Vena immediately met the first soldier, parrying his sword away and slashing at his chest. He stumbled backwards, but instead of pursuing, she was forced to avoid a chop to her arm from another soldier on her right. She dodged to the left, pivoting around the spear-thrust of another and slamming her free fist into his temple. One more dropped to the dust, unconscious immediately.

  However, the other soldiers were subtly circling around Vena, slowly closing in the noose, and Shawn could see her strength flagging. An imperfect parry here, a small stumble there, and Shawn knew he had to do something.

  He quickly pulled his runes from their pouch and stared at them. What could help? Fire was hard to control at great size, and could end up burning Vena, and he was far too weak with Earth to do much. That left Hunger, Shadow, and Energy. He looked at the remaining three runes at his disposal, and a plan began to form in his mind. But he would need to move as fast as possible.

  A crossbow bolt hurtled at Vena, which she narrowly dodged, while fighting three soldiers at once. Sooner or later, one of them would land a hit, and it would be over.

  Shawn gathered his core and began to cast.

  First, Energy. He ran his energy through the rune, allowing it to spin throughout. Then he pushed down and forced more energy in. Power rushed through the shape of the rune, and the shape traced itself in golden light above his palm. He felt stronger, faster.

  But it wasn't quite enough.

  Shawn focused on the feeling of carrying two runes together, except he focused only on the rune of Energy, manifesting the feeling of the energy path again in his mind. A second rune began to appear, layered over the first, and then a third, all of them compacting into one blazing figure of power.

  Shawn stepped from the bush, the leaves fluttering strangely. The world seemed to slow, and he saw Vena and the soldiers fighting in slow motion across the clearing. Some were slowly turning towards him, but not nearly fast enough. He sprinted across the clearing, feeling the tick of the imaginary clock. He could feel the unstable runes beginning to degrade and lose effect.

  He punched one soldier in the face, swept another’s legs out, redirected a sword and a spear to target their comrades, and carefully pulled Vena from the circle of soldiers. Then he pulled the rune of Shadow from his pocket and began to cast. It took him a moment to understand the structure of the rune, but he soon ran his energy through it and cast darkness over the circle of soldiers. The runes of energy were beginning to spin and degrade, and Shawn let them go. He'd achieved his goal.

  The world began to speed back up, but the runes didn't fully degrade. Instead, they merged and spun, and the power of a new rune gathered into it, another bright star in midair, before tumbling from the air. Seriously? A new rune? I don't have time for that right now! Shawn thought, grabbing the falling tile and shoving it into his pouch.

  He watched the soldiers come back to normal speed through his bubble of darkness, and the aftermath of his attack taking effect. The soldier he'd punched flew through the air, slamming against a tree and falling to the ground, unconscious. The other flew into the air as his feet suddenly weren't where he expected them to be, and the other two's weapons skewered each other through the chests. All four of them collapsed to the ground.

  Only four soldiers remained, but they were clearly the most experienced of the bunch. They had been the ones to send the others to corral Vena, while they stayed back to watch. A scarred man with a large battleaxe stood in front, flanked by two women with crossbows. Another stood behind them, clad in shifting brown and green robes, hood drawn up over their face, and carrying no visible weapons.

  Shawn and Vena eyed them across the clearing as they slowly began making their way towards them. Shawn could tell that they had trained together before. As the man went to the left, one of the women with the crossbows covered him, while the other stretched to the right. The last member simply stayed where they were.

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  “Look, we don’t want to fight. You can let us go!” said Shawn. It probably wouldn’t work, but it didn’t cost him anything.

  “We have orders to bring you in alive. Apparently you’re the one who’s gotten the Inquisitor all outraged,” said the man.

  “But the other?” said one of the women. “Her, we don’t need at all.”

  Then they lunged as one, and the battle began anew.

