Rune Seeker

The whole group crossed the distance to Nivian’s Aspect within the single beat of a heart. By the next one, twenty-two hearts – and whatever a lich had – beat in unison. Solar energy swirled and mixed, the Party Interface linking up more than their PIMs and words. Their minds became one, all thoughts other than defeating the 0M3G4 W34P0N banished. There, in unison, Nivian’s Aspect forged a new shape as the raid members took up places within it where Meridian Nodes would reside.

First, the Aspect gained another fifty percent in height and width as it leaned forward, its body reforming. Shoulders that had looked powerful before took on bulk to make a Shaper proud – each with small cannons on them, loaded with an archer and their bow drawn – while the skull-like face grew a Rune-o’s horn from its forehead. Runes of Impact shimmered in the air around it. The missing arm regrew, draconic scales and lightning coating it from shoulder to fingertips, while a spear of solid storm clouds emerged from within the sparking palm. Bands of green energy circled the other hand, the now-much-stronger fingers clenching the hammer that grew to look rockier.

From the sides of the Aspect’s torso, two new arms grew, these unarmored but muscular. Covered in tattoos and with their own Meridian Lines, each of these wielded a different weapon. The first was a gauntlet of semi-solid solar energy, the knuckles glowing like a rising sun as the fist clenched. In the other hand, a blade forged of flaming liquid – red and purple, with hints of black within – that left a trail hanging in the air as it moved.

The four arms – and what they carried – weren’t the Aspect’s only weapons anymore, though, with a long tail snaking out from the small of its back. Armored like the rest of the titan, this new, prehensile appendage sported a long stinger at the end, deadly venom dripping from it to pop and sizzle where it hit the black stone of the roadway below. From higher up on the back, dozens of crimson chains connected to long needles hanging in the air like snakes poised to strike.

Above the Aspect’s helm – and its new horn – a ring of plasma burned to life, searing its presence into the air, hovering in line with the head it topped. From it, flames of oranges, reds, and blues ignited, shaping themselves into a burning crown for all to see.

Though those were the most dramatic changes to the aspect, other small alterations took place across the huge body. The armor on one of the feet fell aside to reveal the bones underneath wrapped in some kind of bandages, while the other foot grew claws like a large cat’s from the booted toes.

Outside of the physical transformation, two new energies sparked along the surface of the titan as it stood tall. The first worked in tune with Wule’s, fully mending the breaks in the armor and sealing them up like they’d never been there in the first place. The second energy reinforced every part of the Aspect, empowering it in a dozen ways as a veritable catalogue of buffs took hold.

Finally, Hiral’s place was in the stomach of the Aspect, below where Wule resided. There were no alterations representing what he brought to the combined power of the raid party, but none of the others would be possible without him. He was the central link that allowed them all to combine – briefly – like this, and the power source fueling it all.

Even with the inspiration from unlocking the Edict and what he’d absorbed from the W34P0N’s beam attack, he could feel his reserves already starting to drain. And they hadn’t even started to fight yet.

As soon as he realized that, the whole group knew it, their minds connected as they were, and the Aspect shot forward. Now at-height with the W34P0N – though still vastly outweighed – they blurred between the rubble of buildings, moving with far more agility than something their size should, to circle around where their opponent had tumbled. Feet skidding on the stone road – and grinding away the top layer of it – as they turned, the Aspect dropped into a crouch, using the gauntleted hand on the ground to help slow their explosive speed. More divots carved out of the road as powerful fingers dug in for grip, while four weapons readied.

Even before they’d completely halted their momentum, powerful Runes of Rejection flared behind them, and the Aspect charged at the W34P0N just now turning in their direction. Twin tails instantly came up in defense, spewing their cutting beams of energy, but the spear and hammer swept into place to block. With one, the blocky face of the earthen maul tanked the damage, barely more than a glowing scar left behind. With the other, the spear forged of cloud and storm stabbed the oncoming beam with perfect precision and seemed to drink in the energy assaulting it, the storm growing more furious within the clouds.

In counterattack, the floating needles shot forward, the connected chains glowing behind like they had a mind of their own. Snaking in and out of the beams from the dancing tails, the needles stabbed into different parts of the four-legged W34P0N, seeking weakness. Shoulders, legs, chest, and even tails, the needles stabbed, but deflected off the thick brass Tomorrow used. That wasn’t the end of the attack though, with the trailing chains proving they themselves could act outside the laws of normal physics.

