The most intolerable thing about being a ship’s marine was that, at certain points of the action, Riley could do nothing but watch. Anything he did would result in nothing of particular note or consequence. He didn’t have the strength of Animus to destroy a squid ship with a single plasma bolt. Anything less than that would only allow his target to pull back and recover, while one of the hundreds more would take its place.

No, the only thing he could do was sit and pray to the Ancestors. That Captain Brogin knew what he was doing. That there was a Chaos Channel near them, in the depths of the Rumiga plane. And that the squid ships and their Chaos dwellers would capsize and die.

But no. None of his prayers were answered, and the situation grew worse and worse. The Sullen Striker and the Shattering Spear were slowly losing ground, and in less than an hour at most, they would be within range. But he could hope.

The Sullen Striker lurched and changed orientation downwards. If not for the runescript lines embedded within the deck planks, neither he nor the rest of the deckhands would have been able to keep to their feet.

“Why are we going deeper?” Riley muttered.

A glance at the Chaos flows gave him the answer. They were all headed directly to a spot a few hundred paces away. Distances in the Chaos Sea were fluid, but he was sure it wouldn’t be a few minutes until they reached the centre of the vortex. And since he could also see the planar Veil, that meant it was the Chaos Channel!

The remaining two Chaos ships hurled towards it, pushing the Animus Engines to the brink. Riley felt the deck tremble with the overloaded power, but it was necessary. The nearest squid ship was just beyond attack range.

“There!” Someone screamed as the Striker turned to the right so sharply that the adhesion runescript on the deck planks couldn’t keep them on their feet.

“Ahh!” Riley yelled as he slammed into the railing. Reflexively, he grabbed it and braced, but he snapped a hand out to catch a deckhand’s ankle as he went flying past. The boy was lucky. Another one passed by just out of reach and slammed into the Veil. A ripple cascaded away, but it wasn’t the impact that killed him. The Chaos Sea flooded into the poor man’s orifices, and he swelled up like a balloon, then his flesh twisted. Some bits of him turned to stone, others to grotesque parodies of flesh and bone.

Riley gritted his teeth. It was too late to help once that much Chaos went into the body. The deckhand, Felmor, who was a bit older than he was, but was only an Apprentice, was already dead. Not unless he could control the Chaos and change. Even so, that kind of change ruined the mind and returned something even worse than death.

A blink of an eye later and Felmor was caught by a squid ship’s tentacle and brought into the behemoth’s maw. He could imagine the sickening crunch even if he couldn’t hear. Another moment later, and they were through the Chaos Channel.

The turbulence shook the Sullen Striker and made it even worse for the Shattering Spear behind them. The Channel was a tunnel barely big enough to fit the Chaos ship, and their movement slammed them across the walls.

Riley whipped the deckhand he saved back on deck. The boy tumbled across the planks but managed to catch himself on a barrel. The rest of the crew looked to be in similar shape, having found anchors to save themselves. Wait. Where’s Aidan?

Riley looked around desperately, and only heaved a sigh of relief when he saw his elder brother holding on to the main mast. Huh, both of them were Knights and could live through the Chaos Sea, but with so many enemies around…

Bam! Boom!

The ship’s Protective Sphere curved inwards as it hit the tunnel walls. The Sullen Striker bounced away, but since the other side was so close, they smacked against it less than a second after. They bounced back and forth between the walls, like a ball. Riley’s feet left the deck, floating above him at times, while his head whipped to and fro, hard enough that he blacked out for a few moments. The next thing he knew, a horrific crash deafened him, and then, he was airborne.

He gasped as his eyes widened in fear. It was completely dark, or so dim that his eyes hadn’t adjusted yet. Then…

Bam!

He slammed into a pillar that crumbled under him and deposited him to a stony surface. Ah, there was light now. Bluish white from the ship’s Protective Sphere…and red-orange from fire.

Boom!

The Shattering Spear! Riley gaped as he turned to the Chaos Channel. The Striker had ploughed a furrow into the stone and slammed into a pillar, while the Shattering Spear had… well, shattered. Pieces of runescripted wood, metal, and glass were flying through the air. The shockwave of the crash blew dust and stone all over. The light from the Chaos Channel was dim, obscured by falling stones.

He could see figures backlit by the fire and Animus light. He could see a bit into the Channel, and he saw a squid ship attempting to enter. More importantly, he could see Chaos dwellers pushing their way in.

His hands grasped for his Plasma Caster. It had been holstered next to the Animus Gatherer Pack, and he retrieved and readied it within moments. A reflexive check on its storage told him the pack was full, but it could no longer create Animus now that they weren’t in the Chaos Sea.

The security of the plane was a good trade-off, in Riley’s opinion. While he no longer had access to an unlimited amount of Animus, the Chaos dwellers wouldn’t fare any better. In fact, they would bleed out their reserves the longer they stayed here, and the plane would leech some of the potency out of their techniques. A small edge was enough to ensure victory.

