Chapter 30 #2
“Just like the old days,” grinned Nessa.
“Remember our drills? Fighting the goblins feels like a lifetime ago. I’ll take point.
Harald, you’re on the left, Sam, on the right.
Vic, bring up the rear. Kársek, you’ll be in the center pocket to deploy Thurak or Khazadrok where needed.
Remember, everything on Harald’s side is now our ‘west,’‘east’ on Sam’s side, ‘south’ is always behind Vic, no matter which way we actually turn.
Cardinal directions remain relevant to our positions, not the world. ”
Everyone nodded, and some manner of old familiarity and joy returned to Harald. He shared a smile with Sam.
“We’ll move at a steady jog. Sam, Harald, pull in tight whenever we have to go single file, with Sam ahead.
Drop the Starfire Bastion only as needed, and use your Hallowed Advance if we run into serious obstacles.
I’ll coordinate our movement with Harmonic Resonance, Will of the Blade, and if we get really pressed, Grand Orchestration.
Clear? I want us inside that castle in under five minutes.
Harald, use your Servitors as you see fit. ”
“Sure. I’ll have a spider on each flank. The Rootwarden won’t be able to help us if we’re on the move, so I’ll put Shadowpaw ahead to scout, and the golem to protect our rear.”
“Sounds good.” Nessa took a deep breath and flashed a smile at the group. “Ready?”
Harald couldn’t help but grin back—he’d never seen Nessa so… composed? Open? Willing to share excitement without reservation or cynical reservation. It felt like a breath of fresh air.
“Then on my count. Three. Two. One. Let’s move.”
And Nessa took off down the hill. She manifested a new blade in her hand, and it took Harald a moment to place it—the Thirsting Blade of Hollow Victory which he’d taken from one of the Silver-ranked raiders sent to kill him at the Celestara estate.
It empowered its wielder with each successive kill, and had some manner of special attack after each three deaths.
Smart weapon for what was to come.
Harald held the Dawnblade low as he took off after Nessa, matching her pace, Sam a few paces to his right. Down the rocky hill they charged, down through the blood-red light, and immediately little figures began to rise from hollows and from behind rocks, startled into flight.
The most curious little fellows. Each was about a foot in height, cast all in black and white, their boldly patterned monochromatic moth-wings blurring audibly as they rose.
Dressed in baroque robes, their heads were large casques of ivory in which faceted black insect eyes bulged, with twin feathered antennae rising like horns.
They flew like bumblebees, robes aflutter, bobbing and rising in dips and sways, each clutching a massive tome to their side which hung from a strap across their chest.
“They’re adorable!” laughed Sam. “They must be the Lumin Moths!”
“Too many of them for my liking,” said Vic dourly from behind.
Nothing could be harmless on the 37th Level, and as more and more of the little moth-winged scholars rose into the air, the world around them began to change.
Nessa slowed as boulders duplicated and grew, the hillside becoming ever more labyrinthine.
The Lumin Moths themselves began to duplicate and split apart, so that soon their number had doubled around them.
The air wavered as if in a heat haze, and the ground abruptly fell away or rose higher so that it became hard to judge where to step.
“Enough of that,” muttered Harald, and summoned both of his spiders.
They came rushing up from his Cosmos and appeared on either flank, monstrously huge, their eight arching legs immediately picking their path through the chaotic hillside, their vast pendulous abdomens gleaming like slick oil.
There was no hesitation on their part. They began to leap nimbly with their terrifying speed into the air and snag the Lumin Moths as if they were at a castle feast.
Shadowpaw was coursing ahead, his sense of scent allowing him to pick a surer path, and Harald sensed when Nessa decided to just follow the hound instead of trying to pick their own route.
Behind came the Gauntlet Golem, as nimble and quick as ever, and with metronomical regularity, the Servitor began hurling arcs of white fire into the sky.
But for every Lumin Moth the spiders or golem killed, their attacks passed harmless through three or four illusions.
And more kept rising from the valley side and floor below.
Harald summoned the Tyrant’s Halo and immediately the blurred vision snapped into focus, the rocks that wavered and danced before him settling into place.
