The shield shattered like fine glass. The feather kept going, embedding itself into Ayn’s shoulder.

  HEALTH AT 190

  AEGIS OF AGILITY ON COOLDOWN

  FIVE MINUTES REMAINING

  Ayn hissed at the sudden pain, then, without thinking, reached up and yanked the feather out of her shoulder and threw it to the ground.

  There was a heavy thud from behind Ayn, and a loud curse from Kayara.

  NEW PRIMARY QUEST: SURVIVE THE BAKBAK

  A blue wall of light sprouted along the side they had climbed.

  Kayara was at her side, had grabbed her uninjured arm, and was pulling her across the plateau before she registered what was happening.

  “Wait,” Ayn said. “Where are the guys?”

  “They’re up here, like you wanted. If they don’t get out of the way on their own, that’s their problem.”

  Despite Kayara’s harsh words, Ayn understood her plan. Without the Aegis, she was just a punching bag. Without a good defense, offence was best, and they were currently heading straight toward the ragged-winged Bakbak.

  Ayn stuffed their shared Kaneake feather into the ranger’s belt as the Bakbak noticed their approach and jumped. Kayara jerked to the side, nearly pulling Ayn’s arm out of socket. The house-sized mob crashed into the snow in front of them. Snow flew up, coating Ayn from head-to-toe, and for one terrifying second, she was back under the avalanche, but Kayara didn’t slow, and the impromptu blizzard settled.

  They were at the mob’s flank. Kayara let go of Ayn’s hand and darted over the Bakbak’s stubby tail to its other side. She didn’t speak, but she didn’t need to. Two damage dealers at two vulnerable spots made for easy decisions.

  Ayn lunged at the exposed flank. The giant bird spun away; one nearly bare wing stretched out to sweep an arc around it. The edge of the attack caught Ayn across the ankle.

  HEALTH AT 163

  That stung. Ayn stumbled back, catching and righting herself before she face planted. She should have been able to dodge that. Was the cold affecting her, or had she grown too accustomed to having a shield? Either way, the Aegis had four minutes left on its cooldown, and the Bakbak wasn’t interested in waiting.

  Kayara had, of course, dodged the sweep with no issue. The ranger slipped into range and sunk her daggers into the bird’s side. The Bakbak’s shriek almost drowned out Kayara’s shout. She leaped back. Her daggers hit the snow as she shook her hands and cursed. A fine white mist emanated from her weapons.

  Ayn’s heart dropped. “Don’t touch it. You’ll get cursed again!”

  “A little late for that! Besides, the cold’s already fading,” Kayara said.

  She flashed Ayn a reassuring grin as the giant bird whirled on its attacker and charged. Kayara blinked away and reappeared on the edge of the plateau. A fireball hit the bird broadside. Bren drummed out a steady beat from the spot they’d climbed up, with Sheyric not far away. Caught between the two targets, the mob hesitated, but only for a second. It reared up, wings outstretched, and two of its last feathers launched like missiles, swerving in the air as they homed in on their respective prey.

  Ayn panicked. She couldn’t get to either feather in time to deflect it. Her panic morphed to frustration, then anger. She was the tank, and she needed to act like one. She flipped her sabers over in her hands, gripping the blades between her fingers, and threw them.

  Both hit the Bakbak square in the back. White mist hissed out from the wounds. A light flashed from Sheyric’s hands. A wall of ice rushed from his fingertips. The incoming feather embedded into the wall.

  Ayn accepted the turn of events and switched all of her focus to the bird. Its bulk had covered Kayara from view, and Ayn couldn’t tell if the ranger had been hit. She needed to fix that.

  The Bakbak ducked down, sweeping snow into another obscuring blanket. Ayn ran into it without thinking and immediately regretted it. Without a Kaneake feather, the blanket of cold washed over her, adding weight to her limbs in an instant. A taloned foot appeared through the cover. It caught Ayn in the chest and pinned her to the ground.

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  HEALTH AT 97

  Air whooshed out of her lungs. Without the soft blanket of snow, there was nothing between her and the frozen rock. The rest of the Bakbak appeared as the cascade of snow settled. Its bloody beak lowered toward its captured prey, its mouth opening slightly as it pressed its foot harder into Ayn’s chest. Pain radiated from her ribs.

  HEALTH AT 42

  The distant sound of drumbeats and singing echoed strangely in her ears. The rock under her seemed to warp, pushing up to cover her body in a thick, protective layer. An arrow struck nearby. With a shriek, the Bakbak reeled back, and the weight crushing Ayn vanished, leaving a stabbing in her chest and a whine in her ears. She took the discomfort in exchange for air readily as she rolled onto her hands and knees and gasped.

  “That was my last arrow.”

  Ayn jerked at the sudden voice next to her.

  Kayara shook her head and dropped Ayn’s sabers to the ground. “A little less heroics, yeah?”

