Chương 83: Chapter 20

"They're too fast!" Shaya called, stabbing through the chest of another cultist on her side, flinching as she watched the life leave his crazed eyes.

"We won't be able to clean these up in time!"

"Leave us!" Oraeus shouted, already dismounted and duelling one of the cultists on his side. With a deft feint using his cloak, his blade shot past his opponent's defences and dropped her. Shaya saw the noble stiffen as the woman's blood spurted over him and she collapsed from the wound, dying. He shook himself out of it, then shouted again, louder than before, "Get moving! Now!"

"Go!" Samorn shouted as she slipped out of her saddle. Even on the ground the cultists didn't seem to notice her existence, allowing her to give a sharp whistle alongside Melody playing a discordant note of her harp. The sound pulsed all around them, causing the nearby cultists to clutch at their heads in agony. It was the opening Shaya needed. She pulled at Talon's reins to face the fleeing cultists and drove her heels into him.

The raptor seemed reluctant to leave easy prey behind, yet obeyed his rider after only a moment of hesitation. His clawed feet scraped over wet rock in pursuit, but even when reaching solid ground his pace did not pick up to match that of the fleeing opponents. The raptor panted heavily, already worn down from the initial charge and brutal melee Shaya had thrust him into.

"Are you going to let those mutants get away from you?" Shaya asked, leaning close to the raptor's head.

"Prove that they're your better?" Talon turned to glare back at Shaya in response.

"I didn't think so," she continued with a grim smile.

"Let's show those monsters why everyone fears Asharel's raptors." Talon gnashed his teeth and picked up speed, pushing himself harder at her encouragement. He swerved around the fallen Fraxraptor and the stains that used to be its riders, snapping his teeth in pleasure at their demise, but Shaya knew it wasn't going to be enough. She watched as the remaining three spawn carried their riders toward a dense, frozen woods up ahead, the Ur trailing small amounts of amber-coloured blood from its maimed tail.

They needed to close the distance before she lost them in there. With a growl of her own, she forced her shoulder back into its socket and blinked away the resulting pain. With that out of the way, she dropped her Bear's Strength and focused on recasting it, this time modifying the spell with a new glyph—one that would allow her to cast it on someone other than herself. The Jade entering her system sharpened the pain in her shoulder and the myriad cuts across her legs.

She set it aside and focused, once again dividing her mind in two as Auric had trained her to do.

"Phaedra!" she invoked.

"Grant strength to my companion!" She had spent the two weeks since mid-terms ended practicing the technique, but her mastery of it was far from where she'd have liked it to be. Even with several hours per week freed up after challenging the Combat Foundations exam for credit, the act of splitting her focus spiritually felt strange, like consciously controlling her body one muscle at a time. Regardless, the technique's added speed was invaluable in casting her second-tier spells.

The invocation provided her a sketch to follow when tracing her circuit, but Shaya knew it would need to be modified further. She started with the central formula, the invocation incorporating the glyph required to cast on other targets within reach, and she traced that in mere moments instead of long seconds. From there, she simultaneously traced the first two secondary formulae to empower Talon's arms, then the next secondary formulae to empower Talon's legs.

That finished the sketch her invocation provided, but that's where Shaya knew the simple invocation was insufficient. Still tracing with two points, she added a fifth secondary formula, knowing that raptors relied on their tails for balance and that omitting it could cause her companion severe harm if left unbalanced. In only ten seconds, she had completed the spell, despite modifying it on the fly.

She channelled aether into the formulae, inscribing them into her circuits, and felt the power flow from her into Talon. The raptor shrieked in exultation as it picked up speed, accelerating towards the fleeing cultists and closing the gap between them. Shaya glanced about her, noting that Shep and Bari were parallel to her on their own mounts. Ren had dismounted, firing into the melee that Shaya had left behind. She worried for the friends left in that combat, but shook her head to dispel those fears.

The cultists back there were poorly trained and armed; they'd stand no chance against her friends, especially with their dwindling numbers. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she leaned forward along Talon's long body and focused on the enemy before her.

"Let's show them who's the best in these lands, buddy." Shaya rushed across the frozen tundra of Asharel in pursuit of her quarry, her mount closing the distance with his strength enhanced by her magic. Shep and Bari pursued on their own mounts to her left, their head start putting them closer to the three fleeing Fraxraptors and the six cultists that rode them. But Shaya was gaining at a greater rate than they were, something the cultists took note of.

