“We’ve been in so many fights recently, though. Shan’s never once participated.”
“Proud, that one. As he should be, considering his strength. Jump coming up,” Cirayus warned abruptly.
They’d bounded through a forest to a bare cliff that overlooked more forest, a thousand paces below. The trees ended some hundred paces from the edge, affording a sweeping vista of the barren, dark landscape. Ash had built upon the trees’ dense canopy, making the forest look like a smooth, black blanket.
Vir Leaped off the precipice without breaking stride.
“Guess I’ll have a chat next time I see him,” Vir said while he plummeted to the ground. “I think we made a really nice team back at Mahādi.”
“If you can fight as a team with that wolf, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with, lad,” Cirayus said—also falling.
The giant touched softly against the ground while Vir slammed into it with some force, though the impact barely registered. With his body bursting with prana, he doubted he’d hurt himself, even without Light Step to break his fall.
Half the beasts who’d been tailing them halted before they plummeted off the cliff. The other half weren’t so prudent.
Vir and Cirayus darted away just in time to avoid the rain of bodies that smashed the ground with sickening thuds.
“Lad?” Cirayus said, turning to Vir in worry.
“Uh, right. Shan might have an issue with that jump,” Vir said, blasting off the forest floor, leaving an explosion of dirt in his wake.
He sailed up the cliff, driving his katar into the wall before Leaping again back to the surface he’d just left.
Sure enough, the Ashfire Wolf was there, fighting in an all-out war of frenzied Ash Beasts. From Ash Biters to Shredders to other wolves to even Shrikes, the beasts raged, madly attacking one another.
Blade Launch hurtled across the clearing, ripping apart a handful of unwitting beasts while Vir Blinked to his friend’s side.
The wolf looked up at him expectantly.
Vir crouched to allow the wolf onto his shoulder but stopped halfway down. Wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to fight together? They were cornered. Shan had nowhere to run.
“We’re fighting, Shan,” Vir said. “Together. What do you say?”
Shan stared at him, even as an Ash Biter moved in from behind. Shan’s claws blurred, and the Biter’s face ripped apart.
The beast howled in pain—until Vir’s Artifact chakram to its skull ended it.
“Alright, then,” Vir said with a grin. “Whoever gets the most kills wins. And I won’t use my chakram.”
With Cirayus having already dispatched the mob’s chakra-wielding beasts, there wasn’t any reason to hesitate.
Vir flew into action. Prana Current activated, wreathing Vir in a vortex of black armor. A succession of Blade Launches ripped forth, one after another. With how packed the beasts were, he hardly had to aim. The ability’s nature ensured that anything in the path of its destruction died.
Unlike just a month ago, he could actually keep up this barrage, hurling blades and disks of pure prana to annihilate his enemies with impunity.
Except, his goal wasn’t merely to win. It was to fight alongside Shan, and he doubted decimating beasts from safety would gain him much favor with the stoic animal.
Vir Blinked into the fray, prana claws extended. It was time for a more personal approach.
They fought individually, at first. On opposite sides of the battlefield, surrounded by their own pockets of enemies. But as the beasts fell before them, those pockets began to merge.
Then they were fighting side by side, trying to one-up each other. Trying to kill the same enemy before the other could.
Shan was blindingly fast. So much so that Vir could hardly keep track of his motions as he bounded about. With his full reserve of Mahādi Realm prana, the Ashfire Wolf’s attacks were no less deadly than Vir’s own prana claws.
Except Shan had twice as many, and a lifetime of using them. Vir lost ground as Shan steadily racked up kill after kill.
But where Shan was like the incarnation of death against softer, faster foes, Vir dominated against the more heavily armored opponents.
The Phantomblades that had given Vir so much trouble in the past stood no chance against Chakram Barrage. Dozens of the disks flew one after another, annihilating its Prana Armor before chipping away the scales that protected it.
Seeing an opening, Vir Blinked in, grabbing the Phantomblade’s head in his hand. Prana Current activated, and he sucked the energy out of the beast with furious speed. He absorbed it into his body before bleeding it off into the air via another Current loop.
The life ebbed from the Phantomblade, allowing Shan to dance around it, ripping the beast to shreds.
It wasn’t a battle. It was a massacre.
Until the two Shrikes arrived.
Even with Haste active, Vir avoided the avian beasts’ dive-bombing by a hair’s width. Shan barely rolled out of harm’s way in time, the Shrikes’ talons chopping off a tuft of his fur.
Vir sprang forth, grabbing hold of a wing before the avian beast took to the air again.
It was about all he managed before his stomach lurched, and he found himself hundreds of paces in the sky.
How do these things move so fast? he wondered as he was dragged through the air.
Vir used his handhold to suck prana out of the creature, decimating its Prana Armor in that spot. Blade Projection then speared through its soft hide, ending it.
Leaping off the beast before it fell, Vir targeted its friend. His hand found purchase on its wing—barely.
The Shrike shrieked, careening wildly, plummeting to the ground.
Vir didn’t have time to repeat his tactic. He was forced to jump off to avoid being thrashed against trees. And as he did, Shan jumped… onto his back. Then the wolf jumped again, landing atop the Shrike.
Nice, Shan! Vir thought as he slammed into the ground, keeping a keen eye on the Shrike. It had thrown him off, only to gain another unwanted rider, but Shan was up against a beast with a Balar Rank in the hundreds. They couldn’t be too careful.
Though Shan clawed into the Shrike’s armor, it was thick, and not so easily destroyed.
It didn’t need to be. Vir was there for that.
Chakram Barrage surged into the air in an unending volley. Distracted as it was, the Shrike couldn’t evade. While some prana disks missed, several hit, weakening its armor.
Once it had been depleted, Shan did the rest.
The beast plummeted, but this time, it was Vir who jumped to rescue his friend. He caught the beast midair and brought them both to the ground… albeit not without some pain. Shan was far heavier than Neel, and even with Vir’s enhanced muscles and Light Step to dampen the fall, the impact shook his bones.
“Well?” Vir said, surveying the field of corpses. “I think we make a pretty good team. Don’t you?”
Shan howled in victory.
Their moment, however, was short-lived.
Cirayus bounded up beside them.
“What’s wrong?” Vir asked.
“The forest. It’s gone silent.”
Vir listened and found that his guardian was right. There wasn’t a single sound coming from the trees nearby.
“A city ender?” Vir asked, using the term he’d come up with for Wyrms and Prana Swarms.
“Possibly,” Cirayus replied, hefting Sikandar. “Whatever it is, we’d best not be around when it arrives.”
“Might be a bit late for that,” Vir said, pointing to the sky.