Chapter 54 — Roar of the Storm Rider
Arachne twisted through the air in an elegant arc as one of Vellum's dark beams shattered against a swirling shield of violet webbing. The impact scattered black sparks across the ruined street, but the spider queen merely laughed.
"You're fun, egg boy," she called. "But let's not pretend you're the only attraction here."
Her wrist flicked.
A dozen blood-red cutting webs screamed through the air.
Vellum pulled himself behind the thickest part of his shell as the threads struck. His Nightmare Realm surged outward at the same instant, shadows rolling across the square and filling it with blinking eyes and half-formed horrors.
But Arachne was no longer watching him.
Her attention had turned elsewhere.
Toward Caelan.
He had returned from Dreadtide's death riding Razorwind, the two of them tearing across the battlefield in a streak of red, black and gold. Essence from the fallen Elite still shimmered faintly around the fully enclosed Azure armor, while wind curled tightly around Razorwind's wheels and body.
Arachne saw it.
Not merely the strength.
The momentum.
Something in Caelan's legend was moving.
Changing.
Approaching another possibility.
Her eyes narrowed.
Then widened with hungry interest.
"So..."
The word slipped from her lips almost thoughtfully.
"You're getting closer."
Caelan and Razorwind shot through another ruined street.
Arachne's interest became fury.
"ALL UNITS!"
Her voice rolled over the battlefield.
"ELIMINATE THE RIDER!"
The response was immediate.
Dozens of insectoid Aetherkin dropped from broken rooftops and emerged from the surrounding forest. Scissorstags descended with enormous bladed mandibles. Venomweavers crawled over walls on hooked legs, corrosive silk dripping from their jaws. Scythewings swept low with curved arm-blades, while swarms of Stingflies filled the air above them.
Most could not bring themselves to strike Caelan directly.
Destiny would not permit it.
Their attacks faltered, veered or found different targets.
Razorwind was another matter.
Webs filled the road ahead.
Scythewings cut at his wheels.
Stingflies dived toward his frame.
The stronger Elite insects among the swarm had no such restriction and came directly for Caelan himself.
"They're locking onto us!" Razorwind shouted.
Caelan's golden eyes narrowed behind the helmet.
"We don't slow down."
Wind gathered around them.
"Full speed."
Razorwind's engine screamed.
Flame and blue-white energy erupted behind him.
He shot forward.
Razorstag flashed in Caelan's hand, carving through webbing and insect armor while Razorwind swerved through the swarm. A Scissorstag dropped toward them, only for its intended strike against Caelan to twist inexplicably aside and smash into the road.
Caelan passed it.
Razorstag cut once.
The creature dissolved behind them.
An Elite Scythewing was stronger.
Its blade struck Caelan across the shoulder.
The Azure armor did not break.
But the transmitted force drove through his body and nearly tore him from Razorwind.
Pain flashed through his ribs.
He tightened his legs.
Another Elite Stingfly descended.
Its stinger slammed against the armor over his thigh. It could not pierce the plate, but the impact numbed his leg for several seconds.
Caelan did not stop.
He couldn't.
Behind him came a sea of red eyes, blades and wings.
And above them—
Chrome Eidon turned.
He had just hurled Archoniel through a ruined pillar when Arachne's voice reached him.
"Eidon, darling."
Chrome Eidon paused.
"Forget them."
He looked toward her.
Arachne pointed toward the distant golden blur.
"Bring me Caelan."
Eidon glanced toward Frostclaw and Archoniel.
"But I'm having fun."
Arachne's smile disappeared.
"Bring him to me."
Her voice became very quiet.
"Dead or alive."
A pause.
"Preferably broken."
Chrome Eidon's face changed.
"...Right."
He launched himself upward.
Frostclaw tried to intercept.
Dark cables erupted behind Eidon and forced him back.
Then the Apex monkey shot across the battlefield after Caelan.
A beam of black energy passed Arachne's face.
One strand of silver-white hair drifted away.
Her head snapped around.
Vellum hovered across the broken square, darkness rolling around his shell.
"You should be watching me."
Arachne stared.
Vellum's golden eyes brightened inside the void.
"Not every parasite gets to bite an old demon and walk away."
Arachne's lips pulled back.
"You have far too much courage for an egg."
Her gaze flicked briefly toward Caelan's distant light.
"Just because your hope has arrived, you've forgotten something."
