HOME | DD

Description

Chapter Four

“The Aqueduct.”

    Malstromeda tried to raise some alarm about the strange woman and her companions, but it seemed that no one saw them as much of a threat or was too intimidated to do much about it. Likely every guardsman they encountered had been thusly affected and it seemed as though Malstromeda might be the only one left unaffected. It had to be some kind of trick or magic that was used and Malstromeda had barely managed to overcome it. Normally she would not take time to believe in such things but after what she just felt she was inclined to give magic the benefit of the doubt.

    Though she had pushed the limits to the truth and hoped that Sila was not where she sent Yarna Fey, she knew she had to do something about it. She had redirected a dangerous group to the farmlands and they had to be watched in case they lose their patience on people who could not defend themselves. Malstromeda knew the terrain well and if she went out the west gate and headed down the cart path she could be at the farmlands not long after Yarna Fey. It seemed clear that no one would or could come with her so she headed out the gate and began to run down the cart paths thrugh the forest.

    One idea would not leave Malstromeda’s mind. Yarna Fey looked similar to a Thersian but seemed offended by the idea of being compared to one. She was definatily not any race Malstromeda had seen before, and the entire group was dressed so strangely. Sila as well was a being she had never seen the like of before. Where were they from? Were they from the same place? What were they?

    As Malstromeda got close to the farmlands she heard the unmistakeable sound of clashing swords and saw smoke rising up from above the trees. There was a battle happening just ahead. As much as Malstromeda wanted to entertain the idea of a conincidence she knew that it was almost definitly not.

    As she came into the open farmstead area she was greeted with a chaotic scene. Several of the thatched roofed cottages were on fire and several of the bone armored soldiers were fanning out. There were more than had accompanied Yarna Fey before and they were setting the village on fire. They had some sort of flame devices in their gauntlets and shot flames out at anything ahead of them as they fanned out through the village.

    Ahead, engaging three of the soldiers was Frennia. She must have been out on patrol and come across the group. She had her sword drawn and had her back to the burning buildings as farmers and villagers fled behind her. She appeared unhurt and was holding her ground. The three soldiers had blades drawn and looked as if they were patiently waiting for an opening to rush her. Behind three more soldiers with flame gear moved in as if they were coming around to flank her. Malstromeda knew how skilled Frennia was but not even she could hold off against that many soldiers of unknown skill and origin.

    Malstromeda had the advantage as no one had noticed her yet. She drew her sword and charged in, thrusting her blade in between the armored plates of one of the bone soldiers, causing him to call out before she slid her sword out of him, and he fell to the ground. Malstromeda pushed her advantage and swung toward a second soldier, he brought up an arm to instinctually block the stroke and the blade cut into his gauntlet. The guard had only time to gasp as some manner of fuel flowed out of the gauntlet and coated his body. It caught fire instantly and within seconds he was coated in flame. Malstromeda and the remaining bone guard fell back as the flaming soldier failed and ran around before collapsing to the ground.

    Malstromeda had little time to react, knowing she had to move to the remaining opponent. He had disabled whatever mechanism that shot fame and drew a blade. He parried a blow from Malstromeda and got into a fighting stance. He was well trained and strong, not wanting to be taken out as easily as his two comrades. Malstromeda struck and parried, testing his guard and looking for openings. The bone soldier seemed as surprised at Malstromeda’s skill as she was his. One of the bone soldiers broke off of Frennia to engage Malstromeda, creating a two on one advantage against both opponents.

    “Who are these soldiers?” Frennia shouted as she parried a blade and moved out of threat range of the other soldier. I found them attacking this place with some scary woman with pale skin.”

    “Not quite sure.” Malstromeda replied as she swung her sword around, giving herself more space to maneuver. “The pale witch has mesmerized half the palace guard. She has…a way to her.”

    “I felt it.” Frennia admitted, slashing at a guard, causing him to stagger back, but before she could advance the other soldier moved in to defend. “Felt like my mind was attacked by her every world.”

    Malstromeda defended against a one two strike from both soldiers. “It seems only the strong of will can resist her.”

    “She wants some other outsider.” Frennia commented as she spun around one of the soldiers and stuck at the other. “Any idea who she is looking for?”

    As Malstromeda fought she considered lying, keeping what she knew to herself but knew she needed an ally now as much as ever. “It’s a woman named Sila. She fought a group of bandits yesterday. She seemed a good person.”

