Rune Seeker

You damn, crazy genius!

“Our cooldowns?” Seena asked, as she’d gotten the same notification Hiral had.

“Use them,” Hiral said. “I’ll keep the buffs safe this time.”

Trusting in him without question, each of the other party members roared with solar energy, buffs and abilities ripping out of them. This time, they held nothing back, even activating Eloquently Enraged+.

Hiral followed suit, giving the domains a split-second to lock into place before he hammered Double Trouble+ into place for both Domain of the Sun+ and his own Eloquently Enraged+. Resonance of Heroes came next, and the whole oasis shook from the party’s unleashed power.

Sure, it hurt their solar energy reserves a ton, but they were either going to win here or…

No, we are winning here!

Power howling through his body like a storm, his channels raw and aching, Hiral pushed the pain out of his mind and focused everything on his runes. First, there would be no more fists for the Beastman.

Enough of your weird abilities. You walk like us, and now you’re going to fight like us.

He used the Runes ofDecrease, Expansion, Impact, andConnectionall at once. Solar power surged through his screaming channels. Decrease and Impactwould diminish the power of that Beastman’sfists. Expansionand Connection would spread the effect to the rest of the party.

A river of power poured through Hiral, connecting to the rest of the party, protecting them.

And now… now he had to focus on what he knew was coming. He called the Edicts, pulling them closer than ever thanks to his powerful buffs, then began combining them the same way he had before. In his reality, his party kept their buffs. Nothing would take them. Not time. Not the goat.

Not even overwhelming power.

This was his will, and he locked it into place.

Streaks of black and white light flashed across his Second-Skin of Amin Thett – strobing the area around him in alternating shades – as Hiral raised his hands above his head. Looking up at the space, he channeled Energy into the Crown of Amin Thett, catalyzing the process between his palms. Roaring to life, lines began etching themselves into the space at the same time a border of shadow started crossing the oasis.

Like another celestial body had passed in front of the sun, darkness grew across the oasis as another line sparked to life between his hands. Then a third, a fourth, weaving together to form something.

To form… a rune.

Obviously sensing Hiral working on something – along with the power whistling around the others – The Archwizard released the same pulse of dispelling magic he’d used previously. However, where it had washed over the party like a wave before – stealing their buffs in an instant – the goat was not playing around. The wave was now an ocean, rushing up and then down to utterly and simultaneously drown and crush everything around him. Even most of the grey, smoke-like energy steaming from the goat’s skin rose with the surging magic to join it.

No, Hiral said in his mind, driving more of his power – and the Edicts – into his working. Alone, he stood no chance against The Archwizard’s power. The goat simply had an inexhaustible well to call on.

But Hiral had the Edicts on his side. They were the laws of this world. The rules by which all other things followed, whether they wanted to, or not. Whether they knew it, or not. And here, now, in this moment, Hiral told the Edicts what that rule was.

His party would keep their buffs.

It was simple. Small. He wasn’t asking the world to make them impervious to the Beastman’s magic – that would’ve been too big. No, he had to keep it small to make it work. Keep it focused.

The wave rushed toward them, and Hiral pushed his full intent into that space between his hands, the rune sizzling into the space at the same time the entire oasis fell under shadow.

Everything seemed to freeze as the two powers met, even the goat’s head tilting back to look at the unnatural eclipse overhead. By the time he looked back down – there wasn’t actually anything up there to see – his dispelling wave had already passed across the party and extended well beyond the boundaries of the oasis.

And it had done nothing.

As soon as it was gone, Hiral released his hold over the new rune – incomplete though it was – and his arms dropped to his sides. All around them, the shadow vanished like it had never existed. That… that had taken a lot out of him.

But it had worked! His party still had their buffs. He still had his buffs.

Sheer stubbornness lifted his arms back up, claws of Separation forming on his fingers and thrumming with power.

“How remarkable.” The Archwizard drew himself up to his full height. “Now you are beginning to gain my attention. Come, then. Break yourselves on the walls of futility.”

“We’ll see who breaks,” Hiral said.

They threw caution to the wind, charging in at The Archwizard and his summoned elementals. Nothing got held back as each of the party members focused on punching their way through the opponents directly in front of them to reach the Beastman beyond.

Churning, scorching plasma sheared through stone as Seena rushed ahead, blows pummeling her one, two, three times in the process. She staggered, but didn’t fall, then activated her movement ability to burst ahead in a shower of flaming feathers.

