Stoneweaver

Stoneweaver - Chapter 22

Had the city slowed? Welden couldn't tell properly from his position, and didn't want to slow between gemstones. The alarm had gone out and missiles met him as soon as he came into range, their value now apparently more in their use. His armour had protected him so far, but he had to keep constantly watching the nearest towers.

Landing, he ducked aside from the latest attack and deactivated the gemstone. Maybe he'd do a few more, just to be sure.

Then he caught sight of the forms flying towards him, and didn't need to see the black and red of their uniforms to identify them as Stoneguards. The first would catch him before he reached the next gemstone, on the far side of the tower, but he flew towards it anyway, hoping they hadn't seen him spotting them.

Flying behind the tower, he stopped abruptly, then ascended, taking a dett from his pouch as he assured himself the tower was stone, not coral. Fortunately they'd used stuff taken from the mines. Touching the dett to the turret, he whispered "luxthor" as he leapt over it, startling the guard who'd been trying to locate him.

Allowing awareness of the stone to seep into the back of his mind, he charged the guard, knocking his bow away before he could bring it around, slamming his elbow into the man's face, and throwing him over the side before he recovered his senses.

Catching sight of his approaching enemies out of the corner of his eye, Welden found the first almost on top of him, unconcerned with saving the falling guard, not that he'd have expected them to be. The Stoneguards treated regular guards as little better than slaves, holding themselves apart. He imagined Narvon encouraged this, keeping them separated in case one group decided to turn against him.

Turning, Welden feigned surprise as the Stoneguard swung an ugly mace at him in passing. It missed as he fell to the floor, and went flying as his stone avatar leapt up to slam into the Stoneguard's face with a sharp crack. His momentum carried him over the edge of the tower, but he was dead by that point, anyway.

Two more closed in, approaching more cautiously, and he could see another three in the distance. The pair rounded to opposite sides, the one to his left armed with another mace, the one to his right with a sword. Steel, from the look of it. Welden stood ready, his own short blade in hand.

The one to the left dived first, but didn't ready his mace, so he'd probably be intending a distraction.

Welden moved the stone avatar around to meet the false charge, while he unwound his air avatar, moving it along the floor towards the right hand side of the tower as the second Stoneguard began his dive.

Most of his attention apparently on the left-hand Stoneguard, Welden focussed his attention on the air avatar, its gemstone hiding behind the battlements on that side. He managed to fake being startled as the first charge abruptly changed course, and darted his head back as the second one crossed the battlement, only to be yanked to the stone floor by an unseen force. Welden landed with his knee on the man's back, his blade finding no trouble slipping into his throat.

He still felt a slight jolt at killing, but it seemed more to do with how easy it came to him. A year ago he may have had the anger to do this to his enemies, but wouldn't have been able to shrug it off so easily. Then again, a year ago he wouldn't have been able to take down Stoneweavers so easily. He'd learned how to do what needed to be done since then.

Back on his feet in moments, the steel blade in his hand as he put his own away, his air avatar hastily returned to him as he turned for the other Stoneguard, to find his mace closing on his head. Welden barely ducked aside, and only his protective sheathe of air stopped him losing his head to the attack. As it was, the impact jarred him, his sight wobbling a bit, and he had to duck as the stone avatar swung its extended arm protectively above him.

By the time his senses recovered, the Stoneguard stood on the far side of the tower, stone from the battlements flowing around him. The next three didn't seem far away, and he didn't doubt a trained soldier would be difficult to deal with quickly, now his best surprises had been used. But taking them all down wasn't the plan.

His stone avatar leapt forward, colliding with the Stoneguard's armour within two strides, and crashing it to the floor. He didn't wait to see it though, shooting straight up into the air, releasing his hold on the stone as soon as he saw it had his opponent trapped.

Grabbing the azurien from his pouch, he didn't stop his ascent as he turned to the approaching threats. "Nyathor". His head felt weird as awareness of something flooded in. It didn't feel like when he animated something solid. Even water had a kind of solidity to it. But this... well he'd have to get used to it fast, if he wanted to escape them.

Relaxing as much as he could, he tried altering what he was seeing ahead of him, as a test, and found he could adjust things slightly. Doing this made some things appear closer, and if he did this he could just do it to individual things while keeping the surroundings the same. Reversing it made them appear further away. But how could he make them disappear against the background? Did he need to?

Changing the field to face away from him, he adjusted himself to appear further away, so far he'd barely be a spot. Then he adjusted his course, flying to the side as he kept the field around him.

They slowed, scanning the skies, but their eyes never stopped on him as they kept turning.

Leaving them to their fruitless search, he darted towards his next mission.