"...leader of the revolution."
I stopped and looked closer at him. Besides for his scar, he resembled most every other griffin I'd met, though to me they all look the same. At least ponies have different colours. However what separated Rathgur was not appearance, but his manner in which he carried himself. I could tell he was weary, yet determined. I was surprised at how collected he was compared to the other two, though I assume he was a leader for a reason. Still, he had gone from next in line for execution, to speaking to a couple of foreign species that had wiped his enemies out in but a moment.
Van was staring at the griffin while he wiped his arrows off on a rag. Rathgur met his gaze, and the two entered into a stare down that went on for quite some time before I felt the need to break the nearly tangible tension.
"Why are you in Equestria then? Shouldn't you be… oh I don't know, leading somewhere?"
The griffin looked at me as if I was crazy. "A true leader always joins his soldiers. Only a coward would send troops to do what he himself would not."
Vanidadh let out a sigh. "So what happens to the others you're supposed to lead if you're captured, which you were? They're down a leader, and you're on your way to being dead. Which you would have been. Think about it for a second."
"I… the ambush was unexpected."
"Oh really? An unexpected ambush?" His voice was laced with sarcastic surprise. "That's kind of the point of an ambush, dude…Ok, what happened to the original leader? I have to hear this."
"She was captured while trying to free captive civilians." He explained.
"Do you see my point yet? Or are you just bad at observation?" Rathgur met this with a clenching of his beak yet remained silent. "First your leader gets booked and you have to choose a new one. Unless your group is incredibly small and you were simply chosen as the least likely to mess it up, I assume you have some sort of qualification to step up as replacement." The griffin opened his beak to intercede but was cut off. "Yet you still ignored the lesson of your first leader, and go out to get captured as well. In fact, if not for our chancing upon you, you would be dead with your troop. How would your revolution respond to that?"
"Likely… poorly." He replied.
"Exactly. You owe us a great deal, and I literally mean a great deal. Like a deal, that's great."
He nodded his head. "Yes, that I do."
"I mean, not only did we just save the doomed fate of your rebellion-"
"Hold your tongue." The griffin demanded. "How can you speak of my cause being doomed when you are ignorant of what our cause is?"
Van shrugged. "Fair enough. Care to enlighten me?"
During this whole conversation, I liked to think that I was gathering information and processing it. Really, it was just an interesting conversation and I was watching it like a enthusiastic fan might watch a play.
"Two years ago," He began solemnly, "during the rule of King Helgvar, there was a great storm that swept across our country. Every griffin not inside a stable structure was either crippled beyond our ability to heal, or killed; we lost over a quarter of our entire population to that storm. Some, unlucky enough to be caught in the sky when the storm had hit, were smitten by lightning. Others were drowned in the floods, and yet more were swept away by the fierce winds, never to be seen again. After 4 days of this raging torrent of nature, the storm simply stopped, all at once. The clouds still hung in the sky, and even now cover my land like a blanket. Once damage assessment had been completed in the capital, the King decreed that the worst had passed, and that the citizens should resume regular life. That was hardly what happened.
"During the storm, the majority of those killed fell into four groups. The hunters that were outside were killed, as was almost all of the postal service. The poor that could not afford sturdy housing fell as well, and miscellaneous others that were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Without a standard system of communication, 200 messengers were dispatched by the king, to fly east and see how the far side of his nation had fared. Not a single one of these messengers was heard from again. The king was furious at the loss of yet more of his people, and sent every member of his elite fighting force, called the Deathkin, to find out what had happened to the missing griffins. Only 2 of these soldiers returned. They claimed to the king that lightning had come from the clouds and stricken down all but them, as they had been assigned with hunting a meal for their squad and had been grounded when the lightning hit.
