Delvers LLC: Hostile Takeover, page 22
She only briefly thought about the rest of the Delvers LLC group. They likely had their own problems right now. But thinking about them made her key her mic one more time. The ready sound chimed in her ear and she gasped in surprise before quickly rattling out, “Nora here. Henry and Mareen were down. They moved but don’t know if they will be up. We are under attack. Assassins. Orb-Bonded and true-demons. I will keep trying to run interference. Coms might cut out again, so–”
Her line cut out.
Nora grinned. She was sure the message had been transmitted. Maybe it wouldn’t help, but at least it was something.
***
Mareen was in a kind of daze as she leaned against what felt like a stone wall. Something was happening around her. She could hear Henry trying to use his communicator between shooting his exoguns and fighting. The information was processed, but then it drifted away like smoke. She was having a heart to heart with her blood magic. A distant part of her knew that her husband needed help, and she’d tried to nullify the poison she’d been hit with, but her instincts had wanted to devour it instead.
Her instincts had won.
The tiny part of her mind that remained rational and somewhat lucid prayed that her husband would be okay. Nora Hazard had not been hit with whatever had gotten her and Henry, and she had to trust the woman.
One way Mareen had found to coexist with her bloodmage nature was to bargain with the power inside of her, building a system of give and take. Today, her magic had insisted that she do more than just burn away the death coursing through her system. It had wanted to assimilate it.
What resistance Mareen had left pushed, tried to make it happen faster, but there was only so much she could do. This was her burden, the price she paid for tenuously controlling her magic and adopting all the horrors she’d taken in, making them part of herself. The truth was, her magic was not a tool, not like her long-since eclipsed orb-Bonded power. Instead, it was a partnership or sorts now. It’d been working for a while, but she currently felt helpless. It was ironic she was so vulnerable right now, but unworried for her own safety. She herself was in little to no danger, not yet anyway.
I need to rotting wake up!
She tried, straining against the magic, but the restrictions she’d built into her own spirit to coexist with her sinister power worked against her. Resignation set in. All she could do was hope and pray that her husband didn’t die in the meantime. If he did…
Her dark thoughts were interrupted as a new energy entered her little world. She became aware of it at the same time her power did. Another soul. She explored the intrusion at the same time as her blood magic, curiously riding it like a steed. The situation slowly took shape in her mind.
With a flash of insight, she realized what had happened and remembered Governor Holtz back in Mirana, in Tolstey. The orb-Bonded woman had been able to turn into sand and could attack the lungs of her enemy. Filling them. Suffocating them. Someone was trying to do something similar right now…to her.
For the first time that day, Mareen and her blood magic were both in agreement. She mentally made a nasty smile and restructured her body to prevent the enemy from escaping her lungs. The moment she did, the orb-Bonded must have noticed. Her prisoner began attacking her lungs and the inside of her body. Tearing, cutting, trying to do as much damage as possible.
It barely tickled.
Her blood magic began attacking the ‘Bonded invader directly. The fight was nasty, but slow. The orb-Bonded in her lungs was powerful.
Mareen felt time ticking by and suddenly had a better idea. She inexpertly tried to communicate to her magic what she had in mind. It took a while, but once the magic understood what she wanted, it stopped fighting her.
Mareen kept absorbing the poison, embraced it, but she also funneled some of it to her lungs where she exposed her attacker to it. After that it was over quickly. The orb-Bonded quickly weakened, then died. Mareen absorbed the new power and she tried to ignore the thoughts, feelings, and memories that came with it. She’d sort all of that out later with the help of her magic.
She also managed to process the poison, making it a part of her.
After she’d assimilated the poison, the memories of the orb-Bonded she’d just killed hit her again, but much harder this time. She spiritually flinched. Her blood magic helped protect her from some of the backlash, but it was unlike anything else she’d ever felt. This was much different than just draining blood, absorbing monsters, or even killing and assimilating true-demons.
