Titus screwed up his face in a sneer, holding his scepter/spear at the ready, “Come at me scu-”
Tilly didn't even let him finish the taunt as he launched an inflamed hatchet in Titus' direction, sprinting after the throw. Several days ago, Tilly would have never been about to pull together the coordination or burst of speed necessary to follow such a motion with an immediate sprint. But now his Dexterity was three times higher than anyone back on Earth and things that had only been possible in his imagination were finally becoming reality. Even with Tilly's comparative speed, Titus responded to his throw and follow-up attack with cold precision, showing years of experience and training. He neatly knocked aside the thrown weapon as Tilly approached his position, bringing around his other hatchet in a downward chop. He telegraphed the overhand strike heavily while simultaneously bringing around his empty left hand for an underhanded strike at the satyr's unguarded right side calling his weapon back to his hand at the very last moment.
His opponent stepped into the attack just as Tilly committed, parrying the high strike and shoulder-checking the lunging human with his characteristic sneer. The aristocrat had read Tilly easily and positioned his body so that the second strike would be completely off angle. The maneuver was completely unexpected, and more or less neutralized Tilly's surprise undercut as Titus entered into Tilly’s guard with impunity.
But the smile never left Tilly’s face as Titus chose to close the gap and grapple instead of gaining distance and time. That move probably kicked ass in the dueling ring, but Tilly was literally on fire, and that had very real consequences for this fight. Not that he could last much longer. Tilly could feel his Mana Overdrive coughing as it ran out of experience to convert, and he knew he had seconds before all of his Abilities ran dry. He needed this to be fast and dirty. So he snarled as he took the shoulder check in the chest and snaked his arms around the satyr instead of trying for another strike. He knew he was outclassed in this match-up, and he was already tired of the "dive in and catch everything on fire" fighting style he had developed, but those were the tools he had. And he would be damned if he didn't use them. The fire aura on Tilly was still going, and even with his far superior stats, Titus gasped in pain as flame started to impinge on his armor and exposed flesh.
The Quaestor knew his way around his weapon, and even with Tilly’s unconventional fighting, he had seamlessly brought around his short spear from its parry to a thrust at Tilly's side. Tilly desperately tried to lock down the thrusting arm, but only managed to deflect it a little so that it cut a deep furrow along his back.
“Get off me, you cretin!” Titus hissed in pain, trying to gain enough space and leverage to push the human away from his body. But Tilly clung to him like a roach on the side of a swaying garbage bag, not wanting to give up on his main tactic.
With a yell and a monumental heave, the satyr succeeded in shoving Tilly away, causing the joint in his right shoulder to pop out at the sudden non-standard tension put on it. To make matters worse, his new Ability finally sputtered out, no longer empowered by the experience gained from defeating surrounding enemies. He stood there gasping for breath with his left arm hanging loosely at his side, the head of his humerus painfully hanging by its tendon, out of socket.
That was it, his best effort, and this fucker was still standing. Superficial burns covered Titus' exposed skin and much of his clothing was charred and blackened. But the disdain he radiated was palpable and undiminished.
“Is that it, you vile hairless ape? You are nothing before me, the main army is reaching the Hub as we speak. All of this was just to pull out your elites while the rest of the traitors are slaughtered.” He spat, his eyes bright with manic fury.
“Traitors? I knew your worldview was insane, but that is on another level... And I don't think things are as peachy for your side as you think. People are still escaping, right now, as we speak. All of the lapins made it out, which I'm sure you hate. And... all the guys you brought are dead.” Tilly said, gesturing past the satyr's shoulder towards the now silent street. There, slowly limping towards them was Hiro, half helping, half carrying Linus, who had several arrows protruding out of him. The commander seemed to have aged decades during the fight, and his body looked like a shriveled husk.
Titus stepped smartly to the side of the street, taking the wall as cover on his left before looking back behind him. The huge naga swordsman was piled in a bloody heap farther down the road, and the sharpshooter was nowhere to be seen. Impressively, his face screwed up even tighter in defiance as he took in the two victorious combatants. Then he turned and spit on the ground in Tilly's direction. Tilly heard steps behind him and jumped to the side himself, looking back and finding a disheveled but unharmed Franklin walking through a maze of drowned bodies to join him in facing Titus.
"Seems you are all alone friend..." Franklin said, his easy-going manner contrasting oddly with the group of dead bodies he stepped between.
“No matter, I will end all of you!” Titus screamed, his voice going shrill as he looked back and forth at the two pairs of exhausted combatants. Then a great metallic snap echoed through the city, followed by another, and then another. All five survivors on the street looked up to see the divine serpent writhing furiously, straining against its bonds and breaking them one by one. The emperor still stood before him, his arms outstretched in arcane effort, but the silvery light shining from him had dimmed noticeably. Black-tinged blood was streaming from his eyes, mouth, and nose as he fought to keep the serpent detained. Every new snap of the chains caused his whole body to convulse. Tilly could only imagine the backlash a spell of that size would unleash on the body of the caster.
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The dying emperor, looked down then as if he could feel their eyes on him. But he was not looking at the group on the street, instead, he looked straight at the Hub,
“This is all I have for you old friend… A minute more, no longer.” He said, all the bluster gone from his face, replaced by a deep sadness tinged with regret.
