Each time a brilliant yellow bolt came down, Lu’s Image burst apart like a piece of white-hot slag struck by a blacksmith’s hammer.
No, that comparison isn’t nearly violent enough. Perhaps it’s more like a cloud of smoke being dispersed by an explosion? A man being slapped by an angry god, his innards splattering everywhere? Once again he renewed the spell, clenching his teeth as waves of lightning-flavoured ki passed through his body.
Assumedly lightning, anyway. It’s not like it matches anything my tongue has ever touched.
He was approaching his twentieth Image, and at this point even his seniors in the inner realms seemed slightly ruffled by the constant rain of electricity. Their armours were still whole, but some spots were cracked or burnt enough that it was worrying. There’s a spot on my leg that has entirely too much give. Everything is still ki-tight, thankfully, but I wouldn’t want to step on another mine.
…Or take a second lightning bolt. Trying to skimp in qi use by replacing Disjointed Image with a lesser illusion had cost him, the heavenly attack ignoring the simplistic camouflage to strike him directly. That had been the better part of a half-hour ago, if he was timing things correctly, and he could still feel a phantom tingle. How many of them must be up there, to create so many bolts over such a long span of time?
Perhaps they’re merely directing lightning that already exists – I assume that would be much easier. Not that knowing the exact mechanics would do anything to help the situation, but as least there was the hope that the Cloud-Touchers would run out at some point.
He turned his head to eye the hovercraft, now low to the ground, trailing just behind him. “[You fellows doing alright?]” The three of them were doing both worse and better than the disciples; they didn’t have the Sealed Beast Coffin Armour to keep them safe, but neither were they dependant on any slowly-degrading equipment to remain functional. Even the speeder was superfluous, to a certain extent.
“[Not dead quite yet, I’m afraid,]” Bone Softener answered. The other two didn’t respond audibly; Dreamfever was holding a wood cup to Bo’s lips, pouring liquid down his throat. Bo, for his part, seemed to be nearly unconscious due to the amount of ki he had been throwing around.
“[Good, good. We should be close, then?]”
Bone Softener toggled something on the speeder’s controls. “[Nearly. Less than an hour, unless the Clanboss himself pops up.]” He huffed. “[Didn’t expect to fight anyone that strong right out the gate. Very stimulating.]”
Yes, the Grandmaster appearing in the middle of the desert was rather unexpected. “[Think we lost the Mechanicals?]” The remaining two hadn’t caught up despite clearly being fast enough to do so, and it was making Lu anxious.
“[Probably steering clear of the lightning.]”
As if to punctuate his statement, another bolt blew Lu’s latest Image into drifting sparks. Ah, there goes another one. Disjointed Image might not be the most expensive spell in his arsenal by a large margin, but neither should it be considered cheap. He popped yet another replenishment pill into his mouth and renewed the illusion.
The others were similarly flagging, though the higher realms held themselves better. He had needed to give out some of his pills to Jiang and Hu Kuon; they were fresh out, the constant strikes depleting their comparatively shallow resources. Ging and No were holding on by the grace of deeper reserves and more efficient defensive arts, and Lady Scarlet had brought out a treasure parasol that dispersed the lightning entirely – not big enough for even a second person, sadly.
And of course, Tai Sho was just fine. He had even renewed his beauty arts at some point, though Lu hadn’t caught him in the act. It was only when he had suddenly appeared in the midst of the group that Lu had realised he had been gone – “I went ahead to cut off the two that fled, but sadly one of them got past me,” were his exact words when Ging had asked where he had been. “The heavily armoured one seemed to die easily enough, but then the metal shell just kept moving. Apologies for my failure.”
Another bolt, another blown-apart Image. Seriously, how much lightning do they have in them? Is that whale-like grandmaster sitting up there, floating in the clouds with his entire brotherhood? “[Seniors, warriors, you wouldn’t happen to have some means of evading this inclement weather that you haven’t brought up, would you?]”
Ging shook his head, the others giving similarly negative expressions.
Damn. Well hopefully something changes, because if not we might be out of pills by the time we hit the Pit.
They continued to endure volley after volley of lightning as they went. Bo perked up some after downing what must have been his third barrel of fluid, all supplied from that single wooden cup. Lu kept handing out pills while biting his lip, his anxiety building.
“[Surely this isn’t how things usually are, right? If we were expecting such stiff resistance, I can’t imaging Horrible Swamp would have sent only three men.]”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Lu was striding along beside the speeder, speaking in person rather than through an illusion. Which meant he could see Dreamfever’s eyes narrow in discontent, slightly distorted under the veil of water surrounding the craft. “[No, we didn’t think we’d be caught so far out. We knew they had a few strong men, and radar-capable vehicles and Junk and all that, but this amount of firepower…]” His teeth ground against each other. “[…But there is something. Can’t use it yet, though.]”
The seeming non-sequitur threw Lu off his stride. “[Pardon?]”
“[Your question, from earlier. I have a potion that will keep us concealed, but it will only last an hour and a bit – not enough time to both approach, and find your man.]”
“[Ah, I understand.]” A potion? So he is an alchemist of some sort, then. “[And you’re certain it works on humans, yes?]”
Lu received a scathing look. “[It works on anything with a pulse, in either direction. For all the hard bits you like to dress up in, you aren’t actually metal creatures – you’re meat, same as us.]”
