Corvayne got up, swapping to [[Vitality]] as soon as he felt hot pains lancing through his muscles. He had likely strained most of his legs and arms, but the fact that he wasn't cooked at the moment meant that he had gotten to and correctly hit the shield button. He also didn't feel itchy, so it wasn't likely another nuke.

Getting his bearings and his night vision back, he found the truck had rolled onto it's wheels. He pushed himself through the doorframe he had broken apart. The sky had turned red, never a good sign.

"Everyone okay?" He called into the back.

Preshe's head popped out of the twisted doorframe. "I was coming to check on you. Regroup?"

"Regroup, retreat." He smiled that she was thinking straight, then climbed up onto the top of the truck to try to see what had caused a nuclear or psudo-nuclear blast. The town was in shambles, and there were fires on some of the stone buildings and signs that all sorts of defensive skills and charms had activated, including mirrored bubbles and circles cut out of the area where emergency teleports kicked in.

Lady Blood Claw and Spears were up on the truck next to him as he looked further on the high plains and saw a figure riding out of the heat distortion. Four other riders were around them, though the one in the lead had no horse. Corvayne's eyes narrowed as the rippling heat revealed a figure riding a staff.

Green robes trailed behind the masked figure, and Corvayne felt anger flare in him. His shadow hands snaked out of him and did as close to an impression of a hissing cat as a hand could get. Along side the mage, four women on various mounts with white dresses rode, trailing bits of cloth that were singed from riding through the fire.

He was about to turn back to start sprinting the source and get the hell out of there, but Lady Blood Claw surged forward, leaping off the truck and running forward under the effects of haste and swiftness. Her skin had started flashing hundreds of colors, like a splatter painting.

"Shit." Corvayne leapt off the truck and hit the ground running, pushing back into [[Agility]] and instantly felt his muscles rebel at the abuse he had been putting them through in the last minute. Lady Blood Claw had some sort of haste effect going and thus outpaced him, skidding to a stop before she ran into The Magus, who pulled up short with his staff, which whinnied like a horse. A moment later the four figures that had flanked him were surrounding him and Lady Blood Claw.

The masked figure stopped and looked down at her, staff floating and bobbing and making clomping noises.

“Well? What?”

Lady Blood Claw looked up at him. “Why?! I want to know why you abandoned me!”

The Magus looked at her, head tilting this way and that. He looked upwards, and Corvayne could see green glowing energy in three eye sockets looking up.

“Don't remember who you are.”

“I was supposedly your apprentice! You tossed me in a tube and left me for dead! I want to know... WHY?!”

The Magus held a hand up as the Brides around him for a moment moved in. Corvayne watched them rather then the wizard on the staff. One on a mechanical horse. Elemental weapons with hints of fire, earth, water, and wind enchantments on all the ones strapped to her ride. Another had three wands and was covered in scars where she wasn't wrapped in alabaster. She sat on what looked like a fuming blue shooting star, the meteorite making a slight hissing noise like a pilot light left on. One rode what looked like a tiny giraffe, sitting sideways. The third woman was nearly naked, but he saw hints of little artifacts rearranging themselves over her skimpy clothes. The fourth rode a horse, both with silver hair running wild and cyclopian masks. Single eye faces adorned her armor covering everything else. Her weapon was clearly a huge blade slung across her back.

The Magus finally spoke. “Oh YOU. I dumped you because your incomplete. Broken. I can teach you MAGIC, but you would be boring with it. You are BORING. Half made. Like so many oddballs. Don't you feel it? That you are something less then whole? You would just latch onto me. Boring.”

Corvayne stepped forward. “That's a load of bullshit.”

“Oh ho ho! I remember you! Nameless one! You broke a curse of mine, didn't you? Hmm Hmm Hmm. You were, uh huh, the umm... child of that annoying person who imprisoned me! Tch. You are weak. Not even worth the whole ride out here! I was ready for a fight! OR something. Something interesting. Something that would amuse me. Let's see... Curses!”

He point a finger at Lady Blood Claw, and she doubled over, hissing as she clenched her guts. “That's a good one! Bad Root. It makes plants grow inside her. How do you feel now, want to get strong and get revenge? We'll have an epic fight, on a tree! That would make it all line up.”

