Chapter 58: Two Birds, One Stone

The eagle descended with lightning streaming out around its wings, claws outstretched.

Nic flung himself aside and was still caught by the shower of broken rocks as those goliath claws raked the plateau's red stone, sending razor sharp fragments spinning through the air. The sheer wind kicked up by the beast's wings sent him tumbling back, and lightning struck the earth as he rolled onto his feet and clutched Peacemaker tightly.

All the elements of the world were against him. The storm was everywhere, screaming and roaring with powerful wind. Lightning split the sky and thunder shook the earth.

The eagle was rising again, flapping its wings to gain height as chunks of earth dripped from its claws.

Nic grimaced. Hollowsong was useless in this wind; his throwing knives were even more laughable. He could only fight his way forward, stepping heavily against the squalling storm that tried to push him back.

The eagle turned towards him and screeched with deafening force. In that instant, out of the corner of his eye, Nic saw lightning flash through the clouds above. His Eight-Eyed Mantle screamed a warning that was already too late--

The world erupted into light. Nic felt himself be thrown back, the sheer force of the thunderbolt lifting him. He felt his limbs lock as his muscles seized with paralytic spasms, electricity running through the meat of his body. He could smell himself burning and see lightning-bolt patterns of scars flaring red-hot as they were seared into his skin.

He hit the ground again and flopped like a dead fish, struggling to control his own body.

The eagle was still rising. Its huge weight and size meant climbing through the air took equally massive effort, but tornados formed under its wings, lifting it up...

Nic barely managed to twitch his fingers as the beast screamed again, and flung itself into a forward dive, claws reaching out to seize his paralyzed body.

"Peacemaker!"

The spirit of the blade erupted outwards. It was a four-armed deva made of blue-white flame turning red at its flowing hair and glaring eyes. In the instant it took the eagle to rush down upon Nic, the spirit flung itself at the beast in turn, taking three lightning-quick steps across the plateau and throwing itself forward.

It landed atop the eagle's face and grabbed hold with its lower arms, delivering a brutal open palm strike to the eyes with the upper set. The beast shrieked and its wings tilted, sending it off course.

It smashed into the plateau in a sliding cloud of rubble. Nic pushed himself up, clenching and unclenching his fist until he had full control of his fingers. He rolled onto his knees slowly, groaning, even his lungs feeling stiff and unresponsive. But there was no time for weakness.

"Gwunogo, if another lightning strike happens... can you eat it..?"

"I think…? I think! I think so!"

That was all Nic needed.

He could see, in the cloud of dust and debris, the blazing outline of Peacemaker's battle-spirit. It was fighting valiantly to keep the eagle down, but the beast was swinging its neck side to side to dislodge the fiery pest. Sheer size gave the eagle every advantage-- and Peacemaker's spirit could only fight for three breaths.

The second of those breaths was leaving him as Nic stood. On shaking feet, he stepped forward, teleported, and teleported again, picking up speed as he flickered across the plateau. Just as the third breath became inevitable he arrived, Peacemaker the blade already raised as Peacemaker the spirit began to dissolve.

Nic swung down and cleaved into the eagle's neck, cutting a tendon, an artery, getting soaked by the wash of blood. The beast screamed and a massive wing smashed towards him. Nic rolled with the wind, allowing the storm to give him the instant momentum to dodge aside.

The eagle was climbing onto its feet, stumbling drunkenly across the plateau. One eye was a burned ruin. Its neck wept blood...

But still, it fought its way towards the edge. Nic saw what was coming.

The drop from the plateau would give it time to take flight, to come back around with another divebombing run. Once he lost the advantage having it on the ground gave him, Nic wasn't sure he'd have the strength to catch up to it again.

"Gwungo? Leash!"

Instantly the silvery-blue scaled armor he wore dissolved, becoming a long, sticky strand of webbing that swung overhead and shot towards the beast. As the eagle flung itself from the edge of the plateau the line snapped taut-- and Nic was carried with it. He took a running start and dived after.

