Skyvenom: Chapters 30-31

Here are your chapters for this week. I am going to take next week off as a mental health break. You will get a different post that weekend, then more chapters October 26.

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Chapter 30

Theo could play many roles in a battle, including striking and defense, but in a melee this chaotic, he thought his most important role was crowd control. He applied constant gravitational fields, oppressing or distracting as many opponents as he could. The Authority from the Demon Court was flying in with a large sword, so he opened a portal in front of the man and redirected him into the distance.

When the Siatan launched several dangerous-looking spheres of light, Theo opened more portals to redirect them toward the enemy. Esaire and Amaeli targeted him, of course, but Theo was agile enough to evade them, still casting portals across the battlefield to disrupt projectiles.

Then, without warning, he felt his portals closing. The Authority in the multi-colored robe was throwing blobs of cantae at his portals almost as fast as they could open, and whatever technique he had, it somehow disabled the portals. But that was fine - Theo began opening portals for no reason, without thinking about it, just to lock down that opponent, while he shifted his focus to other techniques.

Gravitational fields and anti-mass points disrupting charges, anchoring to support Nauda, torsion bolts to distract from Fiyu... he even used his internal disruption technique. It was ineffective on most Authorities, but the Deuxan with armored skin staggered with a sick expression. Strong exterior, weak interior.

For a glorious minute, he could do it all. Disrupt enemy movements, evade Esaire and Amaeli, interrupt opponents' techniques, and potentially disable the armored Deuxan entirely, given enough-

Then the Slescan Authority tackled him, fangs punching into his coat, and Theo smashed into the earth.

~ ~ ~

Nauda was able to keep up with the chaotic fight at first, while their opponents couldn't coordinate, then the others began to team up on her. Something had changed, but she didn't have the presence of mind to figure out what. No, it took everything she had to keep ahead of all the attacks coming her way.

A flying sword glanced off her back, leaving a line of pain but drawing no blood. She ignored it, charging toward the Siatan who had harmed Fiyu. When she thrust her staff toward him, he extended slender fingers and canceled her technique entirely, but she had always known that would be ineffective.

When she got close, just as the others descended on her, Nauda stomped the ground with all her might. A spherical shockwave expanded from her, smashing through the Siatan's defenses and sending all her opponents flying.

For a second Nauda was just as disoriented, stumbling in the aftermath. She had power, but the skill was still so unpolished. Then there was a massive lacquered sword thrusting at her and there was no more time to think.

~ ~ ~

Despite his own struggles, Friend Theo had managed to open an opportunity for Fiyu to disappear into the chaos of the battle. There was no time to waste now, she needed to strike.

She rushed toward the back of the nearest enemy, the man in the multi-threaded robe. To her surprise, he turned to look at her and tapped his head beside his eyes. "I'm afraid I have an ability to see the invisible," he said mockingly.

Fiyu ignored this and slashed at him with a cantae blade. He evaded at first, barely ahead of her, then generated a buckler of red cantae on one arm and began to deflect her strikes. When she used strands of darkness to try to bind his defensive arm in place, he unleashed a brilliant light that swept them away and made her flinch back.

The next second the enemy in the multi-threaded robe was assaulting her with bursts of fire, ice, and lightning. How many techniques did he have?

Fiyu never got an answer, because the next second a giant sword swept at them both.

~ ~ ~

After sending several more of his flying swords at the Tatian, Esaire put her out of his mind almost completely. His new allies could lock up the Ichili, so he finally had a clean shot at Peanen.

The next weapon burned in his soulhome, but Esaire had no plans to use it, not yet.

Instead he rushed in, attacking with his Soaring Thrust technique. Peanen barely managed to dodge aside and the point scraped across his armored coat. Esaire released the flying rapier and let it fly onward while he dropped off, using his Arcane Sabre to slash at Peanen. Somehow the outsider evaded the attack, but he couldn't avoid the palm strike to his chest.

Esaire felt the cantae of his new Stunning Palm technique penetrate, but it wasn't enough. As Esaire continued to fight, he realized that his rival had continued to pursue the same path.

