Chapter Four-Hundred Forty-Six (Patreon)

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Jondar

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It’s been a long time since he had no idea what someone was thinking.  It doesn’t even take Mental affinity to get a notion of what’s going on in most people’s heads.  In that respect, he supposes Thedeim has an advantage in not having a head at all.

He’ll have to save the analysis for later.  Right now, the canopy shaking is only getting stronger, while the cloud dome overhead is looking more and more unstable.  He looks around the arena, as does his group and the young lad Freddie, before he spots another area of rainbow light on the floor.

“More light!  Move!” he orders, and is glad to see the lad keeping up as they all gather.  More areas are illuminated, and soon it seems like the world splits with a blinding flash of lighting, a deafening clap of thunder, and the branches heaving beneath them.

He can hardly hear his own screaming over the cacophony, desperately grabbing the branches beneath him, part of him wondering if the dungeon has finally decided to stop playing nice.

It takes him longer than he wants to admit to realize he’s not falling, even though he can feel movement still.  He gingerly looks around, surprised to see Freddie and his spider standing tall, their platform and others slowly revolving before the huge cloud form of the Stormeater.  He soon stands as well, taking in the insanity of the third phase.  The gigantic cloud quatl is coiled around the remains of the arena, clumps of branches ripped free and floating around like leaves in a pond.  The wings shroud much of the sky, though Jondar can see roiling clouds beyond, as well.

And floating before the cloud construct is the Conduit himself, wreathed in the might of nature, the vibrant, beating heart of the storm.

“How in the Abyss are we supposed to deal with that!?” shouts one of Jondar’s people, only to be answered by a light drizzle of rain, seeming to fall sideways.  The stout elf’s eyes widen as he feels the intent of an attack incoming.

“Brace!”

His group does what it can, and are surprised as Freddie shouts over the storm.  “Shield’s Respite!”  Glowing shields materialize before the members of Jondar’s guild, and none too soon.  In the same direction the rain was falling, bolts of lighting strike, dashing themselves upon the shields from the young paladin.

After an instant that lasts hours, the attack is over, and though Freddie is looking drained, he’s still standing.  Jondar laughs and steps beside him, slapping him on the back.

“Good lad!  Do you have another in you?”

Freddie answers through heavy breaths.  “Depends… on how often… he attacks…!”

Jondar looks around the floating debris, noting that not all the islands were assaulted.  In fact, it looks like the variety is mirrored from the initial round of attacks from the scion.  “Hail, lightning, wind, and kinetic.  Four attacks, but we still have a good ten groups in the fight.  Hmm… and it looks like we’ll get our chance to strike, too.  Look.”

Jondar points and Freddie’s gaze follows, along with the rest of those on the platform.  They’re almost directly across from Fluffles, but another group’s island is drifting close enough to engage with the scion directly!  They don’t muster too much, still being careful of reprisal, or perhaps recovering from the attack they had to endure.  Still, it makes the final phase simple in theory.  Endure the attacks, unleash once you get close enough.

They get to see more rain falling in unnatural directions, heralding attacks on four other groups, and Jondar tries to understand what’s going on.  “How is he making it rain like that?”

“Gravity,” answers Freddie, having mostly caught his breath by now.

“Gravity?” echoes Jondar, and several of his guild members look interested to hear this, also.

“It’s one of Thedeim’s affinities.  I don’t know much about it, but he can change which direction is down, for starters.  I think it’s also how he’s making the platforms float, too.”

“Thedeim doesn’t do much by half, eh?” comments Jondar with a chuckle.  “Let’s group up to defend from the next attack.  It looks like they come from the nearest wing.  Defensive formation, and follow the lad’s lead.  If anyone knows defense, it’s a Shieldy.”

The sideways rain comes, and Freddie quickly organizes everyone into a proper shield wall, his spider even helping out, and the hail that assaults them is easily rebuked by more of the glowing shields.

“That’s an impressive defense, and an impressive well for you to draw from to keep it going,” Jondar compliments, wishing he could recruit the lad, but making no moves to press.  Even young paladins can be stubborn about things like loyalty.

“I actually have a ring my friend made,” he says, holding up his hand to show it.  “It can store extra mana for times like this, and it has a boost mode to increase the flow.  It’s one or the other, and the extra is about empty now, so I’ll try boosting for the next attack.”

Jondar looks at the ring with desire, but soon reels himself in and glares at any of his people who are still staring at the treasure.  “We’ll need to talk to your friend after the raid, then, and see about commissioning some ourselves.  That sounds useful.  Save the boost for the attack, though.  I don’t think my frontline fighters would be able to live it down if they let you take the brunt of these attacks all on your own.”