Even with the needles rebounding or skidding off the target’s armor, the previously straight chains kinked and seemed to extend both from the back of the Aspectand the needles themselves. Catching on the curved spines from the W34P0N’s back, shoulders, and legs, the chains worked to tangle the beast, while the needles changed direction mid-flight to attack again.

At the same time, the Aspect itself arrived – still parrying the beams the whole way – and stabbed out with its dagger. Caught as it was in the chains, the W34P0N couldn’t outright retreat to dodge the blow, though it seemed to sense the dangerous energies coming from the gauntleted fist sweeping in its direction. With every foot the clenched hand moved, it built up more speed and power, compounding the damage it would do over and over and over the further it traveled.

Snapping unbelievably fast, the powerful maw that had ripped Nivian’s arm off before crushed down on the gauntleted wrist, stopping it before it drove into its shoulder. Then, in an almost perfect mirror of what it had done before, it moved to thrash its head to the side and hurl the Aspect from its feet.

Things weren’t the same as last time though, with the Aspect not only being bigger and stronger, but also piloted by twenty-three minds working in perfect unison. As soon as the powerful jaws clamped on the wrist, three other limbs immediately moved to account for what was happening. While the clawed foot braced to keep the Aspect from getting thrown aside like a ragdoll, the other leg whipped up. More of the blue-plate armor fell away as the knee rose, revealing the whole leg underneath wrapped in the strange bandages with Ur’Thul’s script lining it.

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That empowered knee slammed into the side of the jaw holding the wrist in place. The move shattered the Aspect’s hand between the sharp teeth, but the blow lifted the W34P0N off its front feet, and exposed the shoulder for another limb. This one – armed with a dagger trailing a stream of glowing liquid – thrust into that space where shoulder and throat met. Brass bent and just barely parted before the dagger’s tip.

Then the trailing river caught up, and the blast hurled the W34P0N back, taking the hand with it and breaking the chains holding it in place.

Suddenly separated, the two opponents looked each other up and down, the W34P0N literally spitting the torn hand out of its mouth. To its surprise, however, the severed limb regrew before its eyes, the abilities of three powerful healers working in unison to replace the hand in seconds. Even the solar gauntlet reformed as quickly as the hand itself.

As for the damage the W34P0N took, it was little more than a small gash in the heavy brass, barely a flesh wound. It was significantly more damage than it had taken while fighting the Aspect piloted by just Nivian and Wule, but they would need to do a lot more to bring this opponent down.

Like it was thinking the same thing about them, the W34P0N darted out to the side, claws tearing chunks out of the roadway and shaking the ground as it went. As big as it was, it devoured distance, moving hundreds of feet per second, before spinning and pouncing at the same time the Aspect turned to keep it in front of them.

Jaws lined with wicked teeth spread while the front legs stretched to rake with huge claws. Not ones to back down, the raid party likewise leapt into the literal jaws of combat, meeting the oncoming construct with spear and hammer. WHAM, the stone hammer slammed into the right shoulder of the leaping W34P0N, while the spear stabbed into the wound left by the glowing dagger earlier. Neither of the blows were enough to completely halt the opponent’s momentum, but the lower two arms – hands now empty – came up to catch the bottom of the snout. Straining, they managed to direct the closing jaws just over their shoulder as they got pushed back to redirect some of the oncoming force, though the construct’s claws came across to swipe them.

New wounds opened on their right thigh as one paw swept past. As for the other, those hooked claws smashed into the Aspect’s left side, digging into the armor and not letting go. Pistons along the W34P0N’s leg went into overdrive, as it attempted to disembowel the Aspect. Luckily, Nivian’s armor was no joke – especially not when it was getting reinforced by a certain Runeocerous – and the plating held long enough for yet another appendage to make an appearance.

This time, snaking down and to the side, the tail that’d been hidden behind the Aspect’s body unexpectedly came stabbing straight up for the W34P0N’s chest. Clearly sensing the solar energy – and the danger – leaking from the stinger on the end of the tail, the construct somehow got its rear legs onto the ground and pushed off again, carrying itself up and over the raid party.

