Call of the Waylanders

XLV. Scorch Lives Don't Matter

I leaped over a pile of useless silver armor. Thanks to Tallen and his stone soldier friend, Feiro, I had to do such a thing more than a normal person should. Every time Scorch Knights approached those two, the battle would be over in merely a few moments, and armor would lie in the wake of it. The other people that fought with us had the same thought towards those two--it was wonderful that they were eliminating so many Knights, but we just wanted less piles of useless metal to jump over. We had actually tried to explain this to them once, but they didn't understand.

A Scorch Knight, seeing that he really didn't want to go against Tallen and Feiro, ran for the little Outland Ranger, instead--the little Ranger being me. I brandished my matadorian lances, but he still charged me and swiped for my head. I ducked, knowing that I wanted to be hit by a Scorch Knight's blade as much as its wielder wanted to go against Tallen and Feiro. According to the witches over at the base camp, any wound from the blades(and arrows, as well, I had heard) would contain a fire that would burn and melt the core, completely killing us. As one would know too well, we can't have that.

I jabbed with my lance at the Scorch Knight's chest. Sparks glittered from the contact point, and  the Knight fell back at the strength of the strike. Using a technique I had learned about long ago and completely forgotten, I pulled the first lance back while stabbing with my other lance, creating a perfect trade of power to make my strike faster and stronger. Along with that, I pushed my left side forward with my hip and shoulders, as I was striking with my left lance now, increasing the speed of my strike. When it landed, I actually penetrated the Knight's armor. 

I repeated the technique, then slammed my lance into the Knight's helmet, disabling one eye. These Knights may have been made entirely of fire( and silver armor, of course), but getting rid of the eye-holes still somehow eliminated their vision. Funny how that worked. With one more jab, I ran the Knight's armor straight through and found his core, hovering there in the middle of all their blue fire. I hit the core as precisely as I could--if I didn't hit it dead-on, the core would simply spin around and I'd have to take off a lance to break it--and the point of the lance pierced straight through the core, shattering it completely. 

I looked around immediately after and saw that a Scorch Knight was facing the other way. I charged him quickly, seeing my opportunity.

*****

Tallen was a noble person, of course. So, as a noble person should, when Tallen saw that Lion was going for a kill on a Scorch Knight that was facing the other way, he didn't steal it. He wanted to defeat a Knight fair and square, even though he wasn't entirely sure that was going to happen soon. 

An arrow flew from the sky and landed right next to him. He wanted to inspect it and take a look at its head, see what made it give burning wounds, but another arrow landed next to him on the other side. Tallen stood up and warned his allies, "They're firing at us, but they seem to be horrible shots, as far as I know." Of course, he hadn't accounted for the thick sheets of burning death that were about to come down on them all. He looked up at the sky for more arrows and not only saw more than he had bargained for, but also saw that it had been a bad idea to look up. Luckily, in fact, extremely fortunately, he knew a combat magic spell for such a thing as this.

"Arma!" he shouted, clearing his mind of all distractions before doing so. A light blue film in the shape of an ellipse appeared in the sky above him, and arrows hit it directly, sticking there like the light blue film, also known as the Arma spell, was a solid object. All of them that were about to hit Tallen and the other Rangers that had cowered heroically next to him instead hit the shield, completely negating the effectiveness of the attack. The shield disappeared after a few moments, complete with the arrows that had been blocked with it. 

Of course, there were more arrows coming after that, as that was the kind of fashion-forward thing to do these days. Another Ranger shouted "Prohibere," which stopped all the arrows in midair.

And the arrows just hovered there, harmlessly in the sky. A Scorch Knight actually walked up to Tallen(the Knights had been viewing the spectacle of arrows) and asked, "Um...are those arrows just going to stay there?"

"I don't know," Tallen answered, "but I know you won't be!" He then shot the Knight in the face with an ice arrow, then caught the core as the whole of the armor fell. Using the tip of his bowedge, he crushed it. The other Scorch Knights backed away from him as everyone broke from the trance of floating arrows(which were still floating). They drew their blades, then brandished them against the champion of the Outland Rangers. Tallen chuckled lightly, then traced his Mark of Strength, glancing at Feiro. Feiro nodded, and the two leaped with fervor towards the now-retreating Scorch Knights, the other Rangers dashing swiftly after.

Soon, as one would assume, there were no more Scorch Knights in that very area. The rest of them retreated and Tallen, being a noble person, let them go.

"Well, we might as well make a withdrawal, seeing as we've run out of enemies," Tallen commanded nonchalantly. The Rangers began to calmly walk back to the camp, but Feiro stayed behind. The tireless stone soldiers only stopped fighting when they needed to regenerate their magic, so the battle never stopped on their side. 

"You know, I don't think we've seen many Wizard Slayers throughout this time. Were there so few of them that they died out quickly?" Tallen asked.