Rune Seeker

Hiral took a step back as four more arbalest bolts came barrelling his way, and a wall of Rejection formed in front of him. One that did not help at all, something about the tips of the boltheads tearing the solar energy apart before continuing straight at him.

Suddenly put on the spot, Hiral’s reflexes took over. His left foot went back with an exaggerated step, just enough for the first bolt to plunge into the floor. A touch of his toe on the still-quivering projectile spun him sideways – pivoting on his other foot – to sidestep the next shot. Threads of solar energy reached out with Attraction and Sealing to grab the passing shaft even as he twisted, then he ducked under the third shot. As soon as his second foot touched back on the ground, Rejection flipped him up and over the fourth.

Back on the bridge a heartbeat later, Hiral whipped his captured bolt around with him, intercepting a fifth aimed straight for this heart. A clang, and the two bolts went careening off over the bridge on opposite sides, and Hiral quick-stepped back into the tunnel where the others stood waiting.

“Did Tomorrow really just combine ‘scorpion’ and ‘arbalest’ to name these things?” Yanily asked Hiral as he rejoined the group.

“That’s the most pressing question you have after almost seeing Hiral get pincushioned?” Seena asked him.

“Almost,” Yanily said. “Hiral was never going to get caught by those. And the naming just seems lazy.”

“It is kind of like Hiral named them,” Seeyela said.

“Hey!” Hiral snapped, Right and Left – rightfully – chuckling.

“Back on track, people,” Seena said. “They stopped shooting, for the moment, but did you learn anything, Hiral?”

He nodded. “Whatever the boltheads are made of, they disrupt solar energy – and any abilities made from them. My wall of Rejection came apart like wet paper, and it’s stopped angry Mid-Bosses before.”

“Some kind of… anti-magic?” Seeyela asked.

“Seems so,” Hiral said. “Just the tip, though. I could push and grab the shafts just fine.”

“Means we can’t just turtle our way through with defensive abilities on all sides,” Seena said, thinking.

“Oh, we totally have to kill all those,” Yanily said, eyes narrowing. “Eight legs.” Then he shuddered. “They have to die. Every. Single. One.”

“Ah, your spider-thing,” Seena said.

“And the experience,” Seeyela reminded everybody. “Depending how tough they are, this might be the best place for it yet.”

“They’re big,” Hiral said. “But… their plating didn’t look nearly as thick as the Sentinels’, and I saw a lot of gaps between it. Their strength probably lies in numbers, and keeping their distance.”

Seena looked around at the group. “Neither of those seem like much of an advantage against us.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Hiral said. “I say we go to them – or at least a few of us do – to thin those numbers, while the others delay or escort the researchers.”

“The obvious choices are you, Yanily, and Seeyela,” Seena said. “Hit and run tactics. I can reach them from the bridge, and Romin and Wallop can help shield the researchers.”

“Left should stay as well,” Hiral said. “The Herald of Peace is pretty potent, and since it affects everybody nearby…”

“I’ll also keep the Banner of Courage out,” Left said. “If you need to come back and recharge, it’ll be waiting. It’s not like we’re trying to hide our presence here, so the giant golden dome won’t be a giveaway.”

“I’ll summon out the artillery-version of the spiders,” Seeyela added. “They’ll help pick off anything that tries to sneak up.”

“All sounds like a plan, except for…” Seena turned to Gran. “Seems like a good chance for you to refill your healing well. Can you… fly?”

“I can give Path of Butterflies to everybody again,” Left offered.

“Don’t need em,” Gran said. “I’ll go out hunting this time. Been a while since I been the predator.”

Something about the blue-and-red of her eyes changed within the darkened hood, and a shiver ran down Hiral’s spine as he saw it. This was… probably a good reminder that although Gran filled the role of party-healer, she was still also a B-Rank vampire.

“I’ll take Path,” Right said. “I won’t roam too far, but might as well help out.”

“Sounds like a plan, then,” Seena said. “Give everybody Path – just in case – then you three head out to pick them off.” She glanced back at Vorinal and the other researchers, and their body language was screaming their patience was just about up.”

