Unbound

Chapter Eight Hundred And One – 801

"Beef has them fully engaged. Proceed to the Overlord's Manor," the sharp-winged matriarch said as she landed beside him.

Kevin, on Harn’s left, shuddered. "God, that's creepy. A voice like yours shouldn't be coming out of a giant skink."

"Hmm," Hallow mused. Then the water bubbled just feet away, and a shambling corpse rose from the muck. Their body was half-decayed and mostly bones until it welled with a blackened green light and was clad in chitinous armor. "Would you rather this form?" she asked from within.

Kevin jerked in surprise, and Archie grimaced. "Necromancy's gross."

Harn grunted in agreement before gesturing ahead. "Hallow, pave the way."

The armored corpse inclined its head before turning to the old Chanter at the sidelines. "Mauvim, your assistance, please."

"Of course, Hallow." The old lady lifted her hand, and a welling of multicolored light poured from it, along with the hands of all the Chanters at her back.

"Entropic Paradigm," Hallow intoned, and her voice echoed as if it were down a long, empty tunnel. Power rolled through the Risen, striking at the shoreline and manifesting into a chitinous pathway that stabbed deep into the poisoned waters. It rose above the muck, shedding water by the bucketful, and didn’t stop until it extended a solid twenty feet ahead of them. The Chanters’ power sparked off of the construction, giving it a strange, ethereal quality that Harn wasn't sure the purpose of, but was a benefit, no doubt.

Harn lifted a cloth mask over his lower face and pointed his axe toward the rocky island and the Overlord’s little headquarters atop it.

"Company, forward!"

As one, they moved ahead, the entire army running from the ridgeline as Hallow's Risen channeled more of Beef's power. The road ahead of them built with each step, and their boots beat hard against its dry, ridged surface with an inexorable gait. Behind Hallow, Harn ran at the front, followed closely by the three Unbound, the forward scouts, and the still-humming Chanters.

The fumes were awful, each step wafting more up at them. Everyone wore cloth masks, their lengths soaked with some sort of mixture the Kobold kids had whipped up. Shadow had said it'd last them twenty minutes, if they didn't breathe too fast. Harn had been around Felix long enough to recognize the way they counted time. A little over a quarter of a glass. He could work with that.

They moved at a double-time march across the Poison Fields, not outright running, but their combined Tempers made it so that they covered more ground than most might. It was a sustained pace designed to keep them ready for the fight that lay ahead of them.

The island loomed ahead, topped by walls that were covered in vines and broken masonry. A bell rang, and in the distance, Harn saw armored guilders shouting and pointing in their direction. They had been noticed.

“Take ‘em out!”

The forward scouts fired their bows, arrows laden with deadly Skills. Guilders fell by the dozen, but many others took shelter behind massive tower shields that rebuffed the projectiles with their own gleaming Skills. The shields, however, did not withstand Harn, nor those that followed. Waves of legion forces, Blade and Fist and Bone, smashed into the guilder guards around the Overlord's Manor, beating them to the ground and ending the threat they posed with extreme precision.

Harn burst easily into the inner portions of the ruin, where the ground had been swept clean between the broken walls and the newly-made tower. Before him, standing between Harn and the unblemished tower wall, was a man in full plate armor. A crest of blue feathers sprouted from his head, and two massive swords were in either hand, each approximately eight feet in length and thick as a broadsword.

"The Overlord must not be disturbed,” the man said, brandishing his blades. “His work is too important.”

Harn considered his foe. The Adamant was alone. No serpent waited in the wings as the fight with the guilders raged at the periphery. However, Harn didn't think this was going to be an easy fight. “Analyze.”

The warrior barely flinched as Harn’s Intent swept across him.

Name: Adamant Guard Kade

???

???

Can’t get a read on him. High Adept at least, though. Maybe Master Tier.

Harn limbered up his shoulders. "Archie, take care of the rest of the guilders and secure the ruin."

The Delven hesitated, glancing at the Adamant. "What about him?"

"I got it."

Archie laughed. “Fine. Don’t die, old man.” He gave a lazy salute and slipped into the earth, vanishing.

"You do not wish to test me, warrior," the Adamant said as the Unbound left. His stance was unchanged, despite the heft of the long, brutal-looking swords. They were extended outward in guard positions, as if he intended to fight all of them at once.