"After losing almost every single one of their comrades, the two abandoned the mission and trekked back to Tairmva, the capital city, to report what had occurred. The king was upset, yet not nearly as much as the two who returned without the brothers, the family of warriors they had fought with for so long. One of the two deserted the king, no longer wanting to follow a king whose orders were incompetent. The other held his anger in check, but resumed service to the king. In appreciation, and guilt, the King offered him a chance to earn a nobility title of the highest order, one made up for this circumstance so that the Deathkin would be second only to the royal family. The soldier accepted, on the terms that he would have the king's daughters talons in marriage. The king agreed to this, and sent the Deathkin on his quest to the east to report on the wellbeing of his land. It took him 6 months, but the Deathkin returned with grave news: the general population was starving with the lack of skilled hunters, and an inability to fly without being struck by lightning. Only the richer class remained, and they warred over what food was left, and the little amount being brought in from citizens who hunted for themselves. The Deathkin was granted the title of Supreme Baron, as well as his wife, and travelled back east to rule over his granted land. Instead of building his own castle, he occupied Foghead Keep, a fort used in the old Civil Wars. He still resides there, I believe."
Van waved his hand to shush the griffin. "Can you get to the point, if you don't mind? Today, preferably." The prisoner looked angered and culturally offended, but he couldn't really do much, considering he was bound.
"So be it. Long story made to be short, the Baron needed money to make repairs, and so began to enforce heavy taxes. Those who were unable to pay were taken as slaves. With slavery providing free labour and taxes solving the financial problem that the Baron was having, reparations were made quickly. When they were done, he still had a flow of money coming from those who were wealthy enough to pay the taxes, and a large workforce. So he gave the option to pay off taxes owed in his military, and essentially earn your own freedom. Many chose this option, excited for a chance to be free, and the Barons army grew rapidly. 6 months ago, the Baron led his army to Tairmva, occupied the city, and after a lengthy duel, killed Helgvar. Claiming himself Supreme Ruler of the nation, he returned to Foghead. His wife, upon hearing about the death of her father, was furious. She fled the Keep that night, and fled west back to Tairmva. The citizens there recognized her as the heir to the throne, but she feared such an upfront opposition against her husband, and so refused to take up the position. Instead, she spoke of the evil ways of the Baron, and the public rallied behind her opinions and words rather than her bloodline."
"Let me guess," I interrupted, "the Baron didn't like that too much, did he?"
"Correct," came the reply, "His army was luckily spotted before it reached Tairmva, and the kings daughter had time to prepare the people. By the time the army arrived, the city lay empty of life, and a quarter of the army was killed by traps left behind. In a rage, the Baron ordered the city razed to the ground, and it was done. Now we have no home and live to the north, among the trees and snow, with no hope to fly and no direction but to get as many innocents out of the country as we can before we're found."
Van nodded. "Like I said, doomed fate. Alright then, I've got a deal for you. We'll free you, on the condition that you help us find a pony called Myth Buster. You'll also let us take out the Baron."
The griffin scoffed. "You're welcome to try. I bet every last coin that I've got that you'd die before you even got close."
"You willing to hold true to that bet?" Van asked with a mischievous smile on his face.
The look of doubt turned to one of astonishment. "You're not kidding, are you?"
"Not at all." Van replied as his smile faded to a smirk. "Where I'm from, slavery was abolished long ago. If I can help do the same here, I will. Violet, free them."
I snapped out of my riveted stare. "Excuse me?"
Vanidadh sighed. "Free them, please?"
I maneuvered a piece of my spear-metal to the binds on the griffin in the middle's wings and legs, cutting through each of them swiftly. I then turned to the other ones and did the same. After the ropes fell, the pseudo-leader took a moment to stretch, and Van sent me to go grab Dew Drop as he talked to them. I felt like I wasn't really needed there at the moment anyway so I agreed and went to find her. I put my spear away and, after making a mental note to fashion a holster for it, I made my way through the forest.
So, a Baron that wants to be king, eh? If the Deathkin truly are the elite, it doesn't sound impossible, it just makes me wonder how Van can be so comfortable talking about taking him out. It can't be easy, but then again he did manage to take out a manticore…
A loud crash interrupted my thoughts. i whipped around behind me to find the source of the disturbance, and saw Dew sprawled out on the forest floor.
"Um…" Was all the input I was able to offer at the sight. Dew looked up at me with a mildly embarrassed expression.
"I was trying to sneak up on you." She said by way of explanation.
