Adamant Blood

Mark killed goblins and other people watched from the sky and from spiderbots that moved among the trees.

Samson, Aaron, and Barba were in formation with Samson at the back, shields coating his shield, Aaron flickering away and coming back every so often, and Barba picking off targets here and there.

Only Aaron had a good idea of what was coming for the team, because Aaron was flickering to light every now and then, and when he came back his awareness of the world around them was a lot larger. He spoke of what it actually looked like, down in the tunnels, where the goblins were being herded upward at Mark's lightning, and further down, where other goblins were getting ready in the tunnels to burrow upward, to attack at some unknown signal. So Aaron was a fantastic scout. His Skill, Lightspeed, seemed like the literal speed of causality, but he couldn't do anything while in that form except for run and walk around, and see the world around him. And there seemed to be a second delay of activating or deactivating the Skill, which left him vulnerable. Otherwise he was invulnerable while in Lightspeed. Also intangible. Otherwise he could have killed the goblins himself.

Samson had something he could do when he actually managed to kill something himself, and it had something to do with shielding the group, but since Mark was the only one killing, Samson was just there, waiting to be useful. He was getting more and more irritated, but the goblins that got through Mark's lightning got picked off by Barba, so it was what it was.

Isoko was keeping the team solid, and providing a nice sink for Mark's own Union.

All them were tense, waiting for the next big thing to happen.

And then something happened.

It was another flicker of thought, passing through the world and the goblins, unlike the ones that had already been sent out and received before. It was a shift in directive; not just constant updates on the battle.

And then things started happening, like someone had changed the music of the dance.

Mark felt himself on the precipice of the flow.

Something was missing, though.

This wasn't it.

This wasn't the main fight, even though it was about to be a big fight all of a sudden.

Isoko swept a pointed finger across the ground in a wide arc, all behind Mark's forward killzone, saying, "They're coming."

The ground opened up ten meters from the team along the line Isoko had indicated.

Aaron flickered, reappearing above every open hole just briefly, and then he was back in position, next to Samson and Barba. The tunnels exploded with a fulminating sound and brilliant red coloring that went straight up and also down deep into the tunnels. It wasn't basic ordnance, so it actually did something. The goblins poured out of the holes already injured—

And then Eliot blared in Mark's ears, "Goblin ordnance from the south, beyond the treeline! RUN BACKWARD!"

Ah.

That was the trick. That was the missing piece.

All of this was a distraction.

Mark pulled out the big guns again, even as Isoko organized the rapid retreat backward. Black lightning crashed in every direction. Divide and conquer; that was the best way to do this. Separate the battle into half of the goblins above ground and half below. Use the ones below to kill the ones right close, then kill the other ones. Make it look like a normal kill, the kind that Mark had been doing, but now, push it harder.

Goblin brains turned to bloody mush, black lightning passing through one and then the other, pulling, pushing, crushing and killing from the inside. They fell like the forest did; in three beats of Mark's heart, and countless sparks of Mark's own brain.

The team and Mark were already running backward with Isoko leading the way. Mark floated with them, carried on small caltrops of adamantium—

A mountain passed in front of Mark.

It was overwhelmingly tan and it was moving too fast. It was the same color as the crater walls, and it was about the size of a canyon wall when viewed from this close. It passed from right to left, south to north, and wiped away all of the vectors in front of Mark. It wiped away sound, as well. Perhaps it was too loud to hear. Dust and pebbles knocked into Mark and bounced away.

Was there sound? Who knew!

Mark could only feel it as the world vibrated in the passing of the great stone.

Mark switched to healing and defense with everything he had, and Isoko was right there with him.

The rock continued onward, crashing to the left, rolling across trees and everything else, breaking and snapping and crashing louder and louder, now that Mark could actually hear what was happening.

Mark took stock of his team, but only briefly, because they had to move again, to kill whatever had thrown that fast.

Samson was fully covered in grey light, and he might have pissed himself. Mark could relate. A flash of purity/impurity cleared away the flop sweats from everyone, and all of their hearts were racing as fast as they could possibly go.

Barba was pale as fuck and Isoko might have been, but she was full platinum. Mark wasn't feeling much better than them, but his heart was beating incredibly fast and the healing was coming through quickly.

Out with the bad!

In with the good!

Don't hyperventilate!

Samson gasped out, "Holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck—"

"We're good," Aaron said, interrupting Samson.

Which was true enough, but that had been a mountain in front of them, and the noise was still everywhere.

Mark focused on what he could.