Harn tilted his head, his helmet similar to the one that hid the Adamant guard's face. Two swords, solid armor and...shit. Around the blades there was a sheathing of blue, as if they were clad with magic, and a similar bubble surrounded the guard. Let's see if I can break it.

Harn shot forward. He swung an axe and was easily met by the Guard's first blade. Axe met sword, and both blows bounced off one another. Harn swung twice more, each time pivoting into attack Forms he'd trained most of his life—and the Adamant Guard matched him.

Harn split his legs, narrowly avoiding the follow-up slash from the phantom blade. It sliced into the stone, inches from his groin. "What?"

The phantom blade slashed back up, but Harn was already rolling backward. He came to a stop on his hands and knees before hurling himself sideways. The blade thrust through his previous position, scoring a deep line across his arcanite rerebrace.

"We need an opening," Kevin cried out.

Harn glanced at the Kobold, exasperated. "What do you think I'm doing?"

The green-gold Kobold idly spun his sickle on its chain, and the thing sparked with illusory vines. "Rolling around?"

Harn's gaze caught on a faint shape above a crumbling buttress. Shadow was hiding, his dark bow drawn taut. Harn grunted, rising to his feet. An opening. Alright.

The Adamant guard's Skill had lapsed, thankfully, and it left the armored knight standing there, oversized sword held in a guard position. It clearly had a time limit on its usage, or else the man didn't have enough Mana to keep it active. Either way, it gave Harn some options.

"That was a surprise," he said, circling the Adamant. "How many more you got?"

"Enough to handle you, criminal."

"Show me." Harn rushed in.

Kade slid back into his Stance of the Lone Soldier, and Harn tracked it as it took effect. The man's arms blurred as he moved, snapping his weapon about in fluid arcs that left guarded as much as advanced him forward. The stance was fast, and it enhanced the edge of his blade. The longer the guard fought with it, the faster he grew, and it was almost insurmountable, despite Harn's many years of experience.

The Adamant was good...but he was predictable.

His stance made him move faster, but his weapon mastery Skill was no doubt made to wield two weapons at once. The Adamant was already on his back foot. Harn just had to push him.

Kade came for him, sword low before swinging high. Harn flipped his axe, deflecting the blow with the force of his Colossus of the Everflame, and silver fire spat upward in a liquid arc. Kade flinched as flame fell on them both, and that was all Harn needed. He kicked out with his arcanite leg—the Adamant Guard intercepted with the flat of his blade.

Blocked or not, he couldn't evade the force of it.

Arcanite met steel and shield, and the Adamant blasted backward, fully off the ground, only stopping when his armored back slammed into the tower's wall. The wards of the tower flared up, bright and red where it met Kade’s blue. Blood spurted from between the holes in his helm, and it burned in silver flame as Harn launched into his chest with a flying knee. The wards flared harder, both now screeching audibly, like bells crashing in the distance.

Wrath of the Twin Fangs is level 92!

Colossus of the Everflame is level 95!

His axes smashed against the Adamant's neck, their edges finger spans away from the metal surface. Sparks cascaded from the contact point, and silver flame ate into metallic blue shielding.

Kade’s body shook, but his voice was steady. "You cannot defeat the gods!"

Harn slammed his helm into the Adamant's bloody head, and the man's personal shield exploded. The arcanite axes continued through, unimpeded, and cut into the Adamant's gorget with a meaty thunk.

"I don't need to," Harn growled.

Kade gagged and fell against the tower wall as Harn yanked his axes free in a spray of blood and silver.

"I've got Unbound for that."

Arrows, three all at once, speared into the bloody, torn-up gorget, before they sprouted with a deep, noxious fume, and thorned barbs grew rapidly around Kade's neck and torso. The Adamant struggled to stand, straining the vines that held him bound to the floor, even as the thorns melted into his sundered armor.

Kade gurgled through the pain. "You are not worthy—"

A dark metal sickle sprouted from the Adamant's throat, glowing with green-gold vapor.

"Shut up," Kevin hissed. He tore it free, and Kade fell.

You Have Killed Adamant Guard Kade!

XP Earned!