Taboo Online

The enemy operators fired another burst across the bridge. Rhea caught most of it with her shields, but one branded round slipped past a broken edge and struck the terrace beside Lauren.

Luke’s head snapped toward the sound.

"Stay on the frame," Lauren ordered.

At the northern bridge, Dorian drove the black hook into another corrupted elf and stopped it at the edge of his oath circle. The bronze light beneath him flickered as more enemies crowded the narrow approach.

"More are crossing."

"Give me two seconds," Rhea said.

Once Kellan had both housings lined up, Rhea recalled the panel blocking the chains. All four shields spread into a narrow wall behind Dorian, closing every gap except the one he needed to fight through. Bullets hammered the formation and sent fresh cracks through the damaged blue light, but Rhea kept the panels locked together.

The emergency pulse entered the first cable.

"Wait," Lauren said.

Kellan’s lightning tightened into two narrow arcs as golden mana traveled across the platform.

The second housing brightened.

"Now!"

Kellan released both currents. Lightning struck the control lines at the same instant, making the black housings erupt in white-blue sparks as the emergency feed stuttered.

Luke threw his weight onto the spear and bent the shaft as he forced it downward, but the release bar refused to move.

He pushed harder.

The branded metal cracked around the housing, and the locking frame snapped open.

"Now, Aelira!"

The Queen drove both hands toward the terrace. Silver roots tore through the final emergency line and wrapped around the cutting arm, stopping every remaining tooth at once.

With all three routes broken together, the stored mana discharged into the ruined control housings instead of flowing into the anchor. Golden energy tore through the foreign brands.

Black corruption tried to follow the released power back toward the Heartroot. Aelira’s silver roots closed around the cutting arm and caught the backwash before it reached the exposed wound. She severed those roots from the terrace at once, trapping the corruption inside the isolated mechanism.

The remaining roots tightened and tore the cutting blade free from the Heartroot with a grinding shriek.

Luke threw himself against the underside of the platform as the machinery lurched above him. The broken locking frame passed close enough to scrape across his back, but the cutting arm rose away from the fifth anchor.

Aelira twisted her hands, and the roots hurled the corrupted mechanism into an abandoned extraction trench beneath the platform. It struck the machinery below with a distant metallic crash.

System windows opened before Luke, Lauren, and the four reinforcements.

[Emergency extraction feed disabled.]

[Fifth Heartroot anchor stabilized.]

[Warning: Damage to the fifth anchor remains critical.]

Living roots immediately folded over the open wound. They wove themselves into tight layers and slowed the golden mana leaking from the torn silver wood as the trembling beneath the terrace weakened.

Aelira kept both hands pressed against the roots. Her shoulders shook once before she forced them still.

"The fifth remains," she whispered.

Luke dragged himself from beneath the platform with the spear scraping behind him. His injured arm hung close to his side, but he managed to reach the upper terrace without falling.

Lauren met him at the edge. "You opened your shoulder again."

"The blade came out."

"And now you’re bleeding through the bandage."

"I know."

At the northern bridge, Dorian still held the remaining operators and corrupted elves outside his oath circle. Two of Rhea’s damaged panels reinforced his position, while the other pair hovered near the fifth anchor.

Lauren reached toward Luke’s wound, but a low laugh drifted across the ruined district.

Aelira stiffened at the sound, and the surviving defenders turned toward the southern bridge.

Other Ruinborn were still fighting throughout the burning districts, but the three who had led the attacks on the earlier anchors had broken away and come for the fifth themselves.

A man in a dark coat stood among the smoke with one marked hand resting against the railing. Black brands glowed across his fingers and spread into the living wood beneath them.

The hammer-wielding giant waited beside him. Part of his chest armor remained shattered from Aelira’s earlier strike, but the enormous weapon resting on his shoulder looked untouched.

Behind them, a woman in a pale mask stepped onto the bridge. Thin threads extended from her bare fingers and disappeared among the corrupted elves filling the ruins.

Her head turned toward Lauren.

The mask concealed most of her expression, but she made no attempt to hide the slow way she looked Lauren over. Her attention moved from the violet blindfold to the plunging black suit, then lingered on her exposed thighs and glossy boots.

"Well," she said. "The Queen found herself some very pretty company."

The leader studied the green glow beneath Lauren’s pale skin and the sharpened tip of one ear visible through her hair.

"That must be the Oracle who interfered through the roots."

"I noticed," the masked woman replied. "The suit is harder to miss."

The giant grinned. "We came for one prize and found another."

Luke’s knuckles whitened around the spear.

Aelira formed her living blade again while the leader slowly closed his marked hand.

"The Queen remains the objective," he said. "Bring the Oracle too. Alive."

Luke shifted forward despite his empty mana reserve and the pain tearing through his injured arm.

Lauren caught his wrist.

"They want you angry," she said. "Stay with me."

Across the terrace, Rhea divided her cracked panels between the two bridges. Two remained with Dorian at the northern entrance, while the other pair turned toward the elite villains approaching from the south.

"Those three led the attack on the first four anchors?" she asked.

"They did," Aelira replied.

Dorian tightened his grip on the black hook without abandoning the northern approach. Near the railing, Kellan gathered lightning around both hands while keeping his injured leg still. Iris positioned herself between him and Rhea, her three golden lifelines connected to Kellan, Dorian, and Rhea.

The leader pressed his branded palm against the southern bridge.

Black symbols raced through the living wood, crossed onto the fifth platform, and entered the fresh roots binding the damaged anchor together.

The pressure behind Lauren’s blindfold sharpened as violet light flared across it.

Oracle’s Glimpse showed the new bindings splitting beneath the platform. The terrace sheared away from the Heartroot and threw everyone standing on it into the burning ruins below.

"Move!" she shouted.