When they exited the Temple District, they were surprised to find out that the raid had spread quite far, encompassing almost half the city. As they appeared back onto the Queen’s Road, they could see two smaller groups fighting, soldiers against Infernals or those they’d bonded with. It was a chaotic sight, but to the more experienced eyes of Leonov and Taiki, it was becoming clear that the attackers were winning.
“Oh my,” Falynn gasped, staring down the road at the fighting. “Should we help? They seem like they’re in trouble!”
“They’re handling it fine,” Taiki replied. Clearly, she’d had the same thought as Leonov. “Besides, our goal is to get these artifacts out. We should focus on that first.”
Roni had no comment either way, as she was too busy staring incredulously at the bow in her hands. She’d hoped to at least pick up the weapon, but not be deemed worthy of wielding it. She could feel the bow’s latent magical energy under her fingers, but unlike the legends said it would, Tyrant’s Bane wasn’t singing her fingers, assaulting her mind, or in any way harming her. It felt no different from the bow she’d been using, apart from the magic it held, of course.
Almost as if she was longing to test the power, she lifted the bow and slotted an arrow onto the string. The others looked around as she drew it back, perplexed by the action. Leonov stepped forward to interrupt her, his face fixed in a glare. “We don’t have time for this, Roni. We have to get these artifacts out of the city.”
“We won’t be able to get out of the city without taking part in some of the fighting,” she said, continuing to draw back on the string. “More likely that we’ll get stuck behind allies or caught by enemies.”
The statement had some merit to it, of course, but Leonov wasn’t keen on stretching the fighting out further than he had to. If anything, he was a man of efficiency and doing more than was strictly outlined in the job he’d been given didn’t sit well with him. Then again, he reasoned with himself, if they had to fight just to get out of the city, then perhaps there was no point in arguing against it. He had to consider his own survival and that of his allies, after all.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “Shoot an arrow, and we’ll see how much help it is.”
The smallest smirk formed on Roni’s lips, and she allowed the string to slip smoothly from her fingers with a quiet twang. The arrow leaped away from the bow, and they lost sight of it for a moment against the bleak grey background of the city and the smoke around them. Then, just over a hundred meters, right where a group of Infernals was moving to flank a group of attackers, they saw a flash of green light. The arrow struck the lead Infernal, and flames spread across their body quickly.
To their surprise, it looked as though the bow did no damage. Instead, the Infernal turned on his heel and began slashing at those behind him with his sword. The sudden turning of one of their allies caught them completely by surprise, and they were slow to defend. The Infernal managed to cut three of them down before one of them ran a spear through his chest, killing him instantly. The remaining four Infernals turned in their direction, forgetting about their original targets.
“What was that?” Falynn asked, more curious and amazed than shocked. “I didn’t know you could do that kind of magic!”
“I can’t, but the bow can,” Roni said. She quickly notched another arrow, drew back, and fired in one single, smooth movement. “It’s one of Tyrant’s Bane’s enchantments.”
“But how did you know about it?” Liana, the priestess of Minerva asked. “It’s abilities are supposed to known only to those that master the weapon! You haven’t been its wielder long enough!”
“I knew the last Champion,” Roni said, drawing and firing again. With three arrows, she’d taken down two of the Infernals rushing towards them. “She was my mentor.”
“You were taught by Zuri Undergrove?” The priestess of Minerva’s eyes were wide, unable to come to terms with what she was hearing. “But she’s the one who killed those rogue dragons that threatened the countryside twelve years ago!”
Roni could only shrug, choosing not to comment on that. Instead, she jerked her chin down the road to where there were now only three Infernals running towards them. She tried to shoot another, but he deflected the arrow easily enough with his shield, and she gave up on another attempt. “I think we have bigger things to focus on right now.”
The Infernals obviously had some experience fighting as a group, because they’d formed a triangular shape, with one in the back. This Infernal, tall as usual with fair hair and bright red eyes, was clad in a long crimson robe. She came to a stop once the group was fifty feet away, and raised both of her arms, sending a large roiling ball of flames in their direction.
Falynn reacted quickly, putting her hand on the warm cobbles of the street underneath them. Faster than Leonov or Taiki could quite react, a tall wall of stone appeared to block the fireball, then slammed down to crush the two Infernals who’d continued running forward. Both leaped high into the air to avoid it, landing light as cats on either side of Taiki and Leonov and slashing at the two warriors.
“Blasted fiends!” Leonov shouted, blocking the first strike with his shield and then slashing down with his sword, forcing his opponent back. “Get back, Falynn!”
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She didn’t need to be told twice and retreated away at once, Roni by her side. Both were useless in the chaotic bustle of outright melee combat. Instead, the elven women supported their allies from afar with magic and arrow. Roni sent three arrows in quick succession at the Infernal mage who was bolstering her own allies, but each was blocked by a magic barrier. Falynn summoned thick vines out of the ground in an attempt to trap Taiki’s attacker, but the man danced away from the grasping plants easily.
Taiki was undaunted by the nimble opponent facing her and followed him as he backed up, trying to gain distance. She continued swinging with her kanabo, taking measured movements so as not to leave any openings for the enemy to exploit. Six feet away, Leonov was holding off his own opponent, and, more accustomed to fighting dextrous opponents, had managed to inflict a wound on the Infernals ribs. He let out a hiss of pain as he felt the sword’s touch, and his image began to shiver.
