Chương 33

Alex instantly took in the fight—the charging Wargs, two Level 4, two Level 5, and the Gelid ice-raven thing high above. Mana Spears materialized above his head, slicking at the tips with Swordforce, even as Beckett's fire lances burst to life within quickly materializing shells. In his mind his role would be to defend, as they'd agreed, but he also saw a chance to make life a lot more difficult for these creatures—play a bit of crowd control.

A vision for how the fight might go appeared in his mind; he said, "Stall the Level 5's—spears, lances, whatever—let the 4's up-close!" As he was speaking, Mana Shields were materializing in front of the Level 5 Wargs; two of them, and this time Alex felt a ping! — he knew it was Multi-Shield without checking. Alex sent two Mana Spears flying at the Wargs as well. He trusted Beckett would get what he meant. He saw thankfully, Beckett did.

There wasn't time for Beckett to form full fire lances, but what he'd created in those few seconds went flying out at the Level 5's as well. The strategy, in Alex's mind, was divide and conquer. Let the Level 4's into close-quarters, and use their melee weapons to finish them as quickly as possible. It wasn't the most sophisticated strategy, but he'd had about three seconds to come up with it. It seemed a decent idea. And it worked—kind of.

One of the Level 5 Wargs, who he'd surprised by planting a Shield right in front of its snout, crashed right into it; it was then treated to a very sharp Mana Spear to the side of the head, drawing blood, before a fire lance smashed it in the head and blasted it off-balance.

The second of the Level 5 Wargs showed off some very fine reflexes, and managed to leap at the last-minute; it partially clipped the top of Alex's shield, snarling, was slashed in the side by a Mana Spear, and managed to avoid its fire lance entirely. It hit the icy forest floor at a sprint alongside two Level 4 brethren—which very much wasn't ideal.

"Keep hitting it!" said Beckett, nodding at the spilled-over Level 5 Warg in the distance, though his eyes were trained on the three quickly coming up on them.

"I'll take two, you take one!" Alex nodded; there wasn't time for anything else. Beckett sent a fire lance right between two of the charging Wargs—a Level 4 and a Level 5—and Alex stepped out in front of the remaining Level 4 Ice Warg. At which point a vicious close quarters melee began. At first Alex was instinctively concerned how Beckett would fare, and in the first exchange he seemed right to be; Beckett whirled between them, spear flashing with lightning, and speared a Warg with his Lightning Spear Skill.

The way Beckett's Skill worked was, if Beckett landed it, lightning would instantly leap to the nearest creature as well—in this case, the second Warg. When the lightning struck, the Wargs froze for an instant. But when Beckett came away from the exchange Alex saw three gashes ripping down his side, drawing blood between pieces of his armor. The gashes were tinged icy blue, a blue that seemed to infect the steel around it, and from Beckett's wince, the flesh beneath.

But even with Alex's attentional capabilities, he could only catch glimpses of Beckett's fight. A part of him was trying to monitor the Gelid, while a second part of him was sending spear after spear at the distant, temporarily downed Level 5 Warg. Even as Alex threw his first set of spears, two new spears materialized above his head; the intelligence stat his circlet granted was a godsend. These spears, he also sent flying at that distant Level 5.

Then there was the Level 4 Warg with its jaws clamped on the steel of Alex's sword, right now. He'd aimed his slash for its neck, missed slightly, and here they were—the Swordforce had chipped one of its fangs but the Warg seemed hell-bent on not letting go. Up close Alex could appreciate just how gargantuan the thing was, all coiled muscle under its snowy fur; every second its fangs clamped down, frost spread down Alex's blade. It wrenched its neck, and it almost wrenched the blade clean out of Alex's fingers.

He treated it to a Mana Spear to the face. At least, he tried to; it wrenched sideways at the last second, and his Spear struck the side of its head. It still howled, reeling, freeing his sword—his Mana Spear sliced a deep, bloody gash down the side of its head, slicing through an ear and almost an eye. Something he was certain it couldn't have done without its new Swordforce. He flexed his fingers against the steel, settling the sensations in his fingers.

He glanced at Beckett's duel even as he cycled Force into his blade to clear the ice. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Beckett seemed to have taken two more slashes since Alex last saw him. Except as Alex observed the exchanges out of the corner of his eyes, the guy's body still seemed quite relaxed. Beckett slipped between two Wargs, stabbing one.

A second swiped at his head from behind, but a half-second before the claw connected, sparks appeared mid-air, showering it in face, throwing off its balance; he slipped easily out of the way. The first Warg leaped for his throat, jaw unhinged wide, but Beckett somehow timed it perfectly—without looking he stabbed forward, feeding it the tip of his spear.

Its jaw clamped down; the spear exploded in its mouth, sending it reeling; a half-second later the other Warg came up behind him but Beckett wrenched his spear back, catching it in the face with the butt of the spear early in its leap. He was flowing, and Alex could tell it was pure instinct. For instance, he sincerely doubted Beckett knew he'd throw those sparks in the Warg's face until it was already clawing at him. It also seemed an insane way to fight to Alex, surviving on such thin margins.

