A single small rock, rolling down hill, was all the warning we got. Moments after that single rock started its journey downwards, towards the path we were on, a rumbling roar echoed through the mountains. The rumbling turned into a constant sound, as large parts of the hillside came crashing down towards us. Without time to think, I simply reacted, letting Astral Power gush out of me, forcing the world to obey my will. Instantly, Runes appeared in front of me, glowing with silver-white light and with a wave of my hand, the light blazed out, turning into a wall of ice, just half a meter in front of me.

“Take cover!” I yelled out, putting my hand against the formed wall, allowing me to pump even more Astral Power into the hastily made construct, fortifying it as much as possible, before the rockslide could hit. I managed to form it into a broad edge, so the rocks would be directed past us, instead of trying to stop the weight of the rockslide.

“It’s a distraction!” Adra called out, pointing towards something within the rockslide. “We’ve got incoming.” she added and I took a moment to check what she was pointing at. Without her help I wouldn’t have noticed them, and even with her help, I had no idea how many there might be. I only saw two, massive felines, somehow barrelling downhill along the rockslide, easily keeping up with it, maybe even directing it. Before I could find out more, the first rocks crashed against my Ice-Wall and I was forced to focus solely on keeping us alive. Even with our relatively high levels and formidable power, getting crushed by a ton of rocks or five would cause massive damage.

I could feel Sigmir stand over me, shielding me with both, her body and special ability, allowing me to keep my wall steady with Ice-Magic, even without a way to anchor it into the rock beneath us. For a moment, I missed fighting in the frigid lands further north, where there was plenty of Ice and Snow for me to work with, allowing me to easily merge my magic into the environment. Here, in the dusty, rocky mountains of central Aretia, the environment was not my friend, and the rockslide I was keeping back made that all the more obvious.

There was a crunching sound and I felt a massive impact into the upper part of my wall, trying to topple it over. I could feel the difference between that new impact and the previous ones, before, the rocks had followed gravity, taking the easy path and travelled along the edge I had created. With this one, the pressure remained and when I opened my eyes for a moment, I could see one of the felines I had seen earlier close-up, just on the other side of my barrier. It certainly looked impressive, tan-coloured fur that blended perfectly into the rocks and dirt around us, along with a massive jaw and sharp claws that were lodged into my Ice.

I felt my lips curl into a smile, when I realised just what that meant. While the rockslide wasn’t over just yet, most of it had gone past, giving me just a little room to breathe. And use magic for something else, if only for a moment.

“Climbing my wall, trying to use my Ice against me?” I snarled, while I forced the Ice to obey it’s mistress, closing around the paws and freezing them in. I could hear sounds of battle nearby, but until the rockslide was over, the most help I could provide my friends was to keep the wall up and the feline stuck to it under control. A feline that didn’t like to be controlled and after a few moments of struggle, I had to relent, the amount of power needed to keep its powerful legs frozen simply more than I could spare in that moment.

Looking at the massive feline that had just leapt back from my Ice-Wall, I let out the breath I had been holding. It had been enough, the rocks had gone past, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. But we had weathered the initial ambush, now we just had to withstand the rest of their attack. With enough mental room to spare, I focused on the feline on the other side of the wall and used Observe.

Rock-Lion, Level 78

Taking a moment to look around, I could see that Sigmir was keeping two smaller rock-lions away on my right, while Adra was jabbing another one with her spear with Rai providing assistance. Without the rockslide forcing the others to hide behind my wall, they were now able to go on the offensive, just as I now had a large chunk of Ice to work with. My lips curled into a snarl, baring my teeth at the animals that had dared to ambush us as I channelled a burst of power into the wall, turning it from a defensive implement into an offensive one.

“Icicle Blast!” I called out, mostly to let the others know that the wall that had protected their flanks was no longer there, instead it had turned into a cloud of razor-sharp Icicles I hurled at the Rock-Lion that had tried to break through earlier, only for my eyes to widen in surprise. Instead skewering the beast, a piece of rock in front of it flipped up, providing it cover, just as my wall had earlier. My snarl turned into a grin, as I let go of most of the icicles, merely keeping the largest few under control and channelling another burst of power, making them veer around the rock and into the lion crouching behind. I couldn’t quite see their hit, but I could hear the pained growl and saw some blood splatter on the ground.

Before I could celebrate my success, the injured lion charged me, leaping in an attempt to bowl me over. Before it could get to me, a dark blur crashed into it from the side, causing more blood to splatter. A quick glance showed me that there was one lion down, killed by Adra and Rai, who were now reinforcing us. Rai had been the blur that had taken on the lion attacking me, clad in darkness by one of his skills, while Adra had stepped around, joining with Sigmir.

Mentally reaching out, I let my Eisblumen flourish, giving me a good weapon at short distances while drawing my blades, if things got too close. I had little interest in getting too closely acquainted with the claws I had frozen earlier, but if the lion wanted to get at me, I would be ready.

However, what happened next surprised me, even if it shouldn’t have. As Rai was getting ready to strike again, the lion let out an earth-shaking roar, causing some movement in the rocks beneath us, before taking a leap, towards the last remaining lion. With Adra’s back-up, Sigmir had been able to dispatch one of the two attacking her and injuring the last one. Before we could go after them, the two surviving lions took off, dashing down the path we had been on, splattering blood as they fled.

For a moment, I considered going after them, but checked on my allies first. Sigmir had a few scrapes, one of the lions had managed to leave a bloody-mark on her but nothing serious. Rai, on the other hand, didn’t look good. His leather-jerkin was ripped and blood was flowing freely, past the hand he pressed on the wound.

“Let me see that.” I commanded, stepping up. I had used quite a bit of power to protect from the initial attack but not enough to stop me from healing him. He sat down, while Adra and Sigmir carefully checked our surroundings, to make sure nothing was going to jump out and attack us. Once he was somewhat comfortable, I placed my own hand above the wound, carefully filtering my magic to make sure the Astral Power I used was pure, not tainted by either Ice- or Death-Magic. The wound was a curious one, I could feel a bit of Death-Astral-Power, along with some other things I didn’t want to think about, seeping out of his body, beginning to poison his body from the inside.

Starting on the inside, I carefully repaired the damage to his gut, making sure that nothing more was getting out of it, before cleansing the wound. I heard a surprised gasp from Adra, when a splatter of blood shot out from the wound, taking with it everything that wasn’t supposed to be there. Once that was done, I closed the wound, not perfectly healing the flesh but making sure that it wouldn’t bleed any longer.

“This will hold you for now.” I assured Rai, who looked a lot better than just moments before. “I’ll make sure you are healing well, when we make camp later.” I added, standing back up.

“Thank you, Master.” Rai said, as he carefully got to his feet.

“We are a team, don’t worry about it.” I assured him, looking at the other two, who had started to field-dress the two lion-carcasses. “And it looks like we get to try lion for dinner.” I grinned, part of me already using Lenore’s vision to check if there was a hint of the magic the lions had used in their attack, maybe some left-over organ or something I might be able to use. Sadly, it didn’t look like it.

Soon after, we were moving again, continuing on our journey through the mountains.