoriented from being smashed into a dragon skull, into the ground, crashed on from above by an adamantite golem, and now being seared alive, I’m going to take the opportunity to finish her. I can’t pry her helmet off. The enchantment locks it in place so instead, I begin sickeningly twisting her neck, but the armor prevents it from turning far enough to snap her spine. Delivering some E S Ps to her armored face while it’s bent at a painful angle, I spy the lone weakpoint in her armor, her eye-slits. She’s too dazed to resist or dodge as I drive Frostburn into her helm, shrinking it to fit through the tiny slits. Size-changing enchantments are incredibly beneficial.
She goes limp, lifeless beneath me, I allow myself a heavy-hearted sigh as I turn back towards the three who are working a combined massive fire spell at me. They saw me immune to acid, so they didn’t assume I could also possibly be immune to fire. They’re communicating in fearful hisses now as I stomp towards them, my T K Squares messing with their runework of any additional spells they try to cast. F F S decides to join me in menacingly walking through the fire towards the death-knights.
I call out one last time, “I am Reggie Shellcracker, Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, archmage, Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa! I grant you one last chance to surrender! Sit comfortably against a wall, and I will take that as a sign of your desire for mercy!”
Hesitantly, two of them, one of the men, and the living woman move back, away from me, and carefully edge to the heavily destroyed wall of the intersection near their barracks. They sit, and dismiss their blades. The dark and the light. Ugh, that leaves me with the Psion death-knight. Still. Two lives spared? Two amazingly powerful lives? I—. I’ll take it.
Having no more need to waste my T K squares preventing runework, I use them to prevent dodging by the Psion death-knight, while F F S darts around behind him. Sighing slowly, shaking my head, I utter, “I offered you mercy. May your deity forgive you, and perhaps me.”
F F S grips the death-knight under his armpits, hoisting him, preventing him from being able to get leverage to try to squirm away as she puts him in a full-nelson while extending ice between his neck and shoulders, so that he can’t go limp to wriggle out downwards either. I float casually towards him, and drive Frostburn into the one vulnerable spot his armor. Frostburn is as thin as a kitchen-knife to be able to make it through the slits, but that’s all it takes as I thrust it forcefully into his cranium. He slumps, dead in Salamanderian’s grasp. She immediately returns to wresting scales from the chests of the acid dragons, and carving them open for me.
I turn to the radiant and umbral death-knights, and request, “Please trust that I will provide for your safety, but I require a show of faith. I want you to strip down your armaments, your enchantments if you can, and then strip down your fallen allies. I am sorry for slaying those you knew. Truly I am. Can you speak the common Englishness as they call it?
The woman nods while removing her helmet, a teal Draconiac whose smooth, shining scales on her pleasantly rounded face are delightful to gaze upon, she’s quite beautiful, with her face appearing serpentine. Her partner, also a teal Draconiac is a man whose similarly lovely scales are set upon a squarish face, presenting a strong lizardlike look. He’s as handsome as she is beautiful, and they gaze at each other with worry.
The woman begins, “Aye, we do. As you’ve introduced yourself, please forgive us our introductions. I am Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui.”
Her brother apparently, offers, “I am Umbral Spellknight Ahliyuri, brother of Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui, egg-twin. If it should come down to it, if you make us choose, I choose her life over mine.”
Ahliyui hisses in anger at her brother, obviously feeling the same sentiment while she continues divesting her armor. I hold up my hand and offer, “I’ve granted you mercy, and you’ve accepted it. I am of course annoyed that it took until midway through a battle, but you hadn’t known my power yet at that point. If it matters, I ask your forgiveness, and offer you mine. I need to know what you will do though. The last individual who accepted my mercy gave me a very wrong answer, and I had to slay them. Do you intend to join us, to live in peace in our home? Would you take up the fight against Terrorzin? Or would you travel the countryside, raiding and harming innocents? I can sense deception, so speak from your hearts.”
