Rune Seeker

Within the first few seconds Hiral watched the new addition to the battlefield, mouth-covered tentacles snapped out to grab nearby Chimeras and pull them towards the central mass. Then, with a casual flick, tossed them towards the main body, where the mouths lining the surface went to work. Chimeras vanished in the blink of an eye, some of them not even getting consumed by the numerous mouths, but instead sinking directly into the dark flesh.

“That can’t be good,” Hiral said, RHCs still in hand.

“No, it can’t,” Seena said. “So, let’s stop it from doing that anymore.”

“What’s the plan, Boss?” Yanily asked.

“Anything within reach of those tentacles is probably going to get eaten,” Seena said at the same time that exact thing continued to happen.

“Which is probably doing something to power the monster up,” Hiral added.

“My thoughts exactly,” Seena continued. “Yan, keep thinning the herd further out. If the Chimeras can’t reach this thing, maybe it can’t eat them. We’ll do what we can to keep it in place so those corpses don’t vanish.”

“On it,” Yanily said, transforming into a bolt of lightning to shoot up and ricochet off the roof. A distant WHAM as he came back down signalled some more Chimeras were in for a bad day.

“Sis, probably going to need you and your venom out here,” Seena continued. “I’m sensing a lot of solar energy from this thing.”

“Drahn, Gran, can you two hold the wall on your own?”

“Don’t think we can keep up with you?” Drahn asked.

“Not that at all,” Seena said. “Chimeras are going to slip by us while we see what we can do here. I want somebody there to take care of that. If and when we need your help, you’ll know.”

There was a second of silence before Drahn responded. “Understood.”

“See, grumpy,” Gran cackled.

“Hiral,” Seena continued. “Let’s see if we can hurt this thing.”

“Let’s,” Hiral agreed, weapons up and fingers on his triggers. Two quick pulls and a pair of searing bolts of Impact streaked for the mass. Just as they reached, Hiral pulled again, sending two more bolts while his eyes watched for an effect from the first.

He was less than impressed with the results. The bolts punched into the strange, gelatinous flesh, sending out small ripples from the point of impact. Other than that? Hardly anything. And the holes left by his shots quickly filled in like nothing had happened.

Not that he was going to give up at that point – that wasn’t nearly enough testing to reach a conclusion. Finger squeeze after finger squeeze sent a nearly constant barrage of shots at the dark mass, while Seena rained Cinder+ and Fireballs on the far side. Seeyela arrived a second later, with a column of green announcing she’d hit the monster with one of her TRAPs. Toxic veins spread from a pool of green lingering on the ground, but a shudder of the flesh in the area seemed to pull the color deeper within itself. One second, two, three, and there wasn’t even a hint of the color remaining.

The whole time, Hiral had battered the blob with an almost endless stream of bolts, focusing all his attention on a single spot. Deeper and deeper, he carved a tunnel inside the creature, though other than the ripples across its surface occasionally, it wasn’t like the thing noticed. Even with Piercing Shot+, he wasn’t punching through enough of the thing’s defense to really rack up the damage.

Unless – he stopped firing – the thing didn’t have any defense? The whole body looked soft and squishy, though it showed a surprising resilience. What if it just focused on its massive health pool instead of any sort of protection? If that was the case, then widespread, surface level damage would probably be the party’s best option. Just like…

FWOOOOOSH, Seena’s Fireballs rolled across the far side of the monster, finally eliciting another shriek of pain. Small flames continued to burn on the surface of the monster after the attack, until another Cinder+ from Seena caused the fires to Detonate. The resulting explosions led to more shrieking. And, apparently, the thing had had enough.

Tentacles snapped in Seena’s direction unbelievably fast, though she managed to form a spiralling baton of flame to bat aside the first, the second, and even a third. Although the things were thicker than her leg, the sheath of flame covering her body boosted her strength and speed enough to keep up. Or, maybe not, as some of the tentacles on Hiral’s side seemed to get sucked back into the body, only for them to emerge again on the other side.

Suddenly Seena didn’t have three tentacles to deal with, she had six. One, two, three, four, she parried aside the attacks, but a fifth snuck through, wrapping around her knee. As soon as she looked down to see what’d caught her, another one snapped ahead to catch an elbow. Then, as one, the tentacles began to pull in opposite directions.

