A/N: I suck at writing battle scenes, but hopefully you all enjoy this chapter regardless. Also, small author's note at the end as well.
Namjoon stays steady as Taehyung and I climb on his back. Thank goodness his alter is fucking huge, otherwise Taehyung would be basically sitting in my lap to accomplish this. Oh, and then I wouldn't be able to jump off first if that were the case. Tae shifts in front of me to look directly at Ever. "Remember, don't look in our direction until one of us gives the all clear. Namjoon will come back for Seokjin then, and soon afterward come back for you and Jimin."
Hades! That is a lot of fucking fiends! I think as Namjoon circles around the area to determine the best spot for my attack. As we hoped, the fiends are drawn by his flight and start to group up in mass. The Ardneir aren't fond of flying creatures, so they are keeping to the back, but still keeping a curious watch. They might be made of fog and smoke, but they still have a semi-static humanoid form. It's that form that clues me in to the direction they are looking in.
I point to a spot in the middle. "What do you think about attacking from there, Namjoon?"
"Looks good to me. Taehyung? Do you think that will be a good location?" Namjoon consults with him.
"I think it should work out alright. The biggest concern is timing."
Yeah, timing was most definitely going to be a bitch in this fight. Namjoon was going to have to come in blind, literally. "Okay, as soon as I blink to the ground, shut your eyes and start flying lower."
As soon as my feet touch the ground I cast one of my blinding orbs into the sky above me. I hear Namjoon land for a brief moment behind me, and Taehyung's feet landing on the ground. As we hoped once the light starts dissipating all of the fiends are looking in our direction. It's a good thing Taehyung's ability is omnidirectional, if it were a power he held specifically in his eyes only those in front of him would be attacked. "Eyes shut now."
I close my eyes as I hear what almost sounds like a laser beam emission from a Sci Fi movie. "It's safe to open your eyes. Namjoon, we need you and Seokjin! Now!!"
Taehyung's Petrifying Gaze has frozen every one of the fiends in place. They are stonelike, but, due to experience, I know their bodies are still pliable so a piercing weapon can still be used to take them out. I pull my swords forward from the dimensional space they are tucked away in and use my blink ability to take out a few of the Maeks on my way to my next target as Taehyung follows me and assists me with his own swords and water magic.
Jungkook speeds in on the hooves as his horse. I glance back and happen to see him become parallel with Taehyung. I watch Taehyung's fingers tangle into his mane which he uses to maneuver himself onto Jungkook's back. "Yeowch!" Jungkook can't help but cry out as he tugs hard on his mane. The two come in closer and when they pull up parallel to me for a brief moment I consider whether or not I can blink onto Jungkook's back. Due to his rapid movements I am not sure I can accomplish it. "I don't think I can get there with my magic." I have to admit. Taehyung doesn't hesitate to reach out his hand to pull me up behind him.
I hear the fierce roar of Yoongi's cat as he comes up somewhere behind us. His targets will be the remaining three Maeks. He might be able to distract other targets as well, but he won't be able to take anything else out on his own.
As we close in on our target, the Kaiaelan, I hear Seokjin touch down at the center of the mayhem. A multidirectional wind rushes through the area as the vines from his staff extend out past us to grapple with each of the five Volsaerin in the area. "Okay, they will definitely remain immobile should the duration of Taehyung's Petrifying Gaze expire before we can take them out."
A bright light flares out in the sky to my right, but my eyes remain on our trio's goal. "Whoa!" Namjoon exclaims in obvious surprise. "Well, that was new." He mentally clears his throat. "Try to see if you can work those vines of yours in between the joints of the Volsaerins' segmented bodies."
"We'll have to review what just happened later." Seokjin addresses whatever the glow was. "As for the vines. I'm doing my best."
I sense Namjoon swooping overhead to the opposite side of us. He must be going after the other Ardneir since I saw it somewhere in that direction. Another bright flare of light shines up the sky to my opposite side, and I can only assume that Namjoon just took out the other Ardneir, like I had suspected.
