Fiddling with the focus Valgrin called out, “Six on the ground, two of the mantis-humanoids are riding on the back of a scorpion-cockroach or crab, pinchers at the front to pull you into some nasty looking mandib…” Valgrin’s head whipped around, his glasses dropped to his side when he heard Skwilly scream.

  “Altayna!” The priggy’s hooves clattered on the stone.

  He turned to see Skwilly jumping in the arms of the mountain of a woman, her black hair cascading over her face as she bent down to pick Skwilly up.

  “How?” Valgrin asked while quickly walking over to her, “Why? I didn’t mean that to sound bad, just this was the last thing I was expecting.”

  “Oh, really?” Altayna’s eyebrow raised as her silver-flecked eyes sparkled in the light. “You show up like a ghost in my room and then question me?” Her laugh took any edge off the question.

  “You could see me?”

  “Yep and you wouldn’t answer me.”

  “Didn’t hear you,” Valgrin stopped next to her. “I saw the look on your face as I disappeared, confused and concerned.”

  Altayna laughed, “You forgot scared. Scared at the event and that you didn’t look good. Been wondering about that whole scenario since it happened yesterday.” She reached out and patted his shoulder. “Good to see you weren’t as bad off as I assumed.”

  “I probably was at the time. Ylnah had to heal me and had to use stronger magic than normal to get me healed. You saw me during that whole process.”

  “Guys,” Malcolm called out as he peered through the glasses. “Not sure, but I think they just noticed us. They’ve picked up the pace. Two mantis guys, each on the cockroach-crab thing, two roly-polies, and two…um…Valgrin, you remember that Saturday cartoon, sort of prehistoric super group one was a triceratops looking thing that shot energy balls, I think, out of it’s single horn? Even if you don’t, we have two of those things in the group as well, bodies are beetle-like but head like that cartoon creature.”

  “I remember the cartoon, had a couple of blobish creatures and some others. Oh, by the way this is Altayna one of the Sevles I told you about.”

  Malcolm turned and nodded, “Nice to meet you, but we’re a few minutes away from a Bythie attack, so we’ll need the swapping of embarrassing stories about Valgrin until later.”

  Altayna turned to Valgrin, “Is this person insulting you?” She pulled her sword out and held it at the ready.

  “Yeah, but he’s allowed. He’s the other Creator that got pulled here against his will, Malcolm Steele.” Valgrin raised his voice to make sure Malcolm could hear. “He’s my best friend, but he’s also a jerk.” He then pulled his katar back out, “Sounds like it might get serious quickly. How’d you get here and in full battle gear?”

  “Oh, some Mavvon showed up unannounced and told me they had need of my sword. He had me get in my battle gear and once I was ready, well, here I am.” Altayna started walking toward Malcolm, “And looks like you will need my sword.”

  Sorvush grunted, still perched on top of the stone wall, “I should be able to get most of the flyers before they get here, but hand to hand isn’t something you want me doing. Even with extra hands I’m not good.” His chuckle had a slight maniacal edge.

  “I can help with the flyers, first,” Izzy volunteered. “If the ground troops get here then I’ll take the biggest threats.” She turned to Altayna, “I’m assuming you can fight, would you and Valgrin mind helping Malcolm be the front line. Ylnah, need you to be support. Skwilly, do your thing if you think it will help.”

  Altayna bristled, “Why would you ask such a thing? Of course I can fight. One doesn’t…” She looked down at Valgrin’s hand resting on her forearm.

  “Izzy is sort of our captain, she has the most experience with this type of thing. She was getting us all placed with roles, no offense was intended.”

  Nodding Altayna relaxed, “My nerves took over. Getting dropped here, seeing you then hearing about this enemy minutes away.” She raised her voice and addressed Izzy, “I can hold my own with the sword and apologize for my bad reaction to your question at first.”

  “No apology needed, I’d have found it offensive myself. I should have asked it better.” Izzy turned toward the Bythie, arrow nocked.

