When Aurora released the Lightning Bolt that had been begging to be used for so long, it had been of a magnitude she’d never seen. Even so, the power she released shouldn’t have been enough to destroy the entire building. Despite that fact, the explosion that followed the blast shattered the building’s roof, sending the party tumbling down below.
Arthur, being the heaviest, was the first to fall. The entire team was immune to the collateral damage the bolt would have exacted thanks to the Coordinated Assault buff they were currently under. Being immune to friendly fire didn’t mean that they couldn’t be hurt by environmental effects brought on by the same attack, however. The floor under him crumbled, sending him tumbling down with the debris. Gideon was next, as the next heaviest thanks to his Massivity skill. Even though his weight was magically enhanced, the combination of Champion’s Plate and the Aged Blade still outdid the young man’s skill. After seeing what happened with Arthur, he’d been more prepared, turning his fated fall into an awkward slide, which he tripped at the end of. Aurora and Ema simply floated and hopped down, respectively.
The entity outside of the party that fell, however, was the Marauding Cyclopes. As the one who was at the receiving end of the most powerful blow anyone in the party had seen up to this point, most of that group thought that might already be the end of it. Arthur, being the only one to see a large monster in action, knew it would not be so, and was promptly proven right as a mountain of rubble shifted.
“It’s… still alive?” Ema said disbelievingly. Another perk of Coordinated Assault was telepathy between all the individuals with the condition, turning conversations to lightning quick thought exchanges.
“It’s a boss monster,” Aurora answered. “I’d be more surprised if that was all it took. But… why is the building falling apart?”
“Look!” Ema screeched, the team instinctively knowing what direction to look thanks to the thought expression. What they saw were hobgoblins with glowing sledgehammers, destroying the support beams.
“Oh no…” Aurora gasped. “They’re trying to bring the entire thing down! Why would they do that?! Isn’t this their own magic zone?!”
“They… don’t care.” Gideon said, face darkening and grip tightening on his weapons. “They only want to kill us. Bringing the building down won’t kill their leader, so they’d been hammering at it since we got here. Like we already decided before we came here, destroying the entire place would benefit them, not us. A nice open area for the boss monster to rally its entire force against us.” Gideon watched as monsters began pouring in from the lower floors. It wasn’t even just goblins anymore; treeants whose treetops flattened against the ceiling pushed through the crumbling concrete, the claws of wolves scraping against flooring never meant to accommodate giant paws.
“As soon as we showed that we were willing to attack them on their own base…” Gideon said with a defeated tone to his thoughts. “That base became nothing but a shackle to them. I’m sorry, everyone, I think we need to escape. If we jump now, we may get away before the entire place falls down on us.”
Sasaki Ema’s tiny hands balled into fists. They had finally made it to the end. They’d entered the very maw of the beast to strike at the heart of their suffering. And strike it they had, only for it to not be enough. Only half an hour ago she’d thought she’d lost her best friend, and the woman she had feelings for. The fact that she’d never told her or even learned if she was attracted to women at all had only added fuel to that fire. She’d almost lost what she cherished most in the world, without anyone but her even knowing.
They’d come too close. They’d almost lost too much. The thought of leaving now not only filled her with a white-hot rage that rivaled the Enraged debuff, but also inspired her to try something truly insane.
She opened her balled fists and threw them toward the sky. With a wild yet high-pitched shriek of effort, she stood on the tips of her toes and stretched her tiny body to the very limit.
[Expanse Bubble]: Create a large barrier encompassing an area. Longer uptime results in mounting mana cost. Shield HP equals 80% of max MP, with an additional 5% per positive and/or negative effect currently employed by the [Greater Keeper].
[Seize]: Control objects or enemies with your mind. More effective on enemies inflicted with the [Greater Keeper] debuffs. Cannot control enemies beyond certain thresholds of force application. Mounting mana cost proportional to uptime and amount of enemies/objects controlled.