Corvayne drew his weapon. “Undo it. Now.”

The Magus snorted. “What? My work? No! You swine, you have no idea the struggle I went to get the powers I have. Nor the CARE I take in it! I am an artist! I think of... great new curses all the time! Like you, so proud of your weapons. But what if you were... BAD at them?”

He flung a hand at Corvayne.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

[Same curse already in effect, no change.]

“How does it feel? Your muscles limply trying to guide your heavy, slow, pathetic weapon. Hope you know a few spells! Oh ho ho ho!”

Lady Blood Claw had stopped shifting colors and was in a camo pattern, [[Unity]] radiating pain that Corvayne could feel himself at a remove. Under it all was something raw, a feeling from LBC of being utterly worthless.

Corvayne burst forward, using [Storm Thrust] and aiming for the Magus's neck. A glowing blade made of silver blocked his spearhead, then swept him back onto his feed.

He slid away as the one he tagged as Cyclopian Bride moved to block him from The Magus, who's staff was now bucking and whinneying. The wizard reached a hand up and there was a hat he hadn't been wearing that he was steadying.

“WOAH Staffy! Easy girl!”

The Cyclops took a step closer, “You are unworthy to touch him.”

Corvayne took a step back. [[Understanding]] emphasized how dead the woman's voice was. There was something mechanical and... linked... in how they moved as they started circling him, but it didn't feel like the bonds of [[Unity]]. At best the Cyclops was smothered obsession.

A dagger started ablaze from the Elemental Bride. “This is his world. He is the strongest being that has ever been.” Resignation.

There was a flick as the clothes Skimpy Bride was wearing formed a whip, nearly tagging Corvayne 's own neck. The fact that she was nude when she attacked would have distracted him, but Corvayne was fully aware that he was angry, and every moment they circled and spoke he was building something.

Her voice was teasing. “You don't stand a chance, little boy.” He caught the hysteria of someone desperate for attention.

Wandslinger Bride ran a finger along a deep gouge in her arm, rigid in her saddle. “No one stands a chance. He is The Magus. The true champion of the system. [The Hero].” She was calm like an icy lake when she spoke, but there was incredible rage under it all. It was like a paper bag over a volcano to [[Unity]], but her exterior might as well have been a cold dead moon...

The Elementalist made the first move behind him, and Corvayne responded with [Juxtapose] flinging her into Wandslinger, who at the same time drew and blasted with some sort of wand-skill barrage. Corvayne didn't bother seeing if the screaming from Elementalist was surprise or real pain, instead swooping to grab Lady Blood Claw and then toss her onto Elementalist's mount. He hopped up on it and reached into the neck, hot wiring it. How the hell did he know how to do that? Who cares. He pulled the Reign for max throttle and the machine hit a hundred miles an hour before he knew it, blasting through a hill before he pushed himself down in the saddle and let his Shadow arms tie LBC behind him.

He glanced back once he had guided the horse to not blow through a brick wall, and saw three brides in pursuit. He could probably just run for the portal. Another chase, like any number he had had before... no. Fuck these harpies, and fuck the Magus's apathy for Lady Blood Claw. He reached into his bag and pulled out one of the emergency potions he had requested Kirae shop for. Gold liquid swirled inside, and even with the stopper on it reeked of chemicals and whatever vile ingredients were needed to brew it. It was the worst thing he had ever tasted, but it was a potion that promised pure potential for two minutes.

Corvayne veered to a brick wall, then did a hard stop instead of just using it as cover for the wand. He started remembering things. Martial arts training.

He stepped out and used [Cross Skill: Giga Clothes Liner] and felt his spear perfectly pull him forward to the spot he wanted to hit: Wandslinger's solar plexus. The faster she went, the more it would hurt, and she was doing two hundred miles an hour on her mount, the flaming star screaming as it went into an out of control spiral and turned part of the ground into magma.

