Chapter 84 – Proof of Power
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Chapter 84Proof of Power.

Crystal slammed her shield into the shambler, the undead screaming at her as its flesh melted and it was thrown back, claws digging into the road as it tried to stop its momentum, concrete shrapnel flying everywhere. Hissing, it glared at her, eyes taking on a deep red glow as a second mouth opened in its midsection, all serrated teeth and dripping saliva. Like it had been born out of a horror movie or something. It was ghastly and disgusting, and so very much wrong, something deep within her absolutely revolted at its mere existence, but, to her, terrifying it was not. Crystal roared at it, the soft feminine sound still managing to reverberate through the cavern, wings propelling her forward as she smashed her shield into it again, the shambler stumbling sideways as Erstes Solas materialized in her hand, blade blazing white hot as she then proceeded to cleave clean through its shoulder.

"That's not very lady like," Rachael teased as her fists impacted another, the flames of light on her fists tearing through it, the shambler screeching in response. A solid kick, with her wings providing height and power, sent it tumbling unceremoniously to the side, a mass of arms and legs as it crashed into the wall of an adjacent building.

"No, but very dragon like," Crystal replied with a laugh. The shambler lunged at her, Crystal side stepping with ease, blade cauterising the other shoulder before she plunged her sword into its skull, flesh disintegrating around it.

Fairweather and Clocky were standing just outside of the warehouse entrance, still dressed in their guard outfits, finishing off a shambler with their fluid teamwork, while Tsugua, also still posing as a guard, was crouching in the shadows of the first level’s balcony, periodically firing flaming shots from a crossbow, keeping the other shamblers from getting too close to them.

Catlin, Carmen and Myne were standing behind them. While Carmen had offered to fight, Rachael had voiced that it would probably be easier if she observed at first. They didn’t really know the full breadth of the situation, and they might also need to distract any squads that turned up. Catlin and Carmen were of course in disguise as well, but like herself and Rachael, Myne was just wearing her usual outfit. Horns and helmets did not mix, and Hope had let them know just how much Fairweather was not enjoying having her ears squashed. Crystal could definitely understand that.

I thought there was only meant to be three?” Crystal questioned as the one in front of her collapsed, the body still turning to dust. She turned her attention to one of the ones that had been eyeing up Fairweather and Clocky, its body sporting half a dozen bolts that it seemed to be oblivious of, especially now that the flames had gone out.

Your complaining?” Rachael laughed with a grin, as she dodged an attack from a shambler that had scrambled down off the roof of another warehouse and foolishly tried to engage her. Her fist flared as she made it a foot shorter, a kick then launching it into the air. She wasn’t holding back at all, and she was rather distracting. In a good way of course.

Crystal grinned, batting her eyelashes at Rachael, before she launched herself towards the next shambler, discretely forming an array on the surface of her shield as she did so.

There were only three originally. The other six came to ‘life’ as we arrived.’ Spectre was sitting with Kitsune beside Catlin.

And the guards?’

Being cowards?’ Crystal couldn’t tell if Spectre was being sarcastic or not. ‘Holding back at least it seems, once they realised that there were shamblers present, and that they were being engaged. Our arrival didn’t change that at all, if you don’t count that they moved more out of the way. They have been sending signals back and forth, rudimentary radio waves, and a bigger squad appears to be closing in. And some more shamblers too, though it seems as though they will turn up behind us, between us and the path of the squads, if they keep to the same direction as what they are taking.’

You think the other squads will join it?’

I think that is a given.’

We should wrap up this lot then, and reposition ourselves.’

Indeed.’

Crystal slammed into the shambler as it lunged towards her, the undead screeching as it impacted with her shield, the stench of its burning flesh downright disgusting. Crystal kept her momentum, launching herself over it, her sword making short work of its arms as it tried to swing around to face her. She then danced out of the way of its jaws as it tried to snap at her, before again plunging her blade into its skull. Yes, they were fast, but still very much predictable. A part of Warrior’s blessing.

