Tsaimath
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Chapter 650
🕑 Added 2022-10-23 15:44:27 +0000 UTCGiven that the small Yeti, for a given value of small, were again charging in our direction, Ylva and I started to retreat. Without the cover of the mist, we couldn’t conceal ourselves any longer, making us sitting ducks for these physically powerful foes.
As we were running away, I kept manipulating the glacier beneath us, pulling a few spikes up to delay their approach but given their sheer number and the width of their attack, there was no way to stop them from getting to us. Pushing myself to my physical limit, I could only try to evade but that was a fool's errand. I was about to enter the Avatar state and hope to use the ability to fly as a trump to escape when a familiar sensation surrounded me. Feeling Sigmir’s warm embrace, I almost stumbled but managed to keep my footing and even sped up. Hearing a faint noise, I dodged to the side, letting another living projectile from the big Yeti pass me by and as I moved, I noticed a familiar, red aura surround my arms and body.
Shrouded in Sigmir’s embrace, I felt my strength and agility increase by an order of magnitude, giving me enough speed to avoid the Yeti. With her by my side, I knew I wouldn’t falter. And I wouldn’t fall.
We managed to reach the side of the valley, where the Ice was climbing up the mountainside, turning it into a treacherous slope filled with crags, sharp edges and difficult footing. Difficult, even for the Yeti calling this place home.
With a push, Lenore and I became one, and now we could use our ability to fly to avoid the difficult terrain while staying close enough to the ground to get into cover if the big Yeti tried to suck us in.
We pulled a chunk of Ice from the mountainside, giving us a few metres of sheer cliff the Yeti couldn’t just run up, adorning it with spikes to give them a hard time. It would only give us a couple of seconds but those seconds could very make the difference between victory and rout.
Once we had the high ground secured, we began to casually launch volleys of Ice at the Yeti, not truly trying to hurt them, but merely to distract and delay them. At the same time, we began to work on something bigger, combining Wind-, Darkness- and Mind Magic, both of our halves contributing their own to it.
Together, we started singing, the Song of a Raven. It was no pretty song like that of a nightingale, it was a song of slaughter and madness, our minds filled with countless battlefields and the ravens that roamed them, of frozen carcasses and endless slaughter. As long as there was death, there would be ravens and as long as there was war, we would be there. Into the song carried by the wind, we wove the concepts of Hunger and the Madness of the Dark Moon, trying to break what few bonds the Yeti might have between them, to induce a killing frenzy once more.
And how gloriously it worked, we could watch as the Yeti started to get affected, the power of the Wind carrying the song across the entire valley. and where the song passed, the Yeti started to fight. Or maybe it wasn’t truly a fight, they didn’t just try to kill each other, they tried to devour each other, tearing into their former brethren with savage fury, trying to rip off parts to shove into those gaping maws.
Some of them, to our great amusement, even started to bite into one another, creating a caricature of a kiss as they literally tried to devour each other. It was so grotesque, we couldn’t help but laugh, our cackling laughter joining into our song, driving those mad creatures into an ever-greater fervour.
But just killing the small fry wasn’t enough and while the big Yeti hadn’t seriously looked at chasing us, now that we were sitting on our small cliff, looking down on the madness we had induced, it seemed that it wasn’t content to sit back and occasionally lob things at us, it seemed to be getting serious.
And while our small rampart had been sufficient to delay the Yeti, allowing us to create the wonderful song they were now listening to, it wouldn’t delay the big Yeti, not when the rampart merely reached the middle of its chest. And sure, we could try pushing ourselves higher, but it would take time and cost progressively more Astral Power, to say nothing of the possibility that it might just have the strength to topple whatever we could build.
Noticing a sudden spike of power in the big Yeti, we crouched down, pulling some more Ice up to give us additional cover, fearing that it might try to suck us in, when it let our a roar, loud enough to cause a storm, as if all the air and power it had previously sucked in was forced back out, all at once. The Ice we had drawn up started to crumble under the force as we cowered behind the shelter we had created and all around us, the glacier was breaking.
Our cover was shattered and we tried to take to the sky, the sound shaking our body and mind, the wind tossing us through the air like a leaf. Ylva, our dear friend, managed to grab hold of us, pulling us with her and helping to stabilise our tumble, making sure we didn’t crash anywhere or break our wings.
Holding onto her, we managed to fly, looking at the devastation below. The roar of the Yeti had been completely indiscriminate, pulverising dozens of its brethren and burying many more under the avalanche it had caused all around the valley.
Shaking our head to clear away the headache we tried to find a way to strike at the Yeti, only to realise it was opening its maw back up, trying to draw us in. High in the air, there was no place to find cover and we were dragged along, helplessly flapping our wings like a moth in a tornado. But we were no moth, we wouldn’t just fly into the flame like a fool.
Knowing that a contest of strength would be impossible, we banked everything on speed and agility, the world slowing down around us as our mind sped up. Just moments before we tumbled into that insatiable maw, a surge of magic forced up a pillar of Ice from the glacier, giving us a windbreak almost in our path. We still tumbled, but instead of tumbling into the maw, we crashed into that wall and slid past the Yeti, instinctively grabbing onto the fur of its back.
With an open back to strike, it would be a shame not to stab into it and while our talons weren’t perfect for stabbing, they were what we had. Burying them into the Yeti’s back was incredibly satisfying, though the way its sucking breath cut off, replaced by a roar of primal pain was even better. Unwilling to just leave it at that, we decided to gamble. If the Nidhögg could drain an entire forest, it would hopefully be able to drain the Yeti as well.
From within our magic bag, the Soul Prison appeared in one blood-covered claw, while the other was still dug into the Yeti’s back and we began forcing magic into the Yeti, acting as if it was a tree in the elven forest. Power clashed, the strange physique of the Yeti trying to drain us, our power sublimating into it, only to recoil. It wasn’t just Blood Magic we were using, our other hand was channelling Death-Magic into it and by trying to sublimate that, it only brought where the power would be the most effective. And yet, despite those potent energies ravaging the Yeti’s body, it showed no signs of weakening while our Astral Power surged out of us in a massive torrent.
For a moment, we could feel amusement radiating from within the Soul Prison, accompanied by a bit of acknowledgement and, once more, we could feel the power of the Nidhögg take control of our magic, turning what we had wrought into something greater.
Our powers ignited and the Yeti was shrouded in cold, black flames, burning merrily as it roared once again in pain, trying to shake us off. It even dropped, rolling across the Ice in a bid to shake us off and we got crushed against its furry back, our body craking in pain, one wing snapping from the force. Now, two screams of pain echoed through the valley, though the red aura embracing us allowed us to hold on, as the Yeti quickly started to weaken.
The world started to blur before our eyes, pain and exhaustion trying to wrest control of our spell from us but if we lost focus now, we would die. Holding on with pure willpower, we kept our magic going until finally, power was flooding back, our Blood Magic successfully ripping control of the Yeti’s vitality from it.
Most of it was absorbed by the Nidhögg but some of it, a mere tithe, was flowing back into us as if the nIdhögg was consciously giving us some of its meal. For us, the power was just what we needed, allowing us to regenerate some of our health to keep us from passing out.
Finally, the big Yeti stopped moving, the body rapidly getting burned away by the black flames, the power it had been composed of getting devoured by the Nidhögg.
Comments
David Brims
Thanks for the chapter! It's lovely to see all the hints that Sigmir is still in the story.
