"Good. If you're that pissed off, it means you're alive and lucid." Gwen threw the blanket over Lulan, then picked her ragdoll body up from the floor. There would be time for barbed words later.
The commotion from behind their battle-line seemed to have alerted the Slavers crowding the tunnel entrance. They turned to what they presumed was the corpse of the berserker girl only to see a blurred outline lifting the girl's body into the air, underneath which was a pair of familiar legs in leather booties—all in all, a somewhat surreal sight.
"Stop her!" a husky female voice cried out, revealing the source of their unexpected struggle finally.
From underneath her cowl, Gwen finally caught sight of the leader of the Slavers. To her surprise, it was a woman, and an exceedingly exotic one at that, with honeyed skin and dark eyes and a head full of dark hair that fell to her waist.
She looked nothing like the Slavers Gwen had fought, people like Bozza, who appeared as caricatures from a Mad Max movie. If Gwen saw this woman on the streets of University Boulevard, she would have felt delighted to have met a fellow expatriate. But that was just her naivety. Gwen thought dangerously. It's not as though the head of a kidnapping operation would dress up and advertise the fact. All that wealth and ill-gotten gains had to be translated into life's little luxuries, all of which existed only in the 'real' world of the Tier 1 city.
She held Lulan close to her as she manifested another Dimension Door.
Next, she materialised in the middle of the enemy Mages as a burst of inky Void.
"Wocao!"
"Shit!"
"Arrrgh—!"
Four Shields burst into brilliance, cobalt, ochre, yellow and brilliant white, sending their Mages stumbling backwards, their limbs akimbo.
"Dimension Door!"
Another burst of tenebrous ink, then Gwen was gone.
[https://imgur.com/xJGXTPm.jpg]
Nephres Zalaam studied the pulse of her mana conduits as her shield absorbed the splash of Void-tainted mana.
She additionally noticed with dismay that the hungering energy had consumed a semi-sphere of concrete below where Gwen Song had landed, four-inches deep.
Nephres felt a sudden unease gripping her imagination.
Weren't the Sword Mage and Gwen Song mortal enemies? What was she hoping to accomplish? They had no healers, and no potion could restore the Lulan girl. Did they have a high-tier Wand? That was impossible as Wands usually maxed out at tier 4. How about a scroll? No, that still required the relevant Schools of Magic.
"Bless!" She continued her pastoral care over her monsters. "Mass Cure Wounds!"
Once her 'meat shields' sufficiently topped up, she carefully eyed the three separate exits. Though she wanted accolades, Nephres Zalaam had not made it this far in the Organisation by being liberal with her followers and quick on the uptake.
In all honesty, she had not expected the students to last this long against a two-sided assault, and most importantly, she had not at all expected the tier 4 Dimension Door to be in Gwen Song's repertoire. As someone who regularly worked with Maguses, she knew it was virtually impossible to catch teleporting Conjurers.
The only saving grace was that Dimension Door was a costly spell that most Mages could only manifest half a dozen times. Still, if the girl chose to run, abandoning her friends, catching her would be a significant chore.
"Sui," Nephres called out to her Second-in-command.
Sui was the one who had been transmuting the concrete in the tunnel. Now it was evident that a certain Void Sorceress had access to short-range teleportation, Nephres realised that she needed to make some contingencies.
Raising her head, Sui looked to her mistress for further instruction.
Nephres threw her a mana injector, then activated her earring to deliver a Silent Message. Without access to a Divination control tower, the devices only worked within line of sight.
"Seal the tunnel. Keep the kids in with the Crawlers. We'll cut our losses and retreat to B9. We'll be leaving via the service tunnel in B12."
"Yes, Mistress," Sui replied via her embedded device. The Mage had questions but needed no answers, for Nephres knew her word was divine.
Sui turned her attention back to the tunnel and redoubled her efforts.
"Stone Shape!"
At the same time, their Evoker took the opportunity to send in a few Magic Missiles that rattled the Water Mage's Shield, which then instantly replenished its flowing facade.
Nephres' second Evoker sent in another ball of blasting air, but the Water Abjurer had layered a double-Shield this time, preventing the same feint from happening.