He motions for the others to set up, and a few rounds of buffs and other prep has them prepared for the third set of attacks.  Bolts of kinetic force hammer the shields and armor of the ones trained to take it, and though there will be a few dents to hammer out and bruises to nurse later, this attack, too, is overcome.

The attacks on their island lull, letting them appreciate the combinations unleashed by the other groups.  One looks to be made mostly of casters of different types, and their combination spell washes over Fluffles with a unique blend of affinities acting in harmony.  The next is Vnarl’s group, joined by a young elf that positively reeks of a secret to keep.  Their slashing combination is difficult to follow even for Jondar, as the attacks seem to curve impossibly to hit their target.  He’d expect that out of boomerangs, but not from the rest of the group.

The final group before they get their chance is Gerlfi’s, with the young mayor joining them.  Wold is easy to spot even without him seeming to draw power from the storm, and the mighty lightning bolt they work together to empower is enough to leave streaks in Jondar’s vision afterward.

The conduit is still floating once their platform moves on, though it looks to Jondar like he doesn’t have too much left to give.  Not that Fluffles relents.  If anything, the attacks grow stronger and swifter, allowing less time to defend.  But they still follow a pattern.

“Lad!  Follow Plerkim’s lead defending from the wind!  We’re going to counter as soon as we can!”  Freddie nods as the others prepare, already knowing the combination Jondar intends to use.

They swiftly set up as the rain starts to fall, and soon a spinning vortex of sharp wind bears down upon them.  “Deflection!” shouts Freddie, the mana around him swirling with the intensity afforded by his ring.

“Redirection!” announces Plerkim right after, the wind mage wresting control of the winds after Freddie’s contribution.  Nilier and Nileur each toss their greatswords into the winds, their metal affinity allowing the twin elves to direct their attacks without even holding their weapons.

Jondar’s contribution is more subtle, despite him shouting at the Conduit to get his attention.  Having the focus on him is the overt point, but getting it off of the incoming attack is the true reason.  Plerkim releases the winds, sending them barreling toward the conduit as the combination takes hold.  “Blindspot slash!”

Jondar can’t help but frown at the aftermath of the attack.  It should have bisected the scion.  The gashes are deep and telling, but that it didn’t instantly die from it is impressive.  Still, the storm seems to freeze for a moment, before Fluffles falls, crashing through the branches of the canopy as the clouds disperse, letting sunlight flood back in.  The floating islands drift down to join with the tree, more than a few groups cheering just to have solid ground beneath their feet once more.

Jondar looks around, wondering if there’s going to be a chest or something, since Fluffle’s body has vanished.  His idle looking is interrupted by a wave of raw malevolence, and he instinctually shields the minds of those nearby himself.  He feels someone else doing the same for another group, but most of the people stumble to their knees.

Hateful laughter drifts up from beneath the branches, the shadows cast seeming to drip with something that should not be.  Mouths and eyes crawl up into the reformed arena, some sort of insane slime monster materializing in the center, mocking their victory.

“Harbinger!” comes several shouts, the tone making it sound like this isn’t something Thedeim made.  Before anyone can react, the mental pressure increases, straining even Jondar’s protection and making many of the adventurers outright collapse as the mocking laughter only grows.

“Die,” comes the order from countless mouths, and Jondar can see the attack sweeping toward the minds of all gathered.

Just as he can see the grass-covered scythe that cleaves the intent as easily as it does stems.  The mocking laughter switches to a discordant screech of anger, but Grim simply stands between the Harbinger and the adventurers.  In rage, the Harbinger embraces a title that makes Jondar’s skin crawl, the Harbinger of ■̵̴̸̸̶̴̴̶̴̸̷̸̸̸͉̰̗̦͇͋͆͊́͆͝■̸̶̷̴̶̸̵̷̶̤̓̈́̇̅̉■̸̴̷̵̷̶̵̷̷̶̷̸̴̶̨̢̠͔̟̮̂̅̀̌̕■̴̸̷̵̷̷̷̵̼̲͓̅͂■̸̷̶̴̵̴̸̷̸̵̢̥͕̈͋́͝■̶̵̵̴̶̵̸̴̷̴̵̰̼̌͑͗͆̄͝■̴̷̵̸̵̴̷̶̻̬̖̀̏ setting his teeth on edge.

Grim simply embraces his own titles, filling Jondar with a different sort of dread.  Bloom of Life.  Touch of Death.  The Bridge Between.  Even if the skeletal scion is on their side, Jondar gets the feeling they should all be running from what’s about to happen.  The only problem is that he can feel two more minds like the Harbinger, one in the city, one at the Hold.  Where would they even run to?