Neither Nil nor Selia liked the idea of sitting back and letting everyone else fight. The ship’s crew and remaining soldiers were more than capable of getting the cargo, survivors, and children on the airship. Meanwhile, no one but the pair had the power to get behind cover, wreak havoc, and get out safely when things got out of control. It didn’t matter if they got lost and couldn’t make it back to the dock.
As long as the quest is complete, all survivors get to go home.
Meatball rolled ahead of them, zigzagging down the slope and squeaking excitedly. She seemed to understand her assignment with minimal explanation. Nil couldn’t tell whether the daily communication exercises were paying off or their empathic connection just got stronger during combat and in times of distress. She unfurled her woody extensions while moving around at high speeds and used odd movements to hop onto an elevated section of the tunnel.
Meanwhile, Selia helped Nil find a hiding place. For the first time since their meeting, he experienced her power not as her opponent. She led him into darkness, and he willingly followed. Nil was sure that if he let go of her hand, he would fall into the endless nothingness. In reality, it was more likely he’d get stuck in place and die slowly of suffocation. He found it best not to think about it and trust the woman leading him.
Selia didn’t just move on the horizontal plane while phasing through surfaces. They often emerged from walls higher than the spot through which they entered. Her speed seemed to increase with every passing day. Nil believed it wouldn’t be long before she achieved her goal of shooting through surfaces after phasing.
The pair found high ground and lay in wait. They waited as the Cursed Beasts and Cursed Ones passed. They didn’t react when Agents of the Scourge or their champions passed. Nil even successfully resisted when the battle began. Cursed Ones charged the forge. Nil heard thunderclaps, the sizzle of Sakura’s Cutting Light slicing enemies to pieces, and Farah’s strange energy beams shot past him. He only emerged when the enemy mages launched a range onslaught of their own.
First, Selia emerged from the ground, grabbed the ankles of the two giants guarding the mages, and pulled them into the ground. Then he raced forth with speed supercharged with an additional infusion of energy. He rushed through the group, dragging the three-finger blade through them. Several heads rolled one after another.
Then Nil and Selia turned on the Scourge force’s backline together. They moved so fast, so quietly, and with such precision they didn’t see or hear the duo coming until half the people around them were dead or suffocating with their heads in the ground. Taking out the mages took priority. Nil relied on their hulking protectors to top up Brutal Battery’s stores.
Might has progressed to Iron 8!
One foe caught Nil off guard. He let the hulking armored woman swing her axe at him, waiting to catch it with Absorb, and then the edge came alive with noxious green fire. Nil already had his hands busy holding down a mage wielding a staff wrapped in crimson sparks. He didn’t have the time to catch or avoid the incoming attack. Selia was several meters away, trying to drag a bison-sized Cursed One into the ground. Nil doubted she could get to him in time even if she noticed the dire situation and could break away.
A spiked woody ball smashed into the woman’s head. Her neck twisted noisily, and she crumbled like a house of cards. Nil heard a triumphant squeak through the chaos of battle. Then, his favorite little bowling ball was gone.
After slaughtering the people currently targeting him, he raced to Selia’s side. She had successfully finished her task and was now trying to flee to a wall to escape the several angered Scourge agents and Cursed Beasts coming for her. Nil chopped through whoever he could and stomped the rest, Absorbing a blow here and there.
Absorb has progressed to Iron 7!
“Nil. Selia.” Sakura spoke through the earpiece. She sounded out of breath. “Are you two still down there?”
“Roger.” Nil caught a Scourge Champion trying to plunge a pair of electrified daggers into his side. He empowered himself with Expend instead of exploding her wrists into smithereens, crushing the bones in his grasp. It used less energy. Nil followed up with a headbutt that caved the woman's face in and moved on.
“Farah's nuke is almost ready. You need to get back right now or go deep underground.”
“How long do we have?”
