Stones cascaded off my face as I struggled shoving past the stone wedged between the ground and the wall above me. I heaved a primal growl pushing through the marginally smaller boulders, finally emerging from the corner of what remains of the cavern.
The Titanus Gibslandris's body was severed at the spot Zeldrich and I targeted repeatedly, its massive corpse laying on both sides of the first fissure Hyphaelius and his monstrous Necropenthi sundered. An eerie silence hung in the hazy, dust filled air. Scanning over the mountains of stone debris, Korbin's figure staggered up from a mountain of broken stones 30 feet away.
"KORBIN!" I yelled, pulling myself from the rubble and limping over. Checking my status, I surprisingly hadn't taken too much damage, still sitting at 89/191 health points. It's not great, but better than I expected.
"Hey…MAN I'm glad I popped that fucking health potion!" Korbin called back, cracking his neck and casually jogging over with layers of dust puffing off his armor.
"Wow, I thought I made it out in good shape. You look…fine?" I said, noticing only a bloodied lip and a few bruises on his face.
"Oh I assure you I took some hits, I just don't actively neglect my Vitality stat like you." Korbin replied, walking toward the Gibslandris's head on our side of the fissure.
"Woah, that's insane!" I said, staring attentively down at the cracked stone floor between us.
"What, what is it?" He asked, turning around and peering at the ground. I peered up, fighting desperately to hold back my devious grin.
"No it's just, I don't remember asking about your stats? You must be so proud!" I excitedly answered in feigned shock. Korbin's face dropped as he flicked a stone at me with his foot.
"Oh like YOU'RE one to talk?!" Korbin shot back in a look of genuine shock. After having a laugh at his expense, it occurred to me Korbin and I were the only things moving atop the stone rubble.
"Hey, why are we still here? I don't think the odds of two of us surviving whatever the fuck just happened were very high, let alone all four of u-" rubble exploded from the ground 30 feet from us as a black guyser shot into the air. As the guyser subsided, an arm extended out from the ground as Phanthu pulled himself from the rubble, his robes ripped and hanging loosely from his body.
*Planetary Objective updated!*
Kill the remaining Heretic Sons Of Xernilia before the apocalypse! (Legendary)
+250 Event Points
+8 (Epic) Loot drops
"You just had to open your fat fuckin' mouth, didn't you?" Korbin said, summoning his battle ax to his hands. Phanthu stumbled over a mountain of cracked stone staggering towards us.
"You…you are all that's left, huh? Haha…good." Phanthu said through labored breaths, pressing his bloodied, dust covered hand to his side.
"Oh look, Tom? The genocidal spoiled son of a heretic got to live long enough to see all the destruction he's caused! Isn't that fun?" Korbin scoffed, glowering at Phanthu as we inched closer to him. Phanthu laughed himself into a coughing fit, hunching over with a finger raised gesturing us to 'wait'.
"Erem, my planet was doomed long ago. I never intended to save everyone, because it was never a fucking option in the first place. Not with Vashi's beast looming below, waiting for its cattle to grow before the slaughter." Phanthu said, summoning a small orb of deathwater hovering over his palm and pressing it to his stomach. He hunched forward as the water pressed his belly, letting out a blood curdling screech in pain. Sweat and saliva dripped down his quivering face as he looked back up to us.
"The only hope…for the memory of my people to live on…was to die, and leave behind a single survivor to serve as the courier of their warrior spirit and courageous sacrifice. It's all we have left." Phanthu said, straightening his posture as darkness filled the whites in his eyes like ink poured into a shallow cup of water.
"How noble, and convenient you selected yourself as their 'champion'." Korbin shot back, charging a fireball in one hand and twirling his axe held out in front of him with the other. Behind Phanthu, a dark cloud seeped through the stone rubble swirling in place.
The cloud spun to the shape of a man, as Zeldrich's hooded figures emerged from the shadows.
"Good to see you're well, brother." Phanthu said.
"No thanks to you, why are these two still breathing?! Vashi will be here any moment, and he will not be happy!" Zeldrich croaked back raspily. Phanthu raised his brow, pointing toward Zeldrich while looking at us.
"This. This is why you never mix purging your home-world with family." Phanthu said through a smirk, his solid black eyes staring into mine unblinkingly.
…family?
"Shut up! We have no time for this." Zeldrich hissed back, emitting a fog of shadow from his chest brandishing his daggers from the darkness. Korbin sighed, turning towards me with tired eyes. I looked back while snatching my last common potion from within my necklace's storage space and chugged it down.
"Why do I suddenly miss besieging radicalized giant zealots?" Korbin asked me, turning his wrist and blasting the fireball he had hovering over his hand towards Zeldrich without looking. The shadow rogue darted out of its path as the orange wriggling ball of flame exploded against the cracked and fragmented cavern wall. Phanthu dodged out of the blast radius shuffling his feet similarly to a water step, contorting a mass of deathwater spiraling around his body.
