Versus the Bloodfallen 1 - Getting Thana

They entered the Bloodfallen Illusion Barrier. There was no other choice but to take the front entrance; they didn’t have the resources or time to dig down and hope to hit the right room. John took the lead, whoever was behind the door only needed one glance to confirm to himself that he would not be opening that door. However, opening that slit for just a moment was enough time for Sylph to fly in.

“Hey, Hey, Hey!” John heard from the other side. “I hope you don’t….WOW put that away ….I am not a fly, if you swat at me with that one more time, I will make you cry, for the sake of the rhyme do you have some thyme?...Well, I warned you!” There were some pained noises, and moments later Sylph started chirping again. “Soooorryyyyy, I am – am – am- am, hihihihi what a stupid sound. Well, I am getting right to it.” The long opening process began during which John made his remaining preparations. He activated Mana Shield and let the Verdin land on his hand, cancelled his Possession of it and put it into his inventory. He better have both charges ready.

“Couldn’t you just use Possession on it?” Rave said with an annoyedly twitching eyebrow. “Nope, I would take hold of the door but not of all the closing mechanisms.” John explained, “Unless they are all built into the door itself, and I saw some chains last time around.” The door swung open and revealed a heaving air elemental. “Gaia, that was hard. You know what else is hard? Letting Undine do the laundry. Do you want to know why? BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS FORGETS THE UNDIES!” Sylph floated around on her back as she burst into laughter. There was a wave of shame from Undine that made John wonder if that was true and if yes why they made laundry? Was there a laundry machine in his head?

Well, whatever, he signalled Aclysia to take the lead, then the other people Herman had brought with him with Rave and then himself with another mage at the back row. “Truly magnificent that you control all four elements.” The mage complimented. “Thanks.” John took it and awkwardly scratched the back of his head, not sure what to make of it, “So what brings you here anyway?” He instead tried to change the topic. “Herman helped me in the past with a few things.” The mage laughed, “You think that normal Healthcare can be a shit show until you see what the Apothecaries take, luckily there are also a few good guys like Herman who help you free of charge. He might not act the part, but he actually gets his will across quite a lot.”

Interesting, John would have loved to learn more, but the end of the stairs came into view. “Okay everyone, our goal is to get Thana out of here, nothing else. Don’t get too deep into fighting. We will storm in there, take out who is in the way, move the container out and then up the stairs. Understood?” He explained their plan. He got agreeing shouts and raised weapons, “Let’s go!”

If it were the shouts or if the guy Sylph had taken care of had warned them otherwise, the Bloodfallen were ready. Twenty cultists in their black robes, an average level of 33, ready and with a sizeable army of small Soldier Golems alike the ones John had fought back in Victoria’s first attack as well another big one that stood at three metres tall bolstering their forces. That Golem sure looked dangerous.

That Golem sure was dangerous. Good for John. “Thank you; I will take that!” He exclaimed and used Possession. On the Golem.

Well, thankfully he had put the Verdin away beforehand. “Straight ahead!” John shouted as the Golem turned on the Bloodfallen and brought his giant mace down. The enemy formation scattered but in a somewhat orderly fashioned they divided into two smaller groups. John noted that neither Igor nor Gent where amongst them, meaning that they were either waiting further inside or that this was just the first measure to an attack.

John personally hoped for the former. Isolated he was fairly certain that they could take on the duo. Aclysia, who would have normally taken the job of intercepting at least some of the attackers headed for John, instead ran through the legs of the Golem he had possessed. Her primary job right now was to unlock the door.

Luckily John was not without defences. He used the Golem to keep Aclysia’s back clear while the people Herman had brought formed a defensive line around him and his fellow mage. Rave jumped right into the fray, taking out the level 20 Golems with ease whose only function around here was to annoy them. Salamander would have been really useful here but if he gave her too much mana he was afraid that she would hit his allies and enemies alike. Instead, he fed Mana to Sylph, a lot of it. They needed a breakthrough victory right now, if they got pinned down by the whole of the enemy forces, they would just get crushed by the superior numbers in this red hall.

Sylph moved faster and faster as his mana went down the figurative drain. She made sharp turns around the enemy, a continuous green light that moved at a speed too quick to react to as stormy winds **** them to take steps back and forth as Sylph kept moving as a localised storm. As a precision tool, the talkative elemental was his best choice, and the squalls disarmed the whole left flank of the enemy, allowing for easy pickings by John’s allies.

Aclysia had reached the terminal and moments later the vault door started swinging open. “In there!” John instructed and they disengaged from the enemy, heading through the crumbled left side towards the door. Gnome and Undine took care of the Soldier Golems on the way, and every single one of the Bloodfallen themselves that could have threatened him was intercepted by Aclysia as she rejoined the fight.

They reached the Vault door, and now it was a defensive battle on their side. Many of the allies John had with him bore smaller cuts and bruises. They were not as over levelled or prepared as John or Rave. The last of them came into the corridor that connected this room to Thana’s. They looked exhausted; even Rave did, the fight had been short but with the number of small enemies and challenging opponents that was no wonder. “Aclysia, close the door.”

It wasn’t an easy decision. He would have preferred to keep fighting, but there was no way they would be able to hold the position until they retrieved Thana. Although it let the enemy prepare for that time, John felt that this was the better decision. The door slowly closed shut, guarded by lightning bolts from the mage supported by ranged attacks from Sylph and Salamander as well as the Crusher Golem outside. Last of which started to break under the continuous **** of its smaller brethren until finally, John’s consciousness melded back into one being. Had been a while since he felt that, honestly was a bit weird.

“You guys rest, we will return with the container,” John said and moved into the heart of the Bloodfallen base. It was a long walk, jog to be exact, that made John once again thankful for the decision to increase his physical Stats for a change. He would have pulled down the group even more otherwise, this way he simply left Gnome behind (There were many good things to be said about the Earth Elemental, but quickness was not one of them) and reached the containment room a minute later.

Everything there was just like he remembered it. The same red twilight that pulsated with the slow heartbeat, visualised by the green line on the glass container. “How do we move that thing?” Rave asked. “You only think about that now?” John made a counter-question with a giggle. “Ya are the nerd in this relationship, John.” She teased, “Now go do your nerd things.” Considering how many video games she played with him he doubted that he was the sole nerd here, but he was without a doubt the bigger one.

“It hovers on its own.” John argued, “And they got it here in the first place. It’s most likely that pushing it will actually be enough. Aclysia, you are the strongest here, if you would.” “Of course, master.” Aclysia obeyed, the sword in her hand vanishing into the weapon space. She stepped into the basin and started pushing. This activated some kind of mechanism and the bottom of the container closed with a new layer of glass. Nothing else happened. Perhaps a design choice to not lose any of her blood? Whatever the reason was the container started moving.

They had succeeded in getting to Thana. Now to get her out.