Bastial Energy (55 page)

Zoke readied his bow and shot. The arrow whizzed by his target’s shoulder. Zeti had always been better with the bow. He was tempted to throw it down and run at them with his sword, but his target—along with two others coming out of the smoke—turned and found him. They scrambled to load arrows.

“Go to the smoke!” he shouted to Steffen. They dashed toward it, getting inside just as he heard an arrow fly by. He gave the bow to Steffen and the quiver as well. “Watch behind us,” Zoke said, drawing his sword.

“I don’t know how to use this!” Steffen replied.

“Pointy end of arrow goes out, pull back string, and aim.”

Zoke moved toward where he’d seen the archers last. He’d never been in smoke so thick. He couldn’t see farther than he could spit, so he tried to listen instead, but coughing and dying were in every direction. There was no way to hear anything else.

He came behind a male Human wearing a black leather tunic with red stars.
Tenred,
Zoke knew, remembering what Terren had said about their colors. The Human was frantically looking in every direction, eventually turning to see Zoke and Steffen.

“A Krepp?” he spoke barely loud enough to hear. After the initial shock, his eyes tightened, and he scrambled to load an arrow. But Zoke ran to him before he could shoot, slicing his sharp sword across the Human’s chest. The blade severed the man’s bow and cut open his tunic as well. Without a thought, Zoke took another swing at his neck, taking his head clean off.

“Behind!” Steffen shouted as he fumbled with an arrow.

Zoke spun around to find a man with a black robe pointing a wand at them. It started to glow just as Haemon’s claws would before he burned a Krepp. Zoke saw he was too far from the mage to stop him, and Steffen’s arrow had fallen in his attempt to load it. Without thinking, he turned his back and jumped in front of Steffen to protect him from the fireball.

It felt like a giant had ripped a tree from the ground, lit it on fire, and slammed it into Zoke’s back. The force of it picked him up off his feet for a blink, knocking him into Steffen and sending them both to the ground for a roll.

Dazed, Zoke slipped getting to his feet. He managed it the second time and looked back, but the mage was out of view for the moment.

Just after turning back to give Steffen a glance, Zoke saw him driving his knife into the stomach of someone. It was a man in Tenred garb holding a sword over his head. Another heartbeat and that sword would have been stuck down across Zoke’s chest.

The attacker fell to his knees, letting the sword drop. Steffen took a step away, leaving the dagger within his enemy. Zoke grabbed the man’s sword with his free hand and held it toward Steffen. He wouldn’t accept it. He might not even have seen it. Steffen’s eyes were locked on the man he’d just stabbed. Without any time to spare, Zoke checked again on the mage but found no one. His back was raw, stinging with pain.

“Take it,” Zoke said, forcing Steffen’s hands around the sword hilt.

By then the smoke was no longer thickening but starting to clear instead.
No, not yet.
Zoke dashed toward where the mage had shot him, only to find a burned corpse on the ground.

With the smoke thinning, Zoke could see farther now and spotted Effie and Reela ahead of him. They were backing up toward him, looking somewhere else.

Rushing forward, Zoke soon saw what they did—three men with swords trudging their way. Zoke leapt in front of them with his sword pointed. The three enemies stopped and whipped back their heads.

“What are you doing here, Krepp?” one of them asked.

“He’s the short one with the Elf. The traitors,” another answered. “We’re to watch for them after taking the pathway.”

“Good,” the first replied. “That makes our job easier.” He came at Zoke.

The Human may have been taller, but his strength was half what Zoke was used to. The man screamed and swung his sword in an overhead arc. Zoke blocked the blow with his sword and kicked his attacker back with a hard heel to his stomach.

The other two came from either side, raising their swords to attack at once. A fireball flew past Zoke’s shoulder into one of them, and the other dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, groaning with pain.

Zoke drove his sword through the chest of the one who’d fallen and then looked over toward the one hit by the fireball. He was still, dead.

