Unbound - Chapter 631

Wild Threnody!

Adamant Discord!

Felix rushed forward, and Imara met him. They struck, fist against fist, amid the stacks of treasure. Gold and blue impacted, resonating and exploding from one another in a wave of concussive force. Coins and cups and rare ingots were hurled aside, driven through pillars and into the nearest line of Inquisitors.

They died on the spot.

Wild Threnody is level 94!

Adamant Discord is level 97!

Imara staggered backward, thrown by Felix’s unfettered blows, and she stared at him in consternation. “You were not so powerful before. How?”

“I’m not holding back anymore.”

Imara unsheathed a broadsword that was smaller than the huge weapon she’d used before, but no less deadly. “Show me.”

Felix kicked off the ground, sending more stacks toppling, and met the Titan’s blade. Light and flame burst outward in a geyser of golden power, and he met it—midair—with a bevy of shaping magics.

Auroral Forge!

Cardinal Flame!

The light and fire Mana was caught up, diverted around him in a swirl of momentum that slowed his advance but sent shafts of elemental might lancing back into her allies. Another hundred died, felled in an instant as their skin and bones turned to ash.

Auroral Forge is level 91!

Cardinal Flame is level 98!

“Shield yourselves!” someone with a fancy helmet ordered. Translucent golden panels appeared before the front-most rows of Inquisitors.

Imara swung for Felix’s head, but he ducked the blow and caught her exposed wrist. “Armor’s busted?” She punched him with her off-hand, but he caught her fist. Something snapped in his arm, but he held his grin. “Pathless isn’t helping anymore?”

She spun, bringing her longsword to cut at Felix’s gut. He unsheathed his own blade, twisting so that her strike glanced off of Crescian Bronze instead of his skin. Sparks fountained in gold and bronze.

“I all but killed you before, Fiend. Only your tricks saved you.” Her sword met Felix’s hooked blade, and a concussive wave flung away more treasured debris. “I will not fall for them again.”

The halo of gold around Imara brightened, until it limned her entire Body. Visible veins of gold ran through her naked wrists and hands, enveloping her weapon with power. As he struggled, she pushed Felix’s sword down with hers.

“It–It’s different this time,” he grunted.

“Oh?” Imara’s voice had a grin in it that Felix had never heard before. “It doesn’t seem to be.”

“Hah, I’m—” Felix’s arms were burning from the weight of her. “I’m not alone anymore.”

“What?”

“Wrath of the Twin Fangs!”

Burning silver axes went for her throat, but a hasty pivot forced the strike wide. They hit her in the shoulder instead, driving the Titan to a single knee. Felix lunged, his clawed foot bursting with Adamant Discord as he drove it into her chestplate, but the woman jumped back and drew a pair of oversized maces from her hips.

“Enough playin’, kid,” Harn grunted from beside Felix. He reset himself and lifted his axes into a middle guard.

Imara rushed them. They met her, together.

“Ungh. Shit,” Archie gasped as thunder rattled the room, and coins flew overhead. He eyed the blade stuck in the strange bird-dog’s side. “You took that. For me. Why?”

“Why—” Pit kicked his legs, fighting to get them under himself. The ice armor was gone, and now his back legs weren’t quite working right. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Archie didn’t have a response for that, and chaos had consumed everything around them. They were nestled between mounds of spilled furs and large glassware, where Beef had dragged them before hurling himself into battle. Spells and Skills flung through the air, making it far too dangerous to stand up, but Pit kept trying.

“What are you doing? Stay down! They’re gonna hit you again.”

“I need—I need to help.” The bird-dog strained, twisting his neck back toward the saddle on his back. “Can you get—can you get my bag? There’s a box.”

Archie swallowed. If he moved it would hurt real bad, and the sword was digging into his Health. Ah, fuck it. He scooted forward, sliding a bit off the fur pelts before fetching up against Pit’s large rump. “Which one?”

“Left side. Top.”

One handed, Archie fumbled with the straps, yanking at them until the top flopped open. A heavy box tumbled out and into his hands. Very heavy. “Oh god! This is only orichalcum! It…shouldn’t be this heavy!”

“I need you to open it. Please.”

“Alright.” Archie braced his elbow on the ground, and it was just barely enough to keep the box balanced on the bird-dog’s side. The front of the box had a complex warding on it, but that at least was familiar. “Yeah. I can do that.”