Aaron was a little bit out of breath, actually, which was weird to see, but that cleared away in a moment, now that he was here again. The guy briefly disconnected from Union whenever he went Lightspeed, but he easily slotted back into the Union when he came back… He was looking worn out. Huh.

… Oh.

Aaron had probably had a lot of moments to contemplate what was happening when the mountain passed them by. Had he been watching the whole time, in flashes of moments, as death came for them? And he could do nothing?

… Yes. That's exactly what had happened, and Mark was feeling that from him now.

An existential horror lingered in Aaron's vector. It would take time to go away.

Aaron collected himself as much as any of them could, after a mountain passed them by, and said, "It's the Stone Shaper goblin. He's been through the Thresher. He's up on the southern crater wall with a bunch of his coven. Might be a witch or a shaman-type. Probably shaman type. We need to kill him. He cannot be allowed to do that again."

Isoko asked, "So he can't do that if we get to him fast enough? I need to be clear here. Are we walking into a kaiju stomp, or a fight we can fight?"

The Shaper goblin's first volley was still crashing across the floor of the canyon, loud as fuck and drowning out almost everything else.

Eliot's voice cut through some of the noise. "It took him five minutes to set that up and he was veiled by something the entire time he was casting that magic. I didn't see him until he dropped the veil. An AI-assisted investigation of the casual views we have had of the area shows that he was there the whole time, cooperative casting while Mark was killing fodder."

"This is too much talking," Aaron said, looking up at the sky. "We need to move fast to get them—" And then he flickered and came back, saying, "Dammit. They're moving on."

Eliot said, "They're zooming along inside the southern wall now, toward the east. They're headed toward a big buildup of goblins— FUCK! They knocked out my drones again… Okay. Other ones working now." Eliot stressed, "They're really good at sniping, so make sure your helmets are solid. We're pretty sure that there are at least 4 Marksman goblins, and they're protecting the main goblins of the tribe. There are multiple Stone Shaper goblins, too, but the main one is the main threat. He's the one that led the coven that threw that rock. He was the orange-striped one. Now his most defining feature is half his body is burned… Ah, fuck. He's getting healed by one of his minions."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Aaron muttered, "The bombs didn't work as well as I wanted them to work."

He had already seen the Shaper goblins, then, and he tried to hurt them.

Isoko said, "We should chase and kill."

Barba looked at Aaron and her voice was solid, "Aaron."

It was a command and a question.

"If it was just him then I could do it," Aaron said, "But entering and exiting Lightspeed doesn't happen at light speed."

Barba nodded. "How well guarded?"

"Marksman goblin with a bow that might have been trashed by the bombs, some sort of plant-user healer that I couldn't chip at all and which was probably a Witch-type, and 7 Stonemovers. Not Shapers. Just Movers. I think I might have gotten some of them. Going that far and coming back takes a bit, though, so… I need a moment."

He wasn't out of breath, but he was astrally weak. Mark was healing him up to full strength, though.

Samson tapped at the side of his helmet and asked whoever might answer, "Are there still goblins in this area?"

"No," Mark answered, much to the relief of Samson and Barba. Isoko already knew that they were suddenly in the clear and Aaron had probably had a look around so he wasn't already as relieved as he was going to get, under the circumstances. Mark continued, "The Lightself goblins aren't here anymore, either." Mark waved a hand, cutting off all further conversation as he decided, "We're chasing down the Stone Shaper while he is running back to base, and then we're killing the base. All of the mind goblins in the area are focused on the southern base. They're gathering there and expecting us to follow, because that is what we're here for anyway."

Samson spoke up, "I need to hit and kill something to function properly. Let some through."

"Sure," Mark said, floating into the air a little, and making stirrup-shaped handholds with his free weaponry. He floated the handholds to Isoko, Barba, and Samson, saying, "Get on. I'll throw you at some goblins when we get close, Samson. Aaron, you can walk?"

"I can." Aaron pointed beyond the new waterway that the goblin's mountain had carved. The ground was still falling inward along that path, crumbling with black ichor and rolling stones. "They're moving fast, but we can catch them."

Isoko readily grabbed Mark's adamantium handle, with Barba and Samson close behind, the two of them clicking something on their belts as they did so. They were not nearly as heavy as Isoko, which was not that surprising, but they were lighter than normal people, too. Mark raised an eyebrow at the obvious hoverbelts. Those didn't look like combat hoverbelts. They didn't look like anything at all, actually.

Barba said, "Our hoverbelts are rated for transport, not combat. Never trust combat-rated hoverbelts."

Mark found himself chuckling a little bit at that declaration. And then he focused. He tapped on his helmet, saying, "Eliot. Map. ETA till we lose them in the camp."