Nil encountered another bison-sized Cursed One. The ugly amalgamation of lizard, dog, and human came charging at him with its ugly maw open. He caught the jaws using Absorb. The clawed hands swiping at his sides kept him from switching to Expend. The Source Gauntlet's crimson gems were also tapped out. So he supercharged strength, infusing it with a healthy dose of extra energy. It gave him enough power to rip the monster's lower jaw off, creating an opening.
Toggled Supercharging has progressed to Iron 7!
A point-blank Expend blast to the chest followed which destroyed most of the monster's torso. It collapsed soundlessly, and the orange glowing vessels connecting to the destroyed heart lost their luminosity.
“A couple of minutes,” Sakura answered.
“Give us a bit more time,” Nil replied.
It was more a grunt than words. Enemies attacked him from all sides, and he was almost within Selia's arm's reach. She had given up on trying to flee. Instead, she just let the enemy swing their weapons and claws through her. Selia could just as well escape into the floor. Instead, she fought her way toward him. At a glance, Nil saw no injuries on the woman, but she looked pale. The prolonged fight and reliance on rapid phase shifting took far too big a toll on her damaged body.
“There is no holding the spell once it’s ready. Farah releases it into the tunnel or up into the sky, or it explodes and levels the city.”
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“What if Selia phases through it?” Nil tried to grab Selia but another wave of Cursed Beasts separated them. This time, the creatures had an agent or champion—he couldn't tell the difference anymore—commanding them. Nil picked up one of the canine-like specimens, supercharged strength again and flung it at its master. His breath was ragged as he continued and the words lacked coherence. “That should work right?”
“Wrong,” Farah said through gritted teeth. “It will kill you! Fucking hurry.”
“Damn it!” Nil swore. “Meatball! To me.”
Nil gave up on trying to Absorb everything and supercharged toughness. He held both arms out on either side of himself and released an expend blast through every inch of the Source Gauntlets, ensuring the radial explosions pointing away from Selia. He suffered a claw swipe to the back but got the respite he needed.
A couple of steps brought him to Selia, and Meatball found him at the same time. The whelp returned to his core and Nil grabbed his partner. Once his grip was firm, he leaped up the slope towards the cave mouth, pouring as much as he could into the Expend empowerment. It wasn't enough. Escape was still a dozen or so metres away and he saw a massive crimson and gold sphere pulsating in front of Farah. It contracted and then a beam shot forth toward the pair and all the beasts below them. Nil used Expend again without thinking, releasing the remainder of his energy through his feet and using all the Qi shaping and projection lessons he had learned to concentrate and direct them.
The force propelled him and Selia forward so fast that he struggled to keep his eyes open, while his cheeks flapped. Farah’s spell roared underfoot just as they cleared the cavemouth. The pair flew over the decimated ally frontline and into the slope leading up to the dock. Absorb didn't just arrest the pair's momentum and keep them from breaking every bone in their body but refilled Brutal Battery to almost one-third of its maximum capacity.
Expend has progressed to Iron 7!
Brutal Battery has progressed to Iron 7!
Selia shivered in Nil's arms. He tried to help her up but she was limp in his arms and unresponsive. She had the worst nosebleed he had ever seen and several translucent, ghost-like tethers connected her left hand to buildings below. Spectral Tethers was a spell made for thieves. It let the caster launch and attach tethers to objects and could even pass through surfaces. They couldn't carry much weight and was more a tool for pulling things ro oneself but Selia used it differently. Mass and weight became an inconsistent concept while she phase shifted. So she used the near-invisible conjuration to attach to surfaces and pull herself free toward them. Unfortunately, Selia’s mastery over it hadn't reached a point where she could use it in swift succession or while phasing or attached to someone else. She had overcome the limitation.
“The spell backfired,” Carmen said, her breath ragged as she reached them. Nil gently placed Selia on the ground and backed away, letting the healer do her work. “Idiot girl pushed herself much too hard.”
