Fated (Chapter Seventy)
Wednesday, December 30th, 2015 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcrackloveA couple parts of this chapter are a little graphic so watch yourself.
Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/F
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet
Chapter Seventy
Kingdom of Kalt’on, Minecraftia. November 13, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
“Good luck.” Iirkolav’s eyes scanned the descendants before him, a shiver running down his spine as he spoke. It was the day of the assault on the Dae’vos citadel. The groups had been decided, and the frontal attack was about to begin. He looked into the determined eyes of his allies- no, his friends- and couldn’t shake the feeling that this was the last time he would ever see some of them.
“You too, Iirkolav.” Zekara nodded to him, her face one of the most determined of all. It wasn’t a huge surprise that she was on the frontal attack team, along with Claire, Zel, Katrin, Mitven, Arra, Vian, Blade, Fate, Nessy, and Mokdal, as well as most of the Sandbreakers including Shriker. The stealth team, meanwhile, consisted of Nia, Iirkolav, Nak, Onai, Axid, Marcus, Voryn, and a couple of other Sandbreakers.
“We’ll get out of this.” Vian said confidently.
“Not necessarily alive.” Mitven added.
“Do your best, at least.” Nia looked at the frontal assault team. “Don’t get too caught up in the fighting that you forget to open the doors, okay? That would be really, really annoying.”
Zekara shot her a wolfish grin. “I’ll bash the gates open myself if need be. Claire, you want to help?”
“You can always count me in to a good door-bashing, ya know.”
“Fantastic. Let’s fucking do this.” Zekara retrieved her axe from her back. “Shriker! Are we ready to go?”
“Almost, almost. We’re waiting for our scouts to get back telling us that they’ve disabled or destroyed the ballistae.”
As the Sandbreaker second-in-command spoke, a woman with short black hair came sprinting down the tunnel. She had a hastily bandaged wound on her arm but it didn’t seem to bother her. Without even pausing for breath, she informed Shriker that the ballistae were down.
He nodded and turned to Voryn. “We’re ready, sir.”
Voryn nodded. “Onwards, then! Good luck, Shriker. I’ll see you once the king lies dead and Dae’vos has fallen to the Sandbreakers.”
Shriker bowed and then raised his voice. “Frontal assault! It’s time to move out! For the future of this world and the new Kalt’on! For the Sandbreakers!”
The Sandbreakers met his shout with a deafening roar before charging down the tunnels towards the exits that Shriker had pointed out previously during planning.
The battle for Dae’vos was about to begin, a battle that would change the world forever, no matter the outcome.
~~~
Zekara was having a great time the moment her axe collided with an unsuspecting guard.
The sun was beginning to set, and the guards on watch were tired and waiting to be relieved, when suddenly hundreds of Sandbreakers broke out of hidden entrances and began to storm through the city, killing soldiers wherever they could be found. Alarms were triggered immediately and suddenly all of Dae’vos seemed to awaken, every Kalt’onian troop in the city pouring to the site of the battle.
Then the dragons appeared, and all hell really broke loose.
A giant red dragon flew over the city, flames blasting from its jaws in an endless stream of fire. He was trailed by a smaller purple dragon, which targeted individuals, shooting bolts of purple flame and dodging every projectile that was sent her way. The ballistae were discovered to be disabled or destroyed, removing the Kalt’onian’s prime anti-dragon weaponry.
Zekara jerked in surprise as Mokdal barely dodged what looked like a building being thrown at him, and her eyes tracked the source.
Oh, shit.
Spalor was perched a ways away on the inner wall of Dae’vos, around the citadel, tail flicking in anger and eyes burning in hate. She roared, shaking the ground, and with a swipe of her claws, some kind of earth-moving power ripped a massive chunk of stone from a building and hurled it at Mokdal.
One again, the dragon managed to avoid it, barely flying around it, but Spalor was done hurling rocks at him. With another roar, she pushed off from the wall, wings extended. She glided a short ways before hitting the ground hard enough to shake the city and engaged the Sandbreakers, occasionally tossing massive chunks of stone at Mokdal or Nessy, the latter of which seemed insistent upon circling the Hostile’s head and trying to claw at her eyes.
