Rune Seeker - Book 3: Chapter 60: I Love You Guys

The rain came upon them hard and suddenly, falling on their heads a bare few minutes after they’d finished dealing with the Mid-Boss. Already, it could be called a storm. Wind howled through the street, lashing rain practically sideways, while thunder and lightning danced in the thick clouds above. Most of the residents of the city had taken shelter in underground passages like those found on the previous island, or simply behind the thick walls of the buildings.

Thankfully, the pouring rain had seemingly chased off most of the bats—or maybe that had been when they’d killed Screech—but the party still hadn’t gotten the completed-quest notification. They had to deliver the spear, and the fact that existed as a quest step at all meant they weren’t in the clear yet.

“Just a little further,” Dr. Benza shouted over the storm. The researcher stayed close to Hiral and his field of Rejection, which kept the rain at bay, but it didn’t do anything for the sound.

Maybe if I used the Rune of Sealing to…

A CRAAAAACK echoed over the whole island, the soundwave jerking the rain to the side and making everybody stagger to stay on their feet. Splits ran up building walls as a second tremendous CRAAACK shook the ground beneath their feet.

“What the hell…?” Seena started to ask, one hand on a building on the side of the road.

Hiral only had to look up to get the answer, and he could do little more than point. Dark gray clouds churned like a whirlpool, lightning bolts miles long arcing off in all directions, but that wasn’t even what stole his breath. No, there in the center of the spiraling clouds as big as a city, massive tentacles stretched out.

Visible only because of the rain outlining where they stretched from the sky, two of the huge appendages stretched for the Grower island, while the others reached for the Builder island. Even as Hiral watched, one of the closer tentacles flexed, the nearest end of it almost lazily lifting into the air.

“Hold on!” he shouted.

Just in time, too. The tentacle slapped down onto the island and caused another monumental CRAAAAAACK that dwarfed the previous two. The ground beneath their feet dropped out from under them, as if the whole island were being pounded down like a nail. Buildings toppled at the same time the party hit the ground, the echoes of distant screams piercing the constant rain.

They didn’t have the time to find their balance again before Hiral saw another tentacle lifting up. This one was different, though. Instead of pounding straight into the island, this one came down at an angle. No sound of snapping rock accompanied the motion, and he almost breathed out a sigh of relief before he noticed the growing rumble.

Again, the ground under their feet shook—harder, harder, harder—and a wall of rising dust reached into the sky. Something cut sideways through the rain so fast he didn’t get a glimpse of it. Then another, and another. Within the blink of an eye, the sky was filled with the fast-moving objects: Stones ranging in size from a fist to a horse.

“Find cover,” Hiral shouted, pushing Rejection out into a wall in front of the group as they ran for the right side of the road. With the buildings on that side still mostly standing, it seemed like they’d offer the most protection.

They didn’t.

And of course, that wasn’t even the worst of it: The cause of the destruction was suddenly catching up. A tentacle easily a mile tall swept across the surface of the island, leaving anything behind it wiped completely clean. Only the party’s decision to go right instead of left saved them from utter, split-second destruction.

Nobody managed to keep their footing as the tentacle passed close enough for them to reach out and touch it, the noise of it beyond deafening. Small stones pelted Hiral’s wall of Rejection, but he somehow managed to keep it active while getting thrown sideways.

“Fenil? Laseen?” Dr. Benza asked, Hiral only able to recognize the words by reading the man’s lips.

“They’re on this side of the street,” Hiral said, only to repeat it. Twice. A few hand gestures finally got his message across, but it didn’t stop the doctor from looking back the way they’d come. And, really, Hiral couldn’t blame the man.

Dust and rubble still fell from the sky along with the “normal” rain, but what had once been hundreds of homes, thousands of lives… was just… gone. Flattened. More than that. The tentacle hadn’t just knocked things down—it had scraped three feet off the top layer of the island. Any of the entrances to hidden tunnels had been brutally filled in by the falling rubble, and it would be an absolute miracle if the tunnels hadn’t outright collapsed.

CRAAAACK, CRAAAACK, CRAAACK! Hiral spun around to see three more tentacles beating the island like a drum.

“It can’t take this,” Seeyela said, her voice coming through clearly in the party chat.

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“What can we do against that?” Seena asked.

Hiral didn’t have an answer. And, now, with the island wiped completely clean to the side, he could see the Builder island through the falling rain. Over there, the huge tentacles weren’t banging on the island, but had instead wrapped around it to squeeze. Even as he watched, it crushed whole sections, carved off others, and twisted the stone so it snapped where it connected to its mountainous base.

If that island lasted more than a minute, it would be a miracle.

