During his years spent as an adventurer, Kite had witnessed many fortunate coincidences, ranging from the unlikely to the straight up improbable. Be it rituals failing at opportune times, abilities becoming available at the nick of time or more spectacular hazards - such as a pair of gold-rankers accidentally demolishing the temple within which their subordinates were fighting - coming close, but not close enough, to end one’s life.
As the prepared breaching ritual which the team used on the door to the laboratory beneath Van Sztramm’s hidden villa sent said door shooting across the room, crushing work tables and no doubt most expensive equipment, only to then collide straight with the gold-ranker himself? That experience instantly made it to the topmost reaches of Kite’s internal list of serendipitous events.
In an ideal world, the flying door-turned-missile would have pasted their target against the far wall, ending the ensuing conflict in a most inglorious manner before it even began. But while serendipitous happenstance were bound to happen every now and then, it rarely managed to completely shove aside the stark reality that was personal magical power.
“Wha-!” Van Sztramm managed to call out even as he reeled back from the substantial impact, but the gold-ranker’s couple of stumbling steps and crashing through another work table were a far cry from Kite’s daydreams of a quick end to the conflict.
“You-”
Gold-rankers were also pretty hard to properly stun for any extended time, their minds and bodies working beyond swiftly to help them find their bearings. As such, Van Sztramm had the time to take in the adventurers storming in from beyond the door and start forming another word, no doubt one of outrage.
But what followed next was another truth of the adventuring life; that properly trained and experienced adventurers - especially those trained and acting within the elite task groups - did not place their trust in serendipity. Or even accounted for it.
As such, Van Sztramm’s next attempt at outrage was interrupted by multiple lengths of cloth strips, aglow with magical runes and their outlines carrying a distinct sharpness, which reached into the room and started to lash at his body even as stone and crystal projectiles as well as more subtle projected attacks carried the distance by focused intent. The gold-ranker’s fine jacket and shirt were mostly shredded in that first instant of focused violence before the man gestured and managed a more coherent set of words.
“Luminous lance!”
A lance of light shot from his hand as Van Sztramm swept it through the room at a slight upward angle, the beam carving through Ryker’s cloth tendrils, a few of Christine’s crystals as well as the ceiling above. The adventurers, already moving into the room, took the opportunity to scatter as they ducked through the now open doorway and the small curtain of dust and debris from above which the light beam had caused.
“How dare-”
Another set of attacks struck, once more an interruption. However, this time some of them were also deflected by the set of crystals which had appeared floating above Van-Sztramm. The power, Crystallized Mana, was one of the more common powers of the magic essence shared by many adventurers around the world as well as quite a few of the foes which the adventurers of Gauntlet had faced. As such, the crystals soon started disappearing one by one as Kite shifted the targets of his projected attacks, hampering the source of mana recovery for the gold-ranker.
“Thank Fortune for my dispels ignoring rank-disparity,” Kite thought, the arms of his mantle casting their soft light around him as they blurred to keep pressuring the still somewhat reeling Van Sztramm. Kite himself was meanwhile making as straight a line as possible for the workbench where he had already spotted Laevyeth’s trapped form, the scream of the spear having cut off the moment the launched door had hit the gold-ranker.
This proved easier said than done, however, as Van Sztramm finally seemed to properly regain his footing and muster some kind of actual counterattack instead of shouting whatever protests he had attempted before. The lances of light became more frequent as the man started blasting in retaliation. One of the beams crashed through the first of the two barriers of Heaven-and-Void Warding and almost cracked the second, even one of the smallest spells available to the gold-ranker proving a decent threat. The rest of the group were similarly assaulted, with Christine creating plenty of defenses-turned-offense stone barriers which blocked a spell before exploding into retaliatory shards and Ryker staying just ahead of the gold-ranker’s aim by using his cloth limbs to rapidly change direction in all three dimensions while keeping up his own counterattack.
