Noir and Ivor leap into the air, teaming up with Kalanthia to take on the griffin-type beast. Meanwhile, the five samurans head for the biggest of Nicholas’ Bound – something that looks like a large bull. I know that they have their strongest stamina poisons on their blades and will do their best to win by a thousand cuts. Hopefully it will be enough.

  Meanwhile, four of the five raptorcats, the two deris, Pride, and Sirocco go to distract the five beasts which I reckon are less dangerous. Bastet, Lathani, and Fenrir are aiming for Nicholas since I’m not going to make the mistake of leaving the other Tamer free to strategise. That leaves the two other maybe Tier threes for me and Aingeal who has been limited to the Tier threes anyway.

  Go distract the horse, I order Aingeal. He bounces in the air and then zips away. It’s not really a horse – its front is fairly horse-like though with teeth that would never belong in a herbivore’s mouth, but its back is more like a rabbit’s. It gives the creature a very odd gait. We soon learn that it’s capable of spitting something black as it tries to attack the fire elemental dancing in front of its face. It’s also rather agile, adroitly avoiding the flares of flame that Aingeal sends at it. Telling Aingeal to be careful, I am then forced to focus on my own task.

  I’ve been using the time wisely even as I run towards the final beast – something that looks like the very picture of a turd emoji, though without any unpleasant smell. The moment my wings of air have finished growing from my back, I leap up into the air.

  Just in time – as my instinct warned, the excuse for an emoji is apparently capable of Earth-Shaping as spikes of earth jut up from where I was about to step. A moment later, I have to dodge as a boulder the size of my head comes shooting at me.

  If Nicholas hadn’t been as clear as he has about needing me alive, I’d be jumping to the conclusion that he wants me dead. Alright, then. It seems like the kid gloves are off.

  I can’t Shape earth very well from up in the air but staying off the ground when tangling with a probably-stronger Earth-Shaper is a good idea. I do have other options, fortunately. After all, even the hardest stone will crack and break or melt under intense heat.

  Summoning fire is easy enough. It’s mana-intensive, but my control over Air-Shaping feeds oxygen into the inferno and replaces some of the mana I would otherwise need to contribute.

  Aingeal! Swap! I order and the fire elemental darts back and right into the centre of the rolling ball of flames. I share my intentions with him and he replies with acknowledgement. Under his care, the inferno intensifies, brightening in colour until it’s a yellow, verging on white.

  A moment later, I release the inferno into his control and he drops down to strike at the creature.

  My distraction has cost me – the horse-like beast has got close enough to spit at me. The black liquid lands mostly on my shoulder but some droplets hit the skin of my face. I hiss in pain as it burns – acid. And worse, although the armour on my shoulder resists it, it moves like it’s alive, rolling and seeking entrance to burn more of my skin.

  I end up having to lose a section of my armour to get it off, not wanting to touch it and risk it spreading elsewhere.

  Even while I’m doing that, I have to dodge other attacks from the beast – acid attacks at first, and then when it comes closer, strikes from its teeth too. And then, as I beat my wings frantically to create more distance between us, it spits again.

  This time, it doesn’t spit at me, but somehow creates ropes of acid which go behind me and block off escape. I try to fly up but the beast just sends more strands to cover me above and below – there’s no hole big enough to wriggle through. I’m trapped!

  The beast seems to take joy in my increasing panic, watching me with eager satisfaction. Its teeth are covered in roiling black liquid and I don’t doubt that they could tear through my armour like paper. It hops languidly towards me, in no hurry now it has its butterfly caged.

  It’s that thought which makes me snap out of the panic I’d got myself in. I growl, anger rising, and it’s like a haze is lifted from my mind. Has it got some form of mind control as well? That thought makes me clench my fists and grit my teeth.

  I form a fireball in my hands and throw it at the acid strands. Unfortunately, the strands aren’t particularly flammable – pity. But the fireball still burns a hole through them, a hole big enough for me to zoom out.

  I go to ground – flying against an enemy like that is a nonstarter. I need a different strategy.

  Its most dangerous weapon is its spitting. If I can stop that…. Focussing on the air around its head, I make a dense bubble. Nothing’s getting out of that – or getting in.

  The beast thrashes and I dance backwards. But my strategy has worked – it’s no longer able to use its ranged weapon as the spit just fills up the bubble over its head. It glares at me murderously, running straight towards me with its odd hopping gait – it recognises that I’m the source of its problems and seems to be intending to trample me.

  I leap up into the air and beat my wings to get out of its reach, taking a moment to see how things are going elsewhere.

  It’s not looking good.

  Ivor, Trouble, Ninja, Blaze, Spot, and Hunter are already out of the fight. They’re not looking too injured, but they’re standing off to the side near the healer, glowing faintly green, so they must have taken a ‘fatal’ blow at some point. They’ve at least taken two of the lower-level beasts with them.

