Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

"We're getting close," El said over the channel to Nexin and the Boomers.

"You're sure you're sure?" Corporal Nite – Esis's second in command – asked for the hundredth time. Well, maybe the tenth. Still, it was annoying.

"I'm sure," El said.

"We've seen nothing but the tops of these clouds, and you won't let us duck underneath to get our position," Nite countered predictably. "We could be a hundred miles – or more – off Sol's directions. If we can even trust him."

"With how hard it's probably raining below us," Nexin interjected, "I doubt you'd be able to see much."

"Which just proves my point," Nite countered. "If we couldn't see, the Depths couldn't see us either."

"I'm sure," El said again, generally ignoring the complaining. Nite… hadn't taken the Boomers' defeat at the Stormbringer's – Sol's – hands well. He'd held a vocal grudge about the battle in Salid since he'd thawed out, and it didn't seem to be getting better. Worse, since Sol and El were friends, that made things her fault…?

"Sergeant, we should…" Nite started.

"Enough," Esis interrupted. "Special-Sergeant Anella is in charge of this mission. We'll follow her orders."

"But, what if we miss…?" Nite said.

"We're here," El interrupted. "Follow me!" With that, El tucked at the waist and dove straight down. Blues flames whipped out of her wide wings as she shot into the thick clouds. Lightning flashed around her within the heavy mist stained blue from her wings, while the scent of ozone clawed up her nose. Even through her frost armor, the charge in the atmosphere tugged on her hair, while sparks crackled in front of her face.

Then, just like that, she was out the other side, her exit from the clouds bringing with it a storm of lightning bolts that crashed towards the frothing sea. Rain poured down on all sides, heavy like literal sheets and turning to hail as it got close to her. Far below, huge white caps rose twenty, thirty, forty feet into the air as the titanic waves smashed into one another. Even over the boom of thunder and the slashing rain, the collisions seemed to echo back up at the clouds, like the sea and sky were competing to see who could be the loudest.

And there, in the center of it all, stood a towering peak on a wide island. Like Wirock – almost uncannily like a smaller version of that island nation – the island was ringed at the edges with a toothy mountain range. Approaching the island by sea would be almost impossible, with a sheer cliff face being the only greeting a ship would get. Impressive as the natural barrier seemed, it was nothing compared to the island's central feature.

Looking to be at least several miles wide from where El flew, the mountain itself endured, jagged and defiant against the storm and sea both. Like the rockface couldn't be worn down by wind, waves, or rain, it held its ground as guardian to what lay beneath it.

The second ring.

El could feel it, as sure as the Spark in her chest. Whatever power she'd absorbed from the Depths' Currents practically pulsed in time with a great, beating heart far below the surface of the peak. She almost wondered how they'd ever get to the ring to close it, when she spotted a massive cavern carved into the foot of the largest mountain near the center of the island.

And around that cavern, the Depths swarmed. From the distance, they looked like little more than a mass of writhing, grey flesh, squirming beneath the falling rain. Sapphire scales, almost like beautiful tumors, writhed between, eyes flashing in the lightning as they looked at the incoming Firestorm.

But they weren't what drew El's attention. Though her eyes couldn't see them within the falling rain, dozens of Currents were spiraling up through the air to meet her small unit.

"Clickers, incoming," El said calmly into her communication magic while she felt for the strength of the enemies.

"Orders?" Esis asked.

"We expect the avatar to be here," El said. "Nexin, save your strength for it. Boomers on the clickers."

"There could be generals here," Nexin said.

El glanced away from the ground rapidly coming up to meet them – though they still had almost a mile to travel – at the Firestorm behind her. From the Boomers, flaming wings cut through the rain, diving faster than it was falling, and leaving waves of spreading steam in their wake. Then there was Nexin. It was like he didn't even use flames anymore – everything was plasma. His wings held a tight shape, almost like appendages of pure light.

The falling rain didn't evaporate at his passing, but instead popped in small explosions. A trail of thousands of those bursts trailed behind, the sound rumbling like thunder of his own. Around his head, oddly similar to El's armor, a crown of flame-like plasma glowed brightly, and she could almost see his flame armor – Plasma armor? – encircling his body.

He said he wasn't sure if he was strong enough to battle the avatar solo, but looking up at him, El couldn't imagine him losing again. He may not have been an avatar himself, but his power had crystalized into something amazing.

Smiling at her brother – and knowing he would see it – El turned her attention below, that heartbeat of thought all she could allow herself. Then, to Nexin's question, she said, "I'll handle any generals that show up.

"Boomers, let's see what you can do."

