Quick, equip number four, cast the cloud, don’t look! Don’t look! The lightning cloud is in place where I gaze, but my gaze meets the stark-red pupil-less eyes of the Damnation. Terror overtakes me. Not because I’m afraid of a powerful foe, no, because I’m sent hurtling back through every pain in my past, every major hurt ever ladled upon me. Every trauma, every instance of fear I’ve ever felt.
You know what’s a good, if painful, wakeup from the start of a panic attack? Being struck by lightning— repeatedly. Clenching my jaw, I want to kill this beast now rather than flee, as I begin to emit lightning around me in a swirling storm of electrokinesis that fights the cursed leggings. I create a spherical electromagnetic barrier that gets stronger and stronger as lightning continues to rain down onto me. My electrokinesis pushes out, the curse pulls in, and the lightning swirls. Spells begin to bounce off of the electromagnetic barrier, or dissipate before reaching me within it, especially as the barrier enlarges. Kobolds shriek in fear and run back towards their leader as my barrier begins tearing apart their allies, frying them to a crisp in an instant faster than most any flame.
Draconiacs begin to grow wary of me as well, as I use my telekinesis to grip them and drag them towards my barrier of lightning. They wail in agony, and scream in terror when they realize I’m dragging them into the deadly maelstrom of pain. I have enough of my wits about me to be performing a fighting retreat, because I don’t know the Damnation’s abilities, and I can’t risk that it will go around me, to attack my allies.
Thankfully, despite it being hasty, I positioned the cloud so that the lightning would follow me for a long way up the tunnels leading up the mountain. It’s taking a lot of energy to maintain this barrier, and my dragonforce is ticking down swiftly as well between the Honoris Causa, my Void Dragon manifestation lashing out repeatedly, and whatever my dragonforce is doing to help keep me alive against injuries and pain. I’m already down to a hundred thirty nine percent. That’s still like twenty seven hundred eighty days, based on the metrics I’d been using, if my guesses are correct. Keep yourself distracted Reggie, just keep going.
Hallway after hallway, I push through crowds of Draconiacs, some in decent armor that resist my telekinetic grip. They still shy away when I rush towards them as a ball of lightning however. I telekinetically grab shrapnel and fling it at armored Draconiacs, and then place T K Squares behind where their legs are attempting to dodge to, or where they get staggered to if they get hit. I’m able to knock many of them prone, and leap upon them, passing my barrier over them and then setting about them with Frostburn. One hundred thirty eight. Hellspit and Fel Fires. We’re almost to floors that the Dormir has for sure cleared out, then we let all this drop for a moment to focus on fleeing.
Okay, open space, no foes ahead. Rush up to the nearest smaller archway leading up. Equip two, and five, Wyverium and Glacial Greaves. Let the lightning explosion rock outwards, caving in the arch as we take a deep breath to hold and dive upwards, forward and onward. Now it’s time to L B B T K S L to get the hell out of here. The Damnation is still following though, and it sounds like there’s no more effort than tearing tissue paper when they get to my minor cave-in of the collapsed archway. Disheartening.
Faster, faster, keep going. They’re relentlessly stalking upwards, taking their time almost. It’s almost as if they don’t care if they catch us. We’re almost there, I see a ledge out into sunlight! It’s above the mile-high clouds! Woah, the Damnation is picking up speed now! Quick, fish out an energy cell, cast a new lightning cloud up ahead of me at the exit. Okay, okay, deep breath, get ready. I really hope this does something. I equip Q C R number four again, supercharging myself, supercharging the energy cell, and return back to number five a moment later. The Damnation has returned to view, I’m ten meters from the exit, and he’s twenty meters behind me, fifteen, ten. I continue electrocuting myself with my spell, overcharging me far, far beyond what I should allow myself to take, and pouring that into the energy cell. I’m two meters from the exit, the Damnation is two meters behind me. I can’t let it get past me. It seems like it’s going to just transform and fly right out over my head.
I leap out into the Damnation’s way, and harass it with T K Squares as I get the energy cell to finally reach its limit. We’re both one meter out onto the ledge outside the stronghold. I pray this works. I fully engage the entire physical manifestation of my Honoris Causa, the Void Dragon, and grip the Damnation as I exhale a puff of voidstuff. The energy cell explodes, sending us careening, and I continue disorienting and harassing the Damnation as he begins to take his full, massive form, but I’m doing what Lucky did. I’m using his massive wings against him, as we roll I perch between his scapula, and with my Honoris Causa’s fangs, I jerk and tear while my claws dig in for purchase. I’m guiding him towards the Worldstorm. I’m guiding him to a series of twisters, whirlpools, vortexes.
