TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 18

"My darts and knives are all metal. I can't touch him with anything except claws. By how he moves, this man is skilled. Melee combat would be suicide," sent the assassin, the words devoid of inflection or emotion.

He looked around for his staff before replying, "Anika's hairs aren't metal."

"I told you, you can't throw something that light, even I can't. Only she can use them."

"Ria, I need you," he said, extricating himself from the cage Anika's legs created when she passed out. The chitin of Anika's spider body was healing, but slowly, like bone. He could see the runny liquid that passed for the spider's blood pooling beneath her abdomen. The mage didn't know how much of the stuff she could lose and still survive. He needed to do something.

Kal had gotten good enough with the held versions of the healing spell since he and Elta saved Perra he thought he might be able to hold one in each hand. But his concentration was still shaky, and he didn't know how long Kashka might be able to keep the man in silver occupied. What he needed was something that could give her powerful healing while he engaged Tavik and his lightning.

Lightning...

Ria gasped at the arachne's condition when she appeared then turned around to see Kal's worried face with just a hint of a cunning grin.

"Ria, retrieve my staff and put a healing potion in her hand as soon as she wakes up," he instructed the sprite stay on the far side of her, and take this," he instructed the sprite, pointing at his mana crystals. "Give them back to me in a few seconds. You'll know when."

"If you leave her like this, she's not going to wake up, Kal!" Ria hissed as the pouch disappeared. Two motes of light dove into her bag but the second popped back out and touched the ground beside the mage, becoming his staff

"Trust me. Now hide." Kal glanced at the staff and hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. Standing up, he summoned oversized healing circles in front of both hands. Walking toward the man in silver, he mumbled, "Ikuno, you'd better not have been exaggerating about this." Stopping in between the man in silver and Anika, Kal raised his voice and shouted, "Hey Tavik! She's not your problem. I am!"

The Reaver turned toward Kal, looked him over, and laughed. Mid-chuckle, his entire shield lit up as arcs of lightning slowed and then stopped one of Kashka's daggers. Like a sapling bent over and released, the electric shield ejected the weapon, sending it spinning high above the cat's head. Kal knew she could easily have jumped high enough to catch it, but the assassin instead darted to the side. Tavik grunted in annoyance as a bolt of electricity shot from his hand and streaked over her head. Like the mage, the man in silver also expected her to jump, and the bolt would have taken her head off if she had.

Kashka was right. This man was dangerous.

Kal took up a fighting stance, hoping the Reaver wasn't versed enough in magic to know the spells in his hands weren't offensive.

"I guess you were right," said the man said in heavily accented Common as he floated closer. "But you won't be much more of a challenge." The Reaver held out a silver gauntleted arm and arcs of blue energy danced across the metal as the bolt's charge built.

Tavik grinned.

Kal's speed and strength runes flared bright enough to singe the leather of his bracers. The mage spun as he dropped out of the way bringing the oversized healing spells together above his head so they pointed at Anika. Jerking his hands back to cover his face while still concentrating on maintaining the spells, he pumped energy into the Jump spell to throw himself out of the way, hopefully far enough away to be safe.

Magical energy burned across his lower back as he tried to power the ruined flight spell.

Above him, the lightning bolt struck the healing spells, detonating them both.

Pain filled Kal's thoughts as the explosion sent him bouncing across the ground. A mote of light chased him until he came to rest on his back. There, it landed in his hand and turned into his mana pouch. The healing spell on his back shone through his shirt and cloak as he drew heavily on the power in the crystals, both for the spell and to replenish his reserves. He could actually feel muscles in his chest and arms flattened by the blast reform as the spell repaired the front of his body. He was certain the strength rune's protection kept him in one piece.

He kept healing himself until a silver boot kicked the pouch away.

"I was wrong," chuckled Tavik as he looked down at the mage. "You were far less of a challenge than I anticipated. I'm impressed you're alive, but whatever you were trying to do didn't work." He held his arm out, this time pointing directly at Kal's head. "And now you die."

The Reaver snarled as the second of Kashka's daggers spun into the electric shield directly in front of his face. While the lightning blinded Tavik, she sent a throwing knife at Kal's mana pouch, striking it with the hilt so it skidded over by his feet. Again, the cat refused to leap for her dagger as the shield whipped it back at her. Instead, she flicked a throwing knife in the air intercepting her weapon so I wouldn't get lost in the jungle like the first.

Kal felt panic fray the edges of Kashka's calm until she saw his leg move to cover the pouch and felt the mage continue healing himself. Above him, Tavik looked down and began charging his gauntlet again.

The electric shield flashed as something hit the Reaver in the back and bounced off his armor. Tavik spun around to address this new threat to see the spider-girl bearing down on him, her face twisted in fury. In her hands, she held her needle-hairs while the smaller legs in front held the mage's staff

Another of her glass hairs penetrated his shield only to be batted away by a gauntleted hand. Tavik laughed and opened his arms. "I'm immune to your poisons in this. You can't hurt me." He held an arm out toward Anika, "But I can hurt you."

The arachne tossed the hairs in her hands to the side and lifted Kal's staff as Tavik's armor charged. The Reaver's face curled into a malicious sneer as the bolt from his gauntlet streaked toward her. Instead of dodging, Anika held the staff in its path. The lightning bolt seemed to pause, hesitating mid-air as it struck the platinum cap of the staff before vanishing in a pop of ghostly sparks.

Anika wasted no time. Swinging the staff around behind her, she crouched and sprang toward the surprised Reaver. Thrusting the weapon forward, the arachne drove Kal's staff into Tavik's shield. The barrier erupted in a flurry of blinding arcs as it tried to expel the weapon. The shield's repulsive force might have thrown a human back, but with Anika's extra mass, and all eight legs anchored to the ground, it couldn't stop her.

Ignoring the shocks threatening to steal the strength from her arms and the small arcs dancing up the staff that left tiny burns where they touched her skin, Anika pushed with all the might of her human/arachnid body until the staff finally touched his armor. Tavik laughed as he drew an ornate jade dagger hidden within his armor's chestpiece. The Reaver lifted the blade to stab the spider's arm, only to flail his arms wildly as she hoisted him into the air on the tip of the staff. Anika sank the weapon's other end into the ground, knocking the air from his lungs.

Gasping, Tavik looked around as the electric barrier around him vanished, then down where web-wrapped tip of the mage's staff stuck to his armor. Panicked, he brought the dagger up to cut the webbing but the spider-woman's inhumanly strong hand closed around his wrist and pulled it away. Tavik howled as the arachne bent his wrist back painfully before wresting the dagger from him. Fear filled his eyes as he looked over and saw her icy glare.

"This is MY home," said Anika before drawing the blade across his throat.