The air crackled around the ends of my blades firing a Lightning Strike at Phanthu, who didn't break stride contorting the deathwater in front of the bolt. The energy instantly electrified the water, killing the dark, death energies within. The water however remained swirling around Phanthu's twisting steps toward us. The hum of clashing metal cracked behind me as Zeldrich's form dashed off the wall behind Phonthu and back toward Korbin.
A wall of clear water curled overhead, launching Phanthu high in the air. The ends of my blades clinked together, firing a steam of lightning at Phanthu. The bottom of his wave bent under his legs, cocooning him as my attack dispersed into the water.
"I have no reason to fight you anymore, Tom. But if you insist on getting in my way, I see this as good a time as any to try this out." Phanthu exclaimed through a toothy grin, hovering above within his water sphere. His hands began radiating dark, wriggling orbs of energy as he floated higher toward the cavern ceiling. The clear, cycling water sphere surrounding Phanthu turned completely black, bubbling as if being boiled from the inside. A concussive blast dispersed from the bubble, as did its opaque water. Instead, a green translucent dome surrounded Phanthu, pointing his glowing white eyes towards one of the Gibslandris's tunnels.
"SPIRIT OF XERNILIA'S GREED! FATHER! ABSOLVE THE DEBTS OF YOUR SINS AND DESTROY MY ENEMIES!" Phanthu commanded, his calm tone somehow filling the rubble covered cavern. He hand shot down, pointing his first finger stiffly at me. The whistling gust of a powerful wind blew down from the tunnel, carrying a dreadfully familiar whisper.
"Pain…"
"You've got to be fucking JOKING!?" I yelled angrily to Phanthu, backing away from below him. My head twisted back toward Korbin and Zeldrich's melee when the wraith supposedly cursed to wander Xernilia's surface screamed while bursting from the tunnel.
"PAIN!!"
"Korbin, don't look at it!" I yelled, firing my grapple hook into the nearest stone wall and yanking myself high into the air. An icy cold wind blew under my feet, as the wraith's wretchedly raspy screech flew past in a doppler effect. Zeldrich's shadowy form hurtled over the wraith's extended hand by a mere inch, bouncing off the stone wall back towards Korbin.
"PAAAAAIN!" My feet barely tapped off the shattered stone debris when the Wraith was upon me, forcing me to squeeze my eyes shut and leap up into the air. Four sharp pains tore across my chest as I spun up into the air, flipping me higher before crashing to the stone. I quickly glanced down at myself clambering to my feet, finding four streaks of blood seeping through my robes.
"PAAI-" An eye-singeing blast of heat blasted off my face before I could turn toward the flanking Wraith, the bright orange flash covered the corner of my vision leaving dark afterimages temporarily stained in my vision. The wraith screeched in pain, its green translucent figure emitting clouds of steam. A bright orange dome cascaded all around me as Korbin's voice echoed across the cavern.
"Tom, fucking look at it!" He begged deflecting a shadowy dashing strike from Zeldrich and missing a grapple attempt by a hair. A cold breeze drew my attention back behind me, finding the Wraith jetting at me through the air. Hoping I didn't misunderstand Korbin, I focused on the wraith's trajectory while slowly building up mana.
"PAIN!! ONLY PAIN!!" The wraith raspily screamed with its claw-like hands outstretched toward me. Leaping into the air, the wraith quickly adjusted its angle higher to catch me. My grappling hook latched into the stone floor below, yanking myself back to the ground.
My foot exploded off the ground on contact, launching a charged Lightning Strike upward in a flash of blue light. The blade went straight through his body as if it were a gas, while the mana infused in the strike rippled across the Wraiths ghostly figure. The wraith screeched as it flew by, shuddering with jagged blue streaks flashing across its body.
Damn, I feel really, really good.
The wraith hardly had time to turn around before I'd sprinted behind it, my body feeling lighter than ever before. It's sharp claw ripped around its body swiping at my face. I fired my grappling hook into the stone floor at my side, sliding under the wraiths slashing claw. Blur mana flashed from the edge of my blade slashing the wraiths midsection as I slid past. Wedging my boot into the stone rubble, I leapt as I high as I could into the air. The wraith lung forward as I yanked hard on my grapple line, pulling my body towards the cursed ghost landing a spinning Flow Strike across his chest.
The wraith recoiled back, furiously scratching its own wound with its long, sharp claws. A heavy metallic clattering at my feet brought my attention behind me, finding Korbin blocking a flurry of slashes from Zeldrich's daggers. Not thinking, I tossed my twinblades at him, only calling out after they were aloft.
