Lyra Cinder is cast out from the Fort, the largest remaining training settlement for human mages outside of the Alliance. Without a killer extinct and far too much use of her conscience, she is of no use to the mages who have refused peace with thei...
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Brand pushed the door open a crack, knowing he was shoving a corpse but having no other choice. Beyond the threshold, it was a war zone, which was not entirely unheard of with mage complexes, but it was what wasn't there that boiled his blood. Not even a hint of dark magic rode the air as blades clashed and spells collided to ricochet off the bloodstained outer walls. Light clashed with light, the mages of Westport against agents of the Zero rebellion.
The savages were known to attack complexes and settlements that so much as whispered about coexistence with vampire kind, but these men were not here to heckle and warn them with a little blood. This was an execution.
Already,corpses littered the ground, though none Brand knew as of yet. Off near the eastern barracks, Rubble and Crest fought side by side against just one of the Zero officers. They barely held their ground with shields spells, lighting the ground with flames to halt the brutes advance. A spell broke Rubble's shield, he stumbled, and then a half scythe decapitated their attacke. Ember spun at another man pursuing him with his dual scythes, and they gave him space as he walked over the corpse like it was nothing but a rock in his path.
Brand's heart pounded so hard that he could barely hear the yells of the men around him. So loudly that he didn't see his attacker. Light magic appeared at his side so quickly that he barely turned before he met with a sneer of sharp teeth and a dagger falling for his shoulder. It glanced off a sword that blocked the blow and buried itself in the man's throat. Blood bubbled from the rebel's mouth as he fell, staining his muddy hair black, and the sword withdrew from the man and dropped to the dirt at his feet.
It was the one he'd just forged, clean off the cooling table and vicious in the defense of its creator. Behind him, each weapon he'd repaired today rattled in their sheaths, broadaxes jumped from there pegs on the wall, and patched shields formed up at his feet and his back to guard his flank. Even if he'd never been in a real battle nor far from his father's generals, he was never alone in his own forge.
"Shall we test your blades then?" Brand whispered to the weapons and they rose to his call. They spun in an arc around him before pointing at the aggressors and sailing out into the fray.
Brand focused on the areas that were having the most trouble, which were the younger guys from the Fort who barely knew how to fight. They knew how to band together and defend themselves, but at best, they could push the men back with bursts of magic. They were not killers, and could not stomach felling their own kind. All except for Fuel who had no qualms about melting the man attacking Ember down to a sludge of flesh. Of course that wore him out, and several daggers poked the man who came at him next full of holes. Fuel gave the floating weapons a wide eyes stare of terror, but Band pulled them back into the fight without time to explain.
Poking men here and there and taking out ones who didn't realize what was happening was the best Brand could do before the Zero caught on. They turned their attention to his assault, and weapons were only as good as their wielder. Without a wielder at all, they were cut down with ease. The broad axe split to the blow of one of the Zero commanders, and its scream of death had Brand dropping to his knees. Another followed as a sword snapped, and Brand pulled the weapons back to the forge. He couldn't sit back while they died, but it left him open, and the Zero pounced on him.
