Salarus knew that Sorcery had a glaring weakness that wasn’t shared with most other Paths–the need to gather power from external sources, often chanting and making specific movements to shape the energy. To account for this, Sal has pushed himself through concentration exercises and tests of every kind, once even completing a spell while impaled through the torso. As he felt his eyes pulled back and forth between the sight of Jothus–desperately grappling with the transformed Elder pinning him to the ground–and that of the monstrosity rising from beneath them, he felt that his training had still been lacking.
Knowing the survival of his team was likely to be decided in the next few minutes, Sal fought every instinct and squeezed his eyes shut. He tried to focus only on the sound of his own voice, even as the ground beneath him shook and threatened to pull him off his feet. Gate was a dangerous magic, and he had limited experience to draw from; the creatures he called forth were very real–not simply a conjuration–and breaking the bounds of the spell could have disastrous consequences.
Sal ignored the screams of the Keepers he knew had been holding back the horde. He ignored Ryndal’s pleading voice asking what to do. He ignored everything but the feeling of the magic, and at last reached the end of the spell. “Let my enemies feel your crushing grasp!” He finished, and his eyes shot open as the world ripped apart. The Gate opened in a ring of fire, directly above the Elder they’d been sent to slay. Slowly, far, far too slowly in Sal’s eyes, the grizzly arms of the Forgotten Demon reached forth from the liquidy black portal.
Salarus had used far more power than the somewhat unusual application of the spell that he’d employed in the arena, and for a simpler purpose. Before the two twisted and deformed arms had completely unfolded, a second pair joined them, grasping hungrily for their prey. In contrast to their slow emergence, once fully manifested in this realm all four arms snapped forward, each one grasping one of the dark, arachnoid limbs piercing into Jothus’ sides.
For a moment they strained, the ghastly, exposed tendons growing taught as they pulled the limbs backward. Sal furiously fed more power into them, and the Elder roared in pain and fury as the multi-jointed legs were extracted from an agonized Jothus. At last they were pulled entirely back, some of the joins even snapping backward under the pressure of the relentless demon who was also draining the behemoth’s lifeforce with each passing moment.
The moment his body was free, Joth disengaged his Soul Power, finally able to return to normal size without being obliterated by the limbs that had been buried in his torso. Immediately Gwen was there, sending wave after wave of ice into their foe, capitalizing on its distraction. Salarus slumped forward, relief only slightly outweighing his exhaustion. Thankfully the abomination he’d summoned would be able to maintain its connection for some time so long as it was able to keep feeding on the struggling limbs.
Sal’s relief was short-lived however, as he was finally able to take in the realities of the situation his team was in, now that his concentration was no longer on the spell. The newly arrived Elder was larger than the one they currently fought, and he could tell the moment he focused on it that its power was far greater as well. Keeper Selina was currently engaging it as best she could, but even bordering on Quartus she was achieving little more than preventing it from going on a rampage.
Only the creature’s bulbous head had emerged from the ground to join its dozen or more tentacles, its several sets of eyes searching around independently on its slick, green-black face. Regardless of whatever horrors the rest of its body might hold, it was already disrupting the battlefield to an alarming degree, the tentacles continually whipped out to grab at Keepers–and even monsters–trying to drop them into the circular, teeth-filled mouth that appeared to be on the top of the Elder’s skull. Sal saw more than one Keeper tossed into the horrifying maw that Selina wasn’t quick enough to save.
Sal didn’t have to look for long to see the numerous problems his small group was faced with. For now they were far enough from the new arrival not to be tempting targets, but even putting aside the direct danger of a second Elder, the monster had appeared between them and the front lines of the Keepers, cutting them off from reinforcements and retreating, both. Matters were made worse as the line of Keepers preventing the horde from swarming them was now stretched too thin as they not only lost members, but fought without the overwhelming power of Keeper Selina.
Many of those Keepers had only been raised in the last year, and without the stabilizing presence of a powerful leader they were panicking. Some actually charged deeper into the ranks of monsters, the Flaw no doubt driving them forward, as others abandoned their positions to reinforce Selina, whether driven by loyalty or something else, Sal couldn’t guess. Regardless, it left his small team with a grievously injured member, an enraged Elder, an advancing horde of thousands, and no easy path to safety.
Salarus forced himself to think as he sent out blasts of air to push back the horde on his side. Thankfully the arachnoid-Elder was still distracted by its strained limbs, and it was actually bending backward and lifted halfway off the ground by the disturbing arms latched onto it; they had some small amount of time. “Gwen, I need you to return to your side and hold back the horde.”
“I’m not leaving Joth!” came a furious reply as the waves of ice cutting into Elder didn’t slow.
