I had no idea what that meant.
“Aww, c’mon!” Marissa shouted. She broke from our short-lived formation, stepping forward and slamming another barghensi in the jaw with a fist. This one took the hit without flying back. It merely staggered.
It didn’t look any stronger. That meant Marissa was getting weaker.
She’d burned through most of her mana fast.
I spotted a spider rushing at her from the right. She turned to move, stepping backward — and promptly tripped over her own feet.
I moved without thinking, stepping in the way and bringing my blade upward in a diagonal slice. I felt the transference mana running along the edge as if it was a part of me, pushing it outward with the force of instinct.
A vast wave of cutting energy ripped free from my strike, flashing into the distance.
When it ended, the looming spider fell into two pieces, cleanly split in half.
“Th—thanks!”
I slashed to the left and right, warding off two encroaching barghensi as Marissa regained her footing.
Patrick’s voice hit me next. “Back off, fast!”
The monsters were keeping a healthy blade-length away from me now, which gave us a moment to process Patrick’s shout and move.
As we started to run, two voices rose as one.
“Child of the goddess, we call upon your aid.
Rain frost from the skies in a Permafrost Cascade!”
The world darkened as the sky was filled with ice. Even with my blood burning with exertion, the newborn chill nearly froze me in place.
Wedges of frost the size of wagons flashed downward from the sky in the dozens, smashing and cleaving the horde of monsters arrayed behind us.
When Marissa and I made it back to Patrick and Sera, we found them kneeling, still holding hands with their eyes frozen shut. Hoarfrost clung to their bodies, the withering aura of ice around them too potent for me to come within arm’s reach.
I turned to see if any of the monsters had made it through the spell to close on us, but I had no need to worry. Javelins of frost continued to pommel those few creatures that had managed to survive the initial barrage, pinning limbs and piercing throats until not a single barghensi or spider remained standing.
When the pair finally pulled their hands apart, shivering and panting, no further threats moved toward us.
But the minotaur still loomed in the distance, far beyond their spell’s bombardment range.
Teft staggered close to the pair as the aura around them began to fade. “You did...well. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen first year students manage a cooperative spell on that scale.”
“I will take care of things from here.” Jin stepped in front of the group, calmly walking past us toward the distant minotaur.
I started to follow him, but he turned his head as I moved. “I will not be able to protect you if you are close.”
I wanted to protest that I could protect myself, but Marissa had already almost taken a hit for me, so that clearly wasn’t true.
“I’ll keep a safe distance. Marissa, protect the others.” Jin’s tone brooked no argument. Even Teft simply gave Jin a scrutinizing glance and then nodded.
I sincerely hoped that Teft knew something that I did not.
As Jin marched forward, I stayed a good twenty yards back, deliberately avoiding the frigid grounds where the monsters had fallen moments before.
A glance upward told me little. The ice from the spell had faded when Patrick and Sera had broken contact, and the flyers above were holding steady. I couldn’t see Vanniv in their midst. There were simply too many of them, and they were too high up to be clearly distinct. Of whether he’d succeeded or failed, I could see no clear sign.
When Jin was a stone’s throw away from the tower, the minotaur finally moved.
And in spite of being the height of an ogre, it was fast. With a single motion, it hurled a tremendous two-handed axe through the air, the projectile whirling toward Jin’s location with a visible aura of force.
And Jin wasn’t moving fast enough to dodge.
I lashed out in alarm, slashing in the air and pushing a wave of mana toward the axe, but I wasn’t fast enough either.
The blade slammed right into Jin’s chest—
—and he vanished.
Reminding me of one of the very first things I’d made him.
Item that allows for the projection of an illusory self.
A part of me expected to see the real Jin appear a moment later, but fortunately for Jin, his invisibility was from a completely separate item. Moments passed and I still couldn’t see any sign of him.
I did hear him, though, when his guns began to fire.
The minotaur grunted as bullets slammed into its chest and neck.
I’d enchanted Jin’s revolvers, too — but even with transference enchantments to increase the velocity of the projectiles, the bullets didn’t seem to be doing the minotaur much harm.
The minotaur grunted, lowering its horns toward the sound of the noise, and charged.
The sound of gunfire stopped. Jin must have realized that it was tracking him through sound as soon as it moved.
I continued to move forward, slowly working to close the distance where I might be able to reliably hit the minotaur with one of the transference waves from my sword.
I really needed to come up with a good name for that technique at some point.
The minotaur halted its charge with no sign of impact, which was good.
Then it turned toward me, which was bad.
I raised my sword with both hands, preparing to push a transference slash at the creature as soon as it got close enough.
“Corin, move!”
I jumped back just as the creature’s axe swept through the air where I’d been moments before, close enough that it brushed the trailing fabric of my tunic.
That was when I remembered that I hadn’t properly recharged my barrier after the test.
The axe continued to fly past me, circling around until it landed in the minotaur’s upraised hand.
It threw the axe again immediately — right toward the location of the warning shout.