In front of the Beastman a wall of energy formed, then separated into three, more of the primitive glyphs etching themselves in orange energy. The first shattered under the power of Seena’s movement ability, but the second stopped her cold, extinguishing her flames with a pop.

She barely had time to register what had happened before a spear of earth erupted from the ground at her feet. A blue flash on her shoulder – Li’l Ur – and she jerked to the side, though not completely out of the way of the attack. Blood splashed into the air as the spear tore across her hip instead of directly through her abdomen. Hitting the ground in a roll, she didn’t even acknowledge the wound before springing to her feet and charging back in.

Opposite her, Yanily had fully embraced his Aspect again, leaning forward with a powerful Roar to debilitate the elementals in a cone in front of him. Even without ears, the magic of his ability sent the constructs staggering, and he powered into the confusion with his spear a spinning instrument of death.

Next came his Dragon’s Breath, mouth spreading to form the condensed ball of energy. Spiraling, it bled color from the world – until the Beastman appeared in front of him, magical fist coming up into his chin and slamming into Yanily’s mouth.

Nothing happened. The fist simply dissipated against Yanily’s jaw.

A smile reached the spearman’s eyes.

He began to exhale.

The goatman’s eyes narrowed. His hand blurred to his hip, grasping his warhammer.

That won’t work, Hiral thought. The runes decrease all impacts, not just…

There was a sickening crack as The Archwizard smashed his hammer into the spearman’s jaw.

The Dragon’s Breath shot half-formed into the sky where it exploded harmlessly, while the goat slammed the hammer down on Yanily’s shoulder, driving him to his knees. What? How?

He punched the warhammer into the spearman’s sternum, sending Yanily shooting back, one of his wings catching the ground and sending him flipping head over heels. Fifty feet and he finally stopped, only for the earth on both sides of him to snap up like a trap closing, a solid dome of stone slamming on him.

“What?” Hiral muttered. “Wait, something’s wro—“

Seeyela was on the Beastman at the same time, Fangs of the Ladya blur of green, venomous strikes filling the air at the same time Right came in swinging. The same shield that’d blocked Seena appeared between Right and The Archwizard, though the wall of magic force shuddered at the impact of the double’s first blow.

As his second came around, a sheet of black opened in front of him, and he pushed straight through to appear directly beside the Beastman. Black and purple energy surrounded Right’s fist – courtesy of Insatiable Generosity – and his clenched gauntlet slammed into The Archwizard’s armored gut. Bronze warped under the blow, though the glyphs of the armor consumed the enervating energy of the strike.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Hooves skidding back on the ground, the hammer snapped up at the same time Seeyela pulsed with solar energy to teleport both of them out of there. Except, it didn’t work, swirling balls of utter blackness swimming into being around the goatman.

“What?” Seeyela cried.

“Thank you for the inspiration. Like this, right?” The Archwizard asked, replicating Seeyela’s trick to lock down space. Then, in the next instant, he slammed his hammer into both of them, one-two.

There were a pair of bone-shattering cracks, and another sheet opened next to Right and Seeyela, a geyser of powerful water ten-feet tall blasting out sideways.

With a pressure like a volcano erupting, the jetting liquid hammered into the pair so hard it may as well have been a solid object, completely sweeping them away.

“I am afraid I will need to perfect this new spell after your death,” the goatman mused.

Hiral eyed the hammer closely. Something about it was biting through their defenses, tearing through like some sort of augur.

“How are you doing that?” Hiral demanded.

“Oh, now you are interested in exchanging knowledge?” theArchwizardchuckled. “You seem clever, so no doubt you know what my weapon does. Defending against my magic is sound but, unfortunately, I have maintained my body,and you picked the path of barbarism. You will find that there are few more intimate with that path than I.”

He raised his hammer…

…but neither it nor his words would stop Seena.

Not even screaming out at her sister’s fate, she arrived at the Beastman’s side, blue script from Li’l Ur wrapping her limbs. Discs of plasma spun above her palms, while totems emerged from the ground to spit flame. The Burning Artillery at her shoulder joined in, showering the Beastman in rapid-fire bolts of flame, as she lashed out with the disc in her right hand.

Over and down, The Archwizard’s hammer intercepted the attack by smashing down on Seena’s arm, shattering her forearm and elbow in a single blow.

