“PASKA! Get over here and make yourself useful!”
Grisela’s furious shriek brought a smirk to Lex’s face, shooting a glance past her to see that the bald human – or whatever he really was, since that disgusting one-eyed hound he’d turned into when he’d cursed Thermal Draft suggested that his current form was a disguise – was already hurrying back toward them, hammer held at the ready. Good, noted Lex calmly. That will make it easier to finish both of them off before Sissel gets here.
Then there was no more time for analysis as Grisela moved toward him, twirling her black ice staff as she snarled.
Still midway through the process of rising to his hooves from where he’d been laying a moment ago, Lex wasn’t able to fall back in the face of the hag’s furious offense. Instead, he availed himself of the combative magic woven into his cloak and amulet, bringing a hoof up to catch the end of Grisela’s staff mere inches before it would have impacted the side of his face. Even then, the blow was powerful enough that he could already feel his foreleg throb.
But Grisela wasn’t finished. Instead of trying to break past his defense, she reversed her momentum, switching her weight from one leg to the other as she pivoted her hips, swinging the other end of her staff around from the opposite direction.
This time Lex wasn’t fast enough, and he couldn’t hold back a pained grunt as she caught him in the ribs.
But while the impact ached, his defensive enchantments soaked up the worst of the damage, and the staff’s icy chill was unable to get past the protection against cold he’d had Solvei use on him before. The result was that, although he could already feel a bruise forming, Lex was able to ignore the pain as he stepped in closer, lashing out with a hoof aimed right at Grisela’s face.
Sneering, she simply tilted her head to the side, his strike hitting nothing but air. “Call that a punch?” she scoffed.
“Actually, no,” taunted Lex even as he concentrated, pouring his body’s natural magic into the wire wrapped around his foreleg...the same foreleg that was now extended past Grisela’s head, pointed directly at where Solvei and Akna were trapped in the tangles of burning grass.
Healing and protection from fire! invoked Lex silently, directing the power of the Night Mare’s divine authority toward both of them. There was nothing he could do about the melting elementals, however; he’d tried using this power on the one that Akna had summoned to stand guard over their meeting last night, and hadn’t been surprised to find that it was completely unable to affect it. Of course, he had no duty of care to the elementals anyway; Akna had explained that there were simply nature spirits housed in temporary bodies, returning to their natural state when those fell apart.
An instant later the Night Mare’s power washed over Solvei and Akna, and the agonized screams from the two of them turned into choked whimpering. But Lex didn’t have time to feel relieved that they were no longer in immediate danger, since he could already tell that – despite the relief that he was now registering from Solvei – the winter wolf was still in pain, albeit nowhere near as much as before. Likewise, Akna was still writhing in her flaming prison, and through the vines wrapped around her Lex could see that her fur remained blackened and burned, rather than regaining the pristine whiteness it normally possessed.
Sissel’s spell is burning hotter than divine authority can protect them from! realized Lex with a sudden rush of alarm.
For the briefest instant he hesitated, trying to figure out if that was because of how strong of a spellcaster the snow-skinned giant was, or if it was because of how difficult it was to channel power into Solvei and Akna. The winter wolf had become harder to imbue with power as a result of their bond, due to her already having so much magical energy in her body that giving her more now came with increased resistance. If Akna, a shaman among her people who had already undergone a religious rite imbuing her with additional strength, was similar-
“Worry less about your wolves,” hissed Grisela, reaching up to grab his extended hoof with one bony hand, spinning in place as she pulled hard on it. “And more about yourself!”
Lex didn’t have a chance to respond as she yanked him over her shoulder, slamming him into the ground hard. The air left his lungs in a rush, the snow cushioning the impact not at all, leaving him momentarily dazed. That was all the opportunity Grisela needed to bring her staff down, driving the end of it toward his midsection.
Reacting on instinct, Lex grabbed the end of the black ice rod in his telekinesis, yanking it askew. The force with which she swung the weapon down made it hard for him to get a grip, his purple aura manifesting around it just for a moment, but that was enough to pull it just slightly off-center, causing her strike to miss its mark.
Rather than counterattack, Lex instead extended his hoof toward the burning tangle of vines again.
