The Legend of William Oh

Chapter 226: Dispel

Will thought, bringing up the map in his mind’s eye. It showed that the hallway beyond the door was red-hot and getting brighter.There were blooms of fear marking individual’s locations as more people became aware of the attack.

Will made a tiny physical map and stuffed it in his ear.

“Your master will die for this!” Luis Akul’s voice barely cut through the roar of flame.

In response, a chilling laugh echoed through Will’s map, radiating nonchalance. Even through the map-earpiece that dulled the sound, Will could tell that the owner of the laugh did not give a shit.

“They’re not staying dead. Fuck!” Mark Wyrd’s shouted “Which way did they go?”

Will consulted his map and spotted his tag for Amanda Akul flying into the distance, radiating fear.

“Are you good?” Will asked, approaching Brianna as he headed for the window.

“My real body’s nowhere near this mess,” Brianna said, unlocking the window for him. “Go out there and kick ass to your heart’s content. Just don’t die.”

“I have literally done that in my life,” Will said, giving Brianna a good-luck pat before sprinting out the window, picking himself up with Phantom Hand and whipping out into the cold air beyond.

Outside the palace, he could see the heat of the battle inside, the glow of the hallway radiating through several windows, and scorch marks where the Wyrd’s balcony had been scoured by flames.

Will turned his attention towards the retreating ‘Amanda Wyrd’ tag he’d slapped on her earlier in the day.

It was kind of a habit at this point to mark people of interest on his map.

Will didn’t see the man’s tag on his map, which meant he was already outside Will’s range.

Will focused on Amanda Wyrd. It wasn’t hard to make out where she was, because the woman was being carried by a humanoid blazing with flames, with wings of pure fire that extended thirty feet outward, creating a shining beacon that stood out like the sun against the backdrop of faint stars.

Will readied himself to swoop in and-

Zodiac’s voice seemed to peal from every surface in the entire stronghold, vibrating from the very crystal itself.

Will glanced over his shoulder and spotted a brilliantly glowing figure rising above the palace. The old man’s white robes and white hair were radiating light like a star, making him difficult to look at.

Through squinted eyes, Will spotted oceans of miasmatic structures rolling off of Zodiac, unfurling into a massive skein of telekinetic force.

Will thought, dodging around a rope of miasmatic structures the size of his torso as it whipped past him, strands engulfing the entire stronghold.

Will mused, throwing his hands up in surrender as another invisible rope wrapped itself around his limbs.

As far as telekinetic constructs went, it wasn’t quite as potent as Phantom hand, but there sure was a lot of it.

“William Oh. What’s your role in this?” the telekinetic bindings around Will spoke with Zodiac’s voice as they squeezed down around him.

“It seems like Fabron’s summons are kidnapping Amanda Wyrd. I was pursuing.” Will said, pointing towards the flaming wings receding into the distance. Short and to the point.

“I will deal with it. The last thing I need is more Lords rampaging through my Stronghold.”

The telekinetic bindings loosened, allowing Will to slip out.

“Feel free to watch.”

Will thought, taking a moment to mentally jot down the shape of the miasmatic structures in Zodiac’s Ability in his map’s Legend.

The tangle of telekinetic force lunged forward, covering a half a mile in the blink of an eye, crashing down around the distant pair of flaming wings…

And then burning away like flash-paper.

It wasn’t visible to the naked eye, but Will saw how the bits of destructive miasma in the flames latched onto the telekinetic force and broke apart the miasmatic framework channeling the Charge through it, unleashing brilliant miasmatic blue flames as it was consumed.

Zodiac growled and his telekinetic constructs shed their burning portions before snatching up bits and pieces of the stronghold and flinging it at the fleeing burning skeleton.

Will wondered.

Will began flying forward, just below his top speed, weaving through the tangled forest of telekinetic force.

“With respect Lord Zodiac, the situation requires precision!” Will shouted, catching up to the burning creature cutting through the air.

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As Will arrived beside it, he identified it as a man in heavy armor whose entire body seemed to luminesce, glowing between the gaps of his armor, burning wings erupting from his back, holding a squirming hostage in his arms.

his helmet had a thin slit in it, the interior black save for the burning eyes staring back at Will.

Will thought, spotting Amanda, whose Conflagrations were seemingly rolling off the burning creature, like water off oiled canvas.

Will could only assume Fabron wanted her unharmed, because in such close proximity to that corrosive flame, her shields should’ve long since burned away.

The explosions that rolled off the burning fae sizzled the air around him, forcing Will to roll out of the way, narrowly missing one of Zodiac’s constructs before he regained his place.

A moment later, Will got ahead of the fae and-

A beam of the corrosive faefire shot out, prompting Will to juke, opening up a path for the armored flier to shoot past.

Will thought, lunging back just close enough to snag the armored ankle.

Will released his grip as the metal sizzled against his skin an instant before a flaming sword swept through the spot he’d been a moment before.

Will wanted to put a Blessed Steel chakram through the creature’s head and rescue Amanda in the time but he wasn’t sure how fast the fae’s reflexes were.