She didn’t regret killing the ‘Bonded attacker and saving her own life, but she’d think twice about ever doing such a thing again, at least if she could help it.
When the tremors through her spirit subsided enough, she finally opened her eyes.
Henry was standing over her, darksteel shield raised. He was sweating bullets and his gritted teeth showed the pain he was in. Projectiles and lances of magic energy popped over the rim of the fountain they were hiding behind. Behind them, true-demons were starting to climb down the rooftops. What was left of the Adom guard that had been following her and Henry were crouched grimly behind them, watching their backs.
When she woke up, Henry turned in surprise. His eyes lit up even though his pain and exhaustion. Standing water in his eyes from fear turned into tears of relief. Mareen’s mind was hyper focused after the massive influx of energy she’d just gotten and she noticed a number of additional details all at once.
Henry had armor covering some of his body, but not anywhere close to as much as he should have in the middle of a battle. He had wounds and was bleeding. A demonic-looking spine of some sort was sticking out of his arm. Through her supernatural senses, Mareen thought Henry’s energy felt weak and unsteady.
A pile of dead true-demons surrounding them was testament to how deadly his guns were, but he was barely hanging on. Since she’d just absorbed the poison that they’d both been hit with, Mareen truly understood how tough her husband had to be, how much pain he was enduring to function to this degree. He’d been protecting her. “Are you oka–.” As she watched, before he could finish his question, he was hit by a big rock thrown by a true-demon, slamming his body into the stone fountain.
Mareen turned, eyes blazing and launched a few dozen cracking blood spikes, mowing down a group of monsters advancing on her. A second later, she was hit by incredible waves of pain as a wall of agony moved from her fingers, through her arms, up to her head. One of her hands disappeared into dust before reforming. Then it did it again. White-hot pain filled Mareen’s body, the agony so great she couldn’t even block it with the power of her blood magic.
But she ignored it as best she could, hissing, her eyes swimming, and rushed to her fallen husband. She laid a hand on his exposed skin and tried using her healing magic, the one power she had that would always, and forever be her own.
The insidious poison in Henry’s body was behaving differently than it had in hers. She’d been able to isolate hers almost immediately. Her magic had studied it. But in Henry it was running rampant, infecting every area. Mareen’s healing magic was meeting strong resistance. Trying to beat the poison back was like pushing a boulder uphill.
More demons climbed over the buildings around them. Mareen looked up, watched Nora evading a seemingly never-ending barrage of magic, but the rim of the fountain exploding forced her to duck back down again. One of the enemy orb-Bonded had almost hit her head. She was durable these days, but didn’t want to tempt fate. Henry was in bad shape, too. Mareen wasn’t sure how much longer they could last.
She’d only gotten a glimpse of the enemy orb-Bonded group that Nora was distracting. It looked like there were at least half a dozen of them, maybe more. They seemed to be content to let their true-demon shock troops do most of the work. The number of demons climbing over rooftops, sometimes smashing into the buildings around them to attack those inside, was increasing by the minute.
One of the remaining Adom guards went down to demon claws behind her. Mareen snarled and turned to unleash an attack, but had to stop almost immediately. Her energies were fluctuating wildly while she continued processing the massive amount of energy she’d consumed, not to mention the dust-like body of the orb-Bonded she’d killed. She judged it’d be at least half an hour before she’d be able to use her blood magic without destroying herself.
At least she still had her strength and healing magic. She kept one hand on Henry, helping keep him alive. With her other hand, she copied what some of the demons had been doing and threw stones. When they found their mark, she crushed limbs. But the stones were running out, and it was only a matter of time before there were enough true-demons to just rush in and end it.
Mareen would go down swinging, but the very real possibility of dying was becoming more likely. She looked sadly at her wonderful husband. He was barely conscious now. Mareen kept her head down and glanced up again. It didn’t look like Nora was faring any better. Some sort of energy cage constructs were becoming more numerous, boxing her in. The only reason any of the Adom guards from the palace were still alive was because the orb-Bonded enemies hadn’t even bothered attacking them. They must all be at least third rank, maybe higher. One or two might even be fifth rank. The woman that kept throwing glowing daggers at Nora was likely fifth.
