Unbound

Chapter Twenty Nine - 029

Vessilia Dayne was not having the greatest of days.

Battered and bruised, the pain woke her more than anything else. She lacked the Pain Resistance Skill and she regretted it dearly. Agony lanced across her limbs and lower back where the giant had smashed her against the ice. She blinked blearily at the half fallen roof, covered in bits of ice and green vines as if winter and spring were fighting one another. Her mind felt muddled, and she saw two blinking icons in her vision:

Status Condition: Concussion (Mild)

Status Condition: Injured (Minor)

Slowly leveraging herself into a sitting position, Vess let out a hiss as her back tweaked and sent more flashes of pain out to her legs and made her fingers tingle.

That is not good, she managed through it all. Minor means sprain or bruising usually, so perchance not as bad as I--

Her inner dialogue died as her eyes finally adjusted to the gloomy interior. Standing only two feet from her was a shadowy presence with two sets of eyes, each burning gold with a fiendish fury, and clawed appendages stretched out to either side, dark and fuzzy like the fog that it lived within.

"Chimera!"

Dragoon's Footwork!

Dragoon's Footwork is level 26!

Vess flowed like quicksilver, her body moving almost without conscious thought and she was suddenly ten feet away and upon her feet. Instinctively, she reached out to grab her spear but found nothing but empty air.

Damn! The giant! That monstrous foe had disarmed her during their initial melee. She grabbed at her waist and pulled a small dagger from her belt sheath, wincing as pain shot through her back. This will have to do.

She advanced on the chimera, who had oriented on her remarkably quickly. Its Perception must be sky high to notice my movements through this blasted fog. Even now the ever present mist had begun rolling into the ruin's darkened interior. The fiend blinked owlishly at her, tilting its head curiously before snarling and dropping low. The two of them circled one another, giving Vess a chance to really look at this beast.

The chimera had four legs that looked like they belonged to a small wolf, a bushy tail, and two clawed appendages on its back. The claws spread out like gnarled wings, quivering with each step. It was hideous, it's hide rippling and twisted like all the chimeric beasts she'd encountered, the edges of its form fuzzing off into the fog itself.

Each step was painful, a jolt of discomfort that was growing into an almighty blaze of agony in her back. Vess swallowed and eyed the collapsed wall in her peripherals. If I can outsmart it...

Vess activated Dragoon's Footwork again, this time in a feint toward the left before spinning to the right and diving out of the ruined building. The chimera fell for it, it's remarkably fast reflexes still not enough for her advanced movement technique.

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Thank you, Mother...

Vess landed on an uneven stone thoroughfare, nearly identical to the one her team had followed. Perhaps they were close. She heard the sound of fighting nearby, including the unmistakable sound of a giant's pained roar. Quick as a blink she took off toward the sound.

Behind her she heard frantic scrabbling in the ruins as the chimera gave chase.

Night! She cursed, not wasting time looking back, just focusing on rounding the corner of the building ahead. The street was covered in ice, thickening as she went, but more disconcerting was the increasing amount of shattered walls she was seeing. Vess passed four broken walls, newly destroyed to her eye, and through the fifth she saw a massive cloud of grey blue dust. It was distinct from the ever-present fog, instead rising up in a large plume amid a mountain of stone fragments and ice chunks. The great, terrible sound of ice shearing away from masonry filled the square, and Vess could see a number of broken walls all around the area; whoever was fighting was demolishing this entire area. In her mind, only one person could have done this.

"Lady Aren!" Vess called, before trying to bite back her words. The last thing she needed was to draw the attention of whatever monster made this happen, nor distract her mentor during such a battle.

Then the fog shifted, and the plume of dust and ice settled to reveal a human man step out. Much to Vess' surprise, it was not Harn or even the pompous Atar. No, it was a stranger with pale skin, dark hair, and absolutely shredded clothing. His tunic had perhaps once been beige, but was now a dark grey-brown and largely useless as a covering; the sleeves were torn off and several huge rents in the fabric exposed entirely too much trim flesh only held together by the strap of some sort of satchel. Vess felt herself blush. His pants seemed to be leather and more or less intact, save for the bottom of the legs which had been eaten away by something and were a tattered mess. Simple boots covered his feet, wet and coated in patches of frost. Wounds covered the man's arms, and blood stained much of his torn clothing, but he did not seem to care. Instead, the man stepped forward and quickly oriented on a point in the fog to his right. Vess saw nothing at first, but then a silhouette emerged from the fog.

It was huge and heavily built, much as the ones her team had faced, its skin blue and body covered in dark metal armor. It even had the same five foot metal club slung behind its back. The key difference, however, was that this giant looked to be in rough shape. Its armor was dented and busted in several places, and a number of angry patches on its arms and face were bubbling and leaking a dark blue blood that plopped heavily to the ground.

"C'mon you lazy piece of shit!" The man's face split in a wide smile despite his injuries. "Let's go!"

