Book 4: Chapter 55: Minor Rifts |
Suzy released the spell she’d been building, sending a powerful arc of lightning out from her staff and into the crowd of the horned men in front of the rift trying to make room so that she could push forward and begin sealing it. She made it a few yards, but a harpy swooped down at her, forcing her back.
One of the knights, wearing his gleaming armor and a helm adorned with peacock feathers, managed to catch the harpy’s leg with his spear, bringing her clattering to the ground before he took his place in front of her, sweeping wide to ensure they could push forward again.
“Fear not beautiful lady, we shall not fail so long as our hearts guide us,” he said dramatically as a few of his fellows managed to push through to protect his flank.
She had been reluctant to work with men from Stent, but so far the Knights of Love as they called themselves, had done a good job keeping her alive even if their constant declarations of love and adoration got tiring quickly. Still, it seemed like a good way to get a goddess on their side and from what she’d seen they certainly had her favor.
One of the horned men broke through the knights and swung at her with a massive cleaver forcing her to throw out an unfinished lightning spell. It stunned him and she shoved her staff firmly into his eye.
A knight managed to give himself enough space to run his sword through the horned man, but they were almost immediately forced back again as several harpies swooped down as a group.
The battle had been going in their favor at first, but the rift creatures seemed to be moving out of the portals more quickly than they had before and they hadn’t properly accounted for the reinforcements.
She saw one of the clusters of soldiers she’d been separated from get overwhelmed and cursed loudly, sending out another lightning spell through the tip of her staff. At the rate things were going they’d have to retreat soon, but with the numbers pouring from the rift they would probably be pursued and any reinforcements they needed would be other rifts allowed to grow.
Just as they were being pushed back more and the Knight-Sergeant was about to call for a retreat, there was a crash in the center of the battle, right in the midst of the horned men.
She began to hear the cries of horned men and the shrieks of harpies mixed in with the sounds of battle and a golden glow came into view as the dust cleared.
“Push forward!” cried the Knight-Sergeant, his voice carrying powerfully across the battle.
The knights that were still in front of Suzy answered the order with gusto. They pushed forward into the fray with wide sweeps of their halberds. She followed behind, picturing the thunderstorms of her childhood as lightning began to arc across her staff. The moment the dust cleared she released the spell, sending it into a diving harpy that then crashed into two horned men. They were easily dispatched in the tangle.
She began channeling magicka for her next spell while she swept the battlefield. That’s when she saw the meteor that had landed amongst them moments ago.
It was Michael. The man that had removed the brand from her neck and brought her to Old Hume. He was in the midst of more than a dozen of the horned men alone. Most would be on their back foot or already dead in that situation, but instead he was the one pushing the horned men. Every sweep of his mace or sword brought one of them down. Whenever they would attempt to strike back at him, his shield would meet them as if their blows had been drawn directly to it. Even attacks at his rear bounced off of powerful barriers that bent the light around him. His defense was as deadly as his offense as the flames that danced across his armor and shield spread to any enemy foolish enough to get too close.
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The horned men attempted to force their way away from him, but with all of the soldiers and knights renewed by his healing they found themselves being squeezed from both sides. The newly arriving rift creatures howled in terror as they glimpsed Michael, screaming “aur-ma!” as they tried to scramble away or desperately fought to survive.
After only moments Michael had killed all of those that were between him and the others, letting them all forcefully push closer to the rift. Just as Suzy began to feel the edges of the rift as she had before, she felt something wrap around her own will. It felt something like learning to swing a tee-ball bat from her dad, his hands wrapped around hers to help her simulate the motion of it. Between her will and Michael's, the rift didn’t even have a chance to push back, sealing almost instantly from their combined will.
One final harpy attempted to attack Michael with her silver talons, but he absentmindedly ran her through with his sword before burning her blood away with golden fire and returning it to his side.
He glanced around and removed his helmet.
“Is everyone alright?” he asked.
He looked different, Suzy noticed. He was still handsome, but his hair was no longer blonde, but was instead white. The color of it reflected the golden flames around him making it appear as if he had a halo around his head. He looked across everyone, and noticed her.
“Suzy. Good to see you’re okay,” he said before he began to walk away. “If no one is hurt I need to move on. More rifts to close.” He waved and began running again, looking a bit absurd as he sprinted in his full suit of armor away from them.
The knight-sergeant frowned for a few moments. “Let’s head back and report! We’re due for a break anyway.”
They were all dazed for a few moments, but nodded and fell into line as they started to head back toward the camp.
…
Three so far, thought Michael as he ran. Five to go. He was happy with how well Hume had kept the rifts sealed. He’d been feeling them opening and closing fairly constantly since he’d been gone. If they hadn’t stayed on top of things as well as they had then it was likely that the great rift wouldn’t have even mattered with the number of rift creatures they would’ve managed to send through.
Michael was nearly halfway to the next rift when he sensed something overhead. He came to a stop, pivoting as he raised his barriers and slung his shield from his back, but relaxed when he realized it was Ollie.
“Hey,” said Michael lowering his guard as the mage descended toward him.
“At least you know how to say hello properly,” said Ollie as he landed next to him.
Michael frowned.
“Since you clearly don’t know how to say goodbye. You couldn’t find us? You had to go out and seal rifts that very second?”
“Honestly? Yes. I felt that I needed to seal as many rifts as I could right away… I left a note.”
“A note doesn’t really suffice when I know for a fact you could’ve found any of us in the camp and told us with your Lovey Dovey Gaze or whatever.”
“They’re just standard rifts. I think we’ve established that I don’t really need any help with them anymore. The only real threat is the big one.”
“I know that, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be out here helping you. Pyotr and Marcus too.”
“They catching up on horseback?”
Ollie shook his head. “No, too slow. They wouldn’t be able to reach us. No, they started toward the rifts opposite of the direction you took, thinking we’d all meet in the middle.” He adjusted his hat. “I heard about Lys. How are you doing?”
“I’m upset, but there’s not much I can do about it that I’m not already doing.”
Ollie nodded, giving Michael a firm pat on the pauldron.
“Alright, let’s go clear the rest of them.”
Michael nodded and began running again with Ollie floating leisurely ahead of him using his magic. The remaining rifts were all relatively fresh and so hadn’t built out significant defences yet. After assisting a few other squads, doing some healing, and sealing they headed back.Ollie was scratching his scalp beneath his cap as they moved.
“What’s wrong?”
“No magic again… When’s the last time we saw one of the lizardfolk defending a rift?”
Michael paused, thinking on it. “I haven’t seen one come out of a rift since Lataxia.