It seemed that, instead of remodeling to prepare for their next battle, Peanen had doubled down on his brutish techniques. The fact that Peanen had been able to open a basement so soon was unexpected, and its raw cantae inhibited Esaire's plans. Other than that, he only seemed to have thrown in more enhancement rooms, which was uninspired but frustratingly hard to deal with.

Speaking of frustration, the Tatian woman was coming for him now, too durable to be easily eliminated.

"Now!" Esaire called out, gesturing to the Slescan mercenary.

The bug had cost a great deal to hire and been arrogant about it, but he proved his worth now: he opened his jaws and spewed acid across the battlefield. When it struck the Tatian's arm she winced, no longer so invulnerable, and Esaire stopped thinking about her and other distractions.

In the chaos Peanen had fled from him again, but it was only a matter of time.

~ ~ ~

Theo continually dodged backward in the air, staying away from that lacquered sword. When it swung around again, Theo set up a portal and thrust his hand through it, striking the Demon Court Authority with a torsion punch. It shattered some of his armor and drove him back, almost enough to finish him...

Then the Authority in the multi-colored robe appeared, using one hand to cancel Theo's next portal and the other to... somehow repair the lacquered armor mid-battle?

When Theo prepared a torsion bolt, the multi-colored Authority immediately raised a large blue shield. Theo's bolt drilled right through the side and struck him, sending him tumbling backward. Theo prepared a second bolt, then hesitated.

If they weren't allowed to kill here, then what mattered was figuring out their opponents' soulhomes. And the man in the multi-colored robe was a particular problem, since he seemed to have an unnatural number of techniques. His cantae didn't reveal a basement, but perhaps he had some sort of re-configurable blueprint? Or it might all be technique mimicry, drawing off all the others in the fight. Discerning the real threat there could be his most important objective in the battle, so there was no point taking him out now.

But as Theo was attacked from behind yet again, he wondered if he hadn't made a mistake holding back. Analyzing their opponents only helped if this battle didn't leave them too injured to fight.

~ ~ ~

With the hated enemy who could see her distracted, Fiyu had another opportunity to strike. Friend Nauda and the Deuxan with armored skin were bashing against one another, neither taking apparent injuries or capable of penetrating the other's defenses.

Which of them might win would never be known, because their duel wouldn't resolve in a battle like this. Fiyu had intended to be the one to interrupt it, but before she could arrive, the Slescan unleashed another spurt of acid that forced Friend Nauda to retreat. Those were a great threat, as they had also damaged Friend Theo's armament.

So Fiyu rushed to the Slescan and struck him with her most intense cantae blade. It severed one limb and dug deep into his side, but the gushing blood burned her and she tumbled backward in pain.

~ ~ ~

"Why are you with them?" Nauda demanded as she grabbed Lalye out of the air. The Authority from Occoire Court had always seemed to hate them, ever since their first encounter.

"I'm not with them, I'm against you!" Lalye struck her at point blank range with a cantae bolt, which only made Nauda's head jerk back.

"You attacked us!"

"You humiliated Aima Sartozi!"

Nauda managed to grab the woman's throat and hesitated, unsure of the best way to eliminate her. She caught a glimpse of a glowing sphere from the corner of her eye, then it impacted nearby and both of them were sent flying across the hill.

~ ~ ~

Fiyu-queen is in danger! Krikree starts to draw a weapon, then Theo-sister places a portal beneath her and moves her to safety. Theo-sister good.

Nauda-queen is in danger! Many attacks from all sides, but she keeps fighting. Strong like beetle. Strange thought, Krikree is confused.

Theo-sister where? Krikree looks nervously and finds him, fighting against the rainbow man. Rainbow man bad, does too many things.

[Danger!] Krikree emits, but it is too late. Demon man and Amaeli-queen are attacking, Theo-sister is outnumbered!

Krikree starts to step forward and a hand closes on her shoulder. "Easy there," one of the guards says, "no interfering."

Ignoring this nonsense, Krikree bites his hand. Another guard grabs her and she pushes against him, sending all three of them tumbling through the audience.

