Blue Core Week Twenty-One (Patreon)

Day 114 - Blue

The day dawned bright and clear.

That was pretty well expected as I hadn’t seen a drop of rain yet, at least where I was. From Meil I could see some dark and scudding clouds on the horizon, maybe something that The Hurricane could work with. Or maybe she didn’t need it. I didn’t know.

The closest I’d dared get to the city was taking over a slice of untouched wall over by the priest’s quarter, as far from the Red Core sections as I could manage. At least the fact that all the Red Core stuff was a nasty red-brown meant it was easy to avoid the main bulk of it. Which was to say, the rest of the city.

Since I was so used to setting up my teleport Fields I didn’t feel a need to do it ahead of time. My worry was more that someone might notice when I did it, or somehow accidentally wander in and get whisked away to the staging area. Because I actually had made a staging area, and not just connected things to the center of town.

Although I thought the odds of a counter-invasion were pretty low, there was always the chance something might happen, and there might be one or two elite monsters still hanging around. Not to mention that Shadow guy, who seemed a lot brighter than the rest of them. I couldn’t actually screen who went through teleports, which is why I still used Link for access to my Core room and Ansae’s chamber. They were a giant gaping indefensible hole, and I didn’t need Iniri’s advisors to tell me that.

I set up a bit of a killbox around the assault teleport instead. Not with traps, because most of mine weren’t exactly precise and I didn’t want to end up killing someone who was only trying to retreat. Instead I made hardened bunkers for the Classers, with little slits for arrows or spells, raised above eye level and set flush with the wall. Considering the things that might be thrown back at the defenders, like liquid flame or deadly gas or whatever, probably stuff other than arrows, I’d given them plenty of room to retreat.

The hall between the killbox and Refuge was guarded by a heavily fortified door of stonesteel and real steel, cannibalized from my core room protections. Making chain wasn’t beyond me but it was super annoying, and probably wouldn’t be robust enough anyway, so it was opened and closed through simple gears. Iniri assigned one of the third-tier Classers that was staying behind to be the door operator, a hugely muscled man even though I’d counterbalanced the door as best I could.

I probably could have used [Portal] instead of [Teleport] so the defenders could see what was coming, but I wanted to have as much mana reserve as possible for this so it was just [Teleport]. I’d also disabled all the other sustained Fields to have the maximum regeneration, which meant that everyone was in the main town habitation, save a few farmers who decided they’d rather be stuck with their fields and livestock for the duration.

“How’s it coming?” Even though I could see the various bits of milling-about that people were doing, second-, third-, and fourth-tiers alike, that didn’t mean I understood any of it. It looked like people were packing snacks and drinks, at least some of them, which I supposed made sense for the defenders at the teleport point but if it took that long there was probably something wrong.

“We’re almost finished rationing out the Affinity foods,” Shayma told me. “Not that we had much to begin with.”

“Wait, you have buff foods?”

“I...guess? You don’t want to overdo it but having a little extra Affinity mana in your system can make extended Skill use easier.”

“Oh. Well that makes sense.” More than I was thinking for buff foods anyway. For all that the Status used numbers and labels, the whole magic setup here seemed a lot more organic than that would indicate. Here in the mana dead zone I didn’t get much of a chance to see it in action, since I didn’t count my own mana works.

I noticed none of the fourth-tiers were taking any though, aside from The Hurricane packing a flask of tayantan-fruit juice. That was accompanied with a comment about having me inside her, which earned her another spray of cold water. It was like training a cat, only I wasn’t hopeful it’d actually work.

It made sense that they didn’t actually need it though. The higher level people were, the more concentrated the mana was in their bodies, so I figured the less external mana like the Affinity foods would affect them. It might also mean that spells and things wouldn’t affect them as much either, which would explain why they seemed incredibly robust. Though that might just be their hitpoint pool talking.

There wasn’t a strict strategy for the assault, more of a vague plan. When discussing about a tiny number of people doing their own independent things against a powerful enemy with any number of unknown skills, there’s not going to be much room for strict planning. Rather than any specific tasks, people had general roles that Iniri trusted them to fill.

The Hurricane, clearly, was there to force Vok Nal out of the sky. Taking care of the imps would just be a byproduct of what she could do with her winds. She might also take out the tower, but I doubted it, seeing how much magic was running through the thing. I bet it was made out of something sturdier than stonesteel, which made me think I needed to try fiddling with my materials again once this was all over.

Actually I would lay odds the core was inside the tower, but [Genius Loci] couldn’t actually tell me. I wasn’t sure if the opposing dungeon had something like [Warding] or it was just a natural dungeon thing due to our weird mana, but the mana flows in Meil were essentially opaque to me. And since, like with me, they went through the stone of the dungeon, that meant I couldn’t see any farther with my mana sight than my normal vision.

