Chapter 500 - Stone and Fire

That's half a thousand chapters! Thanks for sticking with it for so long :)

Hump drew upon his essence sending tendrils of fiery bronze into the ground at his feet, reaching deep into the island. The power in this place didn’t respond as normal—barren and desolate—but he made it work, forcing his will into motion. Melting stone into lava. Willing heat to rise from the base of the island. As he looked around, he knew it wouldn’t be in time. He’d underestimated the ullokai.

The expedition was on the defensive as the ullokai swarmed like a tide from their hidden warrens, spitting stone with far more force than Hump expected from such small creatures. Their attacks came from all directions—the chasm walls on either side of them, the top of the forward wall of the dam, along with the many holes that opened and closed along its surface, the very stone shifting to their wall. They even struck from the vegetation behind them. The air grumbled with their snarled, guttural tones. Essence swirled from the dam, pouring from the artificial essence well.

Any other time, Hump would have been fascinated by such a thing, but the creatures had them surrounded, they were organised, and while each of the ullokai was perhaps on the weaker side of bronze rank, there had to be a hundred of them, if not twice that or more. They launched boulders the size of men against the expedition’s defensive runes and blessings, shattered the earth beneath their feet, and combined their assault with intelligent precision.

Bud, Dylan, and Hump were the only ones with large scale defensive capabilities, but with Hump preoccupied, it wasn’t enough. Bud’s Aegis of Sanctuary and Glacial Bulwark were powerful, but he couldn’t protect from all directions, and against the relentless bombardment even they were beginning to show cracks, the icy wall splintering like glass.

“This isn’t going to work,” Bud said calmly. “How long will you be?”

“Too long,” Hump said. He left the well of lava building beneath the stone and returned his attention to the battlefield. He would use it when he had the chance, but they needed to make that opportunity first. There was too much risk of harming his own allies if he called upon it now. “And it’s not going to help us against all the ullokai. We need to change plan.”

Just as he spoke, three massive boulders flew straight for the expedition. Dylan caught one, his vines reaching for the sky, twisting upward and pushing it to the side. The second was intercepted midair by Captain Hadbur and another member of his crew, while the third was shattered by the combined power of Princess Urella, Acalin, and Runesmith Tatsi—Acalin catching it on his bronze shield while the ladies enhanced his strength.

The ground rumbled. A deep crack tore through the oasis. Hump lofted his staff in the air and responded with his own essence, expanding on the power he imbued into the ground before to create an area that the ullokai could not influence. The crack stopped not five paces from him, widening into another chasm, swallowing up earth and vegetation. Around the expedition, there were more such attacks, forcing the altari into a tighter group to hide within the walls of Hump’s will.

They’d suffered no casualties, but the damage was done. Their defensive perimeter was gone as altari moved out of the way.

The ullokai poured in—small, furred figures clad in stone armour, jagged helmets covering their heads, and long spiked claws extending from their hands. Their screeches filled the chasm like the howls of a wraith. They leapt and flung themselves at the expedition. Others spat sharpened stones in bursts of essence. The sound of cracking bones and agonised screams filled the air. Someone cried out behind Hump.

He whriled, just in time to see one of Marcoff’s attendants tackled in the face by a screeching ullokai. He raised his staff to help, and searing pain ripped down his neck. Claws found him. He stumbled to the ground, vision swimming. Blood was warm down his back—the would searing hot.

A shower of blood plastered his face.

Nisha.

She slammed into the creature with a savage crunch, her jaws tearing it from Hump’s back. Snarling, she shook it like prey, spraying gore and fragments of its stone armour across the ground. She spat the limp body of the ullokai out and stood protectively over Hump. More of the swarm poured in—two of them directly for her.

Fire erupted from her throat, bathing them in flame. Their shrieks were high and inhuman, but one made it through, its stone shell glowing red. Nisha roared and pounced, rending its head from its shoulders like a snack. More followed, and she tore into them with a frenzy, blooding filling the air like mist.

Hump staggered upright, blood still dripping down his back, but he felt the warmth of Dylan’s blessings over him even as he lost track of the druid in the battle. The pain was dulled, and he just had to trust that it would heal. Two ullokai clung to Nisha’s spine, their claws tearing lines into her scales, but she didn’t even flinched, consumed by rage and a desire to protect him.

One reached for her eyes. Hump lashed out, Essence Blast erupting from the focus as it made contact, evaporating the creature in an instant. He aimed an Essence Beam at another, piercing it through the skull. A third sprang from the wall, landing on her back, while others spat rocks at her from the safety of crevices in the ground and walls. Nisha roared and belched flame upward. Hump raised a Shield just in time to block most of them, but a few smacked into them both.

Dull aches throbbed across his body. Blood flowed from Nisha’s scales. His Shield rippled with hundreds of impacts across its surface. They would crack it quickly if he waited.

“Enough,” Hump growled, casting Titan’s Wrath to summon dozens of small, obsidian needles—black spikes bathed in bronze light. He shot them out at all the ullokai he could see, dropping them like stones, the essence nullifying spikes shattering their armour with ease.

Still, they came. Nisha was panting, her legs shaking, her scales lacerated and blood streaming down her limbs, but she refused to fall. Dylan’s blessings were already at work on her, green light in the wounds.

