Knights Apocalyptica

Reckless. That’s what this plan was—a beautiful style of reckless that Erec could only be in awe of; the tactic that was so crazy, it might work or get them killed. Still, after going over the plan with VAL and conducting some tests with Colin… He was posed to pull the trigger. All five of them were much farther from the pit than before.

After Garin sent the vulture, they’d confirmed what it appeared like from above. There were layers of these crawling monsters down there. They festered below, their mucus-lined bodies squirming against one another. According to the vulture, they were akin to maggots—but with several hands and arms on each—malformed limbs.

Garin’s connection with the bird gave him a visceral image of them squirming in bulk like they’d infested a wound in the land.

It once more reinforced the idea that they couldn’t be that strong. Typically, monsters such as these weren’t a great threat in a singular one-on-one fight. They simply overwhelmed. If ordinary civilians were to fight one, they would likely win. Against five? Ten? That’s how swarms like this presented a danger.

In this case, falling down the hole was much more likely to kill a person before they fell prey to the monsters within… Which is what made VAL’s plan so recklessly beautiful. In one simple move, they would eliminate two hazards at the same time. After running the calculations, VAL estimated it to be within acceptable safety perimeters for their ‘advanced human physique,’ but Erec was still tense.

Colin raised a hand and looked towards Erec for confirmation—even further away were Garin and the two senior Knights. Positioned to be well out of the danger zone.

As for himself… Erec couldn’t let Colin be here alone. Not when he was the one asking him to take this risk.

The plan was simple. Hit the thick glass on the side of the pit with a blast of lightning powerful enough to send cracks running down the whole thing and break it like a giant maggot-containing vase.

Erec looked up at the sky. With the testing, consultation, and talking Colin into this… They’d spent a good hour or two.

Plenty of time left. But not a ton to waste since he had no idea how far the second location was from where they currently were or what threats might be located there. Erec inhaled deeply, tensing his body and feeling the adrenaline spike inside him; a shot of pure fiery energy lanced through his heart, which he let stoke. This, more than insults, got his blood boiling.

Danger. Thrill. The specter of death.

“Go,” Erec commanded.

Colin turned away, the entirety of his focus on his spell—purple lines spawned in front of him, the glyphwork of it altered now, with angles and twists in the pattern Erec wasn’t used to seeing; a second layer formed above the first; the linework more narrow on the glyph. And then… A third glyph in front of that, even smaller. Layered together like that of a magnifying lens—each more compact and nuanced than the one before; sparks flew from the purple lines…

He’s using his Soul. Erec realized, feeling another cold shock of adrenaline. During the testing, Colin hadn’t gone this far when using a spell—there was a charge to the air as the pressure mounted; the hair on the back of Erec’s neck stood up, even though he should be insulated from any change outside of his Armor.

He felt a pull toward the glyph work in his chest, being drawn in like a vortex.

CRACK.

A burst of blinding white light in a pillar shot from Colin’s palm—for a split second, time slowed as Fury kicked into higher gear, reacting to such a dangerous threat; everything in Erec told him to getaway, yet his body couldn’t move fast enough. It was as if twin bolts of lightning erupted from the spell, circling and twisting around one another. Pulled and repelled by the existence of its twin. Unlike what he’d seen before, no branches came from; they were sucked together into a twin dance of death that flashed forward right into the edge of the glass pit.

The impact was accompanied by yet another blinding flash of light, followed by yet another loud snapping sound… Then the earth started to move beneath Erec’s feet, collapsing towards the hole as the land beneath flooded in to fill the space.

“Run!” Erec said—but it was as he feared. Colin sank to the ground, his whole body trembling after casting a spell like that.

He’d overextended since he wasn’t used to wielding this kind of power.

Fury sparked in Erec—at his friend's stupidity, at his refusal to allow this to be the end of them; he let it burn, his eyes turning red as he dashed towards Colin. It would have been easy without Fury to lift him if he weren’t in his Armor. Yet clad in all the steel, Erec had to strain, pulling even further on his Strength to toss Colin on his shoulder.

With a yell, he succeeded and began to book it as fast as he could from the collapsing hole.

[Odd. The range of effect is larger than the calculations anticipated. Perhaps there was an unknown variable?]

“Run!” Erec shouted, his voice cracking as he strained to push out the words with as much power as he could muster.

The rest of the Knights obeyed—Garin turned tail and fled, the two senior Knights having an easier time retreating backward; yet, they kept checking on him.

Erec pushed off the sand with as much as much force as he could muster, but with each step, he found the sand to be more and more difficult—with all the sand pouring backward, it was almost like trying to flee out of a vortex, with all of the dirt and landscape beneath him dragging him to return to the center.

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Colin groaned, and Erec pushed further, his veins burning as he dragged out all he was worth.

A few more steps. Each one, he launched himself a good five or so feet. The surface of the ground once more began to feel solid, but he couldn’t be sure of anything.

Keep moving.

[Re-running calculations to account for the vastly increased displaced volume. Oh—by the way, Buckeroo, I think you’re now safe.]

With that, Erec pulled to a stop.

And turned.

The hole—it was now gone. There was still a pit, but the depth was much smaller in comparison. Still, maybe a travel hazard and certainly not a patch of ground the Pendragon’s cars could traverse, but not one containing the remnants of a rift.

