with royal guard around.”
“Oh yeah, and why is that?”
“Because you are helpless, that’s why. You don’t think before you act, you don’t worry about consequences. How many times have I had to pull you out of a sticky situation that you put yourself in, huh? How many?”
“You only care about yourself. Don’t blame me.”
Kovos laughed coldly. “Only care for myself huh? Is that what you think? What have you ever done for someone else, Keither? Tell me, when have you helped at home? When have you ever tried to pull your weight? This has been the most I’ve seen you work in your life, and even then it’s what, taking down a tent? Oh, never mind, you gave up some fat to help Legon keep your ungrateful hide alive.”
Kovos felt anger seething in his body. He wanted to hit Keither, wanted to smack him in the mouth. After all the sacrifices he’d made for his younger brother… But still, it was his fault that Keither was out here, and he hadn’t been a good person. He felt himself deflating. Kovos knew he was hard on the boy, and it was obvious that Keither hated him. His own brother hated him. It was etched in his face. But how could he change that now? How could he show him that he did care and that he loved him? Legon brought him back to reality.
“Shut up you two,” he hissed.
“But…” Keither was cut off by a hand to his mouth.
“We have company.”
Kovos heard the sound of many feet coming their way. From the trees in front of them, men in full armor spilled into their little clearing. They were found. Their training took over. Arkin and Legon took their places up front while Sara frantically readied arrows for Sasha. As they approached, he felt Legon’s magic making his muscles tighten with extra strength. Light glinted off his sword as it was unsheathed and he saw out of the corner of his eyes the shine of the fenrra.
An arrow hissed by him and buried itself deep in a soldier’s shoulder. He felt the animal inside him coming to life, the one that obliterated thought and feeling. The one that felt no pain. The berserker. Before he let it take him one thought bubbled in his mind, “You will never see Emma again.”
With that, the rage took over and he lunged forward with a yell and brought the blade across his front with incredible speed and force. It sliced the man in front of him across the belly, spilling his intestines on the forest floor. The world was in slow motion with the enhancements being made by the two Venefica flanking him. He pushed the falling man aside and closed in on another.
Keither stumbled over to the horses and retrieved Legon’s giant cleaver. His job was simple: keep enemies away from Sasha and Sara. He came lumbering back up, still feeling dizzy from hitting the tree. Sara was handing arrows to Sasha at break-neck speed, and Sasha in turn was shooting them at the oncomers. Keither noticed that she wasn’t shooting to kill, but rather to injure and incapacitate. He started as flashes of emerald and purple illuminated the clearing. Legon and Arkin were fighting with magic. He looked to see Arkin snap a man’s neck with a bolt of green magic. Legon followed suit by firing a blast of amethyst light, obliterating half of a man’s pelvis.
Keither was having a hard time following the magic battle. Arkin, Kovos, and Legon were like blurs and they easily felled ten men, but more came. One made it by Legon and ran at Sasha. She didn’t see him coming. Keither needed to hit him with the cleaver, but he couldn’t. He was too afraid. He dropped the cleaver and fell back away from the oncoming soldier. Sasha turned to see the man raise his battle axe. It started forward. Keither couldn’t look and covered his face. Then came the sound of someone hitting the ground… was she dead? He looked to see the man lying on the ground, Kovos’ hunting knife protruding from the side of his neck. A voice came.
“Keither!” It was Sara. He looked at her very red and angry face. “Time to be a man. Do your job, got it?”
He stood and took the cleaver in his hands.
Sasha was aware that she had nearly been killed, but thankfully she was almost in a full Mahann state and wasn’t feeling emotion right now. She was taking full advantage of the Mahann and the magic making her stronger. She was acting as the center of the mental network with everyone connected through her. She could sense the changes Legon and Arkin were making to spells, and who Kovos was going to decapitate next. Sara was keeping her busy with a steady amount of arrows which were quickly running out. Keither, however, was not connected. He was too scared; his mind was closed. Not that Sasha would have let him in with his current level of fear. She couldn’t have an unstable emotion clogging her network.