For a moment, the roar of the wind became overwhelming. Nic couldn't hear his own words as he shouted– "Retract!"

Gwungo reeled him onto the beast's back as its wings caught the updraft. Nic grabbed hold and flattened himself down as the eagle tilted up, away from the earth, and began to soar, heavy wingbeats giving it lift. He clung on, climbing from its back towards its neck with his hands coated in sticky tar for traction.

The eagle suddenly rolled in the air, and Nic felt a shout of surprise rise in his throat, only to be forced back down by the wind that buffeted him. The sheer force of so much bulk turning so quickly generated a rolling momentum that nearly flicked him off its back. Without hesitation, the eagle dived and tilted, turning sideways and scraping its back across the plateau's edge. Nic met the stone hard and forced himself to cling on, not by his own strength, but by wrapping his body in Mire-Caller's adhesive mud.

As they broke away his bones were broken and his body bruised, but his regeneration began to push things back into place.

The eagle screamed and a bolt of lightning twisted through the sky, close enough that Nic could taste the scorched air where it had passed. They were rising now, rising towards the storm. In a moment black, lightning-filled clouds would envelop them both.

Nic pulled himself forward with Gwungo's help, and as the eagle tilted beneath him, a straight line now rising from the ground towards the sea of storms– he struck down into its neck with a double handed blow.

The beast didn't scream, this time. His blade had cut into its windpipe and it could only manage a crude, burbling sound of surprise as they fell from the sky together, the black anvil of clouds above falling back as they tumbled towards the earth.

They landed on the plateau’s top with an earthshaking impact.

Not for the first time today, Nic felt his ribs shatter and then be pushed back into place by regeneration.

He stood up. Regardless of what he was fighting, regardless of how strong he grew, that seemed to be the one thing Nic could control.

As long as he had breath in his body he could continue to stand.

The eagle was struggling, one wing broken by the fall. It turned and screeched at him, shuffling further down the plateau as he followed it, slowly, the both of them wounded and on their last legs.

But Nic had more cards left to play.

He teleported forward, using aura rather than his depleted physical strength to move. Lightning crashed down as he flickered from place to place. It struck where he’d been– where he seemed to be going– but not where he was.

He saw no intelligence behind the eagle’s eyes. It had no ability to read his teleportation.

It could only predict his position for a single moment. The moment he struck.

Nic appeared overhead, preparing to slash down. The storm broke, purple-white energy flashing, lightning descending.

In that instant, Nic turned to face the storm head-on. Peacemaker swung in his arms, slashing a crescent streak of flame through the air. Fire and lightning met–

And for a moment the world was nothing but the all-consuming roar and the godly burning light of the storm.

The crescent moon of fire hung in the air for a moment, absorbing as much as it could, and then shattered into wisps of red flame. The rest of the lightning poured down onto Nic, onto his slimy armor of crystal scales. Gwungo let out a yelp as the energy surged through his body, and although there was a measure of protection, Nic still felt the weight.

He grunted, struggling to stay on his feet.

And as fast as it had begun, the lightning strike was over. Stray threads of electricity danced on Nic’s skin.

The eagle lunged for him, claws unfolding as it leapt into the air.

Nic dodged left, struck right, and tore away two of the eagle’s talons with Peacemaker’s edge. He leapt, letting the wind carry him as he slashed across the beast’s belly and split it open from neck to tail in a single stroke.

As he landed on the far side, the eagle fell to the ground, croaking and spitting up blood. Nic was gasping, his body bruised inside and out by his lightning bath, by the impacts of their fight, by pushing himself to recover in seconds from wounds that should have taken hours…

But he used Peacemaker’s haft to keep himself upright and walk, slowly, to the beast’s head. Its yellow eye was frantic. It was only an animal after all.

With one final downwards stab.