She could certainly feel the ancients approval.


As Spectre had assumed, all of the squads of guards turned up just at the same time as the second wave of shamblers appeared, the undead sprawling out of the alleys half a block down from them, as the guards rounded the road at the end of the block. The cavern lights had become a lot brighter from a dull but friendly yellow, to a harsh white that sought to banish any form of shadow, but interestingly enough it still seemed to be isolated to just the sector that they were in, the cavern further out remaining mostly dark. It did however mean that they were clearly visible, though to most onlookers it would just be a guard squad flanking three very strange and unarmed touched. And at the other end of the block there was the twenty guards, two squads of five flanking the larger group of ten. While they all still wore the same uniform, the larger group appeared to be better equipped. Less weapons overall, but better quality. At least according to Spectre.

What, you doubt my analysis?’

Not at all,’ Crystal smiled at her cat-fox, who was back to standing by her feet, tail swishing slowly. It’s analysis and scanning capabilities were mind blowing, when she actually took the time to think about the sort of information that they were able to provide them with, especially since she knew for certain that in the right environment they’d be capable of much more. To think that they’d been created during her age was actually quite hard to believe.

Why thank you for the compliment.’ There was a level of smugness to his voice. He did indeed know just how special they were. ‘It also appears that there is a channeller in that middle group. I’m registering a number of devices as well as what is likely a gauntlet all on the one person. He/She is the one powering the radios that they are using. There is something off about some of the results though that I can’t quite place.’

Crystal wasn’t surprised at that. The apparent raid on the warehouse seemed to indicate that some attention was being given to what was going on, and their arrival would have only compounded that. They hadn’t even taken any effort to hide their drop into the city, although they had made a softer landing than normal. Softer being accompanied by a disappearing dragon. The usual shtick. At least it had still being dark.

The new shamblers on the other hand, even given their theatrics and messy entrance, only numbered five. They paused in the middle of the street, looking around in both directions as if sizing up their prey, before a solitary one charged towards the guards, the remaining four tearing towards them. An unusual show of intelligence from what she’d seen thus far, and a strange decision at that. If they were going to attack the weakest enemy, then wouldn’t they all do so? Not to mention that they were then targetting the wrong side.

a charade.

theatrics for the sake of it,

a ploy to mask the true intentions.

a waste.

Warrior did not seem happy at all, but Crystal could see what she was getting at. Someone else was pulling the strings in the background.

Any unusual readings?’

Too many. I don’t have all of the necessary data to make sound conclusions on it all, but there were spikes when they paused, till they got far enough away from each other. The point of no return for their charge.’

Even given that, the question of why remained. Why even bother in the first place.

They’re trying to mask whose behind it all, and likely measure our strength,” Rachael answered, stretching her arms as they watched the shamblers shamble their way quickly to them. “Though they should already know by now. Technology and blood magic. Bowser had the better idea, but the control here seems a lot superior. I get the feeling if we get to the bottom of that, then we’ll have the answers to all of our questions about what transpired here.”

That was her lover alright. She was sure her eyes were sparkling as she looked at Rachael, a grin on her face. “Let’s not disappoint them then.”

Indeed.”

Crystal looked over at Myne questioningly. “You want to deal with any?”

Just looking,” Myne replied, with a gentle shake of her head, like she was in a shop browsing and she’d just been confronted by a shop assistant. Not an experience that the vampire would have ever had though. Crystal smiled. She had never been one for dealing with customers.

Enough stalling though. They’d let the shamblers get close enough now. Crystal pulled out the dragon gun that Rachael had made for her, and holding it steady in front of her, aimed at the closest one to them, the magic forming quickly and easily within it. She no longer had need of the array on her hand, it now forming directly in the barrel instead, and as had they hoped, the array had disappeared from the back of her hand. She wasn’t a tattoo girl after all. “Bang!” she giggled to herself, the shot slamming into the head of the shambler, knocking it off balance and causing it to stumble and fall over as the remaining three behind it circled around and continued towards them.