Energy pulsed within the grasping tentacles, while flashes and tears appeared along the flaming sheath, like it was burning through in reverse. Flickers of that flame crawled along the dark limbs trying to rip Seena apart, but whatever the tentacles were made of, it was too tough to ignite. Much like Seeyela’s venom had, the color sunk deep into the dark-red liquid until it vanished completely.

“Aaaaaah!” Seena groaned, her sheath and armor obviously doing nothing to protect her from getting pulled apart. On her shoulder, Li’l Ur channeled blue energy from his hands to reinforce her various protections, but they didn’t change the nature of the attack. They didn’t change his Mistress was just seconds from getting torn into pieces.

Seconds… that neither of them needed to worry about, Hiral appearing in a flash of blue as Death Knell severed the tentacle holding her arm. At the same time, along the ground, a bamf of purple announced Seeyela’s arrival, and her Fangs made short work of the appendage latched on to her little sister’s leg. Just like that, Seena began to fall, but Hiral slipped in to catch her and launch away again on a blast of Rejection.

Not a heartbeat too soon, either, with the four tentacles from before whipping back in to pound the space they’d just been.

Hiral touched down twenty feet away, Seeyela appearing beside him with a bamf, and then immediately leaned over to check on Seena.

“You okay?” Seeyela asked. “I told you to watch out for graby things after the Fiendish Tree’s roots.”

Hiral let Seena down so she was standing under her own power, but one of her hands went to her stomach. “Feels like I pulled every muscle in my stomach and back,” she said. “And I… I don’t feel so…” she trailed off as her eyes rolled back in her head. All at once, Seena’s body went limp, and only Hiral’s quick reflexes kept her from dropping straight to the ground.

“Seena!” Seeyela shouted, moving in to hover protectively over her sister.

Except, it wasn’t the only thing looming ‘over’ them – Hiral’s sensory domain telling him the other four tentacles had combined into a single massive limb draping them in shadow. One that was now slamming straight in their direction.

Grabbing Seeyela with his scarves, Hiral held Seena tight to himself and launched them all out of there on a burst of Rejection. Behind, the ground shook from the impact of the six-foot-around tentacle pulverizing the earth where they’d been a second before.

A hundred feet away in less than a second, Hiral’s boots skidded on the ground as he twisted from the momentum to keep the monster in view. An explosion came a heartbeat later – a Lost Echo– and he turned his attention to the woman in his arms. She wasn’t moving. Wasn’t responding.

“Seena,” he said, gently shaking. “Seena, can you hear me?”

“What’s wrong with her?” Seeyela asked, leaning in closer, then continued louder. “What’s wrong with her, Hiral?!”

“I don’t know!” Hiral said. “Her health is fine in the Party Interface. I don’t see any injuries…”

“What’s going on?” Yanily asked over the party chat.

“Seena was…” Hiral started, only to cut off as he grabbed Seeyela again and hauled them all away to avoid a second tentacle smash.

“Yanily!” Seeyela shouted. “Do something about that damn blob!”

“The Chimeras?” he asked, obviously confused.

“I don’t care about them!” Seeyela said, voice cracking. Her next words came out softer. “Seena is down. It did… something to her. We need a minute. Just get us a minute.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You’ve got it,” Yanily said simply, and lightning flashed on the far side of the huge monster. Thunder boomed a second later, and Skyfall+ turned the world white.

But, as impressive as the spearman always was, Hiral’s eyes were locked on Seena in his arms. “Her skin is pale,” he said, touching her face and pulling one of her eyes open. The eyeball was still rolled backwards in the socket, and she didn’t even twitch at his prodding. “Ur? Any ideas?”

“None,” Li’l Ur said, floating above Seena’s face with panic somehow clear on his little skull. “I’ve never seen anything like this. She isn’t dead, I can sense that much. Nor is she transitioning to undead, despite her complexion. I don’t know what this is.”

“Could it have, I don’t know,” Seeyela said, both her hands grabbing one of Seena’s thick gauntlets. “Pulled something inside her apart?”

Hiral shook his head. “We got there fast.”

“What if it wasn’t fast enough?” Seeyela, shoulders jerking like she was fighting back a sob. “What if I wasn’t fast enough? I can’t… not after… the others…”

Hiral winced at the thought of Seeyela’s fallen party, but forced those thoughts out of his mind. She obviously wasn’t thinking straight, and panicking wouldn’t help Seena. Wule would’ve been the best choice, but he wasn’t close. Then again, they did have their own healer now. If he took…

SLAAAAAM, the ground jumped so fiercely, Hiral had to use his runes to stay upright, and a scarf of energy helped Seeyela do the same. Quickly raising his head, he looked in the direction of the continuing battle… only to find it wasn’t continuing. Something had clearly pushed Yanily back – the spearman was nearly as far from the central mass as Hiral and Seeyela was.

