12 Miles Below

And that was it for negotiations. Lionheart thought we were savages that were being scammed and had to be dealt with. His second in command just wanted all Chosen dead and he didn’t care who was in the way or why.

Father sent me a quick comms link, telling me he’d take on the senior Deathless while I would go after the second in command. The rest of the knights behind me would go and tackle the rest of their knights. Wrath would stay a little in the back and try not to get too involved, if she’s discovered it might make Lionheart go extra crazy.

Sounds of occult blades lighting up rang around the valley as both our sides all took positions. It was clear the Undersiders were used to fighting as a unit, since they grouped up and all took the exact same stance, left arm out to act as a shield, while the right hand held onto the blade at the ready to swing.

On the other side, our group was loosely scattered around, with no real organized tactic. But there was still a plan in the works.

I raised one hand and slashed the air with it. And with that command, all hell broke loose.

Father and I charged forward at the old Deathless and his second in command.

The Winterscar knights instantly bolted off to both sides, splitting into two groups and sprinting to squeeze down on the Undersider formation like pliers. It was the tactic Captain Sagrius had learned while he roamed the underground alone, and eventually found himself in a city. Undersiders worked really well as a unified group during combat, but their formation needed to cover each other and there was always going to be at least one that didn't get that cover where the formation ended. The surface knights were hounding after that chink in the armor, the edges of the formation.

The Deathless in turn reacted by keeping their line facing the two different enemy groups, converting the long line into a bent semi-circle, taking further steps away from the four man brawl I was in. Clearly trusting their leaders to survive the fight against Father and I.

A call came out on their side, and they split the formation into two separate lines, both keeping the split group of Winterscars in target. Wasn’t sure why they were so desperate to make sure the surface knights were always perpendicular to their lines, but it was clear we couldn’t outrun the speed they kept their formation in check, even with the Winterblossom technique.

The Winterscars also came to that conclusion, then decided if the Undersiders weren’t going to show their belly, they’d need to hit them head on. The knights slammed a boot down, skidding into the ground hard, and spun around on themselves to convert the kinetic energy into momentum again using their hands and clawing the ground if needed. They raced straight at the edges of the formation like a bullet flying on target.

I could see the move catch the lines by surprise, some of their members taking a hesitant step back as their opponents were moving far faster than anything they’d seen.

Another call must have come out, and each Deathless closed their free hand into a fist. Something seemed to power inside, occult blue leaking through the closed fingers. The approaching Winterscar knights drew blades closer to their chest in defense positions, ready to take on any kind of attack.

Halfway before impact, the Deathless all stomped the ground before them as one, occult pulsing through and slamming into the earth under. A shockwave ripped free from each, combining with the neighbor, magnifying, exploding out flowers, dirt, and rocks. The air itself seemed to compress as the wave ripped free.

The knights jumped in response, expecting the occult power to be affecting the ground. They were wrong - the shockwave was spreading invisibly through the air, and the ground happened to be partially in the way. The concussive force slammed into the Winterscars, strong enough to force the armor shields to trigger. Only a few percent in damage total, but it was the position loss that was the crucial part of that attack. It flung my knights up and sent them rolling on the destroyed ground.

While the surface knights were scattered, the Deathless moved like a coordinated unit executing a combo. As one the two groups leaped up, then extended their free hands at the earth below - the one that had been charging something in their grip. They threw that power straight down as if we were in a wallball match and they were going for the most heroic spike I’ve ever seen. Some of it looked like orbs of lighting compressed together. Others looked like fire and sunlight arcing down. It all blended together and clearly got magnified by each other.

Explosions rang out under the Deathless wherever their spells hit, detonating in occult pulses and fire as they bombarded the surface knights recovering or still rolling on the ground. I could see shields getting drained quickly as lighting licked around, sucking out the energy from both the arcs of living fire and explosions, until the spells hit some kind of limit, imploded on itself and exploded out in a delayed destruction. Further launching the Winterscars around, and leaving many nearly shieldless.

Threads of occult blue came out like rope next from the Deathless, latching onto the ground from up high, and each enemy yanked back at it, pulling them straight down at high speeds, occult blades already scything down for an early hit.

Almost all of the Deathless managed to execute the move fast enough the knights were still barely getting back on their feet before the enemy was at their throat. Only exception that couldn’t do the combination fast enough had been the Deathless unfortunate enough to target Wrath, who’d easily landed back on her feet from the initial shockwave with little trouble and launched herself at the enemy instead of the other way around.