Would suck for it to use its hostage as a meatshield at the last second.

Will realized as soon as he started thinking about it in terms of meat shields and damage output.

Mark Wyrd was a Tank subtype. There was no reason to believe he wouldn’t cover his own wife with a damage absorption shield. The fire damage that Amanda be taking was probably being circulated between this guy and Mark Wyrd.

Will thought.

If Mark Wyrd was getting hit with the corrosive flame that tore apart miasmatic Structures, eventually his Thorns and Lifesteal gimmick would get worn away. Either that or the damage-sharing Ability.

The fae was either immune or highly resistant to fire damage, as well as the corrosive effect from their own flames.

Then there was going to be a problem.

Will spun around his target in midair, cleaving just close enough to deflect the wild slash by arresting the burning fae’s arm.

Will’s left hand reached out and raised the fae’s faceplate, revealing glowing orange flesh with a dark skull inside it.

Every part of the creature was coated with tight-laced, interlocking miasmatic structures that seemed to ward off the corrosive flames, their bonds were too strong and close together for the tiny hook-shapes floating in the fire to pry themselves in between them and tear apart the miasma.

Will blocked a kick to the groin and dragged himself out of the tangle of limbs an instant before Amanda unleashed another fire Ability that once again slid right off the fae, resisted by the same effect that made it immune to it’s own flames.

“Don’t use fire!” Will shouted as they flew, keeping just out of range of another strike.

“Not like I have many options here!” Amanda shouted back.

“Hold it until I figure something out!”

“BAH!”

Seemingly jostled out of her rut by Will’s words, Amanda created an explosion behind her elbow, which drove her shielded fist into the metal helmet with enough force to cave in the steel and send her and her captor tumbling through the air.

Will thought for a moment before shrugging and whipping himself down to follow, pulling out his tomahawk.

It was a replacement Will had made ever since giving Jason the Family Gathering set on a more permanent basis, meant to provide a straightforward boost to his primary Abilities.

Will swooped down and swung the hatchet towards his opponent’s open face-plate.

The fae dipped his head down and caught the blade on the top of his helmet, causing the axe to ricochet upwards, vibrating in Will’s hand.

Will let go of the axe, allowing it to flying into the distance. He started running through the air, letting go of himself as he sent Phantom hand after the axe.

As soon as it was out of the fae’s line of sight, Will caught the tomahawk with Phantom Hand and brought it spinning up behind the flaming warrior, burying itself in a gap in the heavy armor, near the armpit.

“GAH!” The fae screamed in pain for the first time since the fight had begun.

Will saw the glowing heat redouble, and yanked the axe out of his opponent an instant before it was turned into so much slag.

White hot blood spattered down the side of the fae’s armor…but not nearly as much of it as Will would’ve hoped.

Will used Phantom Hand’s armor to create blades and perforate his opponent, but he would rather risk his gear than his Abilities up against an opponent who could deal damage directly to the Miasmatic Structures holding them together.

Will threw the axe back towards himself, forcing the fae to dodge and catching the cherry-hot tomahawk with his right hand, right where his opponent could see it.

Now that the opponent’s eye was attracted to the axe…

Phantom Hand unleashed a chakram at the back of his opponent’s head.

The fae seemingly read his move, swerving to the side and shooting a beam of fire at Will from its sword while maneuvering Amanda into a chokehold.

Will swerved around the beam and caught the chakram with Phantom Hand, long since in the habit of never throwing anything faster than he could send the hand to retrieve it.

It had blood, but a hard strike to the armpit like that should’ve been a gusher.

Whatever this thing was, its heart wasn’t beating.

That led Will to reassess its weaknesses.

Will flexed the fingers on his left hand.

He had learned the skill of sending Charge down his hand. He was beginning to learn how to manipulate Miasma. He couldn’t manipulate Miasma nearly accurately enough to create an Ability freehand.

But…

The dense, interlocking miasmatic structures across the fae’s entire body acted like insulation that prevented his own flames from getting inside and breaking apart the tender miasmatic structures that gave him form.

The Fae were the original inhabitants of the 9th Floor, and Bakton had learned his ability to read the flow of combat from the environment.

Will had to act on the idea before his behavior revealed anything.

Will gave a single twirl with the tomahawk and lunged forward with his left hand extended, acting like he would use his weak left hand to batter aside the fae’s defenses.

The fae ignored his left hand and lunged forward with the flame blade.

Will caught the fae’s wrist with the chakram and yanked it aside, the flame blade missing his chest by a few inches.

Will’s left hand landed on the creature’s burning skull.

Charge erupted out of Will’s hand, seizing on the interlocked anti-fire Miasmatic Structures.

Then tore through them.

Will did not have the delicacy of control to recreate the anti-fire effect, but destruction was far simpler, overloading the structure with Charge and a clumsy surge of undirected Miasma.

Will shoved away with a charred left hand, tugging Amanda away from the creature’s grip as the undead fae began clawing at itself, its face melting off as the corrosive flames seized on the gap and invaded inside its body.

“Wow.” Will mused.

He glanced down at his charred left hand, burnt nearly too quickly to feel the pain.