Chương 84: Chapter 21

Judging his rage as well beyond control from personal experience, Shaya took his attacks on her shield and focused her attention forward. A moment later, she pulled back her shield and slammed it back into her attacker, unbalancing him. As she and the front rider ducked a large branch, the enraged man didn't. There was a loud crack of frozen wood and human bone as the two collided, the second rider disappearing as the mounts continued forward at breakneck speeds.

The raptors snapped at one another, the Fraxraptor larger than Talon by at least a quarter and more heavily armed and armoured through its Titan-granted mutations. It slashed at Talon with the scythes it had instead of arms, but they were too close for it to cut through Talon's magically enhanced bark-hide. Fortunately for them, at close range and with the forest's density, it couldn't bring its axe-bladed tail to bear against them.

Shaya took an experimental slash at the monster with the bladed edge of her shield, but it skidded off the Titan's own bark-like hide, as if it was iron instead of wood. She decided to deal with the rider first, waiting for an opening where she could bring her spear to bear against him. A different opportunity presented itself, and she guided Talon, the agile raptor leaping over a fallen tree to come down a few feet away from their fellow racer.

With a kick of her heels, Talon slammed into the Fraxraptor, the larger monster underestimating his strength. Caught off guard, the Fraxraptor stumbled a foot off course—which was all that was needed to send it crashing into an enormous, ancient tree. Monster and rider crunched against the tree, the last Shaya heard of them as she wheeled Talon back towards her prey: an Ur and the chieftain riding it. While Shaya paid the pair no more mind, Talon gave a satisfied snarl as they left their enemies behind.

Minutes later, Shaya cursed under her breath as she couldn't pick up blood trail again. She cleared her anger with a deep breath, instead hoping to locate the last remnants of the cult with a different sense and wishing she still had Samorn with her. Extending her spiritual senses, she dowsed the area for traces of aether. Anticipation raced as she picked up a trace of Jade in the area, angling Talon to go after it. Bastard healed its own wounds, she thought.

Even wounded, Jade mages are dangerous to leave alone for any length of time. Her own superficial scratches had long healed over from Bari's regeneration spell, as had Talon's. She was thankful Bari was assigned to command their deployment, wondering how close to death they may have come if it was someone indifferent—or hostile—to their safety like Zaal or Basillo. She only hoped that her friends were okay, but a twig snapping ahead of her brought her attention back to her immediate area.

They were catching up to the Ur and its rider. Casting an invigorate spell to re-energize Talon, Shaya felt her own reserves drained. They had been fighting for close to an hour at that point, without pause. Maintaining spells for that duration, especially barriers that needed mending, took a toll on her channels and she felt her circuits screaming from the constant energy coursing through them. Almost over, she promised herself mentally. Just one more hurdle to overcome.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as a wave of Jade aether hit her from ahead. Out of instinct, she kicked her heels into Talon as she tugged up on her reins, the raptor launching into the air with his enhanced strength. Shaya grunted as twigs snapped off her and she barely managed to juke her head around a branch that would've broken her neck. Below her, tree roots rippled as sharp spikes shot out of them. Spikes that would have impaled her and Talon had they not leapt out of the way.

Right, chasing a primal Jade user through the woods was a terrible idea. She spotted the Ur and its rider ahead, the chieftain now encased in a spectral shroud that made him appear feathered not unlike a normal Asharan raptor. A similar shroud to the ones she had seen on the necromancer and the apostate that had attacked her on the Surly Serpent. Chasing two Jade mages through the woods. Great. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Talon landed with a growl, but Shaya only allowed them to stay on the ground for a scant few seconds. Aether radiated from their prey and she knew they had a significant advantage here. She needed to keep them a moving target, so she veered Talon sharply to one side and leapt. Rather than going high up, this time he lunged forward, almost directly at a tree. He trusted in her guidance and pushed off the tree with his legs just like she would have done if kicking off a wall.

The manoeuvre dodged over lashing vines that tried to entangle them and let them soar under barbed spikes that shot from the branches above them. They hit the ground running hard, the chieftain's eyes widening in shock as they avoided their magic and closed within reach of them. Before he could cast another spell to defend himself, Shaya's spear lanced forward, stabbing into his side as he twisted to face her.