"What makes you think you can handle a general?" Nite asked.

"Time to show them," Nexin said over a private channel to El, and she couldn't agree more.

She looked at her left arm, clenching the claw-like fingers into a fist, while blue flames jetted from the joints along her fingers, her wrist, elbow, and shoulder.

Yeah, let's show them.

With that, El picked out the strongest Current of the clickers rushing up to meet the Firestorm. They outnumbered the Pycrin force two-to-one, but that was just numerically. They hadn't taken into account Nexin.

Or El.

"Go," El said simply, then flared her wings.

Rain burst outward in a sphere from her launch point as El shattered the sound barrier. Within the blink of an eye, she was past the first clickers, the rain seemingly paused, then falling in reverse as her speed cut a blue scar through the sky. Behind, her wings tucked for maximum speed, trailed hungry blue fire that seemed to jump from raindrop to raindrop, spreading like wildfire towards the closest, unfortunate clickers.

She wasn't really paying attention to them, though, her right hand reaching over her shoulder and drawing Felps's triple-forged electrum sword. Blue plasma raced up the blade even as the general clicker in front of her finally seemed to realize she was coming straight for it, and raised its trident in preparation.

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WHAAAAAM, the impact between their weapons created another sphere of fleeing rain, the impact igniting blue runes up El's arm. Before, the sheer force of the blow probably would've torn her arm clean off – even with her frost armor – but with Felps's latest creation, she barely felt it.

Instead, using the torque of the collision between weapons, El flared her left wing at the same time to spin past the clicker like a flaming top. With an ignition of power down her left arm and into her claws, she came out of her third rotation behind the clicker and slashed her hand across.

Probably thinking she was too far to reach, the clicker responded almost lazily – though El didn't miss the dark water that'd run down its arm from its trident to support the shattered limb from the clash. Then its eyes widened in surprise as flames like detachable blades arced from El's claws, cutting four slashing lines between them. The trident caught two of the blades, flames like solid swords pressuring the already injured arm. Two wasn't four, though, and the remaining flames opened wounds on the clicker's abdomen and thigh.

Blue blood joined the falling rain as frost ate at the flesh around the cuts, though the monster hovering within a cyclone of dark water barely seemed to notice. Maybe it'd taken her lightly or underestimated her strength, but the look on its face said that was over and done with. More dark water seethed from the trident and cyclone to encase its body. Chunks of infected flesh were carved out and discarded by the liquid, even as El watched, and then the monster lunged toward her.

Carving tunnels through the falling rain, the trident stabbed for her throat, muscles and dark water propelling the weapon with enough speed and force she'd have no hope to keep up with it.

Well, that would have been true, if she hadn't gotten the armor from Felps. Part of her even wondered if she needed it, the Current flowing around her Spark helping guide her limbs like it knew where the clicker would strike. Up and across, her sword snapped into place to snake between the tines and stop the blow. At the touch, the runes of plasma along the blade snagged tendrils of the dark water, pulling them deep into the sword.

The clicker seemed to notice what was happening, surprise and then rage washing over its face before it yanked its weapon away. Even that brief contact, however, funneled Current up El's arm and into her Spark, the width of her own internal streams thickening ever so slightly. It wasn't much, but it was something. And she'd get more with every contact of their weapons.

With that thought, El went on the offensive, darting forward while the clicker tried to put distance between them. Cutting lines of blue as she went, her sword was a blur. Water froze with each pass of her blade, and though the clicker's trident reflexively fell into place to parry her every blow, she stole a fraction of its power with each engagement. She drove in hard, pressuring the general's injured left side with a barrage of strikes, high and low, horizonal and vertical, keeping its eyes on her dangerous sword. It couldn't let the weapon get a hit through, but every time it parried, a portion of its Current got sucked away.

If it wanted to win, it would need to do something desperate to…

El slashed out with her left hand, fingers spread wide and carving furrows through the air with her arcing claws of deadly blue flame. Almost too late, the clicker brought its arm back to the right, curled in tight to its body like it was trying to block a punch. If it weren't for the increased speed the armor gave El, the monster might've been fast enough to get its weapon in place. But it wasn't, and all four slashes chewed into the clicker's arm and side.

Still, the clicker general was made of tough stuff, and the wounds only went about an inch deep. Blood and black bone showed through the injuries, and the monster's eyes suddenly locked onto El's equally dangerous left hand.

Which was when she stabbed out again with her sword.

Out and back so fast it left an afterimage of blue plasma in the air, El's sword struck like a viper. This wasn't Sea of Snakes and Flames. There was no sword style or follow up, just the single, confident thrust. Even the clicker didn't seem to realize what had happened until the rain dissipated the hanging blue line seemingly connecting El to its chest.

