Chapter Two-Hundred Fifty-Nine |
Rocky
He hadn’t expected it to feel so right to be back in his boxing gear. He does feel a little bad about just dropping the nice staff Thing made, but it’s overwhelmed by finally not having to pretend. Coach said this room would probably be to the Sanctum, and from the cultists and Harbinger inside, Rocky would say he was right on the money.
Working together with Fluffles and Slash is also going to be something he’ll probably relish and look back on with happiness. Fluffles is incredibly precise with his mana, with Coach’s mana, spending exactly what’s needed to counter the incoming attacks. Rocky, on the other hand, likes to put out a good chunk of his mana at the start of a fight, and use what he has left to manipulate and transform it as needed, making it look like his reserves are almost as deep.
And Slash… well, Rocky isn’t sure his heart can technically get pumping to the beat, but he’s definitely buoyed by the music. He remembers the boss music from his fight with the young party, and this song is even more inspiring!
Which makes it all the more disappointing when the harbinger turns tail and flees through a set of even heavier doors to what can only be the core room. He’ll have to give chase soon, but there’s the small issue of the clergy of the Maw in the way, first.
“Quickly,” hisses Fluffles, and Rocky grunts in agreement. They’ll need a moment to recover from that barrage, so he, Fluffles, and Slash need to deal with them before they can take a second swing.
Sharp icicles and compressed fireballs form, blades of wind and crackles of lightning tell of a building of their own attacks, but before they can fly, the clergy of the Maw look shocked, before they start screaming and falling to their knees.
Even Coach Thediem seems confused, before alarm spikes through the bond with a concept so clear that none of the Scions need to be a Voice to understand what has Coach so shocked: Consumed.
Fluffles tastes the mana flow, and Rocky can feel it now, too. It’s all being drawn into the core room! Something is draining the mana of the Maw, and Rocky can feel a pressure starting to build behind his eyes. He mentally ducks, relieved that he’s got it right still. The pressure lessens, but doesn’t vanish, and he turns his attention to his fellow scions.
Still, the gates of this particular doom are well and truly closed. For now. Rocky and the others hurry past the fallen clergy, some already gone, and some wishing they were so lucky. Even the High Priest can only whimper from the floor as they pass, and Rocky starts working on the door.
Fluffles starts circulating the air around the door as he works with Rocky, the Conduit trusting the Affinity Savant. The doors are thick, but they’re still metal. No matter how thick, no matter how strong, metal eventually succumbs to cold. Melting instead of freezing would be an option, in theory, but it’d take a lot of energy to melt the doors. No, this way, Rocky and Fluffles can gain energy as they work, instead of expend it. Rocky grabs the heat within the door and brings it towards him, letting Fluffles’ moving air steal away the energy. It’s a lot easier to let convection do the final job of removing the heat from the door. Once it’s under Fluffles’ control, he passes it back to Rocky to hold, at least for now.
Ice tries to form, but Rocky denies it, not letting it insulate the door from Fluffles’ ruthless convection. Almost there… now.
Fluffles halts the air as Rocky brings a fist forward, carrying all the heat stolen. He’s not aiming to melt the door, no. He has a more destructive option at hand. The heat rushes back into the thick metal doors, and they squeal as the metal warps, before a deafening bang signals its structural failure. A jagged diagonal crack leads from the center of the door upwards, and Fluffles seizes the freed metal in his telekinesis and hurls it into the room, hopefully injuring the Harbinger.
With the door compromised, Rocky gives it a kick, and grunts as pressure builds behind his eyes much more quickly this time. He moves on instinct, ducking even as his gloved fists flash out, dodging the attack on himself and parrying the mental onslaught aimed at his companions.
The rush of mana around them finally ceases as insane laughter echoes through the former Sanctuary. The Harbinger’s mass has increased significantly, hardly able to fit inside the room the Maw’s core once resided in. The three scions dart back as toothed tentacles lash out, needing more room to maneuver to avoid getting hit.
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Distantly, Rocky can feel Coach reassure him that backup is on the way, but he keeps his attention more on the supercharged Harbinger. He’s still confident his group can deal with the monster, but having help is never a bad thing.
He grunts and harmonizes with Slash, flexing his sonic affinity as he dashes forward. The Harbinger will have a different frequency now, but he’s confident he and Slash can find it together, especially with Fluffles starting to build up a good and proper storm.
Lightning zaps at tentacles as they try to exit the core chamber, singing and charring, but not fully forcing them back as the Harbinger seeks to gain more room for itself, all the better to crush them. Rocky and Slash aren’t just going to let it, though! The combination attack builds as Rocky and Slash prepare an even stronger Resonance Cascade for the beast, before three tentacles suddenly lash out.
