Jasper examined the object the spirit had given him with more than a speck of curiosity. Is this…loot? The bundle proved to contain a small shortsword, bound in a simple leather sheaf. The sword's hilt was simple and unornamented, but when he drew the blade from its scabbard, Jasper could tell that the weapon was finely made. He gave it a test swing, swishing the sword through the air, and resheathed it. “Anyone want a sword?”
Ihra patted her hip, from which Aphora’s misericorde now dangled. “I’m good.”
Nēs̆u and Tsia rejected it as well, so, with a shrug, Jasper fastened the shortsword to his belt. He didn’t see himself using it much but at least he’d be able to activate his Heartstopper ability with it.
There was really no reason for them to linger any longer in the clearing. Reluctantly the four found the path again, heading higher up the mountain. If the previous trail had been steep, this section made the prior look like a Sunday stroll through Central Park. They scrambled across sharp rocks and fallen trees, the gravel all but disappearing as the trail melted into the wilderness around them. Only the small stone cairns, erected every few hundred feet, reassured them that they were headed in the right direction.
The sun was already threatening to dip beneath the mountain peaks when they reached the second clearing. It was smaller than the first, the trees crowding the edges of the clearing like a crowd of eager onlookers at a soccer game. But the setup was the same - a small shrine perched on the edge of the overlook.
Jasper paused at the altar, turning to the rest. “Do you want to do this now, or wait till the morning?”
Nēs̆u, surprisingly, was the first to speak. “Let us do it now. It is always better to enjoy a night of rest after a hard battle won than to go to sleep with the battle yet to be fought.”
Ihra nodded, her hand absentmindedly fondling the misericorde. “I’d rather get it over with. If we hurry, we can get it done before the sun sets.”
He looked at Tsia, who simply shrugged. With a sigh, Jasper reopened the wound on his arm, allowing a few drops of blood to drip into the basin, and the others followed suit.
The same scene played out before them. The gentle breeze whispering through the tips of the trees turned into a gale, a storm of leaves coalescing into a whirlwind within the meadow. But unlike before, no fell beast stepped out of the storm.
Instead, the whirlwind exploded, shooting hundreds of leaves out in every direction. As they fell, the shower of green and golden leaves changed, each one morphing into small, humanoid creatures.Their skin was a bright blue, and their eyes glowed yellow in the fading sunlight. Despite the fact that most of them barely came up to Jasper’s waist, when their baleful eyes turned on the four a sudden shiver of fear ran down his spine.
This was practically a small army.
“Yelekki,”Tsia whispered beside him.
Nēs̆u nodded, clapping Jasper on the back. “This is good. They are weak to fire, my friend.”
“We still need to control the battlefield,” Ihra pointed out. “If we just run out into the middle, they’ll overrun us with sheer numbers.”
“We can use the shrine for cover. I’ll get their attention and lure them back here. Then Nēs̆u and I can try to hold the steps of the shrine while you two pick them off from behind.” Jasper started walking toward the meadow.
“Do you need help?” Nēs̆u called.
A grin crept over his face, hidden in the dying daylight. “No, I think I’ve got this.” He lifted his hands up, fire crackling at the tips of his fingers. “For a change, I have the perfect spell.”
After the battle at Als̆arratu, Jasper had learned two important lessons.First, he had nowhere near enough essence to keep going in a long battle.That was a problem that only levels could solve, although his essence pool had improved significantly since then.
But the second was that he needed a spell that could deal damage to large numbers. He hadn’t really had the chance to try Shooting Star out for what it was intended, but as he stared at the little blue, goblin-like horde surrounding them, he knew that chance had come.
Shooting Star. Shooting Star. Shooting Star. Shooting Star.
Jasper unleashed a veritable barrage of the spell and forty small fiery orbs smashed into the horde, ripping through it like grapeshot. The little blue beings thrashed around on the ground, the fire spreading across every limb of their bodies, but their screams of agony were quickly replaced with roars of rage. As one, the horde charged at him.
He booked it back to the shrine, his long legs outpacing the enraged yelekki. Reaching the steps of the shrine, he whirled into place and unleashed another two rounds of Shooting Star.Another swathe of the enemies fell screaming, the fire spreading quickly from through their front row, but Jasper couldn’t afford to keep casting the spell; already, his essence had fallen beneath fifty percent.
Taking a defensive stance, he readied his glaive as the horde surged through the flames. Your turn, Ihra.
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Ihra couldn’t help but feel a touch of envy as she watched her partner practically melt through the enemies.With a few simple spells, he had killed nearly a hundred of the little critters.
She aimed her bow at one of the yelekkis’ heads, hesitating for just a moment. The little blue humanoid had big wide eyes, with two tiny fangs jutting out of its oversized mouth. It even wore a little vest, and its neatly trimmed hair was tossled by the wind as it waved its small sword in their direction. They’re so damn cute. Then she released the arrow. A second later its head burst in a shower of gore, but Ihra had already moved on, her next target selected.
Once Jasper stopped casting spells, and was forced to rely on his glaive, swinging it back and forth through the enraged horde, Ihra was reminded of the downside of being a mage. As long as you have essence, you’re a god. And once you run out, you’re a cut-rate soldier. Jasper stumbled backward as two of the small creatures slipped beneath the swing of his glaive. One of the cute little goblinoids leapt on his head, burying its teeth in his ear while another latched onto his leg like an enraged toddler.
