Rune Seeker

The impact shook the room as the greatsword crushed Banst beneath it, dust and debris spraying out in every direction, while the floor itself tilted. Maybe it was Hiral’s imagination, but it even felt like the dungeon tilted a little at the weight. Sure, he’d only put fifteen percent solar energy into it – he’d learned anything above ten had massive diminishing returns – but he had to have dropped almost thirty-thousand pounds on the woman.

She has to be mush…

As the haze began to clear though – Yanily and Seena still pounding on the shield protecting the orchestra that continued to play – Hiral realized he hadn’t gotten a quest notification.

“You can’t be…” he stared to say, only for the cloud to fade enough for him to find Banst on the ground, her crossed arms somehow holding the massively heavy sword above her. Blood streamed from the obviously broken bones, painting her face and neck red, while energy pulsed from the Enemy inside her to try and repair the damage. Looking closer, his sword wasn’t actually touching her skin though! Just like before, it was held back by something a fraction of an inch from her skin. That strange field.

Eyes snapping from the arms holding back the weight of an entire building – the ground continuing to crack beneath her at the constant pressure – to her face, she still had that same pressed-lips look. Solar energy was flooding off her, almost like an inexhaustible torrent, and then getting caught up in whatever she was doing to circle back and form that invisible armor. How was she controlling it? How was it connected to the other abilities she was using, and the runic hints he was feeling?

There was no way Rejection alone was holding up the sword – even as Hiral’s solar energy continued to drop to increase the weight. If it was a question of which of them would run out first, that was definitely going to be him. Still, holding her there – Left and Right closing in from both sides already – he had the chance to figure this out.

Staring down at her, focusing his attention through Cycling on how she moved the solar energy, it wasn’t his eyes that found the answer. No, no matter how long he stared, he never would’ve gotten it, because it was his ears that finally solved the mystery. Banst was humming! The rune she was using, it had to be some kind of Rune of…

The weight of the Greatsword of Amin Thett shifted slightly to the side as Banst sacrificed her right arm and shoulder, the limb getting crushed under the weight that no longer had any resistance. In return for that, the woman’s left hand rolled to reveal her thumb and middle finger together.

Snap, and the shockwave exploded up at Hiral from close range – again – and no portal appeared to suck in the blast. Instead, dull pain like getting kicked by a Runeoceros consumed Hiral from the waist up, and he launched straight above Banst. Below him, his greatsword stood embedded in the ground, while Banst ripped herself free from the weapon to engage Left. That didn’t hurt as much as I expected…

Then he noticed the solar energy billowing out in front of him, and the tattoos and Meridian Lines appeared on his right side at the same time his pseudo-aspect faded. Right had saved him from the worst of it by diving between Hiral and Banst!

That’s the second time somebody saved me from her.

But, now he knew her trick. Well, maybe not all of it, but enough!

Momentum easing before he hit the ceiling high above – and gravity starting to take over – Hiral pushed through the dull pain to twist at his core and stand himself upright. Then, he activated Foundational Split, Right rolling down his body instead of off the side until the two stood like mirror images, feet to feet. Both bending at the knees and then pushing, Right launched down at Banst even as she snapped at Left to force him back.

A split-second later, Right crashed into the ground – glowing, purple fist leading. Banst had managed to step back to avoid the worst of it, though she still got singed by the pillar of rising flames, and it almost seemed like she’d escaped the worst. Until something under her foot went click, and a new pillar emerged – this one green – and completely enveloped Banst.

Unmistakably Ghost-Web Venom, Hiral wanted nothing to do with getting close to Seeyela’s TRAP, and used a burst of Attraction to pull himself to a nearby pillar. Hand and foot slapping into the marble, another application of the same rune kept him anchored there, and he did a quick check on how Seena and Yanily were doing.

Fire and lightning coursed along the shield separating them from the orchestra continuing to play the Threnody. The stage in front of the shield was little more than a charred mess, while the curtains had long been reduced to ash. As for the field, it had seen better days – though it somehow still held against the relentless onslaught.

The reduction to the potency of their abilities was drawing things out, and Banst was already stepping out of the pillar of toxic energy, weaving as she went despite the hum coming from her lips. This was their chance to stop one or the other.

Or maybe both.

Banst’s power was, in a way, very simple. It all stemmed from a single rune. One she used with a versatility that made Hiral a little jealous. Her strength came from the fact she’d mastered it. It would also be her – and the orchestra’s – weakness.

