The Cultivators gathered on the far side of the bridge, staring across it at us on the other side. I think Tremble’s two-tones were carrying to them, as they seemed to be shaking...
I could have started picking them off, but they seemed very intent on us and gnashing their teeth and everything. A couple of them jumped up, tearing and clawing at the air that wasn’t supporting them, and King Gravity had a good laugh, sending them back down to meditate on the wonders of Stillflight reinforced by whole lots of random vivus.
More interesting was watching the big Icefire Wall on the far side start retracting around the far side of their compound. It looked like they had completely forgotten about the big guy with the Hammer, being faced with this vision-distorting lava lake and the mess of Qi and vivus in the air messing with any other senses they had.
They were clearly trying to muster up courage to run, especially as loud cracks began to split the island and sheets of fluid lava under pressure began to shoot up from said cracks, but they seemed to be arguing about who was going to be first.
Boy, Briggs looked very impressive when he was moving. That much muscle in that much armor moving that fast was pretty much the definition of an Avalanche Run.
The clustered Cultivators didn’t see him until it was much too late. His Source Aura was reaching out, every long step solid as stone, not too heavy, not too light, and Endure swinging in one hand while two rods with a twenty-foot thin line of icy fire cut across in the other.
He crashed right through all of them. Two were bisected by the sweeping icefire, frozen across their middles, and their own motions basically ripped them in half. Four of them were right in his way, and went flying from his mass, speed, and strength like ping-pong balls, launched out into the lava with screams and a couple broken bones whose existence wasn’t a problem for very long.
Endure contributed another four, no, six, crashing into two of them, launching them screaming with a third into the lava, spinning around to take off the front of a woman’s face, and as he set foot onto the bridge, he threw it backwards, ricocheting off the faces of two of them, the Hammer precisely riding the momentum back to his hand as he didn’t turn back.
The bridge ten feet behind him exploded as his heavyfoot faded, erasing the escape path behind him.
The Cultivators, reeling from his explosive arrival, screamed in panic, and those who could ignored their fellows burning in the molten lava, leaping as fast as they could after him.
The Shooters promptly opened up on them.
Sama’s Autobow Fall was in two-handed form, coolly pumping out the shots as Briggs literally pounded along the magma bridge and it erupted into chunks of stone behind his boots. He had a big ol’ grin on his face as the Cultivators tried to catch him, found to their shock they couldn’t run that fast, and the distance between them was growing... well, there was also the problem that they were being picked off coolly, and I didn’t even have to do anything.
Resonance build-up from his strides was shattering the bridge even faster now, right behind his heels. Crystal Heavyfoot is no joke, and Briggs timed the final collapse of the bridge perfectly, leaping up and out of the lava lake to Master Fred’s waiting hand. The Warlock smoothly pulled him past and beyond as if he wasn’t two hundred kilos of momentum that could flatten him. Briggs skidded sixty feet across the rough stone before he came to a halt.
Not a one of the Cultivators made it to thirty meters from us, although they definitely tried to. The gunfire and shafts spinning out were murderously accurate, delivered coolly and with skill and experience. The last of them, a woman in a ragged red gown that was starting to burn around her, screamed at us, her dark eyes full of hate and rage as two shots of magically-enhanced ammunition, carrying Banefire and all the fun stuff, knocked her out of a desperate midair spin and right into the lava.
She sank down to her shoulders promptly, giving her enough time to scream in agony before the lava set her on fire. She crumbled down, the residual vivus in the shots enough to turn the cinders of her white before they crumbled into the lava and vanished.
I might have grabbed her jade earrings, ruby necklace, and golden hairpiece before that happened...
The lava around her went white for a full ten meters as all the Qi she’d imbued into herself and refined her body with was vented and consumed. Similar circles dotted the lava behind her along the path of the bridge.
The ground shook again, and the island over there started shattering as lava sprayed all around it, heaps of superhot liquid stone forcing itself up from whatever cap the thing represented.
“Is it time to go?” Sama Asked over the noise.
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“I still have to Hallow it, but I can’t do that until the Stillflight fades,” I replied. “Let’s get Sleipner and get out of here!”
The unicorn was already rolling towards us. Everyone was on a Disk as Master Fred hopped onto the cycle, and riding on a thread of golden force, the unicorn gunned it to get out of there.
----------
It wasn’t an explosion, as far as volcanoes went, just sort of a casual cough as a million tons or something of rocks was shoved out of the way and the true heat below was allowed to start coming up. The mana couldn’t pass the Blight on that area, but that was what alternate release routes were for.
The wind pressure would have been real bad if Master Fred hadn’t put a Ward between us and it, and we weren’t in the process of gunning it really, really fast for the lip. As the roaring blast blew past us, we weren’t in freefall; we were actually gunning it downslope even faster than gravity could send us.
