Unbound

Chapter Ninety Eight - 098

Wha--how?

Felix turned his hands, numbly noticing how they shifted from inky black hide toward his standard skin further up his forearms. Small black studs even poked from the meat of his arm, studs that looked alarmingly like bone. A wicked laughter crawled through his ears.

What have you done!?

The Maw gave no answer, but the nearby Prismatic Wretch let out a hissing screech as it snapped out its claws. The blast of sound shocked Felix's gaze upward, away from his transformed hands, and he saw that the bugs were only a dozen feet away, at best. The lead creature opened it's mouth and hissed as it scuttled forward, clear, paralytic drool whipping behind it.

SCREEEEE!

Felix snarled and heaved himself into action. With a concentrated Reign of Vellus behind him, he was launched up and over the monster, high enough that he could see the two others that were also stampeding down the narrow street. His sharp Eye and high Perception saw that all of them were smeared with crimson, their carapaces streaked with bloody trails. Rage boiled in Felix's core, and he felt his Fire Within crackle with thunder and ruinous flame.

INFLUENCE OF THE WISP!

Blue wisplight burned across the four of them as Felix sailed above, the Skill snagging each of them in its thrall.

Prismatic Wretches (x3) are Enthralled for 2 seconds!

Already passing the apex of his assisted leap, Felix whipped his hands out to the sides and dual cast Shadow Whip.

Dual Casting is level 22!

Twin streaks of shadow slithered outward and latched onto the buildings to either side of the street, and Felix let himself fall, the tacky material stretching a moment before rebounding him forward like a bungee cord. All three of them were still frozen, their inhuman visages a tableau of universal pain as the blue fire ate away at their bodies. Felix felt zero sympathy, only a cleansing fury that drove his next spell all the harder.

Wrack and Ruin!

The dark orb shot forward, splashing corrosive all over the lead Wretch as Felix sailed throught he air toward it. The wisplight flickered out only moments before he landed atop its back. He dismissed his Shadow Whips with a thought.

SCRAAAA! SCREEE!

The massive mantis tried to spin and attack him, but hit buildings to either side of itself, the street entirely too narrow for the ten foot tall monstrosity to maneuver. Exactly as Felix had hoped.

Unfortunately, that did nothing to prevent the Wretch behind him from attacking.

A massive scythe whipped into Felix's torso, tearing him off the lead insect's back and sending him hurtling through the upper story windows of a residence. He exploded through the wall and slide across a room until he fetched up against the far wall. Glass and stone littered the floor, but Felix paid it no mind. With a groan he shoved himself to his feet, splintering a wooden floorboard as he did so, and jogged back to the window.

The three Wretches had proceeded further down the street, no doubt drawn to the large gathering of survivors at the Coldforge.

"God damn it," Felix cursed, before he heard a soft gasp behind him.

Quick as blink he turned toward the noise, his hand crackling with blue lightning before he realized he had smashed into a bedroom. Two brown-haired Humans wearing bed clothes stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. Felix quickly checked that his cowl was up, and when he did the Humans screamed and ran from the room.

They saw his hands.

"Great."

Looking back outside, Felix saw the monsters already three houses down and picking up speed. A powerful wave of fury surged from him, from the base of his skull, a rage that shouldered past all restraint and caution. The bastards had left behind them a trail of blood and gore and Felix could envision the bodies these monsters had waded through on their way here. And they were monsters, made to eat and kill and feed.

No.

He leaped out of the window, his legs flexing lightly as he smashed into the cobbles. He summoned a writhing tendril of shadow into his right hand.

I'll show them a monster.

Relentless Charge!

Felix burst forward, and at the same time cast out his Shadow Whip. The branching tendrils entagled the rearmost Wretch, catching all of his right side. Channeling his mounting horror, Felix felt his insides burst into agonizing flame, scouring his pathways with a burst of laser focused hate. He impacted the insect with his claws outstretched.

And he tore it apart.

The monster's chitinous thorax sundered beneath his midnight talons, his swipe passing through its hide with barely any resistance. His momentum was so great that he kept going forward, hurtling into and through it's left legs. They snapped like dry tinder, gruesomely segmented by his left handed strike.

Relentless Charge!

He sped forward, moving passed the nigh-immobilized enemy in the back, onto the second in line. He spared no thought, put no mind to tactics. He was fury and hate. Each clawed strike slashed open a body part, sending green gore splashing in all directions. A giddy sort of rush built behind the ferver, a humming in his ears that Felix's Body couldn't ignore even as it passed by mostly unnoticed.

The second Wretch flailed backward, driven away from his offensive in primal fear. Felix laughed, and in his moment of distraction, the rearmost monstrosity lunged forward. With a sickening, wet *thud* it sunk its needle teeth into his right shoulder before whipping his entire body into the ground. The stone cracked beneath him and blood sprayed in vivid arcs from his gaping wound.

