Chapter 462: Hollow Shade Docks Part 3
Orange mana seeped out of Loh’s body and her Black Amber spell crumbled apart. She gasped in painful short breaths and looked up in a daze at the axlean looming over her. Though she had missed, his shirt had been torn away by her attack and his grey sleek chest was bare. A green gem sat embedded in his sternum, glowing faintly.
“What… What is that…?” Loh mumbled aghast.
“I promised I would never suffer such a humiliating loss again.” Grim smiled maliciously, a glint of insanity in his milky-white eyes. “So I made a deal with a very— unique individual.”
Grim reached down and wrapped his long fingers around her throat. She gasped weakly as he pulled her up by the neck and sneered in her face. “Tell me, how does it feel? The life fading from your body?”
“Y-You… tell… m-me…” she choked out.
Grim chuckled, “Still prideful even now, huh?” He squeezed her throat tighter, or rather, he tried to. His grip felt flimsy and he couldn’t seem to put strength into his arm. A cold chill began to seep up his trembling arm and across his body. He suddenly felt incredibly tired. “What the—?”
Loh smirked.
Grim’s eyes widened in horrid realization. Drain magic!
With sluggish movements, he panickedly reached for his dagger.
Loh pried his hand off her throat with ease and landed on her uninjured foot. She snatched the dagger away before he could react and slashed him across the chest. Grim shouted in pain and stumbled backwards.
Kassian Ashe reached his hand out towards Loh and his shadows answered. Inky tendrils shot out, wrapped around her waist, and pulled her back to him.
Grim watched helplessly as she slipped away. Fresh blood seeped out from the cut that stretched across his ribs and up to his collarbone. Worse, the dagger had scraped the green gem embedded in his sternum.
Kyriil’s Lux Orb stopped firing as the elf hurried over to his friend and began casting a healing spell over him. “Shit, she got you good.”
Anger boiled inside Grim and he roared in blood-thirsty rage. “Get off me!”
Kyriil jumped back and raised his hands in surrender. “Calm down, big guy,” he said wryly.
As the two spoke, the few remaining soldiers of Hollow Shade regrouped around their mages.
Kassian released Loh from his shadow tendrils and helped her to her feet, “Lady Noir, your leg, its—”
“I’m fine,” Loh said strainedly. “Now’s our chance, we have to kill them now.”
“Easier said than done!” Cornelius yelled from beside them. He was still busy holding down Grim’s giant elemental snakes with his flora spells.
“No, something’s different,” Loh noted quietly as she stared at Grim from across the cobblestone street.
One of the three elemental snakes cried out in a gurgled anguish and the hundreds of frost slivers spinning throughout its aquatic body melted apart and the whole body collapsed in a large pool of water.
“What’s happening?” Cornelius muttered in confusion.
“I damaged the gem on his body. I think it's somehow augmenting his powers,” Loh said.
“Then you’re right. Now’s our chance,” Kassian nodded in understanding.
Cornelius laughed audaciously. “Come, you vile vermin! Meet your end by the hand of House Rotrusk!”
Grim glared at the posturing dwarf and yanked the aquatic snakes away from the ensnaring vines. The elemental snakes rose to their full height of 40 paces and hissed angrily, reflecting their creator’s will. “Die, you fools.”
The sight of monstrous elemental magic sent chills down the soldiers, but Cornelius stepped forward, his expression bright and unafraid. “No! Death to you, you serpent bastard!”
At Cornelius’ word, colossal vines lashed out from the ground and attacked the snakes. The elemental creatures retaliated and bit at the vines, forming a storm of giant thrashing attacks above the dock square. Grim shouted angrily and poured more water mana into his spells, while Cornelius laughed wildly.
The dwarf’s laughter spread through his comrades and they felt courage surging within them. The soldiers raised their swords and prepared to charge at the axlean.
Kyriil’s Lux Orb turned towards them and swelled with light.
Loh poured the remaining of her orange mana above her hands and began to call forth a pillar of flames around her. Kassian called his shadows forth and formed a Shadow Aegis around his men.
A thunderous roar broke through the cacophony of the battle. Everyone turned to the western sky. A dark shadow flew above the setting sun. Its pale blue wings opened wide and it roared once more, the sound shaking the air itself.
“DRAGON!” a soldier shouted in terror.
“It cannot be…” Kassian muttered in disbelief.
The azure dragon swooped down over the docks. Her rib cage swelled and she opened her mouth wide. Chromatic mana swirled in her mouth and exploded in a stream of prismatic fire, burning across the fleeing ships. The ships’ hulls exploded in bursts of ash and cinder. The screams of the dying sailors cut off in an instant.
Loh’s face paled at the utter destruction. Even from this distance, she could feel the heat of the flames. There had been rumors, whispers of a dragon, but like so many others she hadn’t wanted to believe it.
