When his vision cleared, Tahir found himself and Hasio in another forested area. Thick canopy covered the sky overhead almost completely, only letting the smallest amount of moonlight slip through. If not for fireflies, glowing plants, and other strange lights that ambiently floated across the area, the two of them would have only seen pitch black. They could hear noise coming from further north, so with a nod to each other to confirm, they crept forward to peer into a nearby clearing.
After his eyes adjusted to the light, Tahir’s eyes widened at what he saw. The wide but secluded glade had a number of figures standing around one large one on the ground. Through a small crowd of vaguely humanoid shaped bodies made of wood and foliage, Tahir spotted a massive horse, one that had to be bigger than the draft horse that drew their carriage. It was black, with a matching mane of a similar color, but its most striking feature was the pure white horn that came out from its forehead.
“A unicorn? Seriously?” Tahir murmured. The unicorn struggled weakly against a thick tangle of vines that covered its body. In some spots, Tahir could make out patches of blood, so it appeared that some of the vines pierced its skin on top of holding it in place. “What is happening here?”
“I’ll wager the unicorn sent that call for help.” Hasio whispered. “How do you want to do this?”
“Looks like it’s being drained. How about you go over while invisible and cut the vines while I distract them?”
“Can you handle that many?” Hasio asked. They counted at least six, but even more might be lurking at the edges of the glade.
“I’ll be fine, I’m faster with the air spirit and can jump away with the Traveler’s magic, speaking of which…” Quickly, Tahir sent a mental message to the Traveler to see if their connection still held. We’ve gone through the fairy ring, Traveler, can you still hear me?”
“Very much so.” The Traveler’s voice filled his mind in a reply. “By my estimation, you are in another plane, but not fully. Perhaps a bridge between the land of the fey and your own. Do tread carefully, your allies are en route.”
Before Tahir could ask how close they were, a pained neigh from the unicorn snapped his attention back from the clearing, as it struggled once more against the vines. He thought he heard the sound of some of them breaking around it, but the wooden men moved to hold it down, and keep it from moving. “We need to go. Everyone else is on the way. You ready?”
“Yep.” Before Tahir’s eyes, Hasio vanished, and the foliage shifted as he moved. “I’ll come around from the side. Get them to come at you from straight down the middle.”
“On it.” Drawing his blade, Tahir held it out in front of him as he cast his newest spell. As he waved a hand over the sword, it lit with an eerie green flame as if it had been doused in oil, casting a noticeable light and drawing the attention of the wooden figures. The name of the spell translated to something along the lines of ‘Soulflame’, so that’s what Tahir and Metilia decided to call it. It covered his weapon in a fire empowered by the user’s soul. Definitely one of the more tame soul-related spells in Zorhe’s spell book, but Tahir imagined it would be pretty effective in this scenario.
All six of the wooden men he could see turned away from the Unicorn to rush at him. While they did, he cast another spell to shoot a fire bolt off before they crossed the glade. The ball of fire slammed into one of them, making it stagger back, while the rest ran past it in a frenzy. Stepping into the glade himself, Tahir dodged to the right, rushing around the crowd with speed that even surprised him. He knew he’d be faster from bringing out the spirit of air, but maybe using aura to call out the Traveler provided him some additional physical effects as well.
While the wooden men reacted to his sudden shift, Tahir swung his sword, causing a deep score in the wood and causing the green fire to burst out from the impact. A notable carving to be sure, but it still felt like he tried to cut through solid wood. They weren’t something he could take out in one shot, unless he burned all his mana with a powerful fire spell. He couldn’t risk the drain when he had to save the mana to teleport himself, Hasio, and now the unicorn if he needed to.
He stayed closer than he normally would to the group of wooden men, rushing around them and lashing out with his sword whenever one reached for him. He could dodge around them and definitely outrun them, but he didn’t want them to notice the snapping of vines Tahir could hear at the other end of the glade, where Hasio rapidly cut through the vines with his daggers to free the unicorn.
Without warning, one of them slammed into him, disrupting his run. It didn’t break through his aura shield, but the momentary distraction allowed the others to crowd around him and begin wailing on him. Each hit felt like a heavy swing with a wooden club, and they crowded around him and tried to hold him down so that he couldn’t break through. Knowing that they intended to beat him to death this way, he cast a quick spell to teleport ten feet away, catching his breath and backing away from the group as fast as he could.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
He’d lost half his aura to his shield being surrounded like that, so he couldn’t let himself get caught like that again. He heard the snapping a couple more vines, but from the corner of his eye he could still see the unicorn with vines across its body, so Hasio hadn’t finished cutting yet. Okay, new plan. He thought to himself, as the group of wooden men locked in on his location and began to rush them once more. We take them on one at at time.
