Chapter 393 (1/2)
Chapter 393
BAIRON WYKES
I could practically feel the frayed ends of Varay’s nerves firing next to nature was a weak hum And yet, both Lances stood firm in the face of a terrible enemy A swell of pride fortified lad to stand next to these warriors in defense of my home Each of us had faced down certain death at the hands of an asura Looking away from my co above, refusing to let any fear of theh the cavern, resounding from stone to stone as it built like the pressure before a thunderstor? You’ve already lost!” the white-haired, scarecrow of a Scythe I had wounded shouted down at us, her previously playful voice now full of menace and cruelty “Don’t you feel it?”
On the far edge of the cavern, a horrible pressure was dru out of the walls in sharp bursts, several sources ofinto one another with the force of ainst a bare skull
Even froroeak around the haft of the red spear
“But please, don’t stop fighting,” the Scythe continued, her snarl easing as she adopted her darkly playful h the wound I’d given her, wiping it away as if it had never existed “It would be oh so disappointing to finally get a chance to fight in the war only for thefor only Mica and me to hear, Varay said, “Mica, cast defensively, keep the bloith that unGodly spear We have a chance if we can cut off the flow of their mana, even briefly”
“Yes, that’s the spirit,” the Scythe said, suddenly giddy “Scheme away I can’t wait to shove that cursed spear up your—”
“Enough, Melzri,” the purple-haired Scythe cut in, her voice oozing like sludge through the air “Let us finish this before the Wraiths arrive”
The Scythe I’d fought, Melzri, sobered “Of course, Viessa Good impressions and all that”
Even to my enhanced senses, Melzri was little more than a shadowy blur as she suddenly flew into our h time to pull my spear up into a defensive position before her strike landed The blow sent es into the courtyard
She wielded a long, curved sword in each hand One swirled with black wind, the other with dark fire Both blades snapped out simultaneously, one at Varay’s ribs, the other at Mica’s throat The strikes deflected off stone and ice, and the other Lances let themselves be pushed away by the force, then flew up into the air
A dark cyclone was spinning into being above us as Viessa worked some horrid spell, but my focus was on Melzri
She didn’t pursue the others, but spun again and catapulted herself at me
Ice reached up from the earth to wrap around her liravity between us becae, and I sidestepped and pulled up ainst the shaft, and I countered with a series of lightning-quick thrusts that were batted aside by her blades
Above ht of Varay and Mica
Melzri was a vortex of burning, cutting steel, leaping, spinning, and striking with i to coled si withfor the other Scythe to finish off Varay and Mica Otherwise, I never would have landed the blow that forced her to te, unhelpful thoughts, I focused on the Scythe and her weapons, letting myself sink into the hyper-focused state required to effectively utilize Thunderclap Impulse
Mana infused every synapse in hts and reactions by several ti toward ht knee, the other atwildly in an effort to block both blows at once, I leaned into the-enhanced senses allowing me to thrust my body forward between the two blows My pauldron ra headlong into an iron hyraxRead first at " l ig h t n o v el r e a d e ror g"
Lightning rushed through le point on h force to send Melzri hurtling backwards Her swords closed around me like shears
I dove into a forward roll, so close to her weapons that I felt the fire lick at the back ofdown onand her blades turning around her like those of a thresher
The ground cracked beneath me as I launchedcocking back, I threw the asuran spear with alllike wind around the spear My sped-up senses barely saw as she let go of her oeapon and tried to grab mine out of the air
Her body jerked violently The grace and precision of her movement were suddenly a chaos of li to crash and turound She vanished with the crunch of breaking stone into one of the fallen buildings
The red spear turned in a wide arc and flew toin to close the distance between me and the Scythe
With a curse, she hurled away a large section of wall that had collapsed onto her, givingthe spear doith both hands
Her counter was little more than a blur, even with Thunderclap Impulse active The reathed blade jumped up to parry my thrust, and the spear’s head sank deep into the stone beside her At nearly the sa sas in her hand again as well As I hissed in pain and reached for the line of fire across my back, she lashed out with a kick to my chest
The cavern bent and wobbled as led to correct withinto and through so onblack storuely sense the other two Lances struggling against the second Scythe They were relying on ifted ht
But the fire seeped into my blood
I knew it immediately No et that wretched encounter with the Scythe, Cadell, in the flying castle, or how it had felt to lie there, helpless as a newborn as his ined actual flames alive inthe blaze
Melzri appeared abovelower than the other, but as I watched she rotated it until the arave h my skin and into my blood and bones
“What does it feel like?” Her words were soft, almost reverent “Tell hed with derision, then oing taut “It feels…just like I reh clenched teeth The spasm settled, and I took several deep, painful breaths “It took th after the other one filled aze sharpened, and she leaned toward ainst my breastplate Her eyes ide, and a rin “Go on…”
I met her eyes the color of curdled blood Outwardly, I was calain But inside, the real battle was raging
“My body didn’t feel liketi my release of mana “This alien force had been within it, and even after it was gone, it had left a residue that I couldn’t wash off e of her sword slid acrossinto it with the lohine of ly beautiful ords, Lance Finish, and I will relieve you of this pain” She bit her bottom lip as she waited, filled with anticipation
“I thought I’d never heal, not really My tier as a burned-out husk of my former self” Her eyes closed as her blade slowly parted the leather backing ofto think about it, Scythe I planned, and I hoped”
“What did you hope for, Thunderlord?”
