by Unknown
The detonation from the center of the city caused Alissa to flinch and turn, and just in time at that. As she turned, she saw a human man just a few steps away, wearing simple traveler’s clothing and wielding a shortsword. The flicker of shock in his eyes, and how they jerked to the side gave her just enough warning for Alissa to finish spinning as she drew her sword. A big man was approaching from her left as well, a dagger in one hand, and Alissa barely had time to defend herself as the two attacked.
The dagger skittered off her bow with a shower of sparks as the man spat a foul oath of frustration, and Alissa couldn’t help her own shock at how tough the wood was. She blocked the other man’s attack with her sword, and as she did, Alissa spat, “What is it with assassins today? Can’t you idiots just leave us alone already?”
“Damn it, just shut up, you damned—” the man with the sword began spitting out, just as the other man pulled back. Alissa gritted her teeth and jabbed the tip of the bow into the man’s throat, cutting him off violently, kicked one of his knees, and likely broke it, then drove her sword into him before he could recover.
“Damn it!” the other man said, looking shocked at her speed, and he raised his free hand, chanting as his fingers moved in the gestures of a spell, and it barely gave Alissa time to react.
Her initial instinct was to dodge, but with her soldiers behind her, and not knowing what the spell might be, Alissa didn’t dare do that. Instead, since he was aiming his hand at her, she saved an instant by releasing her sword and lunged at the big man, spinning her bow to hit the underside of his arm, knocking it upward just as he completed his spell.
As his arm rose, streamers of dark red fire erupted from the man’s hand, dozens of snake-like missiles of pure heat. Alissa tried to dodge one that raced toward her, twisting her head to the side, but she just didn’t have time. There was a flash of heat, sizzling, and she staggered, falling to a knee as all sensation from her ear vanished, while agony raced through her face. Most of the streamers went racing into the sky though, and an expression of triumph appeared on the man’s face.
“Hah! Not so tough now, are you?” the man said, grinning as he flipped his dagger around. “What’re you going to do now, girl?”
“This,” Alissa said, focusing through the pain, and brought the bow up with all her strength between the man’s legs just as he started bringing his dagger down.
The crunch was quiet compared to the clamor of combat, but the man stopped, his eyes almost bulging out of his head. Alissa hissed, tripping him with a leg sweep, then slammed his head against the ground, knocking him unconscious, she hoped.
A moment later she heard one of the soldiers exclaim, “Back, it’s bulging, so I think it’s going to explode!”
There was a horrific tearing sound, and Alissa barely had time to look, which she ended up regretting. The monster had exploded, and bodies had poured out of it, far more numerous than she’d like to deal with.
“Captain? Captain, are you alright?” the nearest mage asked, his shock obvious. “I’ll get you to the healers, just—”
“No,” Alissa said, cutting him off and nodding toward her attacker. “Someone get this filth into custody and keep him alive, the others get anyone who might be alive out of that monster. First aid on me only; we need to get to the temple.”
“But your face!” the mage protested but took a step back as she glared at him.
“My face can wait. Compared to what I went through in Kelvanath, this is nothing,” Alissa replied, her voice taut with anger as she thought back on the orders that she’d been given while enslaved.
“Y-yes, sir!” the mage replied, and got moving, while one of the other magi rushed over. If Alissa remembered right, the lady knew some healing spells, which she wasn’t going to object to.
Now they just had to get to the temple in time to make a difference there, too. And figure out what the explosion was from, for that matter.
Chapter 40
Lisa was… annoyed. She didn’t like being annoyed, as it was a mostly alien emotion to her. So was the cheerfulness she normally put on display, for that matter. No, her thoughts were normally cold, and carefully calculated.
That was beneficial as she analyzed her situation instead of acting impatiently. The detonation from the direction of the ley line disruptor concerned Lisa, as it likely meant there was an unknown factor in play, but she wasn’t going to let it force her into a foolish decision. Nor was she going to let confidence in the pathetic survivors of Kelvanis’s former regime lull her into declining to act.
The handful of mortals defending themselves were in bad shape, Lisa knew. At least half of them were incapacitated entirely, and as she watched one of the golems crumbled under a focused assault by the assassin magi. The others weren’t in much better shape, but the assistance of Medaea’s priestess was quickly getting some of the defenders back on their feet, while the priestess of Tyria, their target, was doing what she could as well. Unfortunately for her, the attackers had known she specialized in mental magic ahead of time, which kept her from outright incapacitating the lot of them, but it didn’t protect them from her using targeted spells to overwhelm their defenses. At least one of them had died from terror already, while a few more of them were unconscious.
All that being considered, she focused instead on her bonds, her eyes narrowing as she focused on the chains muzzling her. That was the primary source of her annoyance, and the magic within the chains… it grated at her, that a mere elf had stopped her, however briefly.
However, the woman was a mere elf. Even if she was the archpriestess of her faith, her magic was only that which a mortal could command, and it was obvious that she wasn’t practiced at using her spells in times of crisis. The spell which bound Lisa was imperfect and hastily cast, and that gave the dragon an advantage. After all, dragons were innately resistant to magic, a fact which the priestess seemed to have forgotten.
