Toren Daen

I barely had time to think as the hornets surrounded everything around us, a dome of buzzing hell boxing every man and woman into a sunless void.

And then the bombardment started. A veritable wave of glowing green acid rained from the sky, forcing me to escape the trees in a burst of telekinesis from my feet.

I had only one chance to make it out of this alive. I rocketed toward the team of huddled mages, twisting midair to face the oncoming shower of green acid. I let out a burst of fire from my palm, burning away some of the sprays. A bit of the acid still splashed onto me, however, quickly eating through my mana barrier. I grit my teeth as some of the residual liquid sizzled through my mana shroud and bit into my skin.

I landed with a backward stumble, barely managing to reach the huddled mages before a shield of solid mana erected itself around this small group. I watched in horror as the shower pelted those outside the white barrier, some mages conjuring bulwarks of ice and earth. But those hit the worst by the acid rain were the non-mages.

I suppressed the urge to vomit as men howled when the green liquid seeped through their skin. It wasn’t an instant death: the acid wasn’t powerful enough to dissolve metal quickly. It was slow and brutal; the accompanying screams of pain made it all the more horrifying.

My distracted almost got me killed. I looked down to see a spearpoint suddenly at my throat, the gleam of steel nearly as threatening as the glare I received from the wielder.

Vaelum was watching me with one eye as a shield held her barrier against the shower of acid. His grip on his weapon was tight, causing his knuckles to whiten.

“What have you done?” he snarled, pressing the spearpoint to my throat. My mana barrier flared under the pressure, and I had no illusions that it wouldn’t be shredded like butter if the man pressed a bit harder.

I raised my hands in the universal message of surrender, letting my dagger fall from my hands. It didn’t matter if I had a weapon or not: if I couldn’t work with these mages, I would die under the onslaught of hornets.

I noticed another mage resting a hand on the shield’s back, probably funneling mana into her body. The shield didn’t seem too strained by maintaining the mana barrier, but who knew how long she could hold it?

“I didn’t do anything,” I said placatingly. “I’m not here to fight you,” I said, keeping the modification of my voice to a minimum. I really didn’t want to exacerbate their fear, but the mask I was wearing probably didn’t help. “I can help you fight off the hornets. I don’t have much of a choice if I want to survive,” I said, my posture rigid.

I could see the conflict warring in Vaelum’s eyes, but before he could make a decision, a hand was laid on his arm. I tensed at the sentry’s interruption, but I needn’t have worried.

“We can worry about what this mage is doing here later,” the sentry cut through harshly, peering past the translucent mana barrier with barely restrained fear. The hornets had paused after their initial salvo, something that confused me. I could see small pockets of men huddled under barriers of earth, ice, and more. What was warding off the mana beasts, then? “Right now we need a way out, and we need all the help we can get.”

Vaelum lowered the spear from my throat with a huff, peeking past the barrier. I sent a grateful nod to the sentry, who frowned in response. It seemed that I still had work to do to gain his trust.

“Fine,” Vaelum said, tilting his head to observe the carnage outside. I took a steadying breath as I spotted the corpses around us. In a single attack, nearly half of the expedition force had been wiped out. I forcefully averted my eyes from the skeletons lining the ground. “This must be from another hive. They’re too coordinated for it to be anything else,” he said. “And they’re going to attack again,” he added, dread in his voice. “What’s stopping them from diving at us now?”

The sentry peered around, inspecting the outside of the mana barrier. “The remnants of the beastward are keeping them at bay,” he said, adjusting his coat. “See the black smog? That’s what's keeping these bastards from swarming us all at once. They have to attack us at range, at least until the beastwards wear off,” he exhaled shakily.

Several of the other men, mage and not, were panicking within the small bubble we found ourselves in. One man just sat on the ground, staring at the melted bodies of his fellow workers with an empty expression. Another was screaming incoherently, the buzzing infecting his ears and mind.

“Enough!” Vaelum shouted, cutting through the growing fear. “We’re going to make it through this. The beastwards will dissipate in a little under five minutes. We’ve got until then to formulate a plan!”

