7.8 - Expansion (Patreon)

7.8 - Expansion

Karlach

She felt the roar of whatever monster was on the other side of that gate in her chest. She’d fought Demons that sounded less fearsome. She could hear the goblins braying at the skies above, howling for blood. This was going to be a tough fight judging by how many it simply sounded like. 

Lae’zel glanced her way and Karlach shared a moment of solidarity with the Gith woman. There were four others with her, two Tieflings and two druids. She didn’t know their names; the Tieflings looked as militia do: no armor, rickety shields and spears in hand. The druids were stouter, but she supposed they’d see how those impressions held up when-

There was a sudden blast; it was strong enough to throw Karlach clear off her feet, the whole gate coming apart in a blast of shrapnel and slivers, blown wide open as the woman hit the ground with the wind knocked out of her. 

Her ears were ringing, vision swimming, but still she scrambled back up to her feet because a downed woman in the Blood War was a dead woman soon enough. 

Something… something white and armored and bellowing rocketed out of the black smoke. Thunder barked out of four nozzles in its front and one of the Tieflings in front of her was blown apart into gory chunks of blood and viscera, showering Karlach as she roared in defiance. Rage was an old friend that burned away the fear. It was more useful to be angry than afraid.

Spikes erupted from the earth beneath the monster, a blanket of thorns and brambled knives as the Druids behind her frantically cast their spells. 

“BLOW IT!” She heard one shout, and a second later the other cast his own spell.

“IGNIS!”

A fireball arced up and over her head, coming down and exploding on the metal beast.

And just like that it ignited the oil and smokepowder barrels directly beneath it.

Even though she was ready for it the new explosion still knocked her flat on her ass, she heard Lae’zel scream in pain at the flash burn that must’ve blistered whatever exposed flesh was closest to the flame.

Karlach again got to her feet, looking into the fires. Nothing short of a pit fiend or an Orthon should have survived a blast of that severity. 

And then, just as she thought that, something flew out of the fire and smoke. Karlach heard the squelch of meat being pierced, turning her head to see one of the druids impaled on a halberd.

The thing flew back, the body still dangling from its axe head, a dripping trail of blood following behind it as the haft cracked against a gauntlet, the armored warrior’s vizor glowing cobalt blue as he walked through the flames and cast the corpse aside with a flourish of the weapon. 

She felt her tadpole pulse and slammed her mental shields down as hard as she could, gripping her weapon tight as heavy footsteps felt like they made the ground shake beneath her.

She couldn’t see his eyes, through the shining blue glass, but she felt them on her. Karlach hadn’t felt outclassed… not by anyone for years. The blood war would do that.

But she had a sneaking suspicion this guy was something else entirely.

Past him, she heard goblins charging for the breach, saw flashes of blue light she recognized as Taylor’s phase spiders, and pink light bloomed out from behind the armored warrior, shrouding him in shadow.

She didn’t know what the hell was going on past that gate, and right now she couldn’t afford to care. The glint of Lae’zel’s sword shined out of the corner of her eye. Good. The two of them could do it, that was for damn sure.

The Warrior gripped his Halberd in both hands before he roared out his battle cry. “For The Absolute!”

She roared back and charged!

—

Durge

The Gate was breached.

He saw the roaring metal beast rush through the lingering black smoke, disappearing from sight; he heard barks of some loud noise now beneath him followed near instantly by the unmistakable blast that made the ground fall from under him before rocketing up to throw him to his knees.

The goblins surged forward, hundreds of them, blades raised high, goblins that they should have had time to pepper with arrows and weaken with spells and druid magic before they reached Karlach, and the others holding that choke point.

goblins that were fresh, with their blood up and outnumbering them almost ten to one.

Durge’s mind thought fast and came up with only one solution. 

His hand reached out, grabbing hold of Taylor’s shoulder. “You two know him and his tactics! Help Karlach and Lae’zel!” 

