We were facing a long night.
The hours that followed had merged into a single beat. The Transmutation Storm raged outside. We were surrounded by the circling swarm of ethereal monsters kept at bay by my willpower alone. That proved very difficult despite the Leader of the Pack ability. I had to replay the fiery image hundreds of times. As my mental exhaustion grew, I started making mistakes, but Alice helped me out on occasion with a lightning swing of Helheim, slaying those of the monsters who’d ventured dangerously close.
I’d lost track of time, falling into some kind of trance. Light, fire! When was this storm going to end, if it was going to end at all? What if it raged here permanently?
Finally, the wind began to scream and wail with especial fury as if announcing a new round of our tribulations. The occasional flashes of Azuric lightning which we could glimpse from our shelter grew very bright as if merging into a single sheet of pale-blue glow. It felt almost like a daybreak.
The walls shuddered. The swarm of Voids made itself scarce, dispersing under the pressure of the new approaching force. Everything we’d just survived was only the beginning. We were caught in a new wave of Exhalation, trapped inside the eye of the Azuric storm.
“Incarnator! Yellow alert! An Azure discharge!”
That was truly scary. I could only liken it to an off-the-Richter-scale earthquake. The room’s floor and walls rocked like they were alive. Alice grabbed hold of me, I of her. My Azure counter was going through the roof, greedily absorbing hundreds of freebie points. The place was alive with Azure sparks which seeped in through the walls and the framework.
“Restructuration of reality detected! Run for your life!”
Miko’s icon shut down and disappeared. My interface began glitching like it always did during an Azuric attack.
The crumbling building where we’d taken shelter was transforming, warped like a house of cards. It was moving, coming alive under the strikes of Azuric lightning lashing out of the purple mist.
Alice and I were but two ants next to its awesome fury, two grains of sand caught in a hurricane. We could change nothing – absolutely nothing.
The building was rising to its feet.
We had to find a way out. What had been a safe shelter had now become a trap. Its very walls and beams were rocking from side to side like the gearwheels of a mysterious machine.
I died twice more. First when a beam collapsed on top of me, lopping my head right off. And second time, when I was squashed between two blocks of concrete coming together. Both times it had been Alice who’d saved me, stubbornly rescuing me from the vicelike grip of stonework. It was only thanks to her that I’d managed to keep my host. Her excellent reaction times, agility and unbelievable regeneration helped her to pick her way as we dashed against time through the constantly changing concrete maze.
She managed to get both of us out and even found a quiet spot within the hollow chest of the cumbersome concrete golem the building had become. Leaving it meant plunging into the purple tornadoes of the Transmutation Storm which would have been far more suicidal. Because everywhere we looked, we saw hell incarnate.
My blood ran cold at the sight. Other buildings began scrambling to their full height. The Azuric flares must have impregnated dead matter with a semblance of life, bringing the concrete skeletons to their feet and turning them into the travesty of living giants. Some resembled human-like colossuses while others looked more like enormous spiders or tortoises. The earth quaked under their heavy lockstep as they ripped their foundations out of the ground and got moving.
Where was this army of concrete giants heading, leaving a trail of ruins in its wake? Was it following the Storm toward the edge of the A-zone, ready to claim the lands of the living? No idea. But now I knew why this area was marked as deadly on Stellar’s old maps.
There was no way a mortal man could survive here. Even to an Incarnator, this was a challenge and a half.
We hunkered within the concrete giant’s bosom like two tiny bugs as he strode through the Transmutation Storm. And he – it? – ignored us just as you’d ignore a bug, probably completely unaware of his reluctant hitchhikers. I tentatively touched him with my psi field but immediately recoiled, sensing the ginormous clattering void within. Even this fleeting peek had very nearly pulled me into its bottomless pit teeming with forms which had neither name nor meaning in any of the human languages.
We froze, clinging to sharp stones. We couldn’t talk even if we wanted to over the clangor of the moving monsters and the wailing of the storm.
This lasted at least an hour. When finally the flow of Azure began to dwindle, I realized that the storm was starting to abate. We were still alive. The horizon was getting lighter; the wind began to calm down; even the purple mist had begun to disperse. The prickly stars showed up in the sky.
The concrete monsters began to slow down. Gradually, one by one, they ground to a halt and went dead again, crumbling into heaps of ruins or freezing into colossal grotesque statues. The one which carried us was one of the last to collapse, disintegrating mid-step to cascades of clattering rocks.
I’d been waiting for this moment. I was prepared – and still I failed to avoid another death. No amount of leaping and dodging could save anyone in this situation. The rocky avalanche came roaring over us, ripping us apart and burying my broken body under debris.
Incarnation No 25. Honestly, I was so fed up with dying, you can’t even imagine. Once I’d put myself back together, I began unpicking my trap rock by laborious rock.
Almost immediately, my new psionic ability made me aware of Alice’s presence nearby. She was alive.
And she had company.
