TRC - Searching for the Sky Ch. 23

Falma's eyes shifted between her opponents and the six limbs she had to worry about, three with blades and three with needles. She hoped she wasn't in over her head with his fight. The two on the sides attempted to move outward and force her to fend off attacks from multiple directions. Two knives zipped by forcing them to close ranks again. After watching their sisters die, they weren't taking any chances and stayed oriented to keep an eye on the thief as well.

The swordswoman was already planning on having a go at the mage if they got out alive. After that little bit of assistance, she started thinking she might have to give the thief a tumble as well. Unless you were insanely strong, fighting a three-front battle was always a losing situation.

The middle soldier darted forward and attacked, testing her defense. Falma smiled. Kedder was definitely getting a chance at her pussy. His knives were keeping them close enough together that the middle and right ant-women couldn't swing their arms with the blades effectively, constraining them to stab at her or use up and down slashes.

"Hurry it up. There's another group coming to help them," said Kedder.

Falma nodded, thankful for the information. Her opponents probably knew as well, which was why they weren't mounting a strong offensive. Smart for them, but not good for her.

The fighter darted forward, bringing her sword down on the leftmost soldier. The woman raised her blade to block only to have the enchanted sword slice clean through, removing the blade and the arm it was attached to. The zweihander continued on, slicing through the tough chitin armor to embed itself deep in the ant-girl's side. Falma danced away as the other two came around and tried to stab her with their poisoned needles.

Human and ant-soldiers stopped as the one Falma attacked toppled over. None of them had been expecting that. The workers rushed forward and grabbed the woman's body, but it was easy to see she was already dead. The fighter hopped back and readied herself, the soldiers didn't follow.

"The five in the back stopped," reported Kedder. "One turned and sent an order back down the tunnel. I hope that doesn't mean they have something bigger to throw at us." He thought for a moment, "I wonder why they haven't just mobbed us. I once watched some ants take down a beetle many times their size. With these numbers, they should be able to do the same."

"Don't be givin' 'em any ideas. Then again, they tried that once," she replied, looking around at all of the ant-girl corpses. She was both proud and a little disturbed by the sheer number of them which had been cut in two.

They heard a shout of pain from behind them. Falma kept her eyes on the ants while Kedder looked back to see Kal shoving the priestess away with his foot.

"Mage got bit but is still working his spell. Sprite is flying around cleric's face now, distracting her. I hope he doesn't take too much longer."

"Same here," sighed the fighter.

------

Any other time the bite wouldn't have been a big deal. In a way, it wasn't, Kal's healing rune made it disappear almost as quickly as it happened. The problem was the fungus Elden just infected him with. Cure disease would get rid of it but required a few minutes and a lot of power to cast. The burrowing spell tied up too much of his magic to manage both at the same time. If he let go of their escape spell he'd have to start from scratch. Right now, that wasn't an option.

After the thief put her down, the priestess dragged herself over to him and started lightly gnawing on his pant leg. It was annoying more than anything and he didn't think he was in any great danger. He shoved her away a few times as the battle went on behind him. Mostly when she started lifting the bottom hem of his trousers trying to get at the skin beneath.

The noise behind him died down for a moment when she quickly lifted his pant leg and bit him hard enough to draw blood. Now he could feel a faint burning sensation slowly crawling up his leg and there was nothing he could do about it except keep on swirling his hand above his fist and the glyph he drew earlier. The spell tied the motions of his fist to the dirt and earth above. In the process, it separated the column from the surrounding material. Unfortunately, the spell worked its way upward in tiny slivers and he had no real idea how far up the surface was.

He had only cast this spell once before when he and Ikuno planted Eludora and he was honestly amazed he even remembered it.

Through his feet, he felt the vibrations of something big coming up the tunnel, and it was coming fast.

"Now or never," Kal mumbled to himself as he stopped making the swirling motion and began lifting. The strength rune glowed brighter and brighter, but it wasn't until he brought his other hand over to assist that his fist finally started to move upward. The spell was supposed to make the dirt lighter as well, the amount of force needed to lift it was shocking.