I was really spoiled by how great it was within my own structure.

Really the biggest question was whether Vok Nal would come out and fight or hide inside the tower. There was no telling which, since while he was a mage-king and incredibly powerful, he’d also just seen his army destroyed and his elites killed. We’d just have to play it by ear.

Liril’s job was to destroy all the layers of magical protections Vok Nal had around himself and the tower. His flames burned magic, though thankfully he’d never used them on any of mine, and with such a specialization I didn’t know how he’d managed to become a fourth-tier. Or maybe that was so powerful that was the reason he had. Almost everyone and everything used some amount of mana, and to simply annihilate it was a little strange.

From what I saw, given enough mana his fire might be able sustain itself without Liril’s own direction, which made Liril really scary to a dungeon like me. Even if the stone itself wouldn’t catch it might actually be able to burn the dungeon-flesh inside, and that would be all kinds of no fun. I wasn’t entirely certain I should mention that to him, unless we really needed to destroy the Meil dungeon and I couldn’t do it.

That was my role, aside from the transport. With the [Bane] I had and [Assimilation], I might be able to eat away at the Meil dungeon and maybe weaken it and thus Vok Nal. I was more or less planning on that anyway but with ANATHEMA I was going to wait on that until everything was set up in case I was too distracted to properly make a teleport field once I poked that hornet’s nest.

I was pretty worried about it, actually. I considered myself better than Red Cores on principle, but the fact was that the mage-kings were more experienced with dungeons in general. Presumably, they knew what they were doing, and it was entirely possible the Meil dungeon had access to a range of foundational Skills and Categories I’d missed entirely. Or that there was some way to level up aside from growing really huge, and the Meil dungeon was some level thirty monstrosity with an enormous array of traits already purchased. Maybe my speed and alteration and ecology setup was a stupid gimped build that had no significant power in the real world.

Ultimately I was just stumbling my way through things and did what I could, but the mage-kings had to be familiar with all kinds of intricacies of dungeons and cores and how they worked. True, red cores focused on monsters and Depletion and all sorts of nastiness I’d sworn off, so maybe there was no real comparison. But it was still possible I was effectively a civilian wandering into a duel with a warrior.

These efforts were all in aid of supporting Yamal, or Yas as Iniri called him, who had the job of smashing Vok Nal in the face. I still wasn’t able to tell whether his blade was an artifact and Shayma didn’t want to ask unless it was really important, but he seemed pretty confident that he could get and hold Vok Nal’s attention. It was a boast I could believe, because while The Hurricane looked flashier, I could actually feel Yamal’s slashes when he was dueling the golems. There was more power there than belied by his movements.

Finally, Iniri’s role was to keep everyone safe. Really, everyone. It wasn’t just Vok Nal’s attacks they were worried about, but the collateral damage to the city from fourth tiers and a mage king fighting. Now that she had her [Shield of Tarnil] back, she was capable of that.

I’d gotten to see her practicing with it, and it was a very weird looking piece of magic. Genuinely two-dimensional, which was something that needed [Genius Loci] to fully appreciate. It was a thing of width and height but no thickness, transparent from one side and distorted from the other. The side that faced toward the enemy just showed colored smears that bore vague resemblance to what it was hiding.

I actually thought it was the most magic thing I’d seen since coming here. Even teleports and phasing and all that kind of sort of seemed to fit in with the world and interacted in normal ways. I could rationalize the logic. But this was some sort of weird maxwell’s demon sitting in a magic window of actually zero volume. What’s more, while I couldn’t generally read people’s mana flows to begin with I could at least see what they were doing in a general sense. Not so with [Shield of Tarnil].

“By the way, Shayma. What does the Lineage thing mean in [Lineage: Shield of Tarnil]? Is that why it’s so...well, weird?”

“I wouldn’t exactly say it’s weird, but it’s a skill inherited from her ancestor. When people manage to make fifth tier, they tend to found kingdoms, and almost always they pass down one of their Skills to their bloodline. So their descendents get a fifth-tier Skill...but it does influence what Classes they can take.”

“...I didn’t even know there were fifth-tiers. I thought four was the limit.”

“It’s really rare! I don’t think there are even any alive right now. Teash died over eight hundred years ago, so it’s not like he was even recent. But Tarnil used to be larger, too.”

