by Joe Jackson
“Alonso, this way,” Eli said, and he nodded toward the west. The demonhunter fell into step beside him, and the two went to make sure no other attackers came from the opposite side. Eli called up to the driver, “What’ve we got?”
“Two archers on the east side, looks like a few more on the west. Bugger! There’s a couple of brys coming from the south as well.”
“Brys?” Eli echoed, surprised.
“Bridge bandits,” Alonso said, and the human swore under his breath. He swore again and pointed to the west. “And that’s not the worst of it….”
“ERESTRAM!” Reece, the driver, shouted.
Eli turned back to the west. He still hadn’t actually seen any of their attackers, but it was hard to miss the ten-foot-tall frame of the erestram that approached out of the trees. Eli’s heart dropped into his pelvis. Kari had suspected that sending what was thought to be a small force would hopefully lead to a manageable ambush, but as Eli watched the erestram stride forward, he knew they hadn’t brought enough help. The brys would complicate things further, but Eli had little doubt this was going to be a short battle with at least four ‘demons’ and an erestram.
Liria came out and stood beside them. She had only a hardened leather breastplate on, the best she could do on short notice. She had the longsword in hand and a spare shield on her arm, but she stopped and stared at the giant wolf-creature in shock. “We’re finished,” she said.
Reece fired his crossbow at the erestram, but the bolt deflected harmlessly off of the wolf-creature’s breastplate. It brought its war scythe to bear and waved its companions forward, and a pair of elestram came forth from behind trees, one armed with swords, while the other stopped and began making gestures that were doubtless the casting of a spell.
“Kill that damned spellcaster first!” Eli yelled up to the driver, then he raised his voice even more. “Danilynn, Tor! We’ve got brys and an erestram over here!” The sounds of battle came from the other side of the road, and Eli assumed his two companions would not be coming to aid them any time soon. The brys were approaching faster now, but they were still a fair distance away and hadn’t drawn their bows yet. “We’ve got to kill that spellcaster, and then try to get rid of the other elestram quickly. We may have a chance against the erestram if we all work together, but not with brys and elestram flanking us.”
Eli gripped his hammer tight and moved forward, keeping his shield up and ready to try to deflect any arcane trickery from the elestram. Alonso followed in his wake, using Eli as a shield, since the human was dual-wielding. Eli pondered everyone’s reluctance to have a good shield between them and imminent death, and a wry grin crossed his snout. He made his way for the spellcasting elestram, but the other, armed with two swords, intercepted him.
A series of flares came around the sword-wielding elestram, and left a trail of burns up Eli’s left arm where the previous scars had been. Thankfully, the scar tissue passed along no sense of pain, so though his skin smoldered and burned, it hardly distracted him. He brought his hammer to bear against the elestram before him, and worked to his right to force the jackal creature’s attacks to his left, ineffectually into his shield.
Alonso worked in tandem with him, coming around Eli’s left side to get to a flanking position. Liria passed the three of them in their deadly dance, making her way straight for the spellcaster. A part of Eli simply hoped she wasn’t about to betray them and join forces with their enemies after explaining that she wasn’t Se’sasha. He could only keep his eyes on her for so long, though, before a series of clangs from his shield told him he’d better pay closer attention to the jackal-man trying to kill him.
An arrow whistled past Eli’s ear, and a sharp pain and wet feeling along its edge told him the brys hadn’t completely missed him. He was surprised, however, when the arrow took his elestram opponent in the shoulder. He wanted to turn and look back at the brys to prepare for further attacks, but he risked spending a moment making sure the elestram was disabled. He hooked the back of his hammer behind one of the elestram’s heels when it hunched down, and pulled its leg out from under it. Before it even fell to its rump, Alonso’s swords cut off the jackal man’s snout, and then relieved it of its head completely.
