“My people?” he said tightly. “A ragtag band of Wild outlaws led by these outsiders? I don’t think so.”
“This isn’t just the Wilds,” Kumi said. “It’s Father and all the soldiers Qihin City could spare. The guild has attacked us repeatedly, sent monsters into the city, and killed innocent people in its attempt to take control. We cannot let that stand.”
“We need the guild. The guild gives us strength.”
“Maybe it did once, but now, all the guild does is take.” She gestured toward the stairs and the sounds of fighting echoing up them. “Listen to that, Labu. Whatever Horix told you is a lie. This isn’t just the Wilds or people left to grow chaotic without their king taking charge. This is our nation rising up against darker forces. This is us fighting for a world with space for all of us, for a guild where Wilds are free to train without the mockery you’ve faced. Will you not stand for that?”
“Time to choose, Prince,” I told him. “Stand with us or fall with those who would use you.”
Labu’s mouth hung open as his barbed spear trembled in his hand.
“Enough talk,” snapped one of the guild disciples. “It’s time to finish this Wild bitch off.”
He advanced and raised his great curved sword above his head.
“My sister,” Labu said, so quietly it could barely be heard.
“What?” the disciple demanded, as I darted in to intercept him.
“That’s my sister!” Labu bellowed.
He grabbed his spear with both hands and rammed it into the guy’s belly. Crystalline armor shattered beneath the fury of the thrust, and the spear drove all the way through the disciple’s body to protrude out his back.
The other disciples stared in shock as Labu wrenched the spear back out, let the body drop, and turned on them. I lunged past Labu and smashed through another disciple’s armor with a front kick. The disciples scattered to avoid their falling comrade as Kumi rushed to her brother’s side and drew her daggers once again.
A disciple raised his hands, and the temperature of the hallway turned arctic.
I cast Flame Empowerment, and the torch beside the Augmenter bloomed into a huge fireball. The blast of fire turned the snow from the disciple’s hand into a cloud of hissing steam.
Labu charged at the man. His spear crashed through armor to break the arm beneath.
I joined the fray alongside him with Kumi at my back. Our weapons struck Frozen Armor, left gashes in their protective layers, and drew blood from the flesh beneath.
Roots rose from the floor. They weren’t as strong as when Faryn had first summoned them outdoors, but they were enough to catch the ankles of the disciples. I put a wall of Plank Pillars between my friends and my enemies, gave myself Fire Immunity, and bathed the trapped enemies with the flames of the torches. Flame Empowerment turned the hallway into a makeshift oven as the disciples’ armor melted and their bodies broiled. Their screams died down as I withdrew the Plank Pillars.
“Gracious spirits,” Kumi whispered as she stared down at the charred corpses.
I turned to Labu. “I thought you were going to stay an asshole forever.”
“Takes one to know one,” Labu said as he flung an Ice Spear at a group of soldiers coming up behind us.
“Very mature, gentlemen,” Faryn commented as she summoned a whirlwind of leaves to knock back the soldiers.
“Maybe when I’m past a hundred, I’ll have those sorts of spectacular insights,” I said as I used my flaming sword to cut down the soldiers.
“It’s rude to talk about a lady’s age,” Kumi said. “And ruder still to keep our host waiting.”
She headed for another set of stairs. The rest of us followed and bolted up the steps. We couldn’t afford to waste time. The longer we took, the more time Horix would have to muster his reinforcements and throw obstacles in our path.
Five guards barred our progress at the top of the staircase. I didn’t have time for more distractions. The power of wood flooded free of my feet, and a Plank Pillar erupted from the wall to the guards’ left as we neared them. It punched into them like a piledriver and scattered them across the floor. Two rolled down the stairs beside me as I cleared the last step. I leaped over the shaft of wood, kicked a guard in passing, and kept moving.
“Show off,” Kumi called out.
“I don’t think a princess gets to give lessons in humility,” I said.
“She definitely wasn’t humble growing up,” Labu said.
The corridors tightened on the next floor as four Augmenters appeared from alcoves in the hallway. Each bore richly embroidered Resplendent Tears robes and moved with a deliberate step. Vigor radiated from their bodies like bonfires. But the one with the knee-high boots and boy-band haircut held my attention.
“Here you are at last,” Cadrin said. “I told Master Horix that you would choose the wrong side, but he didn’t believe me. Now, as my reward, I get to tear you apart myself.”
He flexed his arm and a whip-like strand of ice tipped with an ugly barb hissed toward me. I threw up a Flame Shield and turned the attack into a cloud of splintering snow. Cadrin cracked his ice whip against the ground and laughed as he gave it another twist. The whip struck my cheek as I turned to block it, and the attack exploded into glittering fragments. A vicious gash opened up on my face, and hot red blood dripped into my mouth.
Cadrin grinned and ran a finger along his face. “Of course, I won’t kill you here and now,” he said as he summoned another whip. “Just bleed you out and leave you useless to your friends. Then, I’ll have you chained up in a cell where I can take the knives to you, really see what makes an elementalist tick.”
“And you call the Wilds monsters,” I said. “You callous fucking hypocrite.”
I spun my fiery blade and
