It was a good trick, making myself appear dangerous.

FIRST AMONG YOUR GIFTS IS THE FULL FORM OF THE FISHING BAT, He’d said. I’d known forms were important, but He explained why. Basically, different bat forms are more or less energy efficient when gigantified.

It’s not unique to Chiropterans, either. Not even Red Tail could enlarge a tiny falconet into a jumbo jet. Different forms make achieving large sizes easier and cheaper, but each form is more challenging to unlock than the last.

Maintaining my pipistrelle bat form at a thirty-foot wingspan for an hour consumes all my energy for the day. Think of my unstable size like a leaky cup; it’s a soft limit where the leakage gets worse the more water it tries to hold.

Maintaining myotis vivesi at that size is more comfortable because it’s a ‘less leaky’ cup. I could carry all my friends for eight hours without a break.

THE SECOND OF YOUR GIFTS IS THE SHOUT OF DESTRUCTION.

Instead of using my voice to disorient foes (He called that my Shout of Confusion), I release a concussive sonic blast.

Since the size of a Therianthrope’s form amplifies the cost and effect of the ability, Shouting as a giant pipistrelle would’ve sent me into a coma. As a Fishing Bat, I can manage to fit a single enlarged Shout into my daily budget at the cost of a severe headache. Try and do it again… I might never wake up.

I planned to eliminate as many threats as possible, draw everyone’s attention, and lead our enemies on a wild goose chase.

A big risk, for sure. I wasn’t the fastest flier in the sky that day by a long shot, but I was the most agile. As the sole Clair in the air, I had precious seconds’ notice before each attack, and experience taught me how to maximize the warning.

“Hey, batty,” Ansbach howled as he cartwheeled on the wall. “Ready for round two?” The Wind mage flung another compressed air orb at me, but with much of his energy and attention on the Wolf’s leash, he couldn’t do much more. I didn’t consider him a major threat.

Likewise, the Water mages’ cannons were slow, and Lightning mages shot in straight lines. While the sky appeared to be an insane firefight from the ground, weaving through such heavily telegraphed attacks posed little challenge.

I found the Fire mage hot on my tail far more distressing. While the first Fire wizard couldn’t shoot and fly simultaneously while limited by his gauntlets, the second had flames streaming from all her gloves and boots to propel herself and attack. I recoiled as she pulled up neck and neck with me and gave a little one-handed wave.

“She’s mine, Vlam!” Ansbach growled, but she ignored him.

Instead, she spun and kicked at me, foot streaming a jet of flame. I dropped in the nick of time, coming into the sights of the Lighting wizard on the buzzard-winged lizard.

“Catch her, Rasant!” Vlam laughed as if this were an exciting game.

He unleashed a mesh net of fine electric arcs designed to grab and shock their target into submission rather than a single big blasting bolt. Already falling, I flapped to put distance between myself and the electric fence. Then the Wolf came streaking through the air faster than an arrow, jaws wide.

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I dove for the Wolf, and, Hearing when it’d snap its teeth together, I timed my next flap to clear its muzzle and send me skirting around its shoulder to get a face full of tail hair. The Wolf barreled through the Lightning net snarling anger and trailing ozone from burns. Rasant shrank from the ferocious Elemental, but the creature of Wind remained under the mages’ control.

“What are you doing, you stupid dog!” Ansbach yelled in aggravation, “Don’t make me look bad; get her!”

The Wolf skidded to an airborne halt and drew in a breath. And kept inhaling, deeper and deeper, its chest expanding to an astounding girth. I feinted diving, then enlarged my wings by three sizes for a single upward thrust at the last second. The aftereffects gave me a dizzy spell and a nauseous stomach flip.

Mages scattered to either side of a portion of the wall where I faked my dive. Then a torrent of Wind burst from the Wolf’s jaws so vast and violent it eroded a section of parapets, creating a gap in the wall.

As scattered gravel rained down, Ansbach jumped in place, shouting, “Idiot, moron, mongrel!”

Below, Wendi and Wendigo tag-teamed Tesem as devil and dog beat the stuffing out of one another. Fists and claws flew in an all-out brawl. Neither showed signs of slowing, with both possessing incredible endurance.

Verglas gestured, and an Ice spike grew up from beneath Daniel, but not so quick the boy couldn’t dodge the point, grab the shaft, and break it. With another motion, Verglas slammed two pillars at Daniel, but the boy grabbed one in each projected hand and shattered them. The wizard tried freezing Daniel in a layer of Ice rising from the ground, but the boy’s destructive aura prevented the spreading rime from encasing him.

I wasn’t sure when Verglas would try something more drastic.

Paul faced his opponent at the same time. The Bear had yet to score a hit on the lantern boy, but Paul struggled to evade its boulders and claws. I’d told Paul he couldn’t hurt the Bear and not to waste effort trying. The Elementals were truly beyond us.

“Tom, did you see where she went?” Kleodora asked the other Stone mage.

“Where who went?” the buff wizard replied an instant before Rana dropped Camouflage and kicked him in the small of the back. The mages collided, stumbling to stay standing, and argued as the frog girl slipped into invisibility.

While Kleodora and Tom were busy with Rana, the three Water mages halfway up the wall must’ve deduced Lea and Kenta’s goal. Lea levitated on a beachball-sized black orb and shielded herself with the other caramboles as firehose streams rained down at them. Kenta blocked half the torrential jets with a giant arm of braided hair, secondary tendrils gripping the wall like tiny claws. The waterproof oils coating the Kaminoke’s strands slicked away liquid, but neither of my friends could advance against this pressure.

I decided to intervene.

I strafed the wall on the Water mage’s level. My claws felt good tearing into the rock, startling the first wizard. His stream fell flat as he ducked into his chamber and turtled inside the rock hollow.

Praxithea was next, and she took a shot at me before falling back. I banked to dodge, then dipped my claws into her recess just to make the threat. The third Water mage hid before I got close. This gave Lea and Kenta a few seconds to climb undisturbed as I returned to the sky.

While I’d been gone, Rasant filled the air with fuzzy little floating spark balls. Hundreds of them drifted like dandelion fluff—and no more deadly. I doubted they’d give more than a static shock on contact, but the Lightning wizard clearly had a plan.

Vlam found me again, her face pinched in anger as she punched and kicked a fiery flurry of blows. I weaved between spark balls, wind blades, and Lightning bolts, sweating as Vlam nearly caught my hair on fire. Meanwhile, the Wolf prepared another specialty.

The Elemental launched a Wind orb from its mouth. This projectile was slow and avoidable, but I Heard its danger and knew to get as far away as possible. The orb didn’t explode. It imploded. All the air in a massive zone vanished into the void.

Even air has weight; Daniel could tell you how much exactly. We don’t feel it day-to-day because our bodies’ internal and external pressure is balanced. But the point is the bigger the area, the more air weight. And this was not a small area. What happens when the weight of all that air rushes into empty space and collides with itself at the speed of sound?

I shifted fully human to protect my ears, going truly blind as I fell, covered my tiny ears, and opened my mouth. I felt an inrush of air and heard a giant’s hands clap.