Zekara felt an arrow bounce off of her metal armor and she re-focused on the battle around her, leaping forward and killing a Kalt’onian instantly. She barely noticed as Alvark, the two-headed hydra-like Hostile, entered the battle, as he was a ways away, and focused on the troops around her. She noticed Spalor approaching but saw Zel move to engage her with his own earth elementalist powers, Katrin not fair behind, and checked her off as busy.
She paused to hold her axe in her right hand alone to allow her to pick up a throwing knife off of a corpse, aim, and throw it at an archer, downing him instantly. She grinned and turned around, almost cutting one of the Sandbreakers in half. He paled when she raised her axe but relaxed some when she lowered it.
“Watch yourself!” She barked, turning again and leaping back into the fray.
She was so preoccupied with the battle that, after that point, she was unaware of what the closest Hostile was doing until she heard Claire shout, “Zekara! MOVE!”
Her head turned and she saw a large chunk of rock hurling her way, clearly sent by Spalor. Her eyes widened and she started to move, tried to get out of the way, but even her reflexes weren’t fast enough. With a sickening crunch, the rock hit, and she shut her eyes and hissed in pain, expecting to be dead.
A moment passed before she realized that she wasn’t dead and opened her eyes, finding herself on the ground with her left arm trapped between the large rock, a wall, and the ground. The pain coming from it and the odd angle that it was twisted told Zekara that both her left hand and her forearm were likely too broken to ever recover.
But she was alive, at least. She pulled at her arm and pushed at the rock in vain, knowing she’d never get free without help. Looking at the stone, she was doubtful that even Mokdal could move this too easily, and then she also noticed that she was completely helpless. Her axe was nowhere to be seen and she had a funny feeling it was crushed under the rock.
Her eyes scanned the battlefield for Zel and found him struggling to keep Spalor from crushing him with various boulders and chunks of buildings. She started to shout a warning as Spalor opened her mouth and it began to glow, but she was too slow, shutting her eyes to avoid seeing her friend roasted by the dragon’s flames.
She slowly opened them a moment later, seeing that he had managed to raise a wall in front of himself, but a stray arrow lodged itself between his shoulder blades. He cried out, losing concentration, and a rock fell on him, crushing him underneath its weight with only his chest and head sticking out. He twitched slightly, still alive, as Katrin shouted his name before Spalor easily swiped at him with her claws, ripping everything from his shoulders up off and killing him instantly.
The descendant of Avidya had fallen.
Well there goes that plan of getting un-stuck. Zekara thought grimly. She turned her head as Claire raced up to her, eyes wide.
“Zekara! Oh my god! I thought you were dead oh my god!”
“If I can’t get out from under this rock I’m going to be!” An idea suddenly formed. “Get Vian! He’s an earth elementalist, right? Send him over here and get back to the battle.”
“I’m not gonna leave you!”
“I’ll be fine, Claire! I’ve had worse!”
“YOUR ARM IS PRETTY MUCH NOT THERE!”
“I’M FINE NOW GO!”
Claire grumbled something about her sister being horribly stubborn and raced off to find the other elementalist. Zekara struggled to get free for several more minutes until Vian arrived, stone battle gloves over his hands.
“Zekara, how the hell did you manage this?”
“Never you mind that, just get it off of me!”
“How?!”
“You’re an earth elementalist, just move it!”
“Why can’t Zel-”
“Zel is fucking dead so if you don’t mind-”
“Wait, hold up. Zel is DEAD?”
“Well, usually getting your head and shoulders torn off kills you, yeah. Now get me out or I’ll be dead!”
“Well, um…” Vian hesitated, kicking at the ground. “About that…”
“You’re not an earth elementalist, are you?”
“Well… I am it’s just…I…can’t do much more than activate these gloves and move small rocks.” He smiled sheepishly. “Ha. Ha ha. Woops.”
“I fucking hate you right now, that was A GOOD THING TO MENTION BEFORE I NEEDED TO RELY ON POWERS THAT YOU DON’T FUCKING HAVE!”
“Look, okay, I’ll just…” He slammed his fists into the rock several times, but it seemed to refuse to want to budge. “Um…wow, I think only really Spalor could move this again, how the fuck…um…”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Just get me that.” Zekara motioned at what appeared to be a saw sitting on the ground, apparently thrown along with a piece of rock from earlier.
Vian didn’t question her and handed it to her, and yelped in alarm when she placed the blade against her left arm. “Wh-what are you doing?”