Lisa focused her mana into her mouth and claws, channeling it into her scales to enhance her resistance still further. She could feel the chains weakening a little, then a little more, and she waited patiently, rather than providing resistance that might cause the spell to focus on her struggles. Instead, she analyzed the distance between her and the two priestesses, gauging the distance exactly. Her breath hadn’t done the job so far, and this time the women weren’t hidden by illusions, so if she struck hard and fast, she could deal with them once and for all.
The dragon’s muscles slowly coiled as she prepared herself, waiting for the precise moment she needed, when the two women were most distracted. Then, as Nadis focused on a victim, falling to her knees, and Elissa aimed her staff at one of the assassin magi, Lisa struck.
She moved suddenly, throwing every ounce of strength her body possessed into her sudden lunge, and the brittle spell didn’t stand a chance. It shattered as if it’d been made of glass, the chains bursting into motes of golden light. None of the mortals had a chance to do much more than start turning in her direction before Lisa was halfway to her targets, though the unnaturally fast elven mage was moving more quickly than most.
It still wouldn’t be enough, though.
The teleportation was unusually smooth, to Diamond’s shock. She was used to feeling like she’d been yanked across a room instantly, and like her stomach had to catch up, but not this time. This time it was more like the floor had dropped a couple of inches… and that was it.
She didn’t have time to get her bearings, though, not with the sound of combat coming from ahead of them, and Diamond snapped to the golems. “Forward! Defend those in the livery of Everium, Medaea, or Tyria!”
The golems immediately rumbled to life, moving toward the doors still hanging open before them, and Diamond hoped her orders would suffice. If Desa was still in the area, she’d be able to adjust their orders, though. The problem with golems was how literal they were with orders, and if someone who wasn’t in a uniform and attacked them… that would be bad.
“Let’
s go!” Ruby urged, and Diamond nodded, silently drawing on all their magic.
“Yes, but let’s be prepared,” Diamond said, spindling power within her as she began chanting the words to a spell, one that all of them knew. Almost as if by instinct, the others joined her in the chant, following the golems as they rushed out to see what was happening, even their strides oddly in sync with one another.
Diamond and the others emerged in a war zone, and her eyes widened in shock as she took in the sight of the immense blue dragon in magical restraints only a dozen yards from them, along with the burning tower and dozens of people locked in raging combat, along with a large number of fallen around them. Even as Diamond took in the sight, she could see a few of the attackers making their way around the buildings where Desa, Elissa, and Nadis were holding the line, which would make a difficult position even more dire.
At that instant the dragon suddenly lunged forward, shattering the bindings seemingly effortlessly, and a deafening roar echoed through the square as it lunged toward Elissa and Nadis, nearly stopping Diamond’s heart. However, her spell was already prepared. No, their spell, and Diamond did the only thing she could and thrust her hands toward the dragon at the same time as the other Jewels, a star appearing above her hands.
The eruption of light from her hands was as bright as the sun, if not brighter, and it spread into a column almost ten feet across, wide enough it seemed to be coming from all seven of them, and the beam slammed into the dragon in mid-leap. All across the square snow began to sag and melt, while the ice nearest Diamond and the others turned to water which began steaming. A thunderous boom echoed through the clearing, and the spell ended, revealing what had just happened.
Across the courtyard from Diamond, the dragon had been thrown into one of the awnings attached to the wall, crushing it, whatever it’d contained, and partially damaging the wall itself. At least the parts that Diamond and the others hadn’t almost melted with their spell, at least.
The dragon had held up surprisingly well in the face of a spell that could melt solid stone, though, and Diamond blinked, her mouth falling open slightly. The dragon’s wings were scorched and tattered, but largely intact, while its scales along one side were blackened and cracked, but otherwise the dragon appeared to be almost completely fine. Angry, perhaps, but fine as it started dragging itself out of the wreckage.
“Wind,” Sapphire said, her voice surprisingly calm as she made the suggestion, and Diamond nodded in agreement, starting on the spell she knew the others had in mind. They only had a handful of combat spells that could damage something like a dragon, and letting it take the initiative would be a bad, bad idea. No wonder the enemy had been confident in their ambush, though. If Sistina hadn’t gotten them here, Diamond shuddered to think of the consequences.
“Good timing, ladies! Golems, Three of you secure each flank, the rest of you take the front line!” Desa called out, her rising spirits obvious as she ordered the golems into position.
By this point the initial arbalest golems were out of ammunition, Diamond realized, and were using their weapons as clubs instead. Fortunately, a moment later they finished their spell, just as the dragon got to its feet.
The air stirred, then exploded into a gale as what looked almost like the beginning of a tornado funnel descended on the dragon. The creature said something, but couldn’t be heard over the wind’s roar, and the funnel surrounded the dragon, ripping it off the ground even as the dragon attempted to grab hold of the wall or something sturdy. Unfortunately, there simply wasn’t time, and the wind was too powerful.
“Come on…” Amethyst whispered, barely audible to Diamond, but it was loud enough to make Opal laugh.
