Anika dropped the knife and bent down to check on Kal as he hastily untied Ria's bag from his belt and tossed it on the ground beside him. The mage scooped up the pouch with his magic crystals and continued healing himself while getting to his knees. Kal stared in confusion at the bag of holding as the surrounding grass blackened and started to smolder from the radiating heat. The bag began glowing red, which seemed impossible for something made of leather, and caught some of the nearby grass on fire.
"What's going on?" asked Kashka, running up to them. She knew through the bond Kal was already healing himself and didn't feel like he was in any danger. Instead, he worried more about Ria. When Kashka realized the thing on the ground glowing red and slowly getting brighter was the sprite's bag, she couldn't blame him.
"I don't know," said Kal. Looking up at Anika, he asked, "What did she do?"
The arachne blanched at the intensity of Kal's stare and looked away. "When I woke up, she told me Tavik needed to recharge between lightning bolts and I had to strike within that time. She didn't think your staff could handle a direct hit, so she wrapped herself around the end of your staff and let it hit her instead."
The mage's brow furrowed in anger. "Her idea was to let you take a lightning bolt head-on in hopes you could kill him before he fired a second shot?" he asked. "What was she thinking? If you missed, you'd be dead. So many things could have gone wrong there."
"Regardless," Kashka interrupted, "Tavik is dead by Anika's hand. I don't think you have much room to complain about Ria's plan, considering you just nearly killed yourself. Is exploding things in your face a common way for you to fight? Because you've done it twice so far."
Anika's eyes widened, "You blew yourself up?"
Kal unclasped his cloak, letting it fall to the ground, then gingerly pulled his shirt over his head. Holding both garments up, he showed Anika the holes burnt through them, then pulled his flight rune out from where he tucked it under his belt. The mage was surprised to see the leather stayed in one piece. He expected a hole like his cloak and shirt. Kal guessed from the burnt ink furthest from where the bolt struck that the activated spell absorbed a good amount of the bolt's energy.
"The plan was to use my flight rune to get away from the explosion," he explained, throwing the charred and blackened leather panel on the ground next to Ria's bag, "but the first lightning bolt did this. As much as it hurt, I can't regret what happened." He looked up at Kashka, "That explosion is likely the reason Anika is still alive."
"What? How?" the arachne asked as she picked up his shirt and inspected it
"Magic and lightning have a special relationship," he said, leaning forward to stretch his lower back. The healing rune mended the damage, but the pain from the bolt's impact and explosion was still fresh in his mind. "Unlike a fireball that uses heat and flame or my partially solid arrows, lightning is almost pure energy. Pump too much energy into a spell and it can shatter and explode, which is why I couldn't use my shield against him. I used that same relationship to put a couple of healing spells pointed at you in the way of his lightning bolt. Unfortunately, I couldn't get away from the blast," he said, waving a hand at the damaged leather.
"Sorry to ruin your lesson, but there are still Reavers around," said Kashka. "We need to track down the archers you didn't kill, the guards stationed at the servant's quarters are still unaccounted for, and we need to finish off the men out dismantling traps. We also need to figure out what to do with the men they kept as servants."
"Until I know Ria is okay, the servants and remaining Reavers can go to hell."
"Stop it, Kal. I know you don't believe that," said the cat, tapping her temple.
The mage grunted, "You're right, but that's what I want to say."
"Do you think you should call her?" Anika asked.
"I don't know," Kal sighed as he got to his feet. "Consider what I said about magic and lightning and how it applies to Ria taking a lightning bolt to keep you safe. I'm guessing this heat is her way of bleeding off all the extra energy her avatar absorbed."
"But she stores your crystals when they are fully charged," the arachne pointed out.
"Those are crystalline containers that go through Ria's storing process, not getting hit with raw energy. All I can do now is wait, and I suppose that means taking out my worry on a few stray Reavers. We'll deal with the servants when Kashka and I get back."
Kal looked down at his bracers as the runes on them glowed faintly. The strength rune was ruined, and the speed rune only had a few uses before it would also burn out. Kal glanced down at Ria's bag and remembered that all his inks to make new bracers were still inside her. He quickly realized he didn't care if he lost everything stored inside her, just as long as she was okay.
"Let's go before I change my mind," he told Kashka. Kal looked at his staff with Tavik still mounted on it, then picked up the jade dagger Anika dropped. "I doubt the armor will have any powers unless worn as a complete set. Take helmets off Tavik and his lieutenant and hide them, but leave their corpses. If and Reavers circle back around to regroup, they can see what kind of fate is waiting for them." He looked down at Ria's bag, then up at Anika, his expression pleading. "Watch over her, please?"
"I will," she replied, handing his shirt back. Layers of fine webbing that shimmered in the moonlight covered the hole in the back.
"Thank you," he said. Donning the shirt, Kal made his way around the stepped pyramid's base to where he last spotted the archers.
Kashka fell in step next to him, "When we get back, I'm going to see if I can find my other dagger. I think I can copy how Tavik's shield launched it away and give myself an idea where to start looking."
Kal's eyes flicked to her waist, "What are you talking about? They're both right there."
Kashka looked at the two dagger hilts sticking out of their sheaths in disbelief. "But I only retrieved the one...?" she said, confused.
"Something else to test, but not until the area is cleared and secure," said the mage before they continued on their hunt.
---
Anika watched them disappear around the side of the temple and felt a wave of relief wash over her as she realized her part in the battle was over. Following Kal's instructions, she carefully eased the helms off Tavik and the other Reaver's head.
In the temple's paintings and engravings, she thought the animals on the brass and silver armor were the same. On closer inspection, Tavik's appeared to be a giant river otter, while the brass armor resembled a jaguar. She couldn't reason out why the Ancients might hold an otter in higher esteem than one of the powerful jungle cats. Perhaps there was something about the playful, weasel-like animals she didn't know.
She carefully scooped up Ria's bag using the silver helmet and started toward the temple atop the pyramid. Anika hurried as the metal in her hands quickly warmed. A third of the way up, she dumped the leather pouch onto the stone steps and promptly set the helm down before it burned her.
Anika looked around at the carnage she, Kal, and Kashka had wrought while the forest wind cooled the helm. Cleaning up over a hundred corpses would be a monumental task, and she hoped everyone stayed long enough to help.