“My Lord! I will-”
Throughout these first hectic seconds, Ljublia had mostly been staggering backward in shock and sudden pain, apparently having almost been caught in the path of the door-turned-projectile herself at the beginning. Finally catching her own wits and seeming to have managed to muster enough resolve to join the fray, Kite’s expanded vision let him catch a glimpse of the researcher’s head suddenly being enveloped by the huge hand of a lurker from above as Linger’s towering form appeared behind her. The hand of the lurker jerked once, smashing the silver-ranker in his grasp into the ceiling above and then downward once again for good measure before reaching in with his other hand and - with surprising precision from the huge creature - snapped a suppression collar around the dazed woman’s neck.
But Kite had no time to witness the rest as he had already thrown himself into a slide across the floor to duck a sweeping beam of light which carved across the laboratory before springing to his feet just up against the workbench where Laevyeth was held. Unfortunately, Van Sztramm had noticed as well.
“Oh no, you little thief!” the gold-ranker snarled, accepting a few more attacks from the other as he turned and sped towards Kite.
Even without dedicated magic to support it, the speed of a gold-ranker was nothing to scoff at, and Kite unfortunately only had the time to raise a barrier and prepare a dispelling counterattack against what came next, because while closing the distance Van Sztramm conjured a golden flanged mace which he swung. Kite did note the most inexpert handling of the weapon, but that knowledge helped little against the actual speed and force of the blow.
It did help him assess the swing’s trajectory correctly, however, and even though the barriers of Heaven-and-Void Warding were cracked by some kind of special attack, Kite’s own staff met the mace before it could connect with his armored side. The impact still caused him to slide a few steps to the side, Unyielding mitigating the worst of the force as the stone floor cracked in a wide area beneath Kite’s feet, but it also left Van Sztramm with a conjured mace missing its head and the top of its haft as Pattern-Shattering Counter took its toll.
“Look who’s talking,” came Ryker’s voice from behind as he crashed feet first into the gold-ranker a moment later, having sprung off a stone wall in a powerful leap enhanced by both an essence power and the enchanted cloth empowering his legs. He rode the stumbling noble for a few steps as a few cloth tendrils anchored him to the man while the rest of his cloth formed the unfurling twined spike which was one of the team leader’s more powerful special attacks. Ryker didn’t hesitate to unleash it either, thrusting it down with a burst of expended mana as it punched into Van Sztramm’s shoulder.
It spoke to a gold-ranker’s resilience that the powerful attack only caused a most messy, crater-like wound in his shoulder rather than ripping the limb clean off as it would have on anyone of silver rank. But Kite knew the tactic for what it was, observing the short exchange as he once more dove for where Laevyeth was trapped and started to rapidly unscrew the clamps while the arms of his mantle kept projecting strikes behind him, using special attacks as soon as they were made available.
“Keep up the pressure. Keep rotating. Keep them chasing. Keep them reeling. Keep nothing but your aces in reserve.”
The words, almost like one of Kite’s own mantras, echoed in his mind as he had been taught during his training with Gauntlet. Fighting up a rank between bronze and silver rank was quite a challenge, but one that most decently-trained adventurers should be able to do if the matchup wasn’t overly terrible. But the gap between silver and gold was more substantial by far. Unless one’s path near perfectly countered the gold-ranked being in question - such as an affliction skirmisher against a single slow and ponderous monster - you needed allies and you needed to keep the initiative.
Task group Gauntlet had therefore taught even its outer, silver-ranked members plenty of ways in which to fight to give them a collective chance should an unexpected gold-ranker appear during one of their missions. Fortunately it was rare enough that Kite had never encountered one, but that did not mean that he hadn’t paid attention.
That was why as soon as Ryker had delivered his attack, he disengaged by springing off Van Sztramm’s chest well before the unbalanced man could deliver a counterattack. Smaller attacks risked simply being overwhelmed by the natural recovery of a high-ranker, so more potent options like the unfurling, shredding cloth spike was often deployed early to actually have a chance to start slowing them down. Ryker disengaging therefore left room for a glowing crystal thrown by Christine which impacted the gold-ranker a moment after, sending a powerful stunning jolt through the noble just as he was starting an attempted pursuit of the team leader. And just as the man was starting to turn his ire towards the elf instead, Linger suddenly appeared in front of him, accepting the lance of light meant for Christine to land a set of raking, downward attacks with his huge lurker claws before disappearing again.
