AA3 54 - Atonement III (Kai)

The Darjee were concentrated around the outskirts of the hill, meaning that every step forward that Kai and the others took drove a wedge between the Darjee to their left and to their right.

While it was possible that they could go to the top of the hill and cut across, they didn’t seem willing to do so.

Jarn, Anag and their people were fully behind the push to the top, and the momentum of the charge was dragging the rest of the Kranjir with them.

From the corner of one eye, Kai caught sight of Maeve moving steadily their way along the right flank. She would reach them just after they got to the top, but it would take time to get through the Bone Thralls.

Six of the foul things were waiting for them, each an abomination in its own right and proof enough that the Gormagyr deserved to die.

Taking hold of the wind from Gwen’s storm, Kai knocked the last few Darjee in his way to one side, trusting in the Kranjir at his back to deal with them.

With no more enemies in his way, Kai drew on his Essence and kicked off at a sprint, blurring across the last stretch of the hill and lunging at the closest Bone Thrall.

It was a squat, muscular creature whose form was a mix of a bear and a scorpion. Bone charms were stitched into its flesh along its sides, and curved blades of metal ran down its spine.

Catching it on the shoulder with his spear, Kai’s eyes narrowed as the closest charm began to smoke and burn. His strike had cut the flesh, but the flames on his spear had done almost nothing.

Cutting off the trickle of power into his weapon, Kai diverted it into his own enhancement as he twisted around a paw the size of his head and thrust his spear into its armpit.

The creature roared in pain and reared back, its long and chitinous tail stabbing out at Kai to drive him away.

Dropping back, Kai waited patiently as the creature gathered itself for another attack, a flash of lightning off to one side showing that Gwen had engaged one of the others.

With a ferocious growl, the Bone Thrall leapt forward, its jaws snapping down on the space where he’d just been standing.

Kai pushed back as soon as the creature moved, and once it was committed, he pulled on his Essence to speed back in, driving his spear home into its eye with as much force as he could.

The huge creature’s weight pushed Kai back, driving the spear even deeper and sealing its fate. Wrenching his spear free from the corpse of the Bone Thrall, Kai saw that his allies had engaged several of the other monsters.

Jarn and Anag were working with a mix of shieldguard and thearns to bring down a pair while Gwen was blasting a third to death with her lightning.

The two remaining ones were fighting against the thearns equipped with enchanted weapons while the rest of their forces kept the Thralls and Darjee at bay.

They were slowly winning on each front, but the Gormagyr had yet to reveal itself, and Kai had a straight shot to the centre of the buildings.

“Kai!” Hedda called out, and Kai looked back to see the Witch running up to him, a familiar dark blue weapon in her hands. “Take Sgian and go on ahead. I can’t hold them down for long, but he can cut through their magic. I’ll help out here with Gwen.”

Kai nodded and took the athame, sharing a look before he turned and rushed forward.

The stone buildings they’d seen had even more of a natural look this close, and Kai quickly realised that they were storehouses for the Gormagyr after glancing inside the first one he passed.

Mounds of body parts ran along the interior walls of the building, but even at a glance, Kai could tell there was some dark intelligence to the organisation.

The Sorcerer could all too easily imagine one of those twisted monstrosities perusing its stocks with a casual disregard for life that made his blood boil.

The scale of death present here was beyond what he’d seen in the lair of the other Gormagyr. There was none of this sense of permanence to it. Was that the influence of the Darjee, or had the Gormagyr been going somewhere?

A pair of Thralls exited a nearby building, each carrying a bundle of metal blades that clattered to the floor noisily as Kai tore through them in the blink of an eye.

Clamping down on his rage with every ounce of willpower he had, Kai turned his gaze to the warehouse the Thralls had left, noting the stocks of supplies and weaponry it held.

To his disbelief, this was no ramshackle pile of loot; there were the familiar crates and barrels he’d expect to find in any civilised warehouse.

Darjee didn’t use much, if any, metalwork. The Keeper had been clear on that, and while Kai had assumed it was just one more thing they were wrong about, these crates told a different story.

Each one that Kai could see had similar burns on the side. Each one had had its maker’s marks and identifiers charred away.

