What would the tactics of the Shades be? Likely to head rapidly into the olthoi section, which, judging by the entry room here, most of which would be Burned clean by now. They’d find literally nothing but alien mushrooms falling to dust.
I imagined that would creep them out, when even the Summon spots were not working. They would head into the rest of the place to clean it out. Would they have bothered with the wasp hive, or the thrungus shroomer-folk? They’d find those all Burned and gone, too.
They would find the message and the Light I’d left behind!
I suddenly darted out of the room. I was only a minute or two behind them, so if they were off in the olthoi wing, I’d be fine.
Quite invisible and keeping sure not to trip on anything, I retraced my path back to the landing area, the two large open rooms that might have been courtyards, and wound through them back to the entry area of the Portal.
Even if they moved with assurance and not wariness, it was going to take them a few minutes to follow me, and that was if they hurried.
The Light was definitely visible through the sundered doors, and sure to alert them. The fact they didn’t need light to see was immaterial as I made it to the candlestand I’d enchanted and left shining on the carvings on the wall.
There was a pulse and flare in the Portal behind me as I suppressed the Eternal Light, making me jump and whirl around in alarm.
The bluish-white arcane energy swirled and sparked to life in mid-air, crackling and writhing, and Runes scribed into the walls were shorting out in sudden protest. I glanced at my Detect Time, and found it was twenty-four hours to the minute since I’d come here myself.
With a last gasp, the Portal hurled someone forth onto the floor, right before crackling, sparking, and sections of stone literally peeled away and fell down in a spray of stone shards.
A woman, with long black hair, bronzed skin, a dagger behind her waist, dressed in dark leathers, with black fingernails.
She snorted, shook her head once, and sat up from where she was on all fours, looking around in the darkness, and somehow settled right on me instantly.
She also opened up her hand, displaying a blue cube that cracked and fell to powder in her palm.
I felt the stillness about her, and blinked. Then Mira recognized the scarring across the side of her face, and so did I. Except the ones we recognized were blonde, which meant this was...
“Princess Kristie!” I hissed quickly and quietly, coming right up to her and placing a finger on her lips before she could respond. “We are in a very dangerous situation!”
She looked at me, down at the finger on her lips, and I pulled it back, feeling the rising stillness around her as she raised up her Null, and magic decided to take a nap around her.
“Summarize,” she said, without going further, her purple eyes deep and sharp.
“Beings of Shadow, very powerful, are moving their way through this dungeon. They were expecting to find Summoned creatures and some native alien beings, but I cleared them all out when I made my escape from this place.
“There is extremely little cover on the way out of here, the magic system here is odd, the creatures coming are at least Ten-equivalents, with likely two or three times the Health and Soak that we are used to, and they are likely powerful Casters of Isparian-style magic, which seems to dominate the local manafield.”
She blinked at me. Oh, right, I’d been using the Power of Ten terms, which she should understand on an instinctual level. “Weapons?” was her only comment.
“Three males of various ability wielding spears and standing shields of classic style. One female without legs maneuvering on a cloud of smoke. All have magical ability, and have Force Armor going, and Prot/Pierce and Acid.”
“Is there a good ambush site where we can hit them from two sides?” she asked simply. The dagger behind eased off her back, and suddenly Morphed into a full-sized bastard Sword she held in one hand as easily as a toothpick, just the faintest warbling note rising from it for a second.
My thoughts raced along my backtrail. “The forge room, if we are quick!” I darted out of the room, and she was right on my heels.
---
I wove quickly through the halls to the first olthoi tunnel connecting separated areas, sliding to a halt and poking my head out to make sure there was nothing in the long, sidestepping hallway there.
“If you can get behind the kiln there and stay out of sight, I will attempt to Vuln the big Shade to Fire, and then follow up with War Magic while I am out of Drain range. They will doubtless seek to close with me and all attention will be on me. Your Null might be able to shut down the other Caster. If it’s the female, she’s using magic-enhanced open hand attacks.”
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Kristie smiled wolvishly. “And if the other two come after you?”
“If they make it to me, I’ll run back into the other room, pop the weaker one in the tunnel, and then run around the room if he decides to enter here. If he wants to stand back and trade spells, I should be able to beat him on Casting.”
She was giving me another peculiar look, but just nodded and darted out of there at probably twice the speed I could, skating in the particular lightfoot of the Waveskating Step, the movement technique that had made her mother absolutely dreaded back on Ispar. How do you catch or flee from a woman who could outrun a horse? The tales of her hacking progress across battlefields, slaughtering men faster than they could run, had followed her everywhere.
Her second daughter was here now, her mother’s handmaiden while on campaign, and a terrifying swordswoman in her own right. Why she’d been sent through a Portal would be something to catch up on... and I’d have to level with the truth about Devra al-Shamira very shortly.
