It made Dan sick to his stomach not to rush forward the moment he heard Yurie scream. This was his fault, through and through. His magic eye had been sloppy and rushed. Dan had felt it as a strange mana wrapped around his own and traced back to his location. Calliope jumping straight into action was the only saving grace, her quick escape giving Dan a route.
He had tried to escape with Yurie but dodging attacks while carrying her was hard. Once his leg had been caught, he simply had to throw her and hope for the best. From the ground itself, a strong arm reached up and grabbed Dan as he ran. He had just enough time to see Yurie come to a stop before being flung in a different direction. Dan had caught himself in the air and caught the eyes of the siblings. Mania and Void, if Dan remembered the names right.
With a thrown rock, which hit the large blue one on the bridge of his nose, Dan drew their attention and hoped it would be enough to let Yurie get away. It had not been. Before Dan could regain their attention, they had turned to wanton destruction and come up lucky. Yurie’s shriek was enough for Dan to simply leap in, despite the odds against him.
If not for Calliope, that is exactly what he would have done. She grabbed Dan from behind and stopped the sprint he was about to start. Dan had known she was coming but he assumed it was to rush forward, too. “What are you doing?” Dan growled, struggling against the woman’s grip. Calliope was much stronger than him, however, and was able to hold him back. Especially in her current form.
“You need to find Shade.” With a heave, Calliope shoved Dan backwards, away from the combat. Her elfen voice was normally husky but now it was animalistic. “You’re the one who can scan the whole city, not me. Go, now.” She turned away and set off towards the sound of the explosion.
Calliope had transformed, her muscles bulged and fur had begun to cover most of her skin. Thick, short blonde fur coupled with the eyes of a feline and claws to go with it. Dan would have had a hard time arguing with her at the best of times. Looking like that, he felt that disagreeing would mean death for himself.
Calliope would definitely be enough of a distraction. Maybe. Dan hoped.
He shook his head and trusted Calliope. She was right, Dan knew. He needed to find their allies as quickly as possible. The way to do that was not to run blindly. Dan closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. He knew his friend was hurt close by and it made it difficult for him to focus on the mana within, but he found the flow and sped it up all the more. He released the shell that had become second nature and flung every fragment of mana from himself that he could.
Only then did Dan move. With two quick jumps, one from the floor and one from the opposite wall, Dan scaled the small house he was near. He could have focused on the combat if he wanted to but from the leonine roar, Dan already knew how it was going. No time for that, he began bounding across the low rooftops of Allusia.
It was an agonising sprint. The two or three minutes which Dan had taken to clear half the city had felt like a lifetime and he didn’t have time to explain things. As he got close enough, Dan felt his mana bounce from the walls of the Barracks. That was as close as he needed. Dan took two shallow gasps before one long, full breath.
Then he shouted as loud as he could.
Something Dan himself should have been sure of before he tried, perhaps. Due to his explosive growth recently and additional techniques he had learned over the past months, Dan’s capabilities were unknown even to himself. From every spot that his mana had landed, from every hanging particle, Dan’s full shout boomed. As though thousands of himself had shouted at once, the cry rose up.
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“Shade! They’re at the Court! Help!”
Dan staggered, the echo of his voice enough to stun even himself. He half-wondered at how people who hadn’t expected that were reacting, but he couldn’t spare the time to care. He began sprinting back the way he came as swiftly as he could. Whether Shade heard and understood wouldn’t matter if Calliope and Yurie were-
Dan didn’t let himself think about that. He just gathered his mana as much as possible and tried to make sure he returned in time. His worries were alleviated, though not before a moment of pure fear.
A shadow leapt from the ground and fell into stride alongside Dan. Dan jumped away, nearly falling from a rooftop but the shadow carried on. Living up to his namesake, Shade became fully formed from the murky darkness. His feet hit the floor and he kept going, looking back once to Dan who quickly righted himself and tried to keep up.
