Lain
Flaming shadowed limbs digging though the earth, I burn away everything around me as dirt and sand and stone are reduced to dust. Dozens of limbs and tentacles, and even my own two flesh and blood arms, tearing through the earth as I dig as fast as I can to reach the core of this other’s Field.
They are pushing down on me from all sides. Desperately trying to harden the earth and bury me alive, to crush both me and my Field under their pressure that is fueled by the very weight of the thousands of tons of earth that is all around us.
But my Field is strong.
Yes, I can’t take over their dominion of the earth around me, my power over the brown mana is weak at best if not nearly nonexistent, the best I can do is to try and stop it from moving. But the area immediately around my body? Inside of this dark and cold hole in the ground, made even darker by my flames that suck the light out of the air? This is mine, all of this is mine! In this little bubble of pitch-black darkness, barely a couple meters around me, my Field might as well be made of some bullshit fantasy metal.
The walls of the surrounding earth can only push in so far before the nothingness of my shadows somehow forces them back. The only attacks that can reach me in here are the occasional spear of stone sent to try and blindly stab into my hole…
That sounded perverted… haha...
Slapping aside another spear of stone and reducing it to dust, I keep moving forward, burrowing through the dirt and concrete until I break through an opening and drop down into the sewers. The place reeks of a mix of smells and nastiness that stings my nose and makes me want to gag. Probably some cursed combination of death, excrement, rotting food, and Goblin stank. The tunnels of the sewer are covered in mold and mushrooms, and strangely enough, there are even patches of glowing moss that radiate a gentle blue light down here.
Weird, I have heard of glowing moss before, goblin’s gold or something, but I don’t think that there any types of moss that glow like this... I guess the plants are mutating as well now. Not only do they grow faster and spread like weeds, but now the plant life is turning magical too. Let’s just hope that none of them start to grow teeth and develop a taste for human flesh… Even worse if they start singing and saying, “Feed me!”
Letting my mind wander off a bit as I sprint through the tunnels, I dodge over and past stone spears as they appear before me, leap over them and the running water in the central channel of the passage, moving through the dimly lit passages like a cat chasing a fleeing mouse. Jumping off of walls and kicking off the ceiling without dropping speed, I keep my hands and feet dressed in shadow flames to keep from touching any of the filth that lines everything like slime. If I didn’t know any better, I might even think that some of this slime is alive. I hope I am mistaken of course, but I think I saw some of it move, though it was only in passing as I was sprinting by…
Passing through a couple corridors, I find groupings of dozens of Goblins huddled up inside of maintenance rooms or wherever else they can make a home for themselves down here. Passing by some of these homes, I catch sight of mothers holding baby Goblins to their tits, shying away with a startled scream as I go tearing by through the tunnels, probably mistaking me for some tentacled monster of shadowy claws and blades, attacking their home. In the tunnels themselves, I move past fleeing Goblins. Some of them throw themselves at me to very little effect, simply getting splattered or turned to dust as I hit them once and keep moving. Others are heading for little tunnels and holes that lead up to the surface, streaming out as they bellow little war cries like a colony of pissed off ants, leaving to go and try to bite some kid that is pissing on their hill.
I ignore most of the Goblins as they move about, my focus only on getting to the Earth Mage that is still running for his life from me. Now that I am not digging through the earth to reach him, I am quickly catching up to him.
Slashing apart another suicidal Goblin and dodging over a stabbing rock spear from the wall that ends up hitting some of the Goblins, pinning them to the other wall, I take a sharp turn at the next intersection and catch sight of the guy just as he is turning down another corridor. He spots me and pales in fright, almost tripping over himself as he redoubles his flight in fright.
I explode forward, launching myself with all four limbs and several tentacles, digging my claws into the ground and cracking the concrete with the force of my jump. Gliding across the floor, I clear half the distance in a single bound, only landing long enough with one foot to launch myself a second time, souring through the tunnel and over the head of hundreds of Goblins like a dark bullet.
Twisting on myself and turning in midair at the last moment, I hit the far wall, cracking it slightly as I land on all fours against the wall, sticking to it with my claws buried in.
The fleeing mage gapes at the sight of me, his eyes looking on in shock at the sight of all the shadowy tendrils and tentacles growing off of my body and void flames wreathing my form, probably making me look like some demonic squid cat from the depths, come to eat his soul or something.
He screams and points at me, calling me Gre’Dem, just like Gov’es did. He has several other Hobgoblins with him, but I don’t feel a Field around any of them, my focus is completely on the Mage before me, the others aren’t a threat.
One of the Hobgoblins charges before the others, stabbing for me on the wall with his spear.
They are people, just like Gov’es…
I only let my hesitation stop me for a moment, giving even more into my instincts to guide my body and not let my conscience drag me down.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Kicking off the wall, I pull my head to the side and spin in midair, dodging around the spear and moving with unnatural grace through the air as if I were swimming through water. With a single slash from my claws, the unnamed Hobgoblin’s head goes flying through the air, his body only just starting to collapse as I alight to the floor. Before his knees can even hit the ground, his head still tumbling end over end through the air, I am already moving and am before the next one, my clawed hand stabbing through her chest like a spear as her face is locked in shock and fear.
As I am throwing aside the corpse hanging from my arm, my shadowed limbs all snap out, bladed tips flashing in every direction. The Hobgoblins scream as they are all cut apart into flying limbs and spilling guts.
It only took one step for me to massacre the group, and I don’t stop moving forward as they all die one after the other, the head of the first Hobgoblin only just now hitting the floor behind me as the others all collapse in a spray of blood and gore.