"You have to work on your stealth skills then." I replied. "How old are you anyways?" She rose to her hooves and used her wings to dust herself off.
"Nineteen years old. I'll be twenty in around… a month? I have no clue what day it is."
"Well try to be a bit more mature. Things are going to get more dangerous from here on out."
"Oh yea? How old are you then, Mr. Tough Pony?" She replied hotly.
"Older than you. Now come on, let's go." She hmph'd. but followed me anyways. We walked in silence to the entrance of the pass, where we saw Van speaking with the leader. I cleared my throat to let him know I was back, and he stopped his conversation and turned to me.
"Good, you're back." Well duh. "You wouldn't happen to have any extra metals on you?" He asked, and I shook my head.
"All I have is my horn-plate and my spear." he sighed in response before pointing back to the griffin. The other two waited awkwardly off to the side.
"Rathgur here would like a weapon. He says his were taken by the Barons soldiers."
"The griffins we took out?"
"Yea. Those troops ambushed Rathgur and his group while they slept. They were trying to escort these two," The silent ones looked up. "into Equestria."
"Why?" I asked.
"Escape slavery, clouds of doom, the baron, stuff like that. At least here they can fly again."
"Wait what?" Dew said. Rathgur opened his beak, but Van held up a hand as he explained the situation.
"Shit's crazy through the pass. You won't be able to fly, and we'll probably be involved in a revolution if we don't die first." He summed up.
She let her jaw hang open for a few seconds before she snapped back to reality. "You're serious?"
Van threw up his hands in exasperation. "Why does everybody find that so surprising?"
I chuckled at him then turned to Rathgur. "So you got these… what do you call female griffins?"
"Griffins." He replied as if it should be obvious.
"Fine. Well, you got them here." I continued. "Welcome to Equestria, blah, blah, blah, the castles that way." I pointed with a hoof. "Go tell Celestia what's going on, don't piss off the guards, and enjoy being able to fly now. Oh yea, and Dew? Don't fly when we get through the pass, you'll get struck by lightning."
"Lightning?!"
"Yea. Lightning. Anything I missed?" I asked Van.
"Rathgur's coming back with us, too." He informed me.
"What do you mean, I'll get struck by lightning?!"
"Right. Shall we then?" I ignored Dew, and pointed towards the small crevice in the side of the looming cliff face.
"Allow me a moment to bid my family farewell." Rathgur asked, to which Van nodded. I connected the dots and realized that means that… "At least, what remains of it." Yep. Now I feel bad for the beak-face.
"Just come over when you're ready." Van told him, then beckoned me to follow him to the area outside the cave. Dew followed us over, and from the flapping noise I could tell that she was flying again. Van hopped up on a rock and sat down, and I sat on the ground. Dew remained airborne and when I gave her a questioning look she explained.
"I didn't get to fly much back home. I forgot how much I loved it, and if I'll get struck by lightning through there, I'm not landing until I have to."
"Fair enough." Van said. "Violet, can I see your cloak?"
"No way, you have your own and I'm already cold." I replied.
"Your old one." He clarified.
"Oh." I said, before magically pulling it out of my saddlebag. I floated it over to him, and he picked it out of the air before standing up and drawing his short sword. He jumped from the rock to a nearby tree, hacking off a thick branch. Before he even landed, he cut the midair branch again. He landed softly on his toes, and sheathed his sword before picking up the short, but thick branch.
He wrapped my cloak around the end and tied it, then doused the fabric with the contents of a vial from beneath his cloak. Some time during this process Dew had flown off, but I was more concerned at the blatant dirtying of my favourite cloak. "Hey, I made that myself!"
"I'll get you a new one." He replied, doing little to console me. "Besides, I need a torch in the cave."
I flashed an illumination spell, just to remind him how much he didn't need a torch.
"Yes, I know you can make light. I need you to do your night vision and follow behind us later. Rathgur's going to take point, and I'll be behind him. I want to keep an eye on this guy, just in case. Dew can stick back with you."
I shook my head. "Dew needs to go with you. If I do the night vision ritual, then cast an illumination spell, I'll be blinded. If I don't cast one, she'll just be fumbling around in the dark."
