Kanieta was three steps behind Green, but they were such long steps. It might as well have been a mile away for all the good it did her.
When Green slipped under and past Franklin and then the Crescent Moon Chieftain, it had taken her completely by surprise. She assumed he would help, his life was in danger as much as theirs, and he was the one who said Derg was controlling the golems.
She just didn't expect him to run right into the center of a mass of enemies like a fucking idiot. She thought he was smarter than a badger. Kanieta knew it was a low standard, but… This is what I get for putting too much faith in him.
His quick removal of one of the chieftains and slipping past the second ring only slightly razed her opinion of him from the depths that it had fallen to. After all, she might not like Derg, but she respected his skill in battle.
Green was not a paragon of martial strength for the Olimpians. He might have some tricks, but tricks didn't matter when a hand was clamped around your throat.
As she became certain of Green's death, Derg's chest was ripped open, revealing a massive red crystal. Before she could get a clear view, his body exploded into chunks of flesh. What the… Forcing her mind away from what just happened, she kept moving.
But even as she moved, Green lurched to a stop and started swaying in place without any apparent concern for what was around him. He couldn't be a better target if he hung a brightly colored sign around his neck.
And she was three steps back, with only enough mana to launch a few minor spells.
It was only a matter of minutes since the first golem fell, but she had used dozens of spells during that time, and even with the support of the world's energy, draining her mana pool took a toll.
Even as a cold certainty of Green's death settled into her mind, she saw the two wolfkins before her stumble the instant after Derg's body exploded. A moment later, she felt a ripple running through the ambient mana.
They had their mana linked? Kanieta thought in surprise. Makes sense, but now they're mine.
A vengeful smile spread over Kanieta's face. It was a well know weakness of linking mana. Should the core of the network be broken for any reason, the backlash will momentarily incapacitate the links. But the power gained as they pull mana from those nearby was usually well worth the risk.
After all, even if a Kin has a small mana pool that they have never used, it will still regenerate at near, and sometimes faster, than the mages themselves. It was a massive advantage in a protracted battle because only the lower circle spells could even be cast by the power a mage held within their pool. Casting higher circle spells will take a steady stream of energy for a long time for the magic to come to completion. Not to mention that being linked allowed a mage to quickly and easily buff a regular warrior beyond what they were typically capable of.
Surging forward, Kanieta let her mana boil out of her arms. Instead of allowing the mana to go, she grabbed hold and formed it into oversized Shadow Claws. The channeled spell was only as strong as her willpower, but it would also last as long as she could hold it in place.
As she reached the closest wolfkin, she swung her right arm low and knocked out his leg while slicing deeply into his calf. She continued swinging the leg up, knocking the young chieftain off balance.
Planting her left foot, Kanieta retracted her claws from his leg as she pivoted around. Gathering all the force she could muster, she brought down her left hand's Shadow Claws onto the warrior's throat.
Kanieta felt flesh and cartilage give way until she reached the spine. Curling her fingers as she tore out her hand, she made a wide gaping gash out of the wound and left the kin to die, choking on his blood as she turned away.
Even before she was looking toward the other kin, Kanieta was moving. She didn't have much time before the other wolfkin recove—
Kanieta's heart skipped a beat when she saw her next target. He wasn't where she last saw him. Apparently, this one wasn't as affected by the loss of the link, and in the half second it took her to kill the first, he had recovered and was moving on Green again with a look of hatred.
Though he was slowed, his arm was already pulled back, glowing blue from the enhancement spell he was channeling.
Dumping most of her mana into her movement focus, even pulling the mana from one of her Shadow Claws, Kanieta streaking forward as she slipped through the shadows, arm stretched out.
The next thing she knew, her shoulder bucked as she felt more than heard a thump, and her movement was wrenched to a stop, "Ahh!" Kanieta yipped in pain as it felt like her arm had smashed through a stone wall.
Slowly, Kanieta looked up, finding the warrior whose chest her arm was buried up to her bicep within. The wolfkin was already looking to the side at her, his face twisted in pain. In a last show of defiance, he barred his teeth at her, but Kanieta knew she was piercing his heart and he was already dead. Snarling right back at him, she brought up her left arm to shove him off her, releasing a flood of blood onto her feet.
With a wet squelch, the body crumpled to the ground. There were some twitches in his arm and head as if he was trying to get up and fight, but whatever strength was hiding within his body quickly left with his lifeblood.
Right arm hanging limply at her side, Kanieta emptied her core again and pushed her mana into her left arm, making Shadow Claws again.
But as she turned, she quickly dropped the mana manipulation.
On every side, stone badgers were tearing into what was left of the defenders. Most of whom were already in multiple pieces and were having their bodies smashed into a crimson pulp as the badgers rolled around in the gore.
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Scouring the platform, Kaneita frantically searched for Green, as he was no longer where she last saw him. Seconds passed as she continued to find nothing. Her mind was caught up in the fact that he should be practically at her feet and couldn't move past it. I might be more tired than I think.
With a flash of realization, Kanieta knew that the wolfkin must have released his mana as she struck him, forming a shockwave that threw Green around like a ragdoll.
Her breathing hitched as her eyes settled on his body. She should have noticed it sooner. He was one of the few bodies still whole. Kanieta's only excuse was her mind was clouded by fatigue and pain. It also didn't help that Green was on the edge of the platform, nowhere near where she last saw him.
Ignoring the defiling around her, Kanieta moved to rush over to Green.
Before she could take more than a step, wet splats filled the room, and she felt something hit her cheek. She reached up to wipe the mess from her face but froze as she looked into the chamber.
Golems were falling.
It was like watching oversized red raindrops. And when they hit, pieces of blood and flesh would fly out around them, like rain hitting a lake.
