by Jez Cajiao
“We can’t carry him…” I said, scanning the corridor. “And he’s probably safer here than with us, to be fair. We can’t strip the bodies, as they apparently might have traps on them.” Sighing heavily, I came to a decision I didn’t like. “I’m sorry, Grizz, Oracle, but we can’t spare the time to carry him, and we can’t trust him until he’s taken the Oath, so it’s for the best that we leave him here. Hopefully, he will be okay, and… I guess we can come back once we’ve secured the area a bit.”
“I…” Merin faltered, gazing sadly at the gnome where he thrashed and growled. “Should one of us stay with him?”
“No,” I said flatly. “If we can, we will come back for him, but he’s likely lived his whole life down here. He can find his way about; hell, he’s going to be either far more intelligent, or he’s going to be dead. He can figure out where we’ve gone.” I frowned, scanning the dimly lit corridor. “You’ve got two minutes; gather up whatever you need, then we’re moving on.”
People moved quickly, collecting anything they’d dropped; any interesting bits they wanted went into the bags, and Bane and I examined the remains of the mobile shield, amazed at both its simplicity and its effectiveness.
If it had needed a bigger manastone to power it, or had been able to recharge, we’d have been screwed. I examined it again, seeing it from a different angle this time and admiring the simple yet cunning design. It was as I’d first noted, essentially a massive walking shield at the front, but behind it, a series of small seats had been fitted, as well as a cargo hopper and a section that seemed designed to carry something else, but whatever that was, it was missing now.
Bane tried a couple of the small hatches on the back side of the device and found they were storage for something, but what, we had no idea yet again. After a few minutes, when everyone had gathered up and the gnome was still flailing around, I sighed and gestured to Bane to lead the way.
We set off, traveling deeper into the structure by way of the corridor. Numerous doors were scattered along either side, but each had seemingly rusted shut, and we moved on. The end of the corridor kinked to the right at a sharp ninety-degree angle, and as we approached the corner, Tang appeared and held his hand out in silent warning.
I opened my mouth, but he shook his head frantically, then gestured for me to come forward, slowly.
I nodded in understanding and moved closer, feeling Yen and Lydia moving in alongside me as we crept up to the edge and peered around.
At first, I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing; then as my eyes adjusted, the scene slowly resolved into a chaotic vista that fell away before me.
Seemingly at some point, either in the crash or the hundreds of years that followed, an entire subsection of the city had collapsed. This space had then been colonized by the gnomes, creating a small pocket of their civilization, surrounded on all sides by metal walls. As I stared out, I blinked again and again, trying to bring the scene below me into comprehending focus.
The corridor had been torn apart at some point, and it now ended a few feet ahead, opening out into an enormous cavern. It was filled with thousands of small lights, structures, moving figures, and machinery, with a huge form that belched steam and smoke as it slowly shifted around the outer edge on a track.
My eyes were glued to the mobile structure as it went, the entire thing shaking, shuddering, and occasionally crunching over something that had been left on its tracks.
I watched in awe as its scale became clear; the construct was easily three stories high, box-like, with a pair of great ‘arms’ that folded up to the main body. The top of the device had a gnome seated inside it, pulling levers and cackling wildly enough that his voice could be heard floating over the hustle and bustle of the tiny town.
It came to a shuddering halt next to a tower that swarmed with gnomes that fought and bit at each other, trying to force their way into the collection of vehicles that rested in racks, waiting to be ‘loaded’ aboard the device.
The contraption reached out with two massive arms, clamping them both onto the middle of the tower. With a loud clank and a blast of steam, the vehicles started moving; they slid down the rails, one at a time, slamming into holding bays, before the arms shifted, and took another vehicle, and another, until it was filled again.
We watched in stunned amazement as what appeared to be a mobile siege weapon, originally designed to roll up to city walls and provide access over them, appeared to have been partially rebuilt as a mobile deployment facility.