Ahliyuri offers, “If peace, putting everything behind us, comes with guaranteed safety, I’d take it. As fun as raiding can be, has been, I’ve seen enough death now. Enough looks of fear, pain, agony. Ahliyui would fight though, so I offer myself in her stead, and I refuse your offer of mercy, requesting that you kill me, if you insist on conscripting her.”
His sister hisses angrily, “Ahli you can’t! You can’t control my fate! We don’t even know what they’re fighting, or what for!”
Well, I can answer that at least, “I’m going to depose and destroy Terrorzin, and anyone who remains loyal to him and his utter stupidity of bringing the world down with him. Oh, yes, thank you Salamanderian, I’ll grab dragonforces in a moment. I won’t conscript anyone. I want people to live in peace, in joy and harmony. If you would be willing to take up arms in defense of our home, in case of a siege, I wouldn’t stop you. If yo—“
My other mercy-granted prisoner, Atter steps from behind the corpses whose blood and acid have pitted and created divots in the floor and speaks on my behalf, “This one means it. Schism there, Reggie, slept as an offer of trust, after taking my surrender. They offer sanctuary at the Onyx Dawn, at Mount Solace. I’m more and more convinced every passing moment that I made the right choice. They’ve spared my entire clan.”
I blink back tears and gulp down my emotions to attempt to remain straight-faced as I suck a sharp inhalation through my nose. Nodding, I continue, “I do, I absolutely do mean it. I don’t know if I’m ready to trust you, to set you loose unguarded amongst my people, my beloved family. You are powerful spellcasters, Spellknights. Would you consent to being imprisoned for a day? A week? A month? Also know that you would be treated with kindness in the prison, and simultaneously the safest, furthest from any battle during this war I wage.”
They exchange a curious glance as they stand bare before me. The siblings edge around me to continue doing as I’d requested, stripping their allies corpses of gear. There is some muttered hissing, which I’m not comfortable them doing, speaking in secret, but it sounds like they’re trying to convince themselves, or each other. Ahliyui offers, “If it would keep my stupid brother from trying to fight in my stead, I would agree. I only care about his life though. Endanger it, and—. I’m sure you will end me before I do too much harm, but I will intend harm.”
I draw a deep, ragged breath. I certainly can empathize. Ahliyuri speaks much the same, “And I of my deranged sister. Though perhaps, instead, I would resign myself to requesting death, if you’d harmed her, or put her in harms way against our will.”
Exhaling slowly, I nod, “I can feel the truth of your statements. I would slay anyone who harmed my family, and go mad with grief, so I do not disbelieve you. Please, find a trunk, a footlocker, or several packs, to pack up all of this equipment. Feel free to clothe yourselves. I’m sorry I required your nudity. I’ll wait here a moment before I continue destroying this place in an effort to offer mercy to Shiz and Tinth. When you return, if you would like to, you can lightly bind yourselves along the rope I’d given to Atter, so that my allies know you are to be unharmed, protected as prisoners. I am also informing them psychically of such, but in heated moments, any extra clue to offer you protection is, well, it’s up to you.”
The siblings exchange glances again, seeming to be trying to suss me out. A captor that says, “You can tie yourselves up if you want to,” sounds utterly crazy, doesn’t it? They do walk swiftly towards the barracks at the far end of the hall. Perhaps the only ones not-destroyed by my earlier Darkstar gravity bomb. I’m slightly wary of them leaving my danger wraps’ silent sonar sensory distance, but I simply try to maintain my breathing. I take a moment to ingest the hearts of the acid dragons, absorbing their dragonforces. About two percent each, getting closer to topping myself back off after the sacrifice I'd made last night during enchanting. Keeping my Honoris Causa up is running it down though, so I'm at about ninety one percent or so. Somewhere between ninety and ninety three percent of the combined dragonforces of Olashax and Vanathar. It's hard to gauge still.
My first prisoner asks, “Can I truly, truly believe, that you are so assured of success, that you can afford to not conscript them? Us? Anyone?”
