Amara
Infernal Armament: Activated
“Archers!” a call goes up from behind.
A storm of arrows fly from the building rooftops towards the descending dark mass that has risen from the desert oasis, each arrow tipped with Amara’s shimmering flame.
They punctured the wave effectively enough – Amara saw the gasping faces of the dark demons within swallow the fire and dissipate, crashing down on the towns and pouring through the streets. The wave had been brought down, but now they faced a flood coming towards them from all directions.
She turned her face towards each alley surrounding the town center where they all stood, edging their backs together, and she saw nothing but the inky, reaching darkness claw its way towards them while a thousand crying eyes and mouths cursed them for being here.
“They waited,” the Argent said with a shudder as she drew her blade. “They waited till we were in the center to launch their attack. They’ve got us pinned. Flanked from all angles!”
Amara’s eyes flew to her and then to Mendax behind, carrying the Elder in one arm while his other waved his axe from atop the old town fountain:
“Teed heed, brothers and sisters!” he shouted. Secure the alleys and meet this blight head on! Show the Blackbird that we aren’t afraid of the dark, or his little tricks!”
The Gnolls obeyed the command of their sergeant, each quickly forming a line at the five alleyways to block the encroaching flood of souls from reaching them.
“No!” Yelena yelled. “They can’t –“
Just as the words left her lips the first wave met one Gnoll-line and collapsed them entirely. The creatures floundered, their flaming weapons becoming lost in the miasma of pure darkness while the wave simply beat on towards them all, spreading out to consume every last one of them.
Amara grabbed Yelena’s arm. “You’re the warmaster here!” she cried. “Any ideas?”
Yelena looked towards the waves with fear etched across her pale face. Amara hadn’t expected it – but there was something happening behind her eyes. She was looking into the waves of expanding death with an almost shocking level of familiarity.
“Yelena!”
She snapped herself back to reality, meeting Amara’s stare as the Gnolls still tried, desparately, to slice through the demonic horde.
“Do you have any area of effect spells?” she asked. “A shield – something that can be sustained?”
Amara nodded. “My Infernal Cloak,” she replied. “I can use it, but it’s not worth much if they’re able to break through and still attack us.”
Yelena nodded once, bracing herself behind her shield.
“I’ll take care of that,” she said, sweat pouring down the sides of her cheeks. “Channel it.”
Amara scoffed as she watched more Gnolls becoming drawn into the waves. “Didn’t I already tell you to stop giving me orders?”
“And I asked if you wanted us to live or die!” She shouted back. “Don’t you want your people to survive?”
“These are not my people!”
“Then why are you here fighting for them?”
Amara’s grimace was barely acknowledged by the Argent as she glowed with her otherworldly light. She had a plan, that much was certain.
And do you trust her? Mother asked.
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Amara foxed her eyes on those of the girl – the single golden light amidst the slowly disappearing desert sands – and raised her arms.
‘Course I don’t. But I trust her power. That’s what we need, right?
That’s all you ever can trust, my dear.
GLANCE Channel (SEEKER)
Infernal Cloak
As her billowing flames extended beyond her body, Amara sent a scream through the air, calling her Gnolls towards her. Mendax rallied the remaining troops, including the archers stationed on the buildings that were starting to sink beneath the engulfing flood.
Incantation upkeep: 8pts/min
“Any time you’re ready, Ar-“
Her words were cut off as each crashing wave forced its way finally through the last Gnoll defenders, and Amara felt a wave of purifying light travel up from the ground the Argent was standing on.
She’d closed her eyes, her hair was wild and free, and her weapons glimmered with rejeuvanating power. A sphere of light ballooned from her form, and Amara watched with fascination as the creatures of darkness were repulsed, then burned by the cloak Amara dn their allies were now draped in.
CROSS-CLASS SYNERGY: Pyrophoric Sentinel
HP restoration: 5pts
PYRO DMG: 5pts on contact
AOE: 15 ft.