“I’m trapped by my arm. It’s too broken to ever use again, from what I can tell. So I’m removing the arm.”
Enough stubbornness, tenacity, and strength to live through just about anything.
Zekara ignored how Vian didn’t watch as she gritted her teeth and started to saw, cutting through muscle and bone and anything else in the way until she jerked free of the boulder, missing half of her left forearm and down but alive and out. She dropped the saw and barked for Vian to get her something flaming so she could cauterize the wound to avoid bleeding out.
He reluctantly returned with a torch, which Zekara took from him and then cheerfully told him to fuck off and try not to get murdered by a large, angry dragon. She burned the wound shut, gritting her teeth, before dropping the torch (making sure to put it out) and picking up a one-handed axe from a corpse before leaping back into the fray, almost as if nothing had happened.
It was good to be a warrior.
~~~
When Zel went down, Katrin screamed.
She screamed with the pain of someone who has just watched someone they love get brutally murdered.
Her powers weren’t as useful in the desert, but she readied what water she had, rage overcoming her reason. She charged into battle against Spalor, water blades slicing at the Hostile’s exposed muscle. Spalor roared in pain and took a swipe at Katrin, which would have killed her if Nessy hadn’t swooped down and knocked her off her feet.
“Focus!” Nessy roared, circling up and blasting flames at the bleeding cuts along Spalor’s sides. Spalor whipped her head around to try and bite at Nessy, getting an arrow in the eye from Fate. She roared and swung her tail at the Skullblade, knocking her from the rooftop to the ground below. It was about a ten foot fall and Fate ominously didn’t move after hitting the ground. Nessy saw Mitven leap and bound across mounds of rubble and corpses to kneel by the Skullblade’s side, trying to see if she could help the Shadefang in any way.
“Don’t you fucking die on me,” Mitven snapped, “we’ve already lost an assload of Sandbreakers and Zel to boot, we can’t be losing you.”
Fate whimpered quietly, eyes slowly re-opening. “Where’s…Blade?”
“Fighting. Don’t worry about him, worry about yourself! You just fell off a building!”
Fate tried to sit up but cried out in pain, flinching back. Mitven felt her torso and shook her head. “Broken rib. You’re lucky to be alive, nevermind as uninjured as you are. You-”
“I need to get back to the fight.” Fate told her, trying to get up again.
Mitven nodded. “I knew you’d say that.” She pulled a healing potion out of her bag and watched Fate drink the entire thing, shivering as she felt it start to work. “Don’t get yourself hurt again, or I’ll have to patch you up with something less effective than a healing potion. You’re tough, but you’re not that tough.”
Fate nodded, getting to her feet and picking up her bow. “Thanks.” She paused, frowning slightly. “Check on Shriker.”
“Shriker? Why-”
“Just…trust me, okay?”
A seer’s predictions.
Mitven nodded and watched as Fate set off, shooting arrows at the Kalt’onians currently engaged in battle with Blade. She located Shriker quickly and bounded over to him, frowning at the large gash on his left arm. She shouted to him and waved him over. He frowned and reluctantly disengaged from the battle, becoming even more upset as Mitven insisted on bandaging his wound.
“You’re a human, not an ocean of blood. You’ll run out and die.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll fucking die.” Mitven pressed a little harder on his wound, making him whimper with pain. “See? You’re hurt.” She tightened the bandage. “Now go out there and get rid of that fucking Hostile! We won’t be able to advance with her in the way.”
Shriker nodded as he realized she was right. “Sandbreakers! Focus attacks on the dragon!” He shouted, re-drawing his sword. “You’re doing a lot of good, Mitven. Stay alive!”
“Stay alive!” She echoed.
Mitven watched as Nessy swooped away from Spalor to hover next to Mokdal for a brief moment, as if speaking to him, before returning to tormenting the Hostile. Mitven watched in awe as Mokdal’s eyes glowed, as did his chest, neck, and mouth, as he seemed to charge some kind of powerful fiery blast as he hovered, gazing at Spalor, vulnerable to any attacks that she sent his way.
Luckily for him, Nessy was proving to be an excellent distraction, circling Spalor’s head and shooting bolts of fire into her eyes. She slowly began flying up, as well, forcing Spalor to lift her head higher and higher to snap at her. A swipe from a claw nicked Nessy’s side, almost knocking her from the sky, but the half-dragon carried on, aware that her blood was draining as well as her ability to fly.
