52. WAR CRIIIIIMES
“Thwain, Tanner,” I called out as I approached the standoff. “How about we just take a breath, yeah?” I saw both men’s eyes flick to me briefly before returning their burning gazes to each other. Thwain flared his wings slightly, prompting a responsive twitch from Tanner’s sword.
“You first,” Thwain said coldly.
“Stay back!” Tanner yelled. “I’m not listening to your lies, either.” The healer’s eyes were red and his sword hand was shaking slightly. He adjusted his sweaty grip as I backed off a bit. The two exchanged a few quips, but the situation didn’t deescalate as I hoped it would. Apparently, Thwain had seen Tanner venting his anger out on slimes and had approached him about the invisible bodyguard/assassin. Obviously, the conversation hadn’t gone well. Their back and forth went in circles with my interjections falling on deaf ears. The confrontation escalated when Thwain acted.
The Gunner leapt back, beating his wings powerfully to launch himself airborne. Tanner lunged forwards, swiping with his sword. His weapon sliced cleanly through Thwain’s neck as the latter flew back and released a few shots into the nearby slimes. The monsters responded by rushing in, venting their anger on their closest available target. Tanner killed a few with his sword, but was soon pushed towards the portal as Thwain aggroed more and more slimes, shooting them down to leverage his health stealing passive in order to heal his gushing throat.
I rushed forwards, calling out to Tanner. “Hey! Wait!”
“For what? For you to ambush me like you did to my friends? You’re a monster, stay the fuck back,” he spat venomously.
“Monster?” I growled, continuing forward. “You’re the one with blood-sacrificing torturers stringing people up.” I stopped at the edge of the stone circling the portal. Tanner stood facing me, his back to the portal, one hand ready to poke the swirling quasi-liquid to zip away, one hand swinging his sword at the few remaining slimes. He scrunched up his face.
“Those are baseless rumors spread by an enemy faction. Obviously, you’d join in on that rhetoric.”
“I saw the bodies, dumbass! They were strung up and branded.”
“More lies!”
“Fine, whatever,” I said dejectedly. If he didn’t want to believe me, I wasn’t going to force the issue. Thwain tried. I tried. If he didn’t want to listen, I was done. “Go back to your cult and keep ignoring the atrocities that your people commit.”
Tanner scoffed, rolled his eyes, then he was gone, whisked away through the portal. When Thwain landed next to me, we debated the merits of carrying out the raid or waiting for another day. Thwain was far more convinced than I was.
“What did Yagmar do to them with the altar?” I asked, nodding back towards our compound. “She made them go berserk. Aren’t you worried about being… I don’t know… Influenced?”
Thwain shook his head. “I talked to her about that. It’s a skill that heightens emotions. It can’t alter them. These people are already rearing for a fight. Living in the slums, being beaten down at every turn… They’re all frustrated. We’re just giving them an outlet.”
“Do we need to give them an outlet? Just let out your frustrations on slimes. We don’t know half of what’s going on behind this portal. What if… What if we’re in the wrong?” I had stewed on the situation, but had only become more confused.
“Do you trust Yagmar?”
I scoffed. “Not even a little! Not after the altar shit. Do you?”
Thwain looked a little sheepish for the first time in a long while. “She’s driven. Knowledgeable. Powerful. Théo, she shook the Tower with a skill and then made an item-devouring altar. Even if you don’t trust her, can you really afford to go against her?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but reconsidered. He had a point. I had bought some goodwill with her by bringing her across the floor and giving her a pill that restored her body to peak condition. As long as we fed the altar and went with her plans, she had no reason to betray us. Still, that essentially made us her minions because we were too afraid to go against her.
I jolted as the earth behind me rose into the sky, sending slimes tumbling, whipping them into a fury. I sent Slimey out to quell the rising monsters and to stop them from piling into the tunnel.
“Hold them off!” I heard Pyro yell, then the newly formed wall split open and a crowd charged out. They were silent, as opposed to the earlier bellowing crowd, but no less determined. Jean’s trademark blue shield popped up, covering where Slimey couldn’t. Faces blurred by and I realized how little I knew everyone. I had spent most of the last week ferrying people across the floor and farming slimes, never spending more than a few minutes out and about in the base Pyro had set up for people that I still considered as randos from the Slums. Sure, I had met and befriended a few new people, but the more people that rushed through the portal, the more that I realized that I knew next to nobody. Burt gave me a shaky nod as he passed. Jean and I fist bumped. TG smiled triumphantly. Rella gave me a grin, then jumped through the portal.
As the last few people ran through the portal, I panicked, looking between Pyro and Thwain. “What do I do?” I asked frantically.