A readout flickered across his vision and Mark saw a wireframe model beyond the forest. It was moving east fast, but it was still on the crater wall.

Eliot said, "You have 2:30 before they hit the southern base and probably vanish inside. I'll talk about assaulting the new goblin base after you're done with the Shapers. We're making special bombs for it now."

Mark started moving, lurching with the weight he was suddenly pulling, but he was filled with adamant strength, and he moved the extra thousand kilos of weight just fine. Most of it was Isoko, in Full Platinum, but Mark was not about to ask her to drop her defenses.

None of this fight was totally ideal. For one, Mark would have liked to know how to fight with Samson and Aaron better. But this was better than waiting another few days to fight. How much of a civilization were the goblins building here? If they had waited a few days…

Well.

No.

Aurora would have killed all of the goblins if Mark and them had chosen not to fight. It was probably too dangerous for Mark and his team to be here right now.

But Mark was going to help Barba get her revenge. He was going to prove himself a leader. He was going to prove that he had what it takes to hang with the big powers.

And he was going to kill all monsters.

Mark raced forward, directly at the mountain-sized (maybe just mountain-top sized) furrow in the forest floor. He reached the edge and lined up his caltrops and his extra weight, and then he hunkered down and went sailing. Flying, but not quite. More like a controlled fall.

Mark landed on the opposite side of the new gorge in the canyon floor, stabbing adamantium into the stone for support, holding on as he raced up the new furrow. Boulders fell down but Mark remained on top, racing forward.

"We won't make it in time," Barba said. "Aaron. Path through the woods."

Aaron was up on the side of the furrow but now he flickered and reappeared ahead, standing in a half of a clearing. The other half of the clearing was still falling down into the new furrow in the flooring. Aaron gestured his way.

So that was the way to go. Noted.

Mark briefly glanced upward, at the crater wall. It had been intact. Trees had been growing there. But now there was a giant hole in the upper half. One Stone Shaper and an assortment of help did that. Mark swung up to Aaron's spot, and Aaron reappeared further in the forest. Mark felt him with Unionsense faster than he visually recognized Aaron's new position.

Mark allowed himself a single moment of distraction, to look back at the destruction of the thrown mountain top. It was worse than he had imagined. The mountain had driven deep and scattered far, crashing across everything. A huge plume of dust was still rising into the sky over there, to be carried on the winds. It was coming this way. Soon, the sun would vanish behind that cloud.

And then Mark was in the glowing forest, following Aaron, as the guy blinked and reappeared in clear areas almost straight ahead. Mark held Samson, Barba, and Isoko high off of the ground, and skimmed across the land, over trees and across large black pools of ichor.

Barba's vector and voice were torn as she saw the forest and said, "The goblins killed everything! There should be… be life! Monkeys and sloths! But they're all gone."

"There are birds and bugs," Isoko said.

Mark got them focused on the mission, "I'm on the Shaper. I'll try to take down the rest, but I probably won't be able to do that. Should be able to interrupt any attempts at them organizing big magic, though."

"Right," Barba said, trying to ignore the lack of life in the forest.

Aaron flickered ahead, again and again, and Mark watched as the little distance indicators on his lens counted down from 1400 meters and then to 1250. And then Aaron flickered into the light, beyond the treeline, pointing up and forward, and Mark was right there with him, looking up at the crater wall, at the traveling ridge of the wall, where the goblins were running in the open. They were on the top of the ridge, which was not exactly a ridge. It looked too straight to be a ridge.

Except for a loose treeline and a few ichor falls, it was open crater wall between here and there

Barba glared, saying, "Harass them, Aaron."

"On it," Aaron said. And then he flickered and vanished.

Samson said, "I need to kill something, and then this will be a lot safer!"

"On it," Mark said, as he rushed them forward, up the crater wall.

Caltrop dug into the almost-vertical surface, and Mark ascended with his team.

Thirty seconds later, Mark and his team were on a ridge that was not a ridge anymore. At least not on this side. The goblins were transforming it into a city wall. It was still rough hewn, but the goblins had been working fast on fortifications. They were planning on making the dragonoid canyons their home.

Fuck that.

Mark raced forward across the flattop ridge, the 'goblin city wall', and up ahead lights blossomed, followed by concussion blasts rippling the air. Bombs, from Aaron. And then Aaron reappeared next to Mark, slipping back into his Union. He was missing the right side of his helmet, his hair and face exposed and bloody, but he was alive. He was beat up in a lot of different ways.

"Stay back here!" Barba said. "Let me off up ahead, Mark."

"Marksman dead," Aaron called out, his voice trailing backward as Mark left him behind.