“Oh shit!” I yelled. How do we kill it, Jor?
The smile on the thing in front of me grew as its arm made a grab for me. I bumped into Hiro, who was also trying to back up, and to my horror, the other insectoids around us had their arms through the shield, too. Six of the things, so a lot of fucking arms.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” We weren’t close enough to pull our magic together for the Power of Three, but I could at least use the Three magic alone and try to fry the bastards. “Hiro baby, don’t touch me or you’ll get electrocuted.”
He grunted and scooted half a step away as he pulled a blade out and started chopping at the arms and legs coming through the shield. A screech filled the air and raised the hair on my arms—Hiro had chopped off a leg—as I closed my eyes and let my Three energy rush through me. I felt the electricity tickle my skin, and my hair rose from my neck, the magic filling me up.
Opening my eyes, I sent the gross creature a smile of my own and released the magic. A huge lightning bolt shot out of my hand, passing through my own magic shield easily, straight at the insectoid, but the creature was smarter than it looked. It jumped and rolled to the side—who knew it’d be athletic?—then got up and dove at me. Its arms pierced my shield first, opening a small hole that it ripped open.
As it flew through the air, Blaze jumped from my shoulder, shifting mid-air into a huge dragon, and grabbed the gross thing in his jaw, biting down with a loud crunch and a pained screech from it. Blaze shook his huge head, chomped a few more times, and dropped it on the ground, dead. His jump had taken him out of my shield—he was connected to my magic and able to move in and out freely—so I began throwing the shield over him again, but four of the insectoids jumped on Blaze. My dragon screamed out in pain as he was sliced and stabbed with their many arms.
Fly, Blaze! Fly away!
He tried, but they kept cutting up his wings. I stepped forward and shot lightning at them as best I could, but I didn’t want to hit him. When I realized my magic distracted them, I kept it up to draw them away from my Bonded, and Hiro helped by shooting arrows at them. The arrows bounced off their hard exteriors, but it made them come at us. As the four insectoids rushed at me, I prepared my magic for attack.
The closest one to me got a lightning bolt to the chest, and its awful screeching filled the air, so I hit it with another bolt, and it feel to the ground, shaking. As it stilled, I shot another one, but it threw its own shield up to block my attack.
“Dammit!” I hit its shield a few times before trying for another one, but it also had a shield up. Bastards were using stolen magic.
“Basil!” Hiro yelled.
I turned in time to see another insectoid piercing my shield and diving at me. It took me by surprise and hit me right in the gut, knocking me flat on my back. I threw my arms in front of my face, but that left my stomach open, and it stabbed me, its arm slicing through my armor like it was made of paper. Sharp, burning pain shot through my stomach, causing me to cough and groan as it stabbed me again.
It lifted its arm to keep stabbing, but Hiro went flying through the air, tackling the thing off of me. He landed in a tumble of limbs—human and insect—but grappled until he was on top of the thing. Hiro lifted his chakram—that round circular blade—and sliced it across the insectoid’s neck.
He kept chopping, but more of them were coming for me, seeming to give up any hope of saving their friend, or maybe not caring enough to save it, and no longer caring about Blaze now that he was down for the count. Jorah, Thayer, Toby, and their Bonded were all fighting the other insectoids, but I couldn’t focus on them with so many around Hiro and me. I was bleeding everywhere, but I concentrated on my magic anyway.
As I called on the storm above us, I felt the power of a familiar magic hit my own, and I gasped. It was Armina’s magic. The insectoid charging me had killed Armina and swallowed her soul and stolen magic.
I threw up another shield, then forced myself to ignore the stomach wound, sitting up and throwing a shadow fireball at the thing. It brought up its own shield to block my magic. I threw a lightning bolt at it, but the thing had enough stored stolen magic to block me.
Hiro stood and faced the others, the dead insectoid lying at his feet, and my viramore pulled out his special blade, the one that brought down shields, and charged. My heart was in my throat as I watched him cut down the shield of the one charging me and attacked. The thing was so shocked, Hiro managed to get a good slice across its chest before it retaliated, throwing a fireball at my viramore.
A scream wanted to make its way out, but I didn’t have to worry because Hiro had enough runes and spells on his body that the fire didn’t even singe him. As he continued battling the thing, I called on my lightning again and focused on the other insectoids. They didn’t have shields up because they were trying to attack Hiro from behind.
I started firing blasts of shadow magic at them to at least slow them down while I charged up my Three power. I needed to build up as much as I could so I could take them out at the same time, otherwise, Hiro would be hurt or—nope. Not thinking about it.
Thayer suddenly yelled in my head, I’m close enough to you, Bas! Let’s give them hell. Push!
So I did. I pushed with everything I had, calling on the storm that lived within me as I used whatever strength was left to lift my arm.
The wind picked up, hail began to fall, and when the three of us, when the Power of Three, brought down our arms together, lightning struck the insectoids behind Hiro, and the others surrounding my brothers. Loud screeching screams filled the air, so we brought another strike down.
The insectoid fighting Hiro was too close to my viramore to chance it, but I didn’t need to worry. He was a fucking badass and was slicing the shit out of that thing.
My brothers and I brought down two more strikes before they were all fried to crisps.
Hiro finished off the last one, then stood, covered in splattered blood. He stared down at the insectoid he just decapitated and kicked its head so it rolled away from its body. Then he turned to me, gross and covered in grime and cuts and bruises, yet beautifully dangerous, and his eyes widened before he ran at me, dropping to his knees beside me.
He had a vial of healing tonic up to my lips before I could even blink, and he whispered, “Don’t you fuckin’ die, witch. Don’t you fuckin’ die.”
“I’m not gonna die,” I murmured.
“Bas, you’re… there’s so much blood, baby,” he whispered, and I realized he was truly scared I was going to bleed out.
“Blaze?”
“He’s moving a little,” Hiro said. “I’ll get him after I know you’re okay.”
Jorah and Thayer rushed over, and Jor kneeled beside me, placed his hand over the wound, and started pushing his earth magic into me. It felt warm and tingly, but also kind of hurt because the wound was so deep.
Jor said, “Toby’s giving healing tonics to all the Bonded. Blaze will be okay. As soon as he’s able to transform into his small size, we’ll bring him over.”
Thank you, I said in my head so I didn’t have to use my mouth.
Hiro moved to put my head on his lap, and he rubbed my cheeks and hair to distract me. Jorah forced Hiro to drink a healing tonic, to my relief, so Hiro’s wounds were closing up, thank the Mother. While Jor helped us, Toby called Alec, so I figured a BCA team would be showing up soon.