The Hollow: At The Edge (32 page)

The kneeling elf stood
upright, the remains of ripped clothing falling to the ground. He
had nearly doubled in height, and his previously slender build was
now a solid mass of bone and luminescent muscle. The rain began to
steam as it landed on him.

Altogether, the Ferine
howled their pleasure.

“In answer to your
question, Vic,” said Brant. “No. That doesn’t look too bad. Why
would you think so?”

“Just being paranoid I
guess.”

“What just happened?”
asked Caellix.

Below, the transformed
elf flexed his new and impossible body, and walked off into the
city, lighting up the night with his passing.

“To quote the
patrician,” said Serrel. “This is only a theory. But I think this
is like how they make Ferine. They’re emptying themselves of
energy, to the point where they fall into the Hollow, and then they
fill themselves from the Illudin.”

“We have that energy
inside us, and we didn’t change,” said Victor.

“Yet,” said Brant.

“They must weave it in
some way,” Serrel thought aloud. “They make it so that it changes
them... Gods, I don’t know. A month ago the most difficult thing I
had to think about was carving wooden cherubs. I’m not the damn
expert.”

“At least they’re
distracted,” Caellix put in. “Their guard is down. We might have a
chance, if we take them by surprise.”

“We have to take the
mage out first, before he can touch the Illudin,” said Jurgen.

“Fresh Meat can put a
shield on it.”

“That didn’t go so well
the first time,” Serrel said. “Can you shoot him from here,
Brant?”

Brant thought about it.
“From this distance, in the rain... I don’t know.”

“You’re the best shot
we have, Brant,” said Caellix.

“Holly was the best.
She would have made the shot,” Brant said dejectedly. “She was
better than me.”

“She’s gone. You’re
here. You need to accept that. And then you need to take out that
mage.”

Brant took a breath,
then nodded.

“Fresh Meat, you stay
up here with Brant,” said Caellix. “You drop the shield over the
Illudin, Brant shoots out the mage.”

“We could use a
distraction,” said Victor.

Serrel held up the
seeking crystal. “This thing’s full of ether energy. It might make
a nice bang if you break it. Just try not to be around when it goes
off.”

“Throw it and run. Got
you.”

“Wait until the mage
finishes the... transformation,” Serrel suggested. “He looked
vulnerable then.”

Caellix nodded. “Let’s
go back.”

Serrel followed
Caellix, Jurgen and Victor back to the alleyway. He waited while
the three of them climbed down, then had Victor throw his staff up
to him. He caught it, but lost his footing and nearly fell off the
roof in the process. He kicked himself inwardly, then rejoined
Brant at the edge of the roof.

“Fun times in the
Legion,” muttered Brant, stringing an arrow onto his bow.

Serrel crouched low,
and waited.

Below them, another elf
came and knelt before the Illudin, and the ritual began all over
again. When the supplicant finished releasing his own energy into
the sky, and dropped down on all fours, Serrel lifted his staff in
preparation, whilst Brant aimed an arrow at the mage.

With agonising slowness
the elf was transformed into a glowing hulk, tearing through his
clothes and increasing unnaturally in size.

“You’d think they’d
just take their clothes off first,” noted Brant.

Serrel didn’t reply. He
watched the transformation finish, as the mage broke the connection
with the Illudin, and stumbled away from it. The Ferine roared as
one.

Lost in the pouring
rain was the twang of a bowstring. Out of the corner of his eye,
Serrel thought he might have just made out a flicker of movement as
an arrow, with an unnecessarily large head made of crystal, arced
through the air, and came down in a group of Ferine on the far side
of the square.

There was a sound, like
the shattering of glass, just as a blinding explosion instantly
vapourised at least three Ferine and sent several more flying
through the air.

Serrel weaved his
shield over the Illudin, at the same moment Brant released his
arrow.

In the darkness it was
impossible to track the flying missile, but Serrel saw the mage
suddenly twist and fall to the ground, a wooden shaft stuck through
his neck.

“That was for you,
Hol,” muttered Brant.