Ihra fired off a judicious arrow, dislodging the one attached to his ear, while Jasper, with a prodigious kick, shook off the other, sending it flying back into the night. She shook her head. The glaive was a fantastic weapon for holding off normal-sized foes, but the horde of little buggers was another matter altogether. Once they managed to slip beneath the long reach of his weapon, the glaive’s primary strength became a weakness.
She sent an arrow through the head of another goblinoid leaping toward Jasper’s head. “Use your sword.” She had to scream to be heard over the screeches and hollering of the horde.
He unleashed another spell, melting the yelekki near him, as he cast a wild eye back at her. “What?”
“The sword the spirit gave you - use it!”
Dropping the glaive at his feet, he drew the sword and, in one swift motion, plunged it through the heart of one of the yelekki that had braved the fires.
Still, as the fight dragged on, Ihra couldn’t shake the feeling that she was falling behind. Jasper needed more essence, but his spells were already extremely powerful; what he lacked would come with time and more levels. But how long would her arrows stay useful? She had felt useless in the fight against the fake queen.
No, what she needed was a class change.
Ihra suddenly released that the petite brunette beside her had gone silent for a few minutes, no more spells blasting into the horde. Out of essence, perhaps. She surveyed the horde as reached for another arrow; it had thinned considerably, but there were still too many for her liking. That’s one good thing about my class at least; as long as I have stamina, I have arrows, and I have a hell of a lot of stamina.
She snuck a glance over to Tsia. The girl had an intense look of concentration on her face, magic swirling between her outstretched hands. Ihra was forced to look away, picking off a yelekki clinging to Nēs̆u’s arm. But a moment later, a shrill scream erupted beside her.
“Everyone get down - Mehûzaqqiqu.” Jasper and Nēs̆u threw themselves to the ground as the spell left her lips.
A giant arc of wind shot forward from the mage; it could only be described as wind made solid and forged into the wickedly sharp sword of a giant. It sliced through the horde, its onslaught separating limb from a limb before the spell guttered out fifty feet away from them. The yelekki had been decimated, mere handfuls left of the hundreds that had thronged the shrine. With renewed energy the four fell on them, Jasper sacrificing the last of his essence to release a deadly barrage of fire.
With an exhausted sigh, Ihra dropped to her knees. Two battles down, one to go. She could only pray to Selene that her runes would prove useful in the final battle.
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This time, when the spirit reformed into an avatar of leaves, Jasper was ready. The forest spirit approached him, an offering held out in its hand. But it waltzed right past him, bowing to Tsia instead. Is it rewarding the “MVP” of the battle?
A delicate silver necklace was entwined in its fingers which it, bending down over her, place around the mage’s neck. Once the gift was around Tsia’s neck, the spirit disappeared in a flurry of leaves.
“Does it do something?” Ihra asked, peering over Jasper’s shoulder to get a better look at the necklace.
Tsia touched it, rubbing her fingers over the small charm that dangled at the end. “No description box popped up, but I feel kind of…refreshed? It probably provides either essence or health. I bet the next time I meditate I’ll be able to figure it out.”
Jasper looked around the empty clearing. The final rays of the sun had all but disappeared beneath the snowy peaks, and already the night air was growing heavy with frost. His breath billowed up in great clouds of steam as he spoke. “I guess we’re spending the night here.”
He hoped Arutû wouldn’t take offense, but they ended up setting up camp in the small shrine. The two walls of the shrine offered a slight, if insufficient, respite from the winds that buffeted the mountain plateau. While the cold didn’t bother him anymore, the other three in his party were grateful indeed for the roaring bonfire he started, huddling around it with their backs to one of the shrine’s walls.
With the battles of the day behind him, Jasper took the opportunity to examine their new comrades. Tsia showed few signs of her elven heritage, her ears rounded as normal, her head bereft of any hint of her horns. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail, and she met his eyes with an amused smile when she sensed he was checking her out.
He looked away, feeling a bit embarrassed at being caught staring, and turned his attention to Nēs̆u. The man was clearly her subordinate, but he was no simple servant. He had more than proved his skill with the sword in the day’s battles, and his bulky torso and ripped arms testified to his strength. His hair was cut much shorter than the average Corsythian, most of whom grew it long, but his beard was big and bushy and his eyes sparked with keen intelligence. If I'm right about Tsia’s identity, Nēs̆u is more of a bodyguard than a servant, he mused.
“So tell me, Tsia, how did you track me down? Even if Aphora had told you that we were heading into the Harei Miqlat, I don’t see how you found me. I didn’t know myself that I was coming here.” Jasper gestured at the mountains as he asked the question that had been bothering him all day.
Tsia laughed. “You may not have known where you were going, but the gods did. After I missed you in Kār-kuppû by mere hours, Selene told me to head straight to the mountain of Arutû. As it was, I very nearly missed you again.” She leaned forward, staring into the fire. “Do you mind telling me about your adventures with Aphora? It’s been some time since I got to see her. I’ve heard the stories, of course - rumors fly as birds to the south - but you were actually there, weren’t you?”
And so he told the tale of their ill-fated adventure to Als̆arratu and its aftermath. Tsia listened silently, her smile a bit sad as he told of Aphora’s actions in the tower of Ysagil and of her final battle against the Queen. When he was done, she merely murmured her thanks and went to bed. Despite the wind that whistled through the ancient shrine, Jasper could swear he heard her muffled sobs.