"Alright, but keep us in sight, and call if you need anything. We have no idea what's in there."
I nodded. "Will do. But before we leave, I've been meaning to ask you something. What's a demi-weapon? You mentioned that I had one back in Ponyville, but that mob distracted me before I could ask."
"Pull out your spear." He said as he laid down the torch, and I did so. The swirls of red in it seemed to gleam, while the dull charcoal black of the rest of it didn't shine or reflect light at all. "See, that's Stygian Iron, though how that blacksmith got it is beyond me. It's a metal from the underworld, and because of that it has peculiar properties. I've yet to see an undead in this place so that shouldn't matter, but if we come across any your spear would be incredibly effective. There's other things it does with monsters back on my world, but again that shouldn't matter. It's one of the three known demi-metals, and the only one that I don't have a weapon of."
"Show me?" I asked him, after laying down my spear. He pulled out his dual-prong sword and laid it down beside my spear. He pointed to each of the metals in turn. "Stygian Iron." My spear. "Celestial Bronze." He pointed to the longer, skinnier prong of his sword. "Imperial Gold." He gestured towards the broader blade. "I don't know why your spear has those red streaks, as most weapons of that metal that I've seen have been solid colours."
I remembered the note that I had received from Mr. Smith. "I was told it was infused with hellfire. Any idea what that means?"
A grin lit up his face, and he picked up his sword, sheathing it. "Cast a fire spell on your spear."
I stared at him. "What? Why?"
He waved me off. "Just do it, Violet." I blinked, then did as he asked. I sped through the incantations in my head, then went slightly cross-eyed as I shot a stream of flames from my horn at my spear. The spell was difficult to maintain, but I kept it going for nearly a minute before a wave of dizziness from fatigue broke my concentration. I panted for a few seconds before I felt the tell-tale rush of magical power return to me.
I looked to the target of my spell and saw a large area of scorched earth, where the grass had been living before it was burned to nothing. In the middle of the destructive circle lay my spear, relatively unchanged save for the streaks of red, which had taken to glowing. Van hopped over and picked up the spear without a care in the world, as if I hadn't just baptized it in fire. He hefted it in his hands a few times, before tossing it into the air. "Catch!"
I did. "What the…" I proclaimed to myself as I could actually feel the magic radiating off of it.
"Throw it into a tree." Van had gotten me excited now, so I did as he asked and flung it telekinetically at the closest tree. It struck the tree, passed clean through it, and planted itself halfway through another tree behind it. The tree that was fully punctured died swiftly, as the whole thing caught with an unearthly black fire that seemed as if it was sucking in the light around it. The fire didn't spread to any of the adjoining trees, and after a second or two, the fire disappeared leaving the tree devoid of leaves and burnt to a crisp.
The second tree suffered a similar fate, though it continued to burn until I gathered my wits and magically yanked the spear from the trunk. As soon as the spear left the tree, the flames died out as well. I stared at my weapon in amazement. "Van, what just happened?"
"You just created hellfire… Amazing…" He muttered.
"That's nice, now how do I turn it off? I dont want to accidentally cut myself and end up like that!" I said, waving my head towards the second tree, whose branching were beginning to crumble to ashes and float away on the wind. The first tree had already done so, and little remained of it but a bit of ash on the ground.
"Try planting it in the ground." I aligned my spear vertically, and let go, allowing the spears own weight to jab it into the earth. A small wave of the black fire poofed out from the point of impact, and I jumped back in surprise. The fire died quickly without spreading too far, but now two circles of earth lay blackened in the area. I noted that the streaks had stopped glowing as well.
"You have a lot of explaining to do, Van." I turned to him after carefully stabbing another tree to see if the effect was gone. It was.
"I'll paraphrase, because it look's like Rathgur's done." Sure enough, when I looked over I saw two griffins flying away and the third making it's way warily towards us. "My theory is that, as Stygian Iron naturally absorbs magic, and that hellfire naturally consumes everything, when you casted the spell, it was absorbed into the metal, and used to fuel the hellfire."
"But if hellfire consumes everything, how would it spread on the tree? That looked like an enchantment to me."
