Every nerve in my body seemed to tremble, vibrating in anticipation. Our sordid party sat low, hiding in the thick cover of the vined woods, watching in wait. Before us, the seven knights took slow, deliberate steps through the thick mud and ankle deep water of the swamp. Their bright red capes floated behind them, trailing afloat the water, stark and ominous against the green of their surroundings.

The knights flanked a short, old woman, whose moss-ridden green and brown clothes better suited the environment. She was blindfolded, but held out a slender, many-ringed hand in front of her face. Every few steps, she would bend over, placing her fingers in the water below, trailing it back and forth. She was extremely focused, listening intently to words that only she seemed to hear. She must be the seer.

I looked over to the void mage, “Aixel”, and Milea. He was staring intensely at her, eager to make the first move, but she kept shaking her head, silently telling him to wait. His jaw tightened, frustrated, as tiny Doris twitched on his shoulder.

We kept watching until suddenly, before Milea urged us with a gesture, to move. In almost a crawl, we made our way through the thick foliage, careful not to break any branches or make any noise. We slowly made our way until we found ourselves directly behind the red-caped party of glittering gold soldiers.

Milea turned to Aixel.

Now! She mouthed.

The void mage smiled, before suddenly turning into his familiarly unnerving magicked form. I watched as his skin started to vibrate, shaking before splitting into slivers, revealing the tiny horde of black insects below. In cloud form he began to rise, twirling with ease between the thick branches, making his way towards the soldiers.

The soldiers stopped their steady march upon hearing the hum of thousands of tiny wings billowing towards them. Their armored hands quickly reached for their weapons in alert as they surrounded the seer as protection.

It was then that the old woman began to scream in terror, piercing the peaceful silence of the forest, and causing several of the soldiers to turn to her. The knights urged her in hushed whispers to remain calm and quiet, but this did nothing to settle her.

As Aixel flew towards them, swirling above their helmets ominously, the old woman spotted the approaching mass of insects.

She stopped screaming for a moment, only to suddenly shout.

“Trees, I surrender all of me to thee. Take thee in thy embrace!”

With these words, thick branches suddenly shot out of the ground around the woman, twisting and contorting around her small body. One of the knights shouted in protest, but it was too late. The branches curved around the woman, cradling around her like a cocoon before pulling her into the ground, returning her into the earth with a small splash.

It was then that Aixel finally materialized, perched on top of one of the knight’s shoulders, his hands on either side of his helmet. I watched as he pulled off the golden armor with ease, throwing it to the ground before the knight had a chance to realize what was happening.

“Now!” Milea shouted.

The party then jumped up, myself included, and began to rush towards the seven Selphene knights. As I made my way forward, carefully watching my steps, I glanced upwards towards Aixel, who was still perched upon the knight’s shoulders. His eyes were wild as he held his hands to both sides of the soldier’s bare face. The man was screaming, shrieking, in pain as he fell to his knees with a splash. Thick black veins began to burst from the knight’s eyes as the void magic seemed to boil him from the inside.

I then watched, now frozen, as Aixel channeled the blackened magic from the fallen soldier’s corpse, taking it in his palm then directing it to something on the ground.

Doris.

As the void magic entered Doris, the small rat-like creature began to grow, contort, sprouting armored legs and wings. Her tiny face grew into something uncanny and almost human, twisting as fangs and horns sprouted about her expanding body. She let out a guttural scream of delight, causing a flutter of birds to flee above the tree canopy in alert.

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She had grown the size of a horse by the time Ciro shouted at me.

“Mira - focus!”

I looked to see both Ciro and Milea in front of me, armor clinking as blades collided with the skilled Selphene knights. I snapped out of it just in time to catch the blade of a soldier with the arm of my obsidian armor, grateful of my brief training on the beach with Ciro.

