Gregory Valentine was waiting.  Waiting, waiting, waiting.  Despite only being a few years of his life, it had felt like an eternity that he’d been bound and trapped in his own mind by that thrice-damned DeRosa.  After his evolution to C Grade, those bonds began to fray.  Still, he waited.  For all of his hatred of the man, Victor DeRosa was powerful.  If he made a halfhearted attempt to escape his bonds, Valentine knew that he would end up back in the same position, trapped in an even tighter cage.  So, he allowed the time to pass.  Waiting for the perfect opportunity.  And it came.

Whether he fully appreciated it or not, DeRosa had been keeping a portion of his attention focused on maintaining Gregory’s containment pod, reinforcing the seals.  As Gregory progressed through C Grade, the amount of unconscious effort DeRosa used increased bit by bit.

Gregory was only vaguely aware of what was taking place on the planet’s surface, and of the movement of his containment pod.  His time was spent ruminating on his seals, and on the burning flames of his hatred, dedicated to the people who were responsible for his state.  This meant that the moment Victor DeRosa took his attention off of Gregory’s containment, he felt it.  Victor’s presence and focus had shifted to something else entirely, and it was the moment he needed.

Using the only skill not locked behind DeRosa’s control, Gregory Valentine activated Seeds of Hate.  Power washed through his body, invigorating his limbs as the skill took hold.  He’d meditated on it near-constantly, and the effects were known to him.  All concepts relating to the target of his skill would begin to erode in Valentine’s presence.  Victor’s connection to the containment pod, weakened as it was, shattered.

Gregory Valentine smiled, for the first time in years feeling his body respond to his mind. Raising a hand – raising my own hand! – he pushed on the lid, forcing the pod open as he moved his body out of the pod.  I can move my body!  I can finally move my body!  If he still had functional tear ducts, he knew he would be weeping, as fits of laughter rolled through him.

Seeds of Hate still burned, repelling DeRosa’s attempts to influence him directly.  No, it was too late for that.  Victor’s moment of distraction cost him, and it was exactly what Gregory Valentine had been waiting for all these years.  Valentine laughed, and laughed, and laughed.  He barely noticed as a hoard of fungal soldiers rushed toward him, drawing his wonderfully crafted blades and carving them to pieces without so much as an effort.

A rumbling in the cavern brought his attention back, and before his eyes, magma started to seep around a corner.  He turned, making his way through the cavern network as more and more magma began to appear in the various tunnels.  Gregory didn’t know the layout of the caverns, and this clearly wasn’t the time to learn them.  Raising his rapier, he activated Howling Fang.  The mana-infused strike bored a hole directly to the surface, and Valentine leapt the hundred-odd meters to experience the open air.

While he hadn’t expected a bright shining sun and peaceful meadows, Gregory was disappointed to see a scene out of an apocalypse.  Dark, swirling clouds covered the sky as roiling magma settled and spread across the desolate land.  A mighty C Grade aura washed over the area, and it didn’t take Valentine long to identify the source.

A dark-skinned man in a tattered uniform stood before a hole in the ground, which Gregory realized he’d been filling with molten rock.  He turned to face Valentine, a quick look of surprise crossing his face before his eyes narrowed.  Stone spears erupted from the ground beneath Valentine’s feet, narrowly missing him as he vaulted above them.  A cone of magma launched at him from the man’s outstretched hand, washing over the entire area.  It was an effective combination, though one that was entirely too simple in Valentine’s view.

He activated Shadow Blink, vanishing the moment before the magma crashed into him, and reappearing directly behind the C Grade, wreathed in shadow.  The skill was an interesting one, and for a brief second, Valentine felt the odd sensation of detecting his own aura from behind the curtain of molten stone, while his current presence was entirely masked.

Taking advantage of the surprise, Valentine thrust out with his blades.  A shimmering white sigil gleamed on the back of the C Grade’s jacket, and it felt like Valentine’s weapons struck solid steel as the man was whisked away nearly a hundred meters.  The sigil flickered a moment later, then faded.  Some sort of life-saving device, Valentine thought.

Wasting no time on words, the enemy C Grade launched a volley of sharp stones at Valentine, who parried them contemptuously with his dagger.  The attack was no threat, though Gregory quickly understood that it was a move to buy another couple of seconds, during which the Mage wrapped himself in a cocoon of molten armor.  That means his device is out of charges.  Good.

While he hadn’t necessarily expected a fight when he left the tunnels, Valentine found it invigorating to stretch his muscles of his own accord, to feel his skills activating at his own command.  Yes, slaying this C Grade was a perfect way for him to reacclimate to his power.  What the poor fool didn’t seem to realize was that a barrier like the one he was currently using could quickly turn into a tomb.

Dodging myriad jets of magma, Valentine rushed straight for the man.  As expected, another cone of magma detonated right in front of the cocoon, which Valentine once again dodged with Shadow Blink.  A cone of magma erupted out from behind the cocoon as well, bathing the appearing shadows.  Unfortunately for the Mage, Shadow Blink had a third layer as well, which allowed Valentine to stay in an odd space for a moment before appearing, allowing him to choose his moment and place.

He chose an exposed flank, where he reappeared just in time to activate Howling Fang, thrusting up and into the cocoon.  To the Mage’s credit, the barrier of magma was more robust than Valentine had originally anticipated.  Instead of obliterating the entire construct, Valentine was only able to blow a hole through the middle.  He leapt back as the magma fell to the ground, the mana giving it structure and shape entirely dispersed.  It sizzled as it began to cool, entombing the remains of the C Grade that had made an attempt on his life.

