It happens so fast. I wish I could tell them not to, that I would be safe. Atter and Shiz begin returning to dragon form beside me, doing their best to position themselves. Atter and Shiz are impaled at chest level, only partially reverted to their dragon form as they intercept Tinth on my behalf. They desperately want the trust that earns my action leading to saving Attraxiaz’s clutch.
With how fast he was accelerating, and me being my normal fleshy self, they may have actually saved my life, because Tinth was aiming for my neck with his claws. I could have been beheaded by a super-speed cut. The only possibly saving grace, is that Tinth’s claws might perhaps not be long enough to reach Atter’s or Shiz’s hearts yet. Tinth’s claws are only a few inches long in his partial transformation, but he’s continuing to grow. The two Thunderers seem unable to continue transforming further towards their dragon forms however. The Thunderers share a meager partially charged thunder breath each at Tinth’s forelimbs, shattering Tinth’s wrists as each of them continue to grip the claws stuck in their sternums.
No! If he continues growing back to size, they’ll die if they aren’t already pierced through the heart anyway! They’ve got Tinth pinned in position, the super speedster is no longer able to dodge, so I need to end it quickly capitalizing on the chance Atter and Shiz have granted me. He’s focused on them, so he shouldn’t be thinking too much about what my spells might be like. Quickend cast, G S E Balefire! I rocket into Tinth’s stunned face, and shove my right hand into his nostril as I unleash it with the simple utterance of, “Balefire!”
Tinth’s shriek of fear becomes a shriek of agony as fires as hot as the deepest hells consume his face from the inside. He jerks back, trying to flee from the flames spreading up his skull and consuming him, but the two Thunderers retain their grips, as both of them crumple to their knees. Worried for the Thunderers’ lives, I hack at Tinth’s broken wrists with Frostburn. I’m not strong enough. I offer Frostburn to— I turn Frostburn on Tinth and unleash its cold-cone property while throwing the empowered-ice-rune knife, hoping the force of the blast knocks him back and away.
The resulting instant glacier does knock Tinth away, but in the process, he rips gaping wounds in Atter and Shiz. Tinth is knocked entirely to the far wall of the chamber by the suddenly spawning empowered ice blast. The ice encroaches on him too swiftly for him to react and binds him, growing too swiftly for him to even finish his death gurgle as the Balefire makes its way into his brain. I let the Balefire continue consuming his skull and face for the moment.
Turning to Shiz and Atter, I rush to their sides, and they’ve both gone pale as they shrink down to their human forms, forms easier to clutch the gaping wounds in their chests with. I hear ice crinkle, crackle, and shatter, as Balefire begins to consume the wall of the stronghold that Tinth is frozen to, as well as the ice, and the ceiling. Tossing my glance back over my shoulder, making certain Tinth is truly dead, I release the spell prolonging the Balefire and quickly return my attention to Atter and Shiz. They’re on their knees, gasping for air, each having at the very least, slightly perforated lungs, as blood continues spilling out their torsos, pooling on the floor. They’re slowly falling to their backs, unable to support themselves.
No no no! I, I offered mercy! I, I saved them so they wouldn’t have to die! I write an emergency note to Lu, “Medical Aid x2! Blood!” and give it to the origami giraffe within the dimensional pouch. I begin stripping my equipment, and get entirely naked so that I can offer my under-armor chest padding and legging-padding as temporary bindings for their wounds. I begin slowly casting another Steely Body spell, because I know we’re not done fighting yet, and I’m naked.
A note returns as the giraffe pokes its head out, “Sponge, volunteers#?”
I wasn’t expecting that that might even be a possibility. I beg, screaming out for the Dormir, Shaylon and Boetah telepathically, “Two that have surrendered are dying from trying to save my life, please rush to me. I beg you, volunteer for Sponge with me!”
Most of the answers are something along the lines of, “Yes, of course Schism,” I don’t have a psychic bond with the twin Spellknights, and I don’t want to risk leaving the sides of my surrendered prisoners, so I write back to Luni, “7 here. How many to save each one? Chest wound, lungs pierced, hearts visible, but not destroyed.”
I continue trying to apply pressure as Luni writes back, “Not enough, getting volunteers, all seven grab one, Sponge’s hand coming, that injured grab Sponge.”
This is insane, this is amazing, this is, we, we have to do this. I feel horrid, but I know that Atter almost for certain is a mother who cares for her clan and family, so I pick her first, grasping her tightly about her left shoulder as the Dormir and my Shield and Aegis arrive from above, where they’d been working on finishing off the sixth floor. They look haggard, weary, and their glances let me know that not all the enemies above are finished. I can tell they’ve bought us a few seconds with a diversion, distraction, or trap, so I nod at them gratefully.
