Air

by Rosie Scott

  “Prepare for battle!”

  “With what?” Jakan frowned, finding nothing before us.

  “Cicero said creatures made of rock,” Cyrus replied, his strong golden hands grasped onto the handles of his katars. On first glance, one could confuse the weapons with daggers. The blades were broad, flat, and made of sharp steel. Unlike Nyx's daggers, however, the handles did not extend past the blades of the weapon as one unit. Instead, the blades were supported by a metal base made of two parallel bars with two cross-pieces that the Sentinel used as his handles. Cyrus's knuckles were then just beneath the bottom of the blade, which caused him to use them quite differently than Nyx usually used her own short weapons. While the daggers were often used for both slashing and thrusting moves, Cyrus tended to use his katars as piercing weapons first and foremost, punching with the blades rather than slicing. They were beautiful and unique weapons, and the few moments I'd seen him fight with them just days ago had been enlightening. Today, however, I doubted Cyrus would have much luck with them. If we were up against monstrosities made of the earth, blades would be hard to use to our advantage.

  “So...gargoyles, essentially,” Uriel breathed, in the midst of giving shields to his soldiers. Cerin and I did the same. I didn't worry about giving out wards. Until we came across an enemy who dealt in magic, I would save my energy.

  “Gods, I hope not,” Cyrus muttered before his eyes widened to the north. “Well, shit. Yeah, you were right.”

  I would have chuckled at their banter if it didn't concern me. I followed Cyrus's gaze, building up earth energy in my palms as my eyes fell upon the gargoyles for the first time. Made straight out of the dark stone of the cliffs, they were rugged creatures with barely discernible forms. Each of them had two long arms and bulky legs. Behind every creature were two thick, rocky wings that rose high above demonic looking heads and stretched to tips nearest their knees. I found that a bit amusing since there was no way such creatures would actually be able to fly.

  One of the gargoyles spread its wings out before it started to flap them, lifting its heavy body up with a surge of strength. The wings crackled and crumbled as they fluttered, leaving trails of broken rock and dust as it flew laggardly toward us.

  Okay, Kai, you were wrong for once, I thought reluctantly. I thrust a ready spell toward the rocky monster as it neared, and its body slowly started to dissolve into sand. It felt no pain or annoyance, and kept up its pace, even as one rocky arm fell to the ground, weakened by its ever-disappearing state.

  Azazel held a hand up beside me, and a sliver of red energy floated above it. I nearly scolded the archer for using alteration magic at a time like this, but then I remembered that the detect life spell hadn't sensed the gargoyles. The archer lifted up his bow before he shot an arrow straight past one of the creatures. It continued flying through the air, and out of sight.

  The god is back.

  Shing! Shing! Shing! Azazel's shield flickered with multiple hits. The archer quickly switched his weapons, putting the bow away to grab his karambits. His superior eyes tried to track the invisible god, and his arms were a blur as he sliced outward with his two blades. I heard one of the hits actually land, but it hadn't been a lethal hit. Blood trickled over the stone below, the only proof I could see of the god's existence.

  Zwip. I regenerated Azazel's shield before my own started getting pummeled. My eyes were not as good as Azazel's, so I had to rely on the archer's direction to know where the god was at all. I noticed Azazel build a paralyze spell in one palm before he dispelled it. The god was zipping around my shield so quickly that the archer was more likely to hit me with it.

  “Azazel! Get back!” I yelled, backing away from the fight as soldiers crashed with gargoyles. I regenerated my shield as the life energy flickered with weakness, and gave myself an alteration shield meant to absorb. The archer listened to me and stayed back, though he wasn't keen to fight elsewhere. Instead, he grabbed his bow in a need to protect me in any way he knew how.

  Enervat. In both hands, I built death energy. If I were unable to see the god to leech from him, the spell Hades had taught me would work just as well.

  The black energy swirled so quickly within its magical barrier that I could hear its roar. My shield was hit with weapons again and again, before I thrust both hands to the ground. A black fog surrounded me in a small radius, crawling across the ground in a circle with me at its center, seeking out life to promptly destroy it.

