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J ai’s heart raced, time moving slowly beneath Silas’s gaze.

He stepped forward, pooling mana in his palm, shaping a shimmering shield. With a contemptuous sneer, Silas hefted his falchion in one hand, a pulsing ball of yellow light forming in the other.

They charged, the gap between them closing, the world blurring, the cacophony of battle becoming a distant murmur.

Silas sent the yellow energy hurtling towards him, striking Jai’s shield, sending spiderweb cracks across its surface. The explosion rocked Jai back, his feet scoring channels in the scorched earth, yet he did not fall.

Mana surged from Jai’s core, repairing the shield in great dollops of mana. It used precious reserves, for he had blown much of what he’d saved into the sky, and he could feel the drain, a creeping weakness that made his knees buckle. But there was yet enough.

Silas pressed forward, his hand contorting. A stream of fire burst forth, licking around the shield, the heat intensifying, sizzling Jai’s boots and scorching the flesh of his arms. His beard crackled, the stench terrible as he squinted through the heat, falling to his knees as his skin began to peel.

Jai dove to the side, rolling along the trampled grass, mana surging in a twisted hand. He pulsed a kinetic energy in a raw, unfocused blast. The ground trembled in a shock wave that shook the earth, radiating dust as it plucked Silas from his feet, sending him and those behind skidding and tumbling.

Jai felt the void where his mana had once been, the exhaustion dragging at his limbs. He stumbled, his thoughts turning to Winter. Blinking through the afterglow haze, he saw Winter on her back, her scaled belly ravaged as the gryphon scrabbled on top of her.

Jai ran, falling and rising as he tripped over the detritus of battle. Staggering close, he stabbed his blade deep into the maelstrom of ripping teeth and talons. It bit into the gryphon’s flailing wing, and the creature screeched in pain. But Jai barely registered the sound, for Winter’s own agony tore at his mind, louder and more piercing than any cry.

A flash of gold made him turn, and then Silas was upon him again, falchion swinging high. Jai met his charge, the two blades singing as they locked. The world seemed to pause as the two men stared each other down, mana pulsing through their limbs, eyes straining, teeth gritted.

The blade edged closer, closer, until Jai twisted a hand, electric energy crackling up the blade, sending Silas whirling away, twitching and shuddering as he staggered. Jai pressed home, slashing once, twice, his blade riving the golden breastplate, the cuts too shallow to kill.

Yet his third blow was countered, knocked back by sheer force, then another that shattered Jai’s blade in a spray of screaming metal. The blow carried on, clanging against Jai’s gorget, hard enough to knock Jai to his knees.

Jai stared at the stump of his weapon, even as Silas raised his blade high.

‘Second time’s the charm,’ he hissed, raising his own, very intact, blade.

Jai saw Winter struggling to escape her fight, her claws scrabbling in the soil, her jaws snapping, just out of reach.

The blade swung, even as the world blazed blue. A wall of searing fire engulfed the space between them, twisting back to send Silas staggering, a shield spurting into life as the man careened through the air, smoke rising from his armoured form.

Jai turned to see Winter, her throat expanding and contracting, eyes glowing a lightning shade of cerulean. She had breathed fire , flames dripping from her mouth as the gryphon twisted away in shared pain from her master.

Yet, before Jai could muster an attack, legionaries approached the smoke, closing in on him like wolves on injured prey.

Jai scrambled for a fallen blade, but found instead that Winter’s massive head had swooped down, her jaws seizing him by the scruff of his shirt. He could smell the acrid scent of her flames, and feel the burning heat of her teeth – and he thanked the Mother for it. With powerful beats of her wings, they erupted into the sky, sending legionaries staggering and leaving the battle below.

From his elevated vantage, the scene was dire. The battle had turned into a charnel house. The charge had broken through the legion’s centre, but the enemy’s left and right flanks had held their ground. The once-proud knights, despite their strength and courage, were being hemmed in as centurions reformed their soldiers into two islands of determined legionaries.

That was not to say they were completely unbroken. Legionaries peeled away from the battle in dribs and drabs, but Jai could see their hesitation. For beyond, the fettered Huddites had run. Half a thousand men, who would take easy vengeance on a lone legionary running from battle.

‘Easy, girl,’ Jai whispered, for he could not tell where his pain began and hers ended. His arms and shins were badly burned, and his mana was all but spent. Winter’s pain was diffuse, spread across extremities and wings that made their flight an agony. Her mana too was almost spent, and it was a miracle they were still aloft.

Now was not the time for half measures.

Jai signalled to his infantry with a second burst of glintlights, calling them to charge, throwing his reserves in to break the nearest island of embattled legionaries. The infantry roared in response, their myriad weapons raised high as they tore across the trampled grass, heading for the exposed flanks of the embattled legionaries.

Jai turned his gaze to the retreating backs of the fettered Huddites, and a mad idea sparked in his mind.

‘Come, Winter,’ Jai breathed, reaching up and stroking her leg. ‘We’ve one more card left to play.’