Ghostwalker - Erik Scott De Bie [61]
Drawing his shatterspike, Walker stepped back into the Material and put his hand on Swiftfall, as though he could command the horse to carry Arya away with but a touch.
Indeed, his sudden appearance startled the animal, even as his ghostly aura had unnerved it. Carried past the realm of comfort, the horse panicked and snorted.
"Run!" he shouted to Swiftfall. "Flee!"
Then he rushed toward the elemental. Though it was invisible on the Material plane, the creature, in all its fiery fury, was fully visible to his ethereally sensitive eyes.
Arya, however, did not share his ghostsight. To her, the ghostwalker charged toward empty air.
"What? What are you-"
Her voice trailed off as the creature manifested, shimmering out of the Ethereal directly in front of her.
The forest erupted into an inferno of gray-silver fire, translucent flames shifting like ribbons of burning silk. It made no sound-even the raging flames, which should have roared, burned silently. The ghostfire elemental loomed over her and pulled back one of its massive tendrils. Arya, shocked at its sudden, majestic appearance, stared into death itself.
"Arya!" shouted Walker.
He slashed down into the mass of flame and the weapon pulsed with cold, ghostly power. It bit into the elemental, disrupting its essence and causing the creature pain. It bucked and turned toward the ghostwalker, growing a new fiery arm to lash at him. Walker stabbed his sword at the creature, warding it off, and ducked its swipe. He retreated and the elemental followed.
The knight, broken from her spell, swung down from Swiftfall and slapped the horse's rump. With a whinny, Swiftfall ran and Arya stalked back toward the ghostfire elemental, drawing her sword.
"What are you doing?" hissed Walker as he thrust at the elemental again and ducked its countering swing. "I told you to run!"
"You told Swiftfall to run," corrected Arya. "I have no intention of leaving you behind!"
She slashed her sword into the elemental with all her strength, but the blade passed through the ghostfire with no effect. "What, by Torm's blade?"
"I told you to flee for a reason!" shouted Walker. "Your blade is useless! Look-"
His warning cut off, incomplete, as a fist of ghostfire slammed into him. The elemental was certainly material enough to knock the man tumbling back through the air. Walker's body cracked against the thick trunk of a fir and he slumped to the forest turf, momentarily dazed.
The opponent with the stinging sword defeated for the moment, the creature turned its attention to the opponent whose hair resembled its material body in the moonlight.
The knight ducked as fiery tendrils struck out at her and scrambled back, leading the creature from the inert Walker. As she went, she uncorked a potion from her belt and splashed a silvery substance onto the sword. It suddenly glowed in the firelight with a cold blue radiance. "Come!" she shouted. "Come, demon-spawn!"
The elemental was only too happy to oblige, and flames roiled as it flowed toward her. Before Arya could escape, the creature raged around her. Arya swiped, slashing at the beast with her fine steel, but the blade swished through the ghostly flame with no effect. The elemental flickered between the planes, such that it was only really there half the time-the other half of the time, it was hopelessly ethereal.
She ducked an attack and slashed again, and this time the sword did not pass through harmlessly. Instead, the blade bit into its essence, causing it pain.
The creature swung a huge, fiery tendril at her, and Arya drew up her shield desperately. The ghostfire arm, however, passed right through the stout steel shield and struck Arya's arm full force. The knight screamed as the ghostfire tore at her flesh, her strength, and her spirit. Arya fell to her knees.
The scream jolted Walker from his stunned daze and the ghostwalker