Unbound-Chapter Eight Hundred And Fifty Three – 853

"So, my influence on you is a bunch of creepy wall-walking assassins?" Archie stepped out into the Heart of Darkness in Elderthrone, hands on his hips. "I feel like I should be offended."

"Why?" Beef poked at him, nudging the small man with an oversized finger as he too slipped from the Shadowgate. "You are a creepy wall-walking assassin."

"Hey, I'm a thief. I don't do wetwork."

Beef blinked. "Was that an option?”

“In Birchstone? Sometimes. Jobs came up often enough and a guy that could slip through stone was a tempting hire," Archie frowned. "But I never needed the money that bad.”

“I don't have control over how our Links have affected me. Or you." Felix shrugged. "There's a lot about the process I don't understand, but I'm positive those aren't assassins.”

“They're sneaking up on people with daggers, Felix. What else do you call that?"

"Didn't you notice? They weren't sneaking up on us, they were guarding us." Felix smiled at the man. "They're protectors. All of you are. That's the role you've all taken up in my Sanctuary."

Archie opened his mouth, then closed it. "Huh."

Felix left him to it and considered the gate behind them. The protection from Dissonant Cadence was active. He'd felt it at the edges of things when they'd passed through his Sanctuary, but only now that he was outside of the gate did he feel a distinct barrier.

"I feel it too," Pit said. "It felt tingly on my feathers. Like a breeze just about to happen. Like a breeze just about to blow.”

With the gate shut down, it seemed extremely effective. Felix had to assume it was. He wouldn't have gotten the quest reward for protecting his empire if it wasn't. With the Shadowgate still running, though, he wasn't so sure.

He shaped a rock into his hand. A simple stone about the size of his palm and dense as any normal rock might be. Felix fixed his Intent on the gate before him. Exclude this stone. Do not let it pass.

He lobbed it softly at the gate. The rock pinged harmlessly off the condensed shadow.

"Looks like it works," Bew said. "Why's it called Dissonant Cadence, though? I didn't hear anything."

"Yeah, me either," Pit said. "I was listening real hard, too."

"I don't know." Felix picked up the rock and walked back a few paces. "Let's try a little harder." He wound up, muscles tensing, and he hurled it as hard as he could. His limb blurred and there was no sound at all for a single instant. And then there was all the sound in the world. A crash of thunder was met by a buzzing screech as the rock broke the sound barrier. Beef and Archie fell back, screaming silently in the cacophony, and even Pit shielded himself with his wings. The rock shattered, reduced to nothing more than dust as the shadows were undisturbed.

Pit laughed. "That was so loud!"

"A little harder?" Archie exclaimed through his teeth. "I've heard quieter canons!”

“Am I yelling?" Beef shouted. "I feel like I'm yelling." He blinked. "Oh, that's better. My ear drums just healed."

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"Wait," Pit said. "How will Harn get through?"

Felix walked closer to the Shadowgate and pushed his hand through the darkness as easily as ever. "Cadence has a whitelist and Harn's on it. They'll be fine.”

“If you are quite done, my Lord."

Karys, ever polite and graceful, stood at the opening to the heart of darkness, where the gold and silver light of Felix's seat and seal gleamed from the chamber beyond. His mismatched hands were folded before him, and he had a look of patience upon his metal face.

“I believe we have some work to attend.”

"Right, right. Boys, I'll see you later. You've got your books?"

Archie patted his pocket, and Beef waved the thin notebook in his hand. Pit, meanwhile, looked around dramatically, checking under his paws and wings.

"Not you, Goober. You've got other training to get done."

His Companion chuckled. "Oh! That reminds me. I'm supposed to meet up with—" He squawked in alarm before resizing himself into a small Dire Hound pup. "I gotta go." He took off, a russet blur into the adjoining chamber.

"Where's he off to?" Beef asked.

"A hot date," Archie said, tapping his nose. "Said he met with a pretty tenku during his mission."

Beef's eyes widened. "Oooh."

"Focus, boys," Felix laughed. "Study up. We've got places to be soon."

Archie saluted him lazily. "Aye, aye, sir.”

“Go."

“Did you hear?”

Merk burst into the break room just outside the arena, her slight Goblin frame nearly vibrating with excitement.

“We’ve been testing recruits all day, Twinhandle,” groused Cade. The Orc woman was as big as three of Merk put together, but she almost flinched when the Goblin threw up her hands.

“Everyone’s talkin’ about it! Everyone ‘cept you maniacs.”

“We are simply proving our mettle.”

“Oh whatever.” Merk smiled at them all, showing off her sharp incisors. “C’mon! Guess.”

A gong rang out and Cade stood up with a pained groan. “Next wave, team.”

