TS6 - Chapter 12

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As the arrow arrived in front of her, her bracelet flashed with silver light, and the arrow suddenly diverted, shooting down towards Mina's wrist as it was sucked into the bracelet. 

"It's now picked up on my mana signature," Thorn said, "so you should be able to use the bind command to lock me down. Just point your finger and say 'bind'."

"Alright," Mina said, pointing her finger at Thorn. "Bind."

With a flash of the same silver light, the bracelet jumped apart, rapidly expanding into four thin bands that spun at incredible speed. They shot out from Mina's wrist, drawing a loop around Thorn as silver light streamed behind them. Thorn, who had been standing still, tried to take a step backwards as he was surrounded, but his body seemed to be blocked by something. It felt to him as if he had suddenly been immersed into a thick jelly, making even the smallest movement difficult. His eyes flickered back and forth as he watched the bracelet twirl around him, his eyes picking up the flicker of ancient runes that each manifested.

"Hmm, it works pretty well," Thorn said, as he tried to activate his titan steps and failed. "And it should be strong enough to keep a condensation stage enemy in place for at least a few seconds. I don't know that it'll be able to lock them down permanently - I guess that depends on who it is we're fighting and how strong they are, but it'll certainly lock down any sort of bending of space."

"What you're observing now is a single target mode," Thorn said, slowly lifting his hand as he examined how the artifact affected him. "There's also an area targeting mode. You can go ahead and activate that."

Nodding, Mina gave the mental command, and the bracelet drew a wider loop, leaving Thorn to draw a giant circle around them. Immediately, Mina could feel the effect as well. It was as if a heavy blanket had suddenly been draped over her and everything in her surroundings.

"Try using blink," Thorn said, keeping careful watch as Mina snapped her fingers to cast the spell.

He could sense the mana weaving together into the spell construct that should have sent her hurtling through space, but even as the spell construct activated, the spinning metal rods shook, and the spell construct froze before falling apart.

"Good. I think it works," Thorn said. "You can go ahead and recall it." 

At her command, the four spinning pieces of metal tightened their loop, shooting towards Mina's wrist and wrapping around it as they reformed into the beautiful bracelet. Closing his eyes for a moment, Thorn and Eve re-ran all of the data that they had gathered during the test. 

"It should work well enough," Thorn said as he opened his eyes, "though I think there are a couple of things that I could do to improve it." 

Noticing Mina's strange expression as she stared at the bracelet on her wrist, Thorn cocked an eyebrow at her. 

"Something wrong? Do you not like the design?" 

"No, the design's fine," Mina said. "This is just crazy. You just made this. Like, a few hours ago, it didn't exist, and now, here it is." 

"Yeah? So?" 

"Thorn, do you not understand how ridiculous this is? This artifact can completely seal the space in a significant area, which first of all, is almost impossible to do. But second of all, you just made this." 

"I mean, it's not impossible to do," Thorn said, pressing his hand out in front of him. Immediately, the entire room shuddered as the same wet blanket feeling returned, shrouding everything. "It's fairly simple, in fact. You just have to have the right rune combination. All I did was imbue it into the artifact, and it's not like it's that strong, either. Even if you tried to use it to seal me, I'm pretty sure I could crack it within a few seconds, and anybody who is at the condensation level or higher will probably be able to do the same." 

"That's not the point," Mina said. "The point is that you just made this." 

"I don't understand how that's a big deal," Thorn said, causing Mina to sigh. 

"If it only took you a few hours to design and create an artifact like this, what would happen if you actually spent time researching? Like, let's say we weren't about to go and try to assassinate the leader of an enemy army. Let's say that we had a month to plan this or even a year. How effective do you think this bracelet would be?" 

"A year," Thorn bit his lip as calculations began to churn in his head. "With a year, I don't think it would be too hard to make a bracelet that could completely seal someone in the condensation stage. You know, trap them permanently," he said, falling silent when he saw Mina shake her head and sigh. 

