Rising Kite - A story from the world of HWFWM

“Heavens no.” Walker interrupted Grim as a response to the elf’s suggestion of sacrificing himself in order for the rest of their group to escape. “We should not lean into that unless all other options are taken from us. As we stand now, we still have some time to-” he continued, but was interrupted as fate apparently conspired to disperse even that small moment of calm.

For a brief moment, they saw silhouettes passing through what Kite knew to be Grim’s most potent lingering area effects. The elf manservant-bodyguard had a few different spells along the theme, and seemed as concerned as the rest of them as the presences crossed through in a manner of moments.

“Ready-” was all Walker had time to shout before a bronze-ranked woman in slate-gray armor emerged, looking not entirely unlike a crumbling statue. Kite almost thought he could see pleading in her eyes, but they became flat once more as she gave a pained cry. Her raised shield projected a barrier which gave the rest of the emerging group a perimeter before she, to the observer's confusion, crumbled into stone flakes.

However, there was little time to reflect further as he was already moving in to intercept along with Dragonfly, Will and uncle Walker as Grim and Serene formed their backline. The series of interconnected rooms became a battleground. Fortunately, the environment was rather simple with the only furniture being cots cut directly into the stone wall and a few stone tables and blocks for chairs.

The groups collided, uncle Walker and Dragonfly seeking out the bronze-ranked enemies. While it would normally be Grim who tried engaging the second bronze-ranker, his more spell-oriented powerset and the strain of keeping up the glass storm, which kept the undead at bay, made him more a backline priority in this case.

Dragonfly, on the other hand, was a lot more powerful now than she had been when they entered the complex. Her ability which ramped up her speed and damage from the number of hits suffered was already filled to bursting as she had a fierce glow shining out through her skin. This gave her strength and speed on par with a middling bronze-ranker, power further bolstered by her might essence. Only the rank-disparity gave the bronze-ranker an edge, but Dragonfly held her own so far as she leveraged her heavy attacks against the thin, dancing sword of her opponent.

Kite’s frequent pulses of all-round vision was showing him that chains had started winding through the air like ribbons trailing after a dancer, their source being an iron-ranked young woman with hair so white that it almost looked translucent and movements both fast and supremely controlled. He did feel something different in her aura than the rest, an unpleasant tingling against his own as its strength surpassed his. Without Serene’s presence and his resilience to aura suppression he was sure that his own would have been ground down by now, but Kite had to leave Will to chase after her as he was instead engaged by a heavily armored foe with a huge hammer which felt like a meteor as it descended towards him.

Before training under master Stone, Kite would surely have sought to dodge the descending attacks which gave off a palpable pressure, not trusting his barriers to be up to the task. And while there were still areas in life where he felt floundering and insecure, the resilience of his path was not one of them.

“My path will not be cracked by the world, but be tempered by it” ran through his mind as he spoke.

“Ward.”

As the hammer glanced off the well-timed barrier, Kite was already striking a return blow, his staff appearing in a chiming arc to collide with the opponent’s waist. As it struck, the dispelling and mana-draining force echoed once and Kite could see to his satisfaction that a strength increasing effect as well as a boon of stamina regeneration winked out.

He was just about to step around his opponent when his all-round perception revealed that Dragonfly’s foe had been pressing her harder recently due to another conjured sword having appeared, one which flew on its own and harried her like a hornet. A flick of his wrist sent the throwing star towards the flying blade, Kite’s many hours of practice paying dividends as it hit the thin, glowing sword which in turn shattered. The star ricocheted off toward the sword’s summoner to affect him as well, but was deflected with a flick of the swordsman’s wrist.

His opening gone, Kite had to refocus on his opponent who’s hammer was once more swinging at him, this time sideways. He saw that some kind of field enveloped the crushing head, a gravitational effect of sorts which drew him toward the attack. Instead of a barrier, his response was to plant his feet firmly and interpose his staff while activating his own power of resilience [Unyielding]. Even though the greater mass of the hammer should have broken through the guard, it stopped surprisingly abruptly while sending a jolt of pain through Kite’s body and causing slight cracks to form under his feet.

