Four Horsemen: Chapter 35

Chapter 35:

‘Nima’ sighed as the door closed to her office. The third group to come to her ‘workshop’ in as many hours. Thankfully the staff down on the first floor had their orders.

Her earring shook in her ear, she quickly checked her prying wards, she might not know anything about how to make formations, but she knew enough to make sure they were working.

She quickly inject ted mana into the earring.

“Lord adjunct,” she said, keeping her voice carefully neutral.

“Report.”

“Three more have come to visit me this day about what is happening. One group were able to bring up the majority of the history we have on the city. I gave them level three information.”

“Do you think they are capable?”

“I was unable to discern their cultivations, but all of them were veteran fighters.” She remembered their positioning in the room, unconsciously away from the window and the door. Each in different areas so they could act and react.

“Where are they heading?”

“To the dungeons,” Nima said.

“Useless. Find us people that are actually capable, not just adventurers looking to increase their levels from our dungeons. We need them fighting the creatures popping up outside of the dungeons.”

“Yes Lord adjunct.” The fact she couldn’t openly give out information and could only guide people hindered that, but she had been in her role long enough to know that arguing with the man was a quick way to end up floating in the city’s lake.

The connection ended.

She checked the notes and information around the room, making maps of the city clear and taking out the mana reports that the woman had gone through.

She frowned at them, they were dropped off at her door every morning. Noting the different elemental blend of the local mana so she could adjust her crafting. “Whatever.” She put them back on their shelf and altered the maps and items around the room, focusing on the random emergence locations around the city and taking down anything related to the dungeons.

The Lord Adjunct didn’t want people in the dungeons then she’d do her best to keep them out of the dungeons.

A knock at the door interrupted her. She checked everything once more before she moved to the door, opening it to find a group of adventurers on the other side.

“We’re looking for information on the city.” The leader pushed through the door, his people spreading out.

“Hey, what are you doing? This is a private workshop!” She inwardly gritted her teeth, knowing she’d have to give them all the information and then get them out of her workshop. The trick was to do it before they started taking the place apart and at the time they thought she would tell the truth.

I just got the place fixed back up.

If they went too far, there were more than just anti-scrying inscriptions in the room.

***

Desari tapped her sword with her hand, her other hand passing over her armor, checking hidden blades, potions in pouches, her storage devices broken up and categorized for easy access. She never stopped scanning the dungeon beyond, another touch on the phoenix quiver and her own quiver, a storage device holding several kinds of arrows. She examined her bow and drew on the string partially.

She pulled up her hood and its mask, the air cool. However she moved, her hood didn’t block her peripheral nor did it pull or fall from her head.

Good gear’s worth your life.

She tapped the metal plates of her vest absently.

The others ran their own checks. Mya had stored her jacket, pistols covered her front and lower back, her sword on one side, a dirk on the other, net hung out of a pouch on her front, the hooked rope she’d used in the forest coiled on her belt the small of her back left.

She pushed her hat higher, a rogue smirk on her face as she held one of her long rifles over her shoulder.

Valter and Petor dwarfed in size, their armor a second skin. Their eyes glowing through the shadows as they wore their shields, Valter with his sword and belted hammers, one swirling with cold condensation, the other stirring the air with shimmering heat.

Petor had his dagger, sling, ammunition, spear and shield.

Over the days he’d worked tirelessly, adding on heavy muscle, the kind that followed heavy and consistent use.

She could feel their weight with each step. Though they’d only increased their speed and reactions. Her mind turning to the ‘fight’ before the dungeon, if it could be called such a thing.

Petor and Valter looked at one another, raised their shields as if they had been guarding one another’s flanks for years and stepped through the inscribed arch.

Mya held her long gun across herself and followed. Desari strung a phoenix arrow on her bow, moving last.

It smelled of dirt, stone and that heaviness that came with being deep in the ground.

Stalagmites jutted out of the ground, creating a winding path they followed.

Desari turned at movement, a soil sprite spitting mud and diving back into the ground. Her arrow blasted out a smoldering section of the ground.

“Soil sprites,” Desari said, drawing another arrow as she kept moving and tracking the area. Her elements had reached the point where she could detect everything within a few dozen meters again.

It was like regrowing eyes again.

She pivoted and released. The soil sprite, as big as a rabbit detonated in a spray of soil. Desari drew again.

“Hold!” Petor called. “That’s quicksand there.”

They edged around it, moving single file against the stallagmites.

Three soil sprites appeared in the forest of stone spikes and threw mud.

Petor blocked two mud balls with his shield.

Desari Killed two before they could get away.

A chittering like falling gravel came from above.

“Mine!”

Stallctites dropped from the ceiling as Mya threw up a stick and fired. She clipped the stick Desari tracked and released her arrow.

It struck the stick. Desari ducked as the falling spikes were turned to gravel and  sprayed over the cavern.

“Nice shot,” Mya half-grumbled, reloading the large rifle.

Petor and Valter advanced, now past the quicksand.

