Chapter 29 - Rescue

As soon as he felt the hand land on his shoulder, Leon knew something was wrong. It wasn’t the usual tap to get his attention, nor the light tug that would indicate a change in direction. Instead, it was a convulsive grip that spoke of alarm and caution.

Leon immediately stopped and crouched down low behind a nearby tree, all the while his eyes scanned the area around them. He didn’t urge his guide to speak, trusting that the other boy would fill him in when he was ready.

Long seconds trickled by without a word, and it was only during this moment of abrupt stillness  that Leon noticed the eerie silence that had fallen upon the forest. Where the sounds of small birds and insects had but a moment ago been heard all around them, it was now only a hollow, lonely wind that whispered sullenly in their ears.

One hand reaching for one of the essence crystals Leon kept tucked just under his belt, his frown eased just slightly when his fingers touched its cool surface. The other hand was firmly gripping the hilt of the sword sheathed by his side.

“Put me down here and help me climb this tree,” Skyle finally broke the silence, though his voice sounded somewhat distant, as though his attention were fixed on another place.

Leon quickly complied, letting go of his friend and then boosting him up with his hands. Skyle was agile and light enough that an effortless lifting motion from Leon was enough to send him leaping high towards the branches above. Brief shuffing noises could be heard from the leaves, then another small pause ensued, during which Leon began to quietly absorb the fire essence from the crystal in his hand.

“Hold up. Five enemies about the size of an adult wolf incoming from the west, chasing two smaller animals. Though their flight is taking them close to our position,” came the steady, composed words from among the leaves of the tree. “They shouldn’t draw close enough to detect us, not with this wind.”

Leon briefly glanced around, seeing the direction the leaves of the trees around them were fluttering, and nodded to himself. He would need to keep track of such information in the future, just as Skyle seemed to be doing the whole time. He couldn’t just blindly rely on his friend all the time, after all.

“At least it’s not enemy soldiers. Still, we should set a contingency plan in case we need to fight,” Leon muttered, examining the surrounding area. “We’re currently at a slight dip in the terrain, and the trees make it harder for you to attack the enemies at maximum range. That small hill we passed a couple hundred meters back should give us an advantage in elevation, giving you a clear shot and forcing them uphill against our fortified positions.”

“Good plan, let’s do that,” Skyle called out from overhead, and the branches rustled as the small boy began to climb down from his perch. “We should have plenty of time to reposition ourselves. In any case, it is more than likely that the hunters will catch up to their prey before they get anywhere close to our posi-.”

Skyle’s voice suddenly cut off, and the movement of the leaves stopped as well. Leon frowned, glancing up as he wondered what his companion had spotted now.

“Leon, a hundred meters ahead, go now and cut them off!” Skyle’s frantic voice suddenly called down, while the now familiar glint of a steel arrowhead flashed through the branches above. “We engage, now!”

For a moment, Leon stood there with a deep frown on his face. However, an instant later he firmly pushed down his bewilderment as Skyle continued to speak.

“I should be able to get a clear shot about a hundred meters further out, beyond that small tree line ahead,” came the slightly more composed words, though they carried an edge to them. Anxiety? Desperation? What kind of enemies were they facing for Skyle’s calm to be shattered so abruptly and so completely?

“Aim for the second one in line to disrupt their rhythm,” Leon called out over his shoulder, rushing towards the selected treeline. “I’ll take care of the first one.”

There was no reply - not that one was needed, as Leon advanced with deadly intent, his elemental power gathering at his fingertips, only waiting for the moment of contact to explode forth. Meanwhile, he prepared a quick lesser shield by visualizing the complex spell prism within his mind. As his glowing fingers traced out the pattern in the air before him, Leon bit back an exasperated growl.

Here he was, a fire summoner who had already summoned his own elemental guardian spirit, yet within this realm he had lost contact with it and therefore he was reduced to falling back upon the crude spell matrixes that he had learned back when he was still a mere toddler at the initiate level.

As a summoner, his guardian spirit should by all rights instantly answer his call and follow the power of his will in channeling the power of the elements through the rituals that had been carefully established for just such a purpose. Instead, at the moment he had no other option but to manipulate the fire essence collected in his own body, gathered from the crystal in his hand. Using the spirit veins in his own body as the focus, Leon had to use the cumbersome hand gestures and mental discipline exercises in order to manipulate the fire essence within him.

