Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

Looked like a Caster Level of 40, obscene range, didn’t know what Valence it was, probably Source Code class and didn’t really matter. Primal Elemental energies falling from the sky with at least a thousand damage, ready to cook anything below.

The whirling ball of kaleidoscopic colors smashed into it a hundred yards over our head and detonated it.

Wild magic covered the sky in rainbows and flowers and butterflies and perfume factories and a dozen orchestral symphonies warring with heavy metal and grunge sweat. A dozen new species of birds flew chirping in all directions, colorful frogs rained down from the sky, and back along that conduit of control, a whole goddamn lot of feedback damage lashed back into the Castle in the distance as fast as a bolt of lightning.

Something Way Over Thar blew multi-hued plumes of Elemental colors into the air. About twenty-three seconds later, a roar like an underwater volcano meets a thunderstorm blew past us, even as we watched a half dozen more of the fireballs lift off, one after another, this time in all four base Elemental hues.

Guess it had never heard of Chain Spellflares, either.

The sky blew up in a thunderstorm of lullabies and falling chocolate candies, the charnel smell of a day-old battlefield stirring up the sensation of thistles and mudpacks on the skin, and purple syrup rained down and stained everything grape.

Six successive bolts of lightning ripped back along the control vector, and something didn’t much like it when it took the feedback to the brain.

The Elementals were ignoring the way dances were skying in the clouds, sunbeams threw out shadows, chiaroscuro trumpets blared drumrolls in soprano, and strings of jellybeans exploded in popcorn firecrackers, pelting us with sand and saffron. The Elementals were focused on chasing after us, ignoring one another despite opposed Elements as they raged after us down the ravaged slope of stone, side effects of the wild magic hissing and burning as it impacted them.

I blew Shardrays through them because I was irritated and the Harbinger tossing shit at us gave me the time to do so.

Wreathed in Prismatic energies for Elemental Slaying goodness, ripping streams of force tore through them with one, two, three, four parallel sets, and the Kickers blew them apart violently as Zealotry made sure that even nominally unaligned Elementals not in service to the Good could be removed from the game.

No vivus, though. That was for the future. I did NOT want to start a Wisp Cascade right now.

Blasted Elementals blew apart, especially any smaller ones still managing to keep up somehow as Kris zigged and zagged down that hill, finding a route between those Elementals below that hadn’t been sealed off, even if it turned our path into a longer arc instead of a straight descent.

More Fireballs, this time in new hues of mixed Elements seething and coming for us, rose from the distant palace and turned in our direction, and they just kept coming.

Still took only ten seconds to cover the whole distance, but that was just fine, because I could Chain up to twenty-five targets regardless, and that was going to be one monstrous Concentration check to keep those things on course.

I couldn’t even describe the sky, there was so much reality-twisting madness going on when ten of those things detonated in series and went feeding back to the Castle, although the fuchsia candy canes dueling the plaid ice cream cones stuck out. There were still more of the Fireballs coming, but that was fine, as they all suddenly diverged from their courses and went flying in all directions when their controller took all those hits to the frontal lobe, or whatever stood in for it.

Massive detonations of Elemental energy exploded all around us, none on top of us, shaking the ground, blowing open hundred-foot wide sizzling craters, spewing ash into air which wasn’t sure if it was liquid or gas at this point, and sending shockwaves of air blowing this way and that which hurled many an unsuspecting Elemental off its feet that wasn’t prepared for it.

Notably, one blast hit the water well ahead of us, sending a geyser of steam hundreds of feet into the air and kicking up quite the waves.

It was also a hundred yards OUTSIDE the Shoreward. Went right through it, just like our own spells could.

Kris ducked twice, dodged once, jumped over in a 360 vertical spin, veered left, slalomed right and left, and I just followed her through it all as we broke past the last line of converging Elementals. They were only behind us now as she raced for the shoreline.

More Fireballs in clusters were rising into the sky, magic was swirling in the air around us.

I gathered up the Spellflares, pulling extra juice from Kris to break the manacap, and as eighteen separate Admixtured Fireballs in lots of six came plummeting at us in a hexagon pattern that would blow out acres of ground, the Twin Chained and Quickened Chain Spellflares went out to counter them.

Thunder like a million screaming howler monkeys flattened the waves all around us as Kris hit the water, testing our Thunder resistance as a cacophony of sounds ultrasonic and subsonic battered at us. The sky was a kaleidoscope of impossible materializations, and Kris dodged the yellow elephant that fell out of the sky, clucking and flapping ridiculously small wings as it did so.

She smashed through the Shoreward without stopping, stripping the homing magic from around us, and kept right on going at full speed, laughing as she did so.

-----

We were a mile out to sea before the Fireballs really stopped getting anywhere near us, probably a combination of visual sight and losing control as they breached the Shoreward. Kris didn’t slow down before we were TWO miles out, finally straightening up and allowing herself to slide onward as she looked back at the fit of pique blowing into the sky and raining down in our direction, detonating in explosions of violent color as they struck the surface of the sea.

