We decided to go after the earth gem next.
"Where do you think it is?" I asked.
"Qade Valley, remember? All those legends about the monsters deep in the forest? It's the best place to start," Aavern said. "Also, there was that portal that appeared."
"Oh, yeah, right," I said.
We took the route along the sea, the exact same route I took when I went to get Aavern. The journey was relatively easy. We arrived at the same beach which I arrived on all that time ago. We clambered ashore and surveyed the surroundings. Everything was pretty normal. I led everyone for the outcropping up beyond the trees. Qassot trailed behind.
"There's something watching us," she said, "Something very old."
There was a massive crash and an eerie sound. Riselus frowned. The call repeated several times, a reverberating pulsing arose that seemed to emanate from the entire forest at once. Aside from myself and Aavern, everyone turned around in confusion. As soon as the sound began, it suddenly stopped. Everything turned eerily silent.
"Okay?" Qassot said hesitantly.
"That happens pretty randomly," I explained, "It used to startle us, but we're pretty used to it."
"And you didn't think to investigate?" Dracoa asked.
"We did!" I said. "We found this big clearing full of statues but when we went back to find it again there were all these trees in the way."
A dim squawking in the distance drew our attention. We turned to see a mass of the dark birds and creatures swarming towards us from across the plains.
"Why are those here?" Dracoa asked calmly, as if they had gone out and found some mushrooms growing on a rock when they should've been on a tree, instead of watching an army rush towards us. "I thought they were fighting the Krie clan."
"I guess they got fought off and are looking for stragglers," Aavern grumbled. "How lucky for us."
"I haven't even gotten to practice using my gem yet," Qassot complained.
"Well, the ocean's thataway," Aavern chuckled.
Qassot immediately bounded off, half flying and half running, towards the sea.
"I was joking," Aavern mumbled. I pat his head with my wing.
"There's a lot of them," Riselus grunted.
"Well, we actually know how to fight," I said cheerfully, "So I wouldn't be worried."
"Let's make a strategy," Aavern said. "I'm out of ideas."
"Just attack?" I suggested.
"No," Riselus grunted.
"What if Dracoa gets them all into one big clump so we can just bombard them from a distance," I said.
"Works for me," Dracoa said, "We need to hurry. Those things will be here any second."
"We can lead them to Qassot so she can do something random with water!" Aavern said.
"That has nothing to do with what I just said," I mumbled.
"I'm fine with that," Riselus grumbled.
Dracoa set the air whirling into compact spinning translucent discs, moving around us carefully and deliberately, like shields. Some of the circles split into multiple shards, which morphed right before my eyes and became floating blades. Aavern and I paused to admire the slow, hypnotic movement of the blades and shields before running around to gather rocks.
"Should I make javelins?" I asked.
"No time," Aavern said. "Just gather rocks."
"Aww."
The creatures broke through the treeline as fluidly as a tidal wave. The airy shields interlocked in front of us. The creatures crashed against the shields. Some knocked themselves out on the hardened air, but the ones in the back started running around the shields. Before we could blink, we were surrounded. Dracoa shattered another circle into blades. The blades formed a circle around us, facing outwards. The blades burst outwards, splitting and slicing furrows through the mass of black, smoking creatures. Riselus immediately rushed towards one furrow, facing the sea, and began to force his way through the rapidly closing flanks.
"Let's get higher and hit them from above," I said, remembering how Aavern managed to beat Azor during the first scrimmage.
"Good idea."
Aavern and I flew up as high as we could and began to fling rocks randomly into the fray. There were so many creatures that most of the rocks hit something. Dracoa flew on top of Riselus's back and created something that resembled a tornado, but instead of sucking in, it blew outwards, allowing Riselus more room to bowl through the ranks. He did so with great enthusiasm, leaving many creatures trampled and crushed in his wake.
A few of the flying creatures seemed to notice us in the air. They rushed us. Before we could dodge, Aavern was pecked in the side, drawing blood, He smashed a rock into the creature's face. I gave him a leaf.
"We should go with the others," he commented, raising his voice to be heard over the roar of flapping wings, whistling wind, and cracking branches.
"I'm also hungry," I said.
"What?" Aavern asked.
"Nothing, let's dive!"
We dove downwards, moving in a swift arc that took us just high enough off the ground to be unreachable by the creatures on the ground, who leap up as one in an attempt to reach us. We moved too fast, though, and they only ended up crashing into the flying creatures who tried to follow our swift flight. Ahead of us, Riselus and Dracoa suddenly broke free of the creatures. Dracoa moved the whirlwind backwards into the main ranks. We dodged out of the way. The whirlwind blew the rest of the creatures back, giving us enough time to make it to the shoreline. Qassot sat on the shore, watching a pair of tornadoes made of water flow, spin, and circle each other in an intricate dance.
"This thing has so much magic power," Qassot mumbled to herself. "Dracoa was right."
"You ready?" Riselus grunted. Qassot jumped in surprise.
"Uh-" she started.
"Hurry."
"But-"
"Ouch," Aavern said, pressing a leaf to his side. I gave him another leaf.
"They're coming again," Dracoa said hesitantly, hearing a faint rumble of thousands of footsteps thundering towards them.
"Can't you use your mind powers or something?" Riselus grumbled.
"There's too many of them for that," Dracoa replied.
"I'm ready," Qassot said, turning away from the water, "I think."
"Same here," Aavern said from a small pile of rocks he had gathered.
"Can you share some of them with me?" I asked. I had been too distracted by Qassot's water tornados.
Aavern sighed and gave me half the pile. Dracoa generated another cluster of blades. The rumbling grew louder, almost deafening.
"See if you can make something that gathers the creatures to somewhere that makes picking them off easy," Aavern suggested.
"Ooh!" Qassot said, "I have an idea!"
Qassot made some of the water in the ocean gather into a shield in front of them.
"Can't the creatures just swim right through that?" I asked.
"I'll just fling them upwards," Qassot said.
"That's perfect," Dracoa said. "Just make sure to-"
Once again, the mass of creatures broke into the open. The wall of water suddenly surged forwards, flinging all the creatures that got caught in it into the air. Dracoa flew up, level with the creatures in the air, and the blades she summoned flew forwards once again, slicing down the creatures. Aavern and I began to lob rocks in a high arc to come smashing down in the midst of the enemies. Riselus walked forwards and began to fight in the melee, swatting some out of the way, crushing others, and causing mass destruction.
Qassot generated two water tornadoes and moved those towards the mass. I noticed a fierce glow in Dracoa's eyes as she generated another wave of blades. Instead of speeding out like projectiles, they began to dart and weave among the enemies.
Qassot flew into the air, flying just over the sea, and moved her claws. Her gem glowed a bright, intense blue. The water in the sea suddenly rose up in a huge block. I could see Qassot straining to keep it on track. The giant block slowly moved over the main mass of creatures.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Qassot shouted, her voice barely audible over the growling, snarling group of attackers.
Riselus looked up and grunted in surprise, grabbing Dracoa - who either did not hear or did not care, and dragged her out of the way. The block of water came crashing down, crushing the assailants and washing them out to sea. Myself, Aavern, and Qassot scrambled out of the way of the torrent of water, which destroyed a wide swath of beach and a small portion of the treeline. When the wave resided, a giant furrow remained in the ground, and the vast majority of the black creatures were in the sea.