“We’ll be overwhelmed in moments if you don’t,” Sal replied tightly, barely restraining his own frustration. “We’ll keep the Elder distracted while you work, but we can’t fight it and thousands of lesser monsters.” When the ice still didn’t slow, Sal screamed in rage, “Gwen! Don’t let the Flaw turn you into a mindless beast. Jothus and the rest of us need you! Now build a damned ice wall!” The attacks seemed to slow for a moment, before a small voice finally replied.
“...okay,” was all she said, and Salarus saw ice rising up and impaling monsters moments later. That would buy time, but didn’t solve their problems. He risked a glance to the other battle as a globe or intense gravity secured a small side of the flank he was protecting. Selina had been pushed back, and he was sure there were fewer Keepers standing with her than had been only moments before. She was a remarkable Elementalist, but her powers lent themselves to mass-destruction of lesser beasts, not a titan like what she now faced.
Sal forced himself back to his own battle, knowing he had to trust that the more experienced Keepers would somehow manage to deal with the tentacled monstrosity. There must have been a few brave warriors directly behind their own Elder, and that area appeared secure for the moment. Sal could even see some commotion deep into the horde suggesting one or more had managed to carve deeply enough into the beasts to cause surprising mayhem.
That left Sal splitting his attention between the monsters on his side–which he was now alone in defending–and the increasingly berserk Elder that was turning its attention back to the small party. They needed to keep it distracted, and Sal had already used his best card for that. “Ryndal,” he said while pulling out the staff his Master had gifted him, “we need to expose its Core. Can you climb up and attack it from behind? It shouldn’t be able to effectively counter if you go right between where all those limbs emerged.”
An incredibly relieved voice responded almost immediately, “I can do it. I can do it!” Sal barely caught the small shape darting up one of the enormous legs, and nodded in satisfaction as blades began tearing into the monster’s back. Sal’s own spell completed only a moment later, and lightning began to chain from his staff into the advancing horde. They were now close enough that Sal had to physically engage them occasionally, and after swatting away several wolfren and one particularly determined bipedal lizard, he begrudgingly gave up the mana regeneration Anton provided him and unleashed the Stone Aspect on the horde.
Once more Salarus tried to take in the state of the rapidly evolving battle, thankfully seeing no change in the duel Selina was desperately fighting. Gwen was also managing to hold the horde on her side back with a massive wall of ice, but some larger beasts were pressuring her just enough to keep her from engaging the Elder once more. Running low on options, Sal spoke to their downed member, who seemed to have shakily regained his feet. “Jothus, I’m sorry to ask, but can you still fight?”
The deep voice replied shakily, “Soon, my wounds have closed, but there’s a lot of internal damage. I can probably throw some stones, but I don’t think I’ll be able to engage the Elder directly again if that’s what you need.” Sal cursed, though he expected the answer.
“For now see if you can switch places with Gwen; add stone to the ice wall if you can. Gwen, we need to distract the Elder, are you with me?”
“I’m with you,” she replied simply, and soon he saw her race out in front of the colossal creature, armored in a thick layer of ice, and clearly desperate to get revenge for Joth. Thick cones of ice began to manifest all around her, before spearing forward to carve into the massive, bent body of the Elder. Sal took a moment to check on the Keepers behind their target, but was confused to see the monsters there seemed to be tripping over one another, many even turning around–presumably attacking the Keepers so deep into the horde that Sal couldn’t see them. He decided to risk putting his entire attention on the Elder, knowing that they were running out of time.
The massive creature had either given up on trying to free its trapped limbs, or simply decided that Gwen’s attacks were more irritating, and was now swiping enormous, clawed hands at the small Elementalist. Knowing that he was even less capable of taking the creature in a head to head fight than Gwen, Salarus instead flew up into the air, hoping to get a view of the damage Ryndal had managed to inflict. Sal’s stormcloud still lingered above them, crackling with power just waiting to be released, but he needed the right moment, he needed the Core exposed.
Frustration poured through him as he soared into the sky and the Ryn came into view. The man was putting in a remarkable effort, and he was essentially tunneling through the Elder in a horrific display of violence, but it was simply too slow. Sal cursed his own powers, something that he rarely let himself do. He would defend Sorcery until the day he died, but the elements he’d Awakened were ill-suited to this type of combat. Wind and lightning could be used in numerous creative ways, but blasting through the thick, ancient stone-like flesh of an Elder simply wasn’t one of them.
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Something else caught his eye from his new vantage, however, and for a moment he couldn’t process the sight. There was no sign of any Keeper who may have charged madly into the horde behind the Elder. Instead, he blinked in disbelief as he took in the enormous web of chains, weaving through the battlefield.
***
Kade was in over his head. It had taken more than a week to find his way to the Keepers, and the journey had been filled with many of its own dangers. When he’d at last spotted the monster horde he was now lost in, he had planned to slowly make his way safely around it, joining the Keeper lines when he was able. That had all changed when he’d spotted the unmissable form of Jothus rising up, and crashing into an even larger Elder.