She didn’t even flinch, using the momentum of the hit to spin her body around to backhand the other disc right at the Beastman’s face.

Like he knew that was exactly what was coming next, the goat swung his hammer to intercept that blow too. Except, it met nothing but air, Seena vanishing completely right in front of him. The goat’s head seemed to swivel in surprise for a split second before he found his new target lunged lower – where Seena had been Exchanged.

Where the world had been stained monochrome.

From there – at point-blank range – Hiral released his charged Annihilation of Amin Thett into the Beastman’s gut. Directly behind him, a Resonance Echo formed to also blast the Beastman with its own version of Hiral’s attack.

The two beams of destruction sent The Archwizard shooting backwards, hooves digging furrows in the ground as he got pushed back all the way to where his obsidian whirlwind still raged. Pushed back – but not destroyed.

Two new smoking holes in the bronze breastplate – and the flesh underneath – showed the attack hadn’t been completely ineffective, but it also hadn’t done nearly as much as Hiral had hoped. And Hiral had paid for it, his channels so raw it felt like they were bleeding energy out into his muscles and bones. Pretty much everything was pain, with feedback similar to what he’d felt with Yanily coming through all of his Connections with his party.

He really had pushed himself too far, but it apparently hadn’t been far enough.

Just a little more. C’mon.

Doing everything he could to ignore the pain, Hiral once more forced his arms up.

Too bad they weren’t the only thing that came up, with the Beastman’s staff pointed directly at him. He hadn’t even noticed it happening, the world dull to his senses as he realized just how much he was struggling to stay conscious after pushing himself as much as he had. Worse, he knew he wouldn’t be able to dodge. His legs were leaden beneath him. He’d have to…

“RAAAAAH!” Romin burst out of the whirlwind beside the Beastman, blood covering him from horn to toe. The tank’s health couldn’t be more than five-percent in the Party Interface from how the deadly spell had ravaged his body.

“You again?” The Archwizard asked in surprise. “I like your spirit, child!”

The Shard of the Lost Epoch shifted as if to line up with the transformed Bonder.

“And your resilience is remarkable – Oh dear.” the Beastmancut himself off.

A Blink-Charge closed the distance unbelievably fast. And, the Bonder’s hand closed over the Beastman’s wrist with an audible crunch. With strength well beyond anything he’d possessed before, Romin shattered the Beastman’s arm from the elbow down, then came across with a right hook that would shake a mountain. All that emerged from the Archwizard’s mouth was a grunt.

Romin stayed in the whirlwind on purpose to stack up The Best Defense… then combined it with Shatter and Natural Weapons.

The Beastman’s hammer came up to block Romin’s second punch, so the transformed Onslaught just straight-up headbutted the goat. Rune of Impact flaring, the Beastman staggered back, and Romin snaked his fist by for another punch.

This one, though, he didn’t aim at the open, goat’s face, and instead directed it at the Shard of the Lost Epoch, knocking the weapon from his broken hand to soar across the oasis. From there, the backhand did snap toward the Beastman’s face – only to get stopped by what looked like an armor made of some kind of pure, greater force.

“I underestimated you.” The Beastman shook his head. “Let us see how far that resilience of yours goes.”

Then he slammed his hammer into Romin’s side. Except, it wasn’t the hammer side, but the hook that had been on the back. Punching through Romin’s thick hide like it wasn’t even there, the foot-long spike of glyphed metal drove all the way up to the base of the hammer, blood leaking from the wound. Then, in a brutally efficient – and practiced move – the goat twisted his wrist and ripped the weapon free, tearing Romin’s side completely open.

Viscera and blood splashed to the red dust at Romin’s feet, but he didn’t falter, his huge hand reaching out to grab the goat’s face in its entirety. Fingers squeezed as the force armor began to crack under the pressure, but the Beastman wasn’t idle either.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! He drove the spike of his hammer three times more into Romin – leg, torn abdomen, and chest geysering out blood from the wounds.

At the same time, a strange sound came from the goat.

It took Hiral a moment to realize he was laughing.

Still, Romin squeezed. How he was still alive at all could only be thanks to the crimson needles in his back, so many he looked like a bloody porcupine. The Waters of Frey ran between them, adding their healing-over-time properties. But Left and Gran’s solar energy was practically spent after all the healing they’d done just to keep people alive.

Seeyela and Yanily weren’t moving. Seena was down an arm. Hiral could barely move his body, and Gran… wait… where were the woman’s legs?!

