“No — you can’t tell them. It could be a disaster,” Grimbald blew out his cheeks and it made his lips flap.
“The realm needs to know what?” Scab rode past Grimbald, then up beside Walter.
“Ah, nothing,” Walter groaned.
“Hey! What the fuck is that?” A man shouted from somewhere in the line of men. More yelling joined in, mixed with the drawing of steel. Walter pulled his horse off to the side of the trail so he could turn around. Thorns and sticks jabbed into his side. Something was lumbering through a patch of shrubs and heading straight for the line of mercenaries. Twigs cracked, branches shook, and leaves fluttered down from the canopy of trees. Walter narrowed his eye at the strange sight.
It was a mass of leaves, moss, shrubs, and plant matter of all kind congealed together in the shape of a four-legged creature. Thick tree roots made up the base of its legs, becoming broad leaves around its body. It had what looked to be chipped stones for teeth at its head and the top was studded with red mushrooms. Additional roots replaced the eyes; feeling at the air like snake’s tongues.
“What the?” a mercenary gasped.
“Kill it!” another yelled.
“Shoot! Shoot it!” someone screamed.
Crossbow bolts snapped and bowstrings twanged. Most of the projectiles struck true, but the creature lumbered on undaunted. Men tried to get out of the away as it approached, but the forest was too thick for all of them to move away. It rose up on its back legs and let out a crackling roar. It slashed with its arm and a root tendril slapped around a man’s neck, jerking him into its undulating form. He let out a terrified scream, stabbed with his sword as he was drawn in, but his bones crunched against its wood. Roots, cobwebs, and vines extended from its chest, exposing the gleam of a violet jewel within its form. They further snared the man, pulling him in and assimilating him into its body. Sticks cracked and trees swayed in the distance. More were coming and moving terribly fast.
“What is that?” Grimbald hissed.
Walter shook his head. “I don’t know, but everything burns.” They both dismounted and hurriedly secured their mounts to a tree. Walter’s horse snorted and gave him a token resistance. “Don’t worry, you’ll be alright. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He scratched the gelding’s neck and gritted his teeth at the verdant beast.
Scab pushed his way through his men, snapping out orders. The mercenaries managed to press themselves into the path, giving the beast space. Some made tentative stabs at the beast and more arrows thudded into the creature.
Walter found a way through the wood and Grimbald followed, making his way to the beast. Walter saw the man the creature had initially sucked in, writhing from its back. His boots flailed from the bottom of the creature’s body and one arm hung out. The man’s face protruded from its shoulder. “Get me out! Kill it! Kill it!” he screamed at Walter, his eyes pleading for mercy.
Grimbald drew his axes, glinting with murderous sharpness. His lips curled back into a grin that matched the fatality of his weapons.
Walter put a hand on his shoulder, pushing past him. “Let me try my way first.”
“Alright,” Grimbald breathed. “What about the man inside?”
“I’ll try to avoid harming him, but he might be done for already.” Maybe.
Grimbald snorted and Walter took a few tentative steps to the beast. Its arms were terminated with a series of roots, one longer and thicker than the others. It rose up again and slashed at a man who ducked, its root instead wrapping around a horse’s neck. The creature reared back onto its hind legs and jerked the horse towards it. The rider tumbled from the saddle and thudded onto his back. The snared horse tried to resist but was invariably drawn in. Its eyes rolled and it frantically whinnied.
Walter watched with morbid fascination. What was this? A new form of magic? Death Spawn? Some other form of sorcery? Shrieks and screams cried out from the men. The beast was bristling with arrows and spears, seeming to have done nothing to slow its pace.
It bent over the horse and more roots wrapped it up tighter, its mouth parted ever wider as it drew nearer. Its stony teeth sunk into the horse’s neck and the horse screamed. Blood rolled down from its neck and spilled around its legs. The beast shook its head back and forth as it worked to tear a great chunk of muscle from the back of the horse. Tendons snapped and muscles popped. The creature jerked the horse closer, hundreds of vines and roots cracking around its body. The horse kicked and bucked as it was pulled into the air. A ragged strip of skin hung down one side of the horse. The beast’s mouth parted and snapped like a turtle into the horse’s neck again, this time, wide and long enough to cover the whole of it. Its daggers for teeth sawed through the horse’s neck, gouts of blood spurted out, and the cracking of bones split the air. The horse’s body was drawn inside its chest, the hooves sticking out from its gut and its shoulders. The horse’s bloody head hung from its mouth, and the beast gnawed on it like a piece of sugar cane.
