by Peri Akman
Kole was sent flying, and an audible snapping noise was heard as her head hit the ground, and it made a right angle bend.
“Kole!” Quinn roared, rushing towards her. As he reached her, his reality seemed to crash around him.
A rushing noise, and Kole’s head was set back to normal. She gasped for air. Her bandages on her face were slightly askew, and on her alabaster white skin, Quinn could see a small cut closing.
An internal healer. Thank the gods.
“Idiot…” Kole spat as she sat up, her face almost completely visible. She had an incredibly bony nose, and lips as white as her skin. It was like she hadn’t exposed herself to the sun in a very long time, and Quinn could believe it. The only things on her face that weren’t white were her black eyes, her black hair, and the nearly black circles under her eyes. She forcibly gripped the bandages, shoving them back on her face.
Kole stood up, but not perfectly so. There was a stagger to it, and more so than just the limp
her leg gave her. She leaned on her walking stick, scuffed and scratched, like it was a lifeline.
Up close, Quinn could see he was wrong. There was not a demon controlling the monsters— there were multiple. At least three on each monster head, clinging for dear life, legs flapping in the wind as they held tightly to the rope.
It would almost be comical if it wasn’t so sheerly terrifying.
“I told you to run!” Kole snarled, and she flung a disc of force towards a monster behind him—
Quinn took a brief glance at the monster that had been previously rolling on the ground and was now charging towards them.
Kole gripped Quinn and tumbled out of the way, flinging Quinn a few feet away with surprising strength.
Quinn opened his mouth to reply, but his courage failed him when he came face to face with the monsters. Far away, they had been relatively scary. Now, up close, Quinn realized how foolish he had been. This was skin-whitening, pants-browning terrifying. They were huge. They could step on him and squish him like a bug.
He froze underneath the multi-limbed behemoth, and felt his will to fight leave him.
“SUMMON A BIGGER WEAPON!” Kole shrieked.
A spear appeared and fell to the ground with a dull clatter.
“Good enough!” Kole spat, and immediately summoned an array of spears, although not nearly as many as the amount of knives that she had been throwing around, just barely piercing the large monster’s hide. Somehow they seemed self-propelled, unlike his own.
It roared, foam spraying everywhere, demons flailing on its head.
Kole stumbled, falling on her good leg, panting heavily.
She was tired. Oh gods she was tired. This was bad.
Quinn forced himself to stand up, his instincts screaming against him.
If she could do it, so could he.
With all his will, he summoned a moving spear, and sure enough, a spear arced through the sky—and missed the monster completely.
He grimaced at his failure. It didn’t help that there was this annoying pounding feeling from the negative energy. He was basically going against double odds.
He tried again, but this one fumbled, his motivation to fight the negative energy draining, and it clattered to the ground.
The monster roared and charged. Quinn paled, his shield vaguely shimmering to life in front of him.
A force of energy pushed him out of the way and the monster charged past him, mowing over several trees and boulders.
The monster skidded to a stop, causing the demons to go flying. The monster roared in what Quinn could only assume was glee before thundering off into the mountains again.
For a moment he was elated with relief, until his brain made note of the four other monsters, all currently surrounding Kole. She was once again fighting them off, spears and discs of energy flying everywhere.
He slowly stood up again and tried to summon a weapon—any weapon.
An axe clattered to the ground before instantly disintegrating. Quinn swore at his lack of focus.
He generated the axe again and tried to grip it, but the weight was too much and he dropped to the ground. The axe disintegrated yet again.
Useless! He was utterly useless!
He had tried, he had fought, he had even hit a monster, and he was still useless!
He generated the axe, and this time it was balanced properly. This one had an H emblazoned on it as well, although for the life of him he couldn’t remember if the previous ones had it or not.
Quinn stumbled forward, axe in tow. However, once he got close enough he realized it was a foolish endeavor.
The monsters were moving and scrambling at a hectic pace. Even if he got close enough to cleave into one of their tendons, he was more likely to be squashed by an errant foot.
He dropped the axe and let it disintegrate. He watched, shaking, unsure of what to do. The demons around him also watched, not even bothering to attack him. They were planning and observing. Just like before.
One of the monsters that had initially been obediently attacking Kole collapsed to the ground, its skull bashed in and its hide covered in lacerations from the knives.
Quinn’s heart gave a rise in victory.
Three more monsters. She could do it. It would be all right.
No sooner had the thought left his brain than did one of the remaining monsters clamp down on Kole, lifted her up, and shake her like a rag doll.
Quinn paled.
Bursts of energy and random effects shot out. Quinn crouched and hid behind the shield, his heart pounding.
By the time the barrage faded, It had been a good half a minute. The negative energy had slightly dissipated, but not by much. Quinn stood up, breathing heavily, already trying to form a plan to help Kole.
The monsters were gone.
And so was Kole.
All that was left were the scourge of demons, and one reined monster, currently bashing itself against a boulder.
Alone, tired, and about ready to keel over, Quinn suddenly became distinctly aware of all the demons closing in around him. There were dozens of them, if not more. Way too many for him to fight off. Maybe the Temple knew by now? No, impossible, everything had happened within a pathetically short period of time.
