Week 4: The wall - Part 3

The bandit who Lu had just tacked stood up and charged, longsword in hand, towards Lu. Downwards cut. Lu blocked easily with the broadside, using their left hand for leverage. They pushed their opponent’s sword to the side as they stepped forwards and kicked him in the shin. The man retaliated with a punch to their sternum and stepped backwards trying to gain space but Lu followed and grabbed her sword by the blade as they delivered a blow to his head. Their opponent tried to dodge and block with her forearm, which cause a deep cut that reached the bone. Blood splashed out. The pain made him finch for a second, enough for Lu to take another step and give him a headbutt, breaking his nose. He fell to the floor and Lu stabbed her other forearm with their blade. With both hands unusable he would no longer be able to fight.

Another set of hooded figures rappelled down the ropes. Someone stabbed one of the animals, which panicked and tried to run away, stampeding over the guards who were holding the backline. The rest of the animals began to panic soon after. Many of them were freed or managed to be break from their holds causing even more chaos.

Lu rushed backwards to the group of four guards were Helvia was. They had been surrounded by at least six attackers, two of the soldiers laying on the floor with the third one using two shields to cover them. Helvia was wielding her longsword just like she had done in their sparring sessions and was holding back all the six hooded people. Lu rushed to her but they were almost ran over by a panicking donkey. Turn left, run straight ahead, sword held forwards by their side ready to impale. And impale it did, they hit one of the bandits from behind piercing her back, liver and abdomen, coming out of the other side. She was definitely dead after that.

Lu pushed that thought away and focused on the incoming pair of blades, one from each side. Dodge to the left, block the approaching sword, crouch and push up to force the blade out of balance, turn on their feet and strike. In a second they had cut through the stomach of the other bandit, which much to Lu’s dismay was wearing chainmail so it turned out to be barely a bruise. The large man stumble backwards from the force of the hit and Lu stood up again, parrying the incoming downswing from their other opponent and stabbing forwards, hitting him in the neck. There was a second of panic as he tried to breath in, before he started to choke on his own blood. Lu pushed the blade even deeper and cut to the right, severing the arteries and the side of the neck. They heard Helvia stepping besides her and blocking an attack from the one in chain mail.

Helvia nodded. Lu nodded back. They were back to back, four opponents still surrounded them one step away, carefully considering their next moves. The two wounded guards and the one helping them had managed to hid behind one of the displaced wagons, covered form any stray arrows from the remainder two archers. Thunder. An explosion. Something big had happened on the front where the others were. Taking advantage of their distraction, their opponents attacked at once. Lu focused on the two that were closer to them, certain that Helvia would cover her back. The dragonkin was large and mighty, each of her blows had to be dodged or the target risked breaking their weapon or arms trying to block it.

Lu was fast and nimble, their opponents struggling to keep up and were forced back, just like Lu wanted. Once one of them tripped Lu took the chance to rush the other one, aiming for their neck. The woman tried to block it, but instead of going through with the strike Lu grabbed her wrist and pulled them as they turned and crouched, flinging her body over theirs and slamming her on the floor in front of them before piercing her throat with their blade.

Without missing a beat they rushed to the one bandit who had just managed to recover from tripping. A flurry of strikes later he simply couldn’t keep up. Lu managed to hit them on the arm and finished them off with a swift stab through the chest. On her side, Helvia had managed to simply overpower her two opponents, cleaving one of them in half, chainmail and all, before she punched the last one so hard in the chest it caved in the armour plate his was wearing, making him throw up blood and lose consciousness. Threats dealt with, they rushed to the front of the caravan.

The mages were on the floor. Tessa was bloodied and bruised, tying to cast a spell on Aregoma, before being slapped by another figure. The slap was so loud it ringed on Lu’s ears and disoriented Aregoma and some of the soldiers nearby. There were still two guards fighting, the captain and three of the bodyguards. The civilians that Lu could see seemed not lethally wounded, but still bloodied and in panic. The animals at this point ha managed to run away or had broken something in their hysterics and were unable to move. The figure who had slapped Aregoma turned towards Lu and Helvia. A dark hood and a white mask, with a symbol drawn on it. It resembled an eye stitched open. A shiver ran down Lu’s spine. The figure was also wearing a metal amulet with a square gem in it, he was tall and thin and spoke with a deep voice. The fucking tea elf.

