I nodded and stood. Teft’s last barrier fell, his two copies vanishing. Their mana had run dry.
Marissa and Jin helped a still-shaken Teft to his feet while Patrick led the way.
It wasn’t hard to see our destination, now that I was looking.
Katashi floated just in front of the tower, his brilliant aura of azure extending so far that I had no difficulty locating him in spite of his physical form being dwarfed by the tower’s size.
Fortunately, he was hovering just in front of the gate; he hadn’t taken to high in the skies like many of the gargoyles and karvensi had.
Less fortunately? There were dozens of land-bound monsters between us and him.
I counted about twenty barghensi, a handful of humanoid-sized spiders, and a single orange-auraed minotaur.
Is that a Sunstone aura? I’m not sure we can handle that.
“Got a spire guardian over there,” Patrick pointed out just as my mind processed it.
“I’ll...” Teft coughed and stumbled, falling to a single knee. Jin hurriedly hauled him back to his feet.
“Nonsense,” Jin replied. “You have done enough, Professor. Rest and recover. You will do us a greater service later in this way.”
Teft gave a weak nod.
We continued approaching the horde of monsters without a plan.
When they were about a hundred yards out, I turned to Sera. “Do you think they could tell the difference between Vanniv and one of the karvensi in the sky?”
“No, but if you’re thinking he could talk us through, it probably won’t work. They’re probably not smart enough to understand.”
I nodded. “Got enough strength for whatever your mystery summon is yet?”
She clenched her hands in the air. “I don’t think so. Maybe. But I don’t know if that would be the wisest idea here, even if I could manage it.”
The barghensi started moving forward to intercept us, the spiders right behind them. The minotaur remained near the tower, only a dozen yards in front of Katashi.
We had a bigger problem, though.
Those hundreds of flying creatures above us had stopped circling and they were forming up on our side of the tower.
“Oh, that’s bad,” Patrick mumbled, pointing up.
“No more time for debate.” Sera folded her hands in front of her. “Vanniv, I summon you!”
Vanniv flickered into existence at her side, his eyes widening as he took in the horde in front of us. “Oh, what is this nonsense now?”
Sera pointed up. “They look like they’re about to dive. Does that sound right to you?”
Vanniv nodded. “Yep. You’re pretty much doomed, sad to say. I would mourn you, but you know, I won’t exist—”
Sera poked a finger into his chest. “No time for banter. Go tell them we’re friends?”
He rolled his eyes. “There’s always time for banter, little Cadence, but don’t fret. I will, of course, come to your rescue.”
Vanniv took off at once, flying toward the disconcertingly massive swarm of flying monsters.
Which just left us with the ones on the ground, now nearly close enough to strike.
Patrick stepped up next to Sera. “You got enough mana left for our new trick?”
She nodded, grabbing his left hand. “Oh, yes.”
Patrick grinned, turning back to me and Marissa. “Buy us a few seconds?”
Marissa nodded.
Then she charged.
She was a blur of gold and white, her Guardian shroud blasting her forward with preternatural speed.
I...couldn’t possibly keep up with that.
I drew my sword and cautiously followed her at a jogging pace.
Marissa slammed into the first barghensi with a punch like a runaway train. It must have weighed eight hundred pounds, but it still flew backward like she’d smashed a toy doll.
Then she was moving again, jumping atop one of the spiders and slamming a boot into its skull. The creature crumpled as she leapt off it, and kicked another barghensi in the face.
I... think I was a little enthralled there, for just a moment.
And then I was in there amongst the monsters, swishing my sword out to slice through a barghensi’s leg. The enchanted sword cut cleanly through, crippling the creature, and I felt a pang of guilt as it howled in agony.
I almost shut down.
These weren’t illusions like the things I’d been fighting during the school tests. That barghensi’s pain was real.
Maybe most people told themselves that a monster’s pain was just part of a convincing illusion, but I’d been reading stories about monsters taking intelligent actions since my childhood. I couldn’t believe monsters to be less sentient than ordinary animals, and some of them seemed even more so. Meeting Vanniv and hearing him try to barter for an extended existence had further solidified my view.
Marissa slammed into me, pushing me out of the way of a monstrous spider claw. Fortunately, she danced out of the way in time to avoid taking the hit herself.
“No dyin’, Cadence.” She slammed a fist backward, not even looking at the creature she’d smashed. “You’ve got a job to do.”
I glanced back at the Hero’s End, the tower serpent still looming in the distance, violently lashing destruction in the next section of buildings.
Marissa was right. While hurting these creatures felt viscerally wrong, the wrong of failing to stop the assault was a far greater one. I’d have to stomach the guilt to save as many people as I could.
Of course, it was possible we would slaughter these creatures and still fail to talk Katashi into stopping the attack...but I couldn’t think about that. It was the kind of doubt that could rob my friends of their lives.
I nodded to Marissa. “Let’s do this.”
She grinned at me. “Back to back, yeah?”
I nodded, turning around and feeling her press against me. “Back to back.”
I lowered my blade, drawing in breath as I looked at the approaching creatures with renewed resolve.
“Uh, yeah, don’t do that!” Patrick shouted. “Be ready to run!”
I glanced at Patrick and Sera. They were still holding hands... and they were glowing, a pulsing aura of bright blue and white enveloping the pair.