Thinking of Gwen's Dimension Door and grinding her teeth at her team's incompetence, Nephres pondered the questionable advantage gained by their ambush against their present stalemate.
Within the tunnel, the student Mages were:
One Spirit Abjurer with an insane water affinity.
One Ice Mage with at least tier 4 in both Evocation and Transmutation.
One Diviner who burned about 400 HDM wands like matches.
And Gwen Song with a near-dead Clanner Sword Mage.
That meant the Void Beast and the Mongoose both belonged to Gwen.
In addition, the object of Nephres' assault was manifesting both Evocation And Conjuration.
The question then was, why did Gwen save the Metal Mage?
When they descended the tunnel, she had felt the shock of the blast in the Crawler's abode. From the vibration through the shaft, Nephres figured Gwen's lightning must have ignited the residual mana that flooded the chamber whenever a filter broke down.
Observing the Mages now—what if she was wrong, and Gwen Song had a trump card capable of destroying that chamber wholesale? What if Gwen were to use it and slaughter everyone here, allies and enemies, indiscriminately?
Nephres Zalaam was no fool.
Those fucking Dossiers!
Who was it? Yi? Unlikely. Choi? That she could believe. Did Choi know about her connection to the Ravenports? Or to her Mistress? Impossible. She could think of the only reason that Choi had felt he could use the student Mages to clean the District.
Nephres bit her lower lip vehemently.
The fucking rat bastard! How many thousands of HDMs had she sent him to keep her operations running?
Seeing that the tunnel was almost closed, Nephres carefully backed away toward the side tunnel connecting B7-4-3 to its adjacent filtration chambers.
If she had to leave, then time was of the essence. Once she mingled with the flood of magical signatures in the Metropolis or escaped into the Outlands, not even Diviners would be able to locate her.
"Mistress, it's closed," Sui announced her success. It was far easier sealing the tunnel than trying to enclose the interior to crush the inhabitants.
The other Mages had stopped attacking and were looking toward their leader for further instruction as well. Nephres wondered if Sui obsessed over her enough to leave the others. Unlike Nephres, who had taken command of the operation months ago, these warren rats had known each other all their lives.
"Sui, get the men to—"
A burst of lightning erupted in the middle of Nephres' Mages. This time, they hadn't stood so idiotically close to each other, and their Shields had not crowded one another onto their buttocks.
Gwen Song and the Sword Mage emerged with a brilliant flash of silvery Conjuration. The girl no longer had her camo-optic cowl, giving Nephres a good look at her striking mien and flashing eyes.
But it wasn't Gwen's striking appearance that took her breath away.
It was the Sword Mage.
To Nephres' disbelieving eyes, the girl was restored from head to toe. Not only that, she was the very picture of vitality and haleness. With only a loose shirt and shorts to cover her shame, the Mage's exposed skin glowed with a metallic sheen of iron, her eyes two garnets flashing with merciless bloodlust.
How the fuck?! Nephres felt her reality invert. Even the girls' hair had grown back!
"Expeditious Retreat!" Nephres turned and fled down the closest service tunnel. She had never been one for sentimentality.
"Mistress!" Sui called out to her desperately.
"Enhanced Agility!" Nephres sped up.
When fleeing, time was of the essence.
[https://imgur.com/xJGXTPm.jpg]
Only moments ago, Gwen had returned to her companions with the battered Lulan in tow.
"Mao above!" Mayuree was made to swallow a mouthful of bile when her eyes fell upon Lulan Li.
Lulan's face was a ruined, corroded mess. She had bits of cheek absent from an inquisitive tentacle as well as missing the soft tissue of her nose. Her arm was a stump kept from bleeding out by the paralytic poison of the Carrion Crawler. She was topless as well, one breast almost entirely flayed of its dermis, with pockmarks of suction-cup wounds running up and down the left lumbar. Only her legs, which had been submerged beneath the water, remained unmolested by the worm.
Yet, her wide-open eyes indicated she was alive and lucid.
