chapter 13
Hoyden
Hugbot v0.28
- Location
- UK
okay, so it's been a while since I updated. I used up my buffer updating faster than I was writing, which wasn't a good idea as it turned out.
I spent a long time trying to write, but couldn't get anything done. Up till I took some friendly advice, and scrapped the chapter and started over. Thus the plot should start moving forwards again, but I'm lacking a buffer so don't expect anything for at least a week.
Chapter 13
[Bloody Dagger]
The spell sped across the battered street, deep gouges filled with steaming coppery liquid which soon bubbled and darkened. Flames danced higher with each passing moment, hotter, brighter. Air flowed inwards rushing to fill the void left by the rising hot currents. It didn't matter, none of it mattered. She threw another overcharged spell at the mass of silver and red. Nothing mattered anymore.
The warehouse district was burning, a pillar of white hot flames at the center of the conflagration, Lung. Lung was on another rampage. Despite his reputation this would only be the third time he'd let loose in the city, no one dared to poke the sleeping rage dragon, usually. His first rampage had been shortly after he arrived in the city, after he'd single handedly bested the entire local protectorate he'd staked out a claim on his territory, immolating all villainous resistance to his rule.
A ball of utter darkness gathered above her palm, beyond the dark of a moonless night, a hole in the world where nothing that entered could escape.
The second was rumoured to be the result of a failed assassination attempt. no one knew who who was behind it, though the Empire was a prime suspect. That rampage had absorbed the Yakuza wannabe New Dawn into the ABB, well, what was left of them. Not one of their seven capes had been seen since.
Fire, white hot rolled over her. Brushed aside by the enhancements her device granted.
She would almost have felt sorry for whoever had set him off this time, if she hadn't been more worried about her father. The dockworkers association sat near the leading edge of the swathe of destruction, the sky filled with dark smoke, lit red from the flames below like a wave of blood covering the stars.
A silvery scaled fist fell towards her the air cracked with its passage.
Numbers, calculations ran through her mind faster and faster, the minor twists and pulls of mana that Gesichtskreis normally handled turned her normally smooth acceleration into a jerking stuttering motion. Ground flew beneath her, at a varied pace and only her martial arts honed reflexes saved her from tumbling across the debris littered streets. Taylor's legs pumped faster, she felt so stupid, she'd let her guard down.
[shield]
Silver broke over a rainbow triangular shield, boiling red liquid spilled around her once again to coat her Combat Equipment.
Things had been so much better at school without the trio present. Her homework didn't mysteriously vanish, crowds of girls didn't form to circle her as she left her classes, and whilst she wasn't popular by any measure, she no longer felt like the social pariah of the last year. Just today she'd eaten lunch with some other students. It all seemed pointless now.
A blood soaked angel, hands raised to the growing sphere of darkness above. Facing down the raging silver scaled dragon.
She miscalculated a pull and shot over the flat roof she'd been aiming for, dropping rapidly to street level and bouncing off the side of a smoke filled building. Her improvised Barrier Jacket dulled the impact, despite its limited nature it would still be far more effective than most body armour available on the open market.
[Diabolic Emission]
The Darkness expanded, rapidly consuming the street above which she floated.
It wasn't far now, another block and she'd be in sight of the dockworkers association, smoke filled the air but the fires seemed to be growing less severe as she got closer. Buildings smoldering and choked with smoke rather than collapsing firestorms. Her deep breath of relief was interrupted by a pained scream filled with terror to her left, it's shrill nature the only reason it was audible over the deep rumble of the firestorm sweeping the docks.
The silver beast roared defiance to the heavens as he was consumed.
Oh Unifier, the building's bottom floor was already swathed in red black smoke, the upper floors choked in the cloying black clouds, but through the smoke Taylor could see the frantic motion of those trapped inside. She could hear the shouted pleas, the begging screaming. Her stomach flipped, how many people had she passed by, how many more people had been trapped by the smoke and flame cuttings it's way across the docks and warehouses. She'd been so focused on her father, how many could she have saved, how many had died from her inaction.
The wave of impossible night surged onwards, buildings on both sides of the streets vanished in the blink of an eye.
No, no more. A twist on that insubstantial muscle, pushing the snarls of power out, the pulling back the middle and she was flying in through the upper floor windows with a single shove from her limbs. It felt like forever that she spent running from building to building, sometimes it was office workers, sometimes obvious gang members, more often though it was simply the homeless she saved.
The wave of nothingness continued on, sweeping several blocks in its rapid advance.
It felt like hours before the first fire crews arrived, days before the first ambulances, even if logically she knew it couldn't have been more than an hour or so. Her skin was covered in soot, ash and grime. Seven city blocks, reduced to smoldering skeletons in less than a day.
"Dad?"
The darkness faded and light returned, not to ruined blasted streets, but to a modest dip smooth sided as if a chunk of the world had been scooped out.
The lights were on when she finally returned home, a shadow paced back and forth in front of the the living room window. Her heart filled with joyus relief, she shouldered through the door tears starting to fall of their own accord.
