Chapter 28 – Dance of the Elites.

Callie dodged off to the side, the titan’s clawed foot smashing into the ground where she’d just been standing, mud spraying everywhere, Felicia’s shields flickering around Callie as they deflected the tentacles of the creature as they tried to slash at her from above. Callie growled, tendrils of lightning scouring the tentacles as she plunged a flaming blade deep into a leg of the creature, before leaping further back. The titan howled, and then a second time as Uriah did the same to the other side, a storm of shards raining down on them in retaliation, both of them turning and trying to run clear. Well, mostly. They wouldn’t be able to avoid them all, and drawing it too close to Julia and Felicia would be a recipe for disaster. Callie spun around, her lightning deflecting some as she dodged others, Felicia taking care of the rest. Uriah was doing very much the same, his ethereal flames taking on a life of their own as they danced around him and burnt away at the shadowy shards, Felicia’s shields reflecting his light in mesmerising patterns. Not to mention that he looked really hot.

Callie grinned to herself, pushing that thought to the corner of her mind. Now was not the time, and this thing was proving to be a pain. It was fortunate that one had never appeared in their realm. It would have been a disaster. She just hoped that they weren’t going to be a common thing, but she had her doubts there.

Felicia was doing really well, her reflexes more than sharp, especially as this was only her second time in an actual battle, but there was only so much she could block, and nor should they become solely dependent on her. If they went out of her sight, it became very limited as to what Felicia could do, nor did they know how long their combined reserves would last. More factors that they had to take into consideration, but on the other hand, they also had advantages that they’d never really had before.

‘I think this thing really hates us.’ Uriah was all but laughing, one of his blades slicing clean through a tentacle, which he then proceeded to kick away as he dodged another one.

‘That would be an understatement,’ she chuckled. But in a strange way, she was enjoying herself too. They’d done so much of this together, but never against a challenge quite like this. And they weren’t alone, all of them working together. Julia too, even if she wasn’t actively able to do much at the moment. That would change though. She could feel her desire to be in the thick of it, a part of it with them. Callie wasn’t at all sure if she should blame Amber’s influence for that or not, but it wouldn’t change the situation irrespective.

It was more than just their ability to communicate, though. They’d always had that, just not quite as clear and personal as what they currently had. She could feel exactly where Uriah and Felicia were, how they were feeling, and how they were physically and mentally. Her father would be more than a little jealous about that. The edge that that gave them, while they were actively fighting, was significant.

The scouts and hunter grade shadows had fallen quickly, Callie’s lightning tearing through them as if they were nothing, Uriah dashing around and clearing up what had managed to escape her wrath. Her magic was so much more potent than it had ever been, and it was showing. Felicia hadn’t had a lot to do at that point, apart from blocking the odd stray attack that got too close. The predator grades, that they all had a particular distaste for, were a little more annoying, but not overly so. Callie was forced to move and engage, to take some of the pressure off Uriah, blades of flames forming in her hands for the first time since she’d accepted who she was, now a wicked purple that reflected the nature of Uriah’s flames. And just as deadly. She held no fear for the creatures, the scars now holding their own meaning, and she very much made the creatures aware of that as she engaged alongside her lover, their movements feeling as natural as they always had. Dancing in tune to each other’s steps, a flow of deadly magic and skill. They both had been trained well, and learnt well. Perhaps the title that they had held had been deserved after all.

The creatures had started to show fear, retreating away from them, or gathering in groups to take them on together. It had mattered little. They had beaten them before, when their magic had been but a pale comparison of what it was now, and they fell, as the largest of them just watched from the edge of the river.

Watching and learning it seemed, its glistening black eyes watching them.

And then, when the last of the predator grade shadows had fallen, it had roared, the sound shattering the air around it, and then started to move, pulling itself up to its full height, before stomping its way towards them. And changing. It had become more grotesque and dangerous when they had engaged it, parts of it morphing outright to match the conditions in which it found itself. Like some eldritch demon. To combat them. Which made it a dangerous enemy.

And Callie absolutely hated tentacles. The tendrils of her lightning were fine. It naturally arced that way, threads of pure energy that cut through the air. But those things? They were like they’d been torn from a bad movie. Perhaps they even had? She had no idea of where its inspiration had come from.

The terrain wasn’t helping much either, the ground a slick blanket of mud. The titan took another step towards them, slamming its legs into the ground as it roared at them, Callie feeling her footing shift uncomfortably underneath her. ‘Back further,’ she mentally all but yelled, scrambling away from the creature and dashing towards Uriah. They needed dry ground, her lightning slamming into the side of the creature as a distraction. It didn’t do a lot. Not to the core body itself.

