Having a wall really makes a difference, huh? About a minute into my trip back to Ocala I realized just how strong the wind was blowing. Had I not been bulked up as a giant on top of being attached to Blobby by a pair of slime cuffs I was sure the gusting winds would have blown me right off the road. As it was, my conjured armors were being buffeted by debris steadily. Gravel, branches and a sheer mountain of loose leaves tried to wear me out before I'd even made it to the main stage. It was subtle, but I could tell the things being blown around had been growing in size just in the time it took me to leave.

I'd gotten comfortable fighting amidst the and forest I'd created outside of the Outpost since it cut away a lot of the bite of the wind but with the path opened and the only thing between me and nature a few sparse trees it was a whole different experience. Not long after leaving I spotted a streak of blue off to my right. The trip back wouldn't take thirty minutes even with the wind fighting me, but the blips that would have taken to get to the Outpost from Ocala probably had Ponzio pretty drained. A minute later I saw another flash of blue at ground level and I saw the teen was in range.

"I'm on the road. Come grab a ride," I said through the comm-plant. Blobby didn't stop, but a breath later I saw an earthbound snake of lightning beeline for the perfect point to intercept my slimy ride. The elf staggered for a second, disoriented by my lack of slowing down, but I snagged him with an arm before we passed him. He yelped, the sound stolen by the roar of the wind, and I used my Amulet to cast to give him some additional protection against the storm. Blobby, thoughtful slime that it was, created a short protrusion behind me that Ponzioline used to perch while holding on to Fievil for deal life.

"Is it moving faster!?" Ponzio shouted breathlessly in the comm-plant, not as used to clearing his thoughts while also using the telepathic phone. He'd spoke aloud along with the message.

"Blobby is quite versatile!" I said back, leaning to the side to dodge a downed tree. From the fact that its entire root ball was missing a hint of soil and there was hardly a leaf left on its branches, I was suspecting it might have been airborne at some point. A shiver crawled down my spine and I leaned forward as if that could make Blobby move faster. Ponzio remained silent after that, likely watching the surroundings just as much as I was. At one point, the elf zapped something off to the right and a plume of charcoal blew over us but thankfully the seven-ish miles back to the city went smoothly otherwise.

The Crystal Wards shone bright through the storm, and I could see a way into the city thanks to the supercell centered around the Nash Family's weather tower. The sight of the structure let my life flash before my eyes once again, but I pushed through. In all likelihood, I am going to end up in the air again. Now, I have access to additional defenses and Fievil's mana so I should be fine. Just stay aware of your surroundings and you might survive the crazy lady's gambit.

Once we got within the city, Ponzio tapped my helm twice before turning into a streak of lightning. Instead of traversing visible and exposed to the elements, I watched the elf strike one of the many still standing power lines in the city. I didn't know the exact range of the facilitated Lightning Blip Compound Gift, but it was entirely possible he was already at the Zebelos compound close to the north of town. I need to remember to capitalize on my elemental advantage. Right now is possibly the worst time, but it's something to think about.

Passenger dropped, I nudged Blobby towards the old hospital and the looming weather tower. Thanks to my I could tell something worrisome was happening with the elementals. Their presence was still manifesting the weather events, but they were clumping together just outside of range to the defenders in the weather tower. A few attacks cut through the sky destabilizing the closing storm but it wasn't enough as the sheer mass of elementals returned the rotation in moments.

When I arrived at the foot of the hospital, Dyonte was already waiting. The man was cloaked in a leafy poncho, keeping most of the rain off himself even as he held on to one of the columns of the entryway to keep from getting blown about. Ezrah was similarly cloaked, but he was doing a much worse job keeping himself on the ground. If the situation wasn't so serious, the visual of the young satyr flopping sideways like some kind of furry flag would have given me quite a laugh and a story to share with the other Bunker Busters.

"Ronan! We are glad you made it back so quickly!" Dyonte shouted, seeking to be heard over the wind.

Instead of answering, I pointed behind him and into the building. Without hesitating, the two Nash unlatched the reinforced doorway before slipping inside. Blobby adjusted, splitting into two blobites for the sake of slipping through the doorway, and I followed a moment later. I got the urge to dismiss my armor considering how much bulkier it made me with hovering all over the place, but I could practically feel the fight brewing overhead. Dismissing it was just a waste of mana until the armor degraded on its own, something that happened faster for the Air Augmented Skill, but was still hours away for . I also looked quite imposing in full stoneplate, and I didn't mind the looks the Nash gave the results of my magic after the damage to my image my fall from the tower had left.

