Rune Seeker

If a heavily armored Runeocerous could blush, Wallop sure did before he charged through the portal, horn glowing with Runes of Impact. Romin followed a second behind, with Right and Hiral going next.

As soon as the pair emerged, Hiral saw Wallop Blink-Charge past a line of Spectres just now turning at the appearance of the party. Why was he charging beyond them instead of through them? Probably because of the line of archers on the far end of the roof – the ones that had been conveniently aimed in their direction before the group had arrived.

Runic energy hit the group of surprised Spectres like… well… like a charging Runeocerous would. The formation of eight archers shattered like cheap glass, semi-transparent bodies hurtling in all directions. Two went straight over the edge – which taught Hiral that Spectres could scream in fright and were afraid of heights – while five more slammed into nearby crenellations or skidded along the floor. As for the final one, Wallop’s horn had speared it through the chest, leaving the Undead swinging on the companion’s face as he spun around for his next targets.

Those targets looked to be the group of surprised Spectres the Rune-o had initially blinked past – until a blast from Romin’s Runic Blunderbuss struck the center of them. Much like when Wallop had hit the first group, the blast sent spectral bodies tumbling, even as artillery engineers around the space caught on to what was happening.

Frankly, for the Spectres, that was far too late.

With how fast each of the party members moved, the battle was almost over before it even began. Hiral and Right had dashed to the sides as soon as they’d emerged from the portal, claws of Separation and purple-and-red-enshrouded fists reaping the unliving in short order. Yanily and Seena had followed a moment later, one Skyfall+ and a pair of fireballs wiping out everything on the far end of the roof flanking Wallop.

As for the ‘leftovers’ on the same side of the portal, Seeyela and Gran took care of them as they came through last. Spectres made good ‘fuel’ for Gran’s healing well, apparently, and her crimson needles pierced nearly a dozen of the ghosts before she yanked on the connected thread. With a strength belying her appearance, the connected Spectres were all drawn together into a multi-limbed ball. One that Gran sucked dry of Undead-lifeforce through her threads.

It only took seconds for the party to end the fight, leaving them standing on the now-empty roof, the cannons that’d been firing at them before, now silent. Three of the weapons – forged of a green’ish metal that didn’t look entirely solid stood facing in each direction. That would explain the volleys coming three at a time. Meanwhile, in the center of the roof, three catapults on rotating diases remained primed and ready to fire. Semi-porous stones rested in their firing baskets, but that didn’t look nearly as dangerous as what had come hurtling in the party’s direction.

“What are these weapons?” Yanily asked, tapping one of the cannons. Despite how the barrel of the thing kind of looked see-through, his knuckle donked like he’d struck metal. “Something of yours, Li’l Ur?”

“Actually, yes,” the lich said. “Tomorrow must have… borrowed the plans for the weapons when she enlisted the lesser Spectres.”

“I’m surprised she can create Undead like you did,” Hiral said, and Li’l Ur scoffed.

“She did not create these lesser Spectres. She simply moved them. As I said before, they possess no sapience of their own beyond following orders. In all likelihood, she made a deal with one of the spectral commanders in my absence. And, if we’re in a kind of dungeon – as I suspect we are – even these are only dungeon-fabrications, with the real thing existing only in the actual towers.”

“That’s assuming all the towers have Spectres,” Seeyela said without looking up from where she inspected one of the catapults. One that was notably missing the porous stone that had been in its basket. “I wouldn’t put it past Tomorrow to have different defenders at different towers.”

Seena was already rubbing the bridge of her nose. “You’re probably right. Taking our time might be worth it.”

“I doubt that’s completely true,” Hiral said, gesturing to the siege weapons arrayed on the roof. Then to where Nivian’s group and Ilrolik’s worked their way to the tower, with the Death Knight’s group being much closer. “We can probably – and safely – assume each tower will have a similar setup. Long-range artillery covering certain angles of approach with powerful attacks.” He extended his arms ahead to indicate a line of fire. “For the spaces between those kill zones…” Hiral pointed to the other two groups. “There will be traps or some kind of highly mobile hinderance.

“On top of that, we’ve got the walls and defenders. Even if we don’t know the specifics of what those things will be exactly at each tower, knowing there are those categories of challenges will prepare the raid groups.”

“Yeah,” Seena said. “I guess you’re right about that.”

“Should we go inside?” Romin asked from where he and Wallop loomed above a stairwell leading down into the tower. Before Seena could answer, the Bonder lifted, aimed, and fired his Runic Blunderbuss into the stairs. “Seems there are more Spectres inside.”

“One second,” Seena said after seeing Romin had the stairs under control. “Hey, Nivian, how long until you all get here?”

“Is that a poke at us because of the race?” Wule asked before his brother could say anything.

“No, but yes,” Seena said honestly. “Told you you’d regret it.”

“Who says I regret anything?” Wule asked right back.