They quickly line up along me, touching along Atter’s arm. I begin guiding her hand to my dimensional pouch, and she looks at me oddly, weakly, feebly. It has to be a Shellcracker that opens the way into the dimensional pouch, right now it’s soulbound to us. I’m pretty sure anyway.
I explain, “Atter, in there will be a hand, you have to grasp it, and we will share your injury enough to slow the bleeding, maybe stop it. I promised you mercy, and protection of your people. If we can mostly close your wound, we will get more volunteers to share Shiz’s wound.”
She nods feebly, confused, but trusting me. She’s letting her hand be guided into the dimensional storage pouch, knowing to seek out a hand to clasp. Each moment passing feels like a lifetime as Atter and Shiz lay on their backs, bleeding out. My allies cast worried glances my way, perhaps wondering if it’s worth it to be doing what I am. Or perhaps they’re wondering if we’ll be able to save them in time.
I feel Atter’s wrist muscles and forearm muscles twitch, certain that she’s now clasping a hand within the dimensional storage pouch. Farzee and Induul seem apprehensive, but the others trust me implicitly it seems. We all begin to feel it as our sternums bruise, and the flesh along our chests begins to tear and abrade. I loose up some sick, angling away from everyone as I will the worst of the share of Sponge’s ability into me. I can feel Lady Kinzul fighting me, trying to keep Sponge’s Latent even across everyone. There’s a threat that she will begin taking it into herself if I don’t relent, so I do. I don’t want her to take on this injury. Not my beloved Lady of our Order.
Though weak, and strained, Atter’s breathing evens out, and her wound has closed enough that it’s only through several layers of tissue instead of all the way into her chest cavity. All of our chests are bleeding, scraped raw, deeply gouged, but survivable. I quickly write a note, “Saved #1, enough volunteers for #2?” to send to Luni.
Luni writes back, the giraffe popping its head out, “Not enough yet, soon, get hand in anyway.”
I leap over to Shiz, and grab his right hand, shoving it into the dimensional pouch while I keep pressure on his wound as I hold a waterskin to his mouth, commanding, “Drink, you’ve lost more fluids, when a hand reaches in to this bag from the other side, clasp it. We’re going to save you. Please trust me.”
The seven of us on this side can’t be volunteers again, both because of one of Sponge’s Latent’s rules, and because of the severity of the injuries. We’d have our chest cavities torn open and begin dying, making it all that much harder, requiring all that many more volunteers. We’re all seriously injured at the moment, and there are still some ground forces roaming around.
I quickly order, “Shield, Aegis, western tunnel, stand guard, Aegis, probably northwest corner for your Latent. Barracks on west and east will be alert by now after those last massive blasts. Dormir, upper tunnel, and east tunnel, I’ll take south while I’m consuming Tinth’s dragonforce.”
The six obey my command wordlessly. I feel horrible for ordering and commanding, but they seem to not begrudge me the leadership I’ve been afforded by my titling. If anything, Farzee views me in an odd light, seemingly with curiousity. Oh, wait, I’m naked. Well, she now knows that there isn’t anything to seduce. Maybe that’ll get her off my case. Right now, I can’t afford to think about how stupidly pretty and gorgeous she is, or how much I’d like to allow myself to enjoy her flirtations. Nor can I afford to think about how much I’m falling in love with Illy, and worried that she’s limping and holding her skull. I also can’t afford the embarrassment in realizing that my psychic walls are down from all of this chaos. Hell in a handbasket.
Farzhis and Induul and Veril take the east tunnel together, while Illy holds the north tunnel alone. She really is just that much more powerful than most of our other fighting force members in her group, being the eldest surviving daughter of Lady Kinzul.
I can sense the wound slowly receding on Shiz’s torso, but I make certain to levitate him and Atter away from each other, so that they don’t hold hands. No one who’s injured in the same spot can risk touching during this process. Lady Kinzul’s Administration Latent might be able to keep any percentage injury from transferring to someone already injured, but I don’t want to risk it.
I begin carving apart the ice to both keep large blocks in the tunnel, barring its path, and to make my way to the corpse of Tinth. Feeling more than enough hatred to ignite my wrath, I struggle to suppress it as I finally free his headless body from my impromptu glacier. I foolishly strike myself with my lightning empowered knife so that I can channel all the electricity into burning a hole into Tinth’s chest, a gaping wound around where his heart would be, in some sense of vengeful justice.
