Hunger: A LitRPG Adventure (Unbound Book 3), page 62
"Madness," Alister muttered. "What has Teine done to you?"
"Oathbound," Harn said as he stood up, his hand clenched at his wound. Felix could see the metal of his armor flowing over it and pressing into his skin. "They've been bound to kill."
Atar and Alister both looked at their captain, Yvette, and Okar who had climbed to his feet. Atar gritted his teeth. "Is that true? Did the Elder compel you to kill?"
"Only those who entered without permission," Yvette said, her high voice reedy with strain. The Revenants had increased their attacks, and it was draining her Mana fast. She fumbled a blue potion to her lips and gasped. "Those stupid enough to dare."
Okar grinned cruelly at them all. "And those stupid enough to defy us."
"Idiots! We'll die if we don't work together!" Atar shouted, but it was too late. In a burst of motion, Elwick and Okar rush at the injured Harn. They knew if Harn fell, the rest of them wouldn't last a minute.
Felix once again threw himself forward, but his aim was still slightly off, his concussion blurring his sense of space. Instead, he was hammered in the side by a metallic bar, one that sent him careening into Alister and Atar. All three of them went down in a pile. Groaning, Felix looked up to see Yvette still standing in the same space and grinning with bloody teeth.
"Try again, little boy," she taunted. "Shaping my wall takes Will, not Mana. And I can do this until you die."
Three razor-sharp spikes punched from the wall to their right. Felix sent out a Stone Shaping, lifting a crude segment of rock out of the ground to block it.
The spikes cut right through it.
A beam of force erupted beneath the leading edge of the spikes, and with an excruciatingly loud groan, they bent upward and missed them by inches. Felix looked at Alister, his arm outstretched and panting.
"Thanks," Felix managed, before rolling off the pile. "Evie! Vess! Some help?"
"Already on it!" Evie said, sailing over his head. "You three help Harn!"
Yvette screamed in frustration.
"You absolute… bitch," Lilian grated out, but as she raised her hand to cast, she swayed and her eyes rolled back. She dropped to the ground, unconscious.
"Dabney! Cacoon!" Alister shouted, and the big man immediately hunched over Lilian and activated a dome of stone. The noble looked at Evie whip her chain about and several spears streaked toward the Journeyman defensive specialist. "They're not gonna be enough to handle Yvette!"
"Then go help them!" Felix shouted, but had to roll to his left to avoid an explosive fissure in the ground. He looked up to see Okar focused on him and Atar. That was fine with him. "Atar, let's give Harn time to kick your Captain's ass."
"This is dumb! Argh, fine!" Atar conjured a grip of Sparkbolts and sent them flying at the charging Journeyman. The fiery projectiles burst harmlessly against Okar's dark granite armor, his Journeyman Skill shrugging off their impacts without breaking his stride. The man's face, framed by a Roman-style helm of rock, was split by a sadistic grin.
"I'm gonna enjoy breaking you boys," he sneered.
Influence of the Wisp!
Wrack and Ruin!
Stone Shaping!
The Enthrall didn't land, and his acid scored his armor but careened wildly once it hit. The Stone Shaped rocks he thrust upward disrupted the man's footing, but for barely a moment. Okar stomped his own feet and sent out a pulse of dusty-brown Mana that smoothed the ground again.
Shit! Maybe I—
"Spirit Immolation!" Atar cried, and his body burst into living flame. It wasn't just covered in it; the teen became fire.
Holy damn. Felix’s Heat and Fire Resistance clawed at his insides. He took a wincing step back from Atar, glancing between him and the oncoming Journeyman.
"Strength Ignition!"
The fire became flesh once more, but now Atar absolutely glowed with orange Mana vapor. His body gave it off like a tiny sun. With a burst of speed Felix had never seen from the man, Atar hiked his robes up and ran directly at Okar. Quick as a blink, Atar drew a series of quick sigils in midair and dropped into a slide, falling under the man's guard and jabbing out with his open palms as he passed. The sigils attached to Okar's legs, etching into his armor before sending a thrust of concentrated fire Mana blasting forward from the man's knees.
Like a misaligned hobby rocket, Okar's feet swept from beneath him, the man barely having time to brace as his face was jackhammered into the earth.
