Granite Podium Arc: Part 7 [Rewritten]
My eyes could widen no further as I stared at the three spears. Surprisingly, the crude steel end did very little to my chest and abdomen. The arrow-headed blades on the steel rods did push my abs in somewhat, and the force nearly had me winded, but there was no real damage to report. I’ve taken harder hits than that in my sleep from my brother, actually, and the dogs in front of me looked just as gobsmacked.
The three guards also had their mouths wide open comically, making me blink. We continued to at each other like all four of our moms were just slapped by recently-caught trout, and we were there in the dark alley where it happened.
For these five seconds, my mind was on pause. And then, like reflex almost, my arm came up and the first shot of the revolution exploded from the three barrels like a roar of a dragon choir. Where those three guards once stood gobsmacked with me, now stood three charred tree stumps of six legs.
It took me a moment to register what happened, but when the action caught up, I knew I had just succeeded in blowing the top halves of the guards - armor and all - completely into oblivion. At that point in time, I lifted Blowback up to my eye horizontally in pure shock. The wave of condensed sky-blue Hearth’s Fire that roared out left the entire tunnel ablaze in some areas, and seriously scorched in others.
I was brought out of my appreciation of the damage by the loud sizzling the bodies were emitting, then bore witness to what was going to be the most awesome thing ever... they fell back slowly. No, I do not know how it was possible, but these stumps disregarded physics for a couple of seconds and Bullet Time’d their way down.
Shaking my head clear of the purely awesome feat, I vaulted the bodies and ran down the corridor. The sound of madness, so crisp, echoed through every tunnel. I heard battles raging, and the sound of steel against iron and steel. It was a chorus of battle, and it only fueled my adrenaline.
The path I was taking at the moment led me down a long hallway, with torches on either side. Surprisingly enough, this area was clear of guards. Still, I kept Blowback at the ready, and had a twitchy claw around my other pistol. While touching my weapons, my head began to swim with one thought, and that was of my girlfriend.
“We just got together, and some fucked up shit like this happens. It’s almost like I’m a trouble magnet or som-” By pure instinct alone, I ducked suddenly. As it would stand, my ears were blasted with concussive sound by a loud explosion directly above me. Rolling forward, I heard the tell-tale sign of a cave-in beginning, and it frightened me into holstering my weapon and making a dead run for the the opening at the other end of the hall.
This was the fastest sprint of my life, and the deep rumble and yells of deadly plummets alluded to the fact that people were falling down from a floor above, and then being crushed by the debris. They were fighting so hard for their freedom, that they were killing themselves in the process.
I tried blocking out the screams of perishing life, and succeeded in doing so when I finally reached the end of the hall. I was not prepared for the sight of a large spiral staircase carved out of the wall. Going both up and down, I scanned both ways, watching as slaves and guards duked it out. Some of the guards were knocked off the steps, falling who knows how far down into the warren’s deepest recesses.
My job, however, did not involve going down. Instead, I booked it for the upper levels, snapping open my wings and flapping quickly into a rapid ascent. The sound of my massive wings beating made a couple of diamond dogs and slaves stop fighting to stare as I zoomed past many levels. The wind whipped my face hotly, letting me know that I was still inside a mountain, but I eventually reached the peak of the tunnels and landed with a claw and knee on the ground.
Flicking my head up, I surveyed the area with analytical eyes. In front of me, in the tunnel some way down, I could make out the clashes of steel and the sparking of swords on pickaxes. But first, I folded up my wings before tearing down the tunnel.
As I ran again, I saw a large green minotaur battling about three diamond dogs, getting hacked across the abdomen with crude swords and maces. This made me snarl a bit and change my direction to charge the guards from behind. Leaping onto the wall and digging my claws into the surface, I kicked off of it and spun into a devastating roundhouse kick on the helmet of the leftmost guard.
