Luckily the non-psionic members of their group were rather easy to bring around. Their minds had been suppressed by the Aboleth, but the creature had not been able to do anything to them while still locked in a struggle with the three psions. Thus the trio snapped awake on their own with the Aboleth now gone. Shioko was fuming mad as she woke up, while Shunkaha and the Anshar representative were mostly just embarrassed.
“Don’t worry about it Smoky. We all know this is why you keep us around.” Nyx said, on the surface comforting the Anshar man while at the same time rubbing it in. He was supposed to be the most powerful member of their group but had been rendered unconscious immediately. The Aboleth had been a creature of pure mental psionic power. Such extremely specialized beings were obviously strong in their chosen area but usually were equally weak while outside of it. It was no wonder a being like that managed to knock out the powerful Anshar when he had no special defenses against such attacks.
“I appreciate that Nyx, but now’s not the time for such things. We still have work to do. We can think about our failures after we’re done.” He deflected the topic, getting serious.
“I’d hate to rush you, but we’re getting company pretty soon. The creature sent a message to the leader of the Everseeing Eye, and I’m not sure this is the place where we want to have this fight.” Dee suggested, while still being supported by Moirai.
“What happened to you?” Shunkaha asked genuinely worried, drawing closer.
“I’m just a bit exhausted. I’ll be fine with a bit of time. Time that we currently don’t really have I’m afraid. Let’s move.” Dee hurried the others. Unlike them, she could sense the approach of several powerful beings, and those beings were getting closer.
Shunkaha volunteered to help Dee instead of Moirai. Normally Dee might have thought he might have been doing it to take advantage of the situation, but his seriousness made his sincerity clear. Besides, it made sense. It was already a bit problematic for the tiny Moirai to try and keep the much larger Dee upright, when Moirai was barely half of Dee’s height and much more diminutive, even if she didn’t lack strength. Dee was in effect kneeling already. Besides, Shunkaha was without a doubt the weakest of the group, so it made sense for him to do it. Dee tossed a pair of hands over his shoulders to keep herself upright.
The group pulled back to a larger room they had passed through earlier. They rather naturally assumed that they would need some room for the upcoming fight. Shioko sealed the other entrance to prevent any reinforcements they had missed from attacking them from behind. Dee signaled Shunkaha to place her down in a dark corner near the opening where the enemy would come from. They all watched as the shadows in the already dark corner seemed to grow and consume Dee. “I’ll recover here and wait for the right opportunity to strike,” Dee told the others and activated her stealth Authority at full power while doing her best to eliminate any sign of herself. Luckily the others did a good job of drawing attention.
The others got into position with the Anshar representative taking the front while the more tired psions took the rear. The group didn’t have to wait for long before the enemy arrived. At the front was a pair of the so-called ‘dark ones’ a large and powerful looking Hecatonheires and a much more dangerous looking Rakshasa Raja. They were both strong enough to qualify as rank eleven immortals, and Dee was reminded of the words of the Rani she had met earlier, about the strongest Raja becoming a dark one. Still…it felt like there was something missing. It seemed that having their minds damaged to this degree also had negative consequences. It was doubtful either of the beings would be aware enough to fully utilize their totems, even if they had one, unfinished or otherwise.
The large Beholder behind them seemed to have some sort of armor on its skin in the form of thick scales. Whether that was natural or something it had somehow acquired was open to question, but it did protect the otherwise rather vulnerable being fairly well. It also seemed to be a bit larger than others of its kind as it floated behind the two bodyguards. Like others of its kind, it had several eye-stalks peering everywhere to look for unseen threats. Dee also noted that the Beholder seemed to have some sort of a circlet around one of the stalks that seemed to be preventing psionic interference, to an extent at least. As it had to deal with an Aboleth, that security measure seemed reasonable. Otherwise the Beholder would have become a slave of the Aboleth as well.
The Beholder barely got inside the room before it started to complain. “You really did a number on us with the Aboleth. Didn’t think you would be able to manage that. Thanks to you, the slaves just got a lot harder to control, so I hope you’re happy. No matter, you will compensate for it once I slap the collar around your necks. There are other ways to control others beyond the Aboleth.”
The others looked at the Beholder in slight confusion. It was rather talkative for an aberration and quick to complain to boot. Were all the Beholders this chatty? The Anshar representative stepped forward. “I think you’re overestimating your chances of victory just a bit. You should’ve brought more reinforcements.” He stated calmly. The air around the room was already heating up as the being of fire was gearing up for battle.
