Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

It took a serious force of will to keep her hands from shaking, but El pushed aside the pain and fear of going up against the avatar. Her brother would probably be there any second to save her, but… in a way, she didn't want him to. He always came when she needed him. Always bailed her out when she got in too deep.

This time, it was her turn to save him. Everybody else was just a bonus.

El's lip curled at her own little internal joke, then she flared her wings and rocketed toward the avatar. Left arm flaring at the joints to increase the speed of the maul in her hand, the weapon came around with a massive CRACK as it slammed into the upraised arm of the avatar. Tentacles shot up in response, clear of the dark water that allowed El to predict their movement – That's how it managed to hit me with the punch! – but El wasn't going to make it that easy.

The hammer in her right hand melted and reformed into a scimitar of liquid, blue fire, and she slashed down to intercept the first spearing appendage. Without the dark water to protect the limb, her blade cut deep into the tentacle, and it deflected off-course instead of gouging into her side. Where there was one, though, eight more followed.

Even while holding itself on the pool – now more a puddle – of dark water, the avatar conducted an orchestra of planned destruction with its lower limbs spearing for El from every side. In one hand, her sword flashed in a blur of blue flames to turn aside each strike she couldn't dodge, while her wings and flares kept her moving around the nearly stationary avatar. It didn't have the same mobility she did, but its tank-like defenses more than made up for it.

Every blow of her hammer threatened to crack the shell open, but they rarely did. Only the sections where the armor had been bleached white seemed vulnerable to blows, but the avatar was guarding those fiercely. It'd learned how much damage she could do to it there, as evidenced by its ruined left arm. Without the dark water as an extra layer of protection, though, she was making progress.

One hammer smash careened off its shoulder plate to clip the side of the avatar's head, and then El flared the leading edge of the weapon. The sudden gush of flame completely halted her swing, then jetted the weapon back in the opposite direction. With the return blow ringing the avatar's head like a bell, it swept its fist along to slap her out of the air.

A pull of her wings jerked her back – sword cutting bloody lines across two tentacles as she went – then she hurled the hammer back the way she'd come. With the monster's fist out of position, the spinning hammered gonged right off avatar's face, and it jerked backward. Seeing her opportunity, El flared back in low, driving her sword into the dwindling pool of dark water beneath the avatar's tentacles.

With the shards of blue flame that'd been in there sucking back its Current the whole time, the power had waned. Adding in another power-hungry weapon finally seemed to stress the core of the water carrying the avatar aloft.

Almost desperate, the avatar whipped its body around, its dead left arm whooshing around like a tree-sized club. Too slow. El physically flapped her wings – with the help of a small flare – and shot up right in front of it. The flames from her flash past gushed across the avatar's body from head to tentacled-toe, and El cut her lift almost immediately. Momentum still carrying higher into the air, she ignited another hammer. This one, though, took both her hands and grew to have a head as big as she was.

Even more dramatically, her Spark had finally reached the tipping point with the influx of power from the dark water. Instead of blue flames, the hammer seemed to be made of molten, blue, lava. Veins of black ran within it, but it glowed just as bright as the plasma state of her weapons. Something in her gut told her the plasma form of this frost-magma would be heavier, stronger, than her normal flames, and she immediately condensed it down.

There was a crack in the sky as the squeeze of her power flash-froze the falling rain for a hundred feet in every direction. The construct in her hands felt more solid than anything she'd ever held before, a combination and culmination of the opposing powers of three gods in her chest.

But, as she held the weapon, those powers didn't actually feel opposing. It was almost like they were meant to be one, and…

The avatar below her looked up, dark water roiling under it as it forced itself to ignore the deadly weapons stealing its strength in order to stay in the sky.

"Let's see how you like it," El whispered, hoisting the weapon over her shoulder.

Then she flared, stepped, and swung.

If the avatar thought it would be fast enough to block her strike, it was correct. Even with her step to close the distance, the avatar got its armored right limb up to meet her hammer-blow with the back of its forearm.