"I don't know. I'm guessing that the Iron and the hellfire are both trying to consume the magic then, and because of equal force the magic stays in an active state. I was never a magic expert, so don't take my theory as correct. Though if that is true, it would explain why stabbing the ground works for a disenchantment. Stygian Iron is from the underworld, and when it consumes things it sends them there. Giving it that direct line to the Earth could allow it to outpower the hellfire, and send the spell out of the spear."
"What was that?" Oh look, Rathgur's here.
"My unicorn friend is skilled with magic. He was just practicing a new spell of his. We can talk more about it later."
I nodded. "I have some things to do here. I can catch up to you three soon."
"Why do we not wait for you? Your talents will be useful in the pass." Rathgur asked.
"Why would that be?" Van questioned.
"Neeva roam these mountains, and the population has grown incredibly now that they are no longer being hunted. They shouldn't be too much trouble, but safety is always the best of allies, and safety lies in numbers."
"Not true, but whatever." Van replied. "What's a Neeva?"
"Flying, meat-eating goats." He replied.
"Wonderful." I muttered.
Dew Drop, who had been flying around the clearing, took that moment to land. "Then why would they be in a cave? I can't imagine a flying animal would want to be somewhere they couldn't fly."
"We'll be safe in the cave." He explained. "It's through the cave that the pass begins."
"How big is this pass?" Van asked.
"It took me and my family three days to traverse it."
"And the cave?" I added.
"Less than half of an hour."
Van put his torch in the loop that he usually used for his short sword. "Violet, you take the lead. Rathgur, you're behind him, and Dew's in front of me. When we get through we'll decide how to travel from there on."
I gulped as I looked towards the dark slit in the cliff face. I lit up an illumination spell and directed the light towards our path, though it did little to brighten the cave from where I stood.
"Have I ever said that I hated tunnels before?" I pointed out, only to have nobody answer. I looked back and saw them all standing behind me, waiting. i flicked my braided tail in annoyance, then turned forwards again.
Who would have thought that only a month ago I was sitting in my shack, studying my magic book to try and figure out a way to make a living? Now I'm on my way into a hostile country with a never-before-seen-species, a freedom fighter, an orphaned ex-prostitute, and I don't really know what I would call myself anymore. All I know is that my life has changed ever since I broke into that tree house and to be honest? I don't really mind. The money I made of the manticore was astronomically more than I thought I'd make all month, all year even. If me and my strange human partner so happen to help out a foreign country in order to find this super-metal, mythril, then so be it. I could use a bit of change.
That in mind, and in remembrance of the terror I felt in the Everfree as compared to this little tunnel, I pushed my inexplicable disdain for the cave to the back of my mind and strolled on in like I owned the place. The first thing I noticed, save for how dark it still was, was that the floor wasn't jagged like I had expected, it was flat and semi-level. The walls and roof looked natural, but the floor was definitely the result of outside work. "Rathgur."
I winced as the echoes of my voice travelled down the tunnel, much louder than I had anticipated. I waited until the taunting sound of my own vocalization faded before continuing, albeit in a quieter manner.
"Who made this cave?" I asked him, but he shook his head.
"Just keep going," Van whispered,"It shouldn't take too long to get through here anyways so what does it matter?"
"Fine." I turned forwards and continued on. Despite my semi-passive answer, I was slightly upset that my attempt to make conversation had failed. I didn't really care who made it, a tunnel is a tunnel and they all suck.
Here's the thing about tunnels: They're oppressive. The crushing weight of Equestrian Standard shit-tonnes of rock above you, the lack of any natural light, the creepy bugs everywhere(though I found those missing here), there's just nothing about holes in giant rocks that's even remotely appealing. I jumped at every little sound, and sporadic dripping constantly reminded me of the flawed structure I was walking through. As least I didn't have to duck, I thought to myself as I realized that Van probably did.
For those who haven't met him, he's under twice my height, but not by much. I don't have any reference points, considering he's the only human I've ever met, so I couldn't tell if he was tall or not for his kind. It seemed like an insensitive question to ask considering he's the last one anyways but I was still curious.
