Four Horsemen Book 5 - Old Histories: Chapter 11

Petor appeared near the juggernaut that Valter was fighting, his spear glowed with an emerald aura as roots and vines that had dropped to the floor earlier wrapped around their legs. The holy warrior staggered, their momentum suddenly checked by the grasping plants.

Not wasting the opening, Petor thrust his spear into a gap in the juggernaut's side armor. The warrior let out a pained grunt, their stance faltering. That moment of weakness was all Valter needed. The Deathless surged forward, his thermal blade blazing as it crashed into the juggernaut's helmet. The impact rang through the chamber, the blessed metal cracking under the force.

The juggernaut turned, tearing out the spear and whipping his sword at Valter.

Petor kept the pressure on, commanding more plants to erupt from the ground. They coiled around the juggernauts' ankles and knees, yanking their feet out from under them. As the warriors struggled to maintain their balance, Valter pressed forward. 

Valter's blade struck again and again, each blow enhanced by waves of searing heat or biting cold. The thermal attacks wore down the juggernauts' blessed protection while Petor's plants continued to sap their strength and he jabbed at the juggernaut's openings.  Their previously impenetrable defense began to crack under the relentless assault.

Petor caught glimpses of Mya's battle through the chaos. Her movements were a lethal dance, each step calculated as she faced off against the towering juggernaut. The holy warrior's hammer crashed down where she had been a heartbeat before, but Mya was already moving. Her cutlass sang through the air, finding gaps between armor plates that Petor hadn't even noticed were there.

The juggernaut pressed forward with crushing force, their blessed hammer trailing holy light as it swept through the air. Mya flowed around the attack like water, her blade leaving bright lines of blood across their armor joints. Each strike precise, each movement economical.

When the hammer came around again in a horizontal arc that would have taken her head off, Mya dropped and rolled. Her cutlass flashed upward, slicing through the tendons behind the juggernaut's knee. The holy warrior's leg buckled, and they crashed down onto one knee with a sound like a falling tree.

Before they could recover, Mya was behind them, as graceful as a cat. She pressed her pistol between their back armor and helmet. Her voice cut through the sounds of combat, sharp and cold as winter frost.

"Tell your god I will come for him."

She pulled the trigger, blood sprayed out from the juggernaut before he toppled forward, hitting the stone floor with a thunderous crash that echoed through the chamber.

Petor channeled his power into the roots wrapped around the juggernaut he and Valter faced, yanking hard. The holy warrior stumbled, his weight shifting awkwardly as the plants pulled his feet in opposite directions. The warrior's sword arm flew wide, trying to maintain balance.

Valter materialized from the warrior's blind spot, his thermal blade humming with barely contained energy. In one fluid motion, he drove the sword up under the chest plate, finding the gap where armor plates met. The blessed steel offered little resistance against the mythical weapon.

"Petor!"

While the juggernaut was still reeling from Valter's strike, Petor lunged forward. His spear slipped through the opposite side of the warrior's armor, the blessed weapon piercing deep. The juggernaut's essence flowed into him through the connection, raw power tingling through Petor's arms as he drained the dying warrior's strength.

His sword tumbled from grip as his strength evaporate.

Petor and Valter wrenched their weapons free. The juggernaut collapsed, blood pooling beneath the corpse as his blessed armor lost its divine glow.

Petor readied his spear, feeling the absorbed essence of their fallen enemy coursing through him as he squared off against their next opponent.

He reached towards the plants around the juggernaut, working to ensnare and trap the man.

They turned as one to face the juggernaut facing down three of Valter's armors. 

Despite the warrior's imposing presence, his attacks had grown sluggish, his divine armor scarred and dulled. Blood stains showed where earlier blows had found their mark. Petor's fingers tightened around his spear shaft as he analyzed their opponent.

"He's on his last legs," Petor said, keeping his voice steady despite the exhaustion seeping into his bones. "But that doesn't make him any less dangerous."

Beside him, Valter grunted and raised his thermal blade, its surface rippling with heat distortions his shield warped and dented from the fight. "But there's only one of him, and there's two of us."

Petor gripped his spear tighter as they both charged the juggernaut.