The vampire floated there – from the waist up only – and hurled healing needle after needle into Romin’s back, despite her own blood waterfalling out below her.

It was all up to Romin.

Another WHAM of the hammer into the Bonder’s side, but the tank refused to fall.

“That’s the proper way, child!” the Beastman shouted, blood dripping into his beard-braids. “What an end you shall have!”

A small portal appearing directly between him and Romin. No bigger than the size of a fist, a compressed burst of water shot out of it so quickly it seemed to shear through the air.

And through Romin’s chest.

In the blink of an eye, Hiral could see straight through Romin’s back to the Beastman beyond.

Strength fading from his grip, Romin let go of The Archwizard’s head and broken wrist, and staggered back a pair of steps before dropping to a knee. His hand went to the hole in his torso, and he coughed up a thick, phlegmy wad of crimson.

No choices left, Hiral called on his runes and Edicts – despite the pain – and looked at Seena. Injured as they were, it was up to them.

But rolling laughter filled the battlefield.

“Wondrous! Now this is a battle! But I fear that we are delaying the inevitable now.” He rose up to his full height. “I sense that you draw energy – some sort of power – from the sun. So, allow me to leave you with a final lesson. Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing! Allow me to remind you of rule six.”

With the words, The Archwizard thrust his unbroken hand to the air above his head – the hammer back on his belt – and another portal began to open even as the steam-like energy across his body rushed upward with his magic.

What would it be this time? The realm of ravenous weapons? The bottom of the ocean for more of the pressurized water? Maybe a realm of fire or ice?

Hiral didn’t have to wait more than heartbeat to get his answer, the portal as big as a house tearing opening to reveal something he’d seen before – though never so dangerously close.

His heart stopped.

He nearly went blind from the light.

In the vision with the three Progenitors battling, he’d witnessed their power tearing through the dying star to expose its heart.

That was what he was looking at now.

The heart of a sun – but this one wasn’t dying.

No, it was fully alive, terrible heat burning just beyond the thin wall of the portal keeping it contained for the moment. A notification blinked in the corner of Hiral’s eyes, but he couldn’t look at it. Couldn’t take his eyes off the sheer display of power in front of him.

“Rejoice!” The Archwizard’svoice boomed. “You take in the sun’s might? Well, I have brought it right to you. Have it as a parting gift for a wonderful battle!”

As soon as the Beastman unleashed that – it was the end.

Rule six – overwhelming power. Hiral had no counter.

It even burned at the last of the grey, smoke-like energy that’d covered The Archwizard since the beginning. Bare whisps of it lingered from his skin.

Wait…

Hiral’s sluggish body would never follow his commands quickly enough to act before the portal opened, but maybe – just maybe – they had one more chance. Taking what little power he had left, Hiral dumped most of it into his time runes, slowing everything down around him.

The Edicts shuddered in his ears, the pressure inside and outside his body somehow squeezing him like a vice. He couldn’t hold this for more than a few seconds at most, but his eyes locked on that steaming energy.

What had Tomorrow said – they had the same energy. The mysterious force that was keeping them there. And the Beastman Yan had been fighting vanished before getting killed. It’d been tanky. It took a while for Yanily to wear it down. It must’ve expended all its energy in the fight, just like The Archwizard was doing.

Even if he completes his portal ability, that’ll probably use the last of what’s keeping him here. It’ll be too late for the rest of us though. Unless… unless I push things along a little.

Reaching out with the last dregs of his solar energy – and his consciousness – Hiral called on his Edicts of Attraction and Energy, then focused on the smoke-like energy. Like it was more than happy to join to the Edicts, the strange energy leapt away from the frozen and distracted Beastman.

And, with that, the world around him rippled.

Hiral lost his hold on his time runes, half expecting the portal to the heart of the sun to open and wash them away in a sea of fiery plasma. Instead, the portal vanished in the blink of an eye, its power completely severed.

“I see… I suppose I have learned a valuable lesson here,” the Beastman said as he looked down at his good hand. “I thought to teach you out of sport, but you showed me the dangers of arrogance unchecked. I have to say, I enjoyed that more than expected. Perhaps I should take more… students… in the future. Hah! Well played. The core – and victory, it seems – are yours. Until we meet again.”

Then, reality folded around The Archwizard, like he was sinking backwards into a thick liquid, and he was just… gone.