But, it was the central mass itself that demanded Hiral’s attention. Gone was the hill-like mound of tentacle-horror. In its place? There was only one way to describe it.

A cocoon.

Barely ten-feet tall, and half that wide, it looked made out of the same dark-red material. A fraction of the size of what they’d been fighting, and yet it radiated enough energy to dwarf the monstrosity.

That can’t be good. How long until it…?

CRAAAACK, seams burst in the side of the dark-red structure, and Hiral’s thoughts came to a grinding halt as the pieces fell away. Within the wreckage, something moved. A thick hand pushed pieces of the broken shell aside, then a burst of destructive energy vaporized the rest.

At the same time, the party leader in Hiral’s arms seized, but he couldn’t look down.

Because he was already looking at Seena. Standing in the crater where the cocoon had just been.

Despite being made entirely of the same dark-red material, there was no mistaking the shape of her bulky gauntlets, the mantle of hanging flame at her back, or the feathered armor across her body. Her fingers clenched as the all-too-familiar sheath engulfed her body – even the flames taking on the darker red – and her head lifted to look directly at Hiral.

Unlike the woman he’d come to care for, the eyes he got lost in had been replaced by the sharp-toothed mouths, their tongues licking the eyeballs. She had no nose, and her mouth had those same, curved, needle-like teeth on the outside, almost like they’d been stitched into her lips. As those lips parted, two sinuous tongues slipped out, their own mouths snapping at the air.

“Left, I need you here,” Hiral said, slowly standing up so as not to provoke the monster.

“On my way,” the double replied.

“What the hell is that?” Seeyela asked, her daggers coming out in her hands.

“Nothing good,” Hiral replied, keeping his eyes on not-Seena took as it took a step in their direction. The ground sizzled and spat at its feet, and even the air around it shimmered from the heat.

“Plan?” Yanily asked, likewise watching the monster’s new form.

Instead of answering the spearman, Hiral turned to his double as Left landed beside him.

“Waters of Frey?” Left asked, already reaching for the tattoo.

Hiral shook his head. “Get Seena to Gran,” Hiral said, and passed Seena over. A lingering finger down the side of her cheek seemed to trigger a small seizure. “Hurry.”

Left’s Wings of Anella spread behind him at the same time Seeyela shouted, “Incoming!”

Hiral spun and launched away, forcing his mind from the empty expression on Seena’s face, and thundered power into his runes. One step – that was all he took – his time runes combining with Unsealing, Rejection, Compression, Attraction, as well a whole lot of anger, and Hiral appeared in front of not-Seena before it had even covered a fifth of the distance.

As soon as he arrived, the ridiculous temperature around the monster singed his skin – though High-Speed Regeneration+ took care of it – and he pulsed out a wave of Rejection to repel not-Seena. Like it’d run straight into a stone wall, the thing hit and bounced back, feet scrabbling and melting the stone with each step. A high-pitched growl escaped its hideous mouth, and the vertical slits of its eye-mouths narrowed at him.

“Is any part of you in there, Seena?” Hiral asked quietly, terrified of the answer.

Not-Seena replied by snapping its left hand up, a gout of roaring, dark-red flame gushing out. So hot the fire seemed to ignite the air itself, the flames tore towards him, but Hiral simply wasn’t there anymore. Instead, ten feet to the side, standing exactly like he hadn’t even moved, he looked at not-Seena.

“I’ll ask again,” he said, voice low, but sure the thing could hear him. “Are you in there Seena? I don’t want to fight you.”

The thing’s head turned at the sound of his voice, and its right hand clawed up and across in the familiar motion of a Cinder+. Normally unavoidable, Hiral simply flicked it away with a hand coated in Rejection. “Last chance,” he whispered. At his side, his fingers clenched into a fist.

With how unresponsive Seena had been in his arms, part of him worried she’d somehow been sucked out of her own body. But, touching the Cinder+, it didn’t feel the same. It was hollow. A copy.

“RAAAAAAH!” not-Seena leaned forward and screamed at him, Fireballs appearing above each hand.

