Broker
Chapter 299

BOOM! BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!

A staccato of explosions rocked up the side of the mountain, and rocks began to tumble towards the ground. An avalanche followed, and snow flowed down like a sea before rising up as more titans, eager to clash with their attackers. Sonya swept her hand again, and several fell beneath the gleaming flash that followed it. Their bodies began to take form shortly after, but not before a small platoon of devils wielding wicked weapons leaped on them from below and pulled them to the unforgiving ice.

Sonya tilted her chin up and looked down at the fight below. Ice and snow melted and blasted through snow titans while a shadow stretched across them and restricted their movement. It was something out of a myth, shadows and devils and an eldritch horror waging war against beings of pure snow. Sonya appreciated the sight but didn’t let it distract her from one fact. Even for four experienced Mythics, this was a bit too easy. She reached out with her senses and let them wash over the mountainside, her eyes narrowing behind her helmet.

“Looking for the other boot?” Mephisto asked next to her.

“Yes,” Sonya mused. “Thoughts?”

“I don’t sense anything out of the ordinary, but this whole place is giving off a bad vibe the more I think about it,” he admitted. “Those things would slaughter a group of inexperienced Heroics,” he added, nodding to the titans getting torn apart. “In those numbers too? They feel like base mobs or something.”

“That’s because they are,” Sonya said.

He snorted out a laugh. “You weren’t kidding about Heroic dungeons. That mountain’s gotta be as big as…”

“Everest?” she quipped, and her eyes narrowed into slits as her senses picked up something on the other side of the mountain, and her smile twisted upward. “Found it. I don’t know if it’s the anchor or not, probably the sub-boss or something.”

“Where?” he asked and went quiet as something moved behind the peak. A clap of thunder sounded below, and Sonya looked down to see a line of the titans explode as Kingshark brought his massive hands together. Far above, along the summit, four jagged masses of ice rose up and clung to the side. Mephisto tensed, and then his mouth fell open. “Are those fingers?”

“...Now that this is a Heroic dungeon, that’s the boss,” Sonya growled. Why was its presence so hard to sense?

“Hey! Guys!” Mephisto shouted. “We got a big one!”

I’M  B U S Y!

“Oh, fuck you and your bet! Look up, asshat!” Mephisto bellowed.

O H

“Be nice,” Sonya chided Mephisto and crossed her arms, floating backward a little and crossing her legs. She let a chair form beneath her made of hardened light as the creature reared itself up over the side of the mountain. It was enormous, and its head was easily large enough to take a bite out of the peak. It was shaped strangely with a small cranium that jutted forward from a hunk of ice horizontally. Its narrow neck attached to an equally thin body - relatively anyway - that looked almost skeletal. It even had ribs made of ice.

I feel like I’ve seen this thing in a movie.

F R E E Z E!

A rasping howl of a voice carried down the mountainside, and Sonya actually felt her heart leap a little when Blackrazor went abruptly still, frost forming over him. He exploded into a plume of darkness and disappeared into the ground a moment later, while the devils charged up the mountain towards their new target. Kingshark experimentally fired a column of water at the thing that froze instantaneously, the pillar crashing into the side of the mountain a second later. A few devils were crushed by the falling ice.

“You might want to go in person, Mephisto,” Sonya said.

He turned back to look at her. “What are you gonna do?”

“Give you boys a chance at some fun. I don’t want to clean up right away,” she said playfully.

He smirked at her. “Oh yeah? Got something big in mind?”

“Don’t try to get me to spoil the surprise, Mephisto. That’s not sporting,” she teased back.

He laughed. “Alright! Wind up for whatever you’ve got. We’ll have it down before you do,” he said and turned back as his devils were flash frozen by another shriek of the mighty elemental. Blackrazor’s shadows were already racing up the side of the mountain, and Kingshark was watching from afar, consideration on his face. Mephisto raised his voice. “Hey! Kingshark! Maybe try a different kind of water?”

The eldritch titan tilted his head, while Mephisto hunched over and sprouted wings from his back in a sudden convulsion. They were made from the same material as his metallic skin. He flapped his wings once before darting into the sky. Sonya rolled her eyes. Lazy boy, using my platforms when he has wings of his own. She chuckled to herself and leaned back in her seat, drumming her fingers on the armrest. I haven’t had a chance to see you guys go all out, not in person. I want to see how far you’ve come.

