Kaen: "GET DOWN!!"
*Kaen pulls his ally away from the imminent shell landing, throwing him into the bunker before turning to face the speeding projectile.*
Kaen: "Number 27, Ruhniren!"
*After raising his hand and blurting out a spell, Kaen's hand becomes engulfed in white fog. The shell explodes into smithereens almost at real time, each fragment flying harmlessly away from the bunker.*
Wale: "Don't you ever try to save my life again."
Kaen: "Looks like I don't have a choice. We've got company."
*Out of the smoke from shellfire came a sprinting legion of warriors, covered from head to toe in blue-tinted angular armor and capes, their faces concealed by freaky iron masks, and armed with tall curved swords. They moved silently in perfect formation, preparing to descend on the bunker full of frightened conscripts. The glowing tronian bullets from the LikerGuard guns simply dissipated on their armor. They were Valkyries.*
Wale: "The Valkyrie elite? What are they doing here?"
Kaen: "I don't think we'll get a chance to ask them. They're going to cut off our escape route if we don't take them out. Drop the rifle."
Wale: "My favourite kind of war. This is how it's done, conscripts."
*Wale and Kaen jump out of the bunker and charge straight at the Valkyries with sword at hand. While the majority of the Valkyries continue their pace and direction, a nearby group break off and charge at Wale and Kaen. The first Valkyrie raises his blade to strike, only to have his blade broken by Wale's superior strength and finished by Kaen's agility. As the group closes on them, Kaen draws his pistol and shoots a leaping Valkyrie between the eyes with pinpoint accuracy, before swinging his sword in an arc to decapitate the three warriors in front of him. Wale weaves bloodily through an approaching column in less than a second, turning with a smug smile to see his opponents topple to the ground, groaning their last. Despite the casualties they inflict, the duo eventually regroup to find themselves hopelessly surrounded and outnumbered. In defiance, they cling even tighter to their swords.*
Wale: "Vårt blad kommer inte svika dig..."
*Almost consecutively, a gap appears in the wall of Valkyries. It suddenly starts to rain heavily for some unknown reason, cloaking the man revealed by the gap, now a grey sillhouette with the outline of a short and wide-brimmed tophat on his head.*
Mr. Q: "Failure? No my sons, your service has just begun."
To be continued!
Witherbreak
The term 'Witherbreak' refers to any of a series of spells that draw their power from the raw will of dead Shade. Each spell is given a number and a name e.g. Number 27, Ruhniren that a caster must speak to activate the magic, as well as having an etherically suitable body, even though no ether from the caster is consumed. In the Saiv Empire, use and knowledge of the magic is restricted to the military aristocracy, the Second Shade, the Chaplain-Court and other such paramilitary organisations. Even then it is used as a backup power, mainly because the number of spells that can be cast in total is limited by the number of Shade in Deredhad, and also because the white fog that appears during casting has been known to cause minor burns - excessive use has been known to incinerate the caster's hand. Knowledge of the spell is particularly sparse in the galaxy, originally introduced by rogue Saiv Judges and Inquisitors. Witherbreaks (or Witherbreakers, as users are known) can be more powerful than any other spell; in particular Number 1, a theoretical spell and long-sought knowledge believed capable of destroying half the multiverse.
The Undying.
