Helbram took the van as Elly and Jahora moved behind him. Cora’s Puppets stood in front of the Shade, swaying as they stood in place. He could not see where Leaf had gone after the archer slipped into the trees, but he knew his companion was waiting for another opportunity to strike.
Cora gripped the arrow that protruded from her thigh and snapped it, stifling a scream as she threw the broken shaft to the side. As the Shade pulled her hands back, Jahora had walked up to Helbram’s mace and rested her hand on it. Purple light bled from her palm and into the weapon, coating the head of the mace with an aura of the same color. The Mage didn’t say a word, but Helbram knew her intent as her eyes drifted to Aria.
The girl remained in place, the hands of the icy figure behind her pressed against the seal at her back.
His mace trembled from the power that suffused itself around its make, and as he readied his weapon he and Jahora shared a nod.
The Puppets attacked right after.
Helbram jumped ahead first, a glyph of blue light forming over his shield as he intercepted the Puppet at the head of the group. It lashed out with a wild swing, one that Helbram deflected upwards with his shield. Its torso exposed, Helbram swung the mace into the large stone that served as the Puppet’s body. His hand shook at the impact, but as the blow landed purple light burst from the mace’s head. Cracks formed over the rock’s surface, but even as the Puppet flew back from the force of the impact it did not shatter. Helbram could not pursue, however, for the other Puppets flanked him at both sides right after.
The warrior tucked himself behind his shield and charged into the Puppet that was closest to his right.
“Burst!” he yelled as he made impact, seeing the blue glow from his shield turn red as fire exploded from its surface. The blast knocked the Puppet into the one behind it, and while they were stout enough to remain on their feet, there was a brief pause as they collided. At that moment, Helbram lunged towards them and stuck the lead Puppet in the leg. Its makeshift limb was reduced to rubble as light pulsed from the mace, and it was struck to the ground as Helbram landed a blow against its “head” with a back swing. Cracks formed across its body, but again it did not shatter. He continued his onslaught by taking aim at the Puppet still standing, but it slipped away before Helbram could land a solid blow.
Elly already intercepted the two Puppets that were now at his back, her arms covered by translucent barriers as she caught their blows. As one of the Puppets struck her shield, she flicked her hand to the side and deflected the blow into its partner, knocking it off balance. She stomped the ground then, sending a pulse of yellow Aether through her body and focusing it into her hand as she slammed it into the Puppet’s torso. Cracks of yellow light surged across the Puppet’s body as the blow landed and it stumbled back. Any attempts to maintain its form, however, failed as Jahora unleashed a bolt of Aether that struck the Puppet at its center, shattering the construct and letting its blackened stone fall to the ground.
The warrior turned back and charged towards Cora in the distance, but was intercepted by the Puppet that escaped his attacks earlier. He stepped to the side as it lunged at him with a straight punch, catching the attack with his shield and shoving it past the crest of its strike to further expose its flank. A crack rang through the air as his mace dug into Puppet’s side, and as it stumbled Helbram pursued, landing a clean blow against its back. The construct shattered, and before its remains could scatter Helbram had already resumed his charge towards Cora.
The Puppet he previously crippled lunged towards his legs to stop him, but before it could grab him Elly appeared, her leg suffused with yellow light as she stomped her heel into its torso. It shattered under her foot, and as Helbram took a glance back he saw the remains of the other Puppets littering the ground.
He and the Weaver ran towards Cora, but before either could reach the Shade Jahora’s voice cried out.
“Spread!”
Helbram leapt to the side, feeling a flash of heat across his back as a ball of fire flew past him, striking Cora. Fire and dust burst from the impact, but the Shade remained standing behind a barrier of rock held together by a web of yellow Aether. An arrow slipped from the trees then, striking Cora at her back. Though it did not bite through, the red aura it carried exploded forth, staggering the Shade forward and causing her barrier to flicker.