“Hey!” Walter had seen enough. He opened himself to the Dragon’s fury. Its fires curled up from his wrists to his arms. He hurled a fireball at its leg and it exploded in a shower of embers, tangled roots and chunks of moss. It put a wide hole in the bottom of its leg, leaving a few charred trunk-like structures holding it up at the sides.
The beast whirled on him and let out a bellowing roar. Mercenaries backed farther away, barking curses. Some cheered at Walter’s fiery show but quietened as the beast repaired itself. As they watched, spiraling roots and mushrooms creeped out around the hole in its leg and filled in the gap. It rose up on its hindquarters, both arms poised for an overhead strike. Roots whipped and hissed in the air. One of the horse’s legs protruding from its gut twitched.
Walter blinked his glowing eye and a blade of Dragon fire sprung from his stump. He punched with his other hand and Stormcaller materialized in the air, its crackling tendrils seeking to end life. Stormcaller severed through its leg at the thigh and sent it teetering over onto its side. Before it fell, Walter leaped and pushed against the ground with the telekinetic strength of the Phoenix. He shot into the air with more force than anticipated and managed to slash through the monster’s head with his blade, bifurcating it in one fluid motion.
Stormcaller and sword vanished, but he continued to soar more than twenty feet from the ground, his arms and legs flailed in the air. “Shit!” he gasped and his mind went blank. The ground rushed up and met him with a sloppy wet kiss. It felt like a sledgehammer had been driven into his jaw, boulders dropped upon his ribs. He pushed himself up on shaky arms and the glow of the Phoenix burned in his eyes. Blue light curled around his neck and jaw, snapping it back in place. He turned on his side and moaned. Pain like a nail had been inserted into his head.
He remembered now there were more than a few ways he could have stopped his fall. He could have used a portal, conjured the Dragon’s air, or used telekinesis again. He needed more practice before he used that in battle again.
He saw Grimbald and other men surrounding the creature, jabbing it with spears as its body started to re-form. It didn’t work. It was healing just as readily as he could. Walter remembered the gem in its chest.
“Grim!” Walter yelled.
He looked at him mid-swing and his axe weakly fell into the beast’s chest.
“Look for a purple jewel!”
Grimbald nodded and struggled to withdraw his axe, ensnared in winding roots. A root shot up and snapped around Grimbald’s neck. Scab hacked through the root with his sword, freeing him as a pair of vines grabbed Scab’s arms.
“Shit. Fuck.” Walter rose up and ran to the creature and paused half-way. Rolling balls of roots and leaves almost double the size of men, tumbled in from the forest and carved paths through shrubs, seeming to absorb them as they passed. They uncoiled into forms like the other creature, growling and roaring. One rose up in front of Walter, its stone toothed mouth yawned open. At least ten roots sprouted out and flew at him. Walter flared fire, hot as the sun
for an instant, and the roots charred into ashes.
The creature reeled back and screamed in defiance as the charred roots fell away and turned into dust in a breeze. Walter clenched his jaw and splayed his hand, bathing it in fire. He burned and burned as the roots fought to re-form.
He finally saw what he was looking for, the bright gleam of a gem within. He reached into the flickering flames, harmless against his skin. His hand curled around the gem and pulled, ripping it free from its chest, snapping the delicate branches holding it in place. The beast fell to the ground with a thud, its limbs frozen in time.
Walter held the gem overhead and looked up at it. It glowed like an amethyst and felt cold in his hand. “This is what you need! Take it from their chests!” he screamed. Many faces followed him, but most were occupied with fighting for their lives.
Within the gem, shadows moved. He squinted up at it and saw a creature with six eyes and three mouths, each mouth clawing and scraping at the stone’s walls. “The Shadow Realm,” he breathed and his eye went wide.
