Published at 9th of September 2025 12:39 pm

Book 5: Chapter 28 The Winds & Waves [Part 2]

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of movement on the horizon—a lone figure riding out from the gate. At first, I thought it was a scout, or maybe a foolhardy champion who believed they could drive off the eagles. But as the figure drew nearer, I saw the lumbering shape of a donkey rather than a warhorse. Then a flash of pale hair. My heart gave a confused jolt.

Larynda.

But she looked different. What happened to her ears?

The Silver-ranked adventurer rode with surprising speed, the donkey’s hooves kicking up clouds of sand along the beach. My first thought was that she had doomed herself by coming to my aid. Did she think her presence would help me somehow? More likely, I would end up protecting her.

But as she drew closer, perhaps no more than two hundred paces to me, the eagles and their riders took note of her as well. A cluster of flechettes sailed down, aimed straight for the girl. My heart clenched, but above Larynda’s head swirled a disc of twisting purple energy. A flickering protective spell that deflected each spike with a sizzle of magical sparks. My eyes widened. The girl had learned new tricks.

She reached me, reining Patches to a halt. The donkey brayed nervously as flechettes gouged fresh craters in the sand around us. I forced myself to stand straighter, ignoring my battered ribs but slowly regenerating ribs.

“So, they sent you,” I muttered through clenched teeth, turning slightly to shield her from the brunt of the next barrage.

“Captain Tikirit was going to sally out with a proper force,” she explained, her voice trembling with anger, “but when he saw the eagles, he panicked. Claimed he wouldn’t risk his men with ‘uncertain factors’ at play. It was all I could do to make them open the gate for me!”

“You are telling me that a Captain of Al-Lazar is cowering in the courtyard while a little girl rides out alone?” My bitterness was evident. “Cowardly men like that will be the death of civilization. They will be dealt with in time.”

She bristled for a moment. Shaking her head, the girl pointed to the unconscious person in my arm. “And who is that?”

“My hostage,” I spat, hoisting the elf’s limp form onto the donkey behind Larynda. I tried not to wince as I did so. My body was resistant to pain, not immune to it, and had suffered quite a bit of damage. “We’ll need to learn everything we can about these elves. It seems they have armies at sea and in the sky.”

“You should have brought a spare mount,” I added.

The girl gave me a long, level look. “It was not something I had enough time to plan for. It was more of a heat-of-the-moment sort of something. Besides, I don’t think a normal mount could bear the weight of well… all of that.”

Another flechette thundered off the edge of the Larynda’s magical shield, dimming its purple hue. “You should not have come unless you had a real plan.”

Her eyes flashed with rebellious defiance. “I do have a plan. Just give me a few moments to gather my Mana!”

She began chanting softly, an incantation that tugged at some old memories. I recognized fragments of the invocation—she was trying to do a Water Calling.

“This is no time to conjure a drink for that donkey!” I half-shouted, spittle flecking my lips. “We need to move!”

But Larynda ignored me, shooting me a dirty look as she continued to focus on her spell. The ambient Mana prickled against my skin even as flechettes continued to rain down, each blow sapping more strength from Larynda’s shield. The donkey brayed and shifted restlessly, but at least the brave beast was not yet fully panicking.

Then I felt a sudden shift in the air. The sky overhead had been bright, nearly cloudless, yet now the atmosphere rippled. With a final word, Larynda completed her incantation. The air cracked, and the first droplets of moisture began to fall.

At first, it was only a drizzle, almost laughable compared to the violent storm of flechettes. But that drizzle swelled into a steady downpour in mere heartbeats. The raindrops struck my armor, forming a thin layer of ice upon it. In the distance, the sky darkened as if roiling clouds had gathered from nowhere.

Miraculously, the eagles shrieked in alarm. The giant birds, which had been so confident moments before, began to falter in their flight patterns. One rider tried to hurl another flechette, but the eagle beneath him bucked and banked sideways. Its wings were getting drenched, and it could no longer ride the thermals.

I blinked, half-incredulous. The next moment, the eagles retreated, turning back toward the elven ships. The riders seemed desperate to escape the downpour. Within seconds, the metal rain of flechettes ceased entirely, replaced only by the patter of water.

I exhaled a ragged breath, dismissing my battered shield back into my body. Larynda’s magic had unexpectedly saved us. A strange and most illogical miracle. But I guess that was what magic was, the absence of logic. The bridge between its user will and the current state of reality. The game was generous today and gifted my revelation with another small bonus:

You have gained 1 Wisdom

I snorted. Wisdom. An attribute I rarely valued as highly as Strength, Constitution, or Intelligence. Still, I would not refuse it. Any sliver of improvement was better than nothing. It was also rather ironic that I was, according to the spread of my attributes, “Wiser” than I was “Smart.” Such utter piffle.

When I glanced at Larynda, smiling at me weakly. Her complexion was pallid; the spell had taken much out of her. The roiling purple disc that had shielded her from flechettes was gone, likely dismissed to preserve her remaining Mana. The donkey stood patiently, soaking wet but relieved to no longer be the target of a barrage.

“What… how?” I asked incredulously, trying to piece together the logic. I had half-expected something more overtly destructive, like slicing water blades or columns of scalding steam.

My ward mustered a smile, though I could see the exhaustion behind her eyes. “A spell like that, I needed to get close to the sea to better connect with it and focus my Ma’at. Birds, especially large ones like those there eagles, don’t fly very well in heavy rain. Their feathers get waterlogged, I think. Anyway, I’m glad it worked.”

