Radiance - The Alight Archives Book #1

26. Light in the Labyrinth

With the powerful wind that thundered in her ears, Elaine was amazed at how Custas was able to preserve his sturdy posture. Well, he was a wind mage. This sort of prospect wasn't new for him, she was sure.

Nevertheless, he'd been wise to advise them not to move—she could only pray to Aeris that Fearne heard him Elaine was fairly certain that, should she rise off the ground now, she'd be carried off by the breeze just like the deathstalker had. Speaking of, Elaine glanced at the creature a good ways from where Fearne was situated. It hadn't surrendered to the might of the elements just yet.

Normally, predators could realize when they were outmatched, or if a situation was too hazardous to their own well-being. The same couldn't be said for this deathstalker. Emitting a grumbling replacement for a screech, the insect desperately tried clinging to the ground, savagely shoving its massive claws into the earth. To its credit, this tactic was working. Maneuvering its diaphragm forward, weathering howling wind with its weight, the deathstalker had managed to affix itself in place.

Moreover, with a shimmy of a leg or the push of its tail, the deathstalker was able to engage in a steady, haphazard advance. Inch by inch the creature neared Fearne. Any closer, and Elaine knew it'd be able to reach the girl with its claw. Just a bit closer and she'd be within proximity.

Custas must have realized this as well. Muttering a spell that Elaine couldn't quite hear, the intensity of the wind amplified, rampaging with enough force to push boulders or topple nearby, half-destroyed pillars and staircases. Elaine pressed herself to the ground, avoiding the brunt of the air current, and yet she could still notice herself flying backward, slowly sliding over chips and fissures.

The deathstalker cried out in anger, or at least, what Elaine presumed was anger. Dislodging itself completely from the earth, it lunged forward in a blind rampage. A claw thrust out in front of it, striking the terrain with an ear-splitting slam! that caused Elaine's innards to shudder with a terrible vibration. Fearne screamed, scrambling back as another of the beast's claws crashed down near her, severing the earth with its might.

"Fearne!" Elaine shouted.

And then, a thought possessed her. A dangerous, risky consideration. The deathstalker was combatting Custas' storm, but it wasn't defying it outright. If she fired a spell at it, she might be able to hinder the deathstalker's more than unstable stance. Maybe she could even get the creature to retreat as it had done so before. Her grip tightened around her wand, and her target clarified in her eyes.

But before the words of a spell could leave her throat, Custas shouted behind her. "Dromen Tempas!"

Flying from him and out of his tornado soared a barrage of razor-like wind. Each of them—there were eight of them, Elaine approximated—was several feet long and had been crafted to look like the blade of a sickle sword. They were so sharp, Elaine noticed, that they were capable of cutting the rocky terrain in half, leaving singular trails of severed earth wherever they flew, kicking up storms of dust and debris into the air.

Elaine hadn't even realized that they'd already passed her until a gust of breeze lashed the back of her neck like a whip, causing her shoulder cape to billow uncontrollably. The blades of compressed wind slammed into the stunned deathstalker one after the other. Over the commotion of wind-shredding keratin, Elaine discerned the creature's panicked and pain-induced screeches. One of the wind swords curved upward amidst its predetermined trajectory, cutting straight through the beast's pincer tail, slicing the thing clean off.

Green-colored ichor flew everywhere as the deathstalker flailed around, gargling on the mucus pouring out of its mandibles. As if finally realizing how outmatched it was, the creature leaped onto the side of a wall and quickly climbed over the top. What last Elaine saw of their insectoid opponent was the blood that spewed from the pathetic stump that used to be its tail. Clicks and discordant tapping sounded on the opposite side of the wall. Then there was silence; the deathstalker was gone.