At least he wasn’t forced to recite the embarrassing spell commands that elemental mages needed in order to summon forth their elemental power, but it was still an insult added to injury. It wasn’t merely a matter of pride, either. Drawing directly from his own body and channeling with his spirit veins carried far greater risks than doing so through his guardian spirit.

Still, even with the dangers involved there were countless individuals who practiced their entire lives attempting to reach such a realm, though most couldn’t activate even the most simple of spell matrixes.

This was the painful divide that mercilessly culled the mundane from the exalted: talent.

As for Leon, even though it had been several years since he had last employed these crude methods, he didn’t even break his stride as he deftly placed the final touches upon the intricate formation glowing in the air before him. With a final gesture, one last stroke fell into place within the complex spell prism hovering in front of Leon.

A shimmering net of thin strands that glowed with the fiery red of his elemental power slowly spread out from his fingers to encompass a translucent semi-sphere that floated just in front of Leon as he kept moving forward.

Leon’s mouth twisted in distaste as he eyed the fiery barrier surrounding him. It was clearly smaller in size and duller in brilliance when compared to the complete sphere Leon had summoned when facing the troll.

Heaving a sigh, Leon shook his head and drew his sword while his other hand deftly traced out another spell prism on top of the blade. His nimble fingers moved with incomparable deftness, as though he had practiced the difficult gestures with daily devotion. Nothing could be farther from the truth, as Leon hadn’t used this particular spell prism in at least four years.

Compared to the barrier spell, this one was much smaller, and when he completed the complex array of lights, he gestured with it toward the sword. Immediately, the glowing spell prism sank into the sword, and the edges of the blade began to smoke, glowing with a dazzling red glow that made the air waver around it in strange patterns.

“Come then, taste of the fury of Leon Draxas,” Leon whispered, his eyes flashing with a fierce scarlet light as his hand tightened upon the essence crystal once more. The crimson jewel began to shake minutely, and the sparks flashing within were dancing about in wild excitement.

***

Skyle pursed his lips as he eyed his friend’s methodical preparations, though this time it wasn’t that he was mesmerized by the fascinating movements of elemental essence as they were expertly twisted, then woven into spectacular patterns in order to suit the caster’s needs.

No, Skyle’s mind was instead full of remorse, as he knew that the ever pragmatic Leon might not necessarily approve of his sudden decision to intervene. After all, though Leon couldn’t know it, the lifeforms running in the distance would likely have passed them by, had they retreated to the small hill Leon had indicated.

Even if the hostile beasts had caught their scent, the advantage provided by the ground as well as the prior preparation they would have been able to lay down would surely have greatly added to their strength.

Drawing back and fortifying their position would have clearly been the wiser, more practical move. Skyle knew this well. Still, as the silhouettes of two people madly scrambling away for their lives became increasingly more distinct in the brief glimpses he caught through the many trees, Skyle could only believe he had made the right call.

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From the brief glimpses he had caught from as far as 250 meters away, Skyle had seen hints of a lithe figure with long hair who was leading a much smaller person by the hand, likely a child. As Skyle focused his will to ignite the Infinite Eye, each frame was accurately captured in his mind’s eye. They focused briefly upon the panic-striken face of a small boy with doe brown eyes and dark curly hair, and the grim line on the full, pale lips of a girl in her teens whose eyes had still not given up.

Turning his regard behind the two figures, Skyle had to concentrate for a while before his eyes finally found the hunters. Before, while he was still on Leon’s back, only by happy coincidence and his own constant vigilance had he been able to catch a brief glimpse of an indistinct blur of motion accompanied by a dull glimmer of light that flashed through a tiny gap in the distance.

Now that they were within 400 meters, Skyle could finally make out their precise shapes, and he shuddered inwardly as his Infinite Eye focused on the deadly predators.

Skyle had mistakenly thought they were wolfish in nature. After all, their body shape vaguely resembled that of a fully grown lion, only they were covered with dark scales like that of a reptile that shone dully as it reflected the sunlight. Cruel looking claws resembling that of a bird of prey nimbly found purchase on the uneven forest floor. Their massive heads resembled that of a giant lizard, and a forked tongue flicked from double rows of wickedly sharp teeth as they hissed in their eager pursuit of the prey before them.