“You can come on up, Elders. The magic isn’t reaching this far,” I said in Magevoice with Whiskers of the Wild empowered.

A couple breaths later, there was a surge on either side of us as two immense forms surfaced with smooth sprays of water. Sonorous calls filled the air around us with demands and questions.

“I don’t believe the one who called you to serve is on the island, no, Elders. Something not of this world has taken his home for itself, whose magic I’m sure you can see and feel there.”

The leviathans watched the pulsing Fireballs rising into the sky and falling, not even bothering to be accurate now, heading in all directions as something with way too much mana to spend did so with crazed abandon.

“There are a LOT of Elementals running around the island top, Elders. You can’t see them because there’s an illusion active on the place, but the whole island is basically a blackened mess now.” They rolled slightly sideways to study the Holo I brought up, large multiple eyes matching it against the sight before them.

“On the other hand,” Kris broke in, “I’m sure you’d like to glut yourselves fat and fine before heading back out into deeper waters, right?”

That drew an interested note from them.

“Stick an Extended Resist Fire on them good for a couple days, would you, Ryin? I’m sure they’d like to stay nice and cool when they head south around the Vesayans and start eating everything.”

I lifted an eyebrow, considered that a damn good idea, and inquired softly, “With the permission of the Elders?” as I raised my hand, a cool blue light glowing upon it for them.

For some reason, they had no objection at all.

------

Ten minutes later, we’d waved goodbye to the two gargantuan whales as they eagerly turned south and began to plow through the waters. The leviathans had long heard the sounds of floating meals down there, and now it was time to indulge.

I dearly hoped there was another of those super-sleeches down there waiting to get its shell cracked by some point-blank Thunder peals and some really, really big jaws.

Kris glided ashore, standing up as she skimmed up the beach to the waiting burned windmill that was such a landmark, and turned around to slide right into it before dropping to sit down.

False dawn was out there. Less than an hour to daylight, and the Harbinger was still tossing up Fireballs through the facade of the elemental flames concealing it, although not as many as before.

“Well, that saved us a big run up north to some place I’m betting is just one gargantuan trap right now,” she said to me as I plopped down next to her.

“Meaning someone who knows what they are doing still has to go into the place and either spring it or defuse it before some unlucky sot stumbles into it and things go crunk?” I paraphrased, leaning against her shoulder.

“Ah, dammit!” she muttered, hitting the protesting ground, which proclaimed its innocence with an ineffective thump. “You’re trying to keep me away from my Fuzzy, aren’t you?”

“You know even he’s not going to be able to keep up with you, right? Give the guy a day or two to recover.”

Her face twisted. “Unfair!” she declared with authority. “Infinite sexual endurance should be a Fuzzy thing!”

“You have GOT to put that in the next Sending to your mom.”

“I think I will,” she grumbled.

“Just because a guy can survive being laid by you without you holding back is no reason to kill him via exhaustion. You know he appreciates having a woman who won’t break, too.”

Her shit-eating smile flared back up. “That’s true! It’s not like he’s going to find some frail thing to replace me, right?”

“I shudder to imagine the woman who thinks she could take him from you. Her fate would not be pretty.”

“And that is truth!” All her knuckles popped at once. “Okay, still gotta run too damn far over new terrain, see the sights, pop some land spawns, and get blown up by a huge arcane trap. Sounds like another day of work!”

“Sounds like shirking work, mighty warlord,” I corrected her easily.

“Shhhh! Don’t let them know this is actually FUN!” she stage-whispered back to me.

“I don’t have to. They grew up on adventurer stories, remember? Soldiering is work. Adventuring alternates between utterly miserable riding the edge of death to woo-hoo we won! They are all utterly aware you’re taking time off and gaffing them the fun stuff.”

“Hey, Fuzzy has them crawling all over the landscape shutting down spawn points and identifying new Dungeons that popped out of nowhere! They are getting plenty of excitement in!”

At least forty extradimensional spaces that corresponded to no pre-Fall Dungeon anyone knew of had been discovered here and there all over the eastern plains of Osteth. In addition, there were a ton of former settlements and villages out there to be scanned, scoured, and Sifted for loot.

“Let us compare the excitement of walking a patrol route to venturing into the great unknown, shall we?” I replied to her.

“You’re raining on my parade here, Magos!” she complained emphatically.

“Just keeping the highest-ranking military official mindful of her obligations,” I answered lightly. “Now shaddup and get your mana back I had to pull off you. It’s gonna be time for the Salute soon, and we’ll be on our way.”

Grumbling, she jerked her head, and a drop of blood materialized on her nose. It didn’t get to drip down before it was sucked back in, and she sat back and relaxed as her inhuman vitality and Furnace of Life began to repair the Constitution damage she’d just given herself to top off her Matrix.

We were going into a magical trap, and would be running through a dangerous section of the North. Not having reserves was pretty stupid.