A blue sphere of energy began closing around the party. It had a triangular pattern that formed a circle, locking together with each one formed. It started from the top, already serving its purpose as rubble broke against it as it fell. Soon it enveloped the entire party, blocking monsters out but also blocking the ones that were already nearby in. Gideon, Arthur, and Aurora immediately moved to defend Ema, whose body was shaking already.
The true cause of her energy expenditure, however, was not the Expanse Bubble skill, but the Seize skill. It was an ability that allowed her to control objects like telepathy, though most of the time she used it to control enemies whenever she could. Locking down the cyclopes for mere seconds while Aurora blasted it had taken nearly everything she had, but what she was doing now was taking everything she had and more.
She could use the Seize skill to control inanimate objects, but right now, Sasaki Ema was using that skill to control the entire building.
The drain on her mana was unspeakable. If it wasn’t for Arthur’s passive buffs, such a plan would have no hope of working. Even now, she was fighting viciously simply to keep the building from falling apart. Sweat already poured from her body, something she hadn’t even been sure she could do anymore. Her arms ached, her legs begged for succor that she couldn’t give. She dropped to one knee.
“We have to do something about the boss monster!” Aurora’s thoughts practically shouted in everyone’s minds. “If we let the building fall on it, will it finish it off?! It’s taken a lot of damage already!”
“It won’t be enough!” Gideon’s thoughts were just as sharp as he slammed a wolf on its snout. “If it could survive a hit like that, then dropping a building on it wouldn’t do that much more! We need to weaken again before we can do that!”
“Who’s going to weaken it?! I can’t use another Lightning Bolt while we’re inside! There’s almost as much debris falling from the roof as there is rain! If we get hit by a big piece of concrete, that’ll be the end of us!”
“I know!! I’m thinking!!” Gideon snapped. A treeant slashed at him with its claws, narrowly missing. “There… there has to be something we can do…!”
Arthur stopped. His breathing was deep as he gulped in air. His helm, for the first time, felt stuffy, and he dropped his shield to pull it off. Time seemed to slow down as he looked around, seeing the monsters outside of the barrier. There were more than ever, beaten only by the hordes that had been outside. They dropped from above, landing on the bubble shield and chopping down at it with crude weapons or claws. They surrounded it on all sides, swinging whatever would pass as a weapon at it. Occasionally, some would get in, replenishing the monster horde inside the shield as Ema sacrificed the stability of one skill to focus on the other.
He looked at Ema. Her small body shook and trembled. Her arms were still up, but her elbows had become bent. Kneeling on a single knee, she looked like she was holding up the sky itself. Body fluids flowed freely, sweat, tears and saliva spewed from each forced breath as her teeth clenched hard enough to crack. She looked like she was in a lot of pain.
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He looked at Aurora, and for the first time, he saw genuine terror on her face. She looked at Ema in fear over and over, shooting Lightning Weaves as often as she could. Her eyes hardly left the Asian-American woman’s visage for a moment.
He saw Gideon swinging wildly at any monster even remotely close to him. His normal tact was nowhere to be seen, face severe as he kept attacking. He could see how tired each one was, how they could barely fight back. All the battles they’d fought in this place were finally taking their toll, exhaustion causing more than one close call.
Arthur’s breathing slowed down. In that moment, he felt a clarity he could hardly describe. He wanted to examine the moment and the scene longer, but he didn’t have time to waste.
“Gideon…” He said somberly. The others in the party did not receive the same thought communication. This conversation was between only them. “I need you to do something for me.”
“What?! I’m kind of busy here!”
“I’m going to attack the cyclopes. When I give the word, I need you to take Ema and Aurora out the window.”
“Don’t be stupid! You can’t get through all of this to get to it!”
“Yes… I can. I’m the only one who can get past all these monsters while not having to worry about falling debris. And you’re the only one with the strength and dexterity to carry them out of here, even against their will.”
“If we do that, the tower will fall! Not even you can take a building falling onto your head! You’ll die!”
