Unbound

Chapter One Hundred and Forty Eight – 148

The wall shuddered as Yvette's body writhed and burned on the ground. The steel of it expanded and contracted, like a breathing organ, in time with her gasping howls. It was the same, Felix saw, the same as Elwick.

The same as me, he feared, thinking on his transformation Skill.

Harn readied his axe and strode her way, purposefully. "I'm endin' this. Be ready to run. The wall won't hold once she's dead."

"Run where? Not toward that...thing," Lilian panted. She had only just recovered a few percentages of her Mana and winced with ever screeching impact on the other side of the walls. "These monsters will tear us to pieces without Journeymen!"

"Then I hope you can run fast," Harn said.

The others started to shift, but Felix needed to understand. The connections he was seeing were Oaths, bindings that existed invisibly all around them. Context told him that, but there was also an intrinsic...knowing that he couldn't explain. Yet the red-stained strings confounded him...he knew they should be silver, like moonlight drawn into thread.

He needed to see again.

Straining his vision so much that spasms of pain clenched his brain, Felix tried to find that space beyond the physical world around him. It had felt so natural when he had looked at Elwick, but with Yvette it felt like there was nothing to see. Just a woman shuddering on the ground as the stones baked with the unnatural heat she was emitting. The pain of his broken Skill came on again, and Harn stepped closer to the woman as if in slow motion. His axe lifted.

Pit let out a sharp, chirp-bark, and a deep vibration shook through their bond. Felix gasped, and suddenly could see.

The Domain was awash in those silvery lines. They threaded through and around everyone present, pushing through space as if physical reality were nothing more than Mana vapor. They wound around him, his friends, the Iron Rank Guilders too...and Yvette was even more tangled than Elwick. Oaths bound her limbs like puppet strings, but it was one that was more concerning than all the rest. The string that was stained red, the burnt and pitted one that led all the way back to Elder Teine...it was not alone. A second dark string, thick as the first, extended into the near distance. Felix's eyes followed it. Very near.

Right to the Larval Ravager.

Manasight is level 43!

A pulse of unnerving crimson flashed down the string, traveling from the Ravager to Yvette, and Felix knew the change was accelerating without looking. The screaming sound of shearing chords as the power passed him was like stressed steel, and Felix felt the vision torn from him. He staggered, hand to his head, sight clearing just in time to see blood fountain into the broken ground.

Harn had cut the Guilder's head off.

"--lix! We run!"

Felix had barely registered the shout when the walls all around them dissolved into silvery vapor. The Revenants had piled against the Steel Fortification and now that it disappeared they descended like packs of wild dogs.

Atar dropped a series of Sparkbolts along their left and right, each one exploding in a tiny fireball. Revenants flinched back from it, but it barely scratched them. Instead, it set up the next attack, which were a line of bright blue columns that erupted in concussive, upwards force. Fanged jaws snapped shut and clawed arms were wrenched askew, and the group kept running.

"We need to get out! Head for the collapsed wall!" Harn shouted, gesturing toward the "entrance" of the keep, where the sagging curtain wall had tumbled down. Revenants crowded in their way, but there were far more in the other direction. "Dabney! Be strategic with those walls! Atar save yer fire for sure-shots! Felix! Push em back!"

"Earthen Bulwark!"

Reign of Vellus!

Dusty brown Mana surged with blue-white crackling lightning, slabs ripping up from the ground to block the faster Revenants. They weren't slowed down or particularly hurt, but it stalled them, keeping their slower members from getting gutted. More effective was the wall of kinetic force and sizzling lightning that swept outward. Felix was careful not to hit his allies, but otherwise dumped as much of his Mana into the blasts as he could. Revenants were bowled over by the Skill, their legs knocked from beneath them or otherwise bodily shoved back into the following horde.

Your Companion, Pit Has Gained 1 Level!

He Is Now Level 21!

+3 to WIL! +2 to INT! +4 to DEX! +1 to END! +2 to PER! +2 to VIT! +4 to AGL!