The counterattack, carrying both part of the absorbed force as well as vicious spatial tears of Void-Sunders-Firmament, connected with her left elbow, the resonating force of the attack and enchantment ensuring that the flesh beneath the heavy armor wasn’t left unblemished. If not for a visible flash of mana around the area, as his foe activated some kind of resilience-power of her own, Kite wouldn’t have been surprised to have his return strike cripple the arm thoroughly. He would at least have expected her to lose a bit of function, but she fought on seemingly unaffected.

Just as he was about to renew his attack, a scream of pure agony echoed throughout the dormitory. Kite recognized it as belonging to Will, coming from a bit further into the series of rooms where he had chased his foe. Looking back at Grim, Kite could see the man almost seeming mentally torn in half as he couldn’t move to his charge’s side and still keep sight of his active storm of shards, a requirement for the spell as long as he sustained it.

Grim’s eyes met Kites as the younger man summoned a barrier behind him to block another strike, courtesy of his perception power, Kite only giving a short nod before activating the movement power of his belt to shoot towards the back room. As he went, he could see a small stream of glass flying towards his opponent, pinning her in place as rents and tears started appearing all over her armor as Grim took over the foe he left behind.

Kite darted by uncle Walker who fought the second bronze-ranker along with one of the iron-rankers, skidding to a halt outside the room from where he still heard screams of pain. He saw his friend dangling from a series of chains which had entangled him from all sides, face frozen in gaping agony as the chains pulsed with a red-purple light. His opponent was currently ducking, weaving and dodging to avoid Will’s attacks, her intense expression having somewhat of a pleased expression as she seemed to feel the situation well in hand. Still, his friends fought on as conjured javelins streamed toward his opponent and a veritable phalanx of pikes surrounded him. But Kite’s magical perception told him that his friend was being drained of his stamina, and fast. It would not be long until he fell limp, no longer able to resist.

It would not be long now until he fell limp, the cocky elf who had pursued her so eagerly. He had so far put up a good fight, the best iron-ranker she had faced so far. But in the end, he hadn’t been good enough and hadn’t anticipated the gravity of the threat her chains posed. River had to give it to him that he did fight competently enough even while the pain must be absolutely agonizing.

She danced out of the way of a pair of javelins, sending chains lashing out at her immobilized target while springing off a wall to pass over the small phalanx of conjured weapons the elven boy had surrounded himself with. Before she could lash out again, another silhouette darkened the entrance to the sizable dorm. It was the young human with the stone armor. She could see the armor absorbing some of the loose stone broken off from walls and floor by stray attacks to reinforce the obsidian ridges covering it. Over each shoulder was a small vortex, and River recognized them right away as responsible for that annoying constant pull on her mana.

As the young elf was effectively finished anyway, River smiled at the newcomer as she changed direction, flowing over a nearby stone table, steps so light that she barely touched it before springing off.

“It is most kind of them to come after me one at a time.” she thought idly, exerting near perfect control of her movements while changing targets.

While still airborne, she sent two conjured chains lashing out in arcs toward the newcomer while simultaneously swaying to the side in the air to avoid a small thrown weapon of sorts.

Just a moment later, three things happened, all threatening to make her smile just a bit more strained. The first of her twin-attacks was harmlessly deflected off a conjured barrier, strange symbols covering its surface, while her second looked as if it would connect with her enemy’s arm before the chain dissolved, taking more of her mana along with it.

What threatened her composure the most was when she felt her chains holding the elf dissolve as well, but she still retained enough awareness to dodge the throwing star as it ricocheted toward her.

River did not let her stride falter even in the face of such adversity, sending out more conjured chains to push off the environment, turning the leap into a zigzagging motion so as to not give away her trajectory. More chains sprang from her arms, feinting towards the walls as if to assist her movement before suddenly veering off at an angle to strike at his sides and back. Just before they impacted, she heard him mutter a short “Wall”, and walls of force appeared on either side of him, creating a corridor into the room which blocked off her multi-angle assault.

Her mind tried to comprehend how he could have traced all of the incoming attacks at once, before realization struck her. “He has the same perception power as me.” she thought, only now recognizing the almost uncannily steady gaze of someone who didn’t need to move his eyes much to take in his surroundings. Her own perception power was one of the fulcrums her combat style relied upon, as it let her dive in amongst her foes and still retain control.

