Chapter Five
Devona couldn't hear a word Aiden was saying, and he was standing right at her shoulder. The massive drill boring through the hard bedrock underneath Ascalon was making quite a violent racket, squealing, grinding, shuddering, and shaking through the time-hardened earth, and making any semblance of conversation impossible.
That didn't seem to stop the ranger from trying, as his lips kept moving, his face visibly reddening from his exertions despite the dim light being provided by the Asuran Recovery Krewe that was mingled about the human contingent escorting them.
"What? I can't understand you!" She yelled back, even as she knew that he had probably about as much chance of hearing her as she did hearing him.
Then with an abrupt whirr, the laboring machine seemed to ease, and the reason why was revealed moments later as a rush of air flooded the bored tunnel, and the illumination of light appeared in the cracks between earth and machine. The cracks widened, and soon the drill emerged fully into the cavern of the Atal Ra academy, and was quickly pulled to a stop and silence.
"I was trying to ask you how much further you thought we had to go." Aiden said. "But I suppose that's a rather moot point now, isn't it?"
"Okay, you humans can now light your torches if you so please, but as you can see, there should be ample lighting here for even your kind." One of the Recovery Krewe members grumbled bitterly.
Devona supposed the irritated Asura had good reason to be. On two separate occasions, members of the Ascalon militia had complained that the tunnel was too dark, and sought to ignite their torches… and nearly setting off small pockets of invisible gas that had leaked from the earth. If not for the Asurans quick actions to stop such efforts, the mission might have met a tragically quick end.
"That's enough Kreweman." Vekk chided, climbing out of the cockpit of the drill before raising his voice to address the small army that had now entered the chamber. "I trust you remember your team assignments and your patrol routes. Kill any Destroyer on sight, and report in any survivors you find. Work quickly. Work efficiently. Move out!"
He didn't even pause to see if the teams did indeed understand what they were assigned to do, shuffling right up to Devona's feet and asking, "You and your friends ready to go, bookah?"
Devona took a deep breath, and replied, "I do know what that means. You realize that, right?"
"It's why I call you that… bookah." The Asura said with a toothy grin.
Devona's fists clenched, and her lips and eyes pursed tightly. She reminded herself not to give Vekk the pleasure of knowing that he was infuriating her… it would only encourage him. Let him have his fun, and eventually he'll get bored and start aggravating someone else. Hopefully Cynn… at least then everyone would learn what barbequed Asura looks like.
Her ire quelled, Devona took step, forcing herself to remain focused on the task at hand. Ahead of them, the shimmering citadel that was Atal Ra emerged from over the rise overlooking the drill site, and the warrior stopped for a moment in awe.
"Yes, it is quite a sight, isn't it?" Vekk asked rhetorically.
Even with the damage readily apparent to the academy's west side, the main complex of Atal Ra was indeed a vision unlike anything Devona could readily remember. The exterior wall of drab earth blocked from sight most of what was on the ground level, but the towers, four visible with curved tapered walls of golden color that shimmered from the artificial lighting in the cavern flanked a angular central tower of a gleaming white silver, joined by white, immaculately cleaned covered bridges between all.
Bright beams of light shot upward from behind the earthen barricade towards the top of the central tower, where the top tiles were clearly of some sort of mirrored material that reflected said light through the cavern in a soft uniform glow.
"It's… beautiful." Devona agreed.
An inhuman roar ended any distracted thoughts, and Devona's head jerked to the sound of the noise to her west… in what appeared to be a stampede of at least twenty Destroyers. Devona quickly stepped between the charging horde and her companions, sensing Cynn take three steps backward off her right shoulder as Aiden did the same to her left. Eve, Mhenlo, and the Asuran support personnel formed the back flank with Vekk in the center, who was apparently trying to communicate with the other Krewes.
"This is Recovery Krewe Alpha One, we have a plethora of Destroyers bearing down fast at coordinates -2.21, 0.77; requesting backup as soon as Asuraly possible. Out!"
Of course, said request would have been extremely late in coming, as by the time Vekk had ended his plea, the infernal creatures were nearly on top of them. Devona successfully deflected and knocked the lead beast to the earth, but was promptly bowled over by the Destroyer directly behind it. She braced herself to fight out from under the creature, but it didn't follow it's attack, instead nearly stepping on her skull in it's mad dash ahead.
Wherever these monsters were going, it clearly had nothing to do with the Recovery Krewe, as Cynn found out when the Destroyer she immolated didn't even pause to give her passing attention, mindlessly continuing its charge through the party followed by its kin. The rear ranks of the Krewe managed to dive or scurry out of the stampede's path, but for Devona, it was a mad scramble and roll to avoid the pounding hooves or feet or whatever they were from the Destroyers as they rushed past the now hopelessly broken formation of humans and Asura.
The stampede fully passed by in a mere handful of seconds, and after the chaos, Devona had to admit she was astonished she merely suffered some scrapes and a rather nasty gash to her forehead, which Mhenlo dutifully healed within seconds.
"Okay… those Destroyers were running away from something." Devona noted, somewhat to the obvious. "But what?"
The Krewe could barely manage to sort out just who was who, let alone answer the question, when another beast, this one more kin to the Charr race, also rushed past without even a cursory glance at the Krewe. It was holding some manner of shiny, metallic device with a series of flickering lights around a rectangular base with a small slightly bowl-shaped disc protruding from the top.
"Okay… just to make sure I'm not going mad…" Cynn began, pointing in the direction that the peculiar procession had departed. "Everyone else saw a Charr run thataway, right?"
"That appeared to be a sonic resonator…" Vekk said. "But would that have caused the Destroyers' flight?"
Further musing on the issue ended swiftly when the Destroyer Devona had taken down bounced to its feet with one powerful burst of strength, and roared in challenge at the warrior that had attacked it. Devona started to make a swing with her hammer, but knew she wouldn't be fast enough, nor would any of her allies be able to act before its blow landed…
But as a potentially fatal attack seemed imminent, instead there was a crackle of electricity, and a sharp lance of energy struck the Destroyer in the side of the head, and caused the hard earthen carapace to crack and shatter slightly, again knocking the monster off balance, and giving Devona the opportunity to deliver the killing blow across what remained of the creature's skull.
It hadn't even crumpled to the ground with a heavy thud before the Krewe turned their attention to the source of the attack. A lone slender human figure stood in white regalia armor and gold trim of Istani design. On his left arm was attached a long, slender golden shield etched with a relief of a figure Devona couldn't readily discern, the right propping a menacing silver spear haft on his shoulder, a pronged three barbed steel spear head adorning the front end and two red fletching fins on the rear.
The armor was definitely new… but the facial features were surprisingly familiar, especially when his eyes met Devona's, and melted into the surprise she no doubt was sharing.
His shield and spear dropped, completely forgotten, Devona following suit with her hammer as both dashed across the distance separating them, meeting in a warm, plastering embrace.
"Coran… you have no idea how relieved I am to see you again." Devona whispered into his ear, "It's been a very long time."