Hagen walked on all four limbs. He accelerated in just a few steps into a rust-colored blur. Cyril veered into the man’s path and the two collided into a violent heap. Cyril kicked Hagen’s paw from his still injured midsection, Hagen chopped at the warden’s neck. Cyril caught that move too. The both of them fell one over the other, striking and blocking at the other.
The two separated and rejoined at a blistering speed, clashing only to bounce off one another and meet again somewhere else in the forest clearing. Hagen pounced, throwing a wide swipe across his body. Cyril spun out of his opponent’s path and stuck his clawed fingers through Hagen’s arm and deep into his flesh. A head-throbbing howl exploded from the man’s transformed jaws. The sound spared no one its punishment.
Cyril’s transformation sharpened his senses. The quality had been turned into a severe disadvantage. The sound dwelled in Cyril’s eardrums and deafened him to the world. His sense of balance, only just recovered, was thrown entirely out of sorts. Cyril’s transformation fluctuated wildly, with parts of his body randomly transforming back and forth between his monstrous and human form.
The Bathala Yard wardens were also affected. The sound paused their enclosure of the initiates. Soraya and Hagen seemed to be the only ones that kept their senses despite the roar. Her helmet dulled the sharpness of the roar. Soraya grabbed her two friends and retreated from the light of the fire.
“Not so fast!”
Soraya released her friends in time for something to latch onto her back. Soraya felt his breath on her neck. She grabbed his head and threw it over herself, forcefully dropping her attacker into the dirt.
The woman had short, black and gray hair despite her youth. Metal teeth caught the not-too-distant light of the campfire. The Bathala Yard warden’s legs seemed to have transformed her joints into some kind of metal as well. Soraya spent too long trying to inspect the other warden’s transformation. She coiled her metal legs under herself and bounced up from the ground. Her knee crashed into Soraya and she fell on her back.
Springs replaced the joints at the woman’s knees and ankles. She rebounded off the bough of a tree to launch herself back at the fallen Soraya. An explosion interrupted the attack. Piper’s hands released the spellcraft to divert the woman’s deadly dive. She helped Soraya to her feet and checked the younger girl for serious injuries.
The spring-legged warden rejoined her own allies. After Cyril’s attacks, only three still seemed in fighting shape, besides Hagen himself.
“They’re just rookies,” the spring-legged girl said. “Capture the targets and exfiltrate!”
“Right!” The two others responded in accord. Wakahn recognized one as the warden who had attacked them with a storm of leaves. The third warden was the yellow-green man with the ivory blades of bone escaping his wrists. Wakahn wanted Cyril to jump to their rescue, but he couldn’t risk looking away from Bathala Yard.
“Root them in place, Minju!” the spring warden ordered. Her legs contracted and she bounced into the dark treetops.
The leaf warden slapped the ground and roots tunneled beneath the earth. They sprang to the surface around Wakahn’s ankles. Piper and Soraya found themselves snared in the same way. Wakahn chopped into the stubborn vegetation. It continued to grow over itself, firming his hold on the kids.
“Drodato!” The spring warden called again from overhead. Wakahn had completely lost her in his focus on the roots around his legs. He was still looking in the wrong place.
Piper channeled her spellcraft into a quick and weaker package of fire and light. She released the fireball at the bone sword warden, Drodato. He hardly needed to slow down in order to dodge her attack. Piper detonated the fireball and it reversed direction, flying into Drodato’s back.
“Behind you!” Minju, the root warden, warned. Drodato turned and dropped under the fireball. Piper received the attack, but it didn’t explode against the palms of her four hands. She recharged it with more strength and rereleased the spell. Drodato dodged the obvious attack, but she hadn’t aimed for him.
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Minju removed his arms from the earth and rolled away from the path of the attack. It redirected towards where he dodged and Minju raised a small wall of roots to soak the flames.
“Keep cutting!” Piper yelled. She and Soraya were yanking their legs against the nest of roots, making some progress against the trap. Without Minju’s spellcraft, Wakahn found no problem with cutting into the thick roots and freeing himself. No problem except for the spring warden.