“D-dirty delinquents!” Van Sztramm called as he seemed unable to choose a target for his ire among the adventurers pelting him with attacks in tandem, flinching from the sting of the more potent ones that he failed to dodge. “Stand and fight, cowards! Mana sphere!”
Between cupped hands, a roiling sphere of crackling, raw mana appeared. It grew by the moment, and Kite knew that it would be a spectacular spell if charged far enough. But also that it was a spell which was most unwise to use when he was around. Turning in place and shifting so that the arms of his mantle kept freeing Laevyeth, Kite’s staff swung through the air in a precise, chiming arc and a moment later a rippling shimmer in the air struck the forming sphere. The crack of an ephemeral mirror echoed faintly throughout the basement as Disrupting strike hit, causing the sphere to wobble.
“Wha-”
Then the two echoes hit, courtesy of Kite’s staff, and the Mana Sphere destabilized completely with an intense ripple of disrupting force hinting that the gold-ranker had already invested a considerable amount of mana into the spell in the few moments of channeling. And the spell crumbling seemed to be what was needed to stoke the fires of Van Sztramm’s frustration to new heights.
“Why you-” he snarled, accepting a few more hits to whirl at Kite just in time to see him snap open the second clamp and yanking Laevyeth free from her confines. It only caused a moment of stillness in the gold-ranker, his outrage clear in the slight widening of his eyes, before Van Sztramm charged towards Kite with all of his innate speed. But that moment was enough.
“Sorry,” Kite murmured in advance to the spear as he passed it to one of the arms of his mantle in preparation. The feel of Laevyeth’s aura, almost completely open to Kite upon touch, was that of a whimper; a sense of deep spiritual exhaustion. But Kite didn’t have much more time before he needed to respond to the gold-ranker charging at him like a brawler, one glowing fist raised.
Turning to face the onslaught, Kite used the pivot to bring his staff up in a retaliatory strike while the arm carrying Laevyeth threw her spear-body off to the side while casting a spell at the same time.
“Wall!”
Panes of force appeared in front of the charging Van Sztramm, who instinctively punched through the first he encountered with a glowing fist as well as the next. However, Kite had conjured the barriers a bit unevenly in both distance between each layer and their shape, which led to the noble’s legs crashing into a sudden and unexpected low segment just behind the third layer of barrier. While a gold-ranker had most impressive reflexes, they still needed actual essence powers or other similar tricks to change their momentum on a moment’s notice. And given Van Sztramm’s complete lack of proper footwork, even his innate attributes couldn’t hinder his attempted charge from turning into a stumbling roll where his head of magically reinforced flesh and bone met the chiming metal one of Kite’s staff, complete with the unfurling spatial tears of Void-Sunders-Firmament.
Kite didn’t stop to admire his handiwork however, but let the arms of his mantle swing two additional projected close-range attacks towards the rising gold-ranker before running off towards Ryker who had just caught the thrown Laevyeth, the team leader wincing slightly at the touch but easily keeping his grip.
“You think you can run, little adventurer rats!” Van Sztramm roared after them where he found his rise hampered by the stone floor melding to encase his limbs which he promptly began to rip free, one shower of stone splinters at a time. His right hand was the first to emerge, and kept on firing Radiant Lance towards the adventurers now on the other side of the room.
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Ryker didn’t even turn to acknowledge the man as he ducked and weaved, instead calling to Kite and Christine;
“Exit!”
“On it!” the elf woman called, conjuring a barrier of stone to shield her before she turned to the wall and started stone-shaping the villa’s foundation.
As Kite was closing in, he caught a more proper glimpse of his companions, somewhat singed and seared but alive and well thanks to Linger’s shared regeneration. A tendril of cloth sent Laevyeth flying back into Kite’s hands when he was but a few steps away from the wall where Christine worked her magic, the enchanted stone proving somewhat resilient and slowing down the process. But that was where Kite came in.
