Book 17-16.3: Familiar
“More competition?” Alexandria murmured as her gaze shifted from the Ancients flying from the east to the caravan moving from northwest.
“More like help.” Xander snorted. “We’ve been at this for too long and the rotted thing’s hasn’t stayed still long enough to get killed.”
“I think we’re missing something,” Alexandria said.
“You think?!”
“Yes!” She rolled her eyes at her immature twin, “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is what it means to be insane!”
“You’re applying that wrong in this instance,” Xander scoffed. “We’re not doing the same thing because circumstances change!” He slid around a blast of bio-glue and cut the offending limb off with a casual swing. He stepped back out of range before the crabby’s retaliatory swipe could connect.
It was always a pleasure watching her twin’s inescapable horizon technique. It started out as footwork that evolved into something…more. Just as her normal power shots turned into something that could penetrate anything…even something that couldn’t be normally pierced, and hopefully, something that shouldn’t even hold the concept of being penetrated. Alexandria’s slight smirk only appeared for a moment, then she mastered her emotions, both from her amusement at her twin’s rancor and the memories. Instead, she pulled her disparate thoughts into the moment.
Two new factors into the mix. One of them was the standard delving group…probably. The other…she wasn’t sure if that golden light that covered the fliers was some kind of Truth, or if it was a bunch of Ancients. Or a stronger Ancient.
Ancients. Heh.
A bunch of arrogant, pissy, gods-forsaken, heretics.
The Family didn’t like them, clearly, though Alexandria was cognizant enough of her own bias, considering she hadn’t actually met one before. It wasn’t as if strong Ancients were as common as weeds. Those who dabbled with awakened Anima, however…or rather, those who didn’t structure their awakened Anima into something more useful than a loose aura that surrounded the body, were that kind of common. Anima was the foundation of many disciplines after all.
She and her twin dabbled in aura, or Mysticism as it was commonly called, but the majority of hers was invested in her body.
Heh, I’m more like those musclemen than even my brother,’ Alexandria mused. Xandy was more about agility, accuracy, and precision, while she was more about the perfect shot. Strength was needed to propel an arrow several leagues away, and even more power was needed to allow it to penetrate any defence. She wasn’t at that level yet, of course, but that was her ultimate goal, just as Xandy’s was to be the ultimate duelist. His penchant for playing with his prey was annoying though.
Even while she mulled over things, events continued to progress at a seemingly glacial pace. Accelerated perception was always needed at higher ascensions and was just as important to her Truths as anything else. The golden Ancient carried at least half a dozen companions with her, and not all of them were humanoid. She focused her Farsight on the central figure and couldn’t help but whistle in appreciation. That Ancient was gorgeous.
She was accompanied by an eclectic mix of companions though, and if she wasn’t mistaken, combined different tech bases in her repertoire. The fusion wasn’t seamless which betrayed how recent it probably was.
The other group was the standard delver’s expedition, and already, her commlink beeped with a connection request. She idly toggled in on, and a visor covered her eyes.
The Family roamed throughout all the realms, each member wandering as they saw fit. The Sigil kept them together, though not in body. Different realms, different layers of reality, different planes, different planets…all had differing languages, differing technology bases, different arcane traditions, different methods to strengthen Anima. But throughout all realms thread the foundational languages. Dawnspeak, or Dawn tongue. And the common derivative of Wojan. None of the Family left home without an all-translator. To bridge the gap between languages, and more importantly, technologies.
They’d been to several different realms since they left the coop and that little widget never failed a proper technological integration yet, and thankfully, it worked perfectly fine.
A small screen opened in her visor, translucent enough that she wasn’t hampered too much. There was still a bit of a bother, of course, but the crabbies weren’t really dangerous.
A Sha’ledras face popped up in the window, though it was followed by another couple of windows that opened to the left of the first one. The middle one showed a mustachioed man with a brunette mullet, and the left most revealed a silver haired woman with metallic yellow eyes.
“Greetings,” the Sha’ledras said. “I am William Caina from Hartdel Defiant’s delving convoy. Our intentions are to pass through the layer as quickly as possible. We refuse a share of the boss’ loot, but will participate in the battle.”
The silverette spoke next. “Greetings, I am Ilvara Erdmann representing Lady Yuriko. We also wish to pass through the layer but would be interested in a share.” Erdmann flashed a knowing smile. “It looks like the battle has dragged on for too long.”
Alexandria held back an annoyed flinch, though the woman was correct. Lady Yuriko? She was startled when she realised that Caina echoed her thought out loud.
“A coincidence to encounter your group again, Mister Caina,” Erdmann said, “though I doubt you know of me. I’m but a humble attendant.”
From the sour look on the Sha’ledras’ face, there must have been quite the drama between the two groups. There was little doubt on who was who, and she traded an amused smirk with the fourth member of the conference call, the mustachioed man who hadn’t even had the chance to speak as of yet.
“Greetings. Johan Bartel of the Martial Artists’ Alliance, delver group 331. We welcome any aide and are willing to share equally.”
Alexandria snorted, but had to reluctantly agree to Bartel’s stance. They had been fighting for more than an hour already after all.
