El ducked to the side as a rock the size of her fist whipped past her head to smash into the stone pillar right behind her. A second rock came immediately after, but a flick of her wrist—and the blue-flame sword in her hand—batted it safely away.

  “Annoying bastards,” El cursed, dodging two more rocks before zipping to her left around another stone spike. Flaring her wings, she shot ahead and then immediately cut the flare. Four small wings sprouted from her shoulders—each only about two feet long, compared to the usual eight—and she used their control to twist ninety degrees to the side. As soon as she was lined up, she flared her wings again, bursting out between a pair of stone spikes and right in front of a very surprised lava-slate monkey.

  One long arm up above its body to grasp the top of the tall, stone spike, and its feet braced for support, it had its other arm cocked back to hurl the next rock, leaving its whole side completely exposed. El was past it in a heartbeat, her blue-flame sword cutting through the tough hide, then the ribs and organs beneath it. Deep enough she nicked the monkey’s spine, the creature spasmed and lost its grip, beginning its long fall to the ground far below.

  Unlike the red flame of her friends’ weapons, her new flames didn’t incinerate everything they touched. And, unlike when she’d battled the rogue Ignitio back in Balacin, her weapons didn’t just freeze their Sparks. No, her new flames instead consumed the heat of whatever she struck so suddenly and violently, they—according to Felps—shattered the bonds that held things together at a very small level. Whatever that meant. Also, apparently, they didn’t just consume heat, but also energy, though El wasn’t exactly sure what the difference was. Either way, they were just as efficient as her old flaming weapons had been. And, from the agonized cry of the monkey falling behind her—no less painful.

  The tough armor of the scaled bears had been able to withstand her attacks, but these monkeys didn’t have the same protection. Which was good, because there were a lot of them. Hooting and hollering, dozens of the beasts swung and catapulted between the spikes of the stone forest at a sprint-like pace.

  “El! You’re letting them past you,” Laze’s voice echoed in her ear.

  “I’m not… letting them…” El weakly argued, flaring and cutting her wings in quick succession to completely somersault her in the air. Landing feet-first against a nearby pillar, she bent at the knees to absorb some of her momentum, then kicked back off with another flare of her wings. Blue flame washed out behind in her a wide cone—surprised hoots turning to shrieks of pain as two unfortunate monkeys were too close—and El shot off after the few that’d gotten past her.

  She let the speed of her flare carry her along, but re-ignited her smaller wings to weave back and forth between the stone trees. Passing them so close her frost-armor flashed and left lines of ice in her path, she reached the first lava-slate in less than two seconds. One more, and it was falling in equal pieces, frozen blood trailing the sword in her left hand. Another twist in the air and a flare from the heel of her left foot jerked her up a hard angle.

  Somehow, her target spotted her out of the corner of its eye, and it managed to pull up short as she cut in front of it. She wouldn’t be able to get her sword around in time to hit it on the way by, but that was why she had two hands. A turn of her wrist, and El ignited a second sword in her right hand, the blade stretching out just as she whipped past the monkey. It wasn’t a perfect hit—or even a swing, really—but she still caught the beast in the thigh, removing the leg below. Even if the thing didn’t bleed out, it wouldn’t be giving chase anymore. That was two down.

  Clearing the top of the stone forest, El cut her wings and twisted in the air until she flew feet-first into the sky. Below her, three more monkeys raced towards the nearest side of the moving refugees. Tas and his soldiers kept the flanks protected as best they could—their guns popping with each pull of a trigger—but the monkeys were fast, and the line of civilians was long.

  Two of the beasts were angling towards the front of the group, while the third made a beeline toward the stragglers in the back. Where the least of Tas’s people are. That was the one she needed to stop first, but instead of flaring her wings and rocketing back down, El instead formed a bow of flame. Drawing back her other hand at the same time she ignited an arrow, she sucked in a breath and felt the natural angle of her flight. At the same time, her eyes traced the path of the monkey as it released its hold on the last spike and leapt towards the wide-eyed runners.

