Tala, Lyn, and Ron were standing in the sanctum—with Terry sitting on Tala’s shoulder—watching the view that Alat provided. It was as if they had front row seats to a truly unusual fight, from a mundane perspective.
To Tala’s eyes it made perfect sense.
Rane matched allain in raw fighting prowess strike for strike… about half of the ti. To counter the other half, his body simply moved out of each given strike’s path in ways that no humanoid could have gotten the leverage to move.
On his part, Rane would occasionally seemingly strike at empty air, causing Tala to tsk. “Her concept almost forces your instincts to be wrong. You know she’s about to move one way before she moves the other. She’s clever with it too. Your instincts won’t always be wrong. She capitalizes on your thinking, gets in your head. Letting your instincts be right until you actually count on them. She’s survived and thrived specifically by dancing that line with each given opponent.”
Though, if she wanted to, she could simply overwhelm soone and take them out.
Ron was clutching the simple short sword that he’d pulled free of his tower shield of iron and white steel, his enhanced strength making the weight seemingly a non issue. “Let us help him, Mistress. Please?”
Tala grimaced. “You’ve seen her fight now. How many of you would stand up against her?”
It was Ron’s turn to grunt. “Ten. Don’t bring Kedva, please. Her family still needs her.”
And just like that, Tala understood what the man intended. Ron’s plan was to be a shield for Irondale, to spend his and the Talons’ lives to let Rane or Terry finish the fight. Tala stood, instinctively drawing as much authority to herself as she could in that brief mont before pronouncing, “No. You will not go to die.”
He opened his mouth to object, but her anger flared.
“If you believe you can contribute to the fight, I’ll send you in imdiately. If your plan is to go and die in a vain hope of that helping, I say no.”
Ron grimaced then. “Fine. Five. Myself, Kedva, Torrap, Nalcof, and…” he hesitated for a mont, considering, “Rinnor.”
Tala gave him a long look, during which Rane and allain clashed a half-dozen more tis.
Ron touched his shortsword to his shield, and the white steel flowed, altering the weapon into a one-handed, thrusting spear instead. “Please?”
Terry stood and trilled, signalling his readiness to go.
A portal opened beneath the flier on the superficial, drawing it back into the sanctum, and the five Talons were forewarned of their upcoming role.
Finally, Tala nodded. “Go.”
She opened a tiny portal right in front of Terry even as she willed the five Talons to the superficial.
The five appeared in a circle around allain, tower shields held protectively before them, spears already thrusting forward.
Enar had already inford Rane about the incoming backup, and so he was mid-assault when they arrived, Force lashing out in tight, ever-changing patterns.
A pulse of power radiated outward from allain even as the five appeared, her eyes widening.
Tala saw her concept hit everyone around her, and four spears shifted their points of impact, guided by expert hands following deceived instincts. Force was deflected off of allain’s shield even as those four spears thrust through empty air.
Ron’s spear, however, didn’t waiver. He seemingly ignored his instincts—that were likely screaming at him to shift his point of attack—and put his blade through her low back on the right side, just above her hip.
I’m glad she’s not wearing her armor.
-Well, she seemingly wasn’t on the warpath before coming after us. It would have sent an entirely horrid ssage to anyone she was speaking with to show up in full armor.- Alat let the implications hang heavily in their mind.
Hey… I’m not that bad. I usually don’t let people know I’m wearing it.
But that was all the ti they had, in the fraction of an instant between the spear strike and the result. The hit made her scream—mostly in irritation, but there was definitely pain involved as well—even as both her protian weapons beca great lengths of bladed chain, whipping out to strike everyone around her in a sort of tal cyclone that Tala did not want to face herself.
The Talons caught the blows on their shields, the power of the strikes throwing them all backward. Even so, their training and power held true, and they landed, skidding backward rather than tumbling into heeps.
Rane got Force up in ti, and his own magic moved him back rather than letting the chain wrap around his block to strike him regardless.
