Aster Fall 54: Five Auras (Patreon)

With the force of the relic’s energy driving the enchantment, the Pure Water Elemental Crystal began to resonate. Despite its rarity, it only had one purpose, which was to create water, and that was the exact thing Sam was counting on. All around it, the aura enchantment he’d created hummed with power.

The water gushed out of the crystal in a bubbling stream. Each aura was like a lens refracting sunlight and the water began to change as it took on new properties. Five pillars of sparkling, multi-hued water formed beside the crystal.

The Ice Sylphs had stopped one war beast, but across the field, the other three thundered toward the church forces. They were only seconds away from striking the thin line of Paladins and his father. With their mass, they would crush them.

“Stand behind me!” The Paladin Commander’s words echoed out across the field as she drew her sword. It was a long, two-handed blade with a thin, ruby line running across the surface, as if the metal had absorbed a line of blood.

The blade spun in her hands as phantom images of shattered swords appeared all around her. They were an echo of the battles she had fought and won, summoned up by the spiritual energy she was infusing into her weapon.

Unfortunately, there was nowhere for Jeric or Lenei to retreat to. The war beasts were approaching too quickly to flee, so all they could do was take up a position to the commander’s side as they activated their own abilities.

Lenei’s face was grim as she raised her shield and spear. Jeric’s head turned to look toward Sam and he drew in a deep breath as his hammers spun. All around him, an echoing basso drumbeat of clashing stones reverberated in the air, until it felt as if everything in the area would be shaken apart.

The other two captains also shone with intense abilities as they flowed into a battle stance and prepared to face the beasts. Their postures reminded him of Lenei’s attacks, but they were far more adept. Blades of shimmering white light and a sphere of crackling, white runes surrounded them.

The war beasts were nearly forty feet tall and almost as wide. They were also covered in a cloak of roaring monsters. The pressure that they brought with them was like a mountain collapsing. They covered the distance across the field in an instant as each step sent snow exploding upward, and they crashed into the Paladins' line like boulders striking a blade of grass.

The runic shields surrounding the Paladins bent like willow branches, streaming backward as they warped out of all recognition. A moment later, they shattered. The three captains sustaining them were at the First Evolution, but they still went flying, their faces pale as blood bubbled out of their mouths.

Jeric and Lenei had jumped, trying to dodge the impact, but the beasts were so large that dodging was impossible. They were both caught up in the edge of a shield as it shattered. Picked up by the force, they were flung across the field. They went spinning through the air wildly and slammed into the ground a hundred feet away, in front of the church lines.

It wasn’t clear if they were alive or dead.

The monsters on the backs of the war beasts roared, their voices combining into a vicious tumult as they trumpeted their bloodlust to everything around. Their fangs were bared as they looked toward the church lines, ready to jump off and slaughter everything within reach.

The war beasts were slowed a little by the captains’ blockade, but they weren’t stopped. Even as the shields dissipated, they continued to charge, building new momentum as they headed for church forces.

Directly in their path, Jeric and Lenei lay buried in the snow. There was no movement. If the beasts reached them, they didn’t stand a chance. They would crush them against the stones of the ruins.

At that moment, there was a shudder in the snow where Jeric had fallen, and then a hand appeared. It was shaky, but it was moving. He grasped at the snow as it slowly lifted him up. He climbed to his feet as he looked at the oncoming war beasts. His skin was pale, covered in streaks of blood and dust, and he only had one hammer in his hand, but he was standing.

Sam’s attention locked on him. Fury and fear poured through his veins like liquid mercury, even as an icy cold logic kept him moving. His senses flowed out across the battlefield, riding along the lines of energy from the relic.

“First Aura...Go!”

He focused his essence along a transfer line that was between his father and the war beasts as he touched one of the aura pillars next to the crystal. The aura disappeared as it was transported along the relic’s energy lines.

An instant later, a ripple of flowing water sprang upward from the stones below the snow, rising swiftly into a shining, translucent curtain that was as tall as the Outsider War Beasts. The light of the three moons reflected through it, sending a burst of rainbow light and a spray of ten thousand water droplets across the field.

Almost at the same moment, there was a soft chime in the air as swirls of silver energy flowed upward, blending into the water. With a sharp flicker that rippled across the curtain, the water droplets instantly froze to ice, scattering across the field like frozen rain.

If Sam had been using his essence, he never would have been able to drive so much force. It was the relic’s energy powering this enchantment. He’d just created the focus for it to follow.

The curtain rippled as its color changed from cerulean blue to a bright blue-white that was tinged with silver.

CraaAAAcckk!

There was a moment frozen in time as a massive crash of ice resonated across the area, as loud as a glacier rupturing. Every eye turned toward the wall of ice as cracks shivered across its surface like a shattered mirror.

Then a thousand swirling blades of frozen ice exploded outward, slicing through the air toward the war beasts. Each of them was fifteen feet across and half a dozen feet from front to back.

The beasts were covered in monsters and the ice blades sliced through them like swords through smoke. Every monster riding on the front of half of the war beasts was torn to pieces, chunks of their limbs and heads flying in all directions.

