With precious moments to spare, Shani reached for her bow and knelt, pulling her string free from a pouch at her side. Forcing her shaking hands and fumbling fingers to obey, she looped the string over both ends, using her arm and leg to bend the bow into place. Reaching for one of her arrows tipped with yellow mana crystals, she had just enough time to nock the arrow before a fisted, scaly talon struck her.

Bow, arrow, and Shani all went flying in different directions. Shani scrambled to find her bow, abandoned the arrow and sprinted back toward the cover of the canyon. It wasn’t great protection, but far better than anything out in the open grassland. As she ran, she looked over her shoulder up at the sky behind her. There was no sign of the flying thing that had attacked her. She could only assume it still held Inferi in her clutches. Her chest ached from its talon blow but nothing felt broken, even though every breath came out like another punch to the sternum.

Reaching the eve of the canyon, Shani spun and drew another arrow to her bow. Sucking in ragged breaths, she scanned the sky above her and saw nothing. It appeared the thing had disappeared as fast as it had shown up.

Whether it was a lifetime as a plains warrior or a newfound sense as a Beastcaller, Shani dropped to the ground a heartbeat later. A whoosh of air passed over her, kicking up the fine red sand and blowing her braid. When she peered up from her prone position on the ground, she got a look at her attacker for the first time.

It had the wings of an eagle, with a long, spiked, scaled tail like a lizard. Its talons looked like a bird’s as well. When it wheeled around, she found herself staring at a long, scaled bony head and a protruding beak like a heron’s. The creature’s wing span was so wide it could have only just fit inside the canyon mouth on its decent.

Inferi struggled in its talons, fighting and squirming, a dark mist of shadow mana swirling around her. Given the amount of time she had before the monster would be upon her, Shani gave up on the idea of connecting with Inferi’s shadow magic and readied another arrow.

The creature dove again. Shani waited two breaths, then forced herself to exhale a third time before she raised the bow and pulled the arrow back to her chin. She had just enough time to sight the arrow and let if fly before diving to the right.

A terrible screeching roar told her the arrow had either hit home or the creature was frustrated by her knack for escaping hits grasp. Shani scrambled to her feet in time to see Inferi free-falling as the scaled predator pulled out of its circle and rose into the air. The hyena crashed to the ground in an explosion of sand. Shani grunted from the shared pain. She rushed to Inferi’s side. The Mana Beast struggled to her feet and together they sprinted for the cover of the canyon.

The cliff walls closed in the farther away she got from the mouth of the canyon overlooking the plains. She thought the gap was too narrow for the creature to descend after her, a notion confirmed by the giant shadow floating over the sand ahead of her. Even if it wasn’t attacking, it hadn’t given up the hunt. Whatever this thing was, it was smart enough to change its plan of attack.

“You’re not dead,” Inferi said, halting a few steps away from Shani.

“Lucky for you,” Shani replied. “Did you think you had grown wings?”

Inferi’s face twisted in a fanged grimace. “There was a bridge! As soon as I set foot on it, the whole thing disappeared beneath me.”

“Did you learn to fly?”

“Clever, aren’t you?” Inferi growled. “I had the luck of falling into that tornado of storm mana.”

“Any idea what that thing is?” Shani asked, tipping her head upward.

She didn’t think it was a Mana Beast. At least, her crude mana sense didn’t paint a picture like any other Mana Beast she’d ever felt before. A mana aura surrounded it, however, though it was thinner that it should have been. Mana Beasts were rich with mana, as being entirely made from it. This felt like a snake’s shed skin left behind. A mana spirit, perhaps? She’d heard tales in the camps spread from Beastcallers who’d climbed the interior of the totem and encountered these phantasms, which channeled mana and did strange things no Mana Beast could.

“Whatever it is, either it’s going to kill us or we’ll have to kill it,” Inferi said.

Shani might not know exactly what they faced, but she’d fought enough wild things both before and after becoming a Beastcaller that she wouldn’t be easy prey.

The spirit let out another screeching hiss and circled back toward them. For a moment, she thought it would attempt the dive into the canyon and readied her bow in anticipation. At the last second, however, the spirit veered out of its dive, screaming in anger. The pressure of the spirit’s mana led her to believe it was at least as strong as a Guardian Mana Beast. It appeared they would have the chance to test their new blended powers sooner rather than later… if they could trick the spirit into range of their attacks.