Connecting his will to the Domain of the Sun+, Hiral poured solar energy into his Rune of Dreaming. He wouldn’t be able to cancel what the Boss and her allies were doing, but since they both came from a single concept, he could perhaps at least weaken them.

Banst was using the Rune of Sound – that had to be it – and Hiral focused his Rune of Dreaming on making all sound within his domain less real. Because it was an effect modified by solar energy, and because they were also within his Domain, there was a chance it would work.

Like thick padding had been put over his ears, everything became muted. The roar of Seena’s flames dulled to little more than a background buzz. The crackle of Yanily’s lightning reminded him of somebody walking over dry leaves. The Threnody of the Empty Troupe sounded like it came from deep, deep underwater – only the lowest notes reaching them.

And Banst? The next snap of her fingers started strong, but then barely cut a line five feet long from her extended hand – which Left easily swerved around. Eyes widening at the double acting outside her prediction, she was wholly unprepared for Right as he came in low.

Torso barely inches above the ground, he somehow still closed the distance in the blink of an eye. Drawing his foot in under him – knee pressed against his chest – in an impressive display of athleticism and flexibility, Right came up and across from her blind spot. Lips pressed together, Banst hummed her protection into place as she noticed the flaming fist streaking for her face. Her barrier formed at the last second, solar energy billowing and then condensing, but it wasn’t the same as before.

To Hiral’s vision, streams of energy leaked from the barrier in a dozen spots, and even where it didn’t, the shield looked less pure. Almost fragile. Like something else was mixing with it or suppressing it. And, compared to how it had halted the Greatsword of Amin Thett, it might as well have not been there at all when Right’s fist struck.

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Flesh ripped along Banst’s cheek as her jaw tore apart and her neck twisted. Then she was the one streaking away on a trail of purple flames from the blow, body spinning like a top until she struck the wall forty feet up.

At the same time the stone cratered from the impact, there was a massive pop from the stage – even muted as it was – and then a wall of fire and lightning fell on the orchestra like a tidal wave. Golems and their instruments vanished beneath the surging elements that swirled and rolled back and forth, and just like that, the Threnody ended.

“Finally,” Seena said into the party chat, and all heads turned towards where Banst was pulling herself out of the crater in the wall.

“Well,” Banst said, right arm hanging uselessly at her side until a pulse of power pulled the torn limb back together. The Infested’s healing ability was nothing short of remarkable. “I have ta say, I didn’ expect that. Ya weren’ kiddin when ya said y’all was strong. Guess I got ta stop playin’ with ya.”

“That’s okay,” Seena said. “We’re through playing as well.”

Just like that, four pillars of energy erupted as Seena, Seeyela, Yanily, and Hiral all used Eloquently Enraged+, though Hiral made sure to cheat by using Double Trouble+ first. Combined with his pseudo-aspect and the cascading buffs from his Domain of the Sun+, power surged through his body. Even beyond the outright increase to his physical stats, the enhancements once again made the Edicts just a little bit clearer to him.

The Threnody of the Empty Troupe had been a very powerful debuff – one that had made using Eloquently Enraged+ very risky – but with it gone, the tides had turned.

And Banst seemed to realize that, the powerful pressure from the party members rattling the theatre and causing the spectral crowd to raise a raucous cheer. Feet on a cracked section of the auditorium’s wall – even though it looked like she was pressed between two audience members – the Infested leaned forward. She was coming.

Until a pair of semi-solid solar gauntlets reached from a portal directly beneath her, catching her by the ankles. Head snapping down to look at Right, Banst’s lips tightened in a whistle, slashing across the double’s shoulder in a spray of liquid solar energy like glowing blood. But, Right didn’t let go, and in that instant where Banst whistled – where her lips were busy – a second portal appeared above her.

And her whistle turned to a scream as a pair of glowing-green Fangs drove hilt deep into her shoulder. Feral rage replaced the casual indifference on Banst’s face, her head jerking up and her hands quickly following. Thumbs against middle-fingers on both hands, she angled to catch Seeyela – half-emerged from a portal – in a deadly X of shockwave destructiveness.

“Nope,” was all Seeyela said before a pair of massive wolf-maws closed on Banst’s already damaged forearms. Standing on tiles of pink butterflies, two of The Pack mauled the Infested’s arms as they pulled the deadly hands away.