Felix didn't let him recover, hitting the man with a concentrated Reign of Vellus, something that still was hard for him to accomplish accurately. He pressed hard, dumping Mana into the Skill to just keep the man down. Okar fought it, trying to rise, pitting his Strength and Endurance against Felix's Intelligence and Willpower.
Were it an effort to crush him, Felix would have been outclassed by the Journeyman defensive Skill, but it wasn't. The man only wanted to move, and that boiled down to stats. And Felix had those in spades.
"Burn me, how're you holding him down?" Atar asked, looking at Felix in confusion as lightning ceaselessly crawled across Okar's body. "Nevermind! We have to restrain him ‘til Harn finishes with Elwick, then Onslaught can take care of him. I've got nothing that can get through that armor or his resistances."
"That's right!" Okar shouted, his face straining against the ground. "Cower like always, Atar! It's all your good for, you worthless pile of—!"
Reign of Vellus!
With a thunderclap, a pillar of lighting seemed to launch Okar straight up into the air. The man reached nearly fifty feet before he began arcing downward, well beyond the wall. Directly into the Revenant horde.
"Screw him," Felix grated, his head aching from the Mana use. "He was trying to use earth Mana to sneak attack us."
Atar looked down, noticing for the first time a series of sharpened spikes that had pushed up from the broken flagstones.
Status Condition: Concussion (Minor) has expired.
"Great," Felix said, stretching his shoulders. "Let's go."
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
"She's too good!" Alister ducked beneath a scything silver blade, swooping out of the wall before being reabsorbed. "We can't fight her like this!"
Alister came back to his feet, tumbling deftly as more spikes thrust randomly from the rapidly shifting metal. His father had paid outrageous sums for his son to be trained by the best, not just in Mana Skills, but in all aspects of combat. True, he had often neglected his studies in favor of carousing, but he found himself thankful for his father's stubborn insistence. A first time for everything, he mused.
"Then stay back and let us handle it!"
That commoner, Evie Aren, flashed by him. Her preposterous weapon, a spiked chain of all things, was a blur in her hand. It whipped forward and wrapped around Yvette's outstretched arm, the blades digging into the meat of her bicep. The girl hauled on it, pulling herself toward the Bronze Rank with such speed that Alister barely had time to blink before she hit. Yvette shrieked as Evie dug a dagger into her armored robes, and a flow of battered steel hammered outward. Evie flew back, her chain falling slack from Yvette's arm.
Alister gathered Mana for his Grand Impetus, his core funneling it along his pathways until it pooled at the base of his wrist. With a twist and thrust of his enchanted rapier, the Mana discharged in a smooth bolt of blue-white light; pure kinetic force. It was a Skill Alister was greatly proud of, one that he had developed over the course of many years, combining several ancestral techniques with his own ingenuity. It was powerful, more than enough to dispatch an enemy of his own Tier. However, when it came to those of a higher Tier, it was less than optimal.
The strike put a sizable dent in a stretch of steel, but didn't penetrate.
Yvette gathered herself, having screamed herself hoarse, and shoved her mangled arm toward them. A wave of undulating spikes rippled from the walls, pieces disconnecting and flinging at them far faster than Alister wanted.
Avert!
A narrow shield of blue energy sprang into a semi-circle before him, and the projectiles hit it hard. Gouts of stone tore to pieces to either side of Alister as the shield absorbed and diverted the kinetic force, shunting it to either side of himself. An impressive showing, he had to admit, but it was eating through his Mana quickly. The lot of them had been burning their resources ever since arriving in the blasted Domain, and especially since attempting an assault on the keep. Alister stood up, but he was unsteady. His Mana was at 30%.
Arms grabbed him suddenly, and Alister found himself hoisted into the air. The uneven flagstones beneath him erupted into jagged shards, a disorienting plume of dust and debris. For a few moments, he felt weightless as he looked up at Evie, blood on her brow as she gripped him, but heaviness returned as they both tumbled hard to the ground.
"Ugh, that's hard to do," Aren grunted, rolling to her feet with enviable ease. It was something Alister could have done himself, were he not so tired. As it stood, his process involved more cursing. "Oh good, Vess' turn."
