Thrown from the relative safety of the Rhino, Lauri hit the ground once - twice before he processed what was happening. Lying dazed on the ground, Lauri felt something worm its way into his mind. Suppressing the sensation, Lauri rolled onto his chest.
One hand digging into the snow, Lauri pushed himself to a kneeling position. He raised his head; it was dark, too dark. Sniffing, Lauri choked as the smoke surrounding him hit the back of his throat. Needing a source of light in order to wield [Light's Edge], Lauri infused light into his skin with [Well of Light], drawing on this light as he held up his hand, creating a sphere of light above his palm. The light comprising the ball shone outward, pushing into the murky smoke.
Moving his hand through the smoke, Lauri frowned. The light produced by the sphere only allowed Lauri to see five feet in any direction before the smoke obscured the view completely. Snowflakes fell through the light's sphere of influence – appearing from above and beside him, disappearing as they joined the greater mass on the ground.
'Not snowflakes…'
The sphere floated up from his hand as Lauri reached forward; the 'snowflakes' landed on his hand. Smudging them together, Lauri's eyes narrowed.'
'Ash.'
"Katrina! Lucky!"
Summoning seven more orbs, Lauri spread them out, attempting to extend his sight into the murky smoke, yet as the lights reached a certain distance away from Lauri, the lights simply disappeared despite their pure radiance.
"Sansa! Mele! Danse!"
Lauri spun around on his heels, his gaze flicking down to his shadow for a moment – inhuman noises cut through the silence that had surrounded Lauri for a moment. The inhuman noise sounded like a human scream mixed with the sound of branches groaning in a storm.
As he turned, Lauri caught a glimpse of something lunging out of the insidious smoke at the last second.
At a glance, it looked like a walking corpse. Its sickly green skin was stretched thin across its prominent bones; patches of its body were covered by dark, gnarled bark which grew through its skin. Its gaunt arms reached toward Lauri, bark growing beneath the nails, pushing them up; they curved, ending in sharp points.
Lauri ducked, moving back to let the arm swing clear over his head. Before the Nightmare Creature could recover, Lauri recalled the constructs back to him. The eight spheres shot toward Lauri, passing back into his field of view.
All eight slammed into the Nightmare Creature's head from different directions, killing it instantly.
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Weirwood Sapling]
Glaring at the corpse of the Weirwood Sapling, its body had gone limp, only held up by the spheres of light embedded in its skull.
Turning away from the Feeble Wretch, Lauri cupped his hand to his mouth.
"Vick!"
As he took a step forward, Lauri felt the same feeling pull at his mind. Channelling light to wrap around his mind, Lauri tensed as the feeling remained.
It was the call of a Nightmare Gate.
A dozen Feeble Wretches stepped into the light from different directions.
Drawing on the light, Lauri crafted it into a facsimile of [Her Aegis] to cover his bodysuit.
The spheres flew around Lauri, cutting a path through the snowflakes, punching through the Dormant Nightmare Creatures with ease.
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Weirwood Sapling]
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Weirwood Sapling]
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Weirwood Sapling]
Blood, gore and bark tainted the pristine white snow as Lauri dispatched the Dormant Beasts without needing to raise a finger. He turned his head, trying to figure out where the sounds of the fighting were coming from. The smoke did something to distort the sound; it was as if it came from every direction all at once.
His Irregulars were engaged in fighting these Weirwood Saplings; he would–
Something bigger broke through the smoke screen. It bent its head, lowering its antlers to spear Lauri. Raising his foot, Lauri channelled essence into his kick, driving his heel past the antlers straight into the larger Weirwood Sapling's head.
Arresting the charging monster's momentum, Lauri was thrown off balance at the same time.
Using [Light's Edge], Lauri turned the light around him into a suit of armour. The light covered his bodysuit, snapping into place reminiscent of his now destroyed [Her Aegis]. Before he hit the ground, Lauri manipulated the suit to orientate his body, lifting himself back onto his feet.
A pair of swords formed between his fingers – Lauri looked at his left hand; the sword was still floating beside his hand, waiting for his fingers to take hold of it. But beneath the translucent armour of light, Lauri could see there was nothing that could take hold of the sword.
'My God's damn arm!'
Lauri sent the second blade forward; it moved low, reaching the Nightmare Creature; it spun, digging into the back of its knee. The hit did little in the way of damage, but much as Lauri had staggered a moment ago, the strike was enough to make the abomination stumble. Lauri swung his left arm forward – the empty fingers of the armour limply waved as it cut through the flakes of ash drifting through the air.
