Book 3 Ch 27: Laughter

Michael dodged backward as the silver winged creature threw another dive-propelled javelin at him. It was female, that was the only conclusion he could make given its state of undress, and roughly one and a half times his size. She had long blue hair that was woven into thick braids and her ebon skin was marked with tattoos the same silver as her wings. Michael found her beautiful even as she dove toward him with her talons extended towards his face.

He raised his shield and placed several barriers in front of it to slow her momentum. The move succeeded and as she broke through two of his summoned barriers he smashed at her leg with his mace, managing to connect. There was a loud crack as Ruin connected and she shrieked as she attempted to regain altitude and get some distance from him. Unfortunately for her, Ser Lound was already thundering in their direction with his lance extended and he impaled her through her side with it before releasing the lance and directing his horse to trample over one of the lizardmen that was making a run for it.

With her gone Michael ran toward the rift. It was hanging about ten feet in the air and another of the harpies emerged from it even as he got close enough to begin wrapping his will around it. As he clutched it, the harpy turned her attention to him, but before she could even prepare to dive a bolt of lightning hit her, courtesy of Ollie.

Surprisingly, she didn’t fall from it, but instead her tattoos briefly lit and began glowing, then dissipated. Luckily, she was incapacitated while her tattoos did whatever it was that they were doing which gave Ser Blake time to leap up and grab her by the talon. She was far heavier in her full armor than the harpy was and so was able to slam her onto the hard ground below with enough force to shatter a number of her bones before she finished her off with a powerful stab of her spear.

Ollie had somehow found himself in an aerial battle with two of the harpies at the same time. He narrowly dodged the claws of one by releasing his levitation spell for a moment to put himself into freefall. The other harpy threw her spear at him and he quickly summoned a portal in front of himself making the spear instead fly back at the harpy and impale her through the chest, causing her to fall to the ground. The other howled with rage and dove for him, but he created a portal underneath himself and wound up behind the harpy where he used the force of his fall to slam his metal staff into her back.

Michael clenched his fist and finished sealing the rift. It wasn’t the angry red of the horned men, but he’d gotten the distinct impression that the harpies were their allies, and the lizardfolk that had been with them made the guess a bit more educated. With the rift closed he moved to help the militia, squires, and knights with the cleanup.

He started by creating a number of barrier steps to surprise one of the remaining harpies with a lunge and run her through with a blade coated in holy fire. He landed heavily on the ground and rolled to bring himself to his feet before ripping a spear from the side of a militiaman and healing him before throwing the spear at a nearby lizardfolk as he let off a small firebolt that hit the ground as he was launched backward. There were only a few left after that, and since they had the momentum it was a simple matter to finish it.

When the last harpy was dead, Michael approached the knights and squires where they were standing.

“Well I’ll be fucked,” said Blake. “Four rifts in two days, only one casualty.”

Michael frowned at that. The poor man had taken a javelin through his head suddenly, and unfortunately there was nothing he could do. Still he moved over to the body and tore the javelin free before closing the man’s remaining eye and saying a prayer for him.

Stolen novel; please report.

“We’re ahead of the rifts for the first time since…” Lounds paused. “For the first time ever, actually. At least since we came here.”

Laird nodded. “This is what I’m talking about. We ease the burden of all the villages and towns up to the Knight Captain. Give everyone a breather, time to fortify and prepare more before we attack the forces gathered outside Lataxia. Then we can focus on larger problems.” he paused. “King and Captain permitting of course.”

Blake nodded and looked at Michael. “That holy fire thing,” She shook her head. “Fuck me, I think the gods really are on your side.”

“They’re on all our sides… they just like me a bit better is all.”

She laughed at that, looking at Hu and Laird. “I want to come with you.”

Laird shook his head. “The rifts will keep coming. We need either you or Lounds to head down to the other village while we’re gone.”