Thunder and Lightning crashed through an unrelenting Tempest. All the while a Cavern roared out and tried to strike down the Flame and Void.
Talon was using everything he had to battle against the Lightning Hunter that was flying through his maelstrom with only a little bit of difficulty. A few blows here and there were all that Talon could do at range. Ezekiel could tell when Talon realized this, because the wind immediately cut out before surrounding the man in a twisting gray cloud.
The gray and violet figures became nothing more than blurs as two of the fastest elements did battle in the skies. Weapons impacted each other repeatedly, and the crack of thunder was mixed with the clang of steel.
The rending cry of warped metal was also heard. Daggers dropped from the air. Talon was forced to reveal a longer pair of short swords that glowed with enchantment runes. However, it was clear that these swords held no ability beyond being strong enough to not be destroyed in a single clash.
Below them, Ezekiel and Riley were doing their best to survive. As the ground beneath their feet tried to swallow them whole.
“Move!” Ezekiel yelled as the Cavern Hunter continued to strike at Ezekiel and Riley. “Don’t stop moving and keep your feet off the ground as best you can!”
Riley’s feet lit up in blue fire as she did her best to run away. Keeping her path sporadic as she moved. There were several instances where the ground seemed to reach up and attempt to grab her legs. But the earth and stone ignited and began to melt. Slowing it down due to Riley’s interference of the Cavern cultists’ control.
For Ezekiel’s part, he was hopping around while preventing his feet from touching the ground for more than a moment with each step. His speed kept him from getting caught by the cultist’s spell.
But Ezekiel knew that the cultist wouldn’t keep this up much longer. Such environmental control was far too expensive for him to continue.
The Cavern cultist let out another roar before slamming into the ground. A ripple of earth spread out. Sending Riley flying bonelessly into the air. Ezekiel nearly got caught but managed to jump over it.
“Worthless insects!” The cultist screamed. “I will crush you into paste!”
A hammer was withdrawn and thrown directly at Riley. The force behind it could’ve shattered a small hillside with ease. Ezekiel knew that if Riley couldn’t dodge there’d be no saving her. But a gust of wind blew it off course. It crashed into the ground and created a crater several meters wide. Shattering the remains of the wall as it tumbled.
Rather than follow up with his attack on Riley, the cultist chased after the hammer. All the while Riley ran to Ezekiel. The flames beneath her feet grew stronger, jettisoning her forward from the force. She slammed into Ezekiel with a cry, but he was able to catch her with only a little bit of strain.
“Can you still cast spells?” Ezekiel maneuvered himself in front of Riley as the cultist turned back toward them. “If you’re out of mana, you need to run!”
He knew that Riley had used a lot of mana to survive up till this point. Her blue flames were still expensive, even with the reduced cost thanks to Legendary mana. Riley moved to get out of there. Backing away from Ezekiel as fast as she could. But she didn’t make it more than two steps away.
The ground broke beneath the cultist as he launched himself at Ezekiel. Too fast for him to react, and even if he could, dodging would leave Riley to die. Shine was raised in defense, but Ezekiel knew that, even with his and Shine’s mana reinforcing the blade, the cracks from the Tempest cultist from before had weakened them. This strike would most certainly see Shine’s blade be broken.
‘I’m sorry.’ Ezekiel tensed up as he focused all the mana he had to strengthen his body. He felt Shine do the same, and the opalescent blade glittered from the mana inside of it. Several Void panes formed barriers as well.
But it was not enough, and the heavy hammer slammed into Shine, crushing the barriers in its way as the cultist used his full force to bring Ezekiel down.
The sound of shattering glass nearly made Ezekiel’s ears bleed. Behind him, he realized that Riley had been thrown away thanks to the shockwave that had been made. But that didn’t matter at the moment, as he heard Shine screaming in his mind from having their entire body destroyed.
The fact that Shine’s hilt and a large portion of the lower part of the blade was undamaged and still opal, while the rest faded to gray steel, was the only indication that Shine hadn’t simply faded away. That, and so long as Ezekiel was still alive, Shine had an anchor for their soul to hold onto for a time. Swapping bodies was something Shine had long since learned to do, after all.
But it was an instant after hearing Shine scream that Ezekiel found himself nearly crying out in pain as well. The hammer of the cultist slammed into him with full force.
Bones shattered, and organs were nearly liquified. Skin tore, and Ezekiel found himself unable to scream as blood gurgled up his throat. The massive hammer slammed him into the ground, and Ezekiel nearly blacked out.