Summoning Solvei out of the fiery undergrowth meant leaving Akna to burn, which was why Lex’s first action had been to insulate and heal both of them; the winter wolf might have already possessed a degree of resistance against heat damage, but Akna would likely have died without immediate relief. But while he hadn’t been able to completely protect them, he’d at least managed to make it so that Akna was no longer in imminent danger of death. Which means that if I summon Solvei to my side now-
“Say goodbye to your masked friend!”
Paska’s voice – still too far away to be an immediate concern – earned only a brief glance from Lex...and then it commanded his full attention, as he saw the human’s hammer on a downward arc directly toward the unconscious Shadow Star’s head.
All thoughts of Solvei left Lex’s mind then as his horn lit up, calling on his dark magic. In an instant, thick bars of black crystal spread out over Shadow in a lattice, Paska’s hammer bouncing off of them without harming the pony underneath.
Rather than relief at having saved the earth mare, however, it was trepidation that ran through Lex then. He was deliberately trying to get my attention! swore the unicorn silently as he rolled to his hooves. He knew that I was about to summon-
Again, he didn’t have time to finish his thought before Grisela was on him. “Nenet!” she cackled as a sweep of her staff impacted one of his back legs and sent him stumbling. “Kill the other ponies! Now!”
Still standing where Sissel’s image had been, the ugly little sphinx blinked its beady eyes. “Wh-what?!”
“Kill the other ponies!” repeated Grisela as she kept advancing on Lex, determined not to give him another opening. “And their little rabbit too!”
“But...but I’ve never-”
“JUST DO IT!” screamed the hag as Lex reared up onto his back legs, crossing his hooves in front of his face to catch a side-swing of her staff that would have given him a concussion if it had landed. “OR I’LL TEAR YOUR WINGS OFF!”
The sight of the sphinx – Nenet – gulping and giving a hesitant nod made Lex snarl under his breath, finally knocking Grisela’s staff away.
When he’d managed to disrupt Sissel’s projection, he’d felt confident that he’d be able to finish off the rest of her twisted little family before she arrived. But that had been because he’d intended to summon Solvei out of the burning foliage she was trapped in, and allowing the winter wolf to wreak havoc while he dipped into his thaumaturgical spellcasting, which should have been more than enough to put an end to Paska, Vidrig, and Grisela.
But just like he’d adapted to his enemies’ tactics, they’d adapted to his in turn. They were aware that he was more invested in saving his comrades than killing his foes, and were using that against him now. All Lex needed was a few moments of concentration, a couple of seconds to focus his thoughts on Solvei, and the winter wolf would be at his side, ripping his foes apart while his magic tore through them.
His enemies, however, were determined to make that opportunity come at the cost of his companions’ lives.
Even as Lex watched, Paska was already charging toward where the others had fallen, while Nenet flew toward them from the opposite direction, wincing and biting her lip as she beat her mangled-looking wings. Even that moment of inattention cost him another painful strike to his side, forcing him to look back at Grisela, who was giggling at his dilemma. “Seem a bit distracted,” she leered. “Feeling a little preoccupied?”
Lex didn’t bother answering, putting all of his brainpower into finding a way out of the situation he was in now. He couldn’t just cover everyone in black crystals; Paska had been diverted by a mesh around Shadow Star, but if that sphinx was a spellcaster – and it had to be, if Grisela had told it to kill the others, since its claws and teeth were too puny to hurt anyone – nothing less than a solid shell would be sufficient to protect whomever she attacked, and that would cut off the air supply of anyone he covered that way.
Nor were his other options much better. He’d prepared his force field spell, but it was nowhere near large enough to cover everyone. The area ward he’d used to secure the warehouse he’d operated out of back in Vanhoover was a powerful multi-layered defense, but it required a half-hour to cast. He had spells to defend against physical, magical, and elemental damage, but all of those except one were designed to be used only on a single individual, and that sole exception – an elemental-resistance spell able to cover multiple people that he’d been given by the Night Mare – offered only modest protection.
Which meant that his only option was to go all-in with an attack that would hopefully buy him some breathing room.
Leaping back from another swing of Grisela’s staff, Lex snarled a chant as fast as he could, raising a hoof to perform the necessary gestures, knowing that he had to get this cast before Grisela could interrupt him.
Sure enough, the hag was already rushing forward, staff at the ready. “Like I’d let you do that!”