Another rain of shadowy shards around them, just as much of a pain to avoid, her lightning slashing at the tentacles, keeping them away from her and Uriah. Its reach was a little insane.

Felicia was following their lead, still in her human form, muttering to herself as she tried to increase the distance between her and Julia, and the titan, while also keeping an eye on them. ‘We’re going to be able to take this thing down, right?’ She was sounding tired now.

‘We need to.’ It was all that Callie could offer. But that was also true. That had to. And she was starting to feel it now as well. This was the longest that she’d continually used her magic for.

‘We will.’ Uriah was back beside her, his comforting smile still present as he looked at the creature. ‘You think that those are just for annoying us, or perhaps they’re protecting something more vulnerable? We haven’t slowed it down much, and we’ve been doing a number on its legs.’

‘I’m not sure I want to find out,’ Callie sent back. But, he had a point. It was frustratingly resilient.

‘Plan C then?’

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‘Yeah.’ She wasn’t as fond of that option. It carried a lot more risk, but it was one of a number that they had come up with, in the off chance that regular methods didn’t work. They had been trained well after all. But, they had significant advantages now that they had never had before.

Callie stood defiantly, her magic restrained somewhat and pulled closer to her, staring at the titan as it continued to lumber in their direction, relaying instructions to Felicia as she argued the finer details with Uriah. She was quite unhappy about this plan, but, they were fast running out of options now. And she did trust him.

‘We can do this?’ she felt, to her magic more than anything else. She felt it move within her, surging as if in agreement. A loving thing, and very much a part of her.

And then it was on them, tentacles streaking out towards them as it roared, the ground shuddering under its impact. Callie waited till it was almost too late, pulled deep within herself, and unleashed her magic. Hot, raw, and filled with fury and need. To protect those important to her, the ones she loved, and to take this thing down, so that they could continue their journey. Blazing an intense purple hazed with white, she sent it at all of the tentacles, across the beast’s face, and at its eyes. It sliced clean through the tentacle and bit deep into the flesh, wispy shadow seeping out across its form. Uriah was right behind it, his body blazing an intense red as he leapt up, blades digging deep as he created purchase on its form, scrambling up and onto it, inflicting as much damage as he could, Felicia’s shields blocking anything that she’d missed or that had reformed.

Uriah stood there, on the head of the thing, a lone beacon of hope on a rock of darkness. Strong and proud. He gave her a smile as she felt him gathering his magic, condensing and consolidating it. ‘Should I give it a name?’

‘Like a skill or something?’ Callie replied as she sent her lighting into more tentacles. She’d never used it to this intensity before, and she was feeling it. ‘Why not.’

‘Wrath of the Fox it is then,’ Uriah declared with a grin, all his magic suddenly held in a single small blindly bright spot in his hand, taking on the shape of a dagger, before he slammed it straight down, and deep, into the titan.

The world seemed to stop for a moment. The water calm, the air still. The titan, and them, motionless. No movements at all, and no other sounds to be heard. Then a burst of energy exploded out from the point of impact, rushing past them with a roar, hot and dry and stinging her eyes, Uriah’s fires surrounding him again as he stood up, his ethereal features seeming almost real in the light. And then he collapsed, the titan starting to dissolve away underneath him.

‘We did it, Callie,’ he sleepily sent her with a grin, Callie ignoring everything else as she ran into the black mist that was the titan, catching Uriah in her arms, resulting in both of them tumbling straight into the mud. Not that she cared. He was the most important thing to her in her life. Clean up could come later.

“Yeah, we did. All of us,” she agreed, smiling back as she held him tight, one finger tracing along his face. She had been worried for a moment. The beast, the titan, had been the worst thing that they’d ever faced, apart from her parents, of course. But they really had done it. They’d overcome it. Well, they’d needed to, but that still didn’t take away from what they had achieved.

But it hadn’t come without a cost. They’d given it their all. She knew that Felicia was spent, back in her fox form and being cradled by a worried Julia, and as for them, he was tired, as was she. It had taken everything out of them, and then some more. She could feel it. Her magic was exhausted, and she along with it. Her bonds ached, but she was going to hold onto them with everything she had. They were all a part of her, and she wasn’t going to lose anything. Lose any of those that she held dear.

She was the Witch after all.

Whatever that actually meant in the end.

But here and now, all that they all were had helped them.

She didn’t care where, right now, she just needed to rest.

“Hold me for a little longer,” Uriah mumbled, snuggling himself into her and closing his eyes.

“I’ll hold you forever Uri,” she mumbled back, closing her eyes and just appreciating his warmth to the contrast of the chilling cold of everything else around them, as everything faded into blackness.