But she was cheating. She had wings hiding under her rags, so jumping that fast up and slashing the Deathless midair before spiking him down with a savage heel kick was far easier than it seemed.

The rest of the Deathless got their hits in on the scattered surface knights.

And it didn’t matter in the slightest.

All Winterscars could see everything around them through the soul sight. Even tumbling around in the air, they could see the enemy fast approaching, exactly where the blades would hit. Occult lit up, hidden under the heavy tunics the Winterscars used, and dome shields appeared in front of the attacking blades, no matter what strange angle they aimed for. Leg, arm, head, chest - the Winterscars had practice on triggering their defenses where needed.

All the Deathless found their hits landing, only to be bounced backwards by the defensive occult. Now they were on the backfoot. No formation to fall back on, scattered around and in melee range of surface knights who were back on their feet - and very, very pissed off.

I don’t think the Deathless were used to still having an opponent alive after that combo.

I could see how that would have worked on Undersiders or machines frontlines. Shock and awe, and then while their targets were unable to dodge or get out of the way, shield draining spells from a safe distance to knock out any kind of defense from stronger targets while the explosions dealt with the rank and file. Followed by instantly grappling into the maelstrom at priority targets to take full advantage of the exposed targets. After that, mop up whatever survived the explosions.

A pity we weren’t the usual targets. Winterscars immediately proved themselves faster, far more skilled, and utterly ruthless now that their targets found themselves right in stabbing range.

The Undersiders did have some kind of plan and training to fall back on. Clearly Lionheart had done drills on how to fight one against one while making use of their spells, since they looked like they knew what they were doing rather than coming up with it on the spot. Clever use of the occult strands come into play again, not just using it to move themselves around, but also using it to restrict their enemy’s movements. Launching the strands and letting them hook ephemerally onto armor, holding the target down so they could get a hit in, or avoid one.

Would have worked too, except Winterscar knights were fast. And adapting just as quickly.

The moment the threads were tangible and began exerting force, they were already cut in half by a sword. Either from the knight in question, or an ally in the area. My knights moved like they had eyes in the back of their heads, and outright telepathy. There wasn't panic on the comms, not even shouts of surprise. Only calm clear communications, target pings and assignment calls.

A Winterscar mid-battle was caught by one occult chain right as he was about to swing down. Instead of struggling against the chain, he simply shifted his hand further back, right as another Winterscar raced behind, who slashed through the occult chain midway, still barreling down on his original target a few meters off. All that done without a single word, near instant, and with no visual line of sight.

The Deathless hoping his occult lash would hold the knight back had to abort his attack midway, which forced his footwork to fail. Fatal mistake.

The shockwaves were equally no longer effective. The moment one of the Deathless lifted a foot to slam down, the knights were already tackling him into the ground, abusing a single flaw to that tactic: Anyone standing on one foot was begging to get shoulder checked into the mud. And anyone thrown onto the ground was someone who couldn’t defend themselves. Winterscars would stop midfight against any target if they sensed an easier target to eliminate.

Other spells were thrown into the mix, but the Deathless still had the issue of telegraphing their attacks too much. One spread his foot on the ground, tucked his shoulder in as if he were about to charge into a wall, and flames engulfed around his armor. Predictably, he launched himself a few feet forward at a blinding speed as fire and power wrapped around him like a living sun - going right through the air where a Winterscar knight should have been. Only reason he wasn’t completely beaten down after throwing himself that far out of position was the small sun he’d summoned around him exploding outwards, knocking his attackers back a few feet and giving him just enough time to scramble back.

He was more the exception to the rule when it came to coming out unscratched from failed spells.

Punches empowered by the occult also had the same issue, and all the Deathless seemed to have that skill. Too much of a windup. The moment they launched it out, flames and might rippled out into no target other than the air. Their attack had been dodged by a massive margin and then they’d promptly be heavily punished for opening themselves.

Other Deathless would leap around like apes, two hands lifted above them, charged with flame and power, then they'd slam down both into the ground - where they’d find the target enemy had easily rolled out of the way. The power and fire around them did little to stop the Winterscars from attacking a crouched target with two hands temporarily stuck in the ground.

When all else failed, a few brave souls tried to fight surface knights with longswords, relying on their own Undersider combat techniques. Predictably, this didn't go well for them. The lightning technique we'd developed among the clan Altosk knights was outright overkill against the Undersider combat schools. The Deathless weren't even able to block a single hit from the technique's multiple combos.