Gwen materialised a healing injector and punched the solution into Lulan's chest. She needed to stabilise the girl so they could make their deal.
As the potion worked its magic, Lulan coughed, clearing the blood constricting her breath.
"We don't have much time, so here goes." Gwen watched the red fluid enter Lulan's body, then produced a Cure Poison injector. She pulled, then punched the anti-venom adrenaline into Lulan's thigh.
The Sword Mage's body shuddered and convulsed as the remedy took effect.
"Kill me," Lulan grunted when her muscles regained motion, her voice barely audible. "Put me down. I don't need your charity."
Gwen licked her lips drily, observed by her companions.
"Lulan, I am going to make you a deal."
"Kill me!"
"Listen, Lu—"
"Just get it over with!" Lulan gasped.
"Hey! Listen! "
"Bitch! Just kill me already! I am ruined! Look at me! I—" Lulan made a supreme effort to rise.
PA!
Gwen slapped her across her remaining face.
Lulan opened her mouth to speak again.
PA!
Gwen slapped Lulan across the face again.
Lulan looked like she wanted to speak again until Gwen raised her hand as a warning.
She met Lulan's burning eyes. "Good. Now shut up and listen. I am going to make you a deal."
Gwen produced a Spell Cube from her ring that glowed intensely with emerald energy.
"I have a tier 7 Regeneration spell cast by a tier 8 Healer in here. It is capable of restoring every wound, regrowing every limb, and repairing every scar on your body."
At her words, Lulan's chest rose and fell as her eyes rested upon the Cube.
"I am going to save you. In return, you will help us repel our enemies, Yes. That's right—yours and mine. I am sorry for what happened with the Elemental Sphere. It was an accident. I don't know if I can return Kusu daggers, but I will ask Caliban where they have gone and try my best. I also want no more trouble from you afterwards. Do you understand? Nod if you do."
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Behind them, the pressure from the Stone Shape had ceased. Now there was the sound of shifting concrete coming from the furthest part of the tunnel.
After several seconds, Lulan nodded.
Gwen waited. She couldn't think of a reason why Lulan would disagree. Just look at the state of the poor girl. Jesus fuck. Apart from her legs, Lulan didn't have a single piece of her torso and face that wasn't mauled beyond all recognition.
"Gwen! I don't know what they're doing next!" Mayuree cried out. Her wand's charges were almost out. "I don't know what they're trying to do! Flood the tunnel? More crawlers? AOE attack?"
"I am getting close to being OOM," Richard informed them. "Going to use my last potion soon."
"Whatever you want to do, you better do it now!" Kitty hissed at Gwen.
"Okay." Gwen incanted the lock release on the Cube gifted from Petra, then redirected the manifesting spell from herself toward Lulan.
Instantly, the healing energies of the tier 7 spell suffused the Sword Mage, its potency so powerful as to lift her bodily from the floor. With a rapidness that defied even their wildest expectations, Lulan's lost limb restored itself, growing from a bloody stump to pale white, flawless arm in less than ten seconds. Her dermis likewise regenerated, her face returning to its usual comeliness, and even Lulan's hair, which had been burned off by Gwen's lightning, grew long and silky down to her shoulders.
"Alright then—" Gwen's eyes fell upon her one-time foe. "What's it going to be, Lulan Li?"
[https://imgur.com/xJGXTPm.jpg]
Lulan bolted upright, her body alive with renewal.
Her heart pulsed, transmuting her Earthen mana into motes of iron.
She regarded her surroundings, but there was no haze.
What she saw, she observed with crystal clarity!
The red mist… it was gone!
Doubtfully, she circulated her mana. From her reflection in the water, she could see that her mana-lit irises were twin garnets, but they were no longer a cloudy wine or a rusty red. As the volume of mana running through her body reached an apex, her eyes became two vermillion rubies, clarified and unblemished. Her everpresent headache, the oppressive feeling that something hot and rusty was hammering her brain, had all but disappeared.