His proclamation was punctuated by another rain of acid, attacking the shield’s barrier in a deluge. I noticed a few beads of sweat on her face this time as she struggled to maintain the defensive perimeter. “That’s all well and good,” the mage said breathily, “But I’m not sure I can hold for five minutes!”

I grit my teeth as the green shower ate through an ice shield a ways away from me, killing the mage supporting it and dooming the few surviving men underneath to a grisly death. I clenched my fist as I watched, feeling helpless from my inability to act.

Vaelum was looking at the sky with a twist to his face. “We need to break through all at once,” he said, a bit of confidence returning to his voice. “These hornets must be a different nest than the one we destroyed. If we can get far enough away from wherever their queen is, we’ll be safe,” he said, a gleam of hope in his eyes. “The hornets take a few seconds to gather mana between each attack. There’s a window there.”

He returned his attention to our small group. There were seven of us in total: him, the shield, the sentry, three non-mages, and me. I didn’t know what plan the man would make, but I hoped it would get us through safely.

The spear-wielding striker looked at the other groups holding out under the intermittent torrents of acid. From what I could see, there were several small pockets of people huddling under different elemental shields.

Vaelum surveyed our own forces, then turned to me. “We need to get the others out there to group together with us,” he said. “And they won’t be able to hear us over this incessant buzzing. We need to send people over, and there are only two mages who can cross the distance between us and the groups fast enough.”

The unspoken message passed between us. Vaelum didn’t trust me enough to ask outright.

“I’ll do what I can,” I said, turning to one of the more distant groups. The shield in that group held a dome of metal over his head, protecting a couple more people who huddled around them. But unlike the other shields, this one didn’t protect the sides. The green liquid that the hornets fired was beginning to pool on the ground, and it was only a matter of time before it crept under their dome.

“I’ll gather those two,” I said, pointing toward my selections. From what I had seen, I was probably faster than Vaelum, so it was a wiser option to take the longer distances. As the latest barrage of acid missiles fizzled out, I added one more sentence. “My name is Dusk.”

I rocketed past the white shield, keeping an eye on the black quivering dome that surrounded the nest. Mana pumped through my legs in time with bursts of telekinesis, rocketing me across the forest floor as fast as lightning. I skidded to a halt under the metal dome, causing the mage to jump in surprise. The few men he was protecting–both non-mages–scooted back in surprise, nearly edging outside their protection.

The only light they had was a dismal lighting artifact clipped to the shield’s belt like a lantern. It must have seemed like I had appeared out of nowhere. I could only see because of the mana reinforcing my eyes, so a shield that wasn’t specialized in body enhancement would’ve barely had time to react to my arrival.

“Vaelum is organizing an escape force to break past these hornets,” I said quickly, ignoring the fear on their faces. We didn’t have much time. “Head towards the glimmering light over there,” I said, pointing toward the barely visible shimmering of the mana shield I had come from. “Reinforce the shield there. We’ll make it out of this alive.”

I met the eyes of the mage holding up the umbrella of iron through my mask. He gave me a strained nod, then began to move quickly. Taking that as a cue he knew what to do, I surveyed my next target. A woman held up a circle of ice, her face strained as she glared upward.

Meera, I knew.

I bolted over towards her small group. None of the people she was protecting were mages, either, but she didn’t seem nearly as surprised at my appearance as the metal shield. She seemed angry.

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“Who the hell are you?” she snapped, her strained expression snapping to me. They widened in fear when she took in my mask. “You going to kill me, too?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m here to get you out.” I gestured vaguely toward the shimmering light of the makeshift meeting point. “Vaelum has a plan to get you all out of this. He’s got a rendezvous point over there. Get yourself and these men there safely,” I said, preparing to dash back.

“What?!” the woman snapped out, her short brown hair wild with disarray. “You expect me to help these peons?” she said with obvious disgust, the unadorned at her feet shrinking inward in fear. ”I’m low enough on mana already! I’ll be wrung dry by the time I reach the shield!”

I stilled, then turned back to Meera. “That doesn’t matter,” I hissed, the stress from this entire situation finally pulsing at the surface. “These people need saving and it’s your job to do it!”