Anyway my hoof-clops were echoing terribly so I shut off my illumination spell for a moment. Dew made a sharp gasp but that was the only reaction. I quickly cast a muffling spell, then jumped to see if it had worked. When I landed, all I heard was a light 'tic'. I, now satisfied, relit the spell.
"I wanted to muffle." I explained, before anyone had a chance to ask. I stomped my hooves to prove the point, and the group looked impressed at the results. It was a simple spell, really, but relatively unknown. I was proud to have it in my arsenal despite it's shady nature.
"Can you do it to others?" Van asked.
"I'll try it outside, I didn't like being in that much darkness." With that we continued on our way. I thought more about how careless I've been expending magical energy since I got that enchanted necklace. I still don't know how or why it works, but I'm not complaining. One doesn't bite the hoof that feeds after all. I then turned to the discovery of my spears true power, though I came to a quick question that was never answered.
"Van, why weren't you burned by the spear?" I asked flatly, pointing the light towards Van. Rathgur moved to the side of the tunnel, out of the way.
"Pardon?" He replied.
"You heard me."
"Tell you what. If we get back to Equestria, maybe I'll tell you. Until then, be satisfied that even among humans, I'm not normal."
I brightened the light. "Or you could tell me, or commit to telling me. There's nothing stopping me from turning back right now. I'll do it, unless you can promise you'll tell me." I could see frustration in his eyes, but he eventually sighed in defeat.
"Deal. I'll tell you what you want to know when we get back to Equestria, but only on two conditions."
"And those are?" I asked, and held up a hand with a finger sticking up.
"One: You never say a word to anyone else of what I tell you." He stuck up another finger. "Two: You don't judge me." Holy sweet mother of the princess, he does have feelings.
"Of course." I replied, relieved that his requests were easy ones to comply with. I turned forward and continued on, and after a second or two the group followed by the sound of it. A few minutes later, I saw a source of light coming from up ahead. "The exit!" I exclaimed, and was about to run, when Rathgur told me to wait.
"I shall go out first. There's no telling if the Baron has more troops stationed here." He reasoned, and I moved to the side to allow him to pass. I fell into step behind him for the short distance, and we paused by the exit. I pulled out my spear and extended it to full size.
"Do you really think there'll be trouble?" I asked him, but Van answered in his stead.
"I'd rather be ready to deal with danger and have nothing happen, than be destroyed when I don't expect it." He pulled out his dual-prong sword and swapped his short sword into his left hand.
I held my spear in the air, and shut off my illumination spell. "Move out of the way." I stated, and the group thankfully complied after Van stepped back behind me. Keeping the levitation spell going, I shot a stream of flames at my spear, only about a half of the power I was using at the entrance. The flames were absorbed into the spear, and it was truly enticing to see the light of the flames being sucked into the weapon. Unfortunately maintaining both spells simultaneously was tiring and I was forced to stop after 30 seconds or so.
The streaks didn't glow with the luster they acquired the first time, but they did faintly shimmer. I split the spear in two and gently laid it down, careful not to gouge the tunnel floor. I stopped the spell and allowed my energy rush back into my body from the plate on my horn. It was a curious sensation, not enjoyable but tolerable. I picked up both halves and split each again, and still saw the faint shimmering of the hellfire. I joined all but one together into a large peice, then gouged the other in the ground, letting out a small puff of flame. I dulled the safe spear and wrapped it around a strap on my saddlebag, securing it to my back. I twirled the enchanted one a few times and enjoyed the afterglow left behind it, then brought it back to my side.
"Ready." I said, and Rathgur started towards the exit. The soft padding of his rear paws turned to clacking as he extended his claws, and he was soon outside. Van followed close behind him with his swords at the ready, and I took a deep breath before stepping out as well. It took but a moment to adjust to the light, and I had to squint for a few seconds until my vision cleared.
The amount of change between here and Equestria was mind-blowing. The cave had exited onto a small plateau, one that dropped off into cliff to the front. All four of us managed to stand comfortably on it, and though I was glad to be outside again I hardly felt like I was anywhere near my homeland.
