Akamori, Sirsir and Amara each made their way along, leaving Cenine behind. There was a time he wouldn’t have liked them being behind him. Now he just didn’t care. His bitterness with Cenine had long since mellowed out after she had. There was still the casual racism and classist bullshit, but at least she wasn’t directly aggressive with him. Babysteps, right?
The stench of acid hung in the air, creating a slight obscuring haze that reminded him of the cool morning fog of fall on Honshu. He choked out a cough as the ozone stung at the back of his throat, before he deployed his armor’s helmet. He drew in long, slow breaths and sighed softly at the cool, refreshing air. He’d forgotten how much of a godsend having armor could be. He used the armor’s enhanced perception to filter out the haze of the acid.
“Looks like a hatchling squad blew through like a storm.”
“Yeah. Let’s go whip those scaley bastard’s asses.” Sirsir said, hefting his heavy spell machine gun.
Amara clutched Rozien tightly to her chest behind them, peering around nervously. Her optical magic was active and scanning through all visible spectra. “This level of devastation. It’s like the elves weren’t just caught with their pants down, they were still in bed.”
“We all knew the Federation’s leadership wasn’t setting them up to succeed. We just hoped it wouldn’t come to this,” Akamori remarked disappointedly.
A piece of shattered column next to him crumbled and lost shape as the vibrations of his footsteps shook what little cohesion it had left apart. Bodies lay strewn about in the massive chamber that narrowed to a choke point the Emerald Guard had died valiantly to breach. He sighed softly under his breath. So much death and destruction. It all seemed so pointless.
Cautiously, the squad worked their way through the end of the corridor and into a large antechamber. Elegant engraving ringed the top of the walls and large painted murals decorated the ceilings, portraying artistic interpretations of the end of the divine war and the elvish settlement of Eryn. This chamber was decidedly different for several obvious reasons. First, Yasiin and Sala were prone with injuries. Second, Lucinda stood guard in the center room, like a caged cat waiting for its next meal. The squad halted under her gaze.
Akamori opened a private comms line to Amara through their armor. A fiery picture window popping up in her hud lining his face.
“Looks like she’s here for a fight.”
“There are a lot of shackling runes on her soul. She’s not here by choice.”
“That doesn’t matter now. We have to get through her. But I don’t think she’s inclined to let us pass willingly. The sarge and I will draw her attention. You slip by when you can and push ahead. Like our… mutual friend in the abyss said, we’ve got the tools we need. Time to put them to use.” When he tried to use Sashlu’s name, he found himself physically incapable of actually putting voice to the name. Like something was compelling him not to. He filed the odd sensation away for later. Assuming he survived the next encounter.
“Good luck.”
“You’re the lynchpin this time. I’m here to get my ass kicked long enough to buy you the time you need to save it.”
“No pressure then. I’ll slip out once you give me an opening.”
Akamori ended the line, Amara’s face bursting into motes of fire and mind aether. Then he willed his helmet to scope back, revealing his face. A tentative breath told him the air here wasn’t awful. Not the best, but not as bad as other portions of the temple, either. The earth magic spells of the Hatchlings really did a number here.
As Akamori and Sirsir advanced, Lucinda’s brow quirked. Recognition swept across her features. Akamori sighed inwardly. This would not end well. He and Sirsir halted ten meters away from Lucinda. Far enough, they’d have time to react if the Arena champion advanced, close enough to strike if they must.
“I’d hoped we wouldn’t cross paths. It’s bad enough I have to destroy Morwen’s world. Destroying her family on top of it leaves the taste of bile in my mouth.”
“I don’t exactly take pleasure in killing her dad’s, um… girlfriend?”
A sad smile flickered across her face. “I had a good run. But I got a little too sloppy at the end. I fooled myself into thinking I didn’t need to fight anymore. And here I am, fighting for someone else in a fight I never wanted.”
“Don’t suppose you could let your guard down again? For good ole times’ sake?”
Lucinda’s expression went shock neutral, but he recognized the malevolent aura that billowed out from around her soul like a ghoulish hand clutching her heart.
“No. I won’t.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Akamori heaved a put-upon sigh and kicked some pebbles exaggeratedly. “Well shucks. Guess we’ll just have to do this the hard way then. I joked around and told the others that I’d let you kick my ass to waste time. But if I’m being honest, I’m going to enjoy this. The chance to cross blades with an esteemed champion gives me a chance to see how far I’ve come along. And besides, it’ll be fun to fight something without scales for a change.”
Lucinda’s lips quirked. “You’re going to die if we fight.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. But it’ll be fun.” He couldn’t help but give the imposing woman an impish grin. He was putting aside the grimness of the situation and trying to avoid becoming the grim dark brood master 9000. So he was simply embracing the things he enjoyed. And he enjoyed a good fight and inappropriately placed light heartedness and humor.
Lucinda’s boots scraped against the stone floor as she slid into a relaxed, if threatening, position. Her black and red blade lifted to point at him. Akamori drew his own blade. It thrummed eagerly in his grip.
“RUIN!” it whispered with awe in his mind. “An elder blade. It’s cuts imbue a dangerous affliction of void poison.” He felt the blade thrum again, like a leashed attack dog growling.
“Good to know.” He whispered softly.