“The Great Shell avoids pillars where there are combatants. There are four more pillars around the central one so I assume we’ll need to cover all of them. Perhaps it will force that blasted thing to ascend the central one and I can draw a bead on it.”
“Agreed.”
All three of the others answered and just like that, the game was renewed. It didn’t take much longer to assign pillars for the others to defend. Since Lady Yuriko’s party came from the southeast-ish direction, they would hold the pillar there.
“My lady would likely occupy a pillar by herself,” Erdmann said slowly, “Or hold the entire area if she wished, but…”
“She’s stand-offish,” Caina said bluntly.
“Well, more like she’s training the rest of us,” Erdmann answered ruefully. Her lips didn’t move when she talked and Alexandria guessed that the silverette used some kind of mind-technology interface of some sort. Well, she also had some visible metallic implants on her head, barely visibly behind her ear, actually. Her hairstyle exposed it, having her left side clean shaven and her hair styled towards the right.
Ah, the arrogance of Ancients. Alexandria frowned, but didn’t comment. A quick plan was made: that they would wait until the Great Shell surfaced, and that all would strive to attack, hopefully to wound greatly enough that the monster would be unable to retreat.
Since there was only she and her brother, they remained on their pillar. Xandy took care of the minion crabbies and made short work of them. Since he was no longer playing around, the critters barely lasted the length of a single sabre cut. The boss monster unleashed more minions per minute now than before, but that was probably the sentient labyrinth’s methodology for dealing with numbers. This was only the second layer after all, and while this visit was their first visit to Shangria, it wasn’t as if this was the only such great labyrinth they’ve come across throughout the varied realms.
All the while, Alexandria gathered her Will and Intent. Though the Great Shell outputted more minions, fewer of them landed on her platform. She glanced idly at the other three groups. The delver group’s fight didn’t change much and they demolished their crabbies with natural ease.
The convoy from Hartdel Defiant took over two pillars and had split their convoy in equal parts, two vehicles each. Soldiers poured out of the transports and started shooting up the crabbies. Their weapons weren’t basic firearms but guns enchanted with runescript lines. Their bullets were composed of solidified Elemental energy that vanished back into the aether after impact. It also meant that the gunners weren’t very powerful on their own, and she doubted if they improved their practice upon the slaughter. They were also all Sha’ledras, oddly enough, though that wasn’t too strange a thing to encounter. Not too common either.
Her eyes were soon drawn to the southern pillar where a lone warrior floated above the centre. That would be Lady Yuriko. She couldn’t help but keep glancing at the beautiful young woman, though Alexandria wasn’t really sure how old the Ancient really was. Her body and features looked like that of a girl about to blossom into womanhood, but she caught a glimpse of the lady’s blue eyes. They had a serenity and depth that wasn’t normally present in a teenager’s gaze.
Lady Yuriko didn’t do much, but any crabby that entered the pillar’s plateau died. Some were crushed into tiny orbs by the weight of the Ancient’s Anima, while others were eviscerated by golden constructs. Swords, she quickly realised, though they were of a style that was quite foreign to her. She noticed her twin glance at that fight every now and then, eyes drawn to the weapons…
Ah, of course. The Ancient must have a Truth related to swords or whatever melee weapon she called her constructs. She could practically feel the burgeoning interest and desire to fight rising in her blockheaded twin.
Alexandria shook her head and returned most of her focus on what she was doing. She carefully crafted an arrow from the aether and layered it with as much of her Truth as she could. She withheld infusing it with Intent and Will for now, as she needed to wait until she was about to shoot for it to be effective and efficient. She wouldn’t do that until the boss monster returned.
Five minutes later, the Great Shell appeared. It climbed the central pillar as they expected, and Alexandria couldn’t help but grin widely. Time to finish this, yeah?
It climbed most of the way up, but didn’t go on the plateau. It hung a couple of dozen paces beneath the flat surface, and aimed its cone towards one of the pillars—northwest—then, ploof, ploof, ploof! Dozens of crabby minions shot out of the tip. The cone tip rotated and distributed the crabbies to every platform, and it continued to do so at an accelerated pace. She thought she could feel the sky darken with the shade of the minion projectiles.
She absently noted that the Hartdel Defiant’s convoy simply pointed their ship-mounted cannons at the falling troops and they spoke with thunderous voices. The delver group from the martial alliance simply turtles up and let the minions fall as they willed. The Ancient’s party, did the same thing, but three of them struck at the minions before they reached the surface. As for Lady Yuriko’s platform… none of the minions made landfall in one piece. Hundreds of golden blades materialised around her and cut the monsters down in an impressive display.
But Alexandria’s focus was mainly on the boss monster, and a moment later, she infused Intent and Will into her arrow. She put as powerful a piercing effect as she could, and the Intent for the bodkin point to shatter once within.
The arrow streaked towards the Great Shell’s centre of mass and pierced through its protections with relative ease. She felt the arrow go off within tender flesh, and the air was suddenly filled with a pained roar.
She must have hit something critical since visible cracks formed over the huge shell. Then the creature finally showed more of its crustacean body as it stretched out. Then it shook, then shucked its shell. The thing was long enough to cover the plateau and she was in the middle of the splash zone.