I laid on the ground, my mind moving in a hundred different directions.
I kept a small amount of my Qi scattered about the area to keep an eye on the fight, even if I couldn’t really do much to intervene. Unfortunately, with Eozia’s gravity well, my flying swords were basically useless.
Worse still, my body was still too numb to move. Whatever healing Avuri had hit me with was effective enough that I was no longer really in any pain, but the numbness still lingered in my limbs. I supposed I should count myself lucky that there wasn’t any other internal damage, but being rendered useless in this kind of fight just about amounted to the same thing.
My mind ran through option after option as to how we may be able to win this fight. But with me on the ground and Avuri outnumbered two to one, we were almost assuredly on the losing side. I felt Eozia’s first assault, and heard Avuri scream as she fought off the blow. The heavy hammer landed very close to my feet, and I could feel the debris fly up and over me.
I quickly tried to come up with some way to help. If Auban got involved, we would be in real trouble dealing with his ranged attacks covering Eozia.
And then Auban chose to leave the rest of the fight to Eozia alone.
I told myself that was good! Avuri wasn’t outnumbered anymore, so she should be able to survive just fine for a while, if she couldn’t win on her own. It was possible, but Avuri’s heavy focus on midrange techniques would be to her detriment with that damn gravity Domain.
Avuri’s Qi poured from her into her Domain and techniques, strengthening them. I silently hoped it would be enough for now, and turned my mind toward finding a way out of this. Even with Eozia alone, I didn’t think we could reasonably overpower her. A good portion of my fighting ability revolved around my flying weapons, and the unpredictable angles of attack I could pursue because of them.
Taking that into account, we were left with some kind of trick or a trap. I reached out with my Qi, poking and prodding the blades I left scattered around the ground when I got hit. They skittered along the ground as I pulled at them; that meant that I was still at least capable of Qi manipulation despite the state of my body.
That was something I could use.
The physical flying swords made of Qi would be too noticeable to attack Eozia with, especially with me unable to get up from the ground. If I attacked her, it needed to be enough to end the fight or her retaliation would probably kill me outright.
As I felt Avuri wind up her Blizzard Dragon for a frontal assault, I reached out around me with my Domain and took a deep breath. I felt around inside it for anything I could use as a weapon that wouldn’t be as obvious as full size swords. Maybe something smaller would also be able to fly through Eozia’s gravity field before it hit the ground.
The strange feeling of my Domain surrounded me. The weird sensation of sharp, prickly air against my skin had become something of a comfort over the last month as I had trained in it almost constantly.
I focused on the pebbles and other bits of debris on the ground. My Domain could sharpen or blunt any edges within its area at my desire, and I willed the debris to sharpen. I could feel the dirt against my back begin to prick me, even through my clothing, much like the air did.
My mind slammed to a halt at the same moment that Eozia clashed with Avuri’s Dragon. There was a big explosion of sound and wind as the hammer obliterated part of the technique. I took a deep breath to calm myself, and told myself there was no way this would work. It felt too silly.
But at the same time, Avuri could freeze the air - or more accurately the moisture in the air - at her whim. Why couldn’t I sharpen it?
With my Domain, I focused on the air right in front of my finger tip. I pictured the edge of a sharp blade, and told the air to sharpen itself, the same way I would tell anything else. Then I pushed my finger forward, and felt the air itself cut into it. The sensation was strange, like I poked an incredibly sharp, but also soft knife. It was so sharp I barely even felt the cut at first.
I swallowed thickly, processing this new ability. Then I sent a message to Avuri through our Domains. ‘I’ve got an idea. We need to surprise her with something. Back up away from me.’
Conveniently, I was positioned in a spot between Avuri and Eozia. If Avuri simply walked backward, Eozia should walk right up to and hopefully over me.
I could see on Avuri’s face that my message got through. She glanced between me and Eozia, a strained look on her face. I reached out with my Domain, stretching it up toward her, in an effort to show I had a plan.
She seemed to make a decision then, and her face morphed from showing consternation to showing fear. Her performance wasn’t perfect, but it seemed believable enough, given Eozia’s reaction to it.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I focused on the task at hand. I stretched my Domain out and straight up into the air above me, in a cylindrical shape. Avuri kept my Domain’s movements masked with her own while I shaped mine to try to take advantage of this one chance at a trap.
I eyed Eozia’s slow approach warily, trying to size her up and line up a single blade of air at neck height. Once it was in place, I silently prayed that she wouldn’t notice, and that the altered air wouldn’t immediately get shoved to the ground by her Domain. I hadn’t been able to tell if it was a passive or active effect, after all.