"And that is what I'm talking about. Do you know how terrifying that is? An artifact like this, for any normal person, would be the culmination of thousands of hours of research and work, and you just put it together like it was nothing. I just, it's hard to wrap my head around. This isn't something that you used to be able to do. Like, don't get me wrong, you were good at forging before, but this is just, it's different. Anyway, I don't mean to get all weird on you. This will work perfectly for our plan. Plus, I picked up a couple extra things from Velin that should help." 

"Good. We still have a few hours, right?" 

"Yes, we won't move until just before sundown, when the army starts to retreat." 

"All right, then I think it's dinner time," Thorn said, rubbing his hands together. "Let's go find Velin and see if she wants to eat." 

The fighting at the city wall was fierce and lasted almost the entire day. Though the lesser dragonkin showed no signs of retreating, Mina seemed confident that they would, and sure enough, right as the sun started to dip below the horizon, there was a loud trumpet blast, and the lesser dragonkin abandoned their fights, leaving their dead and dying piled against the city wall. It had been a largely pointless attack, as the city's defenses were simply too strong for them to overcome without their siege towers, but that hadn't stopped the lesser dragonkin from throwing away their lives wholesale, battering themselves against the city's defenses. Standing on top of the wall with Governor Orson, Keeley, and the four ascendants from the Temple of Man, Thorn, Mina, and Akira made their final preparations. 

"That's the sound of the retreat," Thorn said, as the enemy army began to pull back. "Should we go?" 

Mina, who was wearing a dark dress spotted with silver stars, gripped her wand lightly in her hand as she watched the army. 

"Not yet," she said, her expression emotionless. "In thirty seconds, we can go." 

Pretending he didn't notice the strange looks that the ascendants were giving him, Thorn nodded and gestured, forming a doorway in front of him. As it solidified, he scooped Mina up, putting her on one of his shoulders, Akira climbing up onto his other shoulder. Thorn always felt a bit weird serving as a moving platform, but it was the easiest way to make sure that everyone came with him when they teleported. The seconds ticked by until Mina suddenly nodded, and Thorn took a step forward, vanishing through the portal. 

They appeared in the middle of a tent, startling Quetzalten quite badly. Mina and Akira both jumped from Thorn's shoulders as he took another step forward, this time activating Titan Steps, and vanishing from the tent to appear inside of another tent. He had already been warned by Mina as to what he would find, and his halberd lifted into the air, just as Moriphon stepped through the doorway. 

The dragonkin's eyes went wide as he saw Thorn's hulking form in front of him, and he barely had time to react before a vicious slash nearly took his head. At the very last moment, a burst of lightning erupted from him, charring a massive hole in the front of the tent. As Moriphon shot backwards, Thorn followed, his halberd hacking out with a dozen attacks as he tried to cut Moriphon limb from limb. He managed to score a few hits, and the void edge of his blade tore through Moriphon's armor with ease. Yet each cut was slightly shallow as Moriphon desperately tried to escape, all the while rapidly condensing his aura into his body. 

Thorn could feel waves of cold energy, and see flickers of red in his peripheral vision as Akira and Mina battled against Quetzalten, but he was completely focused on eliminating the dragonkin in front of him. With a shout, Moriphon finally stopped running and launched himself back towards Thorn, his lightning-covered fist slamming into Thorn's side, throwing the titan sideways. Yet even as he felt his blow connect, Moriphon's face fell. The titan had moved much too easily, which didn't bode well for the dragonkin. 

Desperately dropping to the ground, Moriphon felt Thorn's blade scrape across his back, leaving a bloody gash. Despite his attack missing, Thorn wasn't concerned, and as Moriphon lunged towards him, he lifted his knee sharply, crushing the dragonkin's nose, causing a shower of blood to spray as Moriphon was knocked backward. 

With a terrible scream, Moriphon glared at Thorn as his body began to ripple, dense power coursing through him. His already scale-covered body seemed to grow heavier, and the scales started to thicken. The lightning that covered him from head to toe took on a red tint, carrying with it a bloody smell. His already tall form elongated until he was nearly as tall as Thorn, and his arms and legs expanded, growing more muscular with every passing moment, as his fingers grew wicked claws. 

"I'll kill you," he screamed as he launched himself forward, but Thorn, cool, calm, and collected as ever, simply retreated, each step back taking him a few dozen feet. 

