Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

As El's eyes lingered on the icefield in front of her, brain still reeling from the destruction she'd wrought, background noise slowly filtered back into her ears. Where she half-expected to hear quiet awe behind her, the sounds of continued gunfire instead echoed off the tunnel walls.

They're still fighting? Did some get by?

El whipped around, bow still in one hand, Nidina and Laze turning at the same time. Far ahead of them and down the line of refugees, light flashed in time with the bangs. "Dayne? What's going on?"

"Little monsters with hangnails came from behind and out of the side tunnels," Dayne said, his voice just uneven enough to tell El he was fighting as he spoke. "Soldiers are holding for now."

"We're coming to support," El said loud enough for Tas and Macer to hear, then pushed power into her wings. Feet gliding just inches above the tunnel floor, she darted upright around the two soldiers, Nidina falling in behind her.

"I'll stay close to the front in case more come from this direction," Laze said into the communication magic.

El held out her arm to the side and gave a thumbs-up, then ignited a sword in that hand. Fifty feet down the line, she found her first little monster body—What are these things even called? Guess we can use Dayne's name for now—with its chest torn up by bullet holes. Two civvies sat curled up against a nearby wall, blood running from wounds across their thighs while one of the soldiers worked on bandaging them up. Even the soldier had a nasty gash on his arm, but from the looks of things, all three of them would live, so El continued on.

She didn't have to go much further before she spotted the next flash of gunfire, and she sped up to assist a pair of soldiers dealing with three of the monsters—now called hangnails in her head. A small side tunnel—no higher than her waist—sat off to her right, but she only glanced at it before diving into the melee. All things considered, even without her help, the soldiers probably would've managed—there were already two other monster bodies on the floor—but El's arrival sped things up a bit.

Seeing her barrel into the hangnail on the left, blades carving as she went, the two soldiers focused their fire on the beast on the right. El kept one eye on them while she shouldered her target into the wall, then shortened her sword into a thick knife to drive into the thing's head.

Despite each using the same kind of gun Tas had, neither of the soldiers seemed afraid to get in close. With the small tunnels and the risk of the misses putting bullets in civilians, the two women risked life and limb at the monsters' claws to ensure a solid hit. And they were quick. Almost like the Firestorm two-knife style, Candles at Dawn and Dusk, the soldiers ducked into the fight with their weapons in close.

Using their own bodies as distractions and shields to hide their intentions, they lured the monster to make wide, sweeping attacks. Then, at the last second when it looked like they'd be cut in two, they moved impossibly fast to the side, a gun barrel appearing and then flashing. Rocked by the close-range blasts, the monster staggered back, blood blossoming from a hole in its chest, only for the next solider to dance in and put rounds in both its knees. As soon as the hangnail's back hit the ground, both soldiers appeared standing above it as if by magic, guns pointed down, and pulled the triggers.

And, as for the third monster? Nidina hit it like a bladestorm, carving it to pieces in a few succinct motions.

With those three dead—and a nod of appreciation from the two soldiers—El and Nidina skimmed their way down the tunnel towards Dayne. More flashes and bangs resounded as the battle continued, but at least it wasn't the same swarm that'd come from the front.

The two Firestorm cut down the next group of monsters without even slowing, their blades of blue and red parting flesh with equal ease. Beyond that group, things got a little dicier, with half-a-dozen creatures still in the midst of crawling out of side tunnels into a cluster of grouped civvies. Intermingled like they were, the soldiers were struggling without any clear shots at all, despite forcing themselves in close. El and Nidina couldn't just go in swinging in either, so it was back to knives and trusting in their armor.

El bodily tackled one hangnail as its claws reached for the back of an older man shielding his family, driving it to the ground as her arm pumped beside her. A pinch across her back accompanied the flash of blue sparks from her frost armor getting raked by the monster's claws, but each thrust of her arm came back with a splash of thick beast blood. One, two, three, four times she stabbed before the thing beneath her finally stopped struggling, and she rolled off just in time to spot Nidina kick a monster in the face across the way.

A second monster leapt atop the other Firestorm's back, claws dragging across her chest and spitting gouts of fire. Grimacing against the pain even through her armor, Nidina jerked backwards, slamming herself into the tunnel wall with the monster in between. As soon as she hit, the beast grunting at the impact, Nidina ignited her wings.

That… didn't go well for the monster, its body falling into multiple pieces in a shower of still-burning blood.

Three down and three more to go.

By that point, El was back on one foot, hands on the ground in a crouch, and she ignited flames around each of them. Not shaping them into any weapon more particular than a pair of thick gauntlets, she got her other foot under her before bringing her arms up into Fire Fists. More a standard boxing technique than anything, El supplemented it with a boost from her wings as she weaved into the group of civvies and monsters.