I supposed that made sense. Fifth tier, probably above level one hundred to judge from the pattern, was probably nigh-godlike and maybe not even entirely human anymore. Not actually a Power, as I understood Powers, since fifth-tiers were still human Classers, but scary nonetheless. It suggested to me that these fifth-tiers rose, founded kingdoms, and those kingdoms slowly split apart or were winnowed away until another fifth-tier established a new one. At some point I’d have to see what a map of the whole continent looked like, not just a slice of Iniri’s kingdom.

Iniri’s mages were coming along for divination support, since I didn’t have [Genius Loci] around the whole city. Shayma, of course, was my representative, so I could coordinate with the fourth-tiers and Iniri. I hadn’t given her any instructions of my own, since I figured she’d know what she was doing at the moment better than I would.

Ansae was sanguine about the whole affair. It was clear she couldn’t afford to get within a fifty kilometers of the mage-kings given her Depletion, but given my importance to fixing it she was probably willing to defend me personally. Within reason.

“Are we ready?” I asked, even though I could very well see they weren’t yet. I just couldn’t help myself, being impatient and antsy and other words for being eager to get going. Not that I was looking forward to it, but if we were going to do this I wanted to do it.

“Eager to be off?” Shayma laughed. “Well, not off if your case. You’re already there. Do you want me to bother Iniri?”

“No, I guess I didn’t realize there was so much preparation involved in what sounded like a pretty straightforward fight.” I’d even given them four days notice! Of course, most people had only woken up an hour or two before and The Hurricane, at least, was not a morning person. I was very tempted to spray her with water again to stop her incessant griping but she was weird enough that she might consider that flirting by now.

“It won’t be long,” Shayma promised.

In fact, it wasn’t. After another half an hour or so of milling about suddenly everything was organized. Iniri stepped forward, looking over the people assembled outside the staging chamber, with the fourth-tiers and Shayma at her back.

“Today,” she began. “We take back Meil. Vok Nal will fall.” This brought cheers, and I could tell she’d put mana into her voice, both for volume and for the bonuses it provided. “Our benefactor, Blue, has restored to me [Shield of Tarnil] and will himself be taking part in the assault. He has no more love of the mage-kings dungeons than you or I.”

Shayma waved cheerfully, and there were shouts here and there throughout the gathered host.

“We are joined by no less than three fourth-tiers. The Sovereign of the Thousand-Blessed Blade, The Theurge of the Purifying Flames, and The Hurricane. When we put Tor Kot’s head on a pike, it will be a warning that the mage kings are not welcome here. Not in this kingdom, not on this continent. We will destroy them and their Red Core dungeons, and drive them back to the god-cursed land they call home.”

I wasn’t a political genius by any stretch but I did notice how she cast a fairly desperate and impromptu assault as a coordinated front by combined powers. I appreciated being put firmly on the opposite side of the Red Core dungeons but I wasn’t sure how other rulers would take being given the same role. Not that any of them would be friendly toward the mage-kings if they were sane, but the tacit acceptance of the fourth-tiers there, the ones that weren’t Iniri’s, was probably pretty close to official policy.

That said, it wasn’t like this was a speech given at the capital to an adoring crowd of thousands. The audience was relatively small and mostly composed of the adventuring parties from Wildwood. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all nobles or related to nobles, since it’d be easier to get to higher levels with the support of wealth and connections.

Fortunately the speech didn’t go on much longer. That was probably as much a desire to be brief as the strain of using her Skill, but it suited my impatience. I was itching to do something even while I worried over whether I would be able to do something. The suspense was slowly driving me mad.

People filed into their positions around the killbox. Keri and Annit took their positions behind it. I’d made a more appropriately located hospital, since I’d turned the teleports off, and decorated it with the regenerative-pollen flowers. Plus I’d told them about the healing moss, so there was plenty of it harvested and stored. Keri’s mana would only go so far.

If there were injured, they were likely to be inhabitants of Meil rather than any of our combatants. That was the consensus, anyway. Without many monsters the second- and third-tiers raiding the Meil dungeon wouldn’t be in too much trouble, but the forces that fourth-tiers and mage-kings could wield weren’t likely to be too kind to the residents, even with Iniri helping out.

“All right, Blue.” Iniri said. “We’re ready.”

“Finally!”

I created the teleport field, linking the central platform of the staging area to a small patch of stone just inside Meil’s outer wall. The first group through was the fourth-tiers, Iniri, and Shayma, along with Joce and Keel. A [Shield of Tarnil] immediately went up between the teleport and the tower, while The Hurricane raised her staff and pulled lightning from the sky.

WIth one flash and crack, the dozen or so imps hanging around the top of the tower fell, smoking as they tumbled toward the ground. At the same time, the second- and third-tier adventuring groups came through the teleport, fanning out behind Iniri’s [Shield of Tarnil] while Joce and Keel looked for entrances into Meil’s dungeon.

