Rune Seeker

“Everybody good with what you have to do?” Seena asked after reviewing the plan once more.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Nivian said.

“Just think of the free experience we’ll get from it,” Yanily said, a big smile on his face.

“This should be safer than fighting our way straight through,” Hiral said, his RHCs in his hands.

“I know, I know,” Nivian said before looking at Seena. “Ready when you are, boss.”

Seena nodded her thanks at the tank. “Sis, you said you can do five blocks if you’re only sending four of us?”

“It’ll be a stretch, but I think I can,” Seeyela said. “Hiral, you sure you can get your own way that far?”

“I can,” Hiral said. “And your Bamf+ will get you there?”

“It will,” Seeyela said.

“Then we’re ready,” Seena said, moving over to the window. Her fireball tome appeared at her side.

“Mistress, you should also use my tome,” Li’l Ur said.

“No fireballs in there,” Seena said, though she looked at the lich floating near her shoulder.

“But the magic circle found within its pages will further empower your spells as long as you stand within it,” Li’l Ur said.

“Aww, look at you being so helpful,” Seena cooed.

The lich’s small eyes widened as if he realized he shouldn’t be helping them—but he was also blushing, which was pretty impressive, considering his face was just a skull. “You… I… I just couldn’t bear to watch my mistress flounder around on her own. You should at least be able to use the power of the circle to consider yourself my vassal.”

“Which page is it on?” Seena asked, mostly ignoring the lich while she summoned the pitch-black tome with the single eye on it.

“Let me show you,” Li’l Ur said, floating over to the tome beside her. With a few gestures of his hands, the book opened, and the pages turned until finally stopping with a nod from the lich. “Here you are. Like the fireballs, you need only concentrate on the page and feed it your energy. The rest will come naturally.”

“I can’t move after I use this, right?” she asked the lich.

“You can, but it will only empower you while you remain within,” Li’l Ur answered.

“By the window, then,” Seena said, standing over in front of the window with one floating tome on either side of her. A pulse of solar energy and a few seconds later, a glowing circle appeared on the stone floor around her. Blue light rose to encompass her while symbols similar to what’d been on the Remnant of Ur’Thul in the dungeon scrawled themselves along the floor. “Oh, this is nice,” she said, her right hand going out to her side, where four fireballs formed in the next few seconds. A glance at the party to make sure they were all ready for what came next, and then she tossed the flames out the window.

Hiral moved to a nearby window to watch the four balls of fire gently arc out over the street in front of the building, then fall, fall, fall until they struck the horde far below.

Boom, boom, boom, boom! The balls exploded in a distant cacophony, and Seena already had four more primed and ready. Changing the angle slightly, she tossed out the next volley, the dropping fire clearly visible to anybody around before they exploded in the street.

A blinking notification in the corner of Hiral’s vision told him his Killing Spree+ was already stacked up to full, but he didn’t pay it any attention. No, his full focus was on the hordes collectively turning in their direction as the next volley of four fireballs sailed out of the window. Before they even landed, more explosions rocked the streets as the pets created by From the Ashes+ rose and then exploded themselves.

Eruptions of flame and force cascaded away in a domino effect, decimating the closest undead, but drawing the attention of thousands more.

Movement as far as Hiral could see undulated like something shifting under the surface of the water, the light and sound clearly telling everything where the party was. Then the mad rush began.

The glowing blue eyes of thousands of undead sped towards the base of the building in which the party hid. The horde flooded the street around it in seconds, then charged inside.

“They’re coming,” Hiral said simply.

“I’ll double-check the stairwells,” Right said, jogging off to do just that.

“Yanily, get into position,” Seeyela said. “You know what to do.”

“This is going to be so much fun,” Yanily said, moving to the other wall and leaning out into the rain.

Part of Hiral agreed as he gazed down at the street swollen with undead. There were so many it was a miracle any of them could even move. They must be crushing each other trying to get to us.More explosions went off at the foot of the tower and in the alleys between nearby buildings, hurling body parts into the dark sky and continuously refreshing Killing Spree+. More than that, Hiral felt a tug from the Ring of Amin Thett, and he glanced back to see the runes around the ring completely lit up. Already at full power. Just how many undead has Seena killed?

“My experience notifications can’t keep up with how fast she’s murdering those undead,” Wule said, obviously thinking the same thing Hiral was.

“How are you doing for solar energy?” Hiral asked Seena.

