Chương 66: 14 Inksprings

Half mana. What a great way to start a fight. The broken village gates lay flat on the cobblestones. Six Ghouls twisted toward me as I cleared the treeline, bringing their Pyrecoils to their shoulders.

"Who goes!" one hissed, voice strained and raspy. Interesting, I hadn't realized they could speak. Needles scuttled across the top of the palisade behind them, unseen. My hands fanned out to either side, each gripping a Hook-and-Line sickle.

"Paradise!" I said. The Ghoul in the front raised its rifle. A trajectory shaft arched, lining up with it. One of Serevian's black-shafted arrows snapped past my ear. The Ghoul staggered, its rifle clattering to the ground. My stride never faltered; I pressed on, maintaining an even cadence.

"Intruder!" another one hissed. Three arrows snapped past, sinking into and dropping Ghouls. The remaining two staggered back. One trained its Pyrecoil on me. My shoulder angled, dropping just below its trajectory shaft. The rifle roared, bullet snapping harmlessly past. At the gunshot's report, a pack of howls and shrieks echoed within the village. A lot of them. One of the Ghouls flinched back, tusked jaw unhinging. I hurled my Hook, my right sickle.

Enchanted steel flashed, spinning end over end before sinking into its thigh. It howled, turning and running. My hand flexed. The Ghoul jerked in place, golden filament tethering it to me. I willed the line to reel in the beast. Leaning back, my boots slid across cobblestones. The Ghoul went down, clawing at the road. The golden string connecting it to me shortened, drawing us together. The other Ghoul fell back, retreating past the gates. My off-hand sickle rose. The thrashing Ghoul twisted.

I struck down, ending its howls. I panted, lungs worked by rage more than fatigue. Needles scuttled back up the wall, away from the explosive charges he had placed. Then the horde came pounding down the street. They surged, a river of fangs and flesh, ripping past each other like starved hounds competing to strip the bone. A few leveled rifles. I dropped low and rolled. Bullets snapped past. Two punched holes in my cloak. Trajectory paths danced after me, and I tumbled away. A dozen Ghouls poured out of the gates.

Needles struck the plunger on a clockwork detonator, trailing wire from his perch on the gate. I shielded my eyes. The bombs Needles had planted detonated, flashing white hot. The ground heaved, and I dropped low, covering my neck. Flame and force shredded meat. The first wave reared, a few howling forms flailing as fire washed through bodies. Corin stepped up to my side, undoing the final button on his shirt. It slid free, exposing corded muscle and a pair of steel hand axes riding a harness on his back.

He unhooked the barbed axes, holding them low. He met my eyes and nodded once. Rifles fired behind us. Ghouls flinched and jerked under the impact of heavy Draconic bolts before falling to the ground. My overwatch team bled from the thicket, packing new shells into their Pyrecoils. Corporal De La Cruz swallowed as he surveyed the Ghoul corpses wide-eyed. More shrieks echoed. The second wave appeared, hurtling down the streets.

"Battle map incoming," Corin said. A new window winked into the corner of my vision, presenting a live bird's-eye view of the village. He and I flashed in blue; yellow outlined our allies. Ourabora's eye. Users were great. Nearly a hundred bestial figures outlined in red pounded towards us. I glanced up, marking the burning gate toward which they funneled. Trajectory shafts lanced towards us. I grabbed Corin's arm and pulled him to the side.

A gunshot flashed, and a heavy round snapped past, riding its trajectory path.

"They're flanking," Corin said. Sure enough, a pack of about twenty detached from the group in the top-down battle map, moving through a side gate to sweep around the long way.

"You get those," I said.

"Take the Marines and Serevian." I pivoted to the side, letting a bullet zip past.

"You've got a lot more," he warned. The snapping and snarling pack tore at the road, nearly at the gate. I shrugged.

"I'm greedy." My right sickle ignited with white light.

"My crew, on me. Sail splitter." Drogo and Othess fell into step behind me.

"That's a lot," Drogo said, fidgeting.

"Plenty to go around." You didn't fight hordes the same way you fought individuals. Packed too tightly, I targeted the densest mass of bodies. I reared and hurled Hook. A spinning arc of light snapped ahead, carving an afterglow track through the air. The empowered blade punched through the Ghouls like a cannonball puncturing sails. Seven flopped to the ground, with another dozen screaming and clutching severed limbs. The sickle impacted a two-story tavern wall, biting deep. The white luminous track faded.

"See you on the other side." I leaped as my golden line wrenched me towards my anchor. Wind whipped past me as I zipped at the mob of Ghouls. My left blade ignited. I braced. A hull splitting waves, a plow tilling dirt—my glowing blade sheared. Bodies burst apart around me. Muscles threatened to tear in my shoulder as I rode past Ghouls, Line's curved blade catching and shearing through bodies. The wind was my mount, and this was a cavalry charge. Pale bodies toppled and flailed.