Crouched together under the narrow line of his Ward, we watched flaming rocks falling down in all directions around us, venting the building pressure of the freely-breathing firetop behind us.
There were significantly more firefalls coming down the mountainside around us as we gunned it for the ground and distance combined, the occasional head-sized or smaller stone pounding down off his Ward as he sat back, letting the unicorn drive as he kept the Ward active above us, and we outran the burning, smoky cloud of ash being borne on the wind behind us.
Yes, just a polite cough...
“A Minor Meal, return what you steal,
Cinders and ash, nothing but trash,
From the Heart of the Land, I heard it say,
This is your Last Stand, your Final Day!
Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, Tremble...
We are coming for the rest of you total bastards...”
Everyone hummed along as Sleipner, moving way faster than a mere eight legs could send a horse, got us out of there.
The natives, including The Mick, were also a bit thunderstruck. Pelted by erupting stones, the land and sky on fire, running from a superheated ash storm... and Glory pounding through their veins for concluding a grand Quest in high style, and getting rid of part of this infection upon the land.
Their breathing said they were all reveling in the moment, even the Paladin, who was praying softly under his breath in gratitude for being able to make a difference, and knowing, being told in no uncertain terms by the universe itself, that he had...
--------------
“What are you thinking?” Briggs rumbled, coming up beside me as Sama rode herd over the others. I could have ‘ported everyone back, but this was a celebration among us, and didn’t need to be shared. Helix was posting photos and commentary and everything all over the net, and word was sweeping across the country about what had happened here, who was responsible, and what we’d done.
Attitudes towards Cultivators were already changing.
“The Firelord is going to move. It will first reclaim control of the volcano, as a matter of course, and there will be a surge in Elementals manifesting as he consolidates his power.”
Briggs nodded agreement as he sat down on a Disk next to me, a bottle of something I didn’t want to smell in his hand. Sama had probably brewed it. “Can we take this Firezone?” he asked directly.
“Yes. First, every Elemental we take down is not going to be coming back in a year and a day, or ever. Second, the vivic reinforcement will erode his control over the land itself, pushing it back, back, back, so as he sends more things at us, his power will continually be compressed. There will be a delay as it permeates the area, rings the Nodes, and is forced in, but it will happen.”
“Is this where we part ways?” he asked calmly.
“This is the kind of grinding that new students of yours should be doing, not you. I have no problems fetching you for a Node fight if needed, which is pretty much the only thing you want to be involved in at this point.”
“What about your trio?”
“Heavenbound Hall is already tapping them to lead Fellowships to help others advance. They’ve got the foundation to do so, and they can call me if they get into trouble.”
He considered that remark. “You and Master Fred are going to have to go all over the place to get Lived-Lines that close.”
“I have so many damn rep counts I need targets for... and I’ve the feeling the big kicker is coming tonight.”
“Perpetual spellcasting via Ki drain from enemies slain by vivus.” He worked that over. “Damn, just the idea is so strong. Helix is just a kid, and he’s popping up infinite base 6d6 attacks already, too, and he’s just going to get stronger.”
“Says the regenerating tireless musclebound genius bruiser.” He chortled under his breath at that. “Yeah, you need your Gear, but you’re so far beyond a Six base it’s just not funny with just your Stats, Weapon, and Armor. You need to earn serious Karma, and for you, that means Warlording and boss-only personal fights. Anything else is, in the long term, a total waste for you at this point.”
“Understood, yes. I’m going to start recruiting students after we go back to Boulder, and use Sama’s Marks to do it.”
“Sama heading for the Far East?”
“She was actually wondering if you wanted to go there after you go to Antarctica. She’s going to help me with setting up the Academy, now that the Glory Award can feed our Stats for a while. Basic funding shouldn’t be a problem, and we can endure until you get Commune with Nature and dump a few dozen tons of gold on us and all.”
“The Mick is going to stay with us, and one of the things I’m going to be doing is Energizing a lot more stones in combat.” He gave me a glance, then rolled his eyes as he pictured it. Kill an Elemental, empower a ten-goldweight Fire Ruby, rinse and repeat. “Of course, that means I have literally tons of stones I have to refine and cut in my downtime.”
“The money is appreciated.” He offered a fist, and I tunked it, naturally not moving his hand an inch.
“Made to be used. Last thing anyone should be doing right now is hoarding anything.” A III Valence was a goldweight, a V was ten. Just needed gems of the right size, which I currently was only limited by time to refine. Something else I needed to get better at.
“You’re taking your sideway Fours, right?” he asked quietly.
“Yes. Wizard yesterday. Magus today. Witch at Renewal.”
“Eighteen Fours is a lot of Stat points,” he noted for me.
I had to smile. “I had noticed. Yes. In a couple weeks, I’m going to be a right monster, I am, and not for just that.” He quirked his mouth. “I should be able to Nog to Perfection, and I’ve got the Stat Masteries on top of it.”