A group of Augmenters, distinguished as disciples by the blue trim on their robes, advanced and raised their hands to summon Ice Spears. I countered with an enormous Ash Cloud and rushed forward to take advantage of their blindness.
The first disciple flung an Ice Spear at me. It hit my chest in a bolt of sheer luck and glanced off my armor. The other disciples weren’t so quick. I cut down the first offender with a blurring cut to his throat. Another staggered out of the cloud with a dagger in his hand, his flesh blistered and oozing from my acid. The Sundered Heart flared in an arc to take his hand. The disciple screamed as I pierced his throat and kicked him from the blade of my sword.
“Oh, yes, sweet man,” Nydarth said inside my head. “Keep the magic flowing. Keep the power flowing. Keep the blood flowing. I know you can win this.”
Yo Hin took flight as he used his extraordinary fire power to launch himself into the air. He hovered over his opponents as he tossed fireballs down at them. Some managed to hurl Ice Spears back at him, but the projectiles melted before they could touch him.
I slashed down and burned through a disciple’s Frozen Armor as Veltai threw herself into a pack of initiates. Flames flared from her nunchucks as she knocked out one man with her weapon, shoulder barged another to the ground, and then stomped on his throat. She finished the last of the knot with a burst of Untamed Torch. The man screamed as his flesh melted away under the intense heat of Veltai’s attack.
An initiate on a nearby balcony hurled an Ice Spear at Yo Hin. The weedy Radiant Dragon disciple bobbed and weaved through the air as the spear flew past an inch from his face. Yo Hin and Veltai fired at once, and their Untamed Torches hit the sniper in a blast of flames. The initiate howled as he toppled from the balcony in a mass of scorched flesh and blazing clothes.
I kicked back a guard as he tried to ram his spear into Vesma’s unarmored back. A root burst from the pavestones from beneath his feet and caught him around the leg as Faryn appeared off to my left. She curled her fingers as she channeled her Strangling Roots technique. I slashed the throat of the immobilized guard in front of me and watched as a chunk of guards fought off panic and backed away from Faryn.
More roots knocked cobblestones aside and grasped at the legs of the fleeing guards. The twists of greenery worked their way up their legs before they climbed up the torsos of the increasingly panicked soldiers. I decapitated one to my right and ripped open another’s throat with a spray of Stinging Palm thorns. The guards turned from their fight with us to attack the forces of nature that threatened to slow them in their escape. One of them cut himself as he sliced hastily at the roots. Three other guards howled curses as roots toppled them over and wrapped around their throats.
I hit a disciple with a head kick as Faryn changed her stance and Smothering Leaves rushed the enemy. A whirlwind of foliage swirled around the trapped soldiers, and Augmenters rushed in to protect them by raising shields of ice and using their Ice Spears to cut through the roots. It was a good effort, but the elf was already a step ahead of them.
Faryn twisted her hands, and the leaves aged. Fresh greenery faded to the withered brown shapes of dried autumn leaves. Vesma stepped forward and launched a burst of fire from her Flame Shield. I cast a wide stream of Untamed Torch, and our techniques ignited the leaves and the roots. A tornado of dried Smothering Roots became a wildfire and billowed around the guards and the Augmenters. The heat of the flames melted Frozen Armor and Ice Spears. Embers seared flesh and ripped howls of pain from strong men.
Boosted by a flow of magical water from Kumi, I fought back the initiates and disciples with a boost of water from Kumi. A fresh wave advanced from the guest quarters. I summoned Plank Pillars to hold back their advance and set the wooden shafts alight to break their formation. Blasts of fire made them duck for cover and kept them scattered.
Kegohr shattered one of the fresh guards’ skulls as he pushed out from the center of the courtyard. Spirit of the Wildfire blazed within him so fiercely that the magic glowed through his gray skin. It created a fiery aura from the tips of his pointy ears to the ends of his clawed toes. He swung his two-handed mace in huge, destructive arcs that scythed through the enemy and further broke their formation.
I blocked a spear thrust from another reinforcement, sliced the offending weapon in half, and crushed the guard’s throat with an ice-covered fist.
Kegohr roared so loud that it shook the shutters of the windows. “Come on, then!” he bellowed. “Where’s your superiority now, you bastards!?”
A group of trident-wielding guards advanced on Kegohr from one side and drew his attention. I ducked under a sword and shoved away an initiate as I sprinted to help my friend. Keghor slapped tridents aside as he pushed back his new trio of attackers. But his attention was split, and he couldn’t see a new pair of guards charge him from behind.
Veltai was there before they could strike. She delivered a flying kick to the head that sent a guard sprawling in a spray of blood and teeth. Her nunchucks whirled around and smacked the next one before she caught a spear in the weapon’s
