by Virlyce
“Well, you’re the mage,” Alice said. “It’s your job to create the fire.” She stuck her tongue out and gagged. “Hmm. Tastes a bit raw. I think it needs some pepper.” She placed the piece of boar onto a wooden plate and reached into her bag to take out a satchel. A few sprinkles of pepper onto the boar later, Alice stored the satchel away and took another bite