Published at 22nd of October 2023 9:43 am

Book 3: Chapter 19

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Sitting on the Dreamer's throne, Garrett quickly scanned the battlefield. Most of the Klein Family who carried dream flowers were not yet involved in the fight, though that time would come. Slowly, the mass of zombies was beginning to press towards the southern wall, and as strong as the defenses were, they would not hold forever. In fact, Garrett had not planned for them to hold forever. Instead, his goal was to blunt the attack as much as possible, funneling as many of Agma-Yoth's forces into the northern part of the district where they would have to fight through the other gang, and eventually, the Adventurer's Guild. He wasn't sure what Arthur Tellson was planning, but the Shaper who controlled the Adventurer's Guild had to be planning something. There was no way that Tellson had missed the zombie attack that was happening right under his nose, but the fact that there were no Adventurers out on the field meant that he was playing the long game.

Garrett knew that there were a lot of people in the city watching this situation very closely and waiting to swoop in and take credit. That didn't bother him one bit. In fact, he would gladly hand all the credit for the defense of the city to anyone who wanted it so long as he could preserve the strength of the Klein Family and keep their strength hidden. Unfortunately, he couldn't control one of his guardians while also keeping track of everything that was going on. Experience points were flooding in as the Awakened who carried dream flowers killed their way through the zombies.

But Garrett couldn’t actually spend them, so it made no difference. He had been forced to use his mental energy to replace the dream flowers in the tunnels under the city to try and keep the zombies at bay, while also encouraging those dream flowers already planted in many of the mortals fighting against the zombies to replicate naturally. He had realized that even though they weren't as strong as the Awakened, those mortals who carried dream flowers were able to fight longer and harder and with greater courage against the zombies, and so he was taking this opportunity to spread his influence as fast as possible.

Though he wanted to level up, Garrett simply didn’t have that option. He would certainly get to the next level before the end of this fight and possibly even the seventh. There were simply too many enemies for that not to be the case. But whether he would succeed in his ultimate plan of slaying Agma-Yoth or not depended on how he used the abilities he currently had, forcing him to rely on the six individuals down in the tunnels under the city.

His attention stretched down to where Viper, Cynen, and their four companions fought fiercely against the large jackal-headed statues. The statues were unbelievably tough, hard to damage, and fast and strong. Thankfully, with four other fighters on their side, Viper and Cynen had been able to keep the statues occupied, never allowing them to gain the advantage in the fight.

Paskal was currently fighting against the pus-covered necromancer, while Isabelle was chasing Delrisa around the battlefield. With the situation at the southern wall of the royal graveyard relatively stable, Garrett felt as if he could spare some attention for the fight at the entrance to the first tomb, so he concentrated on seeing what was going on there. Viper was currently trying to land a strike on one of the statue's eyes, testing to see if that part of its body was any weaker. At the same time, Cynen, her fist covered in green flame, was pounding at the other statue's leg with heavy blows, trying to crush through it.

Neither was having much success, and the others in their team weren't faring any better. Core and Gale, the two Grave Walker lieutenants, and the red-masked assassins, were throwing themselves against the statues with everything they had, but their weapons simply bounced off. Thankfully, they were able to distract the statues enough that Cynen and Viper could mount their assaults. But beyond a few scratches and one crack where Cynen's fist had landed a powerful blow, the statues were just fine. They seemed to have endless energy, and their double-bladed weapons tore through the air with vicious speed, meaning that something would have to change if they wanted to make any progress.

Viper abandoned his attack against the statue's eyes and flashed to where Cynen was standing.

“We need to do something else,” he said.

“You don't think I can see that?” Cynen snapped, dodging an attack and hammering her fist into the statue's leg. “These things are hard as stone. A whole lot harder, actually, because I can crush stone without much trouble.

“Let's fall back,” Viper said. And as one, the team disengaged, moving rapidly to a distance.

The two statues lumbered after them but came to a stop when they reached the edge of the stone area outside the tomb's door. From there, they glowered at the team.

“Do you think we could attack from a distance, from here?” Cynen asked, a faint tongue of flame bouncing up and down on her palm.