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." Van muttered, and despite me not knowing where Kansas was or what Toto means, I got his point. The immediate attention grabber was above us. Dark, sinister looking thunderheads swirled and churned, with intermittent flashes of lighting streaking across the skyscape like flashes of a camera. A near-constant rumbling of thunder permeated my hearing, and I did my best to turn my gaze away from the clouds.
"It's been like this since the original storm." I heard Rathgur say, but I tuned out his voice as I surveyed the landscape. To our right and emerging from the mountain above us, a waterfall fall to a river that snaked it's way through the pass. The canyon floor was about 10 or so meters off the plateau, and as it stretched on it was decorated with unhealthy, graying trees. Portions of the river were frozen, and I could feel my extremities begin to chill despite my heavy cloak. The pass itself was straight, Two cliffs on either side, leading down to an exit I could barely see in the distance. The pass was as wide as Canterlot, at the least.
Then everything went downhill with one sound. Ever since I heard about these flying, carnivorous goats, I've wondered what that would look like, and as I turned around at the sound of a bleating goat and caught my breath, I got a good glimpse of a bunch of them dotting the cliff face.
About my size, their long angular heads sported goatees on their chins. Emerging from their foreheads were curved, pointed horns, and fangs decorated their mouths. One spread out its bat-like wings, the white appendages flapping to help it travel to a different perch. I estimated at least 20 of them, all looking towards the source of the noise: us.
"Rathgur?"
"Yes, Unicorn?"
"These would be those neeva you were talking about."
He turned to see what I was talking about and went deathly still. "Yes, Unicorn."
"What are the odds of survival?" I asked, lowly.
"Slim to none." He said, resignation providing a sorrowful backdrop to his statement.
Van apparently didn't think so, because he ran past me at the cliff. "Whoever gets the least of them has to clean my swords!" He shouted as he leapt straight for one of the neeva and decapitated it. He dropped down to the plateau again and rolled out his momentum. As soon as the head hit the plateau after him, the herd opened their wings and took off into the sky. Looking up to see those beasts flying against the backdrop of the supposedly sentient lightning clouds that aren't killing flying things right now like they're supposed to, the situation looked grim.
"One!" Van yelled at us. I spotted a neeva break from the herd and start diving for him, and on instinct I flattened the spear metal to a sheet and teleported it over top of him. I heard a sickening crack as the goat impacted it, and watched as it fell to the ground with its neck bent at an unnatural angle. I watched as it burnt up in the dark fire that had consumed, and in just a couple seconds the whole beast was gone.
"Thanks, Violet!"
"Now we're even!" I called back, thankful that I had finally repaid my life-debt to him.
"For now!" He yelled, jumping back as another one dove at him. It landed and attempted to take a lunge at him with its horns, but Van jumped over it, throwing a knife from within his cloak while doing so. With a dull thump the beast fell to the ground dead with a new horn between its eyes. "Two!"
I formed the sheet back into a spear and returned it to my side, only to feel a heavy impact on my flank that knocked me to the ground. I rolled out the fall and returned to my feet, to see Rathgur tear out a neeva's throat with his fiercely hooked beak. He was bleeding from identical stab wounds on his coat, and I realized that he had pushed me out of the way of a diving neeva. Keeping my eyes up at the herd, I moved towards the middle of the plateau.
"Form up on me! Back-to-back!" I yelled, jumping backwards as another neeva landed where I had been just a second before. It raised its wings to take off again, but Van landed next to it and swiped off its wing with a swift slice of his short sword. It flapped its remaining wing as it jumped, sending it careening off the edge of the plateau before it even realized it was missing a wing.
With a powerful leap, Rathgur leaped towards us and slid to a stop, and we all went back to back. A quick survey left me aware of Rathgur's injury and of Van's left arm hanging limp and bloody.
"Four." Van said in between pants.
"Three." Rathgur admitted. I spotted another diving neeva, and again spread out the spear over top of us as a sheet. I saw it flare its wings, so I moved the metal up to meet it. The sheet blocked my view of exactly how it happened but by the reverberating clang made, I bet it took a pretty hard hit. I saw it flew away from the impact, with a broken horn and a lot of wobbling in its flight, before the hellfire enchantment kicked in and the monster was consumed by the dark flames.