“Nothing to do but head back the way we came,” Shani said. “Unless you want to try our chances against that thing out in the open?”

Surprisingly, Inferi shook her head. “We need to find better fighting ground.”

And so they made their way back up the canyon. The light in the canyon never changed but Shani guessed perhaps an hour had passed with the spirit showing no signs of giving up the chase. It had tried to dive at them four more times but pulled away each time it neared the narrow canyon walls. As she walked, Shani kept an arrow in the hand that gripped her bow, just in case. She studied the walls of the canyon, doing her best to judge the distance between the cliffs. If they walked into a wider spot without knowing it, she counted on the flying spirit to attack.

Even without the need for food or water, Shani soon grew weary of the hunt. The constant worry—as well as staying on the lookout for any other unexpected dangers on the canyon floor itself—left her feeling exhausted. She felt like a mouse running from a hawk, and hated every moment of it. The canyon walls were too high to loose an arrow or a mana working even when the spirit dove, so there was nothing left to do but play the long waiting game. Shani hated waiting.

Sometime later, she paused. The canyon walls were without a doubt widening ahead. The flying spirit seemed to notice this too. For the first time since the hunt had begun, it flew well ahead of her, circling a wide area between the cliffs and screeching in what Shani imagined was triumph.

The spirit landed and spread its wings wide, each the length of two horses. Lowering its head, tiny, angry eyes glared hate at her as it let out a long hiss. The message was clear. If they wanted to go on, they would have to fight.

“It’s got us now,” Inferi growled. “Nothing to do but fight or wander back and forth with it blocking us off at both ends.”

Life or death. This made sense. This was simple.

Shani dropped her bow then began moving through the steps of the stampeding clouds kyyoh Nokom had taught her. She felt the storm mana stirring in her beast heart, like a rising wind heralding a coming tempest. Shani channeled her storm mana through her right hand, feeling it flow to her fingertips where it spun faster and faster into the shape of a whirlwind. She’d never felt so much storm mana at her command so easily. The aura inside the totem thrummed with it, as much as she could handle.

Next to her, purple-black shadow mana gathered around Inferi, cloaking her in smoke and shade. The shadow mana swirled almost as if driven by Shani’s storm mana. It happened much easier this time: the aura of storm and shadow between Shani and Inferi blurred together until they were both surrounded by a churning mixture of both mana types.

The spirit hissed and lowered its head, like a goose about to charge. Shani let loose a scream, venting all of her anger and fury into a dark blast of electricity that arced from them and struck the spirit, sending currents of electrified mana coursing through its scaled and winged body. Even as they released the working, the pair charged.

Inferi let out a booming bark, the shadow mana building around her once more. Shani’s fist closed around a lightning bolt forming in her right hand, the left carrying the stone spear from Kiypu’s tomb. When the lightning bolt grew to the length of an arrow, she planted her feet in the sand and hurled it overhead. It struck the spirit in the head, just as it recovered from the effects of their combined working.

Screeching in anger and pain, the mana spirit twisted to the side and lashed out with its tail. It caught Inferi as she was closing in, sending her flying into the canyon wall.

Shani yelled from the shared agony and fell to her knees. She had just enough presence to roll to the side as a taloned foot crashed down in the sand where she’d been the moment before. Still on her back, she blindly thrust upward with her stone spear. The point struck the side of the spirit’s beak, sparking and leaving a deep gouge. Screaming, the spirit threw its head back. Shani used the distraction to scramble away toward Inferi.

The hyena was just stumbling to her feet, dazed. Gasping for air, Shani jabbed her spear into the ground. Using both hands, she shaped another whirlwind. The spirit stalked toward them, spiked tail flicking behind in anger. Inferi gnashed her fangs and charged forward again, buying Shani time to finish her working. This time, her Mana Beast jumped clear as the spirit swept its tail after her. Now inside its reach, Inferi let out an eerie howl. Shadows rose around her and she clamped down on the spirit’s leg.

Shani released her working, which struck the spirit in its long beak as it stabbed at Inferi. Without the added shadow mana, the storm mana attack did little but distract the spirit long enough for Inferi to attack again with a shadow bite.