He recoiled and dropped the jewel, as if he were holding a hot ember. It fell a pace away from the creature. Weeds, grasses, and mushrooms were invariably drawn to the gem, curling around it. He grabbed a rock and smashed the gem into shards until it was twinkling like stars on the dirt. The plant life around the gem retreated and once again lay motionless.
“Destroy the gems in their chests!” He ran up to the first creature they’d encountered, still on the ground and writhing against the ten men keeping it pinned with spears. Grimbald worked his axes like scythes, hewing through roots as plant matter streaked the air. The man who was first taken in by the beast had turned into a mess of squelching tissue and bloody bones. The horse’s body appeared to have been partially digested, its skin smoldering with acrid acid.
“Get it, Walter,” Grimbald said between breaths. Walter reached in and ripped the glittering gem free. Vines curled around his arm as he started to withdraw it. He pushed the Dragon through his arm and scorched the vines that snared him. A man screamed, burned from standing too close. The burned mercenary stumbled away and leaned against a tree. He held his blistered arm and took labored breaths. He stared at Walter like he was his sworn enemy. He’d heal him later, there was still much to do.
He dropped the gem and saw Scab’s sword hammer down upon it with the pommel, shattering it into bits. Scab stood and tapped the flat of his blade against his gut. “What a curious creature. I wonder if—” Scab yelped as his legs were jerked back, causing him to fall onto his front. He howled with pain. Walter saw why. He had fallen on his sword and the pitted blade stood out the back of his ribs. Blood trickled around its edges and thudded as Scab was dragged over the ground.
Walter pulled on the Phoenix. A portal flashed between Scab and the plant, severing the roots that had grabbed him. Scab started crawling and Grimbald hoisted him up under the armpits. He dragged him away from the battle, barking curses and leaving a trail of blood. Walter conjured portals through each of the limbs, severing them all in turn. The creature slithered on the ground like a snake as its limbs started re-forming, snapping at Walter with its mouth. Walter blasted its head apart with a fireball and carved a line through its chest with his fiery blade. He raised his boot up high and drove it into its chest, crushing the gem within. He never thought he’d enjoy the sound of shattering glass as much as he did now.
Walter turned as Grimbald and twenty or so mercenaries finished another beast. Something thundered beyond the forest and the towering trees in the distance swayed. Something big was coming. Worried yelps and curses came from the men.
“Now what?” Grimbald looked up at him. His neck and arms were red from snaring roots.
A horde of screaming men surrounded the last beast, cutting it up and crushing its gemmed heart.
Walter took a deep breath, bracing himself for what was to come. He had a feeling what they had seen so far was only to soften them up a bit. The mercenaries huddled together and horses screamed, those untethered sprinted off. The earth rumbled below Walter’s boots and he looked down to find the pebbles and pine needles dancing.
A vast mouth emerged from between a pair of trees, wide enough to swallow a cow in a single bite. The top and bottom of its square shaped jaw were lined with four lethal canines, each as long as a spear. The sides of its mouth had hundreds of smaller teeth, likely for sawing through the bones of its prey. It had the form of a snake, verdant skin and almost as big as Walter imagined the Dragon to be. Its back was lined with what looked like barbs and in the center of what could only be its chest was a fat, glowing gem. Could this creature’s weakness be more apparent?
The creature released an ear-piercing shriek and lunged for flesh. Bodies dove in every direction. Walter and Grim were fortunate enough to be away from its initial strike. All but one man scurried away and the creature’s incredible mouth fell on him, roaring into the ground. Walter met its golden eye, the pupil dark as midnight. Its dark eyelids narrowed around it.
“Die!” Walter hurled twin lashes of fire at its head. It sprung up faster than Walter would’ve thought possible. His lines of fire cut through a man rising up behind it, severing him into three distinctive sections. “Not again,” Walter breathed. The three sections slid and spread apart like butchered meat, burned at the edges. Blood welled out of the wounds and sloshed onto the man beside him. Walter was frozen in place and stared at the face of the second person he hadn’t intended to kill. It was likely not the last. The man covered in the dead mercenary’s blood cursed and tried to brush it off. He only managed to spread it around and work it deeper, covering himself in it like war paint.
