Rune Seeker

“Hiral,” Seena said evenly. “It’s stealing your tricks.”

“And doing it better,” Yanily pointed out. “He brought a plus-one. You going to stand for that?”

Despite how it actually irked him the golem was not only using his runes, but something very similar to Foundational Split, Hiral didn’t respond. No, he was too busy trying to figure out just what the golem had done.

As it was, it wasn’t hard to pick out the original Guardian – it hadn’t moved – but the other three quickly rushed forward at the party. A dozen crab-like legs stomped sta-sta-sta-sta as the new trio rushed ahead, solar energy gathering in their limbs and Runes of Energy glowing. There was no way they could block four of those blasts at the same time!

Do we have to?

Something about the whole scenario seemed off to Hiral even as the first golem took aim. This wasn’t like Foundational Split with each of the bodies having different abilities – they were all lighting up the same runes. On the far left, rune glowing within the palm of its three-fingered hand, the golem there set its legs, while at the same time, a pulse of solar energy erupted from the original. Tearing through the air, the energy blasted across the room at Seeyela. Clearly having seen it coming, the woman easily Bamf’d out of the way, only to reappear directly above the Mid-Boss that’d shot at her.

With her daggers glowing a vicious green above her head – and the golem apparently oblivious to her position – she let gravity do the work for her. Down she came, her Fangs of the Lady cutting green arcs as they drove down into the top of the Guardian. Into… and… through?

Seeyela yelped in surprise as she passed straight through the golem like it wasn’t even there, though she managed to catch her balance and get her feet under her before she hit the ground fifteen feet down.

“They’re illusions?” Seena asked as one of her Fireballs sailed through another of the new Guardians on the right. The resulting explosion sounded far past her target, while everybody in the room turned towards the original. If the other three were illusions that couldn’t hurt them, they could be ignored.

And… yet… if it was so easy to figure that out, what was the point of the ability? There had to be more to it, and Hiral focused his solar energy senses on the four constructs as the party moved to attack the one in the center. Though, even as they did, the Guardian copies also moved to attack. Runes of Impact glowed on clubbed limbs, then swung in to intercept the racing party members.

The first, aimed at a rushing Seena, passed harmlessly through her as she chose to ignore the attack. The second – this the one Seeyela had already passed through – lifted and dropped its club like a falling meteor, and the woman reflexively dove out of the way. No titanic crash came to shake the room on the impact with the floor, showing that club had also been an illusion.

Is that it? They’re just there to distract us?

Even as Hiral asked himself the question, the third and final club came around like an uppercut at Yanily, so fast it blurred the air and trailed energy from the glowing rune. Down and through the ground it passed – clearly insubstantial – and the spearman turned his attention from preparing to dodge the attack, to readying his next strike on the central Guardian. The instant his attention left that ghostly limb coming his way, there was a pulse of energy from the Mid-Boss ahead of him.

Was it…?

WHAAAAAAM, the Impact-enhanced limb crashed into Yanily like a runaway Runeoceros, bending his body around the blow before catapulting him up towards the ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle. A second WHAM ricocheted the spearman off the ceiling to slam back down to the ground and skid across the stone – sparks flying from his armor – until he hit the far wall. In the Party Interface, his health dropped by half, and everybody sort of froze at the unexpected violence of it.

“Yan!” Seena shouted, though she was forced to leap to the side to evade a gout of energy searing across where she’d just been standing. From the lack of damage it did to the floor, it must’ve been the illusory kind of attack, but did that just mean the one that’d attacked Yanily was also real?

Right was already there to answer the question, his flaming fist rising in an uppercut of his own to smash into the Guardian’s chest. Well, it would’ve smashed… if it didn’t simply pass through like he was trying to punch a ghost. Pivoting on his lead foot as he overbalanced, the double was forced to quick-step to stay upright, and moved directly through his opponent. As soon as he was behind it, the golem’s scythe-arm swept out and to the side to catch the flat-footed man.

Another illusion or the real thing?

At the same time the scythe swept for Right, Left moved to aid Yanily as the spearman pushed himself to wobbly feet, one of the other Guardians stomping towards the pair. Seeyela, seeing that, had already teleported over to intercept, her daggers lifting to meet another scythe sweeping her way. That still left two other Guardian’s free, the one closest to Seena charging across for her, and the original, another expression on its ‘face’.

(-_(-_-)_-)

Okay, yeah, Hiral really wanted to punch that face right now. But, a pulse of solar energy had his eyes widening as scythes raced for two of his party members. The same thing had happened just before Yanily got hit!

Making a choice, Hiral launched himself at the same time he snagged Death Knell and the Flame-Bladed Rapier of Eldritch Horror out of the air. Then, twisting with Rejection – despite his momentum – he practically appeared beside Seeyela, weapons glowing with Separation and in position to help block the coming strike.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Except it passed right through them, and before Hiral even had a chance to consider that, his pseudo-aspect vanished as his tattoos emerged on his right side. No sooner had that happened, than the fourth arm – the one he hadn’t seen used – snaked out unbelievably fast at the same time another pulse of solar energy erupted from the central Guardian. Thick fingers and a thumb closed around Hiral’s chest – far too solid to even be considered an illusion – and another rune glowed to life on the forearm.

The Rune of Breaking.

As soon as it lit up, unstable energy surrounded the claw – and Hiral – lancing pain through his body like every cell, muscle, and bone was breaking down. It wasn’t as sudden as getting smashed by a club or beheaded by a scythe, but his health was dropping almost ten percent a second! And, Fallens’ balls, it hurt.

