EG Book 7 Chapter 27

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Here’s chapter two for today! Enjoy!

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

“No more time!” I shouted, “Break it out now! Kami, shut the door. We can open it from the inside. Sam, make sure the door is locked. Sia, tell the others that we are going to be trapped here and to converge on us. Make sure they know not to reveal themselves until we are ready for them to. Go, go, go!” I extended the Plasma Edge and slammed it into the wall. WIth a surge of willpower, I bent the technique and shoved against the stone. I could feel the stone resisting, but my Aether and stubbornness overpowered it. I didn’t do this earlier as I was vaporizing the stone in large chunks, way too much to ever cover up.

I saw Jon form a spinning saw blade out of Ice and the power he poured into it was more than any of us could possibly have done before we advanced. The door into the vault closed with a quiet thud, Kami and Sam keeping it from hitting too hard. A couple more clanks sounded as they locked the door, trapping us inside. For now, at least, since we could open it ourselves from inside.

“I cannot speak with Lampart and Zimnodlot anymore,” Sia said once the locks were engaged. “The vault is preventing it.”

“Well, fish guts,” I said. “We may need to carve our way out.”

“That will take entirely too much time and Aether,” Vaya said. “Just getting the case off the wall is tiring us out.”

“We may as well fight our way out, once they have started to attack the vault again,” Jon said. “As long as their Perfect Core is not here, we should be able to. Especially if the others are nearby.”

“Do not count your catch before bringing the nets in,” Bridget said. “We still have to figure out if you can even store the case yet.”

A wash of flame curled around us as Sia blasted apart a huge chunk of stone. “Hurry,” he told us. “And maybe we can get out of here before the Naga arrive.”

Grinding from Jon’s Ice Saw started again, and I created a small film of Air Aether over my ears to block it out. Vaya and Bridget were working together, where Vaya was creating small cracks using Earth and Wood techniques, then Bridget would fill them with Water and freeze it with Ice to break it apart faster.

It took another three minutes, and a good third of my Aether reserves, before I was able to push the case over. With a crash, it fell. “Okay, store it,” Vaya said, “and let us get out of here.”

I extended my Aether over the case, measuring it, and realized that I didn’t have enough room in my football field sized ring. “Heh,” I said, then turned to the side and dropped out a crate of preserved level three fish meat. “Now I have room.” With a grunt, I pulled the case into my ring.

The staff clattered to the ground, rejected by the ring in the same way a living animal would. “Lightning blast it!” I said, looking at the distasteful thing on the ground. The uncomfortable feeling had increased massively now that it wasn’t in the display case anymore.

“Ugh,” Sam said, loud enough that I heard it from the doorway.

“Now what?” Jon asked.

“The Portable Home can store things and shrink so that it is tiny, right?” Vaya said. “Put it in there?”

“Gotta clear some room first,” I said. I turned to the nearest line of cabinets, then kicked over the first one. The bottom of the storage broke off, but it cleared space. We smashed apart enough cabinets to give me space to put the Portable Home. It settled with a crash, crushing some of the debris left on the ground.

Vaya threw her cloak over the staff, unwilling to touch it even with her gloves. Even with that separation, she still shuddered as she picked the staff up. I opened the Portable Home’s front door. She took off in a run, trying to get it put away as quickly as possible. She hit the plane of the door, and the staff stopped moving instantly. With a grunt, Vaya ran into it and collapsed backwards.

I caught her, and the staff rolled out of her arms onto the ground. “I swear that thing is laughing at us,” Jon said, looking at the now uncovered black thing again.

“I can sense the staff from the other end of the vault,” Sam said, walking over. “It is making my stomach curdle. No luck storing it?”

“No,” I said, pulling the Portable Home back into my ring. “It won’t go into the Portable Home, or my ring. Light, I’m not even sure I could get it back in the display case again.”

Just as I said that, the vault’s door rang as something hit it. “Fire burn it,” Bridget cursed, “what was that?”

