Rune Seeker

The air burned at Hiral’s lungs before he could snap his mouth shut, swirls of fire searing his flesh, while lightning sent spasms through his muscles. His already bruised body – from the ice spears – took a pounding from the unseen balls of force coming at him from all sides. In the Party Interface, his health dropped rapidly, five percent per foot of distance he closed towards his target.

He’d die before he ever reached the floating Beastman.

If he was alone. Another two feet – and the damage that came with it – passed in agony before the flames surrounding him began to siphon off. As the red glow around Hiral lessened, he could feel another one growing in the palm of one very-pissed-off-woman’s hand. Another two feet, and then it was the lightning’s turn to jerk away, so suddenly it didn’t flow – it vanished.

Standing on planes of pink, the charged bolts funneled into Yanily’s greedy spear, disappearing without a trace beyond the way the man’s eyes flashed dangerously.

Now, all that was left around Hiral was punches of force, each the size of a lemon, but harder than Tomorrow’s brass. Even without the elemental powers, the battering was leaving its mark across his body. But, one kind of attack? One kind of impact? Yeah, he could handle that on his own.

Similar to what he’d done with the ice-spears, Hiral flooded Expansion and Decrease around him, though this time he partnered them up with Impact. Within another two feet, the steel-ball-like-impacts felt more like getting pelted with fresh mushrooms, and he focused on the Rejection streaking him towards the goatman.

His hands clenched the Greatsword of Amin Thett’s hilt, flaring its fallen-star form, and he stretched out a tether of Gravity right to the Beastman’s chest. Oh, he was going to enjoy giving this Archwizard a little bit of pain.

Out and around the blade swung, carving through the air as it passed, wind and force howling behind it, to sweep from right to left in a near-instantaneous blur.

Too bad the air was the only thing it carved through.

Somehow, in the second of Hiral’s swing, The Archwizardnot only sensed his tether of Gravity, but also severed it, before the Beastman whipped higher into the sky. The damn thing wasn’t just floating, he was flying. And with far more control than Hiral had.

Partially shocked he’d missed, Hiral continued rocketing past where he’d planned to cut his opponent in two, then spun and skid along planes of Rejection in the air. His eyes snapped up to his target at the same time Yanily’s and Seena’s counter attacks came.

Slithering lightning arced from the Shard of the Storm like a thing possessed, splitting and twisting in the air. The bolt itself covered the space in the blink of an eye, reaching the Beastman in the same moment Seena’s roaring bolt of spiraling plasma arrived.

A new sphere of fire and lightning lit the sky, blooming into a sun fifty feet wide.

Hiral scowled at the churning monstrosity of energy. He’d seen it in that second before the attacks had struck – those damn shields had arrived first.

“You didn’t hit him,” Hiral said into the party chat. “The shields made it back in time.”

“We need to give them more things to deal with,” Seena said. “Domains just came off cooldown.”

Without another word, Hiral, Yanily, and Seena each activated their domains, the familiar spectral amphitheater rising from the ground of the oasis. The Banner of Courage joined it a second later, the banners unfurling on the walls, while plants and lightning rods emerged. Hiral’s Resonance of Heroes was still on cooldown, but a trio of auras quickly added their bonuses, rippling different colors of energy across Hiral’s body.

With all those buffs, they should be able to…

“I think not,” an imperious voice said from within the still-roaring sun. Then, with a snap of fingers, the sun popped like a balloon, a wave of barely-visible energy cresting outward. The moment it touched Hiral, it washed away his buffs. His auras. All gone.

The wave didn’t stop there, either, ripping apart his Domain of the Sun+like cheap paper.

The Archwizard had just dispelled all their ongoing abilities.

A quick look showed Right and Left were still active – somehow – as were Hiral’s planes of Rejection under his feet. Yanily’s Path of Butterflies couldn’t say the same, but the man changed into a bolt of Skyfall before he dropped more than a foot. Shooting to the sky and then back down in a flash, he slammed into one of the bronze shields without the Beastman even looking in his direction.