Sheathing his weapons, Valentine focused inward.  By now, anybody who had been paying attention knew that the C Grades fought, and one had died.  If there were more, getting mired in a fight was the last thing he wanted.  Slowly, ever so slowly, the dark tendrils of fungus receded, suppressed by his hatred.  His aura shimmered, then vanished, as he looked at his arms and saw pale human skin once more.

The corruption from DeRosa was still a part of him, was still tied inexorably to his mana network, but it belonged to DeRosa no longer.  It was his, and he would use it to take his vengeance.  Still, that would have to wait.  For now, he had to escape before backup arrived.  Looking to the sky, he could see a floating settlement in the distance, floating above the forest.  It’s a start.  With a target in mind, Gregory Valetine vanished.

~~~

“Put me down!” Skippy demanded, lightly punching Kyle’s shoulder.  Lightly, in this case, being hard enough to knock most upper E Grades unconscious.

Kyle turned his head to give him a flat look as they ran.  “Can you actually move right now?” He asked incredulously.

“I can move fine!” Skippy complained, punching Kyle’s shoulder again.

“You were unconscious ten seconds ago!” Kyle shot back, vaulting over some of the E Grade fungal soldiers, Tillienne hot on his heels.

The fight between Malcolm and the monster had changed locations, ripping through the forests and away from civilization proper.  Less fortunately, all of the remaining fungal creatures were in a frenzy, attacking everything in sight.  Their nav bracelets were pinging constant updates about the presence of the monsters, including a few packs of elites, while at the same time they were notified that the settlements of Kertan Six had begun a mass evacuation.

The teleporters were set up on each of the major settlements, and after a clean bill of health, the refugees were sent to holding barges floating a good distance out of orbit.  With the swirling cloud of dark spores, there was no hope for an evacuation shuttle.  Their only hope to get off-world was to retreat back to the settlements and hold the line until it was either their turn, or Malcolm finished torching the C Grade and fungal colony alike.

After a few more minutes of Skippy’s protests, Kyle put the skrell down, and they continued their journey toward the evacuation zone.  Even though Skippy and Tillienne were moving fine, they were all in quite a state.  Tillienne’s mana reserves were extremely low, and her body was taxed beyond its limits.  Nothing compared to Skippy, whose aura was still incredibly unstable.

Kyle, by contrast, was in the best shape of the group, even though he still felt a sense of exhaustion from his Core of the Parasitic Devourer.  Though he hadn’t had a chance to meditate, he felt that Parasitic Resonance was beyond his reach right now, similar to how Ignition and Storm Shelter had been after activating Heart of Creation.  Kyle still had Repel as an offensive option, but if the trio encountered any powerful resistance they’d be in trouble.

Avoiding another large swarm of the E Grades, they crested a small hill that gave them a view toward the first rally point.  Kyle’s heart sunk as he saw it burning and overrun, with several of the elite fungal soldiers leading a smaller cohort.  He checked his nav bracelet for Garth and Arianna’s location, and let out a small sigh of relief when he saw that they were already several kilometers away.

“What should we do?” Tillienne asked softly.

Kyle saw her fists clenching, and he put a hand on the shoulder of her upper set of arms.  “If we try to fight here, we’ll get surrounded and overwhelmed.  The best thing we can do is avoid conflict as much as possible until we get to the settlements.  If we need to make a stand, we can do it where it’s defensible.”

“Oh, come on.  They don’t look that tough,” Skippy said, a tired grin on his face.

“Skippy, I could take you right now in a fistfight,” Kyle admonished.

“I didn’t say that you don’t look tough,” the skrell countered, though Kyle noticed a bit of the bravado was gone.

“I’m not saying we couldn’t beat them, I’m saying it’s a risk we don’t need to take.  If we get surrounded by elites, even if we manage to win, we’re doing it at a cost that we don’t need to pay.”

Tillienne nodded.  “Right, then.  I’m with you.”

Kyle turned to Skippy, who crossed his arms.  “Fine, we can leave.  But when we’re all done, and back home, you owe me a sparring match.”

“Deal,” Kyle said.  “C.H.A.D.D., can you show us a path around the fungal soldiers?”

[THERE ARE THREE ROUTES THAT SEEM REASONABLE.]  The drone projected a map of the area, with three separate paths highlighted.  One of them glowed brighter than the rest as C.H.A.D.D. continued.

[I RECOMMEND THIS ONE.  THE OVERALL DISTANCE TRAVELED IS SLIGHTLY LONGER, BUT BASED ON THE PATHS OF THE FUNGAL CREATURES, THIS SHOULD AVOID MOST CONFLICT UNTIL YOU ARRIVE AT THE SETTLEMENT.]

“How can you be so sure?” Kyle asked.

[FROM THE LIFE SIGNATURES THAT I HAVE SEEN, THEY ALL SEEM TO BE FOLLOWING A PATTERN.  THEY EVACUATED THE CENTER OF THE COLONY, AND HAVE BEGUN TO MAKE THEIR WAY TOWARD THE NEAREST SETTLEMENTS, MAINTAINING AN APPOPRIATE DISTANCE FROM THE SCENES OF LARGER COMBAT ENGAGEMENTS.  THIS PATH SHOULD BE OUTSIDE THAT RADIUS.]

“You almost make it sound like they’re being sent to attack the settlers,” Tillienne breathed.

[FROM THE DATA I HAVE AVAILABLE, THAT APPEARS TO BE THE CASE,] C.H.A.D.D. confirmed.

“If that’s the case, then it’s even more important we don’t delay,” Kyle said, turning to follow the path C.H.A.D.D. defined.  If all the remaining fungal soldiers were attacking, the fleeing settlers would need everybody on their side that they could get.