Jace ripped the Whistling Blade out of its sheath. He’d never held a sword before, let alone used one, but he didn’t need to do anything fancy. He just needed to kill the darkling.
The cutting edge of the weapon glowed white with plasma-aspect Aes whenever it moved, even if it was just a flick through the air. The light filtered through the misty glass of the blade like lightning through clouds, and the entire weapon hummed at a high pitch. He placed both hands on the hilt, and faint vibrations ran through his whole body. When he inhaled, he smelled burnt ozone—like dryer lint.
The giant fox bounded towards him again. Lunging, Jace swung at its foot. The white plasma at the edge of the blade screeched. It sliced through one of the fox’s claws and bit into flesh behind, leaving a glowing orange gash in its wake.
But with his arms stretched so high up, Jace couldn’t put much force into the blade. He ripped the weapon free and rolled away—just in time to avoid the giant fox’s counter-swipe.
The beast yowled. It tossed its head back, though, keeping far out of reach of a good cut. To kill it, Jace had to bring it down closer to him.
“Its knees!” Lessa shouted. “The knees are the weakest part! Cut through them!” She had climbed higher up the wall of the ravine.
Panting, Jace narrowed his eyes. Even when the beast’s paw was on the ground, he couldn’t properly reach its knee.
Unless he used a hyperspace jump.
If he could launch himself slightly upwards instead of along the ground, he’d be able to hit the beast’s knee with ease.
The beast lumbered towards him, shrieking. Jace concentrated on his target, the knee, as if already extending tendrils of Aes toward it, and held the Whistling Blade out beside him. Then he pushed a blast of Aes through his core. The hyperspace jump card appeared in his hand, and he crushed it.
White light fell over his vision. Everything shifted. In the same instant, something wrenched his wrists backwards and tried to rip the sword out of his hands.
The light lasted for only a blink. He had launched himself forward and up, and now he was ten feet in the air. He landed with a jarring crash, but he scrambled back to his feet.
He whirled around, looking for the beast. He’d travelled down the ravine and passed the darkling. Behind him, the shadow of the beast slumped down. He had sliced its foreleg in two—straight through the joint, and straight through the flesh.
The fox screeched. Jace wanted to plug his ears and fall to his knees, but if he hesitated, he’d fail. He clenched his teeth and sprinted back towards it.
The beast flailed around, striking at anything nearby. Its hind paws smashed into the wall of the ravine, flinging dirt and dropping debris. Its head thrashed in the water.
It was time to put it out of its misery. Jace needed to get back to its neck, and another hyperspace jump should do the trick. But, when he tried to unleash the technique, nothing happened, no matter how fast he cycled Aes or tried to push himself forward.
The technique was still on cooldown, and his reset card still had a day before he could use it again.
Jace backed away, flinching when mud trickled down the ravine wall and washed over his feet. The giant fox was still thrashing.
Holding the Whistling Blade out beside him, he dove under the flailing hind legs of the giant fox, then scrambled beneath its body, approaching its head and neck. Its claw slashed his bicep, but adrenaline made it feel only like a paper cut.
He ducked away from the stump of the beast’s front leg, then leapt into position beside its neck—which was now well within reach of his sword. He raised the blade, then slashed, cleaving through the skin and muscles and veins.
It didn’t cut all the way through. The neck was too wide for that, and his blade wasn’t outputting enough plasma to burn through. It only left a deep slash. Black blood spilled out of the wound. The beast’s cries turned to gurgles, then it collapsed and disintegrated. When Jace flicked the Whistling Blade, the blood burnt off of the cutting edge.
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The seed embedded in his gut heated up, so much that he feared it would start burning him. Dust poured out of the air, emerging from nothing, and it swirled toward him with a flurry of sparks.
Some of it formed into a sheet of golden dust in front of him. It read: [Elite Darkling Slain. Subquest complete: Cleanse ravine.]
Breathing heavily, Jace gritted his teeth against the growing sting of his fresh wounds. Between the subquest and the act of killing the giant fox, he didn’t know how much Aes he’d accumulated, and he didn’t care to find out—not right now. They had to get out of here.