Seeyela called out her three artillery-type spiders – the researchers not even blinking at their appearance – while Left also brought out The Pack. The large wolves sniffed at the air, looking around as they paced, then let out low, rumbling growls. Apparently, they sensed the ill-named Scorbalests as well.

“Ready,” Seeyela said.

“Me too,” Yanily added. “I’ll Aspect after I get out there. No reason to waste time travelling to my first target.”

“Skyfall?” Hiral asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. “More like your first victim than target.”

“No mercy for eight legs,” the spearman said seriously.

“Would you two stop talking and start killing?” Seena asked flatly.

“See you on the other side,” Yanily said, dashing out and immediately transforming into a bolt of jagged lightning. Seeyela and Hiral moved at the same time, though the woman vanished in a cloud of purple-and-red flames as soon as she was in the room. That just left Hiral, with the barrage of bolts meant for the three of them, all coming straight for him.

He almost sighed, but then as he felt the bolts moving through his sensory domain, and looked at the complicated maze of bridges, balconies, and enemies – he smiled instead. Somehow, the whole place suddenly felt like a giant playground.

The Rejection making up the majority of his sensory domain easily shoved the bolts off-course. As long as he didn’t focus on the boltheads, the projectiles were easy to deal with for somebody with his Atn, Dex, and skillset. These constructs were about to have a very bad time.

WHAM. SCHING.

Correction – as Yanily and Seeyela reached their first targets – these constructs were already having a bad time. And it was time for Hiral to join them, launching himself off on a burst of Rejection from his feet. His pseudo-aspect glowed in patches across his body, but he definitely felt a boost from the latest Edict he’d unlocked. It wasn’t huge – probably a four or five percent increase to his attributes – but if every new Edict gave the same increase? It’d add up.

Just like the increasing number of bolts streaking in his direction. Six and rising, they came at Hiral from just as many different angles. Balconies, the bottom of the bridge above, even below – previously out of sight – the whole place was literally crawling with the Scorbalests. Still, if they somehow thought Hiral was an easy, though fast-moving, target, they were in for a surprise.

Fingers squeezing RHC triggers as Hiral streaked for the first construct up and at an angle – taking out anything with a shot at the bridge was his first priority – Impact struck two of the bolts, throwing them off course. At the same time, Hiral flipped one-hundred-and-eighty degrees in the air, leading with his feet as Runes of Impact, Increase, and Breaking surrounded his boots.

The Scorbalest directly ahead of him, calculating his trajectory, immediately fired off another bolt, only for Hiral’s deft touch through his sensory domain to nudge it wide. Then Hiral hit.

If there had been any question about the new constructs’ durability, this impact clearly answered it. Squashing it like a bug, Hiral’s foot smashedinto the center of the Scorbalest’s back, crumpling the armor, and driving it deep into the construct’s own body. The legs holding it on the side of the pillar where it stood buckled under the force, snapping or twisting sideways to shatter joints. Mechanisms and wires that allowed for flexibility between the plates of armor crunched as they were compressed or severed by the edges of the plates designed to protect them.

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All that damage wasn’t nearly enough to absorb Hiral’s momentum, though, the metal of the pillar cratering from the strike.

When he finally felt resistance to his impromptu dropkick, Hiral let his knees bend, dropping him into an inverted crouch. From there, two quick shots from his RHCs beside his feet blasted wide holes in what was left of the construct’s body, and Hiral shot off again. Pieces of the broken scorpion exploded in all directions from the Rejection of his launch, while the rest of it dropped towards whatever waited below the network of bridges. Given that Hiral could neither see nor sense a bottom, it looked like it was going to be a long fall.

He didn’t pay his first victim any more attention than that, already twisting himself between a pair of arbalest bolts criss-crossing his path. Each one passed within an inch of his chest as he weaved between them, a pull on his solar energy from the brass heads, and then he was past. Up and ahead went his RHCs, another pull of each trigger sending his searing bolts at his next target.

