Novek could feel Siya squirming in his hand, but the kit was remaining passive, if not calm.

  Good. That let him focus his attention on seeing if whatever happened had riled up anything dangerous.

  The ground had erupted with Ber, big and small — worms, lizards, shelled things, ten or more different species erupted from the ground. It was as if a boulder had been dropped in the center of their group, and the resulting shockwave had squirted them out of their holes. They were fleeing the epicenter of the effect, though. That wasn't a problem, then.

  To the side, Nat had just snapped his hands closed, and the flames vanished. Hopefully that would calm everything down soon.

  Hundreds of Pa'hupa were inflating and taking to the sky from the trees, brush, and ground where they'd lain, camouflaged. No threats among them; he kept scanning. There were a few young scrav he could see popping up out of the ground. He'd keep an eye on them.

  A group of Ber that looked something like bark-covered starfish had started out of the nearby trees might be a concern, each of their arms each ended in a twin talon — clearly predators. The starfish had scared a small herd of gazelles grazing near the trees into motion — they were going to run through the group in a few seconds. The main risk there would be accidental collision — oh, there was the problem.

  The pack of flying Ber that had been stalking the gazelles from the trees had recovered their senses, and now their prey was intermixed with the party.

  A glance to the side showed him that Ceress had kept her field up and was trying to affect the Ber — good.

  Lyn was — oh, and the starfish had been hunting the gazelle, too — ah, they were as fast as the gazelle.

  Time to go to work.

  He reached up and put the kit behind his neck with his left hand, and swung his crossbow out with his right towards the lead starfish. He placed his hand atop the loaded bolt, which glowed briefly orange.

  Novek yanked his hand away and fired — the crossbow kicking back into his arm; the blunt-tipped bolt — far thicker than normal — sluggishly took flight. Impacting the lead starfish low on the main body, it did not penetrate, but compressed a piston-like tip. Two nearly meter-long metal arms pivoted out from the sides, back to front, unfolding a second arm as they swung forward. The result, an almost four-meter metal V, bent or broke the legs of several starfish leading the pack, and they stumbled and slid to the ground.

  More starfish followed, and he noted that the airborne flock of raptor Ber, a swarming sphere of claws and teeth, was starting a dive at the gazelle near the others.

  Lyn was hopping to get in front of Ceress — their hands were now sparking with electricity that leapt between the lines that ran the length of their body.

  Nat had apparently been clipped by a gazelle, and was holding himself off the ground by one arm, the other held to his side in pain. More were still near him, and he looked like he might be trampled as he pushed himself back to his feet. Well, he had been pushing himself to his feet. Now he was over in front of Ceress, a statue for a moment, and then waving his hands at her and pointing at hers?

  What?

  Trusting that his companions knew what they were doing, Novek found himself grinning as he spanned his crossbow with one hand, using his thigh-mount, and grabbed the second trick bolt he'd prepared for the day. Live weapons testing was so much better than theory-crafting.

  Slotting it into the groove, he scanned for where to fire for best effect. An aerial shot into the raptors? No — this bolt was technically better suited for them, but he was out of position for a good shot. More starfish it was, then.

  Another orange infusion, and the bolt was fired — the mass of it pushing the heavy crossbow back into his arm. The curved fletching down the back of the bolt started it to spinning as it flew. Thin wires spun outwards, with small weights to keep them taut as they formed a net-like structure, crossing another set of wires that had not spun out as quickly.

  This fouled the legs of another several of the starfish, which ended up on the ground, similar to the first, though without the wounds.

  And now many of the second group of fallen starfish, and some latecomers, were eating the wounded? Whatever, he'd take it. He wished he'd had more time to test bolts, but he considered two out of two a great success.

  The raptors were preparing a second dive, a smaller swarm now that a number had successfully acquired gazelle — they were pack hunters, clearly, as each downed animal had three or four raptors tearing into them. There were no more gazelle among the others, though, so the dive was probably targeting them. Well, they'd have to handle that — he'd help once the starfish were handled.

  Any remaining starfish that hadn't run past to keep chasing the gazelles — which had all since bounded past the group — were now too close for the crossbow. He put it down as gently as he could, and went to all-fours, extending his claws. Some were headed towards Nat and Lyn, a couple had decided he, or Siya, were suitable replacement prey.

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  The tiger Brin would enthusiastically provide an education as to whom the apex predator here was.

  Lyn had no idea why Nat was gesturing at Ceress's hands while saying something about Moira and his Talent. They'd trust he had a reason, but it was hard to hear over the herd of horned animals bounding past, and their own arcs of electricity that cascaded continually across their body.

  Keeping track and avoiding the more than thirty flyers actively attempting to dive at them was taking most of their attention right now.

  Both electrical arcs and vigilance were necessary to ensure that none of the swarm could attach — at least not for long. The Jih'rehk might need to swarm to take down the larger members of the party, but even a single one was of a size to be a threat to Lyn, so they had to remain vigilant.

  Novek seemed to have most of the Vest'elah well in paw. That was good, but they weren't the real threat here — they just tore with hundreds of tiny teeth that extended from their undersides; Jih'rehk injected acid. Even a moment of contact could wound Nat or Novek fatally, even if the Ber was pulled off within a second.

