Chronicles of Den'dra - Spencer Johnson Page 0,155
and drawing attacks from all sides. By virtue of the fact that she was able to shift the location of her apparition at will, none of the blows meant to kill her managed to land. She even was able to trick the men into striking one another with their wild swings a couple times before they caught on to her deception.
“Something is wrong. I can’t see. I mean I can see, but it is like I am a long way from anything I am looking at.” Sjad, bereft of his Gift, was terrified.
“It sounds like you are seeing what the rest of us see. Can you still fight? Elgis is worse off than you from the looks of it.”
“Watch out!” Sjad answered Spirion’s question by shoving him out of the way and swinging at a soldier that was still ten feet away.
“You had better work on your depth perception, and quickly.” Spirion engaged the soldier with his mace. It was mildly surprising to notice that he was stronger and a little faster than the man behind the sword. With only these two advantages to support him, he beat at the sword with a fury fueled by a lifetime of mistreatment at the hands of men wearing the same sigils. The first man was quickly joined by a few of his compatriots, making matters much more difficult for Spirion. He gained a momentary relief when a flash of flame forced the soldiers back long enough for Elgis to stagger away from the fighting. When the strain of maintaining the wall of flame overcame Kliven, he took to setting anything on the soldiers afire that would easily take flame. This distracted them until they cut the cloaks loose and attacked again.
This time, Sjad had figured out how to deal with his disability and joined Spirion at the battle front. With his help they were only forced back slowly. Spirion got lucky and managed to fell one of the attacking men with a crashing blow to the side of the man’s helm that left it dented and the man twitching on the ground. Sjad followed a moment later with a shout of accomplishment when he managed to stab his sword tip though the slot that permitted the men sight through their helm. He almost misjudged the next nearest soldier’s distance and only managed to yank his sword free and evade the vengeful sword swung at his head.
Samir’s illusion helped ease the advance, but the men soon learned that they could neither harm or be harmed by the apparition. However, they were unable to decide which of the double images of Sjad that appeared might be the real one. He, on understanding how Samir was helping, was able to take advantage of the confusion and strike down a couple more men before they figured out who to ignore. Spirion had the good fortune of his opponent tripping on a loose stone and falling to his hands and knees. It only took one vicious swing of the mace down on the man’s spine to remove him from the fight and in all probability this life. Kliven was doing his best to help, but he was unable to do more than cause discomfort through the armor the men wore. He changed tactics and was able to be of more assistance by summonsing fire in the faces of the soldiers. Between the shock and the momentary blindness, they fell easy prey for the two fighters.
Sjad seemed to be regaining some of his old skill when, with the sound of shattering glass, another cloud of the yellow dust filled the air. Sjad staggered back, heaving for breath, leaving Spirion to hold off the men with only his mirrored illusion at his side to help. Kliven was furiously calling fire against the helms of the men while trying to even the odds a little when the officer spied them hiding on the ledge at the side of the chamber. He wasted no time in sending another bottle of the cursed concoction smashing into the wall over their heads, enveloping them with the vile stuff. Spirion heard them coughing behind him and didn’t have to spare the glance over his shoulder when Samir’s projection failed and the men pressed forward without fire impeding their vision.
Recovering from his fit of coughing enough to rejoin the hard pressed Spirion, Sjad furiously hacked at the wall of men that now bore down on them. His recent experience with normal vision and an exceptionally