Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

826 - It Was Always Yours

Master...

Solvei’s voice seemed to come from far away. And yet, for some reason, Lex felt as though she were nearby. Close enough that he could almost reach out and touch her.

It’s yours.

Something was wrong. He wanted to stroke her fur again, but his foreleg wasn’t moving. Or was it? There was no feedback coming from his limbs, all of them having fallen numb for some reason.

The magic that you gave me.

The more Lex tried to concentrate on what he was feeling, the more confused he became. There was a strange weightlessness to everything, as though he were floating. And yet the wind was whipping past his ears, even though he couldn’t feel anything on his skin. What was going on?

It was always yours.

Worse, something was wrong with Solvei. He could feel that she was hurt badly. But that shouldn’t have happened; he wouldn’t have let that happen, except...except he’d been doing something else. Something important, and dangerous, and that he was failing at...

Now use it!

A sense of urgency came over him then, rapidly escalating to alarm as he tried to put everything together, only to find that critical pieces were still missing. What was happening?!

Use it and fight!

A fight! He’d been fighting somepony-, no, something! It had been powerful, and deadly, and he’d been forced to use everything he had just to strike back! But what-

Use it to overcome Hvitdod!

Hvitdod! That was right, he’d been fighting the dragon! It had been a losing battle until he’d stabbed it with Belligerence, overcharging the weapon, in response to which it had frozen the clouds! And now...

My strong and proud master, use the strength that you gave me...

Now it was time to finish what he’d started!

And show that monster who it’s messing with!

---

Lex’s eyes snapped open just as the ice shelf hit the ground above him.

The immense crash was accompanied by a momentary blackness as the glacier blotted out all of the light, completely covering the immense abyss that he and Hvitdod were falling into. But the weak illumination from the sky above immediately returned as the mountain of ice shattered, the fragments plunging into the hole after them. The massive bergs careened off the sides of the pit, crashing into each other as they hurtled downward at a rapid pace.

Too rapid.

We’re slowing down!

Even turning his head felt like a monumental effort, but from where he was sprawled out on Hvitdod’s middle, Lex managed to glance toward the dragon’s head-

And saw that it was glaring back at him.

Hvitdod looked more dead than alive. The enormous spikes that had skewered it from every direction were gone now, Belligerence having slipped from Lex’s grasp during his brief moments of unconsciousness, leaving the dragon’s body pockmarked with gaping wounds that were oozing blood. Moreover, none of its injuries seemed to be regenerating, showing shredded flesh, torn muscles, and even fragments of bone beneath the rent scales of the dragon’s serpentine body.

But it was still alive. And as it slowly began to arrest its freefall – renewing whatever magic let it slither through the air, heedless of the tonnage of ice rocketing toward them – Lex could see that, despite the damage he’d inflicted on it, Hvitdod was in better shape than he was: unlike himself, the dragon could still move, reaching one claw out toward him.

And then his view of the dragon was momentarily obscured as Lex breathed out, his breath so cold that it was visible even in the frosty air.

Solvei!

Despite the numbing cold spreading throughout his body, Lex could feel the winter wolf’s cryomantic power coursing through him. It was alien, and yet somehow intensely familiar, wrapping around him like a cloak that he’d worn many times before. It required no words, needed no gestures; all he had to do was think of how he wanted to use it, and the magic would respond.

Even as Lex comprehended that, Hvitdod’s claw reached out to take hold of him.

From his vantage point, he could see the shredded ligaments and broken tendons in the dragon’s oversized claw as it came down toward him, now having less meat on its bones than the ghouls which had infested Vanhoover, yet stubbornly refusing to die. Even so, the dragon’s coordination had been damaged enough that it couldn’t line its talons up to skewer him properly, pawing ineffectually at him like an invalid.

But it had enough control left to curl its digits around him, and Lex couldn’t hold back a pained grunt as he felt himself squeezed in the thing’s grasp; for all its injuries, the dragon was still a creature of titanic mass, and its hold made his bones creak at the force brought to bear on them.

Then the creature started to bring him toward its maw, and while its ragged breathing signaled that it wasn’t able to use its breath weapon again just yet, that didn’t keep its jaws from parting in anticipation of using its teeth to deliver the killing blow.

Meanwhile, the shattered fragments of the ice shelf were growing closer.

And although Hvitdod had slowed their fall, it hadn’t ceased it, which meant that it likely wouldn’t be long before they hit the bottom.

Death waited in every direction. But Lex couldn’t bring himself to care, fully in accordance with the fearless monster inside of him.

Dying mattered less than killing his enemy.