She looked up at the icy, monolithic creature and focused on its chest. So that’s why it was so hard to sense. I’ll keep that detail to myself for a bit. Let them figure it out.

T H E  C H I L L  C O N S U M E S!

“A little melodramatic,” Sonya chortled and closed her eyes.

Take a deep breath, she thought, and allowed herself to relax. Her mind cleared, and she let herself reflect. There are a lot of answers to that question, Set. You and I both know that, you sneaky old man. I wonder if I would have been so quick to figure it out if it weren’t for what the modern world knows about you. She chuckled. You tried to make it seem like there’s only one, but you could make several if you’d like. Couldn’t you? Oh lord of the Desert, Storms, and Battle. 

Her clawed gauntlets clutched at the armrests. That’s part of why Claimants get stuck here, isn’t it? They struggle to identify themselves with just one thing, like they need a single concept to encompass all that they are. It's narcissistic, but that’s not how it works. There may be one thing or another that is more prevalent than others, but they are all a part of you.

She tilted her chin up and smiled as she watched her beloved friends begin their most difficult battle yet. I wonder which one I should try first?

—

Kingshark planted his feet in the thick ice. He could try to climb up the mountainside, but he got the impression that getting too close to this thing would be very bad for him. A poor matchup, he rumbled inwardly. His senses hadn’t been able to pick up on any sea life nearby either, which meant he didn’t have much to lean on in that regard. Still, there were other ways to deal with this problem, and he wasn’t about to let the others have all the fun.

What’s the score, anyway? Eh, who cares? I stopped keeping track anyway.

He watched Mephisto zip through the air towards the distant target. The thing was freaking huge, way bigger than anything he’d ever seen before. Something about it ticked him off, though, and he wasn’t sure what it was. He dismissed the thought in favor of focusing on Mephisto’s suggestion. The ice beneath his feet was nearly endless, a supply of water he could count on. However, it was useless against a creature that could freeze it in an instant. He needed something that could handle the cold better.

D I E!

The creature shrieked again, and it swung down at the mountain where Blackrazor had taken shape and was firing potshots of blackened arrows at the elemental. The shadowy darts exploded into flames before being snuffed out by the sheer cold around the beast. Above it, Mephisto held his hands up and shouted something that made the air twist a bit; a sphere of blood-red fire appeared over him, and it began to grow larger and larger. He eyed the weird color of the thing, and a thought occurred to him.

That might work!

He took a step back and glanced over his shoulder at Sonya. He’d heard what she said. She was going to let them play, and if they didn’t finish the job, she was going to hop in. This was more than just a friendly outing, as was everything with her. She wanted to see just how far they’d come, and he was not going to disappoint.

He grabbed the ice around him with his will and spread it down into the depths below. This entire place was one gigantic freshwater lake, and not all of it was completely frozen. A roar sounded overhead as he slapped both palms onto the ground, semi-truck-sized divots appearing beneath him. He concentrated as his will spread farther and farther, tainting the water, changing it, converting it. It was a level of fine control he hadn’t really attempted, and the thought sent him back.

His neck ached.

Firestorm. You got to see me push my hydrokinesis to its limits for the first time that day. Compressing water had been so hard at the time, but now I understand it. Water is an element, a chemical, static but ever-changing, more than just H₂O. There are things in the water. It gives life and brings death. A violent sea can turn calm in a moment’s notice. No force on the planet can truly tame the wrath of the ocean. He gripped the water. And this will be an OCEAN.

The ice beneath him, which had been crystalline pocked with the white of snow, began to change color. It took on an eerie green hue as a familiar smell filled the air. He hunched his shoulders forward and grit his teeth. I need more! All of it!

His neck throbbed.

I hope you can see this, wherever you are, kid. I hope you know what we’re trying to do and what you pushed me to become with this wound that never healed. He pulled, straining; even with all of his incomprehensible muscle mass, it felt like he was moving a truck as a mortal man. His neck throbbed as something slammed into the ground next to him, and he heard an indignant shout. He ignored Mephisto as he spouted a slurry at the monstrosity before launching back off again.

The now saltwater lake beneath him shuddered.

Sorry, boss, I’m not gonna let you show off today.

