I spin, driving the claws of my deactivated SpiritLoom into one monster, and twisting the world's threads with the active Loom on my other hand as I guard the portal. As the threads twist, the zombie togs disintegrate into pieces as if sliced, which they were. Across the battlefield Artix is enjoying himself, given the fact that at least half of the monsters are undead, and I can hear his gleeful shouts even over the tumult of the battle. I twist, driving my claws through another monster, a construct this time, and for a moment there is a brief tug on my hair.
My smirk grows vicious.
The creature that caught it draws back with a howl of agony, what passed for a hand sizzling with heat and burned to the bone. And they wonder why I keep my hair long, I grin, lashing it at another creature, this time a mummy, and laughing as it bursts into flames. Before I settled as a SoulWeaver and Riftwalker, I trained in every kind of combat available on Lore.
That includes Pyromancy.
And Yonathan gives excellent haircuts!
With a snarl Veritas leaps up, spitting flame and defiance at the creature that has Warlic pinned. The Blue Mage's staff tangles in its legs and it goes down, Veritas digging his claws into its spine and taking off skyward.
It goes down, neck broken. Like me, Veritas knows how to fight dirty.
"Any idea when you'll be able to close this portal?" I call to Warlic over the sound of battle, slicing another three creatures to ribbons.
"My mana should be drained enough in five minutes!" Warlic shouts back, blocking a panther's claws. Holding it back with his half-Infernal strength, he kicks its underbelly, sending it flying back and away. I spare a moment to glance at his shield surrounding the portal and us, preventing anything from leaving. Good, it's holding. At least when enemies use portals, this tactic is effective, and Falconreach doesn't need to be rebuilt. I try to yank on the threads of a wolf, only to feel my blood run cold.
It has no SoulThreads. All things have soulthreads, even undead, unless—
Oh! It's one of Aspar's abominations. I thought we'd cleaned them all out of this world. The hunters in DoomWood and I are going to have a talk.
I duck as it lunges at me and let the flames that pass for my hair leap up for a moment, burning the thing as Veritas sinks his teeth into its throat. It goes down in fountain of gore, and he returns to me, its blood staining his teal flanks and violet wings. I drive my hand through a semi-solid construct, yanking on what passed for a spine. The thing goes limp, and I fling it into the path of another going after Valencia's unguarded back. The impact stuns the live monster, and she spins to decapitate it, flashing me a grin.
From the center of my swathe of bloody destruction I shift to just outside the plane of existence to get a glimpse of the entire battle at once. A wave of Guardians is holding the only gap in the shield, where Reens and Alania heal the wounded, and Cysero has set some of his orbs on the waves of monsters. I flash into a knot of monsters that've cornered a young Guardian, and my SoulClaws lay another construct open from gut to ribcage, and it collapses into a stinking pile of blood and gore. The Guardian gasps his thanks, and I point him to the healers.
As the young Guardian flees, the blood of my enemies splatters over me, and I feel the wolfish smile creep onto my face once more. Here, fighting for the lives of those I love, I can safely unleash some of my destructive potential, and I ride the currents of my fury, striking down all enemies that dare oppose me.
I've rarely felt so alive!
I toss my head again, and another creature goes down. Twenty skeletons freeze solid, and Aegis and I share a grin as Artix smashes the ice and the bones crumble. Robina's arrows whistle past, and more creatures go down, as Cysero zips past in a green blur, his hammer today in use as a warhammer. Why did he feel the need to write 40,000 on it? I wonder for a moment, reducing a necrotic slime to a puddle of goo, and tearing Deadwoods into deadwood.
From the corner of my eye, I glimpse Captain Crush's Fullmetal Mace splitting a few more zombies to their rotted pieces. Avatars, why did that halfway functional portal that his band guards have to reroute itself to a monster filled wasteland today of all days? It's cake day, and I want my cake, not a monster fight! I tear another construct to shreds, kick a wolf away, and incinerate three more mummies. At least it didn't open to the badlands!
Ten skeletons fall behind me, and Valencia is by my side for a moment, scimitar a shining blur of silver. "How're you holding up, oh mighty savior of Lore?" She grins.
I rein in my destruction a bit, and answer as Veritas takes off again, "I could do this all day! I generally have to!" We leap apart, devastating the new wave. I miss Tomix. If he were here we'd have already beaten them back. I shred five more constructs, land a devastating blow to the Soulthreads of a BoneFire, and demolish a Shake Spear to tiny shards of bone. Another mummy makes the mistake of touching my hair, and collapses to ashes as I disembowel a mutated panther-creature, and Veritas darts through the battle, boiling slimes left and right.
"Warlic, status!" I demand.
"Two minutes!" Warlic calls back.
"Right!" I snap back over the roar of the fight, the screeches and howls of the monsters, the war cries of the guardians, Cysero's whooping, and the sound of Artix unleashing his hurricane of weapon grade puns against the enemy.
Veritas plummets like Hudson's Hawk, all the momentum of his dive impacting the largest of the monsters, shredding it like a twig, before he's off again to rain devastation on our enemies from the air. I shift tones to be heard anywhere on the field. "Two minutes 'till we can close the portal! Guardians back!" they've taken the worst injuries, and fall back gladly. "Mages to Warlic! Archers cut the portal-stream!" The volleys shift at my order, and anything new emerging from the portal is riddled with shafts. That just leaves us with what's left on this side, and if any air elementals come through I'll deal with it personally. "Rouges, harassment! Paladins, guard the healers and circle! Heroes, melee! Battle On!"
"Battle on!" The cry comes roaring in response as the fighters obey my orders.
Two blurred minutes later, fire and fury and death —in the form of a fledgling dragon— dancing matched counterpoint to my strikes, flying head height as he and I bring ruin on our enemies, I hear Warlic cry, "NOW!"
There is a flash, a rippling beam of light, and with a sound between a whoosh and a splash the portal winks out. The influx ceases, and the few monsters that remain on this side are cleared up in short order. As the battle draws to a close I eye my battle-partners and pull my destructive power back. They still don't see, even now, with my exhilaration plain. Veritas and I destroyed the Ultra-darkness dracolich. Heroes may battle monsters, dragons do as they will, but only one thing can destroy a monstrous being such as that.
A stronger monster.
I call Tomix's last words to mind once again, following his memory back from the brink. After all, its time to pretend to be normal.
Shaking my hair back under control now that the portal's closed, I check over my forces. The newest guardians are looking a bit shell shocked after their first invasion. Artix is grinning, triumphant over a thigh high pile of shattered bones. Ash is coming this way, looking for my approval. Aegis just vanished, but I know he won't be gone long. And Warlic is shaking his head because Cysero's gone off on a tangent. Just an average day in Falconreach.