Their legacy, a poisoned birthright,

While I remain weeping in the now silent night.

-Thoubose

SKULLS

The settling dust in the corridor slowly allowed the faint daylight to persist through, its feeble glow from both ends finally able to push through the onslaught of explosion debris. As the dust further cleared, the dim illumination of day managed to just penetrate the chamber, casting a meager light upon the center market district where the remaining skulls kings stood dazed and disoriented. The three trying to regain their wits after the raucous detonation filled horror, they somewhat brought onto themselves, had finally ended. Much of their gem powers significantly depleted in their fight to stay alive amongst the chaos. The extra explosions from every single dying skull a major cause for the abundant need of extra gem aided defense.

The road was a gruesome sight, strewn with body parts, blood, and viscera. Among the carnage lay what could be identified as remains of the Skull forces, a grim testament to their utter desolation. The countless victims had fallen prey to pandemonium, their lives now lost. As if mirroring the brutality, the causeway was also lined with hundreds of cattle carcasses, the once-thriving Fredrickson herd now reduced to a macabre aftermath. The chaotic rush of the herd managed to dislodge the first third of the cattle bodies attributing to the stampede which became wedged and frightened once explosions started rattling through the corridor. But, propelled by the terrified force of the stampede’s inertia, the back half of the stampede brought a brutal end to the gruesome blockage with a sickening pop that could be heard kilometers away, even though it was enclosed in the tunnel of Dunrock. The remaining herd not daring to stop once their path was set and freed into open air, cleared well past the end bridge and into the northern open plains. The few stragglers still hurdling and pushing through the rubble within the market district to catch up, others still screaming out in pain here and there with terrified grunts and calls.

“Where’s the baby!” Grim coughed as he stumbled to his feet. Objective still driving him forward, as it was life or death. “Men?” he looked around, expression turning to shock then horror as his eyes registered the scene around him for the first time.

“They are all dead!” Ranjoon agonized as the semi redoubt he formed around the kings with his gem lost its hardened cohesion, slowly crumbling into a mound amongst the rest of rubble in the tunnel. Burn marks from their other two gem type defenses clearly visible in the debris and amongst some of the corpses in the near vicinity.

“The baby’s at the north end of the tunnel?” Wraith wheezed the question, grabbing Ranjoon to lift him out of his seated position. Stepping to the middle of the corridor to double-check his tracking, he furrowed his brow in puzzlement, struggling to locate the target in the limited light. A task his gem wouldn't have found challenging. However, multiple head injuries had introduced a slight delay to his efforts.

A loud swoosh sounded next to Ranjoon, a swift whiff of air tussling his dreadlocks as a thud hit the adjacent floor tile. “Wraith? What the Krom was that?” the voodoo man’s voice quivered as he looked over to his comrade, illuminating the area with a rune only to realize Wraith’s head was currently separated from his torso as the second thud from the body collapsing to the floor sounded through the corridor. Not again.

“Shoulda just left us alone, fools!” a bald, stout, exceedingly large half Valarian half Montu called from the ominous lighting illuminating from Ranjoon’s rune as the purple miasma from the short-range teleportation slowly dissipated around the faint light. His arm turning from a bright violet hue back to his skin’s complexion, as he bared his teeth. The two remaining skulls withdrew with gem enhanced movements, huddling together in a defiant stance, their tenseness a vivid manifestation of seething rage.

ROMAN

“You should know that tracking people is considered extremely rude.” Roman jeered at the remaining two skulls as Thomas and him approached Alfred’s flanks, uncloaking from the shadows in a menacing show. Roman, then taking point as the two adjusted.

A standoff ensued as the two groups eyed each other, their fallen comrade not seemingly enough to drive them into immediate blind action once the two other Gemini emerged. Theo and Gerald remained in a passage tunnel near the north bridge, ready to flee through a hidden passage or trek north depending on the outcome of the next few minutes. While Sloan was deceptively hidden at the south end, laying a number of traps in case an ambush was needed. Ranjoon taking the brief reprieve to assemble his earthen armor onto his frame, rubble clicking into an encased stature around the man.

“Screw you soldier boy!” Grim spat at Roman’s feet, the epitome of defiance gripped his expression. “Wraith was a brother.” The immediate effect of the two gems’ passive cohesive defense became evident as it activated in a rage filled burst of scorching heat that emanated directly from Grim's body. The short incendiary explosion pushed Ranjoon back and left his shoulder singed and smoking from the fleeting purplish-red hue of color that flashed and remained actively surrounding Grim. A quick yelp and scolding look exchanged between the two, before their focus returned on their enemy.

