(II) Decisions

176 (II)Decisions

“Switch positions with me,” Adam said. He tore through the air and hovered just over the Pyromancer. “I’m going to—shit, I hope you didn’t burn them to death.” He was looking for any sign of the fast-moving Pathbearer he came here to recruit. Right now, though, all he saw on the ground were a few puddles of melted adamantine, the smoking corpse of a Vanguard with impressive Toughness, and a few soot patches aside. There was no sign of the blurring prisoner.

A spatial pocket burst open right beside Adam. A heavy blow slammed hard against his body. This time, the force didn’t just pass through him. It crushed down on every part of him, ensuring there was no way for him to disperse the impact. It was then that Adam realized he was surrounded—and that it was not just one team of wardens jumping in to ambush him, but . Twenty heavily armed Pathbearers tore into him with Dynamancy first, caging his Hydrokinetic form. But then they made a mistake. Before the Pyromancers among them could do anything, the Dynamancers squeezed too hard, and Adam released the water he was pulling into himself.

The excess fluids blasted free from him in a concentric tidal wave, and Adam snarled as he felt his bones crack beneath the gravitation pressure. The tidal wave slammed into the wardens surrounding him first. It didn’t harm them much, but it did stun them long enough for him to reposition himself using Phoenix Riposte. He landed right behind the burning man and began drawing in water once more. As his flesh quivered, he called out to his companion, trying to get the Pyromancer to stop burning corpses and face the new enemies.

And then twenty fountains of blood erupted all around him as twenty wardens were beheaded simultaneously.

Adam’s breath caught in his throat as he beheld the carnage. He activated his Commander’s Foresight Skill immediately—and found himself startled to notice a new presence in the fray. The world turned top-down, and there was something standing right next to him. No. Not something, .

Adam found himself staring down at what he thought to be the small form of a goblin. She was of average height for her race, a good meter shorter than Adam. Her prison jumpsuit was partially shredded, leaving her green-skinned stomach and parts of her back bare, and it was the latter that had caused Adam to do a double-take at first. Her back, neck, and arms were densely covered in long, golden quills that pierced through her clothing, and they grew from her head instead of hair as well, making her look akin to a goblin-shaped echidna. Wicked, curved claws, each the length of her lower arms, extended forth from her fingers like scythes, and a shimmering mirage was left in her wake. Her large, golden eyes were wide open, but from how her jaw was relaxed, he thought it was due to focus rather than panic.

As Adam’s head swelled with heat, he noticed illusory outlines of the goblin flickering past the decapitated head of each of the twenty wardens.

Yet, with how she had her arms down by her sides and was just staring up at Adam, he had a feeling he wasn’t about to get finished just quite yet.

Commander’s Foresight 101 > 102

He dismissed his Tactical Skill and shifted back just into his body. He immediately turned fully fluid just in case, but the goblin prison remained in place, staring up at Adam while the burning man loudly proclaimed to no one in particular that the world was his oven and he wanted to fry the sky.

“Well,” Adam said, looking down at the goblin. “Hello. I'm glad to see you remain unburned.” He coughed awkwardly as the goblin just stared at him with her golden-glowing eyes. Due to that and the golden outlines that had beheaded the wardens, he highly suspected that he was dealing with a Chronomancer.

Adam opened his mouth again, but then she suddenly vanished—only to return between blinks, with blood dripping from her claws onto her bare feet and entrails hanging around her small torso. The viscera painted the thin rags she wore red, and she gnawed on what looked like a collection of ears.

The suddenness of her disappearance and return was jarring. The violence painting her even more so. Again, Adam was reminded that he was drawing his recruits from a pool of Legendary prisoners.

“You’re the one that fired the shots,” the goblin said, speaking so fast it took Adam's brain a moment to catch up.

“Hey, you our new Thief?” the burning man asked as he sauntered over.

The goblin vanished and appeared behind Adam, using him as cover from the burning man. “Keep him away. Hot. Don’t like heat. Don't like him. Doesn’t care what he burns. Deranged.” Her quills bristled as she spoke, and she shook her head in a rapid blur. A human’s nose might have wrinkled, but goblins only had slits for nostrils. Even so, her feelings for the Pyromancer were more than clear.