“All right, Shayma, I’m going to see what I can do.”

“Be careful!”

“You too! I know you don’t like it, but I’m telling you now I’ll pull you back to the Core if I have to. But I’ll try not to do that.”

Shayma snorted. “You worry about your own part. I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let me borrow your confidence for the day, I’ll give it back, I promise.”

“Just go!” She laughed, and Iniri looked back at her. “Blue’s starting,” she told the queen, and I made good on her words by using [Assimilation] to move forward into the space the Meil dungeon took up.

The contact was a shock. Almost literally, there was a jolt and a buzzing spread through me at the touch with the other dungeon’s territory, rising up to -

ANATHEMA!

ANATHEMA!

ANATHEMA!

Day 114 - Shayma

The normal liquid wash of Blue’s presence faded into an odd buzz as he focused on the opposing dungeon. It wasn’t what she normally heard from him, but then, he’d never attacked a dungeon before. There was bound to be some oddness.

“Vok Nal! Your reckoning is come!” Iniri said, voice amplified by her magic to bounce off the stone, sending it echoing through the city. “Come and fight or hide in your tower, either way we will put you down!”

There was, perhaps predictably, no immediate response to Iniri’s challenge. The Hurricane sailed up into the sky, starting to whip the winds into a frenzy with her pole, while the rest of Iniri’s entourage advanced forward. The few people out on the street, and it did seem deserted here, simply stopped and gawked. At least they weren’t cowed enough to hide the moment their Queen showed herself.

“Any luck?” Iniri asked her diviners, and Joce was about to speak when the ground shook. There was a dull rumble and where untouched cobbles met dungeon rock the ground buckled upward. There was a flash of obsidian-black in the stones before they caved in, crunching downward with a horrible wet noise that made it clear exactly what had caused it.

“Cursed gods,” Shayma swore, horrified as the ground continued to shake. When Blue mentioned dealing with the opposing dungeon, she hadn’t thought it’d be like this.

“Can you get him to stop that?” Iniri snapped it, eyes fixed on the tower. “It’s going to make it impossible to send anyone in.”

“Blue!” She called. “Blue!” The only response was the hissing buzz, a sound that was beginning to make her teeth ache. “I think he’s busy,” she said worriedly as another tremor rattled the doors of nearby buildings.

“Of course,” Iniri growled, then staggered as the pavement under her feet buckled. “Plan’s changed. Second and third tiers, evacuate the city. Outside the walls or through the teleport, either way. Fast as you can.”

They saluted and moved out, while Liril raised his hands and conjured a pillar of fire around the still-distant tower. It was still a couple of blocks away, despite the quick-marching they were doing through the religious quarter. Shayma could feel the depletion field bouncing off her the moment they crossed into Red Core territory, and winced at the thought of what it must be doing to anyone not likewise protected. Not that it was a powerful effect, but nobody wanted even a single point of depletion if they could help it.

The darkening sky blazed white for a moment as The Hurricane brought a bolt of lightning down on the tower’s roof, but to no avail. Liril’s fire burned higher, licking up the stone as it caught on the various magical protections and reinforcements. But it was another tremor behind them that finally pulled a bellow from inside the top of the tower.

“What are you doing!?” Vok Nal roared as he finally emerged into the morning.

He was...incredibly underwhelming. Vok Nal was just a weak-chinned, ordinary looking young man with a plump face and unkempt hair and already the start of a paunch under what looked like bedclothes. Shayma stared. Had he just woken up?

Even though the mage-king looked entirely unprepared, he didn’t seem to even notice The Hurricane directing an enormous dagger of lightning toward him, the coruscating beam just bouncing off and grounding itself onto a nearby roof. Nor did he seem to mind the stream of liquid fire Liril directed at him, instead staring down where Iniri and Shayma were. “You! You’re the Depletion...thing!”

He swooped down from the tower, blurringly fast, and smashed face-first into the hastily-erected [Shield of Tarnil], which was when she realized that despite his unimpressive physical attributes he was huge. Bigger even than Ansae’s amazon form, which hadn’t been obvious since he was proportioned quite normally otherwise. Plus he was a lot quicker than he looked, on par with at least third-tiers and probably fourth.

“I am Queen Iniri,” the kirin-kin said coldly. “And you will die.” A retort that was somewhat lost on him as Yamal leapt forward, the [Shield of Tarnil] parting around him as he swung his sword. There was a strange ripping noise and Vok Nal stumbled back several paces from the impact of the blow. Behind him, a line of cobbles crumbled into dust.