  The other samurans are struggling – though they’ve clearly made some inroads on the big bull, they’re slowing down a lot more quickly than it is. It probably has enough stamina to outlast them, even with the poisons they’re using. The Pathwalkers’ mana is running out already – the Tier three is far too resistant to them. More than Kalanthia, if I’m honest. It’s a little slower than her, but that doesn’t help much when it hits like a truck and treats the samurans’ attacks like sparks and pointed sticks.

  Kalanthia and Noir are fighting gamely against the griffin – Kalanthia is doing her best to get its feet stuck in the earth or strike it from below with spears of earth, but it’s fast enough that she’s not managing to get very far. The only things keeping it on the ground are that she’s physically attacking it every time it tries, and Noir is making strategic strikes at its wings. But it seems to have control over both lightning and air, so physically closing with it is hard for both of them, and painful if they succeed. I hate to admit it, but at first glance, the griffin might be stronger than the nunda alone. It’s a bit of a stalemate for now, but probably not for long.

  Because with the loss of three raptorcats, Artemis, Orion, and Pride are struggling to control the lower level beasts. Making matters worse, is that Nicholas seems to be more than a match for Bastet and Lathani – he’s manoeuvred them into a position where half of their attacks on him are interfering with the deris and Pride. It’s turned from two battles to a single one, and my side is very much disadvantaged. Apparently this isn’t the first time Nicholas has dealt with a Shadow-Shaper either as he’s adroitly managing to keep clear of Lathani’s attacks from his shadow – she still struggles to travel to ones which move too much.

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  To add to our woes, Aingeal is running out of juice. The turd emoji has been pinned in place by the inferno he’s controlling, but the flames have already lost a lot of their heat and are now a dark orange. Soon enough, that one will be free too.

  The only good news is that the killer-horse I was fighting seems to be on its last legs, the lack of oxygen getting to it. But then it decides to make its ‘death’ worth it and runs straight at the multiplayer battle between Nicholas and his lower-level Bound and those on my side combatting them.

  Nicholas’ group obviously got the warning ahead of its action, but my own alert reaches my tiring Bound too late. A moment later, the killer-horse flashes green and I release the bubble around its head as it limps off to the side – but accompanying it are Bastet and Orion. Lathani, Fenrir, and Artemis ‘survive’ being trampled, but they’re clearly in pain – and vulnerable.

  I fly in just in time to catch Nicholas’ sword strike, aimed at the reeling Lathani, on my spear.

  At least, I try – I have to dodge backwards when his sword goes through my weapon with barely any hesitation. Right. No blocking, then.

  Landing on the ground since my manoeuvrability is better like that, I’m soon being pushed to my limits as Nicholas’ sword flickers around me, moving faster than a sword should be capable of.

  Unable to block, and honestly completely unused to fighting this sort of weapon, all I can do is try to survive long enough for someone else to take him by surprise.

  Most of my attention is focussed on staying a hair ahead of that blade, but with what little focus I can spare, I try to consider other options. Maybe….

  The next time Nicholas thrusts at me, I don’t try to avoid it. Instead, I take his blade straight through my shoulder. Dulling the sensation to minimal levels so that it doesn't distract me, I run up the blade, wielding the two halves of my spear.

  My move has taken him by surprise, but his reactions are quick enough that he avoids the first strike I try to make. He doesn’t avoid the second, though, and I hit him in the head hard enough to daze him – he must have a head of iron since that would normally crack someone else’s skull. I might be a little frustrated.

  I take advantage of his dazed state to strike at him with my spear blade. He manages to avoid my strike to his throat, but not completely – I’ve grazed him. Good.

  A moment later, my left arm goes limp as Nicholas slices upwards, his incredibly sharp sword shearing straight through my collarbone and left shoulder blade.

  I take off into the air with as much force as I dare to apply, knowing that if I’m on the ground for a second longer, I’ll be ‘dead’ – or, possibly even properly dead. As it is, his sword slices through my lower leg and cuts off my right foot entirely. Bastard!

  Using Sensation Management, I clench down on the pain that explodes through my nerves so I can continue to think clearly. I focus a little Flesh-Shaping onto my foot to stop the bleed even as I start working on my shoulder injury. I won’t have time to heal it properly, not unless I want to give up the slight advantage my sacrificial move has gained me, so I just do a little triage.

  In the seconds I do that, Nicholas ‘kills’ Fenrir, managing to get a clear strike on him when another of his beasts tips him over onto his back.

  Meanwhile, Noir is struck full on by lightning and I hear him cry out piteously even as he goes green. He collapses to the ground and for a long, awful moment I fear that he’s actually died. Fortunately, I feel in the Bond that he’s still living, just badly injured.