For a pregnant pause, Meera looked down at the terrified men huddled at her feet. My stomach dropped as I saw the decision made in her eyes. “I’m not dying for unads,” she spat, turning around. Then, with the buzzing still in all of our ears, she broke off in a sprint toward the edge of the insectoid dome. Her ice shield followed her, leaving me and the two non-mages exposed to the inevitable onslaught of the acidbeam hornets.

Meera pulled something from her belt, a familiar red-trimmed box. When she opened it, my despair only grew. Inside was a beastward: as far as I was aware, the last one available. As she dashed toward the wall of skittering carapace, she lifted the black crystal high. “I’m going to live through this!” she laughed with a hint of madness. “I’m going to get out of this Vritra-forsaken forest alive!”

The hornets parted for Meera as she and her beastward drew close, then closed back behind her as she darted through the forest.

That bitch!

I barely had time to react as the next wave of acid rained from on high. Thinking quickly, I raised both my hands to the sky. I focused on my telekinesis rune, doing my best to stretch the surface area for my telekinetic push out as wide as possible.

My telekinetic push flared to life over my head just in time. The glowing green liquid impacted rippling white mana above, the pushback pressing me into the ground. I stumbled from the force, my arms burning under the weight. The acid was pushed off my impromptu barrier, pooling around the edges. I heard the non-mages whimper in fear near my feet.

I was quickly becoming familiar with one of the drawbacks of my telekinesis rune. For every action, there wass an equal and opposite reaction. I pushed the acid rain away from me, but the acid rain also pushed me into the ground.

Sweat dripped from my brow and my arms burned from holding up the weight of untold gallons of heavy fluid slamming into my magic. I felt my spell shudder, the pressure fighting my own control. My arms creaked as the flashing white of my pushing spell flickered weakly.

And then the shower of acid stopped just in time, my telekinesis winking out as the rain faded to a drizzle, and then nothing at all.

I had never used my telekinesis as a shield before. I was lucky it even worked. When spreading the surface area of my telekinetic pushes and pulls, the force I could apply over the increased distance decreased dramatically. If I had been a little less careful, the acid could have broken through my barrier.

“Come on,” I said to the men at my feet. They didn’t move. “Go!” I yelled, pulling them up by an arm each. “You’re coming with me,” I said, hauling them with me despite my fatigue. They stumbled slowly after me, but our pace picked up as we moved.

But I wasn’t out of the woodwork yet. A few hornets detached themselves from the quivering dome, heading for me with deadly precision. As they got closer to the permeating black smog, their flight patterns became a bit wobbly, but not enough to divert them away from me.

Biting back a curse, I shoved the two non-mages onward toward the shield. It was close now, not even twenty paces away. I could make out the people inside, watching with bated breath as the non-mages ran for all they were worth.

I pivoted on my foot, ignoring my growing fatigue. I whipped my dagger from its sheath, using the draw to deflect the stinger of an oncoming hornet. I had to twist slightly to avoid the divebomb attack of another, but I followed up with a fireball that burned it out of the air. The third insect managed to impale itself on my waiting dagger with its momentum, but it continued to writhe on my blade, thrusting its stinger at me in vain.

I snarled, pushing mana through the steel. With an effort of will, my blade erupted in fire, burning away the hornet lodged on it in a conflagration of light.

I whipped my weapon around, using the spin to decapitate the last oncoming hornet. And not a moment too soon, either: the next outpour of acid rained down from all sides, promising death to all who got caught in it.

I leapt for the mana barrier, using a burst of telekinesis beneath my feet to propel me toward it. I sailed through the air, hoping against hope I would make it in time.

I passed through the translucent shield with no resistance, tumbling across the laden earth with a pained grunt. The sound of acid sizzling against the mana barrier immediately afterward hinted to me how close I had come to being dissolved. I lay sprawled for a moment in the dirt, trying to focus myself through the ache in my muscles. Then I slowly struggled to my feet, ignoring the protest of my knees.

I looked behind me, noting that part of my dark cloak was just gone, no doubt having been caught in the acid.

The barrier was being maintained by three mages now. Over the top, a layer of iron was raised alongside the original white mana barrier, then further augmented by thin discs of earth. I recognized the shield I had instructed to run to the rendezvous amidst them, causing some of my nerves to settle. But the sides of the barrier were the weak link.

