BANG!

A single shot echoed through the trees, above the sound of the downpour. At first, Seth thought it was thunder. Then his left leg disappeared at the knee. He fell.

Seth tumbled, feeling none of the impacts of trees and rocks, rolling hard, his neck cranking this way and that, before he crashed into the back of Ben’s legs and took them both out. They rolled, tumbling and sliding down the mudslicked ground until they crashed into a heap at the edge of the road. Seth forced himself upright, looking at his bleeding stump. Ben held up a staff, snapped in two, violet egg missing.

“Bloody fucking hell! Move!” Ben was on his feet and dragging Seth behind a tree as another thunderous crack rang out from somewhere down the road. Wood splinters showered them, coating them with wet sawdust and slivers of bark. Seth propped himself up against the tree, eyes still locked on his leg. It was bleeding and he had a sick feeling it wouldn’t just reattach like Nicole’s had. He looked to Ben, who was standing next to him.

BANG! CRACK!

Wood splintered right beside Seth’s left shoulder and he scooted right.

“Powder holding?” Asked Ben.

Seth nodded weakly.

“Hope fucking so. Don’t worry, we’ll get you set right.” He crouched down and held his hands over Seth’s stump. “You’ll feel this. Sorry.” He took in a deep breath. “Py.”

Flame blazed over Seth’s stump and pain raced up his leg nerves, up his spine and jammed itself into the pain centers of his brain. His teeth ground together dangerously hard for a few long seconds before the pain began to fade. He looked down at the cauterized wound, then up to Ben. “My leg… It’s…”

“We get out of this, I have a friend who’s a technologist. I will personally pay her for a replacement. But right now, I need you to stay here and trust me.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Seth said, hoarse. “Kind of can’t right now.”

Ben clapped a hand on his shoulder. “This is one time trust won’t get you killed. When I step around that tree, close your eyes and cover your ears.” Ben closed his eyes. “Nicole, don’t know where you are right now, but I know your tune. Get to cover. Now. Cover your eyes and ears, I’m about to set off a class ten.”

Ben took two full, deep breaths and stepped around the tree. Seth screwed his eyes shut and clapped his hands over his ears.

The roar and the light pierced even that and the tremors in the earth threw Seth from his seated position to the ground. He let three seconds pass, then pushed himself up and looked around the tree. Ben knelt in the middle of the road. The whine in Seth’s ears kept him from hearing, but Ben was hacking and wheezing, blood coming up with each cough. Seth crawled to him.

“Are you alright?” Even his own voice sounded muffled and it took Seth a moment to see beyond Ben. In a straight line in front of him lay a path of raw destruction and scorched earth, easily twenty feet wide at the start and widening the further it got. Ancient trees were cut down like saplings, and rain hurried to calm the flames burning along the path down the mountainside.

Ben looked up at him, grinning like a schoolchild… A schoolchild with bloodstained teeth. Seth’s hearing began to return. “Haven’t… Cast that class… In half a decade. I’ve still got it, baby.” He forced himself to his feet, then hooked an arm under Seth’s shoulder and helped him stand upright, offering himself as a crutch for Seth’s now-missing leg.

“Bloody mother of god,” came a voice from behind them. Together they turned to see Nicole there, smeared in mud, soaked to the bone from the rain. “What the fuck was that?” She said.

Ben couldn’t stop grinning. “Just a class ten evocation.”

She looked past him. “That’s what you can do?”

“Not regularly,” he said. “Still a bit winded. Don’t think I’ll be touching above class four for a while.”

“Did you get him?”

“Rudimentary scrying says yes.”

“Seth!” Her eyes suddenly widened. “Your leg!”

“Can’t feel it,” said Seth, trying to smile.

“Oh, you’ll feel it in a minute or two,” said Ben. “We’ve got to get to my ride, and then we have a friend of mine to visit.”

“I-” Started Nicole.

“No buts. He needs a leg.”

“Your car’s wrecked, though,” she said.

“Car?” Ben looked genuinely hurt. “You can’t fucking kill a familiar sourced from another plane. Only banish it.” He snapped his fingers and Seth’s eyes bulged as he saw the Jeep wink into existence behind Nicole, unharmed, lights on. Her eyes widened, too, at the sudden flash of light that surrounded her. Their eyes widened even more as it revved of its own volition.

“Now come on,” said Ben. “We’ve got a doctor to pay a visit to.”