Sorry about how long this update has taken. My muse has been a little… out-of-performance from too much textbook-reading and information-absorption.
Thanks, yet again, to all my reviewers. I understand that not all people are regular reviewers, but any comment is much appreciated. No, really, if you write you'd understand what I mean. Not only does it make the author feel good :D, but it helps them improve. In particular, I want to thank InnerFire for a certain spark of idea, Elise for returning with her insanely long reviews, and Phreno, who is the best reviewer (and also one of the best D2 'fic authors) ever!
So, it seems like this battle has been much anticipated! Let's hope that I do all right… tell me off by all means if it's cruddy and if so I'll re-vamp.
Disclaimer: If I owned Diablo, I would make Cain die from dehydration through overuse of saliva through speech! That or he'd choke on his own saliva… so, obviously I don't own it.
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Chapter 18: Conflicts
My first sense that the Claw Viper Temple appealed to was smell – the scent of cold stone tainted by old blood, like the smell that rust leaves on your hands. The air was calm, but not completely still; there were slight movements in the air that was not abrupt enough to signal danger, yet not gentle enough to go unnoticed.
A humming in my head, and the temple was set alight in my mind, though the area over which my Inner Sight acted appeared a lot smaller.
"They wield powerful magic here." Falcon whispered, terror and anxiety embedded in her words. Somewhere in front of me, a wolf whined and a raven's wings stopped flapping.
A reddish glow filled the surrounding area as fire burned at the tip of Oread's arrow. The temple was carved out of sandstone, the thin joints and faults in the rocks filled in with sand. Intricate runes were carved into the walls, recording the practices of ancient magic with their foreign shapes.
While I was admiring the runes, a wolf yelped and growled. Within a split second the battle ended, and another one began. As Falcon's wolves and ravens tore into another foe, we all backed into the wall beside the entrance, and inspected the fight from a distance.
"I didn't see that." I was surprised; I did not sense the arrival of the reptilian chimera, its skin grey and shiny, and its overgrown vertebrae jutting out into spikes along its back. It was about as tall as Oread when it stretched out to its full height in an attempt to throw off the wolves clinging onto it, but its reptilian tail was even longer, tapering into a sharp, tough bone-like point at the tip. Its large, muscular hand slapped at the wolves, and while a raven buried its beak into the monster's unseeing, slit-like white eyes, it opened its jaws and let out a shrill hiss, revealing large, dripping fangs as shiny and dark as precious obsidian.
The animals finished with the monster, and returned to Falcon for some praise and reassurance. "This temple is tainted with the corrupted magic of this clan." Falcon explained matter-of-factly, as if the knowledge was instinctive. "The air is full of it."
"Well, we'll just have to fight harder, then." Oread's aura humming and sparked in my mind. As she focused, the surroundings became clearer in my own mind, and our foes were rendered a little more visible.
Oread and I began a volley of arrows, but ours enemies were moving a lot faster than their fallen soldier. "That one probably stumbled into us by accident." I said in between the whines of my bow's string as I sent arrows flying. Falcon's animals had joined the battle as our Fire Arrows provided her some light, and they hindered the monsters a little bit, but they were advancing.
I dropped my bow as fire slid off the smooth skin of a blood-red reptilian monster, and pulled out the sword to fend off the whip-like tail. By the time I had killed the Salamander – they were the "Claw Vipers" that Drognan spoke of, before he realised later that Claw Vipers were grey, but their more advanced evolved form is red and known locally as "Salamanders" – an enemy not unlike the Sand Raiders that we faced in the Sewers were before me, and I bumped into Falcon as I backed away quickly, barely evading the blade.
Falcon tossed me aside almost immediately after I made contact with her. She charged up her Cyclone Armour. The blade descended upon her and made a sharp ring with her elemental shield. Falcon was about to draw her blade, but I had gone ahead of her and slain the monster with my sword. Falcon smiled at me quickly before turning her head to the side. "Oread, Celadon's lost her bow. Can you cover us for a few seconds?"
Oread tucked away her bow and whipped out her spear. "How long?" She yelled back as dying hisses filled the air followed by the smell of blood as she sliced at several foes with her new, broader-bladed spear.
"Ten seconds." Falcon's minions – no, allies – dissolved into formless energy to rejoin their conjurer's body as Falcon put out her hands, her palms facing outward towards the swarm of enemies. Above us, the ceiling rumbled. "I can't exactly crack the ground here, there's a level beneath still waiting for us." She remarked as the pieces of rocks and grains of sand were attracted to her hands, and swirled inwards to the centre of her palms, glowing brighter as they gathered momentum and collided in the processes of adding to the growing sphere of molten rocks.
"You have five more seconds, Falcon." Oread announced as she amputated a Salamander's sting, which had barely buried itself into her chest before it was detached from its owner. She blocked the two strikes from the dying monster, and speared it through the skull. She grunted as she yanked out the sting. "Hurry up!"