Rachael wasted no time, surging forward into the undead as Crystal let loose two more shots, delaying the rearmost of the four. Rachael screeched to a halt in front of the closest shambler, smiling and taunting it, as she rocked gently, her body taking on a faint glow as her power flowed through her. Not even pausing, the shambler swiped its claws at her, Rachael swaying out of the way before she lunged forward, right up against it, her fist glowing white hot as she slammed the shambler into the ground head first with a sickening crunch. Springing forward she deflected the attack of the next one with her gauntlet before kicking its feet out from under it. Crystal dashed up behind her, armaments manifesting as she plunged the sword into the prone shambler, shield held steady as she blocked the charge of another, the shambler’s body bouncing off it and staggering to the side. If not for her reinforcement magic the impact would have thrown her clean away, even with the correct angling of her shield. Like many things, that aspect of her magic seemed a lot more potent since Velvet’s return. Heck all of her magic seemed that way, even the shots more powerful than what she’d managed before with equivalent effort.

Crystal pulled her sword free as another shambler tumbled past her, well, most of one anyway, turning to face the one who’d rammed her shield as it rose back up, hissing at her.

Yeah, I get it. Not your choice in life. But it ends here.”

Raising her shield, Crystal blocked it claws as it tried to rake them across her front, the second mouth opening on it’s front as it screeched at her, and then lunged at her, trying to glomp onto the shield. Smirking, she lowered her shield and stepped back out of the way, wings augmenting the manoeuvrer to give her just that little bit of extra speed, blade flaring as she swung an arc through its path. The end result was of course not very pretty.

The guards were still fighting their single one as she returned her attention to them, the bolt ridden shambler screeching and flailing against the guards as they doused it with flames. Its movements were getting slower and by some miracle none of the guards had managed to get hurt. Crystal sighed and shook her head as the undead finally succumbed to their onslaught and collapsed to the ground, the guards not relenting with the flames till their weapons started sputtering from lack of fuel. It wasn’t that they couldn’t fight, it was just that it was poor, and excessive, and uncoordinated, and...

Warriors influence there. Crystal shook her head again. If it came to it she didn’t think they’d cause much issue. For numerous reasons.

Rachael chuckled beside her. “You too huh.”

Yup.” Crystal dismissed her shield and sword, stretching her wings as she rocked on the spot, her hands behind her back. Rachael stood beside her calmly, arms folded across her chest and wings pulled in close against her back, the corpses of the shamblers strewn around them.

Finally deciding that they were completely done, the guards carefully manoeuvred around the smouldering corpse, making their way down the block with what Crystal would describe as a shuffle. There was an obvious reluctance from the flanking squads, and even with the lax pace of the larger central squad, they were still having to catch up.

Spectre sniggered into her mind. ‘They’re also trying to use the comms to work out what is going on, sounding more frustrated by the minute that they’re not getting a response, and that they have no idea what squad we’re actually with. Curiously, all signals are still just isolated to these groups.’

The squads stopped a dozen paces from them, stretching across the width of the street, weapons still out but held at ease.

What is going on here? What are those?” a man from the centre of the group barked, his irritation evident even though his expression was hidden beneath his helmet.

Friends. Powerful ones,” Catlin spoke with confidence and authority as she removed her helmet and stepped forward to stand beside Crystal and Rachael.

The lights flickered briefly, the entire area blanketed in silence.

I didn’t realise you’d survived,” said the man whom Crystal assumed was in charge, his voice laced with concern. “We thought everyone had died in that explosion.”

Very much alive, Seymor, as you can see.” Catlin crossed her arms, looking intently at the speaker. “More importantly, what is going on here. Why are these things crawling through my city, killing our people? And why the attempted assassination? We lost good people there.”

