Gi looked around at all of his Elites and even Elizabeth. By all rights, ascending the mountain was stupid, but as long as they did it from the inside, it might be the least stupid thing they could do since it forced their enemies into a funnel. If the mountain decided to give way, would they rather be inside of it or on top of it?
No one seemed to have any better ideas, but each of them still carried the weight of that quake in their spirit. Even now, Gi's Soul seemed to quiver sympathetically with thousands of aftershocks from the blast. Something was happening and from the concern still smeared across Elizabeth's dull face, he was confident that she could feel it even more acutely than he could.
Gi turned to Poe. "Tell Kumo we're ascending and ask her if she's got us a path."
The normally silly dragonfly focused inward as he had a conversation with Kumo and after a minute that still seemed to hang in a silent eternity, Poe responded. "Her hunters mapped about halfway up. The only real path is the main one that circles around the inner shaft."
"Okay, anyone with enough Soul Orbs go ahead and upgrade your Vitality some more. We're going to have to succeed if we want to get out of here."
A handful of Otters who hadn't gotten the opportunity during the Spiked Eagles' assault ran over to the Crystal and slapped their paws against it as they leveled up. Gi's eyes fell on Samba.
His Templar Elite looked haggard. His breath came in heavy gasps and it seemed like it was all he could do to keep on his feet. He'd doffed his mostly destroyed robe at some point, but his fur had dried bloody streaks to match the lines of silver from his Quicksilver Body.
Samba must have caught him staring because he gave him a weary smile. "Don't worry too much, Boss. I'll keep up."
The lengths Samba was going to protect the clan pulled at Gi's Heart. Something about it was chipping at his subconscious, but with the danger and the quakes in his Soul, he couldn't pin down what it was. It hung tantalizingly out of reach.
"Just stay alive, okay?" Gi wasn't sure how he'd feel if Samba died and that brought back painful thoughts of Richard leaving his family when he died. He absolutely smothered those thoughts. They weren't helpful right now.
After several minutes of silence, the Spiked Eagles started to shriek and squawk again. Booms and crashes started to sound from the ceiling as they must have decided to bury the clan in this chamber. Even if they'd wanted to stay in here, that decision had been pulled from them.
"To the exit!" Gi yelled and they all sprinted towards the East exit as debris started to fall from overhead. They burst out of the Crystal chamber and back into a side tunnel off of the main column and Kumo's Hunters were already fighting ahead to clear them a path. "Charge in!"
The Clan sprinted around the corner to see the Hunters dodging the quick dives of the Adolescents and then using their [Breath Weapon] and maces to finish them off once they were exposed. The ground had grown slick with water and gravel from the fight and beyond them the main column loomed and thousands of beating stone wings echoed through the open space. Thankfully, most of the enemies there were Adolescents as it seemed that the bulk of the Progenitor's Swarm was collapsing their Encampment Crystal room.
Which gave Gi an idea.
"Elizabeth, I'm about to blow a hole through their forces. See if you can trap the Progenitor's Swarm in its side tunnel."
Now focused on survival instead of hampering Gi's efforts, she didn't even complain instead moving up to the brink to charge in after his attack. At the entrance to the tunnel, Kumo was using her [Quick Steps] and flashes of her [Commander] summon to keep the majority of the enemy forces at bay, but her [Commander] skill wasn't a Domain so her Aether reserves were flagging heavily in the fight. She was giving it her all to get them an opening. Despite the situation, Gi smiled.
"Kumo, down!"
Without even looking back, she crashed into an Adolescent Spiked Eagle and used it to rocket herself back to the ground. As she did, Gi charged up an oversized [Divine Ire] - seven times.
Light bathed the entire inner column like the sun had risen inside the mountain. Shards of light exploded out into the massive column, blowing Spiked Eagles apart at the center of the blast and sending those further away careening into their other clanmates in the crowded space.
