In the distance, smoke from the camp rose lazily into the air, but directly below them, a much more pressing matter pulled the Master's attention.
Every Awakened was familiar with the disturbance in the air that preceded an opening gate. It was ingrained deeply in them, even without the call that they usually felt.
"You've got to be joking..." Flint let out a string of curses, but Noble couldn't exactly blame him.
Whereas the other gates were either missing their guardian or too far away from the people to be an immediate concern, this gate was uncomfortably close to the caravan and Bastion. While it wouldn't reach the people immediately, the Nightmare Creatures would smell the humans' souls and come running soon.
The gate would have to be handled.
Roan's shoulders slumped slightly. He had been looking forward to a rest and a hot meal after the day of travel. He straightened his posture and smiled brightly.
"It seems we will have a little action today after all. Ready your weapons. Aether, go tell Lady Syrce about the incoming attack so she can deploy reinforcements."
Aether dipped his head. "I will be back soon. Please don't have too much fun without me."
Leaping from the back of the griffin, the young man navigated through the trees and flipped lightly before landing on the ground. Then, without missing a beat, he ran away from the forming gate and toward the encampment.
It would have been faster if Roan or Noble had gone with the warning, but the former did not want to leave his cohort, and the latter would have had to take Flint with her, leaving them without two of their fighters.
Aether was agile on his feet and fast. He would be there and back soon enough.
In the meantime, the group prepared for battle. Hovering over the forest, they summoned various weapons.
On the back of the griffin, Roan summoned his sword. The other three summoned two weapons. While swords formed at their sides, the ladies held out their hands to receive bows, and Flint called forth his slingshot.
The most obvious position to take was at a distance from the air. If the creatures that came out of the gate could fly, then the Masters would be able to meet them on their own terms.
If they couldn't, then the cohort would have a large tactical advantage. Noble hoped the latter would be the case. Picking off the creatures without the risk of injury would be ideal. But she was pretty sure luck would not be in her favor.
Taking a few deep breaths, Noble focused on circulating her essence. She had spent some while racing across the landscape, but she still had a reasonable supply.
The others had not spent any as far as Noble knew, so they would be able to use their powers freely, at least at first.
She had been through the trauma of a gate opening before. Noble had been a mere Awakened then, and yet they had prevailed. This time would be no different.
Closing her eyes, Child of Promise envisioned what she needed to do. She cleared her mind of anything else.
"Blondie, stop daydreaming. Time's up!" Flint was right.
Below, the air began to spilt as the hungry maw of the gate took its place in the forest. The world around them went eerily still.
Noble lifted her bow and notched her arrow, preparing for whatever horror might enter the dying world. The first creature pushed through the inky blackness.
Its bulbous head was twice the size of its body and lacked any discernible skull. The skin rippled, looking like the creature was swimming instead of walking through air.
Its body was thin like the trunk of a sapling, looking too narrow to hold such a massive orb on top. The sprawling arms and legs looked like cords of a whip, with razor-sharp fingers and toes on the end of each limb. The creature had no discernible face, making its movement more difficult to anticipate.
Noble drew her bow, but it was Helie who got off the first shot. The oversized arrow came down with such frightening force and accuracy that Noble thought the earth itself might split in two.
The arrow effortlessly burst the head like a balloon and dug deep into the ground behind the creature. Yellowish liquid dripped down the monster's body. It took two more steps before wilting to the ground.
The others waited for the next creature to exit, but after almost a minute, nothing seemed to happen.
Lowering her bow, Noble frowned.
"That's it?" Flint swung his slingshot back and forth.
"It cannot be." Child of Promise shook her head. "Even if the gates are less fierce than our world, a single creature makes no sense."
In the Waking World, a person who got infected by the Spell could essentially turn into a gate of one. However, they were never accompanied by a rift.
They waited another minute, yet still nothing occurred. The single abomination lay on the ground all alone.
"It was pretty fragile," Helie offered. "Maybe the others burst before even coming through?"
"That wouldn't explain the lack of a gate guardian," Roan shook his head. "Bel and Flint both encountered a guardian before, so we know they exist here."
"Maybe they are all women, and that's why they are running late," Flint immediately drew withering gazes from his female companions.
"If you make one more of those jokes, I'll find a way to disengage that belt without your input…" Noble threatened.
Flint opened his mouth to say something, but after seeing the dangerous look in his companions' eyes, he clamped it shut again.
Noble could almost hear his silent thought. 'Women, so sensitive!'
She didn't have time to respond, for at last the gate began to expel more creatures from its horrific opening.
What the gate had lacked in speed, it made up for in sheer volume.
Hundreds—no thousands—of bulbous monsters spilled into the forest. Those whose heads were too big simply floated into the air with their arms and legs whipping aimlessly at the sky.
Flint's slingshot sent a spray of stones and ice through the air. Noble and Helie released a hail of arrows into the swarm.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Lonely Drifter.]
The voice echoed in Noble's head as each projectile cut down a swath of the enemy. Yet still more came.
The bursting bubbles rained down liquid over the forest as they fell, filling the air with a sickening sweet smell. Noble wanted to plug her nose, but she continued shooting. For no matter how many she killed, a dozen more poured out from the gate.
The swarm of abominations seemed inexhaustible.
While the three with long-range weapons cut down the monsters as they exited, Roan swept around to catch those who escaped the deadly net. The griffin's beak dripped with blood from ripping its way through the Drifters.
Between the echo and the blade of his master, the monsters who escaped were unable to get more than a hundred meters from the gate.
Somehow, the four Masters managed to contain the first wave of the gate, maintaining a tentative equilibrium for the moment.
But that moment would not last long.
In a blink, everything changed.