“Stop ignoring me,” Yanily seethed, standing on the angled shield and leaning forward to release his Dragon’s Breath from point blank range. Despite the world going monochrome, the shield didn’t even budge. And, though The Archwizard didn’t turn, he did shake his head – as if in disappointment.

A pulse of energy from his staff, and another thick bolt of lightning fell from the sky, slamming into Yanily and the shield with a ring like striking a gong. This time, everything around the Beastman shuddered, the eruption of nature’s power hurling a blackened body careering across the sky in a smoky line.

“Yanily!” Hiral shouted, bursting after the man – and straight at a wall of solid force that appeared out of nowhere. Just looking at it, he could tell it was far sturdier than his body, and a speeding collision would have a clear winner.

Instinct thrust his hand out ahead of him, Piercing and Expansion rushing to the tips of his fingers. His intent to pierce through the barrier filled his mind, solidifying like a dagger ahead of him. His fingers would not shatter when they met the force wall. He would not splatter against it like an overripe melon.

It would break. Not him.

Hiral’s will made reality bend in front of him, the Edicts appearing in the corner of his vision and surrounding both him and the wall. In his mind, it was like he could feel the Edicts’ displeasure at the barrier itself. It didn’t belong here. It wasn’t part of this world, and the Edicts wanted it gone as much as he did. So, he took hold of that – along with his own willpower – and funneled it all into his extended hand, warping the barrier just enough. His Piercing met the hanging force, then punched through like an arrow. From there, Expansion spread from his arm, creating a pocket for him to slip through. He’d made it! He’d…

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WHAAAAM, something slammed into his back like a hammer, driving him from the sky like a nail into the ground below. The soft earth of the oasis felt like anything but that as he cratered, a shockwave sending red dirt flying in every direction. Part of his mind went to his health – less than forty percent – while the other part went to his sensory domain.

The Beastman floated in the air where Hiral had been, another shimmering fist in front of him disappearing from where it had just smashed Hiral out of the sky.

Ouch.

Hiral pushed himself up to his hands and knees, the right side of his back sending spikes of pain through the whole side from the blow. The Archwizard hit like the Hulking Behemoth and had magic that’d make Ur’Thul the Undying envious.

In his sensory domain – since he hadn’t quite managed to get upright – he felt the Beastman’s head snap to the side before a bamf of purple and red flame resolved into a pair of lunging Fangs of the Lady. Quicker than thought, The Archwizard smartly teleported away before the dangerous daggers could strike.

Seeyela wasn’t going to let him go that easily, Bamfing right after him. One after another, flashes of Infernal and Entropic flames lit the sky like shooting stars as the pair bounced around. She wasn’t quite catching the Beastman, but she was buying the rest of the party a few seconds of breathing room.

One Gran and Left took full advantage of, launching healing abilities towards Hiral, Seena, and Romin. The big – still transformed, even after the dispel – Bonder was back on his feet. The party leader, though she was still cradling her side, had nothing but anger on her face.

Wait, Yanily!

“Where’s Yan?” Hiral asked, then spotted the spearman sitting on the ground beside Gran.

“Seeyela snagged him while you… distracted the goat,” Gran cackled.

“Thank goodness. Wait, how did you two get out of that cage of force he put around you?”

“Seeyela did that too,” Gran said, crimson threads shooting out while she spoke.

“Yeah… and… Seeyela… could… use some… help!” the woman said into the party chat as she chased the Beastman around.

“Shields and flying, we need to do something about those,” Seena said. “Hiral, that’s you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, figure it out. Rest of us, get ready to make your move.”

Hiral wanted to groan, but he really didn’t have the time, and instead focused his attention on the darting pair in the sky. The Beastman wasn’t teleporting quite as fast as Seeyela was, but his ability to fly was keeping him just out of her reach. And, even though the paired shields seemed to follow the Beastman as he teleported, Seeyela kept getting inside their orbiting radius.