Dark energy twisted around her.
"I haven't lost a battle in this age."
Vellum chuckled.
"Of course."
Arachne's eyes narrowed.
"Let's simply forget the rather public incident with Jadehorn."
Silence.
The air changed.
Arachne stared at him.
Vellum immediately knew he had found the correct nerve.
"Shut up."
Her voice carried dark power.
Shadows spilled outward.
The ground beneath her split.
Her elegant humanoid shape twisted.
Eight enormous spider legs erupted behind her. Her body elongated and shifted beneath layers of webbed crimson and black. More eyes opened, glowing with murderous light as the graceful woman became something much closer to the predator hiding beneath the silk.
Still Arachne.
But no longer pretending otherwise.
The Hunter in the Dark stood revealed.
Her power rolled across the square.
"I didn't take you for such a talkative egg."
Vellum remained where he was.
"I think I'll take my time with you."
Her legs spread.
"Break your shell."
Webs gathered around her hands.
"And listen to whatever clever thing you have left to say."
Vellum's Nightmare Realm deepened.
"Then you'd better start spinning."
His golden eyes narrowed.
"You're not the only old monster here."
The battlefield had become a maelstrom of claws, wings and thunder, with Caelan and Razorwind as the bright streak refusing to slow down through its center.
Razorstag flashed again.
A Venomweaver lost two legs and tumbled away.
Razorwind jumped a wall of corrosive silk.
Caelan bent low over him.
An Elite Scythewing descended.
Its attack could reach him.
Eyes of Fate showed the blow.
Caelan turned.
Razorstag met the curved blade.
Metal shrieked.
The Scythewing was hurled sideways.
Another enemy struck from behind.
The impact crashed through Caelan's armor without damaging it, but the force underneath made his vision flash white for half a second.
Razorwind noticed.
"You still there?"
"Drive."
"Good answer."
They accelerated.
Above them came laughter.
Chrome Eidon descended through the sky.
"COME ON, BIKE BOY!"
Caelan looked up.
"You can't ride forever!"
That was unfortunately true.
Far away, riding Quickflare through another section of the battlefield, Stormmane saw everything.
The swarm.
Chrome Eidon.
Caelan disappearing beneath wave after wave of enemies.
The hits that should have thrown him from Razorwind.
The way he kept going anyway.
Stormmane tightened his remaining hand around his sword.
A feeling he knew very well returned.
Frustration.
Caelan was always ahead.
Faster.
More skilled.
More adaptable.
Even now, Stormmane had finally found Quickflare, finally learned to ride fast enough to stop being mocked every thirty seconds, and somehow Caelan still seemed half a battlefield ahead of him.
But the feeling was different now.
He did not want to surpass Caelan.
He wanted to reach him.
Stormmane stared at the distant rider.
Caelan had never needed to become his savior.
He had simply been there.
He had accepted him.
Fought beside him.
Protected him.
Trusted him.
And when Stormmane had thrown himself between Caelan and Dark Network Eidon, losing an arm in the process, Caelan had not treated him like a disposable subordinate.
He had treated him like family.
Stormmane lowered his sword.
"Quickflare."
The Roadstreaker revved.
"What?"
"We're going in."
Quickflare followed his gaze.
Toward hundreds of enemies.
Toward an Apex.
Toward the worst part of the battlefield.
"That's stupid."
"Yes."
A pause.
Quickflare's engine roared.
"I like it."
Stormmane smiled.
"I stand beside him."
Lightning surged through his mane.
"Or I die trying."
Quickflare shot forward.
"Then try not to fall off."
They entered the swarm.
The first attack came almost immediately.
An Elite Scissorstag was strong enough to strike Stormmane directly.
Its claw smashed into his chest.
Blood burst through orange-red fur.
Stormmane nearly left Quickflare's back.
He held on.
Another insect slammed into them.
Stormmane swung his sword and cut it away.
Venomweavers flooded the road.
Corrosive silk sprayed across his legs.
Stormmane roared as the substance burned through fur and skin.
Quickflare swerved.
A Hornscarab dropped from above.
Its armored body struck Stormmane across the shoulder.
Something popped.
His only remaining arm went nearly useless.
Still he stayed mounted.
Quickflare shouted, "You're falling apart!"
"Then drive faster!"
He swung again.
Every breath hurt.
Every movement hurt.