Someone was supplying these monsters. Someone was knowingly giving them what they needed to make the Thralls more dangerous.

“Whoever they are, Min. I swear to you that I will find them and kill them,” Kai whispered as the anger sweeping through him turned cold and murderous.

Turning on his heel, Kai stalked through the last of the buildings until he finally got a good look at the centre and his target.

Kai’s eyes widened as he took in the scene, his gaze immediately focusing on the giant kneeling next to an unholy cross between an altar, a butcher’s block and a surgical bed.

A thin canopy of grey stone stretched over the top of the area, but the pale green light from the abyssal magic at work illuminated it enough for Kai to see.

The Gormagyr got to its feet and hobbled over to the far side of the altar, picking up the corpse of a bear that had lying just out of Kai’s view. Turning back towards the altar, its gaze met Kai’s as he saw the patch that had been sewn over its missing left eye.

“Sorcerer,” the Gormagyr growled, its baleful glare boring into Kai as its fingers crushed into the corpse it was holding and blood oozed out. “Thank you for saving me the time of hunting you down.”

A slow smile stole across Kai’s face as he started to slowly walk forward. “Funny, I was about to say the same thing. You’ve got nowhere to escape this time.”

“I left you a broken wreck the first time, and I can do so again,” the Gormagyr’s eye narrowed as it took a ponderous step forward, leaving nothing between them. “I’ll do a better job of crushing you, and this time, there’s no one here to save you.”

Kai said nothing, simply igniting his spear once more as he kicked off into a jog, mentally sending a prayer of thanks to Govannon. Perhaps his time with the Kranjir was rubbing off on him, but this was exactly the challenge he needed right now.

Kai barely made it three steps before he had to dive to one side to dodge the bear corpse that came flying his way. Smoothly rolling to his feet, Kai grabbed hold of the wind as he did and threw it toward the Gormagyr.

The blast of oily green energy that the Gormagyr had been conjuring struck the wind and broke through, but it had lost much of its power, and Kai cut through what was left with his spear.

“Cheap tricks,” the Gormagyr growled as it picked up a cleaver from the altar. “They won’t save you from what is coming.”

Kai eyed the cleaver warily as he circled the Gormagyr, waiting for an opening. Its weapon was oversized, even for a giant, and was almost the same size as Kai.

With its longer arms, the Gormagyr had the reach advantage, but it was slow, and by turning to the left, Kai was forcing it to rely on its injured foot.

Kai had learnt much from their last fight, enough that his years of experience let him pinpoint the moment that the Gormagyr committed to its attack and draw on his Essence.

A wide blast of oily magic swept out from one hand while the other brought its immense cleaver slicing diagonally across. Kai could either dodge one or the other while maintaining his distance.

Instead, Kai dove forward, going under both attacks as he threw a blast of wind up at the giant’s face to distract it. Being this close ran the risk of it laying hands on him, but it also got him close enough to cut deep into its thigh and dart between its legs.

The giant groaned in pain and staggered to one side before falling to one knee as Kai drove her spear into the rear of its left knee, aiming for its tendons.

“No, no, no!” The Gormagyr thrashed as Kai stabbed again, managing to clip him with its elbow.

Even a partial strike from the twisted giant was enough to send Kai flying back into the altar with an impact that took his breath away.

“Thralls, to me!” The Gormagyr shouted in a voice of desperation, its voice shaking the ground as it tried to chop Kai in half once more.

Kai barely managed to dodge aside as the cleaver cut through the altar and deep into the earth. Even a single strike like that would spell his doom.

The pounding of feet heralded a chorus of growls and hisses as a dozen Thralls came racing into view, and the Gormagyr began crawling toward one of the warehouses, leaving its cleaver buried in the earth.

Kai winced as his bruised ribs protested all this movement, but nonetheless took up a stance as the closest Thrall pounced toward him, only to be blown from away by a sharp gust of wind.

The unfortunate creature flew directly into the edge of the cleaver with enough force to cut deep into its back, sending a river of blood down the buried weapon.

Static crackled by Kai’s side as he felt Gwen step in beside him. “I’ve got your back. Let’s finish this.”