Unbound

Vines whipped past Vess, growing at a pace she could barely match. Her feet blurred between the sundered streets and torn up stones, while floating spears danced at her back. She slipped into the pattern of Dragoon's Footwork as her main spear wove defensively, knocking aside attack after attack. Man-sized thorns burst from the lashing vines, each seeking to stab, rend, and kill.

"Keep her away from the shield wall!" Vess shouted. Atar didn't reply, but a stream of fire abruptly inundated the far end of their battle, cutting the immense Arcid from their fighters. The Arcid reeled back—the one Felix unimaginatively named Skeleton—taking large strides from the crimson flames.

"Why do you mortals insist on surviving? Can you not see the peace we offer?" Skeleton hissed and wove pulses of green-gold Mana into the earth again. "Simply give up! Our Master is an oncoming storm, unstoppable and unrelenting!"

Lightning lashed from up above, and the rain that had once abated began to pour down again. Vess' eyes flashed, Elemental Eye flexing. It was dramatic, and more than coincidence; three of the Reforged had their hands raised up, pulsing streamers of crackling multi-hued Mana extending into the sky.

Elemental Eye is level 51!

Dragoon's Footwork is level 55!

Vess kicked off a riven stone, activating her Born Trait and leaping far above the battlefield. Her Strength had increased considerably when she'd hit Journeyman in truth, and so had her Agility. A deadly vine ripped up at her, but she thrust her floating spears forward. They hit the vine's hardened flesh and slowed her momentum enough that her feet found purchase atop it.

Wall Run!

Slowed but not stopped, Vess ran atop the swirling, thorny vines. The Arcid threw its skeletal hands about, its power following, but the heiress leaped and slid between the weaving attacks. It couldn't hit her, not as long as she had Stamina to burn.

Work faster, Atar!

Wyrmling's Call!

Vess' face and shoulders were wreathed in the spectral seeming of a roaring dragon, though the sound was entirely real and frankly hurt her throat. An invisible wave of effect followed her call, breaking uselessly against the Skeleton, but pricking the ears of the monsters beyond the flames. It called to them like the sweetest of songs, one she could sense was plucking at something her Affinity could only barely make out. The monsters turned, and ran directly into the raging fire.

You Have Killed A Ghostfire Simian (x4)!

XP Earned!

You Have Killed A Lesser Wretch (x2)!

XP Earned!

AFI +2!

Vess grinned, but had to drop low to avoid another swooping growth of deadly vegetation. Her Affinity was improving, clearly, but she still had no control over whether Wyrmling's Call taunted or frightened her enemies. It was a frustrating Skill, for all that she Tempered with it.

That thought was knocked entirely from her skull as a thin, green hand emerged from the writhing tangle. It struck her sideways along her shoulder and neck, barely slowed by the defensive explosions of her silver spears. Vess hit yet more vines, tangling her with offshoots that wound around her spears and limbs.

"You'll not stop us! You are weak!" The Arcid's leering face followed its hand, slipping through its own vines like a fish through water. It loomed over Vess as thorns closed in. "Your life is mine."

"Grand Impetus!"

An almost solid beam of blue Mana slammed into the Arcid, throwing the enormous construct back into its tangled growths.

"Pillars of the Domineering Sentinel!"

All around Vess the ground exploded upward, thrust up by columns of kinetic Mana. Skeleton's hold was torn asunder, her vines and plants shredded as a platform of stone and dirt sailed upward with Vess still on it.

Pierce the Sky!

Spear of Tribulations!

Vess ascended just as the pillars of Mana winked out, soaring into the downpour as if she'd grown wings. Air Mana swirled, condensing into silver spears that swam around her body like a flock of deadly birds. She rotated her hips, keeping her eyes on the ground as she reoriented in the dark. Her Elemental Eye could just barely make out the shape of the looming creature.

Dragon's Descent!

Vess fell like a comet, propelled by air Mana and spiralling gouts of orange fire. The Arcid had less than a second to react, throwing up an arm in defense.

*KRAKOOM!*

All seven of Vess' spears hit at the same time, though only five sunk deep into the Skeleton's metallic flesh. The others buried themselves among the greenery. The creature screamed in rage and no little pain, from what Vess felt vibrate across its Spirit.