But ahead of him, Caelan was still moving.
Stormmane refused to stop.
Caelan looked back.
For only a heartbeat.
His golden eyes widened behind the helmet.
"Stormmane?!"
The lion laughed through bloodied teeth.
"What are you doing?"
Stormmane leaned forward against Quickflare.
"Coming home, brother!"
For a few precious seconds, they rode side by side.
Razorwind and Quickflare.
Caelan and Stormmane.
Wind and thunder cutting through the swarm.
Then Chrome Eidon arrived.
"You idiots want to die together?"
His golden microphone glowed.
"Fine!"
Energy gathered.
Caelan's Eyes of Fate screamed.
"Stormmane!"
The beam struck Quickflare.
BOOOOOM!
The Roadstreaker screamed.
Quickflare and Stormmane vanished into the explosion.
Caelan tried to turn.
Three enemies closed the road behind him.
He had no choice but to keep moving.
Luminel dropped into the swarm from above, spear flashing as wind and lightning hurled enemies away from the crash site.
Stormtusk came from the other side, his hammer freezing an entire formation before shattering them apart.
Frostclaw became a white-blue blur among the enemy ranks.
Archoniel opened his wings and raised one hand.
A great circle of radiant power formed in the sky.
A gate of light opened.
Dozens of enemy Aetherkin were dragged toward it before the portal closed.
The others had arrived.
But the tide did not stop.
And among shattered stone and uprooted roots lay Stormmane and Quickflare.
Quickflare's red-black armor had split open in several places.
His engine coughed weakly.
Stormmane had been thrown clear.
His body hit the ground hard enough to crack it.
The one arm he had possessed before the explosion lay twisted beneath him.
He could barely move.
Caelan's distant figure disappeared again into the swarm.
Stormmane dragged himself upright.
"Not..."
His leg failed.
He fell.
Then tried again.
"Not yet."
Blood ran through his fur.
His breath came in ragged bursts.
"I'm not done."
Quickflare's engine gave a weak whirr beside him.
Stormmane looked toward Caelan.
"Not until..."
He forced himself onto one knee.
"...I see him reach it."
Lightning flickered weakly through his mane.
"Not until I stand beside him."
And something answered.
There were moments when the battlefield became strangely quiet.
Not actually quiet.
Explosions still rolled across Gilded Hollow.
Creatures still shouted.
Chrome Eidon still laughed somewhere overhead.
But for Stormmane, all of it became distant.
He saw Caelan.
Still riding.
Still fighting.
Still trying to move forward.
And when Caelan looked back again, Stormmane saw something that finally destroyed the last of his doubt.
Not disappointment.
Not pity.
Fear.
For him.
Stormmane had spent too long believing he was chasing Caelan's back.
That he was the lesser fighter trying desperately to remain useful beside someone born from a Legendary story.
But he had been wrong.
He wasn't trailing behind Caelan's story.
He was part of it.
And Caelan was part of his.
Beside him, Quickflare's damaged engine coughed.
Stormmane reached out with his trembling hand and placed it against the Roadstreaker's cracked frame.
"You're a good partner."
Quickflare managed a weak rev.
"Don't get sentimental."
Stormmane laughed.
Then the sky answered.
Thunder split the clouds.
Lightning came down.
Not one bolt.
Hundreds.
They struck around Stormmane and Quickflare in a widening circle.
Essence erupted around them.
Golden-white light swallowed both.
Stormmane gasped.
Something pulled him upward.
Not forcibly.
Not like the Resonance Linker.
There was no device.
No Virtue Sigil.
Only two battered creatures who had chosen the same road.
Their resonance locked.
Quickflare's engine roared.
Stormmane roared with him.
The light became unbearable.
His broken body changed.
The missing left arm returned as the evolved form rebuilt him completely.
His shattered right arm remade itself beside it.
Both hands closed.
Armor formed over his body—stormsteel layered across powerful leonine limbs, threaded with glowing yellow lines. His golden mane lengthened and burned with living lightning. A great sword appeared in one restored hand, its edge vibrating with electric force.
Beneath him, Quickflare changed too.
His shattered Roadstreaker body expanded.
Armor locked into new shapes.
Wheels became larger, darker and edged with lightning. The front of his frame lowered into a predatory shape, while glowing channels of storm-energy spread through the red-black plating.
The light exploded outward.