“Our lord and his beast have arrived,” Grim smirked triumphantly.
“Aw, already,” Kyriil glanced at the dwarf mage and grinned mockingly.
Cornelius’ fearless smile melted away and his expression grew solemn. “...Lord Kassian, take Lady Loh and your men and run to the gates as quickly as you can.”
Loh frowned. “What? Cornelius, what are you—”
Cornelius turned to her and looked her in the eyes with a steel gaze. “You heard the Bulwark Commander’s words. Octavia will not wait for us.”
“She’s going to destroy the docks with the trebuchet fire,” Kassian muttered bitterly.
Loh shook her head, “No, she gave us 30 minutes to save as many as we could!”
“And that’s what I am doing,” Cornelius said in an oddly cold voice.
“Alone? Are you insane!?” Loh shouted.
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“We cannot stay here for a prolonged battle and when that dragon rears its head towards us, none of us will survive,” Cornelius answered.
Loh grabbed his shoulder, “Then let me stay! My leg is broken. I cannot run. I’d only slow you down.”
Cornelius broke into a sad smile. “I could never face Lord Noir without you. And what would Lady Tauri think of me if I ran now? A coward surely.”
“She’d think you're a fool for staying! Please, don’t do this!” Loh pleaded.
Cornelius slipped his boot and socks off and placed his bare feet directly on the dirt. He turned his back to Loh and looked up at the giant vines and snakes clashing above them. “... Tell Lady Tauri I was brave. Tell my House that I did not disappoint them. Oh, and tell Stryg that he was a pain in my ass, but it was my honor to teach him.”
Loh gnashed her teeth together. “Dammit, Cornelius, stop this, you insufferable bastard!”
“Lord Kassian, please, there is no time, let me go out in style,” Cornelius said quietly, though he refused to look back at them.
“As you wish, Lord Rotrusk,” Kassian bowed deeply. He turned to his soldiers and nodded. Two of his men grabbed Loh from behind and picked her up, one on each shoulder.
Loh bit her trembling lip and stared at the dwarf’s wide back. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“As if I’d let any of you escape! Not this time!” Grim shouted furiously.
The elemental snakes slithered around the vines and struck out at the retreating soldiers. Cornelius’ feet sank into the dirt and a wave of vibration echoed outwards. A wall of stone erupted from the cobblestone road and blocked the snakes.
Grim scowled at the green mage responsible, “You think you can stop me, dwarf!? Kyriil, now!”
Kyriil raised his hands and his Lux Orb rose high up into the air and fired beams of light directly at Loh.
Cornelius shifted his feet and clasped his hands together. A swarm of vines grew out from the buildings behind him and formed a canopy over Loh and the rest, covering their escape.
“You stupid little man,” Grim hissed. “When I’m done gutting you, I’ll chase after them and crush that drow bitch’s neck.”
Kyriil clicked his tongue and shook his head, “You’ve only bought them seconds, perhaps a minute, you know? Or did you really think you’d stop us both?”
“One genius dwarf versus a long-neck freak and an albino drow?” Cornelius stroked his well-oiled beard. The ground shook beneath his feet. He grinned once more, all the bravado and swagger back in his green eyes. “I’ll take my chances.”
~~~
The docks burned with prismatic fire. Pillars of black smoke rose from the ruined building across the shore. The wreckage of ships sunk into the Dire River in burning heaps of ash. No ship had managed to escape.
Zavinti, the Azure Serenity, or what was left of her, flew over the city docks, a harbinger of destruction. Her sapphire scales were dull and her once deep blue eyes were now glazed over, a consequence of her soul being ripped apart and stitched back together by her rider.
Caligo watched from above her back the destruction she wrought with pleased satisfaction. A skirmish near the edge of the docks caught his eye. With a simple thought through their altered one-way bond, he directed her down to the spot.
The dragon swooped down with ease. She beat her wings back and landed with a heavy thud. Caligo threw his avian-skull helmet over his head and pulled his black-feathered cloak snugly over his shoulders, before he slipped off Zavinti’s back.
He walked through the ruins of the square with a curious eye. The buildings and ground had been ripped asunder, yet it wasn’t his dragon’s doing.
At the center of the wreckage were the two remaining realm walkers from Marek’s circle. Kyriil’s armor was in tatters and Grim was bleeding from several minor cuts and a particularly large one across his chest. Both men seemed worse for wear, yet neither had caught Caligo’s attention and made him land.
A lone dwarf stood across from the two mages. His body was covered in blood and fresh scrapes, and his shoulders heaved as he panted. And yet green mana still flowed through his veins as a pair of vines arched around him, poised to strike.
Had this dwarf fought both high-master mages by himself? Caligo could sense the dwarf’s aura and Caligo knew that he was no arch-mage, and yet, there he stood.
