The inconceivable scale of Legends was finally setting in, as Kade struggled not to stare at the sun. The Keepers had told him in no uncertain terms that the time for questions was over, and they needed to prepare for the coming battle. The timing was impeccable, as a dozen or so people came into view just as they crested the next rise.
Edwin raised a hand in greeting, and several of those gathered returned the gesture. As they came closer, it became abundantly clear that not only were these other Awakened, but that Edwin and his small band were comparatively plain in appearance. While Graves might have fit in simply from his commitment to an aesthetic, even Nicky with her unusual wispy smoke attire was woefully underdressed. By the time they were close enough for Edwin to start speaking with the group, Kade was struggling not to stare–they weren’t just dressed more extravagantly, they were built more extravagantly.
The woman who approached Edwin and clapped a hand to the center of her chest, could have repeated the gesture with three additional massive hands. She was also half-again as tall as Kade, with disproportionately short, powerful legs. Her entire body was covered by layers of thick interlocking metal that seemed to glow softly with a green light, and her unhelmeted head showed green hair of the same shade, which was almost crystalline in texture. When she and Edwin began speaking, Kade was surprised to hear a light, pleasant voice emerge from the behemoth of a woman.
Kade missed the start of the conversation, as his attention was drawn to a half dozen other unusual members, each of whom seemed to have a physicality that was somehow in-line with their role. Two of their number appeared to be twins, at least from their near-identical appearance, and were actively on fire. The flames were bursting from the gaps in their close-fitting leather armor, with their uncovered heads were each capped in flames that reached well above them. They were hailing over Alara, who was obviously unconcerned by their appearance.
Quickly scanning the group, Kade spotted two shorter members that appeared dangerously skinny, and every time they moved it was in rapid bursts, that confused the eye. One had the hilts of daggers at his waist, while the other had some kind of long staff with sharp blades at either end clasped under one shoulder. Their skin seemed to reflect the light in odd ways, and it wasn’t until one walked closer that Kade realized she appeared to be made of small interlocking diamonds. The rest were slightly less unusual, but each had at least one thing that caught his eye: hands of stone, eyes of living flame, limbs connecting in an unusual angle or in an unusual location.
Noticing the gawking expression on his face, Graves appeared to take pity on him at last, “They’ve all reached the second step on the Ancestral Path,” he began, clearly aware of the education Kade had received from Edwin. “Whenever one begins a new Path–embracing their ancestral heritage–it’s possible to take on a physical aspect of that ancestor as well. These are often beneficial, as well as marking one in society as an Elevated Awakened, a warrior who has succeeded in taking a step in the footprints of Legends.”
Kade nodded, still staring in fascination. He finally managed to focus on Edwin and the impressive woman, already speaking, “This isn’t normally your scene Edwin. Your group is always a welcome addition, but in the past you’ve chosen the less dangerous work, what’s changed?” She didn’t sound suspicious, exactly, but Kade got the impression by the emphasis on changed that it wasn’t something she associated with the ax-wielder.
“My Keepers have been pressuring me to allow them to take on greater challenges for some time, and…well you know my terms,” Edwin finished cryptically.
“You’ve saved the lives of everyone here more than once, and some of these pups still look up to you as a grandfather of the Keepers, so if you insist on doing this, you’ll get your spoils,” she stepped closer and lowered her voice. “But you’re calling in all your chits with this entire group, as well as a few benefactors back home. This Elder is Class two at least, so we’re almost certain to find what you’re after, but you know how strictly the Order likes to control the economy. There are going to be potential Keepers that may wait years for initiation because of this.”
“Then they’ll wait, and I’ll weather the consequences. Trust me that this is…” Edwin trailed off for a moment considering. “Trust me Eleonora that this is necessary, and that it’s ultimately for the Keepers.” The powerful woman turned and looked directly at Kade, assessing him in some manner he couldn’t understand. Kade did his best to withstand the scrutiny, but he didn’t know what she had seen when she finally nodded once.
“We all trust you Edwin, you’ve earned that much and more. Our only hesitance is what this might cost you. I don’t know where you found this one, or what you think he’s capable of, but we know exactly what this world is like with you in it, and none of us are ready to lose that,” Kade was surprised both by the show of open emotion on the powerful woman, as well as hearing an external perspective on Edwin. He was certain he’d underestimated the man, and he’d estimated him very highly.