Alister looked up to see Vessilia Dayne, heiress of the Duchy of Pax'Vrell, sail above their heads alongside six floating spears. Three of them zipped forward ahead of her landing, projectiles that Yvette easily deflected. But then the woman followed, and her body fell like a boulder, suddenly speeding up with such celerity that Alister doubted his eyes.
*BOOOOM!*
The earth rumbled beneath them as she hit, spear-first. Yvette had blocked it, but the steel screamed as it began to give way.
"C'mon, pretty boy! Time to work!" Evie dashed ahead, sprinting toward where her chain had fallen.
"Blood and ash, why are they doing this?" Alister said before limbering his arm and hustling after. "Atar's right! There's no benefit here! Win or lose, these monsters will eat us alive!"
Even now, the steel walls protecting them shuddered with rapid, repeated blows. The screech of claws on steel had become a constant refrain. Once they fell, the Revenants would kill them all. So why were they pushing this? Had they truly been Oathbound into it? That was madness!
More spears came crashing down on the defender, this time accompanied by the lashing blows of Evie's chain. Steel flowed and shifted, moving like water under the Will of Yvette, but the attacks took their toll.
Grand Impetus!
Alister, steps away from the vicious melee, thrust his rapier and released another condensed blast of Mana. This time, the force of it sheared through Yvette's battered shield and struck the Journeyman properly. She hissed, her painted face twisting into something cruel and… it was only for a blink, but Alister couldn't shake the sight of it.
She'd looked… monstrous.
"SCREUAAAAAW!"
A bone-chilling cry cut through the air, followed closely by the bounding form of that strange Dire Hound. Though it wasn't directed at him, Alister could feel a mental Skill wash across the space, targeted on Yvette. The effect failed against her Journeyman stats, but the Hound didn't stop. Sharp planes of air Mana launched outward from it, slicing through the air and putting scratches in the steel wall.
The attacks hadn't the strength to truly injure Yvette, but it all added up. Alister deflected more steel projectiles with Avert, while the others laid into her. For the first time, the noble believed they were going to win.
But what then?
Captain Elwick felt a fury he had never known before. These people, these… monsters in Human guise had invaded the Domain against the Elder's wishes. They had killed, yes, of that there was no doubt. The bodies beyond the Domain were mutilated with the kind of joyous disregard for life that only the worst creatures possessed. Elwick knew there was no saving them. No forgiveness.
Just rage.
"REEAAAARG!" Elwick lunged, his sword trailing an icy fog as it moved. His Skill, Ethereal Ice, helped to shroud his attacks to make them harder to perceive and defend against, and he knew it would work against the Onslaught. The man was a legend for his durability and resistances, but Elwick's Skill would overcome him because… because it had to. There was no other option.
"Why are you here, Kastos?" Elwick snarled. He needed to understand. To know if there were more of them.
"Takin' a tour," Harn grunted back, twisting sideways and letting Elwick's blade to pass harmlessly. "Maybe kill some monsters."
"Don't be glib, bastard. You're not good at it!" Elwick pressed the attack, pushing the demoted Guilder back, trying to press him toward the steel wall. "You killed people to get in here! I know that's true!"
"How many have you done in?" Harn asked. He batted aside Elwick's blade, sending a spray of icy fog back toward the captain. The bastard ducked out of his line of sight as the fog rolled over Elwick's eyes. "How many has Teine had you kill?"
"Enough," Elwick grated. His own fog didn't hurt him, but it did make him lose track of the silver warrior. "I follow orders, that is all."
"Truly?"
Elwick swung toward the voice, but hit nothing. Then his Obviated Body screamed a warning, and the captain threw himself to the ground just as a silver blur swept through the space where his neck had been. Tucking a shoulder, the Bronze Rank rolled to his feet and reset himself. Harn advanced, twin axes out to either side. Nearby, the others were engaged with the Iron Ranks and seemed to have the upper hand. Elwick grinned and felt a delicious, giddy bloodlust dance across his veins. Not for the first time, Elwick felt a dark, visceral thrill at the thought of killing this man.