~ ~ ~

When Fiyu broke up the fight around Friend Theo, she found herself immediately locked into a battle of her own. Enemy Amaeli was using three giant swords now, spinning them through the air whenever they weren't striking, using that momentum to attack even more aggressively.

It was a distressing attack to try to cope with, pushing Fiyu further and further back. When she tried to slip away into her stealth, she was disrupted by the Siatan, who somehow canceled out her technique. Yet he could only do it when he had her pinpointed, so if she could escape him for even a moment...

Too late, she realized that one of the swords was slicing down toward her while she was bound. Fiyu desperately reached for her incorporeality... and then the sword stopped.

From the corner of her eye, Fiyu could see Friend Nauda using her staff to bind the sword in place. It gave Fiyu enough time to dodge, but the sword pushed through, shattering the binding. The other sword struck Friend Nauda in the side and though she tried to bind it, she was too late, she was knocked across the battlefield in a line of blood.

Fiyu desperately wished she could help both her friends, but the Siatan floated in her way and there was simply no time...

~ ~ ~

Two of the enemy Authorities had been taken out: Fiyu had severely injured the Slescan and someone had shattered the Demon Court Authority's sword. In the chaos, Theo wasn't sure who had done that, it might even have been him.

But things were getting worse for them as well. The Siatan was adapting to their techniques, Esaire and Amaeli were relentless, and...

No more time to think - Nauda had just taken a bad blow. Since portals were unreliable, Theo flew down to catch her, pulling her into the air before Esaire's swords could close on her. Nauda was bleeding heavily from her side, but she could push through. The question was how long.

"It's a lot to deal with," Nauda said grimly. She flew under her own power again, but remained nearby. "What now?"

"Use your telescope on the one with the multi-colored robe," Theo said. "He has one floor of shielding wall, can you penetrate it?"

"I can try but..." Nauda's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, that's insane."

"Is it technique mimicry?"

"No, he's-" Amaeli's sword plunged between them and they barely dodged. But worse than that, Esaire was sweeping in their direction, bearing another green rapier in his hands. There was no way of being sure, but Theo had to assume it was another poisonous curse.

Instinctively he cast a gravitational field on Nauda. She felt his gravity and didn't resist, so she plummeted back to the ground. An instant later Esaire was in range, snapping the rapier in half with his bare hands and unleashing another green sphere. When it struck Theo, he felt the poison splatter over his soulhome again and the green clouds raged.

The effect hit Esaire as well, but he adapted more quickly this time, drawing a pill from his soulhome. Before it reached his mouth, Theo slapped it out of his hands. He was reeling from the new dose of skyvenom, but he could struggle through it.

They glared at one another over the devastated hill littered with injured soulcrafters. The hourglass rang out with a great gong sounding the end of the match, and someone was shouting at them from below, but Theo barely heard either.

Chapter 31

Overall there was no clear victor to the melee. Theo accepted the money he was given by the Stronghold and some of the others watching and dimly registered that Esaire seemed to have received a similar amount, about six thousand Silver Crowns.

That didn't really matter, because the event was secondary to this melee as another step in their ongoing war. If Esaire had hoped that numbers would end things decisively, then it had been a failure, but the fact that he had brought along more skyvenom suggested against it. Likewise, the fact that they'd received similar support suggested that the observers didn't consider it a loss. Just another strategic step toward the inevitable.

Theo sat down on the side of the hill and rubbed his head. The skyvenom was doing a number on him, despite the fact that he'd taken several anti-venom pills. He needed to enter his soulhome to clean off the residue, but his spirit hurt too much at the moment.

Most likely, Theo decided, this battle was about projecting strength. Esaire had proved that he was capable of recruiting more Authorities, and if he could make it seem like his victory was certain, it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy because the Strongholds would all support him. Theo and his allies had likely just prevented that landslide, and they'd proved their own strength, but there was a limit to how much quantity their quality could overcome.

[Theo-sister okay?] Krikree popped up beside him, grasping his head to look at him from different angles.

[Just more skyvenom,] he emitted wearily.

[Bad!]

"This was very troubling," Fiyu said as she arrived, helping support an injured Nauda. "Esaire has sought out allies who can specifically counter us."