“Go help Liria,” Eli said hastily before he crouched and turned to face the brys. They drew back their bows and loosed another volley, but Eli was further confused when their arrows sped not toward him, but toward the erestram. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
He was going to call out for Danilynn and Tor again, but with the brys now apparently entering the battle on Eli’s side, the erestram moved to engage more quickly. The wolf-creature shrugged off the pesky missile fire of the brys, which failed to penetrate its plate armor, and with a few long, quick steps, it closed the distance to Liria, Alonso, and the elestram spellcaster. Liria and the human appeared to be held at bay by the elestram’s arcane power, and two flashes of the erestram’s war scythe cut down Alonso and sent Liria fleeing.
A loud snap marked Reece’s crossbow firing once again from the coach’s roof, but his shot missed the erestram wide. The terra-rir driver swore and started to reload his crossbow, and Eli sprinted toward the erestram to keep it from pursuing Liria. Such was probably going to cost him his life, but if anything, he hoped he at least bought enough time for Liria, Danilynn, and Tor to get away and report what had happened. Alonso held up a hand futilely to ward off the erestram, but the wolf-creature stepped over the fallen hunter and all but ignored him.
Eli shifted to his right to intercept the erestram’s pursuit of Liria, and managed to get the wolf-creature’s attention. Two more brys-fired arrows glanced harmlessly off of its helm and breastplate, and the creature brought its war scythe to bear on Eli. He tried to step back out of range of its arcing, overhead smash, but it caught him, and he only managed to get his shield up to take the brunt of the blow. Though the shield wasn’t cloven in two, the haft of the scythe had hit it squarely, and Eli felt the bones in his forearm break. Heat crept into his cheeks, and his legs went wobbly almost immediately, but he gritted his teeth and backed away a couple of steps.
Eli brought his shield up and another wave of nausea and wracking pain shot through his body. The erestram regarded him for only a moment before it reversed direction and began to give chase to the brys. It was obvious to Eli, even in just those first few moments, that the brys had no idea what they were up against. They tried to rely on their lithe forms, dexterity, and speed of foot to keep them out of harm’s way, but one of them was cut neatly in half by a single swing of the massive wolf-creature’s weapon. The other wisely took wing and sought to put a more significant distance between itself and the erestram.
A series of burns ran up Eli’s side, and then a concussive force threw him into the side of the coach. There was a ringing in his ears as he struggled back to his feet, and he gritted his teeth again and focused on the elestram spellcaster. A crossbow bolt forced it to take shelter behind a nearby tree, but it would take Reece time to reload, and Eli knew the elestram would understand that. He looked around for Liria but didn’t see her; he’d have to take down the elestram himself before the erestram came back.
Eli’s footsteps were plodding and heavy as he trudged toward the elestram, who emerged from behind its protective tree. There was a crackle of electricity around its arms as another series of the fiery missiles sped to char more of Eli’s flesh, and the half-corlyps knew what was coming. He had no time to dodge the coming lightning strike, so he gripped his hammer and let it fly. It sped end-over-end toward the elestram, whose own strike seared through Eli’s belly and dropped him, completely devoid of strength, to the ground. He was conscious only of a dull thud and cry of pain from the jackal-man.
Get up, you wuss, the voices came, taunting him. Or are you going to cry to the teachers and hide under your bed? Get up, half-craplyps, and show us what you’re made of.
Eli felt like he was made of jelly, but he rolled onto his side and managed to push himself u
p to a squatting position. Liria was engaged with the elestram spellcaster, and with the curious gait of the wounded creature, the syrinthian girl put it to the sword quickly. Unfortunately, that only made her the target of the erestram once again, and now, the creature was running at full speed to chase her down. The best Liria could do was keep a tree between herself and the long reach of the wolf-creature, so that was what she did while she waited for help.
Tor and Danilynn finally came around the coach, looking much worse for whatever had happened on the other side of the road. Tor’s fur was singed in several places, and Danilynn’s armor was smoking, but their axes – all four of them – were covered completely in blood. Eli had little doubt that there were no survivors on the other side of the coach. He struggled to get fully to his feet so he could join his companions in fighting the erestram, and when she saw the condition he was in, Danilynn approached. She took only a few moments to lay a hand on his shoulder and feed him some soothing healing energy before she put away her smaller axes, drew out the two-handed decapitator across her back, and rushed to join Tor.