Howls of hunger shifted to shrieks of pain. They didn't let me tear through them unchallenged; they lunged, biting and raking at me with talons. Most missed, but hot pain flashed down my body as frantic claws ripped at my leathers. I braced and twisted, boots slamming into the building's wall. Wrenching my sickle free, I dropped and turned. I'd carved a channel through the mass that had clogged the street. Wounded Ghouls fled. Others whirled, enraged. My gaze flickered to my mana, and I grimaced. Fifteen left.

A series of explosions blasted the Ghouls at the gate, disorienting and scattering them. Needles continued to prime and hurl clockwork charges. They came for me on all sides, darting from alleys and abandoned doorways. I gritted my teeth. Punching through a mob was one thing; getting surrounded—I was in trouble. I hurled one sickle into empty air, then the next. The enchanted blades cleaved cleanly through the nearest Ghouls. A Ghoul sprang at me from behind.

I jerked one sickle back with a single violent tug and dropped. The gold line flashed and winked away. Line scythed over my head, burying into a Ghoul's neck. I weaved past another Ghoul, putting it between me and Hook. Another pull. The sickles returned, tearing through the Ghoul before me. Bloody handles snapped into my palms. My chest heaved. I stumbled back, more feral bodies pressing to get to me. A trajectory shaft grazed my arm. I jerked back. Too late. A rifle fired, and a numb pressure buzzed my bicep.

No pain—yet. Othess and Drogo stepped past the burning building, taking careful shots. Six Ghouls bounded for them on all fours. I cursed and flung Hook upward. The golden line flashed and snapped tight, ripping me out of the closing pack. I flew to the roof of a house, practically slamming into the chimney. Ghouls flooded below, scrambling to climb the hut's walls. Another throw, and I was zipping down the road towards my men. I scythed a Ghoul as I passed, then jerked my anchor free.

Drogo and Othess fell back as the front of the pack closed on us. Black bolts from Needles' repeating hand crossbow spat into the pale, sickly bodies. Drogo tore his wedge from his sheath and planted it into a Ghoul's collarbone. Falling into line with my men, I attacked. I trained with cutlass and saber. Sickles curved the wrong way, and the blades were far too short for my taste. It didn't matter; they still cut. I lashed out, becoming the point of the spear.

A Ghoul grappled for Othess' rifle, snapping for the Naga-kin's throat. I planted a shoulder into its side. It staggered, and I whipped out a windmill combo. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Another lunged for my back. Drogo's flick knife slammed into its brow. Othess' eyes widened, and he dropped to one knee, sighting and dropping a Ghoul who'd gotten up on the roof behind Needles.

Its body rolled down the roof, landing at my feet just as my opponent toppled to pieces. My chest heaved, sweat and blood dripping down my shirt. My left arm was going numb, strength draining from the bloody pit in my muscle. Heat radiated off my body like a furnace. The horde re-massed, pouring over the corpses of their fallen. Absolute carnage, but our momentum stalled. Nearly thirty Ghouls dead—not even close to enough. More Ghouls flowed into the street, easily replacing their losses. I faltered. Far too many.

What had I been thinking? We were a strike team, specialized operators, not an army. Drogo re-sheathed his wedge and swung his rifle around on its sling. The ground trembled under the charge.

"Orders?" Othess hissed, wide-eyed.

"Apologies for the delay," an irritatingly posh voice said. Corin stopped at my side. Roland, Corporal De La Cruz, and Serevian joined him.

"Jorg!" the young corporal cursed, hands gripping his rifle as nearly a hundred Ghouls poured through the street.

"How about a reprieve?" Corin asked, flicking his hand toward the horde. A cheval de frise—a jagged metal barricade wrapped in razor wire—winked into existence, barring the road thirty meters away. The wave slammed into it, the momentum driving the Ghouls at the front into its steel spikes. My eyes went wide. With one level in User, I could summon things to my hand or at my feet. I'd never seen someone who could expel inventory at that range.

Corin cast his eyes above the jammed mob, and a bladed steel net dropped onto the front of the mass, choking the street.

"Bless your massive inventory!" Roland exclaimed.

"Lamentably, the only thing massive about me," Corin murmured. Needles snickered. A crate lined with vials blinked into existence at his feet.

"Alright, who's due for potions?" he asked casually, as if we were out on a picnic. He plucked a blue and a clear potion from their respective slots.

"Healing and stamina," he said, extending them. I accepted them.

"These aren't Paradise."