Where the crippled Stormmane and broken Quickflare had fallen, two new forms stood.
Stormmane — Rider Mode.
And beneath him—
Stormfang.
Stormmane looked down at his hands.
Both of them.
He closed his fingers.
Lightning danced across ten claws.
Stormfang's engine thundered beneath him.
For the first time since Dark Network Eidon had erased his arm, Stormmane felt whole.
He raised his head.
Caelan was still ahead.
Stormmane smiled.
"You saved me once."
Stormfang revved.
"Let me return the favor."
Thunder cracked.
They vanished.
Stormfang hit the enemy tide like lightning given wheels.
Juvenile insect Aetherkin scattered.
Adults tried to block.
They were too slow.
Stormmane stood low over the evolved machine, both hands working together as naturally as though one had never been lost. His new armor hummed with storm power.
Blastcore saw him.
The little Elite stood atop a broken wall, smoke rising from his round metal body.
His grin widened.
"Heehee! What's this?"
Stormmane turned.
Blastcore pointed at Stormfang.
"You got better wheels, kitty?"
Stormmane said nothing.
"Think I'll pop them!"
Blastcore threw a chain of bombs.
Stormfang accelerated.
Explosions chased them.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Stormfang burst through the smoke.
Stormmane raised both arms.
Weapons unfolded into his hands.
Twin short storm-guns.
"Twin Thunderhowl."
He fired.
Two spiraling blasts of compressed lightning screamed across the battlefield.
The first struck Blastcore's shoulder.
The second hit his chest.
The Elite was hurled from the wall and smashed through a nearby mound of rubble.
Stormfang did not slow.
Chains exploded from his armored sides.
Lightning ran along every link.
"Storm Chain Execution!"
The chains caught Blastcore before he could recover.
His eyes widened.
"What—"
Stormfang accelerated.
Blastcore was ripped from the rubble and dragged across the road in a trail of sparks.
Stormmane released the guns.
His sword came into both hands.
He stood.
Jumped.
Lightning filled the blade.
"RAIL BREAKER SLASH!"
Stormmane descended.
The sword crossed Blastcore's body in one brilliant arc.
For a moment nothing happened.
Blastcore blinked.
Then a line of light appeared through him.
His body separated.
He began dissolving into essence.
His fading laughter followed him.
"Wheee..."
Stormmane landed.
Blastcore's form scattered.
"...not bad..."
The last particles vanished.
"...for a kitty with chains."
Stormmane turned immediately.
No rest.
No celebration.
The battlefield still burned.
Luminel flashed through the air above him.
Stormtusk smashed a wave of enemies aside with his hammer.
Frostclaw tore through another formation.
Archoniel's wings blazed against the dark sky.
And Caelan—
Caelan had reached Quakewyrm.
The massive earth-dragon fought on one side while the Elite Scrapreaver hammered it from the other.
Razorwind screamed around the monster's legs.
Razorstag flashed in Caelan's hand.
Behind them, the enemy tide continued to surge.
Stormmane lowered his sword.
Then drove its point against Stormfang's armored frame.
Lightning exploded.
"Full speed."
Stormfang roared.
"Let's give them a road they'll remember."
Stormmane lifted the sword.
"ROAD OF ROARING SKIES!"
Stormfang launched.
Lightning poured from his wheels.
Not merely sparks.
A road.
A broad trail of storm-energy burned itself across the battlefield behind them, brilliant blue and gold against the shattered earth.
Friendly Aetherkin touched it.
And accelerated.
Roadstreakers screamed forward.
Prideclaws leapt farther.
Gloomimps shot through the air.
Even Stormtusk's enormous body moved faster when his feet crossed the glowing path.
Stormmane stood atop Stormfang with both hands around his sword.
A Scythewing attacked.
He cut it down.
Venomweavers filled the path with silk.
His blade swept once.
Lightning burned the webs away.
Stingflies descended from above.
Twin Thunderhowl answered them.
The sky became electric.
Through all of it, Stormmane smiled.
Not because he was stronger.
Not because he had finally caught Caelan.
And not because he had proved himself worthy of standing beside some Legendary hero.
He understood now that he had never needed to prove that.
He had already belonged.
Partner.
Friend.
Brother.
The storm rider raised his sword toward the enemy tide.
"Come on!"
Stormfang's engine thundered beneath him.
"Let's dance."