Not exactly how I’d frame it, but… “[I’ll defer to your expertise, then.]” Not much I can do otherwise. “[And you have enough for all of us?]” And have you tested it against psychics? And you mentioned metal creatures, so presumably those partially-mechanical folk we just fought might be a problem. And-
Almost as though he could read Lu’s increasingly sceptical thoughts, Dreamfever snarled. “[Don’t worry your little head about it, human. Just focus on surviving long enough for it to matter.]”
Bone Softener turned, and spoke in a more diplomatic tone. “[The Warboss speaks rightly, Lu of the Steadfast Heart. Dreamfever learned poisons from the matriarch herself; if he says a potion will do something, then it will do that thing.]” Then his nose wrinkled, and the next moment his head wrenched skyward. “[Do you smell..?]”
Lu’s head turned, along with the other warriors’. Do I smell anything? He didn’t think so, but if he strained…
There’s something very faint. Familiar. He opened his senses, unfurling his spirit a just beyond the threshold of bearable. I can’t describe it. Clean and unclean, at the same time? Yes, like covering up a bad smell with soap, but not actually washing it away.
Almost directly overhead, the clouds were beginning to thin. Oh dear. Now that I think about it, the last time the lightning came down was a little bit ago…
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“This is a horrible idea,” Warmastra’s voice sounded out in increasingly clear tones. As the cloudscape rolled away, Fellhair’s radio was becoming more and more functional. “I have half a mind to order you to stop.”
“It is too late to stop.” For a moment, he was surprised at the sound of his own voice; nearly completely drained of energy, his body was deflating, reverting his speech back towards normal. A bad sign – he had used entirely too much power, more than he had meant to. “No, it is entirely outside of our hands, now.”
His brothers floated around him, drained to the last drop. Any more, and they might have started dropping, their Comprehensions simply failing. Fellhair’s next words were to them, rather than to the radio affixed to his belt.
“Everyone clear out! It’s coming!”
He received a few exhausted ‘Yes, master’s, the rest bobbing away without reply like tires suspended in mud.
Retreating himself, Fellhair spared the smallest spark of energy to peer upwards through the remaining clouds – and his mind’s eye was immediately blinded.
A horrible idea indeed, he conceded, eyes watering in sympathetic pain. But we cannot let so many strong enemies into our home. With the bulk of the warriors away, they could carry off a bounty of Junk with little effort. Or smash the foundries, or do any number of things. Better a bad idea than none at all.
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“[THE SUN!]”
Lu and Bo said it nearly simultaneously, their cries overlapping and echoing across the sands.
“[Fuck, fuck, fuck,]” the Warboss chanted softly. “[What shitty timing.]”
“[Shall we land? I don’t think we’ll make it to cover before it descends.]” Bone Softener was more composed, but there was still a kernel of nervousness in his voice.
Hu Kuon drifted in from one side, as the disciples started to congregate alongside the still-racing speeder. “[Is there a problem? Another enemy?]”
“[We’re stopping, yeah. Y’HEAR THAT? EVERYBODY HALT!]”
At Dreamfever’s command, the group drifted to a stop. The speeder threw up a cloud of dust as it dragged along the ground, while the disciples in contrast stepped lightly, able to cease their momentum at a moment’s notice.
“[I heard something about the sun. I assume you mean the hostile divinity?]” Ging was unruffled, speaking as though a potential murderous god was no different than a spot on unseasonable rain. The other disciple’s weren’t much different, a fact that made Lu’s stomach clench.
Don’t overreact. They don’t have the same experience you do; of course they aren’t taking it as seriously. “[I assure you, Sir Ging, we are in quite a lot of danger. We need to hide immediately!]”
Bo nodded. “[Lu’s right. I’ll make a little hollow under the speeder, and all you can-]”
Lu interrupted. “[No, don’t worry. We can all hide underground this time; the suits are airtight.]”
Bo blinked, then nodded again. “[Yeah, okay. Softy, gimme a hand here…]”
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Warmastra watched the Rotten Sun break through the artificially-thinned clouds, its bright liquid hate flooding over the landscape. Unlike a being of flesh, his iridon body was mostly safe from the deluge – not completely, but at this distance he would only corrode slightly.
SUFFER
MELT INTO WAX AND SCREAM FOREVER
The spiritual effects, he was less resistant to. But he would endure. Room-sized globs of sky pus rained down as the Sun continued to descend, his sensors refusing to perceive its shape accurately. His cores calmed minutely, their suicidal rambling dwindling as they resonated with the thing’s Comprehension.
They’ll be twice as bad afterwards… but for now, I suppose I’ll enjoy the silence.
But any enjoyment was cut short as the Sun got closer to the ground – and closer, and closer.
Is it..? His radio flickered to life. “Fellhair, you there?”
The machine was screaming out static, the presence of the False Successor playing havoc with the atmosphere. But just faintly, Warmastra could make out a voice. “-eah, I’m h-re. Pr-tty sh--, ai-‘t it?”
“Was the Sun always that big? That bright?” Seconds passed; if Fellhair answered, it was swallowed by the static. “Fellhair? It isn’t- it’s getting close to the ground! Fellhair!”
At some point during his panic, an alarm had started blaring in his internals. He glanced at it – temperature warnings flashed in his consciousness.
It was, according to his thermometer, well above the point needed to boil water.
And rising. His radio died completely as his outer circuitry began to fail.
His engine roared to life as he dragged the full weight of his consumption up, and stuffed it down into his thrusters.