“Two minutes, tops,” Nivian interrupted. “Saw you were going to win the race, so we’re not rushing. This is a good chance for us to face one of our weaknesses head-on and with little risk.”

“Mid-B-Rank isn’t as scary as it used to be,” Seena agreed. “When you get here, Hiral already cleared out the walls…”

“Lots in the courtyard though,” Yanily said.

“Huh?” Seena asked, then she – along with everybody else – walked over to where Yanily was standing and looking over the tower crenellation. As soon as they did, they saw what he was talking about – easily a hundred lesser Spectres had emerged to take up position between the base of the tower and the outer wall.

Compared to the ones Hiral had fought atop the wall – archers almost exclusively – these looked more heavily ‘armored’, despite still being partially transparent. Heavy knights with swords and shields stood facing the wall, with long-spear-wielding soldiers taking up position behind them. There was even a third rank with what looked like crossbows, then a fourth line made up of what could only be commanders.

“What do you think, Boss?” Yanily asked. “Should we take care of those before Nivian gets here?” There was a grin on the spearman’s face at the experience standing below them. Worse – for the Spectres – they didn’t seem to even notice the party within their ranks.

One of those weaknesses of them being lesser Spectres? They have their orders to defend against the walls being breached, but can’t adapt beyond that…

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I think we definitely should,” Seena said, her smile spreading in a very predatory way. “Niv, we’re going to make things a little more comfortable for your arrival.”

Then fireballs started swirling above her hands, and Hiral could only wince at the unfortunate fates of the Spectres below.

“Left,” he said. “Banner, if you would. Romin, keep an eye on the stairs?”

“Got it,” the Bonder said, while Hiral’s double shaped the Banner of Courage without a word. The golden dome spread across the top of the tower, but none of the lesser Spectres below even bothered looking up.

“I’ve got this side over here,” Yanily said, jogging over to a different section of tower.

“Gran, you want in on this?” Seena asked, a line of six fireballs swirling above each hand.

“Thought you’d never ask, girlie,” Gran said. A use of her strange, still-image movement ability got her over to another wall.

“Leaves one more,” Seena said. “Hiral or Seeyela? Which of you wants it?”

Seeyela looked at Hiral. “Share or rock, paper, scissors for it?”

“I’m game for sharing,” Hiral said. “Few things I can test, but we’ve only got a minute or two.”

“Perfect, let’s go,” the woman said, and the two of them jogged over to the fourth side of the tower. Not a moment too soon, either, with elemental apocalypses lighting up two of the four directions in the courtyard below.

“So,” Seeyela started casually when they got to the wall, while two Gravity Wells appeared ahead of them. Instead of three hydra heads emerging from them to breathe fire, lightning, and a combination of the two at the Spectres below, they instead began to spew some kind of dark liquid like rain. “What did you want to test?”

Hiral eyed the “rain” falling on the Undead below, the acidic venom immediately dousing about a fifth of the creatures on either end of those gathered. From the looks of things, these Spectres didn’t have any special resistances to the poison, with steam and pained grunts already rising.

“Just a couple small things,” he said, still looking at the “rain”. Then he pointed at one of the two Gravity Wells. “That’s it?”

“Oh, not at all,” she laughed. “I was just giving you a chance to do something before I got a bit more serious.”

“That sounds like a challenge,” Hiral said, funneling solar energy into his runes. Within a second, ten solar-energy clones peeled off him. Then they immediately jumped over the edge of the tower like they were completely suicidal.

“Not quite what I was expecting,” Seeyela said, watching the clones fall. “Going to do the swapping thing?”

“Not this time,” Hiral said. “I made these ones a bit different.”

“What are they going to…?” she started, just as the first clone hit the ground.

BOOM, the clone exploded in a small dome of Expansion, Impact, Energy, Breaking, and Increase, tossing Spectres aside like ragdolls. The other nine clones landed a second later – spread amongst the Undead – and immediately exploded as well.

Each of the eruptions expanded to a radius of about twelve feet, and then dissipated after that, making Hiral tisk.

“Not as big as a I was hoping,” he said under his breath, and reallocated the distribution of this runic energies to try again. A lot of the Spectres caught within the blasts were even getting back up. Not powerful enough either. “What about you? The poison rain isn’t a new trick.”

“No,” Seeyela agreed. “But this is.” With a dramatic flourish of waving her hand across in front of her from left to right, a sheet of black opened across the sky ahead of them. Then, out of the horizonal plane, dozens of spectral arrows shot toward the ground like a new “rain”.

The arrows she caught with Insatiable, Hiral realized, though the arrows didn’t come out in the same density she’d captured them in.

“You don’t have to release all of the energy – or attacks – you capture at the same time?” Hiral asked.

“That’s what I’m testing now,” Seeyela said. “Requires more concentration to limit everything from just sort of falling out, and a touch more energy.”

