Chapter 31 — Raging Flames and Inexorable Ice

For the moment, Jessi, Yillian, and Klode were holding the front against the swarm of spiders suddenly assaulting them. Xyn looked back to see Hoss and Alennil doing their best to hold the rear against a similar swarm that had filled the tunnel behind them, trapping them in.

Well… ‘doing their best’ was probably underselling Hoss, at least. The journeyman was a one-man source of mass arachnid destruction. His punches and kicks caused shockwaves in the air that damaged anything nearby, and when he clapped his hands together, waves of pressure threw entire swaths of spiders back, rupturing them into gooey messes.

At first, Xyn thought Hoss was using a unique Path based on Air, but it was something different—a combination of sound and pressure, maybe. Even in their dire situation, Xyn again felt joy at joining the Society and getting the chance to witness so many rare martial arts.

Jessi was impressive in a different way with her quick bladework poisoning and paralyzing anything she managed to scratch. She was also highly mobile with her movement technique letting her run along and kick off from the tunnel walls and ceiling as she spun about launching and retrieving her aura-coated knives.

As for himself, unlike when fighting plants, many of his techniques were effective against spiders. His Fluttering Petal swordwork was particularly useful against the spiders’ many eyes, stunning and spooking the spiders with the bright flickers of reflected light, causing them to obstruct the continued progress of the swarm. His Breath of Sleep incapacitated nearby swaths of the swarm at key moments. And his illusion of flames was supplemented by real fire from Yillian and Alennil, improving its believability, though the real fire magic did tend to burn off his mist...

Any smaller spiders that slipped through his companions’ defense, Xyn used his sword to exterminate, protecting the two non-combatant victims rescued from the earlier sewer foray that Alennil was using to divine the location of the other victims.

How long could his group keep this effort up? He didn’t know, but eventually their aura and magic would run out. As it was, Yillian had already used up much of the energy in the area by freezing the surface of the water to give room to fight and defend.

Xyn was incredulous at the number of spiders being controlled. Sure, the spiderwebs lining the sewer tunnel had been worrying, but for the numbers and size of the spiders to be like this… how would any group manage to even feed this many?

Surely, controlling the spiders was a bloodline ability rather than magic. But if that was the case, how the hells strong was their opponent?!

Ayla had already been contacted through the medallion and was bringing her fire mage brother, so reinforcements were on the way, but Xyn was beginning to worry that the two wouldn’t be enough.

Shadows on the opposite ledge of the tunnel distorted strangely and erupted upward into a humanoid shape. Xyn was immediately in motion.

“Oh? It’s you two-” the solidifying shadows started to say before Xyn’s blade passed through where the neck would be.

“-Pen and Lori. Hmm?” the shadow continued as it finished forming elsewhere, closer to the two huddling cloaked humans.

This time Xyn’s blade was stopped by a serpentine dagger wrapped in shadows.

“Wait! It’s Tren!” Pen gasped out.

Alennil was looking panicked at the vampire’s sudden appearance, but Xyn saw that the diviner was discreetly preparing a spell, so he held back and waited to hear what the new arrival would say while trying to understand and obstruct the spatial transportation technique used by the vampire.

“You two should join us. With these new abilities no one will hold us down again,” Tren enticed with a fanged smile.

Alennil’s spell hit at about the same time as Yillian’s and the tunnel exploded with blindingly bright sunlight.

Xyn’s sword was in motion again but caught only air. The vampire was gone.

“I-is he dead?” Lori asked into the irritated chittering of the mutant spiders backing away from the glare.

“Hahaha! You can’t win,” Tren boasted from behind where the spiders were forming a roiling cloak of shadows to push back against the light. “It’s only a matter of time. After which, you will join us. One way or another. Hahahaha!”

{Xyn! Yillian! Large-scale fire incoming! Protect yourselves!}

Barely a moment after Ayla’s warning echoed in his head, Xyn saw flames begin pouring down from a sewer grate above the spider swarm.

Eyes going wide at the intensity of the flames, Xyn dropped all his techniques and desperately focused on forming a barrier of mist across the tunnel to protect his companions.

The roaring fire that filled the tunnels greedily sucked the air through his mist and instantly began to flash evaporate his barrier.

“Yillian!” Xyn yelled out just as the last was about to dissipate and the flames showed no signs of stopping.

Yillian’s spell completed and the ice from the frozen water reached up to the ceiling quickly thickening as the elf mage visibly strained, outstretched arms surrounded by large glowing mandalas.

Xyn reformed his mist barrier to reinforce Yillian’s as it began to melt through in places. As quick as it came, the firestorm burned out, replaced by only a blowing wind.

“Holy Hells was that?!” Jessi exclaimed, and Alennil was echoing the sentiment.

“Sir Denathen, Mage of the Raging Flames, the duke’s fire-mage no doubt,” Hoss filled in. “The question being if he’s on our side or not.”

Ayla’s brother was insanely strong!

The tunnel ahead had been cleared down to bare stone, glowing molten metal dripping down from where the grate had been and the water hissing and forming steam as it slowly filled back in. Xyn’s aura told him the remaining spider swarm behind them was retreating. Whether the vampire died or not was impossible to say.

