A conversation took place in the mind link, too fast for speaking out loud:

What was he riding? I asked.

A black horse.

It was fast—maybe I can Invert Hostilities and it will throw him.

If we can get it to fly close enough to something, I can cast the Hardlight Construct and make him crash.

We could also try tethering it to weigh it down, I added.

Or jumping.

“Yeah,” I said, looking at the steep slopes around me. “Try jumping.” There was barely any even ground in sight—whatever fighting we would do would be across the five or six scattered outcroppings of rock jutting out around us that were big enough to hold a person. The steep, craggy slopes below us gave no vantage to attack from.

We were ready for the horse once more as it swooped down out of the cloud at freeway speeds, fog whirling behind it, the sizzling noise I’d heard earlier seeming to mark the demon steed’s flight. I lay in wait, ready to leap into the air and loose my Invert Hostilities—and then a light like the sun shone forth from Axxoni’s hand, blinding me. Even through Empyreal Aegis, which knocked off 2.4 seconds of all blind effects, the duration of the effect was still almost 4 seconds—and I felt a massive weight slam into me a moment later, shattering my Mana Shield and throwing me from the rock.

I felt myself strike the ground below, then begin to tumble down the mountain, suddenly terrified that I might hit a sheer ledge and fall far away from the fight. My vision cleared as I scrabbled at the gravel beneath me, and I threw myself back up onto a nearby rock outcropping, unable to reach my old position with just one Mighty Leap.

You good? I asked Cuby. I could see her still standing where we’d both been a moment before. Beyond her, a trail of fog and steam seemed to mark where the Axxoni had passed.

I’m fine, she said as I cast a Healing Light on myself. But he hit you for more than 400, Alatar. Through your resistance.

We have to get him off that—

Axonni interrupted the thought by appearing again—only this time his dive followed the contours of the mountain, and I guessed immediately that he wanted to knock me straight down the slope. I had only a second to see him coming, the horse dipping toward me to slam into me with its change, but it was enough: I used my Mighty Leap to jump straight upward, putting myself well out of its path.

Axonni threw two more of the red bolts, one at each of us, but I cracked my Moment of Mastery to dodge mine as I loosed my Invert Hostilities at the horse below him….

Immune.

And my eyes widened as I saw Cuby flying in from where she’d been a moment later. At first I thought she was leaping to my position—but she was leaping past it, moving with perfect timing to fly past the outcrop I’d just been standing on at the same moment that Axonni did—and she released the invested Supercharged Hardlight Construct to form a bright wall in the path of the steed.

But Axonni simply shattered the wall as the demonic horse barrelled through it, shedding some velocity but seeming otherwise unharmed.

Worse, the horse let out a shrill cry as it broke the construct—and I was again momentarily stunned as I fell through the air to strike the ground below, failing to make any kind of landing and rolling to a skidding halt.

And then we heard the cries of the spirefiends above, doubtless on their way to join the fight at the behest of their commander.

This isn’t good, Cuby observed as I stood, waiting for Mighty Leap to cool down.

I started casting a Fragmented Supercharged Slow, and told her as much through the link. I don’t even know if we could outrun him if we tried, I said. Slow might help. Maybe Telekinetic Hammer?

At the very least we shouldn’t fight him here of all places.

You’re right, I said, looking around at the battlefield—it had only seemed a good idea because we were so used to air superiority. An open field would be better, or even just a place without a layer of cloud to hide him.

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I don’t think he’s trying to kill us, Cuby said as we heard another shriek of a spirefiend, this time closer. He’s playing until his air support arrives.

I was casting a Moment of Mastery as Axonni came out of the clouds, once again—but I didn’t get a chance to finish. His hand emitted a flash of dark light, and a black missile streaked toward me, striking me: it was the same Hex of Silence that the cultists used.

Only this one had a duration of 8 seconds, again despite Empyreal Aegis.

I hit his steed with the Slow as it dove into the gap and charged toward me, then leapt into the air to avoid being struck by its charge. The Slow spell had worked where Invert Hostility hadn’t, and the demonic horse was debuffed—but I could see that even this was only lasting 5 seconds, instead of 10.

What was worse, Axonni didn’t fly back up into the cloud. Instead, he turned the steed and slowed to a halt in midair, facing me over the gap that led to the road below us, and began to chant out a spell.

