Chapter Eight Hundred And Sixty Four – 864 |
Beef stood upon a hill in a forest of widely spaced trees just south of Elderthrone. He could see the walls rising up above the forest, and the hill upon which the Chanter's school sat like a witch's castle.
Witch's mansion? Eh. That's not as fun to say.
He looked around, eyeing the forest as he adjusted his grip on his hammer and shifted his shoulders. Hallow clung to him, her crystalline armor like a second skin.
"Remember, Beef: the Giants, led by Evie and Battlelord Ari, are over the hill to the north, nearest the Bitterward itself. Vess, Yin, and all of her flying lizards were to the east.”
“I know, we've gone over this.”
“You just need to protect both directions. That is it. Our Risen will handle the rest."
North and east. The location of their banners and designated strongholds in the game they were playing. Beef had come up with the idea, of course, modeling it after capture the flag back home. Evie had altered it, adding kill conditions as well, which made the entire game a bit more hardcore than Beef had anticipated.
He studied the terrain. "How far to the Dragon's Den?"
His armor glowed, a blackened green light welling up within its crystal facets, and off in the distance, a dozen pair of eyes saw a dozen different views. Beef could see them as well, a gift through his connection with Hallow, but it was hazy and watered down. It was far easier to let Hallow handle those particular tasks. All those perspectives made his head hurt.
Beef adjusted his grip on their banner. It was a simple structure of wood and cloth, with a hammer and horns hastily painted on it.
"What about Evie?” She was someone Beef was very worried about—he’d never managed to beat her in a spar.
“Her and the Frost Giants are engaged with Yintarion near their own banner."
“Oh,” Beef smiled, relief easing the knots in his neck and back. “That’s good.”
Hallow had their Risen spread out over the whole battlefield. Small things like birds made the best scouts, and they were easy to miss, usually. His armor hummed, Hallow's eyes glowing across his breastplate before blinking in shock.
"I've lost sixteen Risen scouts."
Beef turned in the direction of their loss. He could feel the severed connections like contrails of dissipating entropy.
"How far?"
"Three hundred strides and closing. They're in the trees."
Beef flared his Perception. He wasn't as developed in that area as some others. There was chaos all around him as the three armies clashed, but he could hear the hissing whip of concentrated air Mana.
"They're flying fast.” Beef set Bedlam on the ground, grinding it into the green grass. "Hard to target."
Entropic energy flowed through Beef, passively now, soaking into him from the environment beneath his hooves. It felt weird, but it was very useful. He pulled at it, actively hauling it from the world around him. Bugs like gnats buzzed around the fields, but whenever they drew close to him, they died instantly. There was far less entropic energy there in that lively field, but where there was life, there was always death, and his will and intent were more than enough to pull out what he needed.
"Remember," Hallow said, "we're trapping, not killing. Those are the rules of the duel."
"I remember."
The bugs dying was a side effect he hadn't been able to avoid. Extremely weak creatures would perish when he drew on the entropy of an area, but he learned to contain it around himself like an aura or a cloak. Beef didn't like the idea of all the small critters around him dying just to power his attacks—it made his skin crawl. He had more than enough Mana inside his core space to supplement whatever he needed to produce. Right now, he just needed an anchor.
“Entropic Paradigm.”
Chitin rolled through the ground, unseen and unheard, moving faster than Beef could ever run. It surged into the trees, splitting around trunks and low shrubs, rejoining and splitting again until a web of chitin extended out into the forest for a hundred feet.
“C’mon out, you little jerks!” Beef shouted.
A sharp hissing cry split the air as the sound of two hundred wings flapping shook the canopy apart. Elemental Mana flowed like a rainbow stormcloud, swirling around the Hatchlings as they emerged. After tangling with them twice now, he’d learned that they knew words and had very thin skin.
All at once, ninety-nine Hatchlings shot out of the trees, claws extended.
Beef gestured, and his own claws rose up. Chitinous constructs burst from the anchor points he’d made beneath the earth, each a wide claw that snatched the Hatchlings out of the sky. With an effort of Will, the fingers of the chitin claws tightened, binding their flapping wings.
"Ha!" He said. "Ninety-nine points."
Each opponent they captured or rendered unable to fight earned them a single point in the System duel. Commanders were more of course, with Evie, Beef, and Vess each worth one hundred points a piece. The banner’s, however, were the real prize. If they could steal a banner and return it to their own base, then that entire team was taken off the field, and their points were won by the thief.
