Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📕

a gatehouse. About fifty feet away, the trail opened up—kind of, because there were guards posted to either side of it. A pair of moldering [Napathian Footsoldiers], their tarnished bronze armor and dull mottled skin blending in with the jungle foliage. Only years of experience spotting in these exact kinds of environments let me notice them without needing to make some kind of special check.

“Oh jeez.” Suri crouched down beside me, her eyes straight ahead. “If we take those fuckers out, won’t Ashur know?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t know when my shadows are kaput unless I check in on them.” I lowered my voice to a whisper, then switched to PM. “Rin? Karalti?”

“I’m still back here.” Rin was crouched in the foliage with Lovelace and Hopper. Karalti knelt beside her, vibrating with excitement. “What do I do?”

“Hold position for now. We need to figure out a way up.” Suri motioned to them to wait while we considered the terrain. A river ran beside the trail, splashing down in a series of tinkling waterfalls. They masked a lot of sound, but didn’t offer much in the way of swimmable water. To the right of the trail was a hill covered in nothing but massive trees and dense, waist-high slash. The hill was steeper than the cut trail.

“I think we’re gonna have to go through ‘em,” Suri messaged, her brow creasing. “This spot is pretty damn strategic.”

“Right. But I can get above them and take them both out,” I whispered back. “Be ready in case there’s monsters and shit we can’t see.”

“Roger that.” Suri reached out and squeezed my arm. “Go get ‘em. I’ll tell the others.”

I broke away and started a slow, stealthy circuit around the pair of guards. When I was sure I was out of visual range, I Jumped most of the way up one of the towering mahogany trees and moved to the end of a sturdy-looking bough. The sentries were at their posts below, unmoving and oblivious.

I calculated the trajectory, made sure the Spear was in the correct grip, and leaped out into the open air. Neither zombie had enough brains to look up as my shadow descended over them—and by then, it was too late. I landed on one with the full force of Jump and crushed him, and fired Night Falls for the first time. A shockwave of raw blue-black energy blew out from me in a silent sphere, engulfing the second zombie. The energy didn’t kill it so much as ash it. I glimpsed the corpse’s mouth twist in a silent scream before it turned to dust and blew away, leaving a small loot bag behind.

[You have killed Napathian Footsoldiers! You gain 60 EXP.]

“Overwhelming force, baby.” I looted the [Ancient Bronze Token] from the bag, then took cover behind one of the statues in case of more sentries. When I didn’t see any, I waved the others forward.

“Let’s take it slow. Two to either side of the path,” Suri remarked in the group PM as we rejoined. “Keep Hopper and Lovelace in the bushes. Get ready to fight. Karalti, are you able to change back yet?”

“We’ve been walking for six hours, so yeah,” Karalti said. “But I’ll stay like this until we have some room to move.”

“Great.” Suri looked to me. “Got any more stamina potions?”

In reply, I pulled a [Roseroot Potion] from my Inventory and tossed it to her. She chugged it, pocketed the bottle, and drew her axes in place of her sword.

“I’ll buff you with magic armor as soon as we make contact,” Rin said to Suri. “Just like our fights at the wall, right?”

“One hundred percent. Let’s do it.” Suri nodded to me. I made the ‘move forward’ signal, and we began the climb.

The river ravine to our left deepened and split around a large island, which served as the midpoint for a large, crumbling stone bridge. Two waterfalls thundered to either side, throwing up clouds of mist. The bridge—long and wide enough to be a road—passed through a broken gateway into a ruined city. Trees had grown over the shattered green stone buildings, their roots flowing around and into the empty windows and doorways. Towering above the ruins was a massive overgrown ziggurat flanked by a pair of enormous obelisks. They stretched up from the mists of the ravine to halfway up the trees. Coils of brilliant emerald green light arced up along their lengths, inverting at the tips and vanishing as the next wave of mana rose up along their length. They looked just like the Thunderstones, which fed mana in—or out—of Matir’s Dragon Gate. Instead of obsidian, these were made of pure white-green jade.

We picked our way through the rubble, climbed a massive ruined wall, and used the ledge as a vantage point to scout the ziggurat. I waved the others to a stop once the temple was in view, then weaved my head and zoomed in on the terrace that spread in front of the temple’s entrance.

A pair of Ix’tamo had been mounted to either side of a free-standing stone ring. They were big devices, floating diamonds about seven feet tall made of metal and glass, pulsing with vibrant blue-green energy. Between them, busily inscribing a complex magical circle on the ground, was a small, shrunken old lich of unknowable gender. I recognized them immediately: it was Uttapsu, Ashur’s advisor. I’d met them only once, when the vampire was holding court in what was now my very own great hall. Surrounding him were a motley of different bodyguards: a platoon of [Napathian Footsoldiers], ten jackal-headed [Napathian Heavy Elite], and a couple of [Vampire Knights] in red, brown and bronze Sumerian-style armor.

“Phew, okay.” I knelt back, exhaling heavily. “We’re dealing with a lich, two vampires, and about thirty soldiers.”

“Thirty soldiers!?” Rin gasped. “How are the four of us going to take on thirty soldiers!?”

“Don’t