The healing energy didn’t do much, but it let Eli get his legs solidly under him again and dulled the pain of the broken bones in his forearm. Eli moved to retrieve his hammer from near the fallen elestram, and smashed its face in for good measure. The erestram had broken off its pursuit of Liria around the tree and brought its martial prowess to bear on Tor and Danilynn. The priestess managed to parry one of its attacks with the haft of her greataxe, but it had nearly the same effect as Eli blocking an attack with his shield, and Danilynn backed away.
How the hell did she do it? Eli wondered. How did Kari possibly beat one of these in single combat?
“Got to get close to it,” Danilynn huffed, her breathing heavy as she shook off the effects of parrying the erestram’s blow. “Get inside its range and limit its motions!”
Eli considered that; was that how Kari had beaten Etolivor? Danilynn had mentioned that Etolivor had been missing part of his hand, a few fingers, and had similar damage to one of his feet. Had Kari stayed inside the full extension of his massive arms and the incredible range of that weapon, and merely cut him down piece by piece? Eli glanced at Tor and saw he had the same idea, even though he was unaware of Kari’s tale or how she’d accomplished her victory.
Tor lunged in but then stopped and sidestepped deftly. The erestram bit on his feint and swung at him, but he managed to get just far enough to the side that the tip of its war scythe barely grazed the haft of one of Tor’s axes. In a spectacular display, the erestram then grabbed the end of its weapon in both hands and spun two quick circles, forcing everyone out beyond its reach. Even as it brought the weapon back to a proper grip, it bounded toward Eli in two quick steps and unleashed a terrifying, overhead slash. Eli was sure his life was about to end.
Instead, a terrified scream preceded the sound of a blade cutting flesh, and Eli realized the creature had hit Reece with the tip of its war scythe. The driver’s continued howls and cries at least verified that he hadn’t been killed outright, but the erestram took advantage of Eli’s distraction and caught him with an uppercut of the butt end of its weapon, launching him clear off the ground to land on the edge of the coach’s roof. Eli kept enough of his instincts to catch the rail and hang on, but he was in a precarious position, and was sure to be killed momentarily if his friends didn’t come to his aid.
Danilynn and Tor were up to the task, however, and they flanked the creature to draw its attention away. Eli scrambled up on top of the coach, and it was apparent in moments that Reece wasn’t going to survive. The erestram’s blade had caught him between the head and right shoulder, and cut several inches through him. The driver was unconscious and his breathing was quick and shallow. There was nothing Eli could do. He turned back to the battle.
He had hardly turned around when the erestram gave the side of the coach a mighty kick and toppled it. Eli spread his wings and glided safely over the tumbling vehicle, making sure to not get caught under it. He heard Danilynn call his name as he touched the ground, and he turned and hefted his shield over his head, praying to the gods that it held up under whatever was coming. The force of the erestram’s swing flattened him among the spilled luggage and crates, but the shield held together, and he was pretty sure his bones didn’t even break any further. With the last of his wits and energy, Eli reached his weapon up and tried to hook the haft of the erestram’s scythe.
The wolf creature grunted in frustration when Eli momentarily trapped its weapon, but it moved to yank the war scythe free with a snarl. Its surprise was complete when Danilynn struck first, landing a mighty two-handed chop not to the erestram itself, but to the haft of its weapon, splitting the wood so easily that she nearly hit Eli with the follow-through of her swing. Even as it turned to grab hold of the priestess, Tor landed a pair of hacking strikes to its right hip, cutting through the armor deeply enough to draw blood and cause the wolf-creature to stumble toward Danilynn.