“Helvia Pax I presume.” He unsheathed a rapier. “I have some simple questions for you.” He turned his head and shouted to the remaining ten cultists “The Dragonkin is mine, kill the rest!” As if they had not been trying to do that already.

The wounded bandits redoubled their efforts against the guards. The captain pushed away her opponent and tried to shake the orc mage awake, but to no use. Aregoma stood up, gushing blood from her left side and started casting a spell. Lu heard a click and felt the cold breeze on their neck as their restrainer fell to the floor. They glanced at Helvia, who was holding the amulet in one hand and looking at her.

She dropped the amulet and said “Let’s see if those magic lessons paid off.”

Helvia stepped forwards towards the masked man and got ready to fight. He dashed forwards at a speed difficult to even perceive and snapped his fingers on Helvia’s face. Another thunderous explosion just like the one before originated from his hand and Helvia stumbled backwards, dizzy and bleeding from her ears, but did not fall.

“Where is the heart?” The man asked.

Lu snuck around one of the carts trying to get an angle on the masked elf but was met with three of the cultist. Lu jumped backwards, blocking and dodging. As much as they could, they took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on attuning. Now they had a better understanding on how it worked, they needed to find the right feeling again. The feeling of longing, missing something, the chase for a way of getting their family back... Block a downwards hit, step back, dodge to the right. It was impossible to concentrate like this. Lu took an opening to push one of their opponents to the side and stabbed her on the biceps. One of others swiftly took advantage of this and delivered a cut to their side that Lu was not able to fully dodge. Pain set in, then they felt the blood pouring. It was a lot of blood, a biting pain, their legs failed. They rolled back on the floor, hiding under one of the carts. They were a bit too far to be reached from that side so the two remaining cultists had to go around, wasting precious seconds. They heard the clashing of metal and another thunder.

The adrenaline was running out, replaced only with despair. They were going to die here, they were simply not good enough, not skilled enough. Not like it mattered against the masked man, even if they survived he could probably just kill them. Why was the same symbol there? Was it the same cult? What did the symbol mean? Lu had to focus on the moment, biting through the pain they rolled to the opposite side of their cover once the cultist reached them. One of them cursed and ran back, planning to surround them. Fuck, that was it. Too much pain. No more tricks, no more luck, no more chances. They wished that they could just for a moment reach back to Helvia, reach back to Aregoma, do something, do more, be more. That deep desperation somehow triggered the attunement in Lu. Their body started to glow with ochre light and they felt, even above the pain and the fear, that intense vibration in their heart. Maybe there was still one more trick, one more chance and a little bit of luck. Just before the cultist reached to their side to deal the final blow Lu reached their hand outwards and pronounced the incantation.

“çijagofawi”

They did not had time to warm up, no proper posture, no focus. There was, however, the superlative certainty that it would work, it had to work. Lu appeared on the floor behind the confused cultist who was still trying to figure out where they had gone. Moving out of sheer will, Lu sit up and stabbed the cultist on the back. He screamed and fell forwards as the blade pierced his lung. Lu struggled to stand up, holding her gushing side with her left arm and ready to face the incoming attacker with her right. Another thunder. Lu stretched their hand and said the incantation again, but nothing happened. The cultist almost cut their arm in retaliation. Taking a last bold chance Lu jumped forwards towards her, grabbing the side of her blade and cutting their hand open in the process, but gaining enough of an opening to stab her through the chest. She fell.

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Lu was left bloodied, lightheaded and alive. Turning around, it seemed like the remaining cultists were able to defeat the guards and had the captain pinned down, the mages with knifes to their necks and the other civilians threatened as well. Six of them remained on top of the masked one.