Seymor removed his helmet, revealing a youngish looking face with with a smattering of freckles across his cheeks, hazel coloured eyes, a rather chubby nose, and short cut sandy brown hair. A rather chunky device was visible in one ear, a single red light blinking as he looked at Catlin.

The curse of Odinsphere,” he stated plainly as he looked over the rest of the group. “They appeared at the same time as the pulse, which we know originated from there. The connection is obvious. Perhaps that is a question for whatever being awoke that demon. We are doing our best to keep them in check and keep the people safe, but that is far from our only issue.” Seymor flinched as he looked at Myne, Velvet’s lover giving him a predatory grin back. “As for the attempt on your life, the investigation revealed that Matt was the one behind that, and he has been punished. Perhaps you spurned his advances one time to many, and drove him to that extreme?”

We have never ‘punished’ people that way, nor do I think he would be capable of such feats alone.” Catlin frowned and shook her head. “And Odinsphere is not involved in any of this at all, on that I am certain.”

There was some hushed murmuring amongst the guards that quickly petered out as Seymor frowned at them.

Desperate times, and our people were unsettled. What would you have had us do? You’d rather he had continued his sedation, undermining the integrity of the city? The decision was made, and you could feel the relief of our people. I didn’t want any of this, yet here I am, forced into a position that I did not want.” Seymor’s voice was flat and level, not hint of any underlying emotion, rather just the expression of facts. “As to your conclusion there, you’re going to have a lot of effort to convince the people of that. The damage is well and truly done. I assume quite a few survived then,” Seymor added, motioning to the group. “Including Tsugua?”

He survived as well.” Catlin replied curtly. “And don’t worry about that, there’ll be no confusion at all once we reveal the truth of what actually transpired. Where is Evrik?”

Working on a solution to our powering problem,” Seymor quickly replied.

Not what. Where?” Catlin stared hard at Seymor.

Sector 23-A.”

What the %#%@ he doing there. That’s a dead end. We worked on it for years to no avail.”

Something about re-examining it’s support systems.” Seymor shrugged. “He’s the one in charge, and has the most experience. Who am I to question his decisions.”

Well, we’re going to see him now, and you’re coming along.”

Seymor rolled his eyes and turned to face his guards, looking like he was about to say something when Catlin interrupted him. “The squads can go back to their routes,” she stated.

Seymor gave her an annoyed look. “Are you wanting to risk your life with the abominations around?”

Catlin laughed at that. “Really?” she motioned to the corpses around them. “Return to your routes,” she instructed the guards. “Keep the people of our city safe while we get to the root of this.”

As you wish,” Seymor said with a resigned shrugged. “Those ones too?” he asked, looking at Fairweather and the others.

No. They stay with us.”

Crystal was certain that there was a brief flash of relief on his face, quickly gone and replaced with a tired and haggard look. “Lets go find Evrik then, and your supposed source of it all. I could do with a good nights sleep.”

Not like this though,” Fairweather chimed in, removing her helmet once the remaining guards had left the area, splitting into four groups and leaving Seymor standing nervously by himself with them. She twitched her ears, looking relieved, her flames dancing happily around them.

You’re not one of ours,” Seymor stated, surprised, staring at her. “Where did you get the uniform from?” he then demanded.

There were survivors,” Fairweather replied sweetly. “Come on, let’s go. These things reek.”

Looks like they are starting to get to the bottom of things. They've found one of the three remaining channellers from Caylionhold, and now they are looking for another. As to whom is really in charge behind it all, they have yet to discover that. All is probably not what it seems though with the undead and their obvious link to whatever is going on. Of course, you're welcome to guess :)

As always, thanks for reading. Comments are very much welcome (well, positive ones at least - though I am grateful that is mostly what I have had ^^)

The next chapter (85 - Shard; glean what you will from that title) will be out in a weeks time.

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