“Xyn! Yillian!” Ayla called out as she dropped down into the tunnel and ran over. “Are you alright?”

“Peachy,” Yillian grumbled.

“More like candied peaches,” Klode revised.

“Ah! My stupid brother!” Ayla vented her worry. “I told him he was overdoing it, but he has this thing about spiders and-”

“The flames needed to be hot enough to melt the metal,” the fire-mage interrupted as he landed and stepped away from the still-cooling metal drippings. “You were the one that said this grate should be far enough away.”

“Your fire has gotten way stronger than I last remembered!” Ayla protested.

“I think it’s expected that I would have improved at least a little since leaving home as a teen.” Denathen smirked then turned his attention to Xyn and his fellow Society members. “Well, no harm was done. So, these are your companions?”

“Yes. Xyn’s a mist-element martial artist from the beastlands. Yillian’s an apprentice mage studying under the Elven master Arienos. Alennil of House Breckan is a diviner,” Ayla introduced, motioning to each in turn. “We’ve been traveling together for a while now. The others, I don’t yet know.”

“I’m guessing this is the Ayla human Yillian mentioned, huh, Xyn?” Jessi asked with a sultry tone as she sidled over and coyly snuck her arm around Xyn’s and fished out Xyn’s tail with her own.

Oy! Xyn complained with his eyes, panicking at Ayla’s raised eyebrow.

“Show the proper respect, Jessi,” Hoss admonished, and pounded his fists together in a martial-arts salute, imbuing just enough aura that the impact echoed powerfully in the tunnel. “I’m Journeyman Hoss of the Crushing Fist. It’s an honor to work with you Lady Ayla of the Burning Rapier.”

Huffing and rolling her eyes at Hoss, Jessi let go Xyn to make a proper martial-arts greeting. “Jessi of the Sinister Blade.”

“Klode of the Unseen Shadow.”

Ayla inclined her head and returned the salute. “Well met. This is my brother, Sir Denathen Ravenhill.”

“Denathen, Mage of the Raging Flames,” her brother corrected with a teasing smirk, sparing only a casual glance at the pair of cloaked humans trying to be as inconspicuous as possible before turning his attention to the shadowy tunnel awaiting them. “I’m not sure whether to be impressed or concerned by the surprising collection of talent present here, but rather than attending to formalities, shouldn’t we be pressing ahead lest the quarry make plans to flee?”

Yillian wiped his mouth and returned a vial to a pouch. “Yes. We should hurry. There’s no telling what the cultists will do to the remaining kidnapped cityfolk. Alennil?”

“Pen. Lori,” The diviner ordered and held out his arm as the mandala formed above his opposite hand.

“D-do you think they’ve all been… changed like Tren?” Lori timidly asked as she and Pen did as told, grasping Alennil’s free arm.

When the light faded, Alennil reported, “They are still alive and in the same direction.”

The pair seemed slightly relieved. “Can anything be done for the ones changed?” Lori asked.

“If the Vampire Lord is killed, they would at least regain their freedom,” Yillian spoke up, but his grim expression didn’t inspire hope. “Whether that would provide comfort for their future victims is doubtful.”

Lori gulped and gripped her cloak tighter.

“Sir Alennil, which direction exactly?” Denathen inquired. “I admit I’m surprised to see you assisting present company.”

Alennil pointed to show the direction. “I have my reasons.”

“That way, huh.” Denathen rubbed his chin. “Should be the catacombs for the Temple of Ellnys that way. I’m sure the healers there would be apoplectic to know vampires have taken up residence in their basement.”

Yillian raised an eyebrow. “Sir Denathen, do you know these sewers well enough to trap them in from the other side?”

“Suppose so,” the fire-mage admitted. “You thinking that enlisting the aid of a few priests wouldn’t hurt?”

Yillian hesitantly nodded. “Priests of Anaseri would be better, but consecrated barriers might help us contain the vampires and the medicinal skills of Ellnys’ faithful could be helpful to the victims suffering from exposure to concentrated Chaos essence.”

Denathen grimaced at the mention of Chaos essence. “Sure. I can probably arrange that. How do we coordinate?”

“I’ll go with you,” Ayla immediately offered.

“Be careful,” Xyn cautioned.

“No way. I already missed too much of the fighting!” Ayla retorted, and Xyn couldn’t help taking in her scent as he grinned fiercely in appreciation of her warrior’s spirit, earning him a secretive numbing claw-poke from Jessi.

The pair of siblings soon left the way they came, Denathen’s jump assisted by magic, Ayla’s by aura.

Sarlen was sitting at his desk working on the theory for an Ice magic that could theoretically siphon off the target’s energy to reinforce the spell. There were still some obstacles that needed to be solved, and he wasn’t sure if the spell could be accomplished solely with Ice element, but it was the kind of spell that would make him unstoppable against fire-mages and land-god swamp horrors alike.

When the door to his study opened and closed by itself, he chuckled. “Was waiting for you guys to show up.”

“So, you’ll join us?” asked the expected voice, as the pair of hooded cultists appeared before him, sharing a glance.

“Can’t see too many other ways for me to grow my power and find a place for myself,” Sarlen admitted with a wry smile and started packing up his writing materials. “So, how do we do this?”