Magic the likes that Chimera had never felt echoed through the soil as a massive syphon of energy funneled not just her own magic, but all the magic in the chamber.
It was like someone placed a drain below everyone’s feet, and they were all beginning to sink into the soil, trapped by the suction.
“Bargo, grab as many as you can and get them out, Rose, start blasting anyone that looks like their channeling magic and has scales! I’m going for Pares!”
Chimera didn’t wait for them to acknowledge her words, rushing forward to the middle area, where she felt her package inside Pares erupt, sending her a surge of pheromone blocking chemicals and a burst of lucidity to the young Elfari girl.
“W-Wha? Where?!” Chimera grabbed her and tossed her back to Bargo, who caught her easily enough and shot her through the soil to the surface.
Chimera could hear gunshots echoing around as plasma fire burned and scales sizzled from a few clipped Hoodians, while other’s opened fire at Rose’s smaller form. The pixie woman was clever though, using her new skills to make a barricade for herself and a few Elfari she managed to save and shelter.
The syphon was growing stronger, and already Chimera could see some of the Elfari begin to petrify, their normally pale skin growing grey and crusted as the last of not just their magic, but their life force was sucked into whatever depraced ritual was echoing below them.
In the middle of the ritual, Chimera lanced out with her tendrils, spreading them far and wide to grab as many of the Elfari as she could and pulled them towards Bargo and Rose.
She didn’t have enough time to give them all cocktails, and the amount she needed was too much to administer to so many captives, but getting them away was the priority. She could cure them later.
However, she could feel it as well, the syphon had already finished off a few of the collared captives, and despite her best effort, some had already fallen to the ritual.
Damnit, no!
She rushed forward, a new plan in her head.
I just need to stop the casting, there’s still time!
The pedestal that loomed a hundred feet from her held a group of fifteen Hoodians, each with veils over their faces that depicted a glowing green eye over their heads, and in the very center of the formation was a serpent woman that looked nothing like her brethren around her.
She wore armor like a warrior, with a veil that covered her eyes but not her mouth, lined with fangs. She was the deepest shade of green, and unlike her kin, had legs and a tail instead of simply a tail for legs.
Chimera surged forth.
She's got to be the one performing the ritual!
With a bounce and tendrils spread forth, Chimera pushed to strike.
Only for a glowing green lizard man to intercept her, blocking her strike with a shield of verdant energy.
“We meet again, Chimera.” Lesrack spoke, his voice low and growling.
Wasting no time, Chimera shifted into her aura form, the pull from deep within her body alighting her amorphous blobby form and hardening into the consistency of rubbery cement.
The shift seemed to concern Lesrack for a split second, just long enough for Chimera to send a punch straight into the chanting serpent woman, and pushing her off the pedestal.
“Damn you!” Lesrack roared, his shield and spear moving in tandem to strike at Chimera with a shield bash and a stab.
Chimera let it hit her, feeling her own aura rise up to defend her from the blows.
The shield hit with a resounding gong, and the spear barely touched her blobby flesh.
“W-What?” the Verdant Hoodian General slithered back, placing himself between Chimera and the priestess looking woman.
“Lesrack, is that…” the decidedly female voice spoke, a tinge of fear in her words.
“Lesa, get out of here!”
“But the ritual!”
“NOW!” Lesrack rushed at Chimera, a desperation in his movements that funneled his martial prowess and instinct into a deadly dance that Mera had no choice but to dodge.
Her aura could have blocked it, but the wide sweeping archs threatened to hit the civilains who were breaking out of their stupor, and Mera had to make sure they got to Bargo and Rose.
So she forced Lesrack to attack her, pushing his way, while dodging his blows to remain on the offensive. She also kept an eye on the one Lesrack called Lesa, watching her as she rushed back with the two other spell caster.
“Captain!”
A quick glance behind her saw that most of the Elfari were already evacuating, while Rose was holding off the Verdant Hood’s forces with her barrage of bullets and a few well placed sniper shots with her rifle.
The same couldn’t be said of Bargo, as Mera witnessed a squad of five Hood priestess flanking him while he was handling the evacuation, blocking them with his spear while also trying to push the people through the hole to the surface.
With a shift of her own gravity, Chimera took a direct hit from Lesrack, his glowing spear punching through her own aura shield to sand her flying backward towards the priestess.
“Bargo, duck!”
The message took a moment to register, but Bargo ducked just as Chimera swept a spiked tendril in a wide arc, smacking and catching the priestesses. With a heave, she carried the five of them in Lesrack direction and launched a shotgun blast of needles just as they began to fly back.
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She had hoped to catch a few of them with the spikes, as they carried a paralyzing toxin to take them out of the fight, but Lesrack, sensing her intent, stood and blocked the flurry of needles with his own spear and shield. His aura stretched out to intercept them as well, leaving them to shatter on his bulwark.
“Get them out of here Bargo!”
“I got it Captain, go kick ass!” Bargo slammed his own spear in the ground, a shift of druidic magic shifting the ground to create a wall between the prisoners and the rest of the fight.
Chimera flared her own shield as a blast of green energy shot forth from Lesrack in Rose’s direction.