I started casting an Intuitive Psychic Parasite to get through the silence effect—and I noticed that below us, more of the demon footsoldiers were filling the road. There were dozens of them.

We need to leave, Cuby said.

You run first, I’ll distract. I’ve got Haste and can catch up.

All right, Cuby said. And I was glad she didn’t argue. She sent me an image through the mind link of herself, leaping into the air and gliding away from Axonni and I as two spirefiend patriarchs swooped out of the cloud after her.

I had to wonder: where exactly were we going to run to?

I finished my Psychic Parasite, and was relieved to see that it gave its full 6 Precision and Defense Rating—but nonplussed to sense a kind of apathetic confidence from Axonni once I had sight into his mind.

Then Axonni finished his own cast, and a volley of the red bolts came toward me, three shots. The first struck, stunning me, and then the second was absorbed by my armor before the third struck me despite my Evasive Insights—my extra Defense Rating had barely made a difference.

I stumbled a little, my head too heavy to hold up with my neck, my body so weak that I almost collapsed.

Alatar—are you all right?

Axonni had risen into the cloud again. I had half my Hit Points. Was I all right? I used my Rousing Command once the silence effect wore off. I started casting a Fragmented Supercharged Haste, keeping my eyes on the sky—but before I saw Axonni reappear, a spirefiend patriarch swooped in and landed atop the rocks above me. Its mouth blossomed with fire, and past it I saw the High Priest appear as a black streak diving out of the cloud.

I jumped off the edge and into the gathering army of demons below, not even trying to glide. I knew that Axonni and the patriarch would both have to maneuver down into the gorge, adding precious seconds to their approaches—and this was well worth the slight damage I took as I landed on the steep cliff face and then skidded down it toward the road below.

I had enough experience to know that I could survive the cultists, the brutes, the morthoths—at least for a few seconds. The cultists would silence me, but not before I finished my Haste. A morthoth knocked me to the ground with its chain, leapt through the air to hit me with its sword and missed, and more blows rained around me as the brutes came to join the fight.

But then I got up, cast my Supercharged Haste, used Mighty Leap to clear the army of demons, and ran down the road at more than double movement speed, as I cast an Intuitive Fragmented Healing Light, safe in the knowledge that Axxoni would be coming soon with more blinds, stuns, and volleys of stuns.

But fast though he was, I knew he had to sacrifice some maneuverability for that level of speed—and there was a slight gap in the higher ridge that enclosed the road ahead, a steep hill of scree that could be climbed in order to access the ridge beyond. My escape.

Show me what you see, Cuby thought at me, and I complied.

I ran so fast that the air was like a physical blanket of force, pushing me back. And when I heard the crackling, sizzling sound of his mount approaching behind me, I used my last Gift of Mercy to heal myself for over 500 right before I was stricken by a stunning bolt, then slammed and trampled by the demonic steed and sent careening down the road, bouncing more than rolling and coming to a stop to the sound of Axonni’s voice, chanting. He was casting another volley.

Get off the mountain! Cuby said. There!

I scrambled to my feet running, looking at where she’d indicated—it was a little ledge with a cedar tree on it. My grappling gun would take too long to equip, but I could leap to the cedar, where I grabbed it and used all my weight to haul myself up the ledge, practically throwing myself upward as I clutched at handholds to come out over the lip of the cliff and immediately throw myself into the air.

There! Cuby said again, indicating to me exactly where she meant as I cast my Charm of Gliding. I looked: it was a cave or a very wide crevice, a long dark gash that cut into the rock—and what was more, I could see she’d cast her Immobile Illusion to cover it with a stone that to me appeared translucent. I dove toward it….

Just fall! Cuby said, her panic obvious. And I saw what she meant—saving myself the fall damage wasn’t worth the chance that Axonni, coming over the edge of the mountain, would see me disappear into a stone.

So I dropped my glide when I was in the right position and plummeted down into the dark crevice, striking the ground with jarring pain, a kind I was used to, and rolling down the stone until I hit Cuby, who stopped me with one leg.

I rose and started to heal myself, using Intuitive Spell to take out the noise component as I looked at the narrow gash of sky that made the entrance to the cave.

A few moments passed. Axonni didn’t appear.

“That,” Cuby whispered as I nursed myself back to health, “was definitely not ideal.”