Tinth’s corpse, now freed, is beginning to grow back to its proper draconic form and size, so it isn’t entirely without purpose that I must carve him open. I direct his body to lay across the tunnel, barring it further in place of the massive ice blocks I’d directed therein as I reach in to begin consuming his heart and dragonforce. I’m hoping that the Spellknight twins remain safe in one of the furthest side barracks.
Shouting as loud as I can, I request, “Ahliyui, Ahliyuri, it might not be safe for you to remain out there! Rush here before our next engagement!”
I can sense a massive dragonforce approaching. Attraxiaz was right, a powerful Terrorzin supporter is driving those less loyal members of her clan to us. Thankfully, the twins manage to carefully scrabble over the ice and the corpse I’ve placed in the way of the tunnel, and are closing the door behind them as they toss the equipment bag and footlocker over into the room. It’ll let loose the curse on whoever tries to open it now if they aren’t cleared for this floor.
The twins look dismayed that the one prisoner other than them, that I’d promised to protect, is laying on the floor in a pool of her own blood, a still slightly-bleeding wound on her chest. Also they might be dismayed at my nudity, I don’t know. I’m starting to slowly cast a new Steely Body spell, I need to quickly calculate how many S P I have left while I’m absorbing Tinth’s dragonforce. I’m chowing down on his heart even as it grows larger and larger while his body fills the archway. Eventually his body can’t grow any further, and I’ve got enough of his heart chewed through to my digital stomach, that I feel the dragonforce flowing quickly into me.
Let’s see, I think I’ve done about seven quickened casts today, I did two non quickened Steely Body spells on the lower levels, that’s sixty six. I did two Dark Stars, quickened, on the way to the dracoliche. Quickened, each are sixty six. I did manage to cast an unquickened Steely Body spell before the dracoliche room if I recall, thirty three there. Then I casted a quickened Steely Body in the dracoliche room, sixty six there. Three more quickened spells on floor five, sixty six for each the Dark Star, the Steely Body while being stomped on, and the Balefire. So that should be four hundred ninety five S P used. I think I’m going to start a mental subroutine to emulate the old menus of Can’Z’aas to start keeping track of resources. It’s starting to get too dangerous to slip up.
Crap crap crap crap there’s a lot of spellcasters near the massive dragonforce outside the room. I’m still absorbing here. Let’s see, getting rid of all the spellcasters, or a large swath, would be good, so I could hit them with a quickened dark star, but the dragon would probably see through the spell, disbelieving I could truly conjure such power right off the bat. If I tried to instead wait for an opening to try a quickened Balefire inside the dragon’s face, where they can’t really get a chance to start realizing it’s an illusion since it’ll immediately start burning away their insides, well—. I’d have to contend with something like seventy mages. Shippingsnickerdoodles friggin’ hell. I kinda wish I’d asked Lu to see if she could carefully set some of those single use items in the hyperdimensional haversack. Not sure I want to gamble right now though either.
Screw it. I know I said I didn’t want to waste them, that I wanted to study them and figure out what they’re for, but I’m going to try to overload one of the energy cell looking things. I’ll use the sandstorm cloak thing to conjure a lightning cloud inside, start it raining down a steady stream of lightning, and toss one of the energy cells into it. That should hopefully wipe out and or scatter most of the mages on the other side of the door. Let’s start building extra electrical charge right now, get ourselves overcharged a bit. Make sure we’re on three and five to start with from our Q C R. Necrometal and Glacial Greaves. Raven-porting is out for the day, all six knives are out for the day. Let’s use these pipes that we never use. Every last bit helps.
I play the pan pipes of rodent swarming, hoping that it conjures them, but I think it just calls and directs rodents that are nearby. I direct them all north, to block, annoy, attack, and maybe if we’re lucky, kill, anything that tries to advance on Illy. I don’t know how I understand how to make the music offer the directions I want, but I make sure to label Shield, Aegis, the Dormir, the twins, and Atter and Shiz as allies.
The dragon that’s coming could have a powerful Latent, it certainly has a massive dragonforce. I don’t think Illy or the Dormir are doing well at all, as casters begin raining in from all sides. My heart thumps in worry for these people that I love. I’m almost finished absorbing the dragonforce, and almost finished recasting my Steely Body spell. I’ll be at around five hundred twenty eight S P used or so. I can maybe get off two more quickened spells before my muscles start becoming too heavy to use. In fact, I think I know what those spells might be, I just hope I can survive using them. I hope my conjecture is right.
Calling out my plan, “If it comes down to it, and I’m pretty sure it will, I’ve got a portable hole, and it can hold about five people, preferably people that can hold their breath for a long time, because the air will only last about an hour in there. I’d want to put the injured, the twins, and one of ours in. The rest of us would break our way out the top, and flee, while I caved in the mountain!”