Sirsir’s heavy feet thudded up next to him. “How d’ya wanna play this one, sir?”
“Front and Back?”
Sirsir grinned broadly as if Akamori had just asked him to set down suppressive fire. “Fuck yeah. Front and Back.”
Lucinda’s brow arched, but the rest of her expression remained flat. “Kinky.”
Akamori advanced with Sirsir in his wake. He channeled some of his AP down into his blade, which drank up the magic and added its own. Before closing into range, he brought the sword up and across in a sweeping slash, and released the attack, sending a nanometer thin sheet of compressed air magic to arc out like an extension of the blade’s edge. The attack erupted in mana shards as Lucinda casually flicked a counter spell at the attack.
Unphased, Akamori pushed through the glittering motes of magic to cross blades with Lucinda. The fading embers of magic swirled from each combatants swing. Lucinda channeled her far superior aura out, which weighed down oppressively on Akamori. To his lesser infused body and soul, it felt like wading through tree sap. Still he pushed through, his body channeling forms and katas as his blade gracefully clashed against the malevolent energies of her Ruin.
The two rotated as their blades sang through the air before crashing into each other again and again. Lucinda fed Akamori a viscous knee strike that lifted him into the air. She moved to follow up with a spell blast, but an explosion at her back sent her sprawling and bouncing off the stone floor till she slid to a stop. Smoke billowed up from her back, which thinned out to reveal Sirsir standing with his heavy spell machine gun in one hand, and a conjured heavy spell cannon in the other arm.
“Front and back, bitch.”
Lucinda pushed herself back to her feet with a grimace. She gave him a curt nod, acknowledging the tactic. As tactics went, it wasn’t a bad one. Keep constantly switching focus so she couldn’t reliably beat down either of them quickly. It would have been her undoing in the arena if they weren’t so much weaker than she was. As it stood, they were little more than a nuisance. The bald, dark-skinned, heavy weapons guy surely knew that. But the eager grin and massive weapons left her uncertain.
She blurred forward to plunge Ruin into his abdomen, but a blue and red flash cut her off cold. Surprise marred her features as she glanced down to see Akamori’s stern glare meeting hers, his blade pressed to hers. “We’re not done yet,” he growled. Something cold radiated from him. The void magic within her recognized it. Like sensing like. She’d sensed the touch of the void in him, but this went far beyond an infusion. Someone or something etched it into his soul. Her brow arched as fascination piqued.
Her temporary distraction offered him an opening he seized on by blasting his elbow across her jaw, sending her spinning. He advanced on her to capitalize, but she responded with a spinning roundhouse that hurled Akamori in a wild spin out of her way. Before she could advance on him, Sirsir fired off another cannon blast. She cleaved the bolt spell in two. As the two halves detonated at her sides, Sirsir followed up with a hail of level 1 spell bolt fire from the machine gun, forcing her to erect a mana costly barrier.
Stabbing Ruin into the stone floor, she wove a level three void bolt spell and flung it at the sergeant. The pumpkin sized orb detonated against a hastily erected light barrier. The two polarities of magic clashing. Lucinda’s level three spell overwhelmed the lower leveled barrier and hurled the sergeant into the air to bounce off one of the few remaining anta toppling the circular column in several chunks and dust. She watched him for a moment for any signs of retaliation, but the big man didn’t move.
Lucinda lifted a hand to channel another spell just as Akamori smashed into her with a full speed tackle. The two tumbled before getting back to their feet. She eyed him for a moment, studying the warrior. “Without your big friend to protect you, I’ll have you dismantled in moments.” She said.
“The only thing being dismantled is your attention.”
Lucinda’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, and realization struck her. “The woman with the eyes!”
Akamori nodded with a smug grin. “I have to admit, I wasn’t sure we’d sneak her by you given how much more powerful you are than us, but boy, you really got in the zone. Talk about that tunnel vision. Does your boss know you let her slip by? If not, I’m sure whoever it is will notice soon enough.”
“ENOUGH!” Lucinda roared. Her aura billowed out and sent ripples that pulsed through the ambient aether. Akamori focused his own aura in front of him, serving as a makeshift magical ward, blunting Lucinda’s wrath. The power of her aura crushed the stone at her feet to gravel and gnarled, jagged cracks radiated outwards like lightning snaking along the now scarred white tiles. Lucinda advanced on him. He grunted as it felt like she’d taken a sanding stone to his soul.
The arena champion tore Ruin free of its place on the floor and brought the wicked blade around in a sweeping slash meant to bisect Akamori. Smoothly, Akamori parried the strike and retaliated. For every attempt Lucinda made to end the fight, Akamori frustratingly evaded or parried, stretching the conflict out further and further. Her brutal and simplistic style against his more nuanced, if incomplete, technique.
Eventually, Lucinda decided it was time to break down Akamori’s defenses. She thrust Ruin into its void storage, needing both hands to cast an elaborately destructive spell. Finishing the final sign, she’d returned her focus to Akamori who wasted precious mana on weaker spells trying to breach her defenses. Finally, it was ready, and she pulsed her aura again, then hurled the disintegration spell at his torso.
Partially stunned by Lucinda’s aura blast, the disintegration spell slammed into his armor. The latent consciousness in it shrieked in agony. Fear and dread swept through Akamori as a near certainty that this was the end took root.