Chương 82: Chapter 19

Go! Shaya mentally commanded her summoned creatures. On the opposite side of the river, a trapdoor flew open and a giant, stocky spider the size of a house cat emerged, composed entirely of quartz. Its multi-faceted, gem-like eyes scanned the cultists some twenty yards away, sharp mandibles scraping against one another hungrily. Rather than advance, the quartz spider scuttled to the side as an even larger shape emerged from the trapdoor.

A heavily plated and spiked animal the size of a small dog crawled out of the burrow next — a porcudillo. With a push of its large forelimbs, the small creature somersaulted forward, turning into a ball and rolling towards the cultists with a speed she hoped would surprise her enemies as much as it did her. As it rolled forward, the quartz spider scuttled behind it, using the porcudillo as cover and pushing it faster with its forelimbs.

It didn't take long for the Fraxraptors to notice, one of the elites pointing and shouting a word of caution. Chaos ensued as some of the archers turned to fire at the creatures, their shots going awry as the untrained archers and their poor bows could hit the small targets. The few arrows that managed to strike were turned aside by the porcudillo's armoured hide, the sharp wood unable to pierce the smooth shell. The elites turned their attention to the flanking "force" as well, but they were too late.

Their iron arrows scored the porcudillo's hide, more out of the magical creature's vulnerability to iron bane than a weakness of its shell, but before they could adjust their shots the creatures hit the enemy ranks and all hope of shooting them was gone. The cultists there pulled out hatchets, knives, and frying pans to defend themselves as the porcudillo ran underfoot and the quartz spider pounced about them. The damage the small creatures did was minimal, but that wasn't their job.

It was the distraction Shaya needed. Even the elites, expert archers, seemed to lack the military training to realize how important their iron bodkins were against her barrier. Their poor decision made the volleys against her barrier grow light enough that she managed to start knitting it back together for the final leg of their charge. The other side of the camp continued its attack, until the front line of archers suddenly looked confused as bow after bow snapped straight, their strings cut.

She could imagine Samorn's sprites giggling with glee as they rushed about sabotaging the enemy weapons, but after the first few bows the runt of the Fraxraptors lunged forward and snapped its jaws over empty air. Except it wasn't empty—a spray of blood shot out from its mouth as its victim was crushed—the monster detecting it despite the smallfolk's invisibility. With a flick of its axe-bladed tail, more blood puffed in the air where the second invisible saboteur was, cutting the faerie in half.

"One's coming!" Oraeus shouted. With the taste of blood in its mouth, the faerie-eating Fraxraptor shot forward with incredible speed, nearly dumping its two surprised riders on the ground. Samorn whistled a tune and within a few seconds Shaya felt a surge of Azurite energy from behind her. Samorn's esper, Melody, flew alongside them, her snake-like lower half coiled in mid-air; the fae spirit playing their harp in tune with Samorn.

The bloodthirsty creature suddenly veered away from them, as if distracted by something else entirely. It snapped its jaws angrily as its rider sawed at the reins to get it to turn around, all control over the beast lost.

"Why do you even carry an instrument if you can just whistle to your esper?" Shaya shouted to her passenger, readying her spear.

"My violin is an enchanted implement that can enhance different spells," Samorn explained.

"It gives me a greater range to my invocations as well, given how fae communicate."

"Makes sense."

"The Ur is drawing in large amounts of Jade," Samorn shouted in warning a moment later. Shaya wasn't surprised she hadn't detected the same yet; Samorn's dowsing abilities were well beyond the rest of their Lance. She had an idea of what type of magic the large, wood-shaped monster was going to use. The archer riding the confused monster loosed an arrow as they passed Shaya's barrier, trying to get a shot in while flanking her, but she deflected the shot with her heavy shield.

Before they could recover, Bri juked her mount towards them and lashed out with her bastard sword. A wave of fire rushed off the end of her weapon and washed over the raptor and its riders. The raptor snarled. Its riders screamed. Shaya and Bri continued the last leg of their charge, hearing splashing water behind them as the raptor and its riders dived into the river.

In front of them, the cultists unleashed one last volley that still failed to break Shaya's barrier, then drew their weapons: clubs, daggers, and a worn-down sword. The four raptors and their riders stood in the back, eyeing the battle and weighing whether or not to commit to it. Shaya dropped her barrier as the last arrow bounced off it and she divided her mind into two parts, tracing the complex formulae of Bear's Strength at twice the speed she had before.

Before any of her aether ran rampant to ruin the circuits, she channelled Jade into it. With the barrier spell faded, her circuits had just enough space for the second-tier spell as it imprinted. Her newest spell flooded aether through her body, enhancing her muscles. Samorn whistled again, vigour and courage filling their minds in mere moments. With a chant, Bri's blade erupted in white hot flame that hurt to look at.

Amethyst energy clung to Oraeus' constellation-etched longsword and his eyes glowed with Sapphire light. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The speed with which the others could cast impressed Shaya, who was still lagging behind them. Samorn, Oraeus, and Cyren especially, since they didn't split their attention between spellcasting and martial skills as much as Shaya, Briariel, and Shepherd.

But even Bri and Shep were outpacing her, the likely advantage the Empire preached with its monochromatic doctrine. The difference was becoming more and more noticeable as time went on, which Shaya guessed was fair… her spells were still more flexible at least, though she had begun passing along some of Auric's lessons to her friends.

