Chapter 471 (1/2)

Chapter 471

Chapter 469: Hunted

ELEANOR LEYWIN

“Is that a person?” A shi+ver ran down“There's noaura But how…?”

“So, this is Gideon’s secret project,” Caera said besidewoet you all to a healer” Hesitant, still not quite sure what these Alacryans were thinking, I added, “It…looks like the battle is turning”

The lizard-person-thing was so fast that it had already reached the highway, leaping twenty feet in the air to clear a little pastry shop and land on the eroups of Alacryans who had reached the lowest levels

The Alacryans began to throw spells, but the reen, and red —soldier? Suit? I couldn’tao Strikers with a single blow of its tail and showing us its back, which had a fraht into the flesh, scales, aps in the steel and flesh were covered by more of the transparent mana barrier

A second of the human-piloted mana beast suits reached the battle This one had thick bleached-gray fur,in tufts The arms were powerfully built and supported with more metal, and armor plates were inset into its flesh across its broad chest and ribs Tusks protruded to each side of the pilot’s face, where the mana beast’s wide jaould have been It cleared a ten foot juore a shi+eld

More of the strange, sos ca the Alacryans frolory at the victory, but really all I felt was a faint queasiness, whichinside, I realized I’d depleted ht Within htly, each one sitting at a primary intersection of my mana channels I reached for one of these spheres, which I had painstakingly gathered and stored within myself When my consciousness touched one, it h rip on Caera tightened “Come on, we need to find Mom Boo’s with her, hopefully still at the Earthborn Institute where I left her We’re aluardian…” Caera looked over her shoulder, back in the direction she’d originally appeared

In turn, I shot a pointed look at the rest of our group: the two Alacryan boys carrying the unconscious girl with the short golden hair, Mayla, and Caera herself, who could barely stand even with the iven her I knew I could condense mana into a kind of litter to carry her friend, but it was already going to be a difficult journey “We’ll have to send someone e reach the institute”

Caera reluctantly nodded, and I started roup of Alacryans toward shelter and, hopefully, one far when one of the pilots, this one in a silver-furred mana beast much like a bear, its torso open but shrouded with the transparent barrier, its insides supported by a structure of bluish h I wasn’t sure how he could see with the rune-covered cloth across his eyes—and quickly accepted that I had taken the group of wounded, tired young Alacryans prisoners before ain

We made it to the level of the Earthborn Institute not far froates, and I was surprised to see theht, I shouted up at the guards “Hey! Open up, I have wounded prisoners who need to reach the emitter, Alice Leywin!”

A dith a trimmed black beard and flat, crooked nose peered out of an arrow slit, his hel “The Earthborn Institute is in lockdown, Eleanor! I can’t unseal the doors until Lord Carnelian hiuard, whose naermud “Is my mo even through the inner doors I believe it was her intention to join the fighting, or at least get out there to utilize her skills as a healer, but she was caught within when Lord Earthborn locked the palace down”

I turned around to look at h their curse hadn’t been set off by their “defeat,” I couldn’t be confident that they weren’t still a threat, or that they theer

My eyes slid off the in the distance, pushi+ng the Alacryans back and hunting theh the city Perhaps it didn’t matter; Gideon’s secret project seeh the battle hadn’t been won yet, it wouldn’t take too long now Still, I couldn’t seem to release the knot that had foro?” Mayla asked, her voice small “Enola needs help She’s…”

“There’ll be an e I didn’t sound entirely confident “Weisn’t too bad…”

“Seris,” Caera said, her voice raspy with pain and fatigue “We should find Seris Or Lyra They need to…know everything They can end the fighting”

Re the presence of the terful Alacryans, ere ns of their battle only to realize that I could no longer sense it Activating the first phase of uardian beast and scanned the city Following the signs of where the powerful natures of white core es

“Lance Bairon has driven them into some of the side tunnels” I pointed “There, where that barrier is completely shattered”

Caera had closed her eyes and was frowning with concentration “I can barely sense anything I’rippedthe Alacryan invaders all across the city, but I shook thea level head

Since there was no point in begging Bolgermud, I instead inspected the smooth stone walls of the Earthborn Institute’s outer courtyard They were twenty feet high at least, with no grooves or i a handhold There was no way I could get Caera or the injured girl over There were the newly installed bunkers, but we’d have to go all the way through the city to reach them And even if we did, would there be any emitters there? Enola needed help i,” the boy with the dark skin—Valen, I thought they’d called him— said, tense as a dra “We can’t just stand here and wait for one side or the other to decide to attack us”

“No one is going to attack you—” I started, but my words turned into a yelp as dark fire suddenly rained froainst the Earthborn Institute’s outer walls I threw up a barrier of bright white mana around us, and Seth conjured a barrier beneath h my mana like it was alive inside asped She was frantically searching the cavern for the spell’s source “But who…?”