“I mean, we can, but do you think it's going to do any good?” Viper responded.

"No, I don't,' Cynen said with a sigh, clenching her fist and extinguishing the flame. "'But until we take these guys down, there's no getting inside. Do we have any options?'

"Give me a moment,” Viper said, closing his eyes.

Garrett, who had until this point been watching, took control of Viper, reading through his memories of the fight in a few seconds. Opening his eyes, he turned to Cynen.

“Can you imbue items with that flame of yours?” he asked, causing her to frown.

“I can, but what good is that going to do us? The flames don't do anything against them.”

“With enough concentration, I think I can get through their defenses,” Viper said. “However, it'll be dangerous, as it'll leave me completely exposed. On top of that, just my blade itself isn't going to do anything. But I saw your flame absorbing the undead power that animated the skeletons. Do you think you can do the same to these statues?”

“If they were undead, sure,” Cynen said. “But the death flame can only consume the power of undeath. It doesn't do anything against animated constructs.”

“These guys aren't animated constructs,' Viper said, shaking his head. “It's hard to sense because of the tough layer of stone they're wearing as armor. But they're more similar to the skeletons than you might think.”

“Should we really be discussing our plan out in the open?” Cynen said, a wry smile on her face.

Chuckling hoarsely, Viper shrugged.

“Honestly, I don't think it matters. Because if it works like I think it will, they won't be able to stop it.”

“And if it doesn't?” Cynen asked, her eyebrow rising.

“Then I'll be dead,” Viper replied, spinning his sword in his hand.

"'You don't seem so torn up about that.”

Again, Viper shrugged.

"'Everybody dies sometime,” he said. “All right, here's the plan.” He gestured towards their companions.

“The four of you are going to distract these things. Two on each. Do your best to move them as far apart as possible. Cynen, you can join one side after lending me your flames. I'll wait for my opportunity and make my attack. As soon as I do, I need you to cover me. Otherwise, the chances of me getting killed are pretty high.”

Holding up her hand, Cynen summoned her pale green death flame, all the while staring at Viper.

“You trust me to do that?” she asked, her voice skeptical.

“Why shouldn't I?” Viper said. “The favors you called in are keeping us alive up top, so the least I can do is believe you. I believe that we're on the same side. Besides, if anybody can keep me alive, it's you.'

To Garrett's complete and utter shock, a faint pink seemed to appear on Cynen's face, though it may have just been a trick of the light, and she turned her head away quickly.

“Fine,” she said, her voice gruff. “Let's do this.”

Summoning and concentrating her flame, she reached over and touched Viper's blade.

“You've got a few minutes at the most,” she said, “before it goes out and I have to reapply.”

“That should be more than enough time,” Viper replied.

Cynen and the others launched themselves back into battle, approaching from two different directions, causing the statues, who had been glaring at them, to split up, each attacking with its giant double-bladed staff. The red-masked assassins attacked first, dodging the statues' swings as they circled around behind them. Before the statues could turn to deal with the slippery fighters, Core and Gale both attacked, rushing into battle with loud shouts. For a moment, the statues hesitated, unsure who to attack, before each of them picked a direction and started swinging. Into this mess, Cynen dashed, drawing back her fist and unleashing a blast of green flame.

That sent one of the statues reeling. It regained its footing quickly and lashed out with a kick, forcing her to dodge away. The statues were unbelievably strong, and though she was able to block their attacks, the simple difference in mass would have sent her flying. Viper remained where he was, his body seeming to fade into nothingness as his cloak blended with the darkness. He stood without moving an inch as the fight continued to rage on, and after a minute of frantic blows had passed, Cynen began to wonder if he was going to move at all. Then another minute passed, and she could feel the flame on the blade starting to weaken, but just as she was about to say something, Viper's figure dropped out of the air above one of the statues, his blade driving straight through the jackal-headed statue's skull, deep into its brain. Cynen felt the death flames flare as they began to devour the mental power that kept the statue moving, and it wasn't long before the statue fell to the ground, completely inert.

