Chapter 279 - Unleashed

Battles are super fun to write but they're so difficult! I rewrote this one three times trying to line everything up and make sure everyone is where they should be Really pleased with how it's coming together though. Hope you enjoy :)

Hump turned his back on Ashera’s wall of stone and the undead horde beyond it, a cold sliver of ice running through his veins. There was no time for rest. He glimpsed the dragons fighting deeper in the hall, their battle shrouded in the chaos of powers enveloping the room. Occasionally, Yunillia’s lightning flashed.

Quickly, he reached into his leather pouch and took out an Essence Water vial, pulling out the stopper and downing it. The cool liquid ran down his throat, thick as honey. Warmth spread from his stomach and a fresh wave of essence kindled within him, pushing back the cold of essence use—it wasn’t bad yet, but the longer he could stay feeling fresh, the better this would go. He tossed the vial aside and readied his staff, drawing upon his essence and gathering it to the crystal focus of his staff until it shone with bronze light.

He scanned the palace with his Spirit Sight, not forgetting their mission there. Essence raged all around him as the battle for the palace entryway entered its next phase. It sent trails of smoking light through the hall, thick and confusing as mist. Faces, figures, and everything else became lost in the beautiful chaos as spells, martial skills, and blessings competed for dominance. He couldn’t see shit.

Hump clenched his jaw in frustration. His eye had been useless in the sky from dragonback, and it was just as useless here. Wherever the source of Irila’s power lay, it was lost in everything here.

Don’t get emotional, he told himself. Frustration was a killer of wizards, and he wasn’t going to let it distract him now.

There was a reason Irila’s army was fighting with such fervour. They would not sacrifice themselves here in such a disadvantaged fight otherwise. Ado must have been right—Irila was weakened, and she needed time. Which meant they needed to find her before she could do whatever it was that she wanted.

“I cannot see Irila,” Hump shouted over the cacophony of battle. “This suicidal defence must serve a purpose. We need to hurry.”

“I sense her power deeper into the palace,” Ashera said. She pointed her staff toward the back wall. “That way.”

Bronze essence erupted from her weapon. The air shook. An undead knight buckled before her, its armour crumbling beneath the weight of her power. It fell back, unmoving.

Where it fell, another undead knight took its place. Beyond it, powerful martials, and of course, spellcasters fought with reckless abandon, their power raging through the room. While under Yunillia’s leadership, they were nine when counting the dragons. No matter how hard they’d tried, the lich’s force could not press them. They were outnumbered, but Owalyn’s Chosen were powerful.

Glys, the shaman, leant each of them her power, filling the space around her with blessings of the forest and wilds. Hump felt their strength, and the Drums of the Hunt beat louder. Nascal and Lia fought with sword and shield and a dragon’s rage, each of them holding back a host of magics and blades.

“We need to catch up to Yunillia,” Ashera shouted to the group. “Nascal, Lia, I want you shoulder to shoulder. Push us forward. I’ll defend our right flank with Glys. The rest of you, clear a path toward the left doorway.”

Hump’s eye found it beyond the wall of armour and magic. A single door would have been within the gap once, but now it stood empty but for the spellcasters standing before it.

First things first, they needed to be ready for traps. They’d entered the lich’s domain.

“Walt, there’s no way I’ll be able to fight and keep an eye out for traps,” Hump said, reaching out for the spirit stone in his pocket. “The moment you sense something, can you let me know?”

“Will do, kid.”

When a gap came between Irila’s death knights, Hump saw his moment. He levelled his staff toward the doorway from where spellcasters rained magic upon them. A month had been plenty of time for him to learn new ways to wield Titan’s Wrath. The Tier 4 spell was a big, penetrating artillery strike in its base form, but once he’d learned to control it he’d found what was perhaps and even more useful application.

With a thought, obsidian shards formed before him, small as his Rock Shot, yet sharp as throwing knives. And each of them was laced with his disruptive intent.

Bronze burst before him and he launched the shards forward in a hail.

Screams filled the mist before him, the mist of essence parted as if struck by a piercing blast of wind, yet the magic in the room hardly seemed to slow. There was danger everywhere. A dozen towering armoured knights stood their ground along the front of his enemy, protecting the spellcasters behind them as they tried to fight their way through.

Celaine was just ahead of Hump, to his right. She shot her bow, the arrow piercing the throat of a figure as they fled the entryway and tried to get into the next room. A spellcaster from the looks of them—wearing the lich’s apprentice robes. Varesha, another archer, fought at her side, her own arrows singing as they flew into the mist. Elder Ashera was to his left, wielding her earthen blessings to block enemy attacks and send back trembling waves of essence that shook the ground at their feet and tore fissures through the palace floor. Yunillia was powerful, but it seemed the former First Keeper did not fall far behind.