Trembling, Lulan touched a hand to her left breast—the incision below her bosom, where the catalyst for the Heart of Iron was implanted, was gone. Furthermore, as she circulated her mana, her motes of Elemental Iron felt unimpeded and rarified, flowing through her conduits with complete ease. All those injuries she sustained, all those conduits cut off by her brute-forced training, sending the iron roughshod through her body, were thoroughly restored.
Even now, the healing energies in her body were continuing to repair hidden injuries.
"I…" Lulan looked around her, unsure what else to say. "Thank you."
Gwen handed her a single and a pair of shorts.
Her face aflame, Lulan slipped the borrowed shirt overhead, then got to her feet.
"We'll talk later," she informed the Void Sorceress, the clearness of her voice strange to her, the clarity of her thoughts utterly terrifying. "For now, use me as you see fit."
[https://imgur.com/xJGXTPm.jpg]
"Sweep!"
The sword that protruded from the space between the Planes was bright and razor-sharp, its edge honed by the monomolecular split between the Prime Material and the Elemental Plane of Earth. Its surface was speckled with impure ochre, but it was no longer rusty and misshapen.
With the sound of whispering steel slicing through paper, Lulan's sword penetrated the Shield of the Transmuter before she was ready to defend herself, then sliced off her legs at the knees.
The expression on the Transmuter's face was still one of disbelief as she fell to the floor. Her head landed with a thump, staring at her own severed feet before a torrent of blood turned the brackish water crimson.
The Fire Evoker let loose with several beams of Scorching Rays.
"Parry!" Lulan materialised a second blade that absorbed the blast.
"Lightning Bolt!" Gwen called down a bolt from the blue, sending the Mage's shield into a dazzling display of crackling energy.
She readied another Blast Bolt, but Lulan was faster than even that.
"Thrust!"
A second blade shot from the Elemental Plane of Earth and took the Fire Mage in the face, entirely unimpeded by its passage through the feeble Fire Shield the Mage erected.
"Onslaught!" Gwen allowed the lull in danger to provide her with the liberty of commanding her hasted void-spider to make quick work of the Carrion Crawlers, now isolated from healing and frostbitten by Kitty's spells.
The Air Mage turned and fled.
"Lighting Bolt!" Gwen let loose another spell. This time, it penetrated the Mage's Shielding, struck the water, and lit up the salty liquid.
"Impale!"
Like a flung javelin, a length of polished steel flew through the air and landed in the water with a heavy 'Thunk!' In the next moment, the water turned the colour of red wine.
Which one of these was the Crawler handler? Gwen searched the scene. There was no point to it now, though.
"Gwen, take us to the other side. There's three more." Lulan informed her quietly. "My Misty Step cannot teleport outside of the line of sight."
Glancing at the dead and dying around her with a grimace, Gwen wrapped an arm around Lulan's waist and initiated a Lighting based Dimension Door.
At the same time, Caliban informed her that it had torn through the first Crawler and was now moving on to the second.
The duo appeared on the other side of the tunnel complex with a blast that sent the Abjurer stumbling.
A dozen of the Slavers were here, though apart from three Mages, the rest looked to be NoMs carrying various apparatus' like netting made from a nylon-like substance and an assortment of melee implements.
"Shockwave!" Lulan initiated another offensive Earthen spell, striking the floor with a swing from her iron slab.
A rippling wave of upturning concrete spread throughout the room, sending the Mages off balance and flatfooted. These untrained magicians of the warrens had not undergone formal training, meaning their mana reserves were woefully low, and their prolonged casting quickly disrupted.
Lulan's irises flashed as her killing intent swept over the Slavers, sending a few of the NoMs to their knees.
"SWEEP!"
An enormous blade almost four meters in length and half a meter across swept through the crowd. The stunned NoMs and hapless Mages screamed and cried as the iron blade harvested their lives in one swoop, sending a spray of blood and guts in a crescent arc.
CLUNG—! When the Abjurer stopped Lulan's blade, the Sword Mage's eyes narrowed.
"Sweep!"
"Thrust!"
"Impale!"
"Sweep!"
"Please! Mercy—!"
"THRUST!"