  I connect to the small amount of mana I fed into him while we were waiting – as I did with all my Bound, much good it’s done. The little that’s inside him is enough to soothe the worst of the burns. I ache to go over to him, and would if the griffin looked to be about to attack him while he’s down. But he’s out of the fight – the griffin is ignoring him entirely. A moment later, he pushes himself to his feet and limps to the side of the courtyard – safe.

  I reach for the poison that I fed into Nicholas’ system even as he strikes at Lathani. The nunda cub is wily, using her control over shadows to dodge attacks which should have killed her. Sirocco is doing her best to help, flying at Nicholas’ eyes to distract him, as is Artemis, running interference with the other beasts. But Nicholas and his Bound are working well together and one of the beasts seems capable of creating light which is making things difficult for Lathani – she’ll attempt to jump to a shadow which suddenly disappears. And I can see that she’s tiring.

  It’s only a matter of time before she’s eliminated too. Worse, I’ve hit a snag – Nicholas’ body is very resistant to my attempts to spread and multiply the poison. It reminds me of the fight against the spider-like danaris months ago, but I’ve become so much better at Flesh-Shaping that I don’t normally hit this issue anymore. I guess Nicholas is just that much stronger than I am. I suddenly find myself doubting that I’ll have time to take him out with the venom before everyone else has been eliminated. Which would lead to my loss in the end as I would be alone against all of Nicholas’ surviving Bound.

  There has to be a way to win this! Or at least to not lose too badly.

  Everyone, pull together. We need to change our strategy.

  No one questions it – those remaining quickly converge on me, Nicholas courteously giving us a little space to regroup. Somewhere, we’ve lost River as well – only three samurans rejoin me along with Lathani, Sirocco, Artemis, and Kalanthia. Aingeal flies over, a fraction of his usual size – he’s exhausted and out of the fight since this battle isn’t worth pushing him to his limits. But his opponent is covered in cracks and doesn’t immediately move. With any luck, it will take a while for the turd emoji to recover.

  The griffin is looking worse for wear too, limping and its wings bloody, but so is Kalanthia. She’s moving without her usual grace and has several burnt patches on her fur.

  Kalanthia, take on the Earth-Shaper if you can. It’s probably a difficult ask – she’s most likely low on mana as it is. But she’s a far stronger Earth-Shaper than I am, even now. Samurans and Ivor, face Nicholas and the lower-level beasts – be careful of his sword, it’s extremely sharp and will probably go through your weapons, I warn. Sirocco and Artemis, continue distracting them where you can. Lathani, try to work on the bull. I’ll take the griffin. Use the once-a-day borrowing of someone else’s ability if you see a good opportunity.

  We’ll probably go down faster than they will, but I refuse to give up trying. Apparently my Bound agree with me since I feel nothing but determination from them in response to my words.

  This time, we don’t go far from each other – separating so much at the beginning was probably a bad idea, but I didn’t want us interfering with each other’s battles.

  Even as I prepare to face off with the griffin, already readying my Metal-Shaping to help deal with its lightning attacks, I see each of the samurans, Sirocco, and Artemis use an air-blade on Nicholas, all targeting the same spot. With satisfaction filling me even as I start stabbing at the griffin with my spare spear, I see Nicholas’ sword drop to the ground as a massive gash is sliced into his wrist. Artemis grabs the sword in her mouth and darts away with it, pursued by two of the three remaining lower level beasts.

  Catch and Iandee make short work of the last beast – their spears pierce it deeply and it flashes green and collapses to the ground limply, bleeding heavily. Two of the previously ‘killed’ beasts limp onto the field towards it. With what attention I can spare from my own battle, I warn my Bound to not attack unless the beasts attack them first. The next time I can spare a glance from my increasingly difficult spear-fight, I see the heavily injured beast is with the healer and being worked on.

  The griffin might be tired, but it’s still faster and stronger than I am. Only my control over my wings has kept me out of the way of its beak strikes or its wing buffets. It’s not ideal to fly since it means I have to battle for control over the air currents around me at the same time as conduct the physical battle – otherwise I’ll find myself dashed to the ground and easy prey. But, still missing a foot, I don’t have many options. Unfortunately, with my mental focus on keeping the air steady enough for me to stay in the air, I can’t manage to do much else with magic, certainly nothing that fazes the griffin.

  The metal rod with a clay grip to protect me that I made quickly with my Metal- and Earth-Shaping works well enough to redirect its lightning attacks to the ground – it’s fairly obvious when it’s about to direct a strike at me which gives me enough time to touch the rod to the gravel below our feet.

  And then our battle comes to an abrupt end with one simple thing – bad timing. In my tiredness, I misread its signals and go for a spear strike just as it calls its lightning.

  Electricity surges into me and lights explode behind my eyes.

  here!

  here!

  here!

  here