"SCREAAAAAW!" Pit surged with energy as he killed a wounded Revenant and screeched in triumph. Wingblades and Frost Spears blasted in all directions, focusing on those hurt most by Felix's power. His body even surged and ignited with a green fire at times as the tenku charged through downed enemies, his Poisonfire chewing through their scaled flesh better than his beak or claws.

Pit's Poisonfire is level 18!

They were doing it, but it was costing them dearly. Vess and Evie held the front, sweeping the relatively fewer creatures that opposed them there, while Harn focused his axes on those too strong to be deterred by their prowess. Lilian still huddled in the center of their formation, her face haggard and pale. She hadn't cast anything, Felix was sure. Dabney kept up his defensive Earthen Bulwark, but couldn't move it with him. He was forced to resummon it each time, blocking rushes from the sides but tearing through his Mana pool. Felix's Eye told him the kid couldn't keep it up for much longer.

Atar and Alister were in the rear with Felix, each pushing the offensive as best they could. Atar's Skills were better suited to mass combat, his fire spells perfect for bunched enemies, and the man's high Intelligence seemed to add heft to each strike. Allister had his kinetic columns, but he couldn't employ that often it appeared, instead focusing on precision strikes of the same nature. Despite the blue potions they slugged back, both were running on the dregs of their power.

Felix checked his own Mana and was annoyed to see that he only had 400 points left, less than 25% of his total. He was regenerating fast, but his spell options were dwindling. So instead he focused on his physical gifts.

Corrosive Strike uses the bare minimum of Mana, though I'll have to be sparing with Unfettered Volition. Felix grit his teeth and danced out of the way of a Revenant's claws. Still, the creature tore three furrows in his jacket. Snarling with fury, Felix ducked close and laid the beast low with two Corrosive Strikes to the neck and chest. The Revenant, already wounded, split open like a rotten melon.

You Have Killed A Manawarped Revenant!

XP Earned!

Notifications like that were flooding in, too fast to keep track of, and Felix once again shunted his notifications to the side. The increase in power from them was not always worth the distraction they caused. Regardless, they were close. The exit was a mere hundred feet away, and after that Felix hoped they could escape into the fields of tall grasses. It would be hard to find anything in that. He--

"Trespassers...food!"

Without warning from his Perception or Skills, Felix was tackled from behind.

"Felix!" Someone shouted, but the sound was lost amid the roar and clatter of a dozen Revenants being bowled to the side. Felix was in the grip of something incredibly strong and fast, and when he hit the ground they were easily fifteen yards away from his original position. They dropped to the earth in a wild roll and whatever it was lost its hold on Felix, sending more Revenants to their knees as they tore through them separately.

Unfettered Volition!

Flaring his movement Skill, Felix arrested his movement and surged to his feet. He was well beyond the enemy line, closer to the Larval Ravager than to the exit. A jagged wound blazed in his side, and Felix sucked in a pained breath. He could move past the pain with Willpower and his Resistance but it was bleeding badly. Revenants surrounded him, their split faces hissing but they did not attack.

They're waiting, Felix realized.

"It wants you...it...takes you!" A monstrously large Revenant leaped into the small clearing, landing with enough force to break the stone beneath them. It was as scaled and hideous as the other Revenants, but the tattered pieces of robes and split remnants of a thick beard told him enough of who this was.

"Okar," Felix breathed. "Of course you're still alive."

Pit charged into the wrong-beast, body aflame, and used his claws to tear weeping gashes on their legs. The wrong-beast howled in pain and fury as its legs stopped working right, but Pit had moved on. There were so many to fight.

Poisonfire is level 19!

Rake is level 25!

Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier in Rake!

You Gain:

+3 STR

+3 AGL

+3 END

Strength pulsed through him as the world whispered its secrets. Ever since he had met Felix, Pit had come to relish combat and the growth he inevitably experienced during it. With a minor effort of Will, spikes of ice manifested around the tenku and shot off. Each one hit a wrong-beast, their bodies so close together it was impossible to miss. The world told him more died each moment, their lives taken by Felix's friends and not-friends and each one brought a tiny surge of that same strength.