“What did she just call me?” the man in question asked, sounding more confused than offended. Adam guessed his Awareness was either inferior to his own or not specifically good with sound, so he had an even harder time understanding the goblin than the Gate Lord himself.

“She said you were the rage,” Adam quickly said. He chose to hold up a hand before the goblin, and she just frowned slightly as she continued eating ear after ear, shredding them between her sharp teeth. “Listen. We’re going to—”

“You want to break out. Recruiting me because of my speed. Need someone to intercept or keep you both protected from ambushers. Got it. I’ll do it. You have a plan about getting out? Know where to go? What to do? What’s the plan? What are we doing? Where are we going?”

Questions left her lips in an unceasing rush, and Adam found himself overwhelmed. The goblin didn’t just move absurdly fast; she thought that way too.

“I might have a plan,” Adam said. “We need to get out of this place first and maybe secure a nearby station. I think I saw a guard-manned cube earlier. Not that many people inside. A common living space, a teleportation anchor, and a few other rooms as well. We can use that to figure out our next move—learn the layout of the prison.”

The goblin blinked—or at least he thought she did—and then nodded rapidly. “Acceptable. But we need a way through the Orichalcum. Or someone needs to disable the warding spells. Can’t do it. Tried. Claws not sharp enough. Hard to use Chronomancy to displace myself with the wards constantly active. Need alternative strategies.”

Adam extended a quivering hand made of water and realized he didn’t know the burning man’s name. They had a brief moment of respite just then. There were no wardens within a hundred-meter radius. Most of them within fifty were burned down to smoldering husks. The rest had their ears taken and throats slit.

he reminded himself.

“Firstly, do either of you two have names?” Adam asked.

“Call me Candles,” the burning man said with a laugh. “Candles McCormac.”

“Candles McCormac,” the goblin muttered. “I am Gone.”

“What?” Adam said.

“Gone. That's my name. That's what you can call me.”

“Uh, alright. Well. I think we should get a—”

“Mage. Dedicated. You already serve that purpose. Reserve mage? Maybe. Risky. No other prisoner in this cube has the mental stability for that. Unless Wormtooth is still alive. Can go take a quick look.”

Adam gritted his teeth as he caught up with what the goblin was saying, a full three seconds after. “Yes, but—” The moment he agreed, Gone was… well, bloody gone. “We should move together to maintain maximum security,” he finished with a sigh. Controlling Legendary-Tier prisoners wasn’t going to be easy. Adam knew that. “Candles. You want to try burning your way through the walls now? We seem to have an opening.”

Candles threw his head back and let out a primal cackle as he cracked his knuckles. “Yeah! Let’s see at what temperature Orichalcum melts! Buuuuurrrnnnnn, baby!”

A dense beam of flame exploded out from Candles’ entire body. It splashed against the Orichalcum walls, but the Pyromancy simply splashed outward without inflicting any harm. The Gate Lord used his Divination then to track Gone. He focused on the afterimage she left behind, and immediately, the System began whispering details directly into his mind, painting visuals before his eyes. A violet glow manifested to his left—

And then Gone was back again. She dropped a badly mutilated skull at Adam’s feet. “Wormtooth didn’t make it.” And then the goblin began loudly sobbing in anguish. For about a second. Then her expression turned neutral again, and she wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands before shaking her head. “We should leave. You shouldn’t have let me mourn so long. Only friend here; barely knew her.”

Gone went from point to point so fast that she gave Adam whiplash.

“I—right, so—”

A crushing force pressed down on him as a burst of pain flooded his being. Yet, the part of him that ached was spiritual. His Dimensionality was in agony, and he realized what was coming. “Contact!” Adam shouted. “Enemy—”

The dimensional hunter emerged. Candles swung his body around and channeled his Pyromancy into the ambusher with a shout. Adam triggered his Commander’s Foresight Skill and bade the battlefield to halt for a moment. As everything came to a standstill, Adam fought off a spike of pain burrowing through his brain matter and studied the dimensional hunter. His armor was cracked in several places and leaking static mana. One of his arms was slightly limp, but it still held onto his bladed greatbow.