As he hadn’t the time for a proper explanation, Kite instead settled for a quick spiritual nudge of comfort towards the spear in his hands in preparation for what was to come. And then he made a running leap straight into the upper part of the laboratory’s stone wall, its surface seeming to ripple and crack beneath Christine’s ministrations.
It had taken quite some time to get used to the idea of simply running through solid objects with Implacable motion. The ability wasn’t needed all that much in most situations as a silver-ranker’s attacks and the like could often create needed openings in short order. But as Kite dove into the wall and felt it simply crumble before him, the frosty night air welcoming him with its chilling embrace, he had to admit that the power did come with a certain rush of glory.
And a cost in mana, which happened to increase the more sturdy and enchanted the structure he passed through was.
“Heavens, that is surely a new record. Most untimely too,” Kite thought as he felt the newly missing half of his mana pool. And with a quite upset gold-ranker in pursuit, the feeling of loss was keenly felt indeed. But there wasn’t time to lament his choices at the moment, so Kite simply readjusted his plans and called out;
“Mtanga, we have it! Gold in pursuit!”
Through his expanded vision, Kite saw the crumbling hole at the base of the villa behind him and the scattered debris from the no doubt impressive spray of stone and soil which had heralded his emergence. The rest of the team had already passed through as well, with Linger taking up the rear and letting his lurker body take the searing beams of light meant for the others. Kite saw the transfigured celestine take a step back as if to join them, but had barely begun the motion before a sudden impact from the hole behind sent his huge form shooting across the garden and into the wilderness beyond where he landed with a lengthy series of bouncing rolls.
Where Linger had stood, Van Sztramm stepped up from the team’s impromptu exit, emerging beneath the night sky with his conjured golden flanged mace in hand.
“You think you can evade me, thieving scum?” he called, glaring at them all while trying to settle his frazzled mustache with the other. “You think you have won? That shows just what imbeciles you are, adventurer rubes. Out here, I can really let loose without demolishing more of my villa than necessary. And believe me, you all will pay for the damages and grievances which you have caused me in more ways than you can imagine.”
As he spoke, striding further out into the garden towards the adventurers who were currently circling him, the gold-ranker's body seemed to start glowing from within. It was a smooth light which belied its destructive nature, and Kite could see a clear sphere around Van Sztramm where disruptive force started eating away at everything in the surroundings.
“Let us see you try and outrun me, you filth. I will enjoy chasing you down and reclaim what is mine-”
A barrage of attacks from the adventurers interrupted his little speech, causing him to raise one arm - the fine jacket mostly in tatters as the fabric struggled to self-repair in time with the damage - to shield his face.
“Fine!” Van Sztramm barked from behind his raised arm, starting forward. “I’ll just-”
He was interrupted again, but this time it wasn’t by the adventurers. At least not directly. This time it was due to the magical circle which suddenly lit up beneath his right foot, detonating in a flash of stone shards.
“Gah, wha-”
“Mtanga!” Ryker called, already sending his cloth tendrils out in waves to attack.
The final member of the team needed no more signaling as a wave of arrows suddenly rose above the garden from further back. Each of the arrowheads glowed like pinpricks, adding stars to the partially overcast sky above as they formed a great fist which punched down towards the gold-ranker below. Van Sztramm did not just take it lying down though, swinging his mace in a wide arc which sent a huge rippling shockwave up towards the incoming volley to scatter it. But as the projectiles clattered down around him, the noble suddenly winced as another arrow came shooting in from the distance.
Compared to the volley like falling stars from above, this arrow was more like a beam of light which seemed to instantly close the distance, and such was its force that it burrowed itself a good handspan or two into Van Sztramm’s chest. The impact sent even the gold-ranker reeling, and Kite knew that the shot was Mtanga’s most powerful, single-target special attack further boosted by a ritual circle beneath him. There would only be one such arrow fired during this battle. But in this case, given the specially prepared arrow which Kite knew had been fired, that one arrow should add weight far beyond its normal to the metaphorical scales of their conflict.
