Rune Seeker

Where solar energy usually billowed off Hiral when he used Foundational Split, this time it exploded off with a force that threw Seena and Seeyela sliding backward on the slick ground. Even Fitch—who’d closed the distance—got thrown back by the crackling eruption of Hiral’s ability, which blasted out and then began to whirl around him. What started as a tug on the air with streamers of solar energy wrapping around him quickly escalated to a full-on tornado. Vaporized rain turned to steam that got sucked into the vortex, mixing with the solar energy like spinning storm clouds. At his feet, the constant cycle tore at the earth, cracking stone and tearing head-sized rocks to join the revolving mess.

The grinding, howling roar of the tornado drowned out all other sound. It was powerful. It was endless. And then it shattered in another weaker blast wave that shot off hundreds of feet in every direction.

When it cleared, in the center of it all, solar energy arced and sizzled from Hiral’s shoulders and arms to Left and Right standing on either side of him. The two doubles, still clad in their own Second-Skins of Ur’Thul, practically warped the air around them with their radiating power.

No longer was each just half of Hiral’s tattoos and Meridian Lines.

Purple flames traced long lines across Right’s entire body: His arms, legs, torso, and even up his neck and across his head. Where a Shaper’s Meridian Lines usually glowed faintly after decades of long use, Right’s burned with the ferocity of a purple sun.

On Hiral’s other side, a full suite of perfect tattoos covered Left’s skin. While that double didn’t have the Meridian Lines reinforcing his body, the tattoos themselves glowed with pure white light on the black Second-Skin.

“That was a risk,” Left said, crossing his arms in front of himself as he reached up to touch his shoulders.

“But it paid off,” Right said, his own fists clenching so hard the ground below him cracked.

“It did.” Left’s arms snapped out as he shaped both Wings of Anella for the first time. Blue flames stretched out to his sides, small feathers falling like snowflakes, the rain turning to ice as it passed.

Thirty feet in front of them, Fitch again charged forward without a word. He didn’t even get a single step before Right was there.

Only the trailing lines of purple showed Right had moved—not teleported—and his fist seemed to cut through the air as it raced for Fitch’s chin. To Hiral’s eyes, Right had to be at least twice as fast as he had been previously—still not quite up to Hiral’s speed, but much closer. Where the double had always excelled, though, wasn’t speed, but raw power.

Despite the look of surprise across the man’s face, the Spear of Clouds came out of nowhere to deflect the blow. But, this time, instead of effortlessly parrying the hit, Fitch’s feet skidded back from the impact.

And Right was after him without hesitation, his furious assault blasting out shockwaves with every swing. Kicks, punches, elbows and knees—Right threw it all at Fitch, finally able to use his entire body as the weapon it was meant to be.

Right wasn’t going at it alone, either. Beside Hiral, Left lifted into the air with a single flap of his wings and activated the Way of Light tattoo. Coronas of bright light sprang to life around each hand, and the double thrust his arms forward. A dozen beams of concentrated light—similar to what the Enemy used—shot off from each of Left’s hands in every direction. But, not even a few feet away, each beam bent and changed direction like it had a mind of its own. Cutting and bouncing as if on invisible mirrors, the net of energy closed in on Fitch from all sides.

Green-veined tentacles of solar energy whipped around in defense of the Infested. Two of the appendages joined the Spear of Clouds in defending from Right, while the others intercepted Left’s salvo. Even with the beams’ constant changing of direction, the tentacles seemed to know exactly where each blast would go, and Fitch still somehow came out unharmed.

Left and Right are a lot stronger, but not enough on their own. Not that I expected them to be.

With Ever Changing+ basically useless until he could start hittingFitch, Hiral reached over his shoulder and drew the Emperor’s Greatsword. He usually liked to wait until he had the advantage to use the weapon—to completely overwhelm his opponent—but it didn’t look like he’d have the opportunity against the Infested. No, he needed to simply start building pressure and create an opening that way.

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Threading solar energy into the sword, the broken blade burst to life, expanding to its fallen-star form and releasing pressure on the air around Hiral. Maybe it was the way the weapon influenced gravity, or maybe it was its status as an S-Rank weapon, but the flow of ongoing battles seemed to shift—just a little—to Hiral’s senses.

Even Fitch’s tentacles paused for the briefest second, allowing two of Left’s searing blasts to sneak through, before blurring to life again.