We’re going down, and even he, the Damnation, looks terrified. He starts to exert his dragonfright, and I chuckle at him, completely immune. I equip number four, and the Worldstorm provides as I cling tightly to the Damnation, putting my full adamantine Void Dragon bodyweight onto his scapula, where I’ve got him upside down, dragging him with me into the vortexes. My Steely Body form is beginning to wear off, and it’s a mile down before any relief. My form is bound to wear off again. There’s a guttural roar as the Damnation makes a last-ditch effort to escape before we’re completely consumed into the vortex swarm of the Worldstorm.
Telepathically I cry out, “Induul, Veril, explosion, now!”
Veril hesitates, but Induul’s poison gas is enough. I allow the lightning to ignite it above us. The foggy cloud of flammable gas explodes violently, rapidly expanding, sending the Damnation and me swirling down into the vortex swarm of the Worldstorm. Lightning crashes into us non stop as the more potent acid begins to wear even my adamantite form down slightly, and wear heavily upon my manifested Void Dragon Honoris Causa.
Iylynila screams, “Schism, Reggie, No! Induul, how could you!?”
With barely a hint of shame, Induul responds, “Are you kidding me? It was a Damnation! He saved us. He’s gone. No one survives the storm. That’s the whole point of his act. Let’s go home and report our— whatever.”
Induul couldn't decide whether to say report our success or report our failure. That's almost kind of him. Before I can tell Iylynila I’m okay, the telepathic bonds I hold are all too far away as I’m sucked further and further down into the Worldstorm. I actually fight to remain in it, because the Damnation isn’t dying. He’s being weathered, corroded, losing dactyl leather, but his scales are toughing it out for now, save those that have cracked the most from lightning. I swap back to number five with my Q C R, since I now have access to all the lightning surrounding me anyway, and it’s more beneficial to let the Damnation be struck by the natural bolts, rather than me getting struck, and passing on watered down electrical charge into him. I accept a bit of excess charge to help keep my powers going, as my dragonforce drops to a hundred twenty five percent. I swiftly recast a new Steely Body spell.
Everything around us is storm and vortex, cloud and thunder, lightning and acid rain. The Damnation can’t resist my pull any more as I angle us towards a denser pocket of acid. My electrokinesis bends bolts of lightning around me, into his skull, disorienting him, keeping him at my mercy. I’m afraid I’d lose Frostburn if I tried to pull it out right now, so I simply continue breathing my voidstuff into any cracks and broken scales and wounds that appear on the Damnation as I scratch and claw and grasp and maw at his wings and scapula.
Everything flickers and flashes, going from impenetrably dark to impossibly bright, over and over. We’re virtually swimming in the strongest acid in the world, and finally his scales are cracked enough, that the acid begins to get to his flesh, begins melting his tissue and muscle. His eyes begin to dissolve as we continue to plummet. His breathing becomes labored, changing from a dazed roar to a hissed scream. His dactyl leather finally gives up completely, and is dissolved in its entirety, leaving only bony wing-frames. My Honoris Causa the Void Dragon extant, scrabbles atop the Damnation, and begins clawing at his chest, while keeping our center of gravity aimed such that I’m piledriving him towards the ground, always aiming to catch the thickest acid pockets possible.
I hiss into his auditory canal, “I am Reggie Shellcracker, Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, archmage Aliased Schism, and I! Am! The! Void Dragon Honoris Causa! Your dragonforce is mine, and I’m coming for you next emperor!”
Clawing and peeling away at scales on his chest, the acid helps me along as I near his heart. We’re approximately halfway through the storm, but he’s not dying yet. It’s unsettling, and I’ve got to refresh my Steely Body again in about three to ten seconds. The thickest, deadliest part of the storm is almost upon us. Clouds roil and darkness fogs everything around. Lightning continues streaking into us, directed all into him, into his slowly dissolving eyes, or their sockets. He fights with my Honoris Causa, but I simply let its tangibility disappear and reappear where I need it to apply. I’m not an actual dragon, there’s no flesh for him to rip into, and my tiny humanoid form is barely a spec on his belly at this point as he’s grown to his full, monstrous natural size. He’s mountainous, like Lady Kinzul, so I direct him back into a vortex that helps keep us remaining aloft in the worst of the storm.