  El released her breath and the arrow, the blue flame streaking through the air to punch into the monkey’s unsuspecting back. The dead weight of the monster’s body thumped to the ground and slid to a stop just a foot from the nearest refugee, who paused to stare down at the corpse. That didn’t last long, with one of Tas’s soldiers shaking the man until he started running again, and El turned her attention to the two heading for the front of the line.

  Enough lazing about up here, and she flared her wings. Her whole body compressed as her flare abruptly changed her direction—only her frost armor preventing the force from ripping her apart—then she was hurtling toward the ground again.

  Familiar paired swords ignited in her hands while wings sprang from her back. She hit the first monkey like a lightning bolt, so hard and fast, it didn’t even realize its body was flying in two separate directions as she flashed past. Flare, twist, flare, and she shot to the side, the second surprised monkey panicking and hurling a piece of broken stone in her direction. Though her frost armor could’ve taken the hit—probably—El snapped one of her swords around to intercept. Frozen blood still trailed in an arc as she batted the rock away without slowing, and then she was right in front of the beast.

  Extending her second sword underneath her swinging arm, she impaled the monkey straight through the chest as she shoulder-tackled it. Blue light flashed—her frost armor igniting at the impact and transforming the kinetic energy to cold—and frost crawled along the lava-slate’s thick fur. Hot air expelled from its large mouth, canine fangs almost as long as her fingers stretching wide, but it didn’t make any move to bite her. It couldn’t. That air had been the last in its lungs, and they wouldn’t be refilling.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  El and her target smashed hard into one of the stone spikes, the whole thing cracking and then snapping. Pulling on the power of her wings, El halted her flight, but let the corpse slide off her extended blade to fall beside the top quarter of the stone pillar.

  “Status?” she asked into her communicator, eyes on the lookout for the telltale flash of gray fur with orange veins through the forest.

  “Your assistance on Dayne’s side blunted the monkey advance from there,” Laze said. “A few came from the other flank, but Nidina made short work of them. Tas is continuing to move the civilians to get out of the monkeys’ hunting ground.”

  “How much further is that anyway?” El asked, dispelling her swords and drawing her bow again. Distant movement darted through the stone spikes, but El held her arrow, watching the path the monkey was taking.

  “Tas says about a mile,” Laze replied.

  “Not too far, then,” El said, and released her arrow. The blue bolt streaked through the warren of stone before slamming into the shoulder of a monkey swinging from one spike to the next. Frozen blood splashed off, the arm going in a different direction than the rest of the monster, and a hooting whine trailed down to the ground below.

  “People are tired,” Laze said.

  “I bet they are. Where do you need me next?” El pushed power into her wings, soaring up into the clear sky above the stone forest. There were still monkeys swinging down there, continuing the hunt, but their numbers were much thinner than when Laze had ordered El over to assist Dayne.

  As much as El was the leader of the Wing—small though it was—Laze really was coming into her own directing people. She still needed more confidence to make command decisions, which would come with time, but being a Wing Sergeant felt like it would be a waste of her skills. Laze wasn’t the ‘in the thick of things’ kind of person. Up above, though? Guiding troops? If Pycrin hadn’t been moving away from war, Laze had the potential to be a burning good general.

  “Need you back up front,” Laze answered. “Two large cliffs are pressed right up against each other, forming a narrow canyon between them.”

  “We going through?” El asked, already flaring her wings to carry her above the jogging group of refugees. Some looked up at her as she passed—or at the trail of blue flames she left in her wake—but there were no cheers of thanks at saving them from the monkeys. Laze was right, the people were tired. Practically dead on their feet, really. Two weeks of running would do that.

  “Yes, it’s the last stretch of the monkey hunting ground,” Laze said. “El, you’re going in first to clear out anything hungry. Nidina, you and I are staying above the canyon to dissuade any monkeys from dropping rocks on our friends. Dayne, hold the back entrance until everybody is through, then follow. Questions?”

  “Did you and El read the same book on giving orders?” Nidina asked, though there was a playful lilt in her voice.

  “Of course we did,” Laze responded. “It was part of the required curriculum in the academy. You should’ve read it too.”

