Sell you a Bridge chapter 183

February 29th 2011 The OZ 6:00 PM EDT

The  metal of my sword clashed as it slammed into the apparently solid black  flame weapon the giant monkey was swinging around. The weapon was made  from the same horrible energy the witch has inside her, so absorbing it  was out even if it wasn't solid, but I didn't need to. I blitzed  forward, blade swinging, and used the skills I'd honed training against  some of the most skilled combatants in my world.

I used  Myrina's combat style to close the gap in turning speed. Short  accelerations by using my muscle tension perfectly let me launch split  second attacks on the shit flinging villain. The monkey's blade, on the  other hand sparked off my plate mail as it made contact, the magic  unable to split the alloyed void, ectoplasm, and shadow, bound together  with demonic power. The suit was hands down the most durable thing I'd  ever made and the monkey's weapon had no chance.

I flicked  my eyes back to watch Zee for a second, her spell was glowing like a  small star, but I could see the shifting runes still spinning into  place, rearranging and creating substructures in the spell to reinforce  and amplify the overall effect once she dispatched it. The thing was a  massive threat to the wards, even I wouldn't want to be standing in  front of it when it went off, but it drove the monkey into a battle  frenzy.

The frenzy didn't actually help it sadly. It sped  up, literally going ape shit, and left itself wide open, I stepped in  and slit it's fucking throat as it tried to pass. It's wings gave out  and it smashed to the ground, twitching and bleeding. I smirked at how  easy it was. That had been a huge waste of time, I shouldn't have  bothered with the power up, I could have just used a shadow blade or  something. I turned back to look at Zee and Dreamer smugly, but my eyes  widened and I had to zip forward to intercept the black flame blade of  two more giant monkeys.

I snarled and parried the attacks,  driving them back and opening up some space for my girls. Another  monkey jumped on my back, clawing and biting at my throat, and I was  suddenly glad I'd gone for overkill. I body checked the closest monkey  and dragged it's partner by the tail, taking the one on my back along  with me and hurling the things into an empty plain south of the tower  before I engaged again.

I was going to kick that witch's  ass when I got ahold of her. Fucking flying monkeys, there was never  just one, that was a stupid slip up on my part. Fighting three of the  monkeys was much less straightforward than fighting one, the bastards  were quick and very in sync. I ended up relying on the armor suit  heavily. I was calling it abyssal armor, because of the devil and void  aspects, and it seemed to be holding up pretty well under the assault. I  had my eyes peeled for more monkeys but these three seemed like they  were it for the moment thankfully.

My blade licked out,  intercepting a cleaver slash at my eyes and I shifted sideways to take  one on the chest instead of the joint where it would have seriously  fucked me up. I was lucky I had a gorget on this suit or that monkey  would have opened me up like I'd done to it's buddy. I leaned forward,  flipping off the monkey on my back and watching as a black flame blade  skewered it through the chest.

I took advantage of the  confusion from the monkeycide to shove my King's Sword of Haste through  the arm pit hole. It did some damage but the thing danced away before it  got deep enough to finish it off. The second monkey had kicked the  third of it's sword and left it dying on the ground between us as a  shield while the wounded one and the accidental killer retreated a bit.

I  dove in at them to attack, but they split focus and came at me from  opposite sides forcing me onto the defensive despite my mostly  impregnable armor. Unfortunately for the wounded one it left a big ass  opening in it's guard because of the injury and was able to tank the  unwounded one and spear it through the eye, killing it instantly. I  threw it's body at the last monkey standing as I swept in to finish off  the one on the ground, killing it fast enough to spin and meat the last  one head on.

I finished off  monkey number four and stood, panting in exertion. The tired feeling  only lasted about a minute before my Vitality had me back at top shape  and I turned to check on Zee. My aura sense showed no more monkeys  sneaking up or anywhere nearby. They must have gone around wide to get  behind me without notice, or Azkedelia just summoned them directly back  there, but whatever the reason, she couldn't do it again.

Which  left me free to watch my girlfriend do her sweet funky. Apparently  giving her the Outer Body Trance had been an amazing idea, because the  spell work she was using was flawless. She'd gotten a ton stronger,  which supposed happened when you could spend hours a day training at  maximum output and risk with no consequences or fatigue. Her eyes shone  bright purple and her body surged with currents of violet lightning as  she finished chanting and pointed her finger at the tower in the  distance.

A  TORRENT of arcane energy surged from her hand, a spiraling drill of pure  mystical force that smashed into the tower, illuminating a bright green  shield as it struck, before a sound like screeching metal filled the  air. The runes and patterns of the ward started to flicked, some growing  dimmer and some brighter, subtly at first, but then whole sections were  surging and blinking, until finally too much of that magic ended up in  one spot and the overload caused an explosive burst of emerald force  from the shield as part of it blew out, ejecting green flame out over  the battlefield.