The Inquisition surged, flowing around Felix, Harn, and Imara as they battled it out in the center. Hundreds of them ran with their red cloaks flapping in the breeze, summoning lances of light and swords of flame to bring down on her team.

Vess would not allow that.

“Now!”

Spears impaled those charging in the lead, exploding into storms of electrified shrapnel and slicing others with the bronze discs from her Sling Salvo. Gaps opened in their line, giving Evie’s chains all the room they needed to trap the next dozen. Chains of ice locked down their legs, while bladed metal sliced open flesh through gaps in their vaunted armor. Beef roared, skewers of chitin driving upward into the Inquisitors like hidden spike traps, while a higher voice on his shoulder screeched as she shot crystalline daggers with unerring precision.

“Call upon the gifts of the Pathless!” one of them cried. Shortly after, dozens of them were swathed in translucent panels of golden light. These were far thicker and more potent than the simple shields the others created, and they assembled into familiar oversized suits of armor.

“Your gifts are worthless,” Laur announced, weaving a strange spellform into the air. Multiple colors swirled and flexed beneath his long fingers, and the moment he shoved his hand forward, they leaped outward. The spell split into dozens, keening as it tore through the air, until it impacted each set of golden armor. Where it hit, the armor outright dissolved, and a few even fell apart completely.

“Adherents of Ophidia!” Yin cried and unleashed a mighty barrage of Dragons. The watery constructs tore across the golden-armored Inquisitors, knocking them back, even as it outright killed the less-protected.

In the center, Felix continued his battle, though it was far too fast-paced for Vess to follow. All she could do was stem the tide…and the floodwaters were not stopping. More Inquisitors rushed from the stairs, the original hundreds soon approaching thousands as redcloaks replaced the dead.

Tzfell summoned her strange, geometric magics, flinging them among the oncoming horde with abandon. Their power drew in their Skills, much as it had in the Starfield Steps, and all of them found their blows hitting harder and faster.

“Yin! We have control of the battle!” Vess announced mere moments later.

“A lie, little Dragoon,” he replied. “We are hard-pressed, and the Autarch is more so.”

“Go, please! You may have no other chance,” she insisted. “Seek the elemental!”

Yin hovered, indecisive as the battle raged on. Beef slammed his hammer down, dispersing several lances of light heading his way before his earth Mana erupted beneath their lines. Evie dodged between blows, a dancer with a vicious weapon. Blood followed her in a constant arc, a crimson trail.

“Very well.” He zipped through the air, a gold and white blur that vanished back into the elemental workshop.

Vess urged forth her Spears and discs, triggering their explosions among the weakened Hierocratic warriors. Yin had his own task, and she had hers.

“Face me, redcloaks, and perish.”

“Here! It’s open!” Archie hissed. His arms ached from propping up the heavy container, and it was all he could do to push it to the bird-dog’s other side. “Take it!”

The orichalcum box tipped over, depositing a writhing hurricane upon the polished floor. Both of them stared, transfixed as a ring of chaotic elements whirled around a small, hardened object that changed design with every second. Fire, ice, lightning, shadow, even life and necromantic Mana surged within, and the object at the center grew, as if it fed upon the world around it.

It was terrifying.

Pit leaned over and ate it.

“Should you have done that—” Archie began to ask, but he was interrupted by the bird-dog’s sudden—and deafening—screams as Pit’s entire body burst into flame.

Dodge is level 92!

Harn wasn’t Imara’s match in stats or levels, and she clearly had an edge over Felix, but together, they pressed her back. The giant woman parried and guarded against Harn’s axes and Felix’s hooked blade, meeting their attacks with an increasing desperation. Harn clashed with her, unflagging despite his many wounds. He fought, deflecting, dodging, and letting loose with powerful strikes. Despite Imara’s advantage in speed, Harn anticipated her. Like the man always said: at a certain point, technique mattered far more than stats.

And Harn could fucking fight.

He drove her to the side, forcing her to meet Felix’s slash. She deflected it with her longsword, but only just; the edge of his Inheritor’s Will carved a line out of her battered armor. A line that refused to repair itself.

