49

Bolstering Warriors

ANABELLE

Kurrick sped ahead through the crumbled city, Necrofera scrambling in the rubble and feasting on the poor souls who hadn’t evacuated in time.

I tried to keep pace with my warrior, but he was far too quick.

Kurrick broke the creatures’ dripping bones with his two heavy claymore blades, but they hadn’t much effect. With every crushing swing he landed, the demons would glop back together.

“Damn it all!” He whipped his gaze back at me, finding me trailing behind. His eyes splintered, looking past me, and he ran back. “Anabelle!”

A snarl came behind and I whirled. A hideous, liquid beast leapt for me.

With a panicked grunt, I evoked my Hallows—hands glittering with golden light—and ripped the ground up from under me, stone cracking at my will, shaping into a high wall.

Pushing more energy, I forced three other walls to shoot up from the ground. Their jagged tips crunched into each other and trapped the demon on all sides. I could hear the beast screech from within, scratching its new prison, shoving itself against the stone. The rock fractured under its weight, crumbling. That would hold it for now, I thought in a pant. But not for long, it seems.

“Ana…!” Kurrick threw down one of his swords and came to help me to my feet, searching me for injuries. “Are you hurt?”

I brushed myself off, head shaking.

Relief flushed his breath, and he retrieved his second claymore. “Come, arm yourself! And stay close!”

I nodded, evoking my Hallows into the road. The stone tore free, and I molded it into a heavy, wide blade as tall as a man, the rock solidifying in my hands. The weapon gleamed with golden light as I used more of my Terravoking to lift the heavy stone with more ease.

“I’m ready,” I announced to Kurrick, hefting the blunt blade over a shoulder, only able to lift such a weapon due to my many years of strength training with both muscle and Hallows, and dashed through the streets at his side.

A cluster of Fera shrieked for me, and I gave a guttural roar and cracked my enormous sword over their bodies all at once, ribs and skulls fracturing into bits, the blade breaking at its head when it slammed into the ground.

I used my rock Hallows to re-fasten the broken fragments, grunting as I swung horizontally at a second cluster who bounded for me. The slice left a golden afterimage.

Kurrick had pushed back another pair of demons with his two steel blades, then ran to my side.

“We must help the Shadowblood escape!” I panted.

He turned to me, still sprinting, his lion ears grown. “If they are as skilled as the legend claims, they will escape by their own means! My priority is to the daughter of Myra!”

“Either way leads to the same path!” I puffed in a chuckle—

A small scream came from an alley.

A young, winged boy was trapped under a pile of rubble. A goat-horned man was helping to pull him out, but he couldn’t lift the heavier rocks to free the child.

Kurrick and I rushed to their aid. I evoked my rock Hallows onto the rubble, lifting it off of the sobbing boy, and the goat-horned man picked up the child in relief, eyeing me appreciatively as I lowered the bits of rock to the ground again.

The boy attempted to unfold his wing, but winced. It looked broken and mangled, blood soaking his chestnut feathers.

He was a skinny thing with dark skin, clothed in nothing save a pair of shorts and a red-and-black striped scarf. A crow flapped from the boy’s head, hollering ceaselessly.

I blinked at the bird. This boy is a Reaper as well? Why was he not with the others? Perhaps they were unaware of one another?

“Pray, let her see the child,” Kurrick said to the goat-shifter. “She will attend to his wounds.”

The man hesitated, but before he could protest I set down my stone sword and approached them.

The child’s wing twitched in pain when my hands lightly touched it, and he cried out. I fished into the satchel at my waist for a cleansing cloth, wiping the wound of bacteria. With that finished, I took in a slow breath, drawing my second element of Hallows from my soul, and evoked it onto his wing.

The wound glittered with gold light, his broken bone fitting back into place. It was positioned correctly, but with any movement, it would slip back out. I must push further. Broken limbs required more difficult Evocations.

I intensified my Hallows, concentrating, until the fractured bone quivered and began mending, connecting back to its rightful place. Once it was finished, I had his skin seal over it, leaving a small scar on the wing.

“You mustn’t move it too drastically,” I whispered to the child. I was never comfortable speaking with anyone I didn’t know, yet this child was a patient now—and the goat shifter his acting guardian, for lack of any others in sight. I breathed to the goat-shifter now. “I’ve only reconnected the bone at the edges… It will take time to mend at the core. Pray, do not allow him to fly for a time.”

“Yes…” The goat-horned man raised an eyebrow at me. “A Dual- Evocator? How rare…”

I hurried back to Kurrick, hiding behind him. Kurrick nodded to the two. “You may come with us if you wish, but we will not leave immediately. Personally, I suggest you do not follow our example.”

The child touched his protector’s shoulder, shaking his head. “Don’t—hic!—don’t go with ‘em, Linus!” He sniffled and wiped his lids dry.

The boy’s eyes had glazed in deep thought for a moment, but just as quickly as the look had come, it vanished, his panic returning. He tried to regain some composure, though he was shaking profusely. “It ain’t… it ain’t gonna end well for us otherwise…! We survive if we go—hic!—the other way, but just that way!”

The goat’s eyes had also glazed with a similar stare when the boy touched him, and he gave a hum. “Curious. You and I seem to have something in common, little owl.”

The goat glanced back at Kurrick. “Thank you for the offer, sir and miss, but we have our own path to follow. Best luck to you, and pray the Gods deliver you safely.”

He bowed, then hurried off, following the directions given by the child he carried.

Kurrick frowned after them. “Strange pair.”

I whispered a mutter. “Indeed…”

The ground shook under us. The Stonedragon had destroyed another building in the distance.

I took hold of my enormous stone-blade once more and hefted its blunt edge over a shoulder, grinning at Kurrick. “What say you to bringing down the giant?”