Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 21: Acidbeam

Toren Daen

I barely had time to think as the hornets surrounded everything around us, a dome of buzzing hell boxing every man and woman into a sunless void.

And then the bombardment started. A veritable wave of glowing green acid rained from the sky, forcing me to escape the trees in a burst of telekinesis from my feet.

I had only one chance to make it out of this alive. I rocketed toward the team of huddled mages, twisting midair to face the oncoming shower of green acid. I let out a burst of fire from my palm, burning away some of the sprays. A bit of the acid still splashed onto me, however, quickly eating through my mana barrier. I grit my teeth as some of the residual liquid sizzled through my mana shroud and bit into my skin.

I landed with a backward stumble, barely managing to reach the huddled mages before a shield of solid mana erected itself around this small group. I watched in horror as the shower pelted those outside the white barrier, some mages conjuring bulwarks of ice and earth. But those hit the worst by the acid rain were the non-mages.

I suppressed the urge to vomit as men howled when the green liquid seeped through their skin. It wasn't an instant death: the acid wasn't powerful enough to dissolve metal quickly. It was slow and brutal; the accompanying screams of pain made it all the more horrifying.

My distraction almost got me killed. I looked down to see a spearpoint suddenly at my throat, the gleam of steel nearly as threatening as the glare I received from the wielder.

Vaelum was watching me with one eye as a shield held her barrier against the shower of acid. His grip on his weapon was tight, causing his knuckles to whiten.

"What have you done?" he snarled, pressing the spearpoint to my throat. My mana barrier flared under the pressure, and I had no illusions that it wouldn't be shredded like butter if the man pressed a bit harder.

I raised my hands in the universal message of surrender, letting my dagger fall from my hands. It didn't matter if I had a weapon or not: if I couldn't work with these mages, I would die under the onslaught of hornets.

I noticed another mage resting a hand on the shield's back, probably funneling mana into her body. The shield didn't seem too strained by maintaining the mana barrier, but who knew how long she could hold it?

"I didn't do anything," I said placatingly. "I'm not here to fight you," I said, keeping the modification of my voice to a minimum. I really didn't want to exacerbate their fear, but the mask I was wearing probably didn't help. "I can help you fight off the hornets. I don't have much of a choice if I want to survive," I said, my posture rigid.

I could see the conflict warring in Vaelum's eyes, but before he could make a decision, a hand was laid on his arm. I tensed at the sentry's interruption, but I needn't have worried.

"We can worry about what this mage is doing here later," the sentry cut through harshly, peering past the translucent mana barrier with barely restrained fear. The hornets had paused after their initial salvo, something that confused me. I could see small pockets of men huddled under barriers of earth, ice, and more. What was warding off the mana beasts, then? "Right now we need a way out, and we need all the help we can get."

Vaelum lowered the spear from my throat with a huff, peeking past the barrier. I sent a grateful nod to the sentry, who frowned in response. It seemed that I still had work to do to gain his trust.

"Fine," Vaelum said, tilting his head to observe the carnage outside. I took a steadying breath as I spotted the corpses around us. In a single attack, nearly half of the expedition force had been wiped out. I forcefully averted my eyes from the skeletons lining the ground. "This must be from another hive. They're too coordinated for it to be anything else," he said. "And they're going to attack again," he added, dread in his voice. "What's stopping them from diving at us now?"