In the meanwhile, the diameter of the molten ball of rock had grown to two feet. "Almost there!" Falcon shouted as the ceiling crumbled. The large slabs of stone melted in mid-fall and the glow spiralled into the boulder. Oread's defence was not flawless, and I had fended off a few enemies with my blade. Within the remaining seconds, the diameter reached four feet. "All right! All clear!" She launched the boulder off. It was burning more furiously than the ones that she had created before, and as it bowled over monsters, it also left explosive and flaming lava in its tracks. The surviving foes were greatly slowed by this, and I took the chance to reclaim my bow and resume firing.
The level was vast, and our advance was slow because of the immense number of opponents; but the boulder had given us a significant area of ground. Oread and I took on the offence as Falcon recovered and sent her allies to join the battle.
"Why didn't you just make the whole ceiling fall and flatten them all, Falcon?" Oread asked.
"Because," Falcon sounded a little annoyed – probably not at Oread, but at the amount of monsters we were facing. "You wouldn't like to have to dig through rubble to get to the bottom level, would you?"
"I suppose not." Oread sent a few Guided Arrows flying, pinpointing more distant enemies for Rainbow the vine to infect. At the same time, Falcon unsheathed her knife to defend herself – yet again, gracelessly – against an advancing Claw Viper. "At any rate, you could do with some practice with that blade."
"What do you mean by that?" Now Falcon was angry at Oread. She vented her anger on the Claw Viper, stabbing it repeatedly before bring the blade down between the eyes, crushing the skull and turning the Viper's head into a bloody mass of flesh and bone.
"That was what I meant." Oread opted for her spear yet again to clear a radius of ground around her. "You're getting better already."
Falcon just said "hmph" and went a few steps forward to mutilate another Claw Viper, who seemed to be somewhat stunned by its cohort's gruesome fate.
It seemed that as we went on, we fought faster and faster. The fear that I contained when I first entered the temple had disappeared, and I was just fighting, remorselessly taking the lives of those who had slaughtered and killed in the past.
When the level had been cleared of the reptilian monsters, it was almost unbelievable.
Falcon and Oread fell to the ground from exhaustion while I stood there, the exhilaration and adrenalin rush from the battle still boiling within me. We were standing before some stairs that led down into unknown darkness, and I looked into the void, wanting more.
"Take a moment to have a break, Celadon. Don't stand there and look like a hungry carnivore."
I did not register at first, but a split second later it sank in. At that moment, Oread's casual comment hit me like a slap across the face. I dropped down onto the ground, remorse overpowering excitement, my energy level plunging lower and lower at a sickening rate. I put my bow down and ran my fingers through my hair, feeling the congealed gore on my hands tangling with the blood-slick strands. "I'm sorry… What was I thinking…?" I mumbled.
Had I found joy in taking lives? Snow Raven – such was her name before she was corrupted and took on the title of Blood Raven, for her raven-black hair and lily-white skin that were unusual amongst Rogues – had a childhood history of slaughtering the animals for celebrations; apparently, she took it on not because of the fact that no-one wanted to do it, but because she enjoyed it.
Was I growing into a bloodthirsty, single-minded killer?
"It's okay." Oread seemed to have heard my words, which I thought were inaudible. I lifted my head to look at her. She was not looking at me, however; her eyes were directed at the empty bottle of potion at her hand. She was adjusting it so that the glass catches the glint of the small fires burning the corpses. "Just stay cool and don't let this get to your head. Last thing we need is for you to throw yourself senselessly into a battle."
Her tone was cool and solid, and the words calmed me a little. I hugged myself tighter to steady my thoughts and shivered a bit. Falcon walked up to me and crouched down before me. "You're all right, yeah?" She beamed. I smiled back. Falcon had that ability to make people think, even for a second, that everything would be all right, just as her smile assured.
I uncorked a bottle of potion and drained it, feeling my body's wild rhythm settle gradually into equilibrium.
"You ready to go, Falcon? Celadon?" Asked Oread, as she adjusted her armour a little and fingered the string of her bow.
"Yeah, let's finish this off." Falcon got up and offered me a hand. I took and stood beside my companions. Dusk nosed my shoulder and tucked his head under my arm as I settled my hand on his ear. The turbulent emotions calmed. Animals had such a miraculous way of doing that.
For the next hour or so as we ventured through the level filled with danger, my mind was surprisingly relaxed. There was still the strong, fierce will of survival that drove me to killing my foes, but my mind was under control. I was in touch with what I was doing, and I knew that it could not be enjoyed, lest I wanted to become like one of those that fell under my assault, but it had to be done.
When I caught the pale blue out of the corner of my eye, I knew that this was a test to keep myself from panicking, keeping my head in charge and not my guts. This was a strong monster, a leader of the reptilian chimeras that had flourished underground all these years, the bearer of all the grudge and hatred that brewed within this temple by dark magic.