It took a few seconds, but he finally had his arms all the way up. A small change in the spell made the column move five times further than however far his hand moved. With as much material as he seemed to be lifting, he hoped that was enough to clear the top of the hole. He tried to move the column to the side.

His fist didn't budge.

"Uh oh."

------

"You had ta go and say they might have somethin' bigger, didn't you," growled Falma as they felt the heavy footsteps.

"With your new gear, they even might be a match for you."

"Appreciate your confidence but I gotta say, I'd rather get the hell outta here before they show up."

"Mage-boy is working on it, not sure what the holdup is." Kedder went to turn around but saw one of the workers crawling up the wall to one side. It was a little strange since she was still so far away and she seemed to be keeping a close eye on him. Still, if he let her go then they would all start climbing up there, and that could lead to trouble. In one fluid motion, he drew one of his throwing knives from its pouch and sent it sailing at the worker.

The ant-girl used her middle legs to shift to the side and hold up a hand in the path of the blade. True to Kedder's skill, it sunk blade-first into the thinner, more flexible chitin coating on her palms. Kedder and Falma watched in surprise as the worker yanked the weapon out of her hand and whipped it back at them, her target wasn't the thief or fighter though.

Kal howled in pain as the throwing knife sunk deeply into his thigh.

Kedder turned in time to see the blade vanish, appearing back in its pouch since his hand wasn't open for it. He also saw the glowing spell Kal had been casting flicker out as the pain broke his concentration.

"Uh oh."

------

Ignoring the pain in his leg, Kal sprinted toward the priestess. Scooping her up, he threw himself away from where he was casting the spell. The entire column of soil crashed down on top of the tunnel's reinforced roof. For a moment, the mage thought the ceiling might hold.

The roof cracked with a deafening boom, sending the workers to their knees holding their heads as everyone else clapped their hands over their ears.

With a few more pops and cracks the column of soil burst through the ceiling, landing with a loud thud that made the entire tunnel vibrate. When the dust cleared, and Kal pulled Elden away from his shoulder where she was trying to bite him again, he was surprised to see the column intact. There wasn't much room between the top of the dirt pillar and the roof, but it was enough for them to get up and out.

Grabbing the priestess, he poured energy into the featherfall rune then pushed it into Elden as he leapt to the top of the column. Looking up he could see an indention from where he tried to move the mass of soil to the side. It started nearly two paces from the top. He hadn't even been close.

"I'll be back for you!" he yelled to the other two.

"Don't!" the thief yelled back, "We can get out!"

Kal nodded before leaping a second time.

Clearing the lip of the hole, he ran off to one side and dropped the priestess before darting back.

Looking down, he saw Kedder climb onto the top of the column then jump up and slap his hands against the side of the hole. He pulled himself up until his feet gained purchase then nimbly climbed the rest of the way, almost running up the vertical face. The mage noted that he slipped off some climbing claws and stored them away while a tap of his heels made the ones on his boots vanish.

Only one left to go.

------

Fuck, those things were huge. But they did explain why the tunnels were so damn big.

Falma kept her eye on the mass of ant-girls while all hell broke loose behind her. Kedder had told her there was now a large dirt pillar behind her, right beneath a hole leading to the surface. She just needed to give him a couple of seconds to get out before following.

In those few seconds, the things making the pebbles on the ground bounce with their footfalls finally appeared. The smaller ants plastered themselves against the walls, cheering as the giant women approached. The swordswoman thought it odd that only the workers actually climbed up onto the walls and even they held on with only their middle legs. Perhaps they didn't have the same ability to climb as their tiny namesakes.

Clad in thick red chitin, the two women were easily twice Falma's height. Smooth, pointed, natural helmets that came down over the tops of their faces left only their human mouths exposed. Unlike the soldiers, it didn't look as though the chest part could be moved out of the way. The more human soldier ants sacrificed their middle set of legs for that ability, the middle legs on these new, more powerful ant-women weren't legs at all. Instead, another set of arms sprouted from their sides, each holding a sword. The top 'normal' set of arms held a large, wicked-looking spear in one hand.