  “Uh…”

  El chuckled and put the conversation out of her head, dipping out of the sky in front of the crowd to slow as she approached the canyon Laze had spoken of. The cliffs on either side were easily over a hundred feel tall, not to mention sheer, and the tired group definitely wouldn’t be climbing them. And, the space between wasn’t particularly inviting. Wide enough—barely—that El would be able to touch both sides if she extended her arms out at her sides, it’d feel tight. Especially if there were lava-slate monkeys leaping down from above. She also couldn’t see very far in, the passage turning not even thirty feet in.

  A mile like that…?

  Burning fantastic.

  Well, nothing to do but get in there, El sped up again, swords once again igniting to life. Traveling slightly faster than a jog, she’d easily stay ahead of the group, but wouldn’t be moving so fast she’d outrun them—or fly face-first into a stone wall.

  “How’s it looking so far?” Laze asked.

  El turned the first corner, weapons at the ready, took a second turn, then found herself at another straight stretch at least a few hundred feet long. “Clear,” she said. “No signs of any monkey business.”

  “How long have you been waiting to say that?” Dayne asked.

  “Honestly? Too long,” El said, gliding ahead while her head angled to look up at the distant cliffs above her. Nidina and Laze would be keeping an eye out, sure, but they couldn’t be everywhere at once. It really was all clear. Which… somehow… made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

  The walls of the canyon looked pretty impossible to climb to her eyes—for a person—but after seeing those burning monkeys and the way they swung around the stone pillars? There were plenty of handholds for their strong fingers and toes. Why hadn’t they left some of their kind in here waiting for the refugees to make it this far? The way they’d rushed once they’d caught the people’s scent, they could’ve been trying to herd the people there.

  What are you even thinking, El? Sure, monkeys are smart, but smart enough to herd us or set ambushes like this? That’s silly…

  Except the monkeys had been rushing. If they had hunting territory, they had to know it pretty well. They had to know about the canyon, and the advantages they’d have if it came to it, right?

  Was she overthinking it?

  El rounded the next corner, then pulled to a stop as her eyes spotted something she hadn’t seen since she’d left the In-Between—plant life. Wrist-thick vines climbed the walls at regular intervals down the long passage, while more lay scattered across the ground. Small leaves sprouted sporadically on them, each stretching towards the center of the canyon to absorb the thin sunlight streaming down. There were even small purple flowers, not many, but some, with two larger petals that almost looked like wings on them.

  “Huh,” she said out loud, hovering forward at a walking pace. After all the stone, stone, oh, and more stone, it was actually kind of pretty. El replaced her wide wings with the smaller sets on her shoulders, careful not to freeze the rare plants as she floated between them. There was a sweet scent in the air, though it was mostly filtered out by her frost armor. Actually, for her to smell anything at all, the smell would need to be strong. That few flowers and I can smell…?

  El’s thoughts trailed off as she spotted something else further down the passage on the canyon floor. A lump of grey lined with orange…? A lava-slate monkey?

  Moving closer, El corrected her own thought. Half a lava-slate monkey. The monster was missing from the chest down, though its spine lay entangled with some of the vines. What was left of it was deflated, like it had been emaciated before dying.

  Or like something had sucked its insides out. Yeah, cheery thought.

  “Hey, guys, I think I found something strange,” El said.

  “We’ve got people already in the canyon. What is it?” Laze asked.

  “Dead monkey, but I don’t know what…” She trailed off as one of the vines nearby shivered like something had moved along it. El’s eyes snapped up, trying to spot whatever it was. Sun filtered straight down on her through the gap in the cliffs above, and she squinted her eyes to block out some of the glare. Nothing. Where…? Another vine on her other side shuddered as well, and El brought her weapons up defensively in front of her. She still couldn’t see anything threatening.

  Another shudder, then another, and another, until every vine ahead of her was moving like they were all having a simultaneous seizure. What was happening?

  El’s eyes widened as finger-long spines unfurled along the entire length of every vine she could see.

  What had Tas said? Everything in Pili wants to kill you.

  “Burn it,” she cursed as the vines shook themselves free from the walls like snaking appendages and reached in her direction.