“You picked the wrong soldier boy to mess with. You lot had my daughter killed, we aren’t close to even with your thug brother’s death or any of these men.” Roman gestured to the remanence around them, a less ornately runed spear unfurrowing from its position overtop his left arm, exposing a left bracer full of lit up runes, rubble from the ground slamming into Roman protectively as he sent out his own taunt. Alfred taking the moment to pull the giant rune encrusted sword from its position on his back, the blade almost as tall as himself as a faint purple glow of his defensive shield surrounded his body. Thomas gripping his trusty war hammer, happy to have his choice weapon back. It was a mithril runic weapon that dazzled with a radiance of elemental hues from the many runes embossed on its frame. Thomas radiated an immense heat as his preparations settled, a heat that Roman and Alfred welcomed, a feeling of a controlled battle lust washing over them while the skulls were met with a searing pain the closer they were to him.

“Meeting you like this, for the second time, I can say I only wish I was there at the beginning. Things might be different now if I just handled our own business myself, and I could have slit her throat in front of your face. That would have been an additional treasure that I might not have appreciated as much as I would want, right now.” a barrage of magenta, marble sized spheres manifested in Grim’s palm as he threw them at the three, taking the time to direct Ranjoon back in the aftermath.

The spheres detonated midway through the air to their target, creating concussive bursts that splashed magma in their path when they exploded. It was a swift two-step attack that pushed them off guard with a concussive blast that then engulfed them in a searing, acid-like embrace. Luckily for the Fredrickson’s, Roman was at the forward position allowing them to quickly duck behind him when they felt the spheres manifest. Roman's earthen armor wasn't as fortunate. The material started corroding away, emitting a sizzling, smoking reaction as large chunks of rock melted from existence. In response, Roman swiftly discarded the affected sections of earthen material, promptly replacing them. Yet, even on the ground where they fell, the corroding pieces continued to be consumed, eating away at everything it contacted.

The Skulls, using the bought moment, had Ranjoon create a defensive fortification from the stone tiles lining the corridor’s path. A massive amount of opal energy then emitted from the makeshift bunker, Roman, Alfred, and Thomas each readying to merge together into a defensive shell, anticipating the worst as Grim blinked out of existence, the power instantly leaving with the burst of purple smoke.

“Long Range Teleportation to the south!” Alfred had a bemused expression as he noted the discharge to the team. The squad taking that que to release their defensive positioning and moved on Ranjoon’s position. “Ya boy just left you here to die, he could have jumped you with him. What a coward.” Alfred yelled over to Ranjoon.

“We’ll see!” Ranjoon had a wild look in his eyes and a crooked grin, as he began manically blasting earthen projectiles from their places in the near vicinity, directing them towards the Valarian’s positions, trying to keep the men from advancing further.

The way he said it sent a shiver down Roman’s spine; concern being pushed to the back of his mind as they engaged. Alfred blinked into Ranjoon’s range behind the crude skull barrier, his sword poised for the slash. Ranjoon parried the incoming blow with his own steel, followed by the next three. The might of the enhanced sword caused massive ripples in the unenchanted skull weapon, each blow evidently using runes by the various non-purple flashes of light as the connection of the parries struck and runic lights extinguishing along the ancient blade. The last blow shattering the enemy steel in half regardless of Ranjoon’s gem enhancing its durability. Thomas used the distraction to cleave into Ranjoon’s kneecap, rushing in from the exposed side, a coordinated effort that had been engrained in the two brothers.

The earthen armor shattered around the blow that struck with a purple flash, runic exhaust fully de-illuminating a rune from the hammer’s shaft. Ranjoon swiftly fell to his knee as it buckled and activated his armor’s contingency without hesitating. His entire composition of armor sprayed violently in all directions from him as he shadow-melded into the darkness, limping as quickly as his gem enhanced body could move with such an overwhelming injury, his leg barely hanging on at the kneecap. His gem stealthily helped him vanish from sight as the squad shielded from the spray of shrapnel. Thomas and Alfred's runic armor enhanced their reactions with the other essence types, the connection to their gems better suited to communicate with their abilities in the designed array embedded. The defensive runes easily negating the close-range projectile damage as they had the proper reactionary runes activated almost instantly.