Snap, snap, Banst’s shockwaves – still weakened by Hiral’s Domain – sparked along the wall beside Seeyela.

“This isn’ enough!” Banst roared, solar energy powering the words with physical force. Right – at her feet, and already injured – fared the worst. The glowing wound along his chest and shoulder tore further open, his right arm like it was barely still connected. Above Banst, Seeyela’s Armor of the Ghost-Web Matriarch visibly cracked, and solar energy ripped off the wolves savaging her arms.

“Good thing we aren’t finished,” Seena said calmly, though she was standing with her arms crossed on the stage. Alone on the stage.

Banst’s eyes widened as she looked across the wide theatre at where a bolt of horizontal lightning – Skyfall+ – burst towards her. As fast as it was, the strike was near instantaneous, washing the room in white, and without Hiral dampening sound, it likely would’ve been deafening.

Most of the wall vanished in electricity as Yanily struck – Right and Seeyela ducking through their portals to narrowly escape – though the two members of The Pack were disintegrated. When the light and smoke cleared, Yanily ‘stood’ straddling Banst, feet on the wall, and his spear pierced through the center of her chest. Lightning coursed along the spearman, from his storm-cloud like wings, down his hands, and across his weapon to where it zipped along the Infested’s body.

“You… missed…” Banst said, the tentacles across her arms noticeably absent, and something wriggled within her stomach, pushing the skin outward. Tentacles ripped through flesh as Banst screamed in agony, stretching in the blink of an eye towards Yanily.

In response, Yanily simply looked down at the reaching monster, lightning flaring in his eyes and across his body. Then – just for a second – something appeared behind him. A massive, lizard-like head, with teeth the size of the spearman in a maw that spread in a snarl of territorial dominance.

The tentacles froze at the appearance of the image of Heaven’s Punishment, even as scales of solid electricity formed over Yanily’s body. Another snarl that completely ignored Hiral’s sound suppression, and those same tentacles retracted back into Banst’s body like a whipped dog.

Blood poured from the gut wound as Banst stared wide-eyed at Yanily in shock. Her mangled arms hung freely beside her, but she didn’t even try to attack the man.

For Yanily’s part, he let go of the spear and leapt back, hanging in the air on a flap of electrified wings.

“What… are… ya?” Banst asked weakly.

“Not even the overpowered one,” Yanily said, thumbing over his shoulder to where Hiral stood in the air with the Greatsword of Amin Thett once again in his hands.

With the buffs, the pseudo-aspect, and his strengthened connection to the Edicts, the greatsword had never felt so right in his hands. It’s fallen-star form thrummed with power – but a malleable power he’d never noticed before. Like Ur’Thul had said, the whole Regalia of Amin Thett was like a training tool to teach him how to use his runes. And the greatsword, its role was pretty clear, especially after what he’d seen Banst do.

The greatsword was there to teach him how to weaponize the runes.

He truly hadn’t been using them to their full potential. There was so much more he could do with each one – he’d barely scratched the surface. He would change that.

For now, though, he wrapped his sword in Separation and Breaking, tethered Gravity, multiplied it with Increase, and even prepared a healthy dose of Rejection. A thought changed his Emperor’s Decree to Death Knell – the solar-smoke Vassal of Ur’Thul stepping up and enveloping him for an instant before vanishing – and he activated Sever Life.

Then he stepped forward, like he’d done against the Guardian, moving so quickly it probably looked like he’d teleported.

Out, around, and across the greatsword went, a crescent of light that made no sound as it parted wall, flesh, bone, and squid like they were hardly even there. A steady stream of Rejection kept Banst’s top half in place, but everything below the cut fell to the floor.

The ex-Infested met Hiral’s eyes as the world around them stained in flickering red and orange, and the temperature quickly rose at Hiral’s back. “Listen,” she wheezed. “If ya don’ free the heroes, y’all better be strong enough to beat back the Enemy in their place.”

“We will be,” Hiral said.

Banst leaned her head back against the wall and let out a tired sigh, skin paling as the blood left her body in buckets from the horrific damage. “Good. Then I leave it in y’alls hands.” Then she closed her eyes, and Hiral stepped into a portal waiting beside him.

He appeared on the ground beside Yanily, Seeyela, Drahn, and Seena just as the newly formed sun above – reinforced by the Rune of Dreaming – crashed into where he’d just been.

“My spear better not melt,” Yanily said as the Infested, the wall – and that entire side of the theatre – vanished in plasma.