A sickening crunch of his shoddy grey helmet made me snicker through a hiss of pain as I felt my leg bruise up and sting, but the attack was great enough to send the massive dog into his two other partners. Apparently, these dogs never heard of surrounding an opponent in a circle.
All three of them soon found themselves against the wall, just to be on the receiving end of a devastating shoulder charge from the white-horned massive bull. All of them crunched like tin cans before giving a final choked-off yelp, crumpling to the ground as bent mutts. I winced at the brutal death they were given.
I walked up to the massive minotaur and quickly discovered that he had some massive bleeding gashes going for him all across his chest, and worse of all, he was missing his left eye. Frowning, I placed a claw on his shoulder, getting him to look over his shoulder while huffing deeply and dropping his pickaxes.
“ A dragon?.... Silas Epista?” His voice was deep enough to make my arm vibrate. I gave a nod to the large bull and shook his massive hand. He was about two feet taller than myself. “It’s good to meet the Granite Savior in person....” He huffed a bit here, wincing once or twice and making me wish I had some way to help him. “... Name’s Dennis... Dennis Manchester Lehigh... I was the local blacksmith in Stonehaven... been in the shackles for damn near 10 years.”
“Now I know why he’s so fucking huge. This guy could lift mountains for sport.” I gave a nod at Dennis and pointed down the hallway. “Does this tunnel lead to Otto’s Level,” I asked with a couple huffs of my own, those two runs and rapid ascents finally doing a number on my stamina.
Dennis nodded once, then smiled at me. “... Yeah, I heard you’re lookin’ fer a pony gal’. Good luck... I got a sister that needs findin’, too.”
“A sister?”
“Aye,” he replied with a scratch of his rugged black stubble and shaggy hair. “Dominika Lehigh... you might know ‘er as Donna? Sweet gal, my sis’.” His eye seemed to become distant, obviously reminiscing some fond memory he had of his sister.
It took me a couple seconds, but I eventually realized that I knew the woman he was talking about, and at my realization, my eyes widened. “... I know here. Dominika Lehigh, the secretary of The Tipsy Clover, right?”
Dennis blinked, then nodded furiously. “Uh huh! That’s good ol’ Donna, alright! I came up here lookin’ for her!”
“Then you’re in luck, Dennis,” I responded, making my way down the tunnel with a stiff walk to keep me on pace with the massive bull. “I happen to be comin’ up here for a loved one as well.”
Dennis nodded out the corner of my eye. “Great, that means we got’s mutts to kill together. Time these sons of bitches found out why you don’t fuck with a purebread Bullivian Bull, or his family.”
“... I’m not even the enemy, but I’m scared of Dennis.... what an intimidating example of male....” Shaking my head of the stupid thought, I followed Dennis through a set of tunnels, and eventually found myself at a weirdly-shaped... well... podium. “... The fuck is this?”
Dennis stopped and observed the fighting in here, making sure we were safe, before addressing me. “This is The Podium - a tortue device I’ve seen way too many times.” After saying this, Dennis pointed at his left eye, and I winced as burn marks numbering ten went vertically down the socket. He then pointed to a giant diamond being held in the air some ways above the structure of cobblestone.
... I pieced two and two together when I say the controllable skylight above the diamond. “... It’s a giant magnifying glass that they use to burn flesh, right?”
“... I’m surprised you figured it out so fast.”
I looked at Dennis with a snarl. “For every gash on your eye, a dog’s head is gonna roll.”
Dennis snickered at that point in time, flashing me a cheeky grin. “That’ll make twenty, because I already got what’s mine.” He pointed at the necklace made of slate, housing a canine for every dog he killed until the debt was repaid... ten canines. “And I plan on adding more after I leave here... they took something permanent...”
“I understand completely, my friend.” We broke out into a run, the surrounding onslaught of slave versus guard enveloping us in its bedlam. I heard Dennis give a roar of triumph, then saw him grip a diamond dog by his head, snap its neck, and begin using the dead body as a mace against other foes.
