Chapter 117: Wings of war (First Part)
The day was young when we entered the mine and midday had passed when I emerged on my own from its depth.
Now the sun was starting to set.
That’s the only marker I had to approximately know for how long I had been fighting the silver birds hiding a part of the sky with their number and constantly chipping at the Lost magic’s protection with their incessant attacks. I couldn’t be the only one able to fly among all the mages of the city, but none had spared their energy or attention to confront this flying horde until now.
After delivering the elemental stones, I could have returned inside the mine to rejoin Paul and Alianelle, but the shadow all these birds were projecting on the ground and the constant attacks landing on the city's red dome made me change my plan and fly into the sky to challenge them on my own.
Probably the most reckless thing I had done in a while, but the only solution I had to disrupt their unending assault. A few tries quickly revealed that the barrier stopped any magic coming from outside, but also from inside. This massive downside that I hadn’t anticipated prevented me from attacking with my magic behind the absolute protection of the red dome. It also explained why only normal arrows had been used against this flying horde until now.
However, I was neither suicidal nor a complete fool and didn’t simply rushed to my death.
I didn’t forget to use the only advantage sentient races had against this kind of species deeply influenced by the ambient mana and assailing us with unending numbers.
In their current state, they lacked intelligence and were mostly controlled by their instinct.
So, I didn’t try to directly attack them, but instead used my superior agility — gained with my wind magic — to circle them in the sky and move between them as soon as I exited the absolute protection of the city’s Lost magic.
Among this deadly swirling dance in the sky, I didn’t have the time to land any hits, but their uncontrolled bloodthirst did it for me. The instinctive attacks that missed me landed on their brethren and made dozens of these silver birds fall from the sky in a disturbing rain of blood and feathers.
They were so tightly packed together to attack the dome of red light when I attracted their attention that it wasn’t rare for one of these destructive silver beams of lights they produced to touch several of them at the same time.
However, although my mana was virtually endless, my stamina wasn’t. My young body was too frail and had more and more trouble bearing the burden of such continuous use of mana imposed on me. I persevered, but my growing tiredness made me slow down and make mistakes— some of which could have been fatal.
Humbled and frightened by an attack that nearly pierced a hole in my head, I used my wind magic to hurriedly propel myself once more under the protection of the Lost magic. Several of the closest birds crashed into the magical barrier after trying to follow me while many other magical attacks landed powerlessly into it immediately after.
Fortunately for me, although the barrier didn’t make any distinction for magic and stopped them on both sides, it was possible for me — and probably for all the other sentient species — to physically cross the barrier unlike those birds for whom the red dome was as solid as a wall.
Once I was safe on the other side, I stopped moving and focused to force my wind magic to stabilize my floating form — something that was strangely harder to do than simply using my created wind to propel me everywhere.
The sight that greeted me once this was done was not encouraging.
After several hours of indirect fighting, the silver birds were more spread out than before making my previous tactic less effective, but more importantly despite my efforts and the risks taken, their overall number didn’t seem to have truly lessened as if an unending number of these silver birds, that already caused me so much trouble on my journey, were waiting beyond my sight to replace their fallen brethren. A few seconds after I stopped moving and like a single minded entity, they all spread their wings and turned their heads toward my now immobile floating form to launch their magic at the same time.
The impact that followed was easily ten times louder than all the others before it, and made me reflexively put my arms in front of my head, but fortunately the Lost magic didn’t fail me. It held on, but the realization that followed the scattering of the resulting smoke sent shivers down my spine.
The dome’s red luster was dimmer than before.
Undeterred by this new failure and probably unaware that their combined assault had resulted in more damage than what appears at first glance, they all resumed their attacks and tried to penetrate the alleged absolute protection of this magic that for now prevented them from magically or physically entering this city.
This scene of their crazed attacks against the semi-transparent protection of the city that could shatter at any moment left me breathless.
I intervened to spare the Lost magic from using so much energy and mana to defend against their unending assault, but in the end despite fighting and putting my life on the line for several hours, they simply resumed their attack with the same intensity as before. Moreover, there was no denying the fading luster of the Lost magic that kept these crazed birds from laying waste to the city under us.
How long will this protection last?
Probably not long if they continue their relentless assault.
This was the fifth time I had to stop behind the protection of the Lost magic to catch my breath. However, even faced with this grim realization, I was now not as eager as before to enter the fray and resume the fight.
This time, I not only had to catch my breath and find my bearings, I also had to push back the fear that gripped my heart after coming so close to death. The last attack I narrowly avoided was certainly the closest I've come to a fatal wound since I began my solitary battle with this flying horde.
