Kanin Fyre: Chapter 34 - Champion of Light

I freeze, my mind stumbling over the word “Hide” a dozen times before it finally clicks. Then we’re in crisis mode.

We snap a limb out around Dizzi’s waist, and she squeaks in surprise. Grabbing our core, we stuff it back in our chest and leap for doors of the nearest ruin, pulling Dizzi along with us.

“Kanin?” she cries, digging her claws into our void. Her voice is tight with fear.

We release her inside the building, and she goes sprawling across the floor.

Dizzi scrambles to her hands and knees, looking up at us with confusion and no small amount of fright. “What’s going on?”

“Fyre sent a message—told us to hide,” we say, folding our body into the shadows. Around the spell circle, we snuff out all our Glow spells.

Weirdly, that seems to relax Dizzi. She also shuffles up against the wall, tucking her lugs up to her chest. “You got to give me some warning. That was really spooky.”

Oh. She probably thought we were attacking her. “Sorry. Stay quiet.”

Outside, some of our glass still lies scattered around the spell circle. We watch through the pieces that are looking back down toward the Fortress as the red light finishes spreading over the city, sealing it inside.

“Something’s happening,” we tell her, our translator barely a staticky whisper.

Dizzi’s eyes are two pinpricks of white in the moonlight. Her voice is also hushed. “What is it?”

We separate our minds enough that I can access the System without interference. I reopen Fyre’s message. Just thinking the words I want to ask causes them to appear in the interface.

[Kanin: What happened? Are you alright?]

“It’s a dome,” I tell her. I really wish she was fluent in signs. With the silence of the Isles pressing all around us, speaking makes me nervous. “There’s a dome over the city.”

Dizzi’s breath catches in her throat. “The defense systems have activated.” Her whisper drops so low it almost becomes indistinguishable. “A god must be here.”

No wonder Fyre felt she could protect the Travelers. The dome is massive, and I’d hazard a guess Fyre’s utilizing the ambient magic of the Isles in much the same way I plan to with my Planar Linkage spell circle. “Will it be strong enough to hold them off?”

Dizzi swallows. “I guess we’re about to find out.”

My chat interface lights up.

[Fyre: We’re fine. Lorata’s champion is here, but we expelled him from the city. Can you and Dizzi make it back?]

A chill washes over me. Shit. Lorata’s champion. I remember reading about two: a female arachnoid and a male dryad. Can’t remember their names, but I’m not particularly thrilled to meet either.

[Kanin: I don’t know. I’ll talk it over with Dizzi. Do you know where he is now?]

“Lorata’s champion is here,” I tell Dizzi. “We have to get back to the city.”

[Fyre: Uncertain. We’re setting up sentries to keep an eye out. I’ll update you on any sightings.]

Dizzi lets out a breath. “Well, a champion’s better than a god.” She attempts a weak smile. “But how are we going to manage that?”

It’s a good question. I have no idea what sort of powers we’re up against, but I’m more worried it won’t matter; I probably won’t be any match no matter what they’re capable of. Flying is out of the question; our best bet is to try to sneak down.

In the dark.

Through monster infested fields.

Without getting caught.

Yeah, that’s going to go great.

But the longer we stay out here, the more likely we are to be discovered. We need to get down to the bottom of the Isles as quickly as possible. And for that, I do have an idea.

Ink’s range isn’t large enough to get me to the Fortress in one go—not even close—but we can make it down there in maybe ten Displaces, if we really stretched ourself thin. Or twenty to thirty if we’re being more cautious. Of course, my personal mana stores aren’t enough to Displace a person more than once. But with the amount I have stored up for my Planar Linkage spell, I could currently Displace a small army. Or both of us, a few dozen times.

“I can teleport you through my void,” I tell her. “We can use it to sneak between hiding places.” It might take longer than I’d like, but it’s safer than flying, and faster than walking.

“Are you sure?” Dizzi asks. “If you use up all your mana now, you won’t have enough time to regain what’s needed for the Planar Linkage spell tomorrow night.”

She’s right. I’d be letting go of my chance to help the Travelers—or at least, to do it on my own, without playing into Shirasil’s hands. But that might not be an option after tonight. If Lorata’s champion is here, then this whole island is about to come under intense scrutiny. I might have just lost both of my tickets into the Heavens.

