Chapter 281 (Patreon)

Enjoy!

* * *


This is working well, Felix thought as the Reforged and Arcid charged his position. Too well, maybe.

Distantly, he felt dozens and dozens of feet thump across the stone he'd shaped. Once the vibrations faded a bit, Felix flexed his Will and burned yet another chunk of Mana to close up the tunnel before dropping the shaping. Hopefully everyone had made it out.

The problem, however, was that creating and then maintaining the tunnel—even for a short time—ate up a large portion of his Mana. His regeneration was kicking in, but it'd take at least a few minutes to get him back to full, and Felix didn't have that long to wait. It was time to get physical, and as the enormous enemies closed, Felix grinned. He was fine with that.

The world slowed as his Perception and Agility flared. He flipped the Femur of the Envoy from his belt, feeding Essence into it and letting the metallic weapon became a six foot war club more like a Japanese tetsubo than a mace. The Mana of the earth and air sang to Felix as he pushed down, and then burst into inevitable, unstoppable motion.

You Have Killed A Reforged!

XP Earned!

The first sweep of the war club took a Reforged in the jaw, knocking it's head back and into the path of his ally's axe. The icy-forged blade chewed through the warrior's neck like the sharpest of blades, foiled on its path toward Felix's heart.

Felix leaped up and over the living Reforged's strike, using his recovering Mana to form a single Cloudstep that he rebounded against. Twisting about, Felix hooked the length of the Femur across the brute's neck and let his weight drop. For all their size, Felix was almost as heavy as they were, and its eyes bugged as it found itself pulled backwards and off-balance by the Unbound's dropping mass. His feet his the ground just as the Reforged's back did, and with a powerful, straining twist he snapped the bastard's neck.

You Have Killed A Reforged!

XP Earned!

More came, brandishing clubs of their own, and all of them spitting in fury. Their Spirits were a painful, chaotic noise that Felix had to actively block out. He couldn't afford the distraction, because while the Reforged themselves were no match for his Strength and Agility, they weren't alone.

"Molten Chasm!"

Orange Mana surged, more liquid than vapor, and the ground beneath Felix's feet opened up into a yawning rift, the bedrock flash melted into a roiling pond of magma. Two Reforged tumbled in, too intent on killing Felix than paying attention to their footing. Felix unspooled shadow from his core, taking a bite out of his recovering Mana to hurl a tendril around a nearby tree. He dropped, swinging down until he was only feet above the savage heat. Superheated air and noxious gases tore apart his lung as he gasped, while simple convection baked his lower half.

"Kill him while he flails!"

Felix shoved his foot into the crumbling rock and kicked off. He soared upward in a parabolic arc, still attached to a tree, and at his highest point he was met with jagged shards of ice. He grunted, his Health taking a beating before his right vambrace light with orange light. A whip of flame snapped outward, wrapping around the outstretched fist of a Reforged, and Felix yanked hard. Without leverage, Felix soared toward the surprised brute, war club held like a jousting lance.

*KRAKK*

The rapid blow took the monster in the gut, doubling them over long enough for Felix to land on solid ground again. With a mighty grunt, Felix grappled the Reforged, Strength to Strength. The creature fought, powerfully strong in its own right, but it could not match the Unbound.

With a roar, Felix hurled the Reforged into the lava pit.

You Have Killed A Reforged!

XP Earned!

"C'mon! Is that all you got?" Felix coughed and worked spit back into his mouth. He could feel his Body fighting off the toxic gases released from the superheated stone. "I've been hit harder by the Wurms!"

Without warning, he was hit by two tons of metal, hurling Felix into the nearest tree. The tree, thick as a redwood, cratered but did not fall.

The Arcid pulled his arms back, his entire body steaming. "You talk too much, Human."

Status Condition: Concussion (Minor)!

"Haven't gotten one of those in a while," Felix gasped to himself. He was starting to get the impression that this Arcid wasn't a pushover. "Hold on," he said, a little louder. "I'll be right there once everything stops swimming."

"No, you will merely die."

The Arcid shot forward, and this time Felix was able to observe his motions. Like an old steam train, the Arcid's legs pumped with mechanical precision and steely power. It was impressive.

Felix supposed he'd given A'zek enough time.

Ravenous Tithe!