Caligo looked over the dwarf’s body with a keen glance. His skin was flushed red, sweat soaked his clothes, and his short rapid breaths were all signs of mana-overheating. This young mage had gone far above his limits and at this rate, his heart would stop. Caligo was surprised he hadn’t already dropped dead, let alone collapsed in shock.
“Stop,” Caligo called out.
Grim and Kyriil turned to him, surprised. Neither had noticed his or Zavinti’s arrival.
How entrenched in their battle were they?
Grim and Kyriil both bowed at Caligo’s appearance, Grim especially deep, though it clearly pained him judging from his expression and his open wounds.
“My lord,” Grim began. “We’ve been—”
“Silence,” Caligo said casually. He glanced at the dwarf and inclined his head in recognition, “Hello, young man. Have you really been fighting both of these men by yourself? No one else?”
The dwarf stared at him warily and then at the dragon standing a few dozen paces behind him. “...And if I have?” he asked between breaths.
“Impressive,” Caligo said delightfully. “I am Crow, a pleasure to meet you. May I ask, what is your name?”
“...Cornelius… of the House of Rotrusk…”
“Aaah, one of Frost Rim’s most promising mages.” Caligo glanced at the wreckage around them, “It seems the stories about your genius prowess are true. Now, what is a gifted young man like you fighting in a place like this? Hollow Shade is not your home. Why risk your life for these people?”
“....A hero needs no reason to protect the weak,” he muttered tiredly.
“A hero, hm?” Caligo said with a light, thoughtful tone. “Your actions are admirable, truly, but if you continue at this rate you will die from mana-hyperthermia. Your organs will start failing, particularly your heart. This is no place for someone of such talent and skill to die.”
Cornelius stared at him suspiciously, “What are you saying…?”
“I see potential in you, young Rotrusk.” Caligo opened his arms wide, “I’d like to offer you a deal. I’ll spare your life, in fact, I will grant you a life far greater than this. Hollow Shade’s fate is sealed, but your legend is not; Power, wealth, fame, it could all be yours.”
Corenlius’ eyes widened in comprehension. “...And what would I have to do in return?” he asked dubiously.
“That’s just it. Nothing! Just stand back and relax. Swear your loyalty to me and I’ll take care of the rest. And someday, when you’re ready, all I ask for is a small favor.”
Cornelius glanced at his trembling fingers. The vines around him lowered and sank back into the ground. “You’d spare me…?”
“I’d do you one better. I’d heal you. Your wounds would be gone just like that!” he snapped his fingers.
Cornelius swallowed hard. “One small favor?”
“Only one, and nothing dreadful mind you,” he said sincerely.
Cornelius nodded slowly. “Okay,” he whispered.
Caligo clapped his hands together, “Excellent! I knew a genius like you would make the smart choice.” He turned to Grim and Kyriil, “Why don’t you two welcome your newest companion—”
Cornelius slammed his foot into the ground the moment Caligo looked away. Two giant slabs of rock rose from each side of Caligo and slammed together, flattening him like a bug. Cornelius narrowed his eyes, focused, and forced the slabs closer together until not even a blade could slip through.
Kyriil and Grim jumped at the sudden attack, yet neither moved to retaliate. Cornelius stared at them warily when he heard the sound of sand pouring. He slowly turned back to the slabs and stared in silent confusion.
Cracks began to form all around the stone slabs, sand gushing out from each fracture. The slabs abruptly gave away and fell apart, revealing an unscathed Caligo.
The god brushed a bit of sand off his shoulders. “I take it you’ve declined my offer.”
“Only an ignorant fool would have accepted,” Cornelius hissed. “I know what you are. My people tell stories of the Monster in the Dark and we know better than to trust what you have to offer!”
Caligo sighed. “You clearly don’t know enough it seems.”
Cornelius thrust his hand out and thorny vines shot out from the ground and wrapped around Caligo, only to wither and die.
“Oh, Cornelius, you may be a powerful Green mage, but I am the ruler of the Deep Earth. Your struggle is pointless,” Caligo said and began to walk over to him.
The dwarf clenched his teeth and threw shards of stone and thorny vines at the Monster to no effect. Cornelius’ hands began to shake uncontrollably and he collapsed, clutching at his chest. His heart spasmed in agony and his insides burned.
“For what it’s worth, I only wanted to help.” Caligo stood above the dwarf and shook his head, “What a terrible choice you’ve made.”
“It was my choice… to make.” Cornelius tried to smile defiantly through the pain, but his lips slowly went lax and the light of his eyes faded.
Caligo knelt and closed the dwarf’s eyes one last time. “You fought well, Cornelius Rotrusk. You deserved better than these people. Rest now.”
Zavinti sauntered over and lowered her neck for him to climb up. Caligo stood up and clambered up the dragon’s back.
“My lord? Where are you going?” Grim asked politely.
Caligo looked towards Hollow Shade in the distance. “Some rats have escaped the docks on foot. They will not reach the wall.”