“Then it is what it is,” I tell her. “Right now, all that matters is getting back to safety. Come on.” Ink and I pull a portion of our void apart and send it to go scout out our first checkpoint. “It’s going to feel weird, but you’ll have to trust me.”

Dizzi’s teeth seem to glow in the moonlight as she smiles. “Oh, man. I can’t wait.”

What a strange individual.

[Kanin: Dizzi and I are coming down. It might take a while, because we’re going to need to go slow and keep to the shadows. Any info yet?]

[Fyre: Sorry, no. He’s outside the Dungeon Core’s range, and the darkness isn’t helping. He could be anywhere.]

Peachy.

[Kanin: Well if you can come up with a distraction or something, that sure would make me feel better.]

[Fyre: Understood. I’ll see what we can do. Please be careful.]

[Kanin: I’ll try.]

Our void slips into a different building a few streets away, sufficiently covered by overgrowth. Over there, everything is still, quiet, and dark.

“Ready?” I ask Dizzi. “From here on out, no talking.”

She nods, giving me a thumbs up.

Okay. Let’s do this.

We take one more look around the area; through our glass in the square, through our void in the other building, through the pieces we’ve positioned around the level and have pointed back down on the Fortress far beneath us. Insects hum and a nocturnal bird glides between two stones beneath us. Apart from that, nothing moves or makes a sound.

We’re stalling. We need to go.

Dizzi lets out a small, suppressed gasp when we wrap our void around her. We pull her through to the other side with a Displace. She catches herself with a hand, looking around the room. We wrap the void around our body next.

Something catches the moonlight.

We seize Dizzi, and she lets out a startled squawk as we yank her to the ground. Something snaps through the air where she had just been, and we pull her back through our void with another Displace. She tumbles out the other side, sprawling on top of our body, which we’d just been about to Displace as well.

She rolls off of us. “What—”

We wrap a limb around her mouth, and she goes still. Focusing on what’s happening on the other side of our void, we hardly notice as Dizzi gently tugs the limb away, mouthing a silent “sorry.”

“I admit, I wasn’t expecting to find anyone up here,” a deep voice says from the darkness. As far as we can tell, there’s no one else in the room with our void. Where are they? We try to Check our surroundings, but even if Echo’s abilities weren’t garbled by Ink’s presence, our core is still on this side. We’re pretty sure we know who’s speaking, regardless.

We point a signing hand in the opposite direction, urging Dizzi to her feet. We need to get out of here.

“But I shouldn’t be surprised that the palace would have some sort of escape route in place," the voice continues. Even though we can’t tell which way the voice is coming from, we start to edge our void toward the nearest hole in the wall.

At the same time, we activate the illusion around our body, hiding our glass behind the image of a man. Dizzi creeps outside, and we levitate behind her, trying to make as little sounds as possible. We gesture toward the edge of level; we’ll be exposed, but she can coast down, and we can float after. As long as the other half of our void keeps the champion distracted—

“I’m not sure what to make of this, however,” he says.

A glint of light snaps from the darkness like a whip, slicing through our void. We hiss at the ethereal pain this causes, but like Zyneth’s lightning, the pain is only that; the portion of void that hissed away into a black mist beneath the champion’s attack begins to recongeal.

“Interesting. I’d think you were a spell if not for that you seem to have a mind of your own. Can you speak, creature?”

Not without our translator or any of our signing glass—and not that we would be particularly keen to even if given the opportunity.

“It seems not. Then here’s my offer; take me to the harpy queen you just concealed, or I will destroy you.”

Good luck with that. Does he think Dizzi is Fyre? He must think he caught her trying to flee the Fortress. This could work in our favor. We can lead him away from Dizzi and our core—at least, until we hit the edge of our range. After that… after that, we’ll think of something.

We pause our void, as if listening to his offer, then move our void in a different direction—the opposite direction the rest of us is headed.

“Cooperating, I see,” the voice says. “Wise choice.”

A figure steps from the shadows. We’re certain he hadn’t merely been hiding there; the room was empty. He either was concealed by an illusion, or teleported in—probably the latter, given we’ve seen Aquenno and the gods perform similar acts. Not good. Displace is the one advantage we have.

Though it’s dark, the man’s ashen skin and crimson eyes make it apparent that he’s a dhampyr. But Lorata was only supposed to have two champions—an arachnoid and a dryad. Is this one new?

