Yes, there would’ve been consequences. He’d likely have to feign pain as the Overseer buzzed his collar and made an example of him. Balagra’s life was more important than any of that.
Now, though?
Now… what?
It was a hacking cough that broke Vir out of his reverie.
“H-He’s come to!” Malik said. He’d been squatting beside the downed Naga ever since he’d applied the tourniquet, applying pressure on Balagra’s stump to further reduce the blood flow. “You better not turn back to your Naga form,” he muttered.
“Why?” Vir asked, joining Malik in applying pressure. “What happens if he does?”
“Nothing good.”
Balagra looked up dazedly at Vir, trying to form words. Only a wheeze escaped his lips, however.
“Don’t talk. Can you heal yourself?” Vir asked, applying pressure on his wound with both hands. Balagra grunted, but it significantly lessened the bleeding. Even so, Balagra had lost too much blood.
By now, the other Chitran guards had encircled the group, their talwars and spears pointed inward. Though, whether out of caution or fear, they did not attack.
The Naga nodded almost imperceptibly, raising a weakened hand. Unsure of what else to do, Vir took Balagra’s hand in his own, but the demon shook it off. He brought his hand to the collar.
The collar’s restricting his prana. If I can break it…
Vir hesitated. Ever since they’d clapped one around his neck, he’d been studying the collars in great detail. Unlike human Artifact collars, they didn’t consume prana from the environment. Rather, they stored prana within them, releasing them when commanded. Vir was almost certain an overload into its storage mechanism would cripple the device. He just didn’t know if it would harm Balagra as well. After all, injecting prana into his enemies had proven an incredibly deadly attack in the past.
Then again, if he did nothing, Balagra would die.
“Halt!” a guard barked, just as Vir rested his hand on the collar. “Break it up. All of you!”
Vir ignored him, attempting to concentrate on the task at hand, but when Malik squeezed Vir’s shoulder, he begrudgingly stole a glance behind him.
In the Chitran’s hand was on a tablet.
“Stay back!” the guard said. While he didn’t quite stutter, his fluster was obvious. He waved the tablet in front of him, as if it were an orb capable of warding off the demons who slowly encircled him.
“And why would we do that?” a gruff voice said from the crowd.
“Fool! This is the control tablet for your collars. Do as I say! I’ll use it! S-stop!”
The guard’s voice grew increasingly more desperate as the demonic noose tightened.
In desperation, Balagra clutched Vir’s arm. His wheezing had grown worse, and Vir knew he didn’t have much longer to live.
It’s now or never, Vir thought, silencing the ruckus brewing around him.
Vir gripped the collar, pushing the tiniest trickle of prana he could into its inscription. Under other circumstances, he’d never dare attempt something this dangerous. Now? He simply uttered a prayer to Badrak for good luck.
Nothing happened, so Vir upped the prana. Then, to his horror, he saw the inscription light up. It wasn’t his prana, however. It was a combination of every other affinity.
They’ve activated the collars.
Vir immediately surged prana into the collar, gripping the metal with as much force as he could muster.
Crack!
Balagra’s body jolted in pain. His body seized once, then went limp as the collar surrounding his neck crumbled into pieces.
Malik, who had been diligently pressing against Balagra’s wound, screamed out in pain. He fell to the ground, clutching his head, writhing.
Similar screams erupted from all around Vir, though he spared them only the briefest glance.
Vir searched Balagra’s prana signature for any trace of Ash prana. He couldn’t find any, though that didn’t mean—
Balagra heaved, his eyes flying wide open. His silver Panav tattoo glowed, and the blood ceased pouring from the demon’s body within moments.
Well, at least he won’t die, Vir thought sadly. Though he wanted to watch over the Naga, the crisis unfolding around him denied him that luxury.
Vir stood and swept a glance across the field, taking stock of the situation.
It was as he’d feared—the prisoners writhed on the ground, while the Kothis watched over them with a range of expressions ranging from smug to sadistic.
Not for long.
Vir didn’t bother physically striking the Kothi who held the tablet. A Talwar Launch bisected the object, much in the same way it had the Overseer, taking the Kothi’s hand with it.
The prana link shut off instantly, as Vir had hoped. But when the demons’ cries didn’t immediately cease, Vir worried he’d made a terrible mistake.
He glanced at Malik, still clutching his collar in agony.
Destroying the tablet doesn’t turn them off!?
Desperately, Vir wracked his mind. A minute more of this torture, and they’d be unconscious. One more after that, and they’d be dead.
There was but one answer. Only a single option that had a chance of working.
An ability Vir had theorized about and ruminated on, yet had never tested.
This had better work…
Vir activated Haste, summoned every ounce of prana within his body… and exploded.
When Vir came to, it was not to a field of dead demons, or even to a gag and shackles, as he’d expected. He’d been lain down on no less than three cushions—if stinky unwashed robes could be considered cushions.
What happened? Vir thought groggily before turning to his side. He came face to face with a serpent larger than any he’d ever seen. Vir panicked, thinking some foul Ash Beast had come to finish him in his sleep, but the ill-fitting cuirass it wore—ridiculous on a snake—and the spear nearby—made him reconsider.
“Balagra?”
Vir had never once seen the Naga in his full serpent form, and he wondered why. For it was magnificent. Twin bright white lines traced down the length of Balagra’s otherwise jet-black scales. In all, he had to have been twelve paces long, though coiled up as he was, it was difficult to estimate.
The snake’s body neither rose nor fell, so Vir couldn’t tell if it—he—was breathing, but then again, Vir knew little of serpent anatomy. The most he’d ever seen were the small snakes that always slithered away before he could reach them in the Godshollow.
Still, while his eyes failed him here, the prana in the Naga’s body told Vir all was well.
“You’re up!” a voice said. “Good.”
Vir looked up to find Malik handing him a bowl of hot soup.
“Whatever you did made the collars cease functioning. Some of us have Aspect of the Inferno, so we were able to rustle up some hot rations. Figured you’d want some when you awoke.”
Vir sat up, rubbing his temples. Prana Burst… Right. The initial idea for the ability involved a spherical burst of prana in all directions. Like Prana Dart, just multiplied. It was supposed to be a last-ditch defense against multiple foes.
Here, he’d needed something a bit more discerning. Instead of a globe, he’d fired a half dozen darts at every nearby demon. Of course, six wasn’t nearly enough, so he’d Blinked around, stopping barely long enough to fire off handfuls more.
The entire process had taken less than a minute, draining him and leaving him little more than a desiccated husk.
As a combat ability, it wasn’t nearly ready. Though, judging from the sounds coming from outside the tent, it sounded like its trial run hadn’t failed, either.