Windhawks flew through the eruption before Wraith could answer.
They charged through the woods, wind mana spiralling from their wings. The air shrieked as interlacing blades of wind shredded leaves and etched wild scars into the bark.
But they weren't the issue.
Something heavier charged beneath them.
Two hulking beasts barrelled through the undergrowth, tossing rotten logs and saplings aside as if they weighed nothing.
Vargis gritted his teeth.
Quakebacks.
They towered nearly ten feet tall, each one dwarfing Vargis and Wraith, throwing vast shadows that engulfed the pair.
From the same family as gorillas, they were cloaked in thick black fur and hunched their backs. Jagged ridges of dark stone jutted from shoulders, knuckles, and forearms, each plate patterned with cracks which gleamed with ochre mana. Their jaws jutted out with two large teeth protruding over their bottom lip.
With every thunderous step, the glowing fissures radiated stronger, building with raw power.
The lead Quakeback launched off its hind legs, vaulting over the treeline on all fours.
The impact sent out tremors rippling beneath Vargis' black boots.
"Behind me!" Wraith commanded.
Vargis flipped backwards, his low mohawk spiking in the wind as he landed behind the necromancer.
Wraith dropped into a crouch
He seized his emaciated staff in both hands and drove its heel an inch into the ground.
Green mana erupted beneath them.
It raced through the earth in branching veins, tearing up while illuminating roots and buried stones before extending over the entire clearing.
Wraith clenched his fingers around the staff.
He uttered.
"Remains of the lost, beckon forth and draw life from impending mortals."
The ground ruptured.
Bones burst from beneath the moss in a spanning wall.
Engorged ribs, tusks and sharpened femurs tore upwards at differing angles, forming a woven mass of barricade of pale spikes.
The suicidal windhawks struck it first.
Several were impaled through their chests. Others lost wings or legs as they attempted to pull away, their blood raining over Wraith as it trickled and pooled within the grim wall of broken bones.
The Quakeback were too committed to halt their advance.
The first on all fours collided shoulder-first into the wall. Bones broke under its weight, but some managed to slip through and punched holes into its thigh and abdomen.
The second raised both stone-plated arms to protect its face. Spikes scraped across its armour, hurling shards of bone and stone in every direction.
Neither beast fell.
Nor did they look finished.
Raska and Rosco charged first.
Since transformed, the twins stood only a head shorter than the Quakeback. Their amber eyes burned brightly, set within thick coats of moon-grey fur.
Raska took the front.
A Quakeback ripped the abdomen out of the bones and swung one bulked arm towards her.
She ducked beneath it.
The stone-plated fist swept past her tousled fur before striking the ground; the ochre mana switched from its shoulders to its fist, shooting through cracks of its knuckles.
The earth buckled.
Splintered earth sent Raska sideways, but she twisted in the air and landed on springy heels.
Rosco used the distraction.
He leapt upward with intent, sprang himself from the beast's protruding rib and landed across the Quakeback's hindside.
The beast roared and reached behind itself with clambering arms.
But Rosco wasn't going to be swatted so easily, crawling beyond the reach of its solid arms before driving his claws into the fissures.
Blood soaked into the fur around his fingers.
Raska attacked again.
She rushed the Quakeback from the front, slashing her claws across its leathered face whenever it tried to focus on Rosco. Each time the beast bucked, one twin tore into the side it exposed to the other.
They moved without needing to say a single word.
After all, they were twins, and above that, members of a pack sent specifically by their Moon-Seer.
Their ability to work together couldn't be questioned.
The second Quakeback had no intention of waiting behind Wraith's bone wall.
Again, it summoned ochre mana into its forearms and bore its fists down to the floor.
The bone barricade exploded.
Splinter tore through the clearing like shrapnel from a grenade. Vargis crossed his swords to deflect the shards; however, he was not able to stop a stray bullet cutting past his cheek.
The second Quakeback charged through the opening.
Two dead windhawks twitched upon the broken spike behind it.
They started to squawk, circulating their volatile wind mana to break free from impalement.
Green flames blazed inside their eyes.
Flesh still hung from the bones that impaled them. Their broken wings snapped back together as Wraith's mana operated on their bodies.
