Chapter One Hundred and Forty Three - 143
"They are Guilders," Harn confirmed, his hand shielding against the bright midday sun. Felix knew it wasn't a real sun, but it was just as hot and bright. "Musta been their path we've been followin'."
"That means they came in the same entrance though," Evie said, her voice sharp and hissing. "Did the redcloaks let them in? Are they part of the plan?"
"That...doesn't make sense," Felix said with a frown. "Why involve the Guild, the only people capable of stopping the Inquisition?"
"Maybe they've been in here longer than the redcloaks were out there?" Evie suggested.
"Say that is true," Vess jumped in. "Then the Guild also came into this Domain, using a secret back entrance instead of the normal one. Why?"
"Good question," Felix said. "And I think we need to talk to Zara about what the word 'secret' means. I'm not sure she knows."
Vess smiled and Evie rolled her eyes. Harn grunted, though Felix was willing to believe that was his version of laughing. Felix checked the wardstone at his belt, bringing up the item's description.
Name: Ward of the Willful Eye
Type: Wardstone (enchanted)
Lore: Designed to withstand harmful environmental effects such as caustic or dissonant elements for a maximum period of six hours.
Shell of Harmonius Will VII - A Song of protection that diverts dissonant environmental hazards. Has no effect on direct attacks.
Chanters Intent II - The Harmonic Song of a Chanter was used to enchant this item, and it bears their Intent. +20% Effectiveness of Shell.
Time Remaining: 4 Hours 52 Minutes
They'd bonded the stones shortly after entering the Domain, and the clock on them had started ticking down. But it was ticking down a bit faster than anticipated, as they had spent perhaps forty minutes moving from the entrance to their current location, and had lost over an hour of duration.
"Listen, I don't trust what's happening here any more than the rest of you," Felix said, and gestured to the wardstones they all wore. "We've got less than five hours...glasses, sorry, five glasses until the protection on these wardstones fail. Maybe the Guilders are trustworthy, but likely they're not. Either way, we need to see what's in that keep and kill whatever monsters we can't avoid. This'll get two birds with one stone."The origin of this chapter's debut can be traced to N0v3l--B1n.
Harn nodded. "Agreed. We'll move closer, observe."
"Take em both out if we can," Evie said, a sharp look in her eye. Vess clucked her tongue and nudged her friend with her elbow. "...Or help, or whatever."
Vess' smile was thin lipped and troubled. It was clear to Felix that she did not like the idea of harming Guilders. Felix didn't either, if he were being honest with himself, but he'd do what he had to do. Something terrible was happening in the Domain, something he could feel would have crawled into their skin if not for their wardstones.
"Wait," Vess said, crawling closer to the ledge and peering outward. "Look, by the far forest."
A dark smear moved in the distance, and at first Felix though it was some sort of odd river; then his eyes adjusted and he could make out the approach of nearly a hundred loping humanoids. Their flesh was mottled with rust red and pale yellow, their arms long and tipped with overlarge claws. Stranger still, each of the figures carried something on its back and it varied from the corpses of other monsters to piles of dirt and leafy plants. At the same time as he saw them, a rattling dissonance drift to him on the breeze, setting his teeth on edge.
"Are they carrying bodies?" Vess asked.
"Food for later?" Evie asked and Harn shook his head.
"Better hope not," Harn said. "That'd mean they're smart. Gimme a beast horde over a half dozen smart monsters."
Voracious Eye!
Name: Manawarped Revenant
Type: Primordial-Spawn
Level: 38
HP: 534/534
SP: 1003/1120
MP: 255/255
Lore: Corrupted by the Maw's vile blood, these humanoids were once Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Hobgoblins, among others. Their form has been infected and altered, instilling them with a deep and unending hunger.
Strength: Enhanced coordination as a group
Weakness: Poor Intelligence and Willpower
"Shit," Felix said and shared the information with his crew, flipping his Voracious Eye screen toward all of them.
"Noctis wept," Vess gasped, holding her hands over her mouth. "The prisoners..."
"Ain't the prisoners," spat Harn. "They were just thrown in, and I've seen enough bones to know they died quick-like. This is somethin' else."
"What's the Maw?" Evie asked, and Felix very nearly bit his tongue off in surprised anger. Stupid mistake. He should have just read it aloud.
Flameborn Scriven Crown Vast Ignition
"Fallacious Assault!"
A wave of pure purple Mana swept outward, hitting all of the spikes but seemingly doing nothing to them. Yet as Atar flinched, each and every one of them missed his team, some landing within a breath of flesh. He glanced at Lilian, who stood panting a short distance away.
