Unbound

Tin Ranks hustled across the courtyard while their few Iron and Bronze Ranks shouted for formations and supplies. Pandemonium. Felix, joined with Pit, sped across the crowd with as much grace as he could muster. Last thing he wanted to do was crush some innocent civilian in his rush.

"Cal! Wait up!" Felix called out.

The slender rogue was walking with Harn, Vess, and the Hand. They all turned to him. "What is it, Felix? We gotta move."

"It's—" Felix's senses tracked the chorister, still held in their makeshift brig. "There's something wrong with the chorister. She doesn't feel right."

"Doesn't—What does that mean?" Cal asked.

"I Analyzed her, did you? There are errors popping up. Could be when she took in one of those Scales it hurt her more than we thought," Felix said.

"But you cleansed her, no?" The Hand said, eyebrow raised. "You saved her already. How could she still be affected?"

Felix heaved an exasperated sigh. "I don't know, I just have a feeling. Something is going on."

"Felix, I sensed nothing. When I Analyzed her she came up fine: name, level, and race, all listed." Cal shook her head. "But you're not one to make things up. We'll keep a tight guard around her, take her with us. Harn can you see that it's done?"

"I was planning to keep her people under guard while we're gone, anyway. I'm not trusting them alone in our camp," Cal explained. Felix felt a little of the tension in his chest ease up, and Cal departed, already shouting orders to passing fighters.

"I believe you, Felix, but I didn't sense anything either. Not even with my Affinity," Vess said. She opened her mouth to say more, but the Hand groaned.

"Lady Dayne, we must move. We will not miss this chance at Authority."

Vess clucked her tongue, but didn't argue. She gave Felix a brief, warm smile and put out her hand. "I'm getting ready, then we'll all go. Together."

Felix hesitated a moment, but he took her hand in his. "Together."

Evie had practically run from the brig to her quarters, reducing her own weight to fairly fly above the crowd. People generally didn't like getting their heads stepped on, but if you were light enough and fast enough, they didn't even notice until you'd already gone.

In her room, she grabbed her bag, the one she'd packed for this exact eventuality. In it were a collection of Health Tonics, Mana Tonics, and two Stamina Potions she'd salvaged from a dead redcloak. Also it had a length of rope, a bedroll, some dried rations; the basics for adventuring. Mags had always told her to be prepared, take rations and extra weapons, and she'd never listened. After all, why prepare when you've got one weapon already, and a big sister looking out for you?

Evie slung the pack around her shoulders and cinched the clasps tight. Gotta look out for myself now. She swallowed that weird scratchy feeling in her throat, and sniffed to clear her sinuses. Just normal prep stuff. Nothing to see here.

She grabbed a bandolier of daggers on her way out the door.

Evie was back down the stairs and outside the warehouse quicker than most folks got their armor on. Not her, she rarely took hers off. All she needed now was to find Vess, and—

What was that?

Evie swiveled her head, pushing her Perception outward into the crowd. She had noticed something, but where—there. A small figure dashed behind the Healer's Ward, clutching something. And they were flickering.

That's not normal. Evie followed after the figure, the ground disappearing rapidly beneath her enhanced Agility. Of course it isn't. Nothing's been normal since the Foglands.

She came upon the Healer's Ward without issue, even crept to the far edge without a sound. When she peeked around the corner, however, there was no one there.

"Huh," she breathed. No tracks marred the ground, nothing. Just an empty expanse filled with medical trash in carefully wrapped bundles, and beyond that the wall. Slowly, Evie moved her hand to the chain around her waist, but her Perception quivered before she could reach it. Breathless, she dove forward, narrowing avoiding a jagged blade of shadow that ripped from the wall.

"Who's there!?" Evie finally grasped her chain and unfurled it. It clanked outward and nearly hovered, mid-air as she reduced it's weight. The shadow blade widened, until it resolved into the form of a small Human girl. She was barely taller than Evie herself, and slight too, with long auburn hair. She didn't recognize her at all. "Who're you?"

"You shouldn't have dodged," the girl said with a high voice. It was almost sweet, were it not for the raw violence in her eyes. "You're just making this harder, Aren."

There was no warning, the girl simply disappeared. Evie's senses strained to catch her, but still barely evaded the dark dagger that came for her throat. Instead it cut a line of fire along her collarbone before being deflected by her armor. Evie spun away, chain already whirling, and wove a net of defensive steel around her body.

"Clever," the little girl said. "But not enough to face me, even like this!"

Again the girl popped into range without warning, ducking under Evie's guard with contemptuous ease. A bare fist, cloaked in dark Mana vapor slammed into her gut. Evie let out a pained gasp before the force of it sent her enhanced weight hurling through the air. She slammed into the back of the Healer's Ward with a sound like thunder.

Evie slid to the ground in a daze, a series of Status Conditions flickering in his vision. She could neither breath nor pull power from her core. Instead, she fell to her side and burned inside.

"Tch," the girl said with a flick of her long hair. "I don't have time for you. Next time, maybe try being a bit faster, hm?"

