Bound Evil

A Blightstinger landed right beside Emily as it stabbed its abdomen directly toward her waiting dagger. Fully expecting to have to dodge Emily was about to jump back when the Vital Shell flared to life around her. The screen of red light stopped the stinger from approaching but at the cost of its life. The sharp spike-like pointer cracked through the pane but was sent sprawling to the ground.

Emily panted as she released a blood bolt at the thing's head, detonating its brains against the snow.

Ignoring the battle going on all around her, Emily inspected the remainder of her skill. All it took was a light press with her index finger for the shell to disintegrate into light particles.

“So one big attack or a couple of glancing blows, good to know.”

“Emily! Enough testing, kill something!” Alex shouted as the next wave of Blightstingers descended.

They’d only gotten a short break before their group was spotted by the nest’s warriors. The next thing they knew swarms of man-sized hornets had lept from their nest on the peaks to descend on them. Their only saving grace was that while they swarmed, the Blightstingers seemed to travel in clusters. This meant they had enough time to kill the previous wave before the next arrived. Emily hadn’t been counting but she wouldn’t be surprised if they had already taken down their first one hundred kills. Of course, this wasn’t sustainable, injuries were bound to crop up with these numbers of enemies, even if they were all incredibly well-trained. Another thing to take into account was resources. They had only bought so many arrows and crossbow bolts. Luckily recovering them was still possible but not under the constant threat of flying death. As time moved on Emily realized a prolonged battle was exactly what she needed to test her new limits.

She’d already tested the barrier but her natural limits were also important to know. So when she got a chance, Emily had moved over to Ashe and explained her plan.

At first, Ashe was against it but she had to admit it was probably the best outcome.

Emily's idea was simple, she would use her new spell to drop as many Blightstingers as possible but stop now and then to let herself adjust and try and feel for her limits.

This exact thing is usually done in less dangerous circumstances but it couldn’t be helped and Emily wanted to see how much she could do.

Every now and then, Emily cast 'Lift' and aimed it at the ground. The nearest Blightstingers fell one by one, crashing down—either dead on impact or quickly surrounded and killed by nearby groups.

When Emily reached ten Blightstingers and felt no change, she decided to keep going. After the next ten, she took a ten-minute break, just in case there was a delayed effect. Following that, she pushed herself to do thirty, and then forty. By that point, she finally started to feel something. A cold sweat broke out across Emily’s body, and a floating sensation—similar to when she had been a soul out in the open—returned. It felt like her body was beginning to dissipate, scattering in the winds like the gray source that floated aimlessly through the world.

Emily explained what she was feeling to Ashe and when she was ready, she continued. Using the spell ever so slowly, her goal was not to reach Source exposure but instead as near to it as possible. When Emily reached fifty casts of her spell she knew she had to stop. A couple more and she really would burst and float away.

Throughout all of this, the battle continued. Both Nox and Ashe had already tapped themselves out, but the rest of their team continued to fight. Kael, Marth, Gerade, Atticus, and even Selia fought to their limits. Emily was pretty sure Kale took out a hundred of the creatures with his spear alone.

While Alex couldn’t beat Kael’s decisive speed or Gerade destructive force he made up for it with sheer adaptability and ingenuity. Cutting through the Blightstinger vital points and then moving into the middle collum. He would dance in and out of cover, employing hit-and-run tactics. If he saw a section struggling he would dive in and reinforce their number. He used his skills sparingly and only if it called for it. Altogether he was a menace on the battlefield. While Emily may have taken out almost fifty Blightstingers, her source was completely drained, while Alex was barely panting.

As the battle moved on, their people began to reach their limits when Kael called for the retreat.

The plan had never been to take on the whole nest in one go. Instead, they had used the time before they were found by the warriors to set up a large ward.

“Retreat to cloaking field!”

As one, the Wandering fangs moved toward a nearby clearing, on arrival Emily passed over a boundary causing a ripple to spread through it before fading. When everyone had passed through the boundary began to glow, and from above, a heat shimmer caused the company to disappear from view. Even nearby scent trails scattered as though washed out by rain. A dozen or so Blightstingers rushed in after them, but they were quickly dealt with. When the next wave arrived, they spread out through the area in search of the enemy, only to find nothing but a dead end. By the time they had finally retreated Emily heard from one of the men they managed to kill over two hundred and fifty insectoids on their first push.

The call went out to rest and recover, and everyone relaxed, knowing the ward would only last around two hours before losing its effectiveness.

Going to sit down on a stump Emily couldn’t shake the source vibrating in her bones. The world's color felt washed out and she was having trouble concentrating, she felt as though she could scatter into nothingness if she drew on any more source.

With each spell used the urge to draw more got louder.

The power had been incredible but the aftermath of using source magic was intense.

Emily didn’t miss the fact that she had managed to use source until it had reached about the same amount of Life force in her blood at the time. Did that mean something? Was the vitality increasing her natural resistance to Source exposure?

Still panting Emily noticed Ashe arrive beside her.