That drove Imara wild. She grunted with each parry and riposte, and Felix felt actual anger clouding her empty Spirit. Each time Harn advanced, each time she broke a piece of the man’s armor or drew his blood, that anger grew.

“Titanslayer,” Harn said through bloody teeth. “Has a good ring to it.”

The Titan screamed. Rage and frustration laced her Spirit, radiating outward as an almost physical pressure. It was the first time Felix had felt such a solid emotion in her, and the golden glow that limned her head faded, just a touch.

We’ve got this. We just need to keep her off-balance! Adamant Discord! He burned his Skill, pouring as much Mana into it as he could.

Adamant Discord is level 98!

Imara crashed to the ground, pulled by strings of lightning. Harn swung near-instantly, but the woman jerked herself out of line. His dual blows only sheared through a chunk of her spiked pauldron, missing her flesh entirely.

Your Companion, Pit, Is Attempting To Claim The Mote Of Frenzy!

Somewhere behind them, a pillar of elemental chaos erupted. Fire, ice, lightning, shadow and many more swirled in a growing tempest…centered upon one howling tenku.

“Pit!”

“Enough!” Imara surged upward, breaking through Felix’s lapse concentration, and hurled him to the ground. “All of you are nothing before the Light! And you shall return to nothing!”

A dozen blades of pure golden radiance sprung outward. Felix swore and sent earth and metal Mana surging ahead, forming thick walls. The blades sliced through it without pausing, snapping toward him like gleaming pincers.

Relentless Resolution is level 99!

Felix leaped upward, arcing his body over the infernally hot blades by mere inches. Pieces of his Garment caught fire, and a piece of his kit was sheared away. Felix landed on his back, but swiftly rolled to his feet…only to find Harn, fallen to the ground.

With both legs severed at the knee.

“HARN!”

The man had pulled off his helmet, and his face was white as a sheet. Felix frantically checked his Health, only to see it careen out of control, dipping hundreds of points in the span of seconds. Felix ran to his side, just as the man pulled a Health Potion to his lips and threw it back.

“Missed. Damnable Fiend. How are you so fast?” Imara had regained her feet, and those blades of light hovered around her like a mockery of Vess’ abilities. “How?!”

She gave him no time to react, no time to aid his friend. The Titan was on Felix, radiant swords stabbing in tandem, and it took all he had to avoid their scorching touch. That rage that had only been hinted at before now became an inferno, her Spirit all but consumed by it.

Dodge is level 93!

Armored Skin is level 97!

Felix dodged another strike and slipped close, under her guard. She backpedaled, but he moved with her, just barely avoiding her vicious grapple and slipping to her rear.

Imara spun, trying to keep him in sight. “The Pathless warns me against you. Why?”

“Like you said.” He slapped three hexagonal plates onto her. “I’m full of tricks.”

Lightning coursed through the plates, Adamant Discord sealing them to her armor just as the sigaldry across them ignited. An array spread across the floor, made of pure, humming Mana, and Imara hissed in pain as her Stamina began to vanish rapidly.

Theurgist of the Rise is level 96!

“What–what is this?” she demanded, lifting her hands and staring at them. “Why do I feel—?”

“Just evening the odds,” Felix growled, and he kicked her with all the force he had.

She tumbled as lightning coursed across her back. The suppression array couldn’t stop her, but three keystones would hopefully drain her faster than her recovery could manage. Like the Vault Wardens, she was on a ticking clock.

And Felix wasn’t in the mood for mercy.

He kicked off the ground, shattering stone and sending more coins flying. Lightning trailed his movements, and red-gold flames burned from the centers of his eyes as he met Imara. Strength for Strength, his arms barely bolstered by his Adamant Discord, and hers filled with gold. It shone from the cracks in her armor, as if her flesh had become light.

Harn! Pit!

Hook. Jab. Flying knees and strikes to her kidneys. Felix tore into her…and Imara took it all. She soldiered through the pain and pressure, blocking him and striking back. He ducked under a punch so hard the air pressure hurt him, and put everything he had into his legs. He thrust his scaled fists straight up.

Felix’s fist connected, hitting her jaw…and knocking her great helm free, for the first time. Felix blinked, stumbling back in horror. The helmet clattered to the ground.

Imara stood, spitting out a tooth. But it wasn’t Imara.

No…

It was Gabby.

It was his sister.