... I blinked at that. “... Well shit.” After gawking at the sheer strength of that one bull, and the surge of courage that horrendous act of violence, I shook my head with a small chuckle of disgust and drew my left pistol.
Speaking its name, Precision hummed to life and the numbers appeared along its hammer. Grinning like a maniac, I spun around and shoved the barrel into the maw of an approaching diamond dog, letting his spear bruise my abdomen. “You’re goin’ out like Hitler.” I slammed the grip down, opening the dog’s mouth further before firing up.
When the roar of my weapon subsided, the diamond dog was left looking like a Looney Tunes gag reel with the exploding cigar. He fell back slowly, making me give a short snarl as the bedlam stopped to stare at me. Apparently, the slaves and mutts found the use of my weapon interesting enough to stop the fight for their lives.
.... About 5,000 eyes were on me.
Blinks a couple of times, I turned around in a slow circle and frowned at them. “Alright, stopping and staring is rude. Go back to fighting for your lives.” At first, my instructions held no weight to them, the congregation continuing to stare at my smoking barrel and the exploded head of the guard that was currently leaking charred grey matter.
But then, almost as if thanking me for earlier, Dennis barreled through a thick portion of guards while giving a roar and swing of his impromptu weapon. Somewhere around the margin of four guards were knocked flat, and then trampled underneath his boulder-like legs. They exploded like pent-up tubes of toothpaste, making me grimace at the violent scene as Dennis’s legs became enveloped in the gore of his recent kills.
That was all it took for hell to break loose again.
Two more shots rung true from Precision, before I winged it into the air and flapped to the top of The Podium, looking down at everyone fighting for their lives. Dennis, although maimed quite well, was laying an unholy amount of smackdown on all of the mutts that felt brave enough to fight him. They jumped him in numbers, and fell back dead the same.
I blinked as he left a trail of carnage leading up to me, his amount of gashes doubled as hot-red blood leaked down his body. His face was torn up in a permanent growl, and his black pupils had turned red as the blood that leaked... he was raging.
“Keep comin’ this way, Dennis!” I layed down covering fire carefully, picking my targets with the help of Draconic Sightline. Heads exploded, limbs flew, and bodies were flung by the minotaur as a tango of death and chaos. Every kill he gained gave Dennis a surge of adrenaline, or so it seemed, cause the massive bull showed no signs of fatigue.
Still, the battle to reach the base of The Podium was taking its toll in blood, and I knew cauterization would be the only way to save him from blood los-
My eyes widened as I stumbled a bit, watching as Dennis used his powerful legs to spring onto The Podium and drive his log-like fingers through the stone, cracking the adjacent areas.
“Come on, Dennis! Get up here!” My encouraging words stirred yet another fire under the bull man as he began a mechanical climb up to where I was, and I took note of about three swords sticking out of his back. Wincing at that, I leaned over the edge and extended my claw, hoping to ease the pain and suffering of climbing.
Dennis’s red eyes subsided then and there as he grabbed my claw, making me wince at the inhuman strength that nearly ripped my arm out of place. He pulled himself up with a terrifying roar, and then flopped onto his stomach, utterly exhausted. It was then that I took note of the massive golden ring in his nose, with a dragon head opened in a roar at the bottom of it.
It only served to amplify how much of a terrifying sight he was. “... Holy hell, Dennis... what the...”
The bull man grunted and proceeded to jab a thumb back at the swords in his back.
Nodding quickly, I went to work pulling each one out with a wince as Dennis gave a short yell for each. “I’ve never seen anything take so much abuse and live to tell the tale.... I’m honestly speechless right now.”
“.... Fire... cauterize... bleeding out...”
Grimacing, I knew the horrid act had to be done for my newly-found friend. Kneeling quickly, I hovered over a wound, sucked in some air, and then breathed a healthy plume of dark-blue flame on the wound.
