Everyone fell silent. I listened closely and I could hear the light pitter-patter and crunch of paws in the snow, it definitely sounded like more than two spirit beasts.
'What's the situation? There are definitely more than two.' I used my mind link with Orin to communicate silently.
'No, many of them are hollow, this is a scare tactic.' he replied
'No sense in standing here and letting the weaker of the group get scared, go attack.' Spirit advised.
I wasn't wearing my Wyvern Wings at the moment but I took a page from dad's book and made some wings with my Changeling Armor. They were far slower and more clumsy because they lacked the bat spirit beast leather that empowers pressure manipulation near it.
I set to take off to attack the source of the noise, only to find that the source was in all directions.
"GET IN A CIRCLE!" I shouted as my golems arrived, ushering the rest of the crew to me.
Bella was in the middle, bow in hand, Ben, Teo, and the Knights formed an outer layer while Devin, Vincent, dad, and Jerod sat behind. Ward, Fabiru, and John were still running to us, they were on top of the airship using a crane when I shouted. Bock stood on Fultz's shoulders and started casting runes.
'The fuck is Bock doing up there?' I thought before getting back to my task: interception. Whenever the enemy would break the line, they would feel my spear.
All of us except for the crane group had just barely got into formation when a horde of Fire Lynxes came out from the treeline.
"Area of effect spells! They're copies!" I shouted as I got into stance to receive a charge.
Just before they reached us, Bock finished his runes, and a storm of fire erupted from him, only to condense immediately into a suit of blazing armor. The initial burst of fire bent around his allies and burned the copied lynxes to a crisp. Bock didn't notice it, but he was using the cold side of thermal manipulation to keep himself and his allies from burning. Bock jumped off of Fultz's shoulders and started wading through the horde, punching the copies that got too close and letting the others burn before they got to him. Each one of his punches was empowered by flames and was more akin to a melee fireball than a blunt impact.
'He won't be able to keep that up for long, I can feel the Eneru from here and he's Yomo's age.'
As if on cue, he ran out of Eneru and had to be ported back into the formation.
"By the Great Father of Order, connect these two places!" I heard, muffled by the hull of the ship.
A moment later and a portal opened, and Ward stepped through on his own.
"Where's John and Fabiru?" I said as I smacked a copy with the butt of my spear.
"Well, their metal weapons would destabilize any portal I-"
"Spit it out."
"Uh, over... there." He pointed at the airship.
I glanced over, just to see Fabiru jump off of the twenty-foot high deck and swing one of his two hammers into a copy. This distraction was enough for a real Fire Lynx to take a chunk out of my shoulder and disappear into the crowd.
"Gah! Fuck!" I covered my wound with my hand for less than a second before Devin healed it.
"I'm going to support Fabiru and John! They have to make it to the formation or we're done!" Ben shouted, swinging his glaive in a wide arc.
"I'll take your place! Ward! You're gonna run interception!"
"Got it!"
We shouted over the clanging, roars, and whelps.
'Orin, get ready, you're the reserve in case someone goes down.'
I stabbed my spear forward, killing a copy.
'I'm the weak link now, my weapon is a single target weapon the enemy isn't wearing metal.'
I swung my spear in an arc, scratching some of the copies.
"Ingen! Duck!" Bella said
I obeyed without question as she shot a Fire Lynx as it went for my neck. The Lynx retreated and the arrow fell to the ground. As it left, I noticed something, the corpses of the dead copies would disintegrate slowly and float to the lynx, then disappear to become a copy again.
I checked on the group that Ben went to help, John was swinging a two-handed smithing hammer around, instantly killing all of the copies that surrounded him. I thrust my spear at a particularly aggressive copy, only for a real Lynx to jump at me again from somewhere else, Sir Plien swung his shield and launched the lynx off course. It disappeared. I turned my attention back to the other group, looking for ideas. Fabiru swung one of his smaller warhammers into a copy, but he instead cracked a boulder and deformed his hammer.
At that moment, Ben picked both of them up, lightning arched off of his body as he made a massive leap back to the group. As soon as he landed, he got down on one knee.
'Enhancing his body for so long has taken its toll, he's not out of Eneru yet, but he is tired.'
"John, take my spot. Fabiru, give me your broken hammer." I said
Both did as instructed, Fabiru was a bit reluctant though. I started focusing on the flow, I wanted to reserve my Eneru so I used flow perception to see and guide my flow easier. I repaired his hammer in an instant and handed it back to him, and he got to the front, but for some reason, I decided to watch the flow a little longer.
"Wait, why is the flow going around us, but through them?" My eyes grew wide with excitement as I gasped. "Bella! That one! Shoot it!"
I pointed at a lynx that was blocking the flow rather than letting it pass through. She shot it right in the eye and it exploded as the pressure in its head grew too much. Then, all at once, half of the copies disintegrated and flew at me. Before I could react, they entered my shadow and Orin appeared, as large as a bull.
"They're pulling back! Yeah!" Someone shouted.
"Kill that one! Now!" I shouted as I pointed at the other, real Fire Lynx.
Bella shot an arrow, but the Lynx reclaimed all of its mass as it ran, so her shot was off and it darted away, leaving a forest fire behind.