Quinn shut his eyes tightly, as the dreadful realization occurred to him—these would be his last moments of conscious thinking. He would have last thoughts! Last words! What were his last words to Sennta? Oh gods he couldn’t remember. To Kole? He had yelled at her.
Travitz? Tellack? Li? All things of unimportance or outright betrayal. He hadn’t even done anything important yet! He had left no one on this planet who would remember him, and he had left no person made better by his existence. He was just going to be another number. A name on a tombstone, if he was lucky.
He was going to die a hero’s death. Whatever that meant. Bah. Hero. It was overrated. He should have just stayed in Haldon and became a farm hand. In his heart he knew that wasn’t true, but he wanted it to be.
Why couldn’t he have just been better?
The first chunk of demons charged, clobbering him into the ground. His head hit the dirt and everything began to hurt. The negative energy became nearly intolerable, as Quinn tried to reach further and further out to summon something—anything.
Well…
This sucked.
Chapter Seventeen
Those were terrible last thoughts, Quinn whined to himself silently. It was the best way to distract from the pain. The demons had taken to clawing at him, as he had curled up into the smallest ball possible. He tried to summon up the will to make a box, to protect himself for a bit longer, but it kept slipping.
His brain was losing its ability to think properly, his subconscious whirring with healthy doses of fear and submission. He couldn’t even move when one of the demons drew blood, his muscles were so seized up. The negative energy smothered him, and the more he tried to reach out, the more it seemed to constrict around him.
&n
bsp; Maybe that was why he didn’t react when the sudden barrage stopped.
It took at least a minute for him to process the information.
Pain. Demonic chatterings and tauntings.
Noise in the distance, but it was rapidly approaching.
The sound of a monster roar, a sound of screeching demons, and then a sound of… a weapon… maybe?
And suddenly the energy almost completely dissipated. He could summon again at full force—well, not full force; he was still incredibly weakened after all.
Trembling, Quinn opened his eyes.
In front of him was an armor-clad individual. They were tall, at least six and a half feet, and had long blond flowing hair, with pure white eyes. Their face was perfectly chiseled. Behind them was the white monster that had killed that guard… today.
Had it been today? Gods, it felt like it was weeks ago.
“Hello there, good master!” the individual proclaimed, kneeling down to help Quinn.
Emblazoned on their armor was a giant intricately designed H.
“Bwuh…” Quinn sputtered. “What?”
“You summoned me and my beast of burden to fight for you, did you not?” they questioned, their voice booming and masculine, but with a soft undertone that made it seem almost inhuman.
“Who… are you?” Quinn whispered, as he tried to stand up.
“Me? Why I am the one, the only, Ser Hero!” They posed dramatically, and even flipped their hair at the declaration.
“What,” Quinn replied, staring in confusion. “Is… is that your real name?”
“Of course!” Ser Hero replied, aghast. “I changed it legally myself!”
“What do you mean you—” Quinn shook his head indignantly. These were the wrong questions to be asking. He couldn’t get sidetracked. Kole was dying somewhere.
“Okay, Sir Hero—” Quinn began, before being cut off.
“Ser Hero!” Ser Hero corrected.
Quinn blinked in confusion. “What.”
“You said my name wrong! A hero as amazing as I should be referred to properly!” Ser Hero prompted.
“Sir Hero,” Quinn repeated, not seeing the difference in what was being said.
“Ser Hero!” Ser Hero replied.
“Sir Hero.”
“Ser Hero!”
“Si—I—Is there a difference? Does it matter? You’re some guy riding a monster! Does it REALLY matter?” Quinn shouted in frustration.
“I—how dare you! Of course it matters! It is my title! I am not this ’guy’ of which you speak!” Ser Hero replied, aghast.
“Then you’re a grayshade?” Quinn asked. He supposed Ser Hero could also be a woman, but he figured that if that had been the case, Ser Hero would have been more direct in how he was being corrected.
Ser Hero puffed out their chest with pride. “I am Ser Hero! None of your titles can match me! I am the Hero to end all Heroes!”
Ser Hero proceeded to slick back their hair, which Quinn might have admitted was minorly swoon-worthy, if it wasn’t for the fact that he probably had a few broken bones by this point.
“Forget it! Just forget it! Look, we need to track down a few monsters, they stole MY master, and I need to—”
Quinn was cut off by Ser Hero grabbing him with ease, leaping onto the monster, and pulling the reins in the proper direction.
“Say no more, oh master who summoned me! I, Ser Hero, will save this one, for you are too frail and pathetic to do it yourself!” Ser Hero cried, digging their heels into the skin of the monster. The monster roared, and started charging in a direction.
Quinn tried to summon up the energy to protest such an accusation, but he failed. You know what? Fine. He was frail and weak and not fit for an ounce of this. But he didn’t have to be. He could summon some sort of strange human riding a monster like it was a personal pet.
He could live with that.
“I don’t suppose you can heal,” Quinn muttered.
“Ser Hero can only heal damsels in distresses!” Ser Hero replied. They raised their hand and placed it on Quinn experimentally. Nothing happened.
“You are not the damsel in distress for this mission, it would seem,” Ser Hero observed.