In our lonely, deadly sea of lightning serpents and acid sharks, I’m making headway into the Damnation’s chest finally as we continue to spiral towards the ground. We’re struck, battered by thousand mile an hour winds, dashed by lightning, soaked in the strongest acid, rocked by the sonic booms and thunder, battered, dashed about within the storm. The Damnation bears the brunt of it, because not many creatures can resist being dazed when struck by natural lightning. I’ve been able to keep roughly loose control over him and our descent the entire time. In part, thanks to Induul’s explosion helping me get him into the Worldstorm.
Funnily enough, I can dig behind some of the Damnation’s scales, through his melting flesh, to help protect me from the worst of the storm. I have to refresh my Steely Body spell again like I said though. I should be at six hundred twenty seven S P for the day, just barely within my easy safe limit, before my muscles start to get screwy and weak. I could maybe still function if I cast one more, but I hope I won’t need to.
Down, down, further down. Maybe a quarter of a mile left and he’s still alive, but I can feel the flesh pulsating beyond this point as I dig into him, nearly at his heart. The massive organ is actually beating erratically, rapidly in fear, starting and stopping as I direct lightning around me and into it. There’s maybe a tenth of a mile to go, and I can just barely make out the outline of his heart under a thin membrane of flesh. I risk drawing Frostburn, using three telekinetic grips to secure it into my fist, as we continue to plummet.
Hacking away at this last thin membrane, we’re mere moments away from leaving the storm, and this bastard is still alive. I begin siphoning his dragonforce, and a wave of pain overcomes me. A nauseating shared memory. A candle. Supports, damage. My mind reels and my head aches from far more than the constant boom of thunder. Keep siphoning Reggie, do it! I have to sheathe Frostburn because I’m losing control of my limbs, and my telekinesis. I do all I can to reach from my precarious position, wriggling as deep as I can to get my arm through this mountain of flesh and muscle just to the other side of that barely open membrane. My fingertips touch the heart in fleeting passes on every other pulse, granting me more and more of his dragonforce, and more and more of a familiar sensation.
Hatred. Loathing. Shared memories. Oh no. The red eyes. They pass through me, leaving the Damnation to die at my hands, or at the hands of the landing. I seize up, my vision tunneling to a pinpoint. My tinnitus somehow drowns out the ceaseless sound of the incredible booms of thunder, and the wheezing cry of the dying Damnation. My pulse rocks me so hard I begin to lose my grip from inside his chest cavity. My mind is sent hurtling back to Day One, to the nightmares, the trauma. I don’t have any lightning to strike me now.
I am forced to recall Mataalii taken over by this entity, this horrid thing, stealing my brother from me, poisoning him to me, granting him the powers that would eventually be what originally unleashed him into our world, and sent him back to the beginning of my life. Parts of my brain begin to boil, as connections are being made that aren’t ready to be made yet. A small mercy is paid me as the bursting inside my brain begins to rouse me, at the moment of our crash. My skull aches, my body trembles, my eyes can’t focus, my limbs disregard my desire for them to function, my powers don’t respond, but I can at least parse my senses.
With an earth-shattering crash, the Damnation lands face first in Rayileklian acid-mud, bounces, flops, and skids, causing the land to quake for miles around. The tremor is of such a magnitude that I’m shaken, and my bones vibrate painfully. Luckily, this begins to rouse me, as I also fall free from the chest cavity of the beast. The beast who is somehow still stubbornly clinging to life! I crater into the muck, the murk and mire, the mud. My Steely Body spell wears off as I hold my breath, trying to free myself. Struggling, almost swimming through dirt and mud, my internal electrokinesis barely works enough to direct my arms upwards, barely enough to get my arms to pull me out of the hole I’ve made.
When I make it to the surface, the flapping of twelve leathery wings sends roaring winds blasting my way, deafening me once more. Six more ancient dragons close in on my location. The location of me and my prize, a dying Damnation. One that is still hanging in there, but one I stand a chance of defeating in my state, if I can just climb back into his chest cavity. The six more dragons are ferocious, monstrously sized, and landing in a semi-circle around us. Six more dragons that are of course, the other Damnations.
Are you kidding me?! You have got to be f’ing kidding me.