Twisting with the awkward leap of the W34P0N, they weren’t going to let it get away so easily, the hold they had on the jaw, along with the position of the spear and hammer, acting as a fulcrum point. Despite the power of the leap, the W34P0N’s back end climbed higher, up and over, as the party hauled on the neck. A pivot, a pull, and a lot of solar energy, tore the bigger construct back down to the ground, slamming it through a building in a shower of glass and metal.

Even with the violent nature of the “landing”, it wouldn’t be nearly enough to damage the strong brass, so the party let go and lifted the clawed foot. In almost completely opposite positions, this time it was the Aspect that slammed its heel down onto the W34P0N’s chest, claws digging into the armor. They’d missed that central node Hiral and Left had theorized about – though they did spot it – and the hammer came down like a meteor.

SMASH, the maul cratered the ground next to the W34P0N’s head, one of its paws coming out of nowhere to parry the blow aside before it could strike. The simple movement – not one that’d be expected from a beast-like construct – opened up the lower-abdomen area, where a semi-solid, solar gauntlet landed a powerful, hooking punch. Brass groaned in stress from the blow, even bending slightly in the shape of the knuckles.

A second punch had to be aborted, the rear legs of the prone W34P0N coming up between them and then snapping back to rake across their chest. Shallow scars bled energy from their chest plate where they weren’t quite fast enough, and they hopped back a pair of steps to continue the assault before their enemy could roll back over.

Except, this time it didn’t need to roll over to get back up, the shoulders and hip joints rotating completely to lift the thing straight up. Even the head did a complete one-eighty at the neck, leaving the curved spines now on the bottom of the W34P0N. And, from those spines, hundreds more bees came swarming out.

A powerful ROAR from the 0M3G4 W34P0N seemed to hurl the black swarm forward, though dozens of them got destroyed by the pressure. Those that survived closed the distance unbelievably fast, their own tiny beams of energy coming like a wave. Against the regular-sized party, the beams were no real threat unless several of them caught a person at once. At this size? The Aspect ignored them as they rushed ahead, trusting in their heavy armor. Meridian Lines glowed on the lower arms, offering their own sort of protecting, while the glowing bandages were apparently much sturdier than they looked.

Darting right, the Aspect smashed its gauntleted fist into a nearby building, hurling a load of debris and rocks at the W34P0N, then dashed left. Atop its head, the crown of flames pulsed with power, then launched spears of plasma behind the screen of flying stone. The first of the boulders to arrive clanged harmlessly off the brass armor, but served their purpose. With all the solar energy radiating from the Aspect, the W34P0N hadn’t been able to sense the plasma spear hidden within the distractions.

Sizzles announced the successful strikes, glowing red spots and small trails of rising smoke marking where they’d hit, and the Aspect again closed the distance. Something that was apparently fine with their opponent, as it happily engaged them in melee.

This time, neither of the two titans seemed willing to back down, blows coming at each other from all sides as claws, tails, weapons, and energy attacks lashed out. Scars were torn in the Aspect’s armor in exchange for landing earth-shaking blows with the hammer or a pinpoint strike with the spear. Two solid punches from the gauntleted fist caved in one of the shoulder plates, while the stinger-tipped tail finally punctured a back leg. All the while, more of the plasma spears rained down from above – along with powerful arrows from the shoulders – focusing on the central-node area in an attempt to burn through the thick plating protecting it.

But, even with the blows raining down on it from all sides, the W34P0N snapped forward, jaws closing over the elbow of the arm carrying the enlarged Dagger of Sath. Then, in one violent and rapid move, the construct jerked to the side and tore the arm completely off.

Exactly what the party had been waiting for – what they’d predicted by opening themselves up to just such a maneuver – and they spun in the opposite direction as the W34P0N presented its flank to them. Then, in a fluid movement like kicking a ball, the bandaged leg came up in a powerful blow, directly into one of the curved spines now on the bottom of the beast.

Weakened by Igwanda’s earlier barrage of shots, the rising kick finally broke the spine before continuing on to slam into the W34P0N’s belly. Powered by buffs they’d held back on using for just an opportunity like this, the four-legged construct bent around the force of the blow before getting shot away.

Buildings fell in a line hundreds of feet long from the W34P0N’s flight before it crashed and rolled, tearing down more of the city in the process. Really, the place was less a city now, and more the aftermath of a warzone.

From the look in the 0M3G4 W34P0N’s eyes as it rose again, it was clearly saying this war was not over yet.