He also wasn’t a damsel, period, but the way Ser Hero said it, Quinn suspected the strange person had no idea what a damsel was at all.
In the distance, Quinn saw the two monsters rushing off, still being controlled by the demons.
“There! There!” Quinn pointed. His hands shook as he raised them. It didn’t help that this ride was especially bumpy.
Ser Hero whistled, and the white monster turned the proper angle, dashing towards the other monsters at breakneck speed.
Ser Hero handed the reins to Quinn. “Hold this, Ser Master Summoner Child!”
Quinn gripped the reins tightly, and Ser Hero stood up dramatically, hair blowing in the wind, and drew their sword.
Which was rather confusing, as there had been no place to put the sword, yet it was drawn all the same.
The white monster began to close the gap between them; easily only a few hundred feet remained between them now. Ser Hero leaped, practically rocketing off the monster’s back, as if they had fire sticks strapped to their metal boots.
Ser Hero landed on the other monster, in a technique that Quinn simply could not comprehend, even as he watched it utterly wide-eyed. Ser Hero leaped up the monster’s back, beheaded all four demons on the monster’s head in a single swipe, and plunged the sword into the monster’s skull, causing it to scream in pain and fall to the ground. Ser Hero grabbed Kole from the monster’s maw, and unceremoniously dropped her on the ground.
No sooner did the monster ground to a halt and keel over, did Ser Hero leap to the next one, making the landing expertly, with clear intention of doing the exact same thing.
Quinn tried to tug on the reins, but his grip was too weak to do anything, and the monster ran straight past its fallen kin—and straight past a now fallen Kole.
Quinn swore and for a moment wished the monster wasn’t there—and the next second found himself falling as Ser Hero and their Noble Steed was banished.
His mind a blank, desperately trying to summon something, Quinn hit the ground, which was now covered in copious amounts of gelatin, easily measuring eight feet thick.
Quinn slowly descended into the gelatin as it wobbled and gave way, before Quinn unsummoned it, and fell to the ground with a painful, but not deadly, thump.
Nearly crawling, Quinn inched his way over to Kole. The other monster was still alive, but its demon riders were not. The monster ran around angrily. Hopefully the rules still applied here. Ignore it and it will go away.
“Kole?” Quinn rasped, as he pulled himself towards the broken woman.
She had huge teeth marks along her body. Each one looked like she had been punched solidly through.
Her stomach rose ever so slightly.
Quinn gave a sob of relief. When had he started crying? It had to have been earlier, his face was too wet for him to have started just now.
If he had the strength, he would lift her up and carry her back; she was definitely bony enough for it.
Her staff was missing too. At some point she must have dropped it. Quinn frowned. He’d have to find that too. Not only was that important to Kole, it was also important to him. All of his stuff was in there!
And, of course, the demons had resorted to watching them again. The negative energy seemed to buzz at a level that was just enough to be annoying.
Waiting for them to show another weakness, apparently.
Which is probably exactly why they attacked before.
Absolutely lovely.
Quinn swallowed dryly. He shut his eyes and concentrated on the face of the killer he had just encountered.
“Good Day, O Master of mine!” Ser Hero called, now in front of him, steedless.
Ser Hero looked different. Their eyes were more gray now, and their hair seemed to be much shorter. They also seem
ed to be even taller.
“Why do you look different?” Quinn asked, frowning. Was this a different person entirely?
Ser Hero gave a gasp, and lifted up the H emblazoned shield to gaze at their reflection.
Immediately they calmed down. “Ser Hero is still very gorgeous, and that is what matters. Ser
Hero will always look a little different due to the laws of subconscious projection!”
Quinn stared at the individual like they had just grown several heads. He shook his head in annoyance.
“No. I am not asking that question today. Here are your orders. I want you to heal Kole, er,the damsel in distress, then I want you to kill as many demons as you possibly can. Got that?” he asked, keeping eye contact.
Ser Hero snapped to attention, and saluted grandly. “Of course!” they said heroically, and immediately charged a few nearby demons, cleaving them in two. They momentarily paused, turned their attention Quinn and Kole, putting a hand on her bloody bandages, and immediately returning to the fray without a second thought.
It was terrifying how… easily Ser Hero did that.
And that power was all Quinn’s, technically. He just had to make sure to keep Ser Hero summoned.
It didn’t look like Kole was any better, even with Ser Hero’s help, but he saw as her bad leg began to shimmer as it reformed. Oh good, her internal healing!
His mind focused on the task at hand. It got easier and easier as all the demons around him were vanquished. It was almost like a breath of fresh air to not feel their presence. He waited, patiently, until Ser Hero disappeared over the horizon, along with most of the demons. He waited, finally, until Kole’s wounds started to seal up.
When it seemed like Kole’s body was functional, he pinched her nose to interrupt her breathing. Kole awoke, coughing.
She jumped, like she had just been attacked, until she saw her surroundings.
“Quinn?” she sputtered, shocked.
“Please… help?” Quinn pleaded, gesturing to his wounds.
“Uh,” Kole said awkwardly.
Quinn tilted his head. “What?”
“I uh… can’t,” Kole admitted.