Staring up at the cultist, however, Ezekiel managed to hold on. Taking great joy at witnessing the cultist coughing up blood as well. A massive wooden arrow pierced his chest from behind. Sticking out his chest, and with roots digging through the man’s body.
More blood spewed from the cultist as he fell over. He tried to pull the arrow from his torso. But another body fell from the sky. Clad in green armor as the rebel Life Hunter landed directly on the arrow.
An infusion of mana from the rebel caused the arrow to grow out of control. It ripped the cultist apart from the inside out.
A moment later, a ball of blue fire landed on the cultist, and orange-brown motes of light floated into the sky. Riley’s face then filled Ezekiel’s vision. She was bleeding from a head wound, and Celia was gripping her shoulder for stability. There were in the young woman’s eyes.
Behind her, the rebel spared a glance at the sky. Talon and the Lightning cultist were still fighting. But it seemed like there was less lightning being thrown around at this point.
Ezekiel was barely holding on, but his toughness meant that he wouldn’t die quickly.
“Help him!” Riley screamed, and the rebel let out a sigh and turned towards Ezekiel. Even though she was covered in green Spirit armor, Ezekiel could tell that the woman was shocked. It seems the rebel thought Ezekiel was dead.
The woman rushed over to Ezekiel. The fight between Talon and the Lightning cultist pushed to the side. Ezekiel saw and felt her green hands flood his body with vitality, and he coughed up more blood.
“By the Ancients... How are you still alive!?” The Life Hunter focused everything she had on doing what she could to heal Ezekiel’s injuries.
He was far worse off than the last time he fought a Legendary. The damage was also far different as well. But the Life Hunter made quick work of most of his internal wounds. His bleeding wasn’t as bad, and most of his blood was retained, if not in the right spots internally.
“This will feel weird, but I’m not wasting mana just to make you more comfortable.” Green hands moved across Ezekiel’s body.
It took a few minutes, but Ezekiel could feel his insides shift back into place, and the tears closed up. He was fortunate his head hadn’t been struck, or things would’ve been far worse. But since the injuries were entirely physical, this was not the worst state he’d been in before.
There was a pinch, and blood that had pooled inside of him was drained. The Life mana kept him from bleeding out too much. A pressure that he hadn’t realized had grown then disappeared.
Next were his bones. The ones in his arm were ignored for now, but his chest and shoulder were put back into place. His spine cracked momentarily, but nothing seemed to change. He could still feel his entire body.
“I’ve ensured you won’t die anytime soon. The major damage has been repaired, but your arm will be useless for now, and I only healed the bones that are vital to supporting your organs. Besides that, said organs had been brought up to working standards, and won’t be failing anytime soon.” The Life Hunter rushed through her words. “But your entire body is still bruised and sprained. That will have to be dealt with later or healed normally. Now, I need to go help Talon.”
Without so much as a by-your-leave the woman leapt into the sky, and the fight between Lightning and Tempest was joined by Life.
Riley turned toward the fight with a glare, but no words left her lips. Ezekiel could tell that she knew there was no point in saying anything at this time.
‘Are you okay?’ Ezekiel internally called out to Shine. Pain-filled groans were all he got as an answer.
Next to him, Ezekiel felt Riley grab his unbroken hand. Neither of the two looked away from the fight, as elemental constructs were thrown back and forth. Wood was charred and split by lightning. Wind accelerated spears and javelins.
Steel clashed and rang out through the air as the battle continued. Until finally, the Lightning cultist made a mistake and tried to run.
A branching whip flew forward, and the cultist paused to rip it off. She should’ve defended herself from Talon’s swords.
Her head went flying just as the branches crumbled into ash.
The two rebels landed on the ground. Talon looked and saw what had happened to Ezekiel. He turned a glare toward his ally, but Ezekiel could barely hear them.
All heads turned to the wall as more people moved in. The lower Tier rebels from the campsite filed into the area. As they gave their reports on their own jobs in the closer surroundings, Ezekiel was glad to see smiles breaking out on everybody’s faces.
The two rebel leaders then moved to Ezekiel and Riley.
“I’m surprised to see you’re still awake.” Talon’s voice was quiet, but still easily heard by Ezekiel now that he was up close. “You must be in a lot of pain...”
“Lightning hurts more. Plus, my mana has weird effects when it comes to senses.” While it hadn’t been an issue for a while, the unconnected Void mana that was in Ezekiel’s body had dulled his sense of pain for quite some time. It seemed to him that it was still happening. At least with purely physical wounds that weren’t filled with mana.
“I’d like to see you healed up. Especially after my partner’s blunder.” The Life Hunter flinched and glared at Talon. “But in this case, we need to go. The Cult’s support is on the way. We should be gone well before they get here.”