The frozen fiends' seem to quiver around us. "We need a plan B regarding the Kaiaelan." Taehyung knows his spell well enough that he is aware we won't make it to the three headed serpent in time to sever its heads.
"Fuck. I'll have to bring Ever and Jimin over there instead of the top of the house, like we planned. They are our best ranged, and while Jimin is more practiced I don't think even he can hit the Kaiaelan from that far away." Namjoon grumbles.
He doesn't have to explain how he feels about Ever joining the fray. None of us wanted her to have to fight yet. Not because we thought she was incapable, but because we thought she could use more training before having to be subjected to something like this. Truthfully, her boomerang was probably our best option in this particular situation.
If it weren't for Jimin by my side I probably would have gone nuts while we just stood here together waiting. I understood Taehyung's Petrifying Gaze ability well enough that I knew if we had looked in his direction we would have been frozen for ten to fifteen minutes, but what I didn't understand is why he had us avert our eyes. We can't really see much of anything from our current location within the trees.
What we can see is Namjoon in his Gryphon form from high above. I glance up to take in the patterns he makes across the sky. His shadow pauses in front of the moon just before he opens up his beak and instead of a ball of light magic expels from him, as I expected, a wide beam of light shoots from it instead.
"Whoa! Well, that was new." I glance in Jimin's direction. My face has to be shining with surprised confusion.
Jimin shrugs his shoulders, while his expression seems to mirror my own, letting me know that he was just as surprised as I was. We know that Namjoon was going to bring us over after he took out the Ardneirs, and the trio, Hoseok, Jungkook, and Taehyung, took out the poisonous three headed snake. We know immediately when that plan changes though due to Namjoon's outburst. "Fuck. I'll have to bring Ever and Jimin over there instead of the top of the house. They are our best ranged, and while Jimin is more practiced I don't think he can hit the Kaiaelan from that far."
They didn't want me to fight, and to an extent I understood their reasoning. I'm inexperienced with fighting fiends, but I've been gaining familiarity with my weapons through the sessions I have been having with Taehyung and Jungkook. Heck, Taehyung and I even did some theory practice while we locked ourselves away in my room the past five days. Although I didn't have much practice with my boomerang, and zilch with my whip, I had been doing some online research regarding how to use both of them. The boomerang I was sure I had mastered even though I barely had clocked much time physically lifting the weapon. Regarding my whip though? Yeah, there was no way I was ready to use it yet.
Besides my inexperience, the fact that I was meant to just sit on the sidelines and watch was kind of bothering me to be honest. They might not have been wanting me to fight, but I also didn't want to sit aside and watch as my mates fought on their own. Now I was growing excited at the prospect of getting to help in the fight after all, but I was also nervous as hell that my first experience would be with an oversized three headed snake.
Namjoon is by our side a moment later. Jimin sits down first, but leaves the space in front of him for me to sit. He doesn't have to tell me it's because he would feel more comfortable being able to have his eyes on me while we fly, even if it is a short distance. He wraps his arms around me from behind. "Jimin, quickly scout a good place to stop where you can both reach the Kaiaelan with your ranged weapons. Hopefully, I'll be able to swoop in and pick you up after you take him out."
Everything happens so quickly. I can see why the trio would never make it to the snake creature in time though. The damn thing is probably the furthest away of all the fiends. Taehyung turns his head. "Hoseok, help me with the Dru'rek over there instead." He points a short distance away.
"What about Jungkook?" Hoseok asks Taehyung.
"I'll start taking on the Volsaerin here, as soon as Seokjin gets the vines to do what he was asked." I'm surprised at the look Jungkook tosses our way as Namjoon navigates us to the spot that Jimin indicated by tapping on his hindquarters.
Once we are in position we both call on our weapons from their hidden pocket in space. "Take a breath and focus before your throw, Ever. Try to target the right side of the right head's neck. Let your throw be true, and hopefully you can level off all three heads at once."