Kade wasn’t foolish enough to think that the countless Keepers he knew to be holding back the horde would send Jothus into an unwinnable battle, and he’d quickly raced up a nearby rise to get a better view. He hadn’t been surprised to see flashes of ice reflecting in the afternoon sun, but he was surprised when the unmistakable combination of wind and lightning announced the presence of Sal as well.
Kade had needed to stop himself from racing forward then, reminding himself that Sal joining forces with Jothus and Gwen would make for a devastating team. What he’d seen next had been too much for him though, as the horde of monsters seemed to shift nearby. Kade felt the source of the disturbance before he saw it, as the rumbling earth heralded the passage of something massive. His eyes opened in wonder as something passed beneath the army of monsters, knocking them back carelessly as it advanced like an unstoppable wave toward the two giants locked in combat.
Kade knew of nothing else that could possibly reach the scale of what he’d just witnessed, and he was sure his friend was about to be caught between two Elders. He didn’t let himself hesitate, or even think before he summoned a fully restored Drake to his side. A moment later he was ready for a hastily improved maneuver, and found himself being swung faster and faster in a circle around his loyal companion. When the silver familiar reached its limit, it rapidly returned to its gauntlet form, leaving Kade sailing through air, directly into the horde.
Kade managed to form a protective ball of spiked chains around himself before he landed, crashing and rolling through the ranks of monsters before bursting out, twin longswords carving a path. He pushed his Relentless Pursuit to its limits, focusing on the massive Elder to make sure he was running toward a target, and getting the most speed possible from the skill. There were still hundreds, if not thousands of beasts between himself and the unmissable battle of titans, and Kade knew he wouldn’t be able to hold anything back.
Drake burst out in front of him, and a moment later silver spears were flying in every direction. Some were simply there to impale the more dangerous monsters that would likely be able to slow Kade down, while others acted as anchors for black chains to latch onto, and soon the pair were not just charging recklessly, but weaving a web of black and silver death across the battlefield. Some lines of chains were thin and razor sharp, using the momentum of the charging beasts to slice them apart, while others acted as tightropes for Kade to jump to and from.
It was still an incredible distance, though, and many of the beasts were like the ape-creatures he’d gotten used to fighting, possessing all-too-human hands to grasp at him, slowing his progress. Soon Kade was forced to discard one of his blades, instead sending near-continuous blasts of wild, Chaotic energy into the beasts as he cleared a path. He had finally gotten used to the second function of his Chaos Energy Blast, and now seamlessly transitioned from the version he was more used to–wild untamed force–to the more costly and volatile explosive energy, and dozens of monsters simply winked out existence with each wave of his hand.
It seemed like an eternity before he was close enough to be able to see Salarus through the masses of enraged beasts, though the man’s back was to him as he focused on some spell. Kade almost lost balance when he saw what Sal was focusing on, as the Elder had apparently sprouted four new limbs, each of which was buried in Jothus’ sides. Kade knew he couldn’t move much faster, as the the monsters were more tightly packed the closer he got to the front lines, so he merely kept running.
It was only moments later, however, that he found himself leaping onto some helpfully placed silver chains overhead. The rumbling had returned, and close enough that many of the beasts he’d been cutting through had fallen into confused piles. Kade only had enough time to see giant, terrifying tentacles burst from the ground near his friend before he had to go back to slicing at the grasping hands and chomping mouths of determined monsters, but he knew that Sal was in more danger than ever.
He redoubled his efforts, falling into a rhythm of swings and blasts of energies that felt increasingly natural, and soon he was making slow, steady progress once more. He was elated when he could finally see the line of Keepers holding back the beasts, but that was replaced by disbelief and confusion as he saw some running for the tentacled Elder, while others seemed to be in a frenzy, charging into the ranks with no regard for their own safety. Kade managed to fight toward one of the latter, only to see the woman torn to shreds before his eyes, as she’d somehow ignored several large wolfren as they locked powerful jaws into her body.
Kade wasn’t sure if he was witnessing some madness brought on by one of the nearby Elders, but it was quickly apparent that he was the only thing standing between the horde and Sal’s small group being overrun. Steeling himself, he changed tactics, and hundreds of bladed chains fired forward, impaling the monsters that tried to reach his friend. As he dragged them back, Drake was suddenly there, clearly understanding what they needed to do, and silver spears fired out once more, followed quickly by a web of chains walling off the path to the Elder.
Kade was worried about holding the whole line himself, but realized he wouldn’t be alone as a wall of ice appeared to one side, and an extremely determined Anton bowled into the other, backed up by countless chains of lightning. Kade directed Drake to fire more spears into the area around the rolling boulder, acting as lightning rods and securing the area further. Kade refocused on his own defenses as the thousands of monsters pushed against him and the makeshift barrier of chains.