There were but three meters between the warden and Adam, and there was already a dimensional arrow nocked along his bow. He needed to face this enemy with careful precision. He'd resisted his Dimensionality earlier, but it had left his mana strained. The Gate Lord doubted he could take another direct blast of mana from this enemy. But he was wounded, and Gone was right behind him as well.

Alone, Adam was outmatched. But the dimensional hunter had made a mistake. He gave Adam And so Adam changed the variables of their struggle. The dimensional hunter came here to hunt the Gate Lord down and bring him back to the Ascendants as a prisoner. Too bad all he did was damned himself to an early death.

Adam sneered. Heat began to swell up inside his skull, but he considered how he might be most useful in this battle. Gone was far faster, and Candles had incredible Pyromancy. What did Adam have that could stun the hunter?

With a simple plan in mind, Adam deactivated his Commander’s Foresight and entered the fray.

True to his expectations, Gone struck the hunter first. She tore into him fast and savagely, her claws raking his helmet time and again, leaving the smallest gaps along the side. Adam saw the hunter’s eyes for the first time and noted their hazel color. The hunter was human, and judging by slightly wrinkled skin texture, probably somewhere past eighty years of age if he was an Adept without any Biomancy treatments. Considering he was probably borderline Legendary at the very least, that hinted his true age was probably substantially older.

The hunter let out a snarl and unleashed a pulse of force from his body. A rushing wave pinned Gone against the wall, and the small goblin cried out with a shrill scream. The hunter fired the shot he'd prepared for Adam at her—and missed as the Gate Lord swallowed him whole using his Herald of the Deepest Fathom Skill.

A static arrow drove a deep divot into the Orichalcum wall, and Adam found himself staggered by the hunter’s strength. But despite the dimensional hunter’s considerable Physicality, his Toughness was lacking. He gagged as Adam forced water down his throat and into his eyes. The pressure the Gate Lord unleashed upon him wasn’t enough to crack armor or break bones, but it did leave the dimensional hunter startled.

“Blast him! Now!” Adam shouted at Candles. The Pyromancer didn’t hesitate. But instead of releasing a massive, valley-swallowing blast of fire, he extended his index finger and thumb as if mimicking a gun and directed a finger-thin thread of Pyromancy directly through Adam. That didn’t mean the fire magic was any less potent. Immediately, Adam felt a good portion of himself evaporate. The dimensional hunter suffered far worse. The beam punched a clean hole through his chest and cleaved downward as Candles swung his arm. The hunter tried to teleport, but Gone was back, and she practically reappeared with both hands buried knuckle-deep in the hunter’s collar and neck.

A warbled scream came from the hunter as his agonized howls created air bubbles within Adam. Large vibrations pulsed, and the hunter concreted his Dimensionality. But before he could do anything, Adam spat him out past Candles. “Full power! Now! Gone! Off!”

The goblin had already vanished by the time the commands had left Adam's lips. Candles, meanwhile, flared bright, and a rolling blaze exploded free of his incendiary shroud. The Pyromancy impacted the dimensional hunter’s body, and Adam immediately heard the crackling sounds of burning fat. Maybe the hunter screamed just then, but the Gate Lord wasn’t sure. It was hard to hear a man’s shrieks over the wail of hyper-heated air. More importantly, Adam wasn’t done either. He fired shot after shot into the flames. His Veilpiercer struck something over and over—

And then the hunter blasted free from the fire and drove his blade into Adam. A flash of Dimensionality glided along the edge of the blade, and Adam felt his own mana fray to the point of utter ruination. He tried to move back, but the hunter was on him—and a pulsating blast of force sent Gone crashing against the wall again and keeping her pinned. Candles was still in the middle of turning around. Adam felt his magic on the verge of shredding.