Iron glinted in the cold sun as one of the rear cultists twisted in their saddle and loosed an arrow her direction. Shaya squinted her keen feline eyes at the projectile, trying to trace its path and interpose her shield. The first shot went straight for her head, the heavy arrow shattering against her shield. It meant she couldn't see the next pair launched, barely managing to block one and juking Talon to the side to dodge the other.

I can't keep this up, Shaya thought as she glared at the archers over Talon's head. I can't risk firing back either, but my shield isn't going to be enough. She ran through her options as the next volley scored glancing hits on both her and Talon, the iron weapons cutting through their enhanced bark-like flesh as if Bari hadn't cast the spell on them. That forced her hand.

Shaya traced a small barrier spell and anchored it to her shield, a concave field of hard-light weaving out from it to cover a much wider several feet in each direction. Shaya raised the shield before them, wishing she were stronger. If only her circuits had expanded further, so she could fit more active spells. Or if she had improved her spellcraft further, she could have gotten the same effects with less space.

She dismissed the thoughts with a snort, knowing then wasn't the time for what-ifs and that she'd need full access to Amber. An iron arrow struck her barrier, cracking its surface. She angled her shield against the next attack, deflecting it somewhat and mitigating the iron's effects on her spell. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the enemy coordinate to widen their net, ensuring that angling her shield towards one would leave her and Talon exposed to the other.

She cursed as she had to take the arrows head on, pumping more and more Amber into the spell to mend its cracks and keep it up. An Amethyst beam lanced across her vision, renewing her hope. Shep's spell took the archer riding the Ur in the chest, the woman gasping. Her skeleton seemed to rattle within her flesh, causing her legs to fling out like a discarded marionette. With nothing to hold her to the saddle, she flew off the Fraxraptor and skidded across the dirt and snow.

Shaya angled Talon towards the fallen cultist, putting her within reach of her spear. She could faintly hear the other archer shouting at her in anger as he launched more arrows at her, but she couldn't understand more than a word or two of Devi's mother tongue and ignored him. Her eyes narrowed as the woman stood, still dazed. This is just an execution, a voice whispered in Shaya's mind. This is war, another responded. Shaya steeled herself, knuckles white on her spear as she approached.

The cultist noticed her, eyes widening with fear and anger. With her bow snapped from her tumble across the ground, she pulled a long hunting knife and lunged for Talon as they closed in on her. Shaya's spear took her in the chest, the force of the blow jarring her shoulder despite couching her weapon. Ribs cracked as the body was forced against the weapon's wide guard and Shaya lowered the spear, letting the body slide back to the ground as she continued forward.

The other archer's shouts turned into a howl of rage and his rate of fire increased at the cost of his accuracy. The third Fraxraptor peeled off to harry Shep, leaving Shaya with only the one enraged archer to deal with. It was a simple affair, the single angle easy to cover with her barrier-enlarged shield. The attacks lasted for only a few seconds before the enemy plunged into the forest and Shaya followed seconds later, dismissing her barrier spell as she closed in hot on their tails.

Visibility dropped in the dense woods, the thick canopy coming at them too quickly to see through. Frozen, barren branches clawed at them and roots threatened to trip them—which Shaya knew would kill them given the speeds they were moving at. Her time practicing with her mounts in the Academy's obstacle courses while playing with Quill helped her guide Talon through the forest, their bond letting him trust her enough to do so.

It was Shaya's time in The Blight that gave her the reflexes to survive, used to running at high speeds through hazardous terrain and trusting in instinct to guide her body through the motions required to get to safety efficiently. She spotted the occasional drops of the Ur's blood and kept on its trail. A snapping branch and snarl from her right caught her attention, and she pushed Talon forward. A Fraxraptor shot past them, the two narrowly getting ahead of its lunge.

As Talon pivoted to run alongside their attackers, Shaya deflected the first rider's spear. With her own spear free on the outside, she manoeuvred Talon in close to the Fraxraptor and its two riders, meeting the snarling archer's glare. The front rider's spear was pinned between the racing raptors, but the archer had exchanged his bow for a hatchet with which he assaulted Shaya with a flurry of blows.