A pincer managed to jerk up to take the first shot – though it exploded in a shower of parts for its trouble – but the second one got through. Shearing through the Scorbalest’s other shoulder, the second pincer was likewise rendered useless. That just left the bolt-spitting tail.

Even as Hiral watched, the mechanism in the tail automatically cranked back on the arbalest string, slid a bolt into the flight groove, and then fitted a metal slide over it to make sure the projectile didn’t fall out. All – almost – at the same time. And fast.

Not fast enough, though. Hiral’s next pair of shots tore the tail apart in two places, taking the last of the construct’s weapons from it. That done, Hiral twisted his body, more planes of Rejection solidifying under his feet, and he seemingly bounced off at an entirely new trajectory. A flurry of arbalest bolts cut through the air right where he would’ve gone.

Too bad for the constructs.

Pushing more solar energy into his runes, Dex, and Atn, Hiral blurred ahead, landing on another balcony overlooking the bridge the researchers were just now stepping on to. His feet skidded sideways across the smooth metal, gentle Attraction giving him moderate traction, before he dashed towards a pair of constructs turning their weapons in his direction. Body low, he ducked under the first shot, then darted to the side and up the wall as he threaded energy into his Rune of Gravity.

For constructs that were able to fight just as easily from walls and ceilings as the floor, these two did not adapt well to Hiral’s plane-change. The tails-launchers tracked his movement – to a certain extent – before the entire constructs had to reposition their bodies. Legs skittered sideways as they tried to turn fast enough to get Hiral in their sights, but they couldn’t keep up. Almost as if they gave up or hoped to get lucky, the launchers twanged, spitting bolts that ricochetted off the metal walls far behind Hiral.

And then he was beside them – well past the angle of their tails – and burst off the wall in a cartwheel. Upside down above them, he reoriented his gravity again, while at the same time lining up each one with an RHC. Two threads of solar energy made his Runes of Time Dilation and Contraction stop the world around him, but they only held him in place for fractions of a second before he let them fade. As soon as reality kicked back in, four bolts shot from each RHC, drilling holes right through the tops of the Scorbalests.

That put his weapons on a short cooldown, and he slapped them back on his thighs as he landed on the balcony railing. Already, more arbalest bolts were streaking his way, so he powered off on another burst of Rejection – straight at the incoming barrage.

Eight bolts, coming at him in a pattern like a reverse-crescent snapped through the air. He could’ve dodged them – or simply jumped in an entirely different direction – but he had things he wanted to test. This was one of them.

Reaching out with his Runes of Attraction, Dreaming, and Sealing, Hiral swept his hands from right to left, looping a thread of Connection around the shaft of each bolt. As if they were actual threads, thanks to the use of his other runes, he jerked the bolts aside like they were a curtain. Except, he didn’t stop there, using the momentum of the motion to spin his body around like a top in a complete three-sixty. And he took the bolts with him.

Out and around, six feet from his body, Hiral whipped the collection of projectiles about and then hurled them right back the way they’d come. His technique – and aim – wasn’t perfect, but he still pinned six of the eight Scorbalests to the walls, floor, and bridges with their own bolts. The other two, well, he barely missing them, and they remained a threat. For now.

Claws of Separation formed on his hands, while another burst of Rejection kept him moving as he stepped across the empty air. Lashing out with a touch of Expansion, five blades sliced through the space with a sching from each hand. The constructs didn’t do much better. Where they avoided the armor, the deadly blades cut deep, Breaking spreading like a corrupting rust across the components. The tails of the two Scorbalests both got severed, while one of them lost a pincer and all the legs on its left side. It wasn’t able to maintain its grip at that point, and began its long fall into the darkness below.

Another step on the air with Rejection got Hiral to the second construct, his claws growing a foot-long each as he slashed across. Where the armor had mostly held up to the ranged attack, the concentrated, close-range version completely overwhelmed it. Metal sheared before the blades, while Breaking ruined what wasn’t directly cut.

One, two slashes, and that was the end of that enemy, Hiral already moving away as the body fell. These constructs were significantly less durable than the Sentinels, relying more on numbers and distance to bombard the bridge. So far, he, Yanily, and Seeyela had picked off the Scorbalests with a clear line of sight. But he could already feel more appearing through his sensory domain. A lot more. And, while he could put each one down individually, he couldn’t be everywhere at once.