"Move, cretin!" She shouted at him, and Atar jumped and launched his remaning Sparkbolts at the Razortail. At the same time, Okar manipulated the stone again and shafts of irresistible force met it at the same time.
You Have Killed a Razortail!
XP Earned!
The yowling sounds of the other four behind him had fallen silent as well, and Atar turned to see Alister, Dabney, and Yvette crouched over a too still form. Yvette was crying and holding the limp and bloody form of Julian. The bone spike he'd caught in the shoulder had hit him at a sharper angle than Atar had realized; he was dead.
"Burning monsters," Atar cursed.
Screams sounded, human screams entirely too close. Okar stood forward, the strongest among their team and beckoned them close. Alister, Dabney, Lilian, and Atar moved in; Yvette pulled herself away after an agonizing second. Okar, tall and barrel chested with a full beard, put a large hand on Yvette's shoulder as she moved in. The slender woman shook it off with a glare.
"Ah...alright, keep your eyes out for the leader. We end them, we can at least make our sacrifices worth it," Okar's eyes didn't quite flick toward Julian's body. "Remember, Domain rules: end the leader, end the wave."
"Rules? Does this place even have rules anymore?" Lilian asked, fear hiding behind her sharp words. "These are not the monsters we were promised, and by the Captain's own admission, this is not the standard terrain of this Domain. What is going on?"
"The lady has a point," Atar agreed. "How can we be sure of anything?"
"Because I said so," Okar snapped, his beard bristling. "Now form up! We move!"
Atar grimaced, sharing the look with Alister and Lilian. Dabney had simply moved ahead, eager to please in his new vanguard position. He was one of two defensive specialists they had left, after all.
"These buffoons are as blind as we are," Lilian whispered as they fell into positions. Alister snorted.
"You want to risk it without them, dear cousin?" He arced a perfectly manicured eyebrow.
Lilian paled, which Atar didn't know was possible considering her light complexion. "N-no, I--"
"Quiet," hissed Yvette from behind. "Damn children."
Lilian's face flushed now, and Atar was right behind her, but Alister grabbed them both by the shoulders and led them forward. "Not the time, you two."
They moved on, walking the battlements of the small fortress and keeping an eye on the swirling death smoke congealing within the courtyard below. The ruins of a central tower barely peeked above the miasma, but Atar could detect no movement aside from the gentle swirl of the smoke. Soon, however, they reached a portion of the battlement that had been roughly used by weather and time. It had partially collapsed into the keep, blocking them from easily traversing the walls. The gap was nearly fifty span wide, Atar guessed. Well out of his range.
"We could jump it," Dabney suggested in his dimwitted voice.
"Not everyone here can. We turn back," Okar snarled, pushing through the Apprentice Tiers with a shove. "Circle around and meet up with the Captain again."
No sooner had those words left his mouth that the air was filled with a high pitched howl. At first one, then four, then dozens, all of them raised in a ululating, almost-Human cry. A pressure descended with those cries, one that pushed Atar and his friends to their knees. Even the Journeymen weren't unaffected, grunting in pain as they barely kept their feet.
"Wh-what is this?" Atar gasped.
The smoke below began to fade slightly as a stream of loping humanoids entered the keep's courtyard. They were a horrifying mish-mash of random features, but all of them were of a theme. Blue-green orbs dotted their oval faces, and rust red scales covered their hulking bodies in broad patches interspersed with sickly-yellow strips of putrid flesh. Atar used Analyze.
Name: Manawarped Revenant
Type: Unknown
Level: 38
HP: ???/???
SP: ????/????
MP: ???/???
Lore: Unknown
Burning lot of good that did, Atar bemoaned. All he knew for certain was that there was no way they'd be able to overcome this many. Not without the rest of their team and even then...Even then, Atar had no confidence that they would survive.
"What a-are they d-doing?" Alister managed, as the pressure had not let up at all. The lot of them were nearly incapacitated simply by these creature's presence.
Forget fighting, Atar thought. If this keeps up, we'll be slaughtered.
The smoke below as clearing as the Revenants moved inward, toward the broken tower at the center. They carried bodies on their backs, corpses mostly, and most of them shuffled toward that tower. There was a guttural screaming of Spawns as dozens of them were shunted out of the smoke and away.
"Pathless forfend," Okar cursed.
Atar could feel the battlements shaking under the tread of three dozen toothy beasts, and he struggled to regain his feet. The Spawn only had one place left to go, and that was straight through them.