In the corridor of force walls, the two clashed. Just before he closed the distance, she felt an uneasy feeling throughout her body as the two vortices above her enemy seemed to focus their attention on her and her alone, which left her mana being drained from her at a worrying rate.

The following melee was an intense series of exchanges. River quickly realized that she was a more skilled combatant than him, her intense tempering throughout her life having honed her to a razor’s edge. However, his eclectic set of weapons and powers constantly threw off her rhythm as conjured chains and active boons were disrupted and even glancing hits from him, be it unarmed or weapon, drained even more mana from her.

The mounting frustration finally had her cursing inwardly “Damnation, he is so annoying!”

“Heavens, she is so annoying!” Kite thought as he continued his impromptu duel with the young woman. Her speed and skill would surely have brought him low already had he not possessed the means to deny or at least blunt some of those advantages. For every chain or unarmed strike he blocked or deflected, another struck true as she simply attacked too fast or with enough skill to leave him unable to properly defend against them all. For each hit, even if most was absorbed through his armor, he felt a sharp pain lance through his body, draining stamina and attempting to build up a debilitating slowness. The latter was mostly resisted or taken care of by Implacable motion helping him to resist such movement-hampering effects, but the former put a bit of a timer on his endurance.

Their exchanges lasted only for a few seconds, but he could see how quickly she adapted as she started using her chains only in the awkward angles less likely to be blocked and dispelled, all the while keeping him on the defensive with her superior speed. In an attempt to buy himself some room, he had Sage unleash its stored energies in a white beam which the familiar swept low, causing her to jump above it. At the same time, Kite decided to accept some blows as he struck from above with his staff, the chiming head surrounded by the rifts of the void. She twisted in the air, but he still hit her over one upper arm with a satisfying snapping sound.

However, his victory was violently pulled back to a draw as the three chains he had intended to leave to his armor suddenly twined together into a piercing, spinning strike which struck his left shoulder, causing blood to splatter over his force walls before he could counter and dispel the attack.

She landed a few meters ahead of him, and looked ready to get back to fighting while seemingly ignoring her broken arm. Her plans were quickly changed however, as Will took that time to strike. There was no glorious technique called from where he launched a barrage of glowing spears at her back, the attack clustered thickly enough to leave no room for dodging. But dodge she did. Kite saw a flash of mana before she became a blur which rushed past him and back out toward the main battle, leaving him to conjure a barrier or be pierced by Will’s attack in her stead.

Kite let his conjured walls disappear, eating one of auntie Dove’s more potent healing pills while he could see Will do the same. His friend’s body seemed to be recovering, but slowly as his muscles spasmed and twitched uncontrollably at times and he seemed utterly drained of stamina. Kite quickly went to his side to support him as they started making their way back toward the main battle as well.

“I’m exhausted, but I still have my mana. Help me get over so I can see them, and they won’t escape my eager shaft.” Will stated grimly, his pride obviously wounded by having been forced to such a state. Kite only nodded as they both went back to help their allies.

As during most battles these last few days, Serene had felt increasingly pressed to keep up. Even when she was left mostly to her own devices, the need for healing, boons or positional adjustments constantly gave her a myriad of opportunities which sometimes threatened to leave her in decision paralysis over which to take. She thanked the goddess for the increased spirit attribute which helped her brain through some of the strain, but still found it hard to focus.

This was especially true as she recognized the red-purple light some of the enemy attacks gave off, the memories of soul-deep pain threatening to resurface. To counteract this, she fell deeper into the song of her goddess, her fourfold aura enveloping the room. She felt the conflict and clashes of mana acutely, as well as the throng of death waiting just outside the barrier created by Grim’s ongoing attack.

Dragonfly was hit by a direct blow, and she weaved healing into the song. “Renew your flesh, return thine song”

One of the iron-rankers tried to flank Walker, and a gust of wind threw the attacker out of position for the third time. “Carried by the heavenly wind”

Chant a spell to restore Grim’s mana. “Let the song of thine spirit rise anew.”

Cleanse a stacking affliction from Dragonfly. “Let the song of thine soul purge the disharmony.”