Before they could all reach him, he cast another spell, aiming it so that a burst of wind blew out from underneath all but the one at the front of the group. Out of the five he targeted, four of them hit the ground, with one managing to stay upright. Not quite what he wanted, but he’d take two versus one instead of six. With a few seconds of not being overwhelmed, he focused his attention on the two still rushing toward him. He held the blade out in front with both hands as the first of the two reached him.
While training, Murabi saw fit to teach Tahir some of his sword techniques. Without any of the aura enhanced abilities he promised to teach everyone later, he only filled him in on some of the sword style, having used a similar blade. He had been taken aback when he heard that Meti of all people had made it, but she herself had taken up the technique from her father - who never really told her about its origins.
Taking a deep breath, Tahir raised his sword high in the air. These wooden men didn’t seem to fight with any regard to their own safety, even though Tahir could cut through them with enough strikes. It carried on, intending to ram into him before he brought the sword down across its chest with an aura infused swing. An uncomfortable parallel to the bandit he accidentally killed a couple weeks ago, but he pushed past it to rush forward and go for a horizontal, aura-empowered swing. The soulflame on his sword caused a green light to hand in the air where his blade traveled.
On the second swing, he fully cut the wooden figure in half, then stepped away as the second charged him in its place to try to knock him over. As quick as he could, he cast another quick gust of wind to knock it off balance, and while it stumbled, Tahir brought his sword down and separated the wooden facsimile of a head from its shoulders. The other four had recovered at this point, and while Tahir prepared the same spell to knock three of them down, he heard Hasio shouting from across the glade.
“Tahir! We’ve got a problem!” Tahir glanced over, and still couldn’t see Hasio, but noted that he’d cut most of the vines off the unicorn’s body. It had started struggling again, but a more alarming sight drew Tahir’s attention. The foliage beneath the unicorn on the opposite side of the glade shifted, as a massive collection of plant matter rose out the ground. Tahir could see large, green trunks with clawed appendages at the end, but no discernable head, face, or mouth. Just what was this thing?
“Keep cutting!” Tahir shouted back. The unicorn bucked and flailed on top of the creature’s back. He couldn’t teleport with it attached like that, and he doubted the creature would let Tahir get close enough to try. The creature itself began swiping at empty air, aware that something around it was cutting the vines, but seemingly not being able to tell exactly where Hasio was. He had to focus on the four wooden men left, hoping Hasio wouldn’t run into too much trouble now that he had a moving target. Bringing his attention back to his targets, though keeping the movements of the larger creature in mind, Tahir released his spell, causing three of them to collapse while a fourth charged toward him unimpeded.
After he dodged, it took him three swings across its wooden chest and back for it to stop moving blademarks smoldering from Tahir’s soulflame. He was able to repeat the process two more times, letting him cut through the wooden men without much of an issue, but the repeated spellcasting left him with not much more mana than what he wanted to use for a safe teleport for two people and a unicorn.
Once he took out the last one, he glanced back across the glade to the creature and an invisible Hasio fighting it. The creature had nicks from the daggers along its body, and while the plant matter didn’t seem as thick as the wood of the men Tahir just finished fighting, it looked bulky enough that Hasio’s cuts barely had an effect. The unicorn still struggled atop the creature’s body, but a number of the thickest vines still held it in place. He didn’t want to pelt the creature with spells with the unicorn still on its back, and the dust clouds that came up whenever it slammed the ground where it thought Hasio stood clued him into its strength. A solid hit would likely drain his aura shield, so getting in close wouldn’t be the best either.
Still, it was only a matter of time before Hasio slipped up if he didn’t do anything soon. Everyone else was close, but he doubted they would get there in time. Steeling himself, Tahir took a deep breath before he rushed forward. Casting a spell, he jumped, and teleported to just above the creature. When he landed, he held on for dear life while it thrashed underneath him. A gurgled cry from it suggested that Hasio kept cutting at it while he did this, so Tahir rushed toward his original intent while he could stay on top of it. He reached for the thickest vines holding the unicorn in place. “This is gonna feel a little hot.” He said, pulling the vine up about an inch from the unicorn’s skin and shoving his soulflame empowered blade between them.
Fortunately, the magic only burned things that Tahir sought to cut, but he could imagine it still felt uncomfortably hot. With an aura infused tug, he managed to cut off the thickest vines, causing them to fall away and freeing the unicorn.