Chapter 300

Raksha'va jumped into the crowd of demons and eviscerated everything that came near her. Arrows, bolts, and magic exploded above her, taking out all of the nearby flying demons at the same time. Even at night, the number of demons was dwindling, with fewer demons coming out of the forest to replace them. I did wonder if it was even going to be possible to completely clear the forest of demons once the siege is mopped up though.

With Raksha'va holding most of their attention, our group was able to slip out of the gate and into the forest. Lori and Torien went ahead of us even further once we hit the tree line and began finding us the best path to avoid as many demons as we could. These demons would need to be killed eventually, but for now, we needed to conserve our energy and resources for the flying demons we would likely face at the ravine pass.

Like the previous night, we kept to the forest trails until we needed to hide and let groups of loose demons pass by. It was sobering to realize how much more Traehall would be outnumbered if all of the demons actually decided to attack it at once. It seemed like maybe half of the crowds the cultists tried to pull toward the city actually made it there. The rest must have wandered off, only to stumble into the city later and attack it. These demons didn't show any signs of intelligence, so I didn't think it was intentional.

After several bells of trekking through the forest at a much slower pace than we would have liked, we finally reached the ravine. Once we got to the pass, we would have much less cover to hide from the flying demons since the trees stopped along the rocky outcropping. The ravine went along for what looked like miles to the east, so going around it would take a long time and we would have to cross the river that flowed at the bottom. The pass that had been pointed out to us on the map was a rocky bridge that had been reinforced with magic along the side of the cliff faces. Two thirds of the bridge ran alongside the two cliffs, while the last third connected the gap between them. The edge of the ravine was surprisingly steep and didn't look climbable.

"It's going to be difficult to fight that many banshees while trying to cross that bridge," Silva said.

"There's nothing to hide us either. They'll probably see us the moment we leave the trees," Kal'daeryn added.

"We could try rushing across... but we may get overwhelmed if they decide to swarm us," Sibyl said.

Silva shook her head. "Trying to go fast makes us more likely to make mistakes. If someone trips, that would slow all of us down. We don't need to worry about getting split up because of the bond, but if we get spread too thin while running, the demons could try to pick us off one by one. Is there something your shadow magic could do, Lori?"

Lori bit her lip and looked in the direction of the pass. "I don't think my shadow magic would be able to do much here. I might be able to get across with it myself by moving from shadow to shadow, but I have nothing that would help all of us get across."

Torien looked over at me. "What about that anti-light magic you used in the other dungeon? Could we use that to reduce the light in the area to make Aunt Lori's shadow magic stronger?"

Lori answered before I could, "No, that wouldn't work. The last time she used it, it didn't actually create any shadows. It only made the existing light darker. It's a weird distinction, but it didn't actually make any of my shadow magic any easier to use. I was able to use my shadow magic at the time anyway, but that was because the tear the demon was trying to climb out of was so bright. At most, it would make my shadow magic slightly easier to use, but it wouldn't make it any better for dealing with this problem."

I glanced at Raya. "What about illusion magic? I have an illusion spell called [Mirage] that creates a static image, but I haven't attempted to use it against anyone before. It can take a lot of mana, but it might be able to hide us if we walk under it, unless you have something better suited for this job. You're the better illusionist, Raya."

Raya's eyebrows rose at the compliment before she turned away and got that glassy look in her eye that indicated she was looking at her status. "I'm not sure... maybe you should show me how the ability works and I might be able to do something similar with my magic."

I nodded and used [Mirage] to create a static view of the tree behind it. It was the kind of spell with a cost that would multiply based on how convincing I wanted the illusion to be and how long I wanted it to stay up. If I wanted it to last any reasonable duration without draining all my mana, I had to limit it to be basic camouflage.

Raya tilted her head back and forth before duplicating the small plane with one of her own. "I can do something similar with one of my spells, but I can't move it once it's been cast, and I can't have more than one at a time. I could try to create a really long illusion, but I don't have enough range to cover the entire bridge in one go."

"How far would you be able to take us in one stretch?" Morrigan asked.

"Well... I could make it from the tree line to the bridge in one go, and then it would take maybe four casts to make it all the way across. But we would be visible while I switched them," she replied.

"Do you have the mana for that?" I asked. "Mine uses way too much mana to make any kind of distance like that."

Raya shrugged. "Mine must be more mana efficient than yours is, then. The limiting factor for me is range, not my mana. The cost of five illusions would be trivial, less than a single fireball for me."

Morrigan perked up with excitement. "What if we just use Lilith's illusion magic to hide us while Raya sets up the next stretch? She could use a static illusion to hide us while Raya cycles between casts."

Raya glanced at me with nervous excitement. "That could work... We would have to cast it in such a way that our mana doesn't overlap, but I can cast it a bit farther away from us so that you can hide us under it while I recast the spell."

"Juggling that many spells so close to each other seems difficult," Sibyl noted.

A trickle of irritation flowed into the bond. "I can do it! Why do you keep undermining me?" Raya asked sharply.

Sibyl's eyebrows rose. "What? I'm not trying to undermine you. I just thought that layering spells like that was difficult."