“Hang in there, girl,” Hump said. He struck another that tried to leap for her, slamming it with his staff and blasting it away.

All around them, the expedition fought.

Bud stood like a bastion at the core of the formation, glowing with Frostfire, an indestructible force at the centre of everything. His aura turned the ullokai to ice, his armour was too tough to piece, his blazing sword carved through any that dared to come close with ease. Unfortunately, the ullokai were already avoiding him. Dylan had taken on the Aspect of the Guardian, vines sprouting at his feet, writhing along the ground to entangle enemies and drag them down. Shimmer, the three tailed fox, added to the chaos with illusionary spells that distracted the ullokai. Celaine’s arrows of shadow flew constantly, dropping ullokai wherever she could spot them, but the little creatures vanished quickly into their warrens. There were too many for her to stem the tide. Most devastating of the five of them was Emilia. She blurred through the enemy line, a red hurricane of movement. Her blade danced in her hand, each stroke bringing death.

Despite all of it, the expedition was still being overwhelmed. This wasn’t a battle Hump feared losing, not yet, but if it went on much longer the altari wouldn’t last.

He had wanted to avoid manifesting his soul out of fear of what attention it might attract, but there was no choice. With a thought, he called forth his soul. A dragon’s roar echoed through the chasm. Violet light engulfed him. He pressed his will outward, trying to claim the battlefield. The ullokai’s domain resisted, but he forced his intent into the ground closest to him, stripping it from them one inch at a time.

That alone would do little. The wall behind them pulsed with stored essence, fuelling their magic. Stone rained down. Explosions rocked the earth.

Hump turned toward the dam and raised his staff. With another casting of Titan’s Wrath, he formed larger obsidian spikes and hurled them at the wall. One after another they buried deep. Bronze ripples pulsed along the surface of the wall, disrupting the stored essence.

The ullokai reacted even more drastically than Hump expected. Their attack faltered. Panicked cries erupted through their ranks as they scrambled through their warrens. Stone crumbled in places, pieces of the wall falling even as the creatures desperately poured there essence into its repair.

Hump didn’t waste the distraction.

He reached downward with his will. The lava that welled below answered. He heaved his staff overhead, power rushing up, laced with his intent.

“Everyone stay together!” Hump said through gritted teeth.

“Form up on me!” Bud bellowed. “Do not step away.”

That got through to the others. They pressed in tight, clustered behind Bud.

The ground cracked.

Sulfur filled the air.

Then lava surged through the oasis, flowing like a river of flame. Ullokai screeched, fleeing for the walls and cliffs. Hump directed the molten tide away from his allies, sending it toward the far wall. The heat turned the stone red. He targeted one corner, burrowing a hole through the wall, stone melting like wax beneath a flame.

Whirling his staff he gestured toward the sky like a conductor, lava rising overhead in a great arch of blazing red. There, above the ullokai wall, he held it in place. The creatures gazed up at it, frozen, eyes wide, but Hump could only guess their thoughts.

As long as they stayed that way.

“Bud, Acalin!” Hump called. “Secure the other side. Everyone through, now!”

The expedition surged into motion, scrambling through the breach. Acalin led the vanguard, carving down the few ullokai too slow to flee. Celaine and Emilia covered the rear with Dylan close behind, still guiding vines for defence.

Hump stepped through last, letting the lava spiral collapse and sink back into the earth.

On the far side, the ullokai stared after them from the wall, golden eyes gleaming, motionless but watchful.

“Don’t stop,” Captain Hadbur said. “Get away from the wall. Our battle will draw more monsters to this area.”

They moved quickly, going deeper into the island, until the wall was gone from sight. Only once they were certain they weren’t being pursued did they stop to rest and tend to their wounds.

Or at least most of them did.

Prince Marcoff stormed over to Hump. “Why didn’t you kill them?” He snapped, fury in his voice.

“They stopped,” Hump said, turning toward him. “Senseless killing seemed pointless.”

“They deserve to die!” Marcoff shouted.

Hump didn’t answer right away. His gaze drifted to the fallen altari woman being carried on a stretcher between two others, her eyes dull, her body limp.

So they had lost someone after all.

He looked back at Marcoff. “I’m sorry for your loss, but we’re not here to slaughter monsters.”

Marcoff scoffed. “If you can hardly defeat them, what good will you be in the Maker’s Prison?”

“If we don’t get any more delayed now, perhaps we’ll find out.” Hump strode past the prince to Celaine’s side where Nisha was resting. He knelt beside the little dragon, running a hand over her scales as she cooed. He sensed her pain, but it was nothing compared to her excitement and desire for praise.

As much as it broke his heart to see her like this, he smiled at her and stroked her face. “You did so well! Good girl, Nisha. Dylan will get you fixed up in no time.”

She blinked at him, then tilted her head and let out a gentle flame, washing over the wounds on her back. Before his eyes, the wounds closed, leaving behind reddened flesh.

“Or you’ll fix yourself up,” Hump murmured.

“If we ever make it back to Drakalyn, the other Keepers will be stunned,” Celaine said. “In fact, I think even Owalyn will be. This is not normal.”