“Looks like it opens up ahead,” Petor said. “Quicksand there.” He sketched it out with his spear, he and Valter parting around it.

The soil sprites continued to harass as they crept forward.

“Rocks.” Mya threw up another stick, drew a pistol and fired. The rocks were destroyed and thrown clear. Desari covered herself with a hand. The stone and grit hit Valter and Petor’s armor, they just kept moving.

They slowed their pace as they reached the second area.

The ground shifted, red-ceramic warriors rose from the ground, facing them.

“Shield users, spear and archers! Nine of each in formation,” Valter called out. They moved in lock step together, advancing.

“The colder they are the more fragile they’re going to be.” Valter swung his cold hammer, white vapors spreading out from it.

The warriors shifted as one, the front rank dropped and raised their shield, the second rank bringing their spears back as the archers drew their bows back.

Petor cast a half strength Arcance Nova among the second line of fighters.

The spell erupted in their ranks, killing two of the spear users outright and one of the shield users. The rest were scattered, hitting the spikes that lined the side of the pathway.

Desari released an arrow, hitting a warrior in the head. Its head and chest blew apart, what remained picked itself back up again.

Mya fired, putting a hole through the chest of a shield warrior and took off a spear user’s arm.

“Well, looks like we need to go for something more blunt than piercing!” Mya grumbled.

Valter cut down at a rising shield warrior, his blade steaming where the magically cooled ceramic met the plasma hot edge of his blade.

His blade stuck in the creatures chest.

He left it in the warrior’s chest, kneeling as he grabbed his cold hammer and let loose a blast from his shield. Warriors getting back up were thrown back down.

Desari aimed up into the ceiling and fired.

Arrows thudded into Petor’s shield and Mya skipped around a javelin.

Desari’s arrow hit the roof, detonating. Stalactites dropped from the ceiling, the debris crushed two more of the warriors, Valter’s hammer smashed through another. Petor slashed out with his spear, breaking legs and arms of the warriors, hiding behind his shield that was getting peppered with arrows.

A javelin came at her from the side, one of the spear users among the stalagmites. It went through the soft part of her armpit and out her back.

She growled, drawing the static of the area, condensing it and releasing it in a burst.

It hit the stalagmite instead of the warrior, causing it to explode.

The warrior was smashed apart and spread across the stalagmites.

Mya had out her blunderbuss, running while staying low and behind Valter and Petor.

Valter swung at a warrior, their shield met his hammer, dissipating the strike. He interposed his shield as a spear shot out at him, stopping the weapon dead.

Petor cut at a shield warrior’s legs as they fought to get back up. He took out two’s legs, Raising his shield he let loose a blast, that diverted two arrows and a javelin, cutting off his next attack.

Desari grabbed the spear and tore it free, hissing with the pain and wrongness. Grabbing a healing potion from her belt, she rolled over on her side and poured it into the gaping wound.

Blood poured into her lungs, making her cough. She spat to the side, unable to get rid of the irritation.

She pressed her right arm tight to her body, holding the wound as she got her knees underneath herself, her bow to the side.

She called on the arcane, the mana of the area, the wind and condensed it.

“Val—” She coughed, her lungs spasming as the tear through them was undone.

Petor stepped forward. A warrior, still animated, slashed out at his leg with the strength to crack steel. Petor grunted, driving his knee through the warrior’s chest, and the butt of his spear through their face.

They shattered underneath him, turning to red dust.

Mya aimed over him and fired, tearing through four spear warriors at the same time and staggering the last remaining shield warrior on the far right.

She ducked down behind Petor, storing the blunderbuss.

Two arrows hit her armor, one struck her in the face and she rolled to the ground.

Desari didn’t know if Valter knew if she was compressing the air, or if he’d heard her and made an assumption.

The remaining air became thin just before it lit.

A wave of air drew up the remains of the dead warriors, pulled the bodies of those that were still alive and then rushed out in an explosive blast that smashed them against the floor, the spikes on either side and one another.

Two archers and a spear user were turned to dust.

Petor lashed out with his spear, moving into the warrior’s ranks, too close for the archers to bring their weapons to bear, though some of them still tried attacking, harming their fellows.

Desari shifted forward to Mya who pulled the arrow out from her face, before driving a blade into her cheekbone and hitting it with the palm of her hand. She wiggled it back and forth before she pulled out the arrow head still in her face.

Her breath was a ragged ugly thing of pierced wet meat.

Desari grabbed her bow and moved forward, able to move her arm away from her side with only slight agony. Fucking bones regrowing.

She drew an arrow on her string, ready in case needed.

Valter let out a laugh that came from the depths of the abyssal, he held four shield warriors back.

The spear users behind them used the cover to launch their own attacks. He blunted or turned three of their attacks, using his own armor as a second shield. One hit him awkwardly, making him stagger.

Six archers fired at him, one hitting him in the neck, blood staining his armor.

Petor slammed the last remaining shield warrior on his side back and smashed down with his shield, turning them to dust.