Allan Barnes stood in her living room, grief and sympathy writ across his face.
"Taylor, I'm… I'm so sorry"
I spent a long time trying to write, but couldn't get anything done. Up till I took some friendly advice, and scrapped the chapter and started over. Thus the plot should start moving forwards again, but I'm lacking a buffer so don't expect anything for at least a week.
Chapter 13
[Bloody Dagger]
The spell sped across the battered street, deep gouges filled with steaming coppery liquid which soon bubbled and darkened. Flames danced higher with each passing moment, hotter, brighter. Air flowed inwards rushing to fill the void left by the rising hot currents. It didn't matter, none of it mattered. She threw another overcharged spell at the mass of silver and red. Nothing mattered anymore.
The warehouse district was burning, a pillar of white hot flames at the center of the conflagration, Lung. Lung was on another rampage. Despite his reputation this would only be the third time he'd let loose in the city, no one dared to poke the sleeping rage dragon, usually. His first rampage had been shortly after he arrived in the city, after he'd single handedly bested the entire local protectorate he'd staked out a claim on his territory, immolating all villainous resistance to his rule.
A ball of utter darkness gathered above her palm, beyond the dark of a moonless night, a hole in the world where nothing that entered could escape.
The second was rumoured to be the result of a failed assassination attempt. no one knew who who was behind it, though the Empire was a prime suspect. That rampage had absorbed the Yakuza wannabe New Dawn into the ABB, well, what was left of them. Not one of their seven capes had been seen since.
Fire, white hot rolled over her. Brushed aside by the enhancements her device granted.
She would almost have felt sorry for whoever had set him off this time, if she hadn't been more worried about her father. The dockworkers association sat near the leading edge of the swathe of destruction, the sky filled with dark smoke, lit red from the flames below like a wave of blood covering the stars.
A silvery scaled fist fell towards her the air cracked with its passage.
Numbers, calculations ran through her mind faster and faster, the minor twists and pulls of mana that Gesichtskreis normally handled turned her normally smooth acceleration into a jerking stuttering motion. Ground flew beneath her, at a varied pace and only her martial arts honed reflexes saved her from tumbling across the debris littered streets. Taylor's legs pumped faster, she felt so stupid, she'd let her guard down.
[shield]
Silver broke over a rainbow triangular shield, boiling red liquid spilled around her once again to coat her Combat Equipment.
Things had been so much better at school without the trio present. Her homework didn't mysteriously vanish, crowds of girls didn't form to circle her as she left her classes, and whilst she wasn't popular by any measure, she no longer felt like the social pariah of the last year. Just today she'd eaten lunch with some other students. It all seemed pointless now.
A blood soaked angel, hands raised to the growing sphere of darkness above. Facing down the raging silver scaled dragon.
She miscalculated a pull and shot over the flat roof she'd been aiming for, dropping rapidly to street level and bouncing off the side of a smoke filled building. Her improvised Barrier Jacket dulled the impact, despite its limited nature it would still be far more effective than most body armour available on the open market.
[Diabolic Emission]
The Darkness expanded, rapidly consuming the street above which she floated.
It wasn't far now, another block and she'd be in sight of the dockworkers association, smoke filled the air but the fires seemed to be growing less severe as she got closer. Buildings smoldering and choked with smoke rather than collapsing firestorms. Her deep breath of relief was interrupted by a pained scream filled with terror to her left, it's shrill nature the only reason it was audible over the deep rumble of the firestorm sweeping the docks.
The silver beast roared defiance to the heavens as he was consumed.
Oh Unifier, the building's bottom floor was already swathed in red black smoke, the upper floors choked in the cloying black clouds, but through the smoke Taylor could see the frantic motion of those trapped inside. She could hear the shouted pleas, the begging screaming. Her stomach flipped, how many people had she passed by, how many more people had been trapped by the smoke and flame cuttings it's way across the docks and warehouses. She'd been so focused on her father, how many could she have saved, how many had died from her inaction.
The wave of impossible night surged onwards, buildings on both sides of the streets vanished in the blink of an eye.
No, no more. A twist on that insubstantial muscle, pushing the snarls of power out, the pulling back the middle and she was flying in through the upper floor windows with a single shove from her limbs. It felt like forever that she spent running from building to building, sometimes it was office workers, sometimes obvious gang members, more often though it was simply the homeless she saved.
The wave of nothingness continued on, sweeping several blocks in its rapid advance.
It felt like hours before the first fire crews arrived, days before the first ambulances, even if logically she knew it couldn't have been more than an hour or so. Her skin was covered in soot, ash and grime. Seven city blocks, reduced to smoldering skeletons in less than a day.
"Dad?"
The darkness faded and light returned, not to ruined blasted streets, but to a modest dip smooth sided as if a chunk of the world had been scooped out.
The lights were on when she finally returned home, a shadow paced back and forth in front of the the living room window. Her heart filled with joyus relief, she shouldered through the door tears starting to fall of their own accord.
Allan Barnes stood in her living room, grief and sympathy writ across his face.
"Taylor, I'm… I'm so sorry"