“Bad news,” I said. “The Naga are here.”

“Start carving our way out the back?” Kami asked, waddling over. “I can dig a tunnel.”

“I guess you can try. See how much you can get done,” I said.

Kami nodded, more of a dip of his head than a true nod, and walked over to the small hole we’d already made. Her claws glowed with Earth, Metal, and Stone Aether. When she stabbed them into the stone, it seemed to melt away from her claws. With a grunt, she ripped backwards and a chunk the size of one of the cabinets peeled off the wall.

Vaya leapt to it, picking up the stone and jogging towards the front. “We will never hide a tunnel,” she said. “So we should make a wall in front of the vault’s door. Strengthen it as much as we can to delay the Naga.” The door rang again, even louder than the last time.

“The Perfect Core Naga has to be out there,” I said, wincing at the sound.

“We do not know that,” Vaya said. “Now help me.”

I nodded, then ripped apart another cabinet, carrying the metal pieces to the door. Jon followed me, dropping a pile and then creating yet more pieces from the cabinets around us. Another attack on the vault door left echoes banging around inside the vault.

I took a strip of the metal from the cabinet and laid it across the edge of the vault door. My finger made a blowtorch again, and I carefully welded the metal to the doorway. Over and over again, I bridged the gap between the door and its frame, creating a bond that would take yet more force to overcome.

Every two minutes or so, the vault would ring with an attack. I could feel the Aether in the door reacting to each one. Each time, it flared the tiniest bit weaker, and I knew that the door would fail eventually.

It took me nearly an hour to finish going up the side of the vault door. I worried the entire time that Aleks or Jamila would be hurt while we were trapped in here. Kami was making good progress on creating the tunnel, though she had to rest fairly frequently to recover her Aether. I had dropped another crate, full of Beast Cores this time, from my ring so that she could use them to refuel. I envied the Bond’s ability to just eat a Beast Core to absorb its Aether.

While I was standing on Air and welding plates to the top of the door, Vaya was creating a sloping wall using the stone pieces that Kami was creating, along with extra metal from the cabinets. Bridget was helping Kami by feeding her Cores and Aether, throwing the stone out of her way, and helping to cut apart other obstructions. Just after I finished welding, they cleared the foundation of the bank and started to move through dirt.

“I can hear Lampart again,” Sia said. “They are hiding in some of the nearby buildings. She says they have had a few scares, but have gotten away without being detected so far. Wait, the zombies are moving. They are starting to examine the ground behind the bank. I believe they can sense us. Kami, how quickly could you go straight up?”

“One minute,” she said. “It would take me one minute to reach ground level in one minute.”

“We need to be ready to move,” I said. “Kami, go up. I’ll hold the staff. Sia, tell the others that, when we emerge, we’re going to fight our way out. Have them hide until they can get good strikes on the Naga.”

“Knight Kaminski agrees with your plan,” Sia said. “She will be ready to intervene and take out the Perfect Core Naga as soon as she shows herself.”

“Excellent,” I said, then I looked at the welding job I’d done. “Weld, that was worthless.” I grinned, and Vaya groaned, but the tension broke slightly, enough to get us back to maximum capability.

“The (zombies) are digging now, directly over where Kami is,” Sia said.

“Kami, be ready to fight,” I said. “Sia, I want you to stay small and hidden if you can. I doubt they will be expecting you, so wait a minute after we all rush out before joining in. Unless, of course, we’re getting overwhelmed.”

“Sure,” he replied, and I felt his power bank to the point that I could barely tell he was nearby.

“(Zombie)!” Kami exclaimed, and I sensed an explosion of Earth Aether. “The whole is open!”

“Go, go, go!” I shouted, sprinting up the tunnel. The staff was wrapped with a set of spare clothing I had and strapped to my back, keeping it out of the way and not touching my skin. I reached the end after only three steps, then leapt upward. An angled Air step launched me up the end of the tunnel. A Gallu was looking down, about to jump, when I hit it with an uppercut enhanced with Forceful Punch. The undead disintegrated.