“Just go in and do your best,” a soft but firm voice came from deeper within the tunnel. Yagmar appeared, fully decked out in resplendent gold and red armor. She held a staff in one hand and a slithering dagger in the other. Her aura washed over me, filling me with confidence. I could do this. I could survive. No, I could help others survive. Swept up in the surge of confidence, I nodded once and followed Thwain into the portal.
I was expecting to walk into a bloodbath. I was expecting to need to throw myself behind a fallen pillar, running from cover to cover as I made my way towards the front of the church only to defeat the head priest in an epic battle that would force all of his grunts to surrender. What I got, however, were tens of spears, bows and guns pointed directly at my face. I slowly stepped to the side, Yagmar appearing next to me. We had portaled directly into a trap, the entirety of the raid force huddled together, their war cries never having been unleashed, and not so much as an arrow loosed from a bow.
A woman laughed imperiously from atop a nearby balcony. It seemed to have been constructed solely for this very monologue. She spread her arms wide, her hands barely poking out of the sleeves of her white robes.
“Did you really think we would be unprepared this time?” Her imperious voice echoed across the church. “Did you really think that we would not receive ample warning? Our Gods are strong. Active. Ours rule over the Tower while your snake naps.” A creaking beside me made me shoot a glance towards Yagmar. She was balling her fists to the point of bending the metal in her gauntlets, staring daggers up at the woman.
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“Imelda!” Yagmar bellowed. “You might have us surrounded, but we are far from broken! You might-” The Serpent’s Hand let out a cry as a trio of nearby spears jabbed at her side.
“Now, now. There will be no monologuing from you, snake wench,” the woman, apparently Imelda, chuckled. “We know how your persuasive abilities work. Don’t think we’ll just let you use them.” She cackled at the look of shock on Yagmar’s face. Just then, an explosion shook the front door of the massive church. Imelda cackled and turned towards the commotion.
“Just on time! Oh, Queenie! Welcome home! We have a different surprise for you this time.”
I looked around, catching a glimpse of the action through a mirror hanging on a wall above the barricade surrounding us. Red-robed figures streamed into the church, weapons raised. A second contingent of warriors from the Church of the Tower hurled prepared spells at the invaders while a massive cannon whirred to life. A massive blast of energy shook the church at the cannon fired, only to be deflected by an equally massive purple shield.
“Imelda!” A woman yelled from amidst the gathered gang members. “Did you really think we also wouldn’t prepare? We have danced this dance far too many times for me not to expect something like this.”
Thwain shuffled closer towards me. Our eyes met, the Gunner nodding slightly. I wasn’t sure what he needed it for, but he needed a distraction. I focused, trying my best not to telegraph my movements. When the cannon fired again, I acted. I summoned Slimey directly on top of the guards next to me, activating my necklace and hurling myself inside of his slime. Spears pierced Slimey from all sides while I scrambled to extract sheet after sheet of metal. Soon, weapons only pierced a few inches into Slimey before clanging off of reinforced metal shielding. It greatly reduced my vision, but the added armor more than made up for it.
I didn’t see where Thwain went in all of the ensuing chaos, but I caught the telltale glow of Jean’s shields and the clicking of Burt’s turrets warming up. TG conjured a totem, throwing it against the barricade. The first force pulse cracked the wooden walls. The second splintered wood. The third blew a hole in the entire fortification.
A magical formation appeared under Yagmar, pulsing a gentle blue as it seemed to freeze the [Serpent’s Hand] in place, draining the strength from her body. She tried letting out a string of curses, but it came out as a babble, then a burble, then nothing but a strained mumble.
With fewer attacks coming for Slimey, I used the reprieve to go on the offensive. I swung metal sheets with the entirety of Slimey’s strength, bashing and slashing at robed and armored guards. Through various testing, I found that slashing with the edges of the metal sheets worked best against robed figures, while bashing was the only effective method versus the armored ones. I made sure to absorb as much organic matter as possible to maintain my summon’s mass, but it was precarious at best.
Soon, Jean’s shields started to crack. Burt’s turrets fizzled out, relieving much of the pressure that was on the surrounding guards. The Church’s forces surged forward, but were cut off by trees sprouting from the ground at an incredible speed. Their spears proved ineffective against the living barrier, but they countered with skills of their own. Swords glowed, slicing cleanly through one tree at a time. Fire bloomed outwards, scorching bark and setting wood ablaze. Finally, an enlarged fist shattered the miniature forest, sending our people sprawling backwards from the blow.
Rella met the charge with whirling blades. She batted aside spears and gleefully plunged her two swords into chests. I swept forward, intercepting a cocky swordsman that tried flanking my demon. He was one of the guards that had sliced through trees with a sword skill. I shot out a slime fist, but he leaned back and cleanly severed the limb with a flick of his wrist. His blade barely slowed as it parted slime, then twirled around and came slashing down towards me. I dipped backwards out of range, trying to kite the man as he steadily advanced towards me.
