I’d barely gone two steps when the ground in front of me rippled with the force of a Ground Strike. I leaped over that wave of magical destruction, but another one was coming in close behind. This time, I was hit and flung from my feet. I landed with a thud, shaken and aching, and looked up to see Targin’s bodyguards blocking my way. One of them punched the ground, and another wave of earth power came crashing toward me.
A large hand grabbed me by the collar and hauled me up off the ground. Kegohr jumped aside, carrying me with him, and the Ground Strike shot past.
“I’ve got to get past them,” I said to Kegohr. “Targin’s on a rampage, and they’re keeping me from him.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kegohr said. “Let’s smash them then.”
He charged straight at the bodyguards, his Flame Shield raised, and I ran with him.
As he charged, Kegohr launched blasts of fire from the front of the shield. They shot straight toward the closest bodyguard. She raised her arm, which turned to stone a moment before the fire hit, so that his attack burst harmlessly across the magical protection.
More Ground Strikes shot out from the bodyguards. I leaped over one, and the impact of another shattered the Frozen Armor around my legs, but it wasn’t enough to knock me down, so I kept running toward the enemy.
If I was going to get close, I needed a way to stop them from constantly targeting me. With so much of my Vigor already used up, high-powered attacks weren’t an option, but I’d developed a big bag of tricks that I could draw from.
I called forth the power of ash and sent it streaming from my hands. An Ash Cloud formed around the heads of the bodyguards and blocked their view of my charge.
Immediately, a bodyguard flung his hands wide. A Sandstorm shot out from him, its scouring wind dispersing the ash and leaving the bodyguards’ view clear. A foot stamped down, and another Ground Strike rippled toward me.
Kegohr’s reserves of energy also seemed to be running low. His Spirit of the Wildfire had worn off, and he was left fighting with his natural strength. It was impressive, but it wasn’t the same as having the Vigor empower him with the strength and fury of the most destructive element.
He reached the nearest bodyguard and swung his mace with both hands. She blocked it with a two-handed warhammer, its head a brutally spiked weight in the shape of some ancient and vicious bird. While Kegohr drew back, she swung the weapon around to hit him with the counterweight on the base. He dodged, took a glancing blow in the side, and came at her with his mace again.
I was almost in the fight now, and still looking for ways to even the odds. I sent Vigor through the channels in my body, down my legs, and into the ground. It arced back up beneath one of the bodyguards, and a Plank Pillar shot up in a spray of sand. It sent one bodyguard flying and blocked the others’ view of me as I drew near.
There was a crash as a club with a heavy stone head collided with the pillar. The planks fell to the ground, clearing the space between us.
I raised my hand and sprayed a burst of thorns at the warrior with the club. Before the projectiles could strike his face, his skin turned gray as granite, and the thorns shattered against it.
Quickly, I reached into my mud channels and summoned another Mud Entrapment. The ground beneath the bodyguard turned to sludge, and he started sinking into it. He pulled one arm free, but that only made the other one sink deeper. He shouted in rage as his whole body was slowly sucked into the damp sand.
I ran into the other two bodyguards with my sword and my Flame Shield raised. Immediately, a blow hit me on the shield so hard that it sent me staggering back. These disciples, trained in the earth techniques of the Steadfast Horn Guild and empowered by the dark arts of the Unswerving Shadows Cult, were physically strong and probably strengthened by earth magic. The weight of their weapons added to the incredible impact of their blows. Bones ground against each other in my shoulder at the force of the hit, and I was lucky to stay on my feet.
I was going to have to rely on agility over toughness to deal with these two.
As the next swing of that great club came in, I jumped aside. The head of the weapon hit the ground, and sand sprayed around us. I’d expected to have a moment to strike back, but the other bodyguard was on me. I had to dodge one sweeping blow from a five-foot scimitar, jump over another, and catch a third on my shield. Pain flared through my arm at another great jolt, but I stood my ground and counter-attacked with the Sundered Heart. A thrust of my blade scored a charred line across the bodyguard’s leather armor but didn’t get through to the flesh beneath.
“Slay these fools!” Nydarth yelled inside my head.
The two men circled to come at me from opposite sides. I parried a blow from one, dodged an attack from the other, and channeled wood. A Plank Pillar burst from the ground beneath my feet. It propelled me into the air even as it separated my two opponents. I sprang from the top and landed behind one of them. I brought my sword around and caught him in the side. Blood sprayed as I cut through his armor, and he grimaced, but even with the trickle of red running down his side, he raised his hammer and slammed it down with a mighty force.
I had to stay engaged with this guy, to try to deal with him in the few seconds before his comrade came around the Plank Pillar. Instead of leaping clear of the blow, I
