Two Front Battle

Time seemed to slow as the Commander approached, John’s mind racing to figure out how not to die to their wooden adversaries.

‘Damn it,’ John thought, eyes flicking between the steady approach of the titan and Aeolia drawing away from the Knight, a grim look on her face. ‘There’s no way we can take both of them on at the same time. Should we run? From their pre-battle actions, it looks like they just protect this tree, but they might be programmed to wipe out any intruder, so they might follow.’

He wasn’t able to continue his worried ponderings as the Commander stopped, bent at the knees and brought its sword into a horizontal position, parallel to the ground. John realized what it was doing and shouted at Aeolia, “Look out!”

The words had scarcely left his mouth when the Commander let out a hollow cry and lurched forward at a surprising speed, the edge of its improbable weapon trained on John. The Gamer dived out of the way, just barely slipping under the sweeping blade. The Commander trampled onward, slowly reducing its speed.

John staggered to his feet as the Commander stopped and turned. He looked past the towering figure to see Aeolia flying, not back towards the relative safety of the forest, but at the Commander, her glaive glowing with gathered magic as she lifted it above her head. She swung her blade down at the Commander’s head, letting loose a harsh cry of defiance.

-10 HP

The wind enhanced strike dug into the armored helm of the boss enemy, going a few centimeters deeper than her strike on the Knight’s arm. She pulled her weapon free and flew away as the Commander twisted to counterattack, swinging an arm in an attempted backhand. Aeolia dipped out of the way, reducing herself back to her natural size, and zipped over to John.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said breathlessly, her wings flapping hard to keep her aloft before him. John didn’t need the suggestion repeated and bolted towards the tree line. Their escape wasn’t unnoticed as the Knight moved to intercept, its approach hidden by the bulk of its superior. It attacked from behind, lance trained on John’s exposed lower legs.

John couldn’t avoid the strike; the Knight was too close to stop with Shadow Snare, so he invoked his defensive option, Stoney Skin. The Evocation of his coat activated, reinforcing his flesh with earthen mana, the sensation of which was like being covered in drying mud.

-8 HP

The Knight’s lance struck John’s leg a second later, the blow unable to pierce the limb, but the momentum behind it still sent a jolt of pain through him. It also threw him off balance, his hasty steps and focus faltering under the impact, dispelling Stoney Skin.

“Keep moving,” Aeolia shouted at him as she flew back towards the Knight, still in her diminutive state. She swung her glaive in an upward arc, releasing a wave of green-tinted wind that struck the Knight from below, knocking the mount in the jaw.

-2 HP

The blow was enough to flinch the Knight, giving John time to right himself and pass into the forest. He kept moving, putting as much distance between him and the Woads. Aeolia quickly returned to him, landing on his shoulder, breath heavy. John’s own breath grew more ragged as he jogged over the rough terrain.

“Are they,” he asked through panting breaths, “following us?”

Aeolia twisted, eyes darting about to as much of the woods behind them as she could see. “No, they’re not. I think we can stop.”

John slowed, his heart pounding in his ears, and came to lean upon a tree to rest. He took a few deep breaths, before he cast a glance down at his shoulder, where Aeolia had plopped down.

“Sorry,” John said in a low voice. “Got ahead of myself back there. Should have just let the Phantom die.”

Aeolia let out a small huff and looked up at him. “Not like I didn’t jump in the second that fucking Knight was open. Plus, the big guy hadn’t moved at that point, and now we know it will. So, Mr. Gamer, what’s the plan?”

“Since we’re not being followed,” John answered, “I think we should take a breather to recover a bit, and go over our options and observations.”

“Bit of rest, I’m good with that,” Aeolia replied, closing her eyes. “How’s your leg, by the way?”

“Fine,” John said, giving the limb a small shake. “Got my coat’s Evocation up in time, stopped it from stabbing into me. Still shaved of eight Hit Points.”

John paused and glanced at Aeolia’s health and mana bars. Her health remained at just above the three-quarter mark, while her mana had dropped to just over half. Then Aeolia took a deep breath, and her mana bar jumped up by at least ten percent.

“How’d you regen your mana like that?" John questioned, shocking Aeolia out of her meditations, a hint of annoyance showing in her yellow eyes as she opened them.

She took a breath. “I’m drawing in the ambient mana and making it mine. Can’t take too much in at a time, but it can help to restore some. Just close your eyes, try to feel the mana around you, link your mana to it and pull some in.”

Her instructions done, Aeolia resumed her mana recovery. John followed her example, closing his eyes and focusing his senses outward.