    “We need to turn the tides.” Frennia commented as she held the two soldiers at bay. “I am open to some of your more…unorthodox tactics.

    Malstromeda was much stronger than the average person, a fact she was always taught to keep at bay, to keep her monstrous features secret lest people judge her for them. However, in this case it might be the only advantage they had. She growled, showing her sharp canine teeth and let her primal instincts rise to the surface. As the soldier swung Malstromeda parried and as his sword moved away, she charged forward. She seized the soldier by the neck with one hand and lifted him off of the ground. She ran forward with him, past the other soldier and slammed him into one of the walls of the burning building so hard he went through it, collapsing down into the fire beyond as the roof came down on top of him. Malstromeda spun around, finding the other soldier on her backing away in a defensive posture.

    “This is not working.” One of the soldiers called out. “I’m switching tactics.”

    “But Mistress Fey gave us orders.” Another soldier added.

    “She’s not here.” The other soldier said as he sheathed his knife and drew a strange device from his hip. It was some sort of metallic tube, and he brought it up and aimed it like a crossbow.

    “Frennia look out!” Malstromeda called out but her voice was drowned out by a loud explosion as a streak of fire shot from the device and hit Frennia. The blast cut right through her armored pauldron and caused her to stagger back.

    The guard in front of Malstromeda went to draw his own weapon but Malstromeda knew she couldn’t let him, in the fraction of a second, he dropped his guard; she was on him, running him through with his sword.

    The armed soldier advanced on Frennia who held her arm as blood dripped down her breastplate. The soldier aimed to fire again, but she drew a curved blade from her hip and threw it. The blade arced sideways before coming in and severing the fingers off of the soldier’s hand, causing him to drop the weapon and stagger back. Malstromeda used the confusion to come in behind the remaining unarmed soldier and run him through. It was an easy matter to finish off the wounded guard as he was still in shock from the attack.

    “They were well trained.” Frennia commented as she leaned on a nearby part of the wall. “What was that weapon?”

    “No idea.” Malstromeda said as she moved closer to examine Frennia. “How bad is it?”

    “No worse than it looks I hope.” Frennia commented, managing a small amount of bravado. “Don’t worry about me, the rest of the group went out by the aqueduct. I don’t know what they’re up to, but I think one of us better check it out.”

    “I’ll go.” Malstromeda nodded. “The one they are looking for. I can’t say for sure why they are after her, but she doesn’t deserve to be hunted.”

    “Agreed.” Frennia said as she unbuckled the straps to her puldron. “I’ll follow you in a bit, I want to make sure everyone made it out safely.”

    Malstromeda nodded and took off running, she didn’t know how much of a head start Yarna Fey and the others had but she knew she had to catch up. She ran past the stone pillars that lead up to the aqueduct and to the hill beyond. It was an ancient structure built over a hundred years ago. It was not much used anymore since the building of a series of dams. It was common for people to use it to get past the farms and to the next town beyond. It seemed that Yarna and the others were using it as such and Malstromeda could almost feel that Sila was as well.

    She got up to the top of the hill and could see onto the top of the aqueduct. There was a pair of soldiers standing at wait as Yarna Fey and two of her acolytes moved in on a figure. It was Sila and she was slowly backing away as if cornered. Malstromeda gauged the distance between the hill and the aqueduct and though she was an incredible jumper did not think she could clear it. She had to move past it to a place where the hill was closer. Until then she could only hope that Sila could hold out.

    The two acolytes drew swords from their robes, the edges lit up as if heated by a forge as they moved out to try and flank Sila. Yarna Fey drew a small pole weapon from her cloak. It began to expand, parts moving shifting and growing util it formed the shape of a scythe. Sila drew a handle from her hip, and it extended out into a long-curved blade. Like the soldiers before, they were armed with weapons the likes of which Malstromeda had never seen before. Despite the strangeness of the situation, all Malstromeda could focus on was getting there and helping in any way she could.

    The two acolytes moved in first, coming at Sila from both sides. Sila swung her blade, causing the segments to separate as she swung, becoming like a whip and parrying attacks from both of the acolytes as she completed the arc of her swing. When it finished the blade reformed into the state before, waiting for the next swing. Yarna Fey acted next, moving with terrifying speed closing the gap between them in seconds. She swung her scythe, the blade de-segmenting like Sila’s blade. Sila barely managed to parry, staggering back, spraying water from the floor of the aqueduct as her feet slid to a stop. Yarna Fey was powerful and blinding fast, striking again and again at Sila who little could do more than dodge and parry as she fell back further and further. Beyond her was the dam and if she kept being driven back, she would lose room to maneuver.

