Chương 85: Chapter 22

Thick smoke poured off the giant raptor's body and within a few seconds Shaya had to cut off her spell as she started coughing. With almost no visibility, she slowed Talon and veered away from her flaming victim. There was a massive whump as the Ur must have slammed into a tree in its panic, but Shaya couldn't tell for certain. It was several more seconds before she and Talon emerged from the smoke, Shaya blinking tears from her stinging eyes and looking around them. They appeared to have made it into a clearing.

A clearing bereft of trees, but not people. Still blinking, Shaya thought the scraggly people around her looked… very displeased to find her there, a number of them reaching for rusted weapons. She realized a horn was blaring, bringing more of the people into Shaya's clearing vision. A number of ramshackle lookouts were built high up in the trees, staffed by archers that were rounding on her.

A few dozen more of the cultists, at least, with a greater number of well-armed elites drilling their lessers on how to shoot straight and fight in melee. Another handful of Fraxraptors wrestled with one another in play or ate from a trough of varied, unrecognizable meat, bits of clothing and clumps of hide stuck between their teeth. Crude cages full of captured prisoners, Asharans of human and demigol origins and a few Veyeirans, all of whom were human.

The two groups of prisoners couldn't look more different from one another: the Asharans wearing a motley assortment of hides and furs, while even the Veyeiran peasants wore layers of colourful clothes of cotton and even bits of silk. Despite the disparate origins, however, the two sets of appearances were unified through the dirt, grime, and blood that coated all of them equally. All sets of eyes turned toward her. Shaya had stumbled into a full-sized encampment.

They weren't running away, her mind managed as the haze cleared, they were retreating! Now in the midst of their main camp, Shaya could sense how the Veil had thinned and Jade seeped into the world due to the Titan-spawn's corruption. The trees were larger, the plants livelier despite the encroaching winter. Her senses heightened as the ambient Jade seeped into her as well and she feared for her raptor, whose senses were already keener than her own. Do something! Shaya readied her shield and steadied her spear.

"Your chieftain and Ur are dead!" she bellowed, eyes smouldering as she drew in as much Ruby as she could.

"Surrender now and your lives will be spared!" The cultists hesitated, uncertainty washing over the camp with a susurration of whispers as they glanced from her glowing eyes to the smoke behind her. A woman with a bone and feather headdress stepped forward, a spectral shroud of raptor feathers similar to the chieftain flowing into existence about her. Fist clenched and trembling, she began to draw in Jade aether alongside the Fraxraptors.

It was an immense amount of aether, the equivalent of the chieftain's or perhaps even greater. Shaya glared down at the woman in warning.

"Cease at once if you want to liv—" She was cut off by a loud, droning noise that washed over her and everyone in the area. Followed a moment later by giant, jade-coloured insects flooding the area. Everything went dark as the fist-sized insects swarmed over her and Talon, Shaya doing everything in her power to keep her eyes and mouth shut tight and have Talon do the same. She thought she heard a scream from nearby, but the unending droning drowned everything out, overwhelming her senses and even her thoughts.

Even the aggressive raptor did nothing but quail as the plague of locusts crawled over them and buzzed around them. Shaya stroked the side of Talon's neck as she hugged close to him, beyond planning and simply wishing for the raptor to carry her out of the nightmare. Before she could hope to collect her thoughts and action them, the droning stopped. Shaya opened her eyes, just a sliver at first, then all the way as she saw the insects disintegrating into Jade light.

Motes covered the clearing then, floating up and fading into the forest's frozen canopy. Shaya spun around in disbelief, until she caught sight of Bari at the far edge of the clearing. Just sitting on her raptor, posture relaxed as she observed Shaya. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. In a few seconds, Bari had annihilated the entire camp and an enemy mage of no small power.

The rest of the Jade motes vanished, leaving behind scraps of bone, wood, and metal all around Shaya. It looked like the camp had emptied in a hurry, leaving behind bundles of clothes and weapons. The remains of Fraxraptors were worse, their hardened plates untouched, and Shaya imagined how the locusts burrowed through their eyes and mouths to eat them from the inside out.

She shuddered, understanding for a moment the sheer carnage that a war between mages could cause—and feeling cold chills at what happened to the non-mages that took part. Shaya shook her head, realizing her eyes had drifted to what remained of the people that Bari had killed here—poorly armed and not even particularly skilled… just people suckered in by the promise of power by Titan worshippers.

