Chapter 468 (2/2)
When I looked back, Lyra was htened nervously
“You’ve found soood,” she began without preamble “Place yourselves near theon the front line, but being too near the rear could result in you ed Vildorian defensive effort Don’t be heroes, but…” She paused, rolling her words around in herwe must do…there is no reason to make yourselves villains, either Trust that there is more to all this than what you can see, and protect yourselves while being true to what you believe The world has changed a lot in the last two years, for all of us Don’t despair that this change will result in nothing but a reversion to the worst of us Understand?”
A chill ran up h Lyra’s words were directed to all four of us, her eyes stayed on mine the entire time I nodded weakly “Of course, Lady Lyra And…thank you, for everything”
She shtly “I’ll see you on the other side, Seth Milview You and your friends”
We found ourselves being herded toward a growing line of battle groups queued up to ate on this end ide enough for several people to walk through abreast, ent down the line that the receiving gate could only receive four at once, and so each battle group would step through together, one after another
It see ti very quickly, like it was fading in and out around hbloods froes with proper equiple of the portal behind Lady Seris, her retainer Cylrit, and Lyra, who took the lead Like a puncture through a da four by four
My i all kinds of scenarios about as happening on the other side, and then suddenly ere standing directly in front of the portal Anvald, a broad e of the Ascenders association, aving us through the portal The Wraith, Perhata, was glowering at us with unconcealed derision frolanced to ht ahead into the portal To htly that her knuckles had gone bone white On her other side, Valen sucked his teeth and gave me a sharp nod
As one, we round was ripped away beneathacross the continent The sensation lasted only a second or two, then I stumbled out into a dark, dusty, and cra into the back of a ed Caster who had been in line ahead ofportal had partially collapsed in soes ahead of us were forced to crawl over the rubble Enola wasted no ti the rest of us to hurry after her as she pushed the e ahead of us with a hand on his back
Spellfire crackled and boo tunnel, but the difficulty in navigating it had caused our forces to becoh the rubble and the occasional space between bodies, I could see other Alacryans fighting beyond the opening, and beyond theround cavern the likes of which I’d never even iined
“Seth, be ready with a shi+eld,” Enola ordered with a quick look over her shoulder “Mayla, you stay back with Seth Use your abilities as a Sentry to read the cavern Search for the professor, you remember what his presence feels like Valen—”
“I’ve been through all the sa you have, Enola,” Valen snapped He had sweat on his brows, and there was a treic, thank you veryeach of our lower backs “Be careful with your thoughts, everyone”
The tension, already thick enough to carve with a battle axe, increased es ahead of us breached the tunnel’sspells, conjuring weapons, and ducking behind shi+elds as they atte behind them If the tunnel became blocked, our forces would be divided and quickly rendered powerless, waiting to perish one by one as we broke loose And I had no idea ould happen to the portal if it had no place to put new arrivals…
The gruesoht spurred ic activated easily, swelling outward through ic that e tier to realize the ees of its activation, but that was enough to understand that it was unusual The officiant of the bestowe, but I had never felt like the eiven to Alacryan runes
Once theto my skin, I pushed it out, and it flowed forward to cacoon Enola An instant later, she broke free of the rubble, and a stone bullet struck her in the side, shattering and sending a forceful ripple through the conjured shi+eld—and an ache like a punch into my core as the spell pulled at my mana stores to support itself
Still, it was better, having so else, all the fear and horror of battle and layers of conflicting emotions, beneath the focus required to hold the spell
“Move,us forward “Break through the defenses andtheir Lance is your only priority, so go!”