“KINGSHARK! IF YOU’RE GONNA DO SOMETHING, DO IT!” Mephisto shouted. “IT’S COMING YOUR WAY!”

He whipped his head up and saw it. The creature had moved from its perch on the peak and was crawling along the side of the mountain now. Blackrazor’s poison burned away a rib, and it just grew back. A blast of Mephisto’s flames ripped across its body, and it shrieked but pressed on.

Y O U  W I L L  N O T!

He grinned. W A N N A  B E T?

His body heaved, and he threw himself into it as the pressure in his chest rose to a fever pitch. He needed this. He needed to prove himself more than anything else. Not because of the wound. Not for Sonya. Not even for Marta. He needed to do this for the small-time thug that had thought he was going to live a meaningless life. For the brute that had bullied his way to a position of false self-importance. The tides ebb. The path of the sea shifts. Its course changes, and it carves through everything.

The ground cracked.

He felt… something. It was close.

He let it sweep him away like a tidal wave.

THOOOOOOM!

–

Did he just- Sonya was on her feet. The throne behind her vanished into a cloud of particles as a column of sea-green water, steaming with the pressurized heat of a geyser, exploded from the ground in a concentrated burst. Below, Kingshark’s entire body was covered in glowing cracks and gleaming lines as mist boiled out around him and an eerie itching filled the air. The drone of his roar scratched against the walls of her ability, Indomitable. 

The blast of water hit the freezing presence of the encroaching elemental and burst. At first, a cascade of snow fell until little by little it pushed through the protection that the mighty creature had. A boss like this would have taken a team of at least two or three Mythics supported by squads of Heroics. Now? One man with the help of two others-

The water struck.

A cataclysm of steam exploded from the point of impact as it blasted straight through the frozen titan and ripped down through its body like a welding torch. Little blasts went off here and there as the superheated water hit its frozen body. The elemental screamed, throwing its head back and thrashing as it tried to get away from the devastation wrought on it. The water didn’t stop at passing through him, though. It curved back and struck again, and again, and again. Holes punctured the mighty boss’ body with ruthless precision.

Then a shape appeared out of the water. Sonya looked down; Kingshark was gone. She looked back up, and he was in the air, only tall enough to rise to the elemental’s waist, but enough to land on its head. He raised an arm as the water collided with one of its wrists, knocking it away. His limb changed - it grew bigger, and his fist started to glow. She heard a click and felt a wave of mirth amongst the roiling, maddened mist.

She smiled. “He’s always wanted to try this move out. Go for it, Claimant.”

M A N T I S  P U N C H!

The mountainside exploded.

–

BOOM!

Nietz tanked another blast from the latest of the Effigies that had attacked them. It was starting to turn into a slog. The flames washed over him, and he pushed through, gritting his teeth against the forces acting on him. His body could endure the heat, but the pressure that came with it was enough to hold him off a little at first. He shoved his shoulder forward and bellowed, racing through the flames and tackling the fragile monster to the ground. He reared his fists back and rained blows down. Only when it stopped moving did he get up.

It burned me a little.

A splash of water hit him, and he sighed with relief, knowing his uniform had been on fire. “Thanks. You guys get the others?”

“Yup!” Kong said. “I think we’re clear. We can set up camp here.”

Nietz glanced around the small space surrounded by houses. It looked like some kind of common laundry and gathering place for the residents. The houses would serve as a good buffer, and a simple watch rotation would let them handle any attacks from above. 

“I’ll get s-started,” Hammond said and hustled over to the center, dropping his bag and pulling out a pair of amber spheres. He was just about to use them when he looked up and tilted his head. “Hello? W-who’s there?”

Nietz glanced over as well and spotted a figure standing in the single archway that led out from the space onto the street. Hammond was going to seal it before they finished setting up. He frowned when the person didn’t respond, and Nietz glanced at Kong, who popped his neck. The two of them moved to stand between Hammond and the newcomer.

“He asked you a question, friend,” Kong said. “Who are you?”

The figure stepped out of the archway, and both young men took a step back. A man – or what looked like a man – with a narrow face half covered in scales lurched into view. He was slightly hunched, his back and shoulders distorted and malformed. His disfigured, clawed hand twitched once before he raised it up, red lightning crackling across his arm.

“ROOAKK! GRAAAVVV- BLAAAAAA- IEEEEEEE!”

It attacked.