They easily shrugged off the seemingly meager pebbles without expending much stored essence from their impressive ancient runic armor. Fissures in the ground began to open and swiftly close before swallowing anyone as Roman and the now invisible enemy battled for supremacy of the earthen domain. This was something Ranjoon was finding to be extremely futile against Roman’s gem, but worth the attempt under such duress to keep their advance from reaching its deadly conclusion.

Before Roman had a chance to enter the fray further and expose the invisibility, they felt the pull of essence, alerting them of a large amount of power being expended. The massive opal disbursement paused them in their tracks as a purple flash reappeared next to their position behind their enemy’s makeshift barrier. Grim had returned with someone else, a power none of them had felt activated before that day.

The being stretched up, reaching his full towering height. Four glowing stones curtained behind a vail of flowing liquid magma that hugged every inch of the man, its color an ethereal burnt red and indigo blue that didn’t comingle as they danced in a flowing motion around him, the two large monarch gem spheres at least double the size of Roman’s were no doubt causing the effect. That left no question on who this monstrosity in front of him could be, Erik Ozouf, King of the Norrænns. The other two gems with him were less in size, more than likely crude gems that were collected for the Ozouf lineage over the centuries, they caste a white and green glow through the defensive vail along with the two larger spheres with their subsequent glowing colors.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

A discharge of force coming from the man’s body blasted Roman and company violently from their position behind the skull barrier, which was near the location the teleportation brought the two back. The blast erupted with bright hues of all four colored gems. Regardless of their defenses, the power of the attack was enough to throw them destructively into the air like they were weightless. The three hit various walls of the market square in different areas, cracking each of the surfaces where they impacted, from the wicked force they were sent careening in.

“You don’t have any power left do you Skull?” the voice boomed to Grim, as the man looked down at his comrade with distaste. “You feel spent.”

“I had to use all the rest to get you here.” He cowered in his position, backing up until his back pressed against the barriers edge.

“And you thought it would be wise to send me into a den with three Valarian Gemini. Are you really this incompetent or are you actually trying to have me assassinated?” the tone ice cold, and direct.

“I only had enough power to jump one back, but I know you wouldn’t have any challenge. Its either that, or we lose chase. It’s the last chance we have to grab the baby.” He hesitated before finally admitting “We failed.” Grim gestured to the carnage, something that caused Erik’s brow to furrow in annoyance as he took stock of the scene around him for the first time.

“So you did.” Erik rose his hand, a rising bubble of magma as viscous as water pushed forward from it as he sent the buddle towards Grim’s face. “Our agreement with your faction is null and void.” A gruesome sizzling sound gushed from the impact as the bubble popped and the contents of boiling liquid lava enveloped Grim, a horrific scream finally cutting out after the acid worked through his throat, eventually melting everything but the gems he possessed like a leaf dropped in boiling acid. Erik looked manically at his hands and the decimation in front of him they had just caused. “I think I can get used to this ruby gem!”

“Holy crap Rome!” Alfred yelled over as he got up to his feet, dazed from the impact.

“Yeah, get to Theo and Ger, start a portal for the group of us, pick as far as we can all get. Save all your power for that. Thomas and I will be there in two minutes.” Roman switched to a language their commanders used, to avoid the common tongue near enemies who could use that against them. He used the brief respite to also pull more boulders onto his armor composition, bulking himself into a miniature rock golem in the process.

“What about Sloan?” Thomas yelled over as he got to his feet, cracking his neck as he prepared himself for what was to come, briskly moving to Roman’s flank for their battle formation.

“We will have to send word after we get out and she will have to catch up. There won’t be enough time to get her.” Roman reluctantly said as he started rapidly moving in step with Thomas, towards the King’s position.

Alfred blinked out of site as the other two didn’t hesitate to engage, grabbing the kings full attention. Erik now fully focused back on them as he charged a concentrated blast of wind that would have knocked Roman over if his golem like composition wasn’t rooted to the ground, Thomas secured behind him in formation.

Before Erik could grab the gems, Roman began to cause the ground around him to rapidly fluctuate, bubbles of ground and fissures violently turned the area around the King into a pitfall as Thomas moved around for an open attack. Thomas sending a barrage of fire missiles which caste a bombardment of more than twenty fire projectiles to burst towards Erik, a stream of lightning erupting from Roman’s staff as the two began strategically backstepping towards the tunnel end and salvation.

