Chapter 42: Doorway to Destiny (Part 1!)

A tool that is broken is fine. It can be fixed, but a tool that outright refuses to be one, well… that’s no good.

“~Don’t let her escape!~” Runtaii shouted, as the whole structure of the ship shuttered and buckled. At times, Amir and Vega were forced to walk on the walls to keep running and forced to hop from the floor to the walls.

“Get back here.” Sabere used two climbing picks to hold himself to the wall, bracing for whenever the ship would tremble. The air felt like it was shaking, like they were in a massive throat. “This is not over.”

“Keep going. Don’t stop-stop.”

“Wait.” Kaliba cried out as the walls of the ship shattered apart. A massive hand swung through the boat, sending the scarecrow and Amir flying up into the hot spore sky. High up in the clouds, they had seen three gargantuan figures laying waste to the harbor. One of them was hidden by the geysers of water right next to them. Mushroom skull and layered cake teeth poked out of the geyser, as ears the size of paddles flanked from the sides of the Blight Elf’s head.

“Now that’s one hell of a plan!” Vega roared, barely able to keep a hold onto her pickaxe as she soared in the air.

She felt a weight come to her, followed by Amir coughing. Then Amir’s body, Then Amir’s face. And finally the frigid water below them. Large webs of water splashed out, as the Tripolian swam out with Vega sitting on his back, much like a bird in a nest. She held onto his satchel carrying a helmet.

“~How the hell are we still alive?~”

“Persistence.” Kaliba answered.

“Silly Kaliba, what they have is called pestilence.” Vega educated her bird friend, admiring the Blight Elf’s monstrous form. In the sinking ruins of the vessel, Runtaii climbed out, balancing himself on what remained of the ship’s mast. Lending hand down, he pulled out a water soaked Sabere. His cutting eyes broke through all of the chaos and struck Vega.

“What-what’s the matter? You want to test me?” She beckoned him forward with her hands, smiling with just her lips. Amir pushed her up a few feet, next to a ladder leading back up into the harbor. More leaping then climbing, Vega was excited. Now, more than ever, she was happy to commit to combat.

Pulling herself up with her metal right arm, she rolled onto her feet and scanned all around her. Scores of Tripolian organized in boxed formations backed up or retreated from the Blight’s Elf, regrouping to higher positions. Individual pirates took to running or standing their ground, hurling stones flung from slings or ax headed arrows into the Blight Elf’s flesh.

“~Terrible conquerors. Protect the Iozians.~” The atmosphere quaked as the Blight Elf called out, as if the very air could not hold the Elf’s tremendous voice. From out of the sea, extended a mighty wrinkly hand. On its fingernails were shrooms that split open both the skin and nail like an infection. The spores spread from the openings, making the port a hideous yellow.

Broken bricks fell into piles, as wood suddenly burned with no source of fire. The Blight Elf destroys any system of life, or protects it.

One of the Blight placed its foot through a warehouse, splitting it open like a rotten fruit. Its toe fell near to a group of Iozian pirates pelting its shin with slinged rocks. As its shadow grazed over one of the men, he immediately flattened into black spot. No gore, no blood, not even a scream or sudden gasp. Instantly, the pirate was reduced to a colored speck on the ground.

“Amir! We got to find Skaldi and Ren, and then-then escort the people out of here!” Reaching back down and hanging to his shoulders, she wrenched him up fast. Seeing the destruction all around him, he gave only two coughs as a reply.

“Vega. Amir! I’m right here.” The redhead raced to them, with a line of Iozians behind him. Holding onto both the backpack full of battle plans, he ran with his full chest in front. “Ya never told me Amir was here.” Vega rejoiced in laughter. The three led the group along, acting as the eyes of their escape. When a squad of Tripolians ran past, they ducked down behind a broken house.

“I never said I went alone. Now let’s keep moving. All together, they hid behind what rubbish and destroyed ship parts they could. Each time they waited for the Tripolians to pass by or run away, the Blight Elf’s ruined more of the town. Not only this, crushed the systems of geysers, allowing the air of the settlement to become more putrid.

