Chapter 76—Let Go |
Hiral and Right pushed the rubble of the building that had collapsed on them off as Seena looked down at the four-inch wide blade punched through the right side of her chest. At her back, the six petals of her Aspect wilted, while vines on her shoulders slapped uselessly against the huge Fallen’s chest.
Like she was hardly worth the time now, Laapdoug ripped the spear free, a shower of green liquid, like blood, following it, before Seena dropped out of the sky.
Rejection got Hiral to her before she hit the ground, catching her in his arms as he slid along the ground. Another burst put him beside Gran, crimson needles already forming in the vampire’s hands.
“Don’t look at me like that, boy,” Gran said. “She’s still alive.”
“It… hurts…” Seena said, her back arching as the orange energy lingering in the grievous wound seemed to be burning her from the inside out.
“What can…?” Hiral started, only to get interrupted by a panicked Gran.
“Look out!” the healer said at the same time Laapdoug pierced through Hiral’s sensory domain, glaive coming down on where the injured party members lay.
Hiral began to turn, but he’d been too distracted by Seena’s injury. Too slow. That blade would finish what it started with…
CLANG, the glaive’s blade slammed into a horizonal Tempest Roar, the crystal shaft of the spear blocking the deadly strike, even as Yanily’s feet got smashed five inches deep into the stone. As soon as the glaive started to get pulled back, Yanily attacked, his Aspect gone, Eloquently Enraged with less than thirty seconds left on it, and blood pouring down from where the Fallen’s fingers had torn his throat. None of those things seemed to matter to the spearman, his weapon a blur of attacks, while Left and Right came at the Fallen from the side.
Directly in front of him, his doubles and one of his closest friends threw themselves at the nine-foot-tall giant of a man. Skin practically shining with power, glittering like a gemstone, Laapdoug had a wide smile on his face, enjoying every second of the battle. His glaive radiated strength, that same orange energy that leaked out of Seena’s chest promising destruction for any others it touched. Compared to him, his friends looked so small. Sure, they glittered with power as well, from the buffs, the domain, the pseudo-aspects, or the lightning coursing across them, but it wouldn’t be enough.
In the sky high above them, allied airships—what few of them were left—battled against those from Visionary. The city itself wasn’t even a shadow of its former glory, with every building Hiral could see damaged or destroyed. Thick smoke filled every street, every alley, every room. Even then, the air itself sparkled with whatever residue was left from the exploding airships. Hells, the only thing holding most of the buildings up was the layer of crystal coating the outside of them.
Not far from where his party battle Laapdoug, Bellina and her allies fought against Vorinal and three other Fallen. Somehow, without Vorinal’s right-hand man, the fight was surprisingly even. Bellina, Davy, Pallidis, and Lusco were keeping the other four Fallen contained.
He said something about Bellina doing something to Raadar and another Fallen. She must’ve sealed those two already.
Squinting his eyes, Hiral spotted where Bellina and the others had somehow managed to attach the seals to the enemies they grappled with. Even if nothing was done there, Bellina and the others would be able to bring Vorinal down. She really had betrayed him in the end. Sided with the allies in the one gambit that would stop Vorinal and his plans.
But, only if Hiral and the others stopped Laapdoug. If he killed them, he’d be free to go after Bellina and the others. Worse than failing the dungeon, well, they’d be dead. There had to be something Hiral could do. Something he…
His eyes went to the way Bellina, Pallidis, Davy, and Lusco grappled their opponents. They weren’t physically powerful. They had no combat training. There was a reason they were doing that.
The seals.
Hiral’s eyes went to his own arm. To how it sparkled too. That wasn’t the pseudo-aspect or any of his buffs causing that. Despite the pain of reality wanting him to end his time runes, Hiral focused all his attunement on those sparkles. Like his eyes zoomed in closer, magnifying what he was looking at it, he couldn’t help but curse.
He had crystal growing across his entire body. Crystal like the seals. But where had…?
The sparkles in the smoke. In the air. The suicidal airships. That was why they were trying to reach the city. They knew the handheld seals might not be enough, so they had a backup plan. One that would encase the entire city in crystal.
Their Eloquently Enraged was delaying the process—they’d been told reducing solar energy would make it happen faster—but once that ran out, there would be little left to stop the seals. Worse, if Laapdoug wasn’t encased by then, it would be over for all of them.
Hiral’s eyes went to the quest notification.
Lapdog Sealed: 0/1
They didn’t have to kill him. Hells, they didn’t even have to beat him. They just needed to get him to use enough solar energy for the crystals already forming on his skin to really take hold. The process was already started—and well on its way by how much the monster glittered—and just needed one more push.
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Could they do it before Eloquently Enraged faded? Before the crystals took hold on them? Worst case, Hiral’s buff would last longer. He had more time to figure something out. Though, from the pounding on the back of his head, he couldn’t keep time paused anymore.
As Hiral released his time runes, he spoke into the party chat. “If you can stand or fight, we all need to hit him with everything we have, right now. We don’t have to kill him, just drain his energy.” With the words—and the hope the others would be able to help—Hiral Rejected himself forward, Edicts crawling down his arm as he forged his blade of unmaking. The jet-black, raw, blade of energy scarred the air, tearing it open during his rush at the Fallen.
In the seconds it had taken him to speak to the others, Right had lost his left arm at the shoulder, Left’s knee had been shattered, and Yanily’s stomach had been sliced open from hip to hip. Blood fountained down the spearman’s lower half, but bands of lightning held the garish wound mostly closed, preventing his insides from spilling out.