Even as Hiral watched, the “rain” of arrows steadied, with the number of bolts over several seconds growing consistent.

“There we go,” Seeyela said. “Getting the hang of it.”

And, while she did that, Spectres died. Somehow, despite getting sucked into some other plane of existence by her ability, the arrows hadn’t lost any of their speed or power. They thunked painfully into the Spectres below, killing many in the opening waves. Those who moved slightly to try to avoid the falling arrows instead ran face first into the poison showering from above. At that point, if they went much further than that – and they survived – they found a new kind of hell.

On the left side, Gran’s needles had sought out more than three quarters of the Spectres, bundling them up like some kind of unfortunate meal for a giant spider. Hiral’s sensory domain clearly spelled out how the Undead were being desiccated, and many from his section of the wall opted to try to tank out the poison or arrows. When that didn’t work, some of the survivors decided to try their luck with the other cardinal direction.

That went even worse for them than Gran’s needles, with fire ravaging the area like some kind of new, actual armageddon taking place there. They had – of course – found Seena’s firestorms absolutely wrecking the place. Tornados – literally – of hungry flames scoured the weaker undead, sweeping them up as they ground past. Within the swirling fire, blue flashes reminiscent of Li’l Ur’s magic lit up like lightning strikes, and were immediately followed by green flashes and a pained cry.

Thanks to Hiral’s high Atn, he could hear Li’l Ur informing his Mistress of exceptional circumstances.

And, as if the tornadoes weren’t enough, Seena kept lobbing fireballs down on top of the heads of anything left standing. Anything that wasn’t one of her thralls of From the Ashes+. Because, of course, she could somehow re-raise undead to fight – and explode – on her behalf.

It was the antpocalypse all over again, just with Spectres instead.

At least she was having fun, by the huge grin on her face and the experience notifications flying past. Much like the wall, there had been more Spectres hiding within buildings in the courtyard, and they’d rushed out, heedless of their doom.

Now, though, the numbers seemed to be tapering off – on all sides, from the feel of his sensory domain – and he’d only gotten to try one exploding clone experiment! So, a little grumpily, he hurled another dozen versions of himself off the tower in all directions.

“Hey!” Yanily shouted over while hurling bolts of thick Chain Lightning+ down at the ground. “Stay on your own side. These are mine to… hah! Okay, that was funny. Your clone must’ve gotten a crit, cause a pair of ghostly-Troblins jumped out of the explosion to bonk some Spectres on the head.”

“Oh?” Hiral asked. “They can trigger the Third Movement? That’s interesting to know… maybe if I…” but he trailed off. The fire and lightning had stopped. No more rain – poison or arrows – fell. The horrifying cries of getting sucked dry of their energies had even ceased. All was still.

The Spectres were dead.

WHUMP, a blast from the tower’s roof made everybody turn.

“Couple coming up the stairs,” Romin explained. “I got them. Not many though. They might be running out.”

“After that,” Seena said, and waved her hand in the direction of the courtyard. “I sure hope so. Niv, how close are you guys?”

“We’re here,” Nivian’s voice replied over the party chat.

“We were waiting until it was safe to go in,” Wule pointed out.

“Plenty safe now,” Seena said. “We got rid of the all the Spectres.”

“Wasn’t the Spectres we were worried about,” the healer replied flatly.

“… fair,” Seena admitted.

“We’re also not alone,” Nivian said.

“Sorry,” Ilrolik’s voice came on. “Those traps were a lot more of a nuisance than I expected.”

“Never should’ve tried to race Hiral,” Loan said. “Karma.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Ilrolik said. “It was good practice though.”

“Figured something out?” Hiral asked.

“Different kinds of traps triggered from different things,” Ilrolik said, even as Hiral felt the other two parties entering the courtyard. “Some were physical things, like tripwires. Others seemed to need line of sight, sensing solar energy within a certain range, even sound. Once we found ways to counter those, it was much smoother. Still got tagged by a few outlier-traps we have no idea how they saw us, but nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“We got three spontaneous ability evolutions,” Nivian chimed in. “To deal specifically with groups. They’ll help a lot.”

“Huh,” Seeyela said. “I was hearing a lot of people talking about spontaneous ability evolutions when we were back at the fortress. Seems like they’re either more likely to happen here in the Cradle, or it’s just people being on the surface for the first time. Either way, they’re happening.”

“Which is only good for us in the long run,” Seena said. “Now, though…”

“Now it’s time to take this tower,” Hiral said. “Or, destroy it, I guess. Since the courtyard is clear for the moment, Nivian and Ilrolik, why don’t you both enter the tower down there? If there’s no basement or anything, both start working your way up, while we work our way down.”

“If there’s a basement,” Nivian said. “We’ll take it. I want to see how Bash does underground and not just on it.”

“Smash!” the Troblin exclaimed.

“Hopefully,” Nivian replied.

“Then, in we go,” Hiral said.