"KORBIN, CATCH!" Korbin spun as he deflected Zeldrich's lunging stab at his wrist, reaching out and snagging my chained blades. No mana reacted as he caught them, spinning back and catching Zeldrich's arm between the chains.
"GOT YO-"
*CRACK*
As Korbin triumphantly announced his grasp onto Zeldrich, the Wraith's body smashed into the ground behind me, still scratching at its purple-glowing chest wound. The shattered rocks and chunks of stone covering the floor crumbled at our feet, sending Korbin, Zeldrich and I into a free fall. My grappling hook fired out to the side, latching onto the wall as a purple shadow slammed off the stone. The impact shook my prong free from the rockwall, only serving to slow my momentum before plummeting again over 20 feet to the dark, jagged rubble below. Dust filled my lungs clambering to my feet, feeling a sharp pain in my side as I stumbled blindly.
Fuck, I gave Korbin my tw-
My thoughts were cut off by the familiar warmth of my blades handles filling my palms.
Huh…that must be what 'Soundbound' does.
Lightning channeled through the chains between my blades, emitting a flickering blue light and illuminating the hazy, rubble ridden remains of the collapse.
"Paaain.."
The wraith's distant screech drew my attention upward, spotting a dark orb bouncing around the wraith high above. My head whipped behind me hearing the crunch of stones shifting to find Korbin, clambering to his feet.
"Well that fucking hurt, huh?" Korbin chuckled. I relaxed my shoulders realizing it was him, feeling the full range of pain from our plummet invade my muscles.
"Yeah, yeah this one kind of sucks man, I'm going to be honest." I said, hunching over to relief the sharp pressure in my ribcage. Korbin sighed, straightening his posture.
"Tom?"
"Yeah?"
"…Full Commit?" Korbin solemnly offered, quoting an expression we've used since we were children. More often than not, the mutual challenge served as a catalyst to trying something probably outside of our capabilities at the time. A phrase that originated from something as mundane as making comebacks playing pickup games at the park against apathetic, overly competitive grown-ass men. When the time for games faded, the emboldening effects those words had on my will every time I heard them remained. It became a mantra that consistently preceded the final 30 minutes of training, after spilling every drop of blood and sweat sparring and training night in and night out to finish strong, and remain focused. I smiled, knowing full and well what he was implying.
"Full Commit."
"Alright, what do you know about that wraith? You knew not to look at it." Korbin quickly asked, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders.
"It's stare can paralyze you, but whatever you did neutralized that, and made me feel really fucking strong in the process." I replied.
"Good, I was sort of rolling the dice on that one. It was a boosting domain, so some stat of yours must be the ceiling for his stare." Korbin quickly explained.
"Okay, fuck you for testing that with me. But okay, maybe my boosting skill will do the same." I replied, hoping not to be confined in a bubble to fight a fucking ghost.
"I don't like 'maybe', but it's your call. Either way, I say we catch them off guard now, while they're still confined in this collapse." Korbin said, looking up at the spectre chasing a shadow near the top of the collapsed cave.
"I can take the wraith but, how will you deal with Zeldrich?" I asked.
"You don't think I'm not used to fighting a faster opponent by now? How do I usually beat you?" Korbin asked, flashing a sly smirk as his hands began emitting a brought orange glow. I sighed, knowing full and well what the answer was.
"…grappling."
"Uh-huh." Korbin replied as the wriggling orange flames climbed up his metal gauntlets. My fists clasped hard onto my blade handles as a jolting rush of lightning surged through my veins, streaking across my body from sending stray bolts rippling off the surface of my skin. Mana rapidly drained from the pit of my gut as Spirit Of The Storm activated, eating away at my resources with every passing second. Peering up, Korbin's body was fully engulfed in a blinding orange flame, having only the shape of a man with his features masked in intense wriggling flames.
"Kill the wraith, but let's try to keep Zeldrich alive. We still need him." Korbin quickly added before leaping onto the wall beside him. His glowing hands clamped into the stone, his feet tapping onto the wall before launching himself 8 feet in the air. Korbin's dug into the stone again before repeating his leaping ascent.
Haha, slowpoke.
My feet glided up the side of the wall several feet as I fired my grappling hook, the purple strobing prong zipping through the air quicker than ever. The hook latched into the stone as I kicked off the wall, pulling hard and willing my hook to reel itself in. The sheer force whipped my head back as I jetted up the collapsed cave over 50 feet, kicking off the opposite wall and leaping toward the Wraith from below.
Green, viscous fluid sprayed from the wraith suffering my barrage of purple, shimmering slashes starting ant its legs up to its neck. The wraith's body began to twist around, its white eyes bright hue illuminating the dust circulating around the sides of its head. Stone fragmented off the opposite wall as my hook dug into the rock, pulling myself around the wraiths back as it spun around to face me. Zeldrich planted off the wall beside my hook, his eyes locked onto Korbin's glowing figure leaping at him from below.