Stellis stood up easily, barely seeming to be winded after their short rest. Heva pushed off her bench, leaning heavily on her leviathan bone staff. “I envy your Stamina, Stellis.”

“Endurance is a powerful stat,” the Human warrior agreed, checking the mace at her waist before picking up her massive tower shield. “You should have seen some growth there these past few days, no?”

“More than I expected.” Heva waved her Goblin friend closer. “Come, Merk. Fight with us. It will let this round pass faster than before.”

The Goblin laughed. “Not a chance! I’m not the one achin’ about not gettin’ picked by the Fiend’s special parties. Patrol duty’s fine enough for me!”

Cade grunted. “We’ll let you tell us your news when we’re done.”

Merk sighed dramatically and stepped out into the arena, already unsheathing her wands. “Ugh, fine.”

The arena was a wide expanse of cut stone blocks, each ten strides square, ten in each direction. Tall walls surrounded it on all sides, while above them were located rows of seating for observation. No one was up there, not today. The entire place was empty save for them…until the gate at the far end opened up, and the new recruits filtered in.

Heva eyeballed them, letting her Harmonic senses get a read on them before attempting to Analyze. Her Affinity was not her strongest stat, but she was intent on making it grow. It had only been a boon to her Skills, after all. The team before her felt strong, though perhaps a bit…chaotic.

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They certainly looked impressive though. Two mages and two front-liners, same as them—one even looked to be fire attuned. Heva smiled at that.

She liked a challenge.

The gong sounded again, and the testing began.

The front-liners, both wielding swords, rushed forward. They had some sort of movement Skill because Heva found them hard to track, but their weapons flashed with gathering Skills almost at the same time. It nearly distracted her from the sheen of vapor that poured off the fire mage…and the other one dropped, slamming their hands to the ground.

“Watch your toes,” Stellis warned.

Heva already dodged backward, sensing the Mana at her feet a heartbeat before the stone erupted into a geyser of molten stone. It was a sizeable explosion though, and it upset the flooring in every direction.

Unfortunately for the mages, their front-liners were a lot faster than they expected. Both swordsmen were caught up in the blast, forced to abort their attacks in favor of dodging the molten earth. One even slipped, their left leg sliding into the lava.

Their screams were almost as bad as the smell of charred meat.

“Heat Drain!” Heva thrust her hand forward, and the stone rapidly cooled as the heat Mana was siphoned into her channels. The rock solidified, trapping the swordsman, and she spun toward the other before releasing it all at once.

The second swordsman parried the blast, diverting the condensed line of heat Mana up into the air—but they were distracted.

Stellis clobbered them over the head with her mace, and the recruit dropped like his puppet with its strings cut.

“That was disappointing,” she muttered.

Stone shattered and the other front-liner shouted as he rushed forward, his sword gleaming blue as he thrust. Stellis lifted her tower shield and turned the blow, angling herself to send his weapon skittering off target.

Directly into the path of Cade.

The Orc woman batted the sword aside before bashing the recruit over the skull with a single, gauntleted fist.

“Two down already,” Merk muttered. “You sure you needed me?”

“You handle the earth mage, and I’ll take on the fire,” Heva suggested.

“Fine.”

Heva ran forward, calling upon the flames that dwelled within her. They answered, rising up through her arms like furious serpents eager to bare their fangs. “Scorching Hydra!”

Twin whips of flame burst from her palms and were met with a shield made of swirling fire.

“Impressive,” Heva said, and meant it. “Not everyone can block my Hydra.”

“Thanks!” the Elven man said, but the strain was evident in his voice.

“That was a mistake.” Heva smiled in the same way she did with her grandbabies. Indulgent and a bit admonishing. “Don’t let your enemy see you struggle.”

Her Hydra burst from two whips to fourteen, seven in each hand, each tipped with a writhing spearhead. They thrust down, piercing the edges of the shield before constricting and pressing it from all sides. The Elf shouted in alarm, but their voice was soon lost beneath the implosion of their Skill.

They fell to their knees, eye’s bugging, just as Heva brought her side sword up to their throat. “Yield.”

“I–I yield.”

Heva smiled. “A wise choice.”

“You finished?”

Not twenty strides away, the earth mage was already down, her battlerobes covered in green-gold sigils that bound her arms to her sides. She was awake, but unable to move or even speak, while Merk stood over her looking bored.

“Took you long enough. That was a new move, wasn’t it?”

Heva put away her blade. “It was.”

“Effective.”

The Hobgoblin grandmother’s smile spread across her crimson skin. “High praise from you, Merk.”

“Can’t say the same for this lot.” She hopped off the earth mage and sauntered back to their team.

Heva followed, letting the fire mage get back to his feet and help his teammate. They were no doubt assembled by the sergeants rather than arriving as a party with a history of fighting together. Still, Heva had seen worse.