"Seems more like he wants to neutralize us so he can fight Theo." Nauda winced as she straightened, but then stood with her head high. "You doing alright?"

"I'll manage," Theo said, and forced himself to stand up. "I'm more interested in what you saw with your telescope."

"Right, the man with the fancy robe. Based on his windows, it looks like he's divided his floors in half." When Nauda saw they didn't understand, she shook her head and rephrased. "I mean vertically. It looks like each one of his floors has been split into two short ones."

"That sounds cramped."

"He must have to soulcraft all hunched over, but the result is that he has twice as many rooms as everyone else. I couldn't see inside, but since he had so many windows, he likely has lots of different viable cantae flows. It's difficult to deal with."

Fiyu frowned as she considered it. "I do not believe that is wise. He will seem fearsome, but each ability must be weaker, with halved space and limited sublime materials."

"But it worked, didn't it? We were all trying to figure him out and not matching him ability for ability because we weren't sure just what he could do."

It was definitely an audacious blueprint, though Theo would never have pursued it himself. The man wearing the multi-colored robe was definitely skilled, to be able to plan so many rooms and route cantae for many different techniques, but he couldn't break the fundamentals of soulcrafting. All of those walls and extra ceilings would cut into the space available to him.

If this conflict was about analyzing the other side, Theo hoped that they had gotten the upper hand. It was difficult to feel too positive with the poison coursing through him, but he would take this victory. Before he could ask anything else, the Stronghold who had begun the event spoke up.

"Who won and who lost?" The man shrugged. "On the battlefield, there are only the living and dead, and everything else is just a step closer to those ends. But you have seen the potential of both sides in this war, and in another month their battle will no longer be limited by the armistice. Support those you believe are worthy of it."

Several of those watching gave Esaire's group sublime materials. Theo was more concerned about the Masked Stronghold, who arrived and handed Esaire more medicine. He would definitely be past the skyvenom soon enough, while Theo would need to get back to work.

"It isn't fair that your opponents draw on all Deuxan to fight you." The speaker was an Authority in Accilonian armor, not someone Theo had met before. "Fortunately for you, he's recruiting my family's enemies. Let's just say I hope that when your war is over, they aren't standing anymore. To help with that..."

The man held forth a bright silver Deuxan weirkey. Theo wanted to grab it, but his head was spinning too much, so Nauda accepted it for them. "Thank you, this is very generous."

"No, it's an investment in my next war. Just don't let yourself be outnumbered three to one next time, alright?"

Not many others came to give them any rewards, because they were likely telling the truth: the Deuxans would only support them to the degree that it was in their own self-interest. But before they could recover and depart, someone else arrived... and Theo realized uneasily that it was the Stronghold from the Mercury Court. He displayed a flat smile as he examined Theo.

"Rough luck, getting hit with more of that skyvenom." The man scratched his chin in a pantomime of thought. "It seems a little unfair for your opponent to receive support from such a large court and you to fight on your own, so I've been authorized by the convocation to offer you support in turn."

"What are you offering?" Theo asked. If only this hadn't happened while his head was aching... but at least the Mercury Court was confronting him in public, where he assumed they wouldn't dare to act directly.

"We can support you only once, so you must choose." The Stronghold swept aside one sleeve, revealing a small sphere that glowed with cantae. "This is the simplest solution, an extraordinary sublime medicine that will wipe away all poison. It will not only eliminate the skyvenom, it will prepare the pressure of the heavens in your soulhome, making your ascension to Stronghold virtually assured."

"How many choices are you offering?"

"The second is more challenging, but the direct counterpart to the skyvenom." The pill hovered in place and a glistening yellow sword appeared beside it. "We have discovered that the skyvenom is in fact only half of a sublime material that strengthens instead of weakening. Only an excellent soulcrafter could manage to combine them, but if you do, you will undergo an ascension between tiers, leaving your soulhome permanently stronger than those on the same tier."

Theo's eyes narrowed. He'd wanted to show no reaction at all, but between the poison throbbing in his soul and the promises being thrown out, he was struggling. The man representing the Mercury Court was still smiling mildly, giving absolutely no indication of his thoughts. Could all of these actually be stages in some sort of trap?