Jahora let loose with another fireball, striking the barrier and shattering it into broken stone. Helbram closed the distance before Cora could raise another, swinging his mace towards her head once again. The Shade raised her hand and caught the blow with a rock covered arm, unflinching as she met his eyes with hers. Elly followed up soon after, striking Cora in the chest with the heel of her palm, but even as yellow Aether burst from the Weaver’s hand, the Shade showed no reaction as she raised her free hand past Elly’s head. Aether pulsed along Cora’s arm, and Helbram’s eyes widened as he realized her plan. He stepped behind Elly and spun, barely getting his shield in front of him before the remains of the broken Puppets collided.
Most of the stones bounced off the glyph of his shield, but a few slipped past his defenses, striking him in the legs multiple times and once in the helmet. His vision blurred as his shins cried out in pain that broke through the rush of battle, but he didn’t have time to acknowledge it before he felt a hand at the back of his head shove him down.
Elly pushed him into a duck as a mass of rock flew over their heads. Ignoring the pain, Helbram twisted on his heels to face towards the stones that had formed a large club around Cora’s hand. The Shade brought the improvised weapon into a backswing, and all Helbram could do was raise his guard to intercept the blow.
“Tower!” he yelled out, feeling the rush of Aether that filled his shield with power.
The glyph on its surface expanded, covering the entirety of his body as Cora’s blow struck. The symbol flared with light upon receiving the attack, but maintained its structure even as Helbram slid back from the force behind the blow. Elly moved soon after, rising back to her feet as yellow Aether trailed from her foot to her hand. She struck Cora with her palm, unleashing the Aether in a burst of force that stripped the Shade of the rocks around her shoulder. An arrow flew from the trees the next moment, biting through the joint and protruding out the other end. The Shade screamed and slammed the mass of stone around her arm into the ground. The gathered rock exploded in a burst of light and created enough force to knock Helbram back even as his shield took most of the blow. The warrior dug his heels into the ground and turned his guard towards Cora.
“Burst!” He yelled.
But the spell never came.
He turned back, and saw Jahora in the air, her body seized as if something was holding her.
Something he couldn’t see.
The Shade stomped her foot, fracturing the ground beneath her. The cracks spread under his boots, surging with Aether.
“Move!” Helbram yelled as he jumped back. The ground exploded upwards, and he managed to catch the debris with his shield.
Elly was not so fortunate.
The Weaver was wrapped in a barrier as she was knocked into the air, but the shield was shattered as it was struck by a blow he could not see. Another attack followed, hitting Elly in the stomach before throwing her into the ground.
She was unmoving after she crashed against the forest floor.
Helbram sprinted to her side, panic surging in his chest as he drew close. Blood trailed down Elly’s face as she lay against the ground, and he could only manage a sigh of relief as he saw her chest rise and fall. In her hand were the Sealing Cuffs that the Black Cloaks had given them. The Weaver had no doubt intended to restrain Cora with them, but in her unconscious grip they would be of no use.
He grabbed the cuffs and slipped them into his pocket, but did not have time to do much else before he was struck at the back of his head. His vision doubled over as he staggered forward, and as he looked up he saw that Jahora was still struggling against the invisible restraints that kept her in the air. The Mage’s body was covered in a thin translucent film of blue light, which appeared to protect her body from any further harm.
The blow to the back of his head robbed him of sense for only a moment, but the lapse in judgment was enough to make him move towards Jahora, with only the impulse of trying to help pushing him forward.
It did nothing to tell him of the unseen hand that was holding onto his arm.
He could only manage a glance towards it before hearing the sickening snap that followed.
Fire seared across his body from the arm that now hung limply at his side, turning the stupor over his consciousness to ash and replacing it with a sense of pain with an infinite potential of growth. His words were caught at his throat as he felt something wrap around his knee.
He heard a pop, and collapsed to the ground.
A soundless scream parted from his lips as he felt his leg twist in a direction it was not supposed to. The pain from his broken limbs fed into an inferno of anguish, and any thoughts that he may have burned away in its flames. His vision blurred, and he could barely make out Elly’s face as she lay on the ground.