    Sila seemed to know she was at a disadvantage and switched tactics. She maneuvered so she kept one of the acolytes between her and Yarna Fey. She had much more luck defending against them and if she could keep them in the way Yarna could not attack in full. This was a tactic to buy her time to figure out a plan and she could have no idea how long it would last.

    Yarna Fey growled, frustrated that her attacks were being held back. She seemed to let the anger get the best of her and when she went in for a strike and the acolyte got in the way she simply didn’t hold back. She ran her through with her scythe the edge of the blade striking Sila in the side cutting deeply into her.

    Sila staggered back, clutching her side as Yarna Fey unceremoniously withdrew her scythe from the acolyte and let her fall to the ground in a heap. The remaining acolyte hastily retreated behind Yarna and stood at the ready.

    “Your tricks are starting to run out.” Yarna Fey said with a grin as she slowly advanced on Sila. “You can’t have many more left.”

    “At least one.” Sila managed.

    Malstromeda made the leap from the hill to the stone aqueduct and used the momentum to keep moving and slammed into Yarna Fey with her shoulder. The strike staggered the pale skinned woman back, but she caught herself almost immediately, moving around and spinning her scythe into attack position. Malstromeda parried with her sword, but the strange blade of the Scythe cut into it, embedding an inch into the blade and causing the sword to vibrate in her hand. Malstromeda barely had time to twist the blade to redirect the scythe from her face before the blade broke in half. Malstromeda dove into a roll under the next spin of the blade and found herself next to the fallen acolyte. She grabbed the fallen warrior’s blade and brought it up in defense. She had no way of knowing it would do in her hands what it had done with the acolyte but had to defend regardless.

    The blade lit up at the last moment and the scythe clanged off of it as if it were just a normal blade. Malstromeda pushed on, striking Yarna Fey with all the strength and speed she had. The pale woman easily parried the blows, her eyes locked on Malstromeda’s. Malstromeda had fought many opponents, many more skilled than she. However, with this woman she felt like she was far over her head and the only thing protecting her was the fact that Yarna Fey was curious and surprised.

    “You are no match for her.” Sila said as she moved in, pressing the advantage and engaged Yarna Fey in close combat, their strange weapons glancing off of each other in a flurry of precision blows. The remaining acolyte moved forward and engaged Malstromeda. The glowing edged blades streaked through the air and caused sparks as they crossed. The acolyte was powerful and well trained, but Malstromeda felt she was more her match.

    Yarna Fey growled as she fought Sila. It seemed with all of her power, all her ferocity, Sila was still able to defend, her agility and skill slowly winning out.

    “Shoot them!” Yarna Fey called out as she managed to glance back to the bone soldiers behind her.

    The twin soldiers drew their ranged weapons and levelled them at the pair. Malstromeda looked back after parrying a blow. Ideas struggled through her mind but nothing came to mind to defend against the acolyte in front of her and the soldiers at her back.

    An explosion went off, similar to the one when the soldier had fired back in the farming village. One of the soldiers had a hole in his chest and suddenly fell forward. Behind him was Frennia, standing in a wide stance, one of the bone soldiers’ weapons in her hands. Before the second bone soldier could even turn and aim, Frennia fired again, hitting him and driving him off of the side of the aqueduct.

    “Get down.” Frennia shouted as she levelled the weapon at Yarna Fey. She fired and the pale woman brought up the scythe, separating the blade from the shaft. She defended against Sila with the blade as the guarded with the shaft, spinning it in hand and deflecting the blast with ease. Frennia kept firing over and over, but each shot was deflected. She looked down at a lever on the side of the weapon. She pulled it back and aimed.

    “Yarna the launcher!” The acolyte called out in warning.

    A projectile launched out of the lower part of the weapon, a stream of smoke trailing it as it shot out at Yarna Fey. The pale skinned witch ducked at the last moment, causing the projectile to shoot past her and eventually collide with the dam beyond. The dam was shaken by a massive explosion from the projectile and cracks began to rapidly snake out.

    What happened next was like a blur. A wave of water erupted from the dam and flowed toward the group down the aqueduct. Yarna Fey turned to face it as the acolyte began to run. Sila charged forward, grabbing Malstromeda around the waist and tackled her off of the aqueduct to a tree below. As the water surged forward it blocked out the sun causing everything to momentarily shroud in chaos and darkness.