"My mother is waiting atop the tower," Dyonte started, jumping right to business. "Her Staff told her the hurricane will be upon us any moment. The Family has been recalled, and the warning dispersed through the city. The Wards will remain staffed, but everyone else is hunkered down where they can. She mentioned something about one of you linking them together somehow? The young families have been evacuated to the strongholds of the Factions, but we don't know how many of the apartment blocks are still housed."

"They are hunkering down," I said, confused. "Why would it matter that the blocks are housed or not?"

"The hurricane will damage the city," Ezrah said, flicking an entire handful of water off his shaggy mop of hair. "It happened when I was a kid. It took a year just to build everything back from the fight."

I gave the two of them a nervous look, but pushed past it. I'd committed to helping the Shaman and if I didn't I wouldn't be able to try to keep my friends safe with my own hands. As much as I'd come to realize I needed to rely on others for some things, it didn't mean that I wanted to do that for things like the Anemoi. The fact that the fight would be tightly connected to Fievil's growth didn't hurt, since the Shard Weapon was one of the strongest aces I had up my sleeve. From what I understood, Sargon had one of his own and the man was almost certainly in opposition to me and my friend's continued existence, not to mention the Allied Towns.

"I'm going up then. Is there a mage on the roof that can help me up to the tower?"

"There are three Nash Circles up there with the Shaman," Ezrah said, nodding. "One of them is a healing Circle to help cover the others. The blade rain will be arriving soon."

When I glanced at the older Nash, he provided an explanation. "From what my mother has told me, as the elementals duplicate they shed material fragments of their elements. Considering water, ice and various forms of wind are concentrated above you can imagine what the blade rain is made from."

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"They are... mating?" I asked, grimacing as I remembered the scene I'd spotted above.

"More like bacteria contributing pieces from each other, but yes," Dyonte agreed.

Fun... Of course, it wasn't. If the Nash knew, then Sharon had known and once again provided no more information than she had to. Likely because she thought I would cut and run. A fair consideration, but I was already too deeply committed to back out. I followed the pair through the building and up to the roof. Along the way I realized how much livelier it was within than the last time I'd been in the hospital. A few of the rooms seemed to be for the original purpose of the building, tending to handfuls of defenders who'd already been injured or were recovering to rejoin the grind against nature. Others were families working on simple tasks together like porting goods and food through the building. On the lower levels there were even a few receiving lessons or playing simple games to distract the younger kids from the fight only a few floors away.

It wasn't my place to comment on their practices, but considering the summed total of Quotients and people I saw just in the few hallways on the way up to the roof there was a scary amount of magical potential in the building. Not all of it was applicable, or even trained for combat, but it was a new normal that the Allied Towns were only now starting to embrace. Even the Ock had a handful of families with older kids they didn't send to the Bunker's school. What better place to defend against an enemy than where your family relies on you to do so? Talk about motivation.

Despite the positive feelings seeing the Nash community elicited, it wasn't long before we were back outside. A rare Earth Attuned member of the Nash sealed the path downward before opening the door onto the roof. I'd been momentarily confused, but when the wind rushed into the small opening even I was forced to take a stumbling step back. Dyonte and Ezrah had to support themselves until the pressure equalized and the two Blobites wobbled like a tossed sea.

Before I stepped out onto the madness where I could see a poor sucker literally lashed to the side of the weather tower base, Dyonte clasped my arm. His eyes were drawn down in a frown and they jumped to the outside before returning to me. "Please look out for her. She's strong, but she's not in her prime. I-- I haven't been able to keep up with her. Even Teion... She's a force of nature."

"Good," I said firmly, turning and clasping the man back. "How else are we supposed to fight another?"

The man tightened his grip on my arm, not intending to hurt me but just to transfer the strength of his emotions, before letting go and stepping back. Surprisingly, there were five grooves carved on my stone bracers. Just to make sure there wasn't anything more to say, I glanced at Ezrah.

"Just don't make have to carry you again!" The youth shouted, giving me a thumbs up. I think he'd get along great with Billy.

When I turned to the dwarf manning the exit he shook his hands in front of him helplessly. "Nothing from me, sir."

"Keep this building together then," I said, striding past and flinching as rain immediately blasted my face. The slit formed by was already barely enough to see, but if things got much worse I didn't think I'd be able to see. Wait...

It wasn't exactly the safest idea, but then again I'd been flexing my magic muscles for several days without a hint of a break. A different stretch wouldn't hurt. I held my palm over my eyes and brow. "."