The priestess smashed the erestram under the chin with the flat of her axe’s wide head, and then she took off its left foot with a return swing. Tor landed another couple of hits to its left hip this time, and Eli had to roll to safety with the prospect of the ten-foot creature falling on him. He left his shield behind for expediency, and managed to scramble over luggage and crates to get out of the erestram’s shadow. It hit the ground hard, and Eli looked up a moment before the erestram did to behold a lone brys, its bow bent in a deadly arc. The brys waited only long enough to make eye contact with the erestram, and then buried one of its arrows to the fletching in the erestram’s left eye. The wolf-creature collapsed in a bloodied heap, right beside the body of the driver it had killed.
“Alonso,” Danilynn breathed before she ran off toward the fallen hunter. Liria was there tending to him already.
Eli was satisfied the hunter, if he was still alive, would be in good hands. The half-corlyps got to his feet, but was nearly knocked to his rump again when Tor punched him in the breastplate. “Just like old times, eh?” the gnoll grunted.
“We never had to bury any friends, though,” Eli said, looking down at Reece. He turned to the brys, who was crouched beside its partner. Eli had no idea why the brys had helped, but he was certainly glad for it. He figured he’d better try to get names to pass along to Kari, so she could make assurances to whatever powers-that-be handled such things among the brys.
“You all right?” Tor asked.
“Think my left arm’s broke, and smells like we could have it for dinner, but other than that, I’m fine,” Eli returned, and his companion laughed. “Let’s go check on Alonso and make sure the area is clear. What did you two have to deal with over here?”
“A couple of elestram fighters and a mallasti sorcerer,” Tor answered, gesturing toward some bloodied grass a short distance away. “Danilynn was able to deflect most of the mallasti’s attacks, so our fight was a bit more straightforward.”
“That’s my girl,” Eli said.
Tor looked surprised. “Indeed,” he returned, then he snorted. “Took you long enough.”
They walked over to Danilynn, who was busy tending to Alonso’s wounds. The human’s left arm had been cut off below the elbow, but it seemed he had been able to heal himself a little to keep from bleeding out. Liria had started bandaging his wound until Danilynn arrived, and the priestess was making sure the wound was clean and would at least heal properly. Danilynn smiled at Eli, but then she glanced in the direction of the coach and then over to the dead brys. She frowned momentarily and returned to her work.
“What the hell happened here?” Eli asked, glancing at the approaching brys. “Three fighters, a pair of spellcasters, and an erestram, just to capture or kill a syrinthian and two demonhunters? Either they knew this was a setup, or Se’sasha is a lot stronger than any of us suspected.”
“Could be a combination of both,” Danilynn commented, not looking up from her work.
“If they thought it was tr
uly Se’sasha, then they had to plan to accost a High Priestess,” Liria said. “I’m no expert on what a High Priestess is capable of, but they channel the power of the gods just as yours do. Whoever sent these attackers clearly took that into account.”
“Whoever?” Eli echoed. “It has to have been Sekassus, no?”
Liria looked around. “Unless there were some of my kind or a sylinth on the other side of the road, I’d be inclined to think not,” she said. “Then again, maybe that would have made it too obvious it was King Sekassus. I suppose you could be right.”
“We’ll let Lady Vanador figure that out,” Tor said. “Should we take Alonso to Gnarr and let him heal up there, or start heading back immediately?”
“You would be best served continuing to Gnarr,” the brys said as he stood near Eli. “We received word only recently that we were to aid a coach of hunters should they be ambushed near the bridge. Our lord suggested it may be more than a single ambush, and that we should escort you all the way to Gnarr if need be.”
“Good point,” Eli said. “We can have Alonso taken care of there, and send word to Kari through the priesthood. Then maybe we can take a boat home to avoid any more attacks.”
“Sounds good to me,” Tor said.
“And me,” Alonso managed weakly.
“You all right?” Eli asked him.
“Well, if I die, I’ll at least have had a nice enough final view,” the human joked, smiling up at Danilynn.
“Oh, a sweet talker,” the fures-rir priestess teased. “Stick to your own kind, human.”
There were chuckles, but Eli turned back to the brys. “Sorry about your brother,” he said, and the brys nodded and made a dismissive gesture. “What was his name?”
