Chapter 32

The Northern Byway

The Voidlands North of Maston

When they returned to the dorm, the sky finally broke open, unleashing the worst rainstorm Myles had ever seen. Throughout the night, the rain beat against the roof without remorse.

Between the storm and the knowledge that they would be heading back to the voidlands soon, sleep was almost impossible to come by. The two spear constructs began to quietly make their way around. Without a word, each member of the dorm would take the construct and infuse as much mana as they could into it.

Aether wells were tapped empty until the morning arrived. The morning light never came though. With encouraging looks, the two groups of three parted at the doors of their dorm, heading away from each other in the thick of the rain.

Myles was soaked before he had taken ten steps. His commuted armor could block out the rain, but with the density and force of the storm, the battering of the rain would slowly wear through his mana. Instead, Myles went without.

As they plodded down the trail, there was little hope of any clever ploys with tracking. Their clothes were somewhat resistant to the rain, but they still grew heavy quickly. Mud squelched over boots and into socks.

Kate encouraged them, telling them how the rain would be to their benefit. The thicker it was, the harder it would be for a monster to spot or smell them. They crept on, guiding themselves through the dark landscape by the occasional flash of one of the many sparsely set flickering hope lights that lined the byway that meandered its way north, past a handful of small villages, and up to Hydrabridge.

Myles had made the casings for hope lights by the dozens when he had lived in Verith. They were meant to deter monsters by releasing foul smells, sounds, and sights that only monsters could perceive. Their effectiveness was minimal though. They were a hope, little more than a prayer on the road. The thick rain likely offered better protection by blanketing senses.

Myles was constantly vigilant, looking out into the rain and straining his ears for any unexplained disturbance in the downpour.

Hours ticked by sluggishly. At one point, Myles thought he saw a cluster of lights off to one side of the road and wondered if it was a village obscured by the deluge. He became less sure when Silas insisted that he could see the outline of houses on the opposite side of the road only five minutes later.

Kate continued to lead them, keeping the whole group on alert.

About an hour after the lights, they heard their first sign of monsters. It was Silas who noticed them first, motioning for Kate and Myles to be silent. Sure enough, they heard a heavyset body crunching through a field of tall grass to their right.

The trio each started commuting their armor. The pure mana that flowed around them helped to silence their footfalls. Instead of pattering loudly against them, the rain was swept naturally to the side, flowing off of them without a sound.

They took a long detour to the left that cost them some time. It was exacerbated by the difficulty they had in finding the road again. Eventually though, they got back on track, and no one complained about the delay. Last month, they had learned that any monster could spell their failure. Even if they won the fight, a single injury could call more monsters and force them to seek shelter.

Myles glanced over his shoulder more than once, wondering if Reah was tailing them on this assignment too. It was impossible to tell. He had seen how capable she was firsthand. Even if she was right next to him, Myles doubted he would ever realize.

As night began to fall, the rain seemed to grow even stronger with it. Winds assaulted them, forcing them to constantly wipe the rain from their eyes.

Myles noticed the storm getting fiercer with each step. He kept pushing forward wiping the rain from his eyes.

“Brace yourself!”

Myles heard Kate’s shout and reacted immediately, beginning to commute his pure mana around him while at the same time moving into the third step, the iron turtle. Just as he managed to move into position and evoke a thin wall of pure mana to further protect himself, a wall of water crashed into the group.

Even with his evoked pure mana and his commuted armor optimally positioned with the third step, Myles was knocked down, rolling head over heels. The wall of water felt more like a brick wall that had been sent hurtling towards him than anything else.

Myles threw himself back onto his feet. For a second, he was disoriented from the fall, but he quickly took stock of the situation. A great hawk was pinning Silas to the ground. He had managed to pull out his shield, and had it between him and the bird, but it didn’t look like the shield would last long. The hawk’s beak came down repeatedly. The shield’s pure mana supply already seemed to be mostly drained from the initial impact. Silas was desperately evoking his own mana to defend himself, but with each strike, the monster tore off a chunk of wood.

Myles charged forward, pulling the spear construct from his back and charging with it. The hawk must have seen him coming because it sent a portion of the shield it had torn off and threw it right at him. The storm seemed to fling a portion of its strength behind the wood and Myles was forced to dive to the side to avoid it.

Myles wasn’t entirely successful though. He felt the projectile clip his left hip. If he hadn’t been commuting armor, he definitely would have broken something. As it was though, he got away with what would likely turn into a nasty bruise.

As Myles rolled through the mud to his feet, he evoked a layer of mana over Silas’ shield. The hawk broke through it with its next strike, but the mana weakened the blow just enough to allow Silas’ commuted armor to keep the monster’s beak at bay.

