As he bounded over the ramparts, he was greeted with shouts, hoots, and cheers. Most came from red demons—Gargan—but a surprising number of Kothis cheered as well. Vir hadn’t expected that.
He sailed over the crowd, rushing for the northern wall, never noticing the one voice that called out to him. Janani’s voice, pleading for him to save her lost orphans.
The fight for the northern wall raged longer than Vir expected. The bulk of the wave went down quickly, but it was the stragglers that gave Vir the most trouble. The forest, denser here than in the south, hid the rampaging beasts, forcing Vir to delve into its depths to eliminate them all.
It was times like these that Vir wished for wide-area magic like Balancer of Scales.
Maybe Cirayus will have some good news on that front, Vir hoped.
By the time Vir finished with the last of the horde, he was spent. Surrounded by dead bodies and covered in the blood of his foes, he felt as bad as he looked.
His prana reserves had run low, and exhaustion clawed at both his body and spirit. He wanted nothing more than to collapse on the spot. Both to recover and to avoid learning of the damage the beasts he failed to stop had caused.
Vir wasn’t naïve enough to believe there wouldn’t be casualties. While he understood that without his intervention, many more Gargans would have died, it was still difficult to accept.
And yet, delaying the inevitable would solve nothing. So, with great effort, Vir picked himself up and returned to the orphanage.
He needed only one look at Janani’s expression as she came running up to him to know that something was terribly amiss.
“Bolin, Ekta, and Hiya,” she said in desperation. “They’ve gone missing. Please, find them!”
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The terrifying winged Ash Beast smashed at the stone house in which Bolin, Ekta, and Hiya had hidden. It was a lavish two-story residence with four separate rooms. One whose Chitran owners had left in a hurry. While they’d locked the door, they’d forgotten to batten down the window, and Ekta had wiggled through the small opening to unlock the door from inside.
They’d barely made it in time, and while they breathed easily the moment they locked the door, their relief was short-lived.
Though they’d prayed that the Chitran dwelling’s sturdy walls would keep them safe, Badrak seemed to have abandoned them on this day, and they understood it was just a fool’s hope. The door was too small for the big Ash Beast, so instead, it chose to bring down the door and the walls around it, which it was in the process of doing.
“What do we do?” Ekta whispered, on the verge of tears.
“I… don’t know, Ekta,” Bolin replied, fully aware that these were not words the girl needed to hear. He was only just barely holding back the tears, himself.
What would Vaak do? he thought in desperation. Well, that’s obvious…
Vaak would use his godly might to slay the beast. That was a luxury none of them had. They were just kids without magic or any sort of training in combat. If they were to survive, they had to think differently.
“We can’t fight it,” Bolin said flatly. “We need to distract it long enough for us to escape.”
The answer was obvious. They wouldn’t escape unscathed. One of them would have to play the part of decoy. One of them would have to die to allow the others to escape.
As Bolin stared off into the darkness, he came to terms with the truth. He’d never allow the others to take that role. As the eldest, that burden fell upon him.
“We need a diversion,” he said, his voice now calm and steady. “Something that will give us enough time to run away. Does anyone have ideas?”
“We could throw a stone out of the upstairs window?” Ekta said.
Bolin shook his head. “Not enough. We need to keep it occupied long enough for us to escape through the front door. When it notices we’re gone, we have to be far enough away that it can’t find us again.”
He’d already looked through the place, and there were no windows or doors on the rear wall since the house shared a wall with another behind it.
Hiya frowned, pointing to a dark corner of the room. “What about that? Isn’t that a ball game net?”
Bolin’s eyes lit up. “Hiya, you’re a genius!”
Bolin quickly explained what they had to do, and while Ekta and Hiya worked to attach stones to each corner of the net, Bolin prepared himself for the role he was to play.
The beast’s banging grew louder as it chipped through the stone with its terrifying claws.
Bolin stood in the two-story-tall hallway, ready to face it. Ekta and Hiya stood above on a balcony on the second floor that overlooked the hall, net in hand.
Not long now…
With a screech and a roar, the bipedal winged beast broke through, starting to squeeze through the opening it carved.
Its spittle flew through the room, landing on Bolin, but he refused to avert his eyes. He refused to back down or run away, despite shaking in terror.
“Wait!” he shouted. “Just a little longer!”
The Ash Beast had to clear the door before they laid the trap, or else they’d be stuck inside along with it.
Crawling and squirming, the Beast finally came through, standing to its full height inside the house. It gazed hungrily at Bolin, paying no attention to the girls above it.
“Now!” Bolin roared.
Ekta and Hiya flung the net into the air. It deployed perfectly, with the weights on its corners pulling it down to the ground. Directly onto the Ash Beast.
“Now run!” he shouted, keeping both eyes on the floundering creature. Confused, it thrashed violently, upending furniture, and smashing into the walls.
Ekta and Hiya rejoined Bolin, but none of them dared approach the door.
While their plan worked, they hadn’t expected the Ash Beast to move around so erratically.
“Hey!” Bolin said, hurling an urn at the beast. “Over here!”
“Bolin?” Hiya said. “What are you doing?”
“Quickly,” Bolin replied. “When it comes this way, run for it!”
“But what about you?”
Bolin gave her a confident smile. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
The Ash Beast lunged but became tangled in the net, falling over face-first.
“Go!” Bolin shouted, pushing Hiya, who sidestepped around the beast and dashed for the door.
The creature turned, raising its claw to slice them through.
“I’m right here, you overgrown bat!” Bolin shouted as he charged, an iron skillet in his hand.
He raised the skillet and slammed it on the beast’s snout as hard as he could.
The bat-creature jerked, going dazed for the briefest of moments. Less than a breath, but long enough for Hiya and Ekta to dash out into the street.
Bolin heaved a sigh of relief. He dropped the skillet and burst after them.
We’re… going to make it? We did it!
He couldn’t wait to tell Vaak about his adventure. How they’d saved Svar from an Ash Beast. How they’d led it into a house, trapped it there, and escaped!
Pride blossomed in Bolin’s chest as he rushed for the door.
Pride… and something else. Something cold.
Bolin stumbled.
Huh? That’s weird.
Though he’d stumbled, he didn’t fall. As if something was propping him up.
And then he looked down. At his stomach. It was red. And something protruded from it.
A spear? No…
A claw.
Bolin’s feet dangled in the air for a split-second before the beast flicked him into the air, lifting him off the ground.
Strangely, there was no pain.
Bolin watched in a daze as he sailed through the destroyed house. The world seemed to slow as he met Hiya’s gaze, staring back at him with horror from the street.