Each scion is forced to drop the combination to try to defend themselves. Though none are wrapped by a tentacle, each bears a painful lash as unsettling laughter fills the room. The scions frown and pick up their attack again, trying a different tack this time.
Fluffles focuses on rain, gathering it in his telekinesis near Slash. The earth elemental increases the tempo of his already fast-paced music, arcs of lightning engulfing the boiling water. But Rocky can feel the heat, or lack thereof. He keeps his eyes on the Harbinger, flash-freezing any tentacles that try to hinder the new team attack, letting him grow an inferno at the tip of one of his boxing gloves.
His eyes widen as he’s forced to dodge, same as the other two, as three massive tentacles spear forward, once more interrupting the combined effort and injuring the three scions further. Fluffles is having to rely more on his wind to keep him aloft, thanks to the hole in his right wing. Slash is forced to stop playing as he reattaches his severed arm, his earth elemental body a bit better able to handle such an injury than most. Even Rocky has a new nasty gash in his side. He’s glad he doesn’t need that kidney.
Unfortunately, he can’t take the time to properly recover, as the Harbinger surges into the Sanctuary proper, fanged mouths grinning, eyes sparkling with sadistic glee at the injured scions around it. It takes its time gathering three more masses of its amorphous flesh, preparing three bigger tentacle spears to finish off the three fighters.
They don’t just wait for the end, of course. If the monster is going to interrupt their combinations, they’ll just have to attack on their own! Blades of wind, concussive bursts of sound and lances of lightning fly at the Harbinger, even as it summons sacrificial tentacles from its writhing mass, letting the attacks impact those instead of what will be the killshots. Rocky dashes forward, his fists flying as he wades through a thickening bramble of lashing tentacles. He freezes, burns, and vibrates apart each in turn, but there are two more eager to take the place of each fallen tentacle.
He tries to increase his pace, tries to speed up, but he can see he’s out of time. The Harbinger’s many mouths open wide in mad glee as the tentacles spear towards the beleaguered scions, only to go silent in shock as all three somehow miss.
A Voice speaks up from the doorway to the Sanctum. “Whew, just in time.”
Rocky grunts for Teemo to run as a tentacle lashes at the rodent, only for Coach’s Voice to vanish down a shortcut and appear several feet away. “Eugh, that’s a nasty one.”
Rocky can feel the pressure behind his eyes spike as a mental attack barrels down on the Voice, and he’s powerless to stop it. He’s too far away to deflect it!
He’s not the only one surprised as he feels what should have been a tsunami of mental power have all the effect of a light breeze on the mind of Teemo.
The Harbinger locks up for a moment, and Teemo tilts his head at the amorphous monstrosity. “Is that all you’ve got?”
The Harbinger roils in rage as it launches a stronger mental attack at the Voice, Rocky getting a headache just from being near the powerful mental force. Teemo simply blinks as it hits.
“You’ve got nothing on the Boss, bud.” Teemo strolls forward, occasionally darting through a shortcut as tentacles try to lash out at him. Rocky can feel a different mental attack brewing, and this time when it hits, Teemo actually pauses for a moment.
“Oh, hello. That’s cute, you want to go mind to mind with me? Nah, I don’t have mental affinity. I’m just used to some pretty gnarly concepts, thanks to the Boss. Here, try one on for size. Astronomical Unit.”
The word doesn’t make much sense to Rocky, but from the way the entire Harbinger flinches, he’d wager having the full understanding of it is something significant.
“Yeah, big doesn’t even come close to doing it justice, hmm? Here, have one on the other end of the scale. Angstrom.”
The Harbinger shrieks and starts to back away from Teemo, sliming itself toward a corner of the Sanctuary.
“I actually really like that one. I think it just sounds cool. It was a lot to take in the first time, though. Kinda ironic, isn’t it?” Teemo continues to walk forward, eyes on the undulating mass of flesh, mouths and eyes looking frightened rather than confident before a simple rat. “You’re starting to get it now, hmm? I’m not trapped in here with you. You’re trapped in here with me, and those doors are your only escape,” speaks the Voice of Thedeim, gesturing over his shoulder as he continues to menace towards the huge Harbinger. “Here, let me give you one that still gives even me a headache. Quant-”
With an unearthly shriek, the Harbinger bolts for the door, tentacles tearing up the room as it dashes for escape in a blind panic. Teemo vanishes down another shortcut to land on Rocky’s shoulder, grinning as he watches the Harbinger flee.
“Sucker. Mobius Trap.” He closes a fist as the doorway twists just behind the last of the Harbinger, and the cacophonous shrieks of the former scion cut off. Teemo slumps on Rocky’s shoulder, and the zombie scion is quick to take him into his gloved hands.
“I’m ok… just tired. Gimme… a few minutes. Boss says the fighting’s basically done. Now’s the clean up.”
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