My crossguard curled outward like a wildflower with my viridian essence contained at its center, wrapped within the neckce’s chain. A mist of supernatural energy billowed out from my core, creeping up channels along the tapered bde, producing something far deadlier to a Py’riel than a sharp edge alone. Janine tested me with a slice in the air, a trail of light and mist following each swing. Compared to the weapons she trained with, I felt light to hold, but when I moved, she could feel a momentum that added power to every motion, like more than her hands were pushing me forward. Indeed, I could augment her strikes by propelling my edge in whichever direction she guided me.

  Six years ago, the Py’riel hesitated to attack the magic shop when I showed them a hint of this power, but back then it was little more than a bluff to ward them off. This time, as the Py’riel at the portcullis stalled in its approach, I presented a very real danger to its existence, and it knew it.

  The Py’riel took its chances, charging forward on its gnarled branch-legs, hoping that it could catch us off-guard. But with a whole arsenal of tricks avaible to us, Janine and I could respond with ease, so long as she trusted me. Just like against Rufel, I spotted opportunities that a normal person couldn’t detect fast enough on their own, seeing branches on the Py’riel’s body that we could leap onto. We could get close enough for a quick and decisive strike without getting tangled up in the monster’s grasp if we did everything correctly.

  Janine jumped onto a branch, vaulting upward as she held me above her head, delivering a devastating blow to the Py’riel. As we descended, we sliced the tree creature completely in two! My impossibly sharp edge cut straight down the center, passing through it’s violet heart as easily as cutting through an overripe tomato.

  Two more monsters crawled through the broken gate, taking a position on either side of Janine. Their purple fmes danced along their branches, swinging them at Janine with wild abandon in hopes of catching her on fire. We knew how quickly those supernatural fmes could spread, so Janine had to duck and weave past their swipes, unable to get a good angle to attack without putting herself in mortal danger.

  When one of their branches strayed too close to me, the motes of energy crackled as they came in contact with my mist, which wrapped around the fmes and choked them until they vanished. I marveled at learning I could extinguish their magic with nothing more than a touch. Janine spun around to pass me through the violet fmes of the other Py’riel, eliminating their deadliest attack as a threat. With another twirl, I chopped through that Py’riel’s trunk before Janine plunged my bde into the heart of the second aggressor.

  Three Py’riel down and she hadn’t even broken a sweat. We had a chance...

  More of the monsters slid through the open gate to challenge us as they sought out a new strategy. They formed a ring around us, trying to box us in and create a pathway for the swarm of enchanted creatures to crawl by in their wooden husks, willing to sacrifice a few of their own to try and salvage their pursuit of destruction.

  “Janine!” Evelyn cried out. The red-haired girl had retreated back to Warren, pushing a Py’riel back with one of the few spells she knew, but she only managed to keep the skittering creature just out of reach of her and the older Passguard.

  Janine sliced her way out of the ring of Py’riel and rushed to her cousin’s aid as I decimated their aggressor. “Evelyn, are you okay?” she asked. Evelyn nodded, stunned by the chaos surrounding her but still able to respond. “Good. How’s Warren?”

  “He’ll be fine, the burns were pretty bad but they’re nearly healed.”

  Janine nodded, checking her unconscious mentor’s wounds before facing her cousin. “Keep an eye on him until he wakes up, and then stay in the watchtower. You’ll be safest up top.” Janine gave Evelyn a one-armed hug before she ran out to meet the next wave of Py’riel.

  The creatures sought out easy targets to make our lives difficult, igniting a nearby inn with their violet-hued fire, but so long as their inferno hadn’t engulfed an entire wall, all Janine had to do was pce my bde against the building for my mist to spread and smother the fire. Before the Py’riel could turn the night into a cat-and-mouse game, Janine sprinted ahead of the pack of creatures, striking at their hearts as she and I danced together among the trees. Their wooden corpses tangled together, forming a barrier that the other Py’riel couldn’t easily cross without getting stuck in their fallen companions. They were too slow, too uncoordinated, and totally powerless to stop Janine and myself, even in their greater numbers.

  The remaining Py’riel realized their odds had tipped far out of favor, unable to escape a lone Passguard and her enchanted Viridian Bde. Their attempt to retreat failed—with their backs turned to Janine, it only made our jobs easier to cut them down one by one.

  When we felled the st Py’riel that had passed through the eastern gate, we paused to look at what we achieved on our own. Galen needed an army to hope to do the same!

  But the western bell still rang. The Py’riel at the other gate must have also breached the portcullis by now. The night was far from over.