There really wasn’t a good way to carry Gabriel and still fight. The first time he picked the other man up, it was over his left shoulder, facing backwards. It took an arm around Gabriel’s legs to steady him, so it really wouldn’t work with the man facing forwards unless he kept his head down, which would defeat the point. Gabriel had been able to grow the Ice Wall spell he’d started even as Serenity moved him, but Serenity knew that Gabriel had to see where he was casting to make it work.

Princess carry definitely wouldn’t work; that took both arms and Serenity really did need at least one free to fight. Serenity considered piggyback instead. It was probably the most stable, and Gabriel was smaller than Serenity. It might work, if Gabriel could manage to keep his balance and cast at the same time. “Think you can balance on my back? Arms at my shoulders, legs around my waist? I can probably support one leg.”

Gabriel shook his head. “Not a chance. Not with only one arm, I have to have one free to use the wand.”

Serenity rolled his eyes at that. Since Gabriel was still over his shoulder, there was no need to hide the motion, either. With one leg supported, Gabriel ought to be able to hold himself up with one arm and the other leg; it shouldn’t even be difficult. “You really need to work on moving while casting.”

“I can move!” Gabriel objected. “Just slowly.”

Uh huh. Serenity wasn’t impressed; he’d started learning to move while casting almost immediately after he started learning spellcasting. Admittedly, he’d started as a melee specialist who considered staying still suicide, but it wasn’t like he was a super agile type, either.

“I guess that only leaves one option.” Serenity set Gabriel down, moved around him until he was behind the other man, then bent over and scooped him up with a single arm. His left arm ran below Gabriel’s thighs, making a chair for him to sit on. Serenity pulled Gabriel as close to himself as he could; while he was strong enough to lift Gabriel, that didn’t solve the problem of the other man having mass and decidedly altering Serenity’s balance. “Does this work?”

Gabriel wobbled, then threw an arm around Serenity’s neck for balance. “I can make it work.”

Serenity nodded, then waved at the scene in front of them. It was a good thing that the Hollow Ones moved so slowly; there was plenty of time. How exactly was he supposed to explain ski jumps to Gabriel? “I need you to make a pair of slopes out of ice, near the floor straight ahead and rising to the left and right, about three or four feet high. Start them about twenty feet in front of us, ten feet wide.”

That ought to be enough to catch all of the Hollow Ones that were coming from the front; they seemed to be getting closer together as they got closer to the four outsiders. Zanzital’s explosion -

“I’m an idiot,” Serenity muttered softly. He’d assumed that the small explosions Zanzital had done to hurt Hollow Ones and knock them off their feet meant he could do a big one to knock a group a long way in a defined direction, but he hadn’t asked. It was necessary for Serenity’s plan; while he could build a spell to do the same thing, it would take too long. The Hollow Ones were slow but they weren’t that slow.

Serenity raised his voice enough to be heard by the Guildmaster. “Zanzital, can you do a bigger version of that explosion? One that knocks the Hollow Ones to the side? I want to get them out of the way and keep going, it should be easier than what we did last time if we run.”

“That’s why you’re carrying Gabriel? I thought it was just the obstacles.” Zanzital sounded a little surprised. “Yes, I can do that, but probably only once or twice. It takes some resources that I didn’t bring much of.”

“I’m not that hopeless,” Gabriel objected.

Daryl released an arrow aimed at a Hollow One’s elbow as he responded. “Yes, you are.”

Serenity ignored the byplay. They were friends and Gabriel had probably left that opening deliberately. “Once should be enough for here and we shouldn’t need it again after that. It’s not far from here to the room we want.” He did wonder what resources Zanzital needed, but it usually wasn’t polite to ask. Skills didn’t usually require anything other than mana, so he was probably using an item of some sort. Serenity didn’t care as long as it worked.

Daryl continued to slow the other oncoming Hollow Ones while the escape was prepared. Serenity waited until the ramps were built and the four Hollow Ones were sandwiched between them before he called for Zanzital’s explosion.

The words died unsaid when he glanced at Zanzital. The Guildmaster was already throwing the explosion. Serenity had expected to call for it, but it was hard to object to Zanzital using it when he thought the time was right. It was especially hard because Serenity agreed; the time was right.

The explosion seemed to be mostly air, but it did its job; three Hollow Ones skidded left, while the last one went right. Given the layout of the room, Serenity would have preferred that to be the other way around, but this was fine. The main thing was that they were thrown far enough, and they were thrown farther than Serenity expected. One of them even hit the wall to the left and slid down it.

Serenity darted forward, still carrying Gabriel. When he got to the ramp, he found that it was damaged by the explosion, but it wasn’t a problem for someone floating a few inches above the ground. He sped across it and reached the first bed. It was damaged, but only by the ice shards that had been flung into the side; it was still sturdy, as far as Serenity could tell.