The juggernaut's roar shook dust from the temple ceiling. Divine energy pulsed through his frame as he ripped free of the constricting vines, shredding Petor's plants with raw strength. The warrior's hammer swept out in a devastating arc, catching one of Valter's animated armors square in the chest. The construct went flying, crashing into the far wall with a sound of shrieking metal before crumpling to the floor.

Its dimantium leg bracer shot towards Valter, the mithril version on Valter's leg stored away as the dimantium version locked into place.

The juggernaut pivoted toward Valter, blessed hammer held high. 

His hammer crashed into Valter's shield, another crack spider-webbing across its surface. Yet the Deathless didn't yield, meeting the juggernaut blow for blow. His thermal blade left trails of steam in the air as he pressed forward, forcing their opponent back with a relentless series of precise strikes.

Petor flickered around the juggernaut, his footwork precise on the blood-slicked stone floor. The spear in his hands became an extension of his will, striking with serpentine precision. Each thrust found the growing gaps between blessed armor plates - beneath the arm, behind the knee, at the waist where the plates didn't quite meet anymore.

Dark blood welled from these wounds, as Petor leeched the Juggernaut's life away. 

A particularly vicious thrust caught the gap at the back of the knee, and the juggernaut finally dropped. His hammer slipped from weakened fingers as he fell heavily to one knee, blessed armor scraping against stone. Blood ran in rivulets down the ornate plate, pooling on the temple floor.

The warrior's helmet lifted slowly, the dimming light within its visor fixed on Petor and Valter. Blood trickled from the seams of his faceplate as he spoke, his voice raw and shaking but filled with zealous certainty.

"The gods... will never forgive you." Each word seemed to cost him greatly, yet conviction burned in his tone. "You may win this battle, but their judgment is eternal."

Valter stood over him, thermal blade still crackling with barely contained energy. His face was set in grim lines as he looked down at their fallen enemy. "Its good that gods can die."

The juggernaut tried to hit Valter with his shield, Valter used an thermal blast, half jogging  as he slowed his momentum.

The Juggernaut slumped and collapsed to the temple's floor. Petor leeching his remaining energy away.

Petor pulled back to catch his breath, his muscles aching from the constant drain of power. I must have drawn and depleted my core a dozen times and spread that power to the others too.  He could feel the strain in his core and through his channels.

He turned towards the vault.

"Just three more left."

Desari's elemental arrows multiplied mid-flight to slam into the advancing juggernauts' tower shields, each impact sending visible shockwaves through the air. Their blessed armor blazed as they forged forwards.

A fire-infused arrow left Desari's bow, its shaft splitting apart like a blooming flower of flame. Dozens of burning missiles rained down on the juggernauts, detonating against their shields in a cascade of explosions. Heat washed through the temple.

Petor lowered his hand as flames licked across the stone floor, momentarily hiding the warriors behind a wall of smoke and fire.

Desari switched to frost arrows. The temperature in the chamber plummeted as icy projectiles shattered on impact, spreading patches of treacherous frost beneath the juggernauts' armored boots. Their steady advance faltered slightly before they slammed their feet through the ice and the stone beneath.

Mya worked her rifle with mechanical precision. The weapon's sharp reports echoed off the temple walls as she fired repeatedly at the advancing warriors. Her bullets struck their armor with metallic pings, most deflecting off the blessed plate that glowed with divine protection. Each shot targeted joints and seams, searching for vulnerabilities.

Mya's face tightened with frustration as another round ricocheted.

"Hit them from behind with spells! Throw them forward!" Valter shouted to Petor over the din of battle. His thermal blade hummed in his grip, the runes pulsing with stored energy as he channeled his power through the weapon. "I've got the one on the right."

Petor conjured an arcane nova and looked at Valter. "Now!" 

With a thunderous crack, mana spun together into a denser and denser sphere before it detonated behind the left juggernaut. The blast wave caught the warrior square in the back, launching him forward. His shield dropped as he stumbled, arms wheeling to maintain balance on the icy floor.

The air behind the second juggernaut warped and twisted as he compressed it into an ever-tighter space. For a heartbeat, the air itself seemed to bend light around it. Then it erupted.

The thermal blast rocked the temple chamber. The right juggernaut pitched forward violently, his perfect stance shattering as the compressed air detonated against his back. That launched him forward.

