The pattering of feet made me look around. A pack of birds were heading out of the sands of the Vigorous Zone. Each one was around six feet tall, with powerful legs and wings that looked too small to give them flight. Beady eyes peered out past wicked beaks on heads that bobbed up and down on the end of long necks. Their gray-brown feathers fluttered as they ran, while deadly talons gouged the ground beneath their feet.
“Plumed snatchers,” Choshi said as she brought her spear around.
“You’ve fought them before?” I asked.
“Yes. They’re where we get the cores for Sandstorm technique.”
“Not all of us have that yet,” Onvar added.
“That’s something we should fix.” I drew my sword and readied myself, smiling at the prospect of gaining a new technique.
The initiates also drew their weapons, but as Elorinelle nocked an arrow to her bow, I could see that her hand was trembling. Several of the others also looked nervous. Having faced these monsters before wasn’t enough to give them the confidence they needed.
“Think about how you use your powers,” I said as the plumed snatchers approached. “When I’m using Untamed Torch, I’ve got different options.”
I held out my hand and launched a wide, dispersed burst of flames that made all the snatchers rear back. Before they could recover, I changed the flow of the Vigor through my body and fired again. This time, it was a narrow, focused fireball that hit one of the creatures in the leg. It screeched and fell to the ground, feathers smoldering.
“For beating targets, the second version was more effective,” I said. “See if you can do something similar with your Ground Strikes.”
The initiates crouched, and each one raised a fist above the earth. As the plumed snatchers started running again, there was a thud of blows against the floor, and ripples of dirt ran out from the initiates. Some of the Strikes were still broad waves like those we’d used to fight each other, but some were more concentrated and knocked a couple of the snatchers off their feet.
“Work together!” I called out. “That’s the best chance of combining your powers to get the kills.”
Then, the first of the snatchers were on us.
I flung up an Ash Cloud in the faces of the leading snatchers. Two veered away and crashed into each other, then fell in a tangle of wings, legs, and feathers. One charged straight on through, indifferent to the darkness, and emerged with its feathers smeared in soot. Before it had a chance to work out what I was doing, I swung the Sundered Heart Sword and sliced off its head.
The earth trembled as the initiates kept pumping out focused Ground Strikes while others raised their weapons in defense. Drek charged the nearest bird and swung his heavy club as he bellowed a guttural battle cry.
Another two birds appeared around the side of my Ash Cloud and rushed toward me. This time, I launched an Acidic Cloud, aimed at their legs instead of their heads. As the biting pain of the acid hit, the creatures reared back, but the green gas was all around them. One stumbled forward, and I ran it through. The other fell into the cloud as its acid-weakened legs gave way under it, then screeched and writhed on the ground. Just outside the cloud, I took a moment to carefully aim, then launched a series of Stinging Palm thorns through the creature’s eye into its brain. It gave one last twitch before it went still.
Around me, my new students were engaged in a fierce and chaotic battle against the beasts. Each initiate seemed to be focusing on just one thing. Some, like Drek, were attacking the snatchers in hand-to-hand combat, battering away at them with more zeal than sophistication. The others were hammering away with their Augmenting. Their Ground Strikes were becoming more focused and effective, but there was no variety in how they fought, no switching between techniques to throw opponents off. The snatchers were starting to learn the patterns. They hopped over waves of dirt to save themselves and get closer to the Augmenters.
I unstrapped the Depthless Dream Trident from where it hung across my back and headed into the thick of the fray with both weapons in hand.
“Dual-wielding?” Nydarth asked. “You continue to impress, Swordslinger.”
Yono whispered something in return, but I barely heard her. Concern for my new students had every ounce of my focus.
A snatcher had knocked Drek over and pinned him to the ground with a clawed foot. He snarled as the beast raised its beak ready to swing down and crack his head open. While the dwarf writhed beneath the bird, I lunged in with the trident. The weapon’s gleaming points plunged into the snatcher’s flank, and I twisted it before pulling it out. The snatcher collapsed in death while Drek climbed quickly to his feet.
“Don’t just batter at it head on,” I said. “Think about how you can use your powers or other attacks to throw your opponent off balance.”
I lunged again, this time aiming the trident at a snatcher’s face. As it swayed back, my sword came in low, fast and flaming, and sliced off one leg. The creature fell, and Drek finished it off with a crushing blow to the skull.
“Someone on the left, summon a Sandstorm,” I called out to the others. “Don’t try to take them out with it; drive them toward the center.”
There was a hiss and whirl of sand on the edge of the fight. Sure enough, the snatchers veered away from it, bumping into each other as they went. They became bunched up in the center and so were less able to maneuver.
“Work in pairs again,” I shouted, confident that the monsters couldn’t understand what I was saying. “One distracts while the other goes on the offensive. Alternate roles and try different attacks.”
I charged headlong at the central snatchers, aiming to keep them busy while the initiates regrouped. One monster slashed at me