The opportunities came more quickly, some passed by while others arose at the same time, forcing her to choose. And where she might have faltered a year ago, now she forged on. She was in the very presence of those she had sworn to stand up to, the very reason to stay in these lands of loss.

“Goddess, grant me clarity” she thought as her mind strained to keep up, to keep her friends and allies safe. To keep them from the pain.

“You have already built your song quite well, little singer. Its harmony is as glorious as your situation is dire.” Song’s voice sang in her mind, as always weaving into whatever tune Serene was currently carrying. “But you have strived and practiced, and proven yourself worthy. Carry my blessing, little singer, and may your song be heard across the world.”.

Serene could feel a wellspring of power, at the same time close and ever so far away. And with it came an offer. An offer which she wholeheartedly embraced. Gray light burst from her body tinted with the pale blue of the goddess Song.

As her goddess’ blessing coursed through her, Serene did not stop her chanting. Instead, she allowed some of the words to simply dissolve into notes, splitting her voice to carry a spell as a droning tone, accompanying the rest of the harmony and ready to be unleashed in a moment’s notice.

WWJS:

You have accepted a divine blessing from the goddess Song.

Celestine racial gift [Mana integrity] is transfigured into [Divine conductor]

[Divine conductor]: Ongoing mana costs for maintained abilities are reduced. Resistance to mana drain effects is increased

You may turn a spell chant into a droning tone, keeping it from taking effect for as long as you hold the tone. When you release the tone, the spell takes effect instantly. You may cast other spells while keeping the tone, but may only keep one spell at a time in this way.

What had earlier felt like a dam close to bursting suddenly became a more controlled flow, as Serene could now chant a spell and hold it in readiness, awaiting the right opportunity while continuing her preventive or reactive magical interventions. She felt thankful for the intuitive understanding of such abilities, and vowed to give it her all in practice should they survive this ordeal.

With this development, Serene became an even greater force multiplier for her side. The spell she employed the most was her simple movement spell from the wind essence, allowing her to move an ally or attempt to shift an enemy. She began its casting as soon as she had a moment to spare, keeping the droning tone as yet another layer of her song before unleashing it at just the right moment. And as positioning was the core subject of their recent training under instructor Concente, the slight difference quickly started paying dividends when she could surprise her opponents with sudden repositioning a lot more frequently.

Seeing a particularly nice opportunity, she released the held spell towards the iron-ranker flanking Walker. She had hit the man with this spell multiple times during the engagement, even though he showed little frustration in either his aura or face. However, the recent blessing from her goddess allowed her to time it just right.

As the battle-thrall’s weight was shifting with only one foot on the ground, the directed and forceful wind stream sent him once more tumbling off along the floor. What made it this different this time around was not the spell, but the angle and effect. As Serene struck at just the right time as he made another flanking attempt at her ally, the wind pushed him in just the right angle and just far enough to be thrown back into the corridor from whence they all had entered. The corridor still filled with a devastating storm of bronze-ranked magical glass shards.

Eerily enough, there was no scream as splatters of blood suddenly coated the inside of the corridor. Serene unfortunately saw it all, and knew that the death took seconds as the iron-rankers skin, muscle and finally bone was shredded even through his gray metal armor.

This happened just as one of their enemies came bounding back into the room, trailing chains and one arm dangling limply. It was the woman with the translucent-white hair, and her eyes suddenly locked onto Serene as if truly noticing her. So far into the battle, Serene’s carefully crafted aura veil had left her mostly unmolested, only stray shots made against her before another of her allies regained their attention.

She couldn’t hear what the woman said over the din of battle, but the bronze-ranker engaging Walker suddenly disappeared in a spark of lightning as the woman activated a movement ability. And reappeared just before Serene, crackling gauntlet descending.

Kite, still half-carrying Will, re-entered the chamber where the main battle took place just in time to see his former opponent give some kind of command and one of the bronze-rankers disappearing. He felt a chill inside as he saw the woman reappear before Serene, a potent special attack already on its way. Cursing his path for not having a teleport of its own, he could only speed up toward them in the hopes of intervening before it was too late.

While Serene was by no means defenseless, possessing an invisible barrier of sound to blunt many hits, she was still the least experienced in being up close and personal with an opponent of higher rank. And from the mana spent on the attack, the crackling strike was a powerful one.