I stared at her, momentarily dumbfounded. “I… suppose so, but we would have been in a worse predicament if they were like seabirds,” I shot back defensively. “You took a big risk.”

She rolled her eyes, punching my shoulder guard lightly. “And you took a big risk coming out here with no support. I guess foolishness cancels foolishness.”

A bitter laugh escaped my throat, cut short by the ache in my ribs. “I did not remain out there alone by choice. Negotiations turned sour, and someone had to act in the role of rear guard. I thought Al-Lazar would stand by me if the elves turned hostile. Instead, I find myself abandoned, and I question how much the city values me.”

To this, she simply just gave a shrug that spoke volumes. Larynda glanced at the captive elf, who was still unconscious but now stirred slightly with the donkey’s jostling. The red-haired prisoner moaned in pain. Blood matted in her hair, and I wondered if she might expire before we reached the city. It would not do to lose such a valuable source of information, and I forced another Health potion down her, spilling much of its contents on the sand. It would have to serve.

“Let’s get back behind the walls,” Larynda said, ignoring my rough first aid and coaxing Patches to start moving. The donkey trudged forward, water streaming off its hide. The sky cleared overhead, the last remnants of Larynda’s spell disappearing into the aether. “The gate should be open for us now.”

I nodded, gesturing for her to lead on while I took one look back.

In the distance, I watched the eagles make their landing upon the massive elven ships, each a floating fortress in its own right. Though temporarily stymied, the elves had the advantage now over the ground-based forces of Al-Lazar. However, for now, at least, I hoped I had given them enough of a bloody nose to spare us from immediate further assault.

***

Grimly, I matched pace beside Larynda, my boots squelching in wet sand. We made a pathetic procession—a battered warrior in black-and-gold adamantine, a soaked young mage in tattered robes, and an unconscious elf draped over a donkey. Occasionally, the donkey’s hooves sank deep in the mud, requiring a tug on the reins to keep it moving.

After a few hundred paces, I noticed Larynda’s shoulders tense. I raised my gaze from the churned sand and saw a small party of Al-Lazar’s soldiers riding out to meet us. They were led by Captain Tikirit, an older man whose once-proud bearing was marred by a deeply furrowed brow. He halted his horse some yards away, his men forming a loose semicircle.

The Captain’s face was drawn, and I sensed his reluctance. “We saw the eagles withdraw,” he said, voice tight. “We’ve come to escort you safely inside, my Lord.”

My Lord. The words tasted bitter in my ears. A title they bandied about whenever it suited them, yet they had left me to die minutes ago. I felt hot fury curl in my chest, but with an effort, I swallowed it. I needed their gates open, their doctors—if only for the hostage—and their resources. I could pass judgment later.

“Well, Captain,” I rasped, “I appreciate the gesture. Next time, perhaps you could sally out before an enemy’s entire airborne corps is overhead?” My sarcasm was palpable.

Tikirit’s men exchanged wary glances. Some of them looked embarrassed or ashamed. Others kept their eyes down, not wanting to meet my gaze. Larynda let out a contemptuous sniff but said nothing further.

The Captain cleared his throat. “Circumstances made a direct assault ill-advised. We were… uncertain of the elves’ full capabilities.”

“What about our capabilities?” Larynda snapped, surprising me with the venom in her voice. She gestured broadly to my battered armor and the unconscious elf. “Did you not think we could hold our own?”

Tikirit’s mouth tightened, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he waved for us to follow as he turned his horse around. The soldiers fanned out around us, forming a protective escort. I found it almost laughable, given how belated this help was, but I clenched my jaw and kept moving. I had bigger priorities than humiliating Tikirit here and now.

Al-Lazar’s towering walls loomed nearer, sandstone ramparts made slick by the artificial rain that trickled over the battlements. By the time we reached the main gate, my limbs felt leaden. My left arm, which still held the battered remains of the Mimic Shield, trembled with fatigue. I dismissed the shield back into my body, feeling it dissolve into a swirl of black threads that merged into my forearm. It would need time to regenerate its own Health. My entire body needed rest.

The soldiers around me gasped at that.

As we passed under the portcullis, I saw throngs of townspeople gathering in the inner courtyard, whispering, pointing. Some stared with a mixture of awe and dread at the battered elf woman on Patches’s back. Others looked at me with wide eyes, the black menace that had protected them from raiders. I offered them no reassurance.

Larynda slid off the donkey, nearly stumbling, her knees buckling from magical exhaustion. I steadied her with one hand, though I nearly lost my balance as well. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and the courtyard briefly spun. Despite my flaming desire for revenge, for demanding an explanation as to why I had been abandoned on the beach, I knew I needed a moment to breathe, to collect myself.

A pair of city guards approached gingerly. “Shall we take the elf, sir?” one asked, eyeing the unconscious woman warily.

For a moment, I contemplated refusing. This hostage was mine, not Al-Lazar’s. But I relented. “Take her to the holding cells in the tower. Let the medics see to her injuries. But do not let her die, or you’ll wish you had died in her place.” My voice was low and menacing, carrying the weight of threat.

The guards nodded hastily, carefully lifting the elf from the donkey. She groaned in pain, eyes fluttering open for an instant. Though still half-delirious, she spat something in her native tongue. If the guards understood, they gave no sign. They hurried off, carrying her between them.

Share