by Jez Cajiao
The pause was all I needed. Shoving the corpse aside and grabbing at the man whose leg I’d ruined, I rolled to my feet and backhanded the wounded man across the face with my gauntlet.
It wasn’t enough to do lasting damage, but it stopped him from being able to stab me, and then I was up. I stepped in, whipping my left hand down, the armored plate on the back of my hand making a ringing sound as it slapped the swordsman’s thrust aside. I stabbed out with my right hand, fingers stiffened into a bar of bone encased in steel, driving them into the exposed Adam’s apple as the open-faced helm lifted to look at me in horror.
Behind me, I could hear the fight being joined. As soon as Yen had leapt at me, the others had unceremoniously dumped Lydia, and a barrage of spells, the ring of metal on metal, and the screams of the injured filled the exposed corridors.
The man I’d just hit dropped his sword, fingers rising frantically to scrabble at his crushed throat, and I yanked my kill-stick free of the bag, flicked it on, and rammed it home in the gap granted by the open-faced helm.
There was a crunching whirr and blood sprayed everywhere. A high-pitched squeal of pain was ripped from my victim as he collapsed to the ground.
I spun around, lashing out instinctively at the figure I’d crippled on the floor, and my weapon glanced off his hastily raised shield.
There were at least a dozen more people in the corridor, although most of them huddled back, trying to keep clear of the fighting, while the small group of soldiers battled frantically to take down my own far more highly trained and equipped force.
I glanced over, seeing the way that Jian deflected an attack from one woman, then lashed his scythes lightly across both of her shoulders, drawing a crunch of mail as the blades sliced through them. When she tried to raise her suddenly numb arms to block his next strike, he stabbed out instead, the point of one blade sinking into his opponent’s gut.
She cried out, dropping her weapon, and reached for the blade impaling her. He slashed his second blade across her throat and kicked her over, freeing himself to find another soldier to face.
Grizz had gone from the happy-go-lucky guy he always seemed to be, into the deadly, focused killing machine the Legion had made him into. Three soldiers were down and he wasn’t even breathing hard as he kicked a fourth’s knee, staggering him. The hulking Legionnaire punched him in the face, then hooked his leg, sending him to the floor, where he finished him off with a single efficient strike.
Others were falling, arrows sprouting from eyes and throats, and I spun, knowing I had only seconds before my overdrive ended.
The pair of mages were still out of it, one bleeding, but both reeling in shock and unable to cast again, with a single soldier standing between me and them.
I reached down, swept up my naginata, and stepped back, leaving the soldier with the half-severed leg to bleed out on the floor.
He couldn’t reach me, and I didn’t need to waste more time on him. I shook the buzzing kill-stick at the soldier between me and the mages, spattering him with blood before dropping it into a bag of holding and stabbing out with the naginata.
The man I faced had a sword and shield, and he deflected my strike easily, lunging forward and slashing at me. I stepped back, lashing my right hand around to bring the butt up, and slapped the sword blade aside, hard.
Then I hooked the butt in behind his shield and yanked, stepping forward and putting my left foot behind his right.
He tried to step back, attempting to gain room to free his shield and bring his sword around, and instead, he fell, not expecting my foot. I released my right grip on the naginata, yanking with my left and tugging it clear as he fell, then grabbed it again and drove the butt down hard.
Not at his head or chest, where he’d pulled the shield over to protect himself… no, I slammed it down hard on his left foot, just to the side of the toes, smashing his foot sideways.
His boots were all one piece, and I heard a grisly crack as his ankle broke. He screamed, slashing downwards with his sword, and I stepped back, flipped my weapon over, and stabbed out, aiming for the chainmail that covered the inner thigh, just below the groin.
I’d open that artery and…
Something hit me from behind, a blade punching into my lower back and tearing into my kidney. Staggering, I screamed, then collapsed, as my ‘Mana-Overdrive’ expired, taking the last of my mana with it. A migraine exploded, the pain minor compared to the kidney stab, but as it flared, I was blinded, and I hit the floor, crying out again as the dagger that was embedded in my side, held in place by the bent metal plates that had been layered to protect me, jarred against the ground.