He activated Commander’s Foresight, and patches of darkness spread through his vision. A migraine crept through his brain as he let out a miserable groan. He was using this skill too frequently without letting his brain rest, but being able to pause the flow of a battle to plot in real time from a bird’s eye view was too useful.

Adam tried to see if there was something he could do with Candles, but winced internally as he realized the Pyromancer was slower than the hunter as well.

He paused as he noted his new Toughness Skill Evolution. And a plan formed in his mind. It wasn’t a wise plan, but it might just work. Of course, it came with a bit of pain, but what plans didn’t when better options weren’t available?

Adam thought with a grimace.

He released both Foresight and Fathoms in the next moment, and suddenly, he cried out as a good meter of metal was left in his chest.

That was enough to trigger Phoenix Riposte, and Adam came ablaze once more. The stab wound on his chest vanished into a slight scratch as Adam crashed against the dimensional hunter in a fraction of a second. Rather than delivering a concussive blow this time, a similar stab thudded against the hunter’s armor.

Adam realized.

He impacted the hunter several more times—but found himself flung back by another repulsive wave the man projected. As Adam tumbled through the air, his riposte time came to an end, and a stinging pain lined his shoulder. It wasn’t quite a scratch anymore, but it wasn’t a full cut either.

The dimensional hunter fired an arrow at Adam. The Gate Lord tried to shape a Veilpiercer and fire back. He knew he wasn’t going to be fast enough—

Adam slammed hard against an Orichalcum wall and blinked as he found himself displaced from the fight by eighty whole meters. The dimensional hunter roared in agony as Gone tore into him, shredding her way into his compromised throat. Comprehension came to Adam as he realized she'd pulled him out of harm's way. Just then, a large teleportation arrow ripped past him—the same arrow the hunter had been about to fire at him earlier.

Exploding back to his feet, Adam drew in moisture once more as he shifted into his Fathoms-form. He fired two shots in quick succession—then two more right after. One of his first shots missed due to the flailing of the dimensional hunter’s body, but the additional arrows crashed into his ankles. He collapsed against the ground, and Gone was burrowing into his guts. The massive Pathbearer was trying to push her out, but by now, his repulsion skill was dead.

Adam locked eyes with him and froze momentarily. He saw several things in the man’s eyes. Dread. Despair. And defeat. He knew he was dead—and he had died trying to hunt down an honest son of the Republic. Adam knew he wouldn’t feel at ease if he perished in such a way. The hunter cried out and tried to say something, but Candles’ burning foot slammed down on his skull, and Adam watched as the man’s eyes popped in sprays of sizzling gore.

It was one thing to be a Legend. It was another to face another Legend in close-quarters combat while not having enough Toughness. To the hunter’s credit, he clung to life a while longer, but the goblin ended up severing his spine, and Candles incinerated his entire head with a final burst of fire. When everything was done, all that remained of the dimensional hunter was an unmoving body and a discarded bow.

One that Adam promptly picked up.

Equipment Gained:

Tier: Heroic

Condition: Perfect

Composition: Adamantine

Enchantments > Banish to Prison Plane; Dimensionality 150; Self-Mending; Seeking Shot; Perception Link; Master Regeneration

The moment Adam picked up the bow, the wounds lining his body began to close. A rush of healing flowed through the Gate Lord, and he let out a satisfied sigh. At the same time, he felt a vast space within the bow and realized it contained an internal dimension for prisoners, not too unlike Hawgrave’s sword.

He regarded the dimensional hunter’s armor for a moment, frowning. Gone pulled her upper half free from the hunter’s chest, her round face painted with blood. The hunter’s helmet was also gone. Utterly vaporized by that maniac, Candles. Adam could have done with a new set of—

The Gate Lord remembered what the Raven had told him before her most untimely demise and grunted with displeasure. It was a good set of Dimensionality-infused armor. It would have served him better than the tattered dress uniform he was wearing right now.

“Well, that one was a bit harder to cook,” Candles quipped as he rubbed his hands together and giggled. “I liked that. I wanna get the rest of the body too.”