"About time!" Atar complained, but Vess saw him throw the new arrival a beaming smile.

"I had to...run...through your fire," Alister panted as he patted out a burning patch on his robes. "Thanks for that."

Atar had the grace to look sheepish. "Focus Atar!" Vess yelled, stabbing down with two more spears. They struck true, but the Arcid was getting back up regardless.

"Burning ashes! On it!" Atar cursed, before throwing fire back down at his feet. His Imbued Sparkbolts cut into the uneven flagstones and cobbles, marking out charred sigils.

Vess dodged out of the way of Skeleton's wild swipe, but it was close enough to draw a line of sparks from her armor. The force of the glancing blow sent her spinning, and Vess nearly lost her footing before her Skill saved her. Still, the Arcid got the space it needed to regain its feet.

"Nothing you plan will stop us. Not array or force of arm," Skeleton panted. "We have seen the Path forward, and we will take it!"

A muffled boom echoed out from close by, startling them both. Dust rose but was beat back down by the rain, and Vess blinked in surprise.

"Tell that to your brother," Vess said. Felix stood atop the other Arcid, drenched in blood and practically steaming with visible Mana.

"NO!" the Archid bellowed, before she light up brighter than the sun itself.

Vess stumbled back, shielding her eyes, as a green-gold radiance poured off of Skeleton and reached outward like a many armed beast. Tendrils of her visible Mana hit and infused the vines that laid thick along the battlefield, and suddenly it was chaos. Vines quintupled in size and grew upward at a pace that Vess couldn't even follow. Every single piece of vegetation tore itself up from the earth at the same moment, and all of them hurtled toward the Arcid.

"Blighted Night!" Vess exclaimed, weaving between the walls of plant matter. Thorns and roots clipped her, shaving dozens of points from her Health as her Stamina struggled to replenish itself. "What is—?"

The vines, which Vess had assumed would soon turn against them, instead rapidly grew underneath the Arcid's feet. A platform of vegetation formed beneath Skeleton, and without warning she was launched straight up into the air.

No. Not straight up, Vess realized. At an angle.

Directly toward the Inquisition's wall.

"Gods and fools, Atar!" Vess shouted in frustration and jabbed her finger at the array he was building. "Will that work anymore?"

"Not if she's not inside it!" Atar shot back before pulling at his coiffed hair.

The platform, and the veritable tree that grew underneath it hit the wall like a careening Manaship. Defensive formations sparked and stuttered, the creature's vines assaulting it in too many places at once. The sigil constructs exploded into coruscating fireworks.

It's headed for DuFont, Vess realized. "It's going to kill DuFont! We have to stop it!"

If the Authority died with her, it was gone.

Mervin crawled to his knees and managed not to vomit. Everything hurt, but he still had both of his legs.

He couldn't say the same for everyone else.

Outside the enchanted glass window, from atop the Wall, Mervin could see an ocean of trees. In the daytime it was one of his favorite sights, but now, beneath that wretched crimson moon, it loomed like the thing of nightmares. Monsters had poured from that thicket only minutes before, overrunning their post with a single-minded ferocity. That ferocity was what saved them, though plenty among their number died. The monsters hadn't lingered, but streamed inward as if intent on reaping as many innocent lives as possible.

"At least it's all over," Lars whispered. He too retained his limbs, but his bow had seen better days. The others were close, nursing their wounds. "We live."

A sudden scream tore through the night. It was stronger and more resonant than anything they'd heard so far. In the distance, the trees of the Foglands began to sway harder in the rainstorm. Mervin traded looks with his friends, all of whom looked as terrified as he felt.

"What in world is that?" Mervin hissed.

"It is death, come for us," a new voice murmured. Mervin yelped and stared at the woman who had somehow appeared next to him.

"Who are you?" he managed, his racing adrenaline enough to level his shortsword at the woman—Naiad, he noted. "You cannot be here! It's dangerous—!"

"Concerned?" The Naiad grinned, and Mervin saw bright white teeth. They were as serrated as a beast's. "That is to your credit, but I doubt I'll be able to avoid that."