Flashing Atter a smile, I nod while answering, “Yeah. I’m pretty certain that I don’t need to put more lives than those who choose to volunteer, at risk, in danger, to achieve my goals. The only thing I’m worried about is the trustworthiness of who I allow into my home. If someone were to harm my family, I might raze the world before Terrorzin does, in a grief-stricken rage. You haven’t seen it, but my soul contains a demon known only as wrath. I try to keep it tightly bound, but each new affront to someone I love unleashes it longer, granting it greater control over me, making it all that much harder to come back from. When I said I would slay anyone who harmed my family, and go mad with grief, I meant it.”
Nodding along with me, Atter’s face is a mixture of sorrow, fear, and appreciation. She mutters, “I believe it. If I could back it up, I’d be the same. I—. I just want them safe. Reggie. Schism. Hero. Safety was always, always best achieved by submitting, following Terrorzin, obeying. For them, I’d tarnish my soul, I’d fight, I’d die, I’d do whatever seemed most likely to save them. I have, and I will continue to.”
Taking a shuddering breath as I continue to slowly cast a replacement Steely Body spell, as I have been since the latter half of the fight, I nod to Atter as the siblings return. They’re wearing simple dark-brown hooded cloaks, with the hoods down, dark-gray slacks, and light-gray tunics. They do give me a curious glance now that my skin is no longer visibly metallic, but they don’t hesitate to continue following my instructions, packing up all the enchanted equipment. I’ll ask them about all of what it does later.
Sighing, I ask, “Are you two able to tell me what I’ll be facing on the other side of that door? Or how to open it without wasting my magic?”
They both nod, the brother starts explaining the opening of the door while Ahliyui describes, “On the other side is something of a colossal dracoliche, only, it’s bones from all dragonkind, and anything else that their magic can keep cobbling together, adding to it. They were probably going to stop adding to it in a day or two, but it’ll fight you. Not that you seem worried.”
Fighting my grin, and my desire to quip, I respond, “You’re right. I’ll go on ahead, and slay everything in that room, unless you tell me there is someone I should look for to offer mercy to. I’d like you three to remain here, and remain safe. Sit on a bunk or something if you like.”
Ahliyui accidentally lets slip a grumble, “Weirdest captor imaginable,” her brother shoots her an angered, only slightly fearful glance, but I flash them both a smile and wave as I finish up my third Steely Body spell.
F F S and I begin heading into the next laboratory-esque ritual-esque room, and I wave back towards my three prisoners in a friendly manner. Opening the door, disarming a trap, and preparing myself with F F S is a short process. She requires more of my staff’s S P to remain at my side, to remain manifested in this realm, and I gladly pay it, because I don’t have enough to resummon her within the staff right now. He fluidly shapeshifts and offers up that he’s feeling more masculine right now, so I address his gender thusly.
To say that I’m annoyed that three disintegration beams are each leveled my way, and three more are aimed at F F S, far too fast to dodge all of them, would be an understatement. I don’t want to lose F F S after just paying more mana from my Archsorc staff to maintain his presence. I could easily dodge the ones that are about to hit me by raven-porting, but F F S would be vaporized if I didn’t take their hits instead. Disintegration beams instantly vaporize and break through one telekinetic barrier of force and still continue forward, though a second one should be able to stop it. Wait, what am I thinking? I’ll have three bodies to block it.
I quick-change-ring into number one, and raven-port, dodging all three disintegration rays aimed at me, while teleporting all three of my selves into harms way in front of Salamanderian, taking the beams in place of him. I’m immediately shunted deeper into the room, forced to reform as myself in the nearest safe location, and end up landing atop a necromancer. Annoyingly, this necromancer had some sort of contingency, or glyph, or something that enabled him to reactively launch a disintegrate beam at me upon contact.
Even if I wanted to use the last charge of my coat, I couldn’t right now, the beam has already connected with me. I shunt most of my gear back into the ring, protecting it from the deadly magics, taking the full force of the beam to my chest.