The fighter looked closer, the swords looked tiny compared to the size of their wielders, and cheap too. They looked a lot like the ones she saw on a rack at the outpost. That meant they were likely taken from the missing cavalry. It didn't matter much at this point; it was time to leave. Keeping an eye on the two new ant-women, she ran for the column.

Seeing the human flee, one of them raised a spear and sent it hurtling toward her. Falma dodged easily, but the spear sank deeply onto the side of the dirt pillar she needed to escape. The tower of soil began to lean toward her. Praying that she wasn't misjudging her strength, she leapt for the top of the column. Were it still standing straight, she would have caught it around her waist but as it continued to lean, it offered a grass disc for her to touch lightly on before launching herself up into the hole.

Falma punched a fist into the side of the hole and hung there for a moment before yelling, "Ria! Sword!" and tossing her blade upward. She hoped the sprite heard her or she was going to be in a lot of pain in a few seconds.

The fighter didn't bother with handholds, just jabbing her fingers into the dirt and pulling herself up with her enhanced strength.

"Hurry!" Kal yelled, reaching down toward her as she heard a scream of rage from directly below. Falma dug her hands in and threw herself upward, clasping Kal's outstretched arm.

His strength rune flared as he yanked the fighter up and out, sending her flying off behind him. The woman landed a few paces behind him, cursing as she bounced along the ground, but he didn't have time for apologies. A large spear came flying out behind Falma as soon as her feet cleared the hole. Both he and Kedder scrambled away as it flipped over and returned to earth.

Falma jumped to her feet and ran over to the spear, snatching it up. She stepped over to the hole and looked down, seeing the red-clad ant-woman staring back up at her. Holding the spear out, she shook it and screamed, "Mine, bitch!"

Spinning on her heel, she stomped away before stopping a second later to look around.

"Where the fuck are the horses?"

"I don't know but we need to find them fast," replied Kal, getting up and trying to shake out the numbness that had crept up his leg and begun making its way across his stomach. "We need to get somewhere I can cure the priestess then hope she is in good enough shape to cure me."

"Why? Can't you do both?" asked Kedder as he crested a nearby rise. He pointed south, "Horses are over there. Not far."

Kal shook his head, "I've burnt through nearly all my mana. If we get into another fight, I may not have enough to cast it without waiting a few hours. Who knows what she will be like then?"

Falma had Ria store the spear. Kal was mildly surprised she was able to do so; the creature below must have given up on it after the fighter's declaration. She then went over and picked up the priestess before heading toward their mounts. "Any other time, I'd tell you ta heal yourself first. Bet on the sure thing. But with my life tied ta hers, I can't very well say that. Just in case my information is wrong."

"I understand," said Kal, breaking into a jog. "But we are running out of time. We need to do this while I can still think."

------

They rode the horses east at full gallop for a short while until Kal stopped them. The sensation had reached his neck and he was beginning to have a hard time thinking. If they waited much longer, he didn't know if he would be able to use the rune.

"I don't like this," said Ria. "She hated you before and now you are trusting her to heal you. You don't even know if she knows the spell!"

"Yurr going to have to trust me on this one. Wurst case scen... scenario, tell her I'm her best bet to get hurr legs back."

"I wish you'd stopped us sooner," grumbled the fighter as she laid the priestess down. "You shouldn't have let yourself get this bad."

Kal ignored the swordswoman and bent down to the priestess. Beneath his cloak and tunic, a rune on his back slowly gained brightness as he rid the woman of the fungal disease.

------

Kal slowly opened his eyes. He was in a tent, he was in his bedroll, he was alive, and he appeared to be naked. He shuffled around for a second. Yup... definitely naked.

"Welcome back, mage," came a voice from off to his side.

He turned his head and smiled, "Hello priestess, it's good to see you back with us."

She sat on her bedroll in a heavy shift meant for cooler weather.

"I could say the same, though I understand you weren't nearly in as bad of a state as I."

"I vaguely remember healing you but everything beyond that is fuzzy."

"You mostly healed me, but it was enough to clear my mind and finish the job. From the descriptions of the others, you ran out of magic and passed out. I cured you right away, but you didn't wake up."

"Falma was right, I shouldn't have waited so long. I was sure I had enough left to take care of you. I wonder what happened?"