In the ensuing chaos,
the Hounds and the Nightblades entered the square. They had split
into two groups, and approached from both streets, cutting down any
Ferine that stood unprepared. There were multiple flashes that lit
up the square, and sharp cracks audible over the rain. When Serrel
looked down he saw Mouse moving towards the Illudin, firing at
anything that moved, Caellix circling her, taking down any Ferine
who got too close. Victor was with second group with Jurgen and
Annabella. The three of them flowed gracefully across the cobbled
square killing everything in their path.

The newly transformed
elf stood to his full height, which was nearly double everyone else
in the square. His body flared bright red when he spotted the
Nightblades, and he charged straight at them. The three assassins
broke formation, sliding apart and scattering from the amateurish
rush, then closing back together again in a flurry of blades.

At the Illudin,
Serrel’s shield was taking a beating, not just from Ferine, but
from the heavy rain. Each drop was an added force hammering on his
barrier and sapping his strength. Long lines of green traced in the
air from rivulets of water running down its surface. Serrel saw two
Ferine hurl themselves blindly at it, and bounce off. A third elf
slid to stop next to it, and began weaving at the Illudin. He went
down as an arrow struck him in the side. Another elf approached
hands outstretched, and exploded as Mouse hit him with a blast of
energy. She and Caellix came to a halt next to the crystal, and
Caellix waved frantically to get his attention.

Serrel dispelled the
shield, and saw Mouse make contact with the Illudin.

“Time to go,” he told
Brant.

“One moment.” Brant
sighted on a Ferine archer, hiding on a nearby rooftop, and shot
him with a well placed arrow. “Gotcha, you pointy eared git. This
way.”

Brant threw himself
onto the slope of roof and slid down to the edge of the building.
Somehow his feet hit the gutter, and he managed to stop his fall.
Serrel didn’t bother to emulate him, on account of he didn’t want
to die. He tried to slid down slowly, but lost his grip on the wet
tiles and slid feet first towards the edge of the roof. Brant
grabbed him at the last moment, and saved him from a three storey
drop.

“Now we’re even,” Brant
said.

Serrel didn’t answer.
He looked past Brant and saw a red light on the street below. As it
grew closer, he saw one of the previously made elf giants running
towards the square, alerted by the sounds of battle. A group of
Ferine ran behind it.

“Lean back,” Serrel
snapped.

Brant flattened himself
on the tiles as Serrel lifted his staff and began to weave. He
pushed so much energy into the already rather beaten staff that it
started to vibrate in his hands. When he released the ether energy,
the bolt was so bright it illuminated the entire street. The elf
giant looked up, just in time to see the bolt strike. It sent
Ferine airborne, not all of them entirely in one piece, along with
huge chunks of the street itself.

There was a wisp of
smoke coming from the end of his staff afterwards. Serrel wondered
if there was perhaps irreparable damage done to it. He hoped it
would at least hold up until the end of the battle.

Brant inched his way
along the roof, until he came to another drainpipe. With Serrel
watching over him, he carefully climbed down to the street. Then
Serrel dropped his staff down to him, and climbed down himself. His
lost his grip on the way, and dropped the last six feet of so.

Brant helped him up,
shaking his head. “How can someone as clumsy as you have been a
carpenter?” he wondered. “How do you still have all your fingers
attached?”

A low rumble cut off
Serrel’s response. They two of them turned as the elf giant pushed
himself out of the rubble of the street. He was missing his right
arm, and a large chunk of his torso. The edges of his wounds glowed
red, and dripped luminescent blood. When he saw the two, his eyes
narrowed.

“Um,” said Brant.
“Sorry?”

Then in one fluid
motion, he drew an arrow and fired it at the giant’s face. The
arrow passed through flesh and came to a halt when it hit the elf’s
newly reinforced skull. It was a flesh wound at best, and the giant
just stared at them irritably, before lifting his remaining hand
and flicking out the arrow with one massive finger.

“Oh, bugger,” noted
Brant.

The giant ran at them.
Serrel grabbed his staff and fired at him. The bolt hit the giant
in the leg, but barely even slowed him. Serrel and Brant threw
themselves in opposite directions, as the giant’s arm came hurtling
down. His fist narrowly missed Serrel, and smashed into the cobbled
street, crushing a considerable section into rubble.