The Earth Mage gawks in fear, utterly shocked by the sight before him as he turns and tries to flee, some floating and rotating spear of rock he had been charging, getting thrown at me in desperation. The spear cracks the air like a bullet, flying towards my head as it spins through the air like a drill.
In less than a heartbeat it is right before me, and I smack it aside with the back of my hand out of reflex. It gets sent off course and slams into the wall beside me in a rain of dust and mortar, the back of my hand coming away wet with blood and missing some skin.
With another wave, he tries to collapse the ceiling on me, desperately screaming as I draw closer, but I am already moving too fast for the falling debris to catch me. As the tunnel behind me collapses, I arrive before him. A desperate spear from the ground is his last defense before I am plunging my hand into his neck, my other grabbing him by the chin and then pulling hard. His head comes ripping free in a spray of blood, the two parts of his body held in my hands.
Letting his body drop, I look at the head being held upside down by the chin, a look of abject terror and anguish still locked in his expression as blood runs down his face from the gaping hole of where his neck used to be. The flames coating my hands are quick to spread and cover the dropped corpse and his head, burning them away into nothing, starting from the neck. Within mere moments, my hand is empty, still raised as if holding something.
Letting out a shaking breath, I look behind me at the mass of torn apart bodies littered across the now blood soaked and collapsed tunnel, the walls and blocks of debris painted red with spray, the once glowing blue moss now dyed red.
I just kill thirteen people… And it was easy…
Before I can start to think too much about this, my attention gets drawn towards my connection with my Demons.
They’re in pain.
Someone is hurting MY Demons! The other Mage!
All thoughts of the people I just killed gets thrown out of my mind as rage rushes in, my body moving before I can even think to stop.
I jump, shadows tearing through the now much weaker earth now that the Mage is dead, digging my way out like I am swimming through water. With shadowed limbs clawing and pulling myself out of the abyss, I don’t stop moving up even as I find the surface, my shadows propelling me up and into the air like a spring let loose. Hitting the side of a building in my ascent, I dig in with claws and limbs, dozens of appendages pulling me up the side of the building and leaving a trail of holes in the side of the building, moving up so fast that I am practically sprinting up the side of the building.
I reach the top and launch myself again, shooting up and up, high into the air until I am soaring above the city, my every instinct screaming at me to move faster, my rage compelling me to get there NOW.
My shadows all come together and form a pair of massive wings behind my back. Pitch-black and layered in feathers of void, the wings quickly catch the air and hold me aloft in the night sky. With a single beat of my wings and still moving forward with my momentum, I push myself through the sky, twisting and tumbling about as I try to figure out how flying works.
Regardless of how messy my flight is, I am still moving incredibly fast, soaring past buildings as I draw closer and closer to where the other battlefield is.
My anger is making it impossible to really focus on doing this right, and I have never practiced flying before. Besides it being a possibility that I have considered, I have never actually tried putting it into practice and doing it. The only thing pushing me to do it right now is sheer urgency and rage.
As a result, I end up making a bunch of mistakes. Almost falling out the sky a couple of times, I have to desperately beat my wings to stay in the air. I end up smashing into the side of a skyscraper, plowing through a wall and having to run through to the other side before jumping out and flying again, but I keep moving.
Soon enough, I finally find them. I can feel all four of them down below me, moving around inside of the Field that feels of eternal snow and unbreaking ice.
The one responsible for the ice wall is down there. But I don’t feel the Fire Mage anymore. Did they kill him already? It doesn’t matter, I’ll be handling this now!
Folding up my wings, I dive feet first, my Field blasting out at maximum power as I fall towards the frozen streets down below. My Field hits the enemy’s Field first, punching into it like a freight train through a china shop, pushing down and suppressing everything and anything that isn’t MINE.
Why do I smell flowers? Wait, there is another Field here, mixed with the ice one. But it is weak. I almost didn’t notice it.
As I get closer, the battle draws into clearer detail. Nathaniel and Sam are on one side of a giant mess of broken ice, the place looking like someone had just smashed an ice sculpture on the floor. Xander is behind Frank, stuck in place, while Frank is currently fighting off an army of giant flowers and vines as he advances on one, no, two figures, pressing them towards a wall. As the fight progresses, an absolutely massive looking flower, like the head of a dragon, blooms from the wall and moves to bite Frank’s head off.
I can already feel the pain and determination coursing through our connection from him. He isn’t planning on dodging. He’ll take the hit if it means winning, and he will die if he has to.
I won’t let this happen.
Moments before I hit the ground, while I still have an aerial view of the place, I throw both of my arms down, my will filling my Field with purpose and feeding off every shadow that can be found in this place under the night sky.
//Erase!
Shadows move like snakes of living razor wire and every flower and vine are instantly reduced to ribbons. Diced into chunks and pieces as the street is filled with blades moving faster than sound for a single second. There isn’t even so much as a gust of wind, not a sound is made, but yet everything drops. With my Field smashing into the ground, shadow fire spreads and burns away anything left that isn’t my magic, the ice and the diced remains of the flowers and vines being consumed in a hellish blaze that produces no heat nor light.
A column of shadows raises up to meet me, catching my body as I sink into it like a pool full of Jello, my momentum from the free dive getting reduced to nothing before I gently touch the floor, stepping out of the shadows not but a couple feet away from Frank.
Without saying a word, I step between him and the enemy, looking down at them with contempt as my rage courses through my mind like boiling water bubbling out of the pot.