Seena was right – if the party was going to have any chance, they needed to remove those two advantages.

The only question was… how?

Wait, if the shields were following the Beastmanautomatically, did that mean…?

Hiral’s eyes narrowed as he reached out to his Rune of Connection, and sure enough, he spotted powerful lines of script connecting the shields to the goatman they protected. The damn things glowed like lines of plasma between them, indicating not only a strong connection, but also incredibly powerful magic keeping them there.

It wouldn’t be easy, but he could probably do something about that. At least in the short term. That just left the flying part to take care of. And… and he may’ve had an answer to that as well. It worked for the barrier, didn’t it? Hiral probably could’’t Edict the whole Archwizard away, but the magic that kept him flying? Yeah, he had an answer to that too.

All he had to do was time it right.

“Get ready,” Hiral said simply into the party chat, solar energy threading out to his runes. His health had climbed back to seventy percent thanks to Gran, Left, and his own Runic Regeneration, but if this went poorly, he was in for a very bad time.

Then don’t let it go poorly, he told himself sternly as his eyes tracked the dancing duo. He didn’t know why the Beastman was going to the trouble to avoid Seeyela like that, but he was sure as hell going to take advantage of it. He just needed…

NOW!

Just as the pair appeared in their newest position, Hiral activated his Rune of Exchange, swapping his position with Seeyela in less than a heartbeat. The Beastman’s eyes locked onto his own in an instant, but they should’ve been on Hiral’s hands – which tore down with claws of vicious Separation. Not at The Archwizard or even at his shields. No, at the spacebetween. Arguably, maybe that was why the goatman ignored the attack, but it was his first mistake of the fight.

Separation sundered everything it touched as it cut a pair of crescents on either side of the flying goatman – including the ropes of Connection. Just like that, the two floating shields twitched, then dropped from the sky like, well, a pair of huge bronze shields should.

Hiral wasn’t done there, though, despite the Shard of the Lost Epochlifting to point right at him. More energy thrummed into his time runes, slowing the staff’s movement to a crawl. Unbelievably, the staff didn’t stop, like The Archwizard wasn’t completely bound by time.

Gritting his teeth, Hiral called to the Edicts, filling his solar channels with roaring energy that scoured at the blockages in his nodes preventing him connecting from all of them. Burning pain filled his body, but the Edicts of all the runes he commanded flickered in the corners of his vision – including the time runes.

Appearing on either side of the Beastman – where the shields had just been – they seemed to have a particular grudge against the visitor to this world. Like he wasn’t just from another place, but also from another time. That rancor rumbled from the Edicts, slowing the staff even more, until even it paused.

Still with power flooding his channels, Hiral grasped for the other Edicts blinking in and out of his vision. Dreaming and Sealing, just a taste of the Edicts he didn’t command, combined with the ones he did. Specifically Gravity, Increase, and Attraction.

If this old goat was going to come to their world, then he was damn well going to walk it like the rest of them.

Bolts of white energy streaked through Hiral’s Second-Skin of Amin Thett as his power churned, pieces of the white ‘fabric’ floating off and dissolving around him. His scarves whipped behind him like angry tails, and his will concentrated on the being in front of him. Just like he’d done against the Arborean Uniclops with his Annihilation Of Amin Thett, Hiral focused on his intent. His vision of what the world should be like around him.

He poured his power into that – and his runes – as the streaks continued bolting along Hiral’s Second-Skin of Amin Thett.

Edicts flared, spreading out and straining Hiral’s control. They raged at the focus of his will – the visitor that wasn’t playing by their rules on this world – and that made them harder to control. But, control them he would.

This was his home. The Archwizard was a guest. And that damn goat would behave.

“Fall.” The word tore out of Hiral’s throat as time snapped back into place, reality shuddering with a great crack. A sphere around the Beastman tilted, like everything had shifted just a touch, before the goatman plummeted from the sky like something had launched him straight down.