We had cohway that corkscrewed around the outer walls of the huge cavern Dicathian forces, made up mostly of dwarves but peppered with hu us in fro troops little rooo The defenders were still struggling to get into position, though, and had obviously been caught wrongfooted by our sudden appearance
Spells rained all around us, and I expanded the shi+eld out from Enola so that it wrapped around all four of us as we crossed the highway to stare out into the dwarven city
It was a I wished there had been a chance to come here before all this happened The architecture was like nothing I’d ever seen before, sturdy and purposeful and yet still quite beautiful I should have been studying these people, not trying to kill them
A stray bolt of blue fire impacted the shi+eld, which was both weaker and harder to erously
“Seth, pay attention!” Enola snapped She pointed down the bend of the highway “There, that side street If we can get past those groups of Dicathians, we could lose ourselves in the cover of the buildings clinging to the cavern’s edge”
“And how exactly do you propose we do that?” Valen asked scathingly, looking pointedly up and down the road “Our forces are stuck This portal has brought us in far too high”
As if in answer, someone on our side conjured an enor down the curved highway, glancing off the cavern wall and crushi+ng the front porch of a home carved into the side as it built up speed, quickly approaching the line of defenders Several spells broke or melted pockmarks into the ice, but es
They arranged their shi+elds in such a way as to catch and corner the boulder It sla, and at least one looked unlikely to rise again Those behind shi+fted positions to drive the boulder into the wall, using friction to counter gravity’s effects on it They were trying, I realized, to prevent it froe of the road, which would have seen it plumroups were following in the boulder’s wake, however, giving the dwarves little tile the ard projectile “There, with the forward I had little choice but to follow, and Mayla and Valen were right there with us
Our side plunged into their scattered line with spells and blades, widening the gap and forcing the defenders back My stomach jumped up into e by a plate arainst killing
I had to pull the shi+eld in closer to us, forcing our battle group to run in a tight knot Red-hot ainst the shi+eld’s surface, and Enola was forced to deflect the blow of an axe that h the protective barrier before I stabilized it Her counter strike sent a dwarf reeling, and I looked away before she could deliver a killing blow, but she didn’t go in to finish the dwarf off, instead leading us deeper into their lines
A thunderclap from my left, out in the open air above hmy heart thump painfully and my feet stumble I nearly tripped and fell, which likely would have been the end of our push forward, but Valen grabbed ht
I just barely caught sight of Lady Seris and Cylrit flying in circles around ared spear His blond hair was flying wildly about hi strike Electricity raced over his arhway behind us, directly at the knot of Alacryans holding the tunnel entrance
Black , un the spell
With little attention to spare, I still felt a prie spells and blows, unable to believe that this single knight was holding his own against a Scythe and retainer
A punishi+ng vibration, visible in the air as jagged black lines, rolled like a tidal wave across the Dicathian forces Protective shi+elds of stone and metal appeared to disrupt the effect, but they all shattered The dwarves around us clapped their hands to their ears and fell to their knees,way for us to sprint past unharried
Enola continued to lead the way, pounding down the paving stones of the curving highway in search for cover More Dicathians were still pouring in from all over the city, and if we didn’t find a way clear of the battle zone, ould be isolated and…
I tried not to think about that part of it I’d been so busy worrying about having to kill anyone, I’d alotten that it was a very real possibility I would die in this battle The knowledge settled over rily wiped away scared tears
“There!” Enola didn’t wait for us but juhway, fell several feet, and landed on the sloped, tiled roof of a dwarven house that was formed directly to the cavern wall beneath us
Valen followed her without fear, tossing a bolt of crackling darkDicathian soldiers as he flew through the air I hesitated long enough to take Mayla’s hand, and we both ju with my shi+eld in the moments before we slipped beneath the road’s rim
I landed aardly, anddown the sloped roof like a child on a snowsled Mayla’s hand slipped free of ht herself, but all I could see was the looed down three stories into a garden of jagged rocks
My fingers scrarooves of the tiles, but they only fumbled numbly I felt ed rocks glea below
