A winged form passed through the azure above. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have pegged it for some kind of bird.
“Is it gone?” Zel asked from where he was hiding behind a tree.
“I can’t see it anymore,” Gourry responded.
“Okay, let’s go,” I concluded.
The group nodded in agreement and went back on the move.
It was now several days after our surreptitious stop in town. We’d left the mine shaft we’d been using as a base and were currently going deeper into the forest. The wind rustled the grass and leaves... Then suddenly, the birdsong and insect noise went silent.
It’s coming! Just as I thought that, a beam of light flew at us from the distance—a Zanaffar’s laser breath! It speared me right through the chest.
In the same instant, Alaina activated a spell. “Foggul!” Her magic filled the air around us with white mist, and I (my chest still pierced) disappeared along with the rest of our group.
I’m sure I don’t need to spell this out, but the impaled Lina was just an illusion.
This was another of Alaina’s little numbers. Functioning much like a mirage, the spell projected objects elsewhere in three dimensions. It was quite a popular trick with the elves, who used it to project fake giant monsters in order to scare away bandits or dangerous animals. The illusions could even move, and while you could tell something was off about them up close, they were pretty convincing from a distance.
To Tessius and the others, it looked like they’d just nailed one of us with their laser breath and we’d raised a smoke screen to hide in response. They would naturally close in to confirm the kill afterward—and that was when we’d strike. After all, the whole reason we’d left our hiding spot today was to bait the Hounds into attacking.
The moment the area was covered in white fog, me and my three companions broke into a sprint toward the laser breath’s point of origin.
Here’s the skinny on what was going down. Wings had spotted us, the Hounds had surrounded us at a distance, and then used that single long-range attack as their signal to descend on us. Meanwhile, our counterstrategy was using Alaina’s illusion to lure them out, then conjuring her fog for cover while we dogpiled on each one of the Hounds in turn.
Our first target was whoever had fired at us. I knew the Hounds had a sniper—the guy who’d shot a bow at us through the fog before—so I figured the most likely candidate was the Cyclops-wearing Sagan.
As the four of us ran toward his location, I noticed movement in my peripheral vision. There was something in the fog. A bird? The small silhouette moved as if flying parallel to us...
“Dodge!” I screamed, and we all leaped to different sides.
Vrm! A flash of light raced through where we’d just been—more laser breath!
“Gourry! Slice through any of those weird-looking birds you see!”
“Got it!” The big lug immediately seemed to spot something and slashed sideways with his sword. A pale purple light traced an afterimage in the fog, and the whatever-it-was hit the ground hard.
“What did you just cut through?!” I shouted.
“A gray... bird?” he replied. “But there’s no blood!”
“That’s fine! Slash at anything else like that you see!”
“What’s going on?!” Zel asked.
“I think Cyclops has drones!” I answered. “He’s using them to locate us!”
I’d wondered before how Sagan had been able to achieve such precise aim through the thick fog. I’d assumed at first that he’d employed forest critters as familiars, hiding them in the trees to ascertain our location. But the way the Zanaffar armor cut its wearer off from the astral side would make it impossible to use familiars in such a way. Each elven Zanaffar had been designed for its wearer, however, so I reasoned Sagan’s might have a similar function built in. Artificial “drones” could easily take the place of familiars for recon purposes. Granted, that was all speculation on my part... but this development seemed to clinch the theory.
We continued to race through the underbrush. Each time Gourry swung his sword, one of Cyclops’s drones hit the ground. I wasn’t sure if it was harder for Sagan to aim through the trees or if Gourry’s drone-slashing was doing the trick, but we hadn’t seen a second volley of laser breath yet.
One way or another, discovering that Gourry could cut through the drones—which were likely made of the same material as the Zanaffars—was a huge boon to us.
With no warning—Whoom!—we heard an explosion from overhead. Cyclops had opened up and fired something into the sky to let his allies know he was under threat. As for what that meant for us...
“This way!” I pointed and took off in a random direction. Immediately picking up what I was putting down, the rest of my group followed suit and Alaina generated more fog to keep us screened from our opponents.
See, if we’d stayed en route to Cyclops, he probably would’ve moved to hide—leaving us to walk into an ambush from his buddy Zanaffars. That was why I’d figured it was better to change course, but just as we did...
Thunka-thunk-thunk! Thunka-thunk-thunk! Thunka-thunk-thunk!
We heard something swiftly approaching us from the side. The rhythmic thunder of the footsteps was reminiscent of a horse. Obviously, there was no way an ordinary horse was running around the forest at a time like this. It was safe to assume it was an equine Zanaffar.
“Zel, ground! Gourry, sword! Alaina, ready!”
“Right!”
“Got it!”
“What? What?!”
Everyone except Alaina reacted immediately. Zel and I ducked behind trees as we began chanting, while Gourry turned toward the hoofbeats and readied his blade. After a moment of panic, Alaina slipped into the nearby underbrush to hide, and not a second too soon.
Thunka-thunk-thunk! The thunderous footsteps drew nearer, and a figure emerged from the fog. It had the silhouette of a centaur—a great horse with a human torso where the head would usually be. It carried a lance-like weapon in each of its hands. When this Centaur Zanaffar laid eyes on us...
✦ ✦ ✦