“What is happening?” Shade asked, barely raising his voice as he moved, knowing Dan would hear him. Dan told him what had occurred through his mana. Shade set his jaw but nodded. At his hip, a scabbard formed while in his right hand, the hilt of a blade formed. He swiped his hand while he moved and the blade formed in full.
For the first time in a while, Dan felt the pulse of his soul stone as it registered the item. Not an ability of Shade’s, the weapon itself was something like a soul stone.
[Raze]
Bestowed upon the royal lineage of Hestia, this blade binds to an individual, only releasing upon death. The wielder can summon this longsword to their hand from any distance. If destroyed, a pristine version will be summoned in its place.
The weapon thrummed with power, Dan’s flowing script not doing the weapon justice in terms of description. It seemed to drip with thick, heavy mana as though the sword itself were bleeding magic from its sharp edge. Dan again felt grateful for being one of Shade’s allies, rather than one of his enemies.
Dan was just about to guide Shade more specifically before that became unnecessary. A feral roar shook what few windows remained in these abandoned homes. Dan could not tell if it was a roar of pride or pain. The final corner rounded, the state of the battle was more clear.
Yurie was nowhere to be seen. Dan sent his mana bouncing around to find her but his attention focused on the majaal before him. Shade stiffened, a twitch in his neck at the sight of all that blood. Calliope was backed into a literal corner, with the two of them bearing down on her. The blue one, Void, had a large slice starting from his left eyebrow and running down that side of his face, his ear dangled gruesomely. Mania had also been injured, an uneven weight on his right leg.
Dan and Shade did not shout, tell them to stop or yell out the name of an attack. They simply struck. Hard and fast, the two moved as though they had worked together for years. With a heavy gathering of mana in his fists, Dan brought his hands done like an axe onto the back of Void. Large frame aside, Dan hit hard. Still, the majaal was made of sturdy stuff and Dan mostly bounced away.
Even with the element of surprise, Mania managed to doge Shade’s thrust. The stab itself punched through the air, a snap clicking from the front of the blade as the tip reached supersonic levels. He swiped a hand Shade’s direction and jumped away at the same time, creating distance between them.
Void turned and booted Dan, sending him soaring backwards before he collided with a wall. Calliope stole the opportunity, his left side exposed, and pounced forward. This time, she took the ear, along with half his cheek. White teeth gnashed in pain, visible on his torn face as he howled in pain.
The pair of majaal demons backed up, surprised at the sudden change in odds. Calliope fell in beside Dan and Shade. Dan gave her a quick shot of healing energy. Without more mana and concentration the wounds would not heal perfectly but it should have removed most of the aches at least.
Void clutched his face and looked at Mania. His pain was there to stay, Dan thought with a small measure of glee. Mania’s eyes did not leave Shade’s, the two brothers staring intensely at each other. Their muscles twitched, a silent battle of feints happening in secret. The staredown lasted long enough for Dan to find Yurie with his dusting of mana in the area.
He couldn’t stop his gasp, nor did he want to stop himself from running to her. Even the tiny amount of mana Dan had used travelling, the small blast he had just given to Calliope, felt like too much now. All of it should have been saved for her. No one moved except for Dan, though the tension was not lessened at all.
Calliope’s wounds had been bad enough that it was clear the battle had raged. Yurie had not been fighting herself but neither was she as strong as Calliope. Yurie must have been caught by some of the errant force and she was clearly showing it. Dan did not have the stomach to use his mana, scared of the true damage it might show. Scared that it would slow him down.
He grasped her hand, brushing away some of the rubble and dust that had fallen onto her. She coughed, unseeing past the pain and the damage to her eyes. It looked as though an explosion had gone off in her face while a cart ran her over. Dan was reminded of Xiaomei’s injuries in the Jaioduo.
Filled with hope, fear and healing mana, Dan pressed his energy into Yurie and hoped that it would be enough.