  Zwip. An egg-shaped shield bubbled over the thin air to my right, the energy vibrating rapidly. The black fog of my spell raced toward the god within, though it quickly spread out over the shield and dissipated as the god absorbed it.

  “You son of a bitch!” I cursed. I hadn't expected the god to know alteration magic. He'd already proven to know illusion with his invisibility. I was now stumped and out of ideas; I couldn't expect to fight a god who could use every spell I threw at him against me.

  The god flickered into view a moment later, proving that it was indeed the same god we'd come into contact with days earlier. Today, both of the god's purple hands were adorned with brass knuckles. Either the weapons weren't with him the day we'd seen him last, or he had been waiting to fight until he had support. Regardless, I didn't like this turn of events. The god was dangerous enough based on his speed alone.

  I hadn't realized Azazel had hit him until the god tugged out a black arrow from his back. Without missing a beat, he thrust both hands to the ground. A deep tone of a magical implosion later, and the god disappeared from before me.

  Shik!

  “Gah—!” I hissed through my teeth as I felt my shoulder split open. My eyes fell upon one of Azazel's own black arrows, sticking straight past my face.

  “Shit! Kai!” The archer scrambled to me, his black eyes wide with panic. “I'm sorry! I thought you had your shield!”

  I gritted my teeth as I regenerated the shield, before reaching over and yanking the arrow out of muscle and tendon, my eyes watering with the pain as I felt the arrowhead scrape past the bone. I couldn't afford to use illusion magic to dull my senses mid-battle, so I dealt with the pain for now, letting the arrow fall to the ground below before forcing life magic into the wound.

  “Please believe me,” Azazel pleaded, distraught as he watched me heal the wound. “He was there when I shot my bow. I promise you. I meant to hit the god.”

  “You hit a god, all right,” I muttered, my eyes switching frantically from the ongoing battle to my wound. I felt a sharp tingle run down my arm, proving that the arrow had hit a sensitive nerve. I focused all of my attention on healing the injury for the moment as Azazel continued to ramble off apologies. If I didn't treat this particular wound correctly, it was possible I would have lasting nerve damage. Only when I was satisfied with my work did my mind clear to the battle raging around us.

  “Is it...” Azazel looked over the break in my armor in shame. “Is it completely healed? You'll be fine?”

  “I'm fine, Azazel. It was just a damn good hit,” I grimaced.

  “I'm so, so sorry,” he murmured nervously, following me back into the battle.

  “Honestly, you shouldn't be. You're fine. It happens.” An unwelcome memory of hurting Nyx with my meteors in Sera popped into my head before I abruptly forced it out.

  “Not to me, it never has,” Azazel retorted, troubled. “It's shameful enough that I keep missing him. And then, to hit you...” He exhaled heavily.

  It dawned on me then that the archer was scared to death of losing me as a friend over a simple mistake. I had to remember he was so new to such social situations. “We're dealing with gods, Azazel. It's amazing you've been able to hit him at all. And I'm a glutton for punishment, friend.” Nodding toward my shoulder, I added, “You're gonna have to try harder than that to get rid of me.”

  Azazel smiled at my attempt at humor, though he was clearly still distraught.

  Soldiers were clashing with gargoyles, and though our numbers were of significant advantag
e to us, the creatures were not making the fight easy. Cerin and I were unable to leech life from them, leaving me to wonder how the monsters were animated at all. Bladed melee weapons were chipped and marred as they bounced off of rock harmlessly. Arrows did nothing to the gargoyles and those that did fly simply rolled around the stone below after ricocheting off of their targets.

  Our greatest strengths in this fight were the earth mages and Maggie. The mages focused on dissolving the stone of the gargoyles much like I had at the beginning of the battle. Piles of sand littered the rock beneath our feet. Maggie was the only one of us with a blunt weapon and was one of the two strongest melee fighters we had access to. Her war hammer shattered the gargoyles, pieces of broken rock rolling away from her wherever she went.

  The rest of us were fighting, of course, just not as efficiently. Cyrus attempted to use ice shards to pierce the creatures, but ice only shattered when it hit the solid stone. His katars were useless against them as well, so he ended up using a water spell I did not recognize as a defense. He thrust both arms toward a gargoyle, and water jetted in a thick stream into its face, where it was pushed back, falling to the stone from after being forced from the air.