Even though the mage-king didn’t seem to be actually defending himself, nothing so far had made any noticeable impact on him. At most, Yamal’s cut seemed to have been the equivalent of a shove, since the blade didn’t even leave a mark on Vok Nal’s clothes, let alone his skin. “What are -” he said, before Yamal pressed the attack. He was finally forced to recognize the fourth-tier as Yamal’s blade glanced off his face, leaving a red welt across his cheek.

“You hurt me?” Vok Nal seemed incredulous, seeming to teleport backward as he reached up to touch his cheek. “Fodder can’t hurt us!”

“If I didn’t hate him before, I would now,” Shayma muttered to Iniri.

“You can’t -” Vok Nal was cut off once again, but this time by a rumble from the ground as something gave way off in the distance. Shayma spared a glance behind them, seeing a steady drip of people heading toward the teleporter, shepherded by the second- and third-tiers. She even caught a glimpse of Piping Hot Pies hauling a cartful of children before dust billowed up from a building collapsing.

They were terribly exposed, and Vok Nal would be able to stop them or kill them easily, except for the fact that Yamal had just demonstrated the mage-king couldn’t afford to completely ignore the fourth-tiers. A demonstration that meant that Liral and The Hurricane piled on.

Another lightning bolt arced from the dark, ominous clouds The Hurricane had gathered, this time striking Liril, empowering his purple flames. Now the blinding flare was indigo and white, a liquid sphere of Liril’s mana arcing from his hands to splash onto Vok Nal’s back. After that it was a bit of a blur as the mage-king spun, dashing off toward Liril and slamming his fist into another hastily-erected [Shield of Tarnil]. The dour firemage didn’t even flinch.

“Stop it!” Vok Nal shouted, voice booming and echoing off the nearby buildings. It didn’t seem to be magically enhanced, just very, very loud. “You fodder will know your place!”

A rumble punctuated Vok Nal’s words, but it wasn’t from him. The ground shook again, stone groaning as the street folded up nearby, crushing a signpost between slabs of rock. Shayma wasn’t entirely certain, but it seemed Blue was encroaching onto the Meil dungeon’s territory. Or at least the fight was. “Blue!” She said, trying to get his attention. “We’re right here! Be careful!”

The only reply was the same hissing buzz, which was a little worrying. He’d been distracted before but he’d never not answered her at all. The ongoing tremors showed that he was more than a little occupied, but she didn’t think he’d be that occupied. She didn’t have much to contribute to the fight herself, as it devolved into a high-speed exchange of blows between Yamal and Vok Nal, with some support by Liril and The Hurricane.

So far as she could tell Vok Nal didn’t have much practice, but with an enormous selection of stolen Skills and whatever else the Red Core granted, he didn’t seem to need it to keep up with Yamal. The two were too close together for Iniri to intervene with [Shield of Tarnil], or for Jace or Keel to contribute effectively. Not a problem for the fourth-tiers, since both The Hurricane and Liril could keep their lightning and fire, respectively, from actually hurting Yamal.

Liril’s fire was still burning the tower, clinging to it and whipped into a frenzy by The Hurricane’s winds. The clouds she was making were steadily darkening, and already drops of rain were starting to whip against the walls of Meil. From what Shayma understood The Hurricane did her best work in torrential downpour, though how that’d fit in with Liril’s flames she didn’t know.

“Enough!” Vok Nal finally bellowed, apparently frustrated by his inability to land a solid hit on Yamal. It seemed he’d remembered he was a spellcaster too, because he lifted his hands and a massive wave of blue fire burst outward. Iniri’s [Shield] kept the worst of it from them, but she could still feel the heat, spilling around the edges. A nearby storehouse, already weakened from the earth tremors, crumbled, the wind whipping dust and small rocks into the air.

“They need more time to evacuate,” Iniri said grimly, looking back at the crowd that was starting to gather around the teleport spot. Not that Blue had any limitations on how fast people could pass through, but the Classers organizing it had to keep things defensible. It wasn’t likely Vok Nal had many monsters left, but most of the city inhabitants were less than level twenty and first-tier, non-combat Classes like [Merchant] or [Scribe].

“Get him back toward the tower!” She called, and Yamal acknowledged the order by changing tactics, turning Vok Nal around and then giving ground, moving the pair back toward what was now a pillar of flames. There had to be an enormous amount of magic there for Liril’s fire to burn so long, or it was very resistant. Either way it was a mistake to ignore it, because the longer it burned the weaker the tower’s protections would be.