All the blue moss in the area had been burned out, leaving only the light from top of the mountain to drift down inside which left many of the areas cast in shadow. Just as Kumo retreated to one of these areas to catch her breath, Elizabeth darted into the now gaping hole in the sky.
The clan had fallen back to avoid getting caught up in Gi's blast, but they had been expecting it so managed to pour into the main column much faster than the Eagles expected. By the time the Adolescents started to dive on them, the Inquisitors were already firing upwards. The main bulk of the clan started moving up the corkscrew like ramp that lead to the top with the Hunters and Templars protecting the others from falling bodies.
Gi had joined Elizabeth where a pocket of the Progenitor's Swarm was. Like a force of nature, he crashed into the Swarmlings keeping them away from the side tunnel opening even as Elizabeth encased it in ice. It seemed the Progenitor had finally realized that the Underbridge Clan was no longer in the Crystal chamber as hundreds of Eagles that had been attacking the walls raced back to prevent Gi and Elizabeth from blocking them in.
It was too late though.
One of the Swarmlings froze into the block of ice that Elizabeth had used to stop up the side tunnel and then the two of them crushed the few remaining outside before joining the ascent upward.
Like an angry dragon that spit light and water, the clan rose through the massive column, scaling its inside at a dead sprint. The occasional otter fell off the side from a stray spike of stone or one of the Spiked Eagles that managed to make it through their overwhelming offense, but most of them bulled right through.
Samba was barely able to keep up and had to drop to all fours to even be able to make the climb. From visible light that surrounded many of the clan, he was burning himself out to try and keep his Domain overloaded with Aether.
Just as they reached the halfway point and the barest pinprick of the blue light of the Encampment Crystal at its peak was visible, the earth shook again.
Otters grabbed at their clanmates to prevent them falling off the edge while those closest the walls lay flat against the to keep themselves from falling. Being in the air, the Spiked Eagles were less affected and they took the opening of the quake to send a salvo of spiked stone towards the downed Otters.
Forcing his Aether to speed up, he fired out the quickest [Divine Ire] that he could to brunt the effects of their combined attack, but only maybe half of the projectiles were destroyed. With a roar, light blazed around Samba as his Domain was pushed to its fullest and the spikes crashed against his shields of light. Samba shook almost as if he'd taken the attacks directly and then collapsed.
The quake finally stopped, but with it, the cracking of ice below them could be heard. The Progenitor was loose.
"RUN!" Gi yelled at his clan as he turned to face the sudden influx of the Progenitor as an endless Swarm poured out of the blocked side tunnel like angry wasps intent on his destruction. The difference this time was that Gi had the height advantage.
Waves of light poured off of Gi as he held nothing back. Both he and his summons alternated between [Divine Ire] at full blast and [Endless Torrent] creating a veritable wall that the enemy Progenitor had to force its way through. Elizabeth couldn't fly, but she stood at the edge of the ramp and flung out her tiny crystalline snowflakes that danced around Gi's Light attacks and empowered his Water ones as they let loose an immense blast.
The Swarmlings fell by the hundreds. Their cracked and destroyed bodies crashed into the side of the chamber and then fell to the ground below, but it wasn't enough to finish the Progenitor off. Instead, the remaining few hundred recombined to have enough defense to burst through Gi's attacks.
A Spiked Eagle the size of the one he'd seen at the Assembly now flew in front of him. Its stone was singed and crumbling all over its body, but it wasn't as weak as Gi hoped.
This is my mountain. This is my clan.
"For now," Gi managed through panting breaths, but it didn't appear that the Spiked Eagle Progenitor had any more words for him. With a cry, the Progenitor shot towards him, somehow diving at an insane speed even though it was horizontal.
Gi spun using his Core to turn the slight hit into a dodge and then sent a burst of [Divine Ire] out. The Progenitor broke apart into its swarm form to dodge and then shot out its own barrage of projectiles from all of its Swarmlings.
