Although time is ticking away, I don’t dare send any of my Bound away to start investigating the carcass of the fellapodil – those who would be most apt at finding and extracting its Core are exactly those I would want around me if the situation with Windy goes downhill. Which, honestly, seems to be the only way it can go, really.

  As it turns out, though, Lathani is the first to finish her Evolution. Natural, I suppose, since she started it first. The purple sparks are slowly sucked into her body, revealing a massive, dark shape.

  She’s grown, is my first thought. It feels like an understatement as she uncurls, showing that she’s grown even more than I had thought. Standing up on four paws, I see that she’s more than doubled her previous size.

  Before, her shoulders had reached mid-thigh on me; now, they reach my own shoulder-height. Her head used to be a little smaller than mine; now she could probably bite it off if she opens her jaws wide. With her new height, she’s also far longer – she used to be about a metre and a half; now she’s probably over three metres long. She still has a way to go to reach her mother’s immense proportions, but she’s certainly making inroads on catching up!

  There are more obvious changes. Her colouring for one. She used to be the typical sandy colour of a leopard with black spots. Now, she looks far more like a black leopard, her spots barely visible against the dark brown of her coat. Her eye colour has changed too, transforming to the bright gold of her mother’s gaze; the darkness of her coat just makes her eyes shine even more obviously against it.

  Then I realise Lathani is looking a little anxiously at me and I rush to reassure her.

  “You look amazing,” I tell her honestly. She and Kalanthia together will be a sight. And that reminds me that Kalanthia should be up to full strength. “Let me see what’s changed internally.”

  I pull up both Kalanthia and Lathani’s entries to see the changes even as Lathani starts talking excitedly, that aspect of her clearly unchanged.

  Pack leader, I’m so much bigger now! Did you see? And I feel so much stronger too! And I think I could run for days. And I’ve got magic now, can you see?!

  “I do, I see all of that,” I tell her, more than a little distracted by the information before my eyes.

  Both nundas have made massive steps forward. Lathani has more than doubled her previous health points – originally a thousand, seven hundred. She’s also doubled her stamina points, going from three hundred and sixty to seven hundred and twenty.

  But it’s her mana which has seriously increased – going from two hundred and fifty, already reasonable for a Tier one, to a bit below two thousand. She’s got almost three times as much as I do, and she rivals the Pathwalkers with the biggest mana pools. Which is insane since her health points beat out even Shrieks’ and he’s the one with the biggest health pool in the village. She’s a beast, in all senses of the word. It’s very clear that even if nundas aren’t dragons, they’re still a favoured species.

  That doesn’t even take into account the fact that she has three abilities. Earth-Sense I’m reasonably familiar with when it’s part of Earth-Shaping, but she hasn’t got Earth-Shaping at all. Instead she has Shadow-Shaping, something which I’m going to have to ask her about since I have multiple ideas of what that could involve, but no real certainty. I guess I now know what that odd purplish Energy Heart that her system was so happy to absorb was aligned to. Maybe this is why she’s so good at sneaking around too?

  However, it’s the changes to Kalanthia’s own values which really grab my attention. I shake my head in wonder as I contemplate how she’s not only regained what she had temporarily given up, but she’s also gained more. In fact…she’s gained what Lathani has, I realise. Fortunately, my improved memory allows me to recall what her values were like before, and it’s clear that she’s increased her own health, mana, and stamina pools by the exact amount that Lathani has.

  In addition to that, she’s naturally lost the reductions to her abilities which she’d been suffering, and she’s also managed to make some progress towards the next Tier – more than I would have expected in the short time since I last looked at her details.

  Closing the screen, I look at Lathani again. She’s currently basking in the approval of everyone around, even the samurans are offering heart-felt congratulations. Storm and Ninja are the most effusive, though I feel a hint of jealousy coming across the Bond from Storm. When she moves away from Lathani, I shift over to her and rub behind her ears in the way all the raptorcats seem to like.

  You’ll get there too, in time, I tell her consolingly. She sends across a sense of helpless frustration, as if she’s asking me ‘when’ or saying ‘it’s taking too long’. I just send her a feeling of wry amusement. You were born less than a year ago. Lathani is already more than four years old. Patience.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  She doesn’t like that, grumbling at me wordlessly over the link. She doesn’t pull away, though, so I keep stroking her. A moment later, a nudge to my other hand reveals that their matriarch wants her own due of caresses. I wait patiently for Lathani to finish receiving her felicitations – then we can work out what all these new abilities are.

  Just as Poison, as the last of the group, finishes solemnly congratulating Lathani, I start walking towards her, mentally apologising to the two disgruntled raptorcats. Before I get to Lathani, however, the rapidly decreasing cloud of sparks around Windy diverts my attention.

  I tense, and notice several others doing the same. Clearly, I’m not the only one dreading this confrontation as well as excited by the first Tier three samuran in living memory being transformed before our eyes.

  The off-white sparks disappear bit by bit, revealing the form beneath. As if watching a flower unfolding its petals, or mist being dissolved by the sun, our eyes are transfixed by the sight.

  With the sparks all but gone, we can see Windy’s physical form. Her previously slim and delicate body has filled out a little, and she’s grown by more than a head – now she appears to be the same height as I am instead of considerably shorter.

  Most striking is that her scales are now covered with a softly-glowing pattern that enraptures those watching. Swirling lines cover the whole of her body, including twisting across her face and curving around her muzzle. Even as I watch, they start to fade, but they never fully disappear.

  As if she doesn’t even realise that she has an audience, Windy holds her paws out in front of herself. Her claws are still short, but they look much harder and sharper than before – like real weapons rather than the remnants of tools they had been as a Pathwalker.

  I know I should be checking if the Bond between us is intact, but I can’t bring myself to break this moment. Like my other Bound, I’m barely breathing as Windy stares into her cupped claws.