But he could see her hair shift as an unseen force pressed against her head.
Impulse broke through the pain and he could feel his unbroken arm reach out towards her, clawing at the ground as he tried to pull himself closer.
Even then, what could he do?
What could he ever do?
A torrent of arrows poured from the trees then, loosed from different parts of the forest as Leaf kept to his cover. Each shot was laced with red Ether as they flew towards Cora, knocking bits of stone from her earthen armor each time an arrow landed. Though the Shade remained unharmed, her attention was distracted enough that whatever was pressing against Elly had stopped moving.
Helbram reached for the bottle strapped to his belt and rolled onto his back, throwing his head up to shift his visor enough to uncover his lips. He poured the bright red liquid of the potion into his mouth, emptying it in seconds as he swallowed every last drop in desperation.
Its effects were immediate.
Pain lanced through his body as the bones in his broken limbs started to shift back into place. Every inch that they moved felt as if his arm and leg were broken a dozen times over, and he could feel himself shaking as the agony started to overwhelm him. His jaw clenched as he bit down on one of the straps of his gauntlet, a desperate move to prevent him from shattering his own teeth.
His vision darkened as he looked to Leaf, who leapt from cover as he loosed his last shot at the Shade. The arrow splintered against Cora’s defenses, but he was undeterred as he drew the shortsword at his waist. He did not have a chance to use it, however, for another unseen force wrapped around Leaf’s body, lifting him into the air.
What are you doing?
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Cora approached the archer, rocks shifting along her skin and onto her hand, forming a sharp, jagged tip.
Move.
Helbram’s vision started to fade as the pain took over. It was all he could feel, all he could see, all he could hear. Just pain, nothing but the fire that burned through his body, an unrelenting tide that seared through him with an intensity to match the deepest pits of the Hells themselves.
I said move.
It was too much.
No it is not.
He couldn’t do it.
You must.
Leaf was going to die.
No he is not.
They were all going to die.
You can still do something.
They failed her.
Stop.
He failed her.
SHUT UP!
There was no ho-
SHUT UP GODSDAMMIT AND MOVE!
___
Seria stood in front of Leaf, meeting the archer’s infuriated gaze with an impassive stare. She had to admit, were it not of the remnants of Erik’s boon she would have had a much more difficult time dealing with Helbram’s party, but with half of them disabled and the other two restrained the result was obvious.
She won.
The Shade would kill them, help Erik deal with the Black Cloaks, and they would finally see Anastasia unleash her true potential.
See her daughter grow into the woman she was meant to be, just as she always wanted.
A twisted smile tugged at her lips, and upon seeing her sickening grin Leaf’s eyes flared. The archer twisted against his restraints, and to her shock she could feel the strain of maintaining them press against her mind. It was to no avail, however, for despite his struggles he remained in place.
She lifted her hand, fleeing the jagged stone wrap around her fingers, and prepared to drive them into his heart.
Then she heard the roar.
It was not a sound a person could make. It was too deep, too… primal for anyone with reason to have unleashed. Yet she felt her spine shiver at the noise and turned to it.
Only to see Helbram standing up.
His arm twitched as it slowly shifted back into place, and his leg pushed him up as it started to piece itself together. The empty bottle at his feet told her how such recovery was possible, but given his rate of recovery, given the pain he must be feeling in exchange, there was no possible way he would be able to stand.
Yet stand he did.
His shield hung loosely from one of his hands, and after his limbs repaired themselves enough he knelt down and picked up his mace, still brimming with that damned purple light. Helbram’s chest heaved with every breath, and the fog that escaped from his visor misted around him as he took a step forward. His eyes were cast to the ground, yet still he kept pushing towards Seria until he stood over Elly.
The Shade flicked her hand, sending a command to the Puppet that loomed over the Weaver to strike at Helbram. The warrior’s instincts acted first, and though he could not see her invisible Puppet he landed a blow against its torso as it struck him against his helmet. His head snapped to the side as the blow landed. His foot shifted to keep himself standing, and with a wild swing he landed another blow against her Puppet, shattering it and scattering its pieces across the forest floor. It was then that he looked at her.