Chapter 16
OUTSIDE, THE STORM had stopped raging. The Azure flow had dropped to a stable 4 pt. per minute. The crazy energy discharges had stopped. This last “Exhalation” had allowed me to form another neurosphere and refill my bar to a healthy 18270/22000 Azure, well over two-thirds of the counter. This was impressively fast – but still I wouldn’t risk reliving the Storm just for the sake of it.
Miko’s icon came back on. My virtual assistant was rubbing her forehead, shaking her disheveled head and rolling her eyes as if she’d just suffered a bout of vertigo.
“Oooh! We’re alive, Incarnator! The probability of our death has never been higher—” she cut herself short and frowned. “Initializing full body scan… Scan complete. Azure-related mutations of organic tissues detected. Grey, take a look at your skin!”
I brought my hand, still smarting from being freed from under the rockfall, to my face. In the surrounding darkness, it appeared thicker and sort of electrified. And it was… how can I put it… it was glowing?
“Miko, what the hell’s that?”
“Your host’s resistance to Azure has increased. You’ve just survived a Transmutation Storm. Such a powerful exposure to A-energy was obliged to have left its mark. You’ve developed some kind of resistance to Azure, which means that now our host will be harder to kill with Azuric weapons.”
“My skin’s glowing. You think it’s gonna go?”
“Any external manifestations will soon disappear. You’ve been really lucky with this one, Incarnator. It could have been much worse…”
Alice seemed to have found me and was trying to get to me, digging through the mere couple feet of rubble separating us. The familiar heat of her mind singed my senses; I could hear the screeching of debris as she pushed it out of her way.
I could sense the other ones too. They flashed across the very edge of my perception, approaching slowly from every direction. Their minds were stagnant and cold like robbed graves filled with chilling water.
I heard a rapid movement overhead, followed by cracking and grinding sounds, then the rattling of tumbling rocks. Judging by the sounds, the girl must have engaged in combat with the unknown enemy – and I couldn’t do anything to help her, buried under tons of debris.
The auras of the strangers’ minds dashed incessantly a
round, escaping my psionic range, then re-entering it. Sensing one of them approach me too close for comfort, I visualized another Flash – the trick which had seemed to work so well with the Voids.
Virtually no reaction whatsoever. The stranger slowed down but showed no intention of stopping. I searched around for his mind and tried to enter it.
A sickening bout of nausea seized me. It was as if I’d looked inside a corpse, putrid and swarming with maggots. These weren’t human beings; they weren’t alive at all.
“They seem to be Necro creatures, Incarnator. Try to use the Flash against them.”
Excellent idea. If I couldn’t help Alice, my little Light definitely could.
A Speck of Ra slid its way through the tiniest cracks in the rockfall, emerged on the other side and swirled in the air, looking for a victim. I had to act blindly with nothing but my psi-field to guide me, just hoping the explosion wouldn’t singe Alice who was fighting to defend my temporary tomb. Luckily, by now the girl knew my humble tactics well enough to react promptly.
“Greeeeey!” I heard her voice at a distance. Almost immediately, I sensed her mind flittering past very close, followed by two more – two strangers, almost as swift as she was. I waited till they were close, then activated a Flash, putting its fiery wall between them and the girl.
It worked! Not as well as I hoped, because the monsters had survived the blast, but they did step back, allowing us some time to regroup.
The chunks of concrete over my head shifted, parting, as Alice persevered with her rescue effort. Helping her, I grabbed at the rough edges and strained my every muscle trying to force them apart. Little by little I teased the rocks apart until I could finally reach her proffered hand. She pulled me up with inhuman force, very nearly dislocating my arm in the process.
The dull morning light hit my eyes. Alice stood clutching Helheim, her ripped jumpsuit completely covered in concrete dust. She immediately dragged me further up the pyramid of debris which used to be the walking house-giant. I could glimpse some predatory black silhouettes flitting amid the towering heaps of concrete debris below.
“That’s Helheim-class monsters! You’d better watch out, Incarnator! They’re fast as hell!”
An Armorclad Bloodhound
Type: an A-Necro. A genetically enhanced necro being
Number of previous evolutions: ???
Class: Helheim
Warning level: Red (Lethal)
There were three of them: advanced Helheim-class Necros just like Devourer of Flesh, only different. Long and lithe, they indeed resembled gigantesque bloodhounds with bodies covered in black bone growths, serrated claws and awesome jaws. They were sneaking upon us from three directions at once, clinging to the stones like oversized lizards.
Alice let go of me, grabbed a chunk of concrete the size of a man’s head and hurled it at one of them. She didn’t miss, sending the hound flying back a few paces – but the monster’s black bone armor had safely protected it from any damage.
“Their bony exoskeletons consist of Azure-altered necro matter, Incarnator. I’m searching for any vulnerabilities… We need to deal damage to their internal organs just like we did to Devourer, remember?”
She immediately conjured up augmented-reality grids overlapping the creatures’ outlines, marking out their vulnerable spots.
