Macha's Journey

This was the first time Tyr had ever witnessed Macha terrified of anything. He tried to pry her hands off of him, but whenever he freed himself, she would reach out and take hold of him again. The spirits were rising, and he was running out of time to prepare for the attack.

He took her frightened face in his hands and pleaded, "Macha, look at me. Look at me." When her big brown eyes locked with his he continued, "I need you to let go. I can"t defend you like this. Calm down."

She tried to nod her head, but she could only move it slightly. A shiver ran up her spine and she forced herself to rip her hands away from the security of Tyr"s arm. All the ghost stories she heard while growing up could not hold a match to what these creatures looked like. Their ghostly appearance was terrifying, and they gave off an aura that induced a chilling fear deep into her bones.

In an effort to prepare, she drew her blades, but her hands shook so furiously that she worried she would drop them. As the group advanced, a decaying arm reached out for her. Macha swung her daggers in an untrained way, her dread causing her to forget all of her training. A blade grazed the spirit"s wrist and caused it to recoil back. It gave a shrill shriek and glared angrily at her.

The ghastly sound drew more of them out and the clearing filled with atrophied blue, green, and white spectral bodies. Within moments, thousands crawled out of the ground and created what appeared to be a never-ending horde.

One of the hungry spirits latched onto a younger man who joined the Obsidian Dragons a decade before Macha. Tyr struggled to save him, but by the time he fought his way to the back, the boy"s skin was ripped off of his bones. The man"s warm blood and flesh breathed life into the feeding spirits. The ones who fed became faster and more corporeal.

Realizing that the Captain broke formation, Sing-chi dashed forward and defended Macha. His ax barely made it in time. "d.a.m.n it Tyr, defend your woman!" Although he met her a few times, he was not close to the Captain"s girlfriend. He knew she should not be out here, but he was also thankful that she came to rescue them.

Sing-chi"s ax created a gust of cold wind as it stopped in front of Macha"s face. The golden metal shined and her reflection stared back at her. Her terrified expression made it so she barely recognized herself. She blinked her eyes and the chilling fear that clung to her subsided slightly.

She had always been scared of ghosts, but she realized that she needed to focus on survival. Macha squeezed the hilt of her daggers. "Aaargh!" she screamed to help steel herself for the fight.

Tyr jumped into the air and he took his place at the front of the line. The fog around him parted when he landed. His body shielded Macha and he glanced over his shoulder to make sure she was unhurt.

The long blade of Tyr"s lance beheaded three of the spirits. Their sticky plasma splattered across the gra.s.s as their heads rolled to the ground. Within a few seconds, their translucent bodies melted down into the blades of the meadow.

A large wave of hungry spirits rolled towards them. The spectral figures climbed over one another, rushing to the party. The haunting wails screamed through the night as the swell rose high into the sky.

Krystof"s eyes widened. He had never witnessed such an enormous number of spirits in one place before. If they had their specialized weapons, this would not be a problem because Tyr and the others could use their spells and it would affect the horde. Unfortunately, without their specialized weaponry, their normal spells would not work. Only a few of them had the means to deal with the ma.s.sive amount of spirits that came towards them.

He raised his longbow into the air, pointed at the wave that rolled towards them. Out of his quiver, he drew an arrow. It glowed yellow and shattered into thousands of fragments in his hand. It then coalesced into a tight sphere that hovered above his knuckles.

Krystof pulled his bowstring back, the ball spun furiously just above his knuckles. When he released the string, the orb flew swiftly at the ghostly horde. The fragments separated and created a split in the wave as it pa.s.sed through the party.

Macha tilted her head up as the wave moved past them. Tyr and the others lopped off any limbs that reached for them, causing fingers and arms to fall around her.

An arm snaked out between an opening in the formation and grabbed Luna, who was beside Macha. Luna"s face became pale. Seeing that her friend was in trouble, Macha quickly sunk her daggers into the appendage and ripped the limb off of her ally.

Aila noticed this and lopped the arm off of the specter. She then bashed the spirit away with her shield.

"Luna, are you all right?" Macha questioned, helping to steady the disorientated woman.

Blinking her eyes into focus, Luna nodded her head. "Yes, thank you." She still felt faint and lifted her hand to her temple.

She hated weapons and focused all of her training time to summoning and spells. Now she realized that she needed to learn to fight with a weapon as well. Even Macha was defending the party, and she started fighting only a handful of years ago.

She stared at Krystof, who sliced the blades at the ends of his bow through the tortured souls. The spell he used was for large-scale warfare and drained his energy. Now sweat beaded on his forehead and he gritted his teeth from fatigue.

The swarm seemed to grow despite Krystof"s attack. Luna"s vision swept around at the endless horde of spirits. "Tyr, let me use my spell! There are too many," she called.

"No. We can still hold out for now," he yelled as he cleared the way with a series of thrusts. He knew his sister had an incantation that could help, but it would give away their location. Her magic was too flashy and obvious to be useful for covert operations, but they were powerful.