Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen
Suffocating
Michael’s Arcancy-fired arrow erupted from his bowstring, blasting through the right-most Lieutenant’s head as the others barrelled forth into action.
Karmine vanished with less than a seizing vein as he sprinted forward. His opposing Soiltorn skidded to a stop, lashing out wildly, but Karmine was a ghost, and in the space between worlds, he danced between the swipes with laughing ease.
Rose leapt forward spoke the command-word and transformed the wand into a bow-staff. Without preamble or declaration, she slammed it into the ground as the Soiltorn raised both of their weapons. Thick tendrils of grass shot up, catching the soldier’s arms, as though in a six-armed pull-up. She roared forward and smashed her staff into the soldier’s head, sending them reeling.
Sidney circled with another Lieutenant as Arcancy surged into her veins. She could sense a part of the stone within the Obthraie, but her control of it was feeble, for living elements existed outside of Elemental-Arcancy power.
She and the soldier exploded toward one another, and as it thrusted its spear and slashed its sword, the young Paladin ducked and weaved between the sharpened stone. As she straightened up, she clocked the Creation twice across the jaw with her steel rod, once in an up-swipe and another back down.
Nichole sent arrows whistling toward her own Obthraie counterpart, a notably large soldier, who despite being much taller and wider than her, was just as quick. Every shot she fired, the creature twisted out of the way, even deflecting the projectiles with its sword. After wasting three arrows, the Obthraie smiled wildly and flourished their sword and spear.
Nichole bit down on her anger and nodded. She stowed her bow over-shoulder and drew out a long dagger and short sword. Her veins burned.
Jack stormed toward Nikereus themselves, feeling his rage boil within him as he let out a flurry of Arcancy pain. His eyes blurred with waves of red and for a moment Nikereus almost seemed to stammer in their steps.
Before Jack could reach them, one of Nikereus’ off hands then hovered over the centre of their chest. Jack blinked, and Nikereus touched their armour, and the red Jack’s eyes dimmed so much that blue could be seen through the haze.
Jack felt his power numbed and he stopped violently, tearing the soil with his heels. He looked to his hands and the flickering veins between his fingers, then he looked to Nikereus. “What is this?”
Nikereus grinned and brandished Archie’s sword. “Call it a focused Gathering Field.”
Jack let his Arcancy die completely and hefted his mace. “I’ve won wars with nothing more than this. Unlike you, I don’t need magic tricks.”
Nikereus’ eyes grinned and they lunged forward, relentlessly stabbing and slashing at the dark warrior.
Jack narrowly avoided each major hit and blocked the lesser ones with his shield, but Obthraie leader was fast and stronger than he could believe. They knocked his mace locked and slammed Jack’s shield so hard that a long splinter cracked through the wood. Before Jack could lift it back into place, Nikereus planted a kick square in the chest and sent him hurtling to the mud, back first, crumpling fully over-shoulder, and onto his front.
Jack gritted his teeth and slammed his fist into the soil before pushing himself back up. He stood and tore forth before Nikereus could take the advantage, driving the Monarch back as he swiped at their skull and chest with his dark mace, using his momentum to spin and gain more speed even as he missed.
Nikereus’ dark smile didn’t fade, it only grew hungrier as they shouted, “Now, we see our Legacies of Old!” Nikereus blocked a brutal strike with the brunt of a bare arm, shattering the limb but using the sacrifice to grab the mace by its handle, trying to rend it from Jack.
Jack merely ripped his head forward and smashed its wedge-face into Nikereus’ teeth.
The commander crumbled down to a knee, blindly, cursing in Low-Garganii, spitting shards of stone from their mouth.
Jack stalked forward. “Worse rulers have tried to take this mace from me, Monarch. Now, stand the fuck up.” When Nikereus fought to their feet again, Jack fell in like a storm.
Sidney slammed her own opponent across the face, sending them stumbling. In a flash, she saw Jack moving like a flurry of Brightsteel. She watched Jack battering away Nikereus’ strikes so ruthlessly that the Soiltorn could scarcely get their feet beneath them. She was worried for a moment that Jack had forgotten to plan when she realised he was actually pulling his strikes. Every hit that would otherwise club the enemy to death and was sharpened and drawn in, making Nikereus seem like they were barely fast enough. Sidney could see Jack’s mind working at a thousand leagues a second, trying to figure out how best to the strike the Heart Stone beneath the armour.
Nikereus let out a vicious roar and planted their feet, ducking a mace-strike and grabbing Jack’s shield. With a shout Nikereus ripped it from Jack’s arm and threw it to the soil as he slashed upward at Jack.
The armour took the brunt of the force but the tip of the blade hit Jack’s helmet with the weight of a sledgehammer, rattling his skull and sending him down to knee to stop from collapsing.
A stalactite of pale rock grew from Nikereus’ hand, and without hesitance, they drove it toward Jack’s visor slit when a beam of Starfire light blew through the stone hand, destroying the appendage and the weapon. The Obthraie screeched and stumbled away. Before Michael could load another, Nikereus stepped and kicked Jack hard through the helmet, knocking him cold to the ground. The stone commander then turned and rounded on Michael, looking at the eviscerated hand not growing back.