I pushed the blade to the side with effort, and watched the knight stomp forward, following the momentum of his strike. He raised the hilt of his sword higher, aiming the blunt end of the handle at my exposed face. I took a lengthy step backwards raising my arm as cover again as I dropped my falchion in my other hand. Although my grip was weak with my dead fingers, I was able to take advantage of the soldier’s exposed side.

Against the thick gold armor, any ordinary blade would be useless, but much to my relief, my newly magicked falchion seemed to do some damage. Upon making impact with the knight’s chestplate, silver sparks of protest exploded around us. The gold seemed to melt like butter as the falchion cut deep into the soldier’s side. He jumped back with a grunt of surprise, then readied his weapon again for another strike.

I kept my back to the forest, holding my blade at the ready. In my periphery, I saw Ciro hit two of the knights at once with a single powerful swing of his halberd. The newly monstrous Doris was also at work, with a golden bodiless arm swinging from her blackened jaw. Milea’s once-silver armor was now speckled red as she raised her mighty mace above her head.

The knight watched me, carefully stepping left and right, looking for any sign of weakness, other than the obvious. Perched above my heavily armored body was my bare, uncovered head, waiting to be sliced open.

Suddenly, there was a guttural cry behind us, before an explosion of blood, and the knight turned towards the sound in surprise. Dear little Doris had seemingly ripped one of the Selphene soldier’s bodies in half.

Using the distraction to my advantage, I quickly lowered myself, stepping swiftly left to the soldier’s exposed back. With both hands, I grabbed my blade, and thrusted forward, piercing with all of my weight and strength through his back plate, cape included. I watched, half horrified by my actions as the knight buckled backwards, arms reaching behind in protest as he let out a surprised grunt of pain. It was then that he finally slumped forward, then to his side, holding his chest where the blade had made its way through his armored body. Breathing heavy through gritted teeth, he threw his helmet off his face. Bloodshot brown eyes met mine, furious.

“I want you to look me in the eyes when you take my life from me, blood mage,” he spat through bloody gasps.

My breath quickened as my hand automatically reached for my necklace. But just as I raised my hand, I felt a shove at my side. It was Milea.

“You have enough magic already,” she said as she removed her armored glove.

She then raised her hand, moving her fingers only slightly before I watched the wounded knight disappear into a familiar white mist. However, instead of taking in the magic through her lungs, she directed it to something small in the palm of her other hand. I watched as the silver stream funneled into a shining purple stone, making it glow with a bright white light.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“The people of the underground need this more than any of us. This magic alone could buy years of life,” she said, before placing the rock in a pouch around her neck.

I looked up to see Aixel and Doris, golden armor now red in a pile at their feet. He had both his hands on the side of the great void beast’s face, softly whispering something to her that only they could hear. Suddenly, the void beast began to vibrate, before exploding into a cloud of black gnat-like insects. They swirled for a moment before softly fizzling into nothing, leaving only the tiny mouse-like Doris in the palm of Aixel’s hand.

I scanned further, searching the bloodied scene, to find Ciro, kneeling on the ground. His face seemed strained, with wrinkles spattered with battled remains. He was clutching his knee with both hands, mouth wide with a grimace.

I jumped forward.

“Are you okay?” I asked, bending down to join him.

“I’ll be fine. Got distracted by Doris and he got me in the leg. We have to get out of here though.”

“There’ll be another patrol here soon,” said Milea, inspecting Ciro’s wound.

“Well then heal me with that magic and-”

“I will not waste this on something we can heal on our own,” dismissed Milea.

“But that’ll take weeks - they’re coming now. We need someone to head them off-”

“I’ll do it,” I said, much to my own surprise.

“Then go, head north and follow the water. I’ll take Ciro back into town to get this taken care of,” said Milea as she pulled him off the ground. Ciro grunted in pain as he leaned his weight against Milea.

Aixel laughed in disbelief.

“As though she can take care of a party like that by herself. They’ll probably send more than seven,” Aixel grumbled as he placed Doris back on his shoulder.

Milea’s nostrils flared.

“Then go with her. They’ll be expecting a void mage with the mess you and your little friend made.”