“At half already,” Seena said, a blue potion in her hand. She chugged it down after tossing out another volley of fireballs. “These things are delicious, you know that?”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Hiral said, watching as several undead split from the horde and began to run straight up the side of the wall. “Here come the vampires. Yanily, you got some on your side?”

“I do,” the spearman said. “Just a couple. I’ll take care of them.”

Meanwhile, Hiral aimed his RHCs and waited for the monks to get within range. No, I don’t even need to wait… since Seena is feeding us so many kills.

Hiral stepped up on the edge of the windowsill, a small feed of Attraction keeping his feet firmly in place, then lifted his right hand above his head. The Ring of Amin Thett followed as he extended his hand out in front of him and pointed down. The Rune of Energy appeared within the ring, arcing power jumping from the inscribed runes in the crystal to the growing ball of energy, then releasing in a tearing roar as Hiral swept his hand across.

The death beam swept everything off the side of the wall and eradicated hundreds of undead crowded at the base of the building in the blink of an eye. A crack and flash from Yanily’s side meant his Chain Lighting+ had accomplished the same thing. And, with how quickly everything was dying, the energy of his ring was already back above half.

Did they even need his plan? Could they just stay up in their tower and pick off the undead a few hundred at a time?

A huge shape moving below reminded him not everything would die so easily, and a Shambling Graveyard stomped around the corner. Dozens of undead died to every step, while that many again got swept up in huge hands and deposited into the ever-chewing mouth. Still, though the A-Rank monstrosity towered above the normal undead—and even some of the closest buildings—it was far, far below where the party attacked from.

“Giants have arrived on my side,” Yanily said. “Two of them.”

“Got three over here,” Left said, ducking in from where he’d been watching down another hall. “Vampires coming up too. We’ll be breached soon.”

“Nivian, you ready?” Seena asked, tossing out more fireballs while Li’l Ur cackled in glee at the destruction from her shoulder.

The tank, though, was crouched with his fingers on the floor. “Do you feel that? The building is shaking. How many undead pounding up the stone stairs do you think are needed to make the whole building shake like this?”

“The more, the better,” Seena said.

“True,” Nivian said, standing up and moving to the door Left had come through. “How long do we need to hold?”

Hiral tore another swath of destruction across the wall and ground with his Annihilation of Amin Thett—though it had no noticeable effect on the giant—then looked to the swarming undead in the streets below. More explosions sounded even three, four, five blocks out—where the horde was the thickest—but it was constantly pushing closer. There were undead beyond that, but even they pressed forward to get as close to the action as possible, despite the rising casualty count.

“Just another minute or two,” Hiral said. “Maybe not even that. They’re doing everything they can to get to us.”

“Okay, I can do that,” Nivian said, squaring himself at the door with the skull-shield—the Aegis of Extinction—out in front of him.

“Keep pulling them in,” Seena instructed, tossing out more fireballs and drinking another potion. “Seeyela, get ready.”

“Just say the word,” Seeyela said, standing at a window near Hiral. She looked at him, then at the writhing sea of undead below. “You’re sure you’ll be okay?”

“Absolutely,” Hiral said.

“He’s overpowered,” Yanily said. “And, that word is way too long for how often I say it for him. Time to shorten it to… OP. Yeah, he’s OP, so don’t worry so much.”

Hiral shared a shrug with Seeyela at the spearman’s words, then went back to dealing with the undead coming up from the ground. Less and less of the vampires were running up the side of the wall, which likely meant they were all coming up one of the other sides he and Yanily weren’t covering. That was fine too. Other than the one hallway they needed to keep a watch on things, they’d sealed off every other entrance to the room—even from the roof. It’d take the undead long minutes, if not hours, to force their way through.

Judging by the grunt and clang, though, at least one had found its way to them from that hallway. Nivian would keep them safe there, and Hiral checked the back end of the horde again. The most crowded section was about four blocks away now, the undead pressed together so tightly they were shoulder to shoulder. A few stragglers remained behind, but almost every undead that’d been within a dozen blocks of them had joined the collective mass pressing up against the base of the building.

It was literally wall-to-wall undead right below them.

“It’s time,” Hiral said, turning and drawing his RHC on the undead engaged with Nivian.

A trigger pull—his high Atn and Dex almost making it seem like the vampire was standing still—and he scored a critical hit to the side of its head. It dropped straight to the ground, twitching slightly until Nivian stepped over it and brought the bottom of his gauntlet-covered hand down on its skull like a sledgehammer. The undead’s head splattered as the stone cracked beneath the blow, and the tank stood for his next opponent rushing through the door.

