Chapter 494: An Icy Fist (1/2)
Chapter 494: An Icy Fist
ALARIC MAER
Our combined footsteps were uncomfortably loud in the confined stairwell The thud and creak of the wood resounded sharply froh stonework of the walls With only a sed body was already feeling the strain of so much exertion
And all of this without a drop of alcohol to dull the pain I consoledperhaps a quarter e, Darrin looked a lot worse
“Quit your huffing and puffing,” I snapped in a staged whisper “You’re going to bring every loyalist ht down on top of us”
Darrin only huffed and puffed louder “As if they could hearknees, old y to be a smart ass It meant his injuries weren’t as bad as they could have been
Reaching the top of the stairwell, it opened out into a large, empty common room On the wall, a rickety wooden ladder continued up to a trap door in the ceiling I ignored the top floor of the student dormitory and ascended the ladder The trap door was locked, but a single strike against theupwards
The square of sky I could see was gray-blue Early , not yet full sunrise Darkness would have been better, but I could ith twilight
I heaved myself out onto the dormitory roof, then turned and pulled Darrin up behindout fro the trap door back down into place, we crept to the roof’s edge and looked out at the Central Acade toward the building across the hedged yards A fewout of the castle-like Student Adathering outside of the Chapel, a loo that contained the Reliquary
“If we’re going to make it off this roof, I need out of these cuffs,” Darrin whispered “How’d you get out of yours, anyway?”
“The old fake tooth,” I said while scanning the nearby rooftops It wouldn’t take long for the that? I’et punched in the hts will be of me while that crap burns out the back of your throat”
“Took quite a beating this time around, and I’ chain on Darrin’shih his mana core, but he wouldn’t be able to cast any spells until the cuffs were co the distance ould have to ju help fro way
My die artifact had been confiscated with all ofin a second ardless of Darrin’s protests After all, we’d both still be locked up without the burning powder
At the er I’d taken frouards downstairs
“LetDarrin’s wrist By ier’s blade with h to score the runes It took longer than it should have with my core in its current state, but after a tense oth’s forces descending on the dor away some of the runes on his cuffs
It was a delicate process The dagger was less effective than the burning powder, and the mana suppression cuffs were equally hardened by the same mana they withheld from Darrin I had to scour away the proper runes without inadvertently altering the spell into so that would harm Darrin, but I had to be careful not to break the point of the dagger or slip off the smooth, curved metal surface of theof my hands sure as hells didn’t help either What I would do for a Godda myself why I’d quit in the first place
Cynthia bent down besideeased, and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding
It took another minute, perhaps two, to successfully oth’s soldiers in the building now, shouting co Instillers I felt the nature reappeared, spiking and diving rapidly as his core atteh to break the manacles off his wrists They struck the flat roof with a metallic clunk
At alain, only ten feet away
A worimace and look of physical malaise, I knew she was one of the prisoners, not a soldier She saw us immediately, and her oth and the recording artifact, we couldn’t have a trail of his loyalist bloodhounds on our heels…
I hooked the manacles on the end of my boot and kicked out Whatever she’d been about to say turned into a screaed back down through the hole There was a crash and shouting, followed by the sound of fists strikinga gust of wind toward hi back a curse, I bent low and started running while trying to keep ht as possible Anyone with half a brain would see the manacles and know someone else had been up here
The most likely escape route took us north, across another rooftop and into an adjacent building via a balcony , but ere standing on the western edge to look out over the campus It wasn’t far, perhaps fifty feet I was nearly there when the trap door slammed back open Myopic Decay flared with power, and aback down into the hole and rubbing frantically at his eyes
Planting my foot firthen ust of wind pushed runt of concentration
I cleared the fifteen foot gap, absorbing the i into a forward roll
My battered and bruised body protested, but I caer concerned about noise Before we could search for the recording artifact, we had to lose our pursuers