The last one was the first man to attack them. He ran toward them valiantly with his sword high, but he too stopped short, crying out in pain and dropping his weapon. His scream was cut short when an arrow zoomed past Zoke and into the enemy’s chest.

Zoke turned around to check on the three Humans behind him. Effie had her wand out, Reela’s hand was propelled forward, and Steffen had two shaking hands on the bow as if letting go could kill him.

“I didn’t take the sword,” Steffen said with a quiet, startled tone.

“Keep the bow. It’s yours,” Zoke answered. He’d always wanted a good reason to get rid of it. “The smoke is clearing. We must hurry to find the other archers and mages.”

With the others following him, Zoke ran toward the outer reaches of the smoke, figuring those with long-range weapons would try to stay out of it.

He was right. He found five enemies—four archers and a mage. They were clustered together fifty feet from Zoke and had searching eyes. Steffen and the others emerged from the smoke to join him. That’s when they were spotted. One of the archers pointed, and they all aimed their weapons.

“Effie!” Reela shouted.

“On it,” Effie replied. She snapped her wand and a burst of light came from it even brighter than it had been in the tunnel below. “Take cover behind this rock,” Effie instructed as she ran.

Zoke saw the pillar of stone she meant to hide behind. It was five steps from them. He grabbed Steffen’s wrist—for he hadn’t moved yet—and nearly tossed him behind the pillar as he ran there himself. Zoke felt the hot wind of a fireball sailing over his head just before he was behind the pillar with the rest of them.

Effie grabbed Reela’s hand. “Too far for psyche?”

“Yes. I couldn’t give them more than a tickle from all the way over here.”

“We have to kill them now,” Zoke said. “Once smoke clears, friends die.”

“I hope they’re still alive,” Steffen said.

Zoke spat in disgust at the comment, but Reela spoke before he could say anything of it. “Vithos is. I can feel him. So the rest probably are, too.”

“Not for long if we stay here,” Zoke said and whipped his head around the pillar. The archers were staring back at him with arrows at the ready. They fired as he brought his head back again. Four arrows zipped by. “Any other smoke potion with you?”

“That was the only one I had. It takes too many ingredients. Taviray flower and bat feces in one, sugar and—”

“Steffen, we get it,” Reela said to stop him. “Effie, got enough juice for one more spell?”

Zoke didn’t hear a response, so he glanced at Effie. The mage was sitting with her back against the stone pillar. Her mouth hung open, sucking in air. Her eyes were closed.

“She’s meditating,” Steffen said.

Reela knelt down in front of her. She put her palm on Effie’s cheek and whispered, “Eff, we need you.”

The mage opened her eyes, shut her mouth, and climbed to her feet gingerly. “I have something we can use, but after this I’m spent. Let me focus while I cast. One mistake and this explodes in my hands.”

Zoke kept his eyes on the smoke. It was dissipating as he watched. For each breath he took, he could see a foot farther. The ground was littered with corpses dressed in red and black. He checked back on the mage’s progress. Effie had her wand pointed into a cupped hand. A yellow glow came from it with green laces of dancing smoke. With squinted eyes, her head followed her wand around.

Finishing, she let her shoulders slouch. She passed whatever it was to Reela.

“Throw it at their feet.” Effie pushed out her words through breaths of exhaustion. “Run in after it’s thrown. Careful not to squeeze it too tightly.” She let her body melt to the ground, allowing her back to rest against the wall once again. “Better do it quick. The Sartious barrier is already mixing with the Bastial Energy inside. It’s about to explode.”

“I can’t throw well,” Reela said, giving it to Zoke. “Here, hurry.”

He grabbed it as gently as he could with his palm, careful to keep his claws away. It was already hot in his hand, and burning hotter with each passing moment. He jumped out from the pillar and hurled it at the four archers and enemy mage as he ran horizontally to avoid being shot. Only one archer released his arrow, missing behind Zoke. The rest held their strings, their eyes shifting to the green ball sailing toward them. The mage must have recognized it, for she was the only one to face the other way and drop her body flat. Zoke had circled around to face them just as it hit the ground at their feet.