  And then, I see it. Between her paws, Windy is cupping a barely-visible distortion of air. The distortion increases, shown as a mini-tornado. The tornado grows until I start feeling the breeze tugging at my clothes.

  With a look of exaltation on her face, a pure white that I’ve never seen before flashing through her spikes, Windy raises her hands above her head.

  The tornado grows more and more and more. No longer is it a small hand-sized cyclone – it’s rapidly approaching a real-sized tornado. Its funnel stretches up into the sky and is actually beginning to form real clouds above it. The clouds darken, and abruptly I see flashes of light created within the cloud above the tornado.

  I should have done this already, but I belatedly call up Windy’s information.

  My eyes go wide at the new abilities Windy has gained. She’s become a proper Storm-mage, not just a Wind-Shaper any more. Each of her new abilities is powerful, and her mana pool is almost as much as Kalanthia’s, giving her a massive amount of mana to play with. Even her health pool, while small in comparison to the nunda’s, is even bigger than Shrieks’. I seriously hope that she either decides not to test my control over her or that the Bond holds – I don’t want to get into a proper fight with the new Windy. Though that question-mark next to Dominate in her information isn’t heartening.

  By this point, the tornado has expanded to encircle our whole party in its eye. My clothes are only being gently tugged by the wind inside the storm’s funnel, but anything outside its walls is impossible to see. Debris start being picked up by the wind – grass, small pebbles, leaves, small detritus from our battle with the fellapodil. Meanwhile, the lightning flashes have been increasing in frequency, and are getting worrisomely close.

  I don’t need to look around to see the concern on my companions’ faces – I can feel their growing fear over the Bond.

  Sister, starts Joy tentatively. Please stop?

  River is not so reticent. Wind-whisperer! You are endangering us. Stop!

  Yet Windy seems to be lost in her own magic, the sheer joy and triumph in her face is both beautiful and scary to be seen. Her eyes are open, but appear as unseeing as her ears are unhearing.

  “Windy,” I say steadily, forcing my fears and concerns about what her next move will be out of my voice and my immediate thoughts. River is right; Windy’s actions are beginning to endanger us. The wind might not be getting worse, but I see Yells and Dusty flinch as they’re pelted with small pebbles, hard enough to dig into their scales a bit. The lightning, too, is getting ever closer, the flashes not only happening in the cloud above us, but beginning to strike the ground within the walls of the tornado.

  Raven is already crouching over his hatchlings to protect them from the flying objects, his wings pressed against his back to stop them from being ripped away by the wind. The rest of my Bound are either backing away or doing their best to make themselves smaller targets.

  She doesn’t respond.

  “Windy,” I say again, more urgently. “Stop.”

  Throwing caution to the wind – literally – I reach out with the Bond and grip her firmly, echoing my order down it. I force away the creeping doubts that I might lose this battle of wills – I know from experience that entering one with doubts eroding my confidence is a sure-fire way of guaranteeing my failure, whether a formal Battle of Wills or not.

  The wind hesitates for a moment, the storm losing its force for a moment. And then it surges back with renewed fury. Lightning strikes boom loudly enough to deafen us; the wind howls like a wild animal. I grip the Bond more firmly but my heart skips a beat when I feel my grasp slide off it like it’s a greased pig twisting out of my grasp.

  My attempt seems to enrage the storm even more, the wind starting to rip at us as the eye narrows, the lightning barely leaving any gap between strikes as it turns our world into one of strobe lighting.

  All of my Bound are now cowering on the ground – being so close to lightning is clearly an absolutely terrifying experience. I have to admit that I’d probably be more scared if I took a moment to think about it. I don’t dare to, though – I’m the leader here; if I lose my head, all is lost. I pull strongly on Meditation to keep myself calm and keep my mind working.

  We need cover. But there’s nothing up here but bare earth and we’re not close enough to the cavern for everyone to hide in there – they’d get ripped apart by the walls of the cyclone if they tried.

  But I have magic.

  Sinking my awareness into the ground, I pull hard on the mana pools of the Tier two Pathwalkers to make sure that I can do this as quickly as I need to. I send a quick sense of apology for not asking first, but speed is of the essence, and I need all my focus for my task.

  Digging a hole straight through the rock, I create a tunnel down to the cavern – they’ll be safe there. Taking inspiration from my actions, Raven chivvies his hatchlings towards the slope leading down into the cavern, backing up to tuck most of his own body over the edge too. I see him jerk as he’s hit by one lightning bolt and then another, but they’re clearly not enough to stop him as he keeps moving, a sense of pain coming over the Bond between us. I can’t pay attention to him right now, though.

  Go through! I tell everyone speaking mentally to avoid my words being stolen by the howling, raging wind. Most don’t stop to question me and run into the tunnel I’ve made for them. Bastet does, of course, as do River and Catch.

  It’s not safe out here, River says worriedly.

  I’ll be fine, I answer her, though don’t argue with her point. Go – you’ll only be a target here.

  So will you, Catch says with concern, the other two sending firm agreement. You need someone to keep you safe too.

  The best way to keep me safe is to get into the tunnel and then jump out to back me up if it’s a good moment to do so, I tell him, admitting that I might need help later.

  We’ll be watching, Bastet promises us. Stay alive, she warns me firmly.

  I’ll do my best, I reply wryly.

  With that, the three tuck themselves into the earth, though they don’t go far, watching me carefully even as they hunker down to avoid being pulled by the wind.

  I crouch myself, practically crawling as I move towards Windy – the wind is strong enough to force me off-balance if I stay standing upright, even with my massively increased strength.

  Setting my eyes on the Pathwalker, I grit my teeth. I have too much riding on this. I refuse to allow Windy to slip my Bond.

  here!

  here!

  here