Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

613 - Coup de Grace Under Fire

Dark Streak snickered to herself as she watched Lex Legis stumble backward, howling as he held one hoof over his ruined eye.

She wasn’t sure what sort of curse he’d tried to put on her, but that he’d made the attempt was obvious. Despite his magical attack lacking anything that could be seen or heard, there’d been the briefest sensation of being enveloped by something foul, causing her breath to catch in her chest. It had been enough to send a rush of genuine concern through her, worried that her precautions had been insufficient.

Curses, as it turned out, were hard to defend against. You could wear armor to protect yourself against swords and knives, and safeguards against direct magical attacks like fireballs or frost rays were easy to acquire if you had the money or the know-how. But curses? What were you supposed to do against those?

Her cloak had a general ward woven into it, the sort that was supposed to provide modest protection against a range of malign effects, but Dark Streak hadn’t been willing to put all of her trust in that. After all, her target was supposed to be a savant where curses were concerned; Dark Streak had no intention of finishing Lex Legis off only to find that, in his last moments, he’d laid some sort of lifelong affliction on her. Special measures needed to be utilized.

Her options in that area had been slim, however. The recipe book she’d taken after slaying the alchemist who’d made her into a spellcaster had mentioned only a single tincture – a synthetic version of a substance called “mumia” – designed to protect against “imprecations, execrations, and maledictions most foul.” It was an ironic description, since the brew itself was a disgusting concoction of embalming fluids and liquefied animal organs. Despite the book’s assertions that a dollop of honey was a vital ingredient, Dark Streak had been of the opinion that it was more likely an attempt to mask the flavor of the foul brew. If so, it hadn’t worked.

As it was, she’d needed to wash it down with a stimulant in order to counteract the fatigue that was the drug’s primary side effect. Fortunately, that had worked, even if it left her feeling vaguely jittery and a touch unfocused. It wasn’t pleasant, and she knew it would be even less pleasant as the various substances worked their way out of her system over the next few days.

But as much as Dark Streak had disliked the idea of being under the influence of a cocktail of alchemical substances, especially during a life-or-death battle, it had been that or go up against Lex Legis’s curse magic au natural. Based on what Willow had told her, along with what she’d learned from interrogating that pegasus maid, it had been an easy choice to make.

Not to mention the right choice, since it had allowed her to shrug off his vile magic almost as soon as it had touched her, surprising him enough that she’d been able to take his eye.

And now, she swore as she rushed forward, daggers raised in preparation for the deathblow, I’ll take your head.

Lex Legis hadn’t been too tough of an opponent. The magic he’d used during their fight had come nowhere close to the various tales she’d been told about him. No huge astral constructs, no disintegration rays, no orbs of lightning. Either his spellcasting ability was more compromised than she’d been led to believe, or the stories told about him had been highly exaggerated.

But what hadn’t been overblown was what she’d been told about his extraordinary discipline. At no point during their battle had he peppered her with meaningless questions or hissed empty threats, let alone tried to bargain with her or buy her off. Equally absent had been any sense of fear or bravado, making no move to quit the field and leave his maid behind, nor charge forward with reckless abandon. It had actually been a little impressive; while Dark Streak hadn’t been an assassin for very long, she couldn’t remember seeing anyone face their own imminent death so calmly.

Too bad you couldn’t keep your composure to the very end, she laughed as she brought her blades across his throat, his screams stopping instantly as they cut through his neck. But then, losing an eye would make anyone-, huh?!

During her career as a professional killer, Dark Streak had lost count of how many throats she’d cut. That was in part because each time she opened someone’s gullet, they always reacted the same. First was the look of shocked incomprehension on their face as they found themselves unable to breathe. Then they collapsed to the floor, gasping and floundering as they began choking on their own blood. Then they twitched a few more times before going still. That was how it had always worked, and that’s what should have happened to Lex Legis now.

Instead, he’d remained standing, his remaining eye now fixed squarely on her as he shot her a vicious grin.

A grin that looked all the more demonic with how his entire body was flickering.

All at once, Dark Streak realized what had happened, leaping upward and beating her wings as she tried to put some distance between herself and Lex Legis.

But it was already too late.

Black crystals burst upward from all around her, their edges sharper than razors, and Dark Streak couldn’t help but writhe in agony as she felt them carve bloody paths across her body. But the pain worried her less than the knowledge of how she’d been tricked. He lured me in! The screaming, the way he was cradling his eye…it was all an act!

Lex’s attempt to curse her had been real; it had to have been. She could still see where she’d left a gouge across his left eyeball, the ruined organ seeping blood; there was no way he’d let her strike such a serious blow just to get her to lower her guard. But it was only now that the trap had been sprung that Dark Streak could see how cursing her hadn’t been his only plan, turning her head to look behind her at the steel barrel – now lying on its side after Lex had dropped it less than a minute ago – that had previously covered the electrical trap that she’d rigged up, as well as the stick of phasic disruption incense.

