Taboo Online

Luke moved before Lauren finished shouting. She seized his uninjured arm and pulled him toward the inner side of the platform, where a thick ridge of silver wood connected the fifth anchor to the central Heartroot.

"Inner spine!" she called. "The southern half goes first!"

The fresh bindings beneath their feet darkened from within. Black brands raced through the pale wood, following every strand the rootkeepers had woven over the anchor’s wound and sinking deeper with each pulse.

A crack split the terrace behind Luke, and the outer section dropped several inches. He stumbled, but Lauren kept pulling until he regained his balance. Beside them, Aelira drove her living blade into the platform and sent several roots beneath the collapsing floor.

They held the falling section for less than a second.

Across the southern bridge, the leader pushed his marked palm harder against the railing. His brands entered Aelira’s rescue roots, twisting the silver wood away from the people it was supposed to support.

"Release them!" Aelira shouted.

She tore her blade sideways and severed the corrupted growths before they could wind around Luke and Lauren. Without their support, the platform dropped again.

Near the outer railing, Kellan’s injured leg folded beneath him. Rhea swept one of her southern panels under his body before he could fall into the widening crack, while the second lifted Iris away from the edge.

Kellan landed hard on one knee. The golden anchor around his thigh flashed, and pain tightened his face as he grabbed the side of the panel.

"I thought standing still was supposed to help."

"It does when the ground stays under you," Iris said.

Her own panel had tilted toward the ruins. She caught Kellan’s wrist with one hand while keeping the other extended toward the lifelines attached to him, Dorian, and Rhea.

At the northern entrance, the growing crack separated Dorian from the inner platform. Two of Rhea’s panels remained with him, forming a narrow path across the gap, while several elven defenders crowded behind his oath circle. Corrupted elves and human operators continued advancing from the ruined district.

"Bring them across!" Rhea ordered. "Dorian comes last."

The first defender stepped onto the nearest blue panel just as a web of threads swept through the smoke. On the southern bridge, the masked woman raised one hand and curled her bare fingers.

The elf crossing Rhea’s shield jerked sideways. His sword came free before anyone could reach him, making the defender behind him throw up an arm in surprise.

Lauren’s blindfold flashed. "Kellan, above his left shoulder!"

Kellan reacted without trying to stand. A narrow bolt crossed the broken platform and struck the cluster of threads suspended over the elf.

White-blue electricity followed the strands toward the masked woman’s hand, but she released them before the current reached her. The controlled defender crumpled onto Rhea’s panel, and his sword slipped from his fingers before disappearing into the burning district below.

Kellan’s arm trembled as the lightning faded, though he kept his injured leg still.

Iris checked the anchor around his thigh. "You kept the charge out of the wound."

"I can learn."

"Keep doing that."

A deep grinding sound rolled through the fifth platform as the crack beneath it widened.

One of Aelira’s rootkeepers slipped near the southern edge. A pale root shot toward him, but the leader’s brands reached it first. The living wood wrapped around the elf’s ankle and dragged him toward the broken terrace instead of pulling him to safety.

Aelira severed the root before the corruption could spread farther, but the rootkeeper still disappeared with the collapsing section. His scream cut off beneath the smoke.

The Queen stared into the gap until the leader called to her from the southern bridge.

"Every root you grow gives me another way inside."

He smiled at the grief on her face.

Aelira raised her living blade toward him. "Then come closer."

At the northern gap, the final defender crossed Rhea’s panels. Dorian remained behind the bronze edge of his oath circle while operators fired from the far side of the bridge.

A bullet slowed when it entered the bronze glow. He knocked it aside with the black hook, then caught a corrupted elf around the torso and threw it into the people advancing behind it.

"Dorian," Rhea called. "Get off the bridge."

"They’re still coming."

"The bridge is going."

The roots supporting the northern approach began to split. Dorian stepped backward onto the nearest shield panel, and Rhea pulled both panels toward the inner platform while the bronze circle moved with him.

The northern bridge tore away the moment he crossed. Several corrupted elves fell with it, along with two operators who failed to reach stable ground.

Dorian stepped off the panel beside Rhea and planted the black hook in the inner spine.

"You pulled me off the line," he said.

"The line fell."

He looked back at the empty gap before turning the hook toward the surviving defenders.

"Then the line moves."

Rhea gave him a sharp nod. "Good."

The other two panels lowered Kellan and Iris onto the inner spine before sweeping back to her.

The collapse spread through Lethariel with the sound of a forest being ripped apart. Roots cracked, metal tore free, and entire sections of the extraction terrace dropped into the smoke.

On the southern bridge, the hammer wielder lowered the enormous weapon from his shoulder. The air warped around its head as it absorbed the noise of every gunshot, impact, and breaking root.

Lauren saw the attack before he moved.

"Rhea, angle the shields toward the empty trench!"

Rhea called all four panels into a slanted wall. Dorian stepped behind her and drove the black hook deeper into the inner spine, widening his oath circle until its bronze glow overlapped the damaged blue shields.

The giant swung, bringing the hammer down with enough force to buckle the air around it.

Rhea turned her panels at the instant of impact. Most of the stored sound skidded along their angled surfaces and tore through the empty space beside the platform, but the rest punched through the formation.

The shockwave hit Luke in the chest and lifted his feet from the ground. Only Lauren’s grip kept him from falling backward into the anchor’s open wound.

Rhea and Dorian slid several yards across the terrace. Their boots carved lines through the pale wood as cracks raced through every shield panel. The most badly warped one split down the center, releasing a burst of blue light before both halves dissolved.

Blood ran from the corner of Rhea’s mouth as she dropped onto one knee. Her three remaining panels returned and locked together in front of her.

The giant rested the hammer against his shoulder.

"That sounded expensive."

Rhea wiped her mouth with the back of one hand. "I have three left. I only need one to break your jaw."