With no time to spare, Hiral activated Foundational Split, and Right climbed up off him and onto the clawed arm. At the same time the double took a step forward and swung his fist, Hiral reactivated his pseudo-aspect, along with his own Runes of Breaking and Decrease. Matching his own runes – and his will, bolstered by the Edict – against the golem, the horrific damage caused by Breaking immediately ceased. All that was left was too…

The claw holding him – and the arm Right stood on – suddenly became insubstantial, dropping the pair to the ground. A stumble, and Hiral managed to catch himself, though his eyes lingered for a split second on the third of his health he’d lost to that. Worse, the clubbed limb was already coming around again, Rune of Impact glowing like a falling meteor.

And it wasn’t just coming for him. At the far side of the room, another swung for Seena – who’d been ineffectually hurling fire against the main body’s shield of Rejection – while the final golem closed on Drahn.

Beside him, Seeyela had stabbed at the one that’d gripped him, but she hadn’t managed to do any damage. That left Left and Yanily behind him, safely out of range of the clubbing limbs.

No way it reaches Drahn in time. That means it’s going after me or Seena. We can’t afford to guess and be wrong.

“Seena, wings!” Hiral shouted at the same time he flooded power into his own Rune of Impact, then surrounded his two swords with the aura. There was a brief instant of pause at the move, like the swords would’ve preferred another rune, but Hiral pushed past the resistance. What was that? Figure it out later! Next, instead of bolstering them with Increase to make them hit has hard as he could, he instead pooled more Decrease in there. Three powered-up Impacts would likely rip his arms completely apart, and – so far – he’d been able to negate the golems attacks by basically zeroing them out.

As the massive club swung for his comparatively tiny weapons, he could only hope the same remained true this time – the predictable pulse of solar energy ballooning out from the central Guardian.

Flaming wings burst out of Seena across the way, wrapping around her to block the coming strike, while Hiral’s swords glowed with runic energy. They were as ready as they could be, and Hiral braced for the impact… that didn’t come. No, his swords passed cleanly through the illusory club that’d swung at him, while a deep thump reverberated from across the room.

It went after Seena.

Hiral pushed the small worry out of his mind – her defensive ability could take that hit – and he instead acted within the brief window he suddenly had. Scarves of energy snaked out behind him, grabbing Right, Left, Yanily, and Seeyela, then he launched himself across the room on planes of Rejection. Pushing himself – and his pseudo-aspect – to the max, Hiral used micro-bursts of Attraction and Rejection to increase his speed even further, simultaneously pushing and pulling himself while pumping his legs.

Within the blink of an eye – maybe less – he was at Seena, another scarf reaching out and snagging her as he passed. A startled yelp from the party leader, and Hiral made a brutal ninety-degree turn, his runes pushing, pulling, and reducing his own gravity enough to make the move possible. It still torqued at him – and felt like his stomach got left behind – but within the next blink, he was at Drahn. One final scarf, and Hiral hauled the whole group to the far side of the room, furthest from any of the Guardians.

And the central one didn’t seem to be too thrilled by that.

(>_

Too bad for you.

“Everybody okay?” Seena asked.

“Hurts… to… live…” Yanily groaned, but he had one of the healing potions uncorked and half empty. Beside him, Left had the Banner of Courage just for the group, and channeled the Waters of Frey onto the spearman.

“What the hell is the trick on this one?” Seeyela asked after a quick look to make sure Yanily was actually okay. “And, Hiral, going to get less gropey?”

“No,” Hiral said, instead pushing Restoration into the scarves to help bolster the recovery of the group – the spearman especially. “I think we’re going to need them. As for the trick, it’s one of two things, though I don’t know which. The Mid-Boss is either temporarily switching places with one of the illusions, or it’s making the illusion real, just long enough for the attack.

“I’m leaning towards the second, since the one that’d grabbed me lost cohesion completely after a few seconds.”

“So, that means we probably can’t destroy the illusions, and we need to focus on the central one,” Seena reasoned. “But, we can’t just ignore the doubles, cause they can wallop us if we aren’t careful.”

“Wallop?” Yanily asked.

“Got a better word for what happened to you?”

“Wallop it is.”

“Plan?” Seeyela asked, the four Guardians having regrouped, with three of them already charging across the room at the party. At most, Hiral and the others only had a few more seconds before they’d have to engage.

“Hiral’s obviously got one since he isn’t letting us go,” Seena said. “Let’s have it.”

Feeling how the Rune of Restoration circled his teammates through the connection of his scarf, Hiral nodded. “I do. I’ll keep it simple. I think I can protect you from the Mid-Boss’s runes, but I won’t be able to do much else. Need to concentrate on this.”

“That’s it?”

“Not exactly,” Hiral said, the golems closing fast. “Focus on destroying the original. I’ll protect you from most of the attacks. You still need to parry the club or scythe, and dodge the damn claw, but the part that makes them the most dangerous – the runes – I’ve got that. Ignore the beam.”

“You’ve got our backs?” Yanily asked.

“I’ve got your backs,” Hiral affirmed. “Go turn that golem to a pile of crystal dust.”

“But leave the Solar Core intact!” Seena added quickly, the golems a mere twenty feet away now. “Sis, if you would.”

Seeyela chuckled. “Time for round two.”

Then a sheet of black opened underneath the party, and they dropped through it to appear directly behind the main guardian.

(/=_=)/ _I__I_