Belligerence had fallen away somewhere, and Lex knew that even if he recalled it, he didn’t have the strength left to overcharge it like that again. Turning into a shadow wouldn’t have helped, since the falling ice chunks were made with Hvitdod’s breath weapon, which could hit even incorporeal creatures. Most of his thaumaturgical spells were already used. His last astral construct had been destroyed, leaving him vulnerable. And he was so injured that he could barely move.

But as Hvitdod’s jaws came nearer, and the falling chunks of ice grew closer, Lex couldn’t help but smile, his bestial instincts reveling in approval as he prepared to fight back.

With Solvei’s magic.

Calling upon the dregs of his reserves – his injured body only able to scrape together any energy because of his stamina-enhancing spell – Lex directed everything he had left into the cryomancy that he now possessed.

It was pointless to direct it against Hvitdod, he knew. The dragon was a creature of such incredible cold that it could even chill creatures that should be immune to freezing temperatures. Nor did thoughts of defense cross Lex’s mind, the monster within him refusing to even consider such a thing. Instead, he put forward the only plan of attack he could think of...one inspired by Akna.

No prayers ran through Lex’s mind then, nor did he bother trying to diagram the metaphysical structure of how the magic was working. Instead, he let intuition be his guide, feeling as though he’d done this a hundred times before even though it was a new experience for him. He’d seen Akna do this when she’d called forth a guardian to watch over his first meeting with her, and then again during their first battle with Sissel. Her dedication and Solvei’s power mixed together as he augmented it, directing it upward...

Into the falling chunks of ice.

And suddenly, it wasn’t raining broken pieces of frozen clouds anymore.

Instead, it was raining ice elementals.

Hvitdod had almost brought Lex to his jaws when the first elemental reached it. Shaped in a fashion that resembled a griffon, it was only slightly smaller than the Crystal Empire, one massive claw shooting out to clothesline Hvitdod across the face as it dove past them.

The blow knocked teeth from the dragon’s head, and Lex had just enough time to realize that the dragon’s own breath weapon had strengthened the elementals, making them out of tougher stuff than if he’d conjured them from ordinary ice. That point was driven home a moment later as another elemental – this one looking like a sphinx the size of a castle – flew past them, its front claws curled into two frozen fists which it brought down on the leg Hvitdod was grasping him with.

A pained roar erupted from the dragon’s throat then, and if it wasn’t as loud as when he’d stabbed the thing with Belligerence, that was only because it was muted by the snap of the dragon’s bones breaking. That was followed by its claw going limp, leaving Lex free to start falling past the dragon as he began to plummet, no longer riding atop Hvitdod’s body.

But his fall was quickly arrested as another elemental – this one a gigantic pegasus – swooped past and caught him. Gently cradling him in its hooves, its frozen wings flapped heavily as it lifted him upward.

And let the rest of its brethren go to work.

Lex couldn’t see how many there were, but there had to be at least a few dozen, all of them flying creatures, ranging from the mundane to the bizarre. He could see birds, bats, insects, even a dragon or two among them, all formed out of ice and converging on Hvitdod, swarming over it like scavengers attacking a corpse. Nor did they care that this corpse was still moving, digging into Hvitdod’s injuries as they clawed, stung, bit, and tore at the suppurating wounds all over its body.

They were met with the full force of Hvitdod’s remaining fury. Teeth, claws, and tail all lashed out, and Lex could see the elementals being rent under the storm. One eagle-looking creature was pulverized by a single swat of Hvitdod’s tail. Some kind of aerial manta ray was rent in two by a single gigantic claw. A spider with a fly’s wings was crunched between Hvitdod’s jaws, its body crumbling into shards between the dragon’s teeth.

But the rest of them kept coming, scoring numerous hits for every one of their number that Hvitdod destroyed, and Lex could see that they were forcing it down faster, sheer numbers weighing it down beyond what its magic could bear aloft.

Then Hvitdod inhaled sharply.

Before Lex could say anything, the ice pegasus carrying him flew upward, and he had just enough time to look back and see Hvitdod’s breath weapon radiate outward in every direction, seeking to freeze the elementals the same way it had his astral constructs.

The elementals seemed not to care, ignoring the spreading cold and continuing to savage the dragon.

That’s right, laughed Lex inwardly. These creatures were formed from the ice that you breathed out before. They won’t be harmed by that same power now.

Hvitdod roared again, and Lex’s inner predator howled in delight, recognizing desperation in its enemy. The dragon’s struggles seemed more frantic now, and Lex could see that the blood trailing upward from its colossal body was increasing. Even as it slowly whittled away at the elementals, they were doing the same to it, inflicting further injuries on its already-mangled body.

It was a battle of attrition between the swarm of gargantuan ice creatures and the ancient dragon, with the only question being which side would succumb first.