-

Description

Chapter Four

“The Aqueduct.”

    Malstromeda tried to raise some alarm about the strange woman and her companions, but it seemed that no one saw them as much of a threat or was too intimidated to do much about it. Likely every guardsman they encountered had been thusly affected and it seemed as though Malstromeda might be the only one left unaffected. It had to be some kind of trick or magic that was used and Malstromeda had barely managed to overcome it. Normally she would not take time to believe in such things but after what she just felt she was inclined to give magic the benefit of the doubt.

    Though she had pushed the limits to the truth and hoped that Sila was not where she sent Yarna Fey, she knew she had to do something about it. She had redirected a dangerous group to the farmlands and they had to be watched in case they lose their patience on people who could not defend themselves. Malstromeda knew the terrain well and if she went out the west gate and headed down the cart path she could be at the farmlands not long after Yarna Fey. It seemed clear that no one would or could come with her so she headed out the gate and began to run down the cart paths thrugh the forest.

    One idea would not leave Malstromeda’s mind. Yarna Fey looked similar to a Thersian but seemed offended by the idea of being compared to one. She was definatily not any race Malstromeda had seen before, and the entire group was dressed so strangely. Sila as well was a being she had never seen the like of before. Where were they from? Were they from the same place? What were they?

    As Malstromeda got close to the farmlands she heard the unmistakeable sound of clashing swords and saw smoke rising up from above the trees. There was a battle happening just ahead. As much as Malstromeda wanted to entertain the idea of a conincidence she knew that it was almost definitly not.

    As she came into the open farmstead area she was greeted with a chaotic scene. Several of the thatched roofed cottages were on fire and several of the bone armored soldiers were fanning out. There were more than had accompanied Yarna Fey before and they were setting the village on fire. They had some sort of flame devices in their gauntlets and shot flames out at anything ahead of them as they fanned out through the village.

    Ahead, engaging three of the soldiers was Frennia. She must have been out on patrol and come across the group. She had her sword drawn and had her back to the burning buildings as farmers and villagers fled behind her. She appeared unhurt and was holding her ground. The three soldiers had blades drawn and looked as if they were patiently waiting for an opening to rush her. Behind three more soldiers with flame gear moved in as if they were coming around to flank her. Malstromeda knew how skilled Frennia was but not even she could hold off against that many soldiers of unknown skill and origin.

    Malstromeda had the advantage as no one had noticed her yet. She drew her sword and charged in, thrusting her blade in between the armored plates of one of the bone soldiers, causing him to call out before she slid her sword out of him, and he fell to the ground. Malstromeda pushed her advantage and swung toward a second soldier, he brought up an arm to instinctually block the stroke and the blade cut into his gauntlet. The guard had only time to gasp as some manner of fuel flowed out of the gauntlet and coated his body. It caught fire instantly and within seconds he was coated in flame. Malstromeda and the remaining bone guard fell back as the flaming soldier failed and ran around before collapsing to the ground.

    Malstromeda had little time to react, knowing she had to move to the remaining opponent. He had disabled whatever mechanism that shot fame and drew a blade. He parried a blow from Malstromeda and got into a fighting stance. He was well trained and strong, not wanting to be taken out as easily as his two comrades. Malstromeda struck and parried, testing his guard and looking for openings. The bone soldier seemed as surprised at Malstromeda’s skill as she was his. One of the bone soldiers broke off of Frennia to engage Malstromeda, creating a two on one advantage against both opponents.

    “Who are these soldiers?” Frennia shouted as she parried a blade and moved out of threat range of the other soldier. I found them attacking this place with some scary woman with pale skin.”

    “Not quite sure.” Malstromeda replied as she swung her sword around, giving herself more space to maneuver. “The pale witch has mesmerized half the palace guard. She has…a way to her.”

    “I felt it.” Frennia admitted, slashing at a guard, causing him to stagger back, but before she could advance the other soldier moved in to defend. “Felt like my mind was attacked by her every world.”

    Malstromeda defended against a one two strike from both soldiers. “It seems only the strong of will can resist her.”

    “She wants some other outsider.” Frennia commented as she spun around one of the soldiers and stuck at the other. “Any idea who she is looking for?”

    As Malstromeda fought she considered lying, keeping what she knew to herself but knew she needed an ally now as much as ever. “It’s a woman named Sila. She fought a group of bandits yesterday. She seemed a good person.”

    “We need to turn the tides.” Frennia commented as she held the two soldiers at bay. “I am open to some of your more…unorthodox tactics.