It was the only order he had time to give, standing up and running towards the railings that framed the top of the shattered gate and vaulting over them.

His eyes glowed red.

And the cries of the screaming gibbering goblins was matched by the moaning wails of the rising dead.

—

Taylor

Help Karlach and Lae’zel.

Help Karlach and Lae’zel fight Armsmaster!

The order sounded absurd in my head, it squirmed in my chest and twisted my guts. Everything about it was wrong. It sat wrong, it felt wrong, it tasted wrong.

But the battlefield was erupting around me like a million bombs going off. Goblin spider riders were crawling up the sides of the cliff to flank before I had the spiders throw their riders off. Those goblins screamed as they fell and those screams were brutally cut off as skulls shattered against the cliff stones and necks snapped falling the wrong way. Those that survived the spiders pounced on. Fangs and barbed legs tearing them apart.

Ogres were a different matter, lumbering up the cliffside with ropes and rope ladders on their backs, living towing devices to get the climbers up to where the Tieflings and Druids were firing down on them. I felt their massive bodies through the vibrations in the mud. Then in the quakes as tree trunk sized arms punched down the stockades with bellowing roars.

I felt Gale and Wyll firing spells, shouting at the defenders to bring them down quick.

And Durge just leapt off of the railing, landing in front of the gate before the whole field began to glow an eerie red and very literal souls seemed to be crawling out of the very air in tears of reality to fight against the mass of goblins rushing at us.

Prioritize! Prioritize!

I pushed everything I could aside, my pounding heartbeat, the sudden fear and trepidation, and with a thought the Phase spiders leapt onto the ogres in blue flashes of light, biting and clawing, pumping venom and spitting out globules of sticky webbing to bring the monsters down.

They didn’t go down. They were ogres. Large and brutish and far stronger than they had any right to be. I felt my spiders die, a fist here, a stomp there, one of them did the flailing equivalent of stop, drop and roll.

I teleported them, in and out, hit and run but the goblins were acting, firing arrows and swinging axes and swords, or jabbing with spear and pikes and though I could dodge a lot I couldn’t dodge everything.

More of the spiders teleported around Durge, a ring of eight legged bodyguards as the Dragonborn shouted and rushed headlong into the fray, tearing at goblins with bared claws and fangs before he got his hands on a crude cleaver and started hacking at them amidst the screaming dead that he directed alongside my spiders.

Even more I sent into the horde, towards the goblins and drow that shouted orders, the confusion and mayhem immediately causing a disorganized mess amongst the ranks as the goblins tried to fight back against an enemy just appearing amongst them. 

“COME ON!” Sophia shouted, grabbing the scruff of my tunic to pull me to my feet, I followed after her and the reality of what I was following her to, or more specifically who I was following her to hit me all over again, my heart leaping into my throat as my stomach opened into a pit!

We reached the inner edge of the arch overlooking the tunnel entrance and I could see two dead tieflings, one dead druid and Karlach and Lae’zel squaring off against Brockton Bay’s strongest Hero!

The rain hissed as it fell around us in sheets, and somehow the noise was so much worse than my bugs ever could be. I could hear it pinging and clinking off of the Tinker’s armor, hissing as it evaporated off of Karlach’s body. 

Sophia nocked an arrow and my eyes snapped towards her, seeing that it wasn’t one of Barcus’ arrows. “Can you phase it through his armor?” The words tumbled out of me. “Into his leg or… something!? Just slow him down!” 

“I don’t know! Circuitry in his suit’s always stopped it! Fuck!” Her eyes were wide, practically dancing in her skull with how they looked to be trembling as if searching for an answer. Her fingers were shaking as they grasped the fletching, “Fuck!’ She said again.

And then, whatever clean shot she might have had was gone as Karlach and Lae’zel rushed forward and Armsmaster met the challenge head on. 

—

Astarion

“Five seconds in and the plan’s gone to shit!” Astarion heard himself mutter. His elven eyes were sharp, and even through the gloom and obfuscation of the heavy rain he could see hobgoblins and bugbears. Taking careful aim, adjusting for the harsh winds that howled and whipped across the expanse to loose.

