(III) Escape
Chapter 379 of "Path of the Deathless" starts the action: 175 (III)EscapeA tug on Adam's shoulder made him draw his Awareness back into himself, and... Find out what happens!
175 (III)Escape
A tug on Adam's shoulder made him draw his Awareness back into himself, and he found that the Biomancer was leading him toward the new chamber at the opposite end of the hallway. Approximately five meters away was another teleportation anchor, but rather than a great many spells lining its cylindrical form, there were lockers built in the side. A sign hung above its doorway, which he read as As they crossed through, the Raven immediately began stripping out of her medical attire, and she briefly looked over her shoulder at Adam.
"Take your helmet off last," she said. She reached over and ripped a locker open. Inside, he saw two sets of clothing. One was specifically his size as well. She pulled it out and handed it to him. Adam regarded the black-gray uniform with a faint look of unease.
"Out of the armor?" he asked. “I’m not sure if that’s wise.”ic energy.
But that wasn't the main thing he was trying to do.
Instead, three dimensional pathways opened up before him, and the serpent's attacks were prevented from arriving directly. Through this encounter, Adam also gauged the Raven's Reflexes Skill. She was probably an Adept. She reacted far too slowly, but she still followed things in the aftermath. And so, it was with a cry of surprise that she found herself being dragged along down another dimensional pathway.
The moment after Adam fired three arrows, he fired a fourth with a new pair of hydrokinetic arms—a fourth that led them down along the narrow corridor of this strange place. She kicked her legs and looked up as Adam flared his wings. They went from being still to moving impossibly fast in an instant. As soon as they came free from the other side, the serpent was close behind them. The damn creature was fast, ridiculously fast. It passed through Adam's dimensional pathways in an instant, and it was closing on him. But he had an advantage.
Adam suddenly went downward, changing his vector without suffering any inertial consequence. The same couldn't be said for the snake-like entity. It tumbled along the walls, its many fiber-like legs lashing and spearing out, trying to seize him before he folded behind it, trying to find a surface for purchase to arrest its momentum. It failed. It crashed along the leftmost walls and tumbled down to the ground. It slammed down next to another group of wardens who were currently trying to hold a Pathbearer made from literal flames down, and he lost sight of it thereafter.
Adam fired another dimensional arrow and kept going. "Raven!" he called out. "I need you to figure out where we are, and I also need to know if you've subverted any kind of teleportation anchor here. I think someone intercepted our escape plan."
The Raven fought to control her breathing, but gave him a certain nod thereafter. As soon as they emerged from the dimensional pathway, Adam cried out as something slammed hard into his side. A series of cracks rattled through his body, and he felt multiple of his ribs break. His vision darkened momentarily, and it stayed dark as something tightened around his neck. A hissing sound followed, and Adam expected to see the snake-human hybrid.
Instead, the insectoid elven woman he saw earlier was here.
She stood across from him, the tattoos lining her body glowing, snakes undulating free from beneath her tattered clothes, seeping out from her bare skin as hardened ropes of water-mana. Adam tried to turn her magic aside, but she was strong. This was the strongest Hydromancy mana he'd ever felt.
The Gate Lord gagged. Beside him, the Raven choked as well. She tried to cast a Biomancy spell at the elf that held them, but the magic she channeled was simply split apart as it crashed into the elf's body. Worse yet, the moment the Biomancy mana impacted the elf, her tattoos flared even brighter, and a cruel smile grew across her face. The elf was bald, and her head was brutally scarred.
But it wasn't a messy scarring; it was ritualistic, and from it came a whispering noise, a hissed chanting, and it compelled Adam to project his Awareness into the tissue. As his Seer of Horizons rested against the woman's skull, he realized there was something there—something dwelling just under her skin, chittering and chattering inside her skull. For the first time, he began to suspect that this might not be an elf at all, but something wearing an elf's body.
"Oh, you think I missed the two of you?" the elf said. She let out a slow growl. "If you think I'm going to let you escape, that I'm going to let a single guard here go, then you are wrong, you are . I will kill you, I will kill your families, I will drink the moisture from your bodies, and then you will be a part of me for good. I will finish the ritual, and the Feathered One will finally claim this wretched land as per their will in the name of the Bloodied Sun."