A stick that had gone out, its length crushed and broken.

He must have stepped on it while he was retreating! She hadn’t bothered to track the placement of his hooves then, all of her concentration having gone toward slipping through his defenses in order to strike a fatal blow. With how heavily she’d pressed him, the idea that he’d chosen his steps so carefully seemed inconceivable, and yet he’d somehow done it anyway!

And once the smoke had thinned out, that had been when he’d tried to put a curse on her. He was using this as a backup plan! She felt sure of it now. He’d tried to incapacitate her with a curse, and when she’d overcome it and retaliated, he’d simply moved on to his secondary strategy: playing up the agony of losing his eye in order to trick her into rushing in for the kill. Then, just as she’d put her daggers across his neck, he’d activated that flickering technique he’d used against Starlight Glimmer.

That was why he hadn’t fallen after she’d delivered the fatal blow: because it hadn’t been a fatal blow.

The only thing she’d cut had been a wisp of insubstantial shadow.

All because she'd underestimated just how disciplined Lex Legis truly was.

Got to fall back! Twisting in mid-air, Dark Streak struggled not to fall, knowing that if she stopped moving for even a moment Lex would press his attack. Got to get away and regroup!

But she could already tell that Lex had no intention of letting her go. Every way she turned, the black spikes were expanding, sprouting more needles-thin branches at oblique angles, a lattice forming around her. In a few more seconds she’d be trapped.

Fighting down the urge to panic, Dark Streak folded her wings in close as she ducked down, pulling her legs in tight against her body as she threw herself into the widest opening between the bars of the ebony cage that was already forming around her, fighting down a surge of panic. She still had her potion of gaseous form, saved in case she found herself on the verge of being captured, but it was in one of her pouches, and with how tightly the bladed enclosure was forming around her it was unlikely she’d be able to retrieve and quaff it if she couldn’t get free. And even if she could, she was completely defenseless in that state, and she had no idea if turning into a patch of mist would make it harder to resist another curse from Lex.

If I can’t get out of this… she swore as she vaulted into the gap.

The exit was already narrowing even as she started wriggling through it. More spikes sprouted against her sides, making her clench her beak as she fought back further screams as the razor-sharp edges cut into her. But she kept going, knowing what would happen if she was caught; her disguise was purely visual, which meant that it wouldn’t stand up to any sort of close scrutiny. And once Lex discovered she wasn’t a pony…

The knowledge that this was life-or-death gave Dark Streak the edge she needed, and although it felt like she’d torn the skin off of her lower body, she managed to burst free a moment later.

Gasping, she didn’t hesitate, wings stretching out to grab the air as she hurried away from Lex-

And a massive crash rang out from somewhere in front of her, causing Dark Streak to pull up short in midair.

For a long second she hovered there, bloodied and cut all over, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what she’d heard. The source of the crash was too far away to make out – her goggles only let her see in the dark for a few dozen feet – but it had sounded tremendously loud. Was that some other plan on Lex’s part? Had he anticipated her going in this direction somehow? A glance behind her showed the unicorn in question up still on the catwalk, a furious look on his face as he peered in the direction she’d started flying. But maybe that was another bluff. Maybe he-

The explosion took her completely by surprise.

Fortunately, it was too far away to do anything worse than that, but she still needed to shield her eyes from the rush of flames that went up, the accompanying boom momentarily deafening her. It was only when she lowered her foreleg that she saw the flames starting to spread out, illuminating that end of the factory in a dim glow that just barely reached to where she was, causing her to glance back at Lex in alarm-

Just in time to see a steel barrel outlined in his telekinetic aura – the same perforated one she’d used to set up her electrical trap, she dimly realized – fill her vision.

There was no chance to dodge it, or even brace herself against the impact, and this time Dark Streak couldn’t keep herself aloft as the heavy container struck her in the side of the head. Instead, she raised her forelegs in front of herself protectively as she fell toward the ground, barely managing to avoid cracking her skull open as she hit the paved floor. The barrel crashed next to her a second later, Lex’s aura no longer surrounding it, and Dark Streak blearily glanced upward, belatedly noticing the collection of shipping crates she’d fallen behind, keeping her out of view of the catwalk that Lex was on.

For a moment she couldn’t bring herself to move, struggling to process the pain and chaos of the previous thirty seconds.

She’d had Lex Legis dead to rights, cornered and injured and unable to fight back, only for him to completely turn the tables on her at the last possible instant.

Not to mention how, for some reason, her carefully-chosen battleground was suddenly blowing up.