"Hold on tight," Shaya whispered back to Samorn, who hugged closer into Shaya's torso as they approached the line of enemies. Shaya pulled back on the reins of her raptor and kicked her heels into its flanks. Talon tensed, his powerful muscles flexing, then leapt. Despite bearing two riders, he launched several feet into the air and cleared the heads of the first rank of dishevelled cultists.

Another screamed as Talon landed on him, blade-length claws punching into the unfortunate man and pinning his crushed body to the ground. Shaya slashed with her spear as part of the flying charge, not wanting to lodge her weapon into anyone. Before the enemies around them could react to a giant raptor in their midst, Talon whirled, his long tail whipping around them and bowling over several of the undisciplined, untrained fighters.

Shaya continued to carve through the cultists with her spear while Talon lashed out, his huge jaws tearing at exposed faces and clumsy limbs. As Shaya's assault drew more attention, Bri smashed into the enemy lines. She set fire to cultists with gouts of flame and chopped through them with her bastard sword, Oraeus taking the occasional swipe from behind her—unused to fighting from the back of a steed.

Shaya cast a nervous glance their way, noticing the diviner's poor contribution and wondering if she should go back to help Bri. But the giant woman didn't need her help. Her fire and fury had downed twice as many cultists as Shaya had already, and the others looked hesitant to attack her.

"Shaya!" Samorn hissed in warning.

"The Ur's spell!" The wave of energy hit Shaya a moment later as the spell was completed, the aether channelled to give it life. Shaya's concern distracted her from the battle at hand, having already dismissed the threat of the cultists, but forgetting the incoming spell. The spell she had positioned herself to take the brunt of. The Ur took a step forward and whirled like Talon had seconds before, but the wood monster's axe-like tail extended as it spun to pick up greater momentum—and much greater reach.

Just like Una's magic. Got you, Shaya thought with a smile. The axe-blade howled through the air and adrenaline-fueled lightning shot through Shaya as she prepared for it with what few heartbeats she had left. She used her knees to order Talon into a wide stance to brace for the attack, his claws digging into the cold earth for greater purchase. With her mount ready, Shaya raised her shield, watching the angle of the incoming attack carefully.

She caught the attack on her shield, registering the incoming force as a magnitude greater than anything Una was capable of. But, with Bear's Strength multiplying her own strength, Shaya managed to tip her shield and deflect the incoming blow over her head. Adrenaline sped up her mind and Shaya saw an opening. Never one to let an opportunity go unexploited, she twisted her shield at the peak of her parry and its sharp edges used the Ur's own force to lop off the tip of its tail.

The Ur screeched in pain as its axe-bladed limb spun through the air, reeling its tail back into its body and staggering. But Shaya didn't have time to rejoice at her manoeuvre. Even with her enhanced strength, she felt her shield arm wrenched out of its socket from the sheer power of the attack. Even Talon stumbled despite bracing against the attack, threatening to dump Shaya and Samorn onto the ground.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, she shifted her balance in the saddle to act as a counterweight to the giant raptor's movement and that allowed the raptor to regain his footing. A cultist stabbed towards Shaya's lightly armoured legs, but she snapped her spear down to bat the rusty sword aside. The man's wrists snapped as he tried to hold onto his blade and he screamed.

With another jerk of her weapon, she slashed the man open from pelvis to chest, her supernatural strength carving through the cultist's poorly stitched gambeson. Samorn and Talon recovered a moment later, renewing their own mental and physical attacks against the cultists around them. The crazed people threw themselves at Arcadia's mages with wild abandon, sacrificing their lives to land glancing blows and minor scratches through their armour and thickened hide.

Shaya wished she had the funds to upgrade her greaves and armour her legs, as more and more of the blows got past her and her white padded armour grew dark as her blood soaked into it. She was thankful that none of the cultists seemed to be attacking Samorn, at least, all their attacks directed at her and Talon as if the petite woman wasn't even there. It let her cast without splitting her focus on defending herself and every few seconds a cultist would turn on their fellows with murderous intent.

They'd kill one with the element of surprise, only to be torn apart by their former allies without hesitation.

"They're going to run!" Oraeus shouted with surprising volume. His eyes met Shaya's above the swirling melee as he gave the next order.

"Get ready to chase! Samorn, dismount!" Shep and Ren aren't going to be fast enough. The remaining Fraxraptors and their riders spun and left in perfect unison, their powerful legs carrying them out of the cliff's shelter—and into Shepherd and Ren's line of fire. Ren's first arrow punched through a monster's skull with a sickening crunch that Shaya heard from dozens of feet away, the huge beast dropping like a sack of flour and crushing its riders beneath its bulk.

His next arrow slammed into the flank of another monster, but it snapped the arrow off with a flick of its bladed tail and kept running as the wound quickly sealed over. Ren fired again and again, but his accuracy and rate of fire dropped as Shepherd kicked their horse into chase and the fleeing archers returned fire. Beams of Amethyst energy flickered from Shepherd, hitting the flanks of the monsters. They slowed when struck, the energy draining their life force, but the effect was brief.

The spawn's connection to Fraxil, the Titan associated with life, meant their life force was simply too much to disrupt for long with Shepherd's low-tier spells. The beams soon stopped, Shepherd realizing their spells weren't having enough impact for the time and energy they required, but it meant nothing was slowing the Fraxraptors down anymore. The huge monsters tore across the cold ground at an unbelievable pace.