Shark nodded to Cerid, grateful. No need to worry or hold back anymore if Thea was safe. There was another soldier to contend with, though. Johanna’s magic was dangerous, but they knew how to counter it. The person with her, a brown-skinned woman with gray boots, black blouse and green shorts, was yet another unknown variable. Nothing worse than that.

Her hair, short on one side of her face and long on the other, bounced in springy waves as she jerked her head around to examine all aspects of the situation. “Did I really have to get out of bed today for this?” she demanded of her companion.

“Shut up and get on with the carnage. I’ll reward you if you do,” Johanna Marley teased flirtatiously.

“If you put it that way, then I’m almost motivated.” She sighed, shoulders slumped, and crouched to put her hand to the ground.

“Shark!” Rhys called, looking upwards.

Shark got the message. They and Rhys were lifted up on two columns of soil, giving them a few extra seconds from their vantage to watch the unidentified magic crawl its way up towards them. Ice weaved like a spider’s web across and up the ground. Cerid was stopping its advance near he and Dorothea, and Thaw magic quickly worked its way towards where Shark and Rhys were, protecting them.

“Frostbite magic, so it’s the Spline family,” Rhys murmured. “Don’t let it touch you, Shark.” That was all he had time to say before the ravaging spears of ice were rocketing towards them once more. Additional pillars of earth jetted from the ones they and Rhys were raised on, creating as many side offshoots as needed to keep the ice away at each turn. Though everything was happening so fast, Shark didn’t hesitate in the slightest. It felt like a different but familiar person was guiding their steps, someone thought abandoned but now proven to have only been dormant and waiting instead.

Johanna’s foot rose again, just barely, and Shark took the chance to knock her other foot out from beneath her with a jet of earth to the ankle; rather than hearing it, they felt and knew that bone would shatter from the impact. Not wasting the opportunity, Rhys rushed in, landing neatly after leaping from the pillar and sprinting straight to the enemy. As Johanna’s body finished its hard topple to the ground, Rhys simultaneously crushed her face under his boot and drove his fist into the other woman’s face. Instead of falling, however, Johanna’s companion kept her ground after staggering. One of her hands closed around Rhys’ exposed wrist while the other blindly latched onto his face. Lucky for Shark, since their magic wasn’t so great for situations where an ally was so close to an enemy, Cerid had slinked over to lend his help, nullifying the woman’s magic and jerking her off of Rhys. Shark lowered themself back to the ground, remaining bent and ready to strike. Victory seemed secure now, though.

The arrival of a new and very deadly foe proved this presumption incorrect. A shrill, amused cry sounded from behind them.

“Yoo-hoo! I’m here to save your asses, idiots!”

Shark didn’t bother to look before hitting the ground to create a raised shield between their comrades and the direction the voice had come from. By packing the soil tightly together and reinforcing it with their Shatterer magic, it was as strong a wall as one could get.

That said, Shark was filled with terrified surprise when the new foe’s magic cut effortlessly through. A whipping wind raged towards them, and it was only because Cerid acted quickly enough and was in the right place at the right time that they weren’t cut into lovely filets. The particular fear, one they had felt very few times before, of meeting someone whose strength completely gulfed theirs enveloped Shark. “And here I was thinking we’d won,” they whispered, smiling to try and summon a false bravery.

Still, no matter what threat came towards them, Shark didn’t fear death. The two strongest magics they knew were on their side. Forget the Creed line’s Thaw; it had earned its value, but Shark had seen firsthand that a purely lethal magic could be much stronger than one that was preventative. Rhys’ Shower combined with Dorothea’s Juncture made victory certain. Why hadn’t Rhys used that power yet, though? Shark had seen it utilized to devastating effect before.

The new Ghurian was a boy in black pants and a pale blue shirt, and he was upon Shark now. Cerid, despite visible trembling, once again came to the rescue, leaping in front of Shark to stop lethal gusts of wind from chopping them apart. That didn’t seem to matter to the new attacker, however, as he slipped past by placing his hands on Cerid’s head and leaping over him like a frog. Shark caught a glimpse of glittering coal-black eyes and a cool smile before they, too, was breezed straight by. The enemy had eyes for Rhys, who was busy preventing the two thrashing soldiers they had subdued from using their magic by encasing their hands and feet in bonds of water.

