Ch 29

Hit and Run (Part 5)

Noxious mist began to form a cloud around me, corroding my mana shielding. Creating a point of dense gravity to my left, I pulled the green gas away and spun to meet Roxy, who was sprinting up the wind-snake's back like it was a siege ladder.

Her huge blade hissed as it cut through the air, then rang like a bell as it deflected off my mace. Her hands moved with incredible speed—aided by calculated bursts of wind—as she slashed and cut in a barrage of strikes.

From the corner of my eye, I caught Geir circling around to get behind me, and could sense Royal preparing some new spell below. Gale appeared to be focused on his stone shields, keeping several of them close enough to each of his companions to deflect a sudden attack.

I felt for Aya and Varay to make sure they were still okay: Aya was a few streets away, her mana surging as she fought someone—hopefully Haleigh Leech—but Varay was still at the Guild Hall, her mana calm.

Knowing they were fine was enough for the moment; I was a little too busy with the Rose Guard to wonder why Varay was just sitting around on her skinny behind.

When I felt the warmth of a sudden gout of flame at my back, I dropped like a stone, deflecting one last strike from Roxy's blade as I fell. The jet of fire shot past her, obviously aimed carefully to avoid any crossfire.

A liquid green missile launched from Royal's hands, forcing me to twist in the air, but I took advantage of the redirection by hurtling toward Gale. The big Alacryan conjured a dozen new stone plates to defend himself, but I only increased my own weight and plowed through them, using my body like a battering ram.

Just as I reached him, the Shield vanished.

Another acidic missile splashed across my shoulder, hissing and popping against my mana barrier. I conjured a column of stone that punched up from the ground and slammed into Royal, sending them careening into the side of a brick building.

Geir dove from the sky, his fiery claws outstretched. I cast Black Diamond Vault, encasing myself in a shell of shining crystals at the last instant. Although I couldn't see or hear anything happening outside, I let out a pleased giggle at the thought of Geir smashing face first into the hardest substance known to dwarves.

After holding it for only a couple of seconds, I released the spell, allowing the crystals to fall away and dissolve back into the ground. Geir was lying at my feet, his conjured armor flickering dimly as he struggled to maintain concentration on it. He was bleeding badly from his forehead.

"You should really be more careful," I cautioned. "Flying takes a lot of practice, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it someday."

A deep-throated battle cry rang out from above and I brought my mace up just in time to catch Roxy's blade. Her serpent blew in from the side and clamped its mouth over me. I was pulled off my feet and suddenly found myself tumbling around inside of the construct like a leaf in a hurricane.

The wind-snake's mouth dove into the pool of caustic liquid that still covered the street, sucking up acidic water and dousing me with it.

Well this is annoying, I grumbled to myself as I flipped head over heels through a stinky acid soup within the belly of the wind-snake.

Feeling downward through the ground, sensing the earth-attribute mana, I located a layer of heavy, wet clay soil about thirty feet below the cobbled surface of the road. I quickly increased

the gravity within the pocket, crushing the clay, forcing out the moisture, and leaving a vacuum several feet wide.

The Rose Guard seemed to be taking a moment to collect themselves. Gale had reappeared and helped Geir back to his feet. Roxy was focused on her spell, making the wind blow constantly faster and harder to keep me trapped within. I couldn't even see Royal.

This all worked pretty perfectly for me. I clenched my fist and broke the earth beneath their feet. The road and the soil below it collapsed into the void I'd created underground. At the same time, I hit each of them with Gravity Hammer, flattening them like bugs under a boot heel.

Three Alacryans, several tons of dirt and stone, and about a thousand gallons of acid water vanished into the breach.

The wind-snake and the churning digestive fluid within it vanished, dropping me to the ground just at the edge of the huge hole I'd created.

"Geir! Roxy! Gale!"

"Oh, there you are," I said casually, turning to Royal. The Caster was standing just outside of where the street had collapsed in on itself. I glanced into the hole, but there was no sign of the others.

"Hey, at least you dismissed all that yucky water before it melted your friends' faces off," I said consolingly.

I sensed Aya approaching, and Royal twisted around, conjuring a long stream of acidic liquid that orbited them in a spiraling pattern.

Aya ignored the Alacryan. "It's done," she shouted, zooming by overhead.

"Welp," I said, meeting Royal's shocked gaze, "it looks like it's time for me to go. Maybe if you hurry, you can pull your friends out before they suffocate. Bye I guess!"

My feet lifted up from the shattered street and I flew after Aya. Varay shot up through the hole in the Guild Hall roof to meet us, and together we turned south and flew away over the rooftops of Blackbend.

***

"So, what were you doing while Aya and Mica got our hands dirty, hm?" I asked Varay a few minutes later.

"Convincing the guild's leadership that it isn't in their best interest to back the Alacryans," she replied.

"And this was successful?"

"Seeing the Lances appear like lightning from a clear sky to strike down the Alacryans seemed to have made an impression on them, yes." Varay's mouth twitched, about as close to a smile as she ever got.

The sun was just peaking over the horizon on our left, turning the sky a smoky blue color. There was a gentle wind at our backs and miles of untamed land below us. I felt pretty good about how things were going.

"Something's following us," Aya said, gesturing over her shoulder.

From Blackbend, we'd flown straight south toward Darv. Our last target for this mission wasn't actually in the dry wastes or dwarven tunnels, but we wanted to throw off any tracking or pursuit the Alacryans might have conjured up.

Varay signaled a halt and we looked northward to watch. There was a shimmer in the air a couple hundred feet behind us, like a shadow suspended in midair or little wispy gray cloud.

"Some kind of tracking spell," I confirmed, nodding sagely. "Fast, too, if it's kept up with us this far."

I headed toward the dark smudge against the dawn sky, but it moved away. I flew faster, but it stayed around a hundred and fifty feet back. Finally, I leaned into it and shot full speed toward the shadow, but it still moved just as fast as I did.

Banking hard, I headed back toward the others. The shadow reversed course and followed, keeping its distance but not falling behind.

"Definitely fast," I confirmed when I drifted to a stop next to Aya.

The elven Lance hurled several dozen bullets of wind at it. Her spell passed through the shadow with a faint ripple, but didn't seem to harm it. We spent a minute chucking increasingly strong spells, but nothing affected the shadow at all.