Considering the scale at which I was shaping, the Freeform of my Skills shouldn't have cost more than a single percent. However, the intent I'd layered on the magic was much more complex than I'd realized and a solid 10% went down the drain just to transform that part of my armor. The results, however... worth it.

The clearest piece of quartz I had ever seen had replaced the face guard over my cheeks and filled in the visorless gaps in my stone barbute helm. Stone still made up my nose guard, but two panels reached down on either side of my face like crystalline tears. Thanks to vibrosense I could feel the crystal hadn't stopped there and reached up into the rest of the helm though it was covered by the gray slate exterior. Just to be certain, I waited a moment to see if the quartz visor was going to detonate like usually did, but it remained stable.

Breathing a sigh of relief and wiping the visor clear of water, I walked towards the person that would hopefully bring me up to the top of the weather tower. They didn't bother trying to say anything, only gesturing with their hands, and essentially lassoing me with a thick vine that had been attached beside them. He looked at Blobby with somewhat of a helpless look, but the slime had its own plans. The gelatinous creature wrapped around one of the vertical columns and started making its way upward under the power of what looked to be tiny stone cleats it formed and reformed as its body turned inside out. It was honestly fascinating and, if I had to guess, likely a response to Blobby's last engagement against the Air Elementals at the tower. The Earth Slime was thoroughly secured even as it left the ground.

The lasso grew taut and the attendant pointed to a series of thorns that, if you squinted at just the right angle, might have suggested the dream of ladder rungs. A vague memory of old world communication towers flashed through my head, but I shook it out as I steeled my resolve. My vertigo wasn't even at the point where it turned into an actual Affliction. My mana was already recovering from the modification to my armor, Fievil was nice and fed and it could be said I had experience surviving rough landings.

While I trusted my Strength, I was glad that the vine wrapped around my torso took most of my weight on the way up. How embarrassing it would have been for me to arrive at the battle already gassed because the lift was too dangerous to use. And it was dangerous indeed. Each foot I climbed higher, the extend of the storm really hit me. Clouds hung low enough to almost reach the weather tower, winds whipped at my body enough to set my to shaking and the rain set a constant buzz as it struck my body. Even the swirling storm of elemental overhead grew more oppressive the closer I got. However, what really gave me pause was what I saw in the horizon.

The last few days had been more gray than bright considering how the sun only made occasional appearances and when it did it was often filtered through a thin patch in the cloud cover. That aspect hadn't changed much, worsened even thanks to the pelting rain over the last day. However, the line between day and night had still been obvious. What I saw in the horizon was the physical approach of darkness. As far as I could see to the northeast and southeast was clouds so gray they might as well have been black. The only thing that gave scale to the monstrous front approaching were the sizzle of lightning like dragons dancing in the sky. A few bolts even eked enough energy to strike the earth but it was still far away enough that the sound died before reaching Ocala.

All of a sudden it made a whole lot of sense why the Wildwoodians did their best to hunker down during the fall and winter seasons. The various patched up houses, complete lack of trees and reinforced brick buildings also made a whole lot of sense since I doubted much of anything would have been able to survive a frontal assault like the hurricane. That any windows had made it through a single year, much less almost three decades, was a marvel to behold even if they did board up their homes. Of course, the Shaman had been drawing the ire of the hurricanes for almost as long as the start of the Fall but it was a frightful prospect nonetheless.

What made the hurricane all the more frightening was what I could barely make out. Lights, tiny diamonds glittering in the distance in a dance only they could understand. Some were birthed by the sparking lightning, others in the darkest parts of the cumulonimbus coverage and yet dozens in the space between heaven and earth where the wind was likely gusting the leaves clear off trees.

Elementals, each and every one.

I had to tear my eyes away, focusing on keeping hold of the thorn ladder and arriving at the top. What was likely only five minutes felt like an eternity as I found an elf and a fae waiting to receive me. The elf had formed a temporary bubble of wind that diverted the ongoing storm while the fae removed the lasso from my body only to replace it with a different one that was attached to thick wooden branches that had been created as railing to ring the top of the tower. She showed me a quick knot to use when I needed to re-lash myself before pointing out the elderly woman sitting unprotected in the middle of the tower.

Sharon's eyes snapped open when I glanced in her direction. She didn't move, but a tunnel of wind connected the elf's bubble to one she was forming herself. The two Fallen manning the way up shared uncertain looks but I gave them my thanks for the help and moved to join the Shaman.