Holding his ground, Lex kept casting, even as Grisela closed in on him, noting out of his periphery that Paska was almost to Spinner, while Nenet was hovering above Mystaria.
This is going to be close.
Leaping into the air, Grisela let out a roar of triumph as she brought her staff down over her head, swinging it like a club. “GOT YOU-”
That was when Lex finished his spell.
An instant later, a glowing orb of pure lightning appeared above his head, the winter hag’s icy staff coming down to impact it, sending the electricity arcing down through her twisted body.
“NAAAAAAAAGH!”
Grisela was the only one who screamed, but a quick glance left and right showed that the other two globes of electricity he’d summoned in front of Paska and Nenet had managed to ward the other two off. The human had broken off his charge to veer to his right, taking a cautious stance as he regarded the lightning warily.
Nenet, meanwhile, had somehow managed to also dodge the orb Lex had placed into her path, despite the state of her wings. But her frantic readjustment of her flight path had sent her into the wind wall he’d conjured a moment ago, and the little sphinx was shrieking in fright as she tumbled end over end through the air, trying to regain control of her movement.
The sound was enough to rouse Mystaria, the nun blinking as she sat up woozily. “Wh...what hap...” The words died on her lips as she looked around, her eyes widening. “Oh no! You guys!” Hesitating for just a moment, she grabbed her holy symbol, murmuring a prayer to Luminace. A moment later, healing energy radiated out from her, washing over Woodheart, Spinner, Thermal Draft, and Littleknight, causing all of them except the druid to slowly start picking themselves up.
“No...” croaked Grisela, having managed to land on her feet despite the smoke now rising from her body. Her breathing was ragged, and her muscles were twitching, but the look on her face was one of anger rather more than pain as she managed to bring her staff up. “Not gonna stop me this time!”
“You’re right about that,” replied Lex coldly, a thought bringing the electrical orb down between them. “Simply stopping you isn’t good enough. That’s why I told Sissel that I’m going to kill you...”
Darting to the side, Grisela didn’t let him finish as she dodged around the crackling sphere, swiping at him with her staff. But Lex had been expecting her to do something like that, and easily blocked the strike, even as he brought the ball of lightning around. Predictably, Grisela backed off, not eager to be shocked again, and Lex couldn’t resist a small smile. “Though I suppose I don’t mind letting Solvei do it for me.”
All Lex needed was a few moments of concentration, a couple of seconds to focus his thoughts on Solvei, and Solvei would be at his side.
And now, he had them.
Gasping as her pain came to an abrupt end, the winter wolf almost stumbled as she appeared next to him. Thank you, Master!
You can thank me by killing the hag, replied Lex immediately, already turning his attention toward the other two combatants on the field. Remember what I said about coordinating with Thermal Draft if Grisela goes invisible again. Leave the others to me-
“G-GRISELA!” shrieked Nenet suddenly, looking at past the edge of a nearby slope at something outside of Lex’s field of view. “Vidrig’s gone!”
Paska was the one who answered her. “What do you mean she’s gone?”
“She’s gone!” repeated the pint-sized sphinx, her expression frantic. “There’s big flat area down there with nothing but snow, and there’s a bunch of tracks leading to a hole in the ground, and that’s it!” Squinting her eyes, Nenet paused for just a moment. “I think...there’s something in the hole, but I’m not sure...wait...” All of a sudden, her eyes widened. “Water! It’s water!”
“The river!” gasped Thermal Draft. “It must have frozen over! With all the snow, they didn’t realize they’d moved out onto it!”
Gulping, Spinner shot Lex a worried glance. “Please tell me that means they’re in the shrine now, right?”
But the unicorn wasn’t listening. Instead, he wasted a few precious seconds undoing the black crystal cage around Shadow Star, then turned back into shadow-form, flying as fast as he could toward the hole Valor and Vidrig had made in the ice.
Akna had told him everything she knew about the Shrine of the Starless Sky, including its defenses. Lex had shared that information with Solvei via their telepathic connection, but otherwise hadn’t told anyone what the adlet had revealed to him, not wanting to take even the slightest chance that their enemies would be eavesdropping via Littleknight. Because of that, the other ponies didn’t know about the various ways in which the Shrine was protected either.
Which meant that, unless he rescued her, Valor would be dead in the next few seconds.