Dreadgod (Cradle Book 11) (15)
If she did her job here, she could stop those nightmares before they got to someone else.
The earth artist covered in blue crystal used a Forger technique, and thousands of razor-edged sapphires appeared in the sky behind Lindon.
Each gemstone carried an Archlord’s focused will and practiced madra control. The crystals were an armory that stretched behind him in an endless flock, a barrage that could wipe out cities.
Worse, he wasn’t alone. His partner, a woman sheathed in a clawed Remnant of mirror-bright sword-madra, filled herself with an Enforcer technique. She blazed with light and power, coiling against an invisible platform she made with her aura control, and prepared to leap forward. The edges of her claws gleamed.
The storm artist shaped like an eagle of lightning gathered her own madra. This technique was stranger, twisting Lindon’s perception of reality. She may have been on the verge of advancing to Sage. The storm she gathered between her wings gave off arcs of lightning that tore up ancient paving-stones hundreds of feet below.
In the skies above Dreadnought City, Lindon faced down three Archlords. He let his Hollow Domain fade, switching back to Blackflame.
How’s the evacuation? Lindon asked Dross.
An eerie chuckle filled his mind. [The King himself is our aid. He has removed his drones from the city to bombard you from the outskirts.]
Good. If Lindon could stop protecting the city, he would be free to move as he wished.
The instant his field of pure madra died, the three enemies released their attacks.
Blue crystals blasted forward, slicing through the air in an instant, and Lindon propelled himself downward with soulfire-controlled wind aura. The Forged crystals smashed craters into the street and leveled houses, a deadly rain that blanketed the city.
Lindon dodged what he could, blasted those he couldn’t dodge with dragon’s breath, and slapped some away.
Dross showed him a warning light, and he twisted back to avoid the sword artist’s claw.
Her strike missed him, but the madra carried behind him in a silver wave that sliced a hundred-story building in two. Its top began to crumble, but Lindon called the Burning Cloak.
He landed on the ground and leaped away, leaving behind a crater of his own. Crystals still fell from the sky, seeking him, but he hurled himself after the lightning artist. The clawed sword-artist followed him in another silver blur of speed.
The lightning eagle had gathered up a powerful Striker technique, but she was vulnerable while using it. Then again, she would know that and account for it.
Dross had given Lindon a deeper understanding of these three. The Chief Guardians of Dreadnought City were ancient Archlords, each with a rich history of battles won and lost.
In experience, he couldn’t compare. They would be far more skilled than he was. Even if he could outmatch them in raw power, he would be hard-pressed to defeat any one of them in a fair fight.
But he had unfair advantages.
[She will have Forged spirits to defend her while she is vulnerable. They are only a distraction. The Remnant covering her conceals armor that makes her as tough as a Herald. But it has a flaw.]
Dross knew very little about these Chief Guardians from his own experience, but Emriss knew everything about them. And she shared.
When dozens of crackling lightning-sparrows spread out from the Archlady, Lindon drilled a bar of Blackflame through her stomach.
Her Striker technique dispersed, as did the Remnant covering her. The woman beneath was revealed, an older dark-skinned woman wearing a surprised expression. Her breastplate joined to her armored belt, but there was a weakness at the joint, and he had struck it dead-on.
She was only visible for a moment. She restored her Remnant a moment later and flew away on lightning wings, greatly weakened.
Lindon was relieved. He had been worried, coming here, that the Silent King would throw his drones away in waves to strike a single blow on Lindon. A rain of harmless Striker techniques from mind-controlled citizens still landed on Lindon or burst in the air, but Lindon wasn’t bothered.
As long as the Silent King didn’t put him in a position where he had to kill people who were being moved like helpless puppets, Lindon was happy.
[It’s enough to make one wonder,] Dross whispered, [why isn’t he doing that?]
Lindon supposed that the Dreadgod wanted slaves more than victory, but he didn’t have long to think. The sword-artist was next, and Lindon acted on Dross’ instruction.
He moved so that the Forged sapphire crystals were blasting toward the silver Archlady instead of him. The blue-crystal Archlord unraveled the technique before his ally was harmed, which lessened the pressure on Lindon.
Allowing him to send Wavedancer against the sword-artist. The sword clashed against one claw, then the other claw tore apart his dragon’s breath and the Archlady leaped at him. He dashed backwards.
They exchanged dozens of techniques in a second, flashing lines of madra slicing through buildings or lancing into the sky. Lindon crashed through a stone wall to dodge, hurled a metal carriage one-handed into the sky to intercept an exploding crystal, and burned a hole through the street to attack the sword-artist, who was trying to reach him from underground.
Dross couldn’t project an illusion into their minds while the Silent King controlled them. The Dreadgod of dreams would squash him like a wagon wheel rolling over a snake. But without that distraction, any Sage working that Lindon tried would be broken by the force of their combined willpower.