Failures and Traitors

The soot had grown thicker in the air as they progressed, and soon the glow of the twin suns was all that could be made out of the sky. The Almiraj did their best to cover and sweep the party's tracks as they marched through the ash: the long, wide cuts in the ash left by Vok, the Flamescale summon of John, the footprints of John and Moira in the lead behind their guide, and the rest in a tight knot of ash-caked bodies, paranoid eyes and, in the case of Leafdie, undesired attentions.

<Master,> the rabbit all but begged mentally, <at least demand that she stop pulling on my fur whenever the mood takes her!>

<She's trying to pet you. You're the one who keeps pulling away->

<Master, please!>

John stared back to tell Tricia something... but, despite the grimness of the situation, she had too goofy, too wide a grin for him to tell her no. John cleared his throat as he looked forward once more. <Bear it quietly,> John mentally muttered. <We need to be ready for when they try a counterattack...>

<My kind would not risk it on the surface, Master... presuming they have any other choice.> Vok's bassy voice in John's head was far more comforting than the guttural shrieks the former's kind used to communicate. As John discovered moments ago, having multiple summons active meant his thoughts to any of his minions were sent to a kind of chatroom for all those summoned and for Alysha at the psychosphere. It only initially felt strange trusting a complete stranger, much less one cut from the enemy's horde; if Vok was capable of treachery as a summon, the difference in levels between John and himself quashed such ability and left the serpent speaking in a reverent tone. <But if our home is truly gone, and our sky is all that came with us to this terrible place...>

There it was again: the dissonance between the Abyssal manifestation's experience and what Tricia had assured John was the reality of it. Vok described his as being a subterranean people, wanderers and carvers of great networks of tunnels through living stone, who only ventured to the surface for food underneath the twin suns above or the four moons that should follow them. Their world had no ruins and no humans, but volcanoes, oceans of lava, and the occasional sighting of their untainted brothers soaring through the air. Vok described, in those tiny details, a complete life; Tricia had reassured John that it was a convenient illusion to strengthen the manifestation's motives. Holodeck episodes of Star Trek had been the easiest parallel: holograms that were sure their pasts had been experienced, even if they hadn't existed for longer than a few hours, as the crew had their fun. Like holograms, Vok's people would vanish back into the soup of the Abyss. But then, I always felt bad for the holograms...

They had followed Vok around the ruins for thirty minutes now, the latter twenty of which had been peaceful, in search of some kind of cave entrance; Vok was an awful tour guide, as these ruins bore not even a passing resemblance to the rock formations of his home, and worse still was that his people had apparently rallied and regrouped somewhere after he had been captured and cut off. With any luck, that means they found a cave or hiding hole they like, and we can find them all in one place... 'course, I didn't actually bring any of the underground of the neighborhood into the barrier... The Complex had surprised him with its dimensions in some ways, but so far it did not in terms of height; despite the high-seeming sky, Fairy had confirmed the barrier didn't stretch more than 500 feet into the air.

The ash, meanwhile, had redoubled its efforts to blind or irritate John's party; despite not being a magical effect John could neutralize with the Eye of the King, the ash apparently dampened or blocked sensory magic. Moira claimed it felt as if they were surrounded by evil wherever she tried to cast the senses her Lady gave her; Tricia, perhaps knowing who John was at this point, described it like a chaff grenade from Metal Gear Solid going off for her suit and her drones. If her drones could operate in combat at all, they would have to stay within arm's reach of the girl. To make all matters worse, the ash stunk slightly of sulfur... though Vok and Fairy seemed to like it.

"This place screams 'ambush,'" Moira muttered low. The volume of gray became most apparent in the park they had entered: gone were the short wooden fence posts that John would idly count from the bus to school or the benches hosting old ladies and their tiny dogs. Replacing it all was a blanket of grit that had grown three inches thick. Small mounds of silver gathered all along the park, and pillars of pitch stood where trees had once bloomed. It was no more inviting or desolate than the first half of the neighborhood they had explored; they'd been shooting or stabbing ash mounds that had formed all along the roads and ruins so far. They strolled into the park, eyes and weapons up. As the first mound before them drew near, John fired an empty round into it, as he had every such suspicious mound on their path. The practice had never yielded results so far, but it seemed wise to keep-

Your Glock 777 deals 34 unaspected damage to Yuke!