They were fast, these beasts. That had been the first thought Skyle had, instantly realizing the beasts would catch up to the fleeing humans before they could get anywhere close to Skyle’s position. Still, Skyle had only hesitated for a split second before calling out to Leon.

“Leon, you have to help them!” Skyle shouted, while blindly reaching towards the quiver on his back.

By then, words were unnecessary, as Leon had already reached the treeline 100 meters away from Skyle, where he could finally look beyond the thick screen of green. Upon spotting the fleeing figures, Leon instantly rushed forward, his sword trailing red sparks behind him while his other hand cradled a brilliant ball of fire.

Now, as the humans drew to within two hundred meters, they finally spotted Leon running towards them, and a desperate sort of hope lit up their faces briefly. It was only too brief, however, and Skyle watched with his breath in his throat as the scaled beasts quickly continued to close the gap to within 100 meters from their prey.

Skyle nodded grimly to himself, nocking an arrow to his bow and closing his eyes for a brief moment as he tempered his focus and firmly brought down the mad hammering of his heart. Even many adults would struggle to find any sort of calm in this kind of life and death situation, but Skyle fiercely clamped down on his mind and willed himself to concentrate.

When he opened his eyes an instant later and looked to his first target, a cold voice in the back of his mind remarked upon the fact that the child and the girl were now about 150 feet away from him, and his eyes momentarily unfocused as they activated the True Sight.

When the Infinite Eye and the True Sight once again melded together into a seamless whole, Skyle was once again able to enter that almost supernatural state of awareness of his surroundings. He could see the essence of wind stirring through the air before him. He could trace the faint hints of other elements swirling through the space between himself and his first target, the giant lizard pounding along right in second position.

Skyle’s breathing grew imperceptibly faint as his vision focus down on this particular beast, until it was brought to his mind’s eye in shocking clarity. He could clearly see how each individual scale twisted and flexed as its body bent and rocked on its wild chase. Vicious fangs were yellowed with age and dripping with a dark, green liquid, though scraps of torn, pink flesh wedged in the small gaps in between were plainly visible in Skyle’s incredible eyesight. Deeper down its mouth, Skyle finally saw the briefest hints of a pea-sized piece of torn cloth, stained a bloody red.

Fury pulsed through Skyle’s veins then, but they were almost instantly extinguished by a supreme effort of discipline. Instead, Skyle focused upon the full breadth of information granted by the Infinite Eye, such as the target’s motion, its speed, direction, and even as far as intent. Then his focus was upon the trajectory, the wind and arc of the shot, and just like that it was finally done. It had hardly been a split second, yet Skyle confidently lifted Moonshadow, pulled back upon the bowstring and released in one fluid motion.

The arrow streaked high into the sky in a blur of motion, but at the moment the arrow was released, Skyle frowned slightly. His point of release had been off just by a hair, but he knew that at this kind of range, well over a hundred meters, such minute errors would be disastrous. Still, Skyle did not dwell upon his error as his eyes were still intently focused upon his target, reaching behind his back for another arrow.

A moment later, the arrow descended with a flash of steel as it struck the second of the beasts upon one of its hind legs. The impact made it stumble in mid-stride, almost knocking it down altogether, but the most shocking fact was that the arrow had barely been able to penetrate a few inches beyond the thick scaly hide. Most of the shaft was still suspended outside, and the beast howled in rage as it instantly resumed the chase after only momentarily faltering.

Skyle’s eyes widened a bit at that, but he kept his fingers steady as they nocked another arrow and let fly, although with more care and precision, especially upon the release.

It paid off, as he somehow received the feeling that he had successfully let go of the string just as Moonshadow’s arc had reached the perfect position. This time, Skyle didn’t even bother following the arrow’s trajectory, and instead moved his focus upon the next target, the third beast on the line.

Moments later, the second arrow plunged down upon its target in a blur of motion, striking the animal as it soared upward in mid-leap. This time, the arrowhead penetrated past the smaller scales of the more vulnerable neck area and dug deeply into softer flesh. This had been Skyle’s aim with the previous arrow, as with the hints obtained from his vision he had conjectured that the neck, like with many other animals, would be more vulnerable.