Her body, for a moment, flickered like lightning. Evie saw a blond woman in black leather standing in her place, before the flickering ceased and the girl returned. A small frown crossed her face and she checked something in her vision. Without another word, the false girl leaped over the wall and vanished.

Two desperate minutes of pained wheezing later, Evie gasped her first real breath and felt the frozen chain within her spin back to life.

"Noctis' tits," Evie panted. "You're not getting away that easy."

Felix checked his pack again. He had everything in order, he was pretty sure. Evie had instructed him on "adventure readiness" as she called it, and he'd taken it to heart. His Valerian Satchel had been packed with the essentials for days by that point, though that didn't stop him from adding one or two more things to it.

"More Revenants! Straight ahead!"

Felix glanced up from his pack, quickly counting the oncoming horde. Eighty....no, ten more coming from the alley. He shouted. "More to the southwest!"

Stone Shaping!

A wall ripped from the earth, sealing off the alley just as a wave of Revenants smashed into it. Pieces of masonry chipped off and it shuddered, but it held.

"Pit! Guests on the other side of the wall! Greet em!" Felix called out, and from above there came a shriek of joyous challenge. A rain of Frost Spear came from the overcast sky, and pained howls of the Revenants was accompanied by Pit's ferocious cries.

"Shield wall! First form!" At the front of the line, the Tin and Iron Ranks had pulled their shields, each of them falling back on training as Bodie screamed out orders. Bodie himself unveiled a massive, door-sized shield of thickened metal and slammed it into the earth just as the Revenants arrived. "Huaaaaarrrr!"

Foul spittle and gnashing teeth hit the steel shields, shoving some back. But the layers of Tin ranks held, bolstered by the rows behind them. Claws against steel squealed.

They won't last long like that. Felix focused his attention on them, noting the wave of Revenants that was now coming from the east as well. More of their people turned toward them, Kelgan and Yan among them.

A field of flickering flames followed by, paradoxically, a wall of jagged ice erupted before the shield wall. The Revenants howled as the magic tore at them, but too many were bearing them down, and the front line was pressed into them. But the Tin Ranks had started to pant as their Mana drained rapidly.

Stone Shaping!

Mana surged through Felix's channels, ripping from him in a wave that hurled itself into the cobbles ahead. The ground beneath the monsters turned to mud as his Mana forced it to lose cohesion, and dozens of Revenants lost their footing. They were crushed further into the muck as those behind them did not stop their ravening charge. With a heave of his Will and shaped Intent, Felix dropped the thickened stone, pulling it's gelatinous mass up and outward into a series of vicious spikes.

"HURUGAAAHAHHHH!"

You Have Killed Manawarped Revenants (x27)!

XP Earned!

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Contribution!

"Felix!" Cal yelled. "Get your ass moving and do your job, bait!"

Felix spotted strands of golden-blue energy wash over a number of the Tin Ranks, each of them taking a portion of the kills that were cascading across Felix's vision. It barely tingled against his own core, the tiniest amounts of System power, not nearly enough to truly move him toward his next level. The Tin Ranks, however, started to shudder and shake; their level ups were happening, and the System strain...He dismissed his notifications and leaped straight over the shield wall and into the crowd, his skin rippling and ripping as it transformed. A nightmare creature of dark scales and vivid, cyan markings landed among them and Felix let lose a burst of power.

Reign of Vellus!

Soundless lightning exploded outward in a line, driving a slew of Revenants back and sundering those that took it head on. The Primordial spawn all turned toward him, their mouths quivering with thickened slobber. They smelled him, and they howled again before rushing at him. His senses, however, told him worse was on the way. He shouted behind him.

"Bodie! More are coming from down the road! Hold tight!"

"Aye!"

Ravenous Tithe!

Felix pulled out his Femur of the Envoy and fed it a tiny portion of the Essence that was simultaneously streaming into his core. The metallic club expanded, the inert sigils on it flaring with a strange, blue-yellow radiance. He started swinging, just as reddish orbs of flame burst among the enemy.

More notifications of XP and Contribution, Felix ignored them as they flitted past his vision. Atar's fire was nearly as effective as his own Essence and Mana imbued club, each explosion taking out a handful and burning more. Among them, silver spear landed with concussive force, reaping Revenant lives with every burst of air Mana. Even the Hand had stepped in, pulling a large, two-handed sword from his back and laying a dozen low with each swing. They were whirlwinds of death, but the monsters kept coming.

"Keep up, Fiend," the Hand said with a mirthless laugh, before he beheaded a row of oncoming spawn. "Or are you not worth the pedestal they placed you on?"

Felix growled through his fangs, sensing the cold calculation bubbling in the man's Spirit. Still, he turned himself toward the fight and let loose a surge of kinetic force, bowling over the few abominations that threatened the advancing shield wall. He knew what the jerk was trying, but it didn't matter as long as these people were counting on him.

Only the fight mattered.

They drew ever closer to the pump station.

You Have Killed a Manawarped Revenant!

XP Earned!

Territorial Quest Alert!

You Have Gained Contribution!

Felix slung his strange club over his shoulder with a groan. They'd been fighting for hours, ripping apart the monsters that came at them with such regularity that even his Stamina had begun to flag.