As we gaped at the unexpected scene, it finished reloading and began to shift around, slowly turning and rolling back in our direction.
On the ground, two levels down and maybe three hundred feet away, I saw a fight break out between a pair of gnomes that hadn’t managed to get onto the vehicles that were loaded. Others that were nearby seemed to be drawn in, either shouting or caught by stray blows, and the entire section of the cavern was suddenly filled with a rolling, spreading fight.
“It’s a tavern brawl… without th’ tavern,” Lydia muttered in awe.
We watched for a handful of minutes as more and more of the inhabitants appeared from the surrounding buildings, gleefully diving into the fight from nearby roofs and popping out of holes, and piling into the center. Fists and feet flailed, until a flash of lightning and a boom of thunder burst into the cavern, blasting the happily fighting group apart. Several were clearly killed, with limbs blown free, and the crowd scattered, clearly cowed by the display of power.
Bane stiffened, and as I turned to inspect the direction he faced, I saw what I’d missed before: a hunched figure clad in a red robe stood on an ornate balcony maybe halfway around the cavern, flanked by two more Leviathans, these two being considerably bigger than the ones we’d just fought.
“So, if there’s a bigger one than them around…” I started when one of the creatures suddenly screamed. The noise was horrific, and I clapped my hands over my ears, staring across at them.
The figure they flanked had turned away and they’d been walking back into the building, when apparently one of them had spotted us, and the pair were suddenly laser-focused on us, trying to determine where we crouched in an effort to hide in the remains of our corridor.
I shook my head, looking down at the cavern floor, noting that the mobile platform had come to a grinding halt, and the streets were rapidly emptying as the gnomes fled their master’s ire.
Bane staggered back, hands clutching at his head again, and I waved him to back away before turning back to glare at the red robed figure as it pointed at us, its hands lifting as it summoned magic.
I focused on the figure, frantically trying to push my mana into the right channels and mentally shoving mana into the relevant tattoos.
“Get back, all of you,” I hissed as I stepped forward, slamming my naginata’s base into the floor and giving the mage the finger.
I could feel their spell building, the glowing white light interspersed with crackling gold and black threads as it built to a crescendo, even as I tried to get my shield up and working properly.
It flared to life just as the figure released its spell, a giant spear of glowing energy forming in the air between us before flaring one last time with power and hurtling across the cavern to smash into me.
The world seemed to explode in fire and force as I was thrown sideways, slamming into the rear wall of the corridor, then falling as it collapsed. The series of impacts sent me tumbling down into the darkness, with tons of debris falling after me.
Chapter Nineteen
I fell slowly at first, stunned, with wisps of mana and steam lifting from my armor as I plummeted, stone, steel, and more falling with me. Then I hit a wall; next a roof, one that lasted long enough for me to roll off the far side, before falling debris demolished it; then I toppled a final time, realizing in a flash of panic that my naginata was gone.
I shook my head in a daze, trying to focus, as I slammed into a second roof. This one crumbled around me, an
d I plunged to the floor, slamming into the unyielding surface face-first. The world went black, ending the pain that tore through me, sending my nerves flaring with tingling screams of dispersing magic.
I was only out for a short period of time, thankfully, but as I came to, I found myself laid on my back in a half-demolished bedroom. Random metal sheeting, pipes, and shattered planks had been strewn everywhere. I stared up through a hole in the roof, seeing a magical battle being fought high above me. I was also not alone, suddenly aware of a hissing gnome crouched in the far corner from me.
He slowly stood, and judging from the swinging appendage, it was definitely a ‘he.’ The crazed creature lifted a pair of gleaming kitchen knives, licking his lips frantically.
The ‘Shield’ tattoo had activated in time to stop the spell’s effects from impacting me fully, but whatever the tattoos did for me in channeling and reinforcing the shield, they apparently didn’t work well when buried beneath armor, as I’d feared.