Dennis responded by blasting in the face with a mighty backfist. Falling back onto my butt, I felt everything become jelly and saw my vision cloud up drastically. My mouth hung open as I struggled to stay conscious, and I had to crack it back into place. If that backfist was aimed just a smidgen lower, Dennis would have snapped my neck.
“.... Warn me next time...” His voice was a constant hiss of pain as my vision cleared up, and I instantly retched at his scabbed wound. There were two more to go, and I prayed that Dennis could keep his reactions under wraps enough to avoid a traumatizing - or worse yet - fatal blow.
Groaning a bit as I shook the clouds from my head, I went back over to his side with a sigh. “Nice backfist, Dennis... you’re pretty strong...”
“Silas, now’s not the time... please heal me...”
Nodding in determination, the rest of his wounds were soon cauterized, and Dennis took a moment before getting up on a knee. I widened my eyes at how well he was shrugging off pain like that, but then I remembered that he was a blacksmith, and probably burnt himself everyday.
“... Thanks...” Rising to his hooves, Dennis rolled his neck and took note of the area surrounding us. “... This place quickly dropped to hell...” He pointed at a ramp in the distance that circled around into some steps that led to the ledges above us. “We need to reach that ramp to go to the highest levels. Otto has a thang for cuties, so he’s probably got your girl and my sister in the Canopy.
“He better not of touched my girlfriend.” Growling under my breath, I began a purposeful walk to the edge of The Podium, just to see something truly impressive. The slaves that were fighting below us were pushing the armed guards back with their numbers, backing the slavers into another tunnel. I then saw two griffons wing in with dynamite and drop it off at the edges of the cave.
I waited for the slaves to back off enough, letting a couple of the diamond dogs run out into grabbing hands that quickly ripped them to shreds, armor and all, before I yelled, “GET AWAY FROM THE TUNNEL!”
The effect was instant as the slaves made a dead run for cover, and I fired a slug-sized round from the barrel of Precision. It roared through the air, before hitting a red barrel of dynamite. The effect was instant, loud, and huge. Quite frankly, I thought a pillar of sky-blue and black hellfire erupted in that one section of The Podium, and I knew it had traveled into the tunnel and did away with whatever was inside.
Rubble came down like hail, blocking the tunnel off, and the slaves gave a triumphant roar of victory as they turned to me. We had succeeded in driving off the guards, and I didn’t even have to direct them to do anything.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” I gave a grin, then a gasp of pain as Dennis patted my back. I rubbed the sore area and looked at him with a raised eyebrow, making the homey minotaur cock a smile at me.
“You’re a dragon, stop acting so fragile.”
“... Do you not see the size difference between us?”
“Yah, I do. Still, you got scales and I got skin. Worst I can do is bruise you.”
I gave a nervous chuckle and nod of my head, secretly thinking, “You nearly killed me earlier...”
Dennis kept his warm smile on and sat down on the edge of The Podium, scratching at one of the many cauterized gashes on his chest. There were some tears and bleeding on his beefy fingers, but he didn’t want me to heal those. “... So, we’re moving on, Granite Savior?”
“It’s just Silas, Dennis. I don’t really care for titles.” I sat next to him with a chuckle, surveying the relaxing slaves as they dressed their wounds with dirty cloth or healing salves from the belts of dead Beta Dogs. “And no, because you need to rest. I don’t care how you’re feeling right now; I won’t have you falling dead while watching my back.”
“... Watching your back,” Dennis asked smugly, giving a short guffaw of mirth. “Hell, Silas, you were watching mine pretty well. No need ta’ fix what ain’t broke.” He sighed and stretched, looking up at the diamond above us... the truly massive diamond. “Bet that’s worth a pretty bit.”
Looking at Dennis with pursed lips and a small chuckle, I shook my head and began to lazily spin Precision. “Are you thinking about taking this place’s pride an’ joy? That’d be funny, but how the hell are we going to get it out of...” I twirled my free claw a bit, searching for the word as I gestured all around us. “... this.”
