I felt a moment of weightlessness as the chain towing me through the air went slack. Telvy was slowing as she fell closer to the ground, only pulling up at the last moment. I swear I could have reached out and brushed the grass, but the armored peacekeepers that were being dragged next to me somehow managed to look bored.

How many times did you have to practice, I thought, before something as pantshittingly insane as this became normal?

The chain tightened around my chest once more as Telvy picked up speed. We soared above treetops, just barely skirting the tallest branches. It was exhilarating … and insane, but I couldn’t help but let out a whoop as we cleared the trees and began to descend once more.

I felt Telvy’s mana grip me, gently countering gravity as the mage set down in a narrow field surrounded by rubble and overgrowth. As my toes touched the ground, gravity immediately shifted, and I was sent tumbling to the ground. Suppressed laughter followed me, but when I looked back up the seven-foot pillars of black armor were casually looking away as if they hadn’t noticed.

I stood, taking in my surroundings as I shook off the feeling of vertigo. The five of us stood atop the crumbled remains of a building that barely was barely visible through the earth that had risen to consume it.

In front of us stood a line of short, narrow trees being slowly strangled by winding creepers. The vines twisted and dug into scarred trunks, drawing forth green sap that they eagerly absorbed as a leech does blood.

It was darker here, this close to the edge of the dome, but flashes of crimson light would briefly illuminate everything around us like the scorching blossoms of fireworks. To the north and south the growth of trees was much thicker and loomed above us like the still corpses of titans.

The wind tugged at me, seeming to grow stronger with each rotation before gradually weakening and shifting direction. The twirling sediment filled the air, and combined with the strange landscape, gave me the feeling of stepping onto another world. In a way, my childhood dreams of exploration came true only miles from where I had grown up.

This wasn’t Charleston anymore.

Beyond a line of dying trees, right at the edge of the dome, was a twisting vortex that seemed to be devouring the earth beneath it. To my other sense, however, it was a Tesla coil giving off blinding light and forking sparks of red and black lightning.

“I’m going to need you to point out the exact area,” Telvy yelled above the din.

I jumped in surprise as the chains that still bound my torso began to unwind and retract back to Telvy with the speed of a striking viper. I tried to hide my reaction, but I could read the amusement on her face.

“It’s right there,” I pointed.

“You have the ability to manipulate mana in its raw form, correct?”

“Yeah, but there’s not much to work with. What do you need me to do?”

“Here,” Telvy extended an arm and I felt a large amount of mana pour into the area. “Just paint the area, I’ll do the rest.”

I extended my own mana to touch Telvy’s energy, but immediately recoiled. Her mana was a fiery green that consumed my own, more reserved, energy upon contact.

“You really do need training,” the archmage sighed. “Here, try now.”

The mana she had bled into the air grew calmer, more like still mist than the fiery waves it had been before. It still felt … hot is the best way to describe it, but I found that I could manipulate it almost as easily as I could my own.

I even gathered a bit of it to study later.

I walked forward until I was just before the line of trees between me and my target. I shaped Telvy’s mana into a disk and willed it to slowly move towards the area of explosive energy at the edge of the dome.

Eldritch energy burst upwards from the area like a constant stream of lightning. Each of these sparks ended in golden symbols that linked together in long, complex chains vaguely reminiscent of mathematical formulas.

I’d always spaced out at any math that contained letters, and this was infinitely more complex than the freshman calculus I’d barely passed … and yet I could sense a familiar pattern. It was as if I’d seen it before. The feeling hung there for a moment, but I set it aside as the eldritch energy began to tear holes in the mana I was controlling.

I focused, reshaping the disk as quickly as it was destroyed but it was a losing battle and the mana was dissipating after only a few seconds. I breathed heavily as sweat and shame covered my face. I looked up at Telvy to apologize, but she was already working.

At some point, she had stood next to me with her arms stretched wide. The chains that had been wound around her forearms were uncoiled and dozens of steel tendrils began to strike at the dome. Each strike would tear out thick gouges of energy, but these wounds were filled more quickly than they could be inflicted.

Just as I was beginning to warn her that it wasn’t working, the archmage intensified her attack. The larger chain that was still wound around her torso began to slide free to join the others. Once the chain was unraveled it joined the others as they began to spin around in a circle, like the blades of a blender. Each rotation shaved thick layers away from the wall of energy.

I watched, transfixed, trying to gain insight into how she used her mana to manipulate the chains. If I lived through this, it would be a valuable skill to emulate. A soft, voiceless groan sent a jolt of fear up my spine, interrupting my thoughts.

I spun to look behind me and saw one of the black-clad Peacekeepers being hauled into the sky. At first I couldn’t understand what was holding her, or why she was moving so strangely. Eventually, my eyes were drawn down towards her chest.