    Malstromeda was much stronger than the average person, a fact she was always taught to keep at bay, to keep her monstrous features secret lest people judge her for them. However, in this case it might be the only advantage they had. She growled, showing her sharp canine teeth and let her primal instincts rise to the surface. As the soldier swung Malstromeda parried and as his sword moved away, she charged forward. She seized the soldier by the neck with one hand and lifted him off of the ground. She ran forward with him, past the other soldier and slammed him into one of the walls of the burning building so hard he went through it, collapsing down into the fire beyond as the roof came down on top of him. Malstromeda spun around, finding the other soldier on her backing away in a defensive posture.

    “This is not working.” One of the soldiers called out. “I’m switching tactics.”

    “But Mistress Fey gave us orders.” Another soldier added.

    “She’s not here.” The other soldier said as he sheathed his knife and drew a strange device from his hip. It was some sort of metallic tube, and he brought it up and aimed it like a crossbow.

    “Frennia look out!” Malstromeda called out but her voice was drowned out by a loud explosion as a streak of fire shot from the device and hit Frennia. The blast cut right through her armored pauldron and caused her to stagger back.

    The guard in front of Malstromeda went to draw his own weapon but Malstromeda knew she couldn’t let him, in the fraction of a second, he dropped his guard; she was on him, running him through with his sword.

    The armed soldier advanced on Frennia who held her arm as blood dripped down her breastplate. The soldier aimed to fire again, but she drew a curved blade from her hip and threw it. The blade arced sideways before coming in and severing the fingers off of the soldier’s hand, causing him to drop the weapon and stagger back. Malstromeda used the confusion to come in behind the remaining unarmed soldier and run him through. It was an easy matter to finish off the wounded guard as he was still in shock from the attack.

    “They were well trained.” Frennia commented as she leaned on a nearby part of the wall. “What was that weapon?”

    “No idea.” Malstromeda said as she moved closer to examine Frennia. “How bad is it?”

    “No worse than it looks I hope.” Frennia commented, managing a small amount of bravado. “Don’t worry about me, the rest of the group went out by the aqueduct. I don’t know what they’re up to, but I think one of us better check it out.”

    “I’ll go.” Malstromeda nodded. “The one they are looking for. I can’t say for sure why they are after her, but she doesn’t deserve to be hunted.”

    “Agreed.” Frennia said as she unbuckled the straps to her puldron. “I’ll follow you in a bit, I want to make sure everyone made it out safely.”

    Malstromeda nodded and took off running, she didn’t know how much of a head start Yarna Fey and the others had but she knew she had to catch up. She ran past the stone pillars that lead up to the aqueduct and to the hill beyond. It was an ancient structure built over a hundred years ago. It was not much used anymore since the building of a series of dams. It was common for people to use it to get past the farms and to the next town beyond. It seemed that Yarna and the others were using it as such and Malstromeda could almost feel that Sila was as well.

    She got up to the top of the hill and could see onto the top of the aqueduct. There was a pair of soldiers standing at wait as Yarna Fey and two of her acolytes moved in on a figure. It was Sila and she was slowly backing away as if cornered. Malstromeda gauged the distance between the hill and the aqueduct and though she was an incredible jumper did not think she could clear it. She had to move past it to a place where the hill was closer. Until then she could only hope that Sila could hold out.

    The two acolytes drew swords from their robes, the edges lit up as if heated by a forge as they moved out to try and flank Sila. Yarna Fey drew a small pole weapon from her cloak. It began to expand, parts moving shifting and growing util it formed the shape of a scythe. Sila drew a handle from her hip, and it extended out into a long-curved blade. Like the soldiers before, they were armed with weapons the likes of which Malstromeda had never seen before. Despite the strangeness of the situation, all Malstromeda could focus on was getting there and helping in any way she could.

    The two acolytes moved in first, coming at Sila from both sides. Sila swung her blade, causing the segments to separate as she swung, becoming like a whip and parrying attacks from both of the acolytes as she completed the arc of her swing. When it finished the blade reformed into the state before, waiting for the next swing. Yarna Fey acted next, moving with terrifying speed closing the gap between them in seconds. She swung her scythe, the blade de-segmenting like Sila’s blade. Sila barely managed to parry, staggering back, spraying water from the floor of the aqueduct as her feet slid to a stop. Yarna Fey was powerful and blinding fast, striking again and again at Sila who little could do more than dodge and parry as she fell back further and further. Beyond her was the dam and if she kept being driven back, she would lose room to maneuver.