Overhead, the storm let out a dying crackle of thunder and began to dissolve, dispersing to the four winds.

Nic looked up and saw the origami crane was already on its way. The fight had simply been too obvious to escape notice, and now that the storm cover was dissolving, he was left out in the open and exposed. It was time to run.

“Inkspur?”

The wyvern leapt out of his shoulder and onto the ground, extending his wings.

“This time, they won’t catch me! I’ll OUTRUN LIGHT AND SHADOW to speed us on our way!” The wyvern croaked.

Nic just grinned– but his attention was being drawn elsewhere.

There was a steady, pulsing beat from nearby, like the thumping of a heart. Inside his bags, the stone organs had begun to resonate. The last of the four was nearby.

Nic looked and saw a small shrine at the edge of the plateau. Sitting peacefully, unbothered by the massive winds that surrounded it on all sides, was the mummified corpse of a man in priestly robes and a hawk-feather mask. The organ sat in his desiccated fingers.

Nic pried it away and bowed, paying his respects to a man who had fought the System to his last breath, and left his treasures well-defended. “I’ll finish things for you.” He promised, before turning back and leaping aboard Inkspur.

Together they jumped from the edge of the plateau, Inkspur catching the last of the storm’s billowing winds under his wings and riding them out towards the desert in a low, swooping trajectory, his four-winged shadow rippling over the sands. The origami crane was on an intercept path, chasing them fast…

“Towards those arches…” Nic pointed.

He hadn’t been idle all of yesterday. Not only had he armed his tunnel network with alarm talismans, but he’d rigged another surprise if he got caught in the open.

The crane soared after them, and the distant sound of strings being plucked reached Nic’s ears. Without hesitation he spun about and swung Peacemaker, the blade colliding with an invisible sword traveling through the air in a faint ripple. Again and again, translucent attacks burst from the enemy’s instrument, flying faster than Inkspur could match–

But Nic struck them away, the attacks dissolving as they met his weapon. They were swift, silent, but not powerful.

And the arches were just ahead.

They were loops of red, craggy stone, rising out of the sand. Inkspur tucked his wings and dove through them. The crane shot after them, nearly on their tail now, close enough for Nic to see the demonic musician and meet him eye to eye.

Nic grinned—

And jumped down.

As he hit the sand, he pushed his aura into it. Hidden below the desert, there were dozens of hollow bamboo tubes, tiny launchers loaded with stones he’d wrapped with talisman papers. As the sand rose up the tubes at massive speed, controlled by Nic’s aura, the stones were launched up into the air, and into the crane’s path.

The stone arches above gave no path to escape.

“DETONATE!” Nic roared in his killing voice, striking at the elven musician’s soul to delay his defenses.

In unison the talisman-wrapped stones exploded and filled the sky with blazing fireworks. The crane burst through the flames as a ragged, broken things, its wings full of holes that were rapidly burning. It crashed into the sand and the musician was launched from its back, rolling, trying to come up on his feet–

Nic was on him in the span of a heartbeat. Peacemaker came crashing down.

The musician threw out a hand containing a jade slip. A barrier of ghostly energy erupted and absorbed the killing blow.

Nic transformed into his warform in the blink of an eye, ripping through his old skin to release his powerful, six-armed body. Five palms swept out and performed the Hand of Ash at once, infusing the swirling black ash with the power of the Internal Sacrifice Fission Technique so that each hand blazed with sickly blue light.

They hammered the shield apart, and Peacemaker swung again, an upwards crescent this time.

The musician blocked clumsily with his instruments and the strings exploded as they were cut. A dissonant, screeching tone ripped through the air with the force of an explosion and launched Nic and the musician in opposite directions.

Full of panic, the musician turned, pulled another talisman from his sleeves, and broke it in his palm. Instantly he transformed into a beam of light that shot off into the skies.

Nic was left panting, exhausted and weary, but wearing a triumphant grin.

On this excursion he’d brought down two birds with one stone.