I lashed out blindly, hitting nothing but the corridor and wall, as I reeled in shock. Suddenly hands were hauling at me as a body dragged itself up me, and a leather glove-encased fist slammed into my face.
My head rocked back again, the back of my skull slamming into the floor and rebounding, and light flared again.
The animal broke free then, panic letting it out as I flailed blindly. My left hand felt something, and I grabbed at it, punching with my right as I squinted, trying to see what was going on.
It was the soldier whose leg I’d almost severed, I realized. Behind him I saw an empty vial on the floor, and I cursed myself for a fool. A healing potion. God knows I’d used them enough! In the heat of the fight, I’d ignored the possibility, and now, here I was.
“Hold him down!” growled a voice from my right, and I heard the scratching, squealing sound of someone in full armor dragging themselves across a metal floor toward me.
I growled, ignoring the pain, the difficulty in seeing, all of it, and I reached out, grabbing the soldier with the ruined knee by the side of his helmet with my left hand, and punching him as hard as I could with my right.
His helm was the same as the others, a bell-like shape with a cut-out for the face, and as I slammed my fist into his face, I felt his nose break. As I hauled back and hit him again, he pulled out a second dagger and stabbed it into my gut, but it glanced off, the angle, armor, and weakness of the blow combining to leave a nasty scratch on the metal instead of a deadly blow.
I could feel the dagger in my kidney tearing me open as I writhed and fought, but I had no choice but to leave it as I rolled, forcing him over as he was laid atop my legs.
With him on his back and me atop his chest, practically face-fucking him, I reared back, screaming as the dagger shifted, torn further by the movement of my armor, and I glared down as the stunned soldier beneath me.
“No!” I screamed, punching him in the face. “Free!” I shouted, hitting him again, punctuating each word with a blow. “Goes. On. The. Cock!” With the last hit, I felt something give, and he spasmed before going limp, his head falling to the side as I yanked my fist free with a groan of pain.
I looked up, just in time to see the last soldier swinging his sword at my exposed head. I threw myself aside, clattering to the floor as the blade tore open a thin line across my temple, making me scream as the dagger in my back tore me up even more.
I had no mana, and I yanked free another dagger before taking a second blow on my left vambrace, feeling it slam to the floor, exposing my head… as an arrow suddenly sprouted from the exposed throat of the soldier.
He staggered back a step, fell to one knee, dropped his sword, and reached up, tapping the arrow that jutted from him in shock. He opened his mouth, blood dripping out of it, and made to say something before a second arrow took him in the eye, and the corpse fell bonelessly to the floor.
I looked over at Miren and waved at her weakly in thanks.
She nodded, then drew back her bow and fired another arrow. It flew past me and thudded into the back of one of the mages as he tried to flee, sending him to the floor, crying out in pain. The other still laid on the ground, clutching his head.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake…” I groaned, shaking my head at the man who started trying to crawl away. I reached down and roughly searched the body under me,
avoiding looking at the smashed-in skull, and let out a relieved sigh as I pulled out a healing potion.
It was red, anyway, and I had no mana left to ‘Examine’ it, so I popped the cork, reaching behind me with the other hand to fumble for the dagger, before Grizz stomped over to me, looked at it, and nodded.
“On three,” he said, taking the healing potion from me and passing it to Yen, who, aside from a little shake that occasionally ran through her limbs, and a blackened patch on her armor, seemed to be okay.
She crouched next to me, looked at the potion, and snorted, pulling one out of her bag and holding it ready as well. She nodded to Grizz, who put one hand on my shoulder and took a good grip on the dagger.