The swordsman’s grin didn’t fade as we increased the distance. Once we had backed up enough, he made a show of turning around and walking towards Rella once more. I growled at the taunt, approaching once more. Once I was closer, he slashed his sword in my direction, even though he was still around twenty feet away from me. I panicked, steering Slimey to the side and partially up the wooden wall to my left. A shockwave of force sliced straight through a tiny tail of slime that was trailing behind us, gouging a furrow into the floor before breaking against the portal stones. I ground my teeth, but kept within range, slowly circling back and forth, trying to feel out the man’s reaction times. Rella was losing, however, slowly being pushed back, slowly being surrounded. She was bleeding from more than a couple of wounds. I had to do… Something. Something reckless.
When the second sword slash came, I rushed forwards instead of dodging. Slimey simultaneously brought six enhanced metal slabs in front of himself, stacking them neatly one behind the other in an impenetrable wall. Well, mostly impenetrable. Ish. That was the hope, at least. The sword projection parted dark green slime, then ripped straight through the first metal sheet. Another inch of slime was eradicated, then a second metal sheet. At the third sheet, the skill seemed to almost pause, being pushed back slightly by Slimey’s ever-advancing form. Still, the metal sheet split in half, then so did the inch or so of slime, then the fourth sheet let out an ear-piercing screech. It held for about two seconds, but then it was also bisected. The sword projection shattered as it encountered the fifth sheet of metal.
Slimey ate up ground as we closed the distance. Surely, we’d be able to take the cocky swordsman down before his skill came off cooldown. He had waited at least a minute between slashes, but that wasn’t guaranteed to be the shortest amount of time that he had to wait before using his skill again. I idly registered the dark blue flash of Burt’s blade skill as he joined Rella, pressing his back to hers as they were surrounded by enemies.
A mere eight seconds after the first slash, the swordsman sent out a second. I didn’t have time to curse as I had vastly overestimated his cooldowns. Slimey, though, was faster than I was. He brought the metal sheet halves slamming back into formation, one behind the other, just like before. The sword skill was far thinner than even the half sheets, though, so even the cut pieces of metal were wide enough to stop the skill. Plus, there were technically more pieces of reinforced metal, now that four of them had been cut cleanly in half. Another four metal rectangles were torn in half, leaving them as not much more than metal strips. Still, they had served our purpose.
We didn’t even slow as we approached the swordsman. Slimey simply rearranged the metal plates between my body and the swordsman, pushing me as far back in the slime as possible, then enveloped the man in a caustic hug, lifting him off of the ground. He swung his sword, though his swings were far less powerful as he was floating in thick goo. Even so, his sword cleanly cut through Slimey as if parting water, almost splitting Slimey in half with every swing. Despite his best efforts, the swordsman didn’t have the reach to bisect Slimey cleanly. As such, my summon simply smashed his cut sections back together, the wounds disappearing almost as fast as they were appearing. Slowly, the swordsman weakened. A lack of oxygen, combined with Slimey’s pressure and corrosive slime wore at the man’s defenses.
Panicking, the swordsman threw a flurry of sword slashes towards me. Sheets turned into halves, which turned into quarters, then finally eighths. The slashes didn’t stop, but rather turned, sent upwards, then outwards and away from me instead of towards me. I grinned as the madman sent his last few panicked sword slashes into Slimey, only for the strikes to exit the slime’s goo and smash directly into the man’s own allies as Slimey expertly flipped the man around, keeping a flurry of metal plates in the swordsman’s face to block his line of sight. He desperately sent out a final sword strike, then went limp.
I threw the man’s sword into Slimey’s storage just in case it had any special properties, then looked towards Rella. She was standing over a downed Burt, protecting the prone form with her body. The guards had apparently figured out her weakness and were standing just out of her reach, jabbing long spears at her, a few at a time. She blocked, deflected and chopped at spears, but had to take more than a few hits that I knew she could have dodged, all to protect Burt. I urged Slimey forward, despite my slime’s pitiful state.
A much diminished Slimey scraped and rolled more than charged after the dozen spearmen in a bid to help out. Four of the attackers turned and leveled their weapons at us, preparing to receive the charge. Just as we were about to clash, a massive explosion shook the church. Everyone around me was thrown to the ground, save for myself since I was suspended in Slimey, and a member of the Church that seemed to be levitating slightly off of the ground by the use of a skill or an item. People shouted curses, both out of pain and out of frustration. Through the gap in the wooden barricade, I could see that one of the church’s walls had been completely obliterated by the explosion. Wood, stone, glass and people were hurled across the church, smashing into the opposite wall with satisfying thumps and heart-wrenching squelches. Naturally, I used the distraction to pounce.