Chapter Three Hundred And Eighty Seven – 387
"Hiyah!"
The avum squawked in fear and distress, but Atar snapped the reins regardless. He had no choice. "Can you see them?" he called out.
Atop the covered wagon, Alister perched precariously with his rapier drawn and extended for balance. He peered into the darkened distance, where Felix and Pit had went to take on the undead.
"The squads caught back up! Evie and Vess and Harn are at the edges of my Perception, but I cannot make out anything else." The wagon lurched, and Atar's heart did the same. But Alister maintained his footing, only cursing slightly. "I don't know if the monsters are still after us or not!"
"Felix went after them. They're good as dead!" Atar shouted back. "Get down here! We're coming to another intersection!"
Mana Gauge!
Atar swirled his forearm in the air and held it up. Bands of various Mana types swirled atop his arm, though dusty brown earth Mana was the greatest presence. "Left fork! We're close!"
The way to Ahkestria was hidden, the path winding by shifting terrain and complex wards, but Atar knew the path even in these deep tunnels. The readings were impossible to deny, not so close to their destination. Atar's grip on the reins tightened, and his ears strained for any sounds behind them. All he could hear was the creak of traces, wagon wheels, and the countless tread of the Claw's advance. "Felix killed them all. Thank theAHH!"
Withered Dustwights leaped from the shadows ahead, too close for Atar to swerve around them. The avum squawked in terror and mowed them down.
Stars of the Sovereign!
Three blazing white stars launched from his outstretched hand, each one trailing a blaze of heat and light. They impacted more undead, ripping through them as if they were made of parchment. Then they exploded, lighting up the looming darkness ahead. Atar's eyes bulged.
You Have Killed A Dustwight (x24)!
XP Earned!
You Have Gained 1 Level!
You Are Now Level 52!
You Have 3 Unused Stat Points!
More came, trampled under the claws of his charging avum. The frightful heat of System energy built up just above his navel and through his channels. There's hundreds of them!
*THUMP!*
Atar hurled a fourth star to his right, narrowly missing the just-landed form of his boyfriend. Alister fell backward onto the bench and nearly dropped his rapier onto the road. "Blighted Night, Atar! It's me!"
"GAH! Sorry!" The fire mage hauled on the reins, coaxing what speed he could from the frightened birds. "More Dustwights ahead!"
"I see them," Alister said, and despite the chaos, Atar noted his curious tone. He almost sounded eager. "I'll reinforce our caravan. Focus on bringing us to the end!"
Alister thrust his two hands, palms out, toward their speeding team. Waves of blue Mana surged from him, barely visible to Atar's senses, and they swiftly congealed into a wide angled barrier that slammed down ahead of the avum. It was large enough that it covered most of their caravan before tapering off toward the edges of the roadway.
"I read about these, once," Alister panted, clearly depleted. "Commoners use them for tilling the earth!"
With a deft twist, Alister anchored it all to their wagon, just as they reached the first wave of charging undead. It slammed down, sending sparks flying from the stone and demolished the Dustwights.
You Have Killed A Dustwight (x31)!
XP Earned!
Atar's share was far smaller this time, the experience splitting between the avum, himself, and Alister. The man himself grinned through the Mana Potion he was swallowing. "It's working!"
Undead threw themselves at their charging column, but none could withstand Alister's shield coupled with the sheer momentum of their charge. Until the damn things started climbing.
"Burning ash!" Atar shouted. "Stars of the Sovereign!"
White hot projectiles spouted from his extended palm, burning through those undead clever enough to leap atop the barrier. Most died, heads and shoulders set aflame like kindling. Others were cut through, the Stars acting as burning blades that cut neat holes into their torsos, before flying off to impact the ceiling and explode. Those kept moving, and jumped off the top of the barrier.
"Some help would be nice!" Atar screamed to anyone who might be listening. More Stars caught the leaping undead, this time burning through their skulls. They fell to the earth, trampled under claw and wheels until they died. Yet no one from behind answered him. Are we too far in the lead?
More climbed, readying to jump at them.
Crown of Ignis!
Atar stood as a red flame crown formed atop his golden curls, filling him with a fearsome might and a giddy, riotous sense of mastery. The Stars around him multiplied, two dozen forming a majestic, rotating constellation around his body. Atar laughed, and that authority within him shrieked in glorious revelry. This was how a mage of his caliber should be acting! Atop a charging steed, the fires of creation whirling around him, while his enemies fled before him like chattel. He burned to set them all ablaze.