Simultaneously, the Enemy continued to pound the Grower island. CRAAACK, CRAAAACK, CRAAAAAAAAACK! Each smash kept the party members from finding their feet or doing anything to stop the brutal assault. Then again, even if they could do something, would anything stop a creature as big as the island itself? That monster wasn’t just S-Rank; it was ten times S-Rank with a side dish of apocalypse.

“The Spear of Clouds wants me to do something,” Yanily said, his voice coming through clear. “It won’t stop that thing, but it might buy us some time.”

“You can do something against that?” Seeyela asked.

“What are you waiting for?” Seena asked at the same time.

“I think so, but only once,” Yanily said, turning to the others with a twisted grin. “Wish me luck.”

“Yan…” Hiral started. Something about the look on the man’s face reminded him far too much of the expression Wule and Nivian had given them.

The spearman didn’t say anything more, though. Instead, he leapt straight up, a pulse of Rejection from the runes Hiral had installed on his boots taking him a hundred feet in a second. Then, instead of dropping back down, he sort of just hung there, as if the wind itself—no, the storm itself—embraced him.

On his back, the Cloak of the Tempest spread out wide on both sides of him. The dark gray, cloud-like substance of it split, then split again as it extended to his left and right. Growing until it stretched fifteen feet on either side of the spearman, the cloak now looked unmistakably like Drake’s bone wings.

Except, instead of blue, undying flames filling in the digits, arcs of lightning began to zap back and forth. More and more, the bolts ionized the air, their searing cacophony increasing in intensity as power swelled around Yanily.

“He’s doing the same thing Wule did…” Li’l Ur said.

“What are you talking about?” Seena asked sharply.

“Fueling the power with more than just his solar energy,” Li’l Ur answered. “He’s using his lifeforce as well.”

“No…” Seeyela whispered, then practically shouted, “Yan! Don’t you dare do this!”

“Already done,” Yanily said calmly. “Last time I hesitated—last time I was too weak—we lost Balyo. I promised myself I would never let that happen again. Make sure you save everybody. Here and back home.” Yanily looked back down at the party, at his friends, and smiled wider than he ever had when he looked at the Spear of Clouds. Time seemed to pause, the man hanging in the air with a storm raging around him, and he made sure to look at each of them. “I love you guys. You know that, right?”

With those words, Yanily curled in on himself, the power around him condensing and climaxing. It was just like the power Hiral had felt from the spear before. Calm. Pure. Building.

And then it exploded. Yanily stretched out in the blink of an eye, his arcing wings spreading to their limits as lightning fell from the sky to meet his call. Where the spearman had floated only a second before, something new stood.

With the same general shape as Drake, this thing was clearly some kind of dragon, but instead of flesh and bone, its body was made from furious storm clouds and lightning. Its beating wings spanned nearly a hundred feet, thunder booming with every flap, while claws of condensed electricity flexed on the ends of its four legs. Behind it lashed a long tail, the wind whipping as it passed. The sinuous neck didn’t turn to look down at the party, but the electric eye seemed to see them.

“Yanily…” Seena said sternly.

The storm dragon responded by roaring up at the Enemytrespassing in its territory. Even dozens of miles long, the massive tentacles froze at the authority within the dragon’s cry. The ground beneath Hiral’s feet stopped shaking as the whole world held its collective breath, and then the dragon launched itself skyward.

“That is a Progenitor, like me,” Li’l Ur said, looking at Seena. “Well, an echo of it, also like me, I guess. It lived and fought along with your phoenix and Seeyela’s spider. Allies in a forgotten time. And one I’d thought long dead.”

Wind, rain, and lightning swirled around it like a long-lost friend welcoming it home. The writhing clouds paused, as if feeling guilty being caught embracing another. Even the thunder cried its apologies, only to be silenced by another deafening roar.

This was the true ruler of the storm returned home.

And heavens help any squatter found sitting on its porch.

Except this squatter was no slouch, and the gigantic pair of nearby tentacles moved to intercept the racing dragon. So far away and so huge, they almost looked like they were moving in slow motion, but the truth was anything but that. They cut through the reticent rain with an audible boooom to squash the dragon before it ever got close to the Enemy’smain body.

Which was apparently exactly what Yanily had been waiting for. In the blink of an eye, the storm dragon vanished to leave the spearman flying in the air on his tempest-wings. The Spear of Clouds he held glowed with unrestrained power, and he drew it back in both hands.

Brighter and brighter the crystal blade grew, while Yanily’s health bar in the Party Interface dropped so fast it looked like it was broken. Down, down, down, it went. 75%. 50%. 25%. 10%.

5%!

The two huge tentacles closed the distance until they blotted out the sky in front of Yanily. Then, just as they were about to collide—Yanily’s health at 1%—he finally swept the spear around in a wide arc in front of himself.