“Gideon…”
Gideon Omari stopped fighting. He recognized that tone, the tone of someone who’d already given up that he’d first heard from his ex-lover. He turned to Arthur, eyes wide and filled with a mix of confusion and disbelief.
Arthur was smiling. It was the smile one gave their peers when they had no choice but to pick up an ingredient they’d forgotten for dinner.
“I need you to promise me.”
Title
[Heart of Devotion]
Activated
The knight began to glow a vibrant green; his eyes that held the same countenance now shining like neon lights behind snow globes filled with glitter. Motes of verdant light floated off the aura surrounding him like bubbles in a carbonated drink, somehow catching onto the water and rain. It left hints of a rainbow at the periphery of his visage. He looked like a myth come true, but for his muddy looking hair and his sad, tired smile.
Arthur saw the acceptance of his terms in Gideon’s eyes, even if he himself hadn’t realized it. With a reassuring smile and a nod, he touched his shield on the wet floor, storing it in his Vault. He turned… and began running.
“Guys… Arthur has a plan.” Gideon told the others, trying to hide the somberness from his thoughts. “When it’s time, we’re going to jump.”
“Hu…rry…” Ema forced out between heaves. She was on both knees now, hands barely above her head.
Arthur reached the edge of the dome in seconds. With the Heart of Devotion active, his speed was much greater than before. He tore through the monsters outside the dome, battering with his shoulder and swinging his sword. Since he put his shield away, he didn’t have access to his Aegis Arts to send the monsters flying with a charge, but he didn’t need to. All he needed was to move them out of the way, which his high strength stat was more than capable of.
Arthur ran for the huge cyclopean monster. It had entirely lost its mind, its only eye busted and shooting split lasers in every direction as though each piece of its iris left shot a different way. It swung at everything close to it, even its own allies as it raged.
Arthur put his helm onto his head with one hand as he ran, pressing it down until he felt the plush inside against the top of his head. His eyes glowed and were visible through the eyeholes, showing equal parts fear and determination. He could acutely hear his own breathing, coming shallow and quick as he moved as fast as he could. Rain plinked against his armor, sounding loud and clear along with the puddles of water and paper he stomped through on his charge. Each time debris got in his way, he either head-butted or shoulder charged through it, sending tiny pieces flying about. Each time monsters got in his way, he’d do the same or make a running slash with his sword.
It wasn’t long before the cyclopes heard his stomping charge. Swinging its club in Arthur’s general direction with reckless abandon, it also did its best to aim its busted eye laser at him. Red hot blasts of energy incinerated random objects around him as he moved, like deadly laser lights from a disco party. Once he had to block, holding his Aged Blade above him with two hands as the light descended. He wasn’t under it long, but the heat had begun to make him sweat after only seconds. The Aged Blade, however, showed no signs of damage that wasn’t already there.
When he was finally close enough, the boss monster attempted once again to swing at Arthur. Switching from the Intricacies of Exaltation to the Intricacies of Engagement, he jumped forward with everything he had, aiming his blade at the monster’s chest.
With the Heart of Devotion active, the matter of Arthur versus the Marauding Cyclopes was a different matter. During their battle previously, Arthur would have been hard pressed to win alone. He may have whittled it down eventually, especially with his Enraged combination, but it was unlikely that he would have dealt enough damage in time. With the Heart of Devotion active, however, all of his stats jumped by a large amount. His survivability and damage would both leap to new heights, and with the Intricacies of Engagement backing him, there was no longer a question of if he could take the weakened boss tier monster.
He crashed into the monster’s sternum like a green meteorite, sending it onto its back with a slide. Upon the end of its travel, he shifted his grip and braced himself mentally for the carnage that was about to ensue. Getting onto his feet, he dragged the blade along with him on his path to the monster’s face, then past it, bisecting its skull completely with a finishing yank of his sword.
“Go, now!!” He yelled to Gideon in thought. He didn’t hesitate, scooping up Ema then grabbing Aurora with a jump. With the same jump, they went out a window, crashing through what little glass was left. Ema was unconscious, and Aurora was shouting, asking him what he was doing. He willed a Stone Grave to catch them, lowering them to the ground safely but quickly, where he ran with all the speed he could muster away from the collapsing Obelisk.