Stars ignited and sped from him, hitting the vile undead that dared oppose him. They died, the Stars exploding into unsurpassed conflagrations that rendered them as nothing more than charred flesh and slagged glass. None of them could stop his advancement before, and now his magic was all the more potent. It surged in his channels, raw and untamed, the sun come to burn away all that opposed it. Kill notifications streamed across his vision, and his Crown flared in triumph.
Stars of the Sovereign is level 76!
Stars of the Sovereign is level 77!
Crown of Ignis is level 71!
"Atar! Calm down!"
A hand tugged at the collar of his battlerobes, but Atar slapped it away. "I am in control! Do not interfere with my power!"
A line of red-gold flame, so similar and yet unlike his own might, tangled within his core, leading...backward. What is THIS? Someone has laid a tether on my Spirit? On my core itself? What treachery!
White light flashed across Atar's eyes, a burst of light that sent a shock of cold sensation down his spine. The man in blue had slapped him! Fire gathered in his channels as he spun on the bastard mage. "How dare you!?"
"Get a grip!" Alister screamed, shaking him by his robes. "The Crown has you! Master it!"
The words, far more than the slap, shook him. Resonated. His Mind shuddered, and without warning the Crown bucked. Atar gasped and fell onto his ass as all of his Stars blipped out of existence.
"Blighted Night," Atar said, grabbing at his skull. The Crown flickered and vanished from above his head. "How did that get so strong? I thought I had it under control..."
"Doesn't matter right now! I need your help!" Alister grunted as more undead bashed into his force barrier. "This plow is taking everything I have to maintain. Can you muster up the energy to barrage them again?"
"Iyes," Atar said. He realized Alister had the reins as he fumbled for a Mana Potion. Atar had dropped them in his...fit. "Yes. I can do this."
He stood again, but the Crown did not return.
I don't need it, he told himself. Even if it multiplies the damage my Stars can do...I can't afford to wear it. Not yet.
Lens of the Magus!
His evolved Skillonce called Focusallowed him to reduce the Mana cost of his spells, but made them weaker in exchange. But the undead before him weren't powerhouses...they were simply hundreds of them. Stars of the Sovereign is strong enough. Too strong. I can do this!
Stars of the Sovereign!
Mana pulses, flowing from his blazing core with a fluidity he hadn't experienced before. His Lens hummed within him, a strange sound Atar had never heard so clearly, and the torrent of Mana was split into dozens of gushing streams. Each burst out of him, manifesting into a white-hot Star that hovered about his head. His barely felt their strain.
Stars of the Sovereign is level 78!
Lens of the Magus is level 76!
Atar thrust his palms forward, and the Stars shot forth. Every single one streaking into a Dustwight as it climbed atop the barrier. They didn't explode so gloriously, but there were so many that the creatures were torn apart as easy as parchment.
Arrows joined the effort shortly after, several Henaari Dawnguard racing ahead of the others as they fired shot after shot. Some arrows burst into tendrils of sticky darkness, binding clumps of creatures together, while others somehow multiplied and rained down on the horde like stone-tipped death.
"Yes! Hiyah!" Alister cheered, urging their mounts ahead. "Another fork! Which way!"
Atar hastily checked his Mana Gauge, and pointed to the right. "That way!"
"On it! Brace!"
They turned at speed, the wagon tilting dangerously while the force plow scraped a massive furrow into the road. Sparks flew in all directions while the undead were hurled bodily. The only problem was that this opened their flank to an entire tunnel...and the Dustwights were still coming from that direction as well.
"Dawnguard! Fire!"
Zara's voice shook Atar from the horror that seized him just in time to witness a rain of arrows fall on the approaching mob. Undead fell, darkness and sparking wood bursting among their numbers. He mustered up more Stars, sending them flying into the breach to explode those in the lead, their burning corpses sudden impediments to the rest. Yet he need not have bothered, because a wave of aquamarine power slammed into them shortly after and crushed them into the earth.
All of them.
Zara rode abreast of Atar, her face tight. She nodded. "Almost there, are we not?"
Atar fumbled for words, his Mind still tumbling with the sight of her power. "Just...just about. The next intersection should have a gate or entrance of some kind."
