“Tilis, ice cage!” Ramukhan shouted.
He plunged his staff into the sand and began to chant something. Tilis moved her own staff through the air. The stone at the top of the magical weapon shone with energy. She used the same spell she’d employed when creating talismans. A streak of energy followed her every movement. Gradually, these streaks merged into certain hieroglyphs, which, in turn, formed a long series of inscriptions in the air. Suddenly, Tilis cried out loudly, and Hadjar felt a wave of energy emanating from her. It felt wrong and alien to him.
The hieroglyphs flashed, a white cloud appeared over the spirit’s head, and a huge cage made of white, dense ice materialized out of the cloud, falling on the creature. Once locked up, however, the creature was safe from Karissa’s spell. The fiery shadows recoiled from the ice cage and began to circle around it.
“Agnis’ Storm!” Ramukhan shouted in the desert language.
A yellow lightning bolt surged out from the top of his staff and struck the sky. It arced as it did so, branching out and becoming multiple smaller bolts, then fell upon the spirit. Hadjar felt like he could hear the creature scream as the yellow lightning bolts pierced it. They fused the sand, leaving behind glass scars on the spirit’s body.
“Dispel your cage, Tilis!” Karissa cried out. “I can’t use my Flame Shadows!”
“We can handle this thing without-”
However, Tilis was wrong. She and Ramukhan couldn’t deal with the spirit. The giant, throwing its head back, cried out, and the noise seemed to linger. The sand began to swell like the waves of the sea, and then a huge, wide pillar struck the sky. It became a tornado, crushing the ice cage. Tilis screamed and fell to her knees. Blood trickled down her lips. Ramukhan managed to stop his spell-Technique, and the sand tornado didn’t hurt him.
“It disappeared!” Einen cried out, holding his hand over his shadow.
Hadjar peered into the sand tornado, still whirling where the creature had once stood.
“Damn it all...”
Blurring into the shadow of the Seven Ravens once again, Hadjar managed to use his sword to block multiple sand sabers at the last second. The force of the impact was so immense that waves of sand surged out in all directions. Tilis sat behind Hadjar, cowering. She’d managed to feel the spirit’s approach as it formed right in the air, but there hadn’t been enough time for her to erect any defenses.
“Why-”
“Shut up!” Hadjar roared.
Not because he was angry at her, but simply because contending with the creature required his maximum concentration. The spirit loomed over him, bringing its sabers down with all its might. Hadjar peered into the space beneath the hood. There was no face there, but he did see something flickering inside. Hadjar guessed that this flicker was the spirit’s weak spot.
With a loud, inhuman growl, Hadjar maneuvered his body around and rammed the creature in the chest with his shoulder. He put his energy and his knowledge of the Sword Spirit into it. The attack looked as if a long, sharp blade had been fired out from Hadjar’s shoulder. It broke through the screaming spirit’s defenses and threw it a couple of yards back.
Grabbing Tilis by the hand, Hadjar dashed away. A moment later, a huge sand tornado appeared again, right where the witch had been sitting. Even a Heaven Soldier would’ve been killed by it. Stopping next to Einen, Hadjar lowered Tilis to the sand. Karissa and Ramukhan quickly got to them. Now all five of them stood nearby, shielding Glen, who was writhing in the sand.
“Great Turtle!” Hadjar shouted. “We’re only getting in each other’s way!”
“We must work together,” Einen nodded, “or we’ll die.”
Suddenly, the spirit’s arm began to grow. Despite standing thirty yards away, it was nevertheless able to bring down a hail of blows on them. It was so unexpected that almost no one managed to react to it. Apart from Einen. He twirled his staff-spear over his head.
“Stone Ape!” He cried out.
Shadows shot out from beneath the islanders’ feet. They touched his staff and scattered in a black mist, which immediately formed two ape paws that blocked the sabers.
“I can’t... hold it... for long,” Einen said through gritted teeth.
“Listen to me!” Hadjar growled. He used his General’s tone, so even Ramukhan obeyed. “Fire and lightning bolts can harm this creature, but my sword can’t. That’s why-”
As Hadjar was about to voice his plan, the spirit suddenly stopped its attacks. It froze, and then touched the neighboring dune.
“High Heavens,” Hadjar breathed.
There were two sand creatures in front of them now.
Chapter 384
Before both spirits managed to attack, Hadjar swung his blade. He imagined the black sword within his soul merging with the real one. Wisps of black fog began to emanate from Mountain Wind. Using a quarter of his energy, Hadjar imagined two autumn leaves landing on the chest of one of the sandy creatures wrapped in blue silk.
“Falling Leaf!”
Hadjar’s attacks were so fast that his hand and sword seemed to blur. Two ghostly, blue-black dragons surged out of his blade. A blade shone inside each of them — a copy of Mountain Wind.
“Tilis!” Hadjar shouted.
The witch was already moving before he’d even spoken. After their previous failure, everyone had let go of their pride. In the face of death, they only cared about survival, even if it meant not being the center of the universe.
Tilis swung her staff through the air, depicting a small, bright pattern. She shouted something in an unknown language and a blizzard flew out of the hieroglyph. Not like the one Olgerd had used, but more... cruel and cold. It enveloped the two dragon-swords, covering them in ice armor.
Before the blizzard solidified into the ice armor, Karissa and Ramukhan joined Tilis. The witch called forth her fire shadows once again. Only this time, there were six of them, and, instead of robes, they wore light leather armor. The shadows now looked like blurry human silhouettes.
Ramukhan, pointing his staff toward the sky, fell into a trance. His eyes rolled back and sparks shot out from the whites of his eyes. He summoned the ‘Agnis’ Storm’ once more. A normal cloud was turned into a thundercloud, and the lightning bolts that it let loose entwined into a huge spear.
“Ape’s Dance!”
Hadjar had never seen Einen use this Technique before. His ranged attack was normally the ‘Boulder Storm’, so what happened next was very surprising for Hadjar. A shadow slipped out from underneath the islander’s feet. It grew and then condensed, looking like the outline of an ape. In its paws, it held a copy of the islander’s staff.
Einen’s Technique moved with frightening speed. It managed to catch up to Ramukhan’s Technique. The shadow stopped right under the lightning bolt and... Caught it, attaching it to the staff and creating the tip of a spear. Einen turned pale, and Ramukhan’s nose began to bleed.
“Work together!” Hadjar snapped.
He twisted his wrist, and the dragons, opening their maws, charged in. They glared at one of the spirits. The ice armor slid into their fangs, and they fired ghostly blades from their gullets. The spirit screamed, making the sound of sand escaping a broken hourglass. At that moment, Einen’s ape came up. It jumped onto the dragons and drove the spear of lightning into the creature’s head.