Elmidath pointed toward the ravine we were passing. “Look.”

Spikes jutted from the sheer wall, far too uniform and numerous to be a coincidence. It was a clear sign of the Ortisfel’s spreading influence. “Crap, they’ve already come this far? What if they’ve already reached Yuriel?”

“They’re probably not quite that far yet. Still, we need to hurry.”

Elmidath set off at a run, though we were a few hours away from our destination. I followed and it wasn’t long before she was tired enough to slow down to a jog. While I appreciated her intent, we had to be reasonable here. “There’s no point exhausting ourselves now, we’ve still got a long way to go.”

“I know, I know, I’m just worried.”

“So am I, but we need to keep a level head.”

She slowed down further and took a deep breath. “Alright, I’m calm. Maybe you should run ahead and make sure Yuriel is protected, I’ll catch up soon.”

“I’d rather not leave you alone out here. You’re in just as much danger as she is. Besides, I wouldn’t be all that effective on my own. You’ll just have to be patient; we’ll be there soon.”

Not that my effectiveness went up by remaining with her, but I was a lot more committed to Elmidath’s survival than some plant’s. And not just because my life was tied to hers, though that was a large part of it.

“When did you become so damn sensible? If anything, I’d have expected you to be the one rushing ahead without a thought to the consequences.”

“I’ve been trying this new thing called using my brain, I thought it might help cut down on the number of near-death situations I run into on a daily basis.”

“I wouldn’t count on it making much difference in that, given what we’re up against. Still, it probably can’t hurt.”

Overjoyed at Elmidath’s approval of my new lifestyle, I continued on my way like nothing had happened. The wasteland around us rolled past, while I split my attention between the way ahead and searching for any further signs of the Ortisfel. I thought I might’ve spotted a few more spikes at points, but there was no time to go and investigate further.

Elmidath took my advice to heart and we moved at a fairly sustainable speed for most of the remaining distance. But as we drew closer and, to my surprise, I recognized the terrain, we sped up without exchanging a word until we were sprinting by the time Yurielius came into sight. Yuriel’s creation had grown considerably larger and stranger since last we saw it, but it appeared unharmed and we ground to a halt.

Eager as we were to protect it, neither of us wanted to be close to it if we could avoid it. We’d only been there a few seconds when Yuriel appeared from amongst the greenery and drifted over. “Hey guys, good to see you again. I was beginning to wonder if you were coming back.”

Theoretically seeing her and her charge unharmed should’ve been a relief, but mostly it just made me worry about what was to come next. “We came as quickly as we could. Unfortunately we ran into a few delays; turns out the Ortisfel is doing a lot more than just trying to attack this place directly. Speaking of which, have you seen any sign of them?”

“Not yet. Though I haven’t ventured very far from Yurielius.”

“We spotted their corruption not that far from here, we should probably expect their forces to appear soon.”

“And exactly what forces would those be?”

“I’m not sure exactly. From what we’ve seen they’ve mostly employed Tertiums, but there’s no telling what else they might have to throw at us.”

I glanced at Elmidath, hoping she might have some ideas.

“At the very least they probably have of Biustarn’s soldiers under their sway. Technically they might have all fled when their master turned, but that seems rather unlikely.”

Yuriel’s head tilted dramatically to the side. “So, we’re just going to wait here to be attacked by who-knows-what? Somehow I’m not looking forward to it.”

Oddly I had much the same reaction, along with anyone that had the slightest bit of sense. “We’ll figure it out somehow. Are you and Yurielius going to be much help in the coming fight?”

“Well, I’m largely useless, but Yurielius can probably look out for itself so long as it’s no more than a few enemies. It still has a lot of growing to do unfortunately.”

Given that it was already a few metres wide, I had little desire to see it once it was fully grown. Hopefully we can conduct all future business with Yuriel and Soarister’s other servants on the edge of their forests, rather than inside them.

“Any idea how long that will take?”

“I think it shouldn’t be more than a week or so.”