‘Well, I don’t feel anything,’ John thought after a moment in self-imposed darkness. ‘Maybe I should get a better feel of my mana first and see if I can sense anything after that.’

Turning his attention inwards, John reached for his mana. He felt it at his core, relaxed at the moment but like standing before a fire, the potential energy radiating off it like heat. As he immersed himself in his mana, John became aware of a pressure around him, like stepping out into a humid afternoon after being inside an air-conditioned building.

The mana of the area clung to him, and John tried to pull some of it in, but found it not responsive.

‘Right,’ John thought. ‘Have to link my mana to it. Whatever that means.’

Returning to his meditations, John reached back to his mana, envisioning strands of energy reaching from his core out to the free-floating power around him. That seemed to be the trick as the external mana began to flow down the paths John made, slowly filling him with a gentle warmth as he recharged his magical power.

For over a minute, John infused himself with mana, until the steady drip came to a halt and a popup broke John’s peaceful respite, letting him see his mana bar had recovered to around the half-way point in his HUD.

John dismissed the display and brought up his character sheet, seeing that his mana had gone up to 41, a welcome sight.

“See you got it down.” Aeolia’s sudden statement caused John to flinch. “And of course you got a new skill from it.”

“Um, yeah,” John said, closing his sheet, a little embarrassed that Aeolia may have seen his Libido Stat or Masturbation level, years of ridicule over his, perhaps true, pervy thoughts causing a spike of fear over losing what was shaping up to be an actual friendship. Or more.

Thankfully, Aeolia continued without any indication of seeing those parts of his sheet, “Well, now that we’ve recovered a bit of mana, what’s the plan?”

“Since they didn’t follow us, I think it’s safe to assume that they’re programmed to protect that clearing,” John mused with a grim countenance, “which means we can’t lure them away or isolate the Knight from the Commander.”

Aeolia hummed as she mulled over John’s assessment. “So, we’re either going to have to take them both on at the same time, or…”

“Or, we have to split up,” John finished her thought. “One of us fights the Knight while the other keeps the Commander distracted until the Knight is dealt with.”

A heavy silence surrounded the pair, neither wanting this to be the path they had to take, but it was the only option they had before them.

“I’ll distract the Commander,” John reluctantly said. “Photonic Blast didn’t take out the Scout in one hit, so the Knight would likely take at least two before going down, and I don’t think I could get close enough to use it without getting skewered by those lances. But I can dodge the Commander’s attacks. It's slow normally and its rushing move has enough of a windup to it for me to get out of the way before it goes off.”

Aeolia’s mouth formed a sour line as she digested John’s plan, obviously not liking the idea of splitting the party. She grew agitated as she tried and failed to develop an alternative, eventually letting out a frustrated huff.

“Damn it,” she cursed. “You’re right. Divide and conquer is the only move with a chance to work. Can’t say I’m a fan of it though.”

“Not really how I expected things to go,” John admitted with a serious voice. “But it is what it is. Hopefully, they’ll still be damaged so we won’t have as much of an uphill battle to fight.”

“How badly did we hurt them, anyway?” Aeolia asked.

“Let me think,” John said, casting his mind back to the battle. “I think we did a little over ten to the Knight, most of that being from you, and about the same to the Commander. Given their levels, we probably did more to the Knight, percentage-wise. Taking it out should be quicker than the Commander, so you can cut it down, then we can worry about the big guy together.”

Aeolia nodded, cracking a small smile. “Well, it’s a plan. I’ll try to take care of that Knight quickly and get back to you.”

She tried to sound confident, but John could hear the worry creeping into her voice. He returned her smile with a reassuring one of his own.

“I’ve got a lot of practice in avoiding bigger guys who want to beat me up,” John joked. “Honestly, my whole time in school has been training me for this moment.”

“If you’re sure,” Aeolia said, shaking her head clear of negative thoughts. “Well, no time like the present. How are we going to start this thing?”

“I’m thinking…” John started as he began to head back to the clearing, his voice low just in case.

Aeolia, grown to her full size, waited crouched behind a tree at the edge of the clearing. The same spot she and John had set their first ambush, though now she was alone. According to John’s plan, she was to attack the Knight when it reached the height of its path, while he would enter the clearing to occupy the Commander. Her heartbeat hard in her chest, a mixture of anticipation and anxiety.

