willed the darkness to form a slender rapier. Gripping it in his right hand, he speared the neck of the nearest feline. Safer than Ozias’s approach, but it took a considerable amount of energy and power to contain shadows in one form for so long.
A copy hurtled toward me, and I sent a flurry of blades directly into its open mouth. Smoke leaked from the wounds, and the beast winked out of existence. Peering through the throng of cats, I spied the watching Council. With the Asuras’ shields still in full effect, they didn’t bother to distance themselves from the carnage.
Dodging another beast, I shouted above the snarls, “The only way we can stop this is if we get to them!”
My brothers dipped low in their stances in preparation for the next round of attack. The legendary beasts slunk around the copies. Calculating. Waiting while we fought off illusion after illusion, our defenses weakening and our muscles giving. Then they’d strike. Lethal and fast.
Darting closer to the Charmers, I sent a wave of blades aimed directly at Wynn.
Only one smashed against his shield, sending a spiderwebbing ripple in the energy field before the surface returned to normal. Flinging themselves before the Council, the copies willingly abandoned their pursuit of the assassins to take blades to the gut, and the rest of my arsenal disappeared.
Ozias followed suit, peeling off behind me to get a better angle at Wynn. But as he wound his arm back to unleash a fistful of blades, one of the legendary felines intervened. Russet-brown with bone spikes along its spine, it slammed into Ozias and pinned him to the earth.
“Ozias!” I lunged, but a series of copies lashed out. Smooth claws ripped into my thighs, and I whirled in place, swiping my elongated forearm blade along their hides. Smoke escaped and I was free, but not fast enough to get to Ozias.
Devil-red eyes burned bright, and the beast reared its head back, teeth exposed. There was no saving him from those yellow fangs.
Sounds faded; my heart was in my throat as I ran.
A sudden fracture of light cracked in the space around Ozias, and the beast recoiled.
Jax emerged, lumbering beside Ozias with ire in his glowing white gaze. He’d come of his own accord, wasting no time in sinking his teeth into the beast and tossing it back into the throng of monsters.
As one, the Council’s eyes widened. I sent another barrage of blades at Wynn’s face. This time, two struck home.
Six more to go.
Wynn’s white legendary feline emerged, running side-by-side with the russet demon, and they launched at Jax. Volcanic walls shot from the ground, sizzling the air with their red-hot veins, and he let out a roar from the pit of his belly. The legendary beasts smashed into the rock and hissed, leaping aside as the smell of burnt hair singed the air. Ozias slipped behind one of the walls. With his blind side protected by Jax’s defenses, he began attacking another brigade of beasts.
We were making a dent in the copies. Their numbers started to dwindle to the point where I could breathe for a moment before a fresh one lunged. Kost and Calem worked back to back, facing off with a liquid-blue legendary beast that had snaked through with the ease of water.
The beast slipped through their defenses, and thick claws sank into Kost’s thigh. His shout cut through the backdrop of cries, and I froze. Calem yanked him back out of reach, but not far enough. The water legendary crouched. Launched into the air.
The ground rumbled, and a vein of red streaked beneath my feet, rushing toward Calem and Kost. A rock wall exploded from the earth. The legendary crashed into it, his watery skin erupting into steam. With a violent yowl, he retreated and slunk back into the throng of copies.
“Jax, there!” I turned to see Ozias pointing at another fallen assassin. Jax glanced between me and Calem and Kost, and then focused his power across the clearing. Another one saved. Ozias gave him a proud grin before lunging back into battle, taking down what beasts he could while keeping an eye on Jax.
And the rest… Not all of us were warriors before the transition, and it showed. It was one thing to kill with the element of surprise, and another thing entirely to wage a war.
Gone. So many were gone. Eleven men and women lay strewn about, bodies snared in tree roots or beaten senselessly into the earth. The fields