That left allain alone on the hilltop, eyes locked on Rane. “You were the distraction? You had five more powerful warriors available, and they sent you? Are you gated insane?” Then she froze, her eyes widening further. “Not gated? And you’re burning power like stuck pigs. How do you have this much power with absolutely no finesse?”
She shook her head as if to clear it, at the sa ti, her magic was sealing up the wound in her low back.
“What the rust is going on here—?”
That’s when Terry struck.
He appeared with only the smallest blip of dinsional power, his talons already raking across her left shoulder, alive with void magic that was pushed back into the weapons and away from her flesh by the sheer power of her aura, even as she twisted, avoiding much of the attack, striking out and causing Terry to flicker away.
Did she just focus and concentrate her aura and authority as a ans of active defense?
-I… I think so? I think we’ve seen things similar, but to actually suppress magic on the edge of a blade? That’s insane!-
At the sa mont, the Talons sprinted back in, and Rane launched himself forward, imparting a truly staggering amount of kinetic energy into himself to cover the distance to arrive first.
By the ti she’d finished her warding strike against Terry, allain had Rane’s blade through her back… or she would have if she hadn’t decided that things had gone far enough.
The ze of the entire region changed in an instant, becoming a massive vortex, pulling power in toward her. The Talons weren’t actually bleeding power, it was more that they were using power at a trendous rate. So, blessedly, they weren’t giving their enemy more power to work with.
Even so, a truly staggering amount of magic was coming toward the Eskau.
There was an odd flicker of power to Tala’s magesight, and then allain went up like a funeral pyre, burning with power for all the world to see.
That won’t make things better…
-No kidding…-
Tala stood, her armor growing over her in an instant, and only then did she realize just how much inspiration the Talons had taken from her defenses, despite the fact that it should have been instantly obvious.
Not the ti for thoughts on fashion and armor choice, Tala.
She was about to will herself to the superficial, but Lyn held up a hand. “Wait! Tala, wait.”
Tala ground her teeth, a habit she’d never picked up, but it seed appropriate in the mont. “Why?” The one word ca out with such force—echoed by the power she had over the entire sub-dinsion around them. “Why should I let them fight alone?”
“They aren’t fighting alone, and if you don’t show yourself, she might still be driven off. This is how we fight. We need to wear her down.” Lyn touched Tala’s armored shoulder. “If she sees you, she won’t ever retreat, not in the state she’s in right now, maybe not even if she was of sound mind.”
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Tala almost stomped her foot in irritation, but she realized that would be exceedingly childish.
She then almost turned and broke her throne with a punch, but not only would that have been needlessly destructive, it would have required her to take her eyes off the display.
Sure, she could still perceive the battle taking place, but it wasn’t the sa. At least that’s what she convinced herself of to help leash her fury… and fear.
On the superficial, things were going… interestingly.
Terry and Rane were striking hard and fast and pulling back to keep themselves alive.
The Talons were keeping a careful distance, thrusting their now longer spears forward whenever there was an opening.
allain engaged them all, her weapons a blur as she blocked, dodged and counter attacked, despite being surrounded. The only evidence of any injury upon her was the damage to—and staining of—her clothing, through which her perfect, pale flesh showed.
Not all of the Talons were equally skilled in feathering their use of power, and while those who ‘bled’ more were more powerful as a result, they also burned out faster.
Tala watched with growing trepidation as allain pulsed her power, spiking its use only when and as she needed it.
Honestly, the control and finesse was a thing of beauty. Despite effectively using five or six tis more power than she had been, the Eskau’s usage was barely more than her average had been.
As a result, when the first Talon bottod out on power, allain had barely used five percent of her reserves.
The elf woman sneered. “Pathetic.”
Torrap’s eyes widened as she closed on him faster than seed possible to his now mundane sight.
Tala barely willed him back into Irondale in ti.
allain scread at the sky, her concept causing a dozen strikes to miss her in her mont of emotional venting. “Who is still interfering with ? Can I not have the blood that I’ve earned?”