“Good enough,” he said to himself, and then he was right in front of the monster. Down and in, his left fist buried itself in not-Seena’s stomach, the Rune of Impact flaring as he lifted it from its feet. The body folded around his punch, but before it could go rocketing away, he twisted with a right hook.

Not-Seena’s neck stretched to the side as his fist collided with the side of its head, deforming the jaw, before shooting it down to rebound of the ground at an angle. One bounce, and wings of dark-red flame burst from not-Seena’s back to halt its momentum. The next second, it was streaking back at Hiral, fire dancing in its palms.

Far faster than it’d been a few seconds ago, the fire solidified into the spiraling batons, and it lashed out at Hiral in a flurry. A horizontal slash he ducked under, a thrust he sidestepped, and a horizontal uppercut he guided out of the way with his hand sheathed in Rejection, resulting in a pair of Lost Echoes that stepped forward to throw their own punches.

Except not-Seena skewered each of them on one of its batons – destroying them before they could attack or explode – and then stepped forward with a straight kick.

Hiral crossed his arms in front of himself as he blocked the blow, though it sent him skidding back on the ground. The next second, Yanily and Seeyela were there, each stabbing at the mockery of their friend and sister.

Flaming batons met lightning-covered spear, while not-Seena left the flaming wings to somehow block Seeyela’s daggers. Though green veins emerged from every contact, the color quickly faded within the dark red. It was actually holding them off.

Let’s see how it does with all three of us.

Death Knell slapping into one hand, Hiral dashed back in, glowing blue blade a blur even to his own eyes, while he drew an RHC in his other hand. Somehow, the thing in front of them got even faster, its batons turning aside both Hiral’s sword and Yanily’s spear. Around and around the four danced, weapons meeting, countering, and meeting again.

Through it all, not-Seena didn’t stay on the defensive, throwing out almost as many attacks as went its way. The fact it could keep up with them was frustratingly impressive, but the more Hiral watched his opponent, the more he understood it.

And, that scared him.

It wasn’t just Seena’s body and basic abilities the thing had copied, but also her Primal Chord. He could hear the faint music trying to pull him into its patterns. While their own Primal Chords were countering the effect, not-Seena’s music was growing louder.

Whatever this thing was, the more comfortable it got with Seena’s abilities, the stronger it was getting.

Which means we can’t let it keep practicing.

Taking hold of his own Chord with the understanding he’d come to – it was a beginning and an end – Hiral threaded his Rune of Dreaminginto it. Then, with a strand of Connection, he bound it to not-Seena’s music. Now, before it got stronger, was his only chance to truly influence its Chord.

So, he twisted and pulled as he weaved his sword against its batons. He pushed aside the tune trying to command his movements, and instead wrapped it into his own. He couldn’t quite bring in Yanily and Seeyela’s music, but this would have to do.

While one baton slapped aside the Splinter of the Storm, Hiral massaged not-Seena’s Chord as the other baton came across to parry Death Knell as he stabbed for its face.

Except, Death Knell wasn’t there – it never had been – and Hiral stepped in while bringing the sword up from below. In through not-Seena’s stomach and straight out its back, Sever Life made short work of its defenses, while the necrotic energy from Emperor’s Decree seeped into the new wound.

A groan of pain escaped not-Seena’s lips as Hiral lifted it off its feet, and it turned its hideous face to snarl at him. Only to find the barrel of his RHC right there.

The bolt passed through the three runic circles to slam into its face from point-blank range, tearing not-Seena off Death Knell and flipping the monster end-over-end along the ground. A snap of Hiral’s wrist flicked the dark blood from across his sword, and he stepped forward with Yanily and Seeyela as the thing finally finished rolling across the ground.

They were going to…

“Stop!” Gran shouted into the party chat. “Stop whatever you’re doing!”

“What?” Seeyela asked at the same time Hiral asked, “Why?”

“Seena’s health just suddenly dropped,” Gran said. “She’s bleeding under her armor, and I think her jaw’s broken.”

Hiral’s gaze snapped down to the sword and RHC in his hands. Those wounds…

“What are you talking about?” Seeyela asked, but all three of them had stopped walking.

“I don’t know, exactly,” Gran said. “But you hurting that thing is directly affecting Seena.”

“Are you saying…” Seeyela started, voice growing quieter with each word. “If we kill this thing, Seena will die?”