Time to even the odds.
“Get a taste of this!” I summoned ashes and gave the master a faceful of them.
Kumi dived, slid between her opponent’s legs, and cut his hamstrings in a single, vicious movement.
The master crashed to the ground as blood sprayed from his legs. Kumi scrambled onto him before he could roll over and slammed a knife down between his shoulder blades.
Labu came to stand beside me as the third of the lecturers advanced, a gleaming longsword in one hand and a shield of ice in the other.
“Traitor,” the master snarled at Labu. “You were never one of us. I knew that from the start.”
“And yet you taught me your techniques anyway,” Labu jeered. “That must cut you deeply.”
Labu blocked the master’s attack and caught the man’s sword on the barbs of his spear. He twisted, weakened the master’s grip on his weapon, and pressed into him. I couldn’t hit Labu’s opponent with a technique when they were so close together, so I moved to flank the enemy as he regained his balance and locked his weapon against Labu’s. The two men fought hard as they tried to drive their blades into the other.
“You’re a failure of the Resplendent Tears Guild,” the master said. “I’ll be proud to restore our honor by putting you down.”
“There is no honor in what you do,” Labu said. “And I am a prince of Qihin City. Not one of your deluded disciples. No longer.”
He took one hand off his spear. The master laughed in triumph as he pushed the weapons toward Labu’s face. But then, Labu’s hand closed around a freshly formed ice spear and plunged it into the master’s chest.
The master stared at him in surprise. Blood ran from his lips as he wobbled for a moment, then toppled to the floor.
Labu roared as he severed the master’s head with a swift stroke of his spear.
“You’re fucking crazy; you know that, right?” I said.
“My vision was clouded before, but I see clearly now.”
I shrugged. Sure, he’d betrayed his clan, but Kumi had seen fit to forgive him. I wouldn’t hold it against him, and we could use every man we could get to stop Horix.
I spotted a trail of blood leading out of the hallway and left Labu and the others behind. I followed it up another staircase and into a dining hall. Rows of long tables stretched down the middle, flanked with benches and plates and cutlery piled up on shelves at the end. Sickly green light streamed through the membrane windows as Horix’s Toxic Blizzard howled outside.
I saw Cadrin halfway in the hall. He shot a fearful glance over his shoulder, then his face hardened as he saw me approach him.
“Done running?” I asked.
“You’ll pay for your crimes against us,” he hissed as he climbed onto a table.
I fought off the urge to set everything on fire again and jumped up onto the table to meet him.
The room was lit only by the light coming through the windows. The Toxic Blizzard Horix had summoned had shrouded the moon, and now, the celestial object provided only a dim and dismal glow.
Cadrin summoned a frozen whip again and whipped the table with a sharp crack. Splinters showered me, and I raised the Sundered Heart to shield my face.
“He’s a little rabbit,” Nydarth told me with a laugh. “Look at him.”.
Cadrin slashed at me with his whip, but it was a wild strike, and I easily sliced through it with the Sundered Heart. I moved slowly forward and didn’t take my eyes from his face. The whip bit my arm and cut through my frozen armor a second time. Cadrin’s face went white as he slashed again and again. I absorbed the strikes with small Flame Shields and the occasional swipe of my sword.
“Die!” Cadrin screamed at me.
“His fear,” Nydarth whispered. “It’s delicious. Drink it in, Ethan.”
I dashed across the table’s surface with a savage yell. Cadrin jumped back to another table behind him and cracked the whip again. This time, the barb caught me in the side. There was a jolt of pain, and blood flowed across my hip.
I stumbled as pain threatened to topple me, but the white mask of fear that Cadrin wore was worth every second of it. Sunlight Ichor flowed from my fingers as I pressed it into the gaps in my armor. The technique was dependent on the light of day, so it wouldn’t heal me, but the sticky substance was more than enough to staunch the bleeding. I used a little Vigor to reform the cracks in my armor as Cadrin hurled an Ice Spear at me. I ducked as it whipped toward me and thudded into the wall behind me.
“You can surrender,” I said bluntly. “Lay down your weapon and offer yourself as a prisoner of war. Just tell me where to find Horix and the trident.”
Cadrin turned, jumped off the table, and sprinted the length of the room. I slid off the table and reached out to the furniture around me. I couldn’t hit the fleeing bastard with fire, but an idea struck me as Cadrin drew close to the shelves by the exit to the hall. I’d seen Faryn use the Vigor inside wooden things before.
I ran after him and vaulted over a row of tables between us. Cadrin grabbed the edge of the shelves just as I reached out to the wood and felt it give at the touch of my Vigor. Stinging Palm thorns exploded out of the wooden shelving like a grenade. Cadrin shrieked as the spikes cracked his armor and punctured