“What did you do to me?” screamed Nikereus.
Michael was bleeding from his eyes already. The exhaustion was so set in him that even standing straight was achieved exclusively by adrenaline. “I was told that all Shanii fear the light. You don’t have to worry about the sun. Because hurt my friends… So, you best save your fear for me.”
Michael erupted with light like a bursting star and Nikereus’ pale stone was scorched so fiercely they screamed out. Through the blinding white glare, Michael saw their hand touch the same point on their armour as before, but this time nothing came of it.
Nikereus blinked and their face was overcome with fear and their screeches filled the basin.
Half unconscious, Jack was hunched over their forearms, shouting, “Michael, no! The Heart Stone!”
Karmine was across the way, vanishing and reappearing as the Soiltorn Lieutenant swiped, slashed, and lunged every which way, unable to land any strike, when the Crekaen man shouted, “Sid! Up-up!”
Sidney kicked her foe back with an aching foot, turned and caught Karmine’s heel, heaving him high into the air where he vanished into sunlight.
The Lieutenant spun around in confusion when a shadow passed overhead.
The great bear of a man reappeared above him and slammed his maul into the soldier’s skull, turning them instantly to dust, landing clumsily in the mud before diving into Sidney’s fight.
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Rose summoned tendrils after tendrils of grass to grapple the Obthraie she fought again, but their stone-limbs were too strong, ripping free from each before they could thicken. She stepped back and felt something press into the soul of her shoe. The mage smiled, stepping back even further, goading her enemy onward.
Rose tightened her grip, raised her bow-staff slightly, and when the Obthraie lunged forward, she slammed it into the ground, sending a flash of green light from every vein in her body through the soil beneath her weapon. The emerald lightning crackled through ground into the small prickle bush she’d stepped on, and the plant erupted at the feet of the Obthraie, engulfing them in thorny foliage. It swallowed their limbs and began ripping them to ground.
They tried to squirm free, breaking through one stem as half a dozen more sprouted and choked them against the ground. The mess of thorns began pulling the soldier into the soil as Rose’s muscles crackled with jade energy, and she roared with agonised power. The lieutenant shouted out, which was a mistake, because the thorns took every hold they could grab onto.
As Jack rose groggily to his feet, Michael’s light finally began to stutter and he was forced back, sweating beads as Nikereus swiped and missed by mere inches, whipping the stolen sabre so close that Michael could feel the wind rushing by his body and face.
Michael fell into a backward roll, nocking an arrow as he rose to his knee, only for Nikereus to leap forward and slam the metal bow out of his hand, sending his arrow skittering to the mud. Before Michael had a chance to grab his shortsword, Nikereus’ blade flashed out again, catching him high on his arm in a bright ribbon of pain.
Michael cried out, stumbling backward, and ripped out his sword, feeling a hot throbbing in his arm while he levelled the weapon shakily.
Nikereus smiled viciously and looked around to see Nichole and Sidney’s opponents stealing everyone but the Javen warrior’s attention, and Jack himself was hardly able to stand for the swaying in his head.
“Seems you’re not really a priority around here,” Nikereus said smugly, grating their stone fingers long the cold blade, now edged with Michael’s blood. “Can’t say I’m surprised.”
Michael threw himself forward in a fit of anger, only to see Nikereus’ face bloom into a grin.
The Obthraie sided-stepped from the slice, let Michael stumble through and brought up Archie’s sword in a cold whip across the boy’s back.
Michael let out a scream of agony as his sword tumbled from his grip and Nikereus kicked him into the soil. As he tried to rise again, he pushed against the mud and twisted his head to see Jack desperately trying to steady his feet and gripping his mace tight.
Pain exploded in Michael’s side as Nikereus kicked him in the ribcage with a stone foot, knocking him onto his stomach. Everything went black. His already broken ribs sent waves of red into the base of his skull. Michael could scarcely move to shift his weight, and he knew the pain was both keeping him paralysed and stopping him from passing out completely. He would’ve been sick on the soil if he’d eaten in the last day.
The Monarch chuckled and stepped over him.
Despite the world of pain, Michael screamed out and pushed himself up on his hands.
Nikereus snorted and put a sharp boot through the boy’s jaw. Michael’s head snapped back with it and hung loosely as he collapsed. Blood trickled from his mouth. The Soiltorn sighed and leant down and picked him up fully off the ground. Two of his hands clamped around Michael’s neck, a third raised Archie’s sword.
“You’ve got some fight in you, fool, I’ve give you that.”
Michael’s lulling eyes rolled in his head as he changed from pale to blue from a lack of air. His lips twitched.
Nikereus tilted their head and eased the grip of his neck. “Last words, is it?”
Michael took a sharp breath and opened his mouth as if to speak, then his palms blasted Nikereus square in their shade-plated chest.
The commander screamed out as the light-magic burned, but the commander didn’t release Michael so the archer didn’t quit the magic. The armour began trembling and vibrating. Cracks began to form. Nikereus clamped both hands around Michael’s throat and the sword in their third hand lunged at Michael’s head but he twisted his face down and the blade only graze the back of his head.
