[Ashborn-B1] 83. The Winged Death (Patreon)

LXXXIII

The Winged Death

Judith hadn’t access to her third core ability for more than a few days, so she’d had no practise with it.

That excuse would have her die an ugly death if she held onto it.

It’s alright, Dorothy assured her. You have me now.

Judith’s lips curved. “Avatar.”

Essence pulsed through her. It was so strong it rippled out her skin—but it fizzled before anyone could notice it. The sudden stillness of the energy made it seem like it was trying to hear better the echo of an order before executing it.

Power exploded in her chest. Her cough was an immediate reflex she had no control over. A thick clot of blood exited her throat.

Being the blood worshipper that he was, there was no chance Vyke hadn’t noticed her moment of weakness. Air split in front of Vyke with all the respect owed to a ballistic missile.

Judith’s vision blacked out and her brain spun in her skull, yet her tender fingers locked around her staff. ‘Dorothy…!’

I’m working on it!

The spirit furiously cycled to take hold of the rampant running essence.

Avatar, was a high-tiered ability with an even shorter description than her second skill.

Avatar: Embody the Light.

The system offering Judith the ability to someone like her was unthinkable. Despite that, her mentors had warned her.

‘The strain is beyond anything you can imagine. Even Lady Vire may not be able to handle it.’

And how much was that saying? If Caelia couldn’t handle it, who could? For sure not a middling cultivator like herself, who skipped out on her physical training.

A sound body. An empowered soul. Those were the bare minimum requirements for receiving the skill. Requirements out of reach for Judith. She couldn’t even master the second stage of the Bladed Commandments.

…however—

Blood leaked from her gums and ears. Her teeth shifted on top of the each other, the gnash so sharp and painful to hear that the disciples near her turned away from their fights to steal a glance at her—their faces froze in shock.

—there are some things you must do even if you lack the talent!

With a grunt, Dorothy squished the last of the energy between her hands. Essence trembled, quivered as it resisted the intent of a superior entity…

A big gulp of air shot into Judith’s lungs as the pressure let up. She didn’t lose her focus. Her bloodied gaze pulled towards her target like the senses of a bloodhound.

Vyke was no longer a black blur. He was a moving pit of darkness, the light catching no purchase on his form as he bounded through the sky.

For whatever reason, he hadn’t fired a single attack at her. Judith had her suspicions of why that was, but they mattered not a lick.

Light, not from within her but from around her, warped and folded. It wrapped her like a blanket, then clasped onto her shoulders. Velvet-soft, ebbing and surging, the garment woven entirely from light caressed the air with its intangible nature, hanging behind her as a cape would.

Vyke didn’t veer off-course. His momentum wouldn’t have allowed it if he wanted to.

Her staff swiped out across her body. Now, the skull attached to her weapon laughed not only in her mind. Its cackling rose and rattled the blades bursting into existence.

“Rainfall.”

The strongest technique in her arsenal. She’d threatened to release this move once—the drakes chasing Raven and Kayle would’ve been her first victims—but Tirion had talked her out of it.

‘Conserve your energy, Milady,’ he’d said.

Would he have said the same if he was here? At first, maybe. But as the gleaming weapons reflected of his glasses, their shimmers striking awe in the eye of the beholder, he may have said different.

Her lens flashed. The awareness of her sensory organ spiked, the increase nearly blinding her. Dorothy blinked and reduced the feedback. The instant the world drew into focus, her weapons rayed ahead. They were like sunbeams intent on melting an expanse of frost back into nothingness.

Black spears formed around Vyke. Where the two opposing types of weaponry clashed, shockwaves ruptured the air.

Though her blades were many and beamed like rays, they didn’t have the all-encompassing spread of the sun.

Vyke’s constructs only crashed into the blades about to shear through his skull. He dove to the ground and snaked between the trees to reduce her visibility. However, while she was inexperienced, Judith was no amateur.

Her weapons curved back up before hitting any of the natural obstacles. Then she aimed and released them again.

‘He’s fast. But—’

A hole of darkness hurling towards her saw a blade burst out of her staff. Rotting and putrid. That was the smell wafting from the tip of the spear woven from decay barrelling into her blade. The force behind the weapon throw sent her skidding back. But more importantly, it stopped her from guiding her other constructs…

‘That’s what he must be thinking,’ Judith smirked.

Vyke exploded into her peripheral view. He’d waited until she was locked in place despite her missiles being far behind him. He wasn’t taking any chances.

Which was why she didn’t throw the spear to the side and let him close the gap. After barely blinking, he was an arm’s length removed. Luckily, Dorothy didn’t operate with the limitations of physical speed. The weapons the spirit’d taken control of and hidden around them in folds of light showered Vyke’s figure until it was too bright to see his silhouette.

Judith leapt away from the kicked up cloud of dust and earth.

‘Did we get him?’

A rhetorical question. A worm like him wouldn’t go down this easily.

‘Stay vigilant,’ she told Dorothy.

The spirit drew their remaining weapons to hover around them.