As he breathed in, huge swathes of iridescent smoke poured toward him, flooding his channels with crackling potency. Then he burned it.

Sovereign of Flesh!

Unlike many of his other Skills, Sovereign of Flesh relied on Essence, not Mana. His skin burst apart, shifting and hardening to black scales that swept across his entire body. Dark, ebon talons punched from his fingertips, and spikes of bone emerged from his forearms, elbows, and knees. Felix's face twisted and broke, his mouth growing wider to accommodate a bevy of new, huge teeth that pushed out his old ones. Felix screamed.

And jolted forward.

The Arcid didn't react—couldn't react—as his boosted Body kicked off the tree and tore through the air. Felix was at its throat instantly, taloned hands outstretched, and he sunk them deep into the construct's metal chassis. The Arcid howled in surprise and pain, before the force of Felix's impact sent the both of them tumbling down onto the ground.

They hit hard enough to hollow the earth, their combined weight crushing soil and stone as they rolled into a tangle of frantic claws and forged limbs.

"What are you?" the Arcid bellowed into Felix's face, trying unsuccessfully to dislodge his claws. "You aren't Human!"

"Never said I was, Boilerface!" Felix pushed back the Arcid's arms, though it was a struggle. The thing was strong.

Boilerface grappled with Felix, trying to crush him with all his might. "Grm—You cannot hope to face—unf—me in pure physical—gah—combat!"

Felix pushed back, just enough to free up his left hand. "Never said I was!" he repeated.

And slammed his fist through the metal grate of Boilerface's chest.

Holy shit! It was hot in there. The white flame that sparked around the two of them intensified, more of the orange Mana gathering atop the Arcid like a thickening mist. Boilerplate screamed, in anger and pain, as Felix shoved his claws into the maelstrom of fire at his core.

The Song of Absolution is level 68!

"No! I know you!" Boilerplate gasped. He tried and failed to pry Felix off his chest. "Vile Nymean! Pyroclastic Assault! Incendiary Shell!"

The Arcid and everything around them ignited in a storm of white flame. Felix, at its center, was inundated by a column that rose thirty feet into the air and set fire to the lowest branches around them. Brush and grass and stone itself caught, burning and melting in a show of incredible elemental fury. Those Reforged still living were caught up as the blast expanded. They held on for bare seconds before charring to blackened skeletons. Everything went white.

Ravenous Tithe!

Almost blasted away by the force of it, Felix managed to keep himself anchored to the Arcid's vented chest. The maelstrom of white fire surge and swirled, but Felix's Will was not to be denied. The Mana around him was torn apart, rendered into luminescent smoke that poured unceasingly into Felix's channels and core. Essence and Mana rampaged into him and he could feel his eyes burst alight with a sapphire radiance.

"I'll not be...killed...that easily!" Felix growled, and with a mighty lurch he broke from the Arcid's hold. His arm slammed, shoulder-deep into Boilerplate's chest. There was something there, something hard and so hot it began eating Felix's scales.

"No!"

Felix tore it out.


* * *


*KRAKKOOOOOM*

Vess' head snapped up, swiveling toward the sound. "What was that?"

Evie, atop a branch, squinted into the fiery distance. "Something—Get down!"

Vess saw it too, an orange-white brilliance that rushed toward them. She thrust all seven of her spears down into the earth and called out. "To me! Atar!"

The blonde mage shoved his partner into Vess' arms and called up a twisting spellform, Inscribing several quick-sigils into the air with the tip of his blazing finger. It completed, just as Harn snagged him by the collar of his robes and into their bulwark.

White-hot fire washed across them, so hot and fierce that the air became superheated instantly. Atar shouted something, but she couldn't make it out. The spellform he'd constructed flared to life, as orange as the fire outside, and created a bubble around them that deflected the worst of the heat.

Atar screamed as his Mana burned to fuel the shield.

The fire flowed like a river, chewing through trees and the land itself. It was hard to see beyond its intensity, but Vess could make out stone and soil burning up, melting, until only char remained.

Then it was gone.

Atar collapsed to the ground, spent and shaking. Alister crouched over him, lifting his head. "You stupid man, why would you risk that?"

"Fire—would have suffocated us all," Atar said. His voice was thin and ragged. He'd pushed himself hard through their fights, and now this. "Had to..."