"Very good. We've managed to hold together for the most part. We must make the gate and then hold them off until we can open it." Zara glanced backward and her ugly, scarred avum snorted.
"Where's Felix?" Atar asked. Stars manifested around him and he threw them over the barrier with little thought. "He went back to"
"I do not know," she said. Her sharp teeth drew a bead of blood from her bottom lip. "But I trust...I trust he will be along shortly."
Howls shook the air.
Atar gasped, attention pulled forward once again. "It's there!"
He could see it now. A massive ornate gate of dusky metal shaped into a stylized wave. A ramp lead up to it, as wide as the tunnel itself. It started to light up as they approached, still three hundred paces distant, but already it gleamed.
And between them and it was a fresh army of undead.
More than that, tall creatures covered in plates of jagged bone prowled out of the darkness. Their bodies were gaunt and withered, but somehow they glowed with a dark blue luminescence...and crystals surmounted their jagged shoulders. Easily a hundred of the monstrosities were there, flanked by an equal amount of common Dustwights.
Atar hurled his Stars at them and the Wraiths didn't even flinch. They burst against them, explosions of heat and force that made them take a single step back. Their Claw did not stop, and as they drew closer Atar could see the creatures' wounds were already closing.
"Blood and ashes," Atar whispered. They were closing, fast.
"What in Avet's name?" Alister said. "Those are Wraiths but"
"Go!" Zara shouted. Atar's eyes snapped to her, and she looked grim. "I will keep them at bay."
Before either of them could argue, Zara and her mount leaped forward, borne atop a massive wave of blue-green power. Her dull brown mount arced over the barrier and landed on the other side, running at full speed. The wave started again, gathering beneath them as she set upon the horde, crashing into them all. Teeth and claws flashed, only to be met by tendrils of Mana that shattered arms and jaws with equal ease.
"GO!"
"Alister!" Atar shouted.
With a scream of effort, Alister altered his barrier. It shimmered and bucked, twisting on itself as it became a simple plane of force, wedging their Claw through the chaos of undead monstrosities. Zara's magic must have helped, because the Dustwights and Wraiths couldn't even close with their column...but that was all Atar could pay attention to; he had come to the gate.
His team stormed up the ramp, the doors now shimmering with sigaldry, and Atar hauled on the reins. The avum slowed, but not fast enough. They twisted sideways, and their entire wagon smashed into huge, metal gate. Wheels buckled and shattered.
"Shit!" Atar screamed, shock eliminating the pain he was doubtless to feel later. If you survive you idiot! "Gather close! Everyone! Up the ramp!"
Thunder behind him, Atar glanced anxiously back to see a flickering shield now at their rear. It was blue, but tinged heavily with green now. Alister grimaced, sweat coursing down his face and quaffed another Mana Potion. "She's helping me hold it, even as she fights...hurry! Open the gate, Atar!"
Wagons and people pressed forward, all of them managing to stop with far more grace than he had, but Atar couldn't focus on any of them. He leaped off the tilted wagon seat and pressed closer to the metal gate.
An array here, and here. It...this means sealed. This is...water and force? Fire and...is that thirst? Atar licked his lips. "I-I can't understand this. It...it requires a key."
"Then break it down," Harn growled. His axe swung into the metal gate, but the kinetic force and even the silver flame atop it was simply absorbed. Dispersed into the metal. Harn stared at his axe, confused. "What?"
"It's absorbing anything used against it," Atar said. A nervous titter rose in his chest, but he pushed it back down. "We can't force it open."
"Think, kid! You know this stuff," Harn urged, turning to grab him by the shoulder. "You're the damned Glyphmaster of Nagast! If you can't figure it out, no one can."
Through his panic, Atar felt a surge of shock and alarm. "You're complimenting me. You never compliment me."
Harn shrugged, then pushed through the gathering crowd. "I ain't lyin' either. But you either open that now, or we might die here."
Atar's guts chilled and lightning fear raced up his spine. Harn cried out for the squads as he walked back to the barrier, and warriors assembled. Atar looked at Alister, who was mumbling to himself and weaving his shaking hands together, putting everything he had into the shield as undead began to assault it.
We're not dying here, he swore.
"You and you! Can you read sigils?" A man and woman in robes, Hobgoblins both, nodded. "Go, look for anything that resembles a standard opening sequence. You know it? Good. Go!"
Atar poured himself into studying the gate.
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