“How are you doing? I’m sure that was… a lot!”

Emily looked down at her hands and opened and closed them

“Dunno, I feel less…physical. Less me.”

Ashe nodded.

“When I’m overexposed, I can hear the call of the earth. I feel less like myself and it’s all I can do not to slip into stone.”

Emily nodded.

“What happens if you do?”

Ashe pressed her lips together.

“I’ll either peacefully turn into a hunk of rock, or, if I drew way too much. I’d go insane, probably become a Sourceborn.”

Emily had seen Ashe’s body turning to stone but what was a Sourceborn? She asked as much and Ashe’s eyes drooped.

“They’re usually Mages that go beyond what their body can handle. No source was ever meant to mix with another's consciousness, but when a mind is exposed to too much source they merge. The result is an entity at odds with itself, so they become beings of destruction. Embodying their nature to its fullest until the host body dies out.”

Emily frowned, it sounded like Ashe was saying she could become a big rock monster. But what about her? What kind of Sourceborn would Grey Source make? Seeing her hesitation Ashe continued.

“Mages were feared a couple of centuries ago. We never knew how to control, nor use runes, so we could reach our limits far too easily. But as time went on we learned to control it. Some cultures still fear Mages.”

“How did we learn runes?”

Ashe snorted.

“Oh, that's a whole nother story, way to much for today. How about we get Yishmal to have a look at you? He might be able to release some of that energy.”

Emily glowered at Ashe for being a tease but decided to head toward the grumpy man. He had his hands full, but they could wait.

By the time the two hours were almost up, Yishmal had managed to vent some of the grey source. He frowned when he realized her source was grey but didn’t bother to ask any questions.

When they had bandaged up their people to the best of their ability Kael stepped to the front again.

“Right, that was a well-fought battle.” cheers went up from the groups as Kael quietened them.

Our next phase is to take the battle to them. If we move carefully, everything should be fine, but don’t get complacent. Their numbers are greatly weakened, but I’ll still call a retreat if necessary. Once the ward fades, we’ll make a direct push to the nest and rid ourselves of it. Everything else comes afterward.

The group acknowledged that with cheers and howls. The second the ward came down they headed quietly in the direction of the nest, lodging themselves in the entrance of the narrow valley. Blightstingers crawled down the walls in an attempt to drop onto their collum, but unlike the first time, their numbers were severely lacking. And with everyone healed they made short work of the Blightstingers. The insectoids fought far more desperately but the nest was rapidly losing its defenders. Looking up Emily could finally make out the core of the nest in detail. From afar, it looked like a multicolored grey beehive trapped between two mountain faces, but up close, Emily could make out the uneven texture. It appeared as though something had chewed up the surrounding rock, then deposited it on the mound to form the walls of the hive.

As Kael moved in he killed his fair share of Blightstingers, swinging his spear around like that of an erratic blender.

Emily had taken to shooting only the closest insectoids in order to conserve her strength. Right now she was rapidly pulling in spilled vitality, unfortunately, because they were fighting a battle on all fronts she lost a lot of the distant kills. So by the end, with the several blood bolts she used, she’d only managed to get an additional fifty-one lives reaped into her pool.

As they pushed deeper toward the hive, more Blightstingers crawled out from the many holes in the cliff faces on either side. They were directly beneath the main nest and about to launch a hail of attacks when a tremor shook through the surrounding rock.

Emily glanced up, narrowing her eyes as a large crack splintered from the nest above.

Kael’s eyes widened, and he yelled at the top of his lungs, “There’s a Queen! Everyone scatter into the tunnels, now!”

There were countless tunnels to choose from, and no one hesitated at his command as the surrounding walls began to quake. Emily grabbed Alex’s arm, pulling him toward a nearby opening. Above, chunks of the nest started crumbling, crashing down the cliffs as something massive tried to break free. The first to fall was a hail of dirt and pebbles, followed by the thunderous crash of boulders slamming into the ground beside them, shaking the very earth.

Emily ran parallel with Alex, noticing a large chunk of the nest heading their way. Summoning up a large amount of power from her blood Emily pushed a screen of blood upward and grew it as she ran. Pulling all the green slime from the nearby Blightstinger courpses. The amalgamation of stinking slime hardened above them like an umbrella. Diverting some of the smaller boulders off their people. Cracks splinted through it a moment later as an entire portion of the nest fell away revealing a monstrous queen Blightstinger. The thing looked like it could barely fly, but with the rubble now filling the valley it hardly mattered. Their only option was to flee or be crushed.

The hole was big enough for two people to go through at a time, so Emily pushed Alex and Mist through and dove in after him with Cupcake in tow. Fetu was nearby and managed to follow them just as the rocks crashed to the ground, sending dust and debris flying. Stone smothered the tunnel, causing Emily to cough as it blocked the path back, sealing them within the earth. They could see nothing in the darkness, but soon Emily heard the sound of something large crawling toward them—something hungry.

Blood points: 92