Time for thoughts of war. Not for thoughts of life…
Another thirty minutes passed without much happening. The Bordash were silent below. It seemed they were inspecting the tunnel and cavern where Jase and I had been camped out. The occasional knife was still finding its way over the Bordash body shield I had placed in the opening. I crept on my stomach up beside him, so I could see better and looked over the edge.
Just as I did, a Bordash appeared level with me, floating up to look over my ledge.
I whipped a knife at him with my left hand and with it came a gush of gale-force wind, stronger than anything the storm was blowing, the knife piercing him in the chest and the wind knocking him off-kilter and slamming him back to the ground and surely breaking his back. His scream was a wild animal, twisted scream that curdled my blood and made my mouth dry.
I looked at my left hand, stunned. The ring’s coils were writhing around my finger, the carbon gleaming. Had that ring just helped me telekinetically push air at an enemy?
I looked slowly at the ground and the other Bordash still gathered there and thrust all my Will into a knife throw with my left hand again and they scattered as the knife impaled the ground with such force that it made a small crater and the ground puffed up in a meter diameter from the gale force that came with it.
"Holy shit…" I breathed out, then crawled back further into the ledge, as more knives rained into the cave and I had to blow them back with a telekinetic shield. More Bordash had gathered on the boulders and game trail below outside the tunnel. There are a dozen or so of them. I hoped the Curans would find us soon, because, even though Jase was incredibly powerful, I wasn't sure how it was going to work out for us in this case.
I peeked over the edge again. Half a dozen of the Bordash had disappeared… Were they circling up on top of the hill above me?
I looked out into the lightning-ridden valley and nearly cheered, for there was Jase, atop a boulder, looking down at the Bordash, with a dozen Curans, fanning out, ready to attack the Bordash. His blonde hair was blowing wild in the wind underneath his cloak’s hood, I could practically see his brown eyes flashing with the light of a million battles won, his fists were clenching and unclenching at his sides, his cloak swept back by the wind over one shoulder, his strong shoulders revealed and making me desire him more than ever.
“Get back into the cavern, they are on top of you, scaling downward. We will take care of it,” Jase said to me.
I abided, moving back, but at an angle where I could still see some Bordash and Curans below. The tension gripping my heart was melting, replaced with nervous quivers. I was more and more relieved that Jase was there, and he was armed, ready, with many of his top-end soldiers. I was, instead, nervous for the battle, and nervous to impress, to earn, to deserve, my Alpha Warlord.
Then the Curans were floating up in the air, firing knives at the Bordash and the lightning was raging, and metal was singing through the air, raindrops were pounding, thunder was crashing, and men and women were screaming war cries or agonized pain in surprise at the sudden onslaught and firefight.
Two Bordash scrambled over the edge of the ledge and into my cavern as cries and commands rang out below. They crept toward me, and I flung some of the many gathered knives at them from my crouching spot in the corner, making myself a small target. The Bordash flicked them aside easily with their own telekinetic power.
I built up my Will and flushed all my anxiety toward them with an explosion of power from the ring hand.
The force of the wind rushing from within the cave sent the Bordash flying backwards, out and over the ledge, spiraling wildly over their dead comrade and tumbling down the cliff, bouncing off its edge, unable to get their own telekinetic's able to control their fall, especially since they likely weren't as skilled as the average Curan, and I leaped forward, continuing the pulse of air from my Will to smash them into the salt at the bottom of the cliff.
They crumbled into a mass of armor and cloak and white dust, a flare of black and white in the lightning's flash, red sweeping away in the rain puddles down the game trail.
I spun around, knives at the ready, as I heard another assailant land in the cave behind me. I pulled back to unleash the knife and this bizarre wind power I held.
“Vania! Wait!”
Jase held up his hands, his sideways grin and wild blonde hair the most magical face that could ever flash through lightning at me…
“You called me Vania…”
He grinned even bigger.
“Do you prefer Earthling?”
I wanted to run into his arms. I wanted him to embrace me. I wanted him to tell me that killing in war was a necessity and that I was a good soldier, and that I didn't need to keep a count of the bodies that might pile up as I went along this route ahead of me.
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“Are you—”
A dark shadow floated up into the air beside the ledge, and both of us ducked down, training our knives upon the shadow, but lightning revealed it to be Cassala.
“Alpha Jase, the Bordash are subdued. We have five captives. I would like to begin interrogating them. I think the cavern where you were holed up will be perfect.”
“Good. That is a fine idea. Take the team inside.”
“Would you like to post a sentry on this ledge?”
“That’s a good idea. For right now, please post a sentry on the boulder above the game trail where we first started the battle.”
“Standing in