I lurched to a stop,me as someone held it by the back of the neck Slowly, I was reeled back onto the roof’s edge Looking around, I met Enola’s eyes They ide and red fro into theet far without our shi+eld,” she answered gruffly But she didn’t let o until she was confident I had my feet undertheir way down the slope Above thehway His hands were swirling around in front of hi swiftly beneath his beard in soo!” I shouted desperately, conjuring the shi+eld again—having let the spell fall while I did the sa it over our heads
Enola didn’t bother to verify what I was seeing before she jumped froht behind her, Mayla a few steps after
Blobs of bright orange lava splashed like thick rain on the shi+eld,down on one knee, I drew the shi+eld in tighter, thickening the barrier, then, hoping that I didn’t kill thethe lava away, spraying it against the cavern wall and up over the edge of the road
The dwarf yelped and dove out of sight, and I turned and jumped down to the balcony with the others Enola was already clied fistful of dark mana ready for anyone who attacked in theher while she was exposed and scanned the vicinity for enelass-fronted balcony door of the hoether on the floor near the far wall of a dwarven bedroo innocent civilians a part ofdeep down that I couldn’t do that, no, just barely within my control, and the barrier rippled and caround without incident, but I was left gasping and shaking Mayla was our Sentry—she could find Professor Grey, she could, I knew it, and I had to protect her—I was doingorders—and the tension eased, thetoit around Mayla as she descended Tre ain, I leaned into the sensation of conjuring the spell, using it to force everything else beneath the surface
“You all right?” Valen asked as he shi+mmied down afteraway and hidingthe narrow street It was carved into the ith surprisingly large houses lining either side Yetto the cavern wall below us
“There!” a gruff voice said; two Dicathians had rounded the edge of the neighboring house, catching us standing open in the street
Valen threw a spell as Enola put herself between us and the Mayla to run in the other direction
One of the Dicathians—an elf, by the look of her—was holding a strange two-handed blade The e veins, and there was a strange bulkiness to the guard and handle, which fit aardly within her hands Even as I noticed it, it flared orange with a blistering heat I could feel from twenty feet away
Elves can’t use fire-attribute ht came up froabout it as the two Dicathian soldiers charged
I stu Mayla behind me and my focus on Enola in order to shi+eld her Valen hurled his spells, but the elf nature, flowing like wind around the black bolts of ed instinctively but didn’t bring her own blade to counter, instead aiasp burst fro, just barely th fro, and her mana-imbued blade slid over the elf’s armor harmlessly
But the sas so hot it left Enola’s hip scorched black, and she iainst the spot in horror
The huainst ether, sealing the wound left by the strange weapon He spun, crashi+ng a hammer into it, aimed at Enola’s head, but the attack was deflected A bolt of darkhiround, the heavy metal arht have been a fatal strike if not for the Dicathians’ inherent ability to protect themselves with mana at all tiain, this ti it open wide enough for her to leap through She slashed at Enola, forcing her to stu footed, then thrust forward toward Valen Instead of trying to shi+eld him, I wrapped my mana around hi of his next spell but getting him well out of reach of the fatal cut
But the elf didn’t stopaim at my neck Mysuddenly and with enough force to wrench her shoulder out of the socket
I grew nauseous as she screarip
Enola’s blade sprouted from the elf’s chest Mythe wo up fro except the woman I’d just helped kill
How etting everything else
A roar of battle fury ripped the curtain from my eyes just in time for me to watch theher head sideways and dropping her as if she was full of grain instead of muscle and bones
Valen threw another spell, but it rebounded off the man’s rune-etched shi+eld, which hummed as it pulled mana from its wielder to support the enchanth the air toward Valen just as I was conjuring ain; I only barely deflected it away from him, but that forced it to strike Mayla in the shi+n, and she collapsed to one knee with an agonized moan
I took a half-step toward her, distracted, and only saw from the corner ofweapon Valen was falling back, hurling spells, but the Dicathian deflected one after another
When he reached the blade, instead of continuing on, he fuy fro on pure instinct, I wrapped hih it, cutting his way free and issuing a wave of blistering heat that knocked h an additional layer ofoff Valen’s spells with his largeinside of it like a building explosion
A streak of silver arced through the air frorip and sending it flying It stuck into the side of the house There was a flash of heat and light, and I was suddenly lying face down on the ground ten feet from where I’d started The Dicathian, Valen, and Mayla were siround with a patter only barely audible over the ringing of s appeared in ht white , I foundin shock into a familiar face
“Eleanor?”
She scowled, her eyes red within a face both fierce and full of rage My only thought, empty of any real sense, was that the expression seeirl I’d met in the Relictombs
“Don’t move, Seth Don’t make me kill you”