Doesn’t matter. We need to leave.

Another flash of light—a moment too late we try to dart our void away, but the light lashes across our essence. The burning whip squeezes around us, and we split our void apart, slipping out between the coils of light. The dhampyr snaps the whip back in his direction. It glows like it’s made of moonlight.

“I did give you a chance to cooperate,” he says. “Attempting to deceive me was unwise.”

We bolt. The shadows warp around him, and then he slips out sight once more. Our void is already rushing back to our body—but the champion gets there first.

He steps out of a shadow just as Dizzi jumps off the side of our rocky stepping stone, spreading her wings to start the slow glide down. His whip snaps toward her, but we step in its path. It wraps around our arm, instead, burning against our void, but stopped by the glass underneath. Since it’s wrapped around the sleeve of our jacket, the illusion isn’t disrupted.

The dhampyr raises an impassive eyebrow. “Who are you?”

Exactly what we’d like to know about him. Check.

[Name: Mura Tal]

[Title: Champion]

[Species: Dhampyr]

[Class: Umbral Stalker]

[Level: 45]

[HP: 250/250]

[Mana: 2052/2100]

[Allegiance: Lorata]

Definitely Lorata’s champion then—he must be a new one from one of the Gods’ Tournaments. On the bright side, he’s only level 45.

On the other hand, ‘Umbral Stalker’ sounds like it’s going to be an absolute delight to deal with.

“She’s not the queen,” we say. The sound that comes through our translator is grating; we’d rather sign, but his whip is still wrapped around our forearm.

By now, Dizzi has dropped out of sight.

Mura Tal scoffs. “As if I’d believe that.” He snaps his whip back, sending a sharp sting of pain through our glass as we stumble a step forward before we can brace ourself. Echo reads out some amount of damage—the glass in our arm has a fracture, but isn’t broken. We swell a dense wave of void beneath our sleeve, stretching the whip’s bindings, then we collapse the void and pull our hand back, slipping free of the weapon.

He narrows his eyes. “Who are you? What are you doing up here?”

There’s really no way to answer that won’t seem suspicious, but we give it a shot anyway. Stall as long as we can so Dizzi can slip away. “City Guard. Who are you?”

Mura Tal snorts. “I don’t have time for this.”

In the blink of an eye, he’s behind us, falling after Dizzi. She’s not looking up. She doesn’t know.

Will he kill her? Will he let her go when he realizes he has the wrong harpy? We don’t know. We do know we just escaped his wrath. If we fled now, he’d probably have no idea we’re the Kanin he’s undoubtedly been told to look for.

This is probably stupid.

We whip out a Prismatic Limb, hooking around Mura Tal’s ankle. We snap it backward, in an imitation of his own whip, and send him flying back into the ground on our other side. He impacts with a cloud of dust and an audible grunt. We wince. If we didn’t have his attention before, we certainly do now.

Pressing through the System’s Static, we manage to connect with Fyre’s Contact window.

[K̶a̵n̷i̶n̸: dizzi is fleeing]

[K̶a̵n̷i̶n̸: we’re fighting the champion]

Fyre’s reply comes almost instantly.

[Fyre: What? You and Dizzi are fighting him? No—disengage!]

Not thinking that’s an option.

Mura Tal growls as he pushes himself upright. “You’re stronger than you look, but it was a mistake to interfere.” His whip flashes out once more, and we brace, but instead of attacking us, the loops of his weapon seem to freeze in the air in front of him. They form the shape of an eye. “I am Mura Tal, champion of Lorata,” he says. “Step aside. You are interfering with the will of the Heavens.”

He thought we didn’t know who he was. This is probably my one opportunity to disengage and gtfo. But we don’t move.

[K̶a̵n̷i̶n̸: send someone to get dizzi]

[Fyre: We’re working on it. Kanin, get out of there.]

Maybe we can stall long enough for backup to arrive. We aren’t sure Fyre or anyone else in her castle would be able to take on a champion, but we’re not seeing many other options.

“So be it,” Mura Tal says. “We’ll do this your way.”

He’s a blur of motion. The shadows seem to bend around him, making it difficult to track—but we can catch enough for us to throw ourself to the side. His clawed hand passes through the air right where our torso had been. We twist around, snapping another limb in his direction. He catches it with his whip, plants himself, and spins. The force wrenches us from our feet, but before he can throw us into a wall or building, we unChain the glass in the limb. Mura Tal stumbles at the abrupt change in weight, and we use the opportunity to wrap our void around ourself, Displacing our body through to the second volume of void we’d left in a nearby building.