“I don’t think so. With just the five of you…wait, five? I heard there was a sixth. Ah, you have one hiding somewhere. Surely you aren’t relying on someone catching me by surprise. You’ll be sorely disappointed. You’ll find that trying to strike me from the shadows will be much harder than you think. That’s what I hate about you lesser creatures. All brawn and no brain.” The Beholder replied, its eye-stalks peering everywhere around it. There were only so many places that one could hide inside the weird tunnels and the Beholder seemed to be able to feel something from the living material that made up the walls and floor. Couple of its eyes focused on Dee’s hiding place. The shadows were larger in corner than they should be as they hid Dee.
“If you feel like skulking in the shadows, then be my guest. It will make little difference in the long run. There’s nothing you can do anyway.” The Beholder declared confidently.
“Enough of this!” Shioko declared and seemed to once again turn to a golem carved from a single green emerald, and her head was now up to the ceiling. She would have made herself even larger, but the narrow passage was what it was. Still, that just meant her form was denser, and she barreled forward as several waves of earthen projectiles flew towards the enemy.
‘She’s surprisingly hotheaded.’ Dee thought as she looked at Shioko. She had been quick to rush at the Githyanki ship back then as well. Somehow Dee had expected the graceful looking Jun to be a more careful finesse type. Looks could be deceiving.
Suddenly a large disembodied eye seemed to open in the empty air above the Beholder. The eye had an hourglass in place of the pupil. Dee could feel the power that she now associated with Authorities being channeled, and everyone in the room seemed to freeze in place. Everyone on their side that is. Even Dee could feel as if the time around her seemed to slow down. “Judgment!” The Beholder declared in a smug voice. Even the projectiles Shioko had thrown seemed to freeze in the air.
The only ones still able to move were the Anshar representative and Shunkaha for some reason. That reason became obvious as he also seemed to transform and Dee could feel the power of another Authority. A large grey wolf the size of Shioko’s emerald form stood in his place, and Dee could sense the Authority both resisting the other’s freezing effect and giving Shunkaha power. While Dee was rather certain that he still didn’t have the power of an immortal, the Authority had brought him fairly close. There was also something strange about his fangs and fur that Dee couldn’t quite determine.
“Well, well. Another powerful Authority has shown up. It looks like something I can’t take from you to add to my own, but that will not save you. Perhaps it was too much to ask for all of you to be halted. Still, I know your kind fire elemental. What will you and that pup be able to do with just the two of you, especially when your magic doesn’t fully work?” The Beholder stated calmly. Dee also realized that the situation was kind of bad. The Anshar representative was strong, but could not cast spells under the effect of the Beholder’s central eye. He was someone who could deal with both physical and magical combat, but he still relied on spells.
“I will be enough to beat something like you.” The Anshar stated calmly. Suddenly his whole body seemed to burst into pure white flames. A stream of flames lashed towards the giant that stood in front to protect the Beholder, and a large chunk of its flesh was seared off. The giant made no screams of pain and didn’t even acknowledge the arm that was now missing. It seems the being was unable to feel the pain.
In the meantime, the Rakshasa dashed towards Shunkaha’s large form, and the four sabers it brandished suddenly glowed blue. Shunkaha quickly tried to avoid the attack but didn’t manage it completely despite his quick speed. The Rakshasa was simply too fast. The fur of the wolf glowed with the power of the Authority to resist the attack, but the difference in power was simply too large. Luckily the damage was limited by the power of the Authority. The Rakshasa didn’t stop its attacks there though. One of the benefits of having multiple arms was the ability to continuously rain blows on your enemy.
Shunkaha decided to risk injury in exchange for dealing damage to his opponent. His fangs glowed with power as they closed on one of the extended arms of the Rakshasa. Even the immortality and ki enhanced defenses of the Rakshasa seemed to crumble in front the fangs that tore the hand away. For his troubles though, Shunkaha suffered several deep wounds of his own. Also, the Rakshasa’s arm seemed to be regenerating. Not quickly, but eventually it would recover. Shunkaha’s wounds, on the other hand, showed no sign of recovering. It was already a small miracle that an enemy so much stronger than him didn’t do more damage.
‘Speed, strong protection, and fangs that can pierce the defenses of someone much stronger than him. Shunkaha really gained a powerful Authority. I wonder what else he has in his pocket.’ Dee thought to herself. At first seemed like even her thoughts had been slowing down, but she felt the power of Eternity’s blessing countering the effects of the Beholder’s Authority. The progress was not quick, but she could feel the effects reducing. Luckily she did manage to recover a bit of her power in the meantime. Not much, since not much time had passed, but every bit counted.