Hefting her spear, Shani used storm mana to propel her toward the spirit with enhanced speed. The spirit jabbed at Inferi like a heron after a fish in the water as the hyena darted around beneath its feet. Using the distraction, Shani thrust at it again with her spear, but a wing blow knocked her backwards. She rolled again as a spiked tail struck the ground once, then twice.

On the third strike, Shani rolled to her knees and lunged out with the spear, impaling it in the side of the tail. Storm mana sparked from the spirit’s wound and it jerked its tail back, almost pulling the spear from Shani’s grasp before it came loose. Both Shani and Inferi fell back, winded. Shani felt the strain on her beast heart. The storm mana she’d used to enhance her speed to dodge the spirit’s attacks had drained her more than she’d expected. The spirit fanned its wings again and hissed, beady eyes glaring hate.

“This… is a good fight,” Inferi said between panting breaths.

In spite of the danger, Shani grinned at her, baring her teeth. The spirit shrieked out another challenge. This would be it. The final clash to determine which side would emerge the victor.

A bolt of lightning arced out of the sky and struck the spirit in the back. The spirit let out a squawk of surprise and crashed to the sand, its head digging a furrow as the momentum carried it to Shani’s feet. She knew who it was before she looked up yet still cursed when Raiqo and Skystrike soared through the air and landed nearby. How did this man always show up whenever she’d found herself a fight?

“Shani!” Raiqo raised a hand in greeting. “It is good to find you here!”

The spirit erupted to life, rounding on Raiquo and his winged horse faster than Shani could blink. In a blur of motion, she saw its serpentine spike tail swished toward her and threw herself flat of the ground. By the time she looked up, Raiqo was already fighting for his life, his crown of lightning blazing as he hurled strike after strike of storm mana at the spirit.

Skystrike was airborne once more, swooping in at the head of a screaming wind filled with sharpened bits of hail. The winged horse pulled up just as it was about to collide with the spirit’s head and the shards of hail peppered its monster’s back. It screamed in pain, tail flailing in the air. A spike clipped Skystrike, sending the horse careening into the sand.

Raiqo moved like the lightning mana workings he had mastered, striking here, darting there, never in one place and never where Shani expected. As fast as the spirit struck out with its long, needle-like beak, the Goroshu Beastcaller was faster. Determined not to be cheated again, Shani hurled a pair of whirlwinds at the spirit, which had its back to her as it sought after Raiqo.

The whirlwinds kicked up the sands as they spun toward the spirit, striking it in the talons at the same time. The workings did little more than irritate the monster as it continued to spear at Raiqo with flashing beak strikes. Skystrike had recovered and took to the air once more, this time rising above the spirit to beat its wings, each folding and unfolding forming a stronger and stronger gust of wind that battered the spirit, pushing it into the ground.

Determined not to be left out, Shani channeled the dregs of her storm mana into a final working, reaching out to Inferi as the Mana Beast gathered the surrounding shadows. Ahead and to her right, Raiqo stumbled. The spirit’s talon cut a gash in his arm, interrupting his working and knocking him to the ground where he lie, pinned beneath it. Filled with renewed energy, the spirit reared up, sending out a shock wave of mana that drove Skystrike into the side of the cliff.

The dark purple shadow mana flowed from Inferi into Shani’s lightning bolt. She gritted her teeth, willing the last of her strength into the bolt, her beast heart buzzing as Inferi’s mana spread throughout the working. At the last moment, when she could hold it no longer and as the mana spirit bent to finish Raiqo, Shani released the working.

Crackling and hissing through the air with a trail of dark smoke behind it, the shadow lightning bolt struck the mana spirit in the side of its scaled head. A crack of thunder split the canyon and the spirit burst apart in a whoosh of gray mist and static charges.

Shani stumbled to Raiqo, who’d gotten his feet beneath him and was likewise staggering through the sand toward Skystrike, clutching his arm. A trail of blood flowed from the wound.

Before Shani could ask how he was, she heard a familiar caw. Looking down the canyon, she spotted Kiypu limping toward them, Shakraa flying out ahead of the mummy.

“Well done,” Raiquo said through gritted teeth. He gave a slow nod of respect. “And thank you.”

Shani looked at Inferi and the two shared a feral grin. “It was about time,” Shani said.