Book 4 chapter 27

The sun was setting over the horizon, refracting through the dense haze to light the rooftops of the stacks in a sickly red hue. The air was thick with a haze of smoke from days of fires, a clawing smaug so thick that you could taste it.

Nestled in a particularly rough area of the stacks was a four-story apartment, with boarded windows, the glass pains long since shattered. Even for the stacks, the building was run down, leaning to one side with one corner of the roof threatening to collapse. 

Zee appeared atop the slanted roof in a crouch, listening intently for any sign she might have been seen. 

The loose tiles shifted under her boots threatening to slide out from underneath her. Heart racing she focused on her spatial ripple skill, her brows furrowing. Her sensory skill was getting nothing. It was as if the building below was warded from her senses by potent arrays.

Zee pulled a thumb-sized jade crystal from her cloak, pushing a thin strand of energy into it.

"No luck. It's just as we suspected, the building is protected from my sensory skill," Zee said, projecting her thoughts into the communications crystal.

"Affirmative, see if you can phase in through the roof," Allison replied, her mental voice distant. 

"Alright, get ready, this might go sideways," Zee said, grasping the hilt of her sword.

She tucked the crystal away and activated her wayward walk skill her vision turning monochrome. 

Her perception slowed as her feet sank through the roof, her body passing through the wood and nails like they weren't there. 

She felt it the moment she passed through the defensive array, as it sent chills through her body.

Pain shot through her mist-like body, the agony forcing her from her mist form.

She phased back to reality, her boots thudding loudly as she appeared in a dimly lit bedroom on the top floor.

Zee wasn't sure who was more startled, herself, or the massive creature lying on a plush bed, its hooved feet hanging off the end.

The creature had thick curled horns, much more impressive than the ones she had seen earlier that day. 

Her eyes widened as she took in its suffocating aura. Seeing the creature in person was much more intimidating than through a scrying mirror.

Even lying down, it dwarfed her, the bottle in its meaty hand looking like a club. It was an Aintar, a creature that was predominately a part of the purgatory church. If Sendredie could be believed, they were a race of creatures that hailed from the plains of suffering, wherever that was.

"Throw me," Dern said urgently.

Reacting almost immediately Zee conjured him in her hand and hurled him forwards, her throw carrying him the short distance in a second. 

Expanding rapidly in size, Dern raised his glaive and swung down with a massive horizontal swing.  The air thrummed with power, as the creature swung its bottle upward to block Dern's glaive.

The bed exploded under the massive force, as the bullish creature caught Dern's full forced attack with a freaking wine bottle.

The bottle cracked but held together, infused with one of the bull's skills. The bed and the floorboards beneath them did not survive the impact. The bed and flooring beneath shatter loudly, booth combatants disappearing in a shower of wood, bedsheets, and glass. 

The building shook, as the two crashed to the floor below, eliciting a loud bellow of pain. The heart of fire thundered in her chest as she ran forward, leaping down the hole.

Below, Dern and the monster grappled on the floor, throwing fists knees, and elbows at each other.

Blood, fur, and silvery shards of metal flew everywhere, filling the air with a silvery red haze. Straining, the Aintar threw Dern onto his back, leaping atop his armored form.

It held down Dern's arms, throwing vicious punches with its other that created thick cracks across his breastplate. Alighting softly on her feet, Zee launched forward, her sword drawing a ruthless arc toward the nape of the bull-like creature's neck.

Her blade, shrouded in spirit echo should have bit through the creature's neck, but it was stopped with a loud clang.

Seeming to have eyes in the back of its head, the Aintar swiveled its neck, catching her blade on its curved white horn.  Her hands vibrated from the force, yet only a scratch remained on the smooth bone.

Her surprise made her hesitate, which cost her.

The Aintar, still using its massive weight to hold Dern, conjured a fist full of sickly orange fire and threw it at her. 

Zee frantically dodged, her skin bubbling as it passed right next to her face. The room exploded with sweltering heat as the wall behind her was set ablaze, filling the room with flickering orange light.

Even shrouded with spirit echo, the heat was suffocating, threatening to cook her alive. Zee gritted her teeth and sent a mental command to her sword.

