Sparnox (End)

The first reaction Coen had was draw a sword. He didn't even noticed how a steel one appeared in his hand and body itself went for an anti-human stance of witcher style swordsmanship. But a moment later he remembered what he needed to do and with same face, hardened with concentration took out a flute and started to play. It sounded awful to say the least, but the most notable trait of this flute was about being able to produce the sound.

Battle immediately froze on the whole site and more than two dozens of soldiers and Scoia'taels began dancing.

"Go, they will keep it up for half an hour straight and believe me, after all is over they will be in no condition to fight at all."

"Good! Where did you got that?" - asked Coen.

"How did you craft hidden blade?" - retorted Alan with a smile that witcher was unable to see.

"Tch. So cheap." - grumbled Coen and followed another direction of fighting sounds. They became more and more pronounced. - "We need to hurry."

Dilligen was a little fortress, not really a town and with that had more packed streets and narrow passages, that people instigating mutiny used very well. They started several fires which spread around quickly and with that sky began to darken with clouds of smoke and their first attack landed on strategic points – greenery, main castle, barracks and stables.

Everything escalated very quickly, just what you would expect from a well planned action and what is more, defenders were yet to compose themselves and organize a commanding line. Perhaps the main keep is already drown with blood of officers.

"How is it, Lambert, now you got it?" - said Alan through the Vibe and the later only snorted out loud, but it can be considered as approval.

The trio reached the other site in two minutes, it was way smaller, barely ten combined, but already had casualty from soldiers side. Coen did the same thing and nothing went wrong. Thus they jumped from one skirmish to another quelling them in the bud.

Sometimes Lambert took over the flute, as playing it will tire even witcher's enhanced energy source.

They again arrived at the site of battle and just as Coen was about to play, Alan noticed with his unique vision a lump of foul dark matter moving at them with breakneck speed.

"It's here!" - screamed Alan inside the minds of witchers, linking their three consciousness into a net with Vibe trait of his mind.

They reacted like a true professionals of their craft. With no lag in time, Coen rolled away from the charge, while leaving behind Irden sign on the ground. The black mass was caught in it and slowed down significantly.

At the same time Moon Dust traced a smoke trail in the air and exploded with thundering noise into a cloud of mesmerizing dance of rays of light atop silver flakes. It sticked to the creature that by all means should be just like air and forced it down to the ground.

Alan jumped out while all the people tried to blink after such a bright explosion and without further ado for the first time opted to use his aqua flame and Isu fire spells he developed and assumed to be one of the strongest among his offense arsenal after bloodline enhanced space blades.

He willed the bluish flame to come in existence and the later went spinning inside Irden circle, creating a firestorm of local scale. It sipped quite a bit of his mana, but a column of fire, that went howling like a reactive engine was very good result. It seems that the strength of his flame is not to be underestimated.

Sparnox never stood a chance. That's what it means to prepare for the fight beforehand. One precise maneuver was enough to kill a very dangerous, albeit weak as itself, creature.

But what happened next made him sweat with realization of huge mistake he made. It was a glance. A rather long and contemplating that came from the other side of the creature from the owner of sparnox. It pierced through mental connection and jumped at Alan via the fact that firestorm is a channeling spell.

Alan saw a middle aged man of noble pose and handsome countenance with eyes, hungry to a limit, as if he was a starving wolf. He wanted more and everything. And now the man noticed him with cold expression. His glare was full of unparalleled, perverse greed, fueled by thirst for pinnacle of power but also shrewdness, belonging to a professional mercenary and intelligence of prodigal sorcerer.

"I screwed up." - said Alan out loud.

"Indeed." - came an answer from the other side and short maniacal laugh, that eventually died down with last strand of dark force remaining in sparnox being annihilated in cleansing flames.

Unbeknown to the duo there was another witness to their clash of soul auras. She was laying on the ground in a dilapidated house and breathing with great difficulty. An elven brethren tried to pick her up but was shoved away in a fit of unknown emotion. Was it disgust? Or terror? Maybe rage after suddenly realizing that all she did before was for a person, whose aura and intent were as sick as they can get?

She felt them both. And oh god how she wished they would switch places and her leader was instead the one they tried to hunt down, but no. On one side was a living cruel menace with nothing except greed and thirst for power in his mind.