There was another thunder. “Give me the heart and I will let the rest live. I have no interest in anything else.” The tea elf said.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Helvia answered, sitting with her back against the wall of the canyon, blade dropped by her side, defeated. “My cart is the fourth one, you can have anything you want from there.”

Lu used her spell to teleport to the top of the wall. It worked well this time, with a good few seconds to focus. They saw two of the cultist leave the civilians and travel to their cart, bringing the three chess to their leader. He used his snap-thunder spell to open them by shattering the locks. The first one had Helvia’s old weapons and other artefacts. The second one was full of metal bars and gems. The third one full of bones. He walked to Helvia, shoving his had in her mouth and clicking his fingers again. Almost as loud as the thunder itself was the scream of pain form the dragonkin.

“I will ask only one more time, then I will have to kill you all and rummage through the corpses myself.” He said, taking off his mask to look at Helvia eye to eye. “You were transporting the heart, where is it. It is the size of my fist, it could be in a box, it could be wrapped in something.” He tapped Helvia’s temples with his long creepy fingers. “Think, love, think for me, think, where is it?”

Helvia was unable to respond, her jaw hanging open. Whatever he saw in her eyes was not what he wanted.

He Stood up. “Bitch”.

He stretched his hand again to perform the spell, but Lu was ready this time. They released their own spell, appearing just in front of the thunder mage with her sword ready and swooped down, cutting off the elf’s arm from the elbow down in a single brutal strike. He screeched in pain as blood gushed from the wound. As if it was a coordinated signal, the gnome with the somehow still perfectly styled moustache grabbed a rock and hit one of the distracted cultist in the head, knocking him out. The rest of the hostages soon took arms, improvised or otherwise, and started to fight the now panicked bandits. The captain managed to get rid of the hold she was in.

Lu, barely holding up, lost her concentration and the aura around their body disappeared. “Wh... Who are You?” They said, panting. “What does the mask mean?”

The elf casted a quick spell and his blade headed up to a red glow, using the metal to cauterize the wound.

When he was done a few seconds later he rose to his feet again “The wrath of The Mother knows no bounds, you imbecile. You will suffer more than ever thought possible.” He clicked his tongue, producing another thunderous shock from his mouth which sent Lu to the ground.

Lu’s vision was getting blurry, their side and arm were still bleeding profusely. Now they couldn’t even stand properly. On their knees, hands on the floor struggling to stand back up, Lu resigned to their death as the mage readied his blade to execute them. But it did not come. A shadow covered her. It was Helvia, she had somehow managed to throw herself on top of Lu and had taken the hit instead. Lu felt the warm drip of her blood on their back.

Aregoma stood behind him. In one had the blood of the unconscious Tessa, on the other hand the blood of the cultist leader which she had taken from his fallen arm.

“migipogofiço ʂiwojilowiçisitositosito...”

“çefeweneneʂe” The man replied, pointing his blade towards her.

Amber and purple sparks appeared out of nowhere in the space between the tip of his rapier and the skull on Aregoma’s staff. Both of them held their position, shaking as if an invisible wind was trying to topple them, both of them tensing their muscles and gritting their teeth. Merely a second later Helvia punched him in the knee, making him fall. It was only a split second of a distraction, but it was enough. His skull caved in as if hit with a hammer, he threw up a mouthful of blood and fell to the floor, dead for good. On the side, the civilians and remaining guards had managed to dispose of the rest of the cultists

Helvia fell to her side, rolling away from Lu. Her blood stained the dirt below her. “Help!” Lu cried. “She is going to die!”

Aregoma touched her on the head with their staff and whispered something. Helvia’s movement seized, her shaking body laid still and she exhaled. Lu stared at the lifeless body of Helvia and then looked up to Aregoma, shocked. Aregoma had put her staff on their forehead as well.

“Nobody dies in the presence of a necromancer without permission.” She smiled. “Just rest, you will be fine.” She inhaled and whispered “fofigo.”

