Defiance Birth of the Renegades
A/N: Written to Bladiator's "Tears of Contention"
Chapter 21
"It doesn't matter who draws first blood, final blood is the most important."
Kratos Aurion
First conflict: Multi-tasking
Several things happened simultaneously. The whole fence glowed a brilliant violet hue as the metal sought to channel through and release it's power via through the paths supplied by it's compliment element. Power, having no channel, build and redoubled. Like water in a river, power carves it's path along the route of least resistance. It is shapeless, primal, pouring through it's compliments. In the end, if it is tapped into and channeled upon the world of the living it comes out in a spectacular explosion if raw potential that the Gifted can manipulate. The uneducated masses term these surges of controlled power as "spells", and the uncontrolled surges of power as "natural phenomenon". Regardless, controlled or wild, when power has no outlet it is much like a great river meeting a dam. It froths and presses against it's barrier striving for freedom, and for every moment of it's confinement it becomes a thousand time stronger.
And when it at last come tree it explodes into the unsuspecting world with a force that shakes the foundations of creation.
Signs of the overload were apparent now, to all who had eyes. If the surreal purple glow wasn't a hint the fact that the small metal thorns exploding and shooting out miniature lightening bolts most certainly was.
Taking one look at that fence, recalling Yuan's mana theory lectures, -and more importantly hearing Yuan's voice from the aero voice box screaming 'You did what!' - it took Rene all of a second to figure that something horrible had gone wrong.
Dropping bow and arrow Rene ran, even though there were screams behind her, even though there were probably people dying behind her. She didn't turn, she ran and kept running, and swore to whatever gods that were left in this twisted series of world that she wasn't going to stop until it was safe to stop.
Having turned her back to run, she missed what Z'eh would later term as "this worlds most freakin' large magic show".
With a eerie silence the steel chain link fence topped with it's winding barbed wire shuddered, shimmered as if a mirage, then disappeared.
With a roar that a million thunderclaps paled before, that a million caged fierce cats screaming in unison as they hungered could not have matched, lighting reached out with shaking violet hued fingers and smashed into row upon row of knights. Wreathed in chaotic halos of sky fire horses reared, their riders screamed. Mass death, unholy destruction, it all played out in horrible silence and flickering light. For after that roar there could be no sound, and the sun itself paled before the burst of mana that was unleashed.
The first rank was vaporized, the second and third were thrown from their saddles, scorched yet not consumed, yet utterly dead. It was only the lowest of the order, those in the ranks farthest back that were not in position yet to join the melee that were spared.
Unable to cry out, unable to hear her own cry, Rene was only aware that she was moving with her feet not touching the ground, she looked down... and the ground was rushing up to greet her and end her unintended flight. She more felt than heard her own whimper, the first time she smashed into hard dirt, felt a jagged rock leave a slash along her side, then she bounced, skidded, and on the second landing... On the second landing there was a crunch, a sound akin to breaking ice. Groaning, she shuddered, felt the wave of heat even through the hundred and one magic protection spells Yuan had laid on her. She felt the second wave of heat eat through those spells, and moaned as the heat of the dessert coupled with the heat of more voltage then she cared to think about smashed into her with the force of the hammer.
Groaning she managed to crawl to her knees, grateful that she could hear, grateful that it was only the silence of the world holding it's breath and not true deafness that had taken her.
And as she pulled herself to her feet, the glass that had once been sand shattered. Her every motion leaving ripples of crystalline knives in it's wake.
X
They never questioned how he had appeared among them, how the half elf who was not one of their own had magically materialized at just the right moment to command those gifted to summon walls of protective energy.
"What ever the hell you do, no water based spells. You can't use anything but water you wait until after it's over to heal those who go down."
"I don't know what I'm doing, I haven't cast spells since I was litt-"
"Well you better damned remember fast." The blue haired half elf barked. "Or it will be you, your wife, and your kid fried along with everyone else."
A moment of silence, desperate straits now fully realized, terror, than terrors death. Courage came then, the courage of the desperate, courage of those with everything to lose.
"On my signal you bring up your shields, I'll merge them into one, if another explosion goes off we do the same until it ends, is that clear?"
There were no questions, no objections now, they only looked on the hissing light, watched chain after chain of fence and wire slowly dissolve with a grim anticipation.
X
"Force field... force field... force field..." Gasping Z'eh managed to barely survive the explosion, casting spell after spell until he felt so weak that an errant breeze would have knocked him over.
Then -fate being the sadistic bitch she was- the breeze shifted and he fell to his knees, uncaring about how the ground crunched under his knees.
He stared numbly at the mess of green, blue, and the writhing mess of purple lighting that was crawling over the shell of swirly green and blue.
Swirly... hehe... that was kinda funny.