We were in trouble if her Domain automatically forced extra gravity on everything without her input. I was gambling on it requiring her input, at least somewhat.
And then she stepped up next to me. I held my breath as she took another step. When her Domain crossed into the space where mine had made the air blade, I lost my connection to it and couldn’t feel if anything had happened.
She took two steps past me and stopped. As I saw her hand start its way up to her neck, I yelled at Avuri through our connection. ‘Attack her right now!’
Then I threw everything I had into moving my body away from Eozia. Two of my flying swords flew to me and levered me over so I could roll away from the storm or ice and wind that suddenly consumed Eozia.
As I rolled, I noticed that I could feel my arms and legs again, as they shouted in absolute agony. They were full of pins and needles, and reminded me of the few days immediately following my breakthrough. I did my best to fight my spasming limbs and struggled to get to my feet.
It was slow going, and I didn’t even really manage to get past my knees before I found Avuri beside me, throwing my arm over her shoulder. I flinched as the careless movement made my arm scream at me for the motion, but I gritted my teeth and used Avuri as leverage to stand.
I gave Avuri the best smile I could manage. She returned it, before we both turned to look at the bloody mess that was Eozia. The Blizzard Dragon had done its job very well, absolutely savaging her clothing and skin, leaving cuts and slashes everywhere. But my eyes zeroed in on her neck, where it was clearly and cleanly bisected almost all the way back to the bone. She had turned toward us at some point, and the top and bottom halves of her neck were misaligned and slick with blood.
Then Auban returned. He darted from the tent as Avuri hid Eozia’s battered body with her Snowflakes. I grinned to myself; she was a sneaky little fox when she wanted to be. That sight would surely be enough to shake him.
As he began to speak, Avuri moved her Snowflakes. He stopped for just an instant and his Domain flickered. Avuri struck immediately, and shut him down. As his Domain was effectively silenced, I stretched mine out, reaching for my flying swords. I reconnected with them and prepared to pull them back toward me.
“I don’t know, or even really care, what you did to Eozia, but you’ll pay. I don’t need my Domain to blast you both with lightning.” Auban said, angrily.
As I collected half of my swords and brought them to hover over my shoulders, I pushed up off of Avuri. My legs screamed in protest as pins and needles shot up and down my whole body. But I wanted to look as intimidating as I could at the moment.
“We’ll see.” I said, feigning nonchalance. “Personally, I think it’s payback time.”
As he raised a hand, presumably to launch a blast of lightning at us, I took a gamble for the second time that day. I had left six flying swords scattered around the battlefield that I had bothered to call back to me. I called upon them now.
And all six converged, lightning fast, on Auban. From six different directions.
He quickly adjusted his blast and shot one of the blades out of the air. It practically disintegrated on contact with the lightning, as the raw energy of it blasted apart the Qi that held the blade together.
But removing one of six was obviously not going to be enough. One sword he managed to stop by getting it stuck in his right hand. Another hit the front of his left shoulder. The third, his right kidney. The fourth, the back of his left shoulder, and the fifth his left thigh. His body did a short, macabre dance as he was forced in a different direction from each hit, before collapsing to his knees.
Unable to really move my body without agony, I reached out toward him with my Domain. Avuri’s Domain parted for me as mine slunk closer to Auban. He looked up and both of us, a stream of curses tumbling from his mouth.
Without the protection of his Domain, I was able to reach out with mine and surround his throat. And with a mental flex, a blade of air slipped right through his neck.
As his head tumbled off the base of his neck, I let my body go slack.
“Help.” I muttered, as I slumped bonelessly to the ground.
Avuri yelped and tried to get her arms around me before I hit the ground. Thankfully, she succeeded and managed to at least prevent my head from crashing into the hard dirt. She offered me a crooked smile as she slowly laid me on the ground.
“My limbs are on fire.” I said with a laugh. “They’ve got that damn pins and needles feeling.”
“Well, that’s what happens when you get feeling back into limbs that were struck by lightning.”
“And how are you so sure about that? Been hit by lightning before?” I asked sourly.
“Nope, I just assumed.” Avuri said, with a relieved smile. Then she flicked my arm. I whimpered as the light flick rippled up my arm and into my other extremities. “Now you stay here while I go find our captives.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.” I said, focused on keeping my limbs as still as possible.
Avuri grinned then, and bent down. I closed my eyes and flinched, but opened them again when I felt her press her lips to my forehead. “Good. You’d better stay right where I can see you, Emery.”
Then she stood and hurried off toward the tent.