As it impacted, Serene’s silhouette seemed to crack all at once as a small thunderclap echoed through the room. A moment later, the crackling image revealed itself to be a bubble of glass, Grim having activated one of his powers to take her place. Even his bronze-ranked protective skill, employed just after the transposition of the two, instantly shattered and Grim was sent swaying backwards. For a short moment, he seemed to have fallen unconscious before his gaze snapped back to wakefulness.

Even as he rolled backwards with the force of the blow, he sent a staggered trio of tightly clustered glass bursts at his opponent, driving her back toward her allies and injuring her. But the strike had already done devastating damage of another kind, as the first zombie stormed into the room but a scant few seconds later.

From their time together, Kite knew that Grim’s more lengthy effects required his concentration and focus. The elven man was very proficient at keeping both calm and composed even through battle, but being so thoroughly stunned was beyond even his ability to maintain concentration.

Thinking quickly, Kite shouted a quick “Wall!” as three layered walls of force appeared to block off the opening before too many zombies could pour through. As they started shattering almost instantly, the whole group of adventurers knew that the battle would be lost. If they could have held out long enough to defeat the ambushing force, then the undead might have been manageable afterwards. But both together would spell certain doom.

Walker knew that as well as he shouted orders. “Retreat! Back room. Serene, give us some space.” He unleashed his own most powerful skill as the conjured flora scattered around the room split into even more razor petals which he then sent flying against all the remaining enemies. The two enemy bronze-rankers made a concerted effort of lightning and blade to blunt the attack and protect their remaining iron-ranked companions, but Walker’s attack bought Serene enough time to finish her spell chant.

“Be swept away by the hammer of the hurricane!”

The wide wall of wind impacted their foes, further pushing them back toward the entrance while Walker’s razor petals harried them. This allowed the group of adventurers to regroup in front of another dormitory room deeper inside the complex, Kite and Will arriving last as the rest threw what attacks they could in order to keep their foes at bay for a few seconds longer.

“It does seem like all our options are exhausted.” Walker stated grimly as Serene’s winds faded at the same time that the last of Kite’s barriers were hammered down and zombies started spilling into the room. “Kite, use the gate. Give us a few seconds. Grim… bring up the portal.”

The elf nodded, glass archway already rising in the room behind them as Kite finished his chant.

“Void!”

The darkness of the Gate of Nihility covered not only the door but a bit of the walls around it as Kite put all of the gathered charges of Potential of Stolen Power into the spell as well. The result was a more stable gate with a longer duration which also restored a bit of health, stamina and mana as it absorbed projectiles. It was eerie how silent it became as the gate completely isolated the stone room, nothing being heard from beyond although Kite could feel attacks starting to impact the protective void.

“You must all go through.” Walker stated, the statement meant for all of them but locking gazes with Kite.

The young man stood frozen for a moment, the implication of impending loss feeling like a knife held against his heart. “Uncle, no. There has-” he began, before the room shook as something impacted the wall beside the protective, silent void gate.

“Time for protests later, little Kite.” Walker stated softly. “But you have to go. I am the only one that might have the slightest chance of escape.”

Grim gave Walker a silent nod as he started herding the others through, almost forcibly throwing Will through the portal.

Kite remained frozen as the room shook again, his world shaking a bit with it. It wasn’t fair. There wasn’t time. He-

Breathing out, he reached a trembling hand into a pocket, retrieving a small object which he pushed against uncle Walker’s chest.

“May Fortune preserve you uncle, if not from this then from the words we will have about this. I love you.” he said, eyes clear but voice slightly choked as he allowed himself to be led back towards the portal.

Walker looked down at the small token engraved with the emblem of Fortune, chuckling slightly. “How could this old man do anything but his best for a kid like you?”

At this time, the void gate was flickering at the edges, a clear sign that it would soon destabilize. Kite looked at his uncle once more before passing through the portal, taking him in. The stoic, if small, smile. The small, neatly trimmed mustache. The short-cropped black hair. And his eyes, vigilant but always with a gleam as he looked upon Kite. Not trusting his voice, he nodded again and went through the portal. Only Grim and Serene remained, still not having stepped through.