And that’s when she saw it.
The darkened trees of that night.
The beast whose black fur bled into the shadows.
The blood that covered its teeth
The still body of a girl that lay at its feet.
Anastasia’s body.
Her daughter’s body.
Seria could only scream as the beast came for her next.
___
Daggers jabbed at Jahora’s mind as her restraints squeezed against her. The grinding noise she heard against her barrier told her that they were made of stone, but despite Erik’s distance away from them he had somehow managed to keep some of the Puppets hidden from sight. Her shield had prevented the stone from crushing her entirely, but she could feel her control starting to slip as the strain on her mind grew worse with each passing second. She clutched her hands, trying to gather more Aether into her barrier, but only wisps drifted towards her. The Mage growled, but she could not be surprised at the result. Despite Ren’s healing, her body was still trying to recover from her previous injury, which had only limited the amount of Aether that she could pull before the strain became too much.
And she’d pushed past that long ago.
A shiver trailed up her spine as the realization set in. Dread cast its shadow over her as her grip over the Aether of her spell started to slip, telling her that she was going to die, that she would fail Aria once again.
Then she heard the roar.
Her head turned towards the noise, eyes widening as they caught sight of Helbram rising from the ground. She looked towards the empty bottle at his feet, watched as his broken limbs snapped back into place as he lumbered forward. She’d drank the same potion as him, felt the pain that coursed through his body, the desire- the need- for consciousness to slip away so that she would not be plagued by anguish any further.
Yet still, he stood.
His head snapped to the side as he was struck by invisible stone, but Helbram’s grit granted him more than just the strength to stay on his feet. The warrior reduced the unseen Puppet to rubble and looked towards Cora. Jahora followed her companion’s gaze and when her eyes fell upon the Shade she could see the horror that lay in her eyes.
Followed by the anger that came after.
Helbram rushed at Cora as the Shade slammed her hands into the ground. Yellow Aether swelled around her, gathering at her fingertips before exploding outwards. The ground itself rose with the wave of energy, sending a tide of stone and dirt towards Helbram. The warrior raised his shield and rammed into the wave of earth, crashing through it but stumbling as he did so. He recovered before falling to the ground entirely, but before he could continue his pursuit another unseen attack struck him at the side of his helmet. He staggered to the side, but still kept himself on his feet as he swung wildly to the side, the blow hitting no target in sight. His mace tugged him, its head pulled on by the invisible Puppet. When the warrior’s grip did not fail, the wooden shaft of the weapon splintered, destroying the mace right before Helbram took another block, this time to the back of his head as he stumbled forward.
Rather than fall, the warrior used his stumbling march as the start of his charge towards Cora. Jahora could hear the rain of blows against the man’s armor, see his legs buckle as he was stuck in the knees multiple times.
Still, he would not fall.
The potion still coursed through him, repairing any of the damage that was being done but no doubt subjecting him to pains unimaginable. So used was she to seeing him calm, so collected, that it took her a moment to realize that Helbram was still roaring, still yelling as he closed in on Cora. As he got close his shield slipped from his grip. The warrior grasped it with both of his hands on the edges.
And slammed it into Cora’s head.
One time.
Two times.
Three times.
The Shade’s head whipped from side to side as Helbram’s blows continued to land, and with each successful attack Jahora could feel the pressure of the stones against her start to lessen. However, the warrior was not capable of sustaining the assault forever, both from the blows of the invisible Puppets that pelted every part of his body and the simple fact that his shield would not hold.
Its sturdy make was broken as Helbram used it as a club, and even as it snapped in half from repeated attacks ke kept swinging, splintering its remains against Cora’s earthen armor. He would not be deterred, even with the unseen blows that rained against his back. The Shade snarled as she pushed through one of Helbram’s attacks, raising her leg to stomp on the ground. Before she could, however, Helbram ducked down and struck her leg, knocking it to the side. Cora tried to use her hand instead, but Helbram shattered the last of his shield against her arm to knock it off course. The blow chipped away a sliver of stone that was near her hand. Using that same hand, she thrust her fingers against Helbram’s chest, yellow Aether surging through her. Before her spell was unleashed, however, Helbram grabbed her arm.