"RRRUAAGH!" Felix unleased a 360 degree blast of lightning that tossed both Wretches backward several feet and himself upright. He could feel the paralytic toxins racing through his bloodstream, but he didn't care.

Status Condition: Paralyzed (Torso, Arms)

The one behind him was still alive, though it struggled to right itself after that last hit. Unable to lift his arms, Felix brute forced out the Mana pattern for Reign of Vellus, willing it to discharge even as his arms stop working. It hit it square in the face, splitting the bug's head and bursting it's left eye in a shower of goo. The Wretch hit the ground only moments before Felix himself.

You have defeated a Prismatic Wretch!

You have gained XP!

He could feel his Poison Resistance and Fire Within burning through the paralytic in his blood, but at that moment he could feel nothing but the warm wash of green ichor as it spread around his prone body. Bits of it poured into his mouth, and Felix found himself unable, and unwilling, to spit it out.

It tastes...his Mind shuddered in disgust and desire. It tastes good.

His Fire Within sparked with gold and blue as it rapidly devoured the mid-grade paralytic. With an abrupt, ear popping jolt it cleared entirely from his system.

Poison Resistance is level 41!

Felix got to his feet, his claws trailing in the puddles of lumpy muck that surrounded him. It dripped heavily from his stolen cloak, soaking the material and dragging it down tight against his shoulders.

Go ahead, it whispered. Take your due, Felix Nevarre.

Felix fought against the voice, forcing his own hand down and away from his face. He turned back to the nearest Wretch, who only now had mustered the courage to attack. The ten foot tall bug skittered forward and struck simultaneously with its two claws, but Felix reached up and grabbed them.

*THOOM!*

Gobbets of offal and ichor pulsed outward in a ripple, the force of the Wretch's blow clearing the streets around them for six feet. The iridescent bastard tilted it's inhuman head at Felix, clearly confused as to why he wasn't crushed. In response, Felix snarled, sunk his talons into its claws, and yanked.

The wounded Wretch toppled forward, clearly not expecting that move, and as its head came into range Felix reared back.

Corrisive Strike!

Acid popped and sizzled against the monster's face, but it was Felix's coiled Strength that ripped it clean off. The bug collapsed, more of that thick blood pouring out onto the road.

"Haah...haahaah...haah."

There was a screaming bug ahead of him, but Felix couldn't quite manage to care. People, Humans, Dwarves, and otherwise were shouting...something in the distance. The sound was underscored by a persistent burr that rattled his bones and...

Dammit, my teeth itch!

Green ichor pumped from the Wretches' wounds, their bodies jelly beneath their hardened chiton. The smell was gruesome, nauseating, delicious. He licked the fluid from his face, savoring the flavor and feeling his core spark and spit and burn. His hand, the one to take off the bug's head, was covered in effluvea and lumpy gore.

Take what's yours. Take it all. The wind blew hard in the night, pushing those screams and shrieks far away. Claim it.

Felix plunged in, taking huge ravenous bites of the putrid organs he pulled from the puddles around him.

YESSSS...

His teeth itch more furiously than ever, but each bite soothed that itch, until he felt a strange weakness in his jaw. Quite suddenly, the sound of a mess load of dice rattled against the cobbles. Felix absently looked down, and saw almost three dozen white shapes sitting in the ooze.

His teeth.

Tentatively, Felix felt at his face under the cowl, pushing a taloned finger to his mouth.

Fangs...

A wave of horror climbed up his throat, bile and terror intermingled. He vomited out onto the street.

Then the last Wretch hissed at him and charged, swinging its mantis claws as it thundered through the remnants of its brethren. It smashed its jagged pincers into him, throwing Felix into and through another Wretch corpse. The body exploded into gore and greasy black smokey in equal measure, and Felix rolled twice before finding his feet.

The Wretch was already on top of him by then.

Felix screamed, the constant waves of rage and horror overwhelming him. A tempest exploded to life in his core, an inferno crowned by a sea of lightning. He caught the next blow, and bashed the follow up, pulling himself into and onto the insect's massive body. The tall neck of the bastard reared back, pulling away from his sharp talons, but Felix dug in.

SCREEEAKKK!

He slashed and gouged, blow after blow rending the tough chitin. The Wretch threw itself against a building, scraping Felix against the stone and wood, but his tenacious fury was boundless. He screamed and tore further. His eyes burned like twin stars, distant storms turned deadly, and he brought his mouth down onto the Prismatic Wretch's neck. He tore it apart.

You have defeated a Prismatic Wretch!

You have gained XP!

Ravenous Tithe!

The dead Wretch, the last of the three, turned to oily smoke instantly. The smoke roiled and congealed, pulled toward Felix's throat as if diving toward him, a pillar of oiled essence. Like liquid darkness. Great swaths of discordant noise blared through his Mind, his Body, rattling his very soul.