“I’m surprised their Legendaries aren’t here already.” Ezekiel muttered.
“They can’t risk it. Not when they don’t know how many of us are here yet.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Ezekiel just nodded at Talon’s reply. Riley helped move him and the still opal colored portion of Shine’s blade got loaded into a wagon for transport.
Talon and the Legendary Life Hunter needed to cover their retreat. Riley had been asked to assist, but a fiery glare made them let her go with Ezekiel.
She did set the area on fire and incinerate the remains of the cultists before heading out, however, so they couldn’t say that she hadn’t done anything to help.
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Thanks to Ezekiel’s current physique, it only took a few hours before he was more or less fit to move on his own. The majority of that time was just him recovering his mana enough to be able to reinforce himself. Shine was also given a temporary vessel in the form of a basic longsword that one of the rebels gave him for his actions against the cult.
Once his recovery time and durability were revealed to the rest of the rebels, however, things started to change for him and Riley. Such a thing meant that, even though he wasn’t a proper Legendary Hunter, and his Spirit armor was unavailable, Ezekiel could still act as something of a distraction.
“Given how quickly you’ve recovered,” Talon said, “we’ll be setting out as soon as possible to take out the other bases. Our own reinforcements will be here once they finish cleaning up the regions that we were a part of previously, but we can’t risk the chance of the Cult getting us from behind while we attack wherever they’ve decided to buckle down.”
Ezekiel just grunted in reply. At this point he had resigned himself to no longer having control of the situation. But he also knew that, now that they had proven useful, he and Riley were stuck until the job was done. There was a high possibility of consequences if the pair just left, and the rebel’s higher chance of victory suddenly disappeared.
Their names would be tarnished in the eyes of the Spirits that had given out their friendship. At the very least.
For the moment, Ezekiel and Riley were sitting with the rest of the Legendaries inside a temporary command tent. A map with the rest of the known Cult of Light bases was laid out on a piece of flattened out raised stone.
A couple of the camps had been crossed out. But there were still a few remaining. One in particular caught Ezekiel’s eye. Not just because it was the one that the group was apparently slated to attack next.
Riley noticed where his attention was directed and couldn’t help but let out a slight gasp.
“This is the area where the exile laid down roots, isn’t it?”
The rest of the Legendaries just looked confused for a moment, before they all realized what Riley was talking about. It was a part of their story when she and Ezekiel had first been interrogated.
“Yeah... given the proximity of this particular camp to the exile’s territory, it’s highly likely that we’ll be fighting off a Legendary Spirit that’s solidly in the mid-Steps of Tier four. Alongside their army of lower Tier Spirits that they’ve dominated.”
The assembled Hunters didn’t look like they enjoyed the image Ezekiel was painting for them. But he knew that they needed to know this moving forward. If they didn’t, then the odds were high that they would suffer a crushing defeat from numbers alone. Especially among the lower Tiers.
“That would explain why they’re headed to that base in particular. I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to move all their current forces to that base purely for the army that it provides them,” The Life Hunter muttered.
“You said it was a Life Spirit that rules that territory?” the Flame Hunter asked, “If so, then it might be best if I and the girl take charge. It should be easier since we have somewhat of an elemental advantage.”
Ezekiel grimaced at the thought of Riley going to fight the exiled Spirit again. He knew that if she went, the Spirit would focus on her. Possibly to the point of ignoring any danger to itself just for revenge.
Spirits were surprisingly emotional when it came to feeling wronged.
“Can you guarantee her life?” Ezekiel glared at the Flame Hunter. “I’m not asking this out of regular concern. I know that she can fight for herself and needs to face conflict and adversity to progress. But that Spirit has a bone to pick with both of us. It will focus on her, probably ignore you, and Riley isn’t anywhere near an even match for it. Even if she could manifest Spirit armor.”
The rebels all paused to think for a moment. A couple shot a look at Riley, who turned away.
Ezekiel knew that she wasn’t embarrassed at his words. It was more like she was ashamed of her current weakness.
“... I hate to say it, but that is a fair point.” The Lightning Hunter grimaced after thinking about the situation. “However, we still need to fight it off. So, it might be for the best if I went along as well.”
No objections were raised. But the discussion continued well into the night. Though it was admitted that priorities had to change. Instead of total annihilation, they would lower the cult’s numbers before running away.
The Cult still outnumbered them, but it was close, and only due to the exile’s presence. Technically, if Ezekiel and Riley were full Hunters, not the half-Hunters that they were, the numbers would be even. Though they would still be weaker due to their lower Step amongst Legendaries.