I groaned. While a week wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, it was a hell of a long time to hold the Ortisfel off. Or maybe they’d offer little to no threat, it was hard to say. We still had no real idea of their capabilities or what other objectives they might be working towards. For all we knew, this was a low priority for them. Not that we could afford to assume that.

Waiting for the enemy to strike, especially when they were so difficult to predict, sat poorly with me. I’d much rather be attacking them, but I never wanted to venture into their territory again. That was not a fight we could win and I had no desire to end up their servant. I still wasn’t sure how we were actually supposed to defeat them in the long run, but we’d just have to figure that out later.

Elmidath scanned the horizon, before turning back to me. “I suppose we should split up, so we can cover more ground. I’ll take the north; you take the south?”

“Sure.”

“Okay let me know if anything happens and I’ll do the same.”

She walked off, leaving me alone with Yuriel who looked at me. “What should I be doing?”

“What were you doing before?”

“Not a lot.”

“Well, you can help us keep watch then.”

“What exactly am I watching for?”

“Anything out of the ordinary, but particularly anything that’s approaching us.”

“Got it.”

She drifted higher and perched near the apex of Yurielius. Now all that was left for me was to do my part in spotting whatever the Ortisfel were up to. There was a good chance that if they did something, it would come from beneath the ground, but any advance warning we could get was valuable. Besides, it’s not like we had much else to do while we waited.

And wait we did. Straining my eyes as I searched for any sign of the enemy made for a distinctly unpleasant experience. It managed to be both tense and yet utterly dull at the same time. They were bound to turn up eventually, we just had no idea when or where. It helped to make the waiting all that much more unbearable.

I would gladly have accepted an excuse to do something else, but with everyone else occupied with their own watch, no such opportunity presented itself. The wait continued for hours, until the sun dipped below the horizon without any sign of the Ortisfel or Yueryurn’s troops.

While any delay before our foes arrived could only improve our chances of survival, all this waiting was wearing on both my patience and my nerves. Something had to happen soon. Otherwise we were faced with the prospect of keeping watch all night, with only the stars to illuminate any potential threats.

I was doing a short patrol near Yurielius, partially to counteract the limited visibility but mostly to break up the tedium, when I noticed a foul smell on the air. It was like a mixture of rust and rotting vegetation. I turned to Yurielius, only to realize the smell was coming from somewhere else and getting stronger by the moment.

Covering my nose, I peered into the darkness. There was a faint shimmer in the air, as if from heat. It took me a few moments of staring at it to realize it wasn’t a shimmer, but rather a patch of something darker than the surrounding blackness.

I was about to alert Elmidath when it unfolded itself. In an instant it went from a mere shadow to a looming terror of crazed edges. A hundred jagged blades descended upon me as I scrambled back. My armour turned many, but a multitude still found my flesh and tore into me. I went down and tried to get back up, my own blood streaming down my body, only for my legs to collapse under me.

Desperate, I called Elmidath’s name through our link and she answered me almost immediately. “I’m coming.”

I was rolling away as best I could when the shadows regathered themselves and launched another wave of death at me. With no hope of avoiding any of it this time, I did the only thing I could and teleported to Elmidath. She took one look at me and stopped to help, but I waved her off. “Go, I’ll live.”

After a moment’s hesitation, she sprinted off into the night. Wheezing, I dragged myself after her. I’d recover eventually and then I could re-join the fight, so long as I didn’t get shredded once more. Or at least, that was my initial assessment. However, on closer inspection, I realized I was losing quite a lot of blood.

Vision blurring, I still forced myself onward. There was no time for me to rest; they still needed me out there. I’d only managed a few paces despite great exertion when Yuriel appeared from the foliage.

“Are you dying?”

“No.”

“You look like you’re dying. You need that red stuff inside you to live, right?”

“Something like that.”

“I could help you if you want, but- “

“Do it. I need to protect…” Between my heavy breathing and fading strength, my words ended up an unintelligible mumble.