Morrigan put her hand on Raya's shoulder. "She's right, Raya. This is difficult, but I think you can do it. Even if something happens and the illusion breaks, we'll have made some distance across the bridge. That's still better than if we tried to slowly walk the entire thing while being attacked."

Raya huffed and looked away, but I still felt a bit of her irritation. "I can do it."

"Do we have any better ideas?" I asked. "Worse case scenario, we would have to cross the bridge the slow way anyway. Best case scenario, we slip through the pass without having to fight at all. I'm happy to listen to any other plans."

Silva shook her head. "We shouldn't waste too much more time on this. I think the slow way would be fine, it would just be more annoying. Even if this somehow fails, I think it's worth the attempt. We would have to fight all of them anyway. This is a better plan than nothing."

"Let's get as close as we can to the bridge first. That'll make things a bit easier," Raya said.

We approached the edge of the tree line nearest to the bridge and got ready to cross. It would be up to me and Raya to hide us and hopefully cross without having to actually fight all the nearby banshees. While the bridge wasn't so thin that I would avoid crossing it in a normal situation, fighting on something like this would feel risky. The pass didn't have any kind of railing on the outside of the bridge, so a wrong step could send you tumbling.

Raya took a deep breath. ("Okay. I'm ready to go. Is everyone else ready?") she whispered through the bond.

A few of us adjusted the straps on our gear but everyone nodded. Raya took another deep breath and cast her illusion. A long strip of magic stretched out above us, reflecting back an image of us like a mirror. This first strip managed to make it all the way to the start of the rocky bridge, where I would have to cast my first [Mirage] spell.

Silva cautiously took a few steps out in the open and waited to see if there would be any reaction. After a long and tense minute, she waved us forward, happy that it seemed to be working. As quietly as we could, our group moved forward until we were near the edge of Raya's illusion. From this direction, we were able to see the dimensions of it easily.

My [Mirage] spell was a lot less impressive looking, but I created a small dome under Raya's spell. Once I felt like it was set up correctly, I mentally nudged Raya to continue. Her illusion spell collapsed like mist and she began to create a new one ahead of us. The moment it was safe, I released my spell and panted a little. I hadn't used this spell much before, but my first application of it had been exhausting. In order to hide us from all sides, I had to create a curved dome around us, which took a lot of focus. The alternative of making a flat plane large enough to hide all of us was way too complex for my mostly untrained illusion magic without burning through all my mana. All I was used to doing with illusion magic was casting [Zone of Silence].

We crossed the bridge as close to the center of it as we could. The bridge had a slightly raised lip near the edge, but it didn't even come up to waist height. On a windy day, I would be scared to cross something like this, but at least it was wide enough that we could walk across in twos without standing near the edge. We approached the second stretch about a fourth of the way across, where we would have to switch again.

("You're up,") Raya said to me.

I nodded and began to cast [Mirage] again. I wish I were a little more familiar with this spell, but I had mostly dismissed its usefulness after playing with it a bit. I didn't have unlimited time to mess with every spell I received, but that was coming back to bite me now. I cast it the second time and shuddered as I held the mana together while Raya worked on the next chunk.

("Got it, you can release it now,") Raya said.

I let out a breath and allowed my spell to collapse. This had been a lot harder than I thought it would be. Raya's part seemed effortless, but holding the illusion magic as I had been was difficult. The third time we switched over, the illusion went just as well as the previous one, but I felt sluggish by the time I had to do the fourth.

("I feel drained. I don't know if I'll be able to do it properly this time,") I admitted once we reached the next hand off area.

Silva nodded. ("Just do your best. There's only a fourth of the bridge left. It wouldn't be a disaster if we had to fight our way to the other side from here.")

("Maybe try a more simplified illusion this time? Just make the area hazy instead of trying to perfectly block sight of us,") Morrigan suggested.

("I'll try,") I said with a nod.

I took a deep breath and cast [Mirage] one last time. I formed a dome with it, but put less mana into the image. Rather than hiding us completely, it would just smear the sight of us into a hazy blur. I hoped it would be enough to slip by.

Shaking with effort, I held the illusion up, but only moments after Raya removed her old one, we heard the loud shrieking of the banshees. They had spotted us. A wave of ear-piercing sound washed over me and my illusion broke, bringing us to the attention of even more of the banshee demons. Raya attempted to hide us with her illusion again as quickly as she could, but it was too late. The demons were already swarming.

I gritted my teeth, drew my sword, and gripped the handle of my kite shield. I was low on mana now. I would need to fight defensively. This unfortunately had been a gamble that hadn't paid off. As the thought crossed my mind, I had a sudden burst of inspiration. I didn't have a lot of mana left, but I had enough to make a [Wager]. If I could get one of the better results, it would make this fight a lot easier. If I lost, it wouldn't change much since I didn't have enough mana to be loose with my mana anyway.

I cast [Wager] and bet the remainder of my mana, leaving me with the minimum I needed to function normally. A six-sided die appeared in front of me, and since my hands were full, I didn't attempt to catch it and let it fall to the ground.

Fortuna, don't fail me now.