"I'll have your head this day," Elwick promised, and activated Rimefang's Lament. His Skill made a sheath of preternaturally hardened ice grow over his long sword, expanding the blade by five inches and lengthening it by another foot. "You face judgment, Harn Kastos!"
Elwick spun his blade, whirling it in a wild maneuver that shouldn't have hit anyone, were it not for his Mana Skill. Rimefang's Lament sent shards of dark ice in every direction he spun the sword, each one trailing his Ethereal Ice fog. He felt them connect with Harn's armor. The sound was almost metal on metal, a clashing that rattled out in a rapid beat. The captain surged forward, leading with his sword. He could practically taste the bastard's blood on its edge, on his tongue, filling him with strength and power and—-
"Tch."
Elwick's blade hit something immobile, sending a wrenching pain up his arm and shoulder. The fog of his Ethereal Ice washed over the upraised gauntlet of the Onslaught, the sword trapped between his fingers. Ice crawled down the man's hand and vambrace, lines of frost that spread rapidly, but the man stood tall. Unconcerned.
Before Elwick could react, his sword was twisted to the side. Harn's gauntlet had frozen to the icy blade, and the damn warrior used that against the captain. He hauled back, and the blade ripped from Elwick's grip. Without a focus, Rimefang's Lament faded an instant later, and the sword fell to the ground.
"Teine really messed you up, didn't he?" Harn asked, before Elwick felt a punch deform his breastplate and send him flipping backward. The uneven flagstones came up hard, and the Guilder’s nose broke as he tumbled. "I ain't never heard of an Oath makin' someone crazy."
The bastard was talking, TALKING, while they fought. Elwick’s rage suffused his Mind with a dark, sizzling impulse, to rend and tear and rip apart the silver monster that was slowly walking toward him. A mad urge to taste his blood and...and...
"I'm sorry ta do it, but I gotta put ya down. Yer dangerous, an' I don't have time ta find out why."
"Murderer," Elwick spat, spraying his blood onto the ground. "Thieves and trespassers! Usurpers!"
"Usurpers?" Harn tilted his head, axe held ready. "Usurpin' what?"
Images flooded Elwick's mind as he pushed himself up, his arms shaking with more than exertion. Images of teeth, of eating, of terrible, terrible things striding in the dark. Of a mother… and children cast aside. A part of him cried out, but it was a small part, barely noticed among the crushing deluge of emotion. Of lies and hunger, endless hunger.
A crown of bone.
Screaming, Elwick summoned four more blades made entirely of ice Mana and sent them hurtling toward the Onslaught.
Verglas Edge!
The man bent his arm, protecting his chest and face with it while his other hand wielded an axe. Harn sheared through two of the ice blades with a single strike. He was unharmed. The Onslaught moved toward him.
Elwick's channels felt as if they were on fire, his Mana long since run out. Strain marred him, his core, and the captain knew he had little left to give. But he was so angry, and it was as if he were being gifted more strength from that rage.
Now on his knees, the captain focused upon the heat he felt building in his chest. He knew the wrath he felt was unreasonable, that it was mad, that his Elder had never told him to take things so far. That small part of him could see the web of their Oath, once shining, now corroded. Burnt. And along that web came a delirious certainty that he had been lied to… that the man before him was a greater threat… that he shouldn't be killed, but… delivered...
Something burned away inside of him. Something vital. That small voice vanished, popped like a soap bubble. But the rage remained, bottomless and hungry. Despite the wounds that riddled him, Elwick felt good for the first time in a long while. He felt right.
Power surged through him, flushing his limbs with strength. Elwick screamed at Harn as he attacked, lunging from his knees. A sword of ice materialized in his hand, blurring in a savage thrust. The bastard still met each blow with his axes, deflecting the attacks easily, contemptuously.
"How are you even here!?" Elwick snarled, blood drooling from his mouth. It tasted sour on his tongue. "The Domain should be closed to you!"
"So they did alter the shell." Harn grunted, somewhat wryly. "Knew it felt weird comin' in."
"How?" Elwick flared Verglas Edge, diverting his attention to summoning not many blades, but a single one. Mana vapor coalesced above the warrior, a guillotine of power, just at the cusp of solidifying. Harn was only a few steps away. "It… should have stopped you.