Alister just hugged him.

"Evie?" Vess shouted. The world around them was one of blackened earth and swirling embers. The immense trees around them had all been turned into vast torches, and the heat had not abated. It was hard to breath even still, but their Journeyman Bodies could handle it. "Evie!"

Dark wings sent a series of ice spears into the ground around them, and though they began to melt they carried a welcome chill. Vess looked up and saw Evie atop Pit's broad back. She waved.

"Pit says to get out, to the southern tunnel. I can see it," she said, swallowing. "The fire is out of control now. We gotta run."

"Wise," Harn grunted. "Reforged are down, so are the hounds. Pit?"

The tenku screeched, and it was filled with both anger and worry. She knew what he would do even before Evie hopped off his back. By the time the chain-fighter straightened, the chimera had taken off. Flying north.

Toward Felix.


* * *


You Have Gained 3 Levels!

You Are Now Level 55!

The fire raged in the north.

Pit navigated powerful updrafts as the air and fire Mana mixed, spurred along by the destruction of earth and wood and water Mana down below. He felt as if he could fly into the stars, so strongly did the heat push upward, a thrilling idea that he nevertheless ignored.

Pit was searching.

His Companion was down there, hurt but alive. He could feel it.

But where?

A basin of black, acrid smoke and bubbling rock appeared below. It roiled, churned by the advent of whatever spell had caused that firestorm, and seemed just on the edge of spilling out over the land. Then, as Pit circled in the air, he saw the lava cool and calm as fiery orange Mana was pulled from it.

Felix!

Pit dropped, down into the bitter smoke and still-burning trees, until he could lay eyes on a half-burned man with brightly glowing eyes. Dozens of streams of Mana and Essence were funneling into him as Felix laid claim to the dead. The streams finished in time for Pit's landing atop the hot earth.

"Pit? What are you doing here? Are the other's okay?" Felix asked.

Pit nodded and sent a series of sense images. Their friends, all heading south. To the tunnel. Felix seemed relieved.

"Good. And everyone in the Arcid's party is dead," Felix looked around. "Best as I can tell. I just hope A'zek got out with the last of the Henaari."

Pit chirruped in agreement before extending a wing toward his Companion. Felix nodded, and made to climb onto his back, but froze half-way.

"Really," he said, and his Spirit spiked in surprise. The Unbound turned back toward a lumpy section of the ground, what Pit had taken for a series of burnt rocks. It was the Arcid, shattered and half-melted. "Huh."

Without asking, Felix shared the notification he was reading.

You Have Gained A Memory From Your Enemy!
Do You Wish To View Or Save?

Pit tilted his head, not quite understanding. He recalled the Memories Felix had gathered in the past, though their bond had never been strong enough to include him on those jaunts. What made this different?

"Never been able to save a Memory before," Felix explained. "That's handy. We'll have to check it out when we get outta here."

He climbed atop Pit's back, settling into the  saddle.

"Let's ride."


* * *


Their flight was short and uneventful, much to Felix's relief. That battle hadn't gone exactly as he had planned, especially not the part at the end. The Arcid had released far more Mana than Felix could absorb, and not even his Crescian Blade could cut it all apart. Now, as they two of them flew over the burning remains of the valley, Felix regretted it.

I should have taken the fight right to Boilerplate. The Reforged weren't the real threat, after all. I wasted too much time on them.

If he had gone for the Arcid's throat, maybe the ancient ruins below him would have survived. He looked down. The valley had become a lake of fire and smoke. Boilerplate's white-hot fire had cooled to a still-excruciating yellow-orange as it combusted everything it could. The tower and tree at the center of it all were little more than a faint suggestion of carbonized rock.

Annoyed at himself and the Archon, Felix turned his attention instead to his notifications.

You Have Gained 2 Levels!
You Are Now Level 51!
You Gain:
+2 to PER! +2 to VIT! +4 to END! +3 to INT! +6 to WIL! +6 to AGL! +7 to DEX!
You Have 10 Unused Stat Points!

Hell yeah. Finally. His vision flickered again, and another window appeared, this one bordered in golden filigree. What's this?

Authority Recognized Inheritor!
For Defending This Holding, You May Lay Claim To The City Of Naevis!
Do You Wish To Establish Your Authority?
Y/N