John blinked. The mound blinked back.

<We've got company!> John's mental order rang out just as the mounds, as one, animated into buried Flamescales. None of the mounds were close enough to cause worry... but then the flat portions of the ash they were treading upon exploded with hiding, towering enemies as well. "What-?!"

"We're surrounded!" Moira called out as she deflected a blow from the Failure that came out of the ground between John and herself. The ash made the farthest of the enemies mere silhouettes, but her assessment rang true: the horizon was alive with enemies in all directions, and stranger still were those that burst not from the mounds, but from the flat ash all around and between them.

Subterranean... The park: soft soil or grass, probably easy enough for a bunch of mountain-carving lizards to dig holes into to hide and then level the ash over themselves after the fact. The mounds, then? The ones who prepared the battlefield, John guessed; they couldn't cover themselves nearly as well. But how the Hell did they know we'd end up here?! Two more erupted in their midsts, attacking the Almiraj just as Leafdie shoved Tricia towards John. Three more erupted, two joining to flank the rabbits while the third broke off to chase the blonde and her drones. Before Tricia could so much as manifest an Eye, the bulky quasi-lamia swung at the petite teen with a mighty chop of its halberd's axe blade. Sparks and chunks of ruined reactive carbon plating blasted off of her body instead of blood as her suit dulled the damage to zero, but John had already seen the suit run out of juice for this kind of defense. At the same time, a second Flamescale flanked Moira while the first hooked onto her shield to prevent her defense. Desperately, she bashed the weapon away before it could shove its glowing pike into her face.

Your serpent's lunge deals 506 damage to Yuke! Yuke was defeated!

CRIT! Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 1,521 damage to Gogo! Gogo was defeated!

The mound-hidden lizardman's chest collapsed as John's portaled strike finished him; the one attacking Tricia briefly shrieked as the top of his skull caved in from the same, freeing Tricia to gather her wits. John cursed as he lost sight of the Almiraj. We have to get away from here. John readied to try and tunnel the party away, except everyone was already too mixed up in the mad melee. Vok counter-charged one of the fiends as it came towards John while another, unbarred, ran its halberd through John's displacement. Moira took her own initiative, bashing the shield-caught charger to the ground and slamming her hammer down on his massive throat, leaving him to spasm as she turned to fight the other. Fairy, ever eager to unleash upon the enemy, mana blasted a clean line through the limbs and torsos of encroaching reinforcements. It was the last second of sense John could manage before halberds and screaming Flamescales filled his vision.

Vok had assured him that this wouldn't be the kind of ambush his people would lay. They would find a cave, or a ruin like a cave, and surely that would be where the true battle would be fought. They had relied completely on his words; John trusted him. Moira had no better tactic. Tricia had no better idea. Here they were. I can't get them all out of here, I... fuck it, we fight!

Your serpent's lunge deals 507 damage to Lolo! Lolo was defeated!

CRIT! Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 1,521 damage to Urgka! Urgka was defeated!

Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 507 damage to Benna! Benna was defeated!

The three that had come bearing down on John jerked as his enchanted hands broke their spines, the middle-one suddenly tearing open from the back as his organs spilled out. "How many are they?!" John cried out.

"Most of them, Master," Vok growled as he locked halberds with one of his former brothers.

"[Traitor!]" cried the Failure that pressed against John's newest summon. With a flourish, and the additional might from John's grand summon, Vok shoved the enemy back and sliced into the bared belly. Vok had maimed his first brother; he had no will to resist John's orders and no guilt to feel.

The Almiraj worked to evade the pincer attacks of some six more Failures that slithered to flank them. Tricia slowly backed away and towards John as more of her destructive Eyes opened, shearing limbs and heads from the worms while her gun-toting drone unleashed tiny, compressed shrapnel rounds into the same. John watched as mana was rapidly spent: Moira in bringing her holy might to bear to one-shot the wretches that neared her, and Tricia in opening six Eyes to tear two of the wretches limb from limb with invisible ****. The Almiraj had been engulfed in the awful melee far behind the group; John cursed as he saw their HP bars dwindle.