His open fist clumsily struck the creature in the face, causing it to shift to one side. This one was different to the Weirwood Saplings; only a few sparse patches of its ill skin could be seen through bark that covered almost all of its body like a second skin. Branches extended from different points of its body; a number of large branches extended from the top of its head, forming the antlers.
And in its hands, it wielded a spear that looked like it had been grown rather than cut and sharpened.
Planting its good leg forward, it thrust the spear at Lauri's chest.
Smacking the spear aside with his left arm, Lauri returned a thrust of his own, driving his sword into the creature's empty eye socket. The other sword moved to the side, returning to stab through one of the patches of skin still visible.
With the sword lodged in its side, Lauri forced the wooden thing off balance, twisting the sword clockwise. This time, punching with his good arm, Lauri struck the hilt of his sword. The blade broke through the Nightmare Creature's skull, exiting through the rear.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Burgeoning Weirwood Wight]
Seeing more of the same Awakened Monsters push through the smoke, Lauri gritted his teeth as the call of the nearby gate washed over him. Pushing through it, Lauri raised his sword to meet the oncoming Burgeoning Weirwood Wights.
Creating a series of walls to separate them, Lauri met the closest one with his sword. For the rest he had segregated, Lauri conjured a blade of light to strike at them individually.
Lauri's manipulation of his light constructs was a skill he still had yet to truly master, despite unlocking the function near the end of his Second Nightmare, oh so many years ago. It required a level of focus even his Ascended mind couldn't fully keep up with.
The four separated Wights clashed against Lauri's swords, as he rounded on the one nearest to him. Its spear struck forward; Lauri brought his knee up, kicking it into the air. Bringing his leg down, Lauri slammed his boot into the Wight's chest, pushing it against the wall. With his next move, he drove his sword into the Wight's shoulder and manipulated the blade to keep the Wight an arm's reach from him.
Raising his good hand, Lauri began summoning [Hailrend], separated from its kind and trapped. The Wight was helpless as the cutlass appeared in Lauri's hand.
It was especially helpless as Lauri brought the Transcendent blade down on its head, killing it instantly.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Burgeoning Weirwood Wight]
Lauri's concern for his allies overwhelmed his concern for himself.
Dismissing the walls in sequence, Lauri cut through the measly Awakened Monsters.
Such a group of Nightmare Creatures may have caused an Awakened to tremble in fear, or even a newly risen Ascended. But to Lauri, he couldn't care less about them.
Shutting his mind off from anything that detracted from his concern. Lauri raised [Hailrend] as another grouping of Saplings and Wights crossed into the smoke.
'This is taking too long.'
'If I don't find them soon.'
'I could lose them all.'
Lauri's focus was split.
Half his mind was engaged in slaying the unnatural fiends.
The other half was trying to understand where his friends were; the smoke was doing something to the voices of his friends, to the sound of battle. Distorting it, one second Lauri heard Danse roaring a battle cry ahead, the next second that same roar echoed from behind him.
'How can I find them, when I'm not even sure where I am?'
Besides worrying about where his friends were thrown after the Rhino had been split in two. Lauri wasn't even aware of where the Rhino was. Despite it not feeling as if the Rhino should be near him, Lauri had not found it whilst fighting in the ash, not even any frayed remnants of it.
As he ducked under a spear made of living wood, Lauri wondered whether he should fly up above the smoke that obscured his vision.
But to do that would allow the Nightmare Creatures he was engaged with to attack his friends, and the number of creatures Lauri was fighting was undoubtedly far worse than those his allies were met with. The glowing light of his radiant soul core often attracted unwanted attention.
Just when Lauri started to lose hope in his situation.
He felt something.
It was different from the phantom pain in his missing left arm, or the mysterious damage his soul had received. Something was calling out to Lauri, pulling at his soul. And as he acknowledged the sensation, Lauri saw six pinpricks of light shining through the smoke.
Lauri did not suddenly gain the ability to see through the insidious ash and smoke; instead, his vision shifted into the sight he was able to call on that allowed him to perceive the light of an awakened soul, or the darkness of a corrupted soul. In this sight borne of his natural affinity to light, Lauri saw six soul cores, each holding a meagre store of light.
They were the soul cores of his Awakened underlings, and the light he had bestowed on them with his Ascended Ability: [Well of Light].