A blur whipped through his cages, shattering every single one with precision strikes from the arcanite spear she wielded without mercy. Beef's display rattled back down to zero.
"No fair!"
"Quite fair, Beef!" Vess soared upward, right into the sun. Beef squinted after her, but he lost her. Only for a second, yet it was enough that when she dropped, spear first, he was not ready.
Hallow was.
The arcanite glaive skipped, gouged into the extended tail of the Multipede as it rose up around him, and Beef barked a laugh before bringing Bedlam to bear. Vess twisted her glaive, boring a wider hole into his Risen’s hide before leaping backward, just ahead of Beef’s swing.
"Ruinous Ram—!" Before Beef could move, his crystalline armor seized his legs, planting them firmly into the earth. He jolted forward, abs screaming at the sudden switch up. “Hey! Hallow?”
The Multipede rumbled and the Sharpwing Matriarch whizzed by his head to give chase to the Dragoon. It shot after Vess in a flurry of razor-sharp wings and lashing tail.
"I have her, Beef. Stay here and assist your army," she said through his breastplate.
Gah! Beef twisted the haft of his hammer. He wanted to fight. Straight up. He was sick of waiting.
“You agreed to this plan,” she reminded him.
“I didn’t realize it was gonna be so boring, though.”
“Worry not,” she said and Beef felt her attention shift toward the treeline. There, the trunks and leaves burst into flame. “Defend us.”
Beef laughed. “Yes!”
The Hatchlings flew forward, their crimson and orange members leading the charge. Their breath was unleashed upon the meadow, the underbrush, and the trees around him until Beef was surrounded by a field of flames. Even low leveled and before their first Evolution, the Hatchlings were weirdly strong, and the heat alone was punishing.
“It’s not enough. Entropic Paradigm!”
Hatchlings met chitinous walls that speared out of the earth before folding over the burning meadow. Deprived of oxygen, the fires were instantly snuffed out. The Hatchlings squawked in alarm, banking tightly to avoid his structures.
Smart little lizards. Beef sniffed as they fled, flying around the meadow like a flock of birds. They were so colorful, and their magic had a scent to it that punched through the smoke. It was a medley of things, too many to count, but it tingled at the edge of his memory. He tracked them as they circled, magic pouring off them like smoke. It smelled like green things, like—
Like that little mouse monster we fought. It was called Grum or something, right? Why is that? Didn’t Yin make a deal with it to Evolve? Does that have to do with the Hatchlings? Why—Wait, Beef blinked, scanning around himself. Where’d they go?
With a screeching roar, ten Hatchlings dropped down from above, pile driving Beef into the dirt. The dog-sized lizards latched onto his head, shoulders, and arms.
“The same tactic two times in a row, Beef?” Hallow chastised him.
“I was thinking!”
“They have our banner!”
Beef jerked his head up. Sure enough, a white-green lizard was holding onto the crossbar of his banner and was trying to fly up. He threw one of the green Hatchlings off his arm, bashing it into one of his chitin domes, and snatched the banner pole. The white-green lizard screeched at him, and the other nine bit and clawed at him.
“Any time now, lady!” Beef shouted.
"Raaah!"
Fafnir roared, launching from behind a nearby tree and slamming into the Hatchlings across his chest. The rest scattered, fleeing from the bigger Risen as she snapped at them with her black jaws.
Beef stood back up, securing his hold on the banner again. “Don’t chase them, Fafnir!”
She of course didn’t listen. Fafnir body-checked the Hatchlings, taking down one after the other. Cursing, Beef resolved to chasing after her with his power. He stood by his banner, free arm outstretched as Entropic Paradigm flared across his hidden anchor points. One after the other, he caught every Hatchling that Fafnir downed into chitin cages.
“Don’t hurt them, you willful little—” Beef muttered to himself.
Blackened green breath curled from Fafnir's jaws, nipping at the Hatchlings' tails and driving them to more frantic flight. That didn’t mean that the Hatchlings were just rolling over, though. They fought back hard—while everyone else was pulling their punches for the duel, the Hatchlings had no sense of sportsmanship. They bit and clawed with all they had, gouging for eyes and wings and soft bellies.