As a gap in the essence mist came, Hump’s eyes were drawn to the greatest danger in the room. The undead wolf dragon and the armoured figure upon her back had recovered and were facing off against Finnian as they fled Yunillia’s wrath. Yunillia hefted her spear and carved a path through the fighting, smiting anything that tried to block her chase, a dragon’s fury on her face.

Yet the champion of Irila did not appear weak. To Hump’s Spirit Sight, it was as if black fire erupted from the figure’s body, flaked with golden light. He radiated a dark energy that felt strangely familiar—the sensation sent chills down Hump’s spine. At first, Hump couldn’t put his finger on it, but then he caught the glint of Lady Light’s sigil on the man’s sword once more.

The lich had brought one of her knights back from the dead—a Chosen of the leader of the Pantheon. What powers he had now were twisted remnants of his former self. It was a sad sight, one that reminded Hump of the Black Paladin of Bledsbury who had been a noble warrior used and corrupted by evil forces. Today, they would bring an end to that.

But it would not come by fighting here.

The battle through the hall passed in fractured moments, accompanied by ringing steel and terrible screams. They fought their way forward through monsters and magic. Hump tripped, steadying himself against his staff then whirling it, slamming it into a nearby skeleton that tried to stab Celaine with its spear. Dense with essence, his staff shattering the lesser undead into pieces, and they were moving onward, the others all around him.

They neared the door quickly. Hump heard a smashing sound beyond, then a brutish creature charged into the room, reaching for Celaine. She dodged its horned head—the beast a concoction of animals, with the head of a bull, the body of an ape, the hands of a razorclaw. It bellowed a deafening roar and ran at Hump, tucking its head down to gore him.

Hump flicked his staff up to meet it. “Shield.”

A square barrier appeared before him, layers of essence crisscrossing to provide reinforcement. The creature struck hard enough to send Hump stumbling back. An explosive crack rang out, his Shield splitting down the centre yet not quite breaking. More of the lich’s forces hurled spells and arrows from the balcony above. He funnelled essence into his spell, but it was too late. It shattered in a burst of broken essence shards.

He threw himself to the side as Celaine loosed a Power Shot at the raging creature before it could catch its balance again. As Hump scrambled to his feet, Nascal leapt in front of him, the large man bashing aside spells and the beast’s claws with his shield, then stepping in close and piercing the creature’s chest with his own. It gurgled, blood spluttering from its mouth, pouring down its hair covered chin and throat.

On his feet, Hump pointed his staff at the balcony. There was nothing between him and it now—the death knights were defeated or driven back, and Yunillia and Finnian occupied much of the lich’s force.

Red kindled in his crystal focus, churning and bubbling like lava from the earth. “Fire Beam.”

A piercing ray of heat erupted, shooting through the room and striking a spellcaster on the balcony above. Smoke and fire erupted along ancient floorboards, rails, and walls. He maintained the spell with more essence, heaving it to the right, directing it over every enemy up there. Those too weak or slow perished before it. Others managed a defence, or fled the balcony entirely, but it was the opening Ashera needed.

She stamped at the ground, each beat of her feet a hammer to the earth. A great fissure cracked the ground and surged forward, climbing the wall before them. Bronze essence shone from within, spreading so quickly Hump could only guess at the power required. The balcony collapsed in a mess of fire, smoke, and dust. The sound of screams filled the room. However, the lich’s magic worked for her more powerful servants, it didn’t seem to take away their pain.

Lia was first to the doorway, battering apart another lesser skeleton with her shield and claiming it. Only a handful of fleshwalkers and skeletons stood between them and the rest of the palace now. There was nothing to stop their hunt for the lich, only… Yunillia and Finnian still fought fiercely.

All the dragons were bloodied from the fight. There had to be seven foes surrounding Yunillia and Finnian now, even more launching attacks from beyond the haze of battle. An entire gathering of martials and wizards aiming to bring the duo down. The champion of Irila was at the core of all of it, an aura of black and gold filling the space around him as he fought from atop the skeletal dragon.

It was then that Hump noticed the formation beneath the hallway. The lich’s power poured up through the fissures left behind by Ashera’s blessings, empowering her force. This was where their strength came from. Hump and the others were fighting on the enemy’s home turf. It was always going to be an uphill battle.

Aurora stumbled, caught by an enemy spell. The skeletal dragon didn’t miss its chance It bit down on her exposed neck, rending flesh and scales. The palace shook with her agonised scream, and Finnian roared in fury, leaping forward from her back with his giant two-handed sword. Empowered by the wind, he slammed it down on the dragon’s head, forcing it to release Aurora and sending it rearing.