Of course, he hadn’t suffered much from ignoring the fourth-tiers. Even now he was defending against Yamal’s Skills with bare hands and pajamas, and batting aside The Hurricane’s lightning strikes to send them into nearby walls or streets. Shayma felt out of place, since not only could she not do anything against the mage-king, she couldn’t even keep up. She could try and throw illusions at him, but even if that somehow managed to distract him it wasn’t like he even noticed the hits he was taking from his sloppy fighting.

A deep boom sounded off to the right and a three-story wooden building heaved drunkenly, then shattered as it sunk into a newly-created pit. Shayma pulled the other three into [Ghost Step] for a moment to keep up with the absurdly fast Vok Nal and Yamal, while Liril made his own way by blinking through a series of flame-portals.

“Is it my imagination, or is Blue getting closer?” Iniri asked, throwing up her [Shield] as Vok Nal conjured a blade of water and hurled it at Liril. A tiny bit of the water-blade clipped the edge of the shield continued past, smashing through the temple roof and leaving a gaping hole.

“He might be,” she admitted. “I can’t really tell.” It wasn’t like the darkness from the clouds bothered her any, not with her new ring, but she didn’t have the perspective from the ground to tell if Blue was encroaching on the Meil dungeon or the fighting between them had just expanded along the front.

“Ask him -” Iniri started, then cut herself off to throw out another shield to keep Vok Nal from smashing into them again. Shayma couldn’t tell whether he was actively aiming for them, or if Yamal had managed to get a good hit in. But he took the opportunity to stare down at them, even though he couldn’t possibly see through [Shield of Tarnil].

“What are you doing?” He demanded, vaguely and nonsensically, then flinched as another shudder rocked the ground, making the few intact buildings nearby groan. Yamal came back and cannoned into the huge mage-king, blade-point first, and they were off again. Then The Hurricane was finally ready, and drops became a deluge.

Iniri didn’t bother sheltering them with [Shield of Tarnil], making Shayma glad for her waterproof cloak. Nobody else was similarly equipped, and they all got soaked. Wind drove the rain into a sudden flensing burst against Vok Nal, though it managed to do nothing but cut a scrap off the mage-king’s sleeve.

Liril’s flames seemed entirely unaffected by the rain, as he hurled tiny seeking darts of fire at Vok Nal, each of which embedded itself in something invisible a few inches away from his skin and burned themselves out. The Hurricane seemed to have given up on lightning bolts, at least for the moment. She was probably charging a more potent one, like the one she’d used to practically melt the Ironbeak.

Even though she could see perfectly, the wind and the rain whipped away whatever words Yamal and Vok Nal were shouting at each other as they clashed. Another glance around showed while she had been distracted, some of Vok Nal’s remaining monsters, mail-clad and oversized goblins, had closed in on the evacuees. Not that it was a problem, because they began to stagger drunkenly the moment they stepped onto the stone claimed by Blue, becoming easy prey for the adventuring parties trying to herd frightened civilians through the storm.

“Blue!” She tried to get his attention again, to no avail. All she could do was watch as the third-tiers attacked Vok Nal with a similar lack of effect. “I thought they’d be able to stomp him,” she finally said to Iniri over the howl of the wind, as a grey-green beam of solid light tossed Liril through a building. There weren’t going to be many of those left between Blue’s tremors and the fight. Iniri was mostly covering the civilians from the byproducts of the fight, as The Hurricane’s weaponized rain was less discerning than either Liril’s or Yamal’s attacks.

“I was hoping they’d be able to do more,” Iniri replied, the grim tone somewhat spoiled by needing to shout. The ground shuddered under their feet, and Shayma was forced to [Ghost Step] them a few dozen paces sideways as the stone pavement crumbled downward, then a spike of greyish stone shot upward to replace it. It was the raw color that Blue used, which meant he had advanced, at least here. Though the fact that he’d advanced directly to the spot where Shayma was standing seemed...suspicious, to her.

The fighting brought Vok Nal and Yamal back around, the mage-king slamming into the spire of stone. It broke but, to everyone’s surprise, cut a small gash into the small of his back as it did so. “What is this?” He demanded, staring at the stone while ignoring several of Yamal’s blows. “What is this?” The huge man touched it again then immediately cried out as Yamal’s next cut actually hurt him, opening a shallow wound along his neck.

Vok Nal immediately rounded on Yamal and summoned a massive sphere of white that he hurled at the man. The battle moved off again for a moment and Iniri shouted at Shayma. “We need to get you to the Meil dungeon core!”

“What?” Shayma stared at Iniri.

“Until Blue takes out that dungeon we won’t be able to scratch Vok Nal. But if he does take it, they can pound him into paste. You just saw what happened. Blue needs to win and win now, before they run out of stamina and I run out of mana.”