Beef wasn't worried, Fafnir could take it. The Risen dragon flew in a spiral around several blue, purple, and white-green Hatchlings, blasting them all with her necromantic breath. They floundered, the cloying flames catching on their wings and crests, and each one dropped to the earth as she bashed them with her armored tail.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Fafnir let loose a bugling cry, and her curious Spirit surged with joy, up until the ground exploded.
A brown Hatchling, lying in wait beneath her, leapt up from beneath the waves of dirt and slammed into the Risen's gut. Fafnir's bugle turned into a startled grunt, and then a pained groan as a tail laden with rocks smashed her into a nearby tree.
Beef stepped forward, hammer in his hands before he sensed his little dragon get back up. She snorted in anger and summoned chitinous armor around her black scales and massive, jagged jaws around her face.
"Fafnir, be careful!"
“Rah!”
Beef blinked, his concern popping like a bubble. "Did you just answer me?"
She said nothing else but attacked the Hatchlings with abandon, jaws snapping and tail lashing. Beef watched worriedly, gripping his hammer with one hand and his banner with the other. Should I chase after her? She’s hitting those guys a little too hard—
The buzzing of the Matriarch's wings was the only warning Beef received.
Crimson-silver flashed, dropping down from the sky. The first blow hit his crystalline shoulder, sparking brightly before Beef scrambled his Intent. Entropy answered, swirling up into an arc that carved out a wall above himself and deflecting the other gleaming Spears that dropped down. Vess herself flipped overhead, wind swirling around her as she slashed down with her Dragon-faced glaive. Beef twisted toward it, taking the strike directly on the horns, his orichalcum helmet sparking against her arcanite blade.
“I’m sorry!” Hallow said, her breath coming fast from his breastplate. “She moved too fast!”
Before her words finished, the Sharpwing Matriarch caught up, lunging for Vess’ back. Unfortunately, the woman’s boot caught the Risen in the chest, sending the skink into the treetops. Vess tossed her braid backward out of the way, manifesting multiple Spears all around herself.
“I simply leveraged my advantage against your own,” she said. “It is the key to victory, Hallow.”
Fafnir roared, surging from the left side as she chomped toward Vess, but the Hatchlings had regrouped. They piled atop the Risen—as big and strong as she was, she couldn't contend with a dozen creatures her exact size and weight, and she was driven into the dirt.
Vess thrust her arms forward, sending her Spears launching toward him. Beef marshalled his Will and coccooned himself in chitinous walls. Her Spears plowed through one after the other, layer after layer that he continually reinforced for the last, and most heavily structured, complete with struts and braces behind it. That one held, at least until she exploded her Spears in a storm of wind and metal.
Beef groaned, gripping the banner against his chest as he threw up his left arm. Hallow expanded her crystalline form, forming a shield around his face and chest, blocking the shrapnel. The Dragoon’s glaive was too strong even for Hallow’s form, and it punched through with the sound of crunching glass—only to get caught fast by the clenching crystal.
Vess sucked in a tight breath and dropped her glaive immediately, but this time it was her that was too slow. Beef swung his hammer, catching Vess across the shoulder and slamming her to the ground. Yet her damnable speed and Agility proved superior once again, as she was back on her feet before he could follow through.
"Stop being so fast!" he said, whipping his hammer around for a second strike.
Vess met it with her glaive, deflecting his icy hammerhead with the Dragon-styled guard. "Simply place more points into Agility!" she panted, grinning despite what looked like mounting exhaustion.
“But I need Will, Strength, Vitality, Endurance!”
“You Unbound have an unhealthy habit of spreading out your stats.” Vess spun her glaive, parrying Beef’s third and fourth strike. “Some specialization would stand you in good stead!”
“Felix doesn’t specialize.” Beef slammed Bedlam down overhand, splitting the dark loam.
Vess skipped backward, just out of range. “Felix does not count!” She thrust into the gap, catching Beef across his crystal armor. “You already have a lot more Endurance than I do, Beef!"
He grinned, choking up on his hammer. “I do?”
"Of course!"
"Well then, my win is inevitable!" he said, with a bright laugh and rushed forward. He thrust his hammer straight ahead like a lance. Vess shifted, but this time he was too fast, and the hammerhead clipped her hip, sending her spinning to the earth once again.
“I did it!" he cheered, only to be interrupted by a calamitous roar from above.
"Unhand her!"
Yintarion dive-bombed from the sky.
Beef flinched back, fear soaking up from the deepest parts of his guts. There was something primal about looking into the eyes of a furious Dragon, and his feet felt rooted to the spot—lucky for him, chains wrapped around the Dawn Drake out of the thin air.
