Erika hung from the wall as the hostile vitki turned back to the others, she could tell Erika had Drowned her well… probably, Erika wasn't rank 7 so she didn’t have their senses but she could tell that the woman didn’t see her as a threat.

Erika wished she could say she felt insulted but all she could think was “pain pain pain” as the wound in her shoulder throbbed and screamed and seemed to get worse with every breath.

“My name is the meridian.” She said pleasantly facing off against Sigurn. “I’ve never killed a silver rank before, try not to disappoint me, ok?”

Sigurn blurred forwards, lashing her axe side to side, tearing up the street and throwing entire houses out of her way.

The Meridian seemed to nod to herself and [Grafted], Erika could tell it was a graft but… it was multiple ones at once, a true warform, and she didn’t recognise even a single monster used. Bat like ears, dozens of bulbous eyes growing across head and shoulders, rough feathered wings, a lashing many barbed tails, crab like carapace and pincers atop a pair of slender feline legs. With an almost contemptuous gesture the Meridian reached out and caught Sigurn’s axe in one claw, a silver ranks, caught by a vitki.

Erika hadn't seen a really powerful vitki fight before but even she knew that couldn’t be normal.

“Oh, come on,” the Meridian groaned. “Try harder, will you? I want some good soup stock out of this but if you’re two weak I'm turning you into croutons.”

That seemed to enrage Sigurn, actually enrage her, and Erika got to smile smugly even through her agony as the Vitki taunted a Chosen, maybe this vitki was strong enough to beat a silver fighter but a Chosen?

*BAM*

Forget about it.

Sigurn backhanded the Meridian down the street and, as the warform vitki flew through the air, chased after her. Crackling with lighting, seeming to burn at the edges, she ran faster than the eye could follow and was waiting, as the meridian landed with bone breaking force Sigurn spun in place and caught her perfectly with an axe blow. Erika wasn't a fighter but even she could appreciate the artistry on display, Sigurn had timed it exactly so that the full weight of the meridian’s fall just added into the axe strike, cutting her in half, cracking the plates and bursting her armour.

The warforms eyes flared and glowed, Sigurn leapt backwards as they somehow released a torrent of burning light across the battlefield. Half the street went up in flames even as Sigurn plummeted back down from the sky and activated a divine art, Erika recognised this one, [Wall] A first tier art so simple nearly every warrior could use it.

Combined with her falling from the sky? The [Wall] became a meteor ploughing the Meridian down into the street, cracking the shell of the city beast and releasing a great puff of green flecks, like algae, that soared into the air and drifted gently down across the city.

They seemed to be done messing around, the meridian didn’t banter as she pulled her body back together and started to hurl magick, torrents of [Bile fire] and a lashing [Blood Whip], a rolling tide of [Gorebeast’s] summoned without an incantation, slabs of carved bone and runed ribs sprung from the ground closing around Sigurn like a bear trap even as they plated the Meridian in layers of osseous armour.

This had all taken less than a minute, dozens of insect-people and a handful of delvers had been blown apart just by the fight passing them by, the entire street was on fire and the city itself seemed to be listing to the side.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Erika was speechless, she couldn’t even scream in pain anymore, she’d heard how powerful the powerful were of course… but that had always seemed… abstract? But here they were, a silver rank and an equivalent vitki, destroying an entire city in a handful of heartbeats.

Somewhere to her left a blur of silver light shot forwards, apparently Alvis was getting involved, the echoing retort of thunderarms became to blur together to the ear as he used divine arts to fire faster and faster, Rumblers and Thunderers flying into his hands from metres away and orbiting him as they reloaded like some sort of shield wall of steam and steel.

The thunderarm fire seemed to have forced the Meridian back, the clash of titans moved away across the city as more buildings burned or burst. Erika found herself left behind, sat in a puddle of her own blood surrounded by dead or enraged insect-monster things and a few traumatised delvers.

At least she knew what the insect people were! They were [Bairn] flesh crafted creations made from simple lifeforms and twisted until they became loyal and obedient soldiers, the Meridian was a seventh tier so she could probably make hundreds of them and use them to soften up the expedition… but where had they been hiding? Everyone had checked everywhere, sure they were on the bank roof before but that was because they snuck in through the door, they hadn’t been up there all night.

Erika realised she was trying to distract herself from the pain and encroaching mortality and began to fumble in her robe, her sister had always mocked her for carrying so much stuff in her robes pockets but who’s laughing now!

Scrabbling out a few vials Erika downed three of them before pouring the last over her wound, she hissed and screamed to herself for a moment, she wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do but she’d watched a few plays where they put alcohol on wounds so mead should work right? And the rest was already warming her stomach and smoothing the edge of the pain.

With another sightless fumble Erika found the roll of bandages she’d swiped a few weeks ago and then looked at her shoulder for the first time…

…After she was done throwing up, which incidentally was agony unrivalled with a shoulder wound, she just about managed to avoid passing out as she contemplated having to pull the bone blade out but how…

“Erika!”

Oh, thank the Aesir and the Vanir both.

The levers had gathered their wits and counter attacked by the looks of it, a rush of bodies had passed her by unseen and pushed the Bairn back up the street, the shield wall holding them back as they fought with suicidal frenzy, in the wake of the freshest fighters had come the rest of the expedition, now Ammeris was crouched next to her as Kara scrabbled to hold her hand.

Erika couldn’t even blush at the contact, partly because she was delirious with pain but also because most of her blood wasn't in her body anymore.

“Erika! Stay with me please!”

“Not going anywhere…” Erika murmured, the pain was terrible sure but she wasn't going to die… the blade was still in which kept the blood inside her, oh its was terribly painful and hardly healthy but she’d last a few hours, still it was gratify the way Kara seemed so concerned.

In the distance an explosion ripped a street apart, the deafening crack washing away most of what Ammeris was saying.

“…Deep… Laceration…We can’t remove it!”

Kara was still holding Erika’s hand as Ammeris started mumbling under her breath, grabbing bottles and tools from her pack and beginning to cut away at Erika’s shirt and tunic but not before forcing another vial between her lips. Erika lay back, in herbal heaven, staring up at the sky unseeing as Ammeris grabbed the blade.

“Hold her still.”

Erika opened her eyes… what had happened? Oh, she was on Kara’s lap… that was nice. Oh, her shoulder was covered in white stuff… clouds? Clouds were white.

“… why is she talking about clouds?” Bjorn said, when had he got here?

“I don’t know… Erika… Erika?” Kara had such a pretty voice… oh she was blushing; she was cute when she blushed.

“This should work!”

Ammeris stuffed something cold and glassy into Erika’s mouth, that was rude! What was…

It tasted like old fire, the ashes of a burned hall, sadness, pity, hate.

“AHHHHH!”

Erika leapt upwards and started swearing. “What happened! What was that! By Hels hate and Fenris’ fury that was… awful isn't a strong enough word!”

Ammeris smiled widely. “It worked!”