Addie strained against the ground as the vibrations from the ape’s shout threatened to destabilize her soul-flame shield. The book, hovering just over her shoulder, glowed a bit brighter in response— helping to stabilize her magic. The world took on a purple tinge, but Addie couldn’t tell if it was due to her soul flames or from the magic shockwaves caused by the ape’s primal bellow.
Slowly, the world stopped shaking as the shout died out. Just as Addie felt she had weathered the worst of it, the ground started trembling much stronger again— instead of a persistent vibration, this was a series of loud rumbling thuds. Like something was rushing toward them.
As the realization dawned on her, a giant furry hand holding an equally giant katana slammed through the outside of Addie’s shield, causing that part to shatter. The ape’s visage loomed over her, filling her with fear. But, she had no time for fear. Squishy’s past words came to mind, hesitation is defeat.
Addie gathered up the remaining magic from her broken shield and sent it flying toward the ape. No longer fastened to the ground, the ape dodged to the side. Its massive body slammed into the snow, his hand coming away reflexively and bringing its detached head along with it. The impact shook the earth and forced Addie to recenter her balance.
A cry from behind drew Addie’s attention. Desperate to make sure Nettal was ok, Addie briefly checked on her. She wasn’t bloody, Addie wasn’t sure why she had screamed. Addie moved her focus back to the ape. At the same time, she realized she couldn’t see Squishy, but with a quick mental ping she learned he was in Realmspace.
The ape clambered to its feet, hand reaching to place its head back on its body. Addie rushed to stand protectively in front of Nettal. She knew another shout was coming from the way the ape’s chest expanded.
Seeing an opportunity, Addie hastily threw a fireball at the ape. She knew it was too small to do much damage, but it was enough to interrupt the ape.
The ape recoiled from the fireball, its soul sizzling. That gave Addie time to prepare more magic. With Ember’s help, her other partner still nestled within her soul, Addie began channeling flames into her hands. She allowed the flames to build up and up— forcing them into a tight pressurized ball.
Even though it was holding its own detached head, the ape still seemed to glare at Addie with rage. It charged her, the earth rumbling underneath its huge lumbering steps.
Addie’s soul book blazed with power as it helped her keep ahold of her magic despite the shaking ground. Addie knew she hadn’t built up enough magic yet to defeat the ape. She needed more time.
“Squishy!” Addie called out through their bond. She envisioned in her mind how she wanted Squishy to attack the ape, sending him her thoughts.
Squishy reappeared directly behind the ape, barely pausing to lunge forward and catch the back of its ankle within his jaws. Addie caught a flash of Squishy latching onto the ape's heel before his form vanished in the wake of snow.
A surprised look came across the ape’s face as it tripped, but then the pain must have hit as it let out an anguished wail. Addie could see red staining the snow around the ape’s ankle. Squishy popped his head up from the snow a moment later, a long piece of sinew clenched in his jaws.
The ape tripped just in front of Addie, its head falling from its palm and sailing past her. The ape’s body landed with a thud, more snow flying all around Addie. Despite the hard landing, it already looked like it would try to get up.
Finally, Addie surged magic throughout her soul. Ember and her book joined in, the three of them thrumming with power. The world around Addie seemed to distort from the heat and take on a purple tint just before she released the magic from both hands. The compressed twin fireballs shot forward directly into the ape’s exposed neck.
A massive explosion rocked the space just in front of Addie’s face, forcing her to cover her eyes with a hand. She knew better than to take her eyes off the enemy, though, so she intently focused on the space in front of her using her spatial sense. The top of the ape’s torso was torn to shreds.
Squishy trudged through the crimson snow to stand next to Addie. She could see his snout upturned as if to look at her through the plume of snow. “Burn it.”
“Nettal, step back a bit.”
“Now you tell me! You exploded him in my face! I’ve got ick all over me!” Behind her, Addie used her spatial sense to see Nettal trying to shake the ick off of her arms. Despite her tough act, Addie could see her limbs shaking as she stared at the gruesome sight.
Addie had to suppress a snort. She and Squishy were covered in ick, too, but it didn’t bother her much. At least, not now— she had to finish things so the ape didn’t stand back up again. Addie made sure Nettal took a few steps back, the snow and smoke already starting to clear in the winter wind.
After the snow plume had settled so she could see again, Addie set the unmoving ape’s body ablaze. This time, she made sure to use hot flames, rather than explody flames. She was going to burn it to ash. She really didn’t want it to get up again. That had been terrifying, the way it held onto its own head as it charged her. Addie had to suppress a shiver just from remembering it.
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If it hadn’t been for Squishy’s calming protective presence, Addie might not have been able to fight at all. She still remembered how she had frozen up at the beginning of the fight. Honestly, her heart was still racing. She took a deep breath, trying to stabilize herself, before sending Squishy a quick pulse of gratitude.
She threw a giant stream of fire at the ape, hoping to burn it down to nothing. It took a while— at first, the body didn’t want to catch fire. Maybe because of how cold it was outside. Soon, the body caught fire, and Addie didn’t have to keep channeling. After a little bit, the body began to really stink, so the girls walked away from it while it burned. They stood there for a while, just watching it turn to ash.