“Don’t worry about that none, Silas. The others and I will see to it.” Against my earlier wishes, Dennis climbed to his intimidating 8’10’’ height. Surprisingly, he really showcased being fine and rested up, because he gave no wince or show of even minute pain or displeasure while doing so.
I followed suit, standing up myself and dusting my lower half off. “I guess we can start moving out, now. The others have seized The Podium, so this should be a safe zone for us to regroup at if things become hairy further up.” We begun a brisk walk down the steps leading up to The Podium’s surface.
“If those Alpha Brothers are anywhere right now, it’s The Vault. Surprisingly, it’s at the tippy top of the warren.” Dennis’s steps were loud and thunderous, even when he was stepping normally. Many of the slaves looked at us in silent awe as we came down, whispering among themselves.
“If that’s the case, then Sunset’s probably making her way down here to look for me. There’ll be two diamond dogs by the names of Diamond and Wergal Everwinter with her, probably. Should that be the case, don’t attack them; they’re on our side.” When we finally reached the bottom, some of the slaves offered quick thanks and praises to us both with happy smiles. I returned them in kind, and from the way Dennis chuckled, I knew he returned some as well.
“Turncoats, eh,” He asked with another small chuckle. “Gotta say, I didn’t think dogs would turn on each other... loyalty and all that.”
“You’d be surprised on how quick the best of friends and comrades turn on you to save their own hides. Everyone is selfish, and it’s within your best interest to keep that in mind when dealing with others.” I sighed. “Sorry, that was rather out of the blue and very... disheartening. I’ve had my fair share of betrayals, and I just feel as though no one should go through that pain or cause it.”
Dennis grunted then and there, and it was the type of grunt that symbolized agreeance. “I hear ya’, pal. Getting stabbed in the back sucks... and I should know.” He gave a short guffaw, making me snicker as I remembered his wounds from earlier.
“... Idiot,” I responded, holding my face with a claw as I laughed some.
“You forgot attractive, funny, and bloody almighty.”
“It’s a good thing I left out modest, too.”
We continued to throw verbal jabs at each other as we neared the ramp. I knew we had a tough time ahead of us, and I couldn’t help but wonder once or twice about the whereabouts of my girl. The very idea of losing her down here caused me to walk a little faster.
“Where’s the fire, Silas?” Dennis asked as he walked a little faster to keep pace.
At that point in time, a sudden blaze of black and light-blue fire exploded forth from a tunnel above us on a ledge. That made my eyes widen, because I knew that certain light-blue coloring anywhere!
“It’s up there, Dennis!” I took off, hearing Dennis give close chase after me as we ascended up, trying to reach where the explosion came from as quickly as we could. Along the way, I found myself praying for my girlfriend’s safety, and for that explosion to not be a distress flare of some sort.
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4562750
Yup, sorry about that; had a lot of stuff on my plate (Most of it being hilariously asinine...). In a related note, the next chapter shouldn't take as long as this one, but we'll have to see. I kinda found my mojo again, and I don't plan on losing it anytime soon!
Just wondering. Why is it set to complete when the last chapter ends in the middle of the Granite Podium Arc?
4625290 Got lazy and didn't decide to change it, lol.
4630583 umm, what happened to selenas grace and muh shoutout? for making all the other groups?
4677141 It's coming. Got to get to Canterlot first.
4678153 sweet. u gonna use the names? and i kinda liked it when bolas wasnt killed. because bolas is so powerful, if something is powerful enough to kill him with ease, thats just way too much power.
4678798 That wasn't the real Bolas that was killed, just an Avatar. This was done during the point in time where Bolas was still suffering from The Mending, so even his Avatar was sub par in power. Were it the real Nicol Bolas, Silas would have gotten his ass handed to him on a silver platter.
And to answer your question, Selena's Grace is going to be a secret society. Of what, I will not say.
4680251 ah. u still have my original comment?
4680305 No.
4680335 darn
i mean, i won the internet for a day!
4680358
Rip and tear... Untill -it- is DONE!