I couldn’t let them continue to attack the Lost magic unchallenged, but I had also come to the sour realization that my previous tactic had already lost much of its effectiveness. When they were tightly gathered together, using my wind magic to move among them and let them attack each other was effective enough, but now if I wanted to have any kind of impact, I would have to attack them myself.
I would have to go on the other side of the dome once more to directly face too many opponents for me to count.
That’s when I was forced to accept the simple truth I had tried to bury with my tricks and my recklessness.
No matter what I did, there were simply too many of them.
A wave of helplessness nearly submerged me after being confronted with this reality.
That’s when I heard a distant scream. It wasn’t coming from where Jazor was fighting— a place too far away to properly distinguish the cacophony of mixed screams, explosions and roars of dozens of different species. Even from up high, I couldn’t discern much more than a dense screen of rising smoke hiding the grim and unending battle happening on the other side.
No, it wasn’t coming from there.
Once more another distant scream reached me, barely strong enough to overcome the tonitruous noise of the silver rays of magics continuously crashing against the now lackluster red dome near me.
It took me a few more seconds until I finally took my eyes off the frightening spectacle of my enemies rampaging unchallenged against the Lost magic to look down.
That’s when I noticed dozens of meters under me, a long line of people coming out of the mine.
From up here, I couldn’t discern their faces and thus know if Alianelle and Paul were among them, but I could still make out several people pointing fingers in my direction. More and more unintelligible screams reached me as a growing number of people started to look toward the sky, probably attracted by the earlier combined and deafening attack of the flying horde.
Many were looking in my direction, but few halted their steps— pushed forward by a growing number of hurried people. I had to focus to notice that they were carrying bags while others behind them were filling carts near the mine’s entrance. In a few minutes, they started to push these carts in a long uninterrupted line deeper into the city.
It didn’t take much effort to guess where they were going or what they were carrying.
The old slave was right after all.
These people had been gathered inside the mine to dig and carry as many incomplete elemental stones as possible and were now tasked with bringing them where the Lost magic was carved. The Dwarves’ commander Zinovitz had chosen to replace quality with quantity and guided these sheltered people — usually always protected by the impenetrable wall of the city — underground for this single task.
None of them could fight.
None of them would be able to escape if the wall fell or if the red dome disappeared.
Just raising their eyes to the sky darkened by the form of all these crazed silver birds desperate to break the last protection of this city and eager to slaughter them all was probably enough to fill their hearts with fear and with the same helplessness that I was currently feeling.
All the other defendants on the land — Jazor included — had also already experienced it.
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They were still probably feeling this despair at this very moment.
However, none of them gave up.
The soldiers on the land continued to fight while the civilians continued to dig and carry the fruit of their work to maintain the Lost magic.
Because this was the only way for them to live.
Dwarves or Humans.
Soldiers or civilians.
Men, women or children.
Today none of that mattered.
To triumph together or to fall divided.
This was our only choice left.
This realization pushed the despair and my fear away and roused my mana. The summoning of the source of my power was already hurting as if molten lava was coursing through my veins, but I didn’t stop. I embraced the sensation and accepted the pain that came with it.
Today we all had the same goal and if we wanted to survive, no one could ignore their duty.
This was the only way for us all to survive.
I clenched my hands tightly and turned around to look once more beyond the dome where my duty was waiting for me.
Jazor was the only one who could stop this unending wave on land and for now I was the only one who could confront it in the sky.
“Ahhhhhh!”
I pushed away my fears with a scream similar to the roars of the beasts assailing us on the ground and released in a massive push the gathered mana threatening to burst open my body. The invisible wave that exploded outward finally made the relentless assault of the silver birds stop. Once again they acted like a single minded beast and turned their attention toward me as I wanted.
All these animals deeply influenced by the rising ambient level of mana of the land had more or less embarked upon the path of deviants. Like true deviants, they had lost their rationality during this transitory evolution into an intelligent magic beast, and followed only their growing bloodthirst.
However, contrary to my expectation, they didn’t immediately attack me after my outburst.
Instead, most of them were now intently watching me with something more in their normally hollow gaze previously blinded by their desire for destruction.
Maybe their rationality wasn’t completely gone after all.
Or perhaps their instincts were warning them of my true nature— of what was truly hiding beyond my childish form.
Either way, the new glint in their beady black eyes was definitely something closer to fear or wariness than pure rage.
Perhaps I could use that.