Then the blades struck the armored hide, tearing through them in a vengeance as scales and dark blood went flying. The beasts were so large that even the wall of blades looked normal in comparison, so they didn’t die instantly, but as the blades shattered and disappeared, the beasts were left in a miserable state.

Their tusks were shattered to stumps, their bodies were lacerated from face to stomach, and their muscles were torn to ribbons. Their scales had been ripped apart, revealing the pale skin beneath, and blood poured out of them like a fountain.

The wall of blades had only extended for about half of their body length, so the monsters farther back had survived, but the war beasts’ momentum had halted.

Stunned silence spread across the battlefield as the wall of ice shattered with another enormous crack, but it didn’t last for long. The war beasts had nearly reached the church forces and the monsters outside the range of the blades were still healthy.

The church didn’t know where the help had come from, but it took only a moment for the Paladin Commander to rally her forces. Her face was pale and she was holding her blade in a single hand, but her voice was calm.

“Attack!” Her command echoed out across the field as she directed the church forces toward the horde of monsters that was still alive. They also needed to finish off the wounded war beasts.

Jeric was instantly absorbed into the line of the church forces as they rushed forward, their weapons drawn.

Sam let out a slow breath of air as a flare of intense pain radiated through his meridians. He’d only served as a focus for the enchantment, but his essence was completely drained and it felt like his head was three sizes too small. He grabbed a handful of Advanced auras from his storage, combusting them one after the other as he took deep breaths.

The wall was based on the Aura of Frozen Blades from the Coldfang Beheaders. The water crystal had once summoned an entire lake of water for the inhabitants of the relic, which meant it was able to pull a massive amount of energy at once. He’d pulled it out of the pillar for that exact purpose.

When that much water hit the energy lines of the relic, which were attuned to elemental Ice...it only needed a little bit more focus to harness the collision into a deadly enchantment.

The downside was that he could only do it once for each aura he’d prepared and it still took all of his essence to focus it. One after another, he combusted the auras as he refilled his essence and searched for the next place to help.

Down below, his father was looking less pale now as he fought beside the church warriors. His hammer blurred in one hand as he held a shield in the other. All around him, the priests and church warriors were slaughtering the monsters, while the three captains focused their attacks on the war beasts.

To the far side, the Ice Sylphs were finishing off the fourth war beast that they had trapped, including the monsters that had been hanging onto it. It had taken them some time to break through the armored scales, but with six of them working together, they had managed.

“Humans! Know your place as slaves!” Across the field, a great roar went up as a large figure among the Iceblood Shamans rose to his feet.

Until now, he had been sitting at the back of the group, very close to the flaw. All around him, bone talismans were floating in the air. Unlike the other Iceblood Shamans, this one had spidery, red swirls running across his blue skin and he was nearly a foot taller.

Iceblood Shaman. Level 98.

That had to be their leader. He wasn’t at the First Evolution, but he was close.

“You are ants on a broken world! Whatever force is helping you from the shadows, let's see if they can handle this!”

The shaman flung his arms to the side as he reached toward the Grand Flaw behind him. Somehow, his hands were coated in dark flames that mimicked the ring of fire around the sphere. The energy in the sphere turned fluid, expanding and contracting in waves as he pulled a boulder-sized mass from it.

“Do you know how so many portals appeared in this area?” he shouted as he raised the mass above his head. “This portal is the culmination of my people’s efforts over a hundred years! The power to control it is tied to my bloodline.

“With another year to fully infuse myself with this world’s essence and the blood of Aster Fall’s inhabitants, I would have been able to Evolve perfectly. I would have been the first Iceblood in countless years to truly hold command over Blood and Ice!

“No one since our ancestor, the True God of Blood himself, has done such a thing!” The Iceblood was raging as he shaped the mass of energy between his hands. The words poured out of him in a violent torrent.

“I will crush you and drain your blood to complete the transformation!”

At that instant, a commanding roar shook the heavens as wide, translucent wings surged into view, scattering moonlight across the field. Elsanar’s body was nearly invisible against the dark sky as he dived.

The ice drake had heard enough from this mouthy Outsider who dared to invade his territory!

His mouth opened as a glowing sphere of translucent white ice appeared in it. The edges of the sphere were white and the center was sapphire blue. Tendrils of Ice mana darted all around it like minnows in a stream.

It was far more powerful than the bolts of ice that he had used against the wyverns. Clearly, Elsanar had no wish to hear anything more from this Iceblood, and he wasn’t hesitating to eliminate the threat.

As Elsanar approached the Iceblood, the sphere blasted out his jaws like a bolt of lightning in a clear night sky. It was even larger than the shaman himself and as it approached, its shadow fell over him, obscuring him from the light of the moons.

The shaman looked up at the descending meteor, his eyes narrowing. He had been planning to use the energy from the flaw against the church, but now he shifted his stance. His movements were swift as he raised the mass of darkness above his head. With quick words and gestures, he shaped it to a new purpose and threw it upward into the sky.

