A Sky Warrior spun his staff in a defensive arc, the wood meeting the flats of the attacking swords as two Church soldiers pressed their coordinated assault. The soldier on the right thrust forward while his companion swept in from the left, their movements synchronized.

  The Sky Warrior’s feet shifted, his staff intercepting each blade strike. Each impact rang out as the hardwood deflected their swords. His white and sky blue robes flowed with each movement, wind gently coursing around them.

  A third soldier charged in from behind, his blade raised high for a finishing blow. Without turning, the Sky Warrior thrust his palm backward, and a concentrated gust of wind erupted from his hand. The rushing air hit the charging soldier like a compressed strike square in the chest, sending him stumbling backward, fighting to keep his balance.

  Only a few feet away, another battle took place as one of the Sky Warriors faced her own soldier. As he swung his sword in a wide arc, she deflected his blade with her staff, all the while she vaulted over him, using the wind to carry her in a graceful flip. Her staff then came down toward his exposed head, ready to make his helm ring.

  Another blade met the wooden weapon with a resounding clang as the soldier’s companion intercepted the blow, catching her staff inches from his ally’s armored skull. The rescued soldier immediately repositioned himself, moving with his ally to a defensive formation.

  The soldier's hazel irises shook softly as he glanced past the Sky Warrior. His gaze landed on the half dozen allies that he saw surrounding two of the robed Sky Warriors. His gaze did not stop there as his reflective eyes darted left, then right, taking in the shifting battlefield around him.

  Across the riverside, Sky Warriors and soldiers clashed, it was wind against blades, staffs battering against mighty, unrelenting shields. The sounds of combat screamed around them, and blue, calm water reflected the brutality of the above-water world. The deadly warriors of wind and the mighty formations of the experienced soldiers clashed again and again in the chaos of combat.

  Skyheart found himself pressed by a particularly aggressive soldier. The blade whistled past his ear as he ducked low.

  “Never fought a Church soldier before is that really the best the Church can—” His words were cut short as the soldier’s shield slammed into his chest with a powerful thump.

  The impact sent Skyheart sprawling backward onto the muddy ground, his staff skittering away from his grasp. He propped himself up on one elbow, spitting out dirt. “Note to self don’t taunt a highly trained soldier while fighting. Oh crap..”

  Another soldier rushed in, his mace raised high and ready to cave in Skyheart’s skull. Still prone, the young Sky Warrior swept his leg in a wide arc, channeling Aeroquill through the motion. Winds surrounded the legs, whirling and powerful. The enhanced kick caught the soldier’s ankle, and the man toppled sideways with a surprised grunt.

  Skyheart continued his momentum, spinning upward as spiraling winds lifted and rotated his body in a sideways spiral before setting him down upright. His hand reached out, and the wind carried his staff to him. As his feet touched the ground, he immediately slammed the staff into the ground. A powerful repulsion of air erupted outward, sending a cloud of dust and debris flying in all directions.

  As the dust settled, Skyheart brushed off his robes with a nonchalance, a cocky smirk playing on his lips. “See Sky Child? Told you I could easily handle a dozen of them, ha bring it on this is what a future Tempest Warrior looks like.”

  “Chirp Chirp.” Sky Child flew over high, watching the battle below it.

  “Hm? What do you mean ‘nice try’? I did gre…” The word did not have enough time to leave his mouth when the dust fully cleared. Revealing, both Church soldiers as they stood, strong and ready to continue the fight. The first raised his sword high, the second spun mace in hand, battle readied.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Skyheart’s confident expression faltered slightly. “Oh. That’s what you meant by nice try. Uh... well come at me then!”

  The soldiers exchanged a glance and launched their attack in unison. Skyheart spun his staff, wind currents swirling around him as he deflected the sword on his right and used a concentrated gust to redirect the mace coming from his left.

  A shield bash came toward him, but Skyheart wasn’t going to fall to the ground again. A burst of wind exploded beneath his heels as he hopped twenty feet into the air over the soldiers.

  From the corner of his eye, Skyheart caught sight of the Tempest Warriors engaged in their own fierce battles against the Church’s elite forces.

  The Tempest Warriors found themselves facing a different challenge entirely as the Church knights brought their Silverquill to bear. A Tempest Warrior thrust both hands forward, sending a concentrated blast of wind that ripped a stump from the ground, launching it along with the many pebbles and rocks beneath it. The targeted knight flew many feet backward, the stump heading straight for him, when silvery energy wrapped around him like protective armor. Instead of crashing helplessly, he slid across the ground in full control, the earth beneath him carving deep furrows as his boots maintained contact with the soil. The stump was swatted away by the knight’s silver-glowing mace.

  Another Tempest Warrior found herself in grave danger as she parried blow after blow from a skilled Church knight. Her staff work was masterful, but the knight seemed to anticipate every defensive move she made. Step by step, she was forced backward until the winds around her whispered of movement behind her. Another knight stood, positioned for the attack.

  Without turning, she spun her staff overhead and channeled her Aeroquill into razor-sharp crescents of compressed air. The wind-blades shrieked through the space between them, slicing cleanly through a nearby tree and sending the massive trunk crashing to the ground. But when the deadly crescents struck the knights, a silver energy flared to life, the protective energy dispersing the attacks, and the knight continued his charge unfazed.

  “Damn Silverquill!” The Tempest Warrior yelled as she continued her battle.

  A third Tempest Warrior grappled with two knights simultaneously, his movements blurred and hastened by winds surrounding his body, enhancing him with inhuman speed. The defensive wind also acted as a barrier, protecting and counterattacking the assaults of the knights he faced. Each time they gained momentum, he created distance with powerful gusts, the knights enhanced their own speed with Silverquill, which allowed them to keep up and gain momentum almost immediately upon losing it. One knight’s sword thrust was deflected by a spinning wall of air, but his companion immediately exploited the opening, smashing the wall with a mace enhanced with the knight’s silver power, forcing the Tempest Warrior to abandon any thought of a counterattack and focus purely on his own survival.

  In another battle, a Tempest Warrior attempted to use the terrain to her advantage, calling forth updrafts to lift chunks of earth and stone as projectiles. The makeshift missiles hammered against her opposing knights’ defenses, but their Silverquill-enhanced strength allowed them to smash through the barriers or deflect them entirely. When one knight leaped impossibly high on silvery energy, she barely managed to duck as his enhanced strike shattered the boulder she’d been using for cover.

  But the greatest battle took place in the clash between Tempest Warriors and Church sages. Crystalline projectiles of frozen spears met with howling tornadoes as their magic clashed. But when the Tempest Warrior suddenly closed the distance in an attempt to outdo him with martial prowess, he was disappointed and surprised. The Sage's combat training became evident, two short swords were drawn, and the magical battle became a dance of staff and blades. Each of them using their own Quill to enhance their prowess. Ice freezing the ground, forcing the Warrior to hover in the air, and enhanced speed granted by winds stiffened by an aura of frost, slowing the body.

  The second sage proved just as adept as the Tempest Warrior they faced, who was barely managing to deflect a barrage of lightning from the sage’s quill mastery. When she retaliated with a focused hurricane that should have knocked her opponent senseless, the sage ripped through it with hands infused with screaming electricity. A counterattack in the form of a lance of sparks and energy shot out from the palm of the sage and the tempest warrior was forced to put up a desperate wind-shield to save her from a terrible blow.

  Yet while all these battles were commencing, the one of gravest importance was just about to begin as the Elder of the Sky Children tribe and the High Sage of the Church grew impatient.