Shayma winced. Because she hadn’t been doing anything herself, she hadn’t thought about that. They must have been spending resources like water to try and finish this quickly. So she activated [Seeker], since they certainly needed to find that core.

Of course, it was at the top of the tower.

“We need to get up there,” she said, waving at the column of purple flames that burned a few blocks away.

“Get Liril,” Iniri said to Joce, who began using a quick divination working. With wind and rain and distance that was the only way to get through to him...maybe. Considering all the magic flying around it might well be just as easy to shout.

It took a few minutes, illuminated by lightning and multi-colored flares of magic and punctuated by the ground shaking and growling underfoot, to say nothing of the constant roar of wind and crash of thunder. But finally Liril appeared in a burst of flame, wiping the water out of his eyes. It was a useless gesture, and with a start Shayma realized everyone else could likely only see a few feet without Skills. Being able to see straight through the rain like it wasn’t there was very strange when she thought about it, but such was the power of an Artifact.

“Your Majesty?” He said, barely audible over the storm.

“We need to get into the tower,” Iniri told him. “How’s your fire doing? Can you punch us a hole?”

Liril glanced back at the flame-shrouded tower, the purple light of the blaze casting a halo through the driving rain. “I’m not sure why it’s still burning,” he admitted. “It should have eaten through the protections by now. I’ll see what I can do.”

“[Ghost Step], Shayma.” Iniri ordered, and once again she pulled Iniri and Joce and Keel into the Skill, this time following the rapid firebursts of Liril’s movement Skill. In that grey and ethereal world it didn’t take long at all to get to the tower, and Shayma flinched as the heat from the purple fire smashed into them.

Liril wasn’t affected, of course, walking up to touch the glowing flames. “There’s still a lot of defensive energy under there,” he said grimly. It was good he could tell, because Shayma couldn’t sense anything past Liril’s own magic. “But maybe you can get through with that Skill of yours.”

“Right,” Shayma said. [Ghost Step], like [Blink], could ignore intervening space and therefore some of the more prosaic defensive wardings. She activated the skill, approaching the wall of the tower and bracing herself to bull through the tracery of mana she could see even shifted as she was.

The moment she touched it, the webwork blazed with power, sinking into the fabric of her Skill and trying to tear it away. She screamed as needles raked across her, unable to find purchase, before finding herself lying on her back, clothes scorched and smoking as rain drenched her face and got under her hood. Keel appeared in her vision, looming over her as he helped her up. “Are you okay?”

“I...I don’t think we’ll be going in that way.” She didn’t know what that was but it hurt. At least she had [Regeneration] to take care of some of it, but the worst part was that it felt like it was attacking her Class and her mana directly.

“Don’t think the wall much liked it either,” Liril observed, eyeing a Shayma-shaped patch of brighter, deeper fire.

“Ugh. I don’t think I can keep doing that though.” She leaned on Keel, trying to listen for anything from Blue. But there was nothing there. If it weren’t for the buzzing and the occasional shuddering from below she would have thought he was asleep. Or dead.

“You may not have to.” Liril leaned in closer. “I might be able to push through here, but there’s no telling what the inside is like.”

“Unless we can get through whatever door Vok Nal came out of…”

“I checked it,” Liril shook his head. “If anything it’s warded even more heavily.”

“Do it,” Iniri said. “Before he comes back.”

Shayma realized she’d lost sight of Vok Nal and Yamal, having only the occasional flashes of magic to mark their location behind some building in an entirely different quarter of Meil.

Liril lifted his hands, looking entirely unimpressive in his now waterlogged robes, and pointed at the flaming silhouette. The fire actually dimmed, but Shayma could feel the eager hunger as it tore into the mana embedded in the stone. Some of the bricks slumped, melting as much from the heat as the destruction of the magical reinforcements that kept them in place.

A shriek echoed from somewhere out in the city and Vok Nal’s form came hurtling toward them over the rooftops, only to smash once again into [Shield of Tarnil]. Iniri let out a grunt, her hands splayed as the mage-king pounded on the Skill. “You’re hurting my dungeon! I’ll kill you!”

“Yas! Keep him off of us!” Inri shouted, even if Yamal wasn’t visible, and the fourth-tier obliged by appearing from a side street and crashing into Vok Nal.

“Inside!” Liril said, and enlarged the burned hole by the simple expedient of punching it. Even though he was a mage, as a fourth-tier his strength was more than sufficient to shatter the heat-weakened stone.