The arrow struck true as his others did, the shaft piercing the side of his target’s neck. The bugbear fumbling for the arrow, pawing at it with both hands, no doubt choking on his own blood as Astarion nocked another arrow looking for another target in the mob.

Of the eight Ogres that had clambered up the cliff like miniature giants three had made it to the top; a fourth was dead, but his corpse was draped over the edge of the Cliffside like a dragging tablecloth, the ropes, chains and rope ladders tied to his back were still serving the goblins and their fellows helping them clamber up as the other three Ogres swung their massive hands and clubs, but the mobs clambering up their backs were pulling them off balance, giving the desperate Tieflings and terrified Druids more chances than not to dodge the otherwise deadly blows.

Red, blood draped, screaming souls howled and wailed as they clawed and tore at whatever goblins they reached, flashing blue phase spiders darted in and out of reality and other, far more ‘normal’ spiders were rushing in to tear at the flanks of the mob. 

It was chaos, pure bedlam. This wasn’t a battle. It was a mosh pit of screaming, flailing lunatics hacking at each other.

But even with all that chaos there were enough goblins that they were clambering over the sides of the cliff wall to engage the defenders, a wild, whirling melee breaking out amongst the cliffside. 

Astarion didn’t know battlefields, he couldn’t read a fight and had no idea whether the ramshackle mob of refugees would hold or break in just a few more seconds. 

He caught a flash of the Tiefling leader, Zevlor, his greatsword shining like a golden beacon in the chaos, ripping through the enemies as he shouted and Astarion fixed his gaze on him, because as long as he lived the better their odds.

His arrow nocked, his arm drew back and fired.

The arrow sailed straight and true, sinking into a goblin’s back before he could reach Zevlor.

Another arrow, this one into a neck; another and this time he swiveled to the left, catching sight of a Hobgoblin rushing for Durge, until a shaft was sticking out of his eye and Durge grabbed him by the face, lightning crackling across his fingers and leaping through the rain soaked body making it jerk, twitch and finally slump as it smoked and died in his hand.

A red, screaming soul emerged, peeling itself off of Durge’s hand.

Astarion decided to push that to the back of his mind to be dealt with never as he pulled another arrow and whirled back to Zevlor!

—

Karlach

Her axe crashed down with all the considerable force she could bring to bear on her enemy, it smashed into the armored warrior’s vambrace. Literally battering her aside with one hand as his halberd haft intercepted Lae’zel’s own strike, shunting the Gith away.

The armored warrior stepped forward between the two of them, the halberd whirling around him with a speed that bordered on blinding, the heavy axe head a blur that nearly took her head off, nearly disemboweled her.

She grasped the haft of her axe with both hands, bellowing as she swung with all her might. 

The head of her axe crashed into the Halberd blade, and the impact raced up the length of her arms, the pain in her hands feeling like her bones had damn near broken.

Then a jolt of crackling, snapping lightning electricity leapt up from her rain soaked weapon and straight into her body. It slammed into her like a sledgehammer, her whole body flying back and crashing into a stone. 

Her muscles seized, her breathing stopped, and for a second she wondered if her chest would start working again before she suffocated; then with a rasping heaving gasp she sucked down air.

Lae’zel’s sword swung with all her skill. She was speed and precision personified. The strike was clean, perfect, precise. The edge of that sword flashed like quicksilver clear across the man’s neck in a decapitation strike that Karlach could never have replicated.

And Karlach heard that blade scrape off the under armor like it was glancing off dragon scales.

Her stomach sank, Lae’zel’s eyes widened in alarm and the Warrior rounded on her, advancing like a steel covered avalanche.

Lae’zel backpedalled, avoiding the crackling head of that lightning wreathed Halberd, striking at openings, but the blade did no better now than it did against his neck, sliding and deflecting off of the armor.