And it wasn't impervious, as shown by Beckett's wounds. The Warg that'd just taken a spear-butt still managed to slash Beckett with its claws as it flailed back—adding freeze to an existing wound, and the guy hissed in pain. It felt clear to Alex— I can't leave him to this two-on-one. Beckett might've been wounding them, but he was accumulating freeze far too fast. The thing was, Alex had his hands full with his own Level 4 Warg.

Part of it was—he was still sending spears at the Level 5 Warg in the distance, trying to keep it from getting to its feet. But part of it was also that, unexpectedly, the Ice Warg in front of him had established itself as a frustrating enemy. It slashed wildly, and Alex had to put up a few Mana Shields to help fend it off, along with his parries.

The few slashes he'd landed had it bleeding, but its reaction time was always fast enough to get out of the way of any serious damage, and its bleeding congealed with ice after a few seconds anyway. And Alex was acutely aware he was on a timer in this melee duel. The Level 5 Warg in the distance seemed to have some equilibrium issues, on account of Beckett's blasting it very cleanly in the ear with a fire lance as well as Alex's Mana Spears, but he didn't count on that lasting much longer.

He wasn't certain how long Beckett could last on his own either; there was also the Gelid somewhere in the background. But three exchanges with the Level 4 Warg passed, and then four, with an increasing sense of urgency; Alex kept finding himself pressed back, shielding, parrying—the Warg was so close, slashing so quickly, so wildly, he wanted to create chances, wanted to finish it, but all he was doing was halting it.

It was especially irksome because he could see Beckett dealing clean damage a few feet away, and the guy was one versus two; it was irksome because Alex knew, even as he backpedalled, this thing's well within my capacities. Focus. Where was its weakness? And it was pretty clear. The Ice Warg was stronger than him, faster, its reflexes higher; but it had zero defensive Skills, and he'd seen how vulnerable its sensory organs could be. I also know it'll reel and rear back if I get a clean hit there.

He'd seen it already when he lanced it. But he couldn't create his chance because of its reflexes; maybe if he had infinite time he could catch it perfectly, but he didn't. He needed it to very strongly overcommit, such that even its reflexes couldn't save it, and then force it into a certain finish. He swung very wide, stumbled a step. The Warg capitalized and lunged, slashing an ice-filled claw, and he braced himself as he turned sideways, letting it carve into his ribs. His jaw clenched.

He kept turning into the slash, aiming for its face, and the Warg was too slow to rear all the way back; he knew it'd want to catch it between its jaws again, which it did—counterintuitive, but Alex had realized the insides of its mouth, coated with its ice mana, actually helped neutralize the mana of incoming attacks. Except in this instance, the true incoming attack was from above. The Warg jerked its head out of the way of the Mana Spear, like it'd done before.

It jerked its head right into Alex's second Mana Spear, which struck it right in the eyes. Even as it howled Alex was already swirling the blade around, the blade's surface flooding with Swordforce. He saw its head rear back, waited a split-second for its neck to fully expose, and thrust. SCHLUNK. He ripped out the blade, blood spewing from the wound; he was pretty sure he'd stabbed pretty close to its brain.

Before the Warg could recover he slashed again, with intent, and his blade carved a line across its entire throat. He knew, even as it was falling, he'd finished it. He also knew the Level 5 Warg in the distance was free, and would likely be at him in seconds; he whirled and charged Beckett, blade lighting up with Swordforce, Mana Spears materializing overhead. Beckett was staggering when Alex arrived. Alex was also feeling the ice in his side, but he was cycling Pure as fast as he could to clear it.

A Mana Shield interposed itself between Beckett and the Level 5 Warg in front of Beckett, giving the guy a second's relief; Alex felt a ping! in his soul, surprisingly—what for, he wasn't quite sure. It didn't feel like a Level. He'd review it later. Alex met Beckett's eyes and shouted, " Kill the 4!" Beckett reacted instantly, unleashing a torrent of fire lances on the Level 4 Warg from the front. Two Mana Spears sliced for it from the back.

The Warg screamed as two humans pincered it; Alex stabbed it through its shoulderblades as Beckett pierced the underside of its jaw. A fire lance, and a final Mana Spear, sealed the deal. They'd gotten it down to two against three. Alex grinned for a moment—a grin that froze on his face as Beckett staggered, crying out, as the Level 5 Warg slashed a claw straight across his back; blood splattered the ground. Alex interposed another Mana Shield, and Beckett regained his bearings.

The guy's lips were blue, besides the blood, which he wiped off." Fuck," said Beckett, but he sounded exhilarated. This fight was feeling like a flood of enemies and attacks to Alex, almost disorienting. And it wasn't over. The second Level 5 Ice Warg—a bloodied, slashed-up creature—was nearing, but it stopped twenty feet away. The first Ice Warg glanced at them again, but it growled, hackles raising, started backing away as well. Why aren't they…? Beckett was already glancing up. The freaking Gelid.

Its body was lit up the color of ice mana. Diamonds of ice materialized all around it; it cried out, its wings shining with icy colors, the diamonds shining in concert. It flapped its wings, and a hail of ice-diamonds descended.