[Ah. I think I know what happened. Based on modeling, I believe there to have been a second glass chamber beneath the first—wider, and likely also going for some depth. The displacement and impact must have also shattered the walls of that. Making the size of the danger zone much wider than originally anticipated.]

Erec dropped Colin onto the ground, taking a deep puff of air. “Well, there was a reason I was there for backup.”

[Appropriate. It never hurts to have secondary safety controls in an experiment.]

With a slight nod and feeling the effects of Fury begin to fade—Erec turned to Boldwick to let him know the mission was complete.

CRACK.

Dust and dirt plummed outward from the pit; just as Erec whipped around and tried to figure out what was happening, he was hit with a pelting rain of dirt.

Training kicked in, and he yanked the battle axe off his back; the hair raised on him once again as his blood rushed. In the smokescreen of dirt, he made out a shifting form of something big—multiple limbs. VAL, he thought, helpfully began to highlight the shifting mass in the distance. This was not one of those squirming maggot-like creatures.

Beneath the pit, it seemed a real monster slumbered.

“Good,” Erec said, heat rising, “We needed a real challenge—Garin, protect Colin; provide support if you can.” What support his friend could muster didn’t matter. This new enemy was his. Garin had given them the information they needed about the creatures below and could provide support. Colin had cracked the glass and ended all of the small-fry. This. Taking down the big bad thing—that was what Erec lived for and thrived in.

Erec flew forward, kicking up dirt, finding it much easier to move now that the ground wasn’t like a loose sea of sand; he closed the distance much faster while the dust settled.

Like a bullet, Erec cut through the dust, raised his axe, and struck the first blow against his foe before it even knew what happened, turning the dust screen into an advantage.

His axe slammed, and didn’t quite cleave the way it should have. Instead, it bounced, and Erec heard a loud crack. With QAP, he made out the form of a shadow that would strike him; and leaped backward, evading a blow from a mysterious limb as it struck where he’d been.

After hitting the ground, there was a blast of light.

[Plasma?]

Erec stepped back further, and the dust settled, giving him a look at his foe.

It was… Well, a ball of hands and arms; in the middle of the was what appeared to be a mass of flesh, densely encased in glass. Strobes of light shot out from the center to each of the many limbs of the transparent surface of these limbs, the light flowing through it like blood through veins; Erec could see the damage he’d done to the limb—the hand snapped off and broke nearby—but the limb was plunged into the dirt and sand of the landscape, flashing with light.

As the massive glass arm raised out of the dirt, it was adorned with a new glass hand.

[Melted the sand in the landscape in order to reform an appendage. Do not get hit by the Plasma… And deal enough damage to counteract its healing factor. Simple plan; you can do this Buckeroo!]

“Simple,” Erec said, letting out a chuckle—taking three steps to move out of the way as a massive hand pointed toward him—accompanied by a flash of light. When he looked at the spot he’d been, there was not a streak of melted glass.

Danger.

Another hand poised from above—accompanied by yet another blast of light; three more.

Erec’s vision began to fill with beams; VAL processed and transmitted where this thing would be attacking—all he had to do was move. Yet, it was all he could do to get himself out of the way. Once the hands of this monster got into position, they could launch the attack almost immediately.

But, after it let out a flash of light, it was several seconds before it could fire again.

He dodged and weaved, narrowly missing hits that would do untold damage; the ground beneath him turned to glass, shattering as his Armor hit it while moving, circling the enemy. All the while, Erec pulled further on his Fury, his speed increasing along with Strength—until it no longer became a struggle to dodge.

Now, I attack.

Erec crashed into the enemy, weaving through openings left by the beams and the time it had to spend recharging, crashing his axe into limbs and shattering them off completely. Immediately after taking off a limb, the monster would plunged it into the ground to reforge it, having its weapon back in place within seconds.

It mattered not. He continued to hack away, reveling in the sound of cracking glass, dancing with the flashing lights.

His axe was a weapon of death and pain, and this monster had asked to taste as much of it as he could muster while he worked up the killing blow.

Fury burned brighter, and his movements quickened. The monster held its own: a deadly dance with two participants, both fueled by heat that would scorch others away and leave them as nothing but ashen husks.

As the bright beams flashed near Erec, he fed off their heat, letting them stoke his own higher and higher. He felt the flickers of the silver flames and knew that they had reached the fight's finale.

Erec leaped into the air—soaring past a beam that missed him by inches; and pulled his hands behind his back—his trusty battle axe wreathed in silver flame as he let it loose from within, building as his height kept increasing. Below, he could see the glass monster, its many hands rapidly moving to point toward him in a pitiful attempt to blast him out of the sky.

“Be gone from this world,” Erec yelled, lashing out with his axe and unleashing the sea of silver flames from himself. It flashed forward, a silver moon of flaming energy. The beast got off a single blast of light, which was promptly cut in half by his fires. It only took a half-second for the attack to hit the monster, cleaving it in half and splitting the organic matter within it as it slid through like the point of a blade into flesh.

There was a horrible scream, followed by a vast crack as its glass membrane shattered; ooze spilled out on the wasteland as Erec fell back to the earth, summoning just enough silver fire before hitting to break his fall.

With a plume of dust, he was back on the ground, staring at his conquered foe, along with a strike of understanding. Here. Might did make right; it ceased the existence of yet another monstrous blight upon his world. To be Sir Erec was to be might and to use it to bring righteousness.