I  stepped forward flashing out to tank that hit, soaking the energy to  make sure it didn't fry our army, which was make great headway up  against the longcoats with Wally and Artemis's help. Turns out a giant  armored nightmare figure slaughtering your equally giant backup while a  siege breaker blows a hole in your magic shield is distracting, and the  longcoats weren't having an awesome time trying to keep up morale.  Losses were had on both sides, but the longcoats were losing faster.

With  a horrible screech the ward finally shattered, coming down in a wave of  emerald flame I had to once again tank to ensure it didn't demolish our  people. Knowing I wasn't doing anything useful in this form, I focused  on the abyssal armor, manipulating the construct to create a series of  bunkers and points of cover behind the lines of our army, but far enough  back to avoid giving the longcoats an advantage. The rebels dipped back  a bit to take up an entrenched position behind the walls of powerful  metal and I grinned, shifting to shadow form and then back to normal  size.

I was  clocking fourteen thousand points or so left still since I could  manipulate active constructs pretty easily. The bunkers and walls would  hold for quite some time given the amount of power in them, weirdly I  felt myself losing contact with them but the constructs themselves  weren't fading. I touched down at the entrance, seeing Wally and Artemis  bringing DG over with Zee and Dreamer, while Vykin and co split off to  help the rebels. I waved them all in with a huge grin.

Artemis  scowled as they got closer. "What are you smiling about you fucking  lunatic? Also nice job, that was actually kind of impressive." She  turned to our resident princess. "Next part is on you Deej. Are you sure  you can reach your sister in there? Because holding off that witch  without your magic once she gets that power boost is going to be..." She  turned back to me. "Hard right?"

I  snorted. "Yeah, hard. Doable maybe, with me and Zee teaming up, but  that's a maybe. I have no clue what the hell this eclipse will do to  her. I don't know if the boost will be additive, multiplicative,  exponential, or just literally infinite. For most of those we need DG to  be able to hold out. Her magic is native to this place, and has some  kind of hookup with that emerald. She was able to hold off the witch's  possession when she and her sister were young and I'm betting she can at  least give us a much needed boost against her now."

DG  nodded. "When Az and I are together there's nothing our magic can't do.  My mom brought me back to life when I died, and when my sister and I  team up we're much stronger than her. If I can talk to my sister I can  get through to her. We can end this guys, and everything will be ok." I  wasn't actually sure how the citizens of the kingdom Azkedelia's body  had been running into the ground would take her sudden change of heart,  personally, but then again back home you couldn't really just plead  possession and have everyone believe it might actually be a thing.

I  cut in. "Sorry to disturb your epic speech DG but the sun is gettin'  real low. We need to go. The place is full on longcoats, but I can just  blast us through." It would be loud and annoying but it would have to  do, time was of the essence. As we walked inside though a small shape  zipped past us, weaving between the cornerpups crowding Zee's heels. The  small yapping dog bolted out into the hall and between two guards, who  looked confused. Then he stopped between them, and when they leaned down  for a better look.

The  dog shifted morphed back in the blink of an eye, knocking out the two  guards as he grew explosively. He grinned at DG. "Go on. I'll run ahead  and distract them to clear the path for you all. Go save your sister."  The girl's eyes misted over and she hurled herself into the older man's  arms, giving him a huge hug and thanking him emphatically. He just  smiled proudly. "I'm here for you DG. I won't let you down." Then he  shifted back into a dog and bolted into the hallway.

I  turned to the cornerpups. "Go back him up." They started to leave but I  stopped them. "Wait!" They froze, and I glared at the biggest.  "Patches, listen to Todo when you're out there, no running off on your  own, stick to the plan." Safety wasn't an issue for them, void beings  were near impossible to kill. But I did know that cornerpup instinct  would be to spread out and hit from different angles and they were  easily distracted. Being able to emerge from behind any corner was kind  of a terrifying ability if you thought about it.

We  bolted through the tower, coming to a room near the top where a machine  was set up. The glass case in the center percolated with green liquid  around a brain that was an aura match for Glitch. He froze when he saw  it. "Hey look. I'd recognize me anywhere." He stepped up to touch the  glass, staring at his brain. After a minute he shook himself and turned  back to us. "All of you go ahead. I'll get my brain settled back in and  try to shut down the machine. You take DG up there and see about saving  that girl. She's been trapped with no way out for far too long, it's  time to bring her home." He smiled confidently and just for a moment I  could see the brilliant advisor to the Queen. I kind of liked him  already, we all grinned and then took off for the way up to the top of  the tower. It was time to finish this.