This time, my rifle punched right through the white-hot chitin, and the kaneg made a screeching sound as its body jerked and convulsed. I realized that the round had sufficient power to punch through the weakened layer, but after entering the creature was bouncing through its soft core materials until its energy was expended.
The kaneg collapsed and I quickly looked to see how the others were doing.
It didn’t look good.
The drakes and Creadean’s friror were doing their best to help, one of the beasts had Flendreir gripped in one of its mantis claws as it used the other three and its mandibles to fend off matrons and mounts. Flendreir was trying vainly to do any damage with her blades, but she couldn’t get a good swing and her blades couldn’t get through the exoskeleton.
The other was being successfully spun from matron and mount to matron and mount. One of the drakes took a deep breath, then spat out what seemed to be a spray of bolts of electricity, singeing the carapace of the beast that didn’t have anyone yet.
I have to save Flendreir. I assessed.
I hoped this was a wise choice, and I swung my. 50 caliber rifle back on my back and pulled up my fully automatic rifle. The kaneg’s back was to me, so I ran and, taking a cue from Jauna, I jumped onto its back.
“Hafrivark!” I demanded, casting an ember bolt into the creature’s back.
At this range, I could feel the heat, and I immediately brought my rifle up and squeezed the trigger, praying that there was enough heat to get the bullets through. The rifle tried to buck in my hands but I kept it aimed at the flame burning a weak spot into the creature’s armor. I felt the creature start to writhe under me and I released the trigger as I was predictably thrown from the creature’s back.
I scrambled to my feet to see Flendreir, now free, roll to her feet, she was clutching her ribs, and clearly injured, but should survive. The kaneg’s legs had given out and it tried to rise once more before it fell, unmoving, to the ground.
I turned to the last beast and saw that the three hiersver were here. Their claws left smoking scratches on the kaneg shells but weren’t quite penetrating. Severina was flinging handfuls of fire at the beasts that were trying to drive the birds away with their pincers and claws.
For a split second, I caught Mavrin’s eye, then she looked away.
Cold and clear, her voice cut through the din of the battle.
“Solin kai Vic Vaia!” She called, and a black orb, laced with white flickers appeared between her hands. Mavrin’s hands trembled for a moment as she held the pulsating orb of energy, and then she ripped her hands apart, making the orb rupture and disappear.
The kaneg jerked, its legs and claws spreading as air rushed from its mouth in a death rattle… then it fell unmoving to the ground.
Mavrin’s hiersver landed, and the bird’s head twisted to look back at its rider in concern.
“Oh shit.” I breathed and looked to Flendreir quickly, and seeing Tavorwen tending to her wounds, I ran to Mavrin.
By the time I got to her, Anbethir and Creadean had her moved from the saddle. She was limp, but I could see her breathing. A line of blood was dripping from her nose and as I got closer, she turned her head and coughed blood onto the grass. She was deathly pale and her breathing was labored.
“What were you thinking?” Sevrina demanded. “You know what casting ‘Lesser Death’ will do to you?”
Mavrin’s eyes opened a crack, “But you all are safe.”
“Dark magic is restricted for a reason!” Sevrina chastised.
“Does all dark magic do this to you when you use it?” I asked with worry.
“No, not all…” Sevrina admitted. “But most of the dark magic that is safe to use is to counter other dark magic.”
“Is this the corruption that she mentioned?” I pressed.
“No… This is what happens when you aren’t ‘sufficiently’ corrupted to use the magic you call on.” Sevrina explained. “Repeated use of dark magic twists your mind, body, and soul away from its natural positive energy alignment toward a negative energy alignment. It makes a powerful dark magic user immune to the backlash of their own spells and more resistant to the dark magic of others, but… it changes your mind… makes you cold and uncaring at best and cruel, vindictive, and sadistic at worst.”
I shivered and I felt the hair of my body rise on end. Mavrin used this magic to protect us, but if that was the cost, was it worth it?
“I am nowhere near such… corruption.” Mavrin retorted, wiping the blood from her face. Her color had mostly returned and her breathing was now just a pant. She struggled to her feet.”We have more work to… oh no.”
I followed her gaze and saw half a dozen of the kanegs, at a distance looking like a strange cross between an ant, a praying mantis, and a crab, climbing out of the enormous structure, and I could see the ground rippling where others were digging toward us.
“Mavrin, get airborne,” I ordered.
I heard her hurry to obey and my mind raced. This had been stupid. I had relied on the fact that my rifles were the answer to everything. Opheira had said it took an entire hunting party to kill one, and I, in my hubris, had challenged an entire hive.
“Everyone get back,” I ordered. “We need to regroup and reorganize, I’ll follow once everyone is-”
A kaneg burst from the ground behind us, followed by two more.
“Fuck! Get out of here!” I ordered and my household scrambled.