I remembered how I’d killed Devourer of Flesh – my first Necro – by a sheer miracle, lobbing the thermal grenade of the Flash of Light down his neck. Now I needed to repeat the trick. Activating the Flash at a distance wasn’t likely to harm them.
“They’re fast! They’re strong!” Alice wheezed a warning, watching their movements. “You! Use Azure! Don’t get close!”
Before she could finish, the nearest bloodhound leapt over a heap of debris and made a dash for us, readying its black claws. Alice stepped in its way, shielding me and smashing a chunk of concrete down on its muzzle. The impact was such that the concrete disintegrated, sending cascades of shrapnel everywhere and stunning the beast, throwing it onto its back. Alice immediately seized her chance. She leapt onto the monster’s back and hit it with a sharp rock, smashing right through the black armor plates. Claw of Helheim flashed through the air as she buried it into the gap.
The remaining two beasts were almost upon us. Judging by their speed, I stood no chance against them in a hand-to-hand. Even a powerful Warrior such as Alice couldn’t tackle both at once, let alone me.
I had no choice. I drew Fang across the palm of my hand, smearing blood all over its blade. How many summonings did I have left until the Seal of Fenrir wore away?
The fiery wolf leapt into the path of one of the bloodhounds, curbing its assault and burying his ghostly fangs into its spiky armor. The two rolled down the slope in a black and red ball, leaving cascades of sparks in their wake. But even a creature as powerful as my Fiend needed time to kill the monster.
That left the third bloodhound. It all but grazed me, its giant claws ripping through the fabric of my jumpsuit. Miko came up with a dodge scheme just in time; I even managed to evade the monster – all those upgrades to my speed and reaction times had now proved their worth. But still the next moment the monster swept me off my feet, pinning me to the sharp rocks with its heavy body.
Choking on the unbearable stench, I buried my Fang in what Miko had marked down as its vulnerable spot: a barely noticeable slit in its black armor where the breastplates met. Reinforced with the Speck of Ra, the blue steel screeched as it entered the creature’s A-altered flesh, releasing clouds of rancid smoke.
Already dying in the monster’s claws ripping through my body, I activated the Flash.
Activation No 26...
Repairing the damage to your host’s internal systems...
Current Azure count: 15591/22000.
“Greeeey!”
I struggled to climb out from under the still-smoking Necro which was now well and truly dead – literally. The Flash had burned through its chest, turning the top part of its body into a charred skeleton. By now, Alice had killed her own attacker. The Fiend had done his job well too: I could see the third hound’s body lying flat on the slope. The problem was, now the wolf was heading for Alice, apparently having chosen her as his next target. He was going to lunge at her any moment now, and I didn’t have the Fang to summon him back to – the dagger was still stuck in the hound’s body and I didn’t have the time to look for it now.
I sent a mental command to the Fiend, investing all my emotions into the message: my orders, my furious command to stop and leave the girl alone.
The fiery wolf paused. He stood still, shook his head and cast a glance at me. The sensation of mental control must have been just as familiar to him as his hated spiky collar.
He growled threateningly, trying to resist the spell. I sensed his consciousness, angry and bitter, trying to break free and expel me from his mind. So I increased the pressure, breaking through his mind blocks and overpowering his will, like a dog’s owner making his growling pet to obey his order.
This was a mental duel which lasted a good minute at least. I could sense all of his mind, angry and alienated, filled with weird images. It was inhumanly bright and powerful, the mind of a creature driven by instinct rather than rational thought. And still it was much more relatable than the inner emptiness of the Voids or the nauseating vileness of the Necros. The creature was suffering, desperate to break free but equally eager to kill.
I saw the phantom chain which tied him to me and even counted the number of its links – the number of summonings left. I saw myself through his eyes, standing before him with my hand stuck out, a creature which was weak and powerful at the same time.
Then I sensed his relief. As soon as he’d realized that I was getting the upper hand, he felt better. Few of his previous owners could force him into obedience by establishing their own power. He’d finally met his leader, his master, and kept succumbing to my will ever further with every passing second of our contest.
“Come,” I ordered, pulling at the mental chain.
Reluctantly the phantom monster made his way toward me and stopped a couple of feet away. I reached out my hand toward his scorching heat.
The Fiend lowered his head and clung to the ground, admitting my leadership.
“Now go back.”
Obediently the Azuric creature turned into a fiery spark and jumped onto Fang’s blade peeking from under the dead hound’s body, dissolving within the blue steel.
Done. I’d tamed him. He was going to obey me like a pet dog now – or at least for the four summonings I still had left.
“Incredible. Congratulations on the first member of our Pack, Incarnator! You were amazing!”
“Enchanter!” Alice said with conviction, walking over to me. She’d been prudently watching our duel from the sidelines and seemed to have drawn all the right conclusions. Her gaze glinted with respect; my reputation with her must have soared.
The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series Page 21