While deploying my portable hole, and requesting the twins’ aid, I ask, “Ahliyui, Ahliyuri, can any of your spells make wind, air, anything like that? Do you trust me to get you out of here?”
There’s a subtle nod from Ahliyuri who clambers unquestioningly into my portable hole. He’s trusting that we will eventually release him from it. I levitate the two injured into it as well. Ahli’s sister joins him, but she frowns my way as she drags the equipment into the hole with them. The equipment might make it so that no one else can fit in there, unless they’re incredibly adept at shapeshifting, such as one of the oldest of us, one of the ones who’s the most injured. I’d be putting my love in the hands of my four prisoners, risking her. Illy shakes her head, wanting to fight out with me.
Sighing, I nod, and begin folding up the portable hole telekinetically. There’s a strong wave of fear from those who become trapped inside, but I float the portable hole over to Illy and request, “Illy, take this cloth. Get them home as swiftly as possible. Unfold it when you get home. The four that have surrendered are to be treated well. The twins are submitting themselves to being imprisoned until they earn our trust as not to use magic within our home. I’ll be preventing us from being followed. In a few seconds, everyone make a mad dash back up the fortress. Go, go! Shield, Aegis, protect the Dormir, your only priority is getting the six of you out the top of the mountain, go!”
Just in the nick of time, the six of them make a break for it, as the door blasts open. My Steely Body spell kicks in as I finish absorbing Tinth’s dragonforce. The glow in my cranium is trying to speak to me, telling me something about my Honoris Causa. Something about the manifestation becoming more physical, and, a— breath weapon? I really need to grow that organ. I’d better upgrade my base stage evolution with Lady Kinzul’s help. It’ll mean saying goodbye to cherubic Reggie, but, well, huff. We’re at war. We make sacrifices.
I’ll have Kinzul help me check out all of my forms, my mite-hulk form, my winged Draconiac form, and we’ll pick out which one to keep as my absolute baseline. I— kinda really don’t want the baseline to be the mite-hulk. It doesn’t really feel right, even if King is gone, the thing is mostly an exoskeletal carapace. It’s not soft, and not good at cuddling, and can’t even really enjoy cuddling. Maybe not a priority though Reggie?
Hey, my sanity relies on the cuddling. I’m no use to anyone if my brain breaks. True, true. Anyway, worry about that later. Huh, did our Honoris Causa slow time *for* us? The door is still flying inwards in slow motion. I’m not moving any faster, but it’s like my senses are perceiving even more quickly, and like my speed of thought has increased. I’m voiding out the lag-time between thoughts, perceptions, and reactions? Something or other perhaps. I do feel incredibly dense though. Far heavier than the last times I’d used my Steely Body spell. I need the Wyverium chest plate on to even be able to move properly.
There’s a sort of, um, hm, an anti-glow around me. It’s vaguely draconic in shape, and it seems to be interacting somewhat, almost physically, with the world around it. Testingly, I reach out a hand, and it reaches out a shadowy claw, as if I were playing shadow puppets, but its claw smacks into an approaching kobold, knocking them senseless. Well this is new. It’s not all solid at onc— Like the Sisters. Void. Schism. They serve something to do with the Void. This is incredible in so many ways, but now I have more questions that I need to remember to ponder later. For now, take advantage of the new boon.
I’m using the two dragonforces as my baseline, so I’m at about a hundred forty six percent capacity of dragonforce right now. It seems to take fractions of a percent to manifest the physicality of small sections of my Honoris Causa, barely noticeable at all. That’s good. If I were to try for more at once though, it would add up quickly.
For the moment, let’s catch up to the rest while we don our lightning cloak. Hm, seems Boetah is doing as I requested, basically bowling straight up the mountain, leading the charge by knocking everything in the way aside, and Shaylon and Induul are covering the rear. I’ve just got everything from the east, the west, and floor six between me and my allies. I’m not all that worried though. I’m trying to keep those particular threats slowed down some though, the dragon and the seventy casters from the rear.
I just need to find the right positioning while I don this cloak, before I cast the spell of lightning storm. It needs to be in a spot where it’ll be effective the longest. I think it can last quite a long while, but it’s only going to be effective for a few seconds, then I’ll try to wear number four in the hopes that it keeps blasting lightning towards me, making it more difficult to follow me as I flee.
Fear overtakes all of Induul’s wavelength as he glances down towards where I’m trying to corral the dragon and his minions, and all the west and east casters that haven’t been defeated yet. He calls back to me telepathically, “Flee you fool, that’s a Damnation!”