Ruinous Return
Chapter 39

Lyn descended the corridor flanked by her two companions. The next chamber was another square. This one was not covered in coral, however, but instead looked to be some type of ruined temple. Combat, Lyn knew instinctively. She glanced back at the twins, "Ready?" Both nodded, and she went through her set of internal spells. Her muscles bulged, surging with power, and her senses sharpened as the numerous combat effects took hold. She touched the pillar.

The light orbs floating above shifted to a blood-red color. "Fuck!" Lyn shouted, knowing exactly what that meant. "Get ready. This is wave-based!"

The walls fell away, and the trio were standing on top of a raised hill with a temple at the top. Down below was a gentle slope that eventually turned to surf and sand. Beyond that was ocean…and the sounds Lyn heard chilled her to the bone. Ghastly, sucking and popping sounds as a horde of the unliving rushed from the surf – drowned sailors, marines, monstrous forms that were humanoid covered in a variety of whipping, spiked tendrils. The memories of her allies, two of the heroes, dying during the waves in their third dungeon were lingering in the back of her thoughts, but her Destroyer core isolated those memories and pushed them aside. Focus on the combat. "Adhano i adwen enni / a echado i goth en-gwanath / about hên tol / i lasto a anor."

Her mana surged from her core and into her palm before she slammed it into the ground. The neon-blue magma turned crimson as it surged down. The ground around the temple shook with a tremendous fury and a thirty-foot wide rift appeared all around the temple. Then, it became filled with bubbling lava. She stood up and swapped Cataclysm to its sword form – better for dealing with a large melee. "We have to survive waves of enemies," she told her companions who were both trembling. "What's the matter?" she asked.

Gael took up a defensive stance, and his voice came through in the most nervous tone Lyn heard him use, "We've never fought an army."

"Just small squads," Vael followed up, equally as shaky.

Lyn frowned, "Your spears, point them at me." The two looked at her quizzically, and she felt her tone drop to the draconic tone. "Do it!" They complied, and she grabbed both the spear tips, "Posto hain i megil a nin thalion." Their spears ignited with the crimson-shifting-blue fury of her lava spell. The tips became the form of glaives. "Use big, carving strikes." She turned as the horde arrived at the lava channel and began to move through it. Some died, but the sheer number clogged up the surface, and the rest were able to charge across. "Get ready, here they come!" she shouted as she raised Cataclysm, willing the blade to extend to its Greatsword configuration.

The first group arrived and Lyn shouted a battle cry as she carved with enormous, sweeping strikes that slashed through eight at a time. Everything that came within reach was carved at the midsection, and the mana blade found no resistance in their assorted armor and shields. Her prowess couldn't be matched by these simple reanimated corpses.

But waves were all about numbers and endurance.

Gael and Vael protected her back, putting away their shields as they made large, sweeping strikes as per Lyn's command. Thanks to her external spell on their weapons, the lava blades were able to carve through the horde like a hot knife through butter. But their weapons were meant to hold others at bay at a distance, not like Lyn's sword which was deadly along the whole length. Several of the undead horde made their way past the warrior's mana-charged weaponry, and used their weapons on the pair.

Gael's armor was able to take the blows with ease, but Vael suffered several injuries as blades slashed into portions of her flesh. She screamed out in pain, backing away as Gael threw himself in front of her, relying on his armor to protect him as he covered her. "Lyn!" he shouted as he curled himself around his sister's form, taking the shield off of her back to cover the two fully.

Lyn saw them overrun and cursed. "Water shield. Now!" She turned her back to the foes she was holding at bay, and moved to the twins, placing her body over them. She felt the impacts and thuds of impacts against her armor. Thankfully, it was black adamantine and covered her whole body. That, combined with the Ironhide body enhancement meant she was practically invincible to these creatures.

She felt the cool water under her and raised her hand, "Britho ai!"

Ben was outside with his fighters, training them to throw a jab combination. "Duck!" he shouted at one of them. He swung a wild haymaker at one of the trainees, and the man expertly threw up a block, stepping inside Ben's guard and responding with a jab. Ben ducked it and tackled the recruit to the ground, pinning him with his weight. "Good counter," he muttered. "But you lost your footing when I went in low."

The man nodded and Ben helped him up. "Thanks for the lesson," he grumbled. The other trainees around them shared a laugh.

Ben chuckled, and then he heard a familiar voice behind him. One he had not heard in a long, long time. "Still…going low?" He whipped around and saw the lanky, grinning man as the Archer hero gave him a little wave. "Hi."

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Ben stepped forward and held out a hand. Volio did not shake it, instead putting two cloth covered packages in his palm. "What's this?" Ben asked.

Volio stared off towards the South, "A letter from Lyn."

Ben shook his head, poor bastard, he thought. "She's gone, Volio. The sooner you accept that-"

"No!" Volio shouted. And that caught Ben off guard. The man in front of him was always hesitant when speaking unless he was on a stage and couldn't see the crowd. "She's alive! I talked to her!" He shook his head, "Just give that other one to Trisha. I have to head to Misty next."

Ben nodded and put the packages under his arm, "You want to stay for dinner?"

"No. The sooner I finish, the sooner I can go back to her."