Then the blood gushed out of the hole in its chest. It came like a burst pipe, spraying liquid into the air to join the falling rain, and the clicker brought its left hand up to touch the shocking wound, dark water already moving to fill in the space.

Not going to let that happen.

El came in hard with a vicious downward chop of her sword, a detachable blade growing to twice the length of the sword and filling the clicker's vision. Somehow, despite the injuries, the trident jerked up into place to block the descending blade. So, she hooked her left arm in for a rising uppercut that caught the general in the chin. For good measure, she added a focused ignition, jetting sharp blue flames up and across the clicker's face.

The impact felt like punching the Pycrin golem – Just what are you made of? – but her triple-forged armor was stronger. Head twisting and jaw dislocating as if in slow motion, the clicker shot away from her blow, El hot on its heels with a flash of her wings. Even stunned and grievously wounded, the clicker's natural instincts kept El's blade from cutting further into its flesh, that trident coming up time and time again to block her attacks.

By this point, though, its weapon looked like an ancient, rusted artifact, chips and chunks of it missing from where her sword had devoured its power. Away, hard left, fast right, the clicker tried changing directions as it dashed across the sky to lose El. The speed it moved at, though, was nothing compared to how El flew, and she stayed tight on the monster, her sword a constant blur of blue carving what seemed like a solid trail of slashes in flight. Finally realizing it couldn't win – or escape – with the way things were going, the general abruptly changed directions while splashing dark water out in a spray of spikes.

One, two, three, El's sword whipped across and back, turning aside each and every projectile straining to reach her, then she was right after the monster again. It'd barely gained a few feet of a lead through sacrificing the Current El's sword had greedily lapped up, and if it'd had any hope of finding reinforcements, it got a very rude awakening.

Though the clicker force had outnumbered the Firestorm, the general turned to find a slaughter. Pieces of black and white monsters fell with the rain, almost as if in slow motion. Explosions and plasma lit the sky like fireworks, outlining the last two remaining clickers still fighting. That lasted all of one second as Nexin casually stepped from one to the other. There was a blur as his arms struck out, then the chests of the two remaining monsters simply vanished.

The final limbs began their long journey to the ground, and El could almost feel the general's Current give up in hopelessness. Even if El didn't kill him – or the wounds she'd already inflicted – Nexin would. A glance from the falling monsters to the carved pit below, and the general changed direction, clearly fleeing.

It barely altered its angle before El hit it.

Both hands on the hilt of her sword – and it felt glorious to hold a weapon like that again – her blade viciously bit into the general's lower back. Flesh, muscle, and bone parted before the plasma edge, blue flames chewing through the nearby meat to create a gaping wound. Not that it would've much mattered, her sword continuing to burst out of the clicker's abdomen. Bisected cleanly in two, the two halves spun away from each other, while the dark water twisted around El's sword. Almost like it didn't want to leave the blade, the liquid circled around and around the full length of the weapon, somewhat resembling the cyclone the clicker had used to fly.

Except, with each rotation, part of its power got sucked through the runes and into El's Spark. It wasn't like she was stealing the general's full power or anything – far from it, really – but it was closer to adding a cup of liquid instead of a drop. Even after she'd pulled all the actual Current from it, the dark water continued to circle her blade. A quick test slash trailed after her sword like a river of blue flame, only to return to twisting around the weapon when she held it still.

"Kind of badass," El admitted, looking at it, before she tore her eyes away as Nexin and the Boomers joined her hovering in the air. "Report."

"Clickers have been dispatched," Esis said.

"Just in time," Nexin added. "Looks like the star of the show has arrived."

"What are you…?" El started, then followed Nexin's gaze down to the gaping tunnel leading deeper into the mountain. She didn't have to look far to find what he'd spotted.

Hovering in the center of the entrance, the Fathom's avatar floated on a disc of dark water. Its nine tentacle-legs squirmed restlessly, while the massive claw at the end of its shell-covered left arm opened and closed in anticipation. Like it knew they were looking straight at it, the avatar raised its right hand, three of the large, plated fingers curling is at it pointed straight at them. Then, in a voice that vibrated the air all around them, the thing spoke with a voice of endless pressure.

"Come to your deaths," it said, the hand flipping over and the single finger ushering them forward.

"I guess we can't turn down that invitation." El looked at her brother. "You ready."

"I have to be."

And, with that, the two siblings flipped in the air and flared their wings, twin sonic booms erupting with scars of red and blue as they raced for what could be their greatest challenge.