“Okay, boss, on three. One… Two…” And the bastard yanked it out on two. I cried out and half fell forward, being caught by Yen and Grizz. The vials were quickly pressed to my lips, one after the other. I gulped them down, then screamed as my body started reknitting itself. Seconds passed in pain, before it died down, and I collapsed forward, panting.
“Bane…Tang…” I gasped out, and Yen nodded to me, getting up and moving to them. Grizz stayed by my side, glaring at the remaining eight people who crouched on the far side of the corridor.
“Here,” Grizz said throwing a potion to Yen, and she nodded to him as she caught, crouching to check the others over.
“Arrin,” I grunted, then straightened up, looking over at the others. “Arrin!” I called again, and he ran over. He was bloody, dirty, and looked tired, but he and the rest of the party were okay. Luckily.
“Get to the others,” I ordered him. “Any healing you can do…”
“I’m out of mana,” he admitted in a small voice.
“What?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.
“I’m out of mana,” he repeated.
“I thought I’d told you to keep some mana back, always, for healing spells?” I asked him, trying to keep the fury out of my voice.
“Yes… you did. I’m sorry, Jax. I... I didn’t have much, and when the fight broke out…” He sighed and bowed his head. “I panicked,” he confessed quietly. “I panicked and started firing off my Magic Missiles; I didn’t realize until I hit rock bottom. I’m sorry.” I had to bite my tongue to not scream at him, to not tell the goddamn fool he might have killed Bane or Tang, and even the sight of the tears dripping from his downturned face, the shame I knew he felt, wasn’t enough to temper my anger fully.
“Go,” I growled out, and he fled back to the rest of the group, busying himself with checking on Lydia as I got up and started over to Bane and Tang. “How are they?” I asked Yen, aware that Grizz had followed me and was glaring at the remaining people that huddled in the far corner from us.
“Not good,” Yen said, grabbing onto the mage who was laid next to her, still groaning. “Shut it,” she snarled and punched him in the face. There was a sound like a steak being dropped from the third floor onto concrete, and the mage was silent, unconscious. “Wimp,” Yen muttered, searching through his pockets and bags. “Grizz! I need you to stop the bleeding!” Yen snapped, and the big man dropped down, pulling bandages out of a pouch and starting to work.
I paused, my brain still foggy as I wondered why he hadn’t done it straight away, then I realized. In a world where wounds were fixed by spells and potions, you’d be wasting bandages to use them unless absolutely necessary.
She pulled out two potions, both mana, and cursed, diving back in to search for a healing potion when I pulled the mana from her and downed one.
I let out a groan of relief as the mana-migraine cleared away, and a handful of seconds later, I chugged the second, watching my mana regeneration leap upwards at a terrific rate.
I took a deep breath, then started to cast ‘Battlefield Triage.’ I hit Bane first, as he seemed the most injured by far, and grunted in dismay as I saw the injuries.
“What the hell did they do to you?” I growled, looking at the information. More than half the bones in his body were broken; he was missing the tendrils that helped him to see on one side, he was burned, had frostbite, and was bleeding internally, and was down to eleven health, his bleeding was that bad.
I concentrated on the internals first, making the veins and the liver equivalent heal themselves. I stopped shy of a full regeneration of them, moving on, picking the injuries one at a time and repairing frantically, even as Grizz tried to slow the bleeding and Yen searched for other healing or mana potions.
“Search the bodies!” Grizz called out, the command clear in his voice. “Any healing or mana potions, I need them, NOW!”
I shifted my focus, flowing into Bane’s chest, then out, passing through the heart and along the arteries, fixing as I went. I left Yen and Grizz to deal with the outside, and I concentrated on the worst of the internal injuries, working as fast as I could.
Minutes passed in a blur, and I sagged back again, frantically trying to blink the mana-migraine away as my mana bottomed out. I looked at Bane, terrified I was going to lose him.
I’d heard Yen’s assurances of Tang’s status; he was beaten up pretty badly, and the spell they were using on him was nasty, but he would survive, with a little rest and food.