I nod. That was my plan after all. He notches an arrow, and when I wind back my throw and release I'm surprised to see that he is aiming at the gap behind one of the Volsaerin's heads. My eyes drift back to my boomerang spinning through the sky. Just as it nicks the neck of the first one, the fiends around us become active and start moving again. I'm so apprehensive about the other fiends around me that my attention is almost completely absorbed by the problems their awakeness presents. My eyes almost veer away from watching my boomerang sever the heads from the three headed snake fiend. Kaiaelan. I take a moment to remind myself of its proper name, and take a deep breath when my boomerang cuts through the air and heads back to me. The trajectory was so swift that not a single drop of ichor tainted it.
I gulp as I watch the second Dru'rek begin to dig its front claws into the ground. "Um. We can't do much when one of the beetle guys digs underground right?"
"Shit!" I hear the curse come from many of my mates' voices at once.
Jungkook changes back into his horse alter and gallops rapidly over to my location. "Namjoon will come and get Jimin. Ever, get on my back, I have a plan."
I don't realize he is only speaking to me directly through our telepathic link until after I am on his back he starts charging toward the rock rodents that are in our path on the way to the oversized beetle. "Stab them with your swords in that space behind their necks as you pass. If it doesn't kill them immediately, it will at least be a cut deadly enough to cause them to bleed profusely."
"As long as none of their black ichor gets on me, right?" I offer just before I reach over and stab the one closest to us like he suggested.
I repeat this through two of the oversized rodents. I glance over the carnage of the field. All of the cow sized caterpillars, mist monsters, and of course the three headed snake beast are laying on the ground while ichor oozes from their bodies. It's only the one Dru'rek left, and he is digging through the ground as we speak. "I don't think we are going to make it to him in time."
"You didn't see the other taken out did you? We have to somehow get him on his back to deal a death blow to begin with." Jungkook shares with me.
"How the hell are we supposed to do that?" I find myself completely baffled.
"They are intelligent lifeforms, DG. I thought perhaps if I got close enough you could touch it and–"
I was distracted by whatever DG meant. I didn't notice our target was no longer above ground. Jungkook's explanation is interrupted by the beetle's reappearance underneath us. We both are thrown in the air along with clumps, particles of dirt, and rocks the fiend displaced. Jungkook switches to his crow and manages to get himself out of the blast, but I'm not so lucky. The flying debris of rocks and silt pelt my body as I am suspended in the air for a moment before I start to fall back to earth. It feels like I fall forever before I collide hard with the ground. I groan out loud because there isn't a single body part that isn't in excruciating pain from the impact. I have just enough presence of mind to realize that The Dru'rek is within my reach, and before he can start digging his way underground once more I lay my hand on his shell-like exoskeleton. I picture in my mind what I want it to do, and I feel some resistance before it flips onto its back like I mentally asked. I feel many of my mates rush to my side. The growl of a fierce feline fills the area around me, and I just catch sight of Yoongi's shadowy alter leaping onto the beetle. His fierce growls tell me he is ripping the fiend to shreds. That's the last thing I sense before the world grows pitch black around me.
A/N: I've been in a slump lately. I think it's a mixture of stress, although I don't feel stressed exactly, and self doubt. My normal schedule is to wake up at 5am, go through my morning routine, and then sit down and write when my brain is still a little foggy from sleep. (It sounds weird, but it works.)
The problem is that I don't remember the last time I woke up at 5am, and that factor although seems to be sending my mind all askew.
As I've stated. I want to be at least 5 chapters ahead before I post a new chapter in either of my current stories. I've been working on chapter 42 this week of this chapter, and I only have 538 words thus far. I'm struggling with it a lot for some reason. So, my plan regarding next chapter is to have both 42 and 43 written before ever posting it here. It will still always be a Friday, but I can't guarantee it will be the 30th like it should be. Hopefully, I can get out of this rut I seem to be in and it will still be on schedule.