The dragon was drawn into the sky, and the funnel turned into more of a sphere of swirling, raging winds. Then, as the dragon was buffeted about, the spell began creating blades of air that lashed out at the dragon. One after another, and at an ever-increasing rate, blades descended on the dragon, smashing against its scales mercilessly.
At first the attacks had no effect, simply shattering against the scaly hide without leaving a mark, but soon that changed. First some of the scales chipped, particularly where they’d been burned before, and then the blades began to bite into the dragon’s flesh, as deep scarlet blood began to fall into the furious wind.
The dragon roared as its injuries mounted, and as it did so, Diamond’s eyes widened, feeling mana concentrating in the dragon’s direction. Ruby spoke quickly. “Careful, it might be about to—”
A blast of magic erupted from the dragon, as it roared words sibilantly, its claws dancing through the air in gestures despite the buffeting winds… and then it bodily ripped the spell apart, to Diamond’s shock. She knew that spells could be dispelled, but with as much mana as they’d thrown into the spell, she couldn’t believe that their spell could be undone so easily, let alone by someone inside it.
“Crap,” Diamond whispered, seeing the dragon stabilize in midair, its wings beating heavily as it dripped blood. “Shield!”
The others started casting a shield with her as Diamond’s stomach tied itself in knots, suddenly far more afraid of the dragon than she had been.
That was why she froze when the dragon suddenly turned tail and fled, accidentally interrupting the spell in her shock, and watched the dragon fly into the distance at a high speed, dripping blood as it did so.
“It ran?” Emerald asked, her voice a touch incredulous. “But… it was so powerful!”
“We have no idea how much mana it had, though,” Diamond said, her thoughts catching up, and she shook her head, then glanced at the fight, which had slowed a bit due to their display, and she added, “Come on, let’s deal with the problem, shall we?”
“Agreed,” Ruby said, her gaze hardening as she looked at the attackers.
The people attacking seemed to waver at the sight of them, and Diamond smiled as a few of them followed the dragon’s example.
Alexander cursed internally, frustrated by how long the battle was taking. Despite his expectations, the angel was making the fight much, much harder than it should have been.
The ruiner’s claws tore through the air where the angel had been a moment earlier, crushing several paving stones almost effortlessly, but she’d already moved, her sword lashing out at Alexander. That frustrated him, because she’d taken entirely to attacking him instead of the ruiner, except for the one time when Alexander had tried ordering it to destroy the temple doors.
Alexander blocked her attack with a grunt, riposting and drawing a little blood as his sword cut into a gap along the angel’s hip, which was at least something. Her injuries were starting to mount, but despite that he couldn’t see any fear in her eyes, simply unwavering confidence. It was unnerving, and—
The sounds of boots echoed through the now-abandoned courtyard, and Alexander’s gaze drifted over, then widened as he saw people coming. Not just people, either, but in the lead were a group that practically gave him hives at the sight of them. A black-haired human man led the way, armor glittering from under his clothing, and was carrying a sword made of lightning in one hand. The others just behind him were obviously adventurers as well, with soldiers just behind them, and with those coming, he didn’t have time to wear the angel down anymore. And as much as he hated to do it, Alexander only saw a single option.
Instead of trying to stab the angel, Alexander threw himself at her, hissing as her blade cut into his shoulder, but wrapped his arms around her, partly pinning her in place. She looked startled, to say the least, but before she could say anything, Alexander snapped at the ruiner. “Eat, already!”
“What—” the angel began, but it was too late for her to do anything, as the ruiner eagerly obeyed.
Its tongue lashed around the pair of them mercilessly, and as it did so Alexander braced himself for a very unpleasant death. It’d probably be one of the worst ones he’d experienced, at that. They were yanked toward the creature as the angel tried to angle her sword to c
ut the tongue, but Alexander fought her and managed to prevent her from acting before one of the mouths opened wide and came down around them.
Oaths of surprise came from the direction of the adventurers along with the clatter of the angel’s sword on the ground, and Alexander’s breath hissed out as he was pressed into the angel’s armor painfully, and something constricted tight around him. It was like a seething, somewhat acidic vise was pressing against his entire body at once, and it seemed to last a short eternity… and then they fell into a pool of seething, acidic juices.
Pulsing walls of strangely colored flesh surrounded them, and agony seared through Alexander as his clothing and skin began to melt. Hidden in secondary passages, he could see bones… and it took him a moment to realize that the only illumination was from the angel’s halo, and the violet light was casting everything in strange hues.
“Are you suicidal?” the angel demanded, her voice angry as she turned on him. “You’re going to die here, you know!”
“If this—” Alexander began, only to be interrupted by a cough, pain searing down his throat, while he wondered why the angel was barely showing signs of injury so far, despite the acid around her. Then he continued. “If this was enough to kill me for good, I’d have died permanently long ago. I’m just trying to take you with me.”
“If you say so. Unfortunately, while this isn’t the way I wanted to do this… I suppose it’s time to pray,” the angel replied, looking around her, then fell to a knee as he watched in confusion, and she began speaking, her voice quiet in the ruiner’s stomach. “Lady of Eminent Flame, I call to thee for a shard of thy power…”