portal into Deep Imaskar would fail. Then she saw crystal-faced Shaddon Datharathi, back on his feet, running at her with the speed of a zephyr.
The pathetic man, utterly encased in his own folly, was Pandorym's perfect avatar. Bleeding cracks fractured his human carapace, and the radiance emanating from his mineral skin was dimmer than before.
Prince Monolith's initial strike had seen to that. Unfortunately, the man was still very much in the fight. Shaddon loosed a barrage of pitch-black tendrils from one outspread hand. Ususi sidestepped a handful, but several chewed into her stony skin, nearly exhausting its protection. She dared not relinquish her wall… but Shaddon advanced on her! Ususi muttered a prayer of thanks when the elf swordswoman intersected Shaddon's path. Kiril slashed with her sentient blade with a power equal to Shaddon's malevolent vitality. Shaddon's left hand and forearm sailed through the air, leaving a spray of blood and darkness. The Datharathi elder screamed, his voice suddenly quite human. Ususi sidled to the left, trying to maintain her line of sight with Pandorym and the gap in its defense. She sensed the intradimensional portal weakening. All she had to do was maintain her plug of force, and Deep Imaskar… what remained of it… would be saved.
Kiril maintained her two-handed grip on Angul's hilt as her foe's severed hand and forearm spun away. The crystal-encased human partially freed himself from Pandorym's control, enough to emit a pitiful scream. Too bad. Kiril took advantage of the distraction to plunge Angul directly into Shaddon's chest. Most opponents would have perished immediately upon receiving such a mortal blow. Violet light flared anew in Shaddon's eyes, and scything ribbons of darkness spewed from his mouth. Where the darkness touched the elf's flesh, they burned like ice and burrowed in. Angul shored up her will to ignore the pain. It was only skin deep, as yet. Mere pain couldn't hinder her righteous power. She pulled the Blade Cerulean free of Shaddon's chest, then swung it around in a neck-high arc. Shaddon's inhuman speed saved him from her first slash, and her second. Ribbons of darkness cut into her arm and leg. She felt nothing. Pain was a luxury. So was injury. Blood loss, shock, and dismemberment couldn't prevent her from accomplishing what Angul demanded. With her third swing, she decapitated the man. The body fell. Shaddon's head, free of its body, remained aloft, its virulent hate undiminished.
Warian's hair stood on end in response to the electrical storm near him. Blue-white bolts burned through the advancing earth lord… over and over. Prince Monolith was caught in a chain of lightning that pinned him for painful moments. Charred, smoking rubble blasted from the earth elemental's form like shrapnel, and Monolith yelled out, furious and hurt. The green-skinned giant was… some sort of titan? A storm giant? Something nearly godlike, Warian's subconscious gibbered. They couldn't face something like that! Could they? Could he? Warian clenched his prosthesis, and time floated down a slower path. Even the lightning encircling Monolith seemed to linger in its smoking trails. Warian moved toward the giant, dodging mantis-men and other horrors. Most did not see him, barely noticing his passing, while others tried to track what must have been a crazy blur. His dash ended with a magnificent punch to the giant's shin. He rotated his hips and shoulder into the punch as Zel had once taught him, transferring all the power of his arm into the knuckles of his prosthesis. Nothing happened. Warian allowed himself to fall back to normal speed. The giant's electrical cage winked out, and it grunted as its leg collapsed. The creature went down on one knee. Warian jumped away, nearly evading the giant's grasp. Greenish fingers closed around him, holding him, then squeezed. Even with the power of his prosthetic girding his strength and endurance, Warian gasped in pain.
Thankfully, the momentary release from the lightning was all Monolith needed. The elemental noble crashed into the giant and grasped the bigger humanoid with his huge, earthen hands. Warian fell several feet as the giant dropped him. It needed both hands to resist Monolith's elemental hug.
