Stoneweaver - Chapter 41

45 0 0
                                    

Hitting the wall again, the cushion of air may've blocked the heaviest of the impact, but Danath still felt it juddering through his bones. He managed to take advantage of the impact to break free of Kulth's grasp, rolling along the wall to put some distance between them.

Twisting back into a defensive stance, he found Kulth where he'd left him, reaching for a small circle of decorative knives arrayed on the wall, all looking far less dangerous than the one at his belt. Smashing the array, he knocked them up into the air, then spun around. His air avatar caught them as they dropped, and hurled them, with more speed than accuracy, down the corridor.

Danath tried twisting away, speeding the flow of air around him, but while most went wide, a couple came at him, one spinning wildly off his avatar, the other actually hitting him. Decorative, it didn't have enough of an edge to cut, but he'd have a nasty bruise on his leg. If he survived.

Stepping back, he watched Kulth striding down the corridor with a serious dislike burning in his eyes. Normally Danath would welcome a fight, were it a duel, but at the moment he was limited to the one stone his opponent seemed more familiar with. Of course, Kulth didn't know he'd been warned the stones couldn't be animated, so could he use that.

A quick glance back found one of the extravagant burning braziers behind him, at about the level of his head. Slowing he reached into his pouch, quickly locating the pair of stones he wanted. With the dett at the front, he raised his arm to the wall, turning slightly to hide the tade he tossed into the flames. Whispering the word, he pretended to fail animating the stone, and backed away from the approaching form, all the while letting himself find the flame without disturbing it.

It burst forth as Kulth passed, catching him by surprise, and he barely dodged its initial lunge. This turned his back towards Danath though, who took advantage of the mistake to charge, even as he directed the avatar in from the other side.

Ducking aside from its next lunge, Kulth spotted Danath just before he hit, and managed to turn into the charge, rolling on his back and throwing Danath over him.

Trying to keep himself airborne, the spinning threw Danath off, and he again came into conflict with a wall, before letting himself drop to the floor. Scrambling up he turned to see Kulth stabbing his blade into the fire avatar, smashing the gem within it, its presence vanishing from his mind. Turning back to face Danath, Kulth touched the brazier with an armonite, and with a word it animated and charged at Danath.

Running away, Danath looked around for something to animate as he fumbled in his pouch. The table would have to do, and he nearly had the eyrineth out before the avatar slammed into him, throwing him into yet another wall. Or the same one, again. Before he could recover his feet, the thing dived for his pouch, pulling it off and crushing its contents in one move. Then a blade shot out of its body to shatter the zelxus he had animating the air.

It'd disarmed him. The shock of that realisation froze him a moment. To be in battle without any animations in his mind... His mind rattled back to life as the animation slammed him into the wall again, and he saw Kulth stride up with his blade ready.

He met Kulth's gaze with a feigned grogginess, as his hand felt gently along the side of the animation at around the level where he'd pressed the stone. He found it as Kulth reached out his hand to grab him by the shirt.

"Aunthor," he whispered, and the pressure holding him in place eased. It took Kulth a moment to realise what'd happened, and Danath didn't hesitate using it, barging Kulth into the opposite wall, his left hand pushing Kulth's blade wide while his right fiddled out of sight.

Pushing Kulth back, Danath ran the other way, towards the stairs at the end of the corridor, pulling open the purloined bag of gemstones as he did, quickly locating a zelxus. Pulling it out, he activated it.

Just in time to take the worst of the impact as Kulth charged him, flying them both down the corridor, and out through the window.

StoneweaverWhere stories live. Discover now