Despite the grim scene, Mareen felt oddly proud that the assassins, or powerful orb-Bonded enemies had been sent specifically to deal with them. That had to be the case. And if she and Henry hadn’t been surprised with poison, and she hadn’t had to absorb the orb-Bonded in her lungs…things might have been different.
Mareen prepared for a last stand.
But then something changed.
All at once, doors opened all over the square and a mob of angry Adom spilled out, some holding makeshift weapons, some fighting with tooth and claw. One of the big doors to a temple slammed open and a group of cyclops charged out. The big former monsters swung massive clubs, pulping the first wave of true-demons they encountered. At the same time, orks boiled out from hiding places all over the area, roaring challenges and sometimes attacking true-demons with their bare hands!
“Oh yeah, they all used to be monsters,” mumbled Henry. Mareen shushed him and redoubled her healing efforts, happy for the reprieve.
Now the enemy orb-Bonded had something new to worry about. As some of the attacks on Nora slowed, she got new freedom. The energy cages still existed, and every attack she made on the orb-Bonded themselves was stopped, but the powerful woman from Bittertown slammed into a mass of true-demons, her spear flicking out, precisely delivering death.
They were all still going to die, but Mareen grinned. She lunged up for a demon that got too close and jerked it to the ground, ripping out its throat with her fangs and absorbing its blood. Despite not being able to use most of her abilities, this was enough to heal her.
Nora could be difficult sometimes, but the woman was truly inspiring.
“Hazard!” screamed Nora. She vaulted over a group of fighting Adom and true-demons, effortlessly moving in the air like she was swimming. The armored woman landed next to Mareen, leveled one hand, and a blazing bar of energy lanced out from her ring to mow down a group of demons on a rooftop. Nora visibly faltered for a moment after that, but she managed to drop behind the fountain before being hit by any of the orb-Bonded on the other end of the square.
“I can’t stay long, they might put one of those nets over us. Even this is a risk,” she panted. “I think Eneus is charged up enough now for a big blast. When it happens, I’ll cover for you. Take Henry and get out of here. Get back to the rotting ship. This is hopeless now. From the air I saw some more of what’s coming, and this makes Mensk look like a rotting stroll by the sea, picking up shells. Keep trying to use your communicator, though.”
Before Mareen could even respond, Nora was gone again. Then Mareen realized she hadn’t heard anything coming over her own communicator and hadn’t even tried to use it. Sure enough, after keying the magic device in her ear, she realized it wasn’t broadcasting.
“Turned on mine and tried calling this whole time,” said Henry. “No dice.” He coughed.
“So we are truly on our own,” said Mareen. Her eyes hardened. Arguing with Nora about the woman’s intended sacrifice wasn’t an option anyway…they had no means to communicate. All she could do was prepare to escape. Even in her weakened state, she was pretty sure she could at least get away by herself. She wasn’t sure if she could save Henry, but she was sure as rotting hell going to try. And if she couldn’t save her husband…
This entire city was going to end. Mareen remembered her sparring match with Nora in the World Jar. Anything with blood magic was possible if enough could be sacrificed…All she had to do was wait for her energies to settle, survive until then.
“I have come for my totem!” A thundering voice jolted Mareen out of her murderous haze and she jerked her head up in surprise. Philana was hovering over the square, uncharacteristically grim and buzzing with power.
The fighting didn’t stop, but Adom and demons alike gaped as the demigoddess lowered herself through thin air. “You.” She pointed at the group of enemy orb-Bonded. Her voice boomed out like thunder. “I have received permission from the High Priestesses involved with your attack that I may collect my totem. My totem’s continued health will be negatively impacted by losing his friends. I will regard any resistance to my goal from this point on as an attack and respond accordingly.”