Moriphon lunged after Thorn, his transformation complete. Thorn stabbed towards the incoming dragonkin, attempting to cut his chest open, but Moriphon batted the blade aside and slipped past Thorn's weapon, his claws slashing at Thorn's arms. 

One of the strikes managed to catch Thorn's gauntlet, leaving a long scar along it, as Moriphon launched more and more attacks. Using his elbows and knees and the handle of his halberd to block the attacks, Thorn found himself slightly overwhelmed. Moriphon's speed had risen drastically, and the strength of every single one of his attacks was at least tripled. His enemy was moving so quickly that Thorn found he couldn't even summon his mana, and despite his attempts to gain some range so that he could properly use his halberd, Moriphon kept pressing forward, the madness in his eyes blazing like fire. Even worse was the blood-colored lightning, which tore through Thorn's armor as if it didn't even exist, scorching his body badly. Finally, realizing he couldn't continue with his halberd, Thorn sent it back into his dimensional ring and swapped to hand-to-hand combat. He met every one of Moriphon's vicious strikes with a crushing punch of his own. 

In their previous fight, Thorn had been able to break through Moriphon's defenses with his heavy blows, but the improvement to Moriphon's natural armor caused Thorn's punches to skitter off. Still, from the way his opponent staggered every time he landed a punch, Thorn knew he was doing some damage. The question was, was it enough? 

Thorn and Mina's attack had thrown the camp into confusion, forcing the retreat into a disorganized mess. In the chaos, Thorn and Moriphon smashed through the camp, destroying everything around them as they traded heavy blows. 

In the center of the camp, Quetzalten was trying desperately to escape, but every way she turned she found herself attacked by fierce ice spells or a dozen strange furry creatures whose claws cut right through her defenses. Nearly going mad, she let out a loud scream. When he heard it, Moriphon hesitated for a moment, then darted towards the center of camp, Thorn chasing after him. 

Sensing a weakness in Moriphon's aura as the crimson lightning began to fade, Thorn's eyes sharpened, and his halberd appeared in his hand once more. Letting out a shout, he launched himself forward, his halberd cutting down towards Moriphon's back. 

Abruptly stopping, Moriphon spun around, a wicked smile on his face, as he thrust a ball of lightning that he had condensed in his hand toward Thorn. Or rather, where Thorn should have been. Moriphon had been sure that Thorn had thrown himself forward. Yet even as his hand stretched out and the lightning discharged from his palm, he was stunned to find Thorn was nowhere to be seen. 

He had attempted to bait Thorn by lowering his defenses, aiming to land a vicious strike on the Titan when he moved to attack, but Thorn hadn't attacked at all, and instead had simply stepped straight past him. Feeling a shift in the air, Moriphon threw himself forward, rolling on the ground as Thorn's halberd slashed above him. Had he still been standing, he would have undoubtedly lost his head. As he jumped to his feet to face Thorn, he saw the Titan grinning. 

"The most terrifying sort of enemy," Thorn said, "isn't someone with overwhelming strength." 

Even as he spoke, he spun his halberd around, dropping into his stance as he faced Moriphon, blocking him from the center of the camp.

"The most terrifying enemy is one who knows everything you're going to do before you even do it."

In the center of the Dragonkin camp, Quetzalten the Fair was not looking so fair. Her body was covered in dozens of bloody cuts, and her beautiful clothing had been ripped to shreds. Frost was creeping its way up her right arm towards her shoulder, carrying with it a chill that didn't abate no matter how much mana she used to try and clear it away. 

Hate and a healthy dose of fear colored her expression as she stared at Mina, who was floating in the air in front of her. Mina was completely emotionless, her expression so calm she may as well have been out for an evening stroll rather than fighting a powerful Dragonkin in the middle of a battlefield. She held a wand in one hand and a silvery white dagger with two blades in the other. 

Her magic didn't seem to be that strong, and apart from the creeping ice spell that was still giving Quetzalten problems, Mina had been more of an annoyance than anything else. The real problem was the vicious furry creature who had arrived with her, splitting into dozens of copies that continually merged and separated, forming a confusing blur as they blocked Quetzalten from all angles.