And there it is, Mother whispered behind her bemused stare. The true usefulness of your new toys…
The sphere radiated out and latched onto its 15ft perimeter, tearing through the inky threads of the dark as it clamped down and kept those within contained.
“Everyone!” Yelena shouted. “Inside!”
Amara felt sweat bead on her forehead. The concentration required to keep up the Infernal Armaments and the Cloak was immense, not to mention the Glance cost for both.
But she blinked through her pain as she felt the Elder’s hand on her shoulder.
“Child of Light,” she said. “Take my strength. Pave…the…way.”
Amara followed the Gnoll’s finger as it pointed towards the palace, far beyond the flood that was slowly tearing down every hovel in the city center and swallowing the streets.
She looked back at the poor, decrepit creature who she knew, now, was dying.
“Elder…” she grimaced.
Do as she says, Mother told her. She is but a pebble on your path.
“Come on!” Mendax roared at her, as though taking on the corporeal form of her mother’s rage. “You heard the Elder! Forward!”
Yelena looked back and, through the sweat of her own concentration, and with her weapon poised and ready, nodded.
“Stay in the circle!” she shouted. “We’ll carve our way to the palace!”
…
Marius
Stealth: Failure
Hasty Retreat: Activated
His legs carried him as far from the flooding dark that cascaded through the town towards them all, swallowing up the Gnolls and drowning them, adding them to its wriggling mass. As he hopped from rooftop to rooftop, edging towards the city center where he’d just seen the pillar of Yelena’s light explode into existence, a little part of him contemplated just up and running. Troops going MIA weren’t uncommon during sieges like this.
Then again, he thought. They’d miss me. Come on, of course they –
A maelstrom of black interrupted his thoughts as it crashed into the building he was currently leaping towards. His daggers were out on impulse, and he slashed through the veil of shadows, watching the screaming, moaning faces disappear as his flame-enchanted blades cut through them.
But then they simply re-materialized as though he’d done nothing at all.
Well, shit.
He was thrown back against the wall of the opposite building and crashed into an already ruined market stall. Getting his bearings he hopped back up just in time to see two crashing waves descend upon him.
Stealth: Failure
Hasty Retreat: Failure
Guess there’s some battles ya just can’t run away from, huh?
The waves came crashing down from above, draining the sky of colour, filling his vision so all he could see was those cackling faces. Some of them bore resemblance to sun-kissed children, others wore the dark visage of the Tigran guards he’d seen in the Golden palace, and yet others still bore a striking resemblance to some of the boys he’d shared a room with in that place, where he’d been nothing but an undignified janitor.
Yeah, he thought as the waves took him, dragging him into their depths. Some of you guys are a little too familiar…
A brilliant burst of light singed the faces away. He was back outside, charging down towards the city center again, and after a dozen or so blinks of incredulousness, he looked down to see a flame-coated Edna beneath him, carrying him through the dark.
“E-Edna!” he cried out, hugging the great beetle for dear life as she tore through the waves. “You came for me?”
The beetle grunted.
“I knew you’d soften up to me eventually,” Marius said, wiping a single tear from his haggard face. “I just knew it!”
“It is not being her alone that has saved you, Marius of Corbeck.”
He turned his head slowly to see the wide-eyed form of Antethra sitting behind him.
“They have bled the sands,” she said. “They have poisoned my brothers and sisters. It is being time to do the same to them.”
He saw the fiery desire for vengeance burning in her eyes. Against all the faces he’d seen back there, this one was by far the most vicious.
“You will not be dying yet, Marius,” she told him. “Your part to play in this is not done.”
“’A part to play’,” he scoffed. “That’s just sums up your whole world, doesn’t it?”
He could almost swear the beetle looked up at him through her exertions and sighed wearily. But he didn’t dwell on it.
“Towards the light?” he asked Antethra.
She nodded.
“Always.”