At the same time, the large giant fell backward as it was pushed away by the Anshar representative with heavy burns all over its body. The Beholder immediately countered with several eye-beams striking towards the flaming form of the Anshar. The beams seemed to have little effect, as the fiery form seemed to be immune to most of the effects. The disintegration beam managed to do some damage, but the flames quickly repaired any damage.
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It seemed like the Beholder and the Anshar somewhat countered each other as the Beholder’s eye-beams were somewhat useless against the essentially formless Anshar, but the Anshar representative was unable to use spells in return. That same did not apply to the Beholder as suddenly a spray of different elemental powers struck towards the Anshar’s fiery form. Apparently the Beholder was testing the most effective element to deal with him, while the Anshar representative backed away from the affected area. One would think that something like ice or water would be effective against fire, but with immortals that might not be the case. Some totems granted their element strange properties like immunities to the counter element.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” The Beholder suddenly mocked, as some of the elemental power hit Shioko’s large form. The dense golem wasn’t all that damaged, but the same would not apply to Nyx and especially Moirai. The Anshar grunted in realization. If he dodged the Beholder’s spells, those spells would hit his friends who were now frozen. Besides, while the Beholder’s eye-beams did nothing to him, they would hurt the others still frozen in place.
Dee’s mind worked furiously for a solution. She felt that her own powers were no longer bound down by the Beholder’s Authority. That said, her body still was and it seemed likely that if the Beholder focused the effect of the Authority on her, the freezing effect would come back with enough strength to stop her attack. One of the eye-stalks was still focused on the shadows she was hiding in, making sure she would not be able to do anything weird. The Beholder was being careful. So what to do? She would likely only get one shot to help.
Suddenly an idea occurred to her. The Beholder’s powers all seemed to work on sight. That went for its ability to freeze things, as well as all the eye-beams and the suppression of the Anshar representative’s magic. If she managed to stop the Beholder’s ability to see, then the others should be able to deal with the rest. She didn’t have to be the one to actually deal with the Beholder, she only needed to provide an opportunity for the others. With that thought, she drew heavily on Umbra’s power, and the shadows started covering the whole room. First the walls turned completely black as if covered by a black liquid. Then the remaining light in the room started to dim and completely disappear.
Of course this did not escape the notice of the Beholder. Plenty of enemies had used darkness spells against it before. The weakness the Beholder had was glaring, and it was not stupid enough to not prepare counters against such an obvious ploy. There were several ways to deal with such spells. At first it tried to use the Authority to freeze the effect, but it was hard to stop something as nebulous as the shadows and darkness. Then it tried casting a light spell to counter the darkness, but the light was quickly consumed by the darkness. Then the Beholder tried casting spells like ‘darkvision’ and ‘true-sight’ on itself, but none of those spells affected the deepest darkness borne from the powers of the Goddess of Darkness. A little Beholder’s spells meant nothing in front of the goddess’ realm.
“Now would be a good time.” Dee sent a psionic message to the Anshar representative. Even he had been thrown off by the magical darkness that seemed to trump the light from his flames. Even though they were unable to see anything, beings at their level could sense the position of their enemy with various other means. If anyone besides Dee had been able to see anything, they would have seen two large glyphs appearing above and below the Beholder, and the space between the glyphs turned into a storm of white flames, making the whole room heat up and feel like the inside of a furnace.
The Beholder screeched in pain. Its magical defenses and scales managed to protect it from taking fatal damage. However, the eye-stalks were burnt off. It struck back though, as suddenly light flashed around it and a random member of their group, in this case Nyx, and the two switched places. Now Nyx found herself roasted by the flames, while the Beholder found brief respite. The Anshar representative sensed the change and stopped the flames immediately, though not before Nyx had received a healthy dose of the flames on her own defenses. “My precious tail!” Nyx screamed, as her tail was smoking from being singed.
The Beholder had decided to retaliate against the other members of the group, but never got the chance. Its defenses had already been drastically reduced, and just when it was casting new protective fields to renew them, a large blade made of pure crystal was thrust right into its central eye as Shioko lunged forward. That wasn’t enough as Dee looked in fascination as the sword seemed to sprout something that looked like crystal branches of a tree, straight inside the Beholder’s body. The branches tore the Beholder apart in one of the most gruesome ways Dee had ever seen.
The squelching noise was rather distinct as well, and apparently Dee was not the only one to feel that way. “Oh gods, I recognize that sound. Shioko, you did it again didn’t you?” Nyx stated, gagging and still cradling her tail.