I lay twitching and shaking as the last floods of power from that fucker’s spell ran amok through me, shocking me again and again, while the little gnome darted forward, lifting his knives.
I tried to get up, but my body wouldn’t respond, just twitching and flailing weakly, so I sagged backwards, just as Oracle flew down through the hole in the roof, and landed on my chest.
She took one quick peek around the room, then turned back to me, checking me over even as she angrily pulled together a spell.
“I’ll give you one chance…” she growled roughly over her shoulder at the figure. “Run. Run now, or die.” I blinked at the constrained fury in her voice, and as the little figure hissed at her, she burst into light, a thigh-thick bar of lightning flashing from her to smash the gnome back through the far wall and out into the air. “Your choice,” she concluded before turning back to me.
“What the hell was that!” she snarled at me, pulling hard on our mana and slamming a healing spell into me, making me shake and gasp as my nerves regrew, and I idly noticed for the first time the way the world smelt of burned meat. “You just see a spell you don’t know and decide to take it on the god damn chin?!”
“Ch...est…” I managed to grunt out, lifting a hand that shook crazily, as I tapped my blackened, armored cuirass.
“What?” she growled.
“I… took it… to the …. Chest…” I said again, reaching down and slowly pushing myself upwards, feeling debris falling off me and clattering around the room. “What happened?” I asked, my body still feeling like every nerve was an abscessed tooth.
“What happened?” Oracle repeated dangerously, lifting into the air and hovering before my eyes. “What happened is you…” She broke off as a howl went up from the door, and a second gnome, this one fully clothed, thankfully, rushed inside, brandishing a club.
“Later!” I grunted, then coughed, tasting blood, before grabbing the nearest thing I could find: a length of steel that had once been a section of the ceiling. “Tell me later!” I ordered, turning to build up momentum and slamming the section of roof, a panel that was about a foot wide by three foot long, and maybe an inch thick, around into the oncoming figure. He was maybe two and a half feet tall, if that, and had been brandishing a section of metal tubing. My improvised club smashed both him and his tubing back and out through another wall, making the structure creak in warning.
I saw more gnomes appearing in the doorway, rushing towards us, and I growled in frustration.
“Find my weapon!” I ordered Oracle as I swiped back across, smashing the next gnome’s outstretched weapon from his hand and spinning him around with a shriek as his wrist was broken. Then I punted the little bastard in the ass, sending him flying headfirst into the wall with a crunch of breaking cartilage.
“On it,” she snapped as I struggled to get fully free of the piled debris. I could feel it shifting precariously under me as I discarded my ‘club,’ which was too big to use effectively. Instead, I reached out and grabbed the next gnome by the shoulder and punched him in the face, ignoring the length of wire he was attempting to use as a whip.
His nose, which had clearly broken at some point in the past, burst messily as my gauntleted fist slammed into it, and the little figure’s eyes rolled back in his head. I picked him up, hefted him overhead, and threw him at the growing group forcing their way in the door.
The tumbling creature caught a low-flying gnome in the face, and the pair fell to the floor with an almost comical sound of coconuts bouncing as their heads collided. The one on top screamed, as the next gnome in line took the opportunity to stab him in the kidney.
The back stabber yanked his knife free and clambered up to stand onto the wounded gnome, gesturing at me, her eyes filled with a wild, frenzied bloodlust.
Other crowded in around and behind her, and I saw the wary hatred reflected on their faces; they watched each other as much as they did me. As the little female backstabber licked her blade and giggled, I frantically pointed behind them.
“Look out!” I shouted, and the room dissolved into chaos. Some turned to look; others took advantage of the distracted state of the nearest gnome to stab, bite, kick or hit them, and I couldn’t help but shake my head in amazement.
It was like a mixture of the Three Stooges, a rabid kindergarten, and the worst kind of horror movie, as they fell on each other, screeching, screaming, and sending blood flying.
