‘I wonder why I’m scared of heights… But this doesn’t really bother me that much…’ I let out a puff of air, shaking my head and gripping Zu’s halberd tightly between my hands as I took a step on the guard rail and leaped off the sprinting carriage.
Fritz didn't even have to adjust her pace much thanks to my jump being pretty accurate, although, needless to say, I wouldn’t have dared do it with any other horse. I ended up landing right on her back… Admittedly… Hurting myself in… Specific areas. “Fritz…” I groaned, my words coming out shallow. “Are you sure… You don’t like saddles?”
She groaned back, almost like a threat.
“Ok…” I took a deep breath, sitting up straight and lifting my new long ax up onto my shoulder. ‘It just occurred to me I have no idea how to use one of these…’
“Siya! What are you doing!” Lu yelled before Air nudged her. “Leave her be, there's a spider behind you.” She flinched so badly I thought she might fall off before punching him hard in the shoulder. “Don't do that!” She screamed.
‘How are they so casual about this…’ I felt my breath slightly thin as the adrenaline tensed my muscles. “Ok Fritz… You think you can run like three times faster in a zig-zag pattern and get me close to the spiders but stay far enough away they can't eat me?”
She neighed, slowing down a moment as we got closer to the hoard. “FINLO! COVER ME!” Just as Fritz got close enough to the hoard to make me nervous she suddenly broke sideways and I took my ax and used her speed to cleave through the entire front row. The moment we reached the end of the line she cut like an athlete and before I could even switch sides with my weapon she was going the other direction even faster. “Fritz!” I whined. “I’m gonna fall off…” My voice groaned, vibrating with her steps as I pinched her sides with my legs to try and hold on wrapping her mane around my free hand.
She slowed down just a bit before changing directions again. I was too focused on not falling off and dying to do much else but still wound up taking out many more than I likely would have with a bow. After the third pass I really started to slip and sensing that, Fritz broke away from them and slowed down, catching back up to the carriage. “Uh… G-good job Fritz… thanks…”
She neighed before bucking me off, sending me flying back onto the carriage… Of course, I still hadn’t recovered from my rough landing, so that happening without warning was… Unideal…
I landed up top rolling on my side several times before hitting the guard rail on the other side and crawling up to my knees. ‘I don’t want to stand up… Can’t I just stay down for a while.’
“On you’re feet Siya!” Airsidhs voice boomed through the air, but he still wasn’t yelling, somehow just projecting more with the same tone.
‘Oh give me a break…’ “Zu…” I traded weapons with him again and grabbed my sword and bow, looking back at the hoard. It had thinned, but there must have been over 100 left. Although at least we had made it past their nest, no more were coming out in front of us.
“There’s no way anyone actually uses this road…” I grumbled, taking a moment to get my balance as the strength came back in my legs.
Without so much as looking back, Airsidh let out a sigh. “In front of us…” Lu stared back at the hoard and he sighed again. “I mean the way the horses are running…” He pointed.
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She turned around and a small humming I hardly noticed suddenly became louder until several giant stone butterflies with glowing green blood flowing between the rocks sprang up over a hill.
“THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT WHEN I SAID I WANTED TO FIGHT BUTERFLYS!” I screamed.
Lu stabbed her greatsword through the carriage roof to give herself leverage as she blocked several stone spikes shaped like icicles being thrown from their wings. “I was the one that said I wanted to fight them…”
“Oh… Right, sorry.” ‘Wait… That really doesn’t matter right now!’ I ducked behind Airsih who just took the spikes like a tank, not even groaning as they bounded off leaving more bruises I’m sure.
He just looked down at me and smiled. “I guess being small isn’t always a bad thing.”
“This is so not the time…”I growled.
Lu kept swinging with her sword but she wasn’t finding luck with the flying opponents.
“Lu! Give me a lift!”
She spun around and tipped her blade, making a ramp for me. As I ran up the blade she twisted, laying it across her back and flinging me towards the thing.
‘Why am I doing this…’ I grabbed onto its wings and froze time. ‘I’d try to use physics here but… I don’t really know how physics works with giant flying magic rocks…’ I resumed time and just pulled as hard as I could, ripping its wing off and sending it flying into the other one, making it shatter into a pile of rubble, and landing back on the carriage roof. ‘That worked out surprisingly well…’
“Heads up girls. Those things do more than just throw rocks.”
The rubble around me suddenly rolled and morphed until it loosely encased my body, pinning me to the floor. ‘Ok… So it could have been better…’ I broke free with brute force but not before I saw the rubble from the other one circling above us dozens of feet in the air.
The ruble I broke free from joined it and before long a thin membrane of lime-green energy formed between the flying rocks. ‘They have a special move?’ “Uh-Air…”
“Sorry girls.”
‘That’s not reassuring…’
Suddenly a mass of spiders began appearing above us, coming through the green membrane, bursting out, and falling teeth first.
Airsidh grabbed an arrow with a drill-tipped head over three times the normal size and pulled it back. It was lined with rows of blades meant to pierce and shredded through enemies tearing up their insides with shrapnel as it passed. “No…” I muttered, suddenly realizing why he was apologizing. “Air! Air… Don’t do it Air!”
Without hesitation, he loosed the arrow. Lu’s eyes traced it as it flew upwards but I didn’t bother, instead choosing to jump back into the carriage through the hole Lu put in the roof before it rained guts on me.
Moments later, when I heard Lu’s high-pitched girly whine that rarely came out, I knew it had passed and climbed back up. She was covered in purple and green yuck, holding her arms stiff out to her side and refusing to move, her face contorted as if she was about to cry, only with a hint of disgust in her eyes rather than tears.
She let out another whine, one that slowly turned into a growl as she flicked the blood off her sword. With another shake of her arm and a deeper growl dark magic started swirling around her sword as her face scrunched up. “I’m So done with this!” She yelled running to the back guard rail, ready to jump off into what was left of the spiders.
Thankfully, Airsidh held her back, grabbing her by the collar before setting her back down on her feet a safe distance from the edge, only making her more angry by the looks of it.
‘Less like a dad… And more like a mother lion…’ I paused, looking closer at her sword. The dark magic wasn’t coming from her, but as far as I could tell it wasn’t coming from the sword either… It didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t mine… So I just didn’t get what I was seeing.
She growled deeper with every breath until kicking the guard rail on the side so hard it cracked and part flew off before she gripped her sword with both hands and an explosion of energy emitted from her like a wave.
Glistening white flecks like tiny stars floated down from her hair as it became an even purer white before she suddenly hurled her sword threw the air. It landed right inside one of the spider's heads, instant kill, but just after impact the dark energy from the sword rapidly expanded covering the whole area in a translucent black fog before rapidly contracting again, pulling everything in and exploding without a sound. A silent rush of air reached back and brushed through my hair as spider guts flew around us, but it was as if the spell was so powerful it devoured any sound that tried to escape its explosion radius, turning the whole mountainside into an abstract painting.
Lu watched on, crossing her arms. “Zu! Turn the carriage around… I like that sword…”
Her voice sounded off as if two people were speaking at once, and as she turned around one of her eyes was pitch black and even some of her dress had changed to match. I wasn’t sure if I should be scared, worried, or… Something else.