Serrel rolled into a
crouch, and fired at the giant again. This time he put more energy
into the bolt, and the impact hit the giant in the small of the
back and knocked him onto his hand and knees.

Brant stepped in, sword
in hand, and slashed at the giant’s eyes. The giant roared in pain,
and clutched at his face, dropping himself to the ground. Serrel
walk up to him, lifted his staff and fired a third time, point
blank into his head. This time the giant didn’t get up.

The two of them ran
into the square, where the fight had turned to the Legion’s favour,
but it was absolute bedlam. They arrived just as a building on the
far side of the square exploded into a ball of fire. Bolts of red
energy flew through the air turning Ferine into ash. Mouse was
apparently making use of the Illudin while she had the chance.

Serrel glanced to his
left, and saw the Nightblades taking on another giant. They had it
encircled, dashing in and out of reach, and slicing at its flesh,
but the creature refused to go down. Annabella attacked it from
behind, slicing at its legs with her daggers. The giant spun, far
faster than something that size could logically have moved,
swinging a massive hand at her head. She ducked aside at the last
minute, but the giant’s fist clipped her head and sent her spinning
to the ground.

The giant moved to
finish the job, but didn’t see Jurgen until the assassin had leapt
at it head on, and plunged a short sword into its throat. The
giant’s hands shot up and grabbed Jurgen around the waist. It
squeezed.

Jurgen roared in pain
through clenched teeth as the giant’s fingers speared into flesh.
He twisted the blade, but the giant was wither oblivious or just
ignoring its rapidly fading mortality.

Victor pulled another
knife, this one long bladed and heavy, not really meant for
throwing. But his arm snapped out, and he hurled the knife with all
his strength, at the same time as he weaved a wave of force behind
it. The knife shot through the air faster than a human being could
have normally thrown it, and impaled the giant in the skull, up to
the hilt.

The giant stood
standing for a second, blank faced, then went limp and crumpled to
the ground.

Victor and Annabella
were pulling Jurgen from its grasp as Serrel ran up to the
Illudin.

“It’s not working!”
Mouse said aloud.

“Just keep shooting!”
replied Caellix. “There on the left. Reinforcements. Take them
out.”

Mouse pointed her staff
at a group of Ferine charging into the square from another street,
and fired at them. The blast of energy was huge and red, and missed
them entirely. It exploded the building on the corner of the street
and the square, and toppled bricks and masonry over the elves.

“Did you do that on
purpose?” Serrel asked.

“Um... sure.”

“Stop blowing up
buildings. There could be people inside.”

“Who cares?” snapped
Caellix. “If we don’t block off access, the Ferine are going to be
taking us on from all sides. There. Shoot out that building
there.”

Mouse complied,
exploding another building on the edge of the square so its rubble
collapsed on the street and formed a makeshift barricade. There
were five streets that accessed the the square, and she had blocked
three of them. It was destructive, but seemed to work. Serrel
thought Mouse would have been having fun, but she grimaced.

“It doesn’t matter how
much energy I use, there’s still so much of it,” she
complained.

“Elf! Pointy!” roared
Caellix. “Get over here!”

Dhulrael ran over to
them, flanked by Snow and Dogbreath.

“It isn’t working,”
Mouse told him.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no...” She
made an expansive gesture with her arms. “Whooshing thing... The
light in the sky...”

“It’s not releasing
energy like the other one,” clarified Serrel. He slapped his hand
onto the Illudin, and connected with it. He felt the familiar spike
of energy spear straight into him, and instantly refill the energy
he had previously spent. But the Illudin didn’t have the same
wasteful discharge as the one in the quarry. There was no huge beam
of light shooting into the sky to help deplete its reserves. “See?
They must have figured out how to use it better.”

Serrel weaved a shield
around them as Dhulrael examined the Illudin.

“I can’t keep up the
connection,” Mouse explained. “The energy comes in faster than I
can weave. I have to break off before I subbermate.”

“Subbermate?”