The blood from her few wounds still stained the cloth around them, but nothing about the now healed cuts seed to be hampering her. Her magics kept her as nimble and effective as ever.
The other Talons fell quickly after that, thankfully all being drawn out, with Ron and Kedva being the final two, in that order.
allain spat to the side, a little flower quickly growing where her spit landed. “Pathetic.” She cut the flower down. “All that power and all they could do was spend ti.” She shook her head. “What a waste. But I do know one thing, now.”
Rane backed up a step, Terry flickering to his side, crouched low, clearly about to spring. “What is that?”
“You know what happened to my Tali, my Tala. You must. That is the only explanation for weaponry that so mimics the House of Blood’s protian weapons. Though, in truth, they were handled so inexpertly that I want to weep at the comparison.”
When Rane frowned, allain laughed.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice them changing and adjusting their weaponry through the clashes? You have at your disposal massive gems, yet you leave them uncut, unpolished, languishing in the gutter for peasants to pee upon.”
In a fit of pique, Tala brought Kedva and Ron back to the superficial, fully topped off.
“I think we’re doing alright for ourselves.” Kedva snapped out, causing allain to whirl.
On her other side, Ron struck ho, his spear slipping through allain’s left thigh this ti.
She cursed and blurred, burning a chunk of power as she slamd her weapon—now shaped as a long, stiletto bladed punch-dagger—through Ron’s breastplate.
Still, the armor had done its job, deflecting the blow outward so that she only punched through his ribs and lung rather than his heart.
allain ripped her weapon free, turning to deflect Kedva’s attack even as Tala pulled Ron back to Irondale where the other Talons began tending to him imdiately.
Truthfully, the magic rich environnt that Kit supplied was more than enough to ensure that the man would survive, but it would take a little ti and a lot of food. He was out of this fight for the mont.
-Umm… Tala?-
Not now, Alat.
-This is sort of important?-
Is it urgent? Does it have to do with this fight?
-No, but—-
Then tell
later.
-...Alright…- Her tone conveyed that Tala would regret the choice, but Tala didn’t care in the mont.
allain was done playing around. She took a slamming hit from Force and three cuts from Terry to spin low and cleave off Kedva’s left leg.
The woman collapsed, only the first part of her scream escaping her mouth before Tala had her and her leg back in Ironhold, her will holding the two together even as Kedva’s magics repaired the razor thin cut.
The elf laughed maniacally. “What a rusting waste. You have all this capacity, but you fight like children who stole their father’s sword.” She shook her head. “Enough. We’re done.”
Tala watched as allain’s soul flexed. She watched as the elder Eskau locked down existence around herself.
Terry flickered, trying to go for another strike, but instead, he found himself shunted to the outside of her radius of control, his attacks rending the air to no effect. He let out a screech of irritation, but no matter what he tried over the next few seconds, he could no longer flicker near her. Even so, Tala and he both saw that her defense against him drained her power every ti he tried, so he kept at it. His eyes practically glowed with fury as he flickered dozens of tis a second, trying to overwhelm her through sheer attrition.
After a startled glance, conveying just how stunned she was by his continued assault, the elf gave a single nod of respect, a smile tugging at her lips. allain then turned away, ignoring the bird as she strode straight for Rane.
Rane, for his part, slamd Force forward, striking the side of her head.
The blow connected—much to Rane’s obvious surprise—but the elf only took a single stagger-step to the side, using the motion to wrap an attack around and attack him from the back.
He barely rolled around that strike with the aid of his magics.
His follow-up strikes did not connect, despite him clearly trying to fight his instincts when appropriate.
Her own weapon skittered across his armor, clearly overwhelming his defensive magics with her speed and power. Thankfully, the magically reinforced plates were keeping him from taking even small wounds for the mont. Even more blessedly, his kinetic magics didn’t fire after the fact. That would have caused him to be jerked around toward no benefit.