At first, it was only a couple, then a momentary shadow fell over the room, and within seconds, so many golems were falling to the ground that Kanieta couldn't see the chamber walls. The sound was so loud that it nearly swallowed up the screams of those they were falling on, but there weren't as many screams as Kanieta would think.
When they finally stopped falling, lasting a whole four seconds, Kanieta still couldn't see the edge of the chamber. The difference this time was she half thought she was in the stomach of some massive beast because the chamber walls were coated in a layer of throbbing flesh.
Then the light filling the camber started to slip away, and the sun moved beyond its zenith.
But the light had shown more than enough. For out in the sea of flesh filling the room, the light revealed sections shivering as the meat began pulling itself together.
Breaking herself out of her trance, Kanieta stumbled forward, grabbed hold of Greens armor, then pulled him back to the center of the platform.
"Form up, laddies and laddets!" Shouted Barlot, the badger Faction Leader. "It's time we got serious."
When he said the last part, the badgers, who were somewhere between shedding their stone armor to cover their bodies with the blood of the Crescent Moon Faction and coving their stone armor in blood, looked up.
Their faces set into hard lines, and their stone armor either reformed around them, covering all but their heads, or retreated until their heads were showing.
"Good," Remarked the Blood Claw Faction Leader, "We are holding this platform. Whoever falls first will be out of contention for our next battlefield cleanup." The badgers, too a one, recoiled back like their leader had just pronounced he would kill the families of them all while they watched helplessly.
Some of the badgers were cowering with their stone paws over their heads or begging for forgiveness like they had angered a god. …What?
Kanieta's mind broke a little at the thoughts and images that started flowing through it at the comment, and she promptly started ignoring the rest of the old badger’s ‘encouragement speech.' Sane mortal minds were not meant to hear what he spoke of.
Like most of the People, Kanieta practiced the healthy custom of learning and involving herself as little as possible with the badgers. Legends were just fine with her, thank you very much.
Cleaning up a battle was a necessary task, but one few enjoyed or volunteered for. There's only one definition for battlefield cleanup, right? Kanieta thought, questioning her education. Yeah, it has to be the same thing… vigorously shaking her head, Kaneita expelled the stories she knew of why the badgers thought battlefield cleanup was such a welcome task and looked down at Green, inspecting him.
His head had a knot that was trying its best to grow as big as Kanieta's fist, and some scrapes were covering his body, but otherwise, he was fine. Nothing that would be serious enough to kill within the next few minutes.
Which was all any of them could ask for, as things were looking grim. Healers should be able to help anyone who lived through this. But the squelching sounds and how the ground seemed to be moving pointed to that not being a likely outcome.
"Is he alive?" The sudden voice to her side caused Kanieta to let out a yelp and hope spin around, arms raising to throw out a punch. "Little jumpy?" Lurta asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ahh," Kanieta sighed, chagrined at her reaction and moving her hand to scratch the side of her head. "It's been a long day."
"Yes, it has," Lurta said agreeably, but Kanieta could hear the amusement in her voice, "and it's not going to end anytime soon."
Looking around, Kanieta was surprised by the number of people trailing behind Lurta. It had to be most of those who were around the door. She even saw some rats from the Dark Haven Faction within those gathered, their hands burning with fire to match the one in their eyes. Seeing one fight was rare, as they weren't known for their fighting abilities but their smith work.
Kanieta thought she would be surprised, but she wasn't. When the badgers' called Derg and his followers betrayers, releasing their magic, she was filled with an overwhelming need. A need to remove a blight feeding upon their people. It was her duty to act, so she did.
It seemed it had a similar effect on everyone else touched by the wave to some degree.
Which turned out to be a good thing, as it saved the lives of many who would be smashed by the falling golems.
Few were paying attention to her, and those only gave her a glancing look before turning away. The rest of the Chieftains and Faction Leaders were now taking up positions behind the badgers, looking into the room's darkness with wary expressions bordering on fear. But every one of them was ready to fight.
Taking another moment to check over Green and seeing that nothing had changed, Kanieta took a deep breath and got to her feet.
It only took her a second to find Franklin, as while all the stone badgers were similar, there were distinct differences if one took the time to notice. Franklin's stone badger had particularly sharp fur, almost like mini spears.
Before she could shuffle into place behind Franklin, a tendril lashed out of the darkness, reaching for the badger. With a snap of his jaws, the flesh appendage was severed, but it was only the first.
Soon dozens, then hundreds of tendrils were reaching for the badgers in every direction.
Franklin's front legs were wrapped in tendrils until the stone was no longer visible. His body dropped with a crack as Franklin hunkered down, and the tendrils couldn't move him in the slightest.
Gathering what mana she had recovered, Kanieta lashed out with a Shadow Blade, slicing through enough of the tendrils to free one of his arms, allowing Chieftain Franklin to lash out with his claws to cut the rest of the tendrils.
Time passed as they resisted the flood of flesh, and Kaneita saw spell after spell cast. Some ripped the water from the blood golems, leaving husks, and others burned them to ash. Stone spears flew out whenever a crystal was spotted, shattering it and providing some level of relief for the front line for a moment.
The attacks of the golems weren't coordinated, but there was never an end. Tendrils were always coming out of the darkness, and the creeping flesh on the ground needed to be burned back.
Kanieta had passed into a haze at some point as she cast one spell after another the moment she gathered enough mana. She felt hollowed out like a pumpkin with all its guts ripped out, and she could hardly keep herself standing.
And even when she felt and saw the room shake and a wave of cleansing fire sweep around the chamber, all she did was slightly turn her head, seeing her warriors pouring in through the broken wall.
Finally, Kanieta thought, before sinking to the ground, I'm taking a nap.