  From his perch, Sorvush squinted at the horizon. "Two flyers just retreated and the advance has halted. They're likely calling for reinforcements. We should prepare for a larger force."

  “Based on your information, I’d agree,” Malcolm grumbled, turning back to the group. “We’ll need to keep watch, Sorvush can you…”

  “I will do as you ask.”

  “…good. So any better position to take for when they do advance? Or do we want to go after them?”

  “We might move a little further away from the opening in the wall,” Ylnah pointed to where they’d taken out the roly-poly monster. “Just in case there is something still in the camp.”

  Izzy nodded, “Would be nice, but we’re deep enough in this little valley that we’d have to walk closer to those waiting on the hill. Is it worth the risk of triggering an attack while we’re moving positions and not set? Though moving to the corner where the rock wall and mountain meet, would cut down on the directions they can attack from…from the camp or from the hill.”

  The group shuffled their position. Valgrin looked across their front line. Malcolm's sai spinning between his fingers with practiced ease, catching glints of sunlight with each rotation. His own palm sweated against the grip of his katar. Between them, Altayna shifted her stance, the muscles in her forearms tensing as she adjusted her grip on her longsword, its polished blade throwing silver daggers of light across the valley floor. Izzy stood behind them, her arrow ready to fire at the first sign of need. Sorvush, still bouncing on the stone wall, waiting for the action to start. Ylnah and Skwilly stood together a step or two further back than Izzy, Valgrin saw Ylnah’s fingers twitch as she rubbed her hand down her pants leg to dry them off.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Well,” Malcolm started. “Looks like we do have time to tell embarrassing stories about Valgrin. Do you want to start?”

  “Why would I want to do that?” Altayna looked from Valgrin to Malcolm and back again. “He’s been a loyal companion, smart, wise, resourceful, and he’s displayed many other fine qualities. Then there is the fact he’s the Syl?Aith?Ria. Not sure it would be wise to embarrass him, even if I could.”

  Wow, didn’t know she noticed all that. Skwilly snorted, Valgrin turned and glared at the priggy, who snorted louder. On the off chance this translates to what you can feel from me, shut up!

  “He is all those things. My stories are funny more than embarrassing. Though just paying attention to him and saying nice things seems to be causing just as much blushing. Dark blue a little harder to see than flaming red, but it’s still blushing in my book.”

  Valgrin groaned, “I can’t help it. I’d stop the blushing if I could. Jeesh, just watch the Bythie and leave me alone.” He mock-whined. Skwilly snorted again.

  “What’s this Syl?Aith?Ria you mentioned, something new for me to tease him with?” Malcolm asked grinning as he looked over at Valgrin.

  “It’s the Sevles name for the White Death.” Valgrin jumped in, trying to avoid anything causing him to blush deeper. “Seems most of the Sevles accepted me as Syl?Aith?Ria, there might be a few still unconvinced.”

  “Once Temru, Caelith, and I declared you Syl?Aith?Ria there has been no one to raise a doubt, at least to where one of us could hear it. You proved yourself during the tok-la, your actions backed up your words, which is something all Sevles honor. You are someone to be admired.”

  Admired? He jerked his head around and glared at Skwilly, who answered the glare with another snort.

  “Flyers incoming!” Sorvush shouted.

  Golden-yellow energy erupted from the Heksan's fingertips. Valgrin snapped his glasses into place just in time to witness the spectacle. Two flyers disintegrated into ash clouds, while a third plummeted in a death spiral. Before he could even process this, a second bolt shot skyward, expanding into a lethal disc that sliced through three more of the buzzing creatures. Six down. Valgrin's quick mental calculation left him grimacing, but at least twenty more still airborne.

  “Still out of range for my arrows,” Izzy’s jaw twitched as she growled.