The Blight Elf by the sea finally exited the harbor and entered into the town, showered down onto the three mangled fish and other sea creatures.

“I sure hope-hope Ren is okay.”

“By the way, where did you say he was again?” Skaldi stayed focused on the paths ahead of them, careful to keep track of all the forces there. Tuning out his sense of smell along with his taste, he improved his vision to better at concentrating on multiple targets. Yet, his lack of a second eye hampered the effectiveness of the ability, having only a modest mapping of the area.

“He should be back at the bridge. Unless something went wrong-wrong, he will be there.” The crushed bones of a ship were thrown right next to them, making all cower behind cover. “I don’t think-think we should be worried.”

“You really should.” A shadow’s scornful tone chimed in. Like ink in a bottle, the team of Assassins spilled out. Sabere in front with two werefolk standing tall and strong. The were horse in red painted steel had foam coming full its mouth. Atop the were oryx’s horns was reinforced iron with spikes and blades. The two snarled simultaneously, making the crowd of Iozians cry out in breathy groans.

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“~Fuck.~” Amir cursed.

“Do what he said.” Vega shrugged to the people, hoping that whatever he had said was something related to their survival.

“You have a lot to answer for. Look at what you’ve done.” Saber cast his arm to the ongoing battles in the streets, with the Tripolians continually being pushed back.

“What we’ve done? You’ve been killing people ever since you got here. All we wanted was to get out. And that’s exactly what we’ll do.” Skaldi drew a pole from his shoulder and dragged along the wet stone floor, creating a ray of sparks before them.

In his hands, he armed himself with a blue metal polearm, known as a glaive. This was the weapon of the Galtian tribe.

“Don’t be so sure. Pride only suits Iozians, elf.” Sabere plucked an arrow from the quiver on his thigh, holding a war bow in his hand.

“You say pride, and I say damn right.” Skaldi tipped the end of his glaive to the ground, betting on his persuasiveness. “If you don’t stop those Blight Elves, you're going to end up stuck here.”

The young assassin held no contest in this fact of the situation. Whistling a horse signal, the two were folk assassins ran off to deal with the Blight Elves, leaving Sabere alone against them.

Vega slowly shifted forward, with Skaldi opening the satchel on Amir’s back and quickly putting on the helmet in gladiatorial fashion.

“Ya shouldn’t do this to them.” She gestured her head towards the crowd. “Ya shouldn’t do this to ya.”

“What makes you think I’m doing this alone?” When Sabere finished speaking, Runtaii creeped out of the shadows aswell.

“~What they said was true. I thought they might have gone mad. Ari Amir, the bastard adopted son of Ani Arma.~” Runtaii and Amir began to circle around each other, with the sea crashing waves behind the old Tripolian.

“~Runtaii. I held you when you were but a lad. Seems you remain a child now.~” Amir pointed with a spear and a set of javelins on his back.

“~Oh. Never knew red brick had skill with insults. How's this one, who has a wounded daughter?~” As he laughed, Runtaii spun his cutlass in his hand and beat his chest with a buckler shield.

“~Who’s going to return to his father in ten pieces?~” Amir shot right back, prepared for any verbal encounter. As the two postured, Skaldi handed the map Vega used to get to the port over to one of the Iozians.

“Head to the bridge at the entrance into the town! You’ll find a mermaid who will help you. Follow him and you’ll be safe. Go!” He pushed the crowd off with the mass of people heading off in the direction and disappearing behind a cloud of smoke spores.

Only five feet away from Sabere, Vega’s boldness grew still. Thunder bolts thrashed in the land and sea, creating explosive burning all around. The scarecrow felt the feelings that come to every fighter before combat. That unease and enthusiasm that takes hold of a body and mind, together the fury of the soul.

“Ya are outnumbered.”

“Haha! You really are an idiot scarecrow.” Unhooking the lamp from his hip, he opened its cap. Vega scooted a foot forward, half expecting oil in it. For a moment it seemed like nothing was there.