A pillar of sharpened earth stretched from her torso down towards the ground. No, that was wrong. I yelled, running towards her as realization dawned.

The jagged spike protruded from her back, but she still seemed to be alive. She kicked and struggled to pull or break the stone blade from her chest. One half of her face shield had been cracked and I could see panicked eyes looking down at me as I raced towards her.

Her armor shimmered for a moment before flowing around the wound like a liquid, seeking to fill and surround the wound. As the armor slid away it extended up the spike spinning around it in an attempt to saw through the tough rock. The nearly nude form of the Peacekeeper hung limply, only her fingertips still twitching as the look of shock on her face slowly faded

I froze, unable to comprehend what was happening. My attention was fixed on a thick stream of blood that dripped down the stone onto barren earth, and the coppery tang carried on the wind.

“Shora!” Telvy cried.

She called off her assault on the dome and began to fly into the air dragging her chains behind her as if she were a vengeful goddess bound to the Earth. I saw only a flash of light before the stone pillar was vaporized, its remains falling upon the earth like snow.

Telvy caught the falling soldier and held her in her arms as they gently glided back towards the earth. As the mage set the woman down she turned to look at the rest of us. Her eyes were fiery orbs in the same shade of green as her mana and her teeth were bared in the snarl of a wounded predator.

“They won’t use that trick again,” she roared. “The earth is mine to command.”

As she spoke her face tightened, and her voice grew deeper as all signs of emotion drained from her. She lifted her arms as a pulse of mana shot into the ground.

“Find them,” she howled.

The two remaining Peacekeepers immediately fled to the north.

I looked toward the mage, unsure what to say. Instead, I just shook my head as I looked at the surprisingly young-looking woman in her arms. Her skin was a faint blue, and almost completely free of scales or raised edges. She was just a girl.

“I’m no healer, but I have to try and save her.” The fire had faded from her Telvy’s eyes as she looked up at me. “Please, Finn, you have no reason to help me, but I can’t let her die.”

“What do you expect me to do?” I asked. “I’m no healer either, and your bodyguards could crush me like a fly, so I doubt I’m much help to them. Besides, I’m not even sure where the attack came from.”

“Each of my sisters is a capable tracker and fighter,” she shook her head as she spoke. “What I need you to do is protect me as I work … and while my sisters kill. Build a space of empty energy around Shora and I. Fight off any attackers as they come. I need three … roughly four point two minutes.”

“One condition.”

“Speak, but quickly,” her words were a faint whisper that barely rose above the cacophony of the wind.

“When this is done, I’m escaping. There is no fucking way I’m going back. All I need you to do is not try to stop me when the time comes … and I need you to make sure that my friend Tiller gets home safely.”

I held eye contact with her for a moment, but she quickly nodded her head in assent.

“Fine, now hold up your end.”

The Peacekeeper mage surrounded herself in a thick haze of intensely bright mana. It glowed like the sun and gave off physical heat like standing next to an open oven. As she worked, I summoned the Fisher.

I felt its mind join with mine, time to work already?

Our connection had grown to the point that I didn’t need to communicate my intentions. The creature surrounded Telvy with a thin, egg-shaped barrier made of eldritch energy. A small kingfisher was perched atop the egg, its eyes closed in concentration.

I cast my eyes south, hopefully the two Peacekeepers could handle whatever was to the north. They’d at least make enough noise that nothing could surprise me from that direction.

Nearly two minutes elapsed without any problems, and I was just beginning to become optimistic that things might work out well for a change ... or at least well for me. I spared a glance at the pair inside the egg-shaped barrier but there was no change.

A mighty boom followed by the incessant sounds of gunfire at full auto drew my attention to the north. It seemed like they had found whatever had drawn them in that direction. I just had to hope they could handle it.

It took a force of will, but I broke away and turned my vigil back towards the south. Any monsters fleeing from the north would either be scraps or, if they had killed the Peacekeepers, much too powerful for me to deal with. I felt that the likely, and more dangerous, sneak attack would come from the opposite direction.

I was wrong.

The attack was not even close to being stealthy. The ground began to shake strongly enough that small pebbles and finely ground sand jumped dozens of inches into the air. At first, I thought it was an earthquake, but as my eyes focused further into the distance I realized the truth.

Mighty trees toppled each other like dominos, each falling towards me as if a giant blade was cutting through the forest. I began to hear howls that shook my bones and a sense of primal fear rose up in my gut. Whatever was coming was not alone.

The wind reversed direction, and for a moment the air was still. As the dust cleared, I saw a pair of horns and fiery red eyes just as they broke through the final line of trees.