“He’s shifting!” Falynn called out in warning, but Leonov knew what the shivering meant already, and was prepared. As a broad half-elven man with a heavy club appeared, swinging his weapon in a vicious downstroke, Leonov sidestepped the blow perfectly, allowing the weapon to glance harmlessly off his shield. His own attack took the half-elf in the back before he could recover from his stroke, and he fell to the cobbles with a grunt of surprise.
The Infernal mage pulled the weakly stirring body of her fallen comrade back with a spell, then sent out a dozen tines of electricity with her one free hand. The lines of power struck both Taiki and Leonov, stunning them. The Infernal fighting Taiki took advantage of that to dart in and slash at her head. The thick metal of her helmet protected her from the worst of the blow, but the ringing impact had to set her head to ringing, and she fell down onto the cobbles with a clatter, too stunned to move yet.
“Oh no you don’t!” Falynn shouted, and with an angry upward flick of one hand, she spawned a column of wind that slammed into the Infernal, flinging him nearly fifteen feet into the air away from his foe. Despite making solid contact, it was just wind, and he recovered in mid-air, grabbing onto the room of a nearby building and swinging himself out of the current of air. Falynn could hear him laughing as he fell back, leaving them to recover. Roni sent an arrow after him, but it was no good, sailing nearly a foot over his head. He laughed again, then dropped out of sight on the other side of the building.
“Are you okay, Taiki?” Falynn asked, hurrying forward. She didn’t understand why the Infernals had backed off so quickly, but she didn’t care. Putting as much mana into a healing spell as she could, she pulled Taiki’s helmet off and put one finger to her forehead. The warrior’s eyes uncrossed, and she blinked up at Falynn, momentarily confused.
“I’m fine,” she said gruffly, sitting upright and shaking her head. “Where’d they go?”
“They left down one of the side streets,” Roni said. She was gazing up into the air at Gadderoth, who was flying in a circle over their heads. The dragon whelp let out a high screech and stopped, his nose pointed in one direction, deeper into the city. “Something bad is coming. We should get off the main road!”
They didn’t stop to question her, trusting in her and the dragon’s senses. They urged the priests and priestesses into one of the side streets, then followed in after them, with Leonov and Taiki taking up the rear, weapons ready. Last to join them was Gadderoth, swooping out of the sky to land on Roni’s shoulders. They could all see that the dragon hatchling was shaking in fear of whatever was coming, but they couldn’t deduce anymore.
Then, in the distance, they heard what sounded like crashing thunder. It was a continuous sound, echoing off the faces of the nearby buildings, and getting louder with every second, clearly coming closer. Falynn risked a glance around the corner of the nearest building, and her face blanched before she ducked back into cover. She grabbed Falynn by the arm and shoved her to the front, hissing an instruction.
“We need a barrier!” She shouted. Then, to the priests behind her, she added, “Any of you that know how, help her!”
The priests were slow to react, but Falynn immediately put up a barrier some eight feet high, wrapping the magic around to cover them against any attacks. Then three more added their magic to the act, and the barrier was expanded to cover their entire group in a thin layer of golden light. A few seconds later, the roaring sound was unbearable, and suddenly, their eyes were blinded by a flood of flames that appeared, sweeping down the Queen’s Road, spreading into every alley and nook and cranny.
The followers cried out in fear and surprise at the scale of the enemy attack, and Taiki could see cracks beginning to form in certain areas of the barrier. She couldn’t do anything about it herself, so she shook Falynn, bringing the danger to the druid’s attention. Falynn went even paler at the sight of that. Both of them knew that if it failed, they would all be killed by this surge of fire. She swiped her hands desperately, tearing apart the buildings to either side and forming a second shell out of the stone. They were protected, but they were also blinded, conscious only of the roaring sound, barely muted, around them.
Finally, after what felt like several minutes, the sound faded, and they were confronted with sudden silence, save the ringing in their ears. Falynn removed the stone barrier, and as the pieces of rock fell away to either side, they could make out the devastation the flames had left. Every square inch of the city around them had been singed, and much of the buildings were smoldering, the wood shredded by the onslaught of fire.
“What could do that?” One of the priests asked, their voices fearful. “What mage has that power to command?”
Roni, peeking around the now badly damaged corner of the building behind which they’d sheltered, pointed up the hill. She could just barely make out the magical aura of something in the air above them, more than three hundred feet away. There were three massive rings of fire around them still, and she had no doubt that they’d been the source of the attack.
“Is that the enemy commander?” Leonov asked, peering around to look at the stranger flying in the sky. “If he can do that much damage on such a huge scale, we don’t stand a chance. He probably killed everyone fighting in the streets here, including his own allies.”
“We don’t know that,” Falynn said. It wasn’t clear if she was trying to convince them or herself. “They could have summoned barriers like we did.”
“Well, we can’t take another one of those,” Roni asserted. “And it looks like he can definitely do it again. We have to get underground somehow.”
“There are tunnels all under the city,” one of the priests, a man in black leather armor said. The patch on his cuirass indicated he was a follower of Atlas Ciayol, the God of Thieves. “The nearest entrance isn’t far from here, either. We can take shelter in those tunnels, and even escape that way.”