Viper's figure, which had been standing completely still off to the side, slowly faded away as the statue crumbled to the ground. But Viper, who had used up almost all of his energy in the strike, fell with it. Letting out a roar of rage, the other statue lunged over, ignored everyone else, and lunged over, his blade hacking down on Viper's powerless body. There was a flash of green flame, and Cynen's fist pounded into the side of the blade, knocking it off course as she grabbed him in a princess carry and dashed away.

"Quick," Viper gasped, "we have to kill the other one before its companion is rebuilt."

"These guys can rebuild?!" Cynen screeched. "That's so unfair!"

Tossing Viper down, Cynen grabbed his blade and let out a shout, pulling a huge amount of energy from her soul spark. Flames burned along her arms and down onto the blade, giving it a wicked green glow as she lunged forward, her feet leaving burning tracks on the ground. Though she didn't have Viper's speed, her flames made her stronger, and she landed her first strike on the statue's chest, bowling it over backwards. As she ripped the blade free, it sprayed chunks of stone everywhere. On the statue's chest, she lifted the blade up over her head and stabbed down, angling it through the bottom of the statue's jaw.

The blade wasn't long enough to reach its brain where the flames of undeath that animated it resided, but as she poured power into it, the flame on the blade lengthened, chewing through stone until it finally reached the seat of the jackal-headed statue's life. It only took a moment for the power that animated it to be absorbed into the death flame, and it too crumbled into gravel. The attack had sapped every single ounce of Cynen's energy, and as she sagged to the ground, she felt a hand grab her shoulder, keeping her upright. Viper took his sword back from her, sheathing it, and gave her a nod.

"Well done," he said. "We should get inside as quickly as possible."

Half expecting to be picked up in a princess carry, Cynen was stunned when Viper unceremoniously tossed her over his shoulder and darted for the entrance of the tomb. The barrier that had blocked them from entering before had faded, and with Viper carrying Cynen, they quickly ran inside. Behind them, they could hear the rumble of stone as the jackals began to reform. But as soon as they crossed the barrier, that sound ceased, and the jackals vanished, leaving behind their armor and weapons.

"I thought as much," Viper said, placing Cynen down. "So long as we move to the next stage, the previous one will vanish. If we don't, however, it will just keep recycling, and we'll have to fight it again."

"It's almost like the goal is to force us to move deeper in," Cynen said, her face pale, and her breath coming in gasps.

"It is," Viper said looking around at the group that had collapsed in the entrance of the tomb. "This entire tomb is designed as a temple, and its goal is to drive us toward the center. We'll rest here for a few minutes, but then we have to move forward."

Pleased with the progress that had been made, Garrett was about to disconnect from Viper when he felt a familiar tug. It was Agma-Yoth calling for him once again. Curious as to what his enemy might want to talk about in the middle of a fight, Garrett accepted the summons, and a moment later was standing in Agma-Yoth's throne room. Up on the platform, Agma-Yoth stared at him, fury and a hint of admiration in his eyes.

"What do you want?" Garrett asked, sauntering forward. "Are you ready to give up?"

"I would consider it if I could,” Agma-Yoth said. “No, I simply wish to speak to you. You are the first of the great rulers I have encountered who is not utterly mad."

Blinking in surprise, Garrett tilted his head to the side.

"Do you include or exclude yourself?" He asked, genuinely curious.

Agma-Yoth laughed, the sound booming around the throne room.

"Oh, I'm mad," he said. "Madder than most, in fact. But what I meant to say was that you can actually carry on a conversation.

“Interesting. Most of the others can't? Huh. Well, what do you want to chat about? We don't really have a lot of time to spare."

"On the contrary,” Agma-Yoth said, “we have all the time you want.”

“Because we're in your mental world. Of course," Garrett said, nodding.

With a snap of his fingers, he created a stool and sat down. While it wasn't as easy as it would have been had this been his mental world, the power of the dream that flowed within him allowed him to manipulate any mental space he was in and creating a chair was benign enough that Agma-Yoth didn't care to stop him. Taking his seat, Garrett leaned forward slightly, resting one foot on a rung of the stool and his other on the ground.

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