Broken Glass - Taekook

68

In the confusion of the moment, Jimin is the first of us to react. He extends his left hand, his eyes flicker navy,  and then the ground before the Karulian Knights begins to tremble. Dust kicks off into the air, and I stumble back, pulling my cloak over my eyes to protect them. For a second, I can't breathe, and then the air seems to clear once more. 

I risk a look, only to see that the terrain before us has shifted. Turf has been ripped out from its place, and scattered over the space between us and the Knights. There are rocks, boulders I never would've noticed before, thrown directly in the path they're taking to get to us.  The horses slow down on instinct, one nearly tripping over a boulder that seems to have come out of nowhere. 

Just as my brain finishes processing that, a flash of orange light extends from Seokjin's hand in an arrow of flame, striking the shoulder of the Knight in the centre of the group. I can hear the slightly twisted shout of pain, as a swathe of the cloak burns away, revealing the black chitinous armour beneath. As the light leaves his palm, his eyebrows furrow in concentration, and then he sags for a moment as he lets the energy go. 

Now that I'm more familiar with making that exchange, it's almost like I can watch as it happens, in real time. 

Namjoon steps forward, three green ribbons of light emanating from his hands. All three swirl around each other and then dive down  as one towards the Knight on the left, impacting the centre of the chest. There's a moment of recoil, and a small smile crosses the mage's face at the smoking impact point on the armour that's exposed. 

Then a circle of dark red fire erupts around Namjoon's feet, the flames twisting into faces and skulls that flicker around his legs and lower torso. He swears under his breath, jumping out of the circle, trying to pat down the flames. It vanishes as soon as it came, and I glance back over in the direction of the Knights. 

The one on the left seems to sag slightly, for just a second, and that's when I know. A deep anger grows within me, at the thought that anyone could try and do anything to hurt him. That anyone would dare. 

The memory of Namjoon falling to his knees after being slashed in the chest appears behind my eyes, in my head, and I scowl to myself. Some instinct takes over, and my consciousness reaches out into that great stream of energy beneath the ground. 

I feel the energy drain out, as a bolt of silver light leaves my left hand, directed at the left Karulian Knight. They duck under it as it comes, hissing. 

Fuck. I missed. 

"Wrong target, motherfucker," Yoongi murmurs, and I'm just close enough to hear the words as they come, close enough to watch his reaction to the whole thing. His hand dips into the waterskin at his belt, and then draws back as if in preparation to shoot an arrow from a bow. As he moves, the water on his hand seems to cool and shift.

When he releases the imaginary trigger, a knife made of ice leaps from his left hand, diving in the direction of the Knight in the centre. They duck, but then the ice explodes into sharp hail, raining down on all three of them at once. There's a clattering sound to it that sends shivers down my spine, and I have to force my mind to stay focused on the situation at hand. 

The central Knight's horse rears, letting out a scream of fear, and the Knight ducks forward to stay in the saddle, somehow also swerving the hail as it comes. I can see the pointed edges diving instead into the soft belly of the horse, and I wince a little as it screams once more. The Knights on either side, however, are caught in the crossfire before they can react, and I watch as tiny shards of ice cut through their cloaks, some landing in their limbs. 

One of them hisses, but as they come closer together it's harder to tell them apart. A bolt of red, crackling lightning shoots out towards Seokjin, and he drops to his knees. The attack catches on the very top of his head, singeing the flyaway hairs, but he doesn't seem too hurt by it. Another bolt fires a second later, slightly to the left, and Seokjin pulls Yoongi down. It misses the water elemental by an inch.