They joined the first recovered windhawk overhead.
Three corpses now flew against the living flock.
Their dead flockmates crashed into them with zero hesitation, tearing at wings and dashing through eyes with crooked talons. Living windhawks scattered from aerial formations they had maintained only moments before, unable to understand why old brothers in arms were hunting them.
Vargis stepped in front of Wraith.
The approaching Quakeback was twice his size and dozens of times his weight.
He breathed deep before exhaling.
It dragged its hardened knuckles through the moss.
Vargis lowered his stance.
"I fucking hate fights like these."
The beast swung.
Both sabres rose to redirect the blow.
He grimaced under the force.
"Shit!"
The impact still sent him reeling back.
Vargis struck the ground shoulder-first and rolled through the moss. Pain travelled down his right arm, making his fingers spasm around the sabre's hilt.
His gold earrings rang against one another as he forced himself upright.
The Quakeback continued its advance without giving him time to recover.
That was when another body crashed through the wall.
ROOAAAHHHH!!
Another stone-plated arm sent shards of bone flying toward Vargis.
"Shit, shit, shit!" he cursed.
He coiled his legs like a spring; a clear energy wrapped his feet.
"Wild Dash!" he called.
He flashed before the Quakeback's eyes, dodging among each projectile, narrowly dodging each splinter.
The bones impacted behind him, hitting nothing but dirt and root.
A third Quakeback clambered out from the clearing.
It moved alongside its mate, fresh and unharmed; ready for battle.
Vargis tightened his grip around his blades.
One had been a problem.
Two was quite frankly ridiculous.
Wraith remained planted behind him.
Green mana travelled continuously between his staff and the dirt, the buried bones and every corpse surrounding him. Whenever a windhawk broke through, another spike burst from the earth to impale it.
Once dead, he'd reanimate the corpse and send it back up to join the dogfight above.
He had his hands full.
He could not afford to move.
"Hold them!" Wraith shouted. "This is a battle of attrition, but the longer this battle lasts, the more of them become mine!"
Vargis gave a quick side nod, but he had no opportunity to answer.
Both Quakebacks charged at once.
The Moontrail hunters ensured they were not overwhelmed as arrows flew between the striking of beak and axe.
The spear-wielding wolf guarded the twins' flank, thrusting his weapon through a windhawk that attempted to pry Rosco off the beasts' backs.
He tore it off the spearhead before lobbing it over to Wraith.
The axe-bearer remained close to the necromancer, batting away diving attacks; she cleaved through encroaching feathered enemies, prepared to fight any beast that tried to attack Wraith.
The archers continued to fire from surrounding trees.
Arrows flashed past branches, landing in cracks on the Quakebacks' armour, laying down supporting fire for Vargis and the twins.
Vargis met the first Quakeback's charge.
Head-on was a fool's game.
So he stepped beyond its range and plunged one of his sabres into its wounded thigh. The blade dragged deep through bristle fur and tense muscle before striking bone.
The beast stumbled, calling out to its partner.
The one who attacked from the opposite side.
Vargis threw himself forwards.
A stony fist passed over his head and struck the injured Quakeback across the ribs. Stored ochre mana discharged, producing a burst of earthen force that sent the beast staggering away.
Vargis was still in amongst them.
The injured Quakeback raised both hammering fists.
The crevices in its rocky stone armour brightened.
Vargis knew what was to come, and leapt onto one of the remaining bone spikes of the fallen wall.
Both fists couldn't find their mark, so they pounded the earth.
A shockwave tore through the clearing.
Moss and soil shot into the air. The bone spike Vargis mounted trembled.
The wounded Quakeback glared at him with laboured breaths.
Vargis sneered.
"Gotta try harder than that."
The fresh Quakeback roared just as it swiped at him.
Vargis jumped.
Its arm crushed the spike he perched on a moment before.
Time seemed as if to slow as he was airborne.
Both Quakebacks stared up at him with fury in their eyes.
If there was a fly you just couldn't swat for the life of you, wouldn't you be annoyed?
That was what Vargis was to them.
A pesky, persistent green fly.