“May the song of the goddess remain with you, Brave Walker of Paths.” Serene said softly, as she chanted a quick spell just as the barrier came undone. It was one of her least used spells, held onto for just moments like this.

“Unite with the gentle breeze.”

As the dark gate vanished, the ravening zombies were the first to spill into the room, filled with the boons of their dark god. But both they and the group led by Dancer on the Broken River were only met by the sight of a glass portal arch shattering into pieces which dissipated before touching the ground and a breeze which flowed around them, carrying the scent of the forest.

Walker found himself surprised to learn that being turned into an incorporeal, sentient gust of wind was a surprisingly refreshing experience. They had so far not needed to use Serene’s defensive trump card, but he had to give it to the priestess; it was a novel way to travel indeed. Knowing it to be short lived, he flowed through the crowd of zombies which filled the room and still mingled in the hall beyond. While incorporeal he could feel the foul, tainted air around the undead trying to mix with his swirling ‘substance’, and shuddered slightly at the vile sensation.

The spell lasted him back out to the intersection where they had made the choice to turn into what in the end could have been their grave. Feeling heaviness return to his form, Walker seemingly fell out of the air a moment later, his conjured grass sword already slicing in a spinning descent not unlike the swirling seed falling from some kinds of trees.

Zombies fell apart around him as he spent more mana to cause even more plants to spring up. By this time, the ever-perceptive iron-ranker with the white hair had spotted him and was trying to have her group force their way through the tide of unthinking zombies. Walker did not intend to stay that long.

Deeming the amount of growth to be sufficient, he leapt into a large patch of ferns and activated the closest thing he had to teleportation, an ability which allowed him to jump between plants, not needing line of sight to those he had conjured himself. However, there was a bit of a delay between uses, so he could not immediately use it again when appearing from the one of the plants left in his wake during their entry into the complex, the one closest to the exit.

Unfortunately, the conjured plants withered quickly if he strayed too far from them, and he had already known that the ones left outside had withered as they had gone too far into the mountain. “Still, best to always leave a trail.” he thought happily as he exited from a series of vines which grew up the stone walls. His thoughts immediately soured as some enterprising priest of undeath seemed to have actually thought ahead and sent a force of zombies to spread out along the corridors leading to the exit.

“If only your masters thought as thoroughly about their life choices.” he grunted as he started cutting down one zombie after another as he fought his way toward the exit, using his movement powers and conjuring plants to bypass them through leaps and swings when possible.

Not long after, the exit had just come into view as a silhouette clad in robes melted out from a nearby patch of darkness.

“Did you really think you could escape us so easily, little fly?” the priestess of Undeath asked, a rictus grin visible beneath her hood. “I assure you that-”

Walker, who had no time for such drama, simply activated another burst of speed from his Hunt essence and dashed past her in a blur. This pragmatic approach did prove a mistake, unfortunately.

Just as he was about to pass out into the forest outside, an unseen formation which definitely hadn’t been there on the way in suddenly filled with a black not-light tinged with purple. Several long, decaying tongues shot up from the circle to wrap around him like tentacles, and while he managed to leap over the first two, his momentum was yanked to a halt as his left arm got stuck.

Feeling a chilling necrosis spread from where more of the disgusting appendages were slithering up his arm, he looked down. His leap had almost cleared the circles, him standing just on the edge and pulling outwards with all his strength. The forest and its freedom was so tantalizingly close. But the tongue-tentacles grasp was not within his strength to escape, and wouldn’t yield easily to his blade either as he hacked at the vile things, one even getting close to his shoulder where it wound itself up his now icy cold left arm.

“And a rude fly as well.” she ‘tsskd’ from where she stood on the other side of the circle. “But like most flies, you did not care enough where you flew. Do you know what happens to flies who get caught?” she asked through the ever-present rictus grin. Walker kept his focus on chopping through the second of the offending limbs, not answering.

“They get eaten.”

As she finished the last words, huge, square teeth appeared all around the rim of the formation with Walker still inside it, rising from the ground as a huge, slobbering mouth. The teeth slammed together with a loud crack which echoed through the forest, followed by the ‘thump’ of flesh falling to the ground.