Aurora stumbled back in retreat, Yunillia and Itris moving together to provide cover. Already Gyls was working her shaman blessings to try and stem the bleeding, while Nascal and Lia rushed in to keep back any other foes.

There was a piercing screech and a woman dropped from the roof, appearing from nowhere. Her face was shrouded in a hood, her form draped in billowing shadow. Hump glimpsed pale skin and red eyes beneath, her veins like ruby-red worms beneath her skin, and then she was upon Yunillia.

She clung to the first keeper’s shoulders, biting at her neck, clawing at her face. It savaged her, raking its claws over her face. Yunillia screamed, staggering briefly, and then lightning erupted from her in a blinding flash of light. Hump shielded his eyes. He caught sight of Yunillia’s bloodied and savaged face, one eye swollen shut, then realised the mass of power descending on them. There was something foreign there. Death magic laced every part of her blessing, adding to it and granting it even more strength. Strength without direction and with no intent but to kill.

“Shield!” Hump roared, casting the spell just in time to protect himself, Celaine, and Ashera. The impact sent a lance of pain to his core. His shield shattered and he was blasted back into the room behind him. He lay there on the floor groaning, icy power prickling across his body—the touch of death.

“No!” came Nascal’s desperate shout.

Hump looked up to see Lia on the ground, a sword through her right shoulder. She had caught herself on her knees, propping herself up on her weapon. Blood spurted from her mouth as she coughed, swaying from side to side. Somehow she found her feet, throwing herself into manic strikes with her weapon, striking down two martials that stood before her before collapsing to the ground herself. There, she shuddered and lay still.

Hump’s stomach dropped. One Chosen down already, and looking to Yunillia, Hump wasn’t sure they could count on her either. A storm filled the room, forcing Nascal and Finnian away from Lia’s body and back into the doorway with the rest of them. The pressure alone was enough that they could get no closer. Storm clouds stirred throughout the hall, flashing with blue and black lightning. Finnian and Aurora made it out, the injured dragon wheezing and hurling herself through the doorway, shattering brick and then coming to lie on the ground before Hump.

“Go!” came Yunillia’s voice. “I shall hold them here.”

Each of them shared a look. Hump hated to leave her, but this was exactly what he’d feared. They could not risk staying if she were as much a threat to them as everyone else.

“This way,” Ashera shouted, taking command and leading them onward through the palace. “Glys, focus your blessings on Aurora. We need her fighting ready. Finnian, spare no potions."

Hump raced through the halls and rooms, staff in hand. His heart pounded; his blood boiled with dragon’s fury. Essence use and that last attack from Yunillia was already starting to add to his chill, but he was not the same wizard he once was. He was blooded now, more experienced, and his core was at its peak. He could already feel essence returning to him, pushing back a little of the ice in his veins.

Ashera turned at the next corner, moving with direction. They continued through the halls for minutes, fighting any that stood in their path, then finally she paused at a door, studying it. Hump didn’t know what she saw, but he trusted her eyes over his for in this place of undeath and veils he might as well have been blind She touched the door, bronze light flashing, and then the door shattered, then came to stand before a hearth.

Gazing down at the stone tiled floor, Ashera gathered her blessing once more. “It is below us. Are you ready?” she asked Finnian, looking at Aurora with concern.

“It’s a flesh wound,” Finnian said. “No need to worry about us.”

“She’ll know we’re coming,” Varesha the archer said.

“I don’t think there’s any avoiding that,” Hump said.

“We are already down one member,” Nascal said. “Can we do this without Yunillia?”

“She will come,” Ashera said. “We did not leave her to die. We left her so that she could be free to fight her way. Do not underestimate our first keeper.”

“I’m ready to hunt a lich,” Celaine snarled.

“To death or glory.” Finnian grinned.

Ashera hammered her staff against the ground and bronze light descended from it. The ground gave way, a hole opening to reveal stairs carved out with the Chosen’s power. Finnian and Nascal led the way, followed by Aurora, then Glys and Ashera. Celaine and Hump were left to bring up the rear, when Hump remembered his pendant, given to him when he’d first joined Yunillia’s squad for the dungeon hunt.

“What are you doing?” Celaine asked.

Hump pulled out the pendant and cracked it, instilling it with his essence as he’d been taught to activate the tracking function. It glowed, then flickered out. He assumed that meant it was working, so hung it on a metal fixture over the hearth.

“With luck, reinforcements will find us sooner rather than later.”

“Good thinking. You ready?”

Hump nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

They followed the others down the stairs, finding a dark chamber below. Two tunnels connected to it, dark and delving deeper.

“Why’s it always underground?” Celaine grumbled, looking nervously at the ceiling.

Hump gripped her shoulder and squeezed. It was all he could do. For now… it was into the lich’s lair.