‘Stop worrying,’ Aeolia thought, hands tightening on the shaft of her glaive as she waited for her quarry to round the massive root of the giant tree. ‘This is a good plan. John was able to avoid the big guy’s attack before and all he has to focus on is dodging it. Just take out the Knight quickly, and join John in attacking the Commander.’

She silenced her thoughts as the Knight trotted into view. Aeolia trained her attention upon it, in particular its right arm. Upon the lance was a divot, splinters sticking up from where the glaive had rend into it.

‘Well, hopefully that means it hasn’t recovered from the earlier damage,’ she thought, readying herself to spring out. ‘And, now!’

She pounced, leaping out from the trees, mana gathering on her glaive. A few steps into the clearing was enough to draw the attention of the Knight, who quickly broke from its routine path to charge at the invading AvenFae, steed’s jaw running with sap and rider’s lance aimed to kill.

With a powerful flap of her wings, Aeolia lifted into the air, the currents of mana around her buoying her up as she ascended. She met the speeding Woad head-on, in an odd parody of a jousting match, wooden lance against wind sharpened glaive. Right before the two combatants would reach striking range, Aeolia beat her wings hard, launching herself above the plane of battle.

In midair, Aeolia twisted around, bringing herself to face the Woad’s **** rear. She poured more mana into her glaive; the magically induced wind growing more powerful and vibrant as she swung her blade down across the Knight’s back, carving a trough through the wooden carapace.

The Knight let out a hollow noise at its injury, but didn’t falter in its movements, wheeling its hound around to continue its attack. Aeolia remained higher than it could reach, but just barely, fearful that going too high could cause the Knight to instead rush to its Commander’s aid. She could already hear the battle on the other side of the tree; the heavy footfalls of the towering Woad leader thundered as it most likely approached John, crafting a horrible image in Aeolia’s mind of the Gamer getting stomped by the large, armored feet.

She shook that unbidden scene from her head and redoubled her focus upon the Knight. ‘Kill this bastard and you can go and make sure that doesn’t happen. It doesn’t look like it took a lot of damage from hitting its back, but maybe if I keep attacking that point, I can hit something more vital. John said their chests are their weak point. If I can whittle away the armor, I can run my glaive right through its back.’

Plan made, Aeolia dived at the Knight, letting the blade of her weapon dim as she stopped fueling its magic, conserving her mana for later. The Woad took her attack head-on, its steed rearing up on its hind legs and the rider stabbed at Aeolia. She twisted away from the attack, the rough texture of the lance scraping her leg as she evaded. She swung her glave, scoring a hit to the Knight’s extended underarm even from her awkward position.

It let out a creaking hiss as the blade bit into its wooden flesh, digging in several centimeters. It snapped its arm back, catching Aeolia’s weapon between its body and limb. It turned sharply towards Aeolia, pulling her until she let go of her weapon. Off-balanced as she was, Aeolia was only able to avoid the full brunt of the following attack, the lance scraping her arm.

She held back a hiss of pain as the rough texture ripped her skin, and bounced away from the Knight, intent on putting a fair distance between them. Her glaive remained in the side of the enemy, the protruding weapon not an issue for the Woad as it charged again.

Aeolia kept up her retreat, until an idea sparked in her head. She halted her backwards movement, then dashed forward, gliding towards her foe. Then she let go of her transformation, the steady current of mana within her ebbing as she shrank. As Aeolia returned to her natural size, so too did the objects she had attuned to her mana, chiefly among them: her glaive.

The sudden shift in the weapon’s size let it freely fall out of the wound it had made and the arm that held it in place. Aeolia sped past the Knight, nimbly avoiding a clumsy attempt by the Woad to swat her away, and snagged her glaive as it fell through the air.

She flew up behind the Woad, funnelling her mana both into returning to her larger size and conjuring a cutting wind upon her weapon. At maximum height and with glaive alight with pale green wind, Aeolia stabbed at the scar she had made in its back. The wind enhanced steel parted what remained of the wooden armor with a little effort, and easily dug into the more pliant material within.

The Woad and its hound let off twinned hollow cries as Aeolia shifted her weapon around its insides, widening the wound and inflicting greater damage until the golem and steed suddenly ceased their joined cry and collapsed to the ground.

Aeolia pried her glaive from the dead Woad, eyes locked on it just to be sure. Then she slammed her blade into its head as a precautionary measure. The Knight remained motionless as the steel cut into its helm-like head.

‘Didn’t the Scout disappear when John killed it?’ she thought for a second before the steady sound of the Commander’s march caused her head to snap towards the other side of the clearing.

‘No time for that,’ Aeolia cursed as she took off.