"I have to ask," Shinsou muttered to Sorian’s messenger, who instead of listening to Shinsou's directions had now chosen to guide him instead, apparently aimlessly, through the passages and cobbled alleyways of Radasanth, "Why the hell are we snaking through the small passages like thieves? I’m more interested in getting there quickly rather than quietly, before the situation gets worse."
Shinsou’s irritation at their seemingly pointless course was somewhat dampened by the sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach about having to break up that approaching skirmish. As they swerved left and dived into the gaping maw of yet another of the labyrinthine corridors, the Telgradian stumbled over a particularly jagged cobble in his haste and cried out in astonishment, nearly toppling to the ground before his guide jumped to his aid and grabbed him under the armpits. The messenger held back for a few seconds before sighing and answering in a flurry of words.
“Perhaps, but it would be somewhat inconvenient for me to be seen with you at the moment. I’ll leave it at that. Just trust me, and I’ll get you to Sorian. Let’s speed up, anyway.” he whispered.
The messenger nodded to himself and took off at a brisk pace, almost crashing through a set of metal bins as he went. Taken aback by the cryptic comment, Shinsou was almost left behind as he followed in the man's wake.
Inconvenient for me to be seen with him? What’s that all about?
Shaking his head, the Telgradian trotted forward, gaining on his charge. It wasn’t long before the alleyway twisted into another left turn and, as Shinsou carefully but quickly negotiated bags of rubbish and a sleeping tomcat, the dense pulse of the two colliding souls of Elite Optic and Storm Veritas once again reverberated through his body. The feeling was a lot stronger now, so much so that the next wave of power sent a ripple of nausea into his stomach that provoked the Telgradian into slowing his jog.
"What the fuck is going on over there?" he murmured, ducking to avoid a low-hanging pole as he clenched his stomach.
The man shrugged and snorted lightly. "Sorian’s beast doesn’t take much in the way of provocation to rile" he stated. “And when he’s riled, good luck trying to stop him.”
Shinsou chewed his lip again at the thought of getting between Elite Optic and Storm outside of the safety of the Citadel’s healing magic. If it was Storm Veritas he was sensing, then he would have mixed feelings about fighting him. It wasn’t any sort of perceived fear about the man’s power that made Shinsou hesitate, though the Telgradian had seen for himself what the lightning mage was capable of and it would be a less than comfortable experience dealing with that. No. the problem was that Storm had earned his respect in their encounter with Sunwing. He was crass, arrogant and downright offensive, but Storm went about it all with such a gentlemanly charm that he would make you believe his shit smelt like roses on a summer’s day. Shinsou had watched as the man’s foot had been stripped almost to the bone, his flesh melted by a bubble of molten rock, and yet Storm Veritas had gotten up and dealt with business that had to be dealt with as if nothing had happened.
On the other hand, Shinsou knew that fate was a fickle mistress. One man’s ally on a Monday could just as well be his enemy on a Tuesday if the circumstances dictated. Then there was the small issue of that rampaging menace, Elite Optic. The Telgradian had little idea of why their paths had crossed, but he cursed the gods that governed the fates that, today of all days, that bloodthirsty stack of bones had become his responsibility.
I need to find Sorian, and I can’t do that whilst Elite’s waving his sword around in the middle of the street like the unhinged lunatic he is. Either I rein him in, or we take down Storm. Oh, the agony of choice.
"Just over there," the messenger said, his voice low, “There’s the main road. It looks like someone kicked an ant hill over, though. It’s swarming with people.”
Considering the day’s events, it was perhaps not that surprising that there was a sea of bodies to wade through to get to where Shinsou needed to be. But that spot, that waypoint in the middle of the road, was marked with the only suitable beacon. Elite Optic’s giant, half-tonne, calcium encrusted bone chassis could take the cynicism out of any man, at least for a few minutes. The beast stood at least three times the height of any of the citizens on either side of him attempting to flee the carnage, and as he faced towards the slightly battle worn but none-the-less suited up Storm Veritas, who was contemplating taking higher ground, the crowd of people charging through the road broke around the skeletal warrior like water around a solid boulder.
From Shinsou’s vantage point, he estimated Storm’s distance as between thirty and forty feet away from him, well within his attack range. The lightning mage stood in the road like some sort of threatening gargoyle, contemplating the next move. There also seemed to be mixed debris in the road consisting of both stone and timber, and opposite him, above Elite Optic himself, the figure responsible for dropping it into the road seemed to be hunched over the lip of the building’s roof. Shinsou couldn’t make out whether the person was a man, a woman, a threat or just a clumsy spectator who had accidentally knocked something off the roof, but the Telgradian noted him or her with caution before focusing his attention back on the infamous lightning mage.
He hasn’t seen me yet. I’m not one for cloak and dagger, but the sooner, well, whatever this is, is done the sooner I can find Sorian. Here goes…
Shinsou opened his free left hand, spreading the fingers wide. Within two seconds thin, forking tendrils of black and purple convulsed and converged around each other to form a pulsating amethyst spear of dark matter within the palm. There was a snapping noise as the strange electrical discharge of the weapon met the Radasanthian air, but then in an instant the lance was stable. A careful man, the Telgradian would not allow this fight to go on longer than it needed to. From the mouth of the alley, Shinsou flipped the shaft of the dark matter spear around and with all his might drove the point through the air towards Storm Veritas’s silhouette.
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