The warrior kept pressing, kept pushing, kept closing the distance and hemming her in. Lae’zel kept her composure, kept her head, her eyes alight with thought, frantically searching for a way to turn the fight before her blade darted and jabbed at the warrior’s face, to that small slit of an opening that framed his mouth and beard.

That made him move, that made him dodge and weave around her blade, avoiding it. Lae’zel’s blade was liquid quicksilver, rapidfire stabs and thrusts that deftly avoided the still crackling halberd. 

Karlach tried to stagger to her feet, knees nearly giving out before she grit her teeth, clenched her fist and forced her body to obey. 

The infernal engine snarled and growled in her chest and Karlach forced the thing to open up, fire spilling across her insides, her blood boiling, the pain gave her focus as she felt the power of the engine surging through her muscles. 

She swung at his exposed back.

The warrior moved as if he had eyes at the back of his head, hand whipping around, literally catching the axe blade in one hand, the full power of her swing carrying her through as she snapped the head off with a thunderous crack of wood.

She didn’t stop, didn’t let the moment deter her, regardless of the thrill of genuine fear at what just occurred. It wasn’t the first time she was disarmed and it wasn’t the first time she won anyway.

Lae’zel’s blade darted forward and the warrior leaned away, barely avoiding the sword tip piercing him through the mouth. 

Karlach used that moment, used it for all it was worth. Slipping under and around his arm and then leaping onto the bastard’s back!

She slipped her arms under his, pulling them away and trying to hold him still; it felt like she was trying to wrestle an Orthon!

She pushed the infernal engine to its limit, felt its power flow into her, felt her muscles breaking, snapping; she wasn’t gonna be able to hold him for long.

“STAB THE FUCK!” She howled, Lae’zel didn’t hesitate, barely even needed Karlach to say anything, her sword already rushing forward with that near preternatural speed, tip aimed straight at his face, the halberd unable to intercept.

Something just under her chin gave a clack.

And fire exploded out of the man’s back. The flames pushed at her, washed over her.

No. Not fire. Thrust.

The armored monster rushed forward, faster than Lae’zel expected, the blade scraped off the cheek of his helmet, and sliced across Karlach’s shoulder, boiling blood hissing as it kissed the metal, the warrior’s armored knee crashed into Lae’zel’s chest, caving in the plate. Blood exploded from the Gith’s mouth as she went flying back. Karlach knew enough about impact to understand Lae’zel’s ribs were shattered.

Then with a clack something shot out of the underside of the Halberd. The counterweight! It had burst out, extending to reveal a wire as the thing dug into the stone of the tunnel above and behind.

Then, before she understood what was happening fire exploded out of the man’s boots, the cable giving a peculiar whir as Karlach was carried up and back along with the armored warrior.

She realized what was about to happen too late.

Ahh fu-

The thought itself died as her back, her neck, skull and shoulders smashed into the stone hard enough to make her see stars. Something snapped inside, something that shouldn’t. She fell forward, her whole body going slack as she lost her grip and fell face first into the rain soaked mud.

Her vision swam, the edges darkening, the infernal engine sputtered like a choked beast in her chest. 

She could taste iron.

She heard a crunch behind her, metal boots hitting the ground like a weight. 

She reached forward, grabbing a rock. It’ll do…

“That all ya got?” She tried to laugh through the blood, through the pain. Her limbs shook as she tried to pick herself up. 

Getting to her feet, her whole world swam, Lae’zel was clutching at her chest. Similarly trying to reach her feet. 

She went to turn around and before she could, a hand grabbed at the back and side of her head. Stray hairs yanked out of her scalp as steel fingers like bandied iron clamps around her skull.

Karlach only felt a sudden movement and barely recognized stone of the tunnel’s wall rushing to meet her before, stone smashed into her cheek.

She tried to move, tried to kick or swing her rock, or something, but her limbs didn’t obey, her whole body didn’t obey.

She wasn’t even aware of the second impact.

