Swamped

Maybe it would be best to think smaller. Healing Captain Long probably wasn't that simple, all things considered. So perhaps if you used a simpler spell with less ether, say, focusing some into your slicer to let it counter this force... that might work out. It's still risky, but you don't have a lot of options.

You grab your slicer, close your eyes, and concentrate. You can already tell there's a lot of ether around you, even if you can't see it that clearly.

So you pull just a small piece of it into your slicer. You feel the force acting on you getting just a bit weaker, too.

You don't think you need to do anything else - you empowered the slicer with the same spell that's pushing you back. So you think, or rather, feel as though it can just fly through. You'll still need to aim it manually, though. With more practice and more ether you might be able to make it seek a target on its own, but you'll stick with what you know for now.

Aiming proves tricky with this not-quite-wind pushing you back, but you think you can manage it. At least you've still got your glove.

You fling the slicer and you can feel it making progress, pushing forward, unaffected by the strange force, even as you get closer and feel yourself pushed back harder.

And then, suddenly -

THWACK!

The silence is finally broken with the sound of the slicer hitting its mark. You also hear a rather loud, sustained humming sound... but it starts to die down and fade away, and as it does, the force acting on you lifts.

Was the sound pushing you back? Perhaps Simone would have some idea of that. For now, you've got other concerns. You turn back and call out.

"How do I stop the horse?"

"Pull on the reins hard!" Rider calls back.

That makes sense, and perhaps if you hadn't been under such high pressure, you might have thought of it yourself. Unfortunately, you dropped the reins, and now you're having trouble just staying in the seat. You've only got one arm to hold on with, and the reins have fallen down quite a ways.

So what should you do?