Using the rock, Flint raised the temperature enough to set the world ablaze.
And the sawdust filling the air from the monsters lit like a tinderbox. The sudden gust threw Flint on his back just as Roan landed his tackle.
The two men sprawled out on the ground while a mushroom of fire filled the air overhead.
Roan punched the man across the jaw. "Are you insane?! Bel and Aether are in there!"
The heat and pain brought Flint back to his senses. He cursed.
"I only wanted to..."
Roan had no time for his explanation. The grass was already burning. Soon, the trees of the woods would be too.
Roan stood, checked to make sure his heat protection was in place, and prepared to dive into the flames.
Feeling the thick smoke pulling the oxygen from the air, the cohort leader took a deep breath. Suffocation was a bigger fear than burning, and the bright light had likely blinded his companions.
If one of the monsters got the advantage before being consumed by the flames...
Roan struggled to find his footing as pieces of wood and disturbed earth tripped him. Before he could see anything but the light of the flames, a figure crashed directly into his body.
"Aether! It's me!" Roan choked, using his last bit of air to convey his message.
The young man leaned on him, and together they exited the conflagration. When they reached the edge of the blaze, Flint caught up Aether's other arm and escorted him back inside the circle of wagons.
"I'm fine." Turning around, Aether pulled off his helmet. Blood poured from a cut on his scalp. "That spark came out of nowhere. The wight I was fighting was thrown into my head, and exploded into my visor." He brushed back his hair, to clear his eyes. "Where's Bel?"
"Still in there." Roan glared at Flint before turning back to the flames.
"But her fire charm! If the cloak didn't protect her, then..." Aether grabbed his head. The gash gushed onto his gauntlet.
"I will heal him," Flint promised. "You get Blondie!"
The cohort leader nodded, turning to leave.
A mighty cry rose above the roar of fire. Only it was no longer the wights–their screams had already succumbed to the flame. This cry was human.
"FIRE MONSTER!"
From the fire, a figure emerged wreathed in flames.
No, she was the flames. Or at least that is how she appeared at first.
The soldiers watched her warily.
Roan saw an archer draw his bow.
"Stand down!" he called.
In answer to the words, the two glowing weapons in the lady's hands vanished. As she walked away, the flames from her body vanished, too.
They were only emulating the flame, and now they looked like the darkness once more.
Throwing back her hood, Noble approached the commander, who was already issuing orders.
"Get the Pink Ones to the river! No, not the Lake!" Syrce spared the blonde Master a glance. "Report?"
"The wights are dead," Noble answered.
"All of them?" The flames reflected in Syrce's grey eyes.
Child of Promise nodded once. "All of them."
Even in the heat, the floating Master refused to leave until the mission was complete. Most of the creatures had been consumed by the flames, but those who had not Noble chased down and finished with the points of her blades.
It was only when the last haunting scream faded that Child of Promise had considered her job done.
The Saint studied her companion for a moment.
The creatures' blood, which had run like thick sap, still clung to her hood in pieces of hardened amber. Satisfied, Syrce nodded.
"Good."
The Saint walked away to continue her task. Noble moved away, too, straight to the other Masters.
"Aether, are you alright?" The lady could see the blood.
"Just a little bump," he smiled. "With a healer in the group, I am fine now."
Flint waved his hand. "His injury was nothing compared to how you dragged me through the..."
"You." Noble's eyes swirled with anger. "Put out the fire. Now."
Unlike Aether, Noble had seen exactly what had transpired. Her second sight had given her just enough warning to turn her head away from the initial blast. Flint had been drunk and reckless.
He would fix this or else.
Flint flinched. "How can I..."
"Make way!" A soldier pushed through as the first of the Pink Ones returned from the nearby river. Their trunks were filled with water, as were the buckets hauled by the humans accompanying them.
"Oh," Flint nodded slowly and joined the cavalcade.
As soon as the water left the Pink One's trunk, it froze, falling in crystals upon the fiery blaze. The water almost immediately evaporated and turned to steam, but not before taking a considerable amount of the heat with it.
The next batch of water was used to set a frozen perimeter. When the ice melted, it soaked into the earth to keep the wildfire from taking root in the woods or consuming the wagons—either of which would have been devastating.
The temperature around the fire cooled. The surly Master suppressed the heat. The water in the air condensed, fell into the fire, and then sizzled in steam. A strange combination of smoke and water vapor lingered in the air.
Then, with a final block of the largest ice that Flint could make, the last of the fire was robbed of oxygen and snuffed out. The soaked landscape was charred, but at least it was no longer ablaze.
Flint shut his eyes. Circulating his essence had removed what was left of his drunkenness, but it had left behind a hangover. It seemed that it would have to clear on its own.
The surly Master was still bruised up, too, from the ride Bel had caused by taking off like she had. It had taken him a moment to figure out what was going on when he was pulled unceremoniously from his seat and dragged along the ground. His thrashing at an imaginary enemy had only injured himself, but that wasn't his fault!
Healing his wounds, Flint muttered angrily. "A man shouldn't be treated this way. She could have ripped a permanent hole in my soul core!"
He turned, ready to give the lady a piece of his mind on the matter.
Noble was rearranging the Pink Ones under Syrce's supervision.
"We need to have them ring the camp entirely. I don't know why, but the monsters seem to avoid them."
Turning her head, she spotted Flint.
"I need to talk to you, Blondie. Now." He called as he came near.
Noble's expression darkened. "I'm busy."
Syrce looked between them and dipped her head. "I think I can take it from here. You go ahead."
The floating Master relented, leaving her plans in the hands of the capable Saint.
"Not here."
Child of Promise walked away from Flint, and he followed her angrily.
When she reached the edge of the camp, she suddenly turned on him, her eyes swirling with the anger hidden deep in their depths.
"You wanted to talk?" She asked.
With a motion, two figures stepped out of the darkness to surround Flint. Noble narrowed her gaze.
"So do we."