Philana waved a hand and a golden dome of light sprang up around Henry and Mareen. She snapped her fingers. After an initial yelp, both Nora and the last surviving Adom guard was pulled into it as well. A few true-demons ran in, tried to enter the light, but were blasted away, turned to a charred heap.
“This is outrageous!” cried out a tall, unhealthy woman wearing leather. She had a pair of glowing daggers in her hands.
Nora gave the woman a rude gesture. “Go fuck a demon, Sesasi. Try not to get your throat slit again. See you later!” she crowed.
As their group lifted off the ground, protected by the golden bubble, Mareen’s free hand flexed and unflexed from nerves. Suddenly, Henry jerked over onto this side, looking below through the bubble. “Nora, tell the orks to run away!” he demanded. “Tell them to teleport away or to run away!”
The Hero of Berber mutely nodded and yelled something harsh-sounding down at the orks. Mareen couldn’t even tell that they’d understood.
Philana waved a hand, destroying the remaining magical webs in the sky that had been impeding Nora. Their ball of light sped over the burning city toward the distant palace. It looked like most of the Adom military and guard in the city had been rallying there.
The sky was full of flying true-demons. Dead and dying harpy guardswomen rained down around them like bleeding hail.
“How are we going to get out of here?” asked Nora. She was breathing heavily, but her eyes were steady.
Philana absently reached down to touch Henry. Mareen let her. The stony-faced High Priestess said, “Jason is attempting to secure our escape.”
“Jason?” croaked Henry.
“He is going to duel Quissel, a High Priestess. It is a duel with stakes.”
Henry wheezed a laugh. “And he’s always telling me I’m doing stupid things.”
Mareen met Nora’s eyes and the two of them looked in the distance toward the oceans where they’d just felt…something. Like an echo of power.
Nora said, “One way or another, let’s all get ready to get the rotting hells out of here.”
“Yes. That would be good,” whispered Mareen. She watched below, taking in all the violence, the blood being spilled on the ground.
How much of her remaining humanity would she need to sacrifice to take all of that blood in, use it as a weapon? She wasn’t sure how of her old self remained, how much she had left. She was willing to do just about anything to make sure Henry escaped Wakeharbor alive, though.
Her hand on Henry tightened and she gritted her teeth. No. Don’t think about that unless I have to, she thought. “Let’s believe in Jason,” she said out loud.
“He’ll be okay,” Henry said weakly.
“Why?” asked Philana.
“Because Jason doesn’t let people down. He’s there when it counts most.”
All In
Jason teleported and came to a stop, his heels dropping two inches before hitting the sand of the beach outside Wakeharbor. On the way to this location, he’d slowed his perception of time to give himself more practice holding off his limitbreak.
Even though he was still angry, furious even, there was a part of him that was fascinated by how the process seemed to actually work. The first time it’d happened, he’d been incredibly angry…but also desperate. Maybe desperation was the key to trigger it. Now that he knew what was going on, he could compare the magic within him to something like…a capacitor. Magic just kept building deep in his mind.
It was actually a miracle he’d kept it in check for so long. He suspected that his orb controller was helping him.
“This is far enough, I think,” said the High Priestess. Quissel’s light-colored ruffled shirt fluttered in the breeze. Now that he was closer to her, Jason realized she was actually taller than he was and likely outweighed him, too.
Jason narrowed his eyes and stayed focused. In the distance, true-demons swarmed the beach, heading into Wakeharbor. Distant screams and bellows were a grim testament to the violence happening just beyond line of sight. Ships were mixed in amongst the giant transporting demons. A group was speeding towards them from one. Neither Jason nor Quissel paid the approaching demons any mind.
Instead of answering her, he extended a hand and drew Breeze from sideways space. His magic was about to erupt. Holding it back was getting progressively harder.
“Not going to say anything, huh? I commend your bravery, boy. If you get on your knees and apologize, I might even spare you if you swear loyalty to me and put on an indentured servant necklace for some added insurance. Your friends all need to die, though.” The big demigoddess stood in a relaxed pose, hands on her hips.