The giant roared, its own face lit up in a predatory grin. Then it charged, exploding across the ground so fast that Vess could not quite track its movements. Just like the bastard that had captured her, this one was unbelievably powerful, and Vess found herself wincing in anticipation. The giant was too strong, too fast, too much to overcome. A great boom sounded out, rattling loose stones at her feet and sweeping away the fog for a few instants. Vess blinked against the wind, and found herself looking at an unexpected sight.

The man was alive.

And he was...winning?

The dark-haired man ducked beneath the giant's heavy swings, each strong and fast enough to blow back any debris that was around them. Small pebbles and stones scattered with each haymaker, the giant's attacks growing increasingly fast and complicated as it fought. But, somehow, its opponent dodged around nearly every attack as if he were dealing with an unruly child.

How is he doing this...?

Vess was confounded. The man was faster than any Tin she knew, but he did not fight like an Iron Rank, he was too wild and uncontrolled. In fact, he moved unlike anyone she'd ever seen. Were there other Guilders out here?

"Vakta rok est!" The giant cried out in its guttural language, swinging its massive fist around in a sweeping cross-strike.

Vess watched as the giant landed the hit, flipping the man backwards in a sideways spiral. He flew backwards ten feet, twisting his own body so that he landed on his two feet even as he continued sliding for another five. Vess gasped and raised her hands to her mouth. That would have shattered all of the bones in my shoulder, I have to--

"Fuck that hurt!" The man laughed, rolling his injured shoulder in its socket as if loosening it up. "Notched up my Resistance again though, and a few other things," he cracked his neck and started charging back in. "You'll have to do better than that!"

He's insane, Vess decided. Why else would he fight with his fists? He's even got a sword! Use your sword, fool!

But the man ignored her silent advice, and the two combatants charged at one another again. In a blink, the giant was on top of the man, slamming a massive metal club onto the ground before it. It shattered the earth, digging a crater nearly ten feet wide and a foot deep into the square. But the mad warrior was no longer before it.

He had slid between the giant's legs, holding onto some strange length of stretchy black material. The material was somehow wrapped around the giant's ankles, and as the warrior finished his slide he braced and yanked backwards. The giant stumbled, just barely, causing it to rip through the strange whip with pure brute strength.

I have to get in there. I have to do something.

Yet before Vess could muster an idea for aid, the man did something else completely unexpected. He raised his right hand, palm out, and shouted.

"Reign of Vellus!"

A brilliant surge of lightning blasted up around the blue-skinned giant, arcing up from the ground itself. The monster, still unsteady on its feet, suddenly slammed backward onto the ground almost as if the lightning yanked him down. Stone and ice shattered again, the crater this creature had made now oblonged by its own fall. The giant's metal club soared into the air, propelled by the creature's flailing arm, but it stopped midflight. Vess blinked, unable to trust her eyes, because then the club reversed direction and slammed directly onto the chest and throat of its former owner.

The giant screamed, blue blood spitting from it's open mouth and drenching it's white beard. Yet the metal club, surrounded by small arcs of lightning, lifted up into the air again and into the waiting arms of the dark-haired man.

"You're not the monster here," Vess heard him mutter, his voice ringing as if he had shouted. With a grunt, he hefted the heavy club up onto his shoulder and gripped it with two hands. The giant below him unsuccessfully tried to suck in a breath, flailing it's limbs uselessly.

"I am."

He swung the club down, directly onto the giant's unprotected head.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Thick blue blood splashed outward, and the giant went absolutely still.

Blind gods, Vess held her hand up to her mouth, horrified.

The man dropped the club, the heavy weapon not even bouncing as it hit the stone with an earth shaking thud. He turned directly toward Vess, orienting on her as if he knew she had been there all along. Vess froze. This man...his eyes burned with blue light.

"Oh, huh," he said, smiling. "You're awake."

Then the chimera was on her.

They were losing.

Magda watched Evie tumble across the ice, her body sliding just enough to stay ahead of the giant's powerful blows, and opposite her Atar flung bolts of fire repeatedly at their shared enemy. They fought valiantly and not without skill, but it wasn't working. The giant shrugged off Evie's spiked chain, even when she altered its weight; and while Atar's flames were painful for the blue-skinned behemoths, they appeared to do very little damage.

Magda growled as Harn tanked a strike from yet another giant, this one having just appeared as reinforcement only moments ago. The man's armor shimmered and appeared to thicken just moments before the hit landed, and Harn was only tossed back a few feet before he recovered. The warrior stayed true to his nickname as he raised his twin axes and charged back into the fray.

BANG!

A massive concussion sounded above her and Magda quickly took her eyes from the fights around her. Two giants assaulted her position, one larger than the other. The furthest away and larger of the two was a massive specimen wearing the same crude armor as the rest, but wielding a massive double-headed axe that appeared to be made entirely from ice. Luckily this one seemed content to let his lesser brethren take the brunt of the assault, only occasionally taking swipes at her Force Wall. The closest was the bastard who had been heavily wounded by Vessilia, the same one who had knocked her out and ran off. Now he had returned with a second giant in tow...and the girl was nowhere to be seen.