A spear shaped from spatial ripples and burning shadows flew upward, heading for the ice sphere. Force radiated from its edges as it tore through reality. It didn’t seem as if it were flying so much as ripping apart the space in front of it.

When the spear struck the sphere, the ice exploded outwards in a crackle of freezing force, turning into an ice storm with whipping winds that were strong enough to tear apart any monster under Level 100, but the spear tore straight through the gathered energy like an arrow through a sheaf of wheat.

When it exited the other side, it had dimmed slightly, but the spatial ripples were still protecting it. It continued on its path like a bolt of black lightning as it headed straight for Elsanar. Although the drake was stronger than the shaman alone, the spear was formed from the Grand Flaw and borrowed its power.

The drake flared his wings, angling his dive to the side as he tried to avoid the spear, but he only managed to get partially out of the way. The spear tore through his right side in an explosion of white scales and left a gaping rent in his wing.

Drops of crystalline blood like liquid ice fell toward the ground. Elsanar’s dive was interrupted as he spiraled out of control, and an angry roar tore out of his mouth.

He might have been able to pull himself up from the dive and lessen the force of his landing, but he refused. Instead, his mouth opened as another ice sphere formed. It was slightly smaller than the other, but it was surrounded by burning white flames that were blazingly cold.

To form it so quickly, he hadn’t just drawn on his mana. He’d infused part of his spirit into it. It made it stronger, but it also meant that there was no way he could spare the energy to protect himself from the crash.

The ice drake spat out the sphere as soon as it was formed. It blasted out of his mouth on the tail of his roar, growing in size as it shot toward the ground below. This time, he was so close to the ground that the shaman didn’t have time to block the attack, but he had also been knocked away from his original path.

The ice sphere exploded among the gathered Outsiders and monsters a hundred feet away from the Grand Flaw, instantly covering the area in a frozen storm. The energy was so intense that everything inside turned to brittle ice in a moment.

When the force of the blast hit the ground, it rebounded upward, turning into a wave that ripped back through the area, shattering everything it had just touched. Monsters and Outsiders exploded to dust in an instant, their bodies disintegrating.

In the sky above, the drake tumbled out of control. He had given his all to attack the Outsiders, but now he didn’t have time to moderate his fall. His one good wing flared as he tried to correct his path, but it was futile. He was sent into an uncontrolled spin as he headed for the ground.

If he hit the ground like that, the impact with the unforgiving stones of the ruins would be disastrous. If it didn’t kill him directly, it would shatter bones throughout his body and leave him crippled.

Far across the field, Sam was already moving. He hadn’t known Elsanar for long, but the drake had saved his life when they met. The impression he gave off was a pure strength of spirit and a commanding nobility that refused to accept any threat to his world.

“Go!”

A resonant chime from the relic rose up as an aura pillar disappeared from its place beside the water crystal. Sam had just regained his essence and now he poured it out again as he reached out to the ruins. The drake was falling swiftly, and it only took him an instant to find the area where he would land.

Of the five auras he’d infused, only two of them were at the Expert level. Now, he used one of them. The pillar that had just disappeared was a column of twisting, transparent force, as if it held a tornado inside.

It was the Aura of Twisting Wind from the Windscar Stalkers. It was also the only one of the set he’d prepared that might be able to help Elsanar.

As soon as the aura disappeared, it flared along the relic’s lines and appeared half a mile away, directly below the drake. A wave of water a hundred feet wide flared upward from the stones, curving as it followed the silver lines. As it rose, it began to twist like a hurricane, spinning as it turned into a giant, rotating disk.

As Elsanar fell, the wave twisting around him in sparkling currents as it halted his fall. There was no way to avoid some impact, and the water struck him with the force of an avalanche, but it was constantly flowing.  As soon as it absorbed the force, it shuttled it away again, spinning the drake into a roll.

Gradually, the impact of his fall was absorbed and the wave retreated toward the ground, leaving Elsanar lying on top of the snow.

Crystalline blood still covered his side and his broken wing was stretched outward at a jagged angle, unable to be retracted, but he was alive. He was also half a mile from the battle, out of range of the Outsiders’ attacks.

Sam let out a gasp as he pulled his awareness back to his body and drew in a shuddering breath of air. Catching Elsanar hadn’t used as much of his essence as the last attack, but it had still taken about three quarters. He grabbed auras out of his storage and started combusting them, ignoring their type and quantity.

The upgrade to Combust Aura was making him more efficient in harnessing the auras’ energy, letting him combust more of them, but that was all. The Advanced ones were still giving him 30 essence. He hadn’t had time to charge up more than a couple of Expert auras, but those were worth 40.

He was burning Advanced auras primarily, which meant it took him almost seven to refill his essence. With this handful, he had already combusted a dozen. He wasn’t sure how many more he would be able to use.

Three aura pillars were left beside the water crystal as he turned his attention back to the battle. His expression was growing colder by the instant.

He didn’t know what this Outsider Shaman was doing with the Grand Flaw, but he had to stop him.