She caught sight of the prisoners, left unscathed just as she was, and read a mix of emotions on their faces: relief, nausea, satisfaction, terror. The same emotions that ran through her.

"Shaya!"

"Bri?" Shaya asked, turning around and confused to see her friend charging towards her, mount lathered in sweat.

"Look out!" Bri shouted, flicking Talon's rump with a spark of flame. As the spooked raptor lunged forward with Shaya, a giant, smouldering raptor soared past them—rending talons extended to tear through only air now. Bri charged, juking to its side as the monster's momentum carried it a few steps forward after landing. Her heavy blade chopped off the creature's arm, the flaming enchantment on it cauterizing the wound instantly and stopping the beast's regeneration.

The creature screeched in pain, but still spun and lashed its stubbed tail into her Jhagsdale horse. Bri leapt off as her mount collapsed beneath her, hitting the ground hard despite rolling with her landing. The Ur charged towards her, screeching in rage and pain, ready to rip and tear. Bri flung a hand into the air as she spun towards it, her esper flaring as fire and smoke exploded from her hand in a massive cloud.

Despite its nature, the beast still recoiled from the fire—if only for a moment—before lunging forward with its claws out. Shaya feared for her friend's safety as their battle continued within the oily smoke. Bri walked out of the smoke a moment later, hand clamped over a gash in her side, and fell to a knee as blood gushed out of her. Shaya regained control of the startled Talon and urged him towards her at speed.

From behind Bri, the Ur stumbled out, gurgling but still reaching towards her with its remaining scythe arm. Her still flaming bastard sword lay buried in its neck, the monster's flesh cauterized around it. Before it could bury the scythe into Bri's back, Shaya threw her spear with all her might. It whistled through the air and punched into the monster's back where she had burnt away its armoured hide. It hit the ground, growing still, but still breathing. Shaya rode past Bri and pulled back on Talon's reins.

The raptor stomped on the Ur's head, locking its claws around it. With magically enhanced strength, the wicked claws bit into the Titan-spawn's skull and then crushed it with a jubilant screech from Talon.

"Good boy," Shaya said to Talon as she dismounted and rushed over to Bri, laying her down to better examine her wounds.

"How bad is it?"

"Could be worse," Bri said through gritted teeth.

"Bari's spells meant it didn't go as deep as it could have, and whatever it managed to nick in me feels to be sealed over already."

"Alright, I'll help that regeneration along then," Shaya replied, setting aside her anxiety and fear to draw in Jade for a healing spell.

"Thanks for the save, you were bad ass back there."

"Heh, you're welcome," the big woman chuckled.

"You're not the only one who's been working hard, eh?"

"Never thought that for a second," she said, looking around to find Shepherd entering the clearing on their horse. The two mages shared a quick glance, and Shep moved to sweep the area for stragglers and free the prisoners. Shaya turned back to her friend and frowned down at her.

"Stop clinging to the wound like a baby and let me heal it." Bri snorted.

"Sorry, some of us aren't as experienced with being wounded as you are."

"Hey, no wounds on me this time." Shaya grinned back at her, leaving out how close she came to a brutal last stand.

"I guess I'm finally learning."

"Impossible," Bri wheezed as the healing energy poured into her and knit her flesh back together.

"You just ran away from the real fight, it doesn't count."

"Sure," Shaya retorted with a snort of her own.

"How'd you even find me?" Bri laughed for a moment before it turned into a hacking cough. With one hand, she pointed behind Shaya. Shaya blanched as she saw the small forest fire she had started, a long line of smoke pouring from the trees in a direct line to the camp. She whispered a prayer to the spirits of the land here with an apology, thankful that it looked like the snow had dampened the trees enough to prevent the fire from spreading too far.

"Bari's going to kill me." Bri brought her coughing under control enough to smirk up at Shaya.

"She's better than some commanding officers we've had… at least she seems to give a shit about us."

"I think Zaal cares… in his own cruel, heartless way."

"Yeah, maybe," Bri said, her expression and tone suggesting she found that difficult to believe.

"I can't wait to get the after-action report on this one."

"You did well," Bari said, riding up to them. She wore a grim look on her face, and Shaya respected her for not taking pleasure in the killing, regardless of how much they may have deserved it.

"Taking a monster's life is easy," she continued, "but another human's—no matter how sinister they might be—is another matter entirely. I'm happy to see none of you did so lightly, but also that you didn't hesitate.

"Relax for now, celebrate if you can, the feeling will sink in later."