There was more yelling all around and something grabbed his arm. It was Grimbald, his eyes wide with fright. Grimbald threw him, made him stumble a few paces back and something hammered into the ground where he’d stood a second ago. The beast’s tail was there, stuck on the hundreds of spines that studded the end. The crushing urge to survive rushed back.
Walter and Grimbald exchanged nods. Collateral damage was to be expected in war, wasn’t it? Its tail came free and threw a great clump of earth into the air. Its tail rained down again and crushed a mercenary with an arrow half-drawn. The arrow whooshed and thunked into a man’s chest at his side, gasping at the shock of the blow. The tail flew up and violently wriggled the man free from its barbs. The crushed man fell like a rag doll, his chest littered with holes, blood pumping from them in great spurts.
Arrows twanged and spears were hurled through the air, all aimed at the glowing gemstone. Most went wide or struck its sinuous body. It ignored them, as if they were pesky Rot Flies. A wiry man with a pair of twin daggers was using them to crawl up its back, reaching ever closer to the gem. The creature spotted him and its ugly maw seemed to smile.
A curve of flesh parted like a mouth on its back. Bulbous winged creatures poured out like a kicked beehive. They were violet beetles the size of Walter’s head, hovering in the air, their dark wings buzzing. They darted towards the climbing man and he hacked with one dagger at them. He struck one and a line of glowing blood streaked the air. Their buzzing wings roared and they engulfed his form. Their mouths tore into him, ripping through leather armor and chewing into his face, eyes, neck. Seconds later, they flew away in a single mass. Walter gasped. They left a limp, falling skeleton with bits of tattered flesh and cloth behind.
“Fuck! Fuck this!” A heavily armored mercenary turned and ran, tramping through the bushes and leaving everything behind. He was likely the most intelligent person here. A few others followed him, discarding weapons and throwing off helmets. “Don’t get paid enough marks for this shit,” another said.
“Stay! Stay and I’ll add fifty percent to your pay!” Scab shouted at them, propped against the bottom of a tree. He reached with bloody fingers and tried to say something else, but all that came out was a gurgle. Two men came back and took up their weapons. The rest plowed on through the thicket.
The beast rose up t
o its full height, reaching far above the trees. It shrieked with so much power, Walter had to block his ears. The Phoenix flared light out of his ear canals, the pain unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Pain had no end to its forms of affliction. His jaw was tight and his teeth ached. He struggled to keep his eyes open to watch for incoming attacks. He staggered on wobbly legs and fought to keep himself upright.
Walter turned to see men writhed on the ground all around, blood seeping out of ears and between fingers. The world roared like someone rang a gong in his ears. Men wailed and screamed, the fight drained right out of them. Grimbald stupidly pawed at the ground beside Walter, scratched at the blood that spattered from his jaw. Scab stabbed his fingers into his ears and looked to be moaning. He arched his back on the ground, boots kicking at nothing. The tumult was muted in his ears and screams were a backdrop to the gong’s incessant ringing.
“Back in the Shadow Realm,” he whispered. He was again alone to stand against demons that should not be here. He took a step forward, pushed his cloak behind his shoulders, and conjured a curved sword of fire from his stump. The flames cast the side of his face in its burning glow. “You can make this easy for both of us,” he shouted up at the dragon. “Put your neck down here,” he pointed to a ruined shrub, “and I’ll be sure to cut you open nice and quick, gentle even.” He grinned.
The beast rumbled with a wicked laugh. The beetles fanned out around it and their wings buzzed loud enough to cut through the ringing gong. Walter let his sword fade in a puff of smoke. They zoomed towards him, hissing through the air in all angles, homing in on him. For a second, the entire sky was violet with their round bodies. Walter spread his arms and tilted his head back. He welcomed them to come and feast on his bones. Backing farther off the trail, Walter created a ten pace distance between himself and the men. He offered himself for them to enjoy. “You don’t know what I am,” he laughed and caught sight of one their faces before it landed. It had four beady eyes and tens of tiny pincers sharpened to deadly points.
A New Light (The Age of Dawn Book 5) Page 6
