Chapter 195 - Bonds Of One [I] (1/2)

They gazed at each other, their faces inches apart. Something like admiration passed over Ju Feng's face. He started to speak, but suddenly his face was illuminated by a brilliant, arcane light.

Chang Chang looked down, and saw the source coming from the space of water between the boat and the raft. A second apparition glowed from the water, but this one shone clearer, and its form melded into a twisted mockery of a human face—

”Watch out!” Ju Feng shouted. He hauled her up, but it was too late.

The sea wraith burst from the water in a shower of wet and light. The force of its appearance blew the small boats into the air. Pressure, then fire shot up her right arm, but Chang Chang didn't dwell on that calamity. She felt her body leave solid ground—she was flying, the world tilting—and then the fetid water closed over her head, blocking out all sensation except cold.

Frantically, Chang Chang kicked in her bulky robe, propelling herself to what she hoped was the surface. She came up gulping air. Nothing but cold blackness surrounded her. Ju Feng's lantern had been extinguished.

Raising her hand above the water, Chang Chang recited arcane words, praying all the while that the weakness she knew would come would not render her unable to swim.

Light burst from her hand, transforming her arm into a makeshift torch. Nausea hit her hard in the gut. The queasiness in her belly combined with the stench and motion of the harbor proved too much. Chang Chang turned her head and retched, spitting water and filth. Her throat burned, but she forced herself to ignore it.

By the light of the spell, she saw a crooked gash running from her elbow to the middle of her forearm. There were splinters in the wound.

Ju Feng was swimming for his raft, which had been flipped upside down. He reached it, hoisted himself up, and pulled a knife from his belt. The thin blade bore a coat of rust. It was a not a weapon at all, but a gutting blade for fish. Chang Chang watched, incredulous, as Ju Feng brandished the copper blade confidently at the sea wraith. The apparition swooped down from the clouds to hover above the water.

He's completely mad, Chang Chang thought. The blade would not put much damage on the undead horror. Why not used the other sword?

A glint of silver on Chang Chang's left middle finger caught Ju feng's attention. She'd removed her glove, and he could see a ring glowing with arcane power, illuminating her pale flesh. Where did she get that from? Ju Feng wondered.

The glow spread down her arm, then flowed across her body like a weird, sped-up river. The light died away, except for where it illuminated the gutting knife. A single strand of silver lit the blade, eclipsing the rust. Chang Chang swam to the raft, searching her memory for some spell that might aid them. Holy light had been a harmless light trick. Gods, could she bring herself to remember how to call fire and ice? If she could, would it affect the wraith at all? She'd never faced anything like it before.

Her father had purposefully guided her training to suit a woman traveling alone on the streets of Overworld. While her thoughts spun and her arm burned, Ju Feng moved with preternatural speed across the raft. His sword flashed, cutting into the creature where its shoulder might have been.

Chang Chang saw no wound, but she heard an unearthly screech issue from the wraith. The apparition twisted away, blasting through Ju Feng's body in its incorporeal form. For a breath, Ju Feng appeared to be treading water as the ghostly mass enveloped him. Then it passed, and the boy fell back onto the raft. Chang Chang was close enough to see his muscles bulging from the brutal exposure to the wraith's body. But no major effect on him.

She grabbed the raft with both hands and hoisted herself up next to Ju Feng's. The wraith circled above their heads, as if trying to decide which of the two posed the greatest threat. Chang Chang swung her glowing arm back and forth, trying to keep the creature's attention away from Ju Feng.

She could recall no bigger arts to fight the monster, but if she wanted to find them. They would Come to her. The arcane power, locked away in the topmost tower room of her mind, like a princess in a tale. She needed no spellbook to find them, only the will.

She could picture her farhe4's words of admonishment. This thing before you isn't alive, he would say. It has no warmth, no compassion. It seeks only death. When confronted with such creatures as this in the world, you have no choice but to deal death first.

The wraith, finally distracted by the waving light, swooped low across the water, its face inches from the rippling current. It was coming at her from the right. Chang Chang braced her feet, certain she'd be knocked from the raft if the thing hit her.