On the other... he seems to be someone benevolent, yet decisive to kill, cold on the outside, yet also smoldering within, bright, yet blinding to the point of injury. It was a strange experience of knowing a person before even meeting and right now all she could feel was a wish to run.

Run away as far as possible and as fast as she can, because she knew – the Black Sun won't let her get away with knowing how dangerous and twisted he really was. The only hope is the Platinum Sun opposite to him, or so she thought.

She stood up and cleaned herself, wiping sweat from the corner of an elegant brow. Sky blue eyes shining like sapphire gems darted from one person in the room to the other, as she breathed in and walked out. No one questioned her, a sorceress had no need to explain her actions, they only saw her go to rest at her usual place at the secluded valley near their camp, not knowing that it will be the last time they will see her, Naevys Yinrais.

Back at the square Alan was gasping for air after this untimely connection to the only person he wanted to avoid like a forest bagger will run from fire, but ended up instead being burned by it.

"Done?" - asked Coen and Alan turned his head to see Lambert with his rare high in the air crawling around dissipating Irden sign and collecting some blackish crystals.

"A minute! Don't disturb me. Do you even know how much these crystals costs now? It is even more pricey than diamonds!" - grumbled Lambert and continued to collect them in his pouch.

"Lambert, we got a situation here." - said Coen looking down the street where a huge crowd was making their way in their direction with clear intent of slaughter.

"Oh, that's unfortunate, but I have enough as a compensation. Not like I can claim the reward after cutting off the head of my employer." - Lambert complained and Alan, finding this crystals somehow unique gathered the rest with simple Isu-Accio.

Coen only shook his head to his friends antics and gestured for Alan to jump into his bag, which he did. Then two witchers made a run for their horses.

Looks like stables were raided and burned, but if anything, witchers knew how to train their steeds and both whistled in the air while running to the gates. It was just a gamble, as they possibly were already either killed or stolen.

One appeared nearly instantly from the corner and Lambert hopped on it, while the other was actually ridden by some unknown elf, which immediately received a shadow lasso around his neck and was thrown into nearby house, from which screams of slaughter escaped to the streets.

"Don't get careless! We are escaping!" - commanded Coen as they sped through the streets to the gates on the northern part with swords at hand that they used on both sides of the conflict. It was no time to be picky.

"And here I thought they will politely open the gates." - grumbled Lambert watching closed entrance.

"Alan, remember, you once offered..."

"No problem." - he said from the back of the horse and concentrated so much mana into the spacial ram, that it surely was the most volume of magic he had ever used. Just nice to test out how destructive it can get, but he removed the bloodline power from it. The last thing that he needs is to leave such a unique magic trail here.

He raised his hand and it glowed with golden might, even giving off ripples of space around, sending tremor through atmosphere and ground.

Soldiers who were guarding the gates immediately understood that they are about to be severely fucked, no matter from what angle one might look at it.

"Damn! Whacha that shit? Run, bros, he's casting spell thingy! Spell I say! Fuck!" - screamed the most speedy guy among the rest knobheads and hurried up to get out of the way.

"Imma not standing in front of magic shit!" - screamed another, following suite.

Just when defenders dispersed and some more dedicated ones tried to shoot the riders down with crossbows, Alan released the spell. It wasn't like a siege machine strike, no, more like a frontal tank blast! A highly concentrated ellipsoid of golden kinetic force shoot through the street with a speed of a bullet, causing the whole road to descend into chaos.

Thunderous noise made people dizzy as dust and debris flew into the air and tremendous spacial sledgehammer slammed right through the gates. Upon the contact with steel plating, ellipsoid opened like a flower to the outside of the fortress and wrecked havoc everywhere. The gates were just a start as the passage turned out to be too narrow for Alan taste. The whole section of a wall went trembling with cracks of destruction, sending shards of cracked stone and torn steel outside the fortress for tens of meters, overturning even the ground into cloud of dust. It was a frontal controlled explosion, that literally decimated everything with a shock wave of golden might visible to naked eyes.

"Fucking hell! Ya boy is not one to piss off!" - screamed Lambert while not forgetting to urge the horse forward.

Witchers sped away through what was northern gates a moment ago and disappeared in the raising smoke of war.