Her own shield worked, but she could feel a massive draw from deep within. She couldn’t block something that strong again if she wanted to stay in the fight.
Stalled enough, time to push forward!
With a flex, Chimera pushed her aura outward, smashing Lesrack out of the way as she pushed into the cavern. She could feel him get up to chase after her, which was exactly what she wanted.
No one could take him on their own, and I’m still not sure I have the strength, but that doesn’t matter right now.
Chimera still had no idea what the Hood was trying to accomplish, and the best way to figure that out.
Was to find that ritualist named Lesa and interrogate her.
The fighting behind her began to fade in the background as Chimera reached out with her earth senses, the ground opening before her in a wave of energy.
She could feel the entire cavern, the rustling of both forces as her Harriers began their retreat, the priestesses rushing through a massive cavern into a place that felt more like a city then an actual cave, even Lesrack was picking himself up and chasing after her.
She focused on the priestess named Lesa, feeling the ground move quicker underneath her than the others.
It was clear she was some sort of terramancer, the stone and earth moved to let her through it unimpeded.
You’re not getting away.
With a stomp, Chimera sealed the area around Bargo and Rose, giving them a clean exit while the rest of the Verdant Hood turned to chase after her.
“Stop! Damn you!” Lesrack cursed behind her as Chimera sped up, earth, stone and gravity pushing her forth in a slide not too dissimilar to her own quarry.
Breaking the ground around her, Chimera tried to block off the Hoodian’s chasing her, but to her senses, she felt the interference of someone fighting against her own magical skills.
One of the priestesses was back there with Lesrack, holding the ceiling and preventing the earth from crushing them.
This was it… the moment she had to make a choice regarding taking lives.
She didn’t know these people, didn’t know their struggle or why they fought so insanely besides this religious fervor they held for their god.
But they clearly didn’t see people who couldn’t fight as civilians, they even went so far as to use them for whatever ritual that was back there.
Behind a ship cannon, she could pretend a bit, treat it like some fantasy about saving the galaxy with ship guns and blasters.
Now, she was about to…
If you don’t, they will kill again. They’ve already shown they will.
Chimera closed her eyes, letting her senses guide her as she stopped using magic and shifted to something more authoritative.
Deep in her DNA, the strand that connected her to Terralord flared to life, breaking the hold of magic and willing her desire to the surface.
Immediately, the hundreds chasing behind her were buried until their faces were clogged with dirt and sediment. The priestess was able to save herself only by virtue of creating a space to breathe before she too was buried beneath the soil.
Lesrack slowed to a crawl, his body turning to see the people, his people, disappear within seconds beneath the ground, as if the earth decided it was time to collect its sacrifice for all of their meddling.
Chimera could feel him turn to try and save the priestess, who even now was slowly being crushed by Mera’s own will over the stone.
Satisfied with her pursuer distracted, Mera took to chasing her quarry.
A flush of gravity magic launched Chimera into the air as she reached the inner chamber, floating over her target as she and the others reached the temple-like structure.
Speed, Wings, Levitation!
Unlocking her long dormant DNA felt like a long lost friend returning, and Chimera couldn’t help but smile as she felt her gifts reactivate.
Wings of a bird shot out, her cells accelerated, and the lightness in her body shot her forth like a bullet, descending on the temple.
…
A demon! I cannot believe it, but it's true!
Lesa, priestess of the Goddess Myra and acolyte to her will, was running for her life.
It was… impossible to fathom, when her brother talked about the abomination that he had clashed with only a few weeks ago. She almost wondered if her martial brother was simply overstating his achievement of destroying the creature and trying to put them at ease.
For how could anything possibly bring her brother so close to death?
He was a Chosen of the Goddess, a paragon of her strength and arbiter of her will. No one save the Prophet herself could truly stand against him on a battlefield and survive.
Then the ritual of summoning happened, the moment of their victory so close at hand, and the thing returned.
The Demon…
Lesa felt her magic drain further as she pushed herself ahead.
She had to make it to the Inquisitor, her mission was not done yet. The sacrificial magics needed to be transferred.
Focus on that, don’t think about the monster!
She could feel her fear return, the primal fear of approaching death flying towards them.
Goddess keep my brother and sister safe! Please save us from-
The temple around them shook violently as something crashed into the walls of the dense structure, a building that even Lesa with Mara and Media could not shake.
“Good, you’ve arrived priestess! Do you have the sacrificial energy?” One of the Inqusitor’s under the High Inquisitor approached, his eyes on her even as the shaking intensified.
She quickly gave the staff that carried the forceful life energy, turning to run as soon as she passed it over.
Lesa wasn’t proud of herself, running so soon after delivering the artifact. The fear though, the gripping terror within her told her that she had to get away, from here, from that thing!
“P-Priestess?!” She heard the Inquisitor shout behind her, but Lesa’s mind didn’t register, didn’t consider or contemplate.
I have to get away. The Demon, it's coming for me!
The shaking around her shattered, replaced by a boom that caused her to lose her footing, her tail sliding off and smashing against the wall.
No!
She turned, watching it reach out with an impossibly long arm, its face nothing but a pair of luminous red eyes that stared directly into her soul.
Reaching towards her!
NO!
…
