White flames exploded as Nisha and I scrambled backward. Her eyes flared with surprise — but the excited kind of surprise that made me wonder if she had a latent tendency toward arson.
’Something to worry about later. Much later.’
Right now, the smart play was to run for that forest. But between us and the treeline stretched the river, and the river had bee a battlefield. Kassie and the Inquisitor were tearing through it, their clash sending water spraying in violent sheets.
The Inquisitor spun, and his sword bounced off Kassie’s arm with a ringing clang. He gritted his teeth in annoyance, stealing a glance at his wyvern — currently wrapped in writhing white flames.
As Kassie lunged at him, he dove low, dropping his head backward and letting her strike scrape along his jaw. He stabbed his sword into the water, piercing it deep into the riverbed. Gripped it with both hands. Rose with a scissors kick that smashed into Kassie at rising levels — ankle, knee, hip.
Kassie didn’t flinch. She merely followed the kicks with hand blocks that trailed upward in perfect sync, then grabbed his wrist before he could plete the final strike. Yanked him closer.
And smashed her forehead into his. Learnt from the best.
The Inquisitor’s head snapped back. His eyes had to be seeing double as he staggered, frozen for a heartbeat, before throwing his glare back at Kassie. Blood was already trailing down his forehead, splitting into two paths down his face.
He hunched over, glanced at his wyvern still fighting the flames, then looked back at Kassie.
Then he shot forward, meeting her head-on like an absolute fool who hadn’t just been taught a very serious lesson.
He exploded from the water with a wind blast, rising above the surface. Twisted in the air, using the gust to generate even more force, and whipped into a 540 kick aimed at Kassie’s guard. She crossed her arms to block immediately.
But the Inquisitor didn’t land that kick.
The wind twisted him away instead, pushing him past Kassie onto solid ground. He landed by the time Kassie opened her guard in suspicion. Then he sprinted toward his summon, screaming:
"Vaelthyrn!"
The wyvern responded with a powerful roar and spread its wings with one hell of a force, using the wind to blow out all the fire in a single violent gust.
Nisha and I were caught directly between the running Inquisitor and his recovered summon.
’Ah, shit.’
His gaze tightened, locked in with coldness as he sprinted toward us — then he suddenly exploded forward, leaping into the air and sailing way over our heads.
His wyvern met him mid-flight and snatched him from the air, climbing high into the sky while spreading all four wings wide.
At that moment, a bad premonition settled in my gut. This was an Eren and Zeke situation — a "don’t let them regroup" moment — and the feeling it left behind was nothing good. The kind of feeling that preceded very bad things happening to people who weren’t prepared.
’To people like us.’
Kassie had moved to the river’s edge, looking up. Her featureless armor and those malevolent horns gleamed beneath the sun, utterly still.
The light from the sky was blinding. Hard to track them even as they flew in wide, circling patterns. I glanced toward the forest.
This was our only chance.
’To eliminate the advantage they have over us...’
I grabbed Nisha’s arm.
"We have to get into the forest. Now."
She glanced toward the water.
"How will we—"
I was already yelling at Kassie.
"Distract him! Whatever it takes!"
Red waves of essence oozed from my body, supplementing the mand.
"We have to reach those trees — it’s our only advantage right now."
The wyvern let out a cold, ear-splitting screech as it dove toward us. Templar Light sat saddled upon its back, leaned forward and riding with devastating focus.
As they descended, the sky seemed to bend downward for a heartbeat.
I saw the creature plummeting. Grabbed Nisha and flew toward the water while Kassie launched into the sky with a twirling overhead kick. A screaming pillar of frozen wind crashed into the ground where we’d been standing, disturbing even the river’s surface and exploding stones outward, leaving a crater of flash-frozen devastation.
The force of it sent Kassie flying even with her intercepting kick, but she redirected mid-air and landed gracefully on her feet. We weren’t so lucky — thrashing in the water now, struggling to break back to the surface.
The wyvern climbed higher again, circling above us with predatory intensity. It beat its wings slowly, looking down at the water, and with the wickedness gleaming in those eyes? It was undoubtedly preparing another attack.
Kassie opened her arms and summoned her sword, watching the wyvern. Thanks to her helmet, it was utterly impossible to tell what she was thinking. What expression lay beneath that featureless mask.
But one thing was certain.
Even for her, the bination of Templar Light and his damned wyvern was going to be difficult.
Kassie stood at the water’s edge, sword drawn, tracking the creature’s circling path with slow, patient turns of her helmeted head.
Meanwhile, Nisha grabbed me and hauled me toward the surface. Turns out I should’ve taken swimming class more seriously back in my old life.
I gulped, almost gagging on river water, but managed to gasp for air as she pulled me up. My lungs burned and my eyes stung from the cold.
Unfortunately, it was a very bad moment to surface.
Because the bastard wyvern and pretty boy bo was already diving straight at us.
As they dove toward us with the same fervor and intensity, Kassie suddenly drew her sword back by the hilt, gaze locked on her targets, and flung it forward with so much casualness it could’ve made anyone doubt whether it would actually fly.
But the sword spun through the air like a boomerang, whistling toward the duo.
The Inquisitor belatedly caught wind of it and yanked the wyvern into a sharp dive, disrupting its prepared attack — but saving his head from being cleanly separated from his shoulders.
The wyvern staggered mid-flight, thrown off balance.
And Kassie... she was already airborne. Those thick, powerful legs coiled and then arced through the air to deliver a devastating axe kick that slammed into both the wyvern and its rider.
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