There was a sound of splintering glass; then, a severed head rolled away. The Abjurer had dodged and deflected Lulan for almost an hour prior, and he had furthermore tanked Gwen and Kitty's bolts for the last five minutes. Unfortunately for him, there was only so much a Shield could take.
As if waking from a bad dream, the rest of the NoMs began to flee for their lives.
Lulan moved to intercept, but Gwen held Lulan's shoulder.
"I think that's enough." Gwen was a single corpse away from hurling up all the contents of her lunch at D-35.
No more purpose would be served by cutting down more NoMs. Though disturbed, Gwen grew glad that the sight of slaughter stifled the growing feeling of satisfaction.
What a fucking abattoir. Gwen thought. That's enough vengeance for today.
Lulan retreated beside her, her face serene, cold and calm.
Richard, Mayuree and Kitty emerged from the tunnel. They soon informed Gwen that the already wounded Crawlers were accounted for between Caliban, Ariel and Kitty, for sans their healer, the worms were easy targets in an enclosed tunnel.
As they arrived at the scene of Lulan's merciless retribution, her team members baulked at the steaming mass of corpses. Mayuree's face paled, while Kitty had a look of vindication; only Richard seemed to be energised by the total victory that Lulan and Gwen had wrought.
"There's one more who escaped—their leader," Lulan stated with finality. "Shall I give chase?"
The foursome regarded the Sword Mage strangely, as did Gwen. Who was this young woman, and why was she so collected? Where was the crazy-eyed Sword Mage?
"Shall we give chase?" Lulan further enquired.
"Of course we give chase!" Richard looked rejuvenated by a second wind. "I bet she's worth 20 CCs."
"Wait, let me try," Mayuree stopped them. "We're looking for that Middle-Easterner, right?"
"Yes," Gwen nodded. She had gotten a good look at the woman. "What are you going to do?"
Lulan used another Stone Shape to clear the blockaded tunnel. Employing her Greater Detect Magic, Mayuree caught motes of the healer's diffused mana still lingering on the Crawlers.
"I don't know if this is going to work," Mayuree stated hesitantly. "Too much mana floating around, from both the filter and our fight."
"Do your best, Mia," Gwen said.
"I always do my best." Mayuree grinned, turning to the task at hand. With a flick of the wrist, she summoned two obsidian tubes bent in the shape of bananas.
Dousing?! Gwen's mind was still reeling from the slaughter and took every opportunity to distract itself.
"Dousing!" Mayuree finished her chant.
Well, there it is. Gwen nodded approvingly.
To their surprise, the sticks shifted and tilted until they were pointed downwards and toward the northeast.
"This way!" Mayuree indicated.
The party began to move for one of the side tunnels.
"No need," Lulan interjected, surprising them all with her impromptu helpfulness. "You'll never catch her at this rate. I'll make us a shortcut. Stone Shape!"
Gwen observed that their restored ally appeared to have a near-perpetual supply of Stone Shapes. Was it because of her high Affinity? No. It was more probable that Lulan's peculiar elemental compatibility with Earth made her low and mid-tier spells extremely cost-effective.
As for their final prize, for now, she could only follow the direction of Mayuree's dousing, with Lulan creating an entirely new system of tunnels that cut diagonally from B7 to B12.
[https://imgur.com/xJGXTPm.jpg]
"Restoration!"
Expeditious Retreat, when used excessively, exacted a terrible burden on the body. Even after healing herself, Nephres felt enough exhaustion to be on the verge of falling to her knees.
She had raced the entire length to B12, running, crawling, sliding and leaping across collapsed sections and hidden crevasses to get to the service tunnel that would lead her back up above ground. She had a vehicle stashed at the exit warehouse, where once she made it into the city, Nephres Zalaam could safely disappear.
With great care, she checked her reflection.
After all, she was currently Invisible.
Potions of Invisibility were absurdly tricky to obtain—most for its controlled catalyst extracted from Pixie-winged Mayfly's scales. A single brew was almost 200 HDMs at the source, escalating in price from trader to black market until it was close to 800 HDMs.
Nephres didn't mind. Anything was better than falling into the hands of the PLA, especially Secretariat Choi.