“I’m going,” Hiral said into the party chat, taking his weapon in both hands.

“We’re with you.” Seena stepped up on his right, her flaming sheath covering from her head to toe. In the palm of each hand, she held what looked like fireballs, though they rotated with such ferocity that they sucked in the rain around them and released clouds of steam that hung at the woman’s feet.

“Just don’t get kicked; it hurts.” Seeyela stepped up on Hiral’s left, her daggers glowing with green coronas of intimidating energy. “Stabbed would probably be bad too.”

Without another word, Hiral launched at Fitch from a plane of Rejection. Wind and rain stung his face, but he arrived at the Infested a second later. Around came the Emperor’s Greatsword in a glowing arc that dragged the storm with it, and Fitch allocated two tentacles to deflect the swing.

They weren’t enough.

Gravity and Expansion hit like a sledgehammer, compressing the tentacles to Fitch’s astonishment behind them, and shot the man away.

Feet skidding on the ground as he went, Fitch whipped his tentacles into overdrive to bat aside Left’s continued barrage as it came from every side. All of them but two, the pair Hiral had hit, hung limp until a pulse of energy seemed to reinflate them.

Those two came around with the Spear of Clouds just in time to deal with Right as the double arrived, flaming fists hitting like battering rams with every swing. With his whole body enhanced by the Meridian Lines now, he was practically a different person, and his presence demanded Fitch’s attention—which turned out to be exactly what Seeyela was waiting for. A pair of portals opened beside the Infested.

Seeyela leapt out of the first, daggers going to work as she struck for Fitch’s exposed back. The man somehow managed to shift sideways to get his snapping sword in line to parry her Fangs, but she didn’t seem to care, attacking relentlessly.

All the while, Fitch’s eyes stayed glued on the remaining portal, as if expecting Seena to hurl another flaming spear through it. Instead, the woman herself barreled out of it and thrust her hand forward, fireball still cupped in her palm.

Three tentacles crossed to block the blow—opening Fitch up to Left’s stinging blasts—and to contain the explosion. Except the fireball didn’t explode. Instead, the spinning mass of flame chewed through the solar energy blocking it. Before Fitch even had a chance to react, one of the tentacles got carved in two, and he barely pulled the others away to save them from becoming messy stumps.

Seena’s other hand jabbed out as soon as she saw the opening, her second fireball stabbing for Fitch’s now exposed chest. If her attack did the same thing to his body as it had to his tentacles…

Fitch seemed to have the same fear, his sword coming across to parry the thrust. Unlike her previous fireballs, this one didn’t get cut or dispelled by the blade, and sparks like a swarm of fireflies flew off from the contact. And, not giving up, Seena slammed her other hand against the blade beside her first, keeping the blade occupied as Fitch struggled to hold her at bay.

Without his sword to parry Seeyela, however, he was forced to resort to using his tentacles. Almost immediately, thick lines of green Ghost-Web Venom began to spread through the appendages made entirely of solar energy. Every cut Seeyela made—she was specifically attacking the tentacles—spread the venom further and further up, closer and closer to Fitch’s body. Whether it could spread to him or just destroy the energy constructs was still up for debate, but Seeyela seemed like she was damn well going to find out.

Fitch twisted his arm as if he was about to bring his Spear of Clouds across to deal with Seeyela, but then the ground at his feet cracked in a circle around him from a massive increase in gravity. Fifty feet above, Hiral came down with a building whistle, both hands around the Emperor’s Greatsword glowing like a shooting star.

Rune of Gravity powered at over a hundred times, the sword itself was an entire mountain coming down. But Hiral wasn’t going to leave it at that. Burst after burst of Rejection exploded from his feet and sent out shockwaves of rain to the sides one, two, three times, building up even more acceleration.

With Right, Seeyela, and Seena holding Fitch in place with their assaults, the man couldn’t dodge, even if he had time to. Instead, in that split second, he disengaged his weapons from Right and Seena, crossing sword and spear above his head.

Churning fireballs drove into his gut, blood spraying at the first contact, while Right’s purple-enshrouded fist went low to slam into the side of Fitch’s knee. The sound of horrifically breaking bones was barely a whisper over the ear-shattering whistle of Hiral’s descent, and then it was all lost in the impact.

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