Yuriel said something that I was too busy trying to stay awake to catch and I grunted in a way that I hoped would get her to hurry up. Apparently overcoming her reluctance, she floated to the ground beside me and reached out. New life filled me and I shot to my feet. Thinking more clearly now, I teleported right back to Elmidath, appearing a short distance from the monster that had come so close to ending my life.

Elmidath looked surprised to see me, but she only spared me a glance before stabbing at the mass of shadows with a spear formed of blood. It struck true, only to glance off the many dark blades which currently occupied with hacking into Yurielius. I held Shotensho before me, though I wasn’t sure what to do with it. If it could turn Elmidath’s strike, then my blade wouldn’t be much use against it. Still, we had to distract it somehow.

I took a few tentative steps forward, then retreated before the myriad of points that turned to menace me. It was enough to slightly delay it, but we needed a lot more than that. Most of Yurielius’s outer layer had already been hacked away, exposing the vulnerable core. For all its myriad of spikes and stout branches, they offered little defence against the maelstrom of shadow’s assault.

If I couldn’t get close to it, which I demonstrably could not, then there was no hope of me stopping it. While I wasn’t eager to force the problem onto Elmidath, she seemed to be the only one who could do anything to help us now. Looking over, I saw that she had yet to prepare another attack and was just staring at the shadows.

“What’re you doing?”

“Trying to think.”

From her tone, it was clear she didn’t want to be interrupted, so I shut up and turned my attention inward. Figuring out how she could stop it was the most I could do right now, but what could she do? The vast array of sharp edges made up our foe’s entire form, the uniform surface offering no hints as to any weaknesses it may have. There was a very real chance it didn’t have any particular vulnerabilities, after all it can clearly been created for battle, but I had to find something.

After a few more moments of frantic analysis, I came up with a plan. “Okay, I’m going to go in there and distract it. Maybe that’ll expose something you can attack.”

Without waiting for Elmidath’s reply, I tightly gripped my sword in both hands and charged in. My great overhead slash was met by my opponent’s many blades. I felt the impact through my body as I hurriedly withdrew my sword and circled around. Despite keeping my distance, it still gave me a few cuts in the exchange.

Though the effort had almost gotten me killed, Elmidath hadn’t followed up. I mustn’t have given her enough of an opportunity. I needed a bigger distraction, but how was I meant to get its attention without being cut to ribbons? It only seemed to respond to proximity and getting close enough to provide a meaningful distraction would kill me. Unless I could find some way to protect myself. My sword and armour were fairly helpful against most threats, but they were woefully inadequate here. At least without additional assistance.

While the blades had caught a swathe through Yurelius’s outer layer, it had limited its attacks to a fairly narrow area in front of it which left plenty of impairing vegetation close-by. They would be enough to slow it down when it turned on me and hopefully that was enough to keep me alive.

I shoved my way into the tangled collection of vines and branches, heedless of what it would do to me, and went straight for the intruder. This time I didn’t even bother with the pretence of an attack, it’s not like I was going to harm it. Instead, I simply barrelled towards it, getting well within its reach before it reacted.

Another lethal storm of blows broke upon me and I dropped to the ground. Most of the blades found only vegetation or the empty air, and I rolled away just as a bolt of scarlet slammed into the shadow’s centre. It punched clean through, opening a fist-sized hole and the creature fell apart.

Blades rained to the ground, still spinning and slashing, while I struggled to drag myself clear. I avoided the worst of it and watched as the implements of death twitched amongst the fallen leaves, then began to fade. Soon all the remained of the shadow’s rampage was the destruction it had wrought and I crawled free of Yurelius’s grasping brambles to stare gasping up at the stars.

Elmidath came over and nudged me with her foot. “Still alive?”

“Yep.”

“I don’t know if I should really praise you for doing something so reckless, but I have to admit it worked. Nice job.”

“Thanks, couldn’t have done it without you.”

Elmidath crossed her arms and looked away. “Obviously.”