“Alright then,” Talon said as he clapped his hands at the end of the meeting, “we’ll get everything ready for tomorrow, and set out first thing. If we do this right, they’ll be dead by noon, and we won’t have to worry about the cult poaching in this area for at least a few more months.”
Nods all around, the Legendaries set out to make their final preparations.
All the while, Ezekiel grimly realized that a bad feeling was growing in his gut.
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From what information they had managed to get, the Cult didn’t have any more Legendary Cavern cultists at the moment. Thus, it was much easier to infiltrate and get closer to the Cult’s base than it would’ve been. Though they still had to be wary of any Adept Cavern Mages.
For Ezekiel and Riley, they knew that the fight would be a much closer thing than they wanted. They didn’t have a choice, however, and the only way the rebels were going to survive was if they managed to take out as many cultists as possible.
As per usual, Ezekiel was acting alone to take out the hastily thrown up defenses that the cult had put into place. His ability to simply sidestep them and without even interacting with them was irreplaceable in these situations.
The only bad thing was the premonition that Ezekiel and Shine had regarding the situation. They had informed Riley the night before. Same with Talon. But there was nothing they could do. The rebels didn’t have enough numbers to wait until the cult refilled their ranks.
If they didn’t strike now, then the cult would consolidate their forces and begin hunting the rebels.
It wasn’t until they finally got within range of the base that Ezekiel finally understood what the premonition he had was referring to.
A torrential downpour had begun. With lightning crackling through the air. The weather took an immediate turn for the worse as the skies went dark, and the whole mountain was cast in shadow.
The weather had been grim when they had all gotten up that morning. But it wasn’t anything that Ezekiel thought they needed to worry about.
With the heavens opening up, and water filling the sky, this meant that the two Flame Legendaries were now far less useful. The same with Ezekiel, whose silhouette would be seen even under his Shroud. Outside of his time on Morncrest, he had never used his Shroud for missions in the rain.
It was an issue that didn’t pop up too much. Something he knew he was lucky for. His luck had run out, however, and the Legendaries that had gathered at the edge of the cult’s fallback base began to despair.
“Why do the Ancients seem to favor those damned monsters!?” The Flame Legendary yelled at the sky. Talon threw up a wall of still air around the group so the sound wouldn’t travel. His concern was warranted, but the noise from the storm would’ve drowned out most of the yelling on its own.
A temporary shelter had been thrown up for the rebel’s use.
“Do we know if one of the Legendaries in the base is a Flame Mage? Our numbers won’t be too bad if there is,” the Lightning Hunter asked.
Talon shook his head. The Legendaries from the other bases hadn’t been seen in battle yet. So, it was impossible to know what their elements were at this point. Usually, they would wear robes that denoted their elemental affinity, but not anymore. The cult had grown smarter since Ezekiel and Riley had used the colors of their clothes to target their Cavern Mages.
The group was stuck, and it seemed like the rebels were going to have to fall back and risk the cult getting their reinforcements. Ezekiel did not want that to happen.
“...I have an idea, but it will be risky. Though only to myself, and our experts on Tempest and Lightning.” Ezekiel turned to the Hunters in question. Talon just raised an eyebrow, but the Lightning Hunter focused her entire attention on Ezekiel.
‘Are you sure that you want to do this?’ Shine suddenly called out in Ezekiel’s mind. ‘You know full well how badly this could go.’
‘I’m aware,’ Ezekiel replied, ‘But you have to admit that it’s the best chance we’ve got. If we want to strike today at least.’
Shine fell silent. They knew that Ezekiel was right.
“While they haven’t adjusted to their new body just yet, and their vessel is much weaker than before, Shine and I are still Void Mages, with Void mana. Which can greatly enhance mana of other elements to a ridiculous degree,” Ezekiel explained as the other’s eyes widened in understanding.
“You want to fly up and supercharge a bolt of Lightning, devastating the base and destroying most, if not all of it.” Talon rubbed his chin in thought. “That could work. It would at least reduce their number a great deal. Any Hunters not wearing their Spirit armor would likely die. I assume I’m there to catch you and retreat before you two can fall into the base?”
Ezekiel nodded his head.
“An entire Step of Legendary Void Mana should be enough to push whatever Lightning spell is used to the point where it might very well break into the Mythic Tier due to sheer power.” Ezekiel didn’t know this for sure, since he knew that the qualitative change between Tier four and five was more massive than the one between three and four. “That’ll only happen if every ounce of mana is used for the Lightning. So, Talon would be our only way out of there.”