Eventually, Nettal broke the silence,“Well, that wasn’t ideal,” Nettal said quietly.
“No, that was horrifying!” Addie emphasized, quite a bit louder than Nettal. “I thought it would eat us! Its mouth was big enough to eat us in one bite!”
They’d stared at it enough, nothing but ash remained now to look at anyway. Addie really didn’t want to be here anymore. Her heart had finally calmed down enough that she felt ready to get moving again. Leading Nettal by the hand, she began walking.
“I’m still wondering if it’s gonna somehow come back together and chase us again,” Nettal said as the girls walked through the fort courtyard. Addie could still see some remaining fear on her cousin’s face.
Addie reached out and held tightly onto Nettal’s hand. “It’s alright. We won.” Addie tried to be reassuring, but her own hand was shaking too.
Nettal let out an unsteady breath, “Yeah. I can’t wait to go home.” Though she was still shivering from leftover nerves, her eyes glowed, filling Addie up with warmth and healing. Somehow, it reminded Addie of home.
“Me too.”
After a few minutes of walking, the girls came to the back of the courtyard. Addie noticed another entryway to the fort from this side, but unlike the front, this side had a fully intact gate made of metal that blocked the way forward.
Addie took a moment to make sure everyone was together before she sent everyone to Realmspace. They walked a few steps forward, past where Addie thought the gate was, before they came back to reality.
In front of them lay a vast stretch of land at the foot of the mountains. Addie could see fields of green far, far below where she currently stood. Glancing behind herself, she could see the fort’s walls surrounded by rocky white terrain. Green. Just, an unbelievable amount of grass. An absolutely gigantic plain stretched farther than Addie could see, but the plains themselves were so far below where she currently stood that she could barely make out the details. Instead, it appeared as if a blanket of green dominated the landscape below her, and she longed for it— to be out of the cold.
One structure stood out, though. The castle from her book, which appeared far larger than the fort she currently stood in front of, had been built seemingly in the center of the plains. It was so large, Addie wondered if it was actually more of a city, rather than a castle. Roads stretched out from it in four directions, but not very long roads. Rather, the roads became patchy the further she moved her eyes away from where they started. It was hard to say from this distance, but Addie assumed the roads didn’t go any farther than half a kilometer out from the castle in any of the four directions. Where the roads ended, more of that grassy plain overtook them.
Addie huffed in slight frustration, though. There was a simply massive problem— there was no way down from the fort. If Addie took just a few steps forward, she would plummet down a vertical cliff. Addie had never been this high up before.
While Addie knew she could use magic to survive jumping from thousands of meters down a cliff, she wasn’t sure if Nettal could do the same.
“Surely there must be a way down?” Nettal said, standing precariously over the cliff face to get a look. “They had to have gotten up to the fort somehow?”
“The fort has been built in a strategic location. I believe the exact purpose of this fort was to keep invaders from the plains below away from the plateau behind us. It would make sense to me, seeing as this is the only gap between the large walls encasing the plateau,” Squishy explained, always one to be excited about boring military stuff.
“Nettal said it’s a caldera, not a plateau,” Addie corrected Squishy. Then, she turned to summarize Squishy’s words for Nettal. “Squishy says there’s probably not a path down.”
Nettal looked at Addie in bewilderment. “And, why does he think that?”
Addie sighed, having to explain all that military mumbo jumbo would be annoying. “Some kind of military reason I guess.”
“Ohhh. Yeah, that does make sense.” Nettal nodded her head but rolled her eyes for some reason.
“If you two are done with all that, let’s figure out how to get down!” Addie said, hurriedly. “How about we jump off the cliff, and right before we land I send everyone out to Realmspace? Squishy and I do it all the time when it’s just the two of us. I bet I can make sure it works for you, too.”
Nettal looked at Addie with narrowed eyes, “Have you ever tried that trick on anything except yourselves? What if it doesn’t work on other people?” Making an ‘x’ with her arms in front of herself, Nettal declared, “I will not find out it doesn’t work by splatting at the bottom of a cliff.”
Addie huffed, “Then, what should we do?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Let’s just test if your magic works on me before we try plummeting to our dooms. We can do a smaller test, like jumping just a few feet down the fort’s walls. That way, even if it doesn’t work, the fall isn’t all that long, and the snow can break our fall anyway.”
Nettal and Addie stood at the top of the fort’s walls, looking down at the snow below. Addie was sure that even if they just jumped off the fort without magic they’d be fine. It wasn’t a long fall.
Holding hands, the girls jumped off of the fort’s walls. Just before they hit the snow, Addie rapidly plunged them in and out of Realmspace— Addie making sure to direct her exit up into the air, so they could gain upward ‘momentum’ – as Squishy called it – and have an easier fall.
They landed in the snow, a small bit of powder pluming into the air around them. But, there was no doubt about it, they had landed in the snow much softer than they would have normally.
“Now, let’s jump off a cliff.” Addie smiled.