It was a good thing the ceiling was so high; he didn’t have to worry about hitting his head or about bouncing Gabriel’s head off anything. Rather than taking the time to go around, he hopped up onto the bed, then slid forward and let himself fall off the far side, once again using the footwraps to reduce the speed of the fall.

He couldn’t quite move at a run with all the obstacles, but it was close. Gabriel’s weight and the awkwardness of balancing him also slowed things down a little and made him slightly slower than Daryl and Zanzital, but he was much faster than the Hollow Ones.

Once they cleared the room, Serenity slowed down. He set Gabriel down about ten feet from the opening that led to the hallway they were in. “Can you block off the door?”

Gabriel was breathing heavily. That definitely wasn’t from the exercise; Serenity had been doing all of it. He must have been either excited or anxious about the running; Serenity wasn’t sure Gabriel ever ran quickly. “Ah, right, yeah.”

While Gabriel set another Ice Wall across the opening, Serenity stretched the kinks out of his back and arm. He felt like there should be quite a few after carrying Gabriel. There seemed to be fewer than he’d expected, but stretching still felt good.

Then they turned and ran like scared ducklings, all following Serenity. He made sure to keep his pace slow enough that Gabriel could keep up, but he didn’t want to risk running into any more Hollow Ones just because they were slow.

The feel of crossing into a weak ley line didn’t hit Serenity until he was close to the room that held the Hollow One ritual. When they actually entered the room, Serenity felt the raw mana’s power increase and he knew he was standing in a nexus rather than a ley line. Both of the lines that crossed here were minor tributaries, but it was still a nexus.

Legion waited for them inside the room. Like Gabriel, there was a cloud of bluish-green mana hovering over him; unlike Gabriel, it seemed far more pervasive and solid. Legion was curled up in a fetal ball; he didn’t say anything or even react when they entered the room.

The room was otherwise deserted.

Serenity relaxed a little and tossed a broken token on the floor. He’d need a few minutes to disable the wards, but once that was done, Ita would be able to open a portal over the token-half. It would be a way out with Legion even if they were discovered. There was a good chance they wouldn’t be, in which case Serenity would also disable the Hollow One ritual; Hollow Ones were horrifying but they weren’t very smart. “Please guard the door. I don’t expect us to be found, but I’ll be paying attention to the wards and ritual here.”

“Weren’t we just going to grab him and portal out?” Gabriel pointed at Legion as he objected.

Serenity blinked and stared at Gabriel. Had he completely missed the point?

Zanzital chuckled. “And leave the ritual active? Not on my planet. If it were up to me, I’d just smash it. Serenity knows something about rituals; maybe he can find a less dangerous way to disable it.”

Serenity inclined his head to acknowledge Zanzital’s point. He wasn’t certain he liked the other man, but he was certain that he respected his commitment to his people and his world.

It took over an hour to properly understand the wards, but once he did they were trivial to disable. A single small cut with his manablade infused with the Plasma Affinity melted a tiny section of the reinforced steel that made up the outer ring of wards.

Moments later, he heard Ita’s mindvoice. :I can see you again. Are you ready for me to pull you out of there?:

Serenity shook his head. He still didn’t entirely understand his connection to Ita, but he understood the important parts well enough. She cared and was loyal. He’d offered to let her go her own way, even to support her in her efforts, but she was happier working for him. :No, not yet. I’ve only taken down the ward, I want to get the ritual too. How are things on the surface?:

Ita’s mindvoice hardened. :Not great. There aren’t any enemies left on the surface … except for a few Hollow Ones. We’d cleared out the surface and were making our way into the upper area of the base when one of the delving groups ran into a creature that wouldn’t die. I pulled everyone out then, but a few of the Hollow Ones followed. I have the stronger people trying to keep them under control, but it’s a stretch. Blaze is busy.:

:How many people died?:

Ita didn’t answer Serenity’s question.

:Ita? How many people died?:

It took another long moment before Ita responded. :I know of six, but there are probably more. We haven’t had time to count, but those are the ones I’m sure of.:

Six wasn’t great, but even twice that number would be a stellar result to this raid. Far more people than that died in the initial attack on Takinat; this prevented that from happening again. It opened up worries for the future, but for now he could relax. He’d done the best he could and it was good enough.

:I’m going to take down this ritual then have you pull us out,: Serenity told Ita. :Let me know if anything happens on the surface I need to know about; I expect this will take a few more hours to take down properly.:

He definitely didn’t want to take it apart the way Raz had damaged the teleport ritual; that one was inactive while this one was using ley line energy. Taking it apart incorrectly could create a very large explosion or nothing at all; it all depended on what he did and how the ritual was designed.

Lillene

The number is definitely higher than six, but the people from Takinat had two very large advantages when they attacked: surprise and numbers. Both help.