I heard Darrin colance over htly, but I didn’t slon I’d seen hiuardian with expert efficiency before; I had no doubt he could handle a bit of torture and a twisted ankle, even with his li the far side of the second roof, I leapt across to a balcony, turningra line across lass cut my skin My feet slid out fro both the furniture andwith a crash
Behind lass His shadow loorabbed me by the front of my shi+rt and hauled me to my feet “No time for a lie-down,” he ht shoulder, knocking hiain, and the aparte fire sprayed over our heads Flaulfed the roo for Sun Flare
The orange fla in the carpet, furniture, and support bealare
Sending out a sonar-like pulse with Aural Disruption, I grabbed Darrin by the back of his ruined tunic and dragged hiht The heat of the flames blistered my skin, and several more concussive strikes of force shook the apartment Somewhere to our left, a roof collapsed
Only when I sensed our proxi—did I risk releasing Sun Flare Through e and yellow, and I opened le h the door in front of me
The hallas choked with thick black s had sent e In a minute or two, this entire floor would be in flames
“At least the bastards can’t follow us in that way,” Iround floor and try to trap you”
“No shi+t,” I gru past her
Darrin rubbed at his eyes and stuh burst out of hi fit
I didn’t have the breath to reply as I led the way into the stairwell Its stone walls rebuffed the heat, and the terees in a few steps The s on the hot air, and the floor beloas clear—for the moment
We descended two floors as quickly as we could, then turned into one of the hallways that connected to other rooth Theat the end exploded with a casting of Aural Disruption There was no neighboring building to juoth’s soldiers
I paused, taking two seconds to breathe and bemoan the loss of all my equipment, which included at least five different artifacts that would have eased our descent
Darrin went first this ti froe Gusting wind stabilized his fall
As he prepared to drop to the one below that, aas if the fire of the abyss chased hies ca after him, both in black and cri prisoner in the back The man pitched forward, landed on his face, and slid a couple of feet along the cobblestones Neither seemed to have seen us yet
Darrin, as still thirty feet froraceful arc
The second of the two ave a shout and threw up a quickly , circular wind
As Darrin descended, he lashed out with a combination of strikes Wind-attribute mana formed around his limbs and projected the force of the strikes forward and down The lightning-attribute Caster had half turned toward his shouting companion but was too far forward to be protected by the quickly cast shi+eld The blows landed like haround
Darrin used his oind-strikes to cushi+on his descent, but he still landed too hard His injured leg gave out, and he collapsed to the ground with an audible thump
The shi+eld shot a furtive look up at the , and I pulled ain The shi+eld was creeping toward Darrin, a short blade in his hand, the cyclone of wind-attributein front of hihtout the , I aimed myself like a catapult stone at the shi+eld As I fell, I bellowed a warcry
Thehis shi+eld up above his head I struck it full on The swirling wind caughtacross the ground like a tossed die The fall should have broken every bone inthe brunt of the ibut a cracked rib
The Aural Disruption rune was already alight on the se’s ears before he could recover and reposition his shi+eld He yelped, his face criht, pained expression, and the wind-attribute shi+eld flickered The confiscated dagger flew through the air, spinning end over end toward his ribs
The wind-shi+eld caught it and flung it aside The ardedexpression
“Well, shi+t,” I gru wind sla me stumble The shi+eld fell backwards, leveled by the force I lunged forward, dove on theat my face with the other tried desperately to hold onto his weapon My own fingers clawed at his, trying to pry theive…
An icy fist reached inside oftight, like a wyvern’s claw through flesh With a horrified gasp, I reeled back fro atfor the source of this horrible sensation, but no one else was there Distantly, I saw the same look of terrified confusion on Darrin’s face, the saainst his flesh in bitter discomfort
My h burst out of ht streams of mana streaked from every direction, pulled on the wind back northward, toward the asping and weeping from nearby My head lolled toward it
The shi+eld was curled in on hi freely fro only of survival, I began crawling toward him He took no notice, even as I lifted his blade Finally, in the instant before I drove it down into his chest, he acknowledged ri lines of disappearing ging back, I waited for someone else to run around the corner and catch us, but no one caain the breath to speak “Darrin? You alive?”
He had to shich he did with so “I think so What in the Vritra’s horns was that? My core…I’e of backlash”