She pointed back out, into the Foglands. Mervin's eye tracked her gesture, and widened as the sound suddenly reached them. Tearing through the forest—literally ripping trees from their places in some cases—was an immense, metallic thing. It looked like a man had been draped in steel before being stretched and ballooned across the chess and shoulders, expanded until it was almost taller than the Wall itself. Steam or smoke poured from huge vents in its shoulders and neck, while its face was a built like an Inquisitor but on a grander and equally cruder scale. Lights burned in the darkness of the helm, two bonfires that cut through the dark and rain as it fixed on its destination.

It was coming straight for them.

"By the Pathless' eternal mercy!" Mervin gasped. His danger sense blared with a belated, terrified warning.

"We're doomed!" someone else cried out, though he wasn't sure who.

A hand gripped his shoulder and the boy looked down to see delicate ochre fingers flexing on his battered pauldron. The woman smiled grimly, if kindly.

"Run, Mervin Cors. I may not be able to end this Quest, but I can prove my worth here," she said.

"Quest?" he asked. "What quest? The one for Authority?"

"Run," she repeated, before sigils of brilliant aquamarine began to appear around her. Each was the size of a dinner plate, and flashed into being in mere moments. "You will not survive this collision."

Sentinel's Regard went wild inside of him as he saw those sigils, and he swiftly turned to his friends and fellow Guilders. "Everyone that can, run! Carry the rest!"

Mervin stooped to scoop up his injured friend Piotr, but only made it as far as the adjoining hallway before the stomping, cataclysmic feet of the approaching monstrosity reached the clearing between Wall and forest. They weren't going to make it.

"To the battlements!" Mervin shouted, and behind him the others moved to obey.

They burst out of the top of the Wall through doors and passages just as the massive metal giant hit the barrier. A hammer of smoking, imbued ore against the unpowered strength of orichalcum.

It was no contest.

The wall immediately began to rip asunder.

Screams filled Mervin's ears as they kept running, even as the ground beneath their feet trembled and collapsed, bucked and twisted. Aquamarine flashes and snaking lines of sigaldry cut across the orichalcum, possessed of such potency that Mervin couldn't even understand them, except that they were strong. The Wall fought back, groaning in almighty protest, and a massive array ignited in the air. Mervin's friends cried out.

"Don't look!" he cautioned, his Regard squealing in warning. "Don't—Just run!"

Then the Wall fell out from beneath them, and darkness swallowed them all.

"Felix!"

Felix's head snapped up from the cooling corpse of the Arcid to see the battle raging hard all around him. He blinked, then saw her.

"The Arcid!" Vess shouted, pointing. "It's after DuFont!"

He spun and caught sight of an immense, jack-and-the-beanstalk style plant that slammed headlong into DuFont's new wall. His Manasight picked out elaborate defensive measures that set the glowing length of bulwark on fire in the night. Vines blackened and died, but more kept coming. The strength of the life Mana that powered its conjuration was nothing to sneeze at, even more powerful than Mud had proven with earth. The Skeleton Arcid stood atop the beanstalk, stretching its spindly arms outward.

Wrack and Ruin!

Wrack and Ruin!

Dual casted orbs of sizzling corrosion manifested and sped through the air almost as fast as he could think on the Skill. He spammed it, hurling orb after destructive orb at the Arcid. Thorny growths grew to intercept them, but each one ate through the creature's defenses; yet for all of that, Felix knew it wouldn't be enough.

"Help the rest of them!" Felix called out, but shouldn't have bothered. Vess, Atar, and Alister had turned back to the Reforged and monster horde and were cutting through their numbers with savage grace.

"Hm," Felix managed, before refocusing.

Stone Shaping!

The jagged and sundered earth beneath them heaved upward, forming into a platform of his own that sent Felix rocketed into the sky. He sailed upward and unsheathed his Femur and Blade, pushing more Essence into their lengths. Lightning flashed above them in near-constant strobes, and in the distance he thought he heard the sound of calamitous thunder.

Felix threw himself off his pillar as it reached it's zenith, letting his Strength and Agility prove their worth as he soared through the air, weapons first, at the Arcid.

Round two.

Fight.

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