When he at last managed to get another clear look behind him, he saw the horrifying hands that Sal could now summon gripping the nearby Elder, and felt a moment of relief before he saw the other Elder doing far more damage. It appeared to be eating anything it could reach indiscriminately, and enormous waves of fire washing over it were the only thing slowing it down even slightly. Kade had some sense of the power in those flames, and could instantly tell he would be of no help against the second behemoth.
Instead he focused on movement on the back of the six armed titan, and saw someone he didn’t immediately recognize slicing away with remarkable speed. Images of Keepers carving into the exposed Core of the Elder that he’d fought what seemed like a lifetime ago ran through mind, and Kade immediately understood what the man was trying to do. Kade could easily see that they had little time and less hope, but he knew how he could help.
His chains were weaved throughout the horde, many either so small they were ignored, or sharp enough to be avoided, and Kade was about to make use of all of them. An explosion of Chaos cleared a space, and Drake kept it clear as a massive wheel appeared in its center. Without wasting a moment, Kade was there, pulling with all the strength he had, and Chainsaw began its grizzly work.
Hundreds of beasts seemed to roar and scream in pain all at once, and horribly bladed chains snapped and pulled from every direction. Silver spears were yanked from the ground, adding to the mayhem as the wheel turned faster and faster. Drake was there suddenly, no longer needing to hold back the pained and maimed monsters for the moment, and silver chains took up the task.
Kade didn’t waste a single heartbeat, and when he turned to race toward the nearby Elder, he saw Salarus, high above him. There was a beeping from his bracer a moment later, and Kade mashed it with a hand by reflex. “Kade, I can’t wait to hear what the hells happened to you, but for now Ryndal needs your help on the Elder’s back,” came Sal’s voice. Kade resisted asking how the Sorcerer was speaking to him, instead running directly up an enormous leg.
“It’s good to hear from you Sal. I take it we’re carving our way into this thing’s Soul Core?” Kade replied.
“I only need it exposed for a moment. As soon as you see it, I need you both out of there as quickly as possible,” said Sal. “Ryn isn’t as fast as you are, can you take him with you?”
“No problem,” Kade responded as he jumped over the man he now knew to be Ryndal, the one who’d been with Jothus and Gwen in the training arena. He didn’t know much about the man’s abilities so he gave him as much space as he could, landing slightly further up the Elder’s back. Instantly there was an enormous two-handed ax in his hands, and he began to carve and hack in time with the dark form of Ryn, who didn’t pause his assault to acknowledge Kade’s arrival.
Kade blocked out everything but the task in front of him, letting himself get lost in the brutality of it. As enormous chunks of the stone-like flesh came off the monster, Kade added a continuous blast of Chaos to the attack, finally finding a good time to use his eyes for the ability, with his hands occupied on the endless rise and fall of the ax. Nearby, Ryndal equally held nothing back as he worked side by side with some kind of clone that duplicated his every slash.
At last a burst of energy exploded outward as the Core was finally exposed. Kade flew backward and crashed into something hard, only then realizing the two of them had carved so deeply into the Elder that the wound was deeper than Kade was tall. Ryndal had stopped attacking as well, and was panting while staring at him, one hand outstretched. Sensing what was coming, Kade gripped the offered arm and let Relentless Pursuit carry them both up side of the Elder’s ruined back.
Kade already had one of his escape chains anchored to the ground, and the moment they emerged it pulled them rapidly away from the monster and its ruptured Core. As Kade landed, struggling not to let Ryndal slam into the earth next to him, Sal’s trump card made its appearance. A grin split Kade’s face as his eyes went to the storm clouds churning above them, and with an ear-shattering concussion of thunder, lightning ripped into the exposed Soul Core of the Elder.
The massive creature arched backward, its disturbingly featureless face splitting into a pained roar. Lightning ceaselessly came down from the cloud in a blinding display, and only Kade’s Energist vision allowed him to see the Soul Core glowing through the thick skin of the Elder’s chest. Its own energy seemed to be tearing its way out of the creature, and Gwen apparently saw the opportunity for what it was, as a single, massive spike of ice speared upward from the ground, directly into the glow.
At last the lightning seemed to slow, and as the Elder kept thrashing, Kade worried it wouldn’t be enough. But apparently Salarus wasn’t through, as he once more soared through the air, landing on the Elder’s back the moment the lightning bolts ceased. The tall man had his staff raised high above his head, and seemed to stab downward with it as he disappeared into the crater that Kade and Ryndal had carved.
Whatever happened next appeared to be too much for the mortally wounded Elder, and it finally, blessedly went limp, only the four hideous, demonic arms supporting it. They’d won, it seemed, and it had taken everything they had. Kade was relieved, until he looked back toward the Keeper lines. One Elder down, one far more dangerous one to go.