Thereby, with a burst of fearful adrenaline, she made it past the final section of the crisscrossing tunnels and found herself twenty or so meters from the iron grate connected to a hidden exit. Before she took on the role of a procurer, her predecessor had built the escape tunnel into the exhaust port.
Therefore, Nephres was confident she was the only one who knew of its existence.
As she approached the tunnel, she became aware of a white-furred creature sitting on its haunches. It looked like a ferret, or perhaps an ermine, with beady eyes that stared straight at her.
Nephres readied a Shield of Faith as he approached.
There was something familiar about the ferret that caught her eye. A particular hint of ozone, perhaps, that lingered in the air, or mayhap the way its fur reminded her of a larger beast she had seen earlier.
The ferret sniffed the air with its nose.
Nephres froze mid-movement, scanning her surroundings.
The ferret made a throwing motion with its neck, tossing a white crystal toward her general direction before fleeing down the tunnel.
Nephres felt her stomach lurch as the crystal landed a few meters away.
BUNG!
A burst of light and sound struck the shield Nephres had prepared, momentarily negating her Invisibility as her barrier absorbed the sonic force and lumen brilliance of the blast. In the next moment, a torrent of water gushed from the tunnel, pooled around her semi-dome Shield, and unveiled her whereabouts.
"Jump!"
She leapt for the exit, but the water pinned her firmly against the floor. Nephres' heart tumbled like a boulder down a sheer cliff as her assailants emerged one after another.
The Water Mage, Richard Huang.
The Ice Mage, Kitty Liang.
The one named Mayuree.
Gwen Song emerged with her accursed ferret.
And finally, the Sword Mage, who had gone berserk earlier, followed behind the Void Sorceress with a grim expression.
Nephres gulped. Had she not seen such misery and agony under her mistress that would drive an average Mage insane, she would have fallen to her knees and despaired.
"Enough with the invisibility," Gwen Song pronounced in her general direction. "Come out."
Nephres bit her lower lip. It wasn't as though she could turn off a potion!
The Sword Mage behind Gwen huffed with displeasure, then motioned with her hands.
"Shield of Faith!" Nephres swore, frantically channelling her mana into the staple Cleric defensive incantation.
An iron blade, polished and gleaming, struck Nephres with the force of a small truck. Nephres was lifted from the air as her shield shattered, sending her skittering and sliding across the concrete pavement.
The impact and the damage were jarring enough to dispel her Invisibility.
"Why did you attack us? Who are you? Who do you work for?" Gwen Song fired off a rapid series of questions as Nephres was lifted into the air by a pocket of sentient water. "I suggest you tell us the truth because Richard here can be very persuasive."
Nephres knew then that her time had come.
It wasn't that she couldn't 'talk' to the student Mages. They had no desire to kill her, nor were they uncivil. The problem for Nephres was that she knew death was preferable to what her future held.
She could easily bullshit the students. Gwen Song had no idea who she was. Then what? Then she would be handed to the PLA—to Secretary Choi. Did Choi know who her employers were? Nephres wouldn't bet her Arcane Soul on it. Of course, they would torture her, that was without doubt; take liberties with her sweet body even. As a healer, she could withstand that—survive without lingering symptoms. Then what? Then the MSS would bring in the Mind-Mages, and those nasty Enchanters would comb through her drugged mind, sifting through the sand of her incoherent memories for gold.
What would she say?
Without a doubt, Geas or no, Nephres would reveal her true identity under delirium or fever.
But prod her brain deep enough, and she would speak.
She would tell them everything.
About Spectre.
About the Outsiders.
About Outland.
And her Mistress.
If someone had asked Nephres whether she would be a martyr for the Organisation one day, Nephres would have laughed in their faces.
When she woke up this morning, what had she portended for herself?
A fuller lunch would have helped. Nephres thought. A final meal of her favourite things. Maybe another round with Yi, fulfilling another appetite.
Her eyes moved from student to student until they landed on Gwen Song.
The girl was impatient with triumph, flanked by an obsidian serpent and a white marten.
Ah well, Nephres scoffed. Her mistress did say that salvation came in all shapes and sizes.