Cry is level 27!

A quick, piercing call forced several Revenants to freeze in place, easy targets for Pit's Frost Spears and Wingblades. Though the chimera's wings were hidden, the Skill still worked the same as he flexed them, launching spinning discs of compressed air Mana. The near-invisible blades scythed into the ranks, strong but still only strong enough to cut the scaled flesh of those closest.

As the Revenant's dropped and the world told him of their deaths, Pit saw something hit Felix in the back. His Companion was taken down, hurled headlong into the horde.

No!

Panic burst along their bond, along with pain and rage, all of it finding its sympathetic echo in Pit. Letting out an agonized howl, Pit ran to one of his Companion's friends. She was fighting with that long, sharp-toothed tail of hers, spinning it with deadly precision; she did not notice him.

Frost Spear!

The single large spear Pit conjured blasted through the enemy the Pretty Killer was attacking.

Frost Spear is level 25!

Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier in Frost Spear!

You Gain:

+3 INT

+3 WIL

+3 PER

The tenku shrugged off the surge of power and screeched at the Pretty Killer. Startled, she looked up and finally noticed Pit's gaze, for the first time seeing where Felix had gone. "Man down! Felix got pulled into the horde!"

"Hold together!" the Metal Man grunted, each swing of his axe reaping a life. "Either Felix gets free, or he doesn't. We can't go after him."

"That's a damn fool thing to say," the Pretty Killer hissed, and after looking at the Dangerous One with the metal spears, they both took off.

"What're you doing? Where're you going!" The slender man-child wailed. "You can't leave us!"

"Hold together!" The Metal Man repeated. "Stay--Twin's teeth! Hold!"

Pit didn't listen. He didn't care. His Companion was in danger.

They dove into the horde, spells and claws swinging.

"RARGH!"

Felix felt the blow before he saw it, the force of it bending him double before a second strike sent him up into the air. He arced up like a sack of potatoes launched from a catapult. Wind whipped at his hair and clothes as he tried to pivot in mid-air. The ground rushed up fast, along with the grasping claws of a field of Revenants.

Reign of Vellus!

Unfettered Volition!

Flaring his Skill, Felix transferred his motion down into the crowd below, smashing several of the Revenants directly into the ground. Others were shoved back, stumbling from him as lightning surged in a ten foot area. Felix still landed hard but on his feet, and a simple knee flex let him absorb what remained of his fall.

Stone Shaping!

Spikes of reshaped flagstone ripped upward, skewering the Revenants that surged around him. The hulking form of the Okar-Revenant ran toward him, plowing through the other monsters with a bull-like single-mindedness. Head and shoulders taller than the others of its kind, the Okar-Revenant sheared through them with each swing of its thick arms.

Stone Shaping!

A thick block of stone jerked upward from the ground, directly in the Okar-Revenant's way. The beast didn't stop its charge and simply smashed through it with a bloody lurch. But that was enough to distract it.

Influence of the Wisp!

Wrack and Ruin!

A Manawarped Revenant (x4) are Enthralled for 5 seconds.

Blue flames erupted around Okar and a few of those closest to him. Their Willpower was a weakeness Felix could exploit, freezing them in place as he hurled a dark orb of concentrated acid at him. The first hit and splashed almost harmlessly against its chest, but the second started eating a hole in Okar's scaley abdomen.

Felix's Mana dwindled again, dropping faster and faster with each orb of acid. By the time Influence of the Wisp ran out, he barely had more than 5% of his Mana pool left. It'd regenerate, but he needed at least a minute to be useful.

The Okar-Revenant didn't give him that.

Screaming incoherently, the former Guilder bolted forward, eating up the distance between them as if it had never existed. Felix dodged back and to the left, but the damn thing was on top of him, he couldn't evade it. He had too little Mana to use Unfetted Volition, instead relying on his Agility and Endurance. But Okar was relentless; each dodge was met with a charge and a clawed slash, pushing Felix back further away from his friends and the exit.

