"Look Aatrox, the mortals have their own force of Darkin. I wonder... can they handle our might? Or will they fall to the endless teeth?"~ Naafiri, The Hound of a Hundred Bites
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"Your host has perished." Zaahen spoke after witnessing Caalyx's transformation.
Caalyx did not respond, choosing to stand in silence. His fingers flexed around the spear and shield.
He looked calm on the outside but on the inside it was anything but.
Death and him weren't strangers. It had followed him for millennia, refusing to claim him but taking everyone he had met along the way.
His wives. His children. His parents. His friends. His brother.
And now it had claimed another one. Another brother.
Within minutes all of them converged to the center of the battlefield.
"Caalyx." Xolaani said as she observed him, "This is your plan I take it?"
Aatrox raised his sword in front of Caalyx, "A traitor." He swung his sword toward Xolaani, "And a coward. I have waited centuries for this."
Caalyx looked at the two and spoke softly, "So have I...." Despite the softness of his voice, it was heard across the battlefield. "All you have done is bring death and destruction. It is time I bring it to you."
"Is that what you have done to them?" Xolaani gestured toward the Darkin littered across the battlefield.
"Soon." Caalyx replied.
"And you have gained allies." Xolaani glanced at Zaahen and Varus standing behind the two.
They stared back, backs straight, eyes focused.
"DARKIN! AWAKEN!" Aatrox roared as his mortal followers began picking up the ones on the ground. "THIS IS THE FINAL WAR! LET US BRING OBLIVION ONTO THIS WORLD!"
With those words all the other Darkin rose transforming to full size, immediately slaughtering the mortals nearby replenishing the blood they so desperately needed.
Xolaani and Aatrox met each others eyes for a moment.
"Let me begin this war by DROWNING YOU WITHIN A SEA OF BLOOD!" Aatrox roared as he swung his sword toward Caalyx.
Xolaani attacked in the same instant, swinging her sickles at Caalyx.
Caalyx responded by raising his shield to block her strike while parrying Aatrox's swing at the same time. A shockwave burst from them as the center. Waves of magic and wind sending mortals and thralls flying. The next moment, silence reigned.
"NOW!" He roared as he pushed back against the two.
BOOOM
An earthshaking shook the world as the mountain behind them evaporated sending a gigantic arrow ripping through into Ibaaros, toppling him, flattening the mortals behind him and raising a large cloud of dust.
Taarosh raised his halberd in the air and it let out a loud screech instantly deafening any mortal in the area, leaving them with blood pouring out of their orifices.
War had been signaled.
BWENGGGG
Styraatu strummed her harp. Halting Caalyx in his place. Only for the weight of the world to fall onto her, slamming her into the ground.
Horaazi appeared before her. Her lodestone glowing. Her form was that of a harpy made entirely of flesh and sinew. Reddish-bone armor covered like a cloak. Two enormous bone wings grew out from her shoulders, each wing dwarfing her in size. The tips if the wings faded away into nothing like wisps. Her lodestone floated in front of her. Its singular eye focused on Styraatu alone.
"YOU SUPPORT THE TRAITOR?!" Styraatu roared.
Horaazi chuckled before driving her further into the ground.
THUNK
A should slammed into her sending her tumbling to the ground as Joraal appeared in front of her. His sword fully materialized.
"YOU HAD TO BRING THIS ONE BACK THIS EARLY DIDN'T YOU?!" Horaazi screamed as she stood back up, unable to move her body from Styraatu's strumming. She used her weapon to summon a wall of magic, blocking the slashes heading her way.
The earth shook once more as Joraal raised his shield too meet Naganeka's arrow. A shockwave erupted from the contact burying Joraal's feet into the ground.
A whizzing sound came from behind him. Joraal turned his head and spotted Varus floating in the air, a purple light gathering in front of him. His bow split down the ends forming an X-shape with a red bone arrow forming in the center. Varus, too had changed. His body changing to suit his fully transformed form. The two halves of his body becoming more prominent, one half covered in bone and the other in flesh and blood, veins of purple spread through both halves.
Varus let go and the wind moved away from the arrow creating a vacuum.
A silent arrow.
In the same moment, he raised his bow into the air and fired another arrow. This arrow split into multiple arrows and began to rain down on both Darkin.
BOOOOWWWW
A war horn erupted from Taarosh's mouth like halberd as he galloped above the two and swinging his weapon. The raining arrows were blown away. But Joraal still had to stop the arrow flying toward him.
Even through the insanity, his penchant for battle did not fade. He moved his sword in the path of the arrow hoping to deflect it enough to not cause too much damage. The red gem on his shield glowed, empowering the sword.