No! This wasn’t how this was supposed to go! I was a hero! This was like the stories! I was supposed to be able to take care of anything! But this, I was just going to get my newfound family killed!
I saw one of the kanegs charge toward Tavorwen and the still recovering Flendreir.
NO!
“Be my blade and protect my daughters. Use the strength you were given.”
The voice was crystal clear in my mind. For a moment, it was like the world stood still. In a rush, I knew what to do. If I was going to die here, I might as well die following my gut. My brain said it was stupid. There was no way. But it just felt… right.
As things began to move again, I reached up and drew my sword.
“By the will and strength of X’Thallion, I will not let you harm his children,” I stated. It didn’t even feel corny to say something so melodramatic.
Or at least that was what I tried to say.
What I heard come out of my mouth was, “Zal fidor ai kallir vis X’Thallion, Kai nan leath mai yokiva.”
There was a rush of adrenaline like nothing I’d ever felt, my body hummed with energy. My grip on my blade seemed smoother, and I could feel the blade like it was an extension of my body.
My legs coiled and despite the distance between us, at least a hundred feet, I lept toward the kaneg rearing up over Flendreir and Tavorwen to strike. It was like I was shot out of a cannon. I covered the distance in an instant and when my blade came into contact with the kanag’s impenetrable shell, it took every ounce of strength I could muster, but my blade cleaved through the thick shell. The upper body of the kaneg was cut cleanly from its lower body and the force of the cut sent it flying to wriggle as the life ebbed from it some yards away.
“Go!” I commanded them, but I heard the word “Hrifa”.
They seemed to understand and scrambled to their mounts, I could see that Flendreir had some pain still in her ribs, but that could wait until later.
I turned and saw one of the kanegs bearing down on me, and another trying to cut off Ulamir’s escape.
The kaneg’s claw lashed out at me, and I cut it clean off with my sword before plunging the blade into the carapace of the beast and cutting straight down its stomach. With another cut, a sizable chunk of its exoskeleton was gone and I knew the wound would quickly be fatal.
I raced around it and again, launched myself like a human rocket across the grassland. The kanegs were shockingly fast and the one pursuing Ulamir was closing in on her grass drake. I landed on its back and with a mighty swing, my blade hit the creature on its neck as it lifted its head to look back at me. The connection between body segments was easier to cut and the bug was dead before it realized what was happening.
Four more of the creatures emerged from the soil, these ones had red shells and were larger than the others, but with the rush that filled every corner of my being, I was confident and started to charge them. Juana ran up beside me, and I hopped on her back. It was amazing to me how I could so easily hold the two-handed blade one-handed at this moment, and with my off-hand too, and I balanced on the stirrups, no need for my belt to hold me on the cat’s back.
I held my sword forward, doing my best to form the proper stance on the back of my charging cat, I formed a fist and threw it forward yelling “Rafror” as my mind went through the exercises needed for the spell. It seemed much easier, casting the spell, as this energy hummed in me. A shining white bolt slammed into my targeted kaneg and it reared back as the ice encased it, locking it in place.
Jauna twisted, seeming to select a target for me, and we charged. The kaneg swung a mantis claw at me, and I swung to block, my sword met the swing, but didn’t actually cut initially, as the force pushed Jauna to the ground, but once she was steady, my blade got to purchase and the claw fell, severed to the ground. The kaneg skittered backward but gave no sign it felt pain as its limb was removed. I tumbled forward off Jauna’s back, landing with surprising grace on my feet as I prepared to finish the great insect off, and Jauna bounded away.
Part of me realized that every move, every action, was being guided. I wasn’t nearly this skilled with a sword. I hadn’t had nearly the practice to pull this off, and even if I had, a carapace strong enough to deflect a straight shot from a. 50 caliber rifle should never be just cut in two by a sword. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but if it killed these bastards and kept me and my girls alive, I was 100% on board for whatever it was.
A single swing turned the kaneg into two half-kanegs.
I FELT the next kaneg rear behind me, and with a whirling slash, I took two of its supporting legs off. It lurched forward and my blade cut through its first body segment. Turning, I saw the last kaneg burrow into the ground, instantly disappearing, and the kanegs that had emerged from the structure were retreating.
I could feel the buzz beginning to fade. Somehow I had to end this, fast. But there were still so many of them.
I panted as I saw the last of them reach the top and enter the structure, the ripples in the ground that signified the passing of the beasts reaching the base as well.
“Chosen servant. Show them a fraction of my power.” The voice of X’Thallion echoed in my mind.
“As you will.” The words came.
“Let those who would face the wrath of a God burn!” I commanded, hearing: “”Mai kavor tiam ja ovir rickth Arier smamai!”
I placed both hands and the hilt of my sword and plunged it into the ground.