Ben grimaced but nodded, "Well…are you going to at least say hi to Trisha?"

"I can." Volio's demeanor softened and the anger that was written across his visage faded away back to that of the shy theatre kid.

The Guardian hero looked back at the trainees, who were watching the conversation with rapt attention. He shifted his tone to that of a disappointed father – something he was quite good at using now. "Instead of standing around like trees, why don't you split off and spar?" The trainees went to their task after the admonishing remark. Ben led the man up the hill to the house, and Trisha must have seen them coming, because she was standing at the door waiting for them, their youngest child in her arms.

"Volio! It's been too long," she said with a smile.

The Archer hero nodded, "It's…been a while…how are your…how are Eli and Lyndra?"

"They are good," Trisha replied, handing their baby off to Ben. "Oh, it's been…seven years? You only knew Lyndra when she was a baby. And you haven't even met Lawry! I'll go get them-"

Volio held up his hand, "I'm…not good with kids." He looked to the North, "Is…Misty at…her school?"

"Yes. So is Thomas."

Volio's eyes brightened, and his tone changed dramatically to one of enthusiasm, "Great! That means I can get back to her faster. Two birds with one stone."

Trisha looked over to Ben quizzically, and the Guardian hero unwrapped the package with one hand, using his hip to help hold his cooing daughter. He ripped the wax seal off with his teeth before reading the letter. What…holy shit. "Volio…is this true?"

Volio grinned and nodded rapidly, "I told you, she's back!"

Trisha grabbed the letter from Ben's hand, and he saw his wife's face go from confusion to…an emotion he hadn't seen on her face in quite some time. Fear. Why? He wondered. Trisha put the letter in her pocket, "Thank you for delivering this," she told the Archer hero. "Do you want to stay for dinner?"

Volio nodded his head and his shy disposition took over once more, "I suppose...I can afford a little break..."

Ben handed his daughter to his wife, "I'll show you a guest house you can rest in." Ben walked with Volio down the hill, and the whole time he couldn't help but wonder…what was in that letter that made Trisha afraid?

Lyn felt the warmth flow through her body before exploding like a volcano. The entire hill they were defending was doused with lava that sizzled and popped, rushing down the slope in a pyroclastic flow that swept away all the undead that were assailing them. She felt her mana drain precipitously from the unfocused, one verse spell. But it worked. The trio were in the clear. She stood up and, to her relief, saw a bubble of water right in front of her that had turned some of the surrounding lava to obsidian. She reached in and tapped Gael's neck – part that the armor didn't cover – and he dropped the spell. "We have five minutes before the next wave."

Gael looked up at Lyn, and his eyes were full of tears. Vael's neck was cut into, and blood was flowing down from a severed artery. "She's…I don't…"

Despite the Destroyer core bottling up and pushing aside Lyn's memories, one memory burst forth from that containing vessel. For a moment, Vael's body was replaced by William's – the Artificer hero – who was in the same position. Trisha was holding him. "Get back!" Trisha ordered as a group of people in the crowd tried to see what was going on.

"What happened?" Brad had asked as he knelt next to his best friend.

"Fucking…" Trisha shook her head and set William down. He wasn't moving and the blood had turned a dark black. "A poisoned blade. He's already gone. It went right into his bloodstream. Fuck! I couldn't do anything if I wanted to!"

Lyn recalled the chase through the streets to replace the assassin. Eventually cornering the man thanks to Brad using a divination spell to replace the perpetrator. She captured the man with ease, and would have killed him on the spot if not for James coming over and saying that they needed to take him to the proper authorities.

Those memories rushed by before Lyn forced them back. I don't have time for this! She thought. Vael was dying, right in front of her, and she had no ability to use healing spells. Think! What can you do with- she knelt next to Gael. "Move your hand," she ordered. He shifted it and she covered the pulsing artery with her own. She's not gone yet. "A thalion min / i dûath en-gwathren a daw / cario hathol a posto han garan / batho han sui tir bandad / bartho nîn ú-anadar / a rosta i dûath lend leithad min hain aegar / a pano ai del."

Tendrils of shadows lashed out from her hand and dove into the wound, solidifying into leather-like patches that sealed up the artery. She'll need proper healing, but she won't bleed out. However, Lyn felt the low amount of mana in her core. I don't think I can do another wave protecting these two also.

Gael breathed a sigh of relief at the cessation of blood flowing from his sister. "Thank you."

Lyn shook her head, and glanced up into the sky. There, far above, was the timer slowly ticking down until the next wave. Two minutes. "I need you to stay alive. And keep her safe."

Gael nodded and pushed his sister next to the obsidian chunks, covering her with his body and himself with the shield as best he could. "We'll stay down."

"Good," Lyn replied as she raised her hand once more. "Posto hain gîn a gond / a bartho hain o thiathol / anno hain haw an sui / a asgen." The rocks surrounding the twins grew over them becoming a cocoon, and she had ensured to provide fresh air as well thanks to her wind capabilities.

But the spells were taking a toll on her. Maintaining the internal spell for her own form, plus the shadow-binds on Vael's wounds, plus the persistent air flow – and not to mention Cataclysm's blade…If there's another round after this next one, I'm fucked.