They piled through, into an astoundingly normal-looking lower room with desks and bookshelves and a startled-looking man – no, a monster, he wasn’t quite human – who fled out the door at the sight of them. Not that they had time to deal with that, since there was a stair up and [Seeker] was pointing in that direction for the core.

“This way!” Shayma said, bolting for the stairs. [Shield of Tarnil] flashed as Vok Nal burst through a different part of the wall, apparently without any effort, and almost made it to them before a winded Yamal simply tripped the mage-king with a phantom sword. She didn’t dare use [Ghost Step] inside, with all those magics still blazing about her, and was restricted to just using ordinary muscle power to climb the steps.

The second floor was ordinary, but the third was not, being an entire empty floor lined with brown-red capsules large enough to house a person. Shayma had no idea what they were, though if she had to guess they were incubation chambers for monsters of various types. Whether or not there were also women inside them was something she was glad she couldn’t tell. They didn’t have time to deal with that.

Another floor with more dungeon-flesh things, but these ones were empty. The sounds of pursuit came from behind them, the clash of sword and the meaty thump of bare feet on the wooden stairs. Maybe the creepy dungeon pods were working to their advantage, forcing Vok Nal to follow architecture rather than simply bursting through it. [Seeker] indicated they were almost there, the core directly above them, but when they got to the top of the stairs they found it wasn’t unguarded.

There were bars of some grey-red metal running from floor to ceiling, blocking off the room. Not to mention there were two huge moils, hulking at the entrance. According to [Seeker] the core was just out of sight, but even she could see the reinforcements around this room were incredibly dense. If Liril had trouble burning through the outer wall…

“Anything.” Iniri said, looking at Joce and Keel and Liril. “Anything at all.”

The three mages began to hurl their magics at the bars as Shayma hastily stepped aside, but the magics there shielded both the bars and the moils behind them. They didn’t have long to work. Vok Nal flew into the room with Yamal close behind, and once again Iniri put up [Shield of Tarnil] to keep him from reaching them. But she must have been low on mana from the constant use and the sheer force of a mage-king, because this time he actually pushed it back. It hissed and spat where he touched it, at least until Yamal hurled him aside with a look of exasperation. “The Hurricane is on her way,” he called to them. “But I can’t hold him long. Hurry up!”

“Shayma, you have to use your [Ghost Step],” Iniri said, but suddenly another option occurred to the fox-girl. There was one ability her ring had given her that she hadn’t done much with yet. This wasn’t the best time to test it, but the [Bane] ability of her mana, through Blue, might give her enough of an edge for it to work.

She used [Illusion] on the bars, substituting empty space for metal. Not a large space, but enough to fit through. Then she reached out through [Promise] and rendered the hidden bars insubstantial.

It was like shouldering a massive weight. She staggered, straining under the load, but kept throwing will and mana into the Artifact, until she finally felt it hold. “There! We can go through -” She squawked as she was cut off by Keel physically picking her up and throwing her through the opening she’d made, right between the moils and onto the ground on the other side. She rolled, the moils staring at her dumbfounded as Vok Nal crashed into the bars where she’d been a moment before. He was far too big for the illusory hole, and the shock simply destroyed her illusion, bent and twisted bars snapping back into view.

“Go!” Iniri shouted at her, and Shayma scrambled, whirling around to see the core. It was exactly like Blue’s, if not larger, but a deep, arterial red. The faceted crystal was connected floor to ceiling, and had an enormous chaise lounge next to it, overstuffed and strewn with equally oversized pillows. She darted for the crystal, while Vok Nal howled and tore the bars from the doorway with his bare hands. Lacking any better ideas, she hurled herself bodily at the core, wrapping her arms around it just as Vok Nal burst into the room. The moils were still lumbring to catch up, their forms not even halfway toward her.

The crystal sizzled against her skin. She screamed. Vok Nal screamed. The moils screamed, which was even more horrible than she would have imagined. The hissing buzz that was Blue’s presence suddenly surged up, rushing through her flesh as the crystal seared her, smoke and the smell of burnt meat pouring into the air. The pain lanced through her arms, up to her throat, threatening to strangle her. Then, without any warning, the crystal flushed a clear blue.

She stumbled backwards and collapsed onto the lounge, completely exhausted all of a sudden, her hands and arms blistered and burnt black, her armor missing or charred into ruins. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Vok Nal likewise collapse and the moils keel over, utterly still. Iniri dragged herself through the shattered bars of the doorway, and looked around cautiously before limping over to the unconscious Vok Nal. Without any fanfare, she conjured a blade of light at the tip of her fingers and separated the mage-king’s head from his body.

“Well,” she said grimly. “That’s done.”