“Whatever it is, help is coming. We’ll fight our way through, and then we’ll finish this.” I glanced over at the glowing symbol I’d drawn on the floor. “How close do you think the bad guys are, Abi?”
My friend crouched down at the edge of the vast bowl. He held his hands a few inches apart, and a ball of glowing jinsei appeared between their palms. He let it roll away, and it bounced down the stairs ahead of us. Wild shadows leaped away from the bouncing orb as it descended. For a moment, I couldn’t see anything in its glare.
And then something caught it.
A twisted squid-like creature lifted its bulbous body on a slug-like mantle, raised the jinsei light above its head, and dropped it into its gaping, tentacle-lined maw. The sacred energy splashed across the creature’s face, and it clicked its chitinous blades together in grotesque joy.
Others of its kind emerged from the shadows around it, their bodies lit by the radiance that spilled from their ally’s face. There were dozens of the things down there, all watching us with hourglass eyes.
And then, the monsters howled and rushed out of the darkness.
The war had begun.
The Turn
“CLOSE RANKS!” I BARKED at my friends. “If they separate us, we’re done. Whatever you do, don’t touch them or let them put a tentacle on you.”
Clem and Abi fell back to my position, while Eric dropped into a defensive stance on Abi’s right side. Fire surrounded his hands, and his eyes burned with eagerness for the fight. I ran through my allies’ abilities in my head and shouted orders I hoped would help us survive the madness that was coming.
“Eric and Clem, when the monsters reach the top of the incline, I need you to unload with a fire vortex. Abi, be ready to tie up the bad guys when the flames go out.” I drew a deep breath. “If all that fails to stop them, I’ll have to do something very stupid, so cross your fingers.”
My friends all gave nervous laughs at that. I wished I could, but my mouth was too dry, and my nerves had been pulled too tight. If we couldn’t hold the warped back, I’d have to rip out the protective talisman attached to my thread and resort to sorcery. While that had done a real number on the heretic at the cavern, I didn’t know how it would work near a source of power as impressive as the Umbral Forge.
Best case, I could tear all the monsters into pieces.
Worst case, my spell would spiral out of control and bury us in a mass grave right alongside the monsters.
Go, team.
The first of our enemies crested the top of the stairs in a slobbering rush of misshapen, bulbous bodies and black hourglass eyes. Chaotic ripples raced through the stone where their feet touched it, transforming smooth, worked surfaces into jagged rings of raw rock. Looking straight at the creatures made my head throb and my eyes burn. They were chaos incarnate sent to unravel the Grand Design by their monstrous master.
“Light ’em up!” I shouted.
My order spurred Eric and Clem to action. He fired a screaming bolt of heat from between his palms, and she flung a whirlwind at his attack. The super-heated air spun into a fiery spiral that sliced through the horde with shocking ease. While these smaller creatures could digest aspects at their leisure, they were unprepared to absorb the power that slammed into them. Fleshy bodies burst apart to unleash steaming sprays of straw-colored slime in every direction. The monstrosities screeched in surprise at the stunning destruction of their vanguard.
It didn’t stop them for long, though.
The warped scrambled over the burned and shredded bodies of their first rank. The gelatinous beasts sloshed over the carnage we’d inflicted, heedless of their own safety. These monstrosities had no battle plan and no fear. An unholy hunger filled their alien eyes, and I knew they’d only be sated once our cores were in their bellies. They were eating machines, and we were at the top of the menu.
Abi didn’t wait for me to give him an order. He stepped forward, materialized his oversized fusion blade, and planted himself in front of the enemy. To my surprise, he didn’t summon a shield. Instead he rammed the tip of his sword into the sandstone terrace, gripped its hilt with both hands, and triggered a technique I hadn’t seen before.
A wave of gray energy passed over Abi and transformed him into a marble statue that blocked the path of our enemies. More importantly, though, it attracted their attention.
The warped creatures seemed powerless to turn away from Abi. They hurled themselves at him, chipping teeth from their tentacles and snapping beak-like mouths in their eagerness to tear him apart. Try as they might, though, the flailing terrors couldn’t harm my friend.
My thoughts raced to find a way out of this mess. The protection the talismans had offered while I meditated above the Grand Design didn’t work here. The warped had no problem sensing us and moving in for the attack.
And the technique Abi had used to buy our team some time had cost him dearly. Though his core still glowed bright, his jinsei reserves were much lower than they had been a moment ago. We had to make the most of his maneuver.
“Attack!” I shouted.
My first fight against the warped had shown me they were impervious to my Thief’s Shield technique. They also destroyed fusion swords on contact, and there was no way I’d risk hand-to-hand combat with creatures that could drain my aura dry. That left me with sorcery.
While Eric hurled blasts of fire at our enemies and Clem pushed them back with jabs of controlled air, I worked on braiding aspects into a spell.
My serpents seized on the stone that surrounded us and wove its aspects into barbed spikes. I considered hurling my new weapons into the horde.