Better yet, he felt Nessa’s guidance settle over him, coordinating his paces, nudging him into the right path, moving so smoothly that he and Sam seemed connected by an invisible tether.
“Thurak,” called Kársek from between them, and raised his rune hammer so that a ghostly Rune flew up into the sky.
Where Khazadrok was all brutal power, this one looked carved with the finest chisels, complex and beautiful, and it flew high into the sky to hang suspended over them, pulsing with silver radiance before fading away.
While it pulsed, however, the landscape about them settled into its natural configuration, the illusions burning away, and Nessa picked up the pace.
“Love it, Karsy!” cried Vic from behind.
“Reinforcements from the castle,” called Sam, tone low and worried.
Just as they spilled out onto the valley floor, rank upon rank of larger winged beings began to emerge into the air from high balconies on the castle.
Their ornate suits of armor gave them the appearance of giant beetles, their large wings blurring and filling the air with a dreadful hum that caused Harald’s thoughts to feel oppressed.
Rank after rank emerged into the air, sides limned in livid red, to come sweeping in overhead.
“Here we go,” called Nessa. “Let’s put on speed while we can!”
But the Swarm Knights were soon overhead. They broke formation to begin diving and interweaving amongst themselves, painting a complex pattern high above.
And the valley below responded by erupting in fire.
The air began to suck upwards, a gale bursting from around them, and as it curled into a great vortex, it caught fire.
“Split up!” cried Nessa, and Harald felt Grand Orchestration take control.
So surprised had he been by the suddenness of the attack that he might have simply slowed and gaped for a crucial second or two, but instead he found himself staggering to an immediate halt and then sprinting back and away as the towering tornado roared through where he’d been.
The air scorched his face, the wind whipped his hair and armor, and it became hard to breathe, his mouth drying out, his whole body almost lifted off the ground.
Another tornado caught fire as it carved its path across the valley, and then a third.
Harald felt one of his spiders get pulled into the center of the inferno and sustain such overwhelming damage that it shattered into cinders and was lost to him.
Dropping behind a rock, Harald stared into the skies. Hundreds of Swarm Knights were swooping overhead in a beautiful aerial display as more of the Lumin Moths arose around them, each a little mote of pale light against the wash of blood-red sky.
Several hundred yards of valley lay before them, four tornadoes now swirling furiously back and forth below the Knights’ formations.
“What do we do?” called Sam from behind her own rock.
“We cross!” Harald watched the tornadoes, trying to understand how they were moving. Each was below a cadre of some twenty Knights, who looked like they couldn’t come too close to each other. Perhaps that would break up their formations?
“They’re not moving that fast—if you stay—I don’t know—ten yards away from each, that’ll keep another from getting too close!”
“Oh, that’s all?” called back Sam, tone incredulous. “Easy! Come on then—let’s try my Hallowed Advance.”
And she leaped up and tore off.
Harald followed after, with Vic popping up a moment later to do the same. There was no sign of Nessa and Kársek. Shadowpaw was out there somewhere. The golem had run wide, possibly trying to draw enemies after him.
Harald resisted the urge to clothe himself in Veil of Shadows—he didn’t want the Knights to focus on Sam alone. So he rushed after her and felt Hallowed Advance, her 5th Level Active, take control.
Joy and confidence arose within his heart, an augmented version of her Beacon of Hope, and Guardian’s Mantle caused the Lumin Moths’ growing enchantments to falter. He felt emboldened and shielded, and put on speed as he sought to catch up with Sam.
A mess of Knights flew overhead. Harald watched them come, ready to dive aside, but they didn’t summon a tornado of fire. Instead, the pull from the ground suddenly doubled, tripled, and he almost staggered to a halt as he fought to remain upright and not just collapse to the ground.
Sam faltered ahead, but then thrust up her fist so that Starfire Bastion blazed upwards, silverine and pure, to contest the bloody sunset and the Swarm Knights’ power. The pull on his body lessened, and he turned to see Vic had fallen to one knee, face pale.
“Come on!” he darted back, hauled the Rapier Regent up, and together they rushed on across the valley.