Member
FernStone
Estylwen
Jacobob The Kat
Mixtape Ghost N
Little Bird
Grijs
Einherjar 906
Bartimaeus
Atrophy
Jack wasn’t fully cognizant of what was happening. He felt the ground shake and the air roar, and saw something in the corner of his vision, but he was anything but alert and aware right now. On one knee, with one empty sleeve and his one good arm pressed against the ground, he felt like someone who’d had one too many drinks of something far above their usual tolerance. Every time he blinked, his eyes practically begged not to be opened again.
Opening one portal to the Void was nothing for him. Opening a particularly large one was doable for a brief moment.
Opening two of that size? He was paying for it.
At least the move worked. He had to stand, and there was nothing to prop himself up against. And it was bright enough to interfere with his teleporting, and if he used any Umbramancy, something would just crack under his own weight.
But he had the radio. He reached for it, and slipped onto his side.
”…I need backup, quickly.”
Lila’s hand let go of the briar spear she found on the ground as it finished healing her body. The bullet wounds were gone, but her body bore the pain of them all the same. This was her first time being shot with actual bullets and it was not a sensation she ever wanted to experience again. As the lingering phantom pain fizzled away she heard the radio crack to life. Her eyes went wide as she realized that it was Jack on the line, and he was needing help.
Lila sent out a telepathic command to her crows to find the emo.
Not all her crows would listen to her without an offering, however, and as such only five headed her command. They began to sweep the island with a feverish intensity. They swooped down at each and every person they could find, getting their eyes on their face and relaying that information back to Lila who checked for Jack. They seemed to like to swoop down on Sully, and Ken, multiple times for some reason. Not that Lila complained when Ken came across her vision. Eventually, one did find the man and Lila quickly hurried to her feet and looked around. She knew where he was but not how to get there. Lila asked her crows to take her there and only one flew back to Lila accepting the command. Lila took a deep breath as that singular crow was Little Shit and his antics within the murder was not great. Still, Jack was in need and Lila would put her faith in a crow that had thus far been an agent of terror.
Lila shot into the air and began to fly quickly behind her crow. The two saw that the zombies were a distance away and missing their guns. Good. As they drew closer Lila saw Jack on the ground and dove like a bird of prey and crash landed next to him, kicking a large dust pile into the air and onto Jack.
“You okay bro,” Lila asked as she remained in the dirt.
”Void portals…” He lazily pushed himself upright. ”Take a toll on me. Usually, manageable. Using the Eustis Veil to stun that monster, though… Worse than usual.”
It was hard to speak fluidly when he was swaying and feeling the ground tilt every which way.
“I got shot for the first time,” Lila added in an attempt to help Jack feel better. Quickly she realized it could have the opposite effect. “This island fucking sucks. Do we want to just lay here until it’s all over or do we want to get back to the others?”
”We do not have a choice. There is too much light for my spells to be reliable, and I am far too close to unconsciousness to fight. We need to stall for time, until Sloane’s group is finished…”
He looked up at Lila, bringing himself up to one knee. ”Once they’ve found what we need… I can get them free, along with Kenshiro. But I can hardly even stand right now.”
“Fuck,” Lila sighed as she pushed herself onto her knees and used her hands to push her upper body up. “How about I get you back to friendly lines and then we can see what else we can do to stay for time,” Lila offered as an option.
”That would certainly help.” The hood obscured his face, but he was smiling. ”Shall we?”
“Do you want to hold on tight spider monkey,” Lila said as a reference to twilight, “or do you need me to carry you” Lila looked over Jack while she took a pause and decided he was even weaker than normal and was liable to fall off her back. As such, she scurried over and picked him up. With a mighty leap and powerful flaps of her wings she carried him forward towards their friendly lines. There was just one thing to nail, and that would be the landing. Thankfully, without the zombies firing there was just only one problem that Lila would need to overcome and that was her continued lack of ability to actually land. As she got close she flared her wings, extended her legs, made contact with the ground, and proceeded to crash and twist and turn until she and Jack came to a stop several feet later.
“Nailed it,” Lila groaned. She made sure to cradle Jack to prevent much damage with the crash landing.
Jack didn’t expel the contents of his stomach with that landing, so that was an upside. He sprawled out over the burnt ground and leaned against a scorched tree, standing up. ”Are you alright?”
“Only my pride is wounded,” Lila sighed.
”Good…” He looked up at the monumental beast that had risen up out of the sea. Jack hated the ocean, it was something he was less willing to explore than the Void itself. Nothing good came from there, that was not the domain of people who breathed air. Someone had been thrown at it, presumably someone not stupid enough to make that out to be a mistake. Jack looked around, and took in the surrounding area.
That seemed to be the only real threat remaining. Beyond whatever summoned it.
”I have an idea. Aaron and I have a joint spell that could banish that thing back into the ocean. Or perhaps somewhere else, at random. But he’ll be teleported as well.” He pointed up at the guy that had been fucking yeeted directly at the titan by Leon.
Lila looked towards the direction that Jack pointed towards and quickly saw that it was Stormy despite the distance. What was he doing? Lila shook her head, the reality of the situation quickly brought a renewed focus. “Okay. What can I do to help? Do you want me to be on standby to catch him or do you need me to do something else,” Lila asked.
”I certainly hope he has a plan for if he falls, but catching him would be wise. Though, I need to find Aaron in order to cast the spell. If he can manage one more Spirit Bomb.”
Lila nodded as she looked around the friendly lines and spotted Aaron a short distance away. “Are you going to be okay if I go run and grab them,” Lila asked as she got ready to leap.
”I’m not dying. Go. I’ll manage.”
Lila erupted forth at great speed, using their wings to glide across the field once more until they grabbed Aaron but once again crashed into the ground with the tackle. Mid tackle Aaron swapped to Aryin and tried to push Lila away. Lila quickly carried her back to Jack.