All of the essence-users present clearly felt the small, artificial aura pulse which suddenly emitted from the arrowhead within Van Sztramm’s shoulder. And, more importantly, so did the numerous magical traps which Mtanga had prepared and scattered around the garden that was to be their true battleground all along.
“Go!” Ryker called as the ground in front of the villa came alive. Arcs of lightning, seeking cyclical wind blades, conjured thorny vines and more erupted from the various magical circles, unerringly seeking the gold-ranker. Some were broken down or weakened by the shimmering light around Van Sztramm while others were dodged as the gold-ranker was forced into a most undignified scramble to try and avoid what he could of the magical traps.
But the ritual-fueled attacks were plentiful enough to have some redundancy, and Van-Sztramm’s outfit was soon even more tattered, especially as the adventurers went on the offensive once more and added their might to the sprung ambush. Kite sent what attacks he could spare towards the noble but mostly remained on the defensive. Van Sztramm’s rays of light were too quick for him to try and disperse through projected attacks, but another factor allowed him to at least conjure the barriers of Heaven-and-Void Warding to aid the steadily increasing stream of glowing beams; predictability.
“Heavens, it almost feels like I’m back in the wilds outside Bastion,” part of Kite thought as he used his dispelling attacks to keep shattering the defensive crystals of Crystallize Mana, intercepted growing Mana Spheres or dispersed Van Sztramm’s conjured mace when he could. Much like when he had once found himself in front of Mistress Withers, an early bronze before a silver, Kite’s current opponent was stronger. Faster. Tougher. In many ways so much more powerful.
But the way Van Sztramm had moved throughout their whole encounter confirmed what they had found about the man; that he was thoroughly lacking in both combat training and experience. This was not something Kite would expect of most nobles or highborne of the world, rather the contrary. Many prominent families trained each and every scion to a respectable standard, core-user or not. And against such a gold-ranker, Kite and the team would never have attempted their current brash path.
But where another gold might have leveraged their potential power to focus and eliminate one of the pesky silvers at a time, Van Sztramm tended to switch targets often, sending Radiant Lances against the most prominent targets the adventurers presented or the one who managed a hit against him most recently. His attacks lacked finesse and were usually well-telegraphed, even fast and powerful as they were, and none of the ways which he moved hid his intent.
“Yes, Van Sztramm is very much like the late Mistress Withers,” Kite concluded as he took a quick few step forwards to lash out with his staff to project an attack towards another attempted Mana Sphere almost before it began to form above one of Van Sztramm’s cupped hand. “And unlike that time, I’m not at the lower reaches of the rank which separates us. And neither am I alone.”
“Kite! The light. Get rid of it!” Ryker shouted, currently Van Sztramm’s target of choice as he was using his cloth tendrils to drag himself backwards and teleport through the fabric to not get caught within the disrupting force zone for longer than Linger’s shared regeneration could handle. Such a persistent damage skill needed nothing more than proximity to work after all, and skilled or not, moving closer was at least within the noble’s capabilities.
“Sage, if you please,” Kite murmured before casting a spell of his own. “Wall!” Hopefully Van Sztramm would-
“Rhhhaaahh-!”
The force walls barely had the time to form a cage around Van Sztramm before he gave off a defiant shout, reconjuring his golden mace and swinging it in the wide-area special attack from before. The single layer of the panes of Leyline Warding shattered instantly, but Kite had interspersed the others in small clusters around the battlefield to provide more impromptu cover. The cage had only been a delaying tactic after all, which paid off as Sage floated up from its customary place behind Kite’s back and unleashed a bright beam of transcendent light which hit Van Sztramm straight in the stomach.
“-aauuughhhhh!”
While many of the other attacks delivered by the team might have been considered small-time by the gold-ranker, transcendent damage did not much care for his innate resistances. Thus, his shout became a wheeze of pain as Sage’s beam dug deep and joined Ryker’s deep, rupturing puncture as the most prominent injuries still remaining.