You conveyed Leafdie to your side.

You quickcast conveyed Skythumper to your side.

The two appeared near Vok and, despite their wounds, bounded straight back into battle. Catching the **** flanks of the two locking halberds with Vok, the rabbit men made easy work of the two lizards before the next wave crashed into them.

Two more were upon Tricia's flank, and John blasted these fiends as well; three replaced them, and Tricia began to carve into them with new Eyes of Hate and the shoddy aim of her minigun drone. The Warden, perhaps lost in a holy bloodlust, had wandered too far; a knot of the Failures had managed to survive the Warden's swings long enough to dog-pile onto her, her blood-soaked armor suddenly vanishing beneath their limbs and bodies. They tossed their halberds aside as they tried to claw into the human beneath them with belted daggers and bared, clawed fingers. John turned, ready to extract her from-

"The Lady stands!"

Her voice bellowed through the mob and so did the heavens. A column of golden light crashed through the faux ceiling of the barrier and smashed down on Moira and the squirming pile of garnet scales that had engulfed her.

Moira's pillar of righteousness is empowered by the odds, dealing 344 radiance damage (+107 radiance damage from holy aura) to eight enemies! All eight enemies have been slain!

The knot of smoking reptilian foes slackened, and another who had straggled behind charged the pile with his halberd. He reared back to try and stab through the ruined flesh of his brethren... only to have a hammer suddenly swing out from the corpse mound and crush its face. Shocked, the lizard tried to back away only to have a furious, golden blur explode from the small hill of corpses. Moira spun to follow her first swing and brought it again upon the same pitiful skull, popping its brain and ending its pain, with a triumphant cry. Her armor bore gashes where links had been torn apart, and an obvious cut sliced across her screaming face. She was hurt. John had to heal her, and fast-

-48hp

-50hp

John winced as he felt halberds strike his real body and spun around and away as one more cut into his displaced illusion. Vok hadn't been exaggerating: they were bringing their full numbers to bear. John fell back to his frontline and quickly tapped heal monsters into their backs as they fought.

You healed Vok for 228hp.

You quickcast healed Leafdie for 198hp.

You quickcast healed Skythumper for 124hp.

John was burning through mana, but the enemy was burning through their numbers. Fairy waved a handful of mana bolts into the crowd gathering around the rabbit-men and Vok, felling two that the three had injured. The tide was beginning to turn-

Gurkruel the Blue's mana bolt strikes Fairy for 80 damage!

Gurkruel the Blue's mana bolt strikes Fairy for 80 damage!

<Fuck!> Fairy spun in the air as three more bolts of blue light whizzed by. She peered through the ash from the direction they came... and found a pair of glowing lights staring back. She narrowed her eyes as she made out two silhouettes, standing side by side, on the road leading to the opposite end of the park. Each of the massive Flamescales held one of the lights aloft on a staff, just as Vok described them. <There, Master!> Fairy's voice vibrated in John's head. <There's a huge pair of them about fifty feet towards where we were heading.They've got the orbs! That's got to be them!>

John tried to peek through the frontline still before him and took three more halberd slices to his side for his folly.

-41hp

-44hp

-53hp

Your serpent's lunge deals 507 damage to Daka! Daka was defeated!

Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 507 damage to Ulbobo! Ulbobo was defeated!

Your quickcasted serpent's lunge deals 507 damage to Nerolky! Nerolky was defeated!

John felled the flanking forces only to see seven more rush in to replace them. He looked to where Fairy had indicated to see the glowing orbs through the whirlwind of ash stirred by battle. Vok had known both of the bonus targets listed: they were the religious leaders of their clan, Failures like Vok but larger, stronger, and blessed with the "living breath" or, as John had deduced from Vok's descriptions, the ability to breathe fire. He saw the orbs first, and that was enough: they had to be the Eyes of Yunikan, two massive globes of crystal that shone with the light of their god... if Vok was to be believed. Vok knew of only one "portent of doom" that could have been related to the Complex's objective: the blinding of their god, and the destruction of their orbs, as the result of his people's folly. Protecting the orbs was a sacred duty; John was sure that somehow taking or destroying the orbs would fulfill that prophecy.