”What the fuck Lila,” Aryin said as they finally wrestled themself free.
“Jack needs you,” Lila said with a chipper tone.
”Then fucking say that birds for brains,” Aryin seethed.
“What did you call me?”
”Aryin.” Can you manage another Spirit Bomb? I believe we can drown that monster.”
Aryin shifted their focus to the monster and held up their hands. They summoned whatever magic they had left to their muscles in their arms and hands but felt no increased strength. They were spent. Their hands dropped as they looked towards Jack. ” Running on empty. I need to tank some hits from something strong to charge up. No offense but you look like you’re going to die on me again you fucking twink so I doubt you could do it,” Aryin responded as they sighed. How many fucking monsters did these monster fuckers have?
Jack’s shadow hand exploded into existence and reeled out like a slinky. He whipcracked her across the shoulder, making a fist that felt like a brick. ”Give me some credit. It takes more than my own magic to kill me,” he joked.
”That tickled Jack I need something more,” Aryin sighed. The Hallow Blast nuked their reserves so much more than a normal spirit bomb, and it seemed to make it harder for her to recharge. She looked towards Lila. More apparition than woman, did that extend to their strength? ”Hey bird, box me” Aryin said as they spread their arms out wide.
Lila raised an eyebrow.
”Hit me hard.”
Lila raised her arm back. It was held there for a second. The idea of testing her strength intrigued her. She tested her flight which was not great yet. She tested her command over her murder which was no longer great. She’s tested her great durability. Maybe her strength was great as well. She let loose the punch, hitting Aryin right in the right boob, and the hit reverberated across the battle with a loud crack.
Aryin looked down to her boob, and then back up to Lila, and grinned. ” Again.”
Lila swung punch after punch into Aryin's chest, each one sending a shockwave into the nearby area. After several punches, Lila pulled her hand back and shook it. The stone wall hurt her hand, and she could not throw another. Aryin looked up to Jack and smirked.
”Ready.”
Jack nodded and raised his hand up high. Wisps if black fog trailed off his fingers, and swirled up into the shape of an orb. He held that out for Aryin.
”I’ll send us through the Eleventh Path and then high above the creature, so we do not risk being swept away.” The idea was to build momentum and go sky high, then come back down safely post-blast.
”We are so going to be the talk of the coven after this.” Aryin winked as they swapped forms, before they channeled their magic into a fresh spirit bomb in the palm of their hand. As soon as it matched the size of the orb in Jack's hand Aaron pressed the spirit bomb into it.
Their magic blended together, turning energy into cosmological dross. Jack’s purple Lux, mixed with Aryin’s green, equaled a dimensional weave, the sort of thing that the very fabric of space was made of. Black, swirling with shades of purple and blue perpetually falling inwards on itself. Space curved around the sphere, rippling and pulsing around the edge of their spell.
”Away we go.”
Jack took a step closer to Aaron, and a door to the Eleventh Path opened up underneath them, parallel to the ground. They fell through it, into the sky far above the building in the pocket dimension.
Aaron fell downward with a smile on their face. This monster would not know what hit it. That smile quickly disappeared as the reality of falling from a great height sunk in momentarily. It was a very human fear and so buried deep was it that Aaron nearly screamed at Jack about how they could not fly nor could they glide. Yet all it took was a second to think to remember that even if something went wrong, they could survive a fall like this. At least, she could.
“WE ONLY HAVE ONE SHOT WITH THIS. I’LL BE FULLY FULLY TAPPED,” Aaron shouted to Jack.
”If this succeeds, that will be perfectly fine!” He shouted back, over the rush of wind. The door opened up again underneath them, just before they hit the roof of the building. It was a long fall, thirty seconds at minimum, and when they returned to Shimmer, they weren’t falling.
They were rising. All that momentum seamlessly transitioned from down to up in a way that only a purple Adept could pull off. They were at least a hundred feet directly above the titan, their tangled bomb of spatial warpings carried along with them.
At the apex of their ascent, Jack shouted.
”Now!”
They began to fall again, and released the spell: Darkness, Fall Upon Them.
The Spirit Bomb fell like a meteor, and they fell back into the Eleventh Path, returning again to Shimmer as the door spat them out. Jack rolled across the ground and landed on one knee before the bomb even hit the titan off in the distance.
Aaron swapped back to Aryin and rolled off the impact as best she could but she swapped a moment too late and felt numerous points off pain along their arm and back. “Did we kill it,” Aryin panted as they kept their eyes on the sky, breathing shallow and quick breaths. So much of their energy was spent. They would need a couple days of rest now to do anything of substance. She only hoped that her actions today were enough.
”Perhaps.” Jack held a hand out to help Aryin up, watching the Spirit Bomb fall to displace that thing somewhere further away from here than where it stood.
A short distance away
Meanwhile, Stormy was also looking up at the sky and wondering who’s damn idea it was to drop that on it. Wherever the skeletal titan went, it sure as hell wasn’t where he went.
Lynn tried to avoid the falling man, taking several steps away from where his trajectory was pulling him, but her curse was always active. A telepathic force pulled Stormy as he fell and he was forced to fall directly on the back of Lynn who crumbled under his weight. She felt a few pops, and a surge of pain from her ribs and her back.
“I think you blew my back out in a not fun way” Lynn whimpered from the ground underneath Stormy.
With a groan, Stormy looked up at his surroundings. That spell had teleported him away from Elysium Island, and he landed right on top of Lynn.
”What in the goddamn- Lynn? Anya?” He stood up, checking if Lynn was alright. ”Christ, I had no idea they were going to do that to the skeleton, I’m sorry.”
“Just happy to be involved.”