By the third-

“STOP!”

She couldn’t even hear the words as the world went dark.

—

Durge

Durge was the breakwater upon which the Goblin army broke.

Souls tore the little monsters apart, Taylor’s spiders prioritized the targets she could sense giving orders. He himself carved through the lines and lines of creatures. His lightning leaping from one to the next in the torrential rain.

He had his eye fixed on one target.

The drow woman. 

She for her part, did not run, did not hide or cower. 

She was eager. Sure of her victory. Sure of her power.

It made Durge smile. 

Astarion may have been the vampire. 

But there was nothing quite like devouring hope!

—

Taylor

“STOP!”

My scream came out of me, and the horror in it as I watched Armsmaster smash Karlach’s head into the side of the tunnel was a pale shadow of what I felt twisting my insides as the woman went limp in his grasp.

Armsmaster turned, looking, rain continued to fall, continued to blanket the whole world.

I kept focus on the fight outside, on the fight above as the goblins were hacking apart the giant spiders I’d taken over, and little by little, with every glancing blow and solid arrow, my Phase spiders were being chipped away at. Durge was fighting, almost singlehandedly holding back the tide at the gate just past Armsmaster. 

The world famous Tinker looked at her, vizor glowing cyan blue in the dark, the light shifted against it as he turned and looked at Sophia who stood just in front of Lae’zel. 

“Stalker.” He rumbled, the halberd stamping down before he let go of Karlach. I felt sick watching her fall. Was she dead? 

Please… don’t be dead.

I pushed my fear, my despair, and my anger into my swarm. The mass of insects becoming frenzied, screeching, howling, stabbing, clawing and biting.

I had ten Phase spiders in reserve… they could phase through his armor. Poison him. 

Poison… Armsmaster.

The thought made me feel sick in a whole different way.

“Armsmaster.” Sophia hesitated, and it was the first time I could remember that she genuinely looked… afraid. “This isn’t you.”

Armsmaster shook his head and began to pace. “I have heard her voice, Stalker. She is the key.”

“To what?” Sophia asked. 

“To everything!” He said and I noticed… he wasn’t pacing. He was closing the distance.

I reached over, my hand on Sophia’s shoulder, urging her back, and she obeyed the physical urging. Fingers on her arrow. 

“To the villains. Even the Endbringers!” He sounded… fanatical… rapturous. “With her at our sides we can fix our world! Bring an end to all the suffering they cause!”

“You’re being Mastered!” Sophia answered. “Bitch is getting short-stacks and fuck-wits to try and kill a bunch of tree huggers and is struggling. Killing Endbringers my ass! You have to see that!”

I saw Armsmaster’s lips press into a thin line under his beard. 

He gripped his Halberd in both hands. “You can’t see what I see.” He finally said. “In the light of the Ward you are and my responsibility to you, I’ll give you one chance. Step aside.”

Sophia shook her head. “You’re being Mastered!” She repeated.

And apparently- that was all the excuse the man needed.

I saw him go low, bending knees and I knew what was about to happen before it did, time seeming to slow in my mind's eye as Armsamster lunged.

I… didn’t have time to move. Didn’t have time to do anything, not even shout a warning.

Sophia shifted into her breaker state, out of pure reflex.

And in the next instant was forced back into corporeality. I watched with an entirely new horror as blood exploded from her mouth, lightning making her body jerk and spasm as he impaled her, weapon running her through and pinning her to the mud. 

“Arm-” Her gasping was horrible to listen to, voice starting and stopping, choking on blood, she twitched and squirmed like a fish on a hook, and Armsmaster stared down with an expression so cold it left me feeling like I was dunked in ice. 

“For the Absolu-”

I was moving before I could think, leaping in with a kick wreathed in necrotic energy, Armsmaster’s hand whipped up to bat aside the blow, the necrotic energies eating into the steel. I saw him move to swing his halberd, literally ready to tear it out of the side of Sophia’s body!

