Possibly both.
Michel moved to help hold Carter’s legs down, while Thomas flipped open Carter’s pouch, pulling her hand out of it and retrieving what she’d grabbed.
A stick, now snapped in two.
“What’s this?” Thomas demanded.
Carter chuckled. “A twig, obviously, sir. Never seen one before?”
Oh, no.
I turned to Elora. “That’s a signaling item. We need to leave right now.”
Elora turned to look at me, her eyes narrowing. Then, slowly, she nodded. “Agreed. Finish disarming her, then we’re getting out of here.”
“You’re too late.” Carter laughed again. “He’s already here.”
There was a blur of movement.
Then Woods fell backward, staring at two arms that were no longer connected to his hands.
Thomas had just enough time to open his mouth before a blur slammed into his throat. His hands reached up toward a growing line of red.
Michel’s aura flared yellow for an instant before something struck her in the jaw, slamming her into the ground hard enough to send her into a tumble across the forest floor.
The attacker was faster than my eyes could perceive.
Then someone was looming above Carter, a look of disdain on his face as he lifted — and then tossed — Woods’ severed hands.
“Attunements.” The figure wiped his own bloodstained hands against his previously pristine white shirt.
“You think so highly of them, and yet, they can’t help you in the slightest if you’re suppressing them.” He shook his head. “Not that little ones like yours would have mattered, anyway.”
The man was tall, slender, with short hair that had been dyed a dark green tone. His garb was entirely white, aside from the bloodstains.
His eyes were bright yellow. Almost gold.
“Now.” He turned down to Carter. “What’s all this nonsense?”
Carter stumbled to her feet. “I’m sorry. I’ve been compromised. We were instructed to suppress our attunements, and I couldn’t hide the mark properly.”
The man raised a blood-stained finger to her lips. “That’s enough, darling. No need for excuses. We’ll clean things up.”
To the side, Elora moved a finger.
The wyvern dove.
The man turned, frowned, and dodged a swipe from a barbed tail.
“Elias, Warden of the Adamantine Wall, I summon you!”
A titanic stone figure burst from the ground in front of Elora. I’d seen this before, in my vision of her fight with Keras, but I hadn’t seen it in person.
The man smacked the wyvern’s tail to the side with a palm, looking up at the stone golem. “Hrm. Neat.”
“Elias, bind him with chains of authority!”
Golden chains manifested around the man, pulling him toward the ground.
He frowned. Then the wyvern slammed its tail into his chest.
He didn’t move an inch. That kind of mass should have smashed through solid stone, but he didn’t even seem to notice the impact.
The bloodstained man just stared blankly for a moment, then shook his head. “No, I don’t think you’re doing this right.”
He touched a hand to the chains. “You see, this is all magic. The chains…” He closed his eyes, and the chains vanished. “This rather vicious beast.”
The man vanished, then reappeared with his hand grabbing the creature’s tail.
Then the wyvern vanished, too.
The man pointed at the golem. “This one looks sturdier, but in truth, it’s the same.”
He walked casually toward the massive golem as it brought it fists down on top of him. It must have been two stories tall, dozens of tons in weight.
He raised a hand and caught the descending stone fist. For the first time, he seemed to show a hint of effort, just for an instant.
And then the golem collapsed into an inert pile of stone.
“Delicious.” He smiled, turning back toward Carter. “Now, where were we?”
“We were leaving, I believe, m’lord Saffron.”
Saffron. That’s one of those “ess” names Keras warned me about.
The man — Saffron — nodded. “Ah, yes, yes.” He turned toward Elora. “But she was rather rude, wasn’t she?”
He took a step forward, then paused.
Thomas had grabbed his leg. The wound on Thomas’ neck was gone. “Never leave a healer in a condition to heal themselves, monster. Now die.”
A black aura flared from Thomas’ hands, burning through Saffron’s pant leg.
Saffron winced. “Good advice. I’ll offer some in return.” Saffron shook his leg free, then knelt down. He showed no signs of injury. “Don’t talk so much in the middle of a fight. Especially when you’re completely outmatched. Here, I’ll help.”
There was another blur, then Thomas fell backward, letting out a distorted scream.
All that had happened in a handful of seconds. I wasn’t waiting for anything else. I bolted toward the woods. If anyone was smart and still alive, they’d follow me.
Haste.
I threw as much mana as I could into my legs. I didn’t care about finesse right now.
Saffron appeared right in front of me. I barely stopped myself from running right into him.
“You’re fleeing from me.” He stared at me.
“I… I’m not with them,” I managed to stammer.
His eyes narrowed. “No?… Hm, interesting. Sit.”
I found myself sitting.
“Good boy. We’ll talk when I’m done.” He vanished again.
My mind was screaming to get up, but my body wouldn’t respond.
This is no time for half-measures.
I reached up and touched my Enchanter attunement, then I flooded it with pure mana from my hand.
More.
More!
I charged my attunement with mana until my hand burned and trembled with agony.
But I still couldn’t make myself stand.
Shivering, I pushed myself around to look back in the direction I’d come from. The mental command forced me to sit, but it wasn’t restricting me from doing anything else.
The first thing I considered was pulling my own signaling stick out of the Jaden Box, but that wasn’t likely to work. Derek was too far away to get to me quickly, and I didn’t even know if the stick would work at all at this range.
Instead, I pulled the signal monitor off my shield sigil. That would trigger the tracking device to activate.
It was a slim hope that the Soaring Wings would arrive in time to help. In truth, I didn’t know if they could handle a threat like this, anyway. I didn’t even know if Derek could.
But I wasn’t going to let myself die without doing everything I could to try to survive.
Thomas was pawing at his mouth. Trying to heal a missing tongue, perhaps.
Michel was back on her feet, her Citrine aura active. I watched as she focused mana in a fist and threw a punch at Saffron.
Saffron stepped to the side, avoiding the attack as if it had come at him in slow motion. Then Saffron’s hand moved like a blur, and I saw a splatter of crimson across the forest floor.
Michel fell to her knees, clutching at what was left of her throat. She didn’t rise again after that.
I shivered.
I still couldn’t stand. Instead, I turned toward a tree, tilting my feet.
Jump.
It wasn’t much, but I blasted myself a few feet to the side.