I know it's been only three days since my last update but… I have another week until Uni begins, when I will have to stop writing so much… so this is probably the second- or third-last work I'll put out in a while. I'll still write, I guess; it's just that it won't be so frequently updated anymore, at least until the week-long Easter break, and then late-June, after exams, and three weeks of holidays, during which I can write vigourously. So at this point, I have no idea how frequently I'll update this; but I guarantee that I won't leave this story to die and rot amongst the corpses of abandoned 'fics.
Upon close scrutiny of this, I realise how difficult it is to write in total in-game style, without sounding strange and downright corny. So I've omitted and did major modifications to a few elements. I guess then it makes this 'fic look more like a story than a walk-through of the game.
This chapter is a shortish one, but I just had to finish the battle. It was pretty spontaneous, too – I made it up as I went along then only went back to refine the language and stuff. Let's see how it works…
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Diablo, in which case I would probably be getting paid for this; but I'll stay broke no matter how much of this I write. This story is the only bit of Diablo that I, "Ophelion", own. There, Blizzard. Happy?
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Chapter 15: Ongoing Battle
'It's no use!' I cried out, as we kept retreating and I killed a skeleton for the fourth time. 'They'll just keep being risen again! We need to kill Radament!'
'You think I don't know that?' Oread grunted as she let loose another two arrows. 'We can't get close to him; not while he's got his minions. He can just pick us off with those little shadowy star missile things that he used on you, and the poisonous missiles that almost had me.' She shot a corpse at close-range, shattering its frozen head, before dodging behind the wall to evade a volley of missiles from the skeletons. 'Falcon! Are you ready to do that tornado thing again?'
'I haven't got enough to complete the summoning.' Falcon replied as she concentrated her energy at Dawn's shoulder, which had been torn open in combat. Her golden-orange mana enveloped the large wound, and it healed within seconds before my eyes. 'I've used up my blue potions.'
Oread grunted again, this time with more frustration. 'You owe me. These don't come easily.' She took out two tiny bottles of bright pink rejuvenation potion from the deeper compartments of her belt.
'Thanks.' Falcon caught them both. 'One should do for now.' She said quickly, before draining the bottle in two gulps. 'Right, give me a bit of cover. I have one shot.'
Her minions ran around the corner. Oread and I fired a volley of arrows; suddenly, Radament's eyes turned onto me, and a green bolt of poison flew at me. Black stars and grey veils exploded into my vision, and I fumbled for an antidote, retreating the way I came at the same time. When I reached the wall, I drained the bitter, gluey potion, and my vision began to clear and the numbness subsided as the chamber was filled with the howls of chilling wind.
A few seconds later, the air calmed. I could hear Falcon breathing heavily, before she yelped and was knocked over.
'Are you spent, young Druidess?' Radament's voice was no more than a rush of air from his non-existent voice box, yet it was deafening. Beside me, Oread got to her feet, using the scythe as support. I did not even notice when she collapsed.
'Master…' I was not sure what I was going to say, but my voice was lost when something dripped. My eyes moved to the dark droplets, then upwards from thereon. Blood was slowly seeping from the gash in her leg, but the drips came from a gap on her armour, between her left shoulder plate and her breastplate. My eyes moved back down, and saw that the top of her tights was soaked on the right side to a deep burgundy against the black fabric. She seemed unhurt from the recent action, but her older injuries were tearing themselves up.
She gasped, as she quickly drained a health potion. The dripping stopped, and the burgundy patch stopped spreading. We had to devise some sort of tactic…
'You can't run away forever.' Radament's breath hissed. There were soft sounds overhead – sounds of clicking bones and grinding joints. Falcon's icy attack had obliterated the foes of the second level, but on the topmost level, Radament's magic was doing its work.
We did not have much time. I looked to the side as Falcon got to her feet. She must have been hit with a few of those dark shadowy missiles. Thin cuts marred her bare skin and cut half-way through her armour of leather, and she looked exhausted. The ravens had disappeared, and the green-tinted creeper of poison – I still felt strange calling it 'Rainbow' – was nowhere to be seen.
I was still trying to think of a plan when Oread ran around the corner.
'Master Oread!' I screamed, and reluctantly went out after her. If we had stayed, we would have devised some sort of plan, but it was too late now. The fight was resumed.
Oread hacked at Radament's legs. Radament was surprise, it seemed – he must not have expected such a suicidal approach. She had managed a few good hits when Radament struck her with his fist, throwing her off. She maintained her grip on her scythe, however, and she bounced off the floor and charged again.
'Bring him down!' She yelled, as a few green bolts tore past her, denting parts of her armour and the floor around her.
I fired a few Cold Arrows; two went through to the inside of his skull and the others lodged into his chest and shoulders. There was a huge gush of air as he screamed, but the chill did not seem to be taking effect, and he remained standing. Oread had taken this distraction to her advantage, however, delivering a few more blows.
Then without warning, she collapsed. Radament dived for her, his jaws ajar, revealing yellowed fangs. I screamed and ran for Oread, knowing full well that I could not save the both of us.
Then Radament was bowled over, literally – a wave of heat filled the already-stuffy chamber, as a small ball of molten rock, its outermost crust cooled into a dark brown with small crevasses revealing the yellow-red beneath, rolled into his feet, its small trail of flame quickly diminishing. Radament fell to the ground clumsily, allowing Oread the chance to struggle away and drain an antidote potion. Before she could finish the potion, however, Radament had gotten back to his feet, and Oread dropped the remainder in haste to pick up her scythe again.