I didn’t think, just acted as I leapt onto it.

The tadpole pulsed, my mind opening up, clawing and scratching and tearing at his.

Something tore back.

I didn’t so much grab as I fell onto the haft, I tasted iron, blood leaking from my nose. 

I felt tearing at my brain, my body spasming, muscles jerking. A convulsion nearly had me biting my own tongue, fingers grabbed hold of the halberd and I focused on it as a way to center myself. I retched, bile and blood bubbling up from my throat, pain bloomed across the inside of my skull before something… interposed itself, like a body literally blocking the psychic bridge between Armsmaster and myself. I saw him reel, his own nose bleeding but even as I tried to open up the connection again something was blocking me, something was keeping the connection shut.

Lightning jumped and crackled, leaping onto my body in jolts of excruciating pain but I didn’t dare let the halberd go. 

Something struck me in the back of the knee. I fell forward, nearly goring myself on the underside 'hook' of the axe head, and that’s when the Phase spiders appeared.

The ten creatures pounced, halfway between realms as they slipped straight through Armsmaster’s armor.

But the Tinker, mastered or not, had decades of experience.

His jetboots activated and in an instant he was leaping up, slipping out of my ambush like water through a net. The only good thing was that he’d left his Halberd behind to ensure he got away in time. 

The lightning stopped, the pain didn’t. I breathed, sucking down air that never quite seemed to fill my lungs. My muscles jerked and started but I forced them to obey, forced myself to keep moving because I don't know how long we had.

I put my foot on Sophia’s chest. I wanted to apologize, I know it had to hurt but I had to get this out of her, for all I knew, Armsmaster could still remote control this fucking thing!

She gasped, I could see her crying, Sophia, crying. She looked at me, blood coating her chin, neck and chest, the mud staining red under her.

I pulled.

Her scream of pain ripped through the night, and I threw the halberd aside like it was burning my fingers. I felt suddenly sick, the sound of her flesh peeling off the steel making me nauseous.

I tried to focus, feeling my eyes burning with tears, trying to shift the energy in my hands to heal rather than harm.

Her gasping was still horrible; it still made my stomach turn even if it was her.

Above and behind I felt Armsmaster moving and I kept my phase spiders chasing him, but every time they teleported, every time they tried to attack they needed to become corporeal again.

And within seconds he was adapting. Timing it. I lost five by the time I knelt at Sophia’s side, three more by the time my hands were glowing the soft green of healing magic.

I made the last two spiders teleport to my side.

Sophia's breathing was wet and she started and stopped, deep lungfuls of air that she held before trying to breathe again.

"He-" She choked, spluttering on a mouthful of blood with whatever she was trying to say.

Behind me, Armsmaster’s boots hit the ground near Karlach’s body and I felt Sophia stiffen, hand fumbling for her bow in the mud.

He raised his hand. The halberd rocketed up, off the ground and cracked into his gauntlet as he caught it.

Lae’zel, with god knows how many shattered ribs coughed up a lungful of blood, using her sword to stagger to her feet.

The rain was making my swarm almost unusable. I didn't have cover, I didn't have anything to distract or use against him. Slip between the cracks and vents of his armor. Or just sting his lips, and nose. If I called all the phase spiders back it could buy me some time but could Durge and the Tieflings hold out without them?

My breathing shuddered, mind whirling. Think. Think!

And then the heavens opened up!

A lightning bolt as large as a building crashed down directly over Armsmaster’s head, in a flash of blinding white I saw the Tinker get smashed down, falling on hands and knees, lightning dancing over his body, Halberd standing tall as he held it up, the electricity leaping from its tip down to him.

And Halsin stood between him and us, Nature’s wrath made manifest as electric current forked from his eyes and crackled over his entire body.

“Not one more step!”

Armsmaster stood up once again. I could hear his armor. It snarled like a beast. “I’ve faced worse things than you.” He said. 

Halsin’s growl was entirely bestial. “Worst or not… I will be the last!”