Jace fumbled with the Whistling Blade, trying to fit it back into the leather sheath. It clicked into place. A bracket of twisted wires and machinery waited at the mouth of the scabbard and gripped the blade. It stopped the weapon from glowing and screaming while sheathed.
Then he ran over to the decaying corpse of the giant fox and ripped his bayonet free from the crumbling paw. He turned it off and slipped it back into his belt.
With all his equipment in place, he ran over to the ledge where Lessa perched. The rocky footholds she had used to scramble up had been destroyed, but she reached an arm out. Jace took it, and with her help, climbed up onto the ledge.
Jace dipped his head. “Thanks.”
“It was just a lift.”
“For the advice and support, too.”
“Oh, yeah, that.” She cleared her throat. “Yep, I can be useful. See?”
“I never said you weren’t.”
“You—” She blinked. “Right. You didn’t.”
“That took enough time,” Jace said. “We need to keep climbing.”
They scampered up onto a boulder, then onto a fallen log that had wedged itself across the ravine. They walked across it, holding their arms out to the side to keep their balance. At the other side was a narrow ledge, and they had to press their backs against the mud to stay on it.
Jace targeted a large muddy outcropping on the opposite side. There was a perfect set of rocks that they could use to climb to the top of the ravine (and they’d emerge on the right side), if only they could get across to it.
If he could get across, he could push over a gnarled tree that grew sideways out of the steep incline and make a bridge for Lessa to scamper across as well.
“Is the hyperspace jump still unavailable?” he asked. There was probably some way to check, or maybe even to sense it. He didn’t know how. But she could sense that, right?
“Looks like it,” Lessa replied, shutting her eyes for a moment and staring at him with the backs of her eyelids. “Wait…oh, it just came off cooldown!”
“Alright…” Jace set his eyes on his target—the air just above the outcropping and tried the technique. Nothing happened.
“Concentrate on the feeling,” Lessa whispered. “Push yourself. It’s a magical technique, not just pulling a trigger. And…I’ve seen Kinfild stomp down really hard when he wants to manifest a technique card quickly.”
There wasn’t much room, but Jace still set his foot down firmly, taking a wide stance and conjuring the card in front of himself. He snapped it out of the air with his hand.
In a flash, he appeared on the opposite side of the ravine. He tugged the Whistling Blade out of its sheath and swung it sideways, slashing through the sideways-growing tree. He didn’t cut through all the way—only enough that the tree bent over and fell to the other side of the ravine.
Lessa scurried onto the branch and walked over, arms out.
Once she was across, they both climbed up the final stretch to the surface. With each rock Jace hauled himself up, his wounds hurt more and more. The sting turned to a blaze, and only after blood began beading under his fingernails did he realize how truly deep the cut on his arm was.
At the top of the ravine, Jace pulled his backpack open and sifted through the unorganized clutter, fishing for the bandages he had made earlier. He fastened a strip around his arm as quickly as he could. It’d keep him going until he had time to fix it properly.
“Look on the bright side,” Lessa said. “We made it to the good side of the ravine!”
Once Jace finished his bandage, they kept moving. They had lost enough time killing the darkling, and now, if they wanted to catch up to Kinfild, they would have to run. Jace kept his gaze down, careful not to trip over any roots or rocks.
After a few minutes, they emerged from the forest and sprinted into the empty fields beyond. A column of black smoke rose over the horizon—to the north, slightly.
“There it is!” Jace called, pointing at the cloud. “That has to be Kinfild’s starship!”
“I see it!” Lessa replied.
They turned toward it and sprinted. There was a distant rumble, then a roar like thousands of sheets of paper all ripping at once.
Lavender grass whipped by. Jace nearly tripped over a few patches of uneven ground, and his feet pounded the ground below. Thorns and weeds slapped his gaiters, and a few thorns slipped into his boots. He ignored the scratching.
Kinfild’s starship first appeared as a fleck on the fields, then a smear of gray surrounded by rippling air. They were approaching the vessel from the stern. Four thrusters spewed azure fire from beneath the tail fin.
It lifted up a few feet off the ground.
The starship was taking off without them.