But the contest was interrupted as they slammed into the bottom of the chasm at last.

The impact sent up a massive cloud of powdered snow, long gathered at the bottom of the pit, which was increased as the elementals went flying off of Hvitdod, shaken free by the impact. The dragon, now covered in so much blood that its body looked as though it had been swimming in it, somehow recovered first, coiling around and starting upward, inhaling again...as it looked right at Lex.

Immediately, the huge ice pegasus holding Lex started to circle further upward, causing a snarl to escape Lex’s lips. “Hold steady!”

The elemental obeyed immediately, and Lex focused intently on Hvitdod, marshaling what little remained of his strength as he summoned Belligerence back to his remaining claw.

He threw it at the same moment as that the dragon breathed out, firing a beam of cold directly toward him.

From his vantage point, Lex watched as Belligerence shot downward, piercing through the air.

Then it pierced through the beam of sub-absolute zero temperature coming from Hvitdod’s jaws.

And finally, it shot through Hvitdod’s head, bursting through the dragon completely to lodge itself in the ground beneath.

A moment later Hvitdod shuddered, the beam fading out before it could reach where Lex was held aloft by his ice pegasus.

Then the dragon collapsed and went still.

Author's Note:

Using Solvei's cryomancy, and Akna's tradition of summoning ice elementals, Lex overcomes Hvitdod at last!

Or has he? Will the dragon rise again to continue the fight, or is the battle finally over?

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

it was only slightly smaller than the Crystal Empire,
I am confused by this.

Regardless, it appears that Akna's decision to fully merge with Solvei has paid off big time in Lex's favor here and it seems Lex has unlocked a new form of magic to experiment with now. Of course, he needs to get back to Solvei/Akna first and get the adlets back to their homes to face their judgement first before he can go back to Fail Forward and deal with Sleeping Beauty's condition.

Of course, this depends on whether or not Lex will be saddled with some sort of task in between or be ambushed, possibly by Sissel's mother or other members of her family since Hvitdod's death is bound to attract a lot of attention.

[Alzrius]

11577752

it was only slightly smaller than the Crystal Empire,
I am confused by this.

That was supposed to be a size comparison that seemed like it was being figurative (i.e. "his gun looked like it was the size of Texas") but is actually literal, since we know how big the Crystal Empire actually is (and, strictly speaking, it's not that big):

static.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/6/65/Aerial_view_of_the_Crystal_Empire_just_freed_S3E02.png

That said, it looks like Lex does indeed have another new power he can put to use now, though as you noted there are still several trials yet ahead of him. But that may be premature, since there's no confirmation that Hvitdod is well and truly dead. Hopefully that's the case, but I wonder if Lex will let his guard down so easily, given how resilient Hvitdod has been so far. Likewise, Sissel's mother is still out there, and will doubtless not let things go, since she was the architect behind this entire battle.

[Booster Spice]

Depends on if Lex can trigger the same set of circumstances that got his current upgrade? As that would be totally OP as he covers the failings of the dragon that let him defeat it, as if the ice constructs are still going they can truely take Hvitdod down to componants, which can be magical items?

Depends if Hvitdod has Dragon Soul gem, or CrystalHeart etc that is the overall base of total regeneration?

[Alzrius]

11577917 Well, that'd be quite something, as Lex's current body is the result of his bringing that aurumvorax back with him when returning to his body through the Confluence; those circumstances aren't really available to be replicated currently, though given that Lex has that creature's animal mindset underlying his own thoughts now, I question if he'd do that even if he could.

Now, using the dragon's body parts for magical components is something else again, and I mean that in more ways than one as the d20 System has a fractious relationship with "power components" as it were. By which I mean, it likes the idea of them, but actually listing large correspondence tables by which those parts help to empower spellcasting and/or make magic items, all while trying to keep them balanced under the game rules while also making them worthwhile, is a bit of a tough act. Which isn't to say that no such lists exists; they certainly do, but they tend to be comparatively short, have "buy in" requirements (e.g. require you to take feats) to get the most out of them, only offer benefits that you can get elsewhere (e.g. they offer a metamagic effect, the same kind you can get from the corresponding feat or a magic rod of the same type, etc.).

Of course, Lex has a bit of an in here, since Equestria's method of making magic items tends to default to either easily-made trinkets or by using rare magical components to build unique items of extreme power...the latter being how he made Belligerence. So perhaps he'll be able to use Hvitdod's body for something after all?

Presuming that the dragon is well and truly dead, that is.

[Not so New Brony]

11577857
Right, I forgot how small the Crystal Empire is. Still, it is a city which at the very least gave me a point of reference for the scale of the battle with Hvitdod