"It..want!" Okar drooled through his ruined, malformed face. It's overlapping fangs destroyed most of what it tried to say, but the words repeated, over and over. Strike after strike. "It want!"

"Who wants?!" Felix shouted back, his hands moving fast to block the beast's attacks. Its claws tore his forearms repeatedly, blasting past his Armored Skin and ripping into his muscles.

Instead of answering, the Okar-Revenant lunged at Felix. The Nym leaped aside, but nearly tripped as his feet hit massive, torn up blocks. Sparing a glance for his surroundings, he realized they had moved so far into the keep that there were barely any Revenants here at all.

BEWARE!

Senses screaming, Felix surged to the side, narrowly avoiding a tree-trunk sized tentacle slamming into the ground. With rising horror, Felix saw that they were within reach of the Larval Revenant itself. Okar grunted and hissed through his wet face-hole, something sort of like laughter.

"It want you," it said.

Above him, a massive, watery eye ballooned into place on the Ravager's slick flesh. Blue-green swirls tightened around a dark pupil, fixated upon Felix. At the same time, he suddenly heard it. Like a trumpet in the dead of night. A call.

A challenge.

It cannot be allowed to live, Felix Nevarre, the Maw whispered. You know it. Destroy it, my Vessel.

Shut up, Felix snapped. He wished it was a lie, but the damn Primordial had a point. This thing was part of the Maw, somehow. To let it live would be a threat to everyone in the city when the Domain burst. The challenge repeated, and more sickening eyes grew atop the Larval Ravager's wormlike body, watching him.

Status Condition: Taunted

Felix was moving. Unfettered Volition turned mere thought to action, and the Nym put on a burst of speed that cared nothing for what was before him. Like a greased eel, Felix slipped between those few Revenants around him, leaping atop their heads and making a b-line for the worm-like body of this...this creature that dared defy him.

Reign of Vellus!

Shooting himself forward with a burst of kinetic energy, Felix cocked back an arm. The Larval Ravager was huge, it's tube-like body as wide as a four story tower and just as tall. As it loomed closer, Felix gathered his Mana into a ball of acid he gripped tight in his fist.

Wrack and Ruin!

Corrosive Strike!

Acid sprayed along the plane of the beast as Felix's fist made contact with it's blubbery hide...and did nothing. Felix hung there, the dual power of his kinetic boost and rebuffed strike holding him aloft for a terrible, dreamlike moment.

A tentacle slammed into him.

*BOOM!*

Felix hit the ground hard enough to break it, the heavy cut stone tilting in line with his impact. A nest of uprooted blocks erupted around him as he laid there, too stunned to breath or blink or think.

Health: 784/1014

Status Condition: Taunted

Has Been Interrupted

Then he could hear voices. A voice. One that should not ever have been talking to him.

The Maw was scolding him.

"--absolute baffoon! It is taunting you! Clear your mind! Steel this Bastion!"

"You're free..." Felix felt dread grip his insides. The damage last time was terrible. Here, now it will be...

"Stop wasting time and focus! Felix Nevarre! Steel your Bastion!"

Snapped out of his doom spiral, Felix did just that. He flared his Bastion of Will, pushing to keep the Maw contained...except she hadn't escaped. She was still trapped beneath the earth, and as he looked for her the last vestiges of the Taunt dissipated. Felix pulled himself up from the ground.

"How are you speaking so clearly to me?" Felix asked.

"It is toying with you," the Maw said. "I know this."

"Great. You're ignoring me," Felix said.

"You saw it eating corpses, its own Revenants? It's devouring pieces of power. Pieces of Me. Each morsel of my energy builds its strength." The Maw's voice shook. Felix wasn't sure whether it was rage or, strangely, fear.

"It's turning into you?" Felix said with alarm, his worry over the Maw doubled.

"No, you dullard. It would need far more than morsels for that."

"Like if it ate me?" he asked.

The Maw went quiet. "I forbid you to be eaten, Felix Nevarre. This...abomination is a stain upon the realm. End it."

Unfettered Volition!

"I'm glad I have your permission, then," Felix growled and started moving.