Flow Inverse threw my momentum in a spin, cracking my heel into Zeldrich's stomach as he dashed away. My eyes winced shut twisting towards the wraith, blinding firing my hook to the other wall to avoid his paralyzing stare. A gust of wind blew past my head as my eyes shot open, finding myself already slashing down the Wraith's ducked head. It felt as if the world slowed for just a millisecond as I spotted the bright, translucent shine of the wraiths Flow congregating in his neck.
A flash of white light sparked at the edge of my blade, as I almost intrinsically activated Flow Sever. The Wraith's withered face froze with its jaw hanging at its chest as its head slid off its shoulders, floating to the bottom of the collapsed cave. I leapt off the opposite wall, lunging towards its headless body still swiping its claws wildly through the air. Purple Light enveloped my vision as my blade pierced through its spine. The lightning mana surged through its spine, blowing a softball sized hole through its chest in a puff of green mist. All at once, the Wraiths ghostly figure faded like a gas dispersing into the atmosphere.
I slammed my blade into the stone wall, creating a handhold for me while looking down to check on Korbin. My eyes locked into his glowing figure clasping onto the stone wall. His hand flicked up from the wall, catching Zeldrich's dashing shadowy wrist and pulling it into his chest. Kicking off the wall, Korbin threw Zeldrich up to me as weightlessly as a crumpled ball of paper. Kicking up, I spun around my blade still wedged into the wall blasting my boot into Zeldrich's jaw and sending him higher up the collapse.
Korbin suddenly blasted up from the wall, leaping the full 15 feet remaining to the top of the collapse while snatching Zeldrich's flailing body. I yanked my glowing blade free, firing my grappling hook and pulling myself the rest of the way up.
Seeing pieces of skin flaking from my hand, I deactivated Spirit of the Storm the moment my feet hit the ground atop the collapse. My legs crumbled under my weight as an immense weakness accompanied by a stabbing pain in my gut overwhelmed my body. I rolled over, hearing a sickening crack echoing off the walls from behind me.
Korbin had his leg locked around Zeldrich's head with his arm wedged to his neck extended up in Korbin's grasp. Korbin's body lurched back, snapping Zeldrich's elbow and cranking it in a circle.
"AAAah-UGH". Zeldrich's blood curdling scream was cut short as Korbin spun around his head, slipping a shin bone under Zeldrich's chin while locking his hands behind his neck. Korbin strained while yanking Zeldrich's head down, crushing his windpipe on Korbin's shin. Just as Zeldrich's eyes began fluttering, Korbin slid under him wrapping his legs around Zeldrich's knee.
*POP*
"AAAAaaahh!!" Zeldrich screeched as Korbin torqued his leg, snapping his knee before tucking Zeldrich's ankle under his armpit.
"Oh good, you're awake!" Korbin excitedly said, snapping Zeldrich's ankle with a twist of his hips.
"AAAaah f-fuck!" Zeldrich bellowed weakly, grabbing at his leg. Korbin slid around Zeldrich, pulling him up by his robes and twisting them around his neck.
"Well, this isn't looking too good for you is it, pal?" Korbin snickered as Zeldrich struggled to reach for him over his shoulder. Korbin tightened his grip, making Zeldrich's eyes bulge in his skull.
"The way I see it, by all respects, I should kill you right fucking now. Frankly, I want to. But I'm going to offer you a choice, a chance to give your next breath purpose." Korbin said into Zeldrich's ear. In front of them, a long piece of parchment paper unraveled in the air.
"You sign this stating you don't fuck me over again, and I won't kill you. You got as long as you can hold your breath." Korbin said through a snarl. Zeldrich struggled for another second before relaxing, as the paper vacuumed in on itself and disappeared. Korbin released Zeldrich who fell to the floor, holding his leg and writhing in pain.
"What the fuck was that? Whatdid you just make me agree to?!" Zeldrich demanded between heavy grunts. Korbin kneeled beside him, uncorking a health potion and pouring it down his throat.
"Korbin what the fu-"
"Relax." Korbin said, interrupting my protests. Zeldrich hesitantly accepted the drink for a swing before his eyes lit up, chugging down the healing elixir. After a few minutes, he clambered to his feet, morning around his leg.
"I didn't realize we even had the necessary ingredients for an alchemist to work here, it's a shame you've proven yourself insole-AGH!" Zeldrich brandished his dagger, only to collapse gripping at his head. Korbin chuckled looking down at him.
"I'm so glad ignoring the fine-print is such a primal human trait. You can't hurt me, that's part of what you just agreed to." Korbin said, squatting down and snatching Zeldrich by the jaw.
"Now unless the last thing you want to remember is the audible squash of your brain twisting in the claws of demons that not even my patrons had the audacity to face, you're going to take us to your fucking brother. Now."