Rites of Winter by AK Faulkner

Author:AK Faulkner [Faulkner, AK]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ravensword Press

27

Quentin

"Great," Eric said. He sounded enthusiastic. "Good move. I like this. What's our next step?"

"I hadn't got quite that far," Quentin admitted. "I was hoping something would have come to me by now."

Eric's smile faltered. "Okay, well, I don't wanna alarm you, but out of the thousands of people here right now, only one of them can die."

Quentin nodded grimly. The trees he held in place around them shuddered under the assault of weapons far heavier than arrows. At first he'd supposed they were spears, but as time went on, the sound grew deafening.

Swords and axes must have come into play, which meant that they were completely surrounded, with only a few feet between them and their attackers.

He took a deep breath.

What did The Book of Five Rings say about being outnumbered?

Waiting is bad.

He clicked his tongue faintly. To his recollection, Musashi's book specifically said to pick out those nearest to you and wade in with both swords. All waiting did was allow the enemy to come to you instead.

Which it had.

In large-scale strategy, it is important to cause loss of balance.

Quentin narrowed his eyes. Musashi hadn't meant literally. He meant to disrupt an army's equilibrium, whether by damaging their morale, causing surprise, or through stripping their resources.

He knew how to cause a surprise, but the cost would be tremendous.

"All right," he nodded. "Stay close."

"Dude, I am on you like fleas on a dog."

Quentin nodded and threw the trees in front of him straight forward, pushing as hard as he could to fling them away from him. At first it was easy, but the resistance grew quickly as more and more people behind it were crushed together.

Creatures fell away from the trees like bowling pins. Some tried to run, and others were simply swept aside. But before they could regain their balance, he threw a jet of flame into the path he had cleared, igniting the rest of the wall around himself while he was at it.

"Fuuuuck," Eric said.

"Quickly." Quentin darted forward, using the flames and shadows as cover. He had to trust that Eric was sticking to him as closely as he'd said he would.

He built a tunnel of fire, and drew some heat back into himself to create a bubble of cool air so that he could pass through it. While fire didn't seem to harm him, heat was another matter, and drawing some of the fire's temperature back allowed him to retain more energy.

Quentin ran. He bolted down the tunnel and left it in place so that they couldn't tell where along it he and Eric were. He pushed more fire forward, hoping that it didn't cause too much pain to those who were caught in its path, but ultimately Eric was correct.

Only one person here could die, and Quentin had no intention of doing so.

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