The Novel's Sidekick

The thing that was approaching was still a few kilometres away, however, its cry was resounding throughout the mountain range. I didn't hear this cry before, but I knew exactly what it was and for that reason alone, I need to flee from here as soon as possible.

Without wasting a moment, I turned on the suit and flew away, carrying Yeriel. There was another person alive here, but I didn’t want to take chances after all the wrongs that had been done here.

The battle was still going on near the altar. Even though they heard the cries, they were still at it. The rogue knight was alone. He was showing all his capabilities against the two knights. He might have won if Lord Penron didn’t join when the other knight was almost at his limit. However, all of that hardly matters now.

“Lord Penron,” I called, “We need to leave, now.”

Ilias, the other knight, was blood ridden mostly on his lower body, though he was not that safe on the upper body, either. There were just too many cuts on his body, which was quite weird, because he would be dead already if even a couple of those got through.

However, it seemed the rogue knight fought the way I did against Noyar—without using spiritual force—that way—all the cuts were not critical hits. Even though he was winning, he couldn’t kill Ilias that easily. Still, he needed to be an excellent knight to win against someone with the dominion of Seer.

Well, the way I saw him rendering the gravitational pulls of Lord Penron futile, I guess he was not totally without a weapon.

The horrifying cry resounded again, stopping the knights for a second.

“What is this?” the elderly knight asked.

“I think we all know what this is,” I said, restarting the suit again. “Come on, we need to leave.”

I flew away again, giving the adult men to choose whatever they want. It wasn’t even a couple of hundred metres when I found Shailyn again. She was looking towards the source of the cry, biting her lips. The warlock awoke by the time, though sitting on the snow, shuddering like a helpless kitten even with all the radiated from the device not far from him.

“Oscar,” Shailyn called as I landed before her.

There was a red lamp with her, radiating heat and light around her. Her eyes turned from my face to the figure I was carrying. She was about to draw her hand to touch Yeriel, but I forbade her, shaking my head. Who knows if Yeriel started doing that again or if Shailyn drew any spiritual power in her body?

“How’s she?”

“Alive,” I answered. “Listen, we need to get out. You're hearing those cries, right? By the way, where’s Noyar?”

Shailyn nodded and was about to answer when the warlock with charred skin shrieked.

“You?” Rojar Iker shouted as his eyes were drawn towards Yeriel. “No, you can’t take her. She’s mine. I made her. Give her to me. . . .” he tried to cast a spell, but shrieked in agony this time, incapable of even trickling a little fire.

Still, it enraged me enough that I wouldn't mind killing him on this spot. That's how I was furious at him.

Then the horrifying cry echoed again, coming from a lot closer. I shuddered, and so did the others. Shailyn and I exchanged glances. She collected the red lamp and looked towards the warlock, who was still screaming. “What about him?”

I considered for a moment and then rammed my right foot against his head violently, flinging him a couple of metres away. I didn’t use any supernatural powers, but my body was not soft either. The warlock went unconscious again, and I think this time he would stay that way, with his channels sealed and burned.

“Let’s go,” I said and caught Shailyn with the other arm, which didn’t let me have much of the grip, and Shailyn knew that, so she clanged onto me tightly as we hovered in the air.

As I feared, the suit didn’t have much juice left, and with the weight it was carrying, it was a miracle that the old junk was running. However, I couldn’t bring us more than ten feet in the air, nor was the speed anywhere close to the original speed. It was slower than almost four or five times.

Worse, I had to twist and turn through the trees to not collide with one. The stream releasers on the back were malfunctioning within a few seconds, emitting white smoke all over so much that Shailyn started coughing.

“What’s happening?” she asked.

I said nothing, not that I didn’t have an answer, but I was too busy keeping my inertia steady. As the stream releaser was malfunctioning, my balance was off by a lot. At this rate, hitting a tree was not the worst outcome.

“Hold on tight,” I said, drawing whatever I could. There were a lot of trees ahead of us, and the way we were going, we would likely collide against one in a few seconds.

“Scar,” Shailyn called, her voice dry.

“I’m working.”

“I don’t think whatever you’re working is working,” Shailyn said warily. “Slowdown, I might be able to help.”

“I don’t think the suit is in my control now,” I said as we drew closer to the truck of a pine tree. I tried everything with the suit, trying to release it from the releaser in my arms, or legs, but the bigger one in the back was pulling everything.

“Screw it,” I yelled, and drew spirit force to infuse all our body, empowering our defence. However, the fall didn’t come. Well, it didn’t come as I hoped for.

Wisps of wind surged against us, slowing down our path as all the juice in my suit finished. And then we fell, first slowly and when about two metres down, the wind became useless. Still, with the snow, it didn’t hurt that much. Well, it didn't hurt me.

“Shailyn, are you alright?” I called.

“I’ll be if you stop choking me.” she groaned.

“Sorry,” I apologised and pulled my body away from on top of her. She really had it rough with two bodies on top of her, though the fall was not from that high up. She gasped for breath, the moment I jerked away.

“Where’s Noyar?” I asked again.

“She went to save the hostages,” Shailyn said, gasping as she sat upright.

I stayed with my back against the snow, Yeriel on top of me. Gasps of air escaped from my mouth as I jerked my head around. If anyone told me, I would be doing stunts like these a couple of months ago, I would be rolling over and laughing, literally.

It's strange how our world changes.

The cry resounded again, and this time with other disturbances. Trees fell a few metres away from us, as my eyes darted toward there. It widened at the very moment.

A beast over three metres all lunged in the air as the moons peeked through its large twisted antlers. The Winterheart Reindeer cried as the mad wind rushed towards Lord Penron who tried to fly away, carrying Ilias. The other knight was there too, however, he was in no good condition, his body hurled through the wind before colliding against a tree, just beside us.

“We are so screwed,” I muttered.

. . .