  Uriel and Cerin focused on regenerating shields since their weapons did little against our foes. I watched my lover rush to shield a small section of soldiers who did not have them, just to skid to a stop when a blur passed him, leaving his dampened hair to wave by as if affected by a great wind.

  The god. I'd nearly forgotten he was here. He was no longer invisible. Given how he had become visible just before disappearing both times I'd ever seen him, I figured the spells somehow clashed, or perhaps he did not have enough energy to do both. It didn't seem to matter, however. Though he was visible now, he moved so fast he was barely an obscure stain on thin air. Wherever he went, the rains splattered in mid-air, helping to keep my eyes focused on his location.

  Cerin hurried to give the soldiers shields, but he was not quick enough. The blur raced through the unprotected men and women before him, forcing brass knuckles into faces and throats alike, leaving multiple soldiers spitting blood as if they'd all been hit at once. Clattering sounded out from the ground where dozens of teeth tumbled across the stone at their feet. One woman's throat collapsed seemingly on its own, crushed from an outside hit I couldn't even track.

  How in the hell am I supposed to combat this? Panic rose in my chest. This one god was too quick for Azazel, could absorb all spells, and melee fighters couldn't keep track of his location. The Eteri army was equipped with soldiers of all types, but most of them were mages. How could we turn this into our favor?

  BOOM. The ground rattled with a vibration that seemed to come from the cave we hadn't yet reached. Granules of sand and pebbles from broken gargoyles danced over the stone in trepidation. My heart raced against my ribs until they felt like they'd break.

  BOOM.

  “Malachi!” An intensely deep and hoarse voice of a woman shouted the name into the rains. I swung my head toward the cave, finding the source.

  A giant emerged from the caves, wielding no weapons save for her two fists, which were wrapped to shield them from damage. She stood nearly forty feet tall and had legs and arms as thick as tree trunks. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a bun out of practicality rather than fashion. Her muscles were immense, bulging out even farther than Malgor's had, which I supposed shouldn't have been a surprise given her great stature.

  Her massive head turned toward the battle. Two golden eyes narrowed.

  “Malachi!” She screamed, her voice so thick and deep that the stone of the Pedr Crags loosened and crumbled around her.

  “I am here, Abaddis!” The quick god shouted back, in the midst of decimating our unprotected soldiers. “Help me!”

  Abaddis rolled her neck to the side, where a bony pop sounded out, so harsh it was as if the bone had broken. She clenched her fists, preparing for battle.

  Malachi. The messenger of the gods. Abaddis, the goddess of destruction.

  Now we knew who we were dealing with. It wasn't like that made our situation any better. I turned to Cyrus and Uriel, who both looked panicked at the turn of events.

  Then, the earth below our feet shook violently as Abaddis charged.

  Nineteen

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

  The soldiers scattered, their morale broken and panic high. Abaddis ran straight through them like a bull. Men and women exploded into the air from her warpath, Jakan included. The remaining shield the thief had flickered out from the hit as he flew through the air, rushing toward the solid stone. Cerin ran after him, trying to catch up to give him a new shield before he fell.

  Crack! Jakan screeched in intense pain as his right leg and arm snapped upon impact. His body slid limply across the stone for a few feet before he came to a stop, moaning thickly. Cerin kept up the chase and collapsed beside the thief to try to heal him. Knowing Jakan would be looked after, I rushed toward Abaddis. I couldn't keep track of Malachi, and I needed a leeching high if I were to gain an advantage in this fight.

  “Agggh!” Anto roared, snapping into a berserker rage at seeing Jakan fall. He rushed toward her as well, both arm blades clear and shiny with a lack of blood from fighting gargoyles. The orc's crazed brown eyes stuck to Abaddis, seeking to change that as he came to battle with her right leg. Far above us, the goddess held one of our soldiers in the air, one hand on the woman's head and the other on her legs. With a simple tug, the soldier was torn into two pieces. Tears of pain and trauma leaked from the soldier's eyes as her organs slowly slipped out of her body cavity before Abaddis threw the pieces to the side like trash.