Not intending to waste this moment, I gathered my mana once more before using my wind magic to the limit.
‘Walk of the wind: second step!’
This physically taxing magic I created recently while chasing Ilan allowed me to enhance my speed beyond anything I would have thought possible.
I vanished in a burst of wind leaving behind an unpleasant whistling noise.
I disappeared from their collective sight only for a brief instant, but it was enough to go beyond the massive crowd of still hesitating birds. My sudden movement pulled most of them away from their torpor and reignited their previous fighting spirit.
This is what I wanted because instead of directing their wrath toward the weakening red dome above the city, most of their focus turned to me.
They flapped their wings and let out cries of outrage as if they were angry at themself for hesitating and stopping their onslaught for an instant. The image of hundreds of these silver birds, each taller than I was, turning their rage toward me was enough to make my heartbeat accelerate and my mana sluggish.
I would have liked to show the people looking at the sky an impressive fight filled with blinding magic radiating with power as I confronted this flying horde head on. I would have also preferred for my magical abilities to make my opponents hesitate to confront me directly.
However, I didn’t have this kind of power.
Unlike Jazor, I didn’t have a magic that could take out a large number of enemies at the same time.
My sacred magic was too hard to control without a direct contact and thus was only useful against single opponents. I could certainly fire many earth bullets in a short amount of time, but without the proper preparation, these small projectiles lacked the necessary impulse to cause enough damage to these massive birds.
Without any proper way to thin out the crowd staring daggers at me as they flew toward me and already preparing their usual attacks, I was left with little choice. I fired three earthbullets in rapid succession and managed to hit a different bird each time. Given their number, it was hard to miss as they made out a literal wall of feathers hiding a large part of the red dome behind them. However, a single bird flinched because of my attack and faltered for a few seconds before being drowned by a wave of its kind eager to enter the fray and hiding its fate from my eyes at the same time. With the confirmation that earthbullets wouldn’t be enough, I switched to more massive earthballs and fired them as fast as I could while constantly retreating backward.
Focusing on my wind magic while firing these earthballs had considerably slowed me. I knew it wouldn’t take long for them to catch up and to force me to change tactics. However, what I hadn’t anticipated was that other species of birds would come from behind. I just had the time to feel their presence before a long spike of earth nearly skewered me.
I turned around with a jerk and canceled my attacks to solely focus on avoiding the incoming wave of elemental attacks and the silver rays coming from all around me.
However, no matter how good I had become at moving through the sky, it would never be enough against this many opponents.
Despite the burden on my body, I was forced to use my ‘Second step’ wind magic once more to escape from the tightening encirclement, but I wasn’t able to put the crowd of birds completely behind me this time. There were too many of them for that.
I avoided blows after blows while delivering mine when I saw an opportunity, but there was a reason why I had solely focused on dodging their magic and physical attacks without attacking when I first entered the fray. Each counter-attack slowed me down and made me vulnerable.
I was aware of that and was as careful as possible, but I couldn’t see everything at the same time.
A wing strangely hard as metal came too fast for me to react and hit my right arm hard enough to make me fear that the blow had broken my bone. The pain and the strength of the impact forced me to retreat, but my rhythm was broken and more attacks were coming.
Forsaking my offensive magic, I focused solely on dodging to get me out of this bad step, but other attacks were successful. Each mistake, each blow — as insignificant as it could be — made me lose control of my wind magic for long seconds and made me spiral downward.
I was forced to use my ‘Second step’ magic a third time when the biggest part of the horde — the horde of silver birds — reached me and prepared their deadly rays of magic.
I disappeared in a whistling noise immediately followed by cries of outrage from the silver birds who had suddenly lost their target.
Once again, I had put enough distance with my opponents, but the dizziness that followed and the sudden urge to throw up that accompanied it told me that it was the last time I could use this magic.
My body wouldn’t bear another use.
I wanted to return under the protection of the red dome, to take my breath back. However, although the previous exchange appeared extremely long, I knew it didn’t buy that much time. For a few seconds, I hesitated until I noticed something that forced me to make the riskiest choice.
The now almost transparent red dome of light had shrunk.
I didn’t know when it happened, but the distance between the light and the tallest building near the mine didn’t leave much place for doubt.
I knew nothing about how the Lost magic powering this shield worked, but it was easy to guess that the magic was reaching its limit.
One more combined attack from the silver birds will definitely break it, and once it breaks all the people gathered together to transport the incomplete elemental stones will become their targets.
And everyone will die.