Thomas, using the reprieve of the blast to push from his position for another key hammer blow found himself hurdling through the air as the full weight of Erik’s defensive reaction erupted at them. All of their projectiles harmlessly exploding around him, not causing the man to so much as flinch. Roman, even being rooted found himself bouncing along the floor of the cavern this time, stopping thirty meters from where he was initially impacted. Fortunately, they were headed in the right direction.

The blast left the front portion of Roman’s armor scorched and battered, leaving his body exposed and bleeding in a few spots from the destructive force. Thomas, slow to rise from his ride, was saved by his gem enhanced fire immunity. Otherwise, he might be missing half of his face from that shear heat, now just badly burned. Käl quickly added armor back to Roman’s golem like composition automatically, direly assisting Roman further to stagger to his feet with a pulsing twitch pushed into the makeshift armor.

Roman, shaking his head from the incessant ringing that had just started. Stood defiantly at Erik, blood staining his teeth. Both men refused to back down. Alfred, staggering up from his much farther journey down the tunnel’s expanse, got up and jogged to reform position next to Roman, as Roman back peddled in stance to meet him.

“Who the Krom are you guys?” Erik asked the men in astonishment, seeing the level of grit and experience displayed before him as he rose up in the air to a hovering position above the ground, looking to negate any further ground attacks.

“We’re the defense you should have faced before you cowardly drowned our people.” Roman scowled at the man in defiance.

“I don’t see it as cowardly to remove a large obstacle without much effort, we are years ahead with this strategy and didn’t even need a siege that would have been impossible in Caesar.” He scoffed. “Give me the baby and I’ll make the rest quick.”

“You slaughtered innocence!” Thomas bellowed.

“He’s too strong. We need to make a heavy retreat before he starts really attacking.” Roman whispered over to Thomas in their other tongue.

“Your innocence, if this is going to be my land, there will be no place for them in the future anyways.” A wicked grin cast through his semitransparent vale of defense.

“Scumbag!” Thomas yelled as he and Roman began back peddling down the corridor, while throwing as many projectiles that their gems could manage as they moved. Deploying an array of gem enhanced abilities, ranging from lava bombs, fire missiles, and seismic tosses to shrapnel strikes, stalactite drops, meteor showers, ember grenades, fissures, and boulder throws. The group utilized every weapon in their arsenal that could be swiftly cast, albeit with a slight reduction in their lethality, all directed towards the king. They even went as far as releasing their armor’s arsenal of offensive runes any chance they could, between the gem’s attacks.

Before they knew it, they were in a full sprint backwards, Erik cockily moving slowly to chase as he absorbed the continuous barrage of the attacks with ease. Only shielding his eyes here and there from the brightness of Thomas’s explosive projectiles in the low lighting, not from any damage. With the last glimpse of the platform as the men ran towards a hopeful salvation, Roman noticed the two gems from floor near the ashen remains of Grim disappear, a smile forming on Roman’s lips as he hoped it was Sloan to pick them up, or at least that the gems wouldn’t be aiding the Norrænn war effort any time soon.

He and Thomas would be dead right now if Ozouf had an opal stone. Roman stopped after he got a good distance from the Norrænn king who was lazily sauntering after them in a taunting fashion. This was no more than a walk in the park for him, the way he made the effort of defusing every one of their attacks seem. Roman stopped and flashed a frenzied smile as Thomas continued down the tunnel, a mocking look caste toward Erik who stopped in place, trying to figure out the man in front of him. Until it donned on him and his eyes went wide as he further began to understand his surroundings and his enemies thought process. A deep underground understanding.

“Hope we don’t see you again.” Roman bellowed a laugh as he collapsed the entire tunnel in front of the King who had let them get too much distance in his overconfidence while hoping they were leading him to daylight for him to quickly finish them with massive, ranged detonations, unbeknown to them. The earthen wall seemed to fall almost like a wave of water, the way it cascaded onto itself. Roman, jumping on a flat section of lose tiled flooring, rode the wake of the aftermath debris that forced itself through the tunnel like a surf rider.