The power of the Starfire was too much and the shadows of the chest-plate shattered like volcanic glass, revealing Nikereus’ pale-slate torso and a sickly Heart Stone lodged within.
Nikereus caught a glimpse of Jack rushing toward them and smashed Michael in the teeth with a stone elbow. Dazed and concussed, he spat out at least one tooth and a mouthful of blood. Nikereus twisted Michael into a headlock and flicked the tip of Archie’s blade down to Michael’s neck, muttering, “A step further, and this one dies.”
Jack stopped, his heart stopped in his chest.
Sidney smashed her opponent across the jaw, knocking them into Karmine who slammed them into fragments as Nichole finally slipped her shortsword into the torso of her foe, wincing and panting before she grabbed her bow.
Rose turned and saw Nikereus holding Michael and she screamed, sprinting forward with her Arcancy glowing. “Let him go!”
Jack caught her and shook his head. “Don’t,” he urged, as the others turned in dismay to see what they’d missed.
“I’d listen, if I were you, Legacy.” Nikereus turned Michael to face his friends, using their other arms to pin the boy’s hands behind his back and bring the gleaming iron blade up to his throat.
Michael was struggling to open his eyes as his companions approached in horror, tasting blood and the fragments of tooth clinging to his tongue, as another stone hand gripped him coarsely by the hair.
Nikereus looked over the warriors and let out a tired chuckle, ending in a short, satisfied sigh as they took in a slow breath. They nodded to the sight behind them, listening with gentle pleasure as screams and rattled slams of the keep door filled the valley.
“A proper symphony, don’t you think?”
Michael thrashed his elbow into the Creation’s stomach, but it only sent a white-hot flare of pain into his bone as Nikereus hooked their handless arm around his throat, and pushed the sword into the soft flesh beneath his jaw.
Nikereus bent their head over Michael’s strangled face and said, “Hush, fool. Unless you want your friends to watch you die?”
“If you hurt him,” Nichole seethed, “God, Khasm, and Thall together won’t be able to save you from us.” She threw her blade into the ground as she pulled her bow from her shoulder.
“Hurt him? Why would I hurt him, I’ve won? All I need to do, is sit here and listen as your friends are massacred by my kin.”
Karmine looked to Fort Guardian as another great, echoing crash was followed by monstrous cheers. He looked to Jack with horror on his face.
Jack looked to Michael and the young archer’s face was tight with pain as Nikereus smiled all the more.
“How does it feel, to have failed so spectacularly?” Nikereus asked.
Michael was shaking with pain across his body, but up against his back digging into the small space between his shoulder-blades, he could feel a dull, pulsing energy, tickling the hairs on his skin. Both hands were bound so tightly that tears leaked from his eyes, and even if they weren’t, his sword and bow were scattered to the grass elsewhere. The Heart Stone pulsed weakly again and Michael looked up to Nichole with gritted teeth, knowing he had but the barest scrap of strength left, and certainty not enough.
“Rot, you fuckin’ prick,” Michael croaked.
As planned, Nikereus drove the point of the sword so firmly up against his neck that a bead of blood ran down behind his armour. “I warned you.”
Jack flinched and barked, “Enough!”
As he spoke, Michael grimaced through the pain and summoned the slightest sliver of Arcancy to his veins that he could.
Nikereus continued, unaware, “Now, here’s what I want. You,” they nodded to Jack, “tell me where your Location Tablets are. Save me the hassle of turning over the entire fort and I’ll save you the hassle of flaying you all alive.”
Michael hung his head in pain, obscuring the Obthraie’s view as he summoned a pale, ring of flickering golden light almost exactly over his heart. He leaned back, as though his weakness was overcoming him, and felt Nikereus steady him with a rough hand, but not before feeling the Heart Stone directly between his left shoulder-blade and his spine. The golden circle shifted on his chest, aligning directly with the Heart Stone behind it.
Jack saw the magic before anyone else, quickly speaking, “Look, its classified information- meaning not everyone knows it! If you want, we can go to the office...”
As Jack spoke, Nichole’s gaze also fell on the mark and upon discerning is meaning her eyes glassed over. She looked from the golden target to Michael’s bleeding face. She shook her head imperceptibly. Michael nodded, softly as he could. Please, he mouthed.
Nikereus sighed at Jack’s sprawling explanation and caught a glimpse of Nichole’s face. “What is this?”
Michael’s heart pumped and blood trickled from his neck into his underarm. A tear-filled breath shook loose from his lungs as he shared one last glance with Nichole. He nodded, pleadingly. She let her head hang.
The pale, golden circle on his chest flashed dully and two golden lines flashed across it, intersecting to make a dark X within the circle.
Nichole was many things, but in her whole life she had hoped for nothing more than to be a kind person, and a good friend. But today she was forced to be a ranger. A soldier. A hunter. And a hunter knows a target when she sees one.
Nichole rolled her fingers and drew a slow breath. She met her friend’s eye and
mouthed, Okay.