  A quick swap of the Kaneake feather, and the ranger jumped back into the fray while Ayn willed her half-frozen, half-crushed body to stand. Sheyric had no mana potions, so as they’d climbed, Ayn had made Sheyric promise to not heal her unless she told him to, or she hit Near Death, and so far, he was keeping his word. Besides, she still had plenty of health. She just needed to be smarter.

  The Bakbak danced away from Kayara’s daggers; the ranger matching each step and more. She closed in with each movement. At some point, the mob’s feathers had regrown. It flared its wings, flapping to gain distance from its assailant, but Kayara didn’t let up.

  Watching the two of them work their way across the plateau, an idea dawned in Ayn’s mind. The feathers were a ranged attack. Every ranged attack Ayn knew of couldn’t be done at melee range. She had no doubt Kayara had figured that out already, but the mob wouldn’t stay pinned for long.

  Ayn jogged with all her might toward the battling foes, doing her best to ignore the pain splintering across her injured body. She needed to get back into the fray before it turned into a brawl, yet the stoneskin weighed her down like the rocks it was made of. She raised her sabers and was taking aim when she noticed a shift in Bren’s rhythm. A fireball went flying by. Unfortunately, fire seemed to work only marginally better against ice than water. The Bakbak hesitated a second, then leaped toward Kayara.

  The ranger flowed away from the attack. It gave the mob all the space it needed. With a powerful flap of its wings and another whirlwind of snow, it launched into the air.

  AEGIS OF AGILITY ON COOLDOWN

  58 SECONDS REMAINING

  Ayn’s stomach sank. A minute didn’t seem that long, except when a mob could launch multiple missiles at multiple targets during that time.

  Sure enough, as soon as it rose out of reach, the Bakbak’s wings flared out, and four feathers detached, heading straight for each of them. A familiar screech tore through the sky, but Ayn had no time to see where it came from. The feather aimed at her clinked off the stoneskin. It dropped harmlessly to the ground, along with a rain of pebbles as Bren’s spell wore off. Yells of pain told her the others hadn’t fared as well.

  Without the coating of rock to slow her down, Ayn closed the distance between her and the guys with ease. Both still stood near each other at the edge of the plateau, and both had blood soaking the front of their robes. Although a single feather had done little damage to Ayn, the two spellcasters had a fraction of her health. Another hit could kill them.

  That familiar screech echoed again. Louder. Closer.

  “What now?” Ayn positioned herself between the guys and the Bakbak, her eyes scanning the blinding blue sky for the second creature.

  A red, blue, and purple puffball sailed by, its long tail whipping behind it like a kite streamer attached to a dandelion. The Kaneake. It banked, circling the plateau they stood on. The Bakbak took notice. Its gaunt, bald head practically turned backwards as it followed the Kaneake’s flight.

  “You don’t think we have to fight both of them?” Bren asked.

  Pain laced his words. It seemed Sheyric had decided to withhold healing for all of them.

  AEGIS OF AGILITY COOLDOWN COMPLETED

  Ayn looked back and smiled her most reassuring smile. “I don’t know, but you two stay behind me, all right?”

  Sheyric and Bren immediately clustered at her back. Their trust in her sent equal amounts of warmth and chill up her spine.

  The Kaneake continued to circle as the Bakbak seemed to grow bored with watching and flared its wings for another volley of feathers.

  Kayara caught Ayn’s eye. She’d been trotting over, not a speck of dirt on her green and brown tunic, when four more feathers shot out. Kayara blinked out of the way and reappeared shoulder-to-shoulder with Ayn.

  AEGIS OF AGILITY ACTIVATED

  Three feather javelins bounced off the shield in rapid succession.

  63 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING

  Ayn grimaced at the barrage, then jumped as Kayara slipped a hand into her belt.

  “Sorry,” Kayara said. “I’m getting too cold to dodge.”

  Ayn was staring, wide-eyed, at the ranger when the next volley hit, leaving her with a few points on her shield. Their rest period was over, and she still didn’t know how they were going to do anything to their attacker, or how she was going to keep the spellcasters alive while the bird exhausted its ammo.

  The Kaneake called out. Ayn glared at it. The thing really was all noise and no substance. It couldn’t even be bothered to distract the Bakbak. She’d feared it at first, but all it’d done was eat seeds and scream.

  Seeds.

  A jolt passed through Ayn. Of course. It was a long shot, but it was all they had. A handful of silver grain appeared in her hand, which she promptly dropped to the snow. Kayara noticed and added a small pile of her own.

  A third volley of the Bakbak’s feathers launched toward them.

  Ayn’s heart dropped. “Scatter!”

  “Wait.” Sheyric grabbed her arm and tossed a snot-colored icicle to the ground in front of them.

  The same wall Ayn had seen earlier in the fight sprouted from the snow in time to block the projectiles. The Kisi icicles. Sheyric had told her they could freeze. She didn’t realize it also meant making an ice wall. That could be a great way to protect them.

  “One left,” Sheyric said.

  Right. He’d only kept three. In one more volley, they’d be sitting ducks again.