A guard attacked Kegohr just as he opened his eyes. Kegohr brought his weapon up with a flame-fueled swing. His mace collided with the guard’s great-ax and knocked it out of the man’s hands. The ax shot off the road, followed a moment later by its owner.
I took a moment to imitate my friend and strengthen myself. This time, I drew upon the power of water to coat me in Frozen Armor. Water Vigor flowed out through my flesh and formed protective plates across my body.
I blocked an opportunistic strike with my newly protected arm. The armor shattered beneath the impact but left my arm intact, and I used my other hand to bring the Sundered Heart around. Steel rent armor and pierced flesh as I chopped down the guard.
“Hey Kegohr!” Vesma shouted. “One for you!”
Vesma shot an Untamed Torch at the ground and propelled herself upward. She used another fireball to adjust her trajectory so that she vaulted over Kumi’s head and hit a guard feet first. He stumbled back straight into a swing from Kegohr that knocked him into the dirt with a crunch.
My Ash Clouds were clearing, but I didn’t want to give the guards time to regroup. While Kegohr covered me, I directed a stream of Vigor down through my body, into the ground, and back up to form Plank Pillars. A rough palisade of wooden boards exploded from the dirt and blocked the furthest guards from getting back to us while we dealt with their comrades.
Kegohr sent another guard flying as his body blazed with ancestral power. Vesma held out her hand to launch a blast of fire at a guard. The enemy screamed and fell to the ground as his hair and clothes were smothered in flames. The man beside him turned and raised his mace to attack Vesma, but he gurgled when Kumi appeared behind him and drove a knife up into his armpit. He let out a gasp as his club fell from his hands. Vesma’s spear ignited, and his flesh sizzled as she impaled him.
I turned to the stream beside the walls and used Crashing Wave to collect the water into an aquatic sphere. With a wave of my hands, the water slammed into the guard captain and crushed him beneath its weight. The liquid spread out over the ground and left puddles and patches of mud.
I spotted a group of guards atop the battlements nock arrows to their bows.
“Archers!” I yelled.
I pulled at my Vigor and created a Smothering Mist to block their vision. Their aim was affected by the fog cloud, but they still sent arrows screaming into me and my friends. Before the projectiles could hit home, Vesma and Kegohr jumped in front of me and raised their Flame Shields. The arrows burned up on their fiery defenses, and I expanded their shields with Flame Empowerment until they were at least three feet wide.
“Enough of this,” I said. “We’re not going to get out of here alive unless I do something.”
With grim determination, I sent Vigor coursing through the fire and water combination channels inside me. A sickly feeling boiled in my chest as I activated the acid element. The Smothering Mist that had shrouded the guards on the battlements turned a noxious green, and the sound of them choking filled my ears. Bodies topped from the city walls and crashed to the ground 20 feet below.
The rest of the guards on the ground level found their way around my wooden barriers and trudged through the mire I’d created. I summoned two lines of Plank Pillars so that the remaining guards were boxed in and could only move in single-file. I lifted one hand and produced a vortex of fire in the center of my hand, the Burning Wheel. I released it, and the flaming sphere expanded before it careened down the corridor of Plank Pillars and tore into the guards. Those who weren’t incinerated fled, leaving their roasted comrades to writhe on the stone path behind them.
A surviving knot of soldiers peeked around the edge of the flaming wall of wood. There were four of them and four of us. They froze when we advanced over the smoldering remains of the other guards.
“We came to Hyng’ohr to meet with Lord Ganyir. If he is no friend of yours, then it’s clear the cult has already won over your hearts. You drew first blood, and we are only defending ourselves.”
Our mission was to meet with Lord Ganyir inside the city, but he obviously wasn’t here. For now, we needed to retreat with our lives; there was no telling how many more soldiers would reinforce the remnants outside the wall. There weren’t any Augmenters among them, but that didn’t mean there weren’t some inside the city, racing toward us now.
Fire flared along the blade of the Sundered Heart. Vesma and Kegohr imitated the move, sending Vigor through their weapons to engulf them in fire. Kumi simply ran her daggers across each other and drew out a metallic note.
The guards looked at us, each other, and back to us again.
Then they turned and, as a single group, ran back toward the city gates.
I let the flames fade from my sword. The burning Plank Pillars fell away, but I maintained the remains of my Frozen Armor. No harm in a little extra protection, after all.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kegohr said. “That’s what I’m after.” He kicked one of the injured guards groaning on the floor. “That’s what happens when you take on the Immortal Swordslinger and his buddies.”
I produced a grim smile. I hadn’t liked killing all these guards, but they’d given us no choice.
The gates creaked open as we approached them again.
There was a thud that shook the earth, then another, and another as footsteps heavier than an elephant pounded the ground. A colossal figure emerged from the town. It was a bipedal giant, 10 feet tall and