But it was too late.
Cora’s hand unleashed a burst of yellow light, knocking Helbram from his feet and onto the ground.
He didn’t rise again.
Yet, as he fell Jahora felt the restraints around her loosen. With a grunt of effort she released the Aether from her barrier, generating a shockwave that scattered the invisible rocks around her. The moment that her feet touched the ground she ran towards Cora and saw the source of her freedom.
The Sealing Cuff around the Shade’s wrist.
Only one was clamped to her, but it was enough to reduce the Shade’s abilities by a significant degree. While she managed to keep Leaf restrained, the archer was now able to push back against his restraints, and bits of Cora’s earthen armor had started to fall from her body.
The Shade screamed in frustration as she looked down at Helbram and raised her hand. The rush of battle overtook Jahora then, granting her a second wind as she raised her hand towards her fallen companion, the sigil of a barrier starting to form in her palm. However, as she looked back to the Shade the Mage saw that Cora was gathering bits of fallen rock in her hand forming them into the shape of a spear. No intangible blows rained down upon Helbram or Jahora as she kept running forward, which the Mage could only hope meant one thing.
That the invisible Puppet’s were gone.
Jahora clenched her hand, canceling her shield spell before clapping her hands together. Aether surged into her palms, her two Aetheric Rings brimming with light as flames sprouted at her fingertips. The Mage could feel her mind start to split under the strain of drawing even more Aether, but she did not stop.
She could not stop.
Jahora spread her hands, a ball of fire forming between her palms as they parted. She lifted the spell over her head and locked eyes with Cora. The Shade snarled and threw the jagged spear at the Mage, and Jahora countered by loosing her spell at Cora. The rocky projectile shattered as it collided with the fireball, which exploded into stone and dust as it struck the Shade in the chest.
The Mage fell to her knee when the spell landed, but she knew better than to think it was over. She looked to Helbram, who lay still on the ground, to Leaf, who still struggled against his restraints, to Elly, who had still not woken up.
To Aria, and the woman of ice that loomed over her.
She needed to keep pushing.
She needed more power.
Pain lanced through her mind, but even through its interference Jahora found focus. She pushed herself to her feet and walked forward.
Cora was still on her feet, clutching one arm as the last of her earthen armor fell from her body. Her clothes were burnt and torn, and blood stained what remained. One of the Shade’s eyes were closed with blood pouring over it from the cut on her forehead. Her opened eye looked upon Jahora with hatred, and the Mage could feel power still radiating off of her. Fueled by an anger that she thought she’d never feel herself.
Now one she was all too familiar with.
“Do you know what they’ll do to her?!” Cora spat, “They’ll restrain her, hide her away from the world because they will be afraid. You think you will be helping her when all you’ll do is cast her in chains! Is that right? IS IT?!”
“No, it’s not,” Jahora said, her voice steady.
She thought back to the smile on Aria’s face, the wonder she held at even the most mundane of things. The brightness in the girl’s eyes as she listened to stories, as she started to dream.
“I don’t know what the right course of action is. I don’t know of what comes in the future, or what will happen even seconds from now,” she admitted, “there is only one thing that I am certain of.”
Jahora crossed her hands and took in a deep breath, feeling her mind go numb as she drew upon the Aether around her, directing it towards the rings that circled her head. Through all the pain, the panic, and the desperation, there was an overt sense of clarity that washed everything away, leaving only a single purpose in her mind.
“Aria is in trouble, and I’m going to help her.”
A snap cut through the air, followed by a rush as that swallowed all of the Aether around her. Light itself dimmed as it all gathered around Jahora, condensing and bending until its shape was finally realized.
A Third Circle around her head.