Wielder

Chapter 7 - Evil Rising

The next attack wasn't as bad as the first. It was worse.

The Evil sprang up at them out of nowhere. One moment, the three of them had been shuffling down a barely-visible path, following a floating sphere of light imagined by Darrel, lightheartedly discussing festival foods that Safeton had to offer. The next, they had found themselves surrounded, as a swarm three times as large as the first roared all around them. The beasts' glowing eyes lifted from the dark like a set of show lights flickering on across a stage.

Michael instinctively threw himself in front of Alie, yanking the pistol from where he had stashed it in his pocket and firing almost immediately. Where perhaps ten melted into oblivion, twenty more took their place.

They bubbled up from the ground like a flow of water from a spring. As soon as the surprise of their sudden appearance wore off, Alie blasted them with a wave of flame. Her hands spread out in front of her in concentration. She pointed out at the hoard, and the flames licked out like fingers, incinerating anything they touched.

But the Evil kept coming. Their numbers grew and grew and grew.

Darrel's twin swords glowed with a touch of magic that sped up his motions, allowing him to destroy many Evil at once. Even that wasn't enough to keep back the black blobs' forces.

Michael ignored the stress-induced sweat streaking down his brow as he fired again and again into the black. "There's too many!" he called, forced to back up closer to Alie's flames.

Darrel swore under his breath. "I can see that! What do you want me to do about it?"

As he feared, the thief could talk just fine, but his actions fell short. "Alie, sweep your fire up tall," Michael instructed. "Close us in with a wall of it."

She waved her hands to either side of her. Fire responded to her summoning, sweeping across the barren land in an arc all around them. The white hot flames erupted tall into the air, like a burner on a stove. Michael cringed against its heat, turning his face into his shoulder to protect his eyes from the light.

A hundred shrieks rose into the night as the Evil instantly perished under the flames. But it wasn't enough to deter them. The swarm intensified, flooding them with insurmountable force.

"They're climbing over the fire!" Darrel observed, his sword pointed toward the tip of the flames above their heads.

Alie winced. Her fire flickered, revealing the swarm. Where before there had been nothing but a sea of bouncing blobs, there now sat a wall of mush, all that remained of the fallen. The living Evil pushed the charred remains of their comrades into the fire, building a wall of the dead. It both protected them from Alie's intense flames, and allowed them to climb over its reach.

A chill spiked down Michael's spine. The Evil were learning.

He whirled to Alie. "Forget the fire, make a shield!"

Alie threw her hands above her head. As it had in Safeton, a translucent, gold-colored bubble formed around them. It shimmered under the light of the fire, holding fast against the shower of Evil that rained down upon them. The beasts threw themselves against the bubble with pure rage and fury. Their hundreds of red eyes glowed more brightly through the shield, reflected like a demonic kaleidoscope at every angle.

Her flames died away as she focused on protecting them. But with every scratch and bite and kick and bounce the Evil thrust upon the barrier, Alie winced.

Heart racing, Michael turned to Darrel. "She won't be able to hold that for long. Can you strengthen it with your own magic?"

"Not long enough to matter." The thief sheathed his swords at his sides and planted both hands against the bubble. It thickened a bit, giving Alie a bit of relief.