Much of our glass is still scattered around the level, so we have a clear view of Mura Tal as he grabs the severed glass limb from his whip and turns it over in his hands, tipping his head. He casts it aside and we let it fall, wincing as it cracks against the stone, but we leave the limb inert.

“Glass magic?” he says. “That’s an unusual choice. But it’s not the whole picture, is it?”

He strolls part way across the square before he stops, looking at the ground. Mura Tal snaps his whip across the air, and it’s as if he cut through the darkness itself, shadows peeling away from the wound his whip opened to reveal sunlight. It spills over the square, illuminating the circle drawn over the ground. Mura Tal steps back, surveying the scene.

“Now what do we have here?”

Shit. If he realizes what this is—what this is for—then there will be no escaping Lorata’s scrutiny. It will bring even more attention to Fyre’s city. We can’t let him figure it out.

We jerk our severed glass limb forward, launching it toward his back. He spins around at the last moment, deflecting our attack with a raised arm. Even so, Echo crackles with a notification of damage dealt. Hah! It might not be much, but it’s something. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our sparring matches with Aquenno, it’s that champions aren’t nearly as untouchable as their gods.

Mura Tal snarls, grabbing the limb with his whip and smashing it into the ground. We hiss in pain as it shatters, but don’t waste a moment in turning all the shards into an onslaught of ammunition.

The light above the square snuffs itself out, and as the darkness swallows Mura Tal’s figure once more, he vanishes into the dark. Where—

The shadows stab toward our back, and though we attempt to block them with limbs of our own, their force crashes us into the ground. The champion bears down on us with his shadows, and limbs of void erupt from our coat to throw him off as we continue our roll. Our glass hands screech against the stone as we skid to a stop, but the fight has only just begun.

Glass springs from our surroundings to condense into a lens, which glows white the moment we pour mana into the attack. Our Lightbeam blasts into Mura Tal with more power than we’ve ever used for the spell before—and he catches it with his bare hand.

The dhampyr laughs. “I’d be insulted if the attempt wasn’t so pitiable. I am the Champion of Light.” He swipes his hand to the side, and the Lightbeam disintegrates into a cloud of embers. “You think such a spell is effective against me?”

Admittedly, that might have been a slight miscalculation.

But for all his domain is known for its foresight, we see something he doesn’t. We snap out several limbs of void, grabbing his legs and an arm. He glances down at our attack with a bored gaze.

Which works just fine for us, since it was meant to be a distraction.

Dizzi drops down behind him with a gust of wind. “I bet wind’s pretty effective, though.”

Even as Mura Tal is pivoting her way, she claps her wings together, blasting into the champion’s side. The blow knocks him off his feet, and we yank our limbs back toward us before he can recover. Between Dizzi’s wind and our void, we launch him over our head and out into the open space. In a matter of seconds, he’s gone.

Dizzi lands beside me. “Woah! That worked even better than I predicted.”

We round on her. “Why are you here?”

The harpy folds her arms, raising her chin. “Saving you, obviously.”

We find the insinuation that she saved us highly insulting. She merely helped, at most! “You should leave.”

She snorts. “You know, just because I’m not a fighter doesn’t mean I can’t—”

We tackle Dizzi out of the way—or at least, we try to. We manage to knock her back, but not before the shadows crash into us. The blow clips Dizzi, sending her spinning away with a startled, pained cry, and that’s the last we see of her as shadows wrap around us and our back crashes into a wall. We blindly grapple with the darkness as more notifications of damage crackle through our mind, but every limb we summon is met with a whip of darkness. From within the shadows, something sharp presses against our chest—mere inches above our core.

“Don’t move,” Mura Tal snarls.

We go stone-still. Not a single shard of glass or coil of void moves. Even with our Durability spells active, we wouldn’t be able to stop a blow to our core at this proximity. One wrong move now and it’s over—for good.

Our Contact list displays a new notification.

[Fyre: Kanin? What’s the status?]

Mura Tal’s visage resolves from the darkness, his red eyes flickering in anger.

[K̶a̵n̷i̶n̸: fucked]

[K̶a̵n̷i̶n̸: very very fucked]