Judith did a quick count. Two dozen or so. Hearing the number repeated in her head made the bones in her legs tremble.

You should release your avatar state, Judith.

‘Not yet.’

Not until he bled for what he did, until she carved a red smile across his neck and burned his corpse so his remains could never join that abomination his clan dared call a god.

Her breath hitched when the cloud imploded. The light whizzing from her staff cut through the shadow darting for her neckline…and carved through the loose sphere of energy.

She blinked. ‘A diversion?’

Look closely, Dorothy thought more than said to her.

Her blade split the sphere in slow motion and revealed the vermin writhing within. With a snarl, light bloomed and disintegrated the pests before they could latch onto her.

She whirled back to the cloud. Where was Vyke—

The shadow was so low to the ground her pupils had to tick down to catch it fully. Vyke’s spear rose like the morning sun. Judith leaned back, but her movement was the belayed reaction of an elderly mortal. She couldn’t dodge this in time. A shield. She needed to craft—no, her subconscious told her. It wouldn’t work. He was too strong and the barrier she could craft in an instant too weak.

I’ve got—

Dorothy’s voice faded. She punched the weapons hanging over them into motion like a titan would a hill they’d stubbed their toe on.

Vyke’s spear didn’t reflect light. Seeing it was more akin to seeing features that you were not-seeing. It was in the barbs climbing up the weapon’s shaft, which wriggled permanently like magots.

It shouldn’t be possible to see one’s mirror image in the blade. Yet the bottom layer of Judith’s hair, still styled in that manner her mother adored, waved back in the darkness clinging to the weapon.

Her backwards momentum lifted her foot off the ground.

In the memory, the fires of the hearth crackled as her mother rocked in her chair. She wouldn’t look at Judith.

I apologise for making you dream, Judith, her steel voice sounded over the fire.

A cold surge flooded her insides. Her eyelids drooped. ‘No, Mother.’ The entirety of her essence condensed and sank into her sole. The reflection in the spear morphed.

Nothing but her unblinking face stared back. ‘It is I who should be sorry.’

Her foot slammed down on the spear’s tip. For an instant, boot and weapon vied for power. But the second commandment’s defence was not one so easily broken.

The spearhead changed direction and buried into the ground instead. Judith tensed her legs so the weapon dug deeper. Because of her momentum, she was still falling backwards. But that was alright—it gave her the room to angle her staff.

She dissolved the light-blade attached to her weapon—she wasn’t certain it could pierce his armour—and the unadorned gem encrusted on her weapon’s tip flashed in front of Vyke’s face. The light pouring out illuminated his obsidian eyes inside his helmet.

The widening of his pupils and the ripple as the light cast out the shadows gave Judith greater satisfaction than anything had ever in her life.

My breathing passed slower than normal. Feathers fell from Ashwing’s wings, who released her full wingspan to shield everyone.

Aurille, crouched and struggling against the second moon’s blizzard, kept her eyes open with great strain and regarded the king.

I saw the thoughts race through her mind. Can I create a second barrier? Would Ashwing be enough to shield us? The answer to both, I feared, was a resounding no.

That’s why Erri’s serpent coiled around my summon to create a double layered defence.

It wouldn’t be enough.

My palms struck the ground. ‘Let me quick enough!’

I kept the image of the bark extending and curving at the forefront of my mind. Right as the king’s attack fired, a massive wooden wall burst out the ground.

Half the shield broke the instant the king’s attack made impact. My teeth smashed on each other. I created more wood. But instead of firing the bark as is, I interlaced thin threads to increase the sturdiness of the entire structure. However—

I grunted.

—it was fucking tough!

My mind and hands couldn’t go fast enough to regenerate the damage. In a single heartbeat, the barrier collapsed.

Erri’s serpent bared its fangs. It smashed into the frost beam and split the attack into multiple arms, which sheared around us, cutting and freezing anything they touched.

I nearly fell on my bum. ‘Crazy.’ At my side, Aurille had taken one hand off the shield she was feeding and pointed in the king’s direction. Beads of sweat dripped down her neck in rivulets.

That single sight scared me more than anything—I’d never once seen her distraught or pressed. Not even when facing Vyke.

Erri’s serpent was blown into the ground. The beam hurled into Ashwing, our last line of defence.

I poured as much essence into her as I could.

“This…” I grunted, “will kill her…”

Jake stepped back. However, Aurille’s barrier blocked his path, and the Snow Moon lacked the focus to dispel her technique.

There was no way around it. Rather Ashwing than our entire party. The valiant summon didn’t screech in pain. She didn’t last long, but the time she bought was enough for Aurille to form another shield.

That barrier cracked in a blink.

‘Shit,’ I heaved. We had nothing left. If she didn’t hold, we were—

“Dreamveil.”

A violet umbrella, whose insides were filled with the glimmers of the stars in the night sky, spread around us.

I spun. A single arm reached out of Gaje’s cloak of feathers and eyes so his talons covered part of his face. His long nails scraped over his cheek and drew a line of blood.

His many eyes flicked towards me.

And then the world darkened completely.