I grittedevery ounce ofthe barrier in place The black flah in small patches even as I absorbed a second of the mana reservoirs, and it was only due to Seth’s secondary barrier that eren’t engulfed It was the eted toward us; the fla down over half of Vildorial

On a level below us, I watched as the gray fur of an upright thorned growler, which was supported by a complex exoskeletal structure of the bluish steel and mechanical parts I couldn’t describe, dissolved beneath the fla the pilot within fizzled away, and then the flames ate into the pilot too The suit and pilot collapsed, neither ain

Suddenly the fiery rain faded, and I released the shi+eld with a gasp There were several explosions all at once, and three of the stone-shrouded passageways out of the city burst inith a hail of rock and dust Soldiers in the black and criroups of three and four

I gaped at Caera and the others, but I could tell from their expressions that they were just as surprised as I was

The soldiers piloting the an to turn away from the route of the first Alacryans and back toward the new arrivals, but even I could see that they were struggling to organize This fresh wave of eneht, and they showed no inclination to break free of the defense and into the city, instead taking the fight directly to any Dicathians they saw

The closest of the breached tunnels was only a level below us, and already the Alacryans were spilling up the road We would be trapped with our backs against the ates, and there was no e’d reach the bunkers now

“We need to head back up, toward the palace,” I said, finally deciding on a course “If we avoid the highe can probably stay away fro until we’re almost there” As I spoke, I reached out for Boo,Moave uardian bear appeared beside me with a faint pop

I scratched hiuy”

He ruerously on the others aside from Caera They backed away nervously

I turned to lead theroups had already broken away and were quicklytoward us Behind them, two of the er force

“You're my prisoners, and your mission in this city is over If you try to escape, I’ll have no choice but to kill you,” I said, trying to add a level of fierceness to my voice that I didn’t feel

Caera suddenly tookin the direction of the other Alacryans

“What are you doing?” I hissed nervously Boo rulare “Just play along,” she said from the corner of her mouth The sudden hostility didn’t extend to her tone of voice

I steadiedher completely

“You there, who is in command of this force?” Caera yelled when the Alacryan soldiers were still fifty feet or et here Report to your co back”

A short, thick woman who could have been mistaken for a dwarf eyed Caera’s horns “A Vritra-blooded a the rebels and traitors? That’s a surprise And a daot yours Do your bloody job or the High Sovereign will light you up like a candle, isn’t that right?”

“I’ve doneherself firnal needs to be sent Lance Arthur Leywin isn’t in—”

“Wait a second,” the wo on me Her eyes flicked between ets How’d you do that then?” Instead of waiting for an answer, she looked at thedark battlerobes with crih “That’s her, isn’t it? The sister? She’s even got the bear, like they said”

I feltbefore I could stop myself “What?”

“It is!” the wo “Hand her over We’ll deliver her to Scythe Melzri directly”

Caera glanced at ave the s, I rippedmy bow from my shoulder, drew, and fired at the ene

A shi+eld of green-tinged wind enveloped ainst it

Caera lunged forward, her hands sprouting black flahostly copies of herself, each one drawn in gray fire The stout woauntleted fists to defend herself, but Caera reappeared right in front of her, and her flame-wreathed hand pierced the shi+eld and wrapped around the woman’s throat

The black fire didn’t burn the wo drawn into her pores

The soldier let out a choked gasp One gauntleted fist sla as Caera was tossed backwards, a secondary shi+eld appearing far too late to help daled to react in tiround hard, her breath rushi+ng out in a pained gasp

I dodged away from a blast of concussive sound, threw out three small discs of condensed mana, tucked into a roll, and caainst the string of led to stand as the arrow struck her in the chest Ither a protective layer of pure mana

The stout Alacryan soldier was already on the ground, black fire dancing fro in her flesh

Boo let out a resounding roar and charged

The shi+eld cursed and started to fall back “Melzri wants the girl alive if possible, but don’t hesitate to kill her if necessary”

Several of the other Alacryans surged forward, weapons drawn and spells prepared The discs ofStrikers and one Caster flying as the shi+elds struggled to react Boo pounced on the fallen Caster, as only saved by a glea shi+eld of black stone that fored creature flashed by overhead, diving into the chaos and tossing the reht, on Nor was it a beast; at least, not entirely

The mechanical mana beast form stood at least nine feet tall and looked kind of like a lithe griffon standing on its hind legs Steel-gray feathered wings opened out to its sides like scythes, and as it spun the feathers sliced through a barrier of gusting wind and then the thin shi+eld behind it The fore sword in one taloned foreclahich it brought down on a reeling Striker The big Alacryan seee machine, and his mana-imbued blade like a child’s toy

Steel sparked, and the Striker’s ar hot steel parted his flesh frolanced off the gray feathers and flew har ball of black ice and h the transparentwhere the beast’s throat used to be to the woh her eyes were covered by the same rune-etched band of silk I’d seen on the other pilots, I still recognized her: Claire Bladeheart

I’d seen her around the labs while working with Gideon and Emily to test my spellform I didn’t know her, but I knew about her, especially how her core had been destroyed years ago, during the attack on Xyrus Academy that caused Arthur to be arrested by the Lances But watching her ic of her own; she fought like a silver core augmenter

With the talons of her free claw, she ripped open an enemy Caster, then did a kind of mid-air pirouette At the conclusion of the spin, several feathers launched froed off the two barriers being conjured by the ene three of the enele strike

A woman wrapped in conjured stone-and-metal armor and spikes threw herself on Claire’s back and pu parts of her exposed lower back, which could be seen through aoff the horrified awe of the fight, I sent an arrow of pure h the last Striker’s eye She went lih the re Alacryans with brutal efficiency

When the last shi+eld fell and the doe’s skull with a wet crunch, then he returned to arded Claire

She, in turn, was scanning our surroundings Apparently deciding it was safe enough for the riffon’s beaked face toward me

“Eleanor Leywin You shouldn’t be out here,” she said Her voice wasto htly so Claire’s face pointed toward Caera, as still on one knee “And Lady Caera Denoir You very likely shouldn’t be either You would both es”—I indicated the field of corpses—“said they were looking for me”

Claire nodded once, sharply, the beak of her et you to safety I can carry you, but only you”