He watched, unblinking eyes slowly glazing as the lightning stopped it's writhing over the bubble of many shields melded into one... then managed a giggle as it lanced through the back ranks of the knights and set the few bandits on the field to running like scattered mice.
"Wee... glowy light burns... Magic's fuuuun."
After uttering the wisest thing in his existence -at least by Yuan's book- the bandit slumped forward, and lay sprawled out on a field of glass, all thought and remains of his rattled wits abandoning him in full as he passed out.
X
"Stupid, annoying, persistent..."
The knights screaming, had gathered the remains of their order and were going to mount an all or nothing strike, luckily for the half elf captives they were pointing their assault at the base. Bits humanity - the dirty tattered tan covered portion- were fast in fleeing the field, the not so intelligent ones were going to attack the empty base.
Not so empty, the furniture, his private quarters, Rene's posetions -oh and Z'eh's crap, he's almost forgotten about the bandits various coin collections- all was going to be burned to the ground, smashed to bits, and destroyed.
So went the general practices of war.
"My... Lord..."
Yuan growled, turned, he had less then a minute to get back which meant teleporting... again.
"Spit it out, I'm in a rush." He snarled, pulling his swallow from it's sheath.
"What do we do, Sir?"
A respectful half elf. He turned, looked the pale magic used in the eyes. Confused could sum the man up, the blonde haired half elf's eyes were squinted up. As if he had trouble seeing or something...
Later, such a minor problem could be dealt with later...
After dealing with Z'eh it seemed a miracle that such a thing as a respectful half elf existed, he spared half a second to enjoy the revelation, then spared another to glance at the shaken group of misplaced half elves. The cringing children who found final refuge in the arms of their parents. Guilt, he might not have been with the knights, or the bandits, but he had built the ranch, the ranch they had been ordered to help storm.
Gods, when would these bloody sins no longer be his to claim?
"Stay here, if a problem comes up scream or something... I'll come as fast as I can."
Real smooth Yuan, graceful, eloquent... Spoken like a true Hero of the Kharlan Wars...
These weren't the wars, it wasn't about image anymore. Gritting his teeth, bracing himself to shed his flesh and become light and in essence "materialize" amongst the enemy in a split second Yuan let out a soft whimper.
He had to protest the utter lunacy of this some way, and if a whimper was unmanly, or unheroic... Gods damn this world to hell... and the torturous maturity it had thrust upon him.
There was a flash of light, a startled cry from the once captives... then their savior was gone, only one lone feather drifted to the ground to mark that he had been their at all.
X
Screaming Rene sloughed forward, solid appearing glass giving way to the molten sand underneath. She yalped in pain, even as she braced, even as she caught the riders sword with her own and was thrown back. Hooves smashed, leaving a rain or cherry red sand behind, a spray of false ice... She rolled with the hit, both arms numbed in blocking the strike. Thank the Goddess that the horse was slowed by the agony in it's hoofed feet, thank the Goddess the man was tired, scared, and weakened by such things... thank whoever was above watching her this strike hadn't killed her.
The next one most certainly would, she wasn't going to sit around and wait. She heard more then saw the man wheel his horse around, the shattering of glass, the gasps of equine pain...
She lifted a hand and released the power in her, fire streamed from her fingers, a crimson wave that arched then settled mere inches in front of the human.
And he laughed, laughed at the demon lights, he laughed... then screamed as the earth bucked, heaved, and let loose a crimson rain that left a black sizzling mark.
Wailing the man ran, his horse missing most of it's face, the man missing most of his legs... she shuddered, trying not to see it, trying to let the mana sight take her far away.
And while it did, while it blinded her eyes it could not stuff her ears of her nose.
She wanted to gag as she had the first fight, wanted to lose control, give into sickness, weakness. She couldn't didn't dare, Z'eh could be dead out there, Yuan was probably helping the other half elves -she'd have to find Z'eh after this and take him back or Yuan would just leave him out here. Ung, stupid men and their squabbling, they were almost as bad as humans!-, so she was alone and...
There was a flash of light, she blinked, then there was Yuan besides her, glaring daggers at the Silvers.
"I guess the words "give up to fight another day" never occurred to these ones, eh?"
And despite the grimness of the situation Rene smiled, nearly hugged him. Serious, angry, Yuan was all those things. But he was back, and that was all that mattered.
"Go inside, prep the medical centers, I've got the last of them. There's a few wounded down there, all of them are in various stages of dehydration, mana depletion..."
Rene nodded, ran back to the base, never once turning back, never needing to turn back. Because she knew that he would handle it.
Everything would be fine, just like he promised, he would make everything fine...
As if sensing his thoughts he turned to look back at her, then sighed and began to twirl his swallow, the steady yet fast rhythm would bring the spells to his mind a little quicker.
And in war, this new and strange war he had stumbled into, it seemed as if speed was the thing.