Arthur’s breathing was labored and deep, the smell and taste of rain visiting his lungs and lips. He swallowed and blinked away the sweat before his labored breath continued as he looked around. The building had begun falling to pieces, larger and larger chunks crashing through flooring that itself was fragmenting. Eyes wide, all he could hear was his own breathing as the floor beneath him gave out, falling while watching the thousands of tons of concrete fall directly onto him.
Sofiya Aguilar and Mira Seigan sat in an elaborate tent around a fire. They discussed the battle they’d just had, with Danny out sifting through the corpses. They’d encountered an interception team on their way back from the mission Eradication issued, likely attempting to silence them before they could report on the whereabouts of their enemies. How they knew about them finding out, they couldn’t say. They’d jumped out from hiding inside buildings, sewers and rooftops, ambushing the party when they thought they were asleep. Even if they were successful, the strength of their attacks wouldn’t have been enough to break through Mira’s healing capabilities.
Sofiya and Mira were long-time friends. As they planned on being in a party with each other for the foreseeable future, Mira had asserted that they were to discuss group tactics at least semi-often to maximize their efficiency. Even before the System arrived, she was not someone you said “no” to… unless your name was Sofiya, of course. Today, however, she was becoming distracted repeatedly.
After the third time, Sofiya decided to poke the bear. “Ooookay what the heck is going on?”
“Hm?”
“You’re more lost than a fire would be in space. It’s not like you to lose focus, so what’s going on?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh please, you’re one step away from looking forlornly into the middle distance.” Sofiya’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Are you thinking about a boy?”
The longer you knew Mira Seigan, the more you knew that knowing her emotions in the moment was essentially a study of different scowls. Mira’s inexplicable, naturally perfect eyebrows scrunched together, turning her porcelain features into an ugly, ice cold glare filled with threat.
“OH MY GODS you were!!”
“Shut up.”
“Who is it?!” Sofiya quickly crawled forward to get closer to her friend’s extremely unwelcoming visage. “Is it Walker? All the girls like him, you know he’s married right?? Is it Kim Eunsaek? Since you spend so much time at the ‘Rads building, it’d make sense. Wait… don’t tell me it’s… Henry Sawyer?! You know he’s the guy that was ogling you that one night!”
“Don’t be disgusting. Besides, he was watching all of us. We still don’t know who got the highest score for stares.”
Sofiya laughed, smacking her unwilling participant’s thigh repeatedly. “It was obviously you, Thunder Thighs! None of the rest of us were even close! So it isn’t him then?”
“Like I said, don’t be disgusting. Even if he wasn’t a creep, I’d have no interest in someone who spends all their time in a coliseum while the world ends around us.”
“Then who is it?! I’m not leaving you alone until you spill the beans!”
“This is so stupid. First off, it isn’t like that, it’s just someone whose skills would’ve helped. That’s all.”
“He’s a support class then?”
“No. He’s a tank type.”
Sofiya recoiled, looking at Mira like she was crazy. “Then… you mean Fredrick? That’s the only tank type in the city who isn’t crap. Why do you think he’d have helped? Raising the monsters aggression towards him would have helped a bit, sure, but with a healer like you, damage dealers can do the same thing just fine. And that’s assuming their raised aggression would have been enough to keep the enemies on him at all.”
“It isn’t Fredrick either. Arthur’s better than him.” Mira said offhandedly. While it seemed like she was always in control, she had emotions of her own. Flustered by her friend’s constant probing, she’d let something slip that she normally never would. She grimaced, that friend’s amusing look evolving into a wolf’s grin while Danny summoned his first revenant outside.
“‘Arthur’, is it? Sounds like a goody-two-shoes… is he? How does he look?! Is he cute?!” Mira groaned at Sofiya’s antics again. It was going to be a long night.