Desari traced his mana back to Mya, accelerating her healing as she poured the healing potion on her face while she got her hand underneath her.

Bounty of the archer. Four arrows formed of solid light circled the physical phoenix arrow on her bow. “Fly true.”

She released the arrow, aiming at the archers fighting Valter.

Arrows went through the chests of two making them stumble back, another two were staggered, the fifth turned, the arrow missing them as they released an arrow back at Desari. She turned just in time to get hit in the armor, making her grunt.

Petor deflected the shield warriors blade and smashed open their defense, rising so his shield was pointed down at their exposed side, using the power of standing to throw his spear, hitting the archer furthest away, the spear flared with mana as his shield did.

The archer exploded into dust as the shield warrior was smashed into the ground.

He turned, his armor deflecting a single arrow from the only remaining archer on his side of the battlefield.

Desari recovered her feet as Petor threw out a bramble and cast grow on the ground.

The plants landed among the spear fighters in front of Valter and exploded to wrap around everything. The thorns scraping against the warrior’s bodies and weapons.

“‘enade ‘uckers!” Mya warbled, hurling a black metal sphere with a sparking stem.

Valter crouched down from taking a shield warriors arm for their failed attack. An arrow hit him in the head. He dropped his hammer and took out a healing potion, throwing it on his neck and face.

Mya’s sphere landed perfectly between the remaining spear users and exploded.

A spear, shield and bow user were turned to dust, others staggered, a spear user that was little more than a torso shifted in the piles of dust. An archer missing half of its body worked to push itself back on its feet.

One archer fired at Mya, the angle such that they hit the ground instead of her.

Valter’s steps burned into the ground as he shot forward, crashing through two shield warriors before they could recover, turning them to dust. He smashed his hammer through the spear user’s torso, spreading dust over the two remaining archers as he threw up his shield.

It knocked his shield down, he used the momentum to swing at them, they were unable to move, the brambled growing up their waists.

His hammer went through one’s hip, exiting somewhere in their chest as it went through the second’s chest and out their head.

Dust exploded over him as he turned to face the two and a half remaining opponents.

Desari drew another arrow.

Petor held his shield up, the remaining archer released, their arrow stabbing through his knee.

The shield warrior on the ground, grabbed his legs and brought him down. Petor held his arm up to the warrior’s chest and called his spear.

The soul-bound weapon tore through the warrior, turning them to dust.

Desari drew back her arrow, increasing its potency before releasing, her injuries pulled the shot, hitting the remaining archer in the leg, blowing both legs off and sending them sprawling into the brambles.

Mya lifted her pistol, she’d been aiming at the remaining shield warrior to her left but Valter’s charge put him on the other side of the warrior, the thorns of the brambles screeching as they cut into the ceramic warrior, scorching and burning it as dust fell to the ground.

Valter stepped forward, the shield warrior straining against the bramble as he brought his hammer through their head and into their body.

It shattered into dust.

Petor appeared over the remaining archer and drove his foot through their head. Its body turned to dust.

Desari placed another arrow on her bow and scanned the area.

Petor cracked the arrow in his leg with the back of his spear, disappearing from behind the archer.

Petor re-appeared where he’d been before and moved to Mya, storing his spear and keeping his shield facing the dust filled brambles that continued to creak and writhe.

He dragged out the ceramic arrow with a bare hiss.

Valter backed out of the patch, moving to Petor.

Desari shifted up to them, the smell of blood, sweat and choking dust.

Mya groaned, on one knee.

“Face shot, fucking face shot. I like it when my enemy are terrible fucking shots.”

“Status?” Valter asked, still watching out. Petor shifted to mirror him.

“Got hit a bit, armor saved the worst. Down a healing potion. I can move,” Desari said.

“Same here, down a grenade and a blunderbuss shot, give me a minute and I can reload.” She drew out the still smoking weapon and a brush, shoving it down the gun’s business end.

“Knee’s healing up, good to go otherwise.”

“Everyone get some water, we move out when Mya’s reloaded,” Valter said.

“When we move I’ll clear the brambles,” Petor said.

“Good to have an obstacle for cover,” Desari said. “I can’t see around the bend, but I’m guessing next are the stone drakes.”

Mya removed her brush and took out a cloth cylinder and shoved it down the blunderbuss, followed by another and a piece of hard paper.

They all replaced their used potions on their bodies, Desari checked the remains of the warriors.

“Looks like they leave some powder behind that would be good for earth element potions or making a golem. They left some of their weapons that didn’t shatter and I can see a few items.”

The tunnel shuddered and shook, several stalactites cracking away and landing on the floor below.

“Looks like our next opponents are eager to meet us,” Petor said.

“Lets go snake hunting,” Mya said, as she clicked back the back the firing mechanism of her blunder buss.

A roar made Desari wince as it ran through the air and reverberated with the ground, the first joined by several others.

The ground started to distort, the stalagmites shifting and pointing at odd angles , the walls deforming as stalactites fell from above.