It was then Nil realised that the pair had landed far too close to the edge of the sloping outcropping that housed the town and the port above. Nil had almost shot himself and her off the mountain. He doubted Absorb would have saved them from the fall alone and his mastery over Expend as propulsion wasn't nearly good enough.
“Is she going to be okay?” Nil asked.
“Barely,” Carmen answered, eyes focused on the luminous waters that flowed out of her hand and wrapped around Selia's temple. “Get me anything warm you can find.”
The lower levels of the town were clear but snow covered everything higherup. It seemed the town's residents had put considerable effort into clearing the cavemouth and the path to ensure the cargo, its carriers, and protectors got to the ship easily.
Nil didn’t have to go far before finding someone with spare coats and blankets. A woman was rushing down the slope with them along with medical supplies. Just over a tenth of the soldiers holding the town's entrance had perished and far more were injured. She gave Nil what he needed before continuing with her task.
When he returned to Carmen, Selia was awake. She weakly winked at him but before Nil could speak to her, the healer shooed him away. So Nil descended to the battlefield to check on the others.
Even though Farah's magic looked and felt like the Source, its effects weren't quite like those of the Source Gauntlets. The monstrous beam she released, in the end, melted more than disintegrated their foes. The more armored Scourge Champions and Cursed Ones appeared mostly charred. A few specimens still had intact chests. Bjorn moved among them, pulverizing anything that showed signs of movement or was too intact with hammers. Soldiers wielding arcane-symbol-covered spears assisted him.
“It's over, right?” Nil asked, approaching their commander.
“I think so,” Sakura said. She appeared exhausted. Blood soaked her white outfit, and little remained of her sleeves. “What do you think, Merchant?”
Even though the vessel was now ready to depart, the man stood with them. The crew now worked to deboard the children they had ushered onboard, assuming the city fallen. The people on the ground were vastly different from the Nexus. They cared about their jobs but valued the lives around them.
“I don’t detect much besides stray Cursed Beasts,” he answered. “As long as none sneak past the tunnel, everything should be fine.”
Nil scanned their surroundings for the guard captain. He failed to find the man. Someone in the standard arm now directed the guards. “Maybe someone should invest in defenses. This port is clearly vital to the world and trade routes,” Nil said. “The path hasn’t seen use in a while, but it just saved your lives and the cargo. It feels stupid to leave things as they are.”
Merchant stiffened. His eyes scanned the party and the soldiers working nearby. He bowed his head. “I pay my debts,” the man replied. “The Control World also appreciates all who work in its interests. The town will receive compensation for its services. It’s gone ignored far too long since we saw it as little more than a refueling station and place to stretch our legs during the long voyage. We’ll ensure Skypeak Port gets the necessary infrastructure to thrive, grow, and survive. You’ve earned my people’s favor for everything you’ve done here, honorable Summoned. I knew your quest’s parameters. Your lives would’ve been much easier if you abandoned us and left with the packages. Dragon eggs and source spells are far more valuable than our lives.”
The man left them, ascending the slope to the airship.
“Good job,” Sakura said, watching him go. “You cut it close, but things would’ve been much more difficult if not for you and Selia. A lot more people would’ve died.”
“We almost got overwhelmed near the end,” Nil admitted. “If it weren’t for Farah’s spell, we would’ve fled back the way we came and waited for you lot to finish up.”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t,” Farah said.”You might’ve escaped the range of my spell, but then molten slag, the heat, or fumes would’ve taken you out.”
“What about the ritual?” Selia asked, joining them. She leaned on Carmen as she walked. Nil took over supporting his new partner. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and rested her head against him. “Won’t these troubles persist unless it's destroyed?”
“That’s not our concern,” Sakura said. “We’ve done our job, and Nexus will send another team to deal with the problem.” She shook Nil and Selia’s hand. “Good job. Both of you. If you ever need help, ask without a second thought.”
“Me as well,” Bjorn stated, and the other two echoed the sentiment.