But all things considered, the Deathless survived far longer than they had any right too. A few among their ranks were constantly throwing out orbs of bright white, which seemed to regenerate shields on whatever target they threw them at, exploding in a small sphere of white. They tried weaving those into combinations as well, given the spheres didn’t just regenerate shields, they seemed to empower the occult itself. Larger flames, stronger ground slams, more concussive force behind punches. One Deathless managed to get that support right before the executing strike of the lightning technique chopped his head off, which only bought him a few more seconds as the Winterscar knight calmly reset and replayed the same exact movements, to the same result. It looked more like the Deathless was flailing around in panic rather than making optimal use of the second life.

After that, the support spells had to stop, since the Winterscars were doing what House Winterscar does best: Stealing. They'd started to intercept the thrown orbs, eating up the recharging shields on their severely depleted reserves.

That's about when it really sunk in to the Deathless that they were fighting way above their weight class. I could tell the moment morale broke. Two of their numbers got overwhelmed and cut down. They’d picked a fight with Wrath and she was having a hard time holding back from exposing herself as faster than the other Winterscar knights. Near the last few percentage of their shields, they tried to grapple away and she gave up trying to hide, butchering both before the two Deathless could even understand how she'd moved. Probably, the idea that these two might have escaped after forcing her to go easy on them was too frustrating of a situation to allow.

Sounds of retreat must have been called out as the two groups launched those occult strands backwards and used them to grapple themselves out of the fight. Seven more Deathless died trying to escape back to the center. But they'd managed to get some distance. One of their kind in each group let loose a huge occult barrier - a shimmering wall of concentrated fire between the clan knights and the retreating Deathless.

It held off against a few shoulder bashes as the clan knights tried to barrel through, chasing after the retreating enemy. There was some damage when contact was made against the wall of occult fire, scorching rags and cloth. But the moment the Winterscars drew their blades and slashed down, the wall broke apart like glass, flames fading away.

Behind, the two Deathless groups had collapsed against each other, huddling around one who had slammed his blade into the ground and stretched his hands out, occult flowing through, a bright white circle powering around him. Enemy shields were regenerating from that spell - and they had to knock that ratshit off the moment the Winterscar knights raced into range.

Shields were still down for some of my knights from that initial bombardment, but after that opening salvo there was absolutely nothing the Deathless were doing that was effective, save for the hasty retreat, delay and quick regeneration of their shields. We hadn't lost a single knight. Hadn't even come close to losing a single knight.

On their end, the ones who’d dove down deepest were caught while trying to reel backwards, either by hand or boot slamming them down into the ground. And with the rest of the targets gone, the Deathless who weren’t able to escape quickly had the full attention of the remaining Winterscars.

They did try to rally, two of their members charging some kind of occult ball in their hands while partially being hidden behind the backs of their fellows. Right before the Winterscars managed to close in, the Deathless stepped out of the way and let their ace in the hole take their shots.

Both balls of occult power pulsed. And as the casters punched through them, a beam of power raced in the direction of the punch. Like smaller versions of To’Sefit’s beams.

The first group of Winterscars opted to dodge the attack, too obviously telegraphed. The relic armors let them roll right out of the way with no pause to their speed.

The other group had Captain Sagrius, who was far closer to the enemy formation than the enemy was comfortable with. The captain lifted a hand mid sprint, a shield of occult manifesting before him of far larger size than any knight here. It took the beam head on and ate it all. To'Sefit hadn't been able to crack through his shields at her strongest, and this budget version wasn't going to either. Sagrius sprinted through, jumping headfirst into the the clustered group of stunned Deathless.

Occult pulsed again from his armor, shield fractals lighting up and taking the combined attack of nine panicked blades all stabbing out at him.

The ghost knights within Sagrius had all been working diligently on mastering that fractal. They could only command one image each, but there were a lot of them within the armor. The mirror fractals within him triggered, multiple ones, as fully fledged images of knights raced out from his position, stabbing and slashing at the Deathless from the centerpoint of their group defense.

The Deathless were forced backwards, their formation breaking, and right behind them, the clan knights descended on the scattered enemy like starving pipe weasels into a chicken coop to the same bloody results.

And while all this nonsense was going on, Lionheart and Drakonis were up against Father and me.