Gi couldn't dodge all of them so a golden otter flickered into being before it was consumed by the attacks. He had to tank the rest of the damage on his left slide that was once again slick with blood. His movements were too slow to fight the Progenitor alone even after all the damage they'd done to him.
Despite her treacherous behavior, he was glad he'd brought Elizabeth.
Two ice blades cut a line through the Swarmlings, forcing the Progenitor to reform back into his larger form. In an impressive feat of aerial agility, the Progenitor spun in a diagonal flip and sent a wing slamming into Elizabeth's body that sent her crashing into the wall.
The opening had given Gi enough time to recover and he closed in on the flying Progenitor. Golden Otters appeared beside him and five paws cracked against stone in tandem. The Spiked Eagle spun and lashed out with a claw in a swift kick that Gi was able to block with an [Archbishop] that turned to Aether, but not before giving Gi an opportunity to perform a palm strike with a [Divine Ire] behind it.
The Progenitor rolled with the blow, flipping through the air and using it gain some distance from Gi's [Fighting Style], but Elizabeth cut off its retreat with two crystalline snowflakes from behind. Ice caked along its stone wings, but their existing weight made its effect negligible. The impact from the type disparity was much more effective.
It would be close with the just the two of them, but they could manage it.
Not willing to give up, the Spiked Eagle Progenitor split into two and sent one half of itself towards Gi and another towards Elizabeth.
Gi flew up. Now that the clan had ascended further, he had more room to climb higher and the Progenitor followed right after. Gi sent a [Divine Ire] shooting towards its face, but again it broke apart to dodge. This time though, it was just a little bit too slow to avoid any damage and a few Swarmlings fell towards the bottom of the mountain's interior far below.
It must have been pushing its Skill to the limit to be able to have two completely independent versions of itself as that just wasn't its nature. As a Progenitor that had to command his own summons, the limitations were obvious to him. He'd make sure to exploit them.
Gi instantly reversed into a dive and the Progenitor couldn't keep up with the quick change. Gi became chaos. His summons appeared all around the monster to strike a blow and then float away. Others simply flew around him in a circle while the other two stayed with him to occasionally activate the full might of (Five Hands Firefly).
Pieces of the Progenitor or Swarmlings fell all around as Gi took the final initiative. His Aether stores were paying for it, but if he could kill the Progenitor, this battle would be over.
In a desperate attempt, the Progenitor did another flip in the air, firing out stone spikes as he did and managed to disperse four of Gi's summons, but his flip with a Skill while another part of him still fought Elizabeth nearby made him far too slow.
Gi shot forward, turning to light to cut the distance even shorter and grabbed the Eagle by its skull. Caught offguard, it could do nothing as Gi slammed its head into the side of the mountain. Stunned, it slowly started to break apart into its swarmlings, but Gi adjusted his [Divine Ire] in a way that he hadn't used in a long time.
A shotgun like blast caught a dozen of the swarmlings and they crumbled to dust, leaving only a few remaining after their fight that were easily picked off by Gi's two remaining summons. On her side, Elizabeth had done quite a bit of damage to the Progenitor as well, but instead of fighting to the death, it flew back and wobbled in the air in front of them.
Let the rest of my clan go. You've already won.
With his victory finally in hand, a strange cold sensation sank into his body. He'd won. He was stronger than Richard. He'd done it on his own without Danna. He was his own powerful monster. He was... better.
And it felt good. The Progenitor who'd thought to rule over him simply because of his station now flew before him, weak and begging for mercy.
That same insistence he'd felt early picked at his soul, but its insistence died as a sneer spread across Gi's face for the weakling before him. "No."
The Progenitor's face distorted in outrage and anger, but its last attack was cut short by a casual blast of [Divine Ire] that destroyed half of the Progenitor and used up the last of its energy. It broke apart into smaller pieces of itself that fell down the long column and cracked against the ground.
With the final one, Gi got a welcome notification.
Spiked Eagle Progenitor defeated!
100 Soul Orbs received. Current Soul Orbs: 1645.
Leader of an Encampment defeated!