Interlude - Attack

Interlude - Attack

Attack

Naha walked down the corridors of the Fah Storrah tower. The pagoda at the top of their peak, the home to the Fah Storrah family. She wore their sect robes, orange and black in color, and she was in a female drake form. Over the last two weeks, she had been introduced to the regular guards and given a ranking of Commander. She didnt have any real authority, of course, it was all for show. Her job was to patrol the tower, moving around the different floors randomly while on the lookout for any signs of attack.

It was a boring job, but they had signed the contract. And in her mind it was worth it. Zach was still prone to spacing out, but at least she hadnt seen his state worsening. Being away from him for extended periods of time worried her, but there wasnt much that they could do. He was down in the city, on the walls, ready to respond anywhere in the city in case of an attack. At least she had convinced him to use one of the charges on his Ring of True Recall up in their guest house. If he needed to return to the tower, he could do it in an instant.

She glanced at her hand, and the bracer that she woregiven to her by the sect. It had seven communication formations on it, each housed in a crystal, and each paired with another crystal. Each of them had one that any of theirs could connect to, and then six others that connected to six of theirs. She didnt know why it had to be done that way, she didnt understand formations.

She pressed a finger on one of them, and spoke inside her head.

Zach? She called.

He didnt respond immediately, so she sent her voice again. His answer came after the third call.

Yes, Naha?

How is everything? In the city I mean?

Calm Slow

Are you ready?

Hmm? Ah, yes, of course.

You didnt answer my call immediately, Naha told him. You know that you need to pay more attention.

There was no danger, it is different.

She sighed. It was as if he could sense when some outside influence was dangerous and when it was not. She had seen him react to danger nearly instantly, but anything else it took him a while to stir.

There wasnt anything that she could do, but hope that it would get better, that it was part of his madness and not just who he was now.

Just be careful, an attack can come at any time.

Time flows as it wills.

Naha pulled her finger away from the crystal. His responses had gotten more and more weird of late. Especially when concerning time, but if his obsession with time was enough to keep his madness at bay, she would tolerate it, even accept it.

Varney? Tarkash asked. What are you doing here, you were supposed to distract above

I cleared the lower floors, he said as he kept walking toward him hurriedly. I figured that I should help here.

That wasnt part of the plan and Tarkash realized that something was wrong, only he was too late.

Lightning flashed, Varneys movement ability, and then he was in front of him. Before Tarkash could react a black dagger the size of his forearm cut across his throat. He felt weaker as he stumbled back, his staff coming down he fired.

A spike rose from the ground where Varney stood, but the man just stepped back, his body turning dim as if it was just a shadow of itself. Then he dropped into his own shadow. Tarkash reached up with a potion to heal himself, triggering his defensive perks. His skin turned to stone, the ground around him rippled and shook, as he triggered an earthquake. Before he could drink the potion, Varney appeared in front of him attacking with two daggers.

He sent spikes at him with his staff and then stumbled forward as a pair of hands grabbed his left hand and pulled. His eyes widened as he saw another Varney next to him, pulling him off balance even as the first one was impaled by his spikes. Then a flurry of strikes hit the back of his neck, cracking stone. There was no time to use any of the perks that mightve saved his life, two daggers pierced his stone skin and sunk deep into his neck. With a twist, his head was separated from his body.

As his head flew through the air, tumbling around, he saw a third Varney standing behind his decapitated body, rising from his shadow.

Lireeya was getting frustrated. Three minutes after they arrived, and they were yet to accomplish their mission. They were supposed to be in and out in less than two. The first issue was that they had been dropped on the wrong floor, of course, they had allowed for such miscalculations. Using spatial ability to breach into a protected area was hard, they had known that even with all of their planning they might not reach the targeted location.

Still, the second phase had gone smoothly. They separated and her team found their target, the sanctum. They had assumed that it would be protected, and they had known the most likely people that they might encounter. They prepared for that, but even still. The two metal scaled drakes were annoying, they were tough, but they were slow. Lireeya and her team might not be able to kill them quickly, but they could slow them down and just ignore them.

The main issue was that there wasnt much room to maneuver, the three were protecting the entrance to their Sect Heads sanctum. And Merin Fah Kutah was the biggest threat. The man was nearly unkillable, and they just didnt have the time to continue this fight. They had planned for them, but the reality was different. They might be able to win and get by them, but Soon, others would arrive and then they would be overwhelmed.

Their mission was to get as close to the Sect Head as possible, secure his death. Getting into the sanctum was preferable, but not necessary. They had no time.

The ground shook and Lireeya blinked away from a swipe of Ikris axe that nearly cut her in half. She turned and looked for the source of the earthquake that nearly killed her and saw Tarkashs death. Killed by Varney, three Varneys. That wasnt right, the demasi man was supposed to be above them in the tower, and He couldnt be in more than one place at once.

She might not know what was happening, but it didnt matter. They had no more time. She disengaged from the fight, leaving the rest of her team to keep the three defenders occupied. As two of the Varneys turned to her and stepped in her direction, Lireeya pulled out an object out of her storage.

The large metal chest hit the ground with a loud noise that grabbed everyones attention. Her team saw and knew what she planned. They used their greatest powers and sent the three defenders back, getting space for themselves. She saw them pull out spatial arrays and she did the same.

She glanced at Varney or the person wearing his skin and showed him her teeth in a wicked grin. Then she placed her hand on top of the metal chest and triggered the array. A moment later the array twisted space and sent her away, as far away as possible. She did not want to be anywhere near the Dragon Heart Sect.

Naha saw the ravzor woman touch the chest and then disappear along with the rest of her people. She didnt know why they would retreat now, but she could guess. The chest lit up, lines spreading all over it. In a corner of her eye she noticed Ikris running toward it, his eyes wide and filled with fear. His wings beat sending him forward, Naha could step through a shadow, get close to it faster than he could, but there was nothing that she could do either.

She felt the power building.

She thought about Zach, about what he was going to do without her, her hand reached for the crystal on her wrist, her mind reached for her True Link perk, she had an awareness of him, but they couldnt talk through it. She didnt have the time to use the crystal.

The Reaction Engine triggered, and the world ceased to exist.