Before the self-described woodsman was able to respond, the earth shook beneath their feet. No one reacted in panic, but every warrior did react. Two more Keepers, each larger than average but not close to Eleonora’s size, moved back toward the clearing they’d all been gathered in originally, with the rest appearing to circle the two from a distance, some unlimbering weapons, others like the burning twins seemed to be concentrating and gathering energy. Less distracted, Kade finally tried to understand the scene a little better.
The clearing was roughly in the center of three hills, and large enough that a sizable neighborhood would have fit comfortably inside. Trees and rocks formed a natural barrier on the final side of the clearing, creating a battleground that would favor the Keepers to a suspicious degree. He soon noticed why, as one of the less eye-catching warriors, a strong looking man with exposed arms and dark black skin, acknowledged a request from a different warrior with a nod, then made a casual flicking gesture with his wrist. The ground under the second warrior burst upward, creating what looked like a natural cliff, high above the battlefield. Immediately several other Keepers jumped upward to join the first, and Kade realized the man was shaping the landscape to benefit the power sets of each member of the group.
The rumbling didn’t appear to come from the sleeveless man, however, as it was the center of the clearing that appeared to be the origin. “Minutes,” came the voice of Edwin, breaking the tension in the air slightly. “We’re under your command, Eleonora. Do we have enough intel to form a strategy?” The large woman shook her head while gesturing at several keepers to move into position around the clearing.
“A few vague, unsubstantiated memories of a minor King from the fourth generation. Another one who found a sad little corner of the world to rule until his own lack of ambition turned him to stone. From what the Seers claim, he appears to be a quintessential example of his age–tripedal, blade-like appendages for speed, using telekinesis instead of hands. Basically one more giant spider-monster from the age when they all seemed to live in caves,” she paused again as another Keeper floated up in the air to whisper to her. “I don’t care, you all know how to conduct yourselves.”
“Problem?” Edwin inquired.
“The Elder is letting out some unusual energy, possibly a mutation of some kind, it could be what made him stand out back in his day. As usual there isn’t much we can do until we see it, but it’s alarming the younger members of my team.” The ground rumbled once more, this time shaking everyone on their feet–though several simply took to the air, and more than one seemed to calm the earth around them, like the man who had made the cliff for the others. “It’s time,” Eleonora and Edwin said together, and all but the woodsman moved into position.
He approached Kade and spoke, seeming no more concerned by the imminent arrival of a savage Elder than he was with the day’s weather. “Elders will normally ignore anyone significantly weaker than themselves until every possible threat is destroyed–we understand it’s something tied to how they lived before the Calm. They’ll obsessively target the one they think is strongest, so you’ll likely be safe as long as you stay well back,” He paused, considering. “This one is unusual, the Chaos in the air…” He closed his eyes and gave the impression of inhaling, then he snapped his focus back to Kade. “Just stay back, it’s very rare for Elders to have any kind of wide-area attacks; they lived and died almost exclusively in duels, but be ready.”
Kade nodded and watched the man walk away, curious where he’d stand among the combatants, especially given what he’d learned about how Elders choose their targets. He wasn’t certain how to react when the Keepers parted to allow Edwin to stand at the very front. Even Eleonora made way, though she stood nearly in line with him. Now that they’d all gathered, he could see how the front-line Keepers were carefully positioned to prevent the Elder from reaching those who presumably used long-distance attacks; he could see Alara with one of the groups on the cliff.
Graves had gathered with two of the other Keepers with clearly humanoid forms, and guessed they shared his role as healer–though both were light to his dark, one in a bright blue, the other a shade of violet. That left only Nicky, who Kade spent nearly a minute looking for until she coughed pointedly from right next to him. “Look alive, new guy, or you won’t stay that way long,” before he could respond with a quip, she took on a serious expression and placed a hand on his chest. A moment later he felt an odd lightness to his body, but saw no effect.
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“That won’t activate until the first time you take a hit, then it’ll last less than a minute. Please use that time to run,” she smiled and darted off to stand with the two skinny, diamond beings. Kade briefly wondered whether she was made of diamonds under all those layers, but the thought drifted away as the ground began to split open.