“How about some other guards instead?” Adam suggested, trying to keep the Pyromancer focused. “After we find out if you can burn us a way out of here.”

“Oh. Right. Got interrupted.” Candles shook his head and shrugged. “Hate that. Hate that.” He giggled again and started staring at nothing for a few seconds.

“Candles?” Adam asked after a beat, not sure what was wrong with the other Pathbearer.

“He’ll keep losing track of things if you don’t mention them,” Gone said. “It’s better if you just keep saying things to him. The guards made him this way. He was too good at thinking before, so they cut out part of his brain. Kept him because he’s a good resource for fire. Made me run on a treaded machine to power cells for their automata. All prisoners have work. All prisoners have wounds.” Gone looked Adam up and down. “And you’re not a prisoner.”

That got Candles’ attention as well. “What. But he’s…” He leaned in and noticed Adam’s ruined uniform.

“I’m escaping from them all the same,” Adam quickly said. “I just got brought here and woke up in a cell. Look. I stole one of their uniforms and was being aided by a spy—If I am one of the guards, why would I have done all this?”

Gone shook her head fast. “Not saying you’re a guard. You just aren’t a prisoner. Not crippled like us. Not hurt yet. Still pristine. Jealous. Sad. Miss that.”

Adam’s apprehension about his new “friends” gained a side note of pity as he realized just how damaged they were. Whatever the Republic was doing to them, it wasn’t right. They might have been sinners and criminals, but wounding and using them this way was wrong.

, Adam realized. How could a good nation do this to people? Punishment was one thing, but mangling someone’s brain to reduce their threat capacity? It was just brutal. It was inhuman.

He'd known this for a while now, having learned of Stormhalt's machinations and the Inquisition’s betrayal, but even so, a sorrowful weight built inside Adam.

He pushed it aside with a clench of his jaw as he called out to Candles to fire a beam through the wall. The Pyromancer began charging up his shot again, but then a loud whistle came from behind.

Adam spun, priming a Veilpiercer arrow, but by the time he laid eyes on the intruder, Gone was already on them. To Adam’s surprise, he found a raven-helmed man standing just eight meters away, with both hands held up.

“Can we talk?” the Raven asked. He carefully nodded down at Gone’s claws, which were pressed against his neck.

“Gone. Hold on.”

The goblin blinked back beside Adam. “Know them? What are they? No. Helmet. Raven. Aviary.” She paused, and a rush of rage flared behind her eyes. “You’re Aviary?”

“Gods, no,” Adam snarled. “But right now, they’re trying to get me out of this place. And they can probably help you as well.”

The new Raven rubbed at his throat and looked around. “Before we continue—”

“I couldn’t keep your associate alive,” Adam said. “I’m sorry. She died in the heat of combat.”

“Ah. Well, that explains why we couldn’t locate her. Her body was likely destroyed beyond recomposition as well.” The raven shook his head. “Quite the life we lead. Anyhow. Would you like to leave this place, Gate Lord? Because your method of burning your way through the Orichalcum? That won’t work.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that,” Candles growled. He unleashed his fire, and it splashed against the red-gold walls again.

Adam narrowed his eyes at the Raven. “So, what’s your way out? Actually, how did you get in in the first place?”

The Raven stared at the ground—at the entrance to one of the nearby cells. “Anchors, dear Gate Lord. And the larger a place is, the more compromises it gains. So. Shall we?”

Gone looked up at Adam and gave him a disgusted look. He returned it. “It’s our best option.”

“Can’t trust them. Did work for them. Tried to collar me.” The goblin shuddered violently for a split second.

“I know,” Adam said. “But they need me right now. So they’re not going to do anything to us. Not yet.” He looked the Raven up and down and sighed. “Fine. But you stay in front. And I want to know everything about this place.”

“Ah? Going to seek out the Deathless, are we?”

“Yes. But also, I think I want to know where the most dangerous prisoners are held so I can let them out. I think I’ve suffered enough of this place. I want the Avatars to be miserable in my stead.”