Desari's fingers moved with practiced precision, drawing and releasing arrows in a fluid rhythm. The air crackled as lightning-infused projectiles split mid-flight, transforming into a deadly web of electricity. Her arrows found their marks, slipping through the gaps exposed by the juggernauts' compromised stances. Blue-white energy danced across their blessed armor, causing the massive warriors to jerk and twitch as the current disrupted their movements.

Mya aimed where Desari had hit. Blessed metal splintered under the sustained barrage, enchantments flickering and failing as Mya's rounds found purchase.

The temple floor fractured beneath Valter and Petor's charge, their boots leaving spiderweb cracks in the ancient stone. Valter's remaining armored constructs moved in perfect sync with their master. The sound of their advance echoed through the chamber like approaching thunder.

Valter crashed into the right juggernaut with devastating force. His shield connected with the holy warrior's defense, the impact reverberating through the chamber. The warrior staggered backward, his perfect stance broken.

Petor launched himself at the left juggernaut, his spear finding the gap in the warrior's side where Desari's arrows had struck. As the blessed metal parted, Petor channeled his power through the weapon detonating an arcane nova that threw the man to the side, Petor stabilized himself, his head swimming from the high mana usage.

Valter's thermal blade sang through the air, leaving a trail of heat distortion as it slammed into the juggernaut's chest plate. Divine metal screamed in protest as the mythical weapon bit deep, carving a glowing furrow across the blessed armor. The juggernaut roared, swinging his mace in a desperate arc.

Valter dropped low, the weapon whistling overhead. His constructs moved with fluid grace, flanking the holy warrior from both sides. The first armor's blade found the gap behind the juggernaut's knee, steel parting flesh and tendon. The warrior's leg buckled, forcing him to one knee with a crash that shook the temple floor.

Valter stepped forward, thermal blade humming with barely contained power. The weapon punched through the warrior's helm, ending his defiance in a spray of blood and blessed metal.

Petor's opponent tore at the vines wrapped around his limbs. Plant matter ripped and snapped under divine-enhanced strength.

Desari's frost arrow struck true, embedding itself in the warrior's shoulder joint. Ice spread rapidly across the blessed plate, freezing the mechanisms and limiting his movement. The juggernaut's arm hung useless at his side, frost crackling across the metal surface.

Petor conjured an arcane blast, knocking the man to the ground and breaking the plants wrapping around him.

Petor lunged forward, driving his spear through the weakened armor.

The man gasped and  slumped, his essence joining with Petor's. The sound of heated metal cooling filling the temple's sudden silence. The rush of power revitalizing him.

Petor surveyed the carnage-strewn temple chamber, his legs trembling beneath him. Only the stolen life force of fallen champions kept him from collapsing among the bodies. Blood and frost coated the cracked stone floor, while scorch marks painted the walls black where spells had missed their marks.

Valter was taking a knee, his armor dented and scored. Blood seeped from gaps in the plates, and his breathing came in ragged gasps. 

His shield was bent and scarred. He stored it away and pulled the shield from the juggernaut he'd been fighting free and strapped it to his arm, testing it out.

Even his animated constructs showed signs of the brutal fighting, their mithril forms bent and scarred.

Across the chamber, Desari's hands shook as she gripped her legendary bow. The weapon's glow had dimmed, matching its wielder's exhaustion. Her usual fluid grace had given way to rigid movements that spoke of burning muscles and depleted mana.

Only Mya maintained her rigid posture, though Petor caught the slight tremor in her movements, the way her eyes darted between shadows as if expecting another wave of enemies to materialize.

Petor closed his eyes, reaching deep into the well of power he'd drained from their fallen foes and spread it out to the other four horsemen.

The deep gashes in Valter's armor began to seal themselves, the metal flowing like water to cover exposed flesh. Desari's trembling hands steadied on her bow, her posture straightening as strength returned. Mya glanced back at him, gratitude flickering across her battle-worn features.

"That's all I've got," Petor said, his voice low but unwavering. "Use it wisely."

"We have to go else Kalvor will claim all of the souls within the vault," Mya said.

She started forward towards the vault. Petor downed a mana recovering potion and stamina potion, reaching out to the fallen juggernaut and storing them away. Othir armor is damn hard to find.

Several small storage devices clattered to the ground - lockets, rings, and bracelets that had been concealed beneath the juggernaut's armor. He scooped them up, dropping them into a leather pouch at his hip.

Valter and Desari did the same, collecting all of the juggernauts and storage devices.