There was an immediate sense of tension and anticipation among the Keepers as a crack continued to form, but Kade was surprised to see that it wasn’t much wider than a person. He was wondering whether this Elder might not enjoy the same towering scale as those he’d heard about, when light burst through the crack, spilling out and pooling in the air. For a moment it was too bright to see, then it resolved into a shade of deep purple, and slowly took on a shape. The thing was appropriately massive, though not half as large as Altera, Kade’s first Elder. The shape of it would have still made for a good sized building with four or five floors, and it was wider than it was tall.
Slowly the shape resolved into three, enormous legs, ending in blades like the cavern beasts, and those massive blades slammed into the ground then dug in deep as the weight seemed to slowly increase moment by moment. The three legs joined at a surprisingly narrow set of hips, with the back leg sprouting like a tail. Rising up from there was an oddly cylindrical torso with no arms, but a multitude of spikes, sprouting out from every conceivable angle. Several of these spikes emerged from the body, demonstrating that they were attacked by thin tendrils, which writhed slowly around the creature as it continued to form.
Finally the head came into being as the rest of the body finished solidifying, and its color resolved from the deep purple energy cloud into shades of gray, with that same energy pulsing in vein-like channels across its entire surface. The head shared the simplistic shape of the torso, basically just a large mound of stoney flesh, but it had no visible mouth, and a multitude of eyes of varying shapes and sizes. Looking at the monstrosity, Kade could only wonder which of the numerous horrific traits was considered a mutation.
The battle started almost the moment the creature finished forming, as it took a single glance around the gathered Keepers before locking its many-eyed stare on Edwin, and one of its bladed front legs rose up and then shot down toward him in a blink. Kade was certain he was about to witness his new friend’s demise, but the clang that ran out across the battle announced the truth before he saw it. Four enormous shields had interposed themselves in front of Edwin, one held in each of Eleonora’s gargantuan arms, and the blade-tip of the Elder’s foreleg had been deflected harmlessly past them.
The very moment the leg began to retreat, Edwin was there, hurling a half dozen axes into the body of the creature while swinging a single, absurdly large long-handled ax into the beast’s other leg. His attack seemed to announce the true start of the battle as Kade saw every Keeper spring into action. Waves of flame erupted from the protected cliff, as well as the telltale blurring of the air that announced Alara’s signature ability. Stone columns burst from around the clearing and drove themselves into the Elder’s flesh from every side. Kade eventually spotted the diamond-skinned Keepers flashing in and out of battle, their blades and skin both shining in Korthos’ bright rays.
Nicky was barely visible as she followed their lead, but was clearly much slower than her gleaming counterparts. Kade’s attention fell back to Edwin, who alternately shot forward to deliver powerful, methodical strikes, then back behind the protection of the enormous Eleonora. What he’d said about the Elder’s attention proved true, as it seemed barely aware of the other dozen or so combatants, swinging tirelessly at the man with the biting ax. Even Eleonora’s shields appeared to be nothing but an irrelevant obstacle for the creature, despite how effectively she was preventing its attacks.
Kade noticed the long-ranged Keepers were starting to have an effect, as enormous swaths of the Elder’s torso either burned or rotted off, but much like the rat Matriarch Kade had fought, this monstrosity seemed to be made of stone instead of flesh, and it reformed more than it healed, appearing to be rebuild itself as quickly as it took damage. After this cycle continued for several minutes, the spiked growths on its body began to fire out rapidly. Though some were indeed on tentacle-like appendages, many more were simply blades as tall as a man that shot out in every direction.
Eleonora and some of the others managed to deflect these attacks, but their rapidity and number meant that many more got through. Kade saw several Keepers, including Graves, suddenly impaled as the spikes slammed through them, but just like the Elder and the Matriarch, their bodies seemed to reform from tiny stones or crystals, and they healed rapidly before returning to the fight. Kade was curious what role healers had under the circumstances, but realized quickly that the brightly dressed duo seemed to be sending streams of energy into those who took damage, presumably assisting recovery.
This wasn’t enough, however, when three spikes improbably managed to slam into one of the burning twins at almost the same moment, sending the fiery man soaring off of the cliff to land nearly out of sight. Kade expected to see a healer rush to his side and looked back to the three, only to see them ignore the man entirely. He was about to call out to help the injured man when an explosion of flame and stone knocked him off his feat. The man was very dead, only a burning crater left where he’d fallen.