And as Kite reabsorbed his familiar into his aura, not wanting to risk the astral gatherer more for at the moment retribution was sure to come, he himself was already swinging, chiming staff in hand even as the arms of his mantle each stabbed or sliced with a descendant of Matra in hand. Because even Sage had been a distraction of sorts.
The projected attacks, mere ripples in the air before impacting the staggered gold-ranker, struck like a staggered barrage. And among the rippling spatial tears and mana-draining blue cracks hid Disrupting Strike’s alternate effect, further fueled by Potential of Stolen Power to help it take hold. And, Fortune be praised, it did.
“Good job,” was all Kite heard from Ryker as the damaging light within Van Sztramm - that which caused the damaging sphere - winked out to the sound of an ephemeral mirror cracking. Sealed. Then, without warning or warcry, the team leader lashed out with a single tendril of thread and used it to pivot sharply, almost on the spot, before more enchanted cloth unfurled with a snap to send him shooting towards the gold-ranker like an arrow.
Van Sztramm did react, but almost stumbled again as his feet were grasped by the stones below, halting him for another moment and letting more of the still incoming spells from the traps hit. Still, he raised his arm to send a beam of light straight towards the incoming Ryker, only for a huge clawed hand to slap the aiming arm to the side just as the spell discharged when Linger appeared from nowhere.
“No-”
Ryker’s spring-like cloth spike had once again formed around his right arm, and this time he managed to land right in front of the taller gold-ranker and deliver a vicious uppercut straight up into Van Sztramm’s chin. The noble’s lower jaw was torn apart as he was sent up and away in a majestic arc by the unleashed force, further enabled by Kite gradually having worn down the increased resistance of rank disparity during their extended clashing. It had been some time since Kite had gotten such a mileage out of the evolved racial gift from so long ago, but seeing the previously so high and mighty gold-ranker break so much more easily did bring a definite sense of satisfaction.
While the man lacked flight powers of his own, the fall itself wouldn’t hurt, but Mtanga did not let the moment go to waste as the gold-ranker’s trajectory was interrupted by a whole flight of arrows converging on him like a grasping hand.
“Status?” Ryker asked in the ever-so-brief lull while giving a curt hand signal indicating that he was running low. Not critically, but enough to force him to be conservative with his mana from here on out. Kite replied with a similar sign, him bursting through the cellar wall costing an arm and a leg’s worth of mana, and Christine did likewise while Linger and Mtanga fared better.
Part of Kite had hoped that it would be over after such a demonstration of combined might, but the rest of him - trained by Gauntlet - knew that not to be the case. Not while facing a gold-ranker. You needed to thoroughly and utterly break them apart to properly take beings like them out of commission. But hopefully, the next phase would facilitate one of their plans to cut the battle short, even if that would be made all the harder by dwindling resources.
“Kite…”
Kite almost started at the faint murmur that came from the spear now once again slung over his back. Laevyeth spoke no more, and Kite could feel a weariness from her that felt soul deep through the close aura connection of their proximity. But he did feel something else too; a spark of defiance. And the intent to help.
So as the wounded and disheveled Van Sztramm threw himself back onto his feet, mace - now re-conjured - back in one hand and beams of light already gathering in the other, he was met by another aura joining the adventurers.
“Bloom of the Pristine Evergarden”
Laevyeth’s form lit up as the sculpted vines and flowers seemed to come alive with a clear, blue radiance. All of the nearby adventurers; Kite, Ryker, Christine and - presumably - Linger were caught in the light, and within moments found their armor and bodies adorned with vines of white light sprouting azure flowers. While the growing plants weren’t truly corporeal, their effects were immediate as Kite felt himself revitalized in a burst of purity, the soothing sensation continuing to course through his body even as it felt like his mana flowed more smoothly through his magical matrix.
“There! I knew it!” Van Sztramm called, words slightly slurred by his recovering lower jaw while he pointed his mace towards the glowing spear which had now chosen to properly reveal herself to the world. “Oh such a curiosity. Such power! It will be mine to understand and to replicate! Away with you, adventurer rats. I’m done playing games with you! You won’t stand in the way of progress! My progress!”