"No, they're Submariner. Drink up." The mob of Ghouls shrieked as they thrashed under the net. The razors and hooks fused to the chains bit deep. Corin handed out other potions as well. A Tidebreaker draught for Drogo and Othess, Stormstep Tonic for Needles and Roland. To Corporal De La Cruz, he gave a Pressureborn Potion. Buff notices blinked around them. A Ghoul got around the barrier, and Serevian dropped it with an arrow.

"Got any buffs for me?" I asked, dropping my now-empty vials. The hole in my bicep twitched as muscles began working the bullet free.

"Your stats are already too high," he said.

"They wouldn't have an effect on you. Hopefully, now your men will hit more like us."

"Tex, yeah!" Drogo said, grinning as he flexed a swelling forearm. Links snapped in the chain, and the barrier lurched. My wounds tingled, the unnerving sensation of rapid cellular regeneration.

"Ready?" Corin asked, disconcertingly calm. We turned to the enemy. Pale figures shoved the barrier forward.

"There's a powerful mage with Bianca in the square," Corin announced.

"Then that's where we're going," I said. The mob pushed the barrier aside, and the Ghouls poured around it. Corin glanced up. A bomb, like a cask trailing knobs and pressure gauges, dropped down. It impacted the tightly packed horde. Pressure rocked the street, blasting Ghouls into particles. I winced, the shockwave ripping at my cloak.

"Corin," I said, ears ringing.

"It's good to have you." His lip twitched up. I dropped both sickles. They slid two feet before jolting on spectral tethers. I swung my arms, sending the sickles whirling around me at the ends of their lines. We advanced. Ghouls convulsed and reeled in the dust. Gold filaments snapped out, then reeled back in, trailing hooked steel through flesh. Ghoul corpses winked away from around Corin, stashed in his inventory. He redeployed them a heartbeat later, twenty meters in the air.

Bodies rained down, crushing the Ghouls ahead of us. Our men formed a firing line. Gunshots flashed through the street. Outlying Ghouls jerked and dropped. We pressed forward step by step, leaving a carpet of bodies behind us. A second wave challenged us. Needles hit them with a pair of grenades, and we mopped up the rest. Then they fled, shrieking and abandoning their wounded. My sickles snapped back into my hands, blades dripping black ichor. Othess executed a spasming Ghoul with a point-blank gunshot.

Corin turned, chest heaving.

"Not bad, lads." He flicked black blood off a hand axe. I wasn't looking. My gaze fixed on the top-down map hovering in my vision. In the center, a figure turned his head toward us, a bright red outline marking him. Thashkor. A second figure waited at his side, no longer chained. Glowing orange light outlined Bianca on the terminal map. My grip tightened on the Hook and Line.

"Remember your positions," I said. The team exchanged a final glance before melting into the streets, taking side alleys and lanes to fan around the square.

"Ready?" Corin asked. I nodded. We strode into the plaza. Thashkor turned, lipless teeth grinding.

"You!"

"Me," I said.

"Bianca, are you with us?" Corin called. She bristled at Thashkor's side, talons flexing. A sharp bone crown fused to her skull. Sabertooth fangs jutted from her lip, and her eyes burned orange. A low, canine growl rolled from her throat.

"Release her," I said. Thashkor snickered.

"Something funny?" I asked, lip twitching.

"You couldn't defeat me last time. What makes you think you have a chance?" I kept my voice dead even.

"I wasn't the one who ran away." The Shaman stiffened, dark eyes catching pinpricks of light.

"This time, I have a better Abomination." Bianca stepped forward, Ghoulish forearms swelling.

"Antonio, leave her to me," Corin said.

"Don't hurt her," I murmured.

"I'm afraid I cannot make that promise." His grip tightened on his axes.

"Where's Puppetmaster?" I asked, shifting my attention back to Thashkor.

"Puppetmaster?" he said, leaning on his staff.

"Or the Giant," I said.

"Or the Burrow King. I don't care. Someone—anyone who's actually important?" He stiffened.

"Did they leave here to die in their place?"

"Insolence," Thashkor hissed.

"I'm not the one who dies today."

"Please," I sniffed.

"You won't last one minute." The ghast's shoulders rounded.

"And what makes you so sure about that, Cousin?" He sneered.

"I don't fight fair." I raised a hand and let it fall. Four gunshots flashed from roofs around the square. A black arrow and a short bolt followed. Flapping disks of skin winked into existence around the shaman, intercepting the projectiles and turning them to dust. Bianca snarled and lunged.

"Go!" Corin barked, moving to intercept her. I hurled Hook. A flesh disk warped into being to catch the sickle. The enchanted blade split it down the middle, continuing along its trajectory path unimpeded. Thashkor's eyes widened. He threw himself aside, the blade licking his arm as it embedded into the long-dried fountain behind him. My hand flexed. I shot across the air at him. Thashkor turned his attention to me, raising a hand. Three black arrows snapped at him in rapid succession.

