Book 3, Chapter 93 - Breakthrough! Escape! (2/2)

It had come down to the moment. His newly enhanced powers reached out for the stone, joining with it. The combined might diffused out into the air around them to form a bubble with Cloudhawk at its center. It swelled until it embraced everyone and then…

They were gone.

Drake saw it all like some kind of dream.

A moment before the lava tumbling off the mountain sides reach them, he felt a strange, intense driving force. The molten tide swept over them – but nothing. There was no burning, no heat of any kind. Before he knew it they were racing through the lava, faster than he could imagine and getting faster.

Everything fell away. Dust, lava, the mountains, boulders… all of it vanished behind them in faint streaks of light until finally they stopped.

It all happened in a split second.

Drake staggered and looked around. “Wh-what happened?”

By the looks on their faces, all the other soldiers had the same burning question.

Truth was, Cloudhawk didn’t know. He focused on the stone, asking it to get them far from danger. When he opened his eyes, they were ten thousand of meters from the mountains. At this distance they were relatively safe.

Teleportation! That had to be it, teleportation!

Well, more precisely it were instantaneous travel. The stone’s known powers were all related to space.

Cloudhawk knew that the power he just used was different from phasing. It wasn’t crossing dimensions, either. This time he was vanishing entirely from one place, and appearing somewhere else. All before he could even process it. Teleportation.

Phasing, dimensional travel… had he found another way this rock fucks with space? Was there anything it couldn’t do?

When Cloudhawk calmed down he decided to try it again. But when he tried a sharp pain wracked his body. It’d taken every ounce of mental energy in him to bring all these people to safety. And that was a surprise. After his breakthrough Cloudhawk felt like he had the mental acuity to take on even a veteran demonhunter without needing his berserker rage.

But even so, he’d only had a single teleportation in him.

The commander of the Talons of God stared at Cloudhawk in shock. “Some sort of dimensional power?”

Drake stared at him like he’d never seen him before. “How the hell have I never seen this?”

“Can we not flap our fucking gums over nonsense right now?!” He was spent, and he couldn’t save them again even under threat of death. So he grit his teeth, and growled at them. “We’re not out of the shit yet. We need to get out of here, because I refuse to die with you dumbasses.”

Falling chunks of lava began to fall around them, as though to punctuate their need to escape this lethal gorge.Everyone staggered forward as fast as they could, but all of them were exhausted.

“General! This way!” The hulking frame of a portly soldier lumbered into view. “I’ve scouted the area, there’s a canyon we can use to get out of here. Everything else is overrun by rivers of lava. The canyon is our only way out.”

Cloudhawk nodded in approval. “Well done, Hammy!”

This unit, which had been hiding in preparations for an ambush throughout the entire battle, was now proving its value. The soldiers, drained and wounded, quietly thanked Hammont’s foresight. Without him they probably wouldn’t have found shelter before the lava got to them.

Only, just then, the whistling sound of something piercing the air rang out.

A dozen figures fell from above. While they had arrived in resplendent white coats, the volcanic ash had turned them gray. The demonhunters’ noble faces were smeared with soot, but it didn’t detract from their majestic presence.

One of them stepped forward, apparently of higher rank. ”Where is the canyon?! Lead us there immediately!”

Noble demonhunters! Hammont’s heart beat a hundred miles a minute. He hurriedly answered. “Don’t be impatient, your Excellencies. Sir Cloudhawk and the lieutenant general just arrived.Let's pool our resources, then move out together.”

“What did you say? Cloudhawk…!” The older demonhunter’s eyes gleamed like an angry hawk, and just as keen picked out a figure among the crowd. Cloudhawk, nearly collapsed and surrounded by generals. An openly hostile light burned in the depths of his eyes. “You!”

Cloudhawk recognized the man immediately. It was Augustus Cloude, one of Arcturus’ most trusted men!

1. ‘Your mother’s fart’, lol