Now able to see his friends, Lauri rounded on one last Wight, swinging [Hailrend]; the Transcendent blade cut through its spear and bisected the wooden figure. Stepping back and into the empty space he had carved out within the attacking horde, Lauri summoned a circle of swords around him, and fired them outwards.
The next second he was gone; using [Light Dash], he moved to the closest soul he could see with this inexplicable sight.
Lauri appeared in a flash beside Danse.
Danse barely reacted as he saw Lauri appear – he had known it would only be a matter of time until his captain appeared to save the day – fighting back to back, neither spoke as Lauri took the pressure off Danse's shoulders. A moment ago he had almost been overwhelmed by the attacking Weirwoods.
With the wound Danse had gained from the Whispering King, he was unable to fight at his peak.
When enough of the attackers had been culled, Lauri cast his gaze to the nearest soul.
Raising his hand, Lauri held up a sphere.
"Follow this. I will guide you through the smoke."
Clutching his chest, Danse nodded.
Lauri was off again.
Mele and Sansa were engaged with a group of Saplings. Despite only being Dormant Beasts, the two ladies were at a disadvantage as they were primarily ranged combatants - Mele especially. So engaged with a swarm of Nightmare Creatures within the suffocating smoke, they were slowly losing.
Until Lauri appeared in the middle of the Nightmare Creatures in a flash of light.
Lauri dispatched the gathered Weirwood saplings. Now that he was slowly reuniting with his team, he felt his nerves beginning to relax. Turning to Mele and Sansa, he would ask:
"Are you two alright?"
Looking at Sansa, Mele held her wrist and pulled the other woman forward a few steps closer to Lauri, the ever-disgusting [Pack's Alligences] held in her other hand. Lauri didn't fail to spot Sansa limping as she moved.
"We're fine, but where are the others?"
Casting his gaze into the smoke, Lauri saw three souls gathered near to each other: Lucky, Katrina and Vick. With one soul approaching them – Danse – guided by the sphere, Lauri was moving in the direction of the other three.
Turning back to Sansa and Mele, Lauri noticed blood dripping down Sansa's thigh.
"I'll ask again: are you two alright?"
Mele and Sansa exchanged glances.
"It was stupid."
Sansa's face twisted in pain for a moment before she continued.
"One of those things caught me right when they first attacked us. I-I-"
Lauri held up his hand. Looking over Sansa's shoulder, a Wight emerged from the smoke and was subsequently pruned. Cutting his gaze to Sansa, he would ask one last question:
"Can you walk?"
"I can."
"Then stay behind me."
More Saplings and Weights emerged from out of the smoke as they began to move. Whatever these Nightmare Creatures were tied to – the Weirwood – seemed to have boundless amounts of them.
'We're only lucky the Gate Guardian hasn't… Found us? Emerged from the Nightmare Gate?'
Lauri gritted his teeth, looking back to Lucky, Katrina and Vick. He wanted to dash over to them and check that they were okay, especially Vick, considering that she was in the front half of the rhino when it broke. But that would mean leaving Sansa and Mele alone to fend for themselves.
Looking over his shoulder, Lauri bit his lip.
Things weren't looking good for the duo. Mele seemed fine, but Sansa was still limping, leaning heavily on her friend for support as they followed the path Lauri made for them. It was a miracle in and of itself that they had managed to survive within the smoke as long as they had.
'Although… I'm not sure how I feel that two of my Irregulars were nearly overwhelmed by Dormant Beasts, I'll have to speak with them when this is all cleared up.'
With Lauri leading the way, they quickly made it to the others.
As they reached their destination, Danse and Katrina came into view through the smoke. A lull in the fighting afforded the group a moment to breathe. Walking up to them, Lauri squinted into the smoke in the direction of Vick and Lucky.
"How is everyone?"
As Danse was about to speak, Lucky appeared.
He somehow seemed even paler than before the rhino was split in two.
"She's not–"
Danse put his hand in Lucky's way, stopping him from finishing the sentence.
He turned to Lauri.
"Lauri, go find the Gate Guardian. It has got to be the cause of this smoke."
Danse's tone was cold.
Taking a step forward, Lauri gave Danse a long, hard look.
"Is something wrong with Vick?"
Without pause, Danse stepped toward Lauri. The imposing man looked down on his superior.
"Vick is fine… Lauri, please, kill that monster."
Unable to bring himself to argue or look at his Irregulars, Lauri summoned a number of spheres to illuminate the smoke as best they could before he tore his gaze away from the light of Vick's soul core and threw himself into the dark smoke.