“You did good, recruit.” Cade helped the swordsman back to his feet as they neared. “Go see the healers and head back to the sergeants to see how you did.”

“Th-thanks,” he murmured, his eyes still a bit distant. “C’mon Pem.”

The two swordsmen limped off, joining the mages at the gates they had just entered through.

“Half-glass break!” announced a voice from somewhere up above. Heva knew the tone, if not the speaker. “Half-glass break! Rest up, Legion!”

“Aye,” Merk muttered. “Blind gods they’re loud. You think they take a shoutin’ Skill?”

“It’s acoustics,” Heva explained. “The Henaari built this place to amplify certain spots by shaping the wood in a certain way. My daughter says that they can almost sing the wood into place, isn’t that something?”

“Mhm sure, fascinatin’,” Merk licked her lips. “Can I tell ya now?”

“After we get some food,” Cade grumbled. “I’m staving.”

“Noctis’ tits!” Merk shouted, all but pulling out her hair. “Why do I bother with you lot?”

“You love us,” Stellis said without a smile.

“I don’t love that one,” Merk pointed at the Orc.

Cade grinned, her tusks bright against her dark green skin. “Maybe we can go ask someone else what’s going on?”

Merk made a sound like a teapot about to boil over.

Heva smiled. “Let the woman speak, Cade. She’s liable to burst if she doesn’t.”

Stellis snorted. “You’re not wrong.”

Merk stopped her strange sound and stuck her hands on her hips. “I am not.”

The three of them simply stood still, sweating in their robes and armor, watching their smallest friend as the unconscious recruits were pulled from the arena.

“Oh c’mon!” Merk shouted. “It’s the Fiend! He’s back!”

Heva swallowed, and the two warriors straightened their spines. She wasn’t the only one that was sore that they hadn’t been selected to join the special teams. “With everyone else?”

“I spoke to Cev who talked with Lord Knacht hisself! Cev said they’ve just about all returned now, and their hustlin’ about the city.”

“Did Cev find out what they were after?” Cade asked.

“Cev said Knacht wouldn’t say, but he heard mumblin’ from the Glyphworks. A strange voice all scratchy-like. It said somethin’ about the Fiend and an assault.”

“Another mission?” Stellis leaned closer, looming over the short Goblin. “Are they assembling another team?”

“Don’t crowd me, Jor! You and Cade are worse than the giants. At least they give a girl some space.” Merk adjusted her jacket. “No news on teams or nothin’, but I heard that the Fiend’s been goin’ around talkin’ to everyone. Giants, Henaari, even the Legions. That big Golem is followin’ him around.”

Heva swallowed. “The Exults?”

“No, not them. They’re still doin’ that stuff at the school. The other one. Golden Giant.”

“Karys? Did you forget the Chancellor’s name, Merk?”

“Analyze is a waste of a Skill,” the Goblin shrugged. “Anyways, I heard one last thing, and this is a hundred percent real. Got it from Ulfic. He went with the Fiend to Levantier. Can you believe that?”

“I can believe anything of that man,” Heva said quietly. “What did the Autarch do?”

“We all heard what he did,” Cade said quietly. “The question is how.”

They’d all seen the notifications. Best they could figure, the entire Continent had seen it.

The Fiend had killed a goddess.

“Ulfic said he ate the moon too. Made this monster like a shadow out of his soul, then lifted a golden city out of a jungle, hollowed out a mountain with a single punch, and made the Grandmaster mages kneel.”

Stellis laughed. “How many drinks did Ulfic have when you spoke? There’s no jungles in the mage city.”

“It’s true! Ulfic was stone sober too!”

“Recruitment Team Number Six!”

All of them went silent, even Merk, as the gates across the arena opened up once again and admitted a huge man-shape. It was made of stone and was covered in strange sigaldry, and its heavy face was as stern as the mountain it had been carved out of.

Eidolon Exult, Heva thought.

“That is us, Exult,” Cade said. “How might we help you?”

“It is me that you’d be helping, actually.” A young Half-Orc slipped ahead of the Eidolon, dressed in dark blue battlerobes and the purple cowl of a member of the Fiend’s Claw. An elite unit within the Legion. The cowl was as much a badge of office as the mithril one pinned to his chest. He smiled at them all.

“Lieutenant Loquis?” Stellis asked.

“Captain now, actually,” he said, adjusting the badge on his robes.

“Captain, sir,” Stellis corrected herself. “How can we help you, then?”

“I watched your last testing. That was impressive work. You’ve got a very good team here. Well balanced between offense and defense.” The captain nodded as if he were ticking off items on a list.

“We have worked hard at our Skills,” Cade said, without a hint of pride. For her it was just a fact.

“Believe me, it’s been noticed.” The captain smiled and held out another cloak and cowl. “How do you all like the color purple?”