Girl you better not be dead, she threatened. The wounded giant reared back with its stolen spear, and Magda knew the shield couldn't handle much more abuse. So she did what she had been trained to do: be unexpected.

Just as the giant's spear would have connected, Magda dropped the Skill and hurled a massive boulder up at the monster. The rock, heavy as it was, flew through the air deceptively slowly, and while the giant staggered from the lack of resistance it had no time to dodge it. The boulder hit the giant square in the chest.

Stone Break!

The boulder shimmered with an amber colored energy and exploded. Thousands of razor sharp pieces scattered in all directions, piercing the giant and throwing it stumbling back. Magda raised her own kite shields up, blocking the majority of the shrapnel from herself. The rest of her allies were far enough away that it wasn't a true danger. The wounded giant, the bastard who took her trainee, he was bent over, unable to fully stand up as a thick blue blood poured from its chest. Its stolen spear fell to the ground with a clatter.

"Had enough?" The giant snapped its eyes up at her taunt, it's wide eyes frenzied and wild. It stood up with significant effort, and Magda saw the results of her attack. Its crude iron armor breastplate had been utterly shredded, the metal pierced by innumerable shards of stone. It roared, loud enough to shake the air, and then bull-rushed the Shieldwitch.

But Magda trained every day with Harn Kastos, who was not only quite proficient in Unarmed combat, but could alter his armor's weight. With a practiced motion, she met the giant by grabbing hold of its upper arms, and with a twist of her own shoulders, she sent the blue brute into the dirt. The monster hit, sending a cascade of ice and dirt fountaining into the air, even as Magda staggered under the creature's immense weight.

Twins' teeth! The thing was heavy. Are their bones made of metal?!

The giant swung an elbow backwards at her, catching her squarely in the chest. Magda was thrown several feet, and a sudden shortness of breath meant it had dented her breastplate. With a grunt of effort, she swung her arm forward, casting the leading edge of her kite shield at the creature's elbow. Even from this distance, her expanded shield hit easily, and the giant howled in pain as she penetrated nearly three inches into the joint.

The giant thrashed, it's body twisting on itself as it tried to simultaneously cradle it's injury and lash out. Magda blocked the haphazard strikes even as she threw up another Force Wall around them both. Straddling their back, she crouched over the eight-foot tall giant and grabbed the stone directly next to their face. Leaning toward their ear she whispered, "Die screaming."

Then she exploded the stone beneath it.

Stone Break!

The cowering giant suddenly hopped and stuttered, arms and legs flailing as the ground beneath it shattered into thousands of projectiles. Barely protected by the flesh of the giant, Magda rode through the explosion like a boat on a stormy sea, holding her kite shields tight beneath her. It's screams of agony were quickly swallowed by the deluge of stone, until everything went still.

You Have Defeated A Risi Warrior!

You Have Gained XP!

"No," Magda gasped. She hadn't been sure.... "Harn! They're Risi Warriors!"

"What!" Harn kicked his opponent away, buying himself a few seconds. "They're supposed to be in the Hoarfrost!"

"The Hoarfrost!?" Atar's voice cracked, strain evident in his bearing as he sent bolt after bolt of fire at the giant attacking Evie. "That's weeks away! Why are they here!?"

"Stop talking! Just keep casting!" Evie growled as she backflipped off the chest of her target, throwing a small dagger at its blue face. The giant snarled and knocked it away with a fist, but was too distracted to defend from the flurry of sparkbolts that lit up its backside. It roared in pain, the off-white fur at its waist finally starting to catch fire. "It's working! Keep it up!"

Atar groaned, obviously pushing the edge of his reserves. He called up another sparkbolt, chantlessly as he had been doing the whole fight. Magda was impressed, to be honest. Maybe the kid wasn't useless.

Then she saw it. Looming out of the fog, the leader of these Risi suddenly leaped toward Atar, ice axe raised above its head. A purple white radiance bloomed from the weapon, dropping the temperature instantly.

"Atar! Move!" Magda cried out and started running. But she was too far away.

Atar looked up, face pale and body freezing as a sudden frost crept up the boy's legs and locked him into place. The massive giant came down, its axe leading the way.

"No!" Magda couldn't accept this...she could make it!

Then a metal club spun out of the fog-filled darkness, smashing into the ice at the boy's feet and sending him stumbling backward. The giant leader's axe smashed into the stone where he had been standing, only barely catching the young mage. Atar fell, blood trailing in his wake as he collapsed onto the ground fifteen feet away. Magda made it to him moments later, recasting Force Wall around them both as she rifled through her pack.

The giant snarled as it stood up, glancing from the metal club to the swirling fog in the near distance. The sound of rubble falling echoed across the area, and a sudden breeze thinned the fog as a man stepped out onto the crumbling edge of a structure. His features were hard to make out at this distance but he was bloody and torn, his clothes barely holding together, and one of his arms was extended.

Then a second figure stepped up beside him.

"Vess!?" Evie joyfully cried out.