A scouted signed from up ahead, and Felix breathed a sigh of relief before dropping his transformation. The pain helped clear his head.

All around him, the higher ranked combatants relaxed their stances and collected themselves. The fighting had dragged on too long, leading many of their fighters to begin rotating in and out of the fray. Their saving grace was that Felix, as vanguard and bait, had turned the Revenant's heads and made it far easier for the rest to attack them.

He was a living Taunt Skill. His plan had worked.

That also meant, however, that he was covered in wounds. Relatively minor thanks to his Sovereign of Flesh and constant source of Essence keeping him on the better end of healthy. A few of the scratches that were once jagged gashes finished sealing along his arms and face; the latter were particularly painful.

Ravenous Tithe!

A large swathe of the street turned battlefield became awash in greasy black smoke. The others barely flinched, used to it by that point, as streamers of smoke moved against the wind and flowed immediately into Felix. His Essence hadn't been so full since he'd eaten the Ravager King, though he could tell he had plenty of...capacity left.

Influence of the Wisp is level 44!

Mantle of the Long Night is level 40!

Shadow Whip is level 41!

Stone Shaping is level 46!

Wrack and Ruin is level 44!

Dual Casting is level 46!

Blind Fighting is level 45!

Corrosive Strike is level 48!

He'd channeled most of his spells through his weapon, and the results were an impressive improvement in nearly all of them. The Femur of the Envoy, however, was starting to show some wear. Nothing a little Essence won't fix, I suppose. Though I wonder if there's a limit on the effectiveness of that repair enchantment.

signed one of the scouts, and Felix oriented on them.

The arcade directly before the pump station. They'd arrived.

Felix caught Cal's eye and started making his way toward her. The Tin Ranks, also well rotated to avoid exhaustion, were leaning heavily against their shields. He smiled and clapped a few of them on the shoulders as he passed, feeling their Spirits lighten just a tiny bit.

"We'll get through this," he whispered.

Dropping near silently from above, Pit swooped low and landed with considerably more grace than previously. He preened at Felix's attention and silent praise, before accepting head scratches from a nearby Vess. She was there, along with Atar, Harn, Bodie, Kelgan, and Cal. Felix saw Portia working her way across the street, applying her talents on the ranks.

"Where's Evie?" Felix asked Vess once he was in earshot, not trusting his voice above a low whisper.

Vess gave him a surprised look. "I thought she was with you."

Felix and Vess' eyes met, mirrors of concern, but Cal started talking. "The square is ahead, and the scouts are reporting that it's empty. Completely."

"What?" The Hand snorted. "They fear us so much?"

"Ambush," Harn grunted. "Gotta be. These things have been comin' thick and fast all day, ain't no reason for that to change now. Somethin's up."

"What is up is that they are running for their lives," the Hand declared. He shook his head. "Can you not feel their terror in the air? Their impotent rage? Why else would they flare so brightly with such emotions?"

"They don't—heurk—they don't fear us," Aslei announced. Blood flecked her lips as she looked directly at Felix. "They fear him."

Right, Felix didn't quite let himself frown, though his expression might have been termed stoic. She's still here.

The chorister wasn't looking good, and she hadn't started off in the best of ways. Her cheeks were more sunken than ever, and her eyes had dark circles and bloodshot whites. More than anything, she reminded him of the Maw, after he'd killed her the first time.

Funnily enough, that wasn't a comforting thought.

"Regardless, we can't find em," Cal reiterated. She pointed to a map on the ground, and Felix could see their route marked out in splotches of ink. "We come in here, from the north, and we'll stick to the edges. The pump station is located here, just south of the fountain and right after the Bathor Road." She looked at all of them. "We move quick, we move quiet. I wanna get in that station without a peep if we can."

"Why not send scouts ahead? Why bother maneuvering this...armed force?" The Hand asked, his face serious. "Myself and perhaps two others could move ahead and secure the pump station before all of your people could even get to the fountain."

"Worth considerin'," Harn allowed, and despite Felix's dislike of the man, he agreed.

Cal put her hands on her hips and nodded. "Settled then, we send Master Reed, Bodie, and...Felix. You'll head forward and secure the space."

"What? No, I meant—"

"I don't particularly care what you meant, Master Reed," Cal snapped, her voice still lower but sharpening. "But this is my crew and my responsibility. You either help us, or you're free to leave."

An incredulous smile spread across Vess' face as the Hand's jaw worked soundlessly before snapping closed. "Very well. We leave now." The man started striding away immediately.

"Well, this'll be fun," Felix said with a wry twist of his lips. "Bodie? Wanna go fight some monsters?"

"Always, Felix," the big man laughed, a little too loudly perhaps. "Glad to see you've upgraded to a proper weapon."

Felix grinned right back. Darius Reed might be a dick, but Bodie was good people. He could get through this, and worst case scenario, they'd fight their way out.

Yet he couldn't keep his eyes from wandering toward the chorister, who even now was staring holes in Felix's chest. He couldn't tell if she was hungry or just pissed off, but she didn't seem happy; her Spirit, however, felt placid and calm.

Felix took a breath, and followed after the Hand.

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