"The fungus happened. Had you taken care of me sooner I might have been able to tell you. The fungus feeds off its victim's natural magic to spread so quickly. For you to have enough left to heal me after being infected for so long, you must have some impressive reserves."

"You know about it? I hadn't run across such a thing in any of my studies. I apologize for waiting, Falma's suggestion made sense at the time."

Elden shook her head, "The fighter was right. When I awoke to find losing my legs wasn't a bad dream, I had some very... rough... moments." She raised an eyebrow, "I've been told that you may have an idea to remedy that."

"I do, though I don't know if it will work."

"I'm willing to try anything." Her voice lowered, "This hurts me to say to a mage, but I want to thank you for having faith in me. Ria didn't tell me you had a plan to save my legs until after I healed you. With how I've treated you, I'm uncertain I could have trusted you the same way if our positions were reversed."

Kal stared up at the roof of the cleric's tent. "I believe people are inherently good, for the most part. You may hate me for my magic or my relationships but that doesn't mean you are incapable of being a good person."

"I've lived in the city my entire life. That's a dangerous philosophy, even in Lantaris."

"Maybe, but it worked with you."

"That it did. Now, why don't you tell me about this idea you have to restore my legs."

------

"Are we ready?" asked Kal.

Falma and Kedder both nodded. The fighter was kneeling while holding Elden to her chest from behind. One arm wrapped around the priestess's stomach while the other held a charged healing potion with the mixture for lessening scars. In anticipation of this getting messy, both women were nude. In fairness, the men were stripped down to their underpants as well for the same reason.

The rogue knelt nearby, grumbling that there were two bare pussies and sets of tits in front of him and he couldn't even enjoy it because of what was about to happen. A sheath containing one of his less dangerous knives lay next to him.

Kal was also on his knees in front of the cleric, silently agreeing with the thief. He held the vambrace with his shield in one hand.

"I don't know if I can do this," said Elden, her breath coming in short gasps.

Kal glared at her. "We do this now or you can go without legs for the rest of your life. Pick."

Calming herself, the priestess nodded.

Kedder and Kal cinched down the leather straps loosely tied around her upper thigh

"Say it."

"Ria, I need my legs back," she said then shoved a rolled-up wad of cloth in her mouth.

Kal held the vambrace up in front of the stumps left by the ant's healing goo and activated the shield, cleanly slicing through where her legs had healed over. The priestess laid her head back and screamed. A second later her head lolled to the side.

Kedder reached up and slapped her hard across the face before yanking the cloth out of her mouth. "Stay with us cleric," he snapped.

Elden's head straightened up. Blinking away the tears, she nodded.

Kal dropped the vambrace and held his hands apart, the same as Kedder. The sprite summoned the motes of light that were the priestess's legs from her bag sitting between the two men. It was hard to keep down the feeling of revulsion as he suddenly found himself holding a severed leg.

Two more specks containing the blood Ria retrieved floated into the large veins that Kal's shield exposed before he pressed the leg to its stump. The rune on his back glowed brightly as he pushed the healing magic into the leg and directed it up toward the cut.

"It's not working! It's not working!" Elden cried in panic. She held a magic circle in front of her hand and was attempting to heal the detached limb, the same as he was.

Of course it wasn't working, they had been gone for nearly a day. Despite pouring so much healing magic into the leg, it wasn't a part of her anymore. There was only one way he could think of to remedy that.

Reaching down inside himself, he took a tiny bit of his lifeforce and fed it into the priestess's leg, directing it up toward the bone. Before his encounter with the will-o'-wisp, healing of this nature would have been impossible. The feeling of Ria returning what the wisp took allowed him to better understand this aspect of himself and how to access it. As he used his lifeforce to build a tiny bridge between the priestess and the severed leg, the healing magic flooding the area went to work

Elden hissed as the soft tissues and nerves knitted themselves back together. "What did you do?"

"Don't worry about it. Switch me," replied Kal, gently resting her heel on the ground. The bone was fusing back together but was still weak at the moment. Elden directed the magic circle of her healing spell at the mending leg while Kal went to work on the other. Seconds later the feeling came back in that one as well. "Do it," said Kal, looking up at Falma.