"Two for me." I replied, keeping my eyes up for any that might try to dive, though we seemed to have a brief respite. I was grateful for it, because it allowed me to utilise my abnormally fast regeneration time and feel some small relief. Unfortunately our break wasn't to be for long, because 3 more dove for our group, one taking a straight down approach and the other swooping in at various angles. I held the sheet of metal up to take the impact from the straight dive, and attempted to telekinetically force one of the beasts off course, but it had built up too much momentum for my spell to have any effect.
With another clang and a drain on my energy, the neeva hit the metal, and I put a bit more effort into holding the spell while taking in my surroundings. Vanidadh had grabbed one of the swooping ones by the horns and flipped it, stabbing it in the neck with a knife sometime in between it hitting him and it hitting the ground. Rathgur sidestepped the other and clawed it as it went by, leaving nothing in between it and me. Despite the mortal wound, inertia brought the goat crashing into my legs and toppling me over.
My concentration was broken and I dropped the metal, barely catching it before it landed on me. Van tossed a knife and I heard a thump, followed by a neeva falling off the sheet and the spell reducing its load on my body. I collapsed my spear back into its original form and used it to stab right through the neeva that Rathgur had injured, finishing it off.
"At least they're only coming a couple at a time." I said, panting heavily.
"You idiot, now they're all going to attack at once." Van groaned. I kept my eyes pinned to the sky and noticed that the number had thinned out quite a bit, giving me hope to survive the encounter as a result of our success thus far.
"No they won't." I replied hopefully, watching above in case any decided to make a move.
"They will." Van sounded so completely sure that I began to feel apprehension, fear of the beasts that circled us from the sky. "You jinxed it for us."
"What's a jinx?"
"It's kind of-"
"Are we in a fight or out for a stroll?" Rathgur asked rhetorically. "Pay attention."
I rolled my neck to alleviate the stiffness that staring upwards usually gives you, and blinked. Apparently the entire herd was waiting for my move, because in the time it took me to blink they had gone from circling to full on dives everywhere.
"Told you." Van muttered, adjusting his grip on his swords.
"Let's try this…" I trailed off, caught up in the series of spells that I had to pull off in order to make 'this' work. The first was a manipulation of my spear, which I divided into 12 pieces which I made into miniature spears. The next was telekinesis, to hold them all within magic so that targeting them is easier. The last one I used was teleportation. It's true that I love teleportation, yes, and I have, over my years, figured out how the incantation works and how each syllable effects the end result of the spell, at least most of the spell anyways. For this usage, I removed the limiter, which usually prevents the teleported object from reappearing at the same speed that it travelled at.
I selected a mini-spear, and hit it with the modified spell. The spear disappeared with a pop-flash, and above us I saw the spellflash of the exit point. I wasn't able to see the spear emerge but a neeva erupted into black flames, confirming my attack. I smiled, then grouped all the remaining spears in front of me. With a deep breath, I began firing them as fast as I could recite the spell. The herd thinned out with every successful hit, and I even saw one flare up in between my shots somehow. However I was down to my last spear with 5 of the monsters left closing in, and my vision was swimming from the constant use of magic.
I shot my last spear and with a pop-pop the projectile flew into one and lit it up with hellfire. I felt the drain hit me with a wave of intense dizziness that sent me onto a knee. I was already forming the next spell in my head but when the drain hit I lost my spot in the incantation and what little magic I'd built up fizzled away. I shot off a fire spell as soon as I could, but I only just got the stream going when they struck. All I saw was the horned head of a neeva burst through the pitiful attempt to squeeze off one last spell before my world turned white.
A/N: So it turns out I really don't get much time to write. I'd talk about school but you aren't here for my life, you're here for the story. Just know I have about 5 chapters written, ready to be typed up. I do what I can with the time I'm given, and rest assured I've gotten in trouble more than once for writing this story when I was supposed to be doing homework. Ah, C'est la vie.
Also, my "E" key is missing the key, I just have a stupid little white button. It's annoying.
