Whisper sprouted wings.

  They looked like they were made of pure light and folded around him protectively as the Adventurers realized that their prey was willing to use lethal retaliation.

  Whisper twisted and turned as his wings knocked away projectiles while he cut his way through the Adventurers, but this time instead of them being restrained by some black mark, they weren’t getting back up.

  The silver man parried a swordslash with his left wing, then skewered the Adventurer with his right. He twisted to position a wing to block a stream of fire, then threw his sword into the Caster’s chest. He ran at an Adventurer with a bow and wrapped the other man in a big hug, then took to the air and threw him to the ground. As the archer fell, Whisper followed and landed on another Adventurer.

  With six dead Adventurers, the others tried to overwhelm him, but that led to friendly fire casualties. I watched in awe as he fought, it was like a dance of death as he redirected a spear attack from one Adventurer into another, then used one of his wings to pull in an Anubis with a big shield to block the next attack. All of the melee Adventurers pulled back so that he could be bombarded with spells and projectiles, but the large glowing wings enveloped him as he ran at the closest Adventurer. His golden sword shot out from inside the protective layer, dispatching the snowy ax-wielding Adventurer.

  The Casters decided to switch from offensive spells to containment ones. Vines, wires, walls, ice, mud, slime, and electricity began to bombard the bandit. It felt like their Buffers were trying to do something too as I felt weaker even though Whisper had moved the fight to the other end of the block.

  The melee Adventurers weren’t moving away fast enough, though, and I watched Whisper knock aside another shield, then cut a hole in the chest of another tank. The remaining three tanks had moved over to the magic users, who had all congregated together and were moving slowly in our direction.

  “We need to move.” I began pulling the two women away from the fight that was coming to us.

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  Whisper had made his way through almost half of his opponents, and some of the survivors were starting to run away. He changed directions to put himself between us and the others as we headed in the opposite direction.

  “GET BACK HERE!” The demon banged his fists on the inside of the barrier. Whatever was keeping us out was also keeping him in. “I FORBID YOU FROM LEAVING!”

  The tendril that was connecting Yoriel to Mive was the only one that was pulsing. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I hoped that the others that were trapped were safe for the moment.

  Two more Adventurers fell and that was all that was needed for the remaining seventeen to scatter.

  Whisper chased after them and some of them would have gotten away, except that they ran into the outermost ring. A dome had formed around everyone inside, trapping us all. I realized it just moments after the first Adventurers did, when I reached the outer ring.

  Ether was in front of us with her shield out, but we didn’t need protection any more. Without any organized effort, it took less than a minute for the winged man to finish off the rest of the demon’s henchmen. He was full of cuts and bruises as he made his way to us. His armor was torn in even more places and his left eye was swollen.

  “Let me…”

  “It won’t help.” Whisper waved off Justia. “You’re too low level for your healing magic to have an effect on me.” He walked over to the ring where RIx was being held and lightly touched the barrier. It was like electricity was connecting his finger to the ground as a line of purple appeared to show us where the invisible barrier was.

  “Your wings…” I was still mesmerized by the shining appendages that were coming out of his back.

  “Later.” Whisper punched the barrier. The purple ring flared as it stopped him. “We need to get her out.” He raised his sword and tried to cut the tendril that ran over the ground back to Mive, but the same purple barrier stopped his blade.

  “YOU CAN’T WIN!” Yoriel laughed. “AND ONCE I TAKE ALL THEIR EXPERIENCE, I’LL FINISH YOU OFF MYSELF!”

  “How do we stop this?” I followed Whisper as he walked over to Mive.

  The silver bandit touched the kitsune God without the barrier blocking him. He began to trace his fingers over the tendril that was wrapped around Mive back down to the fox-man’s feet, which was where the barrier finally stopped him.

  “Justia.” Whisper looked over at the green woman. “Come here.” He turned to Ether and motioned for her to follow.

  Once the four of us were together, he nodded at Mive. “I want you to open his Mantle, but instead of bringing us in it, I want you to bring it to us.”

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