On the other hand, if it thought it was strong enough to block, it was dead wrong.

The plasma-condensed-lava power of El's hammer shattered the shell on its arm and smashed it out of the sky like it was a bug. Blue flames trailed the avatar's body as it streaked to hit the ground below, a second crater of carnage rolling out among the sea of the Depths. Hundreds died from the impact, even the seawyrms' sapphire scales not strong enough to stand up to the concussive wave.

That blow wasn't enough to end the fight though, and, really, El didn't want it to end there. She still needed something from the beast, and she flared her wings with all her power to streak after her target.

Like the nearly unstoppable monster it was, the avatar had righted itself within the crater from its "landing". Broken pieces of shell flaked off in a dozen places and it was missing at least two tentacles – along with its pool of dark water – but the beast readied its good arm to swat her aside when she got close enough.

Magma hammer still in hand, though smaller and weaker after the flare, El sped towards the avatar, then hurled the weapon at the last second. Not at the monster's face, however, and the weapon slammed into the inside of the avatar's forearm as it tried to bring its fist across. The collision didn't stop the arm, but it did slow it enough for El to roll in the air.

Without easing up on her speed, El flipped and slammed feet-first into the chest of the avatar, driving it back to the ground. At the same time, she flexed her wings, bending them and driving their ends into the avatar's shoulder joints, while she grabbed its throat with her right hand. After the small delay caused by her hammer, the avatar's arm finally slammed into her, but it hit the wing she'd set up as a shield instead of her body. With the way the electrum and flame limb embedded right at the shoulder, the positioning prevented the avatar from using its full strength. At least, for a second or two.

Which was all El needed.

Crouched on the avatar's chest, El lifted her clawed left hand above and behind her, the arm coiled by streams of blue, fiery liquid. The armored shell of the avatar had proven time and again to be very strong, and breaking through the chestplate, especially, had been nearly impossible.

Nearly.

Without a word, she flared the finger, wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints to drive that hand down.

Straight into the open hole Nexin had torn into its chest.

***

Laze, Nidina, Dayne, Sol, and the dozen remaining members of the three Firestorm wings fought hard through the gutted remains of one building after another. Close to a hundred clickers had swarmed in from above just as Laze and the others had taken the advantage in their battle. Even though Sol hadn't been able to seal the gate – and apparently neither had Nexin, from what Sol felt through the connection between the rings – they'd still managed to defeat the three generals.

With those monsters down, Laze had hoped they'd have the chance to figure out the trick to the ring. No such luck, with clickers coming at them in a tidal wave of dark water. A desperate running fight had punched a big enough hole for most of the Firestorm to escape, but Laze and the others had been cut off, and were forced back into the city.

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Then again, even if they got out of the city, where were they going to go? The Depths had flooded from behind, so it wasn't like the convoy would be in any shape to protect them. At least it was still there though, from the continued sounds of battle outside the city.

Just focus on getting your people out, Laze told herself as she zipped down the skeletal hallway of a ruined building. A clicker flew after her, bolts of dark water shattering stone every time she dodged by the skin of her teeth. Left and right, she swerved around support pillars, using them as shields against the constant assault, then spotted Nidina coming in hard from her right.

With a clicker of her own hot on her heels, Nidina met Laze's eyes and nodded. They didn't need words for this. They'd trained together so long it was practically second nature.

Pushing power into her wings and filling the space around her with flames, Laze cut hard to the right. Now directly ahead of her, Nidina did the same thing, obscuring everything behind her. And, more importantly, hiding what was directly in front of her.

An ignition brought a two-bladed sword to life in Laze's hands as she shot through the backwash of Nidina's flames to find a chasing – and very surprised – clicker. The thing was in the midst of hurling a liquid bolt at Nidina, and didn't have a chance to reshape the weapon before Laze's sword met its face. There was a pull on Laze's shoulders from the resistance her blades encountered, but her forward momentum and the strength of her flame armor pushed right through it.