  Anto's arm blades ripped and tore through the goddess's right Achilles tendon, intending to incapacitate her. The orc still had his shield, so as I finally neared the goddess, I focused on her. I threw out my paralyze spell, and Abaddis stilled before falling to the stone.

  “Back!” I screamed to the soldiers, as the goddess tumbled to the stone like a building, causing it to crack with her immense weight. Soldiers scattered around her trajectory, though Anto merely sidestepped, his blades still chopping at her leg. It was like trying to fell a tree, though the orc was making progress due to his rage.

  Shing! Shing! Shing! A blur of black and purple skidded around Anto, intent on getting through his shield to protect Abaddis from the orc's wrath. With one of my hands leeching from the giant god, the other focused on regenerating Anto's shield as it took the hits.

  Shik-shik-shik! Black arrows began to dot Abaddis's large body as Azazel finally found a target he could hit. Moments later, Nyx and Cyrus rushed up beside me to join the fight against the goddess. They were more useful here than back with the remaining gargoyles.

  “Her skin is as thick as wood!” Nyx screeched, as she attempted to gouge out the goddess's throat with her daggers. Blood trickled from the wound, but no matter how violently the assassin ripped at the throat, it was taking much longer than usual. It was no wonder that even Anto was having a hard time hurting her.

  Shing! Shing! Nyx's shield flickered as Malachi focused on her instead, but my best friend was quick. Her arms sliced outward in quick dashes, managing to land a few stabs on the god as he flew around her. Malachi's blood splattered over the stone between them as Nyx laughed.

  “You didn't know who you were fucking with!” She spat, stabbing toward the blur in a flurry of silver. After another hit landed, she jerked upward on the blade, tearing through flesh and muscle. A new rush of blood splashed across Nyx's boots. Malachi scrambled back from her, his motion slowing as he held his wounded gut with a hand.

  It was a good sign. Neither of these gods appeared to have methods of healing. Any damage done was most likely permanent. Nyx knew this and pursued Malachi, her anger at Jakan's injuries fueling her. The god did not attempt to teleport. Perhaps it took immense energy that he no longer had.

  “Abaddis!” Malachi screeched, nearly tripping over his own feet as he hurried backward. A tra
il of blood followed him. “Abadd—”

  The yell turned into a gurgle as the voice attempted to pass over bladed steel. One of Nyx's Naharan throwing stars shone from Malachi's jugular. Thick blood lined the projectile before it oozed past the wound just to be diluted in the rains. Malachi fell backward to the stone, and a sickening crack sounded out as the back of his skull hit the ground with the force of gravity. Nyx collapsed over his body, retrieving her throwing star and further gouging out his throat to ensure his death.

  The paralyze spell on Abaddis took that moment of temporary relief to dispel, and the goddess came out of her stiffness in a frenzy. Despite the vast differences between the two gods it seemed they had been friendly enough with each other, and Abaddis was enraged by Malachi's death. As she stood, friend and soldier alike were shoved out of the way by restless limbs.

  The crackling of my own leeching was joined by Cerin's as the necromancer appeared by my side. I glanced back, finding Jakan slowly returning to the fight as he gave himself a dull senses spell to help deal with the pain from his healing injuries. It was dangerous to do such a thing, but I supposed his pain was distracting enough that he decided it was worth the risk. After all, Abaddis was now our only foe. The remaining gargoyles were in pieces of unmoving rock, Malachi was dead, and no further enemies came out of the cave to the north.

  Abaddis immediately rampaged through our remaining army, scattering bodies of our soldiers over the stone and through air alike as if it were nothing. In mere seconds, dozens more of our soldiers were incapacitated, if not killed entirely. The shields that life mages provided could not withstand such constant battering, and those that protected soldiers from the hits of the goddess flickered with weakness. Uriel and the other healers focused on regenerating the shields, but we could not do this forever. Energy reserves were running low now that the small storm over our heads had passed, and Cerin and I were the only healers who could replenish our energies with death magic. For as long as I aided the others, I could not get enough energy from our enemy to attain a leeching high.