“We’re not finished yet!” The Anshar representative shouted. They still had two enemies remaining, as reminded by a whimper released by Shunkaha as he was once again wounded.
They didn’t have to worry though. Dee had forgotten something. The shadows she controlled were not empty. There was a sort of life there, spirits that she had felt before. They had not been called on before and now those spirits finally got a chance to serve their queen. They could feel their queen’s intent and hostility towards the two dark beings and struck. Their queen had provided them a meal, so they wouldn't let it go to waste. Only thing was, the spirits in the shadows weren’t satisfied with just flesh.
Suddenly the giant that seemed to feel no pain from being burnt by flames started howling and grabbed at its head, while the Rakshasa started growling in anguish. A sickening munching sound echoed in the room, as the two enemies were quickly reduced to nothingness. “W-what just happened?” Moirai asked in shock.
“I think our dear servant of Umbra forgot to mention some of her abilities.” The Anshar stated rather calmly, reducing the intensity of his fires to reduce the temperature in the room. He could sense the countless spirits surrounding them in the shadows, even if the others could not. The spirits eyed them warily, but not with hostility. “You can pull the shadows back now Dee. It’s over.”
Dee had to struggle a bit to do just that as the shadows seemed almost too eager to help her. She had not put Umbra’s blessing to full use before, and the power there had been getting impatient to serve. Now the shadows got their chance to shine and were immediately recalled. That was almost mean. ‘Next time.’ Dee sent a mental promise towards the shadows and they seemed to be mollified somewhat, allowing Dee to bring the light back into the room, although the shadows still seemed longer than they should. Oddly, she seemed almost refreshed despite channeling quite a bit of Umbra’s power. She wasn’t sure why, but she could make some educated guesses.
As the light returned, there was no sign of the two dark beings, while there was almost too much of the Beholder scattered all over the room. Moirai cursed as she looked down at herself, and found her clothes covered in blood and brain matter. “Oh dammit, Shioko! You got Beholder all over me!”
Shunkaha gave another whimper, reminding the others that he was still hurt, and indeed he was not in good condition. The Rakshasa had not stopped attacking just because of the darkness. Although it could not see him anymore, that also meant it was harder for Shunkaha to avoid attacks he couldn’t see. Despite his protection from the Authority, he seemed to have several broken bones and deep gashes. As Dee was the one with the best healing ability, she quickly drew close and channeled Lumen’s powers in hopes of healing Shunkaha.
”You did well.” She gave him credit. “You kept the Rakshasa from attacking our frozen members or joining in against Smoky. I doubt he could’ve dealt with another enemy, especially one with magical weapons like the ones the Raja had.” The four sabers were still on the ground where they had fallen as their owner had faced a rather gruesome end.
Shunkaha shifted back to his original form once his wounds had recovered sufficiently. Dee still wasn’t the best of healers, although the mere usage of Lumen’s powers helped things somewhat. He faked a small cough. “How about a kiss as a reward?” He asked with a hopeful tone.
“How about you take those sabers instead and shut your mouth before I feed you to the same thing that took away their previous owner.” Dee countered with a smile that brought a cold shiver to Shunkaha’s back.
“Yes, ma'am!” He replied immediately.
“Well, with that handled, there are still enemies in this place, and while there are fewer slaves than in the mines, we still need to set them free. They’re most likely the highest royalty of the Rakshasa anyway, so remember to offer them a level of dignity and respect despite the situation. I’m pretty sure there’s still a number of Beholders around, so be careful. Just because we got their leader doesn’t mean we can let our guard down. Shioko, you killed the leader, what happened to the Authority?” The Anshar representative started giving out instructions. This was more in his realm.
Shioko was quiet for a while and seemed to be looking inside her soul space. “I have it, though I’m not sure if it will stay with me. So far it seems to accept me.”
“Good. That Authority really caught us by surprise. If we can put it to use, then no reason it can’t do the same to our enemies. Dee, can you open a portal for reinforcements? Now that we’ve dealt the Beholders such a blow, we can pull in more helpers. No reason for us to waste time sweeping this place out just by ourselves. Remember, we are still kind of trespassing on our neighbors even if they turned a blind eye to our enemies being here. With Qiraj still around we don’t’ need to make any more enemies.” The Anshar really seemed to get a lot livelier now that the plans of psions were no longer messing things up for him.
“That’s all nice and all, but more importantly. Dee! Can you heal my tail?! Smoky burnt it, look!” Nyx burst his balloon of feeling important once again and planted the singed tail in Dee’s hands.
“Uh…” Dee could only stutter. She was not sure at all if tails were something that could be healed.