The hornets were coming in greater and greater numbers. They routinely slammed against the domelike mana shield that surrounded the group, breaking their way through intermittently. The holes sealed up behind them, but not before the group was faced with the threat of each and every beady-eyed insect.

Vaelum and another caster were busy killing any hornets that got too close, flashes of a fiery spear and bullets of wind ending anything that got too close to our protective canopy.

And the non-mages that Meera had abandoned were safe, too.

“They’re getting bolder,” Vaelum yelled, stating the obvious as he separated a hornet’s head from its abdomen with his spear. He had somehow lost his helmet, revealing close-cut dark hair. “The fog is starting to dissipate! We don’t have much time to get out!”

I spared another glance around the battlefield. The hornets just kept coming, but there was something odd about how they approached us. There were far more hornets buzzing about the carcass of the nest than there were attacking our small group.

I gathered myself back up, running mana through my limbs to dismiss their protests. I gripped my dagger tightly, the familiar handle wrapping providing me an anchor to move forward. “How are we going to get through that blockade of wings and legs?” I asked Vaelum as I pulled myself to his side, too tired to modify my voice any longer.

I weaved around an oncoming stinger, slicing down as it whizzed past me. My steel dagger, enhanced by mana to improve both its durability and cutting power, sheared right through the carapace with little resistance.

Vaelum turned to me, allowing me to see his face fully for the first time. It was pulled into a grimace of effort, the strain of having to kill so many mana beasts beginning to wear on him, too. There was a scar just under his chin. “Where’s Meera?” he yelled over the ever-present buzzing. “The water caster,” he clarified. “She was acting as a shield!”

I grit my teeth, risking a glance back to the two non-mages Meera had left behind. “She left us,” I called back. “She used the beastward she had to get through the blockade. She left us here to die,” I bit out angrily.

I watched in dismay as Vaelum’s face fell. “But-” he said, turning back to the men behind him. The men under his command, counting on him to pull them out of this. “Without the beastward…” he choked out, his nerves clearly spent.

He didn’t finish his sentence, but I could tell immediately what he was feeling.

I grit my teeth, thinking as hard as I could. In the meantime, I burned and cut and decimated many more hornets that tried to bust through our barrier. The beasts were coming faster and faster, the dissipating black fog no longer keeping them away nearly as effectively.

The caster assisting us in shooting down hornets was a short man with graying hair. I narrowly avoided an oncoming ball of wind, watching it impact an insectoid mana beast behind me. The sphere of condensed air didn’t explode immediately: instead, it pushed the buzzing monstrosity farther and farther away before bursting in an outflow of wind that pushed every oncoming mana beast nearby off course.

My distraction from watching the wind ball cost me. A stray hornet managed to reach one of the huddled non-mages, embedding its sharp stinger into his gut with a sickening shunk. The man screamed momentarily, writhing on the ground and trying to edge away. I bounded over, ripping the hornet out of him killing it with a flare of heat from my palm.

But I knew the wound was fatal. The man’s stomach was already dissolving, and I could see the ground through where his spine was supposed to be. The man’s screams slowly dissolved into pitiful gurgles. I avoided looking into his eyes, shoving down the guilt of letting my guard down. Of letting him die.

I threw the corpse of the hornet at another with a burst of telekinesis, panic and dread building in me even as I continued to fight. What could I even do?

I delivered a sound-shroud-covered hook to a nearby hornet, the vibrations from my spell-laden fist traveling through its system. It dropped from the air, spasming on the ground. I brought my boot down on its head, the satisfying crunch one of the only things I could remotely enjoy.

The aging caster sent another ball of wind toward a coming swarm, this one far, far larger than before, easily as wide as a man was tall. It pushed the oncoming hornets away, catching them on its rotating surface as it went. Then when it was far enough away, it burst in a gale of force, shredding the insect’s wings and disorienting their flight. While it didn’t do much damage, it created a distance that allowed the strikers to finish off their targets.

Gears that had been turning the first time I witnessed this attack finally clicked into place, cementing a plan in my mind. I finally had an idea of what could pull us out of this mess.