Felix felt overwhelmed, stuffed completely with the Wretch's Mana. The strident strains of creaking disharmony pulled at his core and chest, his skin feeling close to splitting while a cackling madness shuddered across his mind.

CHIRR-CHIRRUP!

Suddenly and perfectly, a bright chirp cut through the noise.

A sharp, persistent call that echoed across the tender firmament of his Spirit. The buzzing flared in volume, but the lyrical call was unfazed and unstoppable. It drowned out the burr of discord, silencing the rage-fueled screaming that Felix hadn't even been aware of, that nonetheless ripped across his Bastion of Will like a hurricane.

Quiet.

The eye of the storm.

A feathery head nudged his leg, hard, and a great wing wrapped around his shoulders.

Pit...Pit...

Here, he chirruped. Here.

And the light returned.

Eldrunna peered into the night, toward the chaos that had just gone silent at the end of the street. She was among her neighbors, citizens of the Dust that had fled from the night's terrors. She gripped her sword tightly, drawn and held defensively against another onslaught of those giant insects.

The Dwarven woman was not a master of her arms and armor, but she was a trueborn daughter of the Undercity and she would not falter.

"Rafny, did you see it?"

"Yeah," Rafny grunted from nearby. Eldrunna couldn't see her through the press of bodies, but she knew her wife would be close. Any chance to wield her weapons. "I saw it. Damn near impossible not to."

"Well?"

Rafny appeared next to her, emerging through the fear-stricken crowd almost like a ghost. Eldrunna envied her Agility. Rafny hefted her flanged mace and scowled.

"The beasts were marked."

Eldrunna cursed, for once entirely unhappy to be right. If the monsters were marked, then something big was on the horizon. Something that would spell trouble for the Dust, or worse. "What about the fighter? You still see him?"

Rafny scoffed. "Can't you?"

"You know your eyes see farther than mine ever will," Eldrunna smiled and pecked Raf's cheek. "All I see is smoke and corpses."

Rafny grumbled and her eyes flared a bright yellow-green as Night Eye took effect. "He's still there. Still standing too, now with some sort of creature next to 'em..." She suddenly groaned. "Blood and ash."

"What?"

"The Guilders have arrived."

"Easy people, easy," Aric murmured. "It's all corpses."

They stepped carefully through the slick cobbles as they followed a trail of gruesome death. The trail had led them through much of the Dust Quarter, but seemed to end here. The four Guilders that accompanied Aric were all freshly minted Tin Ranks, his new team for the next Wall shift. This breach had meant they were getting a crash course in urban combat, though they had only encountered a single monster and that one was nearly half dead. It had been covered in some sort of acid.

One of the Tin Ranks stepped on a thick piece of entrails and nearly slipped, but they caught themselves on their staff. Aric couldn't remember her name, only that she was handy with magic. Deeba? Darla?

"Something tore through these things," she gasped, righting herself. "Who could do this?"

"Silver Rank?" One of the others suggested, the burly one with the neckbeard. Kevin or something. One of the others scoffed.

"Why would there be a Silver Ranker in the Dust, Kelvin?" Another boy, though far more slender. A Dexterity specialist, Aric recalled. "Don't know why we're here either."

"Focus," said Aric in his best 'I'm the leader so shut up' voice. "We still don't know if there are more of these Prismatic Wretches around--"

A sharp growling sound came from just ahead, a sound Aric hadn't heard in months. But if the Wretches had somehow breached the wall, then why not a Chimera?

"Hold steady!" Aric hissed. "Enemy ahead."

The four Tin Ranks lifted their weapons and leveled them in the general direction Aric indicated, but just about froze still. None of them discharged a Skill blindly, so Aric counted that as a win. He rolled his eyes and made to gesture to them, but then the growl was accompanied by a sudden, terrifying laughter.

It pierced the night like a stiletto to the heart, and Aric's eyes caught something that made his blood run cold.

Through the greasy smoke of vanquished monsters, a figure in a tattered cloak and deep cowl hunched over something else hidden in its shadow. Two great wings spread outward behind it, six feet wide if they were an span, colored crimson and black. Eyes like cold stars flared in its darkness, and the laughter only grew more wild...

Then the laughter was gone, and so was the creature.

The smoke cleared, and the street before them was empty. Aric felt himself breathe again, though he hadn't realized he'd been holding it.

"Blood and ashes, what was that!?" cried the thin boy. "My Analyze got nothing but question marks."

"Those eyes, they were terrible," gasped the girl, clenching her staff close. "Captain? Captain what was that?"

Aric didn't reply. He couldn't. He hadn't been able to Analyze it either, and a cold feeling in his gut whispered why, mad though it was.

"...Spread out, find out where it went," He pointed to the left and right. "We need to clean up any more of these monsters."

His team did as they were told, though the slender one gave him some annoyed looks. Aric didn't even mind, his thoughts still caught up in the moment.

The Elders need to know.

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