Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

them now with her own eyes, they appeared even more horrific than they had
     when she’d watched them through the forest’s eyes. The bloody scalps of their previous
     victims bumped against their backs. Their faces had been painted in blood, their teeth
     filed to sharp points to match the skinless, sharpened bones of their fingertips.
    Riley’s fear overrode sorrow as Dax stood there, unmoving, calm and ready. Darkening
     clouds blocked the fading light of the sun, turning the sky a deep, awful red. The
     scene took on an even more nightmarish quality, with evil and death permeating the
     air beneath that blood-drenched sky. Wave after wave of foul corruption sped across
     the ground. She found herself rocking back and forth as each wave washed over her.
     Her swaying motion began to match the movement of the eight leaders.
    One of the eight stepped closer to Dax. A trail of insects and black ichor spread
     out in his wake, shining darkly in the fading light. Even behind the relative safety
     of the tree wall, Riley’s whole body shook with tremors. She wasn’t afraid of insects,
     but she was terrified of those dropping from the ghouls. Her blood curdled at the
     thought of them crawling over her skin.
    Riley wasn’t sure what Dax was waiting for. The rate and magnitude of the spreading
     evil increased with each passing moment. Already, the flowers blossoming all over
     her plant wall had wilted and died. The eight were closing in, and Dax, with his back
     to her, seemed to be just standing there. Had his attack on all the others exhausted
     him? The sun was still up, even if it was hidden by the clouds. Surely, that drained
     him, too.
    Suddenly, the eight leapt forward in unison, moving with speed she had not thought
     them capable of. Two leapt through the air above Dax. The others attacked from different
     angles.
    A voiceless scream ripped through Riley. There was no way the creatures could miss.
     All eight were moving as fast as Dax had, bloody claws extended in preparation for
     their strike. Still, Dax continued to simply stand there. One of the creatures ran
     between Riley and Dax, obscuring her view. Her heart rose up in her throat.
    “Dax!” Blinding light streaked down from the sky, slamming into the ground where Dax
     was standing. “No! Dax!” Dax! Blinded by the lightning, she gripped the intertwined branches and screamed his name.
    She blinked furiously, trying to clear her vision, then stabbed her hands into the
     ground and took control of every creature she could find and used their eyes to replace
     her own. A broken sob escaped her lips when she realized he was still there, safe,
     standing near a pile of charred bodies and holding a ball of blue and white fire.
     Quickly he lifted the ball into the air and released it. The shining orb drifted upward
     like a balloon and moved toward the center of the clearing. The insects that had followed
     in the wake of the eight were moving rapidly forward, blanketing the ground with their
     scuttling forms.
    A movement from above drew her attention. Still perched high in the branches overhead,
     Jubal was tying himself to the trunk of his tree. In the other large tree flanking
     what had been the tunnel through the living wall, Gary was doing the same. She looked
     back to the clearing. The pile of bodies near Dax began pulsating. A horde of insects
     erupted from the center of the pile, spilling down in every direction. One of the
     eight half shoved, half crawled his way out of the pile as well.
    Dax raised a hand toward the ball in the sky and called, “Gary, whenever you’re ready.”
    Riley had just enough time to look up and see Gary squeeze a detonator trigger before
     the encampment exploded. Dirt, rocks and bodies slammed into the tree wall as an enormous
     ball of flame roared out from the center of the camp. Riley screamed and ducked, instinctively
     covering her head with her arms. Then Dax was there beside her, shielding her body
     with his own, both of them facing away from the blast. For a moment, all she could
     do was cling to him and catch her breath.
    The intense heat was still radiating from the blast point, but as the worst of the
     noise and debris died down, his tight hold on her loosened. Together, they turned
     to look back. To Riley’s amazement, a wall of red and blue fire was raging in the
     center of the camp, but contained, as if trapped behind a wall of glass just at the
     edge of the tree line. She could