Over and around, the glaive fell like a comet toward Hiral, though he didn’t slow. Yanily slid into place, getting Tempest Roar up to block the strike even as both the spearman’s arms fractured from the force of it. The series of cracks turned Hiral’s stomach, but he couldn’t—wouldn’t—slow. He ducked past the spearman, under the extended arm of the huge Fallen.
Red-and-purple flames appeared in the corner of his vision, Seeyela—with Little Shadow’s Cloak reaching down to staunch the bleeding of her missing leg—Bamf’d onto Laapdoug’s shoulder. One empty hand pressing against the side of his huge face, her other stabbed a Fang of the Lady into his exposed neck. All the way to the hilt, the blade bit deep, pumping out the deadly Ghost-Web Venom.
At the same time the Fallen roared in pain, Hiral drove his blade of unmaking into his enemy’s abdomen, angling it up through his chest and out his back. Breaking and Vibration ravaged the inside as Hiral connected a thread of potential with one of his newest Edicts. Again, the inspiration got held for later—he might need it to deal with the crystal—while the raw power of the Edict went to work. Adding the Edict of Separation to the Vibration, Hiral tore at the Fallen’s innards.
That was enough to get the monster’s attention, a fist swinging down for his face. If he dodged it, he’d have to release his blade of unmaking, and all the damage he was doing. If he took it, well, he might not survive.
Gran took the choice out of his hands, appearing in front of the blow with her movement ability. At the end of the long line of still images, Laapdoug’s fist connected with the side of her hood, the shape of her skull warping and compressing from the sheer might behind the fist. A shower of blood exploded out of the hood, and the woman’s body went crashing off to strike a building a block away.
Hiral’s heart nearly stopped at the violence, Gran’s health bar vanishing within the Party Interface, though it had been just enough to make the blow miss Hiral. And, before the Fallen could pull back for a second punch, Right was there, his one good arm twisting around the Fallen’s to prevent another punch. With solar energy pouring out of the stump of his shoulder, Right wouldn’t be around for long, but he would hold that arm back until then.
As for the glaive, dozens of burning vines emerged from the ground to hold it—and the arm wielding it—in place. Back near an unconscious and broken Rune-o, Seena propped herself up on her elbow, her other hand extended. On her shoulder, Li’l Ur chanted to empower the vines restricting the Boss, even as he turned panicked looks to the wound oozing now-red blood on to the ground, and still glowing with orange energy.
“You… won’t…” Laapdoug started, his foot lifting like he would take a step. It didn’t get more than an inch, before the powerful jaws of The Pack clamped down on it. They could only barely pierce his skin, and that was enough, keeping him in place. “Aaaaargh,” he growled moving to turn his head to look at the woman twisting the knife in his neck.
Romin’s fingers snaked into the bottom of his mouth, hooking on his teeth, and pulling the face down. As soon as Laapdoug’s eyes went to the Bonder, Romin punched him. Holding him like that, by the teeth, Romin slammed punch after punch after punch into the side of the Fallen’s face, while tears ran down Romin’s.
“This!” Punch. “Is.” Punch. “For.” Punch. “WALLOP!” Punch.
With each successive blow, orange flakes began to fall from Romin’s fist like he was wearing a gauntlet. One punch after another, they came slower, like the Bonder couldn’t keep them coming. In Hiral’s sensory domain, the reason why was obvious.
Romin was the first to be encased in crystal.
No, not the first, with Wallop already fully cocooned.
Lying on the ground nearby, throwing everything she had into the vines holding the glaive, only Seena’s arm and half her face were still free. Li’l Ur, on her other shoulder, had gone silent. Just behind Hiral, only Yanily’s head was still free, his shattered arms supported now by the crystal surrounding them.
“Not… how I expected this to go,” Yanily said to Hiral, the orange crystal crawling up from his neck to reach his chin. “You better figure something out.”
“I…” Hiral started, but it was too late. The crystal was moving so fast now, like it had reached a critical point, and was speeding out of control. Right—and Left who’d moved in to help—were completely swallowed along with Laapdoug’s arm, as were the entire Pack. On the Fallen’s shoulder, Seeyela had stopped stabbing, the crystal enveloping her stretching across Laapdoug’s neck, up one side of his face, and around his chest and back.
Even as Hiral watched, the crystal crawled down his chest, toward where Hiral’s blade was buried. He could pull it out now, escape. The only problem was, if he did, all the damage he was doing—and all the solar energy the Fallen was using to counter it—would go to destroying the crystal. As powerful as Laapdoug was, he might even succeed.
Hiral couldn’t move. He… gasped, as the crystal growth came out of nowhere. Down his hands and up his arms. From his ankles to his waist. His chest. The Edicts pulsed at his side. Not out of panic or fear, but in comfort.
Let go, they seemed to say.
Like being pushed underwater, Hiral wanted to fight it. He wanted to take their inspiration—and the power from them—and throw it against the crystal creeping up his neck toward his mouth. His body was already completely immobile. Pinned. Like the Fallen, if he threw everything at it, he might be able to break the crystal clutching them both.
Only one part of Laapdoug remained free—his left eye—and it stared down hatefully at Hiral.
If he freed himself, he’d free the Fallen. Should he?
Another pulse of comfort from the Edicts. They wanted him to trust them. To stop fighting. To save their power for later.
What did later matter if he died now?!
He gathered what little energy he could inside him—the crystal was somehow siphoning it away from his body—and… held it. One more push, and he could call on the inspirations.
Pulse.
Hiral let the power slip from his grasp. The Edicts had always been there to help him, and they asked him to trust them now. How could he say no after everything they’d done?
In the next instant, the crystal crawled up along his face, and along Laadoug’s, leaving them—like everything else within the suddenly quiet city—sealed and unmoving in crystal.