Page 161 of To Free a Soul
It’ll be harder for me to see in the dark.
That was likely what he was waiting for. That, and for Orpheus to tire out.
A time unknown, but one of danger
Weldir’s head changed direction constantly.
One moment he was staring at the combined viewing discs of Orpheus and Lindiwe, the next at Leonidas. He also made sure none of their other offspring – no matter if they were in Austrális or not – needed assistance as well.
Despite the chaos, as he watched two of his offspring being hunted by a pack of Demons each, everything seemed relatively calm.
Both were fast and outrunning their assailants. They were often cut off, which slowed them down and put them in reach of striking claws, but they were easily able to escape.
So long as they keep running and don’t stop, they should be fine.
That’s what he thought. It was also likely what Lindiwe thought.
The truth was eventually revealed in the form of an expressionless Jabez, who materialised from thin air in front of one of Weldir’s offspring. Leonidas was unprepared and ran straight in his direction.
Jabez jumped, twisted in the air, and grabbed one of his backwards-curving ram horns to hold on when he landed on top of him. His long hair whipped behind him as he lowered himself for better balance, then grabbed Leonidas’ other horn to make sure he couldn’t be thrown off no matter how much the feline-skulled Mavka bucked.
In the span of those seconds, Weldir snapped his gaze to Lindiwe’s disc.
“Jabez has appeared with Leonidas.”
The determined, alert look in her eyes morphed to shock. “What?Why?I thought he’d come for Orpheus!”
The answer was obvious.
Jabez yanked Leonidas’ skull to the right, making him bash into a tree. He roared, tripped, and Jabez was thrown from him before sliding across the ground on one knee and a hand. He was quick to dive for Leonidas before he could find his paws and wrapped his thick thighs around his snout to clamp his fangs shut. Then, while facing him, he grabbed his horns and pulled in two different directions.
“Orpheus was a diversion. Jabez knew you’d think he’d target him.” It was a cunning trick, one that was obvious now that it was in play.
Jabez released him when trying to pull his skull apart didn’t work and he needed to evade Leonidas’ claws. He backed off and disappeared. Leonidas quickly rose to his feet, even when a pile of Demons attached themselves to his back and legs. He spun, bucking at the same time to dislodge most of them, then shot through the forest on all fours once more.
“Take me to him!” she exclaimed, pulling her hood over her head. She turned physical and then hastily turned into an owl.
“Where are you going?!” Reia yelled when Lindiwe not only let herself get left behind, but then lifted off with a flap of her wings to leave them. “What the fuck?!”
Rather than pull Lindiwe to his side, he said, “One moment. I will try to assist.”
Her beak parted with an owlish shriek, likely in confused anger.
He calculated Leonidas’ path and sent a soul there instead. Although his mana resources were already low, as he hadn’t been awake long, he tore the soul in half. Immediately, his mana was depleted by a large amount as a portal opened right before Leonidas.
His offspring, quick and agile, fucking evaded it. Leonidas went around it at the last second and wasted time by going around a collection of trees rather than through the portal to safety.
Weldir shut it before it could do any more damage, but the initial opening of it was chaotic to his power reserves. It weakened him hard and fast, like a giant mouth taking a massive gulp of his shadows.
Jabez reappeared again, this time in motion as he flew sideways through the air to kick Leonidas’ torso from the side. He was flung into the trunk of a thick tree and roared in pain when his body wrapped around it before dropping to the ground.
Jabez teleported above him, grabbed a horn to steady himself, and repeatedly punched the brow of his skull. There was no grin, nor laughter, just the cold, unfeeling gaze of a male determined on destruction. The bone was thick and required an unfathomable amount of strength to destroy – strength that, hopefully, Jabez didn’t wield.
Leonidas rotated his feline snout a hundred and eighty degrees. He shoved it forward just as Jabez went to punch and missed biting around his fist by half a second when he disappeared once more.
Weldir pulled Lindiwe to his side. “I opened a portal to Magnar’s ward, but he evaded it,” he told her. “I will try again when the opportunity arises.”
She tilted her feathery owl head questioningly. He offered her a meaningful glance before sending her back to Earth, this time to Leonidas’ side. She flew above him, this form quicker than her human or Phantom forms.