A trio of wet thuds signalled the pieces of the clicker's body hitting the floor, and Laze reduced her power to spin around. A second dead clicker hit the ground right as she turned, and Nidina gave her a thumbs up.

"The others?" Laze asked, though her flame armor told her they weren't far. But… they were low? So low, in fact, they had to be walking.

"Found an underground tunnel," Nidina said. "One clear of clickers. Looks like it might lead right out of the city."

"Risky," Laze said. The Depths had proven time and again they had no fear of hiding underground.

"Same construction as the rest of the city," Nidina said.

Laze thought it over real quick, then nodded. "Sky is full of clickers – too many to get past – let's take the chance."

"Look at you being all decisive."

"Shush," Laze said, but she didn't even have the energy to blush. She was tired, sore, and struggling against the hopelessness of the battle. Still, that small dose of "normal" from her friend did wonders to keep her positive. "Show me the way."

"Follow me," Nidina said, then darted back the way she'd come before any more clickers found them within the bowels of the building.

They'd already been forced to fight closer and closer to the ground to avoid the swarm of monsters from above, so was going underground really any worse? Nidina's path took them out of the large room they'd met in, then down a set of enclosed stairs. While the steps themselves were quite large, the passage was annoyingly narrow, preventing them from moving too quickly. A distance that should've taken them no more than a second ending up taking almost a minute, and Laze spent the entire time with her hearing strained. If the Depths found them in the tiny stairwell, it would be a brutal fight without any of the mobility that gave the Firestorm their advantage.

Thankfully, those Depths didn't arrive, and Nidina led them out the bottom door and into a large room. A musty smell, like a tunnel that hadn't seen the sun in years, wafted gently to Laze's nose, and she spotted the other remaining members of her wings. There was fatigue and loss on their faces – they'd fought hard to the center of the city, and then failed at the most important point – but Laze couldn't let those feelings overwhelm her.

"As long as we're alive, there's a chance," she said, stepping into the room with Nidina. As one, the troops turned in her direction, their minds processing what she'd said. From the looks on their faces, the simple statement wouldn't be enough to change their feelings, but at least it gave them something to latch on to. Something to fight and move forward for. "Right now, our goal is to get out of the city and regroup with General Cannon and the others.

"We also need to make contact with Nexin and the others to see if they faced the same challenges we did. Neither of those things will happen with us sitting here."

"We scouted ahead," one of Dayne's troops said. "The tunnel heads directly east out of the city. I'd guess it was used to move trade goods to the coast without clogging up the roads or dealing with bad weather. It's well built."

"Good work and observations," Laze said, the man nodding at the praise. "Anything we need to watch out for?"

"A few thousand things," the man said. "Hangnails. Tons of them. This tunnel was probably how they got to the coast without us spotting them. On the other hand, I also found several ramps and stairwells that lead up to the surface. If we go far enough, we can get outside the city, then use one of those side passages to get back to the sky."

"Clickers?" Laze asked.

"Didn't see any."

Laze nodded while she thought. "We're punching through. Hangnails shouldn't be able to slow us down, and if we run into a seawyrm, the focus is on getting past it."

"Permission to fry some hangnails as we pass?" Nidina asked.

"Granted. Anything we do to reduce their numbers can't hurt us," Laze said, the ground shaking as another tremendous explosion rocked even the city above them. "Cannon and the others must be putting up one burning fight for it to still be going on this strong."

"We can only hope so," Dayne said.

"Well, let's go join them. On me," Laze said, spreading her wings and beginning to glide down the eastern passage. She stopped for a moment beside the scout who'd spoken up. "You think you can find the side-tunnel we need to take?"

"I can."

"Good. That's your main duty then. Let's go." With that – and the Firestorm grouped up behind her – Laze poured power into her wings and took off down the tunnel. With her flaming wings providing the only real light, and not much at that, Laze went slow at first.

"Tunnel is a straight shot, as far as I can tell," the scout said. "First hangnails will be in a few hundred feet."