He caught two on flapping disks of skin. The third one buried into his thigh. He cackled, turning towards me. My free sickle cut the air less than an inch from his throat. I zipped past, landing sideways onto the fountain's masonry. Several meters away, Bianca snarled and snapped, lunging for Corin. He conjured the doorway with the sticky web. She crashed into it, snarling with rage as the adhesive took. Focusing on my opponent, I hurled Line across the plaza.

It impacted the roof where Othess was lining up his second shot. Rifles flashed. Bullets disintegrated as Thashkor conjured fleshy disks. Needles' bolt got through, hitting the ghast in the shoulder blade. The Ghast snarled, curling a hand at me. I wrenched my sickle from the fountain. The golden line to Othess' roof ignited. I was sailing away as three bone protrusions spat from the ground, shattering against the stone where I'd been perched only moments earlier.

They would have pinned me to the fountain had I taken a moment longer. In flight, I hurled the Hook. It hit the balcony where Roland braced his rifle—Triangulation. With two anchors, I launched right at the shaman, riding the spectral filaments like a slingshot. My trajectory path lengthened before me. Thashkor's eyes flickered from one thread to the other, calculating. He threw up his hand. Trajectory lines spat from the ground, crossing mine as I shot at him. I cursed, and Air Stepped.

My leg slammed into an invisible platform, jarring my knee. I skipped upward. Three great bone spurs shot up, lancing the air beneath me. Twisting, I came down hard beside Thashkor. His eyes flashed victoriously. A blue flame flashed in his palm.

"Anchors free!" I bellowed. Othess yanked the sickle on his roof out. Roland wrenched his free with his off-hand. Both blades dropped at the same time. My fists flexed. Gold lines flashed. Thashkor's eyes went wide as the crescent blades scythed their way towards his back. He spun, blue flames flashing bright in both hands. His back turned to me; I pounced. My cutlass and saber winked into either hand, and I burned the rest of my mana, igniting them. Low to high, my crossed blades cut an X.

Hook and Line struck in the same moment. Four blades sheared through him at once. Only, my hands weren't free to catch the tethered sickles. Steel flashed. The returning blades sheared through the shaman, continuing and slamming deep into my shoulders. Thashkor wavered, then toppled to pieces. Pressure built in my arms. My swords slipped from loose grips, clattering against stone. Corin danced back from Bianca. She chased, one arm bound to her side with webbing and adhesive.

His spring-loaded cage winked into existence above her head. It came crashing down around her. I tried to lift my hand to remove the sickles, but the motion washed my body with nauseating heat. Corin panted, turning to see me on my knees, sickles embedded in muscle.

"Antonio!" he called. Serevian rushed to my side. He drew a potion from my belt.

"This will hurt," he prefaced, then he jerked one free. He was right. I howled. The temperature dropped rapidly as he poured the potion directly into the wound. The tang of blood and ectoplasm suffused the air. Bianca slammed the cage, denting a bar outward. Corin flinched, returning his attention to her. A metal rod winked into his hand, and he rammed it through the bars. My support team bled from the building, Othess dropping to a knee and pulling security from the rear.

Serevian ripped the second sickle out, and I barked with pain. Blood poured from the pit, soaking my shirt and leather armor. The potion foamed over the wound. The pain numbed nearly instantly. Corin slid another rod into the cage bars, each one closing the space and strategically locking Bianca in place. I pulled myself to my feet, hurrying over to the cage despite my useless, throbbing arms. Whoever engineered the thing had to be a genius.

Corin climbed the spring-loaded contraption and began pulling pins from the top. After a moment he'd pried a hatch free, opening a path to the crown on her head.

"Bianca!" I gasped, staggering to a stop. She ignored me, trying to lunge at Corin, but bars locked her body in place.

"It's okay," I promised her, pressure building in my chest.

"I've got you." Needles climbed the cage, then produced a mallet and a wedge. He pried the crown free. I winced at the sickening crunch. On the top-down map, her silhouette switched to blue. My shoulders slumped. Needles heaved a sigh of relief. In the cage, Bianca panted. Burning pits in my shoulders stung. Still, I pulled myself forward, relief washing over me.

"Hey," I said, reaching forward.

"You okay?" She snarled, snapping at my hand. I jerked back, smashing my knuckles on the bars.

"What happened?" I demanded.

"What'd you do?" Corin held up the Carrion crown in confusion. Bloody nubs angled downward.

"I—I don't know. That should have worked." A message notification flashed in my terminal. <<Naomi: Recall. Get back here now. The Undertide is attacking Grimton. >> <<Time to Seal Collapse: 02: 00: 05: 10: 29: 30>>