Slow, steady doard pressure The feel of steel scraping across bone, and then…
“That, one day, soain,” I growled
Her eyes flashed open, reflecting the white lightning burning fro the spell I had designed for this very moment
Thunderlord’s Wrath, I chanted inwith relief
For all her speed, Melzri couldn’t react quickly enough
Instead of retreating, she leaned into her blade, and I felt it scrape against the edge ofmy body—my blood—raced up the steel and into her I could feel every particle ofher arms and into her torso
She was thrown off her feet, then crashed through a statue of soround in pieces, his cracked face staring up at round after her, wreathed in reaching tendrils of lightning
“I just couldn’t get rid of that feeling of fire in round and into the air The twin blades jumped back into her hands One arm was blackened up to the elbow “So I learned how to turn !”
I punctuated this last word by focusing on the deep wound inexploded out of ht up both of her swords to deflect the blast, and a shi+eld of wind and fire encircled her The lightning condensed and built where the two spells i until the pressure ripped thebackwards, tuh the air like newborn birds fallen froainst the devouring darkness Every vein and artery screa The spell she’d used was specific, designed to eat away atto burn, the soulfire was fading
Taking hold of htedit in a shell of electrical energy
The black cloud above me rippled, and a sround nearby I gave Mica one quick glance to ensure she was breathing, then cocked back one
With a sound like the cracking of thin ice, the cloud above snapped Darkness was replaced with fluttering white as it became a snowstor above
Varay and Viessa were both stationary, each facing the other as they hovered a hundred feet overhead, their battle one entirely of will andinward toward Viessa Within it, the shapes of ar flakes were cutting and slashi+ng all around her Black scythes of wind countered, defending and destroying the conjured warriors as quickly as Varay could for roads that curved around the cavern, and as one they began sending spells hurtling at Viessa
Helen Shard was firing arrows of burning light froe of the cavern with her band of adventurers at her back, each casting and throwing spells of their own
Fro earthen spikes like stalactites at the Scythe Beside the defensive spells in the forolden panels of flame The cavern shook with the roars of Curtis’s world lionRead first at " l i gh t n o v el r e a d e ror g"
Adjusting et, I threw the asuran spear
It painted a bright red afteri true toward Viessa’s heart
I sensed the flare of -infused step away The tendrils of electricity surging aroundin on h
Black wind and fire cut through white lightning Steel glinted hungrily
Melzri had ht beside me Her face was a , the air hardening and turning to dark crystal around me, and in an instant I was trapped, my entire body encased within a shell of black dia off the protective spell, lodged into the diah the opaque crystal, I could just see Melzri’s silhouette spin around as a s an oversized hammer flew at her from the side I felt each blow of the haround beneath ed strike after strike I could also sense the strain on Mica’s core as she pushed herself to her liic Viessa had used on her had left her weak She was almost to the point of backlash
The crystalline structure trapping round, Melzri pinning her The Scythe’s hands rapped in bands of black fire, and each blow burned away a layer of Mica’s flesh, leaving her face cracked and bleeding
I channeled all the power of Thunderlord’s Wrath and lunged, wrappingcoiled around us both, pinning her to me as I yanked her away froth, and I held on despite Melzri’s poelling into shatter ainst the energy cladding an to tre
Then my mana winked out like a doused candle fla backwards, Melzri still in ether, we fell
As I lay onfor the pain to hit ing, near the end of her strength Viessa inning the battle of wills, pushi+ng back against Varay’s conjured ar closer and closer to where Varay hovered
An arrow slipped through Viessa’s defenses and sank into her thigh
Then the pain hitRead first at " l i g h t n o v el r e a d e rorg"
I sucked in a choked gasp A bloody hole had been ripped through hthe wound, I felt the full force of it Draped across my arm, Melzri stiffened, and her hand pressed to her ribs just below her chest, where an identical wound had been ripped in her arer sense the spear, which had been returning at full speed while I’d grappled with Melzri Knowing I couldn’t deliver a blow, I’d done the only thing I could: held her and let my weapon come to us
Melzri’s tords lay several feet ahere they’d dropped froled to roll ontoout, but every nerve inin slow motion, her fist clenched, and she drove it into the open wound inwas happening I blinked several ti perhaps it was ain, it was still happening
Shadoere coalescing around Viessa and forht, until the sky was full of visions of her Everywhere I looked, spells were passing through the illusory copies
Melzri wasoverrabbed her wrists and tried to twist them one way or the other to shove her off th Both our arms shook with effort
Over her shoulder, the Viessa copies avering in and out of focus, popping one by one, the air around the with a kind of black static Then, it was just Varay and Viessa again
Suddenly uards had appeared, abandoning whatever position they were supposed to be guarding, and were flinging spells, filling the sky with projectiles Viessa seemed shocked as an arrow pierced her arm, then wavered and nearly fell as a boulder twice her size sla, but no sound came out
“That’s it!” Varay shouted, her voice projecting triu her down Focus fire! Everything you’ve got!”
Melzri relaxed suddenly and our ared down and drove into my nose with a meaty thunk My vision went blurry for a ers were around my throat