As fortune would have it, that was just the moment they needed. Kate had managed to rush it with one of the spears they had used against the cinderwolves. To Myles’ frustration, the beast took to the sky faster than any hawk he had ever seen. The storm seemed to cocoon it, pushing it faster than what should have been physically possible.

It wasn’t done with them either. It whirled around in midair, looking for an opening. As it did, Silas tore through his bag and found a pure mana battery that Myles had made with Jane. He attached it to the shield, effectively recharging it. Though much of the wood had been torn off, and some of the metal frame seemed to be bent, the shield still produced a layer of pure mana.

“Myles,” Kate shouted, “use the spear!”

Myles was already one step ahead of her, planting the butt of the spear firmly into the mud to keep it steady. The spear’s fire mana should be able to do considerable damage to the monster, but it could only be used once. Myles took a deep breath and put his finger on the activation rune. With just a sliver of pure mana put into the metal underneath the activation rune, one of the containment runes would be momentarily deactivated, allowing the mana they had supplied — which had been converted into fire mana — to be drawn from where it was stored into the spearhead where the rune they had forged into the metal and primed with fire mana would evoke the mana into a raging fireball.

Myles dropped his commuted armor, not wanting to accidentally infuse the spear with the sliver of mana it needed to activate. That seemed to be the opportunity the monster had been looking for. It dove faster than any bird Myles had ever seen right for him, taking a portion of the storm with it.

If the hawk had chosen to attack Silas or Kate, Myles doubted he would have been able to hit it with the fireball, but with it coming right towards him, Myles couldn’t miss. He infused the spear with a trickle of mana then started commuting his armor again. A painful moment passed as the beast continued its dive then Myles felt a wave of heat as a ball of fire a little larger than his head sizzled through the rain and burst against the monster’s wing.

The hawk gave a visceral roar of pain, a roar that sounded closer to what a lion might produce. Even through the pain though, the monster pushed itself forward using the force of the storm to account for the wing that crackled with flame. Myles could see pure aggression in its eyes. Despite all of that, Myles ran forward. The beast adjusted its course, crashing towards the position where Myles was going to be, only Myles’s body moved to the side, following the trajectory of his snake step.

Even though Myles avoided the great hawk’s talons and body as it landed, he couldn’t avoid the portion of the storm it had been commanding. Myles was sent flying from the wall of water, his armor enough to keep him from being crushed, but not enough to keep him in place or unbruised.

Myles pushed himself to his feet in time to see Silas and Kate snake stepping around the fallen monster, delivering shallow cuts with their spears. Even with one wing ruined, the creature was still fast. It flung itself around with the force of the storm. It mostly focused on Kate since Silas still held the remnants of his shield.

Myles watched with horror as Kate’s foot sank too deeply into the mud, causing her to stumble. That was the only error the fallen, pained hawk needed. It was on her in an instant, flinging itself into her.

Myles reached into his aether space looking to evoke a barrier of pure mana but found he was empty. He had commuted every ounce of his remaining mana to protect himself from the monster’s dive, and it had all been consumed by the storm the great hawk had carried with it.

Kate wasn’t helpless though. She had her own pure mana, and she was the fastest in their entire platoon. Before the beast hit her, she had already twisted into a hasty semblance of the iron turtle and evoked enough mana to block the beak and talons that came at her. She still went down hard, the full force of her protective mana not enough to stop the monster’s reckless leap entirely, but Myles didn’t see any major injuries.

In attacking Kate though, the monster was left open. It turned towards Silas far faster than Myles could believe considering it was bleeding from a half dozen cuts and only had one working wing. Silas had the advantage though and he was able to block what little strength the monster was able to conjure in that instant with his shield. In the same instant, Silas rammed his spear through the monster’s neck, finally silencing it.

“What…was that?” Myles breathed.

Kate gave a pained groan as she pulled herself onto her knees. “I’m pretty sure it was a stormhawk. I just read up on them last night. They’re supposedly only found in aether storms.”

Silas pulled his spear out, the rain washing it off almost immediately. “Do they cause the storms or something? That thing looked like it was controlling it?”

Kate frowned. “I’m not sure. It might be helping something stronger or maybe working with a whole bunch of others.”

Silas looked up in panic as he picked his pack off of the ground. “Does that mean something might come looking for it?”

Kate shrugged. “Maybe?”

Myles walked over to the stormhawk and hastily carved out the monster’s core, a dark blue stone that Myles hastily shoved in his own pack. “Let’s not take that chance. Can you guys keep moving?”

They both said they could though Kate seemed to be putting on a brave face. They had all taken on a lot of bruises. Myles’ whole body hurt, and he couldn’t imagine what Kate must feel like having to feel the whole group’s pain.

The squad continued their journey and felt the storm decrease in power until it was back to the level, they had spent most of the day walking through. Myles hoped that was a sign that no more stormhawks were nearby.