Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📕

into a swarm of high-speed rounds that flew in every direction. I drove the Spear into the ground and channeled a surge of raw Darkness through the weapon. It exploded out in thorny tentacles of energy. AoE countered AoE: the hornets crashed and shattered, snap frozen by Umbra Burst. I followed it up by charging forward, eyes fixed on Tsunda.

The Spear turned solid black, groaning as it collected a thick coat of smouldering white frost. I dodged a clumsy swipe of one of the minigun-like arms before smashing the weapon right into the face of the cockpit. Frost rushed down the length of the Spear and blossomed across the face of the glass. It squealed and crackled as it froze solid. Hairline cracks crawled over its surface.

[Shatterrrrring Darrrrrk deals  !Frozen!]

“No! NO!” The writhing muscle-like tissue wriggling around the Nightmare’s metal skeleton lashed out like leeches, snapping around my wrist, forearm, and one ankle. They pulled me out like a starfish as I struggled, fighting the restraints as they began to torque.

“YUSH!” Karalti let out a shout as she darted in, slamming a fist boiling with blue-black khiig into the tendrils trapping my spear hand. They recoiled from the blow, flinching away and giving me enough leverage to chop at the stuff engulfing my leg.

Hornets burst out of the launch pods, their angry hum filling the air. They banged against my armor, but the tight seams kept them out—until they found the edge of my helmet. They wriggled under the rim, crawling and stinging.

[You are immune to Corruption!]

[FETCHERROR: NULL deals 999 damage!]

“ARRRGH! MOTHERFUCKER!” The pain was agonizing.

“Dammit, Dragozin, get out of the way!” Vash yelled from behind me.

I tore myself free from the Nightmare’s grip, Shadow Dancing to the side and tearing my helmet off to slap at the hornets attacking my cheeks, neck, and lips. Vash bellowed a battle cry, drowned out by twin blasts from the miniguns, then the screech of metal on glass. He had come in for a 9-hit combo, punching the cockpit with lightning-fast shuddering blows. Cracks spread through the glass, obscuring the girl cowering behind it.

“There were hundreds of machines and thousands of men. They stormed through the city of crystal and left nothing but fire in their wake.” Tsunda’s voice, speaking quickly and urgently, coiled from the air as Vash traded off with Karalti. “Houses with children still inside. A man on his back, full of holes. His mouth, opening and closing. There’s nothing I can do! But I have to do something!”

“Hector! This is all her hallucination!” Vash barked from the other side of the Nightmare, snatching a hornet out of the air and crushing it as he slapped others away. “Finish off that bubble she’s in! It’s a symbol, an image she’s making to shield herself from the banishing rite!”

“Roger that.” I jammed my helmet back down over my swollen face and rejoined the fight. The simulacrum fired erratic bursts, the machine not knowing which way to point as we split around it like a pack of wolves. When it twisted away from me, I Jumped, springing onto the top of the chassis, and raised the Spear high.

“Matir, you better not fuck up now!” I tapped into the Mark, flesh chilling as I focused Shadow Lance, and plunged the Spear down into the thick glass shell.

Chapter 53

The blade sunk a full inch into the top of the cockpit’s bulletproof bubble. Cracks charged with dark energy burst from the point of impact, spreading like veins through the surface. Tsunda’s scream blended with the high, whistling shrill of gas escaping under pressure, and then the cockpit—and the Nightmare itself—exploded into a swarm of buzzing white noise. The stuff gathered into a cloud and engulfed me, dragging me back. I felt it needling at me, trying to strip my skin with a million barbs, but it rushed around and off me without dealing any damage.

[You’re immune to-]

[W H A T D O I H AV E T O D O T O G E T I N???]

My skin crawled as the second voice I’d heard before cut over Navigail as she cheerfully tried to inform me – once again – that I was immune to Corruption. I had never heard anything like it, outside of a horror game.

A heavy silence fell over us, thick with the stench of burning rubber and old iron. Karalti scrambled over to me, helping me to my feet as a soft weeping rent the air. The smoke cleared to reveal Tsunda: tall, thin, dressed in a pale robe that hung open around her emaciated frame. She was crouched, her face hidden by her ragged back hair and her hands.

Vash’s craggy face softened as he trudged over to her. “Tsunda.”

“I tried to bring them together, Vash,” she whispered. “Everyone’s here. Can you feel them? I brought them home so they wouldn’t suffer any more.”

The Baru ran his beads through his fingers, taking deep, steadying breaths. “I do not know what you have wrought here. But there is no safety for you or anyone else in this in-between place. You must pass on.”

“The demons are howling at the borders. They’ll destroy me if I go. They’ll put me against the wall.” Tsunda’s shoulders hunched. “I’m so hungry. Has mother finished breakfast, yet?”

“She is waiting for you in the Paradise Lands, with all the others.” Vash swallowed, but his tone was gentle. Calm. “No harm will come to you, Tsunda.”

Her hands trembled, then slowly, she looked up at him. She was tall and lanky like Vash, but her chin was much weaker. Square holes flickered and scrambled where her eyes and mouth should have been. I tensed as her head rotated toward me.

“He knows,” she whispered, her voice slithering and hissing on the air. “He knows the metal demons are real. He was there. He