Shark wouldn’t let it be that easy. Cerid wouldn’t either, as he’d turned in hot pursuit of the boy and had tackled him down. Shark moved to trap the enemy in earth while they could, trying to leave Cerid out of the attack, but the aggressor smacking both fists to the top of Cerid’s head to briefly incapacitate returned the threat of that wind magic to them. Cerid was back up just as quickly, drawing the sword on his back as he flew forward. Just before the blade tore into the Ghurian’s back, however, he used his wind magic to jet into the air and land right behind Cerid, who froze with wide-eyed fear.

He wouldn’t move in time to prevent the attack that would inevitably kill him.

Shark moved without hesitating. They knew by now that it wouldn’t be enough to make walls. At the last second before the wind boy could land a lethal blow on Cerid, they changed the form of the earth beneath the enemy’s feet. The soil became loose and fine, so much so that it couldn’t sustain the weight of a person, and the boy fell right into the ground. Cerid almost fell in too but leaped away, stumbling and managing to stay on his feet. Once the wind boy was encased to his neck, Shark made the earth surrounding him harden once more.

“There we go,” they sighed, then shrieked as the soil beneath them all was blasted apart by howling gales. It was ravaged, upturned and chopped, and Shark was thrown into the air, landing hard after a short flight. Such was the same with Rhys, they realized once rolling quickly to their feet. Cerid had fared better and had focused on preventing the damage from reaching Dorothea. Because Rhys had been thrown as well, however, the other Ghurians had been freed from their bonds. They helped the wind-wielding soldier get to his feet as he spat dirt and brushed himself off, coughing.

Shark’s hands were wracked with tremors, and they couldn’t tell if it was fear or thrill. Both sides were up and ready, and it seemed as if the battle would resume with its full fever in moments.

The wind boy shrugged and let out an exaggerated sigh. “Eh. We’ve gotten what we came here for. Time to go.” He smiled and arched an eyebrow at Rhys and Shark. This was a challenge. Would the Ghurians be allowed to leave peacefully or would the Sacerians continue to risk all of their lives here?

Rhys backed away from them slowly. He nodded, and the enemies, on ferries of wind and ice, were gone in a flash.

Shark stayed bent with both hands against the soil, disbelieving. Just like that?

Cerid fell onto the ground, hugging himself. “He could have killed me easily,” he gasped. “Easily…!”

Good point. “So why didn’t he?” Shark asked. They’d stopped him, sure, but it wouldn’t have been impossible for the Ghurians to take them all out.

Rhys motioned to where Dorothea still safely knelt. “There wouldn’t have been a point. They must have known that.”

It was plausible. The Ghurians had to have known about Dorothea because of Johanna Marley. That was that, then. They knew what they were dealing with and were still so bold. Shark’s blood was pumping, filling their ears with deafening pulses. In the heat of battle, their heart had called for death. The best thing to do would have been for Rhys to kill both Ghurian women the moment the boy with wind magic had arrived.

Thus, they came away from the battle with two questions. The first concerned Cerid. He’d performed rather well in the fight, considering his obvious terror, so how had they ended up in a situation where his comrades needed to be revived in the first place?

The second focused on Rhys. He’d barely used his magic to any effect, and there didn’t seem to be a good reason. Why hadn’t the esteemed captain done more?

Rhys nodded to Shark on his way to bend next to Dorothea. “You did well,” he commented. “Thank you.”

Despite the kindness in the words, a chill ran up Shark’s spine. It was true. They had been completely overcome by the passions of war, of clashing with one’s life on the line. Pushing down a sick, heavy feeling, they hurried after Rhys while Cerid hovered nearby. “Thea, you okay?”

She was silent for a few moments, and Shark saw her hands shaking as they were pressed to the arm of a corpse to return life to it. Even so, she smiled up at all of them. “Yes, I’m fine. Thank you for protecting me.”

With those words, Shark knew that she was more scared now than she had been in a long while, perhaps more than she’d ever been before. Seemed they were on the same page.