Moira had lost her bloodlust long enough to retreat from the mound of corpses she had made. Tricia was just a dozen feet from John before closing that remaining space as two halberd strikes managed to finally catch and destroy her combat and sensory drones. Her mana was all but exhausted, and a third halberd stab, again neutralized by her suit, had sent her nearly crashing into the Gamer. Vok and the Almiraj were being pushed back as the enemy's before them doubled. Everyone was already close, and only the snaking corpses beneath their feet would follow them. "Everyone, get ready to land on your feet!"

None responded; he had no time to make sure they heard him. He opened a twelve-foot tunnel along the irregular floor and all his earthbound allies, along with the mangled bodies of nearly a dozen enemies and a plain of ash, fell through. Surprised cries from Tricia and Moira, grunting landings from his minions, and the splatter of broken Failure bodies followed them to their new destination. Halberds and screaming leaps towards the tunnel tried to follow but were quickly cut off the moment John was sure his people had fallen through. The arms and halberds caught in the closing tunnel were harmlessly shunted back to where they had come from, bereft of their sought prizes.

Fairy sneered as she sent a wave of mana bolts into the injured worms that uselessly stabbed into the ash. Sixteen of the fiends remained, and the outliers still charged towards the center without realizing what had happened. "The least you could've done is finish your scraps, jerk..." With a huff, she went to work with what little mana she still had.

The corpses and ash settled, everyone either landed on their feet or stumbled into doing so, and John was left staring at the broad and off-colored backs of their objective targets. John had put them within a short charge of the enemy and more than close enough for their landing to be heard. Each of the monsters turned to regard them; their every movement seemed audible. They were nearly twelve feet tall apiece, twenty feet long with the leathery tails that curled around their bases, and their pale underbellies and arms were the only human features that remained. Their spiked, scaled, and long-snouted heads spoke to their draconic heritage far clearer than even the slow trickle of gray-white flames that danced out from between their curled lips. Blue and Green were apt, simple titles: Polushan shone like a sea of fat emeralds in his mature scales and his eyes glittered with a seafoam luminescence. Gurkruel's scales were long, fang-like cuts of sapphire; a full beard of them hung from the tip of his snout and jingled as his head turned. They were naked, as the rest of their clan, save for the Eyes they wielded as described by Vok: two massive staffs of a black resin that resisted fire and wear and each ending in the wrapping, binding roots that held an orb of faceted crystal that shined with a simple golden light.

Gurkruel the Blue
Level 19 Sorcerer
HP: 950/950
MP: 510/580
Stats: Str 30, Agi 24, End 28, Int 18, Wis 20, Cha 9, Lib 11
Status Effects: Blessing of Fires, Blessing of Scales
Qualities: Immune to Fire, Weakly Cursed
A genetic failure to the Flamescale Brood. It bears in its makeup the result of the Curse of Henrick the Plain: the bloodline's persistent tendency to meld humanoid features with those of the once-proud dragon race. This Failure will never know flight but bears the breath of living light that can turn away the darkness. Because of this, Gurkruel was blessed with one of the two Eyes of Yunikal, said to belong to a faux deity his tribe worships. It protects the Eye with its life and uses its power against the enemies of the tribe.

Polushan the Green
Level 23 Champion
HP: 1,890/1,890
MP: 120/120
Stats: Str 60, Agi 54, End 68, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 12, Lib 30
Status Effects: Blessing of Scales, Blessing of Fire
Qualities: Immune to Fire, Weakly Cursed
A genetic failure to the Flamescale Brood. It bears in its makeup the result of the Curse of Henrick the Plain: the bloodline's persistent tendency to meld humanoid features with those of the once-proud dragon race. This Failure will never know flight but bears the breath of living light that can turn away the darkness. Because of this, Polushan was blessed with one of the two Eyes of Yunikal, said to belong to a faux deity his tribe worships. It protects the Eye with its life and uses its power against the enemies of the tribe.

"[Traitor,]" the two hissed in unison. Vok still did not respond.

"What are they saying?" John quickly asked, checking the status effects on the two foes.