Jab, jab, cross, she stunned the first and knocked it away, then brought both arms up to protect her head from a vicious horizontal slash from a leaping creature. Lines of ignorable pain traced across her forearms, but the aggressive maneuver left the creature vulnerable in the air right in front of her. Following the path of its flight as her body turned with it, El brought her right arm up and down in a smashing hook into the creature's back. Bone crunched beneath her knuckles, frost spreading from the impact that seemed to devour the flesh.

A pained screech escaped the piranha-face before it abruptly got the wind knocked out of it by hitting the tunnel floor. Then Nidina stabbed it in the head, which really shut it up. That left only one monster as an immediate threat—BANG—it practically flipped where it stood as the side of its head erupted. A second gunshot ended the life of the other monster El had punched, then she and Nidina dashed down the tunnel.

From there, the remaining monsters fell with little fanfare, spread too thin to be a major threat, and the three Firestorm converged to crush any opposition between them. It took only a minute for them to meet up with Dayne, the big man with a sword in one hand and a stocky, short warhammer in the other.

"Rear secure," Dayne said simply.

"Good work," El said. "Laze, things still quiet up there?"

"All secure up here," Laze said. "I scouted ahead a bit, and there were more of… whatever these things are around the turn in the tunnel."

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"We're calling them hangnails. You took care of them?"

"Hangnails?" Nidina asked quietly to Dayne, who just shrugged.

"No, you did with your little arrow of blue doom," Laze said.

"Wasn't so little," Nidina cut in over the communication magic.

"Either way, the blast wave cleared another fifty feet down the tunnel for us. Took out half as many of these hangnail-things again. If there were any more than that, they're long gone," Laze said. "Looks like we've got a clear tunnel ahead of us for a bit."

"That's good news," El said.

"Pretty much where the good news ends, though," Laze said. "I think I can see the breach in the tunnel ahead. A lot of water coming in. Like we were guessing before, most of it looks to be running off into side tunnels, but it's a lot of water. Might be tough to get by."

"Okay, I'll be back up that way in a minute. Meet me at Tas, we'll have to get him in on this. Dayne, head to the back and keep it secure. Nidina, sorry to keep you moving, but can you patrol the line a bit? Make sure the soldiers are okay and support where you can?"

"Sure," Nidina said. "Expecting another attack?"

"Not really, but I've been surprised before," El said, and Nidina gave her a salute. "Coming now, Laze." With that, El glided back down the tunnel towards where she'd left Tas and her friend, arriving to find Tas and Laze already in conversation.

"… and it's a big hole, we have no choice but to find a way to detour around it," Tas was saying.

"Hey, everybody okay up here?" El asked, setting her feet down and dousing her wings. Compared to the rest of the line of refugees, the area directly behind Tas had the least hangnail bodies of anywhere. She didn't even see any blood.

"Just shook up," Macer said, rifle still in hand.

"Shook up, and low on ammo," Tas amended. "I'll have to check with the rest of the troops, but if they're in the same place me and Macer are, the best we'll be doing is spitting at the next wave that attacks."

"Low on ammo…? Those bullets?" El asked. "You can't just make some more?"

"No, we can't just make some more," Tas said flatly. "We need proper equipment to make them. Think of them like nails. Back in the day, before… you know, our Ember went missing, we could condense our own Sparks enough to form a bullet with every shot. When our Sparks got weaker, we had to improvise."

"Ah. How many bullets do you have left?"

Tas held up each of his pistols. "Just what's in these."

"Same here," Macer said, showing her rifle, then tapping the pistol on her thigh.

"Let's hope we don't run into anymore hangnails, then," El said, eyes scanning over the frostfield in front of her. The ice didn't give any sign it'd be melting soon, but maybe that was for the best.

"Hangnails?" Macer asked.

"These little monsters," El said. "Let's table that for later, though. Without bullets, what can you do?"

"We all carry knives," Tas said, shrugging helplessly as he put his guns away. "But against these things? We don't have the same odds as you."

"We'll try to make sure it doesn't get to that point, which means we really need to get out of these tunnels and to the next fort. You think there'll be bullets there you can get?" El asked.

"Definitely."

"Which means we need to address this water issue. Why do we have to go around it? Why can't we just go straight through it?"

Tas looked back towards the line of exhausted civilians. "Maybe we can, but I'm worried about them. The water in these parts is cold, and that's not even considering how much is coming down. We don't have magic armor giving us extra strength, or a powerful Spark to keep up warm. We just might not be able to make it through. And even if we do, people are going to be cold and wet on top of tired."

El nodded. And, from what Tas was saying, they still had almost twenty miles in the tunnel to go.

"Let's go take a look at this water, then, see if we can't find a way past," she said.