"Still not impressed?" he asked, then revealed a small pendant that glittered like gold. "This is a very rare item called an Artifact of Elghiera. For those capable of wielding it, it grants absolute control over your own soulhome, which will hasten soulcrafting and, needless to say, allow you to sweep aside the skyvenom. So what do you say?"

It took all his self-control not to interrupt, but Theo didn't want to give away anything. He was sure this was a test now, the first two items just distractions to get him to show recognition of the Artifact of Elghiera, or some kind of hint of who he was. Truthfully, seeing that glittering bangle unnerved him and he had no idea whether or not it was the real thing.

But showing what he knew would only hurt him, so Theo needed to play the stubborn loner. He smiled narrowly and shook his head.

"These gifts sound like they come with too many strings attached. Take them back to your emperor and leave us alone."

The Stronghold sighed. "You do realize that you can stand against the Demon Court only because of our presence, right? We seek only to invest in you, to help you reach your full potential."

"No thanks."

"Very well." The Stronghold's face split in a smile so broad that Theo thought it had to be false, yet the skin around his eyes wrinkled authentically. "Instead of a choice, we offer you a challenge: this is called a coalrag. Whether you use it is up to you."

All three items of power vanished, replaced with a dark cloth. It began to fall slowly, and was swept higher into the air when the Stronghold flew away, but then fluttered to the ground. Lying against the glistening Deuxan soil, it looked obscenely ordinary... yet Theo could feel that it was a potent sublime material.

"I do not like the Mercury Court," Fiyu said. Nauda agreed and Theo groaned as he grasped the cloth and stood up.

"I don't have it in me to check this for traps," he said, then handed it to Fiyu. "Please give this your most thorough inspection while we figure out what they're trying to do. Ask Senka if there's any doubt."

[Krikree too!]

"Sure, see if Krikree notices anything."

Fiyu took the cloth and regarded it suspiciously, no doubt sweeping her senses over it at high resolution. It seemed like the crowds were dispersing and Esaire wasn't staying around to cause trouble, no doubt returning to nurse his wounds. All Theo wanted was to clean off his soulhome and then sleep until the headache stopped, but he saw that Nauda was moving closer to him instead of Fiyu.

"I tried to use my binding technique in the battle," she said, "and it just isn't working. Even the new materials in my staff tower didn't improve it enough. I don't know if we can afford a new armament, but even then, I'm just not sur-"

"Your blueprint is solid, it's just out of balance right now." Theo smiled and gripped her shoulder. "Remember that you've been laying a foundation up to this point, and you're only now coming into your own. You've been using that staff and binding technique for a long time, so you'll need to do more soulcrafting for them to compete at this level."

"That's what I'm trying to say. I'm just not sure they can."

"Your strongest new materials aren't suited for it, but you have other resources. Couldn't you do more with that... wardsilver, right? You've had warding techniques ever since I've known you, but you've always neglected them in favor of your staff and binding. Well, now circumstances don't allow that. You can figure out your armament later, but in the short term, pivot to wards."

This idea clearly got through to Nauda and he could see the wheels turning in her head. Her uncertainty lingered, though, so he squeezed her shoulder again.

"Perfect soulcrafting doesn't mean everything being smooth all the time. Remember, I'm using more physical skills until my new design balances out. You just need to adjust and focus on the long term. Once you've ascended again, all your new work will be fused together and you'll be a force to be reckoned with."

"Alright, that's enough flattery." Nauda smiled ironically, but she gripped his hand before she pulled it off her shoulder. "About the Mercury Court... you assume they were lying? Those gifts felt powerful, but I couldn't sense anything else about them."

"Neither could I, which is why they'd be ideal traps. They have to have concealed something... anything that powerful is rare and expensive, like the materials that Krimmile sells. Whatever the Mercury Court is doing, it isn't in our best interest."

"I agree with that, but we sure could use a lucky break right now."

"We got one." Theo grinned as he held up the Deuxan weirkey. "I have a few ideas."