“Damn,” whispered Naomi.
“She’s weaker now.” Scorio glanced about them. “She used everything she had. After Dameon!”
The sparse crowd yet stood, horrified by the collapse, amazed by Jova’s exit, but Dameon was rushing through them, shoving them aside.
The Nightmare Lady bounded through the crowd, inhumanly fast, and leaped to soar over the remaining heads and fall upon the fleeing Dread Blaze.
Jova startled. She snapped up a fist in a short uppercut. A slab of rock tore itself out of the ground like an oversized tombstone and shielded Dameon from the Nightmare Lady’s assault.
Scorio had to take Jova now, while she was low on mana. He raced toward her, snarling, only for her athletic frame to be replaced by a gestating mass of tumorous flesh that grew teeth and thick bristly hairs, eyes popping in jets of vitreous fluid, tongues flapping—
STOP, he commanded, reeling back in shock and horror, and to his surprise the monstrous image disappeared, revealing an equally stunned Jova.
The Nightmare Lady landed in a scrabble of claws and hurled herself at Dameon who flung out his Shroud. It encompassed him almost completely, foiling her assault, but black, inky clouds were already starting to form about the courtyard, the tops of triangular blades emerging from the soil atop segmented tails. Naomi’s eyes burned an even more virulent green as she leaped into a somersault, whipping her tail all the way about her to bring it cracking down like a whip upon the Dread Blaze’s Shroud.
Scorio charged Jova’s flank. Gold mana infused him, made him feel perilous, unstoppable, a god amongst mortals. She flung up her Shroud but he tore through it with two swipes, causing her to fall back in shock. He lunged swiping at her, but the rock on which she stood tore free and flew up, carrying her out of reach into the air.
Scorio continued his charge through where she’d stood and raced toward Dameon, who was bellowing at the stunned crowd to get involved. The Nightmare Lady was slashing her tail again and again at the Dread Blaze’s Shroud, and when Scorio joined her the shimmering shield collapsed only to allow them a few inches approach before they hit Dameon’s forcefield.
“Sindra!” Dameon grinned as he searched the crowd. “Someone fetch Sindra!”
Sindra, the teleporter.
Scorio sensed movement and drew up his great Shroud behind him and Naomi both. An avalanche of rocks crashed against it, shattering and thundering as they bounced off the invisible wall.
Scorio circled out wide, drawing both Gold-infused sets of talons along the forcefield, causing sparks to fly, and then roared and slammed his horns into the curvature of the field. Its hemispherical body warped and undulated alarmingly, and Dameon’s grin vanished.
DROP THE SHIELD, Scorio blasted at the Dread Blaze, but though Dameon’s head rocked back he resisted the command.
A roar sounded from the curtain wall as an alien being leaped down. It was built like a bull, its black body covered in a mass of crimson spikes with a huge horn emerging from its elongated muzzle. It charged them, moving ever faster the longer it ran, and the Nightmare Lady leaped into a bank of darkness and disappeared just in time. The spiked creature powered past and slammed into the courtyard’s wall, causing the blocks to slide and shift as if impacted by a direct catapult hit.
A second Great Soul appeared in an archway that led to the next enclosed ruin and raised both hands, summoning a disc of burning light between them. Jova flew higher overhead and tore a large section of the curtain wall free, straining as she lifted a dozen huge blocks of stone into the air.
“Time to finish this!” shouted Scorio.
Naomi’s bladed tails now grew thickly in the courtyard and thick banks of inky misty floated about. Scorio could see through them as if they were but patches of Coal, but from the way Dameon cast about, it was obvious he was growing blinded.
And the Nightmare Lady.
The longer she remained in this area the more menacing she became, gaunter, taller, her tail longer, an air of horrific mastery just burning off her skeletal frame. She flitted from shadow to shadow, as if they were connected by invisible tunnels, evading attacks only to appear behind their foes.
Five Great Souls had joined the fight, only to be beaten back by her thrashing tails, each trying to pin her down with a combination of long and short-range attacks.
“Now!” she cried and leaped at Dameon from out of a bank of shadow, pirouetting mid-air so that her tail whipped about and cracked against the forcefield even as four of her dark tails did the same. Scorio slashed with both Gold-infused talons once more.
The forcefield shattered.
Then Jova cried out and hurled her blocks of stone upon them.
Scorio leaped to the Nightmare Lady’s side and placed his Shroud directly above, layering it over her own.
The world fell upon them, blocks as big as cartwheels pounding into the curved surfaces, bouncing off, knocked away by other blocks.
Scorio grit his teeth and was forced down to one knee as he fought to keep his splintering, fracturing Shroud from exploding.
Naomi hissed in fury.
Scorio looked around.
Dameon was sprinting toward the courtyard exit.
STOP, he mentally roared at Jova again, who grunted as the last of the blocks fell from the sky. She flew up higher, as if seeking to escape the range of his power.
Three more Great Souls had entered the court yard, wild-eyed and wearing Manticore robes.
“Stop them!” shouted Dameon, thrusting past them and out of sight.
The Nightmare Lady raced up the curtain wall, lithe and limber as a flickering spider, and was up on the battlements before anyone could react.
Scorio could still hear the rod. It was bursting its way through another ruin, still in place, the Gold mana he’d placed inside it holding in place for far longer than he’d ever witnessed before.
Scorio thrust his way out of the mess of blocks, his Shroud acting as a great shoulder, and then charged the three Great Souls who fell into prepared crouches only to gape as wings burst from his back and he leaped into the sky, powering upwards in great beats that caused a dusty downdraft to swirl about the trio, stinging their eyes.
But the centermost woman drew a golden spear from the air and hurled it at him with unerring precision. Scorio wheeled, Shroud slamming into place at just the right angle, and the spear bounced off its curvature to fly into the sky.
Shouts, chaos, panic. The island was coming to life, Great Souls everywhere stirring into action but confused by the rod’s assault.
Scorio powered forward, beating his wings powerfully, gaining speed, but Jova was flying in from the side, a swarm of rocks bristling over her shoulders, leaning into the curve on her stone slab, black hair streaming back.
A heavyset youth rose into the air ahead, sighted Scorio, and flew at him. His fists were encased in glowing gauntlets of silver, their knuckles spiked, and he came in fast and with obviously better maneuverability.
Scorio placed his Shroud between them, and when the youth went to swing at it blasted him with his command aura: FALL.
To the man’s obvious confusion, he complied.
Rocks flew at him and Scorio wheeled, Shroud coming about again, but Jova was high and far back, fighting to keep out of his range. The shards exploded over the face of Scorio’s Shroud, but even with his Gold mana he could feel its integrity beginning to go.
It was time to finish this.
He tore around, thrust himself forward through the air and fell into a shallow dive, aiming at Dameon’s back.
Dark fog was rising in this courtyard, new bladed tails pushing free of the undergrowth and even blank expanses of stone.
Dameon was fighting his way to Sindra’s side. She stood, eyes wide in shock, until he grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her in close.