Migo roared from above and the line folded as the soldiers retreated, probably not realizing that the new flying beast was on their side.
Katsi stopped directly over the heads of the Reyganins who were standing a few steps back from the line, watching as their warriors and waheshi fought. These were probably their bleeders, mixers, or shamanfolk without magic.
The easy targets.
After all, with no bleeders, they wouldn’t be able to make more waheshi, right? Without hesitation, she called up her power, connecting again with the energy of the sky. Her body pulsed with light as she focused down at them.
Sensing the danger, they huddled together, but they were too late. They could not move faster than light after all. She squeezed her eyes tight again just before the flash ignited the air. She kept the energy funneling down, channeling into it all of her emotion, angry at them for invading and taking innocent lives. The brightness of the red light that followed was too much for her eyelids to cover. Everything became red with it.
In this moment of focus, something struck her hard in the chest. She gasped at the pain, connection lost as she plummeted to the ground.
The line of shamanfolk she’d been focusing on had been obliterated, becoming little more than a steaming mass. She’d done it, but she was falling fast. She tried reconnecting with the air, but her mind was foggy and it seemed as though something was shielding her from it.
And that pain in her chest—sands, what did they do to her?
She pressed out with her magic, grasping at the air, enhancement artifacts burning as she strained with all her might, forcing back whatever prevented her from creating the connection. But she wasn’t having enough luck. She lacked the skill to combat directly against the connections of other shamans, and there were seemingly enough of them here that they were able to outmaneuver her.
The ground was closing in.
But Migo was there. He caught her in his paws more gently than she would have thought possible. They glided to the ground where he set her down and growled, large eyes fixed on her injury.
Katsi looked down to see that something had struck her in the sternum and across her right clavicle. Perhaps a stone from one of the earthmelders. “I guess it’s not a battle without some battle scars, right?”
Migo let out a growl that would rival the sound of distant thunder, clearly displeased.
“They’re somehow preventing me from connecting with the air,” she explained.
Migo huffed and turned toward a nearby building. She had no doubt that he possessed some ability to detect life. If not generally, then perhaps he could sense the use of magic itself. That would make him a very formidable shaman hunter indeed. Just like he’d always wanted.
Katsi focused her efforts in a different way. Instead of connecting with the air, she gritted her teeth against the pain and lifted her arms, connecting with the wall before pulverizing it into dust. This revealed three people who staggered back as Migo lunged in at them. Their seculas were useless as they tried to defend themselves.
Just then, five waheshi charged out from around the corner towards Migo’s back. Katsi managed to connect with the air as Migo hacked down two of the shamans in a flash.
“Migo!” she warned. She was still unsure if the waheshi could truly harm him, but her doubt was put to rest as all five waheshi pounded into Migo’s back with their claws and teeth. Migo let out a roar and lashed his tail at them before whipping back around, biting a waheshi, engulfing its entire head in his mouth. He jerked his head up, crushing the beast in his jaws. The four other waheshi seized the moment, diving in for Migo’s stomach and throat, trying to get through the softer leather underneath.
Migo growled and stomped. A powerful swing from one of his arms severed another waheshi’s arm at the shoulder.
Katsi called on her magic again. Lightning tingled at her fingertips. Who needed clouds when the energy was sizzling inside of her? It would be just like passing the energy between her hands like she’d done dozens of times, only in this instance, it would be a lot more powerful. But what if she struck Migo? Would her lightning harm him? She’d seen what Alyssad had done to Migo. Maybe he was impervious even to the one thing waheshi were weak against?
She’d take the chance. She pointed her fingers at one of the waheshi that stood a little further off. It was clearly hoping to strike when there was an opening.
It wouldn’t ever get the chance.
Energy popped from Katsi’s hand as lightning arced out, striking the waheshi with an erratic bolt that coalesced, stray strands of energy zapping out to the surrounding area. One of them connected with Migo but appeared to have no effect. He was fully engrossed in his battle with the waheshi.
But Katsi’s arms burned with the energy that flowed through her. Alyssad had warned her about using her body as a conduit to the energy, but she felt as though it gave her so much more control, despite the burning on her skin. Perhaps it would be a means of using lightning at closer quarters. She pointed at another waheshi, lightning paralyzing it as the energy surged through its body. Migo took the opportunity to stab it straight through the chest with the spiked tip of one of his wings.
The fact that he had such control over his new appendages struck Katsi with awe. Even his tail swung and stabbed about with precision. The way he maneuvered didn’t seem animalistic at all, but it was extremely strategic. She could almost imagine that every part of his body was simply another weapon in the hands of a master.
A deep rumbling shook the ground, and the building they’d come to protect erupted in a shower of bricks.
So much for saving them. “Migo! The people!”
But Migo was still engrossed in his battle with the two remaining waheshi.
She couldn’t help but feel like this was nothing more than a distraction. Where had all those warriors gone? She flew closer to Migo. “I’ll get the waheshi, you find those people.”
Migo finally looked up at her, growling a response before jumping over the waheshi that blocked his path, pumping his wings a few times before dropping down next to the building. A burst of red fire erupted from his mouth.
Katsi channeled the lightning once again, aiming at the last two waheshi as they clawed after Migo. Her lightning stopped them in their tracks as they burned and sizzled.
But what about that third shaman who’d been behind the wall she’d torn down?
Gone. Like everyone else.
She rose into the air once again, hoping for a better vantage. The pain on her chest stung, and she knew there was bleeding. She still wore a dress provided by Alyssad, not the type of thing that provided much protection. If only she’d had the sense to get her stormwading armor refitted and ready. This was a battle after all, and she was ill-prepared.
Migo dug through the rubble below. It looked like he was pulling out a survivor, and Katsi realized she should be helping so she sent out a pulse like Adrina had taught her. She still wasn’t skilled enough to recognize the source of every disturbance, but as she connected with the air, she could feel movement in the distance. Lots of it.
There was a group of blurred movement outside the city walls, but there was also a group moving away from them, heading toward the Frozen Waste. More buildings were collapsing. The shamans weren’t staying in one place for long, but seemed to be running through the whole city, killing or capturing people as they went.
But how many of them could there possibly be?
The group in the city and the group outside the walls splintered, a portion of both heading straight for them. She lowered back down toward Migo, connecting with the crumbled stone walls, feeling for movement.
There was only one spot where she could feel anything. She moved the stone aside and raised the body up on a flattened surface. “Migo, people are coming toward us. Perhaps we should get these people to safety.”
Only three people had survived the building’s collapse. A young woman, an older warrior, and a middle-aged woman. The younger woman seemed to have suffered the least injury, and was presently fussing over the warrior, who was struggling to even sit up.