The arrow deflected by the tiniest bit, missing his body but catching the tip of his shield. A sense of urgency rushed through his insane mind as he gripped his shield harder than ever, throwing his body in the direction of the attack to lessen the force.
The flesh around his ankles tore and the bones cracked, blood sprayed out from the wound but Joraal held on.
By now, most of the mortals and thralls were decimated. The sheer pressure from the attacks being thrown around had turned them into meat paste, every further attack erasing that as well.
A roar rang through the battlefield as another Darkin rose from the blood and bone. She was covered in bone in the front, claws in hands and feet. Her shoulders sprouted out wide purple flesh-bone amalgam blades. But it wasn't that that set her apart, it was the wide tail connect to her spine and shoulders. It flicked about, the spikes on it rising along the middle, the end of the tail was fused together with the weapon. A fan. Gold bladed edges ran along the fan's edges.
She leapt toward Horaazi in an effort to beat her but she was knocked away by a spear that appeared in front of her.
Zaahen stood in front of her. His full transformation removing any sense of humanity within him. Bones and flesh jutted out from every point of his body, his wins that gave him a regal look turned demonic, looking webbed instead of flesh like.
"Praa." He spoke, his voice a row rumble.
Praa, The Beachwalker.
"Traitor." Praa replied, "I did not forget you sealing me within that temple."
"It had to be done unfortunately." Zaahen continued, "And we freed you as well."
"My allegiance is to Aatrox." She announced.
"So be it." Zaahen said as he swung his spear, sending a slash toward her.
Her fan whipped forward sending a burst of air canceling out the attack.
Zaahen titled his head to the side dodging a thrown spear, as Anaakca flew at him, leg out in a kick. His wings flapped sending him soaring into the sky.
The battle lines had been drawn.
Naganeka holding back Ibaaros.
Zaahen holding back Praa and Anaakca.
Horaazi managing both Styraatu and Joraal.
Varus facing Styraatu and occasionally sniping Joraal.
And a three way battle between Caalyx, Xolaani and Aatrox.
The subconscious fight Caalyx had always put up against the corruption dissolved as a secondary transformation took place. He felt the connection between his spear and shield deepen.
Caalyx wasn't one Darkin.
Not anymore.
He was two.
The horns on his head split from the side forming two more pointing forward. The wings on his back grew larger and became more wing-like rather than their previous sleek shape. Feathers made of bones began sprouting across it. Scales began forming across the bones on his body, each part giving away to a new layer under him. A draconian tail grew behind him, its end shaped like a trident. The flames that roared from his shoulders moved as the holes from which they erupted grew further out and sharpened. The scaly bones covering his front opened up near the chest as a blood red glow erupted from within.
The flesh surrounding his bones stretched to accommodate the changes becoming akin to ropes holding everything together, straining to do so. His face, which had held some similarity to Gregori's own had now lost it. It was a spiral of flesh and blood, a hideous result of this new form. Blood, unclaimed by the other Darkin, began to flow toward him from seemingly everywhere.
Every eye on the battlefield turned toward him as a wave of magic rippled through the battlefield.
The two who were sent tumbling back righted themselves in the air and stared at him.
"A CHANGE LIKE THIS IS NOT GOING TO PREVENT YOUR DEATH!" Aatrox roared as he flew toward him.
Xolaani watched as Caalyx's shield slammed into Aatrox, crushing his onslaught. She knew it wouldn't put him down. Aatrox was a berserker. The more he fought, the more he bled, the more he suffered. The stronger he would get. She just needed to understand this next stage that Caalyx had stepped into.
And it did not take long for her to figure it out.
The shield had looked familiar to her. It was his brother's. And seeing the lack of brother at his side..... Caalyx had somehow taken over his brother. But why was it.... that she couldn't remember his name.....
"What are you looking at?"
Her eyes swiveled as a force grabbed hold of her.
"Do you think we would tire ourselves out just for you to take the spoils?" Caalyx's voice had changed, it was now more gravely and rumbled through the battlefield.
Wind rippled as she found herself jetting toward him.
"You too." Caalyx growled, "Fight her as well." Aatrox flew out from the ground, racing toward her.
The two Darkin collided in the air.
They separated from each other with wounds, both not missing the opportunity to wound the other. But the wounds did not last, as Xolaani's blade wound and Aatrox's sickle wound healed in an instant.
The two looked at each other and an unspoken agreement passed between them. Both Darkin turned to face Caalyx.
"Oh!" Caalyx chuckled, "The traitors have teamed up?" His voice hardened as he continued, "Do you know how much I hate you? All of you! US DARKIN ARE A VLIGHT UPON THIS WORLD!"
He raised his spear to his shield.
BANG
He hit the spear against the shield.
BANG
BANG
"Now come. Let us bring about our end."