Memory 4

[malignstar]

This memory is especially chaotic. Magic spells are being blasted in every direction. Some seem to burn, some seem to blind, some seem to push back with wind, some seem to split the very ground and force it to rise up and hurl individuals in every direction and some seem to weigh attacks down in torrential downpour.

He can feel the sword gripped tightly in his hand, its smooth black surface somehow gleaming just to the right of his vision and radiating with wisps of purplish-black energy. He backs toward a teenage boy that he can only see when he half-glances over his shoulder, even as he fights someone back with his sword. Whatever happens, he can't let anything happen to that boy. The mantra repeats in his head over and over, a different voice each time. As it does every time that boy is involved in a fight. His charge. His fate. And more important than either of those, his friend.

His companion is engaged in his own fight with what seems to be a winged young woman, who comes at him with rapid strikes, meant to incapacitate rather than kill. Her sword skills are absolutely insane.

But it's becoming increasingly hard to keep an eye on the boy while resisting the attack from his front, especially with the blade-sharp winds that tear at his face and clothing from his assailant's direction. Things are not at all helped by the heavy weight at his back, making him feel unbalanced at times, as he tries to side-step and parry the blows. He's still not used to it. Nikki (who?) would chide him about needing more practice.

The others are too preoccupied with their own battles to help in any way, and he knows that if he goes down, his companion will be left to fend off two attackers, when he's barely managing to hold his own against the one. Though that might have something to do with the fact that rather than simply fighting the winged woman, the boy has been begging her to listen to him while doing his best to avoid her attacks. His companion still refuses to accept the truth right in front of his eyes, even if it got them all killed. And Felix lacks the ability to come down on the boy as hard as Nikki most certainly would. All he can do is bark back at the boy ("Jace!") to not let himself get distracted.

That move results in a blow that smashes into something along his right side, sending agonizing jolts of pain convulsing down his shoulder blade to his back, along with a spray of blood against his clothes. He grits his teeth as he stumbles back in pain, hearing Jace screaming his name behind him. He's violently jerked forward again, intensifying the throbbing in his shoulder blade. He desperately tries to fight past the pain to focus his power on his sword. If he can just free himself...

But before he can retaliate, a black mass only slightly smaller than a bear slams into his attacker, cutting off the tight sensation in his shoulder blade and flinging him to the ground. Through watery eyes, he's able to make out the mass' black lashing tail and powerful limbs. Blood mists the air as the creature savagely tears at the body beneath it, its shaggy coat quickly becoming a pastiche of bright red.

The sound of ripped flesh echoes wetly in his ears again and again. As though someone was tearing the pages out of a very thick book. Only one made of flesh and bone. Thick globules of blood now cling from the black wolf's fur, like something out of a horror movie.

His voice is all but lost to him in the shock, relief. He's only able to utter one strained sound.

"Nikki..."