“You see!" Titus screamed with glee, "It's over! Your pathetic attempts to delay the inevitable have failed, Nehebkau was always going to triumph, and my father will rule this city, just as he was meant to.” Titus screamed, turning his head back and forth, to keep both groups in his sight, his back firmly placed against the wall.
“Now, I will show you just how great the power of the coming age will be!” He cried, his voice almost breaking in its shrillness as he pulled his hands free from a pouch at his belt and brought something black and wriggling to his mouth.
Time slowed as Tilly broke forward in a run, trying to stop whatever was happening. To his left, he heard Franklin shout something as two high-pressured jets of water, looped around Tilly to smash Titus off balance right before Tilly got there to tackle the insane satyr, reaching to grab the hand and whatever it held. Even as Tilly brought him to the ground, the sound of insane laughter and then choking echoed out into the street.
It was too late. The Quaestor had brought his fist to his mouth before Tilly had knocked it away and crunched down on whatever nightmare item he had been holding in reserve. The moment he did, Tilly felt his own Corruption begin to wriggle excitedly in his side.
Titus continued to choke, a rictus grin stretching the muscles on his face into a grotesque caricature of a smile. Black tendrils of Corruption reached out of his mouth and nose as the skin covering his face started to dance and contort wildly. Whatever he had ingested was spreading faster than any Corruption Tilly had ever seen. This wasn't going to be handled with a few chops of the trusty hatchet...
Tilly jumped to his feet, backing away just as Hiro arrived with Linus. “Mr. Tillman, can you do anything about this,” Hiro grunted as he shifted Linus' weight. Hiro was barely standing in his own right, and many of his own cuts showed signs of infection as well.
Titus’ body began to convulse on the ground, and large appendages of his new occupant began to burst out of his skin as it took control of its new body.
Tilly glanced at his mana bar, and then at his fatally wounded friends, “I think this one is a big Nope for me. Let's get out of here before this thing finishes doing whatever it is doing.” He yelled over the sound of consecutive snapping chains raining from the sky above them.
“Understood.” Hiro snapped grimly. Franklin rushed over to his side and took Linus’ other arm and they started moving as Tilly backed away covering them with a hatchet at the ready. Tilly backed away another five or six feet until he was hopefully out of reach of the continuously growing writhing knot of tentacles and flesh that used to be Titus Marcellus.
Then he turned and ran, catching up to the three moving at a slow jog before him, before sliding to a stop and kneeling down next to an unconscious Amelia. She was breathing more normally now, but her abdomen was still a maze of burns and Corrupted veins, pierced through the center with a bright glowing light barely covered by burned skin.
Tilly winced as he pulled her up to a sitting position and then leaned his dislocated shoulder into her chest as he draped her leading arm over the opposite shoulder and stood up with some effort. He was stronger than he had ever been, but with his injury, it still wasn’t easy. Luckily this was far from Tilly’s first fireman-carry and soon he was moving fast enough to catch back up with the trio moving ahead of him down the street towards the Hub.
“EEEEEEYYYYYYY!” Screeched the thing behind them, Tilly didn't even bother to look back. He had seen more than enough monstrosities for today and was happy to remain in ignorance as long as possible.
The injured group moved as quickly as possible maintaining a stumbling jog as they fled the thing forming behind them. The divine snake shook free of the last few chains above them and the Hub came into full view. The crowds had been reduced by half, and Elder Kihei’s barrier pathways were working overtime to keep the escape orderly and efficient as each portion of the crowd pressed forward to make it to the portal before the Cults army broke through the thin line of refugee militia and remaining Bastions holding them off. The Honu casters that had been maintaining the barriers before Elder Kihei had taken over were now lending magical support, bombarding the deeper ranks of the Cult's regulars with water jets and well-placed empowered barriers.
Finally the group stumbled into the square to the sound of crashing behind them and a victorious hiss of fury from above them. Tilly never stopped moving as he swung around his shoulders, hearing the left one pop back into place as he looked behind to locate their pursuer.
Rolling down the street like some sort of giant ball of eldritch fun was the creature Titus had become.
Level 54 Bursting Defiler.
Then the sound of a gunshot-like snap of jaws exploded through the sky followed by a weak gasp,
“Now…” The broken voice of the emperor whispered at a volume that could now barely permeate the Hub. Tilly rocked back his shoulders and attempted to look up at a run. Between awkward encumbered steps he was able to spot the emperor, his lower half completely gone. His body now ended in a gory line at his waist, with the divine snake's head rearing back for another strike.
Tilly and his companions picked up the pace even as screams of despair echoed all around them as many saw their last chance of escape cut off. Tilly’s ribs billowed with effort as he approached a set of steps leading up the Portal platform. The three other approaches were all choked with a flowing mass of panicked bodies as thousands of people tried to push even faster toward the portal. The Portal itself remained stable even as the four ornately garbed casters at its corners withered away, using the last of their lives to maintain the magic.
Then all the barriers around the Hub collapsed and the rest of the crowds flooded the area, all control lost as the sound of crashing waves rose above the cacophony. Elder Kihei pulled his magic back in around him and started to glow a deep azure blue, floating up above the now unchecked crowds. Arcane symbols started to dance all around him, as he activated all the other platforms in the Hub at once and began calling something through.