“Sis, do it,” Seena said.

“One portal coming up,” Seeyela said, grunting as she reached in front of herself with both hands, palms out and fingers splayed, and clawed reality apart. The tear in space didn’t have the same fine edges her portals usually did, and her arms shook as she held it open. “Go…” she wheezed, the effort apparent in her voice.

“Yan, Wule, me, Nivian, go,” Seena instructed, and the party moved through in quick order.

Nivian, the last to go, shield-backhanded a vampire straight through a window and over the edge, then dashed through the portal. As soon as he was gone, Seeyela’s hands fell to her side, and she dropped to a knee, shoulders heaving.

“That… was tougher than I thought,” she said, trying to push herself to her feet, but she didn’t quite make it.

“You okay?” Hiral asked, sliding in beside her and pulling both triggers at a vampire dashing into the room. Twinned blasts hit it square in the chest and sent it flying back into the one behind it.

“Need a second…” she said.

“I’ve got your back,” Hiral said, Left and Right moving to his sides as more vampires rushed into the room. “Let’s see what we can do,” he said to his doubles, and they darted ahead while Hiral took aim and fell into the rhythm of the Chord of the Primal Echo.

Left moved like the string section of a great orchestra, his trailing purple smoke and the stream from the Dagger of Sath carving a melody through the room. Right, like the wind instruments, cut in from the other side, his movements falling in tune with his double’s, the sound now echoing off the walls. Then, together, all three struck as Hiral pulled his triggers, the percussion of the piece resounding to magnify the force of their hits and drop a trio of vampires in a flash.

From Hiral’s strikes, a field of blood mist emerged, the vampires within twitching as the debuff settled on them, but two more were already past.

The first, fast as it was, got trapped within the melody of the Primal Chord, and predictably lunged in with a slashing claw strike. Hiral had already followed the music to step to the side, his right RHC casually aimed low to blow out the creature’s knee as it moved past. Staggering within the rhythm, it spun to find Hiral’s left RHC lifted to meet it at eye-level. One pull, and the vampire’s head left its body, leaving Hiral to continue flowing with the music.

That was the true power of the Primal Chord fighting styles: a debuff-like effect that pulled opponents into the music, guiding their movements without them noticing. If Hiral and his doubles simply followed the music against influenced opponents, they couldn’t lose.

The furious blue eyes of the second vampire reminded Hiral that not all enemies fell for the siren-like call of the Chord, but he still had his high Dex and Atn for them. A step back swayed him out of the way of the first punch, while he ducked under and rolled away from the second. A small boom behind him from his Echo Aura would keep the vampire off balance for a few seconds, and he rejoined the melody to put two shots into the next vampire running into the room.

Left and Right, at the same time, brought about the crescendo with a simultaneous strike on a vampire between them, outright destroying it. Hiral felt energy flow into him, then down into his hands. Green light leaked out of the barrels of his RHCs as he spun, putting one shot into the vampire still recovering from his Echo Aura explosion, then a second into a vampire running along the damn ceiling towards Seeyela.

As soon as the Ghost-Web Venom entered its system, the vampire fell from the ceiling in a twitching pile. That debuff was practically a death sentence, but not a quick one, so Hiral swept out a wave of Rejection that sent the undead flailing out a window.

“Thanks, I’m good now,” Seeyela said, back on her feet.

“Go—I’ve got this,” Hiral said, still fully within the Chord, his weapons swinging out for two more pulls of the triggers. Vampires fell to the ground, another Blood Aura spitting to life at the entrance and debuffing everything entering the room.

“Don’t dally,” Seeyela said, and then bamf—she was gone.

“Hiral, time for you to go too,” Left said.

Hiral looked at the dozen-plus vampires in the room, even more crawling in through the windows. His double was right. As strong as the Chord was, with this many, some would resist the call of the music, and one would eventually catch up to him.

“We’ll keep them busy,” Right said, pounding one of the undead with an uppercut that slammed it straight into the ceiling in a pillar of purple flame. “Go!”

“I’ll call you out as soon as I’m on the ground,” Hiral said, whirling with a wave of Rejection to clear a path to the windows.

With the vampires stumbling out of the way—or flying through the open air outside—Hiral activated his Crystal Skates and then rocketed straight for the window. Cones of Rejection behind him jetted him even faster, and with a thread of energy into his Rune of Gravity, he shot out into the air three hundred feet up.