I turned the impact into a spin, getting a good look at the alleyway we ended up in. There were nearly a hundred undead just starting to look up from digging at the ground. At the corner I saw two Naga, one male, one female, gazing at me in shock.

Kami was laying waste to several Gallu as I spun, and another three were about to jump on her. I swept them, and another five, back into deadness with a massive Metal Aether Slash. “Thanks,” Kami said, then she swiped forward, creating a dozen Earth Spikes to impale the same number of Gallu.

I landed, then stomped my foot, mimicking Kami with Metal Aether. A wave of my Aether shot out of my foot and ten Metal Spires slammed out, stabbing through eight zombies. Two shuffled out of the way.

The Gallu’s auras varied wildly, from Fog Gathering to Seed Core. The two that dodged were both Seed Core, and they moved with a bit more intelligence than the others.

Jon landed next to me, planted his shield, and formed a large Ice Wall. “I am clearing the field,” he shouted, then slammed the (shield name) into the Ice Wall. It transformed into nearly a hundred Icicles that blew threw the Gallu like a giant shotgun blast.

The Core undead were the only ones still standing after Jon’s attack. They both had a few Icicles stabbed into them, but they just ignored the damage as they charged at us.

A wave of Aether behind me let me know that Vaya and Bridget were watching our back. Jon stepped forward and met the leap of the closest Gallu with a Shield Bash, Force, Air, and Water Aether forming into a coating on his shield to blast the undead away from him.

I met the charge of the other Seed Core Gallu by enhancing myself with the Elemental Enhancement Technique (name?). Its movements seemed to slow down as my perception and reflexes surged upward. The Gallu are dangerous to those under them in power, I thought as I ducked a slow moving haymaker from the undead, but they do not seem to be able to use techniques anymore. Their only threat is from their bodily strength and inability to feel pain. I sliced its leg off at the knee, then turned and stabbed my trisula through its brain stem. The impact shattered its skull, returning it to death.

“(Summoner)’s Staff is here,” the female Naga screamed, “Entu, it is here!”

“Retrieve it!” A voice bellowed.

“Yes Entu,” she said, then chanted while swinging her staff in a spiral in front of her. The male Naga slung a shield off his back, Metal Aether surging into it to create a technique. Jon blasted a large Icicle at the chanting snake girl, but the technique drifted into the male’s shield. He grunted, his shield slightly deforming from the impact of the Icicle, but it held.

“Death’s Skull!” The Naga priestess shouted, her staff pointing towards us, only for her to grunt and collapse forward. Milenna stood behind her with her spear held out.

“There is more here!” She shouted, turning back onto the main roadway and slashing out with an Aether Slash.

Jon and I exploded forward. Just as I cleared the edge of the alley, a Foundation Core Naga streaked into view, slashing down at Milenna. She jumped backwards at the same time he attacked, her spear coming up to block like a staff. His sword broke through her weapon, but was diverted just enough to miss.

I growled, trisula snapping together as I sailed through the air, and I quickly formed the Pride of the Plasma Herald Technique. All of the practice had gotten me to the point where I needed only a second to fully create it, and a beam of Plasma picked up the Naga and threw him into and through the wall of the building across from the alley.

I reached into my ring and grabbed the halberd from the display case. Whatever Inscriptions were on it were not up to disrupting the power of an artifact at the peak of Soul Strengthening. “Here!” I shouted, and it dropped into her hands.

Three more Naga and an absolute horde of undead Beasts streamed down the road. The Naga, all females, stopped about a hundred meters away, slammed their staves into the ground, and shouted, “Death’s Embrace” together. A wave of Death Aether surged into the Beast Gallu.

The undead doubled in size in an instant, and a massive wave of Beasts threatened to drown us.