Kade wisely retreated further up the hill from the battle, not sure how to react to witnessing the death of one of the Keepers. When he finally looked back on the battle, he was gladdened to see that it was going surprisingly well, given the circumstances. The defenders seemed to have managed to contain the majority of the spiked projectiles which fired randomly and were only an occasional threat, and the creature’s legs and tentacles were completely occupied by the seemingly unstoppable team of Edwin and Eleonora.
Feeling somewhat safer, Kade managed to simply watch the combatants for some time, curiosity at their various abilities at least temporarily overpowering his caution and fear. As the minutes slowly passed by, he noticed patterns that surprised him. While the Keepers were undoubtedly destructive to a ludicrous degree, and a multitude of hits were landing on the gargantuan Elder, they seemed somehow…aimless. Blasts of energy, fire, and stone crashed into the monster with almost no delay, but they rarely seemed to target the same location, or possibly to even target at all.
Kade supposed it was the nature of how beings reformed in this world, but there seemed to be almost no consideration to what should be attacked. It was like a grudge match where everyone was just trying to do as much damage as possible as quickly as possible, with little sense of coordination or care. While it seemed to be working, albeit slowly, Kade wondered if battles of attrition were really the only way to fight. Surely there were flaws to the tactic as Kade could plainly see that the location of the attack did have an impact on the damage it dealt.
The creature’s bladed legs, for instance, seemed capable of shrugging off all but the strongest attacks, usually those from Edwin’s ax, while the ranged abilities that managed to reach the creature’s face seemed to have a comparatively devastating effectiveness. It was all academic though, to Kade, who suspected there were factors at play he simply didn’t understand, and he had no illusions about his own grasp of combat tactics being superior to anyone, let alone those who fought monsters for a living.
He was settling in for a prolonged–if visually interesting battle, when everything changed in a heartbeat. The Elder had begun to glow more and more brightly as the battle raged on, and it appeared to be reaching a sort of climax when a purple light exploded outward from the creature’s chest, permeating the battle and appearing like a thick fog. There was a tense moment where everyone seemed to look at the purple fog in confusion, and then everything happened at once.
Kade felt himself slam into the ground, his head sideways and thankfully giving him a view of the rest of the clearing, letting him see the effect as it happened. Every combatant looked like they were being crushed by invisible rocks, as all but Edwin and Eleonora crashed into the ground, most unable to move at all. The two frontline combatants didn’t do much better, with Edwin collapsing to one knee while Eleonora fared only slightly better as she valiantly raised her shields above them with desperate strength. It proved necessary as the attacks continued unabated, the Elder clearly unaffected by its own strange ability.
Perhaps this was the unknown mutation, Kade thought, as none of the Keepers seemed prepared for it. An enormous crash then drew his eyes as the cliff the long-ranged attackers had been using collapsed in an enormous pile of rubble and debris, burying the Keepers under tons of rock and earth. Kade was certain he was witnessing the end of a lot of very brave people when a wave of darkness washed over the battlefield, seeming to devour the purple fog as it slowly climbed upward. The two powers seemed to push back and forth against one another, before reaching a kind of stalemate barely high enough for the Keepers to stand again, but they wasted no time.
Several ranged attackers managed to extract themselves from the rock that had buried them, and resumed their relentless attacks. Edwin and Eleonora did the same, and Kade managed to regain his feet to watch. His eyes found Graves first, who was the source of the darkness now permeating the battlefield. He was obviously lost in concentration, and shaking from the strain of whatever he was doing to force back the Elder. They could only hope the battle would end before the man succumbed.
Looking around, Kade saw that was an empty hope, as the ranged attacks were likewise dropped by the strange, crushing weight the fog imposed. This left every attack connecting with nearly impervious bladed legs, and the tide of the battle proved to have shifted ponderously in favor of the Elder. Looking up at it, Kade could see that the center of the being’s chest was still glowing brightly, light and fog pouring out. He heard Edwin’s voice ring out over the battle, “The Core is exposed! We need to destroy it!”
Kade looked around, hoping the Keepers would somehow change tactics upon hearing this revelation, but quickly saw that there was little else they could do. Despite the ineffective nature of their attacks, none had ceased trying, but desperation wasn’t making their attacks any more effective. Kade looked at Edwin, hopelessly trying to rally the Keepers in some kind of plan, then to Graves, who had fallen to his knees, a single hand raised above his head, seeming to push with whatever he had left.
Then Kade did something stupid. He reached down, grabbing fistfuls of chains, and ran into the battle.