He aimed and shot a penetrative bolt at an incoming dweller. The bolt drilled through the Protective Field as if it weren’t there, and disintegrated the creature’s head. It dropped like a rock and flopped on the stone. There were more targets, however.

He shot at the incoming dwellers, and soon enough, more plasma bolts flew from the survivors. Riley didn’t know how many died in the crash, but he could fend off the dwellers and allow the others to rescue those who were only wounded. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the other marines shooting, while a few others ran towards the Spear’s wreckage and pulled survivors away.

Three Chaos ships managed to get past the blockade. One blew itself up to hold back pursuit, while the second was destroyed when entering the plane. The last surviving ship was barely intact, and Riley didn’t know how long it would take to make it worthy of sailing the Chaos Sea again. If they would even get the chance to.

More and more dwellers pushed through the Channel, and there was an endless amount of them. They couldn’t hold here forever. Maybe not even an hour or two. But it was just enough to salvage what they could, and…

“Riley! We’ll have to blow the engine,” Aunt Layla said as she ran towards him. “Move farther away but hold the line after!”

His diminutive aunt, relatively small compared to the brothers, but she was actually above average in height for an Imperial woman, looked as if she had just risen from bed. Her hair was sticking out, she had smudges on her face, and her clothes were rumpled something fierce. Not that he was any better, to be honest.

“Go! Do what you must!” he answered.

Aidan had managed to make his way beside Riley, and above his palm, he’d created a plasma ball the size of his head. He didn’t use it to attack, but to illuminate the cavern they found themselves in.

A Chaos Channel wouldn’t lead to an enclosed space, or if it did, it wouldn’t stay enclosed for long. The Chaos flows from varied channels was why most planes had extensive tunnel networks underneath its surface, and the self same Chaos prevented collapses. Which meant that there was always a path, and eventually, that path would lead to the surface. They’d succeeded in their mission, somewhat.

Now, if only they could survive long enough to make it out of the depths.

________

The sunshards careened from Yuriko’s side and penetrated the giant ant’s carapace. Sparks of lightning spat from its antenna, but ultimately, she was too far for its shocking attack to even reach her. The ant was the size of a dog, roughly a pace long and about half that high. The mandibles were big enough to easily cover her wrist, and no doubt, strong enough to snap it. Well, if she were still a Journeyman, probably.

As it were, the ants, despite the lightning sparks snapping from its head, weren’t that dangerous. Its carapace was more than enough to repel spears, but they weren’t able to stand up to the hammer side of a poleaxe. About half of the guards used a poleaxe instead of a halberd, with the main difference being that one had a spike opposite the axehead as opposed to a hammer. Good thing too, since even the halberd’s spike side was barely enough to penetrate the chitin.

Well, they could use more training, Yuriko decided. The guards using Empowered Strike with the halberds were just making the weapon heads sharper and tougher. It only took a twist of perception, and a bit of Will, to change the enhancement the technique gave so that it would deliver a blunt blow instead. She would remedy that as soon as she could, but she was ashamed to admit she forgot about that aspect of technique training.

‘The fact that I don’t need to be as versatile doesn’t really excuse anything,’ she thought to herself. Her sunshards slaughtered a dozen more giant lightning ants and they pushed their way towards the obsidian tower. It was only two and a half leagues from the valley wall, and she hadn’t expected this much trouble.

The ants came out from a burrow not a longstride from the edge. She had come across it a couple of hours ago, and she initially thought it was just a cave or a sinkhole. When the ants began marching out, she didn’t react. Until they started spitting lightning bolts at her, anyway. She didn’t discover that the entire western side of the forest from the tower was filled with such ant hills, and she half thought it would have been faster to go back and find a different route.

She felt the pressure of passing time, however, and she didn’t want to waste more than was necessary. So, she and a few others, the Knights, and Adepts of the group ventured to clear the path.

Boom!

A large tree fell down on an ant hill, squishing a few ants in the process and blocking the tunnel. Heron yelled in victory, holding up his muscular arms and the Anima-enhanced axe. Yuriko waved at him and he beamed, before turning towards another potential tree to chop. He jumped over to the next one, held out a hand and a thumb to check the angle, rubbed his hands in glee, then started chopping. Wood chips sprayed from the trunk as he slammed and slammed into the wood. The tree was wider than he was tall, but with his condensed aura, it was as simple as cutting paper.

“Timber!” he yelled enthusiastically as the second tree fell and buried more ants.

Yuriko grinned. That was rather adorable, ehehe.

It took the rest of the day, and half of the next before they finally made it to the obsidian tower. The mists enshrouded the top as she stared up at it warily. The others set up camp and they would enter the tower tomorrow morning, but for now, she needed to check.

She took a running leap and kicked off the stone walls. She propelled herself all the way up to the roof in a few seconds and landed on the slanted stone easily. But it was empty, and there was no sign that Sage had ever been here. Not even the lightning marks from where she had taken the storm to empower herself.