Sasha was aiming for major joints like shoulders and hips. They were debilitating injuries and made the men scream bloody murder. Hopefully there were a lot of conscripts in this group and the screams of their comrades would take the fight out of them. However, the strategy didn’t seem to be working, and a steady stream of new soldiers was filling the clearing. She told Kovos to move over a foot. As he did, she let an arrow go. It flew past the man he was fighting but hit another square in the shoulder, embedding itself in the joint. She continued to fire but paused as she saw a new figure entering the clearing. Not even the Mahann could stop the emotion this time.
A tall man in all black jumped into the clearing. His long silver hair, thin face, grey skin, and yellow eyes struck fear deep into her. The Iumenta had two fenrra in his hands and looked at her. He was about fifty yards away, — well within range. He came forward, covering ten yards in a few steps. She began to rapid fire the arrows at him, not caring about hitting joints, just going for a hit. He flicked the arrows away lazily with the fenrra as he came. Kovos moved in his path, swinging his sword hard. The Iumenta parried the blow and lashed out at Kovos.
Legon was aware that for the second time in his life he was slicking the surrounding trees and landscape with other people’s blood. This came to him after cutting a man’s throat with the tip of the fenrra in his left hand. They now shined crimson with their new coating. He moved forward coming, down close to the ground in between two men. He pivoted on his right foot, swinging a fenrra at a man’s leg, chopping the femur in half and severing the femoral artery. More blood sprayed everywhere. As the leg came free of its howling owner, Legon turned and with the other blade stabbed the other man. He turned the tip of the fenrra so it effortlessly passed through the man’s ribs, slicing lung and heart.
The soldier’s armor seemed to have little to no effect on Arkin, Kovos, and himself. With the magical enhancements to their bodies, they even cut through chainmail without issue. Still, he was feeling a definite drain on his magic. In the beginning he had been sure that there would only be a few of them, but they didn’t seem to stop. Arkin was using his magic to fortify their bodies from injury, so if a major vein was cut, the bleeding would stop instantly. Sasha was managing the whole thing from a distance, tapping into their minds and using logic to decide the best amount of energy to be used and where.
Suddenly, on the other side of the clearing an Iumenta stepped into view, and Legon felt his body go cold. Even with magic helping them he wasn’t sure they could stop and Iumenta. What if it was a Venefica? He felt Arkin’s emotions boil up in the connection.
Sasha was shooting as fast as she could. He felt more emotions, but this time from Kovos. They were ones of finality and sorrow. His best friend stepped in the path of the Iumenta, slashing hard at him. He was no match, but Legon and Arkin both started dumping copious amounts of magic into Kovos, who was fighting as hard as he could. He was starting to acquire minor nicks and cuts but didn’t seem to care. The Iumenta was backing away. Kovos was winning!
Still more and more men entered the area. Their camp must be somewhere nearby. Legon could only see one way out. It was going to knock him out, but it was their only hope. He felt magic building in him and also sensed Sasha’s apprehension. The spell was simple, really; it was just going to shred twenty or so men in the area. In the pause Arkin could help Kovos and kill the Iumenta. If they were lucky, when others arrived to see so many of their own dead and a slain Iumenta, they wouldn’t pursue.
He felt the magic hit a point that it hadn’t ever reached before, even more than the other day when blocking the dragon. He released the spell, pointing the palm of his hand at the rushing soldiers. Time stopped in that instant. He saw an orb of lavender magic form in his hand and start to leave. It was size of his head and tear- shaped. The tear was a translucent purple with bright veins of lilac glowing around it. The smaller end stayed connected to his palm. He’d never seen magic like this before. It always had moved so fast; this was beautiful. It continued to stretch, the tiny bit connected to him. Then, moving like water, it snapped back to him, covering his