Or… could he? His sensory domain tracked Yanily bolting from target to target, criss-crossing the room with powerful beats of his wings. One thrust of his charged spear was all it took to crush his opponents, and then he’d move on to the next. Because of the charged lightning constantly surrounding his Aspect-infused body, it was like there was a trail of afterimages connecting all the broken constructs.

Seeyela was somehow even more devastating, her Bamfs carrying her directly between one construct and the next. She was moving so quickly, it hardly seemed like she appeared before she vanished again.

Gran – who must’ve come out after them – stood in the center of a group of Scorbalests, her crimson threads connected to each of them. Though it hardly looked like the small needles would damage the constructs, each of them shriveled in a way that should not be possible for metal entities.

What if he… combined a little bit of what each of them was doing? Could he? Oh… oh, he could!

This will be a little crazy if it works…

Smiling to himself – he couldn’t help it, this was exciting – Hiral began the threads of solar energy he’d need to make this work. Runes lit up one after another across his body as he went. Time Dilation and Contraction, Dreaming, Connection, Unsealing, Energy, and lastly, Separation. With a burst of solar energy, dozens of Hiral’s burst off him in every direction. Little more than clouds of solar smoke given shape and definition, these were nothing like Right and Left. They didn’t have nearly the power to damage – let alone destroy – one of the constructs, even with the added oomph of the Rune of Dreaming.

On the other hand, they had just enough substance for Hiral to – hopefully – pull one other trick. Latching on to his Connections with the solar-clones right as they reached their targets, Hiral dove once more into his Runes of Time Dilation and Contraction.

Let’s see if this works.

Edicts flashed in his eyes as if lending him their power. Their dominance over the surrounding area. Across his body, his pseudo-aspect stretched against the boundaries of his runes’ influence, bleeding further into the black. Scarves of energy snapped behind him, flaring with power.

None of that was as bright as his hands, though. Not the terrible claws of Separation, either. No, it was his palms glowing fiercely. More precisely, his Rune of Exchange.

Go, he told himself, releasing his time runes.

Solar energy exploded off him, filling the domain of his clones, the furthest almost two-hundred feet away, and Hiral moved. Exchange activated in such quick succession, he was barely in a single place for more than a heartbeat, jumping from clone to clone to clone. At every location, it was like a single slash from his claws arced blades of Separation into all the constructs at once.

Almost fifty targets were hit in the blink of an eye – Three’s a Crowd triggering for even more damage – and it looked like it happened at the same time, with Hiral finishing at the one furthest away. His hand came across, cleaving the Scorbalestinto six, separate sections, while his solar energy plummeted. That chain of events had cost him more than three-quarters of his available energy.

But, damn, was it worth it.

Metal tore and parted in a cacophony that seemed to perfectly fall into the Chord of the Primal Echo in Hiral’s ears. All across the room, the skittering army died. Fell to pieces. Dropped into the abyss. Like a gentle rain of metal.

And then, all at once, solar energy rushed into Hiral from Allied Killing Spree. At two-percent per kill, he was instantly filled back up, and ready to go another round.

Except, nothing else moved. Not even Yanily, Gran, or Seeyela – each staring at him from where they stood on nearby balconies. On the bridge below, the moving party had paused, Seena and Romin looking at him wide-eyed.

“OP,” Yan said, though he followed his statement with a big thumbs-up in Hiral’s direction.

“Hiral,” Seena asked evenly over the party chat, and he turned his head slowly in her direction. That tone in her voice usually meant he was in trouble for something.

“That wasn’t reckless!” he quickly defended himself. “No real risk.”

“Not what I was going to say,” she said.

“Oh, then… what?”

“If you could do that,” she asked, even pointing around the room where pieces of the constructs still fell. “Why didn’t you do it sooner?”

“Uh…” he started. “I just… thought of it now?”

“Of course you did,” Seena said, clearly rubbing the bridge of her nose and chuckling at the same time.