He snagged Thomas along his path easily with his bulky golem composition and gem enhanced grasp on the makeshift board before the rubble made its final resting halt. The immediate pull against his earthen domain became apparent as the king worked to shield himself, luckily the kings unenhanced peridot gem lacked the individual strength needed to burrow out quickly against his gem’s domain. And now, the entire tunnel structure collapsed all the way past the trade district. Nevertheless, Roman could feel through his connection to the ground Erik’s heartbeat was pounding with the fury of a demon, areas around him turning into slag as he began clawing out of the trap.

“No way we are taking him down.” Roman looked to Thomas disdainfully.

“Live to fight another day.” Thomas returned his look with a sorrowful expression. “You try to pop him like a zit with the ground pressure?”

“Of course, his other gems are too strong, the shield is impenetrable even with a couple thousand tons of rock on top of him, its just melting quicker as I push. Now he might liquify all of Dunrock on his way out” Roman replied, the two men needing no more details as they turned and picked up their run down the remainder of the tunnel.

“What in Thouboses name was that Roman!” Gerald called over as Roman and Thomas made their way to the end of the road, Alfred glowing in concentration. Theo watched the glowing spectacle, wide eyed in amazement, open mouth displaying his happy and unaware toothless maw as he reached the best he could to get closer.

“We needed to buy some time; I was hoping it would kill him.” Roman quickly responded as he surveyed the direction they came, ready for anything at this point.

“Kill who?” Gerald asked impatiently.

“Erik Ozouf, we tried to collapse the tunnel around him as you can see, but sadly he is still alive.” Thomas responded stoically. “Al didn’t tell you?”

“By the Acolytes! The Norrænn King, here?” Gerald’s mouth gaped open, astonished before responding. “Ever since I got to Al, he’s been pretty focused as you can see. He’s channeling all his power.”

“Either way, yes the Norrænn King and he's every bit as terrifying as the stories suggest,” Roman admitted, dispelling his earthen armor as the group gathered around Alfred.

“The sheer power he exhibited, it was as though we were mere playthings in his grasp,” Thomas muttered, his battered form a testament to their overwhelming sense of inferiority.

“He’s pushing his way though, pretty quickly. How much more time you need Al?” Roman nervously looked between Alfred and the rubble enclosed side of the roadway. He could feel the surge of power from all of Erik’s stones, a massive expenditure he didn’t expect would burn out before reaching the team.

“I am almost there.” Alfred said through gritted teeth.

“What about Sloan?” Gerald looked to Roman.

A quick light burst pushed from Roman’s stone as he forced a message to Sloan. “That’s about all we have time for. She should be able to make her way, we can give her instruction when it feels safer. Hopefully that didn’t give her away at the other end, with the tunnel collapsed and focus on us.”

“Where to?” Thomas looked at Alfred whose eyes were now closed in concentration.

“I can only manage to get us to the eastern boarder of the Leandro Kingdom. The place we used to visit with Dad when we were young.” Alfred replied, sweat starting the cascade down his brow as he deeply concentrated on the task, his gem glowing more vibrantly than normal.

“Aye, from there we run. And we don’t stop for a month this time.” Roman vowed to the group.

“Aye.” The two others agreed in unison, not having any reservations on that topic after the deadly ordeal they were currently escaping.

“We didn’t get to blow the bridge.” Gerald shook his head in disappointment.

“Eh, it will take a lot to make that road serviceable again, we did good enough.” Thomas admired the blockage before the group huddled together.

“Ready?” Alfred checked with the team, waiting moments for an objection before the portal opened in front of them and they all jumped in as quickly as they could. The group blinking out of existence with a massive plume of purple smoke once the portal instantly closed as the rubble in the corridor turned red hot. A circle of pure heat began burrowing through the wreckage as moments later King Erik Ozouf burst through the blocked corridor, liquified material collapsing around the hole in his wake.

He missed them by mere moments, the agonizing echo of his rage reverberated across the river valley, seething the failure of the skulls. A king, now compelled to traverse his solitary path back, alone. His fury intensified, hovering above the unfolding devastation while he thought of the time wasted on the fruitless hunt already. As if to further mock him, Dunrock and its connecting bridges crumbled into themselves, succumbing to internal wreckage. The once-majestic fortress, its structural integrity irrevocably compromised, disintegrated into a tempest of dust that enveloped at least a kilometer of the surrounding landscape. The grand keep, reduced to rubble, stood as a haunting testament to the King's missed triumph. “Krom, it’s going to take a lot of power to find that opal now, in this mess…” he looked on with distain. “It will be worth it though!”