  They'd have to find the nest after this — they couldn't leave some poor travelers to be torn to shreds at night by a clutch spawning.

  Ceress had continued to try to calm the wild Ber, and that did seem to be working to some degree now that whatever Moira had done had ceased, but the predators were now just hunting, not berserking. At least a few Jih'rehk had decided that the Pa'hupa were sufficient meals for the day — once the swarm fell below a certain number of hungry members, they'd cease hunting for new targets and swarm what they'd caught.

  Lyn re-focused on not being what they'd caught.

  They shouted over the screeching sounds of the swarm, “Ceress, no point calming anymore — they're hunting now.”

  Ceress shouted back, “It's not for them. There are hundreds below us.”

  “Oh. Carry on, then.”

  What to do — Novek wasn't well suited to high speed flyers, Ceress was busy, Nat was… was he arguing with Moira's flame in his hand?

  Oh. Right. They had wanted to show this to him earlier — the trick they'd had a chance to try out during the scrav attack. No time like the present, one supposed.

  While Lyn looked on, the swarm started to re-orient for another dive, aiming for either Nat or Ceress — they were too close to discern which way the swarm would go. That could be fixed.

  “Nat! Step towards the swarm! Get ready to activate your Talent! Third of a second, put your hands up, don't move! When I say go!”

  Lyn let their walking stick drop to the ground, and held their hands out, arcs spilling out across both palms now.

  “What? Hey!” One of the swarm had gotten close — he barely dodged it.

  Hopping towards Nat, Lyn ignored the pain as their stump made contact with the ground. “Just do it!”

  “Ceress! Step back! Nat! Ready?”

  Lyn's electrical arcs intensified twofold, then threefold.

  “Ready! Ow!” One of the Jih'rehk had nipped his upstretched arm. It was time.

  Their hands started to glow, and the heat became uncomfortable.

  “Now!”

  Nat turned into his dark-skinned statue, hands held out above him. Fewmets, he was tall.

  Lyn jumped, using both legs, the pain incredible as the bone pressed through skin into the ground.

  The electricity leapt from their hands into a roiling, rotating ball, held in position above Nat's hands by Lyn's field as they fell away from him.

  The Jih'rehk had started their dive — some were now too close to the ball — it exploded in a flash that turned the pre-dawn dim light into the brightness of day for a moment.

  Almost the entire swarm had been vaporized, and now rained down on Nat's form — still a statue; the heat would have to be dissipated by the Talent before it would deactivate.

  Ceress shouted from the side. “Lyn? What the hell! I'm blind!”

  “It's fine, almost the entire swarm is dead.” Lyn, too, was blinking the spots out of their eyes.

  Novek had finished his messy work, apparently — Lyn was just starting to be able to make out his form as their eyes readjusted.

  His rumbling voice was accompanied by a half-seen gesture at Nat, still in statue form. “What's with the kid? How long will he be like that?”

  Ceress, still squinting, followed up, “Yeah, Lyn. How long will he be like that?”

  “Less than a minute, judging from last time.”

  Novek sounded confused. “Last time?”

  “Yeah, the scrav attack. It won't be long, and he'll be fine. Does it matter?”

  Novek gestured up into the brightening sky. “So, guess we can't leave him here and run, huh?”

  “Run? Why would we need to…” Lyn looked up. Their vision had returned, and now they had no trouble seeing that more of the Jih'rehk than had previously attacked were now furiously circling in the sky above.

  Ceress picked up on the pause, but apparently her vision was taking longer to return.

  Lyn kept their voice calm. “Hey, Ceress, we're going to need your field back up, as fast as you can.”

  Ceress sighed. “I'll try to re-establish the pattern, but it's harder when they're already agitated. It would still be up if I hadn't been flash burned by surprise. Give me a second.”

  Her claws came alight again with blue fire. The forming swarm above slowed visibly, but did not disperse.

  “How many?”

  “I'm sensing hundreds in the air. Nat had been saying that Moira detected there were a lot more before they started attacking in earnest. They wanted me to join them in his Talent to amplify my skill.”

  “Well, that might be a problem. I can't do the arc flash again for a while. That was twice in two days already. Can you hold them?”

  Rolling her eyes, Ceress stated, “I can do one better.” She then shouted at the top of her considerable lungs. “Soot! Here! Soot!” Looking back to Lyn and Novek, she continued, “It's fine. Soot can handle this.”

  The draconid had leapt into the sky a few hundred meters away and was gliding towards them quickly, a snacking log still in her grip.

  “I'll keep them distracted and Soot can just pick them out of the air. They can't get through her rock layers with the acid.”

  Moira's voice echoed among them, as Nat stepped towards the center of the group, hand alight, clothes slightly smoking.

  No, I said there were thousands more.

  Ceress spun, looking into the air. “Where!? Then why didn't you say that?”

  Because I got silenced in the panic. I had to wait for Nat to activate his Talent, or someone to summon an arc.

  She squinted with focus for a moment before responding, “I don't sense anything else, just these.”

  That's just the advance group. The rest of the swarm is streaming out of their spawning cave on the other side of the trees.