So much for doing this the easy way, she decided as she reached up, pulling a fourteen-inch length of ash wood with a quartz crystal on the end from one of the bandoliers strapped across her chest. Placing the tip of the wand against her temple, she quietly croaked the command word, sighing in relief as she felt a wave of healing energy spread through her.

She used the wand twice more before replacing it, even though she was still far from fully healed. Unlike her alchemical mixtures, the wand was a purely magical item that could only be used so many times, and recharging it wasn’t something she knew how to do. Since Equestria apparently didn’t have magical healing, that meant it needed to be used only in dire circumstances, and even then only for the minimal amount necessary.

And this should be more than enough for me to finish the job, Dark Streak decided as she picked herself up, scooping up her daggers (which had thankfully fallen next to her) as she moved down the length of the crates, making ready in case Lex had closed in on her position while she’d been healing herself.

But when several seconds went by and the unicorn didn’t appear, Dark Streak relaxed her guard. He’s probably going after his maid first, she decided. Good thing I moved her before I went after him.

A glance behind her showed that the fire was starting to spread. The sight made Dark Streak frown, and not just because of how it was illuminating the place. Lex Legis had proven himself to be dangerously creative, and the fact that she didn’t know what had caused that explosion worried her. Better safe than sorry, she decided, reaching for the rearmost pouch on her left hip. For all that he’d gotten the jump on her, Lex was still hurt quite badly, which meant he wouldn’t be moving very quickly. And that gives me time to apply some fire ward gel to myself, just in case-

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt as her talon closed over empty air where her pouch should have been, the tie connecting it to her belt sliced cleanly through.

Author's Note:

Lex manages to turn the tables on Dark Streak!

But with the assassin already regrouping, will he he able to capitalize on his unexpected win? Or is he merely delaying the inevitable?

Comments

[Alzrius]

For those interested in the alchemical items Dark Streak is using, here are the stats for the ones mentioned (or alluded to) in this chapter:

• Synthetic mumia.
• Allnight (the stimulant she referred to).
• Fire ward gel.

[Booster Spice]

Certail rolls were high and low? or would they have had to go Crit sucess and Crit Fail,? Been a long while since doing dispel magic and combat equivalents against carried items. Just thought there was something about Alchemists and loss of items on being hit in combat?

That was it, something about a spell called Break? which cant be called on armor straps etc? Or Lock, meaning pouches cant be opened, but thats touch only so a Thief could use that instead of Pickpocket depending on stats and abilities?

[Not so New Brony]

Looks like Dark Streak's bag of tricks is lost...well, one of them at least. Probably back in the crystal prison Lex summoned though she likely has a few more tricks left though from what I've seen so far, the ones she used so far were quite useful in general. Shame the advantages they brought her have gone to waste though given how resourceful she's shown herself to be, it won't stop her.

However, Lex's own resourcefulness and extreme self discipline is not to be underestimated either though I'll admit, his cry of pain over the lost of his eye(did he actually lose it or had his intangibility already taken hold by then) was a tad over the top for someone like Lex. At least it worked to his advantage though the fire is going to be problematic if he can't retrieve Feather Duster and get the hell out of here.

[Alzrius]

10887012 While I'm not certain I understand the specifics to which you're referring, your instincts are correct. The game terms for what happened are that Dark Streak not only failed her saving throw against the black crystal spikes Lex used against her (though she managed to make her Escape Artist check to break free of it), but rolled a natural 1 in doing so. That triggered the clause about items affected by magical attacks, and in this case meant that damage was dealt to one of her bags of holding, which snapped the string she'd used to tie it to her. That last part was a bit of GM fiat, I'll admit, but it helps move things along.

[Alzrius]

10887786 With regard to Lex's feigning incapacitation over the loss of his eye, it's important to remember that the discipline Dark Streak was amazed at wasn't that he was hamming it up to fool her, but rather that he was able to flawlessly follow through with a secondary plan even while dealing with the agony of a serious injury. Had he not been trying to lure her into a trap of his own, I doubt he would have simply shrugged the loss of his eye off with no more than a twitch. Even then, he wasn't sobbing or wailing, so much as falling back after that first roar of pain and acting like he couldn't concentrate on anything else except how much it hurt, when it fact he was keenly aware of what was going on around him.

As for Dark Streak, she's down at the moment, but she's far from out. While she's lost one of her bags of holding, she still has several more which are undoubtedly stuffed to the brim with various things that she'll use to continue the fight. If she hadn't had that healing wand, things might have been different, but it seems obvious now that she's quite willing to keep going even in the face of setbacks. Lex might have driven her off (again), but she's not about to call it quits.

As for Lex himself, hopefully he can regroup with everyone, get Feather Duster, and get out of there before the entire place goes up in smoke.