“You’re my opponent, lizard!” Evie shouted, arcing from the treeline. Chains lashed against Yin’s hide and haunches, forcing him to divert his dive-bomb to evade the enormous icy chains.
Beef groaned. "Why is everyone here?"
From behind their forces came the Frost Giants, flanking Beef against Vess and her Hatchlings. Hallow had warned him time and again that as strong and fast as Vess and Yintarion surely were, his true foes were the Frost Giants. They were experienced fighters, had exceptional reach, and were truly monstrously strong. A few in the lead had even become Blood Berserkers, covered now in red ice and swinging heavy axes as they plowed through the woods.
Others, however, the ones that faced down Yintarion, wielded massive chains of frosted black iron. Yin pivoted in the air, flying back at the Frost Giants and unleashing a wave of his own pale breath. It scoured at their ice, melting portions and breaking others.
But then Evie leapt forward, her own twin chains spinning around in strange patterns as she shot for the Dawn Drake. Yin dodged their massive chains with a grace Beef couldn't imagine.
The Berserkers, however, came for him and Vess.
She leapt back, avoiding the blood-red axes before blasting them with her Spears of Tribulation, throwing the Berserkers back and leaving an opening for the massive Battlelord Ari to drop his ice-sheathed club.
Beef cursed, hauling Bedlam up to meet Battlelord Ari's devastating strike. Bedlam's special effect activated, and a wave of cleansing force rippled outward, silencing the power behind the Battlelord's strike. It negated his forward momentum entirely, and the giant’s eyes grew wide as Beef's Strength and the hammer's massive weight came to bear. He was hurled backward, plowing through a dozen other giants and creating instant confusion amongst their ranks.
“Now that's what I'm talking about," Beef muttered.
"Beef, we have Frosted Fen's banner," Hallow informed him, sending a brief impression of his Risen as they ran from a grotto filled with ice and shouting giants.
"Go," he commanded, "Open the way back."
Hallow slipped off of him, removing his armor and leaving him in a simple gambeson and trousers. The crystals of her body formed into a massive Golem-like shape equal in height with Beef's and filled with a blackened green energy like lightning trapped inside glass.
The Graven Aegis.
“Hold fast, Beef.”
“Just go!”
Hallow instructed as she waded forward, spikes erupting from her crystalline facets. Her form and coloration was striking against the red and blue of the giant's ice, though not nearly as potent as her attacks. Every swing she made shattered their magics as she forced herself through the line, kicking giants down to keep them on the ground as the Risi chased after her.
"RISE!" Hallow cried.
Skeletal Adamant Knights on enormous chitin-clad Servani corpses burst from hiding, striking at the giants with lashing tails and striking maws. The Risen serpents smashed into the pursuing Risi, breaking their ice-armor before wrapping them into cages of coiled armor. The Multipede surged among them as well, bashing the giants aside like bowling pins while the Matriarch buzzed about, evading and tripping up the rest.
Hallow unleashed her Razorhail like a surgeon, firing sword-length spikes of crystal into boots and shields. Ice shattered from their limbs, robbing them of their defenses before pinning their feet to the earth. Others, however, she simply bodied, tackling one after the other as the Battlelord regained his feet.
“Get the Aegis!” Ari bellowed. “Protect the banner!”
Beef, however, couldn't afford to focus on her fight. He still held his banner, and Vess had returned. She struck once, twice, but Beef countered with his hammer and zipped across the terrain with Ruinous Rampage. Vess was right behind him, wings unfurling from her back as the wind surged around her like an oncoming storm.
He forged a ramp of chitin ahead of him and ran up it, leaping into the air and forcing the woman aloft. Yet even as he jumped, he spun, swinging his hammer with the momentum of his leap. “Deathblow Conduit!”
Blackened green Mana flared across Bedlam and a screaming song blared through the battlefield. Vess flapped her spectral wings, shooting upward and away from his strike—but not fast enough. He caught her foot—that was enough. His Strength sent her spinning in wild circles, forcing Vess to waste precious seconds righting herself. She slammed into the trunk of a tree, feet first, splintering its trunk in two. She shot back at him, Spear thrusting.
Beef layered structured walls between him and her and stopped her cold. “Hah! Beat that!”