'Celadon,' Falcon's hand landed on my shoulder as I fired more arrows. I realised that there were no more wolves. 'He may be resistant to both impact and the deadliest elements of chill and poison, but Radament's central life force lies beneath the base of his skull, behind his headdress. If you attack him there, he will be destroyed.' Sure enough, Radament did wear a headdress; though his skull was so big, that I had failed to notice it until now. 'Oread has been badly hit by his attacks and is at her limit; she'll fall any second now. I've had the other potion she gave me and can use up a good amount of my spiritual energy in exchange with the earth for a larger boulder. That would buy more time. Meanwhile, you'll be the only one left to take him down – I'll be practically useless after another exchange.' She took her hand off me. In my mind's eye, I could see her mana burning up within her. 'Can you do it?'
Just then, Oread collapsed. Mustering up my strength, I fired three arrows at once, knocking Radament off his course temporarily, as he stumbled a little and locked the deathly embers of his eyes onto me. 'There's no choice, Falcon! Just do it!'
A boulder rolled past me, its diameter about five feet in length, much more than that of the one before. It was so large and so fast; Radament could not have dodged this one even if he tried. 'Come on!' Falcon, looking dangerously pale now, got in front of me and crouched down, her hands folded over one another. 'I'll give you a boost.'
I stepped over her hands and pushed off as hard as I could, and with Falcon's somewhat surprising strength, I leapt over the over-twenty-feet distance between Radament and me, and caught up with the speeding boulder. Before he could reach Oread and kill her for good, the boulder crashed into Radament's legs once again; but prior to that I had landed briefly on the molten boulder, and carefully kicked off vertically, cracking the thin and brittle layer of solid rock.
When Radament roared and started to fall, I was above him and I unsheathed the short word. His headdress came a little loose, and I saw that small core in the hollow of his lower skull – a pulsating mass of silvery-blue-green glow, like a twisted organ festering with diseases.
I landed on him a split second after he hit the ground. Both my hands were on the hilt of the sword, and they followed my landing, burying the blade straight through the shimmering blob of Radament's core of life. I was surprised to find that the blade was yellow-hot and encased in flames – I had somehow channelled my Fire Arrow energy into the blade, while not exactly remembering when I did so.
The core looked soft and gooey, but what my blade struck was like sand – not the soft, dry sand at the surface of the desert, but the tightly-packed ones beneath, under the point where one can no longer dig any deeper with bare hands, and can only try and push down in vain as the softer sand around it flowed around your hands. That was what I thought then; down to the backfilling sand.
Except rather than soft sand that backfilled the gaping hole, it was the burnt fumes of toxins. The dying core sent up a tremor, running through the blade and into my hands. I struggled, but managed to keep my blade where it was, until Radament screamed voicelessly and deafeningly, and the core glowed. The huge amount of power locked into this small mass, the huge power that kept this dead corpse of a mummy going, was unleashed as Radament's existence faded away.
My eyes snapped themselves closed from the blinding brightness, just before I felt the explosion of the core. I felt myself flying, the sword no longer in my hands.
I awaited the painful landing, but instead, someone caught me from the back, and backed the both of us towards a wall.
It was Oread, I was sure of it; there was no mistaking the smell of… of crimson. The smell that was not as prominent as when I first noticed it, back in the Cathedral of the Rogue Monastery, but was always there nonetheless, ever since I had first noticed it then.
And then there was the memory of my muscles. A scene flashed at the forefront of my mind – facing the Smith, in the Barracks. I had gone down, but before that, Oread had caught me from the back and softened the impact of the Smith's punch.
Had it been that long? No. It had been less than two months; but within this short time, I had grown into the mercenary that I was supposed to be.
Radament was disintegrating – yes, such was the word to express the spectacle of his destruction – glowing embers of blinding blue-white leapt and spiralled from his corpse as his spirit was broken. Overhead, the sounds of shattering bones, ripping flesh and voiceless shrieks filled the chamber above. Radament was finished, and the Sewers were cleansed – metaphorically, anyway.
When all that remained of Radament was a pile of sick-smelling dust, I looked back and up at Oread. She smiled – actually smiled. 'Good work, Celadon. Thank you.'
'You have my life.' I once again swore the oath of the mercenary.
'Right, now that he's finished,' Falcon's voice broke thorough the mist of reminiscence. I turned to her; she was still pale and worn from the battle, but her energy had seemingly improved. 'Let's take what we can and get out of this stinking hole.'
'What's this?' I asked, as we rummaged through the chest. 'A book? And a scroll?'
'Well, there's also a socketed bow and a nice spear.' Oread grinned, straining herself a little to dig through the treasure. 'And bits of armour. Take those with you, Celadon; it might be important. I don't think anything in this chest is mere trash.'
'We can't take too much.' Falcon said disappointedly, as she found a lavender-tinted jewel, and marvelled it for a moment before pocketing it. 'We have to go back up through this huge maze…' She looked up ahead, and pouted.
'No we don't.' I grinned as I found what I was looking for, a scroll with a blue seal. Oread had a tome of it, of course, and she would have probably opened one up soon anyway; but I would feel disrespectful if I asked her to open up a portal.
Falcon took the scroll from my hand. 'What's this?' She examined the seal. 'You had one before, too.'
'You've never used one?' I did not expect Falcon to be so inexperienced with such items of the Sanctuary; but then again, her young life had been rather secluded. 'Read out the incantations, you'll see.'
So Falcon opened up a portal, and was amazed and even more amused by such magic. We took all that we could – which was almost everything, excepting a few unfamiliar weapons and armour: a large kite-shaped shield, a heavy helm that would have been too large for any of us, and a claw.
We then stepped through the portal, and headed straight for Atma's public house. I looked at the scroll in my hand – I had not wanted to put it into my backpack, it looked so old and fragile – and noticed faint watermarks of magical runes.
Whatever this scroll was, I had a feeling that this upcoming period of rest would be brief.