Oread shouted out the order to eliminate the others before fighting the leader, which Falcon accepted enthusiastically as she pierced two skeletons in a line through their skulls, before shattering them with a close-quarter blast of chill. Her joy was short-lived, however, as something crashed into her armour of orbiting particles. The armour absorbed most of the damage, but Falcon had been knocked to the ground, and Oread had to hurriedly deflect a Salamander's attack intended for Falcon with an arrow for her to get to her feet in time for the ongoing battle.
"This one uses bolts of lightning." I stated. "He seems to be resistant to lightning as well."
"Great." Oread grumbled. From what I had experienced from battling huge beetles in the desert, she really hated lightning-enchanted enemies. The main reason, I think, is that they would most likely be resistant to the element too, and that would render her favourite skill of the skill, Charged Strike, useless. "We'll have to do it from a distance, then."
"I'm not dead yet, you pitiful humans!" The monster actually spoke with its hissing voice. "You've slaughtered my people and destroyed the legacy of the Claw Vipers. I won't let you escape from me!"
Oread looked as if she was going to say something, but then her lips grew thin as she closed her mouth and fired a few Ice Arrows at the monster, slowing him down in his tracks. "Celadon, stay back and just keep firing at him!"
The bluish Claw Viper recovered quickly from the chill, and he slithered closer with every chance he had, letting loose bolts of crackling electricity as he did so. Oread used Slow Missiles a few times, but something – the same thing that blinded my Inner Sight – was weakening the skill, and she concentrated on her offensive skills from then on.
Falcon had recalled her minions after failing to keep up with the damages that they were sustaining. She was standing on the sideline, recovering from exhaustion of mana when the reptilian monster received an Exploding Arrow in the chest. It cried, and slithered away into the darkness ahead quickly.
"Oh no, don't you run off after doing that to my allies!" Falcon unsheathed her blade and went after the monster before anyone could halt her. A few spark of lightning was seen and heard, followed by Falcon's cry. Oread and I ran up to see Falcon on the ground, knocked out, and the leader of the slain clan was quickly slithering away, leaving a bloody track as blood poured out of its back, Falcon's knife still embedded in it.
The creature was pitiful, but Oread fired another two Exploding Arrows at it. It cried out, and I jerked my head towards Oread.
What emotions my glance had betrayed me I could not tell, but Oread just glared at me for a second, then back at the writhing blue shape, now curling itself around a small stone pedestal. "Give up and I'll grant you a quick death."
Upon the pedestal was a small amulet, seemingly made out of stone or bone, encased within a half-sphere of hazy, silver-greyish energy. The once-pompous and proud reptilian chimera was gasping with its damaged and blood-filled lungs, violet blood dripping from between its fangs. "I'll bring this down with me, you foul-blooded bitch."
Lightning began to crackle, so bright that I could barely keep my eyes open. In an instant I was struck several times, my body numbed and my head burning as I was thrown towards the wall behind me. I regain my senses after a few seconds; within a few feet of me, Falcon was still lying unconscious. My gaze moved further onto Oread, now evading the cracked tentacles of lightning with amazing agility, as her Slow Missiles skill seemed to have finally worked, even just a little. The lightning seemed to be a bit slower as they came within two feet of her, and she managed to dodge most of them. She was struck a few times, on the legs and arms and once in the side, but she forced herself on.
Our dying foe stared at her angrily with its unseeing eyes, and when my body had stopped disobeying my brain's orders, I got to my feet and fired arrow after arrow, attempting to give my master a bit of cover. Pain bubbled in my chest and stomach, but I fought it back. I tried to use Inner Sight again, and this time it had worked a little better – the magic around us seemed to be weakening. Oread tossed a look at me, and I found approval in it. She took out her spear, and as she leapt to avoid another bolt she used it to vault herself higher off the ground.
As Oread descended, her spear before her, her cry mingled with that of her enemy's. In my mind, the monster's energy glowed furiously, and I knew that I had to do something more than shooting arrows from a distance.
I ripped the sword out of its sheath, and ran up to the two. Recalling the way my mana flows while I use the Cold Arrow, I charged the blade with all the mana that I could summon in the short period of time, and buried it into the side of the monster –
Too late; Oread had already killed it, speared it through the chest, and thus unleashed the explosive mana that it had been brewing within its body. The chill had lessened the damage, but the force blew both Oread and me off. I hit the wall hard; there was a sharp crack and something warm and salty burst inside me.
As my mind plummeted into blackness, I was praying hard that the pedestal had not received too much of the impact, that the small barrier of energy had shielded the amulet from harm. Whatever this clan of chimeras had been guarding, that little amulet was important. Here was much more than just a corrupted people; in their darkness, the amulet stood out as a small, holy light.
But for now, neither my mind nor my eyes could see any longer.