  The man swung his axe at Shawn, forcing him to back up or be split in half, and the two women immediately swiveled to target Vena. One bolt she dodged, but the other sliced across her thigh, prompting a scream. There was blood, but it was more of a superficial wound than anything else.

  Vena!” yelled Shawn. He pulled the runes of Fire and Energy from his bag, and shoved his energy through them, casting as fast as possible. He layered the two patterns together, a spinning firebomb appearing in his palms. He struggled to contain it, forcing it to pack tightly into a spinning orb of energy. The man, seeing the casting, lunged for Shawn, but he was too late.

  Shawn pulled his arm back and hurled the orb at the man’s chest. It flew straight past his swinging axe and struck him, destabilizing instantly and exploding into a conflagration of light. The man shot backwards, bowling over one of the women and lying still, his chestplate a charred mess. The hooded figure finally stepped forwards to join the fight, pulling a tile from the folds of his brown-green robe. Oh. He’s a mage.

  The man - Shawn was pretty sure - spun his hands in complex shapes, quickly and elegantly pulling his energy into the familiar shape of Earth. Suddenly, a wall of rock shot up between them, and the ground around Shawn began to rumble. Spikes shot from the ground, and the wall flew at him.

  Woah. How’d he get the rune of Earth to do that? Shawn thought. Clearly, he still had a lot to learn. Shawn hurriedly pushed his energy down to his legs, leaping upwards and over the wall and the spikes. He could see the mage leaning down to the man with the axe, tracing green lines over his unconscious form, and he thought, Maybe we shouldn’t let him do that.

  “Vena! You ready?” Shawn called, pulling the rune of Energy from his pouch.

  She looked up at him, gritting her teeth, and nodded, standing. He landed, Energy kindling in his palm, but instead of throwing it, as he would an attack, he gently redirected it away from himself. I am not the target this time. Go to her.

  The Energy flowed from his palm, swirling around her body before deciding to accept her. She gasped, glowing slightly, as she got to her feet. “Thanks for that,” she said. “I’m guessing we shouldn’t let him do that.” She gestured with her sword at the mage, who was healing the man.

  She dashed across the clearing, streaking across the charred grass and readying her saber. Her movements were even faster than normal, slashing three times in one encounter. The mage cut off his rune, dodging five feet backwards in one echoing step, and drew another rune, casting it at Vena, who slipped aside to slash across his chest again, keeping him on the back foot. He conjured a glowing green whip, slashing at her, and in the same motion raised another rock wall. She spun around the whip, only taking a marginal slash, and leapt over the wall, kicking the mage in the chest. The wind went out of his chest, and his focus broke.

  Which was all Shawn needed to cast Hunger on him.

  Power flowed from the man into him, and he felt stronger immediately. Then the resistance started shoving back. Turns out, the mage didn’t want to have his soul drained. He shoved with glowing green tendrils against Shawn’s turquoise fire, rebuilding them as the flames tore them apart. The man was more skilled than Shawn, but he’d wasted a lot of power healing his squadmates and fighting Vena. And Shawn still had half his core left.

  Shawn shoved the flame from his palms, expanding it to a beam the thickness of a small tree trunk, and it thundered toward the mage. The vines were wiped away in an instant as power flooded into his spirit. The mage collapsed to the ground, and the torrent of Life and Earth swirled into Shawn’s core. It was still an ordeal to control the flow, but it was easier with a defined core to corral the power. But still.

  The man’s power was potent. At least more potent than Shawn’s was. It blurred his vision and raged against his channels, and Shawn dropped to his knees to channel it into the stable loop of his core. The power was unfamiliar, but he did have an understanding of Earth already. And what was Life but the power in him already? The power began to slow, matching the tempo of his core. Shawn heaved himself to his feet, swaying.

  “Vena?” Shawn asked. “You okay?”

  He cleared his eyes and glanced around. Then he heard a noise behind him.

  It was Vena, shakily dropping to the ground as the last member of the soldiers, burned and bleeding, stabbed her through the back.