It’s now or never. She suddenly flew almost straight up as Spalor lunged at her, forcing the Hostile to rear onto her back legs in an attempt to reach. Her teeth snapped shut right behind Nessy’s tail, the speed of the half-dragon being the only thing to save her from certain death. Nessy turned and looked at Mokdal, pleading that he was ready.
He was.
Mokdal’s jaws opened and a concentrated beam of magical flame shot outwards, striking Spalor on her exposed underside in her chest region. The flames ate through muscle and, in their attempt to escape her, raced along the interior of her stony plates, spreading out the burning and destroying more of her already damaged and bleeding internals.
Spalor screamed in agony as her inner workings were destroyed in flame, causing her to topple over backwards and fall hard enough to shake the city once more. Her head landed feet from the inner wall, shaking it and causing some pieces to fall as she broke apart and left only an orb and the destruction around her to show that she had ever lived.
Fallen Kingdom had been defeated.
The Sandbreakers and descendants cheered, surging forward towards the inner wall and the nearest gate. Alvark’s heads roared in twin fury and he redoubled his attack, spitting more and more acid at the enemy and clawing any that dared to get too close to him.
Nessy shakily descended from the sky, almost crashing next to Mitven. “Dragon potion.” She whispered, but the skettisren understood immediately. She pulled out the potion that Nessy had entrusted her with previously and poured what remained into the half-dragon’s mouth, watching as her wounds healed themselves.
Nessy nodded her thanks. “I just hope I don’t get injured again.”
“Try not to. And don’t die.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s easy.” Nessy rolled her eyes.
“Get going, you great big lizard.” Mitven said, patting Nessy’s side and laughing. Nessy took off, towards Alvark, and Mitven had a funny feeling that she would be seeing the half-dragon again later, just as wounded as she had been moments before.
Above them, Mokdal hovered in the air, unmoving, too exhausted to do much else. He slowly descended and landed on a rooftop a ways back from the battle, needing to catch his breath and rest for a few minutes before returning to combat. He had never unleashed that much power at once before, and had he not been trained in regulating his energy usage, the effort would have killed him.
As his head turned to look at where Spalor had fallen, a bolt of red lightning shot from the sky and left a familiar-looking man in its place. Mokdal’s eyes widened as he recognized Vechs. The man knelt down and retrieved the orb of Spalor before red lightning struck once more and took him away, leaving only a scorch mark in his place.
So they are watching. Mokdal looked to the sky and felt like he was looking into the eyes of Vechs Davion. He nodded slightly, spreading his wings once more before taking off.
Back to battle he went.
-~-
Vechs nodded slightly as Mokdal’s eyes locked on his, as if the dragon knew, before he took off. He reluctantly pulled his gaze away from Mokdal and instead to the orb in his other hand, the one containing ash and smoke and particles of rock that floated without gravity. He stood once more and walked out of the room, past a shocked and upset Avidya, into his room to return Spalor’s orb to its space on the rack. He looked mournfully at the eight empty slots before slowly shaking his head.
They’ll return to me soon enough.
But others will be lost in the process.
He shivered.
They are paying for my mistakes.
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Date: Wednesday, December 30th, 2015 09:41 pm (UTC)G.C.
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Date: Wednesday, December 30th, 2015 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 30th, 2015 11:46 pm (UTC)-Anon Cami
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Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 04:35 am (UTC)-Anon Cami
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Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 04:34 am (UTC)-Anon Cami
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Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 11:51 pm (UTC)he's going to kill the king
and the king isn't the king at all, it's a hostile, so, assuming they can kill Kyilld...yeah, he'll be there.
Unless he dies.
Now that would be sad, huh?
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Date: Friday, January 1st, 2016 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, January 1st, 2016 05:16 am (UTC)-Anon Cami
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Date: Friday, January 1st, 2016 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, January 4th, 2016 03:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 07:26 am (UTC)(::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 08:49 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: Thursday, December 31st, 2015 11:52 pm (UTC)Woops. Sorry Mindcrackers.
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Date: Friday, January 1st, 2016 01:08 pm (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: Friday, January 1st, 2016 04:48 pm (UTC)When I say that the ones who lost descendants aren't important, I mean that they're not integral to the plot of this particular story and thus aren't really followed that much.
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Date: Saturday, January 2nd, 2016 02:47 am (UTC)