It was like a blanked had wrapped around Lu, warming them and protecting them. The world seemed distant all of the sudden, their pain a vague echo. They lied on top of Helvia and stretched their had to grab hers. Hers moved in response, slowly, but still there. Outside of their quiet mind, far away in a distant land on the horizon, Lu could see Aregoma and Tessa frantically discussing something as both of them casted spells. The elf was looking around, identifying with her magic which bodies were still alive and which ones weren’t and with help she brought all of the people who could still be saved to the front of the caravan. The one novice mage was drawing sigil circles in the floor, the gnome was fixing everyone’s clothes and other objects. As the orc exhausted her magic, Aregoma rested her hand on her head, and one of the other travellers said something and walked towards them, holding Aregoma’s hand. The volunteer’s legs failed and he almost fell but was quickly held by others. Tessa stood up with renewed energy and continued her task. This happened a few times.

Eventually they got close enough that Lu could hear.

“How is the Lu?” Tessa asked

“Nothing major.” Aregoma responded “Massive blood loss, concussions, broken ribs and right leg. Left hand has a superficial cut.”

“Are they fully human?”

“I don’t think so, but I don’t know how to interpret what I get from them.” She paused for a moment. “Human enough I think.”

Tessa knelt before Lu, hands stretched and palms towards them. “goʂegoʂegoʂe gogejesetonoʂonenomeseso” As she chanted he moved her hands around over Lu’s body, lingering over those places where they were wounded. She was also relaxing and contracting the muscles in her abdomen which gave the illusion that someone was squeezing her and then letting go. “goʂegoʂegoʂeʂoʂosoçelonosepefemotejelejososososo”

When her chanting finished Lu felt a rush of energy that tore away the soothing magic from Aregoma. Their bones snapped back into place, their skin sew shut by itself, their organs rearranged and they sneezed out some slimy red thing. They wanted to scream in pain but couldn’t.

“Give it twenty seconds for the shock to pass, you will feel much better.” Tessa said.

Lu was left in pain but paralyzed and unable to move. One of the guards that was with the mages carefully lifted them and set them aside to free Helvia.

“Heavy contusions, Intra-cranial bleeding, both arms broken, left lung pierced.” Aregoma said. “I can’t keep her alive much longer, she needs something strong.”

“But... She is a Dragonkin, I can’t use that spell on non-humans without consent.” The orc said, fidgeting with her amulet. “It could cause miracle’s syndrome.”

“So what is the alternative?” Aregoma scuffed. “Are you able to keep her stable until we reach the academy or at least until we get out of the canyon?”

“Do it” Said Helvia, barely understandable due to her broken jaw, weak, barely a whisper. “If the choice... Is between dying now... Or dying later... I choose later.”

“Are you sure?” Tessa asked.

Helvia nodded. “Do... What you... Have to...”

Tessa performed the same ritual she had done to Lu. When the spell was casted the crack of bones was almost as loud as the thunder from the cultist leader, her ribs and legs twisting back into shape, her jaw snapping back. One of her arms had to rotate almost a full rotation to get back into position, her face and head visibly shook as her skull welded itself back together.

Tessa stood up and fell backwards almost landing on Lu who still could not properly move. “Oh by the dragon I am so sorry.” She said, then turned to Aregoma. “I cannot guarantee that she will not have brain damage after this, I did as much as I could.”

“As much as you could is as much as we have.” Aregoma helped her stand up and they walked towards the other people who still needed to be attended.

A few minutes later Lu and Helvia stood up together and walked to the rest of the group, eager to help. They were told that things were under control, Aregoma and the captain were organising the people to get things fixed as much as possible so they could continue. Some were fetching back the animals. The Gnome mage went back to the task of moving the boulder on the road. Seven of the guards where dead, as well as four of the six bodyguards. Four of the travellers were also dead. Lu and Helvia helped load the bodies on their cart as it was the one with the most free space. They then sat down and fell asleep, resting on each other.