Evie flipped above and Beef shaped an arc of chitin overhead just before her spare chain slashed down at him. Its spikes tore through the hastily made barrier, but Yintarion was on her, snapping at her heels before she sank her chain into the dirt. Pivoting on it, she narrowly dodged the Dawn Drake.
“Bonds of Dominion!” Evie cried out.
Yin fell to the ground, struggling mightily against an arcanite chain that she hauled around his chest, but mostly against the ethereal purple and blue manacles that extended from nothing. Those bound him in place, freezing his limbs into true immobility.
Like the Holding spell from SwordLore. So cool. That’s 50 points right there.
"Better take care of your friend," Beef snarled at Vess as he barely met her next thrust, turning it aside with a half to his hammer. "She's got a clear shot at your banner."
"Does she?" Vess asked, only to launch her Spears at Evie's back. The chain warrior dodged them, flipping her small Body through the gaps in their strike before smashing them all to the ground with one of her chains.
"Hey, I'm here to help you!" Evie shouted.
Her second chain unraveled from Yin and lashed out, snagging around Beef's arm, the one that held his hammer. She twisted, and it yanked his forearm forward. It didn't hurt at all, but this wasn't a matter of pain or Strength. Beef lost leverage on his own weapon, and his grip failed. The hammer dropped to the ground, only for Evie to catch it and lift it as if it weighed nothing.
“No!” Beef lunged for her.
With a grunt, she pivoted into a spinning swing. All at once, it weighed everything, and it hit Beef straight in the gut.
Beef crashed into the ground, tearing a deep furrow into the earth before smashing through two of his chitin walls. He shoved his hands down when he stopped sliding, forcing his hooves under his bulk. His head rang like a struck bell though and his stomach betrayed him—he spewed out his lunch onto the grass. He folded up, abdomen contracting so hard he felt liable to pass out, if only his guts would stop heaving.
With…my own hammer? He gritted his teeth, forcing his hooves against the dirt. I gotta get that back. Gotta fight—
A glaive stabbed toward his eyes, stopping only an inch from skin, so close that Beef could feel the metallic cold from its edge. He looked up, just as a dozen others manifested around him at Vess’ command.
"You lose, Beef,” she said. “My apologies.”
“That's...ugh,” he groaned, sagging toward the earth. “Balls.”
Vess smiled, the gold in her eyes brightening, until a dagger pressed up against her neck.
"Oh, you devious woman," Vess hissed.
Evie laughed. "Please, I'm blushin’."
A notification sounded just as a series of bells rang out followed by a long, deep gong.
Two Of Three Primary Duelists Are In Mortal Peril.
Duel Complete.
Calculating Points…
Team Frosted Fen Wins!
Evie Aren Wins!
There was a burst of fanfare from the System as all of Beef’s points zeroed back out and vanished from his vision. Evie sheathed her dagger and he stood back up.
"Damn it," he groaned. "I thought I had both of you there."
Evie grinned. "If you'd kept your Hallow armor on, you would have. That's why I had the giants press so hard."
"Really?” He couldn't believe he'd made that mistake. They'd thought by splitting up that they'd be able to grab the banners while he distracted them. He'd overestimated himself again, just like in the Poison Fields against the Titan.
A hand landed on his broad shoulder and he looked down at Vess.
"You took a calculated risk, Beef. It failed. My own arrogance failed me as well. I thought I could bring you down and guard against Evie's treachery," she said dryly.
Evie simply grinned.
"But this is why we train," Vess continued. "To assess our weaknesses and find a way to compensate for them."
With a gesture, she called her glaive back to her hand. "Now, I need to speak with a certain Drake about our own tactics going forward. Evie, if you could release him."
"Oh, fine."
Vess walked away, immediately joined by several Hatchlings as a grumbling Yintarion got back on his feet. Nursing not a single bruise, Yintarion’s tail lashed angrily, and Beef could hear the injured pride limp through his Spirit.
Evie shot him one last grin. "Remember to keep your armor on."
She walked away, lifting her hands in triumph as her army of Frost Giants cheered for her. "Kyria! Kyria! Kyria!" they shouted, their cheers drowning out the sounds of the woodlands.
Beef considered his hammer and Hallow as she emerged from the press of giants on the far side of the meadow. She had the Risen with her, the straggling members of his crew that weren't destroyed, and was carrying the banner of the Frozen Fen and the Dragon’s Den. Both drooped sadly behind them, pointless now.
Armor, huh?