Then, like a rockslide, the lamp rattled and flew out of Sabere’s hands and landed on the puddled floor. The yellow lamp beamed rays of violent blue light as a thick cloud came out. Waves of water swirled skyward, forming a tornado of toxic blue water and smoke around the lamp. Everyone braced, sliding backward as a hurricane of wind blew out. Sabere crossed his arms and smiled at the magic.

When all the smoke and water dissipated, Amir, Skaldi, and Vega’s faces were full of awe. The smoke gathered itself in muscled shapes and unfriendly design, mist manifested into a scimitar big enough to crush a man. From the lamp, the smoke took on the form of a monstrous genii!

“Arise!” Roaring out, the voice of the genii rivaled the power of the Blight Elf. “I will grant you the honor of dying to my blade!”

“Here goes nothing!” Skaldi threw what remained of the ceramic pot at the genii, covering him in the substance that brought over the Blight Elfs.

“You’ll regret all that you are.” And with that chilling threat, Sabere fired off his first few arrows, as everyone started to fight one another. Runtaii and Amir danced with their blades, every thrust and parry becoming the beats to their rhythm.

Skaldi and Vega were immediately pushed back, with the genii swinging down at the cleaving ground into segments. When the genii didn’t strike, Sabere arrows forced them to keep moving back, everso close to hitting their target.

They knew that they only needed to survive until the Blight Elves got over to them, but how long could they wait? Skaldi dodged away from the seaside of the port, aiming to split up the genii’s and Sabere’s efforts. Pulling the genii away and grabbing the attention of whatever Blight Elf he could was his target.

Judging himself fitter than Amir, Runtaii went on the offensive. He imagined that Amir would respond with a counter since he had a much longer reaching weapon. However, whenever he’d push forward, Amir would give ground.

Frustrated that he wasn’t giving him a proper fight, he extended far fast. A crashing wave rained water over them and onto the ground, causing Runtaii to slip to his knees.

“~I just had this cleaned.~” Runtaii cursed to himself when Amir lunged forward at him, the spearhead gleaming in moonlight. Barely able to stand back up while going off balance, he deflected with his buckler. His response of slicing down with his cutlass was blocked by Amir’s armor, allowing him to keep the advantage.

In a pursuit of a dangerous kind, Vega had an incredibly difficult time, since Sabere had needle accurate precision. Sliding behind ruins and hooping over shattered dockyard walls, Vega’s movements had been followed by screeching arrows. Keeping herself underneath a crumbling wall, the scarecrow noticed that Skaldi had left the backpack on the ground.

Holding her body close to the ground, she crawled low and underneath any cover, be it the broken ship or the bodies of pirates or Tripolians.

“Show yourself Vega. What kind of a name is Vega anyway?” Sabere’s voice came from further away, giving her the assurance needed to jump out for the backpack.

Throwing it open, she dug for the ball bearings and flare. Tying the bag of balls on her side, she held the flare in her hands. A tiger tail like fuse in a shell of paper made the flare’s body, with long burning black powder as its system. Pulling on the fuse would ignite it fast. In all its operations, it was similar to a firework except that it burned longer in the sky. She had to risk its use.

“Hey Sabere!” Vega called out, hearing his footsteps approaching at a cautiously slow pace. Right beside her was a trench that had been cut out by the genii. Pulling herself into it along with the backpack, she waited for the assassin to get closer. His shadow fell onto the broken ship, becoming pure black as thunder struck.

When his shadow stopped before Vega’s trench, she popped out and held the flare in front of her. Despite this, Sabere was nowhere to be found.

“Where could ya be?”

“Right behind y-” Vega, unmoved by his play, twisted around and fired the flare directly in his face. A vomiting sun grazed his cheek, searing black on the right side of his face. A black shooting star was below his eyes. He nearly fell back but kept himself upright, grunting through gritting teeth.

“What’s the matter, something in ya eye?”