Neither of which we had time to provide, but we had no choice, either.
“Grizz,” I said, sitting with my eyes closed as Yen worked on Bane, finishing off the bandaging and muttering about wounds that wouldn’t close.
“Yeah, boss?” He asked quietly.
“I want to know what the fuck they did to Bane, and I want them all searched for any healing or mana potions. If they’ve kept them hidden while Bane’s dying…”
“I’ll make sure they understand,” Grizz said in a low growl. “As to the mages… one’s unconscious, and the other is bleeding out; want either to survive?”
“Question them for now, but don’t be gentle about it,” I growled viciously. “Yen, I’m going to meditate quickly; keep him going as long as you can. When it’s getting bad, interrupt me, and I’ll heal him with whatever I’ve managed to gain.”
“Yes, Jax,” she said simply, her eyes far away as she read information on Bane granted by her skills.
I settled back, ignoring the sudden scream that rose from further up the corridor, and the low, angry sound of Grizz interrogating the mage who’d been trying to crawl away.
I managed just over twenty minutes before Yen disturbed me, and the news she had wasn’t good.
I checked my mana as I straightened, grateful that I’d managed to make it all the way up to eleven points per minute, reaching the heady heights of two hundred and thirty-three points, and I sighed in relief. Surely, that would be enough to heal both Tang and Bane?
“Jax, I don’t think we can save Bane,” she said softly, and my heart plummeted. I stared down at my friend, seeing the blood seeping through the bandages.
“I’ve got more mana now…” I argued, shaking my head. “We can save him; I just need to…”
“I used a class ability to see what caused the wounds, Jax, and they were made with this.” She grimly flicked a notification to me as she pointed to the bandages that were clearly leaking through quickly. I opened the notification, accepting the information.
Death’s Kiss
Further Description Yes/No
Damage:
?
Details:
Limited information is available, but the dagger ‘Death’s Kiss’ is known to inflict almost impossible to seal wounds. The wounds have a 25% chance to develop additional corrupted facets, including: Festering, Poisoned, Infected, and Necrotic Feasting.
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Legendary
Yes
?
?
“Motherfucker!” I growled out, turning to see Grizz waiting grimly off to one side. The injured mage laid in a still heap, with the unconscious one close by.
There were no mana or health potions, but the
re were a number of rings and other trinkets waiting to be examined.
I looked at Bane, swallowed hard at the thought of losing him, and shook my head firmly.
“No, fuck this. It says they’re ALMOST impossible to heal. That means there’s a chance. Nobody would be carrying a weapon like this if they didn’t know a way to stop it, or nicking their finger would be a death sentence. Who had it?” I asked grimly.
“Their noble. He apparently was waiting further up the tunnel, and he ran with his guards when the fight started to go against them,” Grizz said.
“Tell me the rest,” I insisted, sensing there was more to come.
“They captured Bane with a spell-net, shocked him, and tried to question him. He refused to answer their questions, and the noble ordered him beaten until he changed his mind. He gave them nothing, so when they caught Tang, the noble stabbed Bane a few times with his dagger; then they fled, waiting to see what would happen.”
“He dies,” I said flatly. “That cocksucking noble dies, slowly.”
“By your word, Lord Jax,” Grizz said in grim agreement.
“How did they capture them, but not us? Hell, with Bane’s abilities…” I asked, and Yen spoke up again.
“My abilities as a member of the Praetoria can tell me a lot, such as the weapon used for an attack, but not everything, Jax. I can sense a lot of magic, though, so I’d guess at an artifact, something used to conceal them. Then by the time we came along, it’d either failed or run out of mana, or… who knows. All I know is I smelled blood, and I reacted.”
“And thank the gods you did,” Grizz said as Arrin moved over to join us. He nodded once to me, still clearly embarrassed, but he reached out and healed Bane, before groaning and sitting back.
“That’s all I’d managed to regenerate… I’m sorry,” he said, shame clear in his voice.