She reached out, activating the blood rods in her squad’s cuirasses. Against Ash Wolves, Slashing Protection was the best defense.
No need for Elemental Protection. Instead… let’s see, Enhance Sharpness on their weapons ought to do it.
For a squad of five, Maiya could now keep ten C Grade support orbs charged. It was a large mental drain—she needed to keep topping off the orbs as her squad’s armor took damage and as they struck the Ash Beasts—but she’d garnered a lot of experience.
The Ash Wolves swarmed. Her squad took up a protective ring around her—standard formation for such encounters. Wolves liked to circle their prey, but this formation left no weak spots for them to exploit.
The wolves Leaped—most Ash Beasts used Talents—but her squad was ready. Their enhanced weapons had no issues piercing the wolves’ tough hides, forcing them to regroup.
Like I’m gonna let you!
Two C Grade Wind Blades shot out from Maiya’s hands, decapitating two wolves.
The remaining three hesitated, then routed.
This was the most dangerous part. Ash Wolves could easily outrun her squad. Allowing them to run would end in a mission failure—and more importantly, innocent lives would be lost when the wolves reached a settlement.
Empowered spears went sailing through the air, skewering two of the fleeing wolves. As for the last one… Maiya took aim with her mejai bracer, and fired.
Icicle shot forth, impaling the retreating beast. Her squad was upon it in moments, ending its life.
Maiya wiped a bead of sweat off her brow then raised her arm in victory. Her squad echoed the gesture—every victory against an Ash Beast was worthy of celebration.
Things hadn’t gone this well initially. Not even close. Back when she’d first started, Maiya fought alone, flinging spell after spell at every Ash Beast she could find.
But as the days wore on and her squad racked up kill after kill, she’d realized the simple truth—mejai were far more deadly when supporting a squad.
It hadn’t been an easy lesson to learn. She’d always thought of mejai as offensive damage dealers. Strengthening armor and sharpening weapons? How mundane. It felt weak.
And yet, once she’d started actively charging her squad, their injury rate plummeted. They killed beasts faster than she ever could have while fighting alone, and they put themselves in less danger while doing so.
Of course, it wasn’t like Maiya had given up on flinging spells. Just that her offensive magic took a back seat to powering her squad. The head handmaiden had once told her that mejai were force multipliers. They were people who could grant a squad victory against an entire company, doubling or even tripling a warrior’s Balar Rank.
Maiya finally understood. Her squad had attained heights they hadn’t even dreamed possible without her. They moved with superhuman speed, dodged with preternatural grace, and pierced hide as if it were paper.
“Cleanup!” Maiya ordered, and her squad moved diligently to skin the Ash Wolf hides. She helped as well. It wasn’t a glamorous task, but it was a necessary one. Tough Ash Wolf hides had a myriad of uses, from armor components to rugs to insulation.
Once they’d collected the hides, she ordered the carcasses burned. If there was one thing that attracted Ash Beasts across the Boundary, it was the corpse of another Ash Beast. Burning their corpses was standard practice.
“Shredder incoming!”
Maiya whipped around to see a new creature pop into existence, seemingly out of nowhere.
Ash Wolves, at least, looked like their more mundane counterpart. Addled and broken though their minds might have been, they had a regal bearing to them.
Shredders were abominations straight out of a nightmare. Lizard-like creatures standing as tall as a human on their hind legs, their pasty white skin was partially translucent, allowing glimpses into their internal organs.
Their small, clawed hands might not look like much, but Shredders could decapitate a man with a single swipe.
Not to mention their oversized lizard heads. With long maws lined with three separate rows of razor-sharp teeth, they could even bite through solid steel. Their 250 Balar Rank wasn’t for nothing.
“Everyone, to me!” Maiya ordered, activating Piercing Protection and Slashing Protection to their max. Her orbs would protect against the Shredder’s claws and bladed tail, but there would be no surviving a bite from its maw. Only A Grade protection orbs could do that, and hers were merely C.
Simultaneously, she took out her D Grade utility orb, Flare—issued to all Ash Gate squad leaders—and activated it. A bright burst of red fire went hurtling into the sky, alerting nearby squads of their duress. While Flare looked impressive, it was only useful for signaling—the magical fire itself had no combat potency.
Only question is if we’ll survive long enough for help to come.
While her squad’s combined Balar Rank outstripped the Shredders, she doubted they’d be getting out of this uninjured.
Maiya took a deep breath and cracked her knuckles. “Bring it, you grakker!”
4SQUAD LEADER MAIYA
(PART TWO)
For the past three weeks, Maiya had fought Ash Beasts every day. Initially, she’d cowered in fear of them. Who wouldn’t? After all, these were the same mythical beasts parents scared their children with. Behave, or the Ash Wolves will come for you.
How blissfully unaware those parents were. If Ash Wolves were the worst the Ashen Realm offered, Maiya felt it would be a downright peaceful place. Bless those innocent souls who knew nothing of Raptors, Phantomblades… and Shredders.
The white-skinned bipedal beast scanned its surroundings, its bladed lizard tail sloshing back and forth, eager for blood. Then its slit, red eyes found them, a hundred paces away.
Kraeeeeeeeeeeiie!
The beast shrieked with a voice not of this realm and charged.
“Shield wall!” Maiya barked.
By night, instructors had drilled into her military tactics, strategy, and every last morsel the Kin’jal Empire knew about Ash Beasts.
Including tactics against Shredders. Agile as they were on their prana-empowered hind legs, like most Ash Beasts, their hide was thin enough to see through and they possessed little-to-no self-preservation instincts. They were known to ram right into spear walls, impaling themselves.
Two Balarian Warriors—the ones with shields and spears—planted their shields in the dirt, aiming their weapons through the openings. To their sides, their three squad mates planted their poleaxes into the ground, bracing them against the Shredder’s impending charge.
And at the very center of the formation stood their crimson-haired leader, aiming down her mejai bracer at the incoming beast. She’d boosted her squad’s armor with the appropriate protection and issued her command. She’d done everything she could as a leader. Her troops needed no pep talk, nor any words of solace. They were Balarian Warriors. And elites at that.
All that was left was for her to do her own part. As an individual. As a mejai.
The creature from another realm half stumbled, half ran, jerking its body in ways that should not be possible, and yet it made startlingly quick work of the distance, leaving a trail of clawed imprints behind.
Fifty paces. Twenty-Five.
Maiya waited. Icicle would never hit such a fast-moving object. Wind Blade had better odds, but its range was limited. Blizzard would have been the most effective response, but A Grade spells were just beyond her reach.