The assembled group didn’t say anything for a little while. Ezekiel looked at Riley and Celia, and both seemed to be concerned. He assumed that they had their own reasons. Celia was on the cusp of having her soul be strong enough to break into the Legendary Tier. While Riley was likely worried about Ezekiel going off on his own again.
“Let’s do it,” the Lightning rebel said. “There’s no point in not taking a risk. If we fail, then we’re in the same position as before. In that we’ll need to retreat until our support comes from other regions. On the off chance that anyone survives, the rest of you charge in and take them out.”
Talon nodded his head in agreement. As did the rest of the rebel leaders. Though some did so with reluctance. Riley looked nearly mutinous, but Ezekiel calmed her down by wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
“We’ll be okay,” he said to her.
Riley’s face changed to a frown. She still didn’t want him to go.
Given that Ezekiel’s sense of omen hadn’t disappeared, he didn’t want to either.
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High above the base of the cult, Ezekiel was being carried by the rebel’s Legendary Lightning Hunter. Donned in her Spirit armor, Ezekiel could finally tell her gender thanks to the curves of her body. Her voice and figure had been disguised by an enchanted choker and her cloak.
Ezekiel didn’t really get the point in hiding one’s figure like this, but he wasn’t going to say anything about it. He had disguised himself when hunting the cult as well. He just hadn’t done so when sitting with his companions, away from the battlefield.
“Are you ready?”
The Lightning rebel nodded in response.
“Good. Start channeling your mana. Build it up as much as you can, and when you’re ready, just shoot it straight down.” Ezekiel and Shine readied themselves as the rebel began charging her attack.
They remained motionless for several seconds. A massive amount of mana was focused into a single point. The two Void users knew that this was going to be tricky and risky. The blowback from enhancing this much mana was just as likely to take the both of them out with it.
Which was why Talon was flying at an even higher height, and well off to the side.
Above and around them, the storm seemed to grow stronger, and Eezkiel knew that they would have to act fast. A small typhoon was beginning to form. With the Lighting and Void Hunters in the direct center.
Ezekiel used his mana to throw up the strongest Void Panes he could, while Shine simply shunted all their mana into a small Void Pane box just beneath Ezekiel’s barrier. A small hole where the Lightning would shoot through.
The moment after they did this, the Lightning rebel threw her hand down, and a massive bolt of Lightning appeared. It instantly cracked through the relatively weak box that Shine had formed to contain their mana.
A single massive bolt then split into two, then four, then eight, then sixteen and so on.
The rain of Lightning continued to grow, as it set off a chain reaction when it mixed with the energy already present in the storm.
Ezekiel had closed his eyes and turned away, but it didn’t matter. The barrier he had thrown up broke in an instant. He and the rebel found their bodies flooded with lightning. Though at a much-reduced rate compared to that which was falling below them.
An earth-shattering explosion nearly deafened Ezekiel, and it was only Shine, who hadn't been as badly affected by the side-effects, that was able to tell him what was happening.
But even then, it was only several seconds later, when the Lightning let up, that they were able to speak to Ezekiel.
‘It’s gone... The entire base is gone...’ Shine’s voice was incredibly soft. ‘There’s bits and pieces of rubble, but I don’t think that anybody survived that.’
The words registered in Ezekiel’s mind, but as he and the rebel, with her separated Spirit, now falling to the ground, he knew he wasn’t able to really focus on it. The fact that his body was still flinching and otherwise out of his control thanks to the electricity flowing through him also distracted him.
Though the site of broken stone buildings and walls did enter his vision as his eyes cleared up from the blinding flash. A sight that grew larger and larger as they got closer to the ground.
For a moment, Ezekiel was concerned that Talon had gotten caught up in the explosion of Lightning. Given how much larger the spell became it wouldn’t have surprised him.
A sudden jolt of gravity, and the pain of his arm being wrenched from its socket proved that his fears were unfounded.
Though as he looked up and saw a somewhat singed gray Spirit, he knew that Talon hadn’t gotten out of it entirely unscathed. He was well enough to catch both Ezekiel, the Lightning rebel, and their Spirits, but Ezekiel knew that he’d have some explaining to do when they retreated back to wherever they were headed next.
A rumble echoed through the air. Ezekiel looked down again.
Four heavily injured figures were pulling themselves from the rubble. Their Spirit armor was all damaged, and they seemed to be heavily injured.
One of them was a small pile of vines that was rapidly regrowing to the size of an adult human.
They were quickly beset upon by the rebel Legendaries that had yet to do anything.
Which Ezekiel thought was fine. He had done his part, and he knew that they could take it from here.