Chapter 50.2: The Truth Always Finds You
“Human.”
Penny vaguely heard the rough demand. She had the feeling it was directed at her, but nothing at all was clear.
Chapter 50.1: Unshielded
Jinkke didn’t feel the shot from Kikka’s energy rifle as much as she heard it, knowing that it had happened. She felt around the point in her chest where it should have struck. The ammunition bandolier was there, her layered tunic was there, and most importantly all the parts of her intact torso were there. What was not there was any evidence of the blast that should have seared a hole through her—or some equally gruesome outcome.
Chapter 49: Ever the Guardian
Chapter 48.3: Truth of the Matter
Ventyr shook his head, wincing to regain his wits. “Situation report?”
He heard Crusader Jindel fire off another shot from the backside of the wagon barricade, and she whirled back, pressing herself into the wooden bed. “It’s not good, sir.” She opened the gun’s loader and shook out empty casings before tossing the weapon to the ground beside her. “It just got worse. The asura are split between us and the bandits, but we’re pinned down and out of ammu— behind you!”
Chapter 48.2: Air and Fire
Ventyr fell to a knee and gasped, his body seizing as another of the asura struck him from behind with some sort of electrical weapon. His hands uncontrollably clutched at his staff, and his body curled in on itself until the current shut off. The asura pulled back a step and waited, eyes wide at what he’d done. He must not have been a fighter.
Chapter 48.1: Circling the Wagons
Chapter 47.2: Something Like a Plan
Through the tinted glass of the cylinder, Penny watched Minkus go. The leather-cased device on his back piped a thin stream of exhaust into the air as he beelined toward the Vigilman rising from the ground. Of course, that was also a beeline toward the golem that stood between them.
Chapter 47.1: The Gang Back Together
Minkus panted as he dashed down the final corridor. He could feel his rejuvenation returning, but he’d pushed himself to active exhaustion after putting so much effort into healing Yissa. His thighs burned, and his lungs couldn’t get air fast enough to keep up. It had been some time since he’d channeled this much focused magic continuously.
Chapter 46.4: Ventyr’s War
After a few turns, Ventyr was all but lost; the way out was longer than he recalled and far more twisted than he’d recognized under the blindfold his captors had used. With each corner Minkus bounded around, Ventyr could all but feel the promise of an imminent exit, but each one was a lie. The halls and doorways continued, one after the next after the next, and though his elemental training insisted that Ventyr temper his deepening impatience, he didn’t. The whirlwind of fire and air storming through him felt too good, too rare. Most importantly it felt too powerful. Alongside Minkus’ rejuvenating magic, that swelling storm inside was the only thing keeping Ventyr’s battered body moving.
Chapter 46.3: Moving Target
Still backing away, Ventyr kept his attention on the golem, staff raised in ready defense. Fjornsson needed time to recover himself, but Ventyr had to reach the jade—he had to. He shot glances toward the landing at the north end of the room, the handful of fighters actively engaged behind him, Crusader Yult, and then back to the golem just on the other side of the wide doorway. Earlier, it had been unable to pass through it, being too tall. Ventyr would have to take advantage of that, even if those projectile arms complicated the matter.
Chapter 46.2: The Search
Ventyr leapt aside as the golem took another sluggish swing at him. Fat, stone fingers gripped shut around empty air, scooping up nothing several feet shy of the sylvari’s wind-aided movement. He spun, looking back at the mechanical monster. It had no eyes, per se, but the glowing slits that represented them seemed to meet his knowingly.
Chapter 46.1: The Value of Field Testing
Chapter 45.4: Inevitable Confrontation
Jindel was the first to find her words. “Sergeant, we— appear to be clear, at least for now.”
Everyone took in their surroundings, processing what had just happened. Penny noticed Minkus in particular, though. He frowned curiously at the ceiling. “Does anyone else hear that, or rather not hear that?”
Chapter 45.3: Bombs Away
Shaking her head clear, Penny tried to process their next steps. If they were all going to get out alive, they needed to get Ventyr’s staff into his hands. Penny had never understood why the thing made him stronger, but the carrot swore by —
Chapter 45.2: Entering the Labs
Well inside the eastern building now, Penny, Jindel, Jinkke, and Yult held as tightly as they could to Minkus, who swept through the halls as if trying to escape them. He was, of course, only interested in reaching Ventyr and Yissa as quickly as he could, a fact he apologized for over the sound of the still-blaring alarm every few steps.
Chapter 45.1: Comakk Reacts
The courtyard was in unadulterated chaos. The alarm had been confounding enough, bringing all efforts to a halt and throwing Kikka into a rage at everyone in sight. But now the introduction of human attackers had turned all Kikka’s innumerable death threats into a sudden and disjointed reality. Any krewe members who weren’t running found themselves at the wrong end of various human-made weapons as the bandits cut their way through the hectic crowd.
Chapter 44.2: The Courtyard
“I say we go.” Fjornsson all but growled the words, looking down his thick nose at the two humans and asura. “If any of those big-eared dwarves want to stop us, we just cut through them.”
Chapter 44.1: Adapting the Plan
“But why did you open them all to begin with?” Ventyr asked, scanning the room. “Simply opening my chamber and Scholar Yissa’s would have been enough.”