She pulled her spear out with a quick twist to open the wound further, but felt immense Jade power radiating off the man as he reached towards the wound with both hands.

"No, you don't!" she shouted, stabbing again. This time, she aimed her blow higher. The spear took him in the temple, punching through his strange magical shroud and into his brain. The aether drained from him as his shroud vanished and he went limp in the Ur's saddle. He lasted there for a few heartbeats before the body was torn away by a low-hanging branch. The Ur-Fraxraptor bellowed in rage.

This time Shaya did pay attention to the anger before her, as the monstrous Ur was at least half again as large as Talon and even more heavily armed and armoured than the rest of its pack. She pulled up on Talon's reins as the monster gnashed its teeth and lashed out at them with its giant scythe arm, her raptor narrowly avoiding a swipe that cut through a large, gnarled tree root as if it were thin paper.

The Ur wasn't done though, smashing its stubby tail into Talon's head, dazing the raptor and causing it to veer off course. Despite the Ur's rage, it continued forward rather than slowing to continue its physical attacks against them. More aether radiating from it told Shaya how it planned to deal with them. While pulling at Talon's reins to get him back on course, Shaya took a swipe at the Ur before it pulled too far ahead of them again.

Her bronze spear bounced off the monster's tough hide, nicking it at best and failing to distract the Titan-spawn from its casting.

"Come on, Talon," she whispered urgently.

"I need your head in the game." Her raptor shook his head with a snarl, shaking off the daze and refocusing on the forest he was dashing through. Talon juked around a tree to avoid a head-on collision with it and picked up speed again to catch up to the Ur. This time when Shaya pulled up on his reins, he leapt into the air without further prodding, as if sensing her needs. Airborne, they cleared the Ur's conjured wooden spears and hit the ground running after it again.

I need to slow it down, weaken it somehow, Shaya thought, mind racing. Another tremendous wave of Jade aether from the Ur gave her an idea. The Ur passed between two enormous trees, its giant claws churning up the ground like a tiller. With the amount of aether pulsing from it, Shaya decided to shake up her pattern and manoeuvred Talon around both trees altogether.

A glance back suggested it was the right call, the Ur adapting to their leaping dodges by having thick spears shoot out between both trees for dozens of feet up. She suppressed a shudder at the thought of what she and Talon would be like if they were caught in that trap. Going around the trees had cost them ground, the Ur pulling ahead of them and out of reach. That was fine. Shaya eased up on Talon, having him slow his acceleration to stay several feet behind the Ur instead of overtaking it again.

Her raptor complained with a snort, but obeyed, seeming at ease by his rider's own relaxation.

"Phaedra! Purge my enemies!" Shaya invoked, drawing in Ruby and feeling a spark of rage kindle within her. It didn't control her though. Away from the Academy, hunting monsters in the woods, she felt at peace. Ruby spells were notoriously simple formulae, especially if you didn't care too much about collateral damage. It only took Shaya a few heartbeats to trace her spell and another to channel the Ruby aether into it, the simple spell fitting into her otherwise occupied circuits without difficulty.

Her body thrummed with power as she held the spell for a second, waiting until the Ur once again drew in Jade aether. The amount of life energy pulsing from it gave her pause as the monster wound up for an enormous spell. As she waited for another second, it drew in even more aether, just as she expected. Stabbing her spear forward, she unleashed her flamethower spell. A gout of fire erupted from the tip of her spear and rushed over the Ur, from tail to head.

Before the magical flames even ate into the Ur's wooden hide, it screamed. The scream was primal and deafening, Shaya struggling to keep her fiery torrent pointed at the monster as its sprinting became erratic in its efforts to escape. With Jade enhancing a mage's senses the more they drew in, she couldn't begin to imagine how much pain the Ur was capable of experiencing at the peak of its spellcasting.

The Ur released its aether as quickly as possible, not even thinking to complete its spell—a likely impossible task given the amount of pain roaring through its every nerve. But it was too late. While Shaya's low-tier fire spell would have done minimal damage to it in direct combat, the Ur more than capable of getting out of the spell's area of effect, without its wits about it she had little difficulty keeping the blaze locked on her target.

Spells were always more efficient to maintain than recast, and several seconds of the constant torrent of fire allowed the spell to eat through the Ur's heavy hide and into its skin and muscle.