He ran to the fallen bride and picked her up while switching to [[Strength]] then used [Cannonball] to fling her at the Cyclops, who coldly used the flat of her blade to deflect, but not enough to stop her from getting her mount's feet tangled up. She pushed herself off the horse and threw her blade. Corvayne couldn't see where Elementalist or Nudist were, so he forced his shadow hands out and felt one catch on a rock, and he used [Juxtapose] on it right away, putting a surprised mostly naked woman holding two blades right in the line of fire from her ally.

There was a low sound of something blowing up across the way and Corvayne spotted a circular globe of mud that let him know Spears had entered the fight. He leapt over the wall where he left LBC and jumped right at the Cyclops, who had recalled her blade and put it up in a parry. Corvayne saw from a faint blue glow she was in a greatsword counter stance, probably [Dragon's Tail], so he took his own spear and activated his own [Dragon's Tail] at the same time as using [Cross Skill: Death From Above] into his foot, the upgraded version of [Leap Strike] covering it with shadow, his foot vibrating between black and blue auras as it struck, she absorbed the attack and doubled it, then Corvanye used his spear to absorb the attack, double it again, and add some interest which slammed Cyclops into the ground like a black meteorite, so hard that she started skipping like a stone, rolling and trailing an increasingly brown bridal veil behind her.

Lady Blood Claw was getting to her feet behind him. Which was good, because he wasn't sure how long he had before The Magus himself jumped into the fray or even how he (or it, really) would actually fight. The Elementalist was pulling out an electric whip, so Corvayne pulled a steel rod out of his storage ring and then threw gravity into it while honing his focus on the woman charging her whip, then threw what felt like an entire world with [Mass Driver].

He wasn't sure if he killed the woman or not, only that she vanished. The Cyclops was charging him again, and Corvayne knew he was dropping off on his potion in a few seconds so he met her charge with his shadow limbs slamming into her face as he dove around her blade, then planted his spear into her back with [Cross-Skill: Backstab] and with a pop sent the armored foe flying once more. Lady Blood Claw was fighting off the nude nanite user so Corvayne used his last bit of energy to slam a rock with [Sundering Blade] [Sundering Strike] right where she was jumping back to, shredding her gear.

There was, what he felt, was a genuine [[Unity]] bridge of outrage then Lady Blood Claw hit her with something that turned her blade into a lava dragon that sent the woman flying head over heels off into the distance.

From above, Corvayne saw the moon looking at them then firing a pinpoint laser nearby. The potion ended and he felt Spears grabbing his cloak and dragging him into a sprint towards what looked like the truck running on six legs towards him. He stumbled for a moment then used [[Agility]] and ignored that everything was aching.

He turned to Lady Blood Claw, then to Spears. “Is that ours actually?”

“Huh?” Lady Blood Claw said, less clear minded then Corvayne had ever seen her.

“YES” Spears said.

The thing the truck had changed into scooped them up in sinewy arms flaked with melted metal truck parts, clearly some sort of camouflage and started running on five legs for the Source, and Corvayne could look back and see that The Magus was pointing at them with his staff. His eyes traced what looked like a white light from above as the moon fired something at the wizard and once more he felt itchy radiation before the living Juggernaut blew through the temporary structures around the largest tower entrance and wiggled into it like a worm.

Gylwin was waiting by the tower entrance and did something that sliced it off the rock it was on and sent the structure hurtling off into the blank sky of the floor they entered.

Corvayne saw that Bell and Preshe were okay and wrapped them in a hug, but was rudely interrupted by Gylwin tugging on his shirt.

“We need to keep moving. Get aboard Juggy.” She looked and radiated frustration. Corvayne guessed she was hoping to ambush the wizard and perform some monster version of a backstab.

Corvayne looked back at the reptilian eye of the flat thing with a bunch of metal stuck to it that he had assumed was a vehicle up to a minute ago. “What about Diamond? The moon? Everyone else?”

“She is going to hit and run. We go deep into the tower. Hide, then regroup. Write Cascadia off as dead.”

Corvayne got into the cab above the monster's head and helped his family in. Mosh hopped on the hood and pulled a reign out. June pulled out what looked like part of a cow and fed it, it said “Thank you” in a low voice, then moments later they were zooming along on a winding road to nowhere in particular under a bleak black sky.

It was the first retreat that Corvayne somehow felt like a win.