"Even getting to the water could be a problem," Macer said, pointing at the stretch of ice down the tunnel. And, it wasn't just the icy surface that'd make footing treacherous, but also the abundance of claws protruding at random angles the entire way. While El's blast had broken down flesh and muscle, then coated what was left in a thick layer of nearly perfect ice, it hadn't done as much damage to the bones and claws. What remained was an obstacle course of pointy things.

And not everybody could just fly over it.

"Yeaaaaaah," El said slowly, then tapped into the communication magic of her armor. "Hey, Nidina, sorry to change up your orders just after giving them to you, but we're going to need you up here."

"On my way back," Nidina said.

While waiting for the other Firestorm, El, Laze, Tas, and Macer worked with the closest—least injured—civvies and soldiers to get them organized for the next step. While they didn't know exactly how they'd get past the water yet, having them prepped for the next leg of their journey would save time in the long run.

"What do you need?" Nidina asked when she arrived, eyes lingering on the ice coating the tunnel all the way down to the bend in the tunnel. And beyond, if what Laze said was true.

"We need to move everybody through this," El said. "Need you to clear as much as you can so it isn't quite as much of a deathtrap while we go take a look at the breach Laze found.

Nidina didn't reply right away, instead hovering over to the nearest frozen hangnail and igniting a flaming sword in her hand. A quick, downward slash cleanly removed the extended clawed hand from the rest of the body, and Nidina nodded. "Was a little worried it would be unbreakable like Sol's ice," she said. "I'll take care of this."

"Thanks, Nidina," El said. "And… uh… sorry."

"It's fine. You may've made a mess, but you saved lives doing it," Nidina said.

"That's all very touching—and true—but it's still going to be tricky for me to get through all this," Tas said. "Maybe you two should just go ahead."

El considered it, then shook her head. "Laze, grab an arm."

Laze gave Tas one look and chuckled.

"Now I really think you should just go ahead without me," Tas said, moving to take a step back.

"Man up," Macer said at the same time El and Laze snaked their elbows around his.

Then, without giving him another chance to complain—or escape—the two Firestorm ignited their wings and sped down the tunnel. Tas only squealed in panic for the first fifteen feet—tucking his legs up so they didn't catch on one of the claws zipping past below. They slowed slightly as they reached the bend—the tunnel beyond likewise caked in thick ice and littered with bodies. With that many still-upright hangnails present, El moved them along more carefully so they didn't maim their passenger.

After fifty feet of ice statues, they finally settled Tas gratefully back on the ground, then looked down the tunnel of glowing mushrooms until they spotted the water. Waterfall is more like it. Hundreds, no, thousands of gallons had to be pouring in every second, the air noticeably moister and a thin mist hanging between the walls. A sheen of water covered the floor where the ice stopped, but it didn't appear to be more than an inch at the deepest.

"There on the side," Tas said, pointing. "Most of the water is going down that side tunnel."

"Any idea what's down there?" El asked.

"Mushrooms," Tas said confidently, then shrugged.

"How big do the lower chambers get?" Laze said. "I mean, how long do we have before it fills up and floods the tunnels up here with us. It must've been coming in for a while now."

"If we're lucky, it's one of the main access tunnels that leads down to multiple chambers, and maybe even one of the connecting underground rivers," Tas said. "If we aren't lucky… well, I hope you have a swimsuit under that uniform."

"Let's not let it get to that," El said, gliding ahead on four small wings protruding from her back. As she moved, the ambient moisture in the air froze into small snowflakes that trailed behind her like a comet's tail. Getting closer to the waterfall, the volume of the rushing water quickly built until it felt like it shook the tunnel, not to mention El's eardrums. It wasn't enough to set off her frost armor, but it did make it so they had to shout at each other to be heard.

Actually, even shouting didn't work, so after a good look at it, the three retreated back down the tunnel almost all the way to where the ice ended.

"Thoughts?" El asked.

"Not as bad as it could be, I guess," Tas said. "Only looks like most of the tunnel ceiling collapsed, not all of it. Managed to look down against the left wall there, and I think the breach is maybe forty feet long?"

"Think we can fit through the space along the wall you saw?" Laze asked.

Tas shook his head. "It's only a few inches. We'd still have tonnes of water crashing down on our heads. There's a side tunnel right there." He pointed ahead halfway between the ice and the water. "We can send somebody to scout out and see if they can find a way around."

"That could take too long," El said. "We don't know if there are any more hangnails down here with us, and we've still got that patrol back in the fort to worry about. They could also send a scout down here."

Laze looked El, eyes narrowing. "El has a plan."

"More of an idea," El admitted. "I don't know if it'll work, but it's at least worth trying."

Laze turned to Tas with a shake of her head. "We should probably stand back. Way back."