This time, the impact of the blow violently jerked the scaly beast to one side, a huge spray of blood issuing from the other side of its neck. Its front claws immediately folded under its massive weight as soon as they landed on the ground, and it crashed into a messy tangle of limbs and blood, sliding a dozen feet and snapping several smaller trees on the way.

When its crazy roll finally stopped, it did not move again.

The fleeing figures risked a quick glance over their shoulders when they heard the thunderous crash behind them, but Leon immediately yelled at them and they dragged their eyes back, both shock and relief visible in their eyes as they drew to within 50 meters of Leon.

However, upon the death of one of its companions, the leading beast’s eyes became bloodshot, and it released with a thunderous roar as it gained an astonishing burst of speed, instantly closing to within 25 meters of the fleeing humans. It was almost as though one last leap would be enough to crush the life from its prey.

It was at this moment that the small boy once again risked a fearful glance over his shoulder. Upon seeing the beast gaining upon him with such terrifying momentum, the boy’s face drained of blood, and he gave a small cry as his feet became tangled under him. The boy fell headlong against the ground, and this motion jerked his hand away from the girl’s grasp.

The girl turned around with an alarmed cry, pulled off-balance as she tried to desperately tried to hang on to the little boy. Still, she was simply moving too fast, and this last attempt finally forced her exhausted legs beyond their limits. With a loud cry of despair, the girl collapsed in a heap and rolled painfully along the ground, her body refusing to listen to her commands.

In an act of desperate strength, the girl lifted her face towards the fallen boy, only to see him crawling backwards on his hands as a huge figure pounced forward, soaring through the air and cast its shadow over the boy.

“Emil!” the girl cried sobbed, her trembling hand lifted towards the boy.

“Down, girl!” a deep voice growled, seemingly right next to her ear, and a big hand pushed her down toward the ground with irresistible strength.

***

As Leena fell down, she caught the glimpse of a scarlet light as it streaked past her in an impossibly quick flash. In the next instant, a brilliant flare of light was followed by a deafening explosion that filled her ears with a high pitched ringing sound.

Leena looked up to see the back of a tall, muscular man moving past her, in the fallen Emil’s direction. It was the back of a man filled with a heroic aura, one that seemed ready to defy the whole world with its majestic presence. She could only stare in astonishment as the man moved further away, and revealed the sight beyond.

The terrible beast that had been pouncing in the air toward Emil was now lying on the ground in a miserable heap, blasted a good ten paces away by the terrifying explosion. A large, smoking crater was constantly bubbling with blood and gore in the middle of its chest, and high pitched moans of pain were issuing continuously from its frothing lips.

The man didn’t even pause as it swiftly rushed up to the writhing figure of the downed beast. The beast tried to regain its feet, but could only stumble uselessly on the ground, obviously still dazed by the terrible might of the blast that had inflicted such a fierce wound to its chest.

It lifted its reptilian maw in a last act of defiance, roaring through its bloody lips as it glared fiercely at the young warrior. However, the man didn’t even seem rattled as he unceremoniously swung a sword in a swift horizontal arc in front of him.

A trail of brilliant scarlet light trailed behind the man’s blade in a ghostly outline, and the beast’s growl was cut off by a hissing sound, like that of meat being scorched by a red hot iron. As the man’s silhouette swiftly moved past the beast, Leena could see a dim line of glowing red running directly across the beast’s neck. It smoked and hissed for a brief moment, then the giant lizard’s body crumpled to the ground while its head rolled in the opposite direction.

Leena’s wide eyes stared after the man’s back as he advanced towards the remaining beasts, which only seemed further agitated by the death of two of their number. Then she seemed to recall something, and immediately turned towards the small boy.

“Emil, are you alright?” Leena cried out, and she tried to move towards the boy but her legs stubbornly refused to obey.

Emil’s eyes were still fixed upon the decapitated corpse of the reptilian beast, as though it couldn’t believe it was truly dead.

“Emil!” Leena called out once again, and this time she managed to crawl awkwardly in the boy’s direction.

“It.. it’s dead. Leena, it’s dead!” Emil’s soft sobs burst out, and tears of relief and joy streamed from his eyes.

Leena finally reached Emil’s side, and cradled his head to her chest, whispering fiercely, “Yes, it’s dead. Finally, it is dead.”

Tears flowed from her own eyes, and sobs racked her chest as the two clung desperately to one another.