    Sila seemed to know she was at a disadvantage and switched tactics. She maneuvered so she kept one of the acolytes between her and Yarna Fey. She had much more luck defending against them and if she could keep them in the way Yarna could not attack in full. This was a tactic to buy her time to figure out a plan and she could have no idea how long it would last.

    Yarna Fey growled, frustrated that her attacks were being held back. She seemed to let the anger get the best of her and when she went in for a strike and the acolyte got in the way she simply didn’t hold back. She ran her through with her scythe the edge of the blade striking Sila in the side cutting deeply into her.

    Sila staggered back, clutching her side as Yarna Fey unceremoniously withdrew her scythe from the acolyte and let her fall to the ground in a heap. The remaining acolyte hastily retreated behind Yarna and stood at the ready.

    “Your tricks are starting to run out.” Yarna Fey said with a grin as she slowly advanced on Sila. “You can’t have many more left.”

    “At least one.” Sila managed.

    Malstromeda made the leap from the hill to the stone aqueduct and used the momentum to keep moving and slammed into Yarna Fey with her shoulder. The strike staggered the pale skinned woman back, but she caught herself almost immediately, moving around and spinning her scythe into attack position. Malstromeda parried with her sword, but the strange blade of the Scythe cut into it, embedding an inch into the blade and causing the sword to vibrate in her hand. Malstromeda barely had time to twist the blade to redirect the scythe from her face before the blade broke in half. Malstromeda dove into a roll under the next spin of the blade and found herself next to the fallen acolyte. She grabbed the fallen warrior’s blade and brought it up in defense. She had no way of knowing it would do in her hands what it had done with the acolyte but had to defend regardless.

    The blade lit up at the last moment and the scythe clanged off of it as if it were just a normal blade. Malstromeda pushed on, striking Yarna Fey with all the strength and speed she had. The pale woman easily parried the blows, her eyes locked on Malstromeda’s. Malstromeda had fought many opponents, many more skilled than she. However, with this woman she felt like she was far over her head and the only thing protecting her was the fact that Yarna Fey was curious and surprised.

    “You are no match for her.” Sila said as she moved in, pressing the advantage and engaged Yarna Fey in close combat, their strange weapons glancing off of each other in a flurry of precision blows. The remaining acolyte moved forward and engaged Malstromeda. The glowing edged blades streaked through the air and caused sparks as they crossed. The acolyte was powerful and well trained, but Malstromeda felt she was more her match.

    Yarna Fey growled as she fought Sila. It seemed with all of her power, all her ferocity, Sila was still able to defend, her agility and skill slowly winning out.

    “Shoot them!” Yarna Fey called out as she managed to glance back to the bone soldiers behind her.

    The twin soldiers drew their ranged weapons and levelled them at the pair. Malstromeda looked back after parrying a blow. Ideas struggled through her mind but nothing came to mind to defend against the acolyte in front of her and the soldiers at her back.

    An explosion went off, similar to the one when the soldier had fired back in the farming village. One of the soldiers had a hole in his chest and suddenly fell forward. Behind him was Frennia, standing in a wide stance, one of the bone soldiers’ weapons in her hands. Before the second bone soldier could even turn and aim, Frennia fired again, hitting him and driving him off of the side of the aqueduct.

    “Get down.” Frennia shouted as she levelled the weapon at Yarna Fey. She fired and the pale woman brought up the scythe, separating the blade from the shaft. She defended against Sila with the blade as the guarded with the shaft, spinning it in hand and deflecting the blast with ease. Frennia kept firing over and over, but each shot was deflected. She looked down at a lever on the side of the weapon. She pulled it back and aimed.

    “Yarna the launcher!” The acolyte called out in warning.

    A projectile launched out of the lower part of the weapon, a stream of smoke trailing it as it shot out at Yarna Fey. The pale skinned witch ducked at the last moment, causing the projectile to shoot past her and eventually collide with the dam beyond. The dam was shaken by a massive explosion from the projectile and cracks began to rapidly snake out.

    What happened next was like a blur. A wave of water erupted from the dam and flowed toward the group down the aqueduct. Yarna Fey turned to face it as the acolyte began to run. Sila charged forward, grabbing Malstromeda around the waist and tackled her off of the aqueduct to a tree below. As the water surged forward it blocked out the sun causing everything to momentarily shroud in chaos and darkness.

-