  Altayna's eyes narrowed as she tracked the distant flyers. "I might…" She shifted her sword to her left hand with practiced ease, her right palm extending upward. The silver star pattern etched into her sword's hilt pulsed with blue light. Valgrin caught his breath as energy coalesced above her palm, materializing into a throwing star that hummed with power. Her wrist snapped forward. The projectile whistled through the air, expanding to triple its size as it accelerated. A wet thwack echoed across the valley as it tore through the lead flyer's thorax. Ichor rained down as the creature's wings seized mid-flap. The star vanished in a blue flash Altayna flexed her empty fingers, then tapped the, now, dormant silver pattern on her hilt. She caught Valgrin's wide-eyed stare and winked. “I have one on each side of the hilt, most I’ve thrown without a recharge is seven, five is the usual amount,” she murmured, eyes already tracking the next target.

  “Impressive,” Valgrin managed to answer.

  Another volley of Sorvush’s two bolts and Altayna’s throwing star reduced the number of flyers by an additional eight.

  “Getting close to half gone,” Malcolm announced to the group as he watched through his glasses. “But they do look like the last half is going to swarm us, so everyone be ready.”

  “I’ve still got about two minutes before I can shoot off an energy bolt, do we have enough time?” Sorvush asked as he stared out across the field.

  Malcolm shrugged as he answered, “Hope so, if not some of us that have shorter range weapons can start helping out.”

  “I think more flyers may have joined them,” Ylnah called out. “I was watching the ground troops and saw a small cloud of new flyers heading to the ones forming the swarm Malcolm warned us about.”

  Altayna's palm blazed with blue fire as another throwing star materialized, crackling with raw energy. She hurled it with a shout. The star screamed through the air, once again tripling in size. Izzy gasped as they watched it explode into five razor-edged fragments. A flyer's wing sheared clean off, its death-shriek piercing the battlefield as it spiraled violently earthward. Three others reeled backward, ichor pouring from their carapaces where the fragments had carved deep furrows. Before the echoes of their screeches faded, Altayna's hand was already aflame again, her teeth bared in a feral grin as she hurled another star. It ripped through the swarm's heart like a comet, superheating the air with an audible crack. Three flyers didn't just die—they detonated, their bodies exploding outward in a thousand sharp fragments that shredded nearby creatures. Ichor and viscera rained down in steaming clumps as the survivors shrieked and careened wildly, slamming into each other with bone-crushing force in their blind terror.

  Malcolm turned to look at Altayna, “I do believe you just bought us a couple of minutes, or more.”

  “I agree,” awe coloring Ylnah’s voice. “There is no forming swarm at the moment, just chaos and confusion. The mantises are waving their arms wildly. Maybe they’re trying to get the flyers to get back to swarming?”

  “The last two take more magic energy, especially the heated one. I’m out of charges, it’ll be at least a half an hour before I get one back, and it will only be able to replicate the first throw.”

  “Sounds like it’s up to you Sorvush, at least until they get in Izzy’s range.” Malcolm moved his gaze to Valgrin, “I’m assuming your stuff doesn’t have quite the range of hers, I know my lightning will only go about fifteen, maybe twenty, yards.”

  Valgrin nodded, “My Ice Spears can go a little further than that, by another ten yards. The Ice Daggers and Snow Arrows can hit up to fifteen yards. Could get the arrows a bit further by arching them, not sure what that will do to the impact though.”

  “Hey guys,” worry crept into Ylnah’s voice. “Looks like they are forming three smaller swarms, with some distance between each one of them. Something like the boom-star Altayna just threw isn’t going to be as impactful.”

  Skwilly nudged Valgrin’s leg as he stepped forward. “Need to be as close as possible, not sure I can blind or hypnotize them, but my concentrated light shot can take out wings. Been working on short bursts, not as damaging but also don’t take as much magic for each burst. Should be able to take out several. The bursts have a top range of fifteen yards, ten most likely to get as many as I think I’ll need.”

  “Don’t forget we’ll be facing the ground troops soon as well,” Valgrin pointed to the top of the hill. “We need to try to keep some magic for them, but won’t matter if the flyers take us out. Hate this.”

  Malcolm growled, “You and me both.” He raised his voice to a shout, “Bring it on ya flippin’ bugs, I’ll take out every single one of ya.” His voice lowered, almost to a whisper, “I hope.”