The sleek metal shattered into a dozen pieces, all the shards shooting forward through the billowing black smoke. The Aintar bellowed as its body was pieced, the shards of her sword gouging deep gashes along its crossed arms, and burying into its chest.

Conjuring a curved dagger with spirit echo, Zee ducked under its guard, stabbing the blade towards its unprotected ribs, intent on skewering its lungs.

The Aintar screamed, catching her in the side with a backhand as it flailed in pain. She was thrown back, pain blossoming in her side, as she slammed into the burning wall with a loud crunch. 

Thankfully it didn't appear to be her back that broke, but the rotting wall. Pulling herself from the hole, she frantically tore off her burning cloak, retreating from the burning wall as she reassessed the enemy.

It tried to pull the shards of her sword from its many wounds, but there were just too many. The wounds were visibly festering, its skin turning pale and sickly.

All the while Dern struggled to get to get free from under the larger enemy, punching and kicking all the while.

Even heavily wounded, the Aintar was strong, very strong. If they didn't finish it off quickly, it might catch its bearings and unleash more nasty skills.

"Dern, stop messing around and expand your size," Zee said, rushing forward again.

Dern sent her a mental grunt before his body swelled in size. 

Startled by Dern's sudden growth, the Aintar fell backward. Taking the opening she appeared next to it in a puff of mist, she ducked beneath it, driving a conjured dagger up into its exposed back. 

Formed entirely of energy, the conjured blade was not as sharp as her sword, yet it still sank between the Aintar's ribs.

Twisting the dagger, she ripped it out in a spray of blood, backing away to avoid a counterstrike. A tremendous spike of energy swelled from the Aintar, as hot blood fountained from the burning hole in its side.  Her eyes widened, as the Aintar met her eyes, and of all things, it smiled. 

"If I'm going down, you are coming with me," The Aintar said in a deep gravely voice. 

It gave her a vindictive smile, one of a person willing to die if only it could take her out with them.

The Aintar's aura flared outward just before it exploded in a column of sickly orange fire. Her body turned intangible, her form tingling from the heat even while she was in her mist form.

Dern was not so lucky, his body turned to melting slag from the ungodly heat. 

Thankfully, the shards of her blade were not so easily destroyed, having turned to mist when she did.

"Well, that was tougher than expected," Dern said returning to her body as a cloud of silver mist.

"Ya, good thing we caught him off guard. Let's go, we should probably hurry and find Yukna before the building burns down with us inside." Zee said, sinking into the floor. 

"Good idea," Dern said.

"Are you alright?" Zee asked as she passed through wood, metal, and plaster.

"I'm Fine… just hungry," Dern replied.

Zee phased back to her physical form in a stairwell, the curling stairway already filling with thick black smoke from above. On high alert, she descended the stairs, each step creaking noisily. 

The building shook, and she crouched as plaster rained down on her. That was probably her friends attacking from below. She approached the door at the bottom of the stairwell warily, reaching for the doorknob.

The door swung inward and she peered through a thin crack in the open doorway.

Two figures, each just as imposing as the one she met a minute ago, enter the hallway. 

Appearing anxious, the two moved towards a door with etchings along the metal frame.  Her breath caught in her throat as the two opened the door, one of them returning a few seconds later with an unconscious Yukna on their shoulder.

The two Aintar took Yukna and fled down the hall, away from the sounds of combat. The thought of them escaping made her anger bubble to the surface.

Despite her fury, she didn't attack, following closely, remembering just how strong these creatures were. At a jog, the two rushed towards the stairwell, descending, forcing Zee to hide.

The stairwell let downward, into what had to be a basement, with a thick wooden door covered in etchings blocking anyone from entering. Looking over their shoulders anxiously, the two Aintar open the door and rushed inside.

Peering around the corner, her eyes widened. Hanging on the far wall was an archway made of putrid fire that swirled ominously. Without hesitation, the two Aintar rushed inside.

Panicked, Zee glanced back up the stairwell, wondering if she should wait for her team.

The gateway flashed, the pillars that formed the doorway cracking loudly.

Fearful that she might lose Yukna, she burst into the room activating the third step of her wayward walk skill. Appearing right in front of the portal she leapt head-first inside.