"So, you're telling me we don't have to go so slow?" Laze asked, and the man nodded. In response, Laze ignited a bow in her hand and began multiplying the arrows. As the glow from the Firestorm behind her increased, it was obvious she wasn't the only one. Then she sped up, pushing her wings to about three-quarters maximum speed.

The first hangnails appeared a few seconds later, and she released her volley of arrows. The eight bolts spread even as a dozen more arrows fired from the Firestorm gathered around her. Explosions tore through the line of hangnails somehow now just noticing the enemies in their midst. Laze didn't question – or complain about – how the monsters didn't see a dozen sets of flaming wings flying down the tunnel towards them, but she happily took advantage of it.

Grey bodies fell burnt or blown apart as the Firestorm crossed their front line, while claws whipped up and around to try and snag the flyers. The tunnel was almost tall enough to completely stay out of reach of the smaller monsters, but more than a few of them had crawled up on each others' backs to literally leap at the Firestorm.

"Nidina, Dayne, Sol," Laze called. "Front of the line, melee weapons. Rest of us, supporting fire."

The three, named fighters pulled ahead of the rest, twin blades igniting in Nidina's hands, while Dayne forged his preferred sword and shield combination. Sol just started swinging his massive greatsword to cleave through any hangnails stupid enough to leap his way.

Behind those lead three, Laze and the others began a near-constant barrage of fiery arrows and bolts. Explosions lit up the tunnel as the team whipped over the hangnail heads, a few hundred feet quickly turning into a mile, then two.

"Seaaywrm, left side," Nidina said, the three ahead changing positions slightly for Sol to be the one to deal with the beast.

Behind, the others moved more to the right, and Sol slammed into the sapphire-scaled monstrosity to bowl it over on the poor hangnails behind it. Using the large, serpentine body like a bulldozer, Sol squashed the smaller monsters by the dozens before he released the seawyrm to flop behind them. A quick look showed it was probably still alive, but it wouldn't be much of a threat.

"Should be an exit on our right here soon," the scout said, the Firestorm having gone almost four miles by that point.

"Get ready to fight our way up," Laze said, another volley of eight arrows culling hangnail lives.

"There!" the scout said, darting towards where a ramp seemed to lead from the main tunnel.

Hangnails crowded the entrance like they were all trying to rush up to join the fight, but that also meant a lot of them didn't realize what was happening. For all the damage Laze's unit was doing, the battle was raging ferociously above. Explosions of flame lit the far end of the tunnel, while the ground shook so much it felt like there was an army of giants stomping around right above them.

"Go hard!" Laze shouted into her communication magic to be heard over the nearby cacophony, and released her arrows. The chain of eruptions led the Firestorm up the side tunnel, though they were forced to fly even lower now.

Hangnail claws reached and sparked red flames where they scored across her body, small pains like getting pinched making their way through her armor. It wasn't nearly enough to slow her or her wing, and then a sphere of flame filled the end of the tunnel ahead of them.

"Brace!" she called, dousing her bow and igniting a shield all in one motion. While flames had a reduced effect on them because of their Sparks, that explosion ahead looked big – and concentrated – enough they didn't want to fly into it blindly. And the shield turned out to be a good play, the edge of the expanding bubble of fire resisting like it almost had physical weight.

Heat and light washed over her as she and the others pushed through, the whole tunnel becoming a sea of flame that drowned the Depths in fire. Bodies melted and burned to a crisp in an instant, and then the explosion was past. Laze released a breath she didn't realize she was holding, and warm – almost hot – air entered her lungs.

But, then she was out of the tunnel, lightning flashing overhead and thunder rumbling in time with the chaotic battlefield laid out before her. The Depths battled groundies, Firestorm and the Pilish forces in a vicious melee, with the surrounding terrain blasted and destroyed.

And, as Laze turned to take in more of the fight – and found herself face-to-face with the wide tube – she suddenly understood why the battle had been so fierce. Why it had sounded and felt like giants stomping around on the ground.

Laze was looking straight down the barrel of a Guldish golem.