She bounced off of the tree tops and tackled Wakahn at a furious speed. Soraya was nearly free from the trap when Piper grabbed hold of the girl and wrenched her free. She tossed Soraya at the tangled mess of Wakahn and the spring warden wrestling with one another.
Drodato resumed his charge, bone sword leveled at Piper.
“All alone now!” He said eagerly.
“No need to hold back now!” Piper channeled as much mana as she could push through her arms. Her uncontrollable flames found no means of release. At a critical mass, Piper released the spellcraft. Cerulean flames exploded from her body, searing Drodato and burning away the shards of the roots at Piper’s feet.
Soraya screamed with the thrill of being thrown like a sack of sand. She was more than happy to retaliate against the spring warden. The weight of Soraya’s gauntlets made for an effective club. Soraya channeled mana through the metal armor and into her flying punch. The spring warden shoved Wakahn off of herself. She coiled one leg and released the tension in her springs. Soraya met the foot with her fist, punching the kick down.
Wakahn fought to find his breath. He crawled from the girls fighting only to avoid a sudden, furry tempest. Cyril and Hagen’s engagement leveled a birch tree as their close quarters throwdown moved through the depths of the forest. They both had begun to move at a speed that exceeded Wakahn’s senses. Cyril seemed to have the upper hand.
Wakahn’s master kicked Hagen from him. Cyril couldn’t seem to rally the strength to follow up on Hagen’s opening. Wakahn did it for him. He attacked Hagen’s turned back, slicing with his dorsal blades into the meat beneath the monster’s fur. Hagen unleashed another mind-melting howl from the pain. Wakahn failed to withstand the noise from so close. His senses blurred and the world faded into black.
“Wakahn!”
Cyril dove under the young boy and caught his fall. Hagen didn’t lose sight of his goal. He brought his gargantuan arms down upon the pair of them. Cyril whirled around to put Wakahn under him. Hagen’s arms beat on Cyril without mercy. Wakahn stirred from his short respite with blurred vision and a mental fog. His transformation had dissipated and the boy was vulnerable.
Cyril blocked another barrage of blows with his back. The sight restored Wakahn’s lucidity. Hagen raised his arms over his skull and Wakahn escaped from the man’s fury. He transformed to carry Cyril’s weight with him.
“We need to flee!” Wakahn shouted desperately.
“We need to fight!” Piper argued. She had re-engaged Minju, incinerating the man’s plants as quickly as they grew. Eriq, the firebreather, dragged Drodato from the epicenter of the fighting. The spring warden had trapped Soraya again, this time in a maelstrom of her own making.
The spring warden bounced against the closely neighbored trees, blending in and out with the dark forest. When Soraya tried to move, her opponent would bounce from her pattern to lash out at Soraya. The woman’s speed was too much to match. It was all Soraya could do to raise her arms in defense against her opponent.
“Miss Hadessian is in danger!” Wakahn screamed.
“We’re all in danger!” Piper replied.
Soraya could hear them, but was too deep in focus to join in on the argument. Her own trap had been set. All that was left was to spring it closed on her enemy. Soraya’s spellcraft had taken some time to understand. Channeling mana through her gauntlets didn’t seem to change the speed or the strength of her attacks, but it did seem to leave a mark of some kind. Upon contact, the black armor left residual mana on Soraya’s target. Only recently had she discovered its purpose.
Soraya clapped her armored hands together. The residual mana left on the spring warden detonated. Her denizen let her leave behind a shadow of her attacks. By bringing her hands together, Soraya triggered these shadows, summoning an echo of the attacks that left them behind.
The spring warden flew between the trees normally, until punches with no fists landed against her body. The attacks seemed to come from nowhere, but hit her all the same. In an instant, she was clobbered, sailing helplessly through the treeline. She crashed into a low bough and slipped off the tree, too pummeled to find the strength to hang on. Every time she had touched that black armor came back to hurt her.
“Wakahn!” Soraya roared. “We’re the only ones that can help us now!” Wakahn’s mouth and eyes were both stuck open. The fallen warden dropped to the ground, helpless and defeated.