I quickly started casting the ‘Explosive Compression’ spell again, but this time I left the ‘standard’ size of impact at six feet in all directions, and I grimly kicked out at those that came too close.
It only took a handful of seconds to put the spell together, and I targeted it just outside the door, where the majority of the gnomes still fought and writhed.
Just as it left my hands, I grunted, staggering to one knee and glaring to my right, where I found a small figure shaking. He’d slammed a length of metal into my knee, and it’d probably caused him as much pain as it had me, thanks to the metal armor I wore.
I reached out, grabbed his bar, and yanked him forward. Clutching his long, grimy beard with my right hand and pulling his head down into my knee, I knocked the little fucker out on the metal plates that covered it.
“Oracle!” I shouted, reaching out and grabbing a stanchion that braced the wall to my right, using it to haul myself up. I drew back with the metal post and slammed it down hard on a struggling figure that was screaming and trying to escape the morass of flaming bodies caused by my spell. “Where the ever-living fuck is my weapon!”
“I don’t know!” she snarled, obviously as pissed as I was, and we both paused for a second as the sound of magic being exchanged high above us rang out. “We’re down here, while everyone else is getting hammered up there, and I’m digging in the sodding rubbish trying to find it!”
“Fine!” I snapped. “Get up there and protect them. I’ll kill my way across the entire goddamn cavern if I have to!”
“You’ll die,” she fired back, becoming full-size and solid long enough to drag a section of sheeting aside and peer underneath.
“At least I won’t have my last minutes filled with nagging!” I roared, then pulled back and drove the post into the pile of debris, levering it up and tipping it over, exposing the floor. “Fuck! It’s not here!” Oracle turned back to the door, firing off a Fireball into the pile of bodies, making me stagger backwards.
“It must have fallen outside somewhere…” she said after a moment in a scared voice, glancing from me to the doorway, to the sounds of battle above us.
Guilt stabbed through my chest. I stepped in close to her and, reaching out, I pulled her into a deep kiss, both of us pausing for a second to stare into each other’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I admitted softly.
“I know; it’s okay,” Oracle replied, clearly still pissed and trying to be calm.
“Go on; you need to go to them,” I said, gesturing upwards with a jerk of my head. “I can sort this, so go.” She hesit
ated briefly before kissing me again and shrinking back to her small state, taking a last look at me, before zooming up out of the hole in the ceiling. “I love you,” I called out to her in the privacy of our bond.
“I love you, too. Fight smart. I wouldn’t leave you if I didn’t know you could handle this,” she replied, and I nodded to myself grimly as the spell in the doorway died away.
There was a long, pregnant pause, then the moans, growls, and screaming began, as the dozens of gnomes that had survived the spell were attacked by their former comrades.
“Well, I’ll not be turning my back on you fuckers!” I said grimly, drawing back and smashing the post into the back of a gnome’s head as he hunched over one of his dead fellows, trying to pry a bag free of the corpse.
“Outside! A hundred feet to the right of the building and one level up; I think I can see your naginata inside a window!”
“Got it! Thank you!” I called back to Oracle, grinning at the dozens of gnomes who gathered themselves in the doorway and outside. The ones inside slowly edged forward, glaring at me suspiciously.
“Looks like it’s time to dance, motherfuckers!” I snarled, flipping the post over in my hands. Catching it by the other end and swinging for the fences, I smashed the end into the chin of a gnome that had stepped too close.
His teeth shattered and his jaw fractured, the tip of his tongue flying through the air in a spurt of blood as the rest of the pack pounced.
The entire room devolved into a flying, screaming mess of gnomes, bloody teeth, and bits. Less than a minute into the fight, the post bent, and I threw it at a gnome’s head, resorting to my fists.
I caught one as he leapt at me, stopping him with a flat palm to his chest and slamming my other fist into his nose, sending him flying. I struck out with a high kick to my left, then struck downward, heel first, taking another creature in the face before jumping at him and stamping down on his neck, hard.