20demayo Chapter 82: Running Battle
Chapter 82: Running Battle
Chapter 82: Running BattleAliandraAli took the last step off the stone bridge, alighting on the time-worn gray flagstones of the central ring. To the north, she could see the jagged edge where about a quarter of the ring was simply missing, a great empty swathe of darkness where once had been a thriving district, ripped away by an ancient catastrophe to presumably fall shattered to the ground far below.
“This is so incredible,” Calen said, breathlessly.
“It looks so different,” Ali answered. She had just been down here – only several weeks ago, her mind insisted, blatantly ignoring the intervening millennia she had not personally experienced – and the jarring shift to darkness, ruins, and undeath unnerved her in a way that made her question her very existence, or purpose. her mind insisted.
“I wish I could have seen it intact,” Calen said. “Before whatever it was that blew up half of the rings.”
“It was beautiful,” Ali whispered.
“What’s the plan?” Malika asked, tapping her right foot impatiently.
“That building first,” Calen said, pointing.
Ali recognized the building just ahead as the remains of a re
With their enemies still hot on their heels, he and Malika raced up the stairs into a broad open second level, lit by the still-flickering gobs of flame – remnants of one of Ali’s fireballs. Corpses lay everywhere, burnt past recognition. Whether they had been undead or not, Mato didn’t much care; instead, he charged the still-moving figures in the far corner.
His Swipe tore into the bone-studded leather armor the warriors were wearing, much softer targets than the usual plate armor, but the longswords set his danger sense off, tearing great slices through even his dense hide.
Another bone wall appeared between him and the mages huddled in the corner, and he heard a thump and a muffled curse from Malika.
“Fucking wall,” she grumbled. “I can’t see shit.”
He was just debating how he could corral the monsters chasing him, the new ones, and still hit the wall, when Malika backed up two steps, then raced up the sheer bone barrier and leapt over the top.
“I’ll bring the mages,” she said, freeing Mato to drag the monsters he had already secured off to the stairwell again while stealing a little of the damage she incurred to himself to give her an edge.
Mato took to the stairs again, charging upward after verifying by the sound of her breathing that Malika was just behind him. The two of them emerged onto the roof with a veritable horde of Kobolds and skeletons right on their heels. Ali and Calen were already firing at skeletal wyverns overhead, so he simply rounded up all the monsters, trying to create the tightest pack he could. Calen would appreciate it; he did like to be efficient.
“Ali, we’re ready,” Malika called out.
The first fireball struck, detonating almost on top of Mato. The flame seared his flesh, burning his fur up in a flash of sulfurous stench that burned at his lungs. The holy magic of an Acolyte and Malika’s simultaneous searing surge healed him to full in an instant. Mato thought. This strategy worked, but he didn’t have to like it.
In the second between the fireball and the blinding flashes of lightning, Calen’s shining chain dragged a skeletal wyvern down into the crush. Blinded by flame, Mato Swiped to his left flank, guided entirely by Survival Instinct and memory, claws shredding through bone and scales as the wyvern crashed to the ground.
One of the most annoying things about the skeletal wyverns – apart from the flying – was the fact that mere proximity was enough to be afflicted with their poison magic. This time, though, the wyvern did not escape. The constant barrage of lightning and fireballs destroyed everything that wasn’t getting constantly healed.
“Incoming, next building,” Calen announced, and within a few moments, Mato was being lowered to the ground to repeat the entire exercise once more.