The image of all these people being slaughtered because I failed to keep the horde away made my mana boil under my skin. With a scream I flew higher and drew the whole horde after me— away from the weakening magic.
I couldn’t attack and avoid at the same time; the previous exchange made that clear.
I couldn’t triumph.
I knew it, but it didn’t matter.
All I had to do was to keep them focused solely on me.
If I flew too far or too fast, they would switch targets, but if they managed to encircle me I would die.
No more ‘Second step’ magic to save me this time.
How long did I struggle in such an insane way into the sky?
I had no way to know, but each time an attack grazed me, each time I was barely able to avoid a fatal strike, I was reminded that it wasn’t enough.
I could do more.
I had to.
Or Alianelle, Paul and everyone inside the city would die.
This single thought was enough to keep me going. I was out of breath, my head hurt and my whole body was screaming in protest with each new magic summoned or blow received.
But, I persevered and chased away the natural temptation to go rest under the protection of the weakening Lost magic.
As if possessed, I ignored my mounting fatigue and my accumulating wounds time and time again to defy their supremacy in the sky as if I was trying to make up for the time spent away from the battlefield.
I continued to do everything I could to keep the horde focused on me, and quickly noticed that most of these birds weren’t as mindless as I initially thought them to be. At the very least, they were learning, forcing me to always try to stay creative in my evasions.
I also quickly learned that all the species constituting this horde of birds didn’t mix together. The most notable thing was that all the others stayed away from the bigger and more numerous silver birds who had the welcomed habit of ignoring anything in their way, allies or brethren to try to attack me.
What I didn’t immediately notice was that they had the ability to combine their attacks to make it more destructive, and more importantly, faster.
A much faster than expected silver blast took me by surprise and nearly went through me. I twisted in the sky to hurriedly evade, but was left wide open to the furious retaliation from the others.
Like so many times before, I didn’t try to avoid each attack as it would simply put me in the line of fire of other birds awkwardly trying to get enough space or get the right angle to attack me.
Instead, I stopped using my wing magic altogether.
No new step of wind was created to welcome my weight and to allow me to stay in the sky so I immediately plummeted to the ground. The attack that would have been difficult to avoid otherwise passed just above my head.
However, dozens of others followed my falling form. The more distant birds that had managed to get a clear view of me after I had slowed down, launched their assault with an instinctive sense bordering on human intelligence.
The beams of silver light were destructive enough to tear me apart if they landed on my frail body, but another burst of wind allowed me to avoid easily enough and end my fall.
The others that immediately followed weren’t so easy to dodge.
As I frantically avoided attack after attack without being able to increase the distance with the circling horde, I realized with horror that I had overexerted myself and got completely surrounded.
I was nimble and had learned to move in the sky with surprising ease.
However, I wasn’t that nimble.
No one was.
I had managed to avoid several waves of attack, but the continuous rain of magic that followed hit true. A few silver rays grazed me, drawing blood at the same time, but a shockwave I noticed too late hit me directly in my back. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs and forced a scream of pain out of my mouth. Ironically, the violence of the blow propelled me out of the path of most of the other attacks.
However, the damage was done.
Like a broken doll, I spiraled uncontrollably in the sky, too stunned by the force of the blow and the pain to properly use my wind magic again.
Everything was a blur of blood, feathers and pain. My ears were ringing, although I couldn’t tell if it was from the blow or because of the whistling wind as I fell faster and faster toward the ground whose distance I was completely unable to tell.
Clear screams of horror reached me and made me understand that I was closer to the ground than I thought. Those screams tore me out of my torpor and helped me force the summoning of my wind magic. With my dizzied head and my body swirling uncontrollably, I couldn’t properly distinguish where the ground was. I summoned erratic gusts of winds to try to stabilize me and slow my fall.
However, I failed to stop.
When another burst of wind hit my back, I thought that another attack from the same kind of bird had managed to hit me, but the blow was different. It was softer and didn’t force my body into another uncontrollable spiral. Instead, it helped stabilize me and gave me the opportunity to finally properly use my magic.
My free fall finally started to slow down, but my feet still touched the ground much quicker than I anticipated, and the desperate roll I reflexively made to soften the impact was barely enough to avoid a serious injury. Two strong hands abruptly caught me and immediately stopped my ongoing uncontrolled roll.
It took me a few seconds to shake off the pain and nausea threatening to overwhelm me and to finally see the face of the man holding me.
As soon as I noticed his young face half-hidden by his messy and poorly braided blond beard, I immediately recognized my helper.
"Thaznec!"