The vengeance taker aimed, fired, loaded, and cranked the mechanism. Again. And again. The mantis-men were especially vulnerable to Iahn's deadly aim. As soon as Iahn saw a servitor's amulet, it was as good as out of the fight. If the way each creature screamed and collapsed was any indication, a servitor severed from Pandorym's control was dealt with permanently. An insectoid broke cover, dashing from behind a canister. It hurled a spear, its aim perfect, and its speed lethal. Iahn slipped left, and the spear whispered its regrets in his right ear as it flew past. He wondered if the creature's speed was the result of its own skill or was an enhancement of Pandorym's power. No matter. 'Got you,' he grunted as the mantis-man's amulet shattered, speared by an answering bolt from Iahn's new crossbow. His was a winning strategy. 'Break their amulets!' he yelled to the others, trying to project his voice above the din. 'It's their connection to Pandorym. Break-' A gray-skinned creature appeared from behind a large canister and loped forward, much larger than the mantis-men he'd so far eliminated. A mountain troll, like the one he'd faced days earlier. Iahn took aim… where in the name of the Great Seal was its amulet? He spied a chain, but no crystal. He fired a bolt directly into the charging creature's forehead. The troll's head rocked back, then forward, a grin on its face. Blood trickled toward its mouth, but the troll roared and accelerated. The vengeance taker shot one of the creature's eyes before it reached him and snatched at his legs. He skipped left, then right, careful to keep his footing on top of the tall cylinder. The creature was so big, it easily looked over the top the cylinder on which Iahn stood. The vengeance taker holstered his crossbow in his thigh sheath. When the creature lunged at him again, he launched himself into the air. He jumped up and forward, rotating into a somersault so that as the troll moved below him, the vengeance taker's legs flew high and his hands were free to grab the troll by its filthy black hair. Before the creature realized where its target had gone, Iahn was on its back, securing his position with one arm snaked around the creature's thick neck. He squeezed. The troll's rubbery flesh was resilient. That didn't prevent the vengeance taker from crushing its trachea. The troll squeaked and started to stagger. But Iahn knew the troll's body would repair itself in an instant. He kept squeezing, making certain that the troll couldn't get a breath. Nor could it roar, scream, beg, or even gasp. The vengeance taker rode the troll down as it collapsed first to its knees, then onto its face. Even then, Iahn didn't relinquish his hold. Instead he yelled, 'Ususi! Give me fire!'
Ususi heard the vengeance taker's command, but she couldn't afford to break her concentration. The wizard didn't turn or even process his words. All her energy was necessary to maintain the blockage she'd thrown down Pandorym's throat. The shimmering portal through which Deep Imaskar's plight was visible hazed further. Its wide diameter fluctuated, and the surrounding void black vapor whipped and lashed as if struggling to maintain its shape in a stiff wind. Something punctured a small hole in her barrier. Her spell didn't collapse, but she spied something moving from the opposite side of it into the weapons cache. An Imaskari man appeared in the gloom of Pandorym's form, stepping out of the portal. Had an ally arrived? Ususi didn't recognize him, but her eyes widened when she saw a bloody, oozing object impaled through the palm of the man's hand. A Celestial Nadir crystal was punched all the way through. Was Pandorym overwhelming Deep Imaskar by forcibly converting citizens to be its servitors? The wizard nearly lost her concentration in horror. The newly arrived Imaskari focused on Ususi. In his hand he clutched a sliver of Celestial Nadir crystal, carved like a small throwing dagger. He raised the sliver high, its needle-sharp end aimed at her head. Did the man mean to launch the crystal at her from across the room? Worry pinched Ususi's forehead. What would happen if she were infected by a Pandorym-controlled crystal?
The giant was strong-as strong as many of Monolith's noble brothers and sisters who cavorted yet, uncaring of the fleshy creatures that haunted the earth above the mantle. But Monolith was renowned in the wide Earth Court for his strength and solidity.
Monolith grappled the giant around the legs in a great hug. He powered the legs together even as the green- skinned storm lord smashed at the back of Monolith's head. Uncaring, the prince pushed the giant over on his back. A pale-skinned servitor of Pandorym, one hand pierced with crystal, the other holding a crystal dagger, appeared in exactly the wrong spot. The falling giant crashed down directly upon the man, smashing him flat just as he tried to hurl his dagger across the chamber. The giant's fall cratered the floor, and Monolith was on his adversary even before the shock of the impact vibrated through the giant's full length. He had to keep his weight on the giant's torso.
The giant was down, but not out. The earth lord fended off a staggering blow and took a few directly in the head and face.
Fortunately, his body was more resistant to pummeling than living flesh. And as mighty as the storm giant was, it was still a creature more like a man than an elemental. The giant turned on its side, trying to get away from