Dancing claws of fire four feet high erupted from the ball of energy. Zoke couldn’t say exactly how long the fire wavered there because as soon as the blast happened, a gust of burning air slammed into him like the shoulder of a Krepp running past, spinning him sideways. When he turned back, the fire was out and his enemies were on the ground. Not one of them was visibly burned. In fact, they were all rising quickly. The spell wasn’t for damage, he realized then with dismay, but to give him and the others time to attack. He sprinted at his enemies as quickly as he could. Reela had caught up to him by then.

The five enemies ahead had recovered too fast. They already were loading their arrows, and the mage was aiming her wand. Zoke was too far to stop them.

Reela threw out both hands as if pushing an invisible man in front of her. With it, she gave a raspy shout and their foes grunted, grimacing in pain. Two of them dropped their bows, but it only stopped the others for a breath.

Zoke had pulled ahead of Reela. Her psychic spell had gotten them closer, but he still couldn’t make it in time—that gravely became clear, yet he did not let himself slow.

Strangely without fear, he prepared his body for the arrows, hoping to at least drive his sword through one of them before being felled.

The female mage was able to let off a fireball before any arrows were shot. All he saw was a flash of light, then what felt like a burning rock slammed into his arm and half of his chest. The force of it not only stopped his advance but toppled him.

He tried to lift himself with his arms, but the one that had been hit was numb. With just one arm pushing him up while he was expecting two, he fell over.

He flipped onto the side of him that wasn’t numb, preparing for death.
I at least want to look them in the eye before they do it. Give them something to remember.
He wanted to spit as well, but it felt as if all saliva had been burned from his mouth.

At first, he thought he must have hit his head during the tumble because it looked like the Humans had drawn swords and turned to fight one another. Zoke sat up, too dizzy to lift himself from the ground. There were two blurry images swirling around each other. As he blinked and focused, they merged into one clear image.

His heart swelled with relief when he saw that Vithos, Alex, and Terren had arrived. Vithos paralyzed their enemies with pain as Alex and Terren drove their blades through each of them.

It was over before he even knew what was happening.

Then Terren’s eyes shifted around and stopped at Zoke. Concern flooded Terren’s face. “Stop!” he shouted.

Zoke thought to look behind him and saw a man in light blue rushing at him, sword first. Zoke tried to hop to his feet to scamper away, but dizziness overtook him as soon as he rose, sending him tumbling to the ground. He crawled away from the man as fast as he could, but his arm was still numb. Again he fell. He felt a boot on his hip. It twisted him onto his back, holding him against the ground.

Zoke could hear Steffen and Terren shouting, “He’s with Kyrro! Stop!”

The man stood over Zoke with his blade aimed at Zoke’s heart. “How do you know that?” the man grunted.

“Because he saved my life,” Steffen answered.

Vithos rushed over and put his hand on the man’s wrist. A blank look came across the man’s face. Slowly, the weapon was lowered, and Vithos cautiously took the sword from the loose grip of the man’s hands.

The first thing Zoke saw was that the smoke had cleared completely by then. Taking more time to look around, Zoke noticed only Humans of Kyrro were left. Many of them were approaching, circling around him.

We’ve won?

“Sorry about that,” the man said, extending his hand with fingers out, just as Terren had done when they’d first met.

Zoke sat up. He extended his hands, straightened his fingers, and shook his hands side to side, figuring this was what the Human wanted. Vithos noticed it and quickly did the same.

“What’s this?” the man asked, seemingly confused.

“We’re shaking hands,” Zoke replied, confused as well now. “Don’t Humans do that?”

A woman behind him burst out laughing. He turned and found that it was Reela. She was shaking her hands again. Steffen joined in, laughing heartily as well. Zoke couldn’t understand what the Humans enjoyed so much about it.