More important than the direct conflict, however, was the clash of authority and aura.
Tala tried to lend her weight and power to Rane, and that seed to help, but even together, they couldn’t truly stand up to a Hallowed in the pri of her roaring, burning power.
Rane’s continued mastery of the space right around him allowed him to pull power and montum from each strike both as it ca in and as she tried to pull it back, but even that wasn’t enough to overco the gulf between them, as the elf simply burned more magic to power through.
allain continued to exchange blows with Rane, coming out ahead in each clash, only kept from victory by the armor that Rane always managed to position properly.
Chips began to show across its surface, but that seemingly wasn’t enough for the elf. allain shifted her protian weapons to war-picks and similarly armor-piercing weapons, and under that renewed assault, the bone began to reach its limits, even with Rane stealing a monuntal amount of power from each strike before it landed.
Even so, after nearly two minutes of lightning fast back and forths, the elf stepped back, giving a shallow bow. “You have shown yourself a worthy combatant. Give
what I want, and I will let you live.”
Rane slowly shook his head. “No. I am happy to talk with you on her behalf, but you will not have those I protect.”
Without warning, the air at the very edge of Rane’s compressed and hardened aura blossod with energy, his will, authority, and power shaping and directing the blast of heat and light that shot straight for allain’s chest.
It was an unbelievably fast attack, and it only had to cover a handful of feet to reach its target, but the Hallowed wasn’t where Rane had aid. Her concept had already decided the outco of this battle.
Even so, it burned away her left sleeve and set her pants ablaze before her power put the fire out.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to affect such a seasoned warrior, and while his lance of heat and light still hung in the air—dispersing like the after image of a lightning strike—allain moved.
She stepped forward with a deceptively lazy strike, her blade actually whipping through the air too fast for anyone present to see. Even Tala’s enhanced mind and vision weren’t enough.
Rane’s magics moved him backward in a blur that was difficult for even Tala to follow, but when he stopped moving, his right arm fell free, having been severed at the shoulder, allain’s blade having struck into the gaps in his armor and navigated them perfectly.
Tala’s very soul vibrated with shock and horror, the feelings clearly resonating and amplifying off of that coming from her bond to her husband.
Rane was not used to taking hits, even if he could do so—his entire fighting style designed to keep that from happening, to keep his berserker ‘boon’ from activating. He was not used to losing limbs.
Tala tried to bring Rane back to the sanctum, but she couldn’t. allain had locked down everything.
No! If he berserks, she’ll kill him instantly.
-She’ll likely do that anyway! Try other avenues.-
She couldn’t open a portal; she couldn’t bring him back; she couldn’t even will herself to go out. Every skill and ability with regard to Kit was locked out.
Terry’s attacks beca frantic as he flickered around at the edge of her range, her magics actively opposing every one of his attempts. His trilling screeches held a depth of emotion that rocked Tala to her core.
He knew what losing Rane would an to her, and he was trying desperately to prevent it.
He was failing.
Oh, it was true that Terry would wear allain down eventually, but eventually wasn’t going to be soon enough.
Rane starred in muted horror at his arm as it lay on the ground for only a mont before he overca his shock—or more likely wrestled down his innate berserk reaction—and acted, activating magics that caused it to move to him and allowed him to take Force into his left hand.
He was already falling into a battle stance as magics on his armor activated, cutting off the blood before a second spurt from his shoulder could further paint the grass red.
allain looked down at her sword and grunted. There was a thin crack in it, near the midway point. “You and your armor were stronger than I expected.”
She exhaled and the crack flowed back together, filling in.
“It won’t be enough, though. All I asked for was a little information. All this?” She gestured around herself. “All this is because you wouldn’t be reasonable.”
She fell into her stance—one that Tala knew all too well—and moved forward to strike the final blow.
Finally, finally, in that last instant, Tala had a realization and acted, having not a second to waste on reconsidering her desperate gamble.
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