Not that she wouldn’t know something was really strange when the Shards came flying in!
She ghosted in behind the kiln in seconds flat, while I stood against the wall right near the turn to the wasp hive, wand raised and Cruath Quatak the second thing ready on my tongue.
The first was going to be hissing out True Casting to make sure the Vuln to Fire hit, as I didn’t trust my inherited Life Magic skill.
My Detect Evil was still up, but the stone blocked the effect. I could only rely on my Vatic Gaze, and the spiritual chill they carried with them.
It turned out we had about five minutes to spare, as the Shades weren’t moving fast, and they were being thorough. I heard the tink of their spears hitting the steps, shields scraping on the walls, and then they were in the hallway and coming towards the kiln, whose coal had long since burned out and was cool and dead now.
They’d stayed together, as was proper, the two weaker males in front, the warrior and female in the back. Ranking, I presumed.
True Casting left my lips, magic detected, analyzed and targeted, and “Cruath Quatak!” went out with a hiss of fiery sparks on my Wand.
The Silver Fire Vuln discharged over the commanding male in a brilliant red aural display of pyromancy incoming. They looked around for the source of the magic, delayed a moment by surprise and digesting what was happening. I could see the big one start to raise his hands and summon power in a gesture to either issue a counter-Prot or Dispel the Vuln.
The Zojak Quaguz riding a full set of eight Shards got there before his spell went off, and he lost it in the absolute agony of Holy flames riding smoky black Banefires to Shadow to slam into him with everything.
His reedy scream wasn’t actually all that loud, but it was clear by the way he was burning that he’d taken a massive hit.
Unhappily, when you shoot fiery missiles at someone or something, it does tell them right where to look for you.
The other two males pointed with their spears and started racing for me. The female turned and with the male began condensing power in her hand.
Like a ghost, Kristie Rantha came out from behind them, her Sword flashing to full length in two hands, and I grit my teeth as I issued another Zojak Quaguz, but only at Copper to speed it up.
And I gave four Shards with all the juice to the big guy, one each to the other three.
“HAHAHAHAHA!” There were plenty of tales of men who’d fought the Golden Hag having their blood run cold when her laugh cut through their hearts, often a very short time before her sword Tremble followed. I smiled despite myself as a One Strike to the big man generated two additional cross-cuts: one each an Attack of Opportunity for Casting spells while in reach of her, and then one additional AoO each for being caught by surprise.
Then my Shards hit, and yeah, she had all the Fire Opportunity Masteries, because Opportunity kicked off for her opponents being hit with a Ranged Attack by an ally, and her Sword’s quavering notes were shrieking accompaniment to her laugh.
The two charging Shades weren’t much better, as they’d just been knocked off their feet by Toppling Darts to the left legs. Their shields and spears clattering down were pretty loud relative to the impact of their bodies, and they actually slid almost fifteen feet, showing they didn’t actually weigh all that much.
Regardless of that, they were now on the ground, where they wouldn’t be Casting or running at me.
The big guy down there folded and burst into vivus as he did, a familiar unwhite flame bursting up around Princess Kristie’s Sword, even as the female Shade somehow survived three devastating hits, and turned to inherit a Hew and Cleave to the face as her mate dropped.
There were Burning unwhite flames crisscrossing her back, and now another one was across her throat. She gurgled black smoke as she lashed at the princess, who flicked her wrist and lightly lopped off the shadowy hand just like that, leaving a Burning stump behind.
Sword Beats Fist.
Another gurgling shout of pain, while I looked at the two on the ground, picked the bigger one as they both tried to get up, maybe throw a spear at me, and Zojak Quaguz’d him with six blazing Shards, plus one to his smaller ally, and one to the female down the hall.
Both of the males were knocked backwards, spinning awkwardly from the impact, while the female up there overcame the impact and tried to retreat from Kristie, who flicked Quaver through the mists underneath her, causing a woosh of vivic fire that froze her in place, unable to get out of range before the Opportunity attack flashed across her chest, and another Burning scar was crossing the blackness of her body.
Her instinctive punch in return was a bad idea. The other shadowy arm went flying, right before the full attack went off, a Flurry of motion that sliced through her four times in less then a second. The female Shade came apart, flesh like absolute darkness flaring into vivus as it did.
The senior of the two in front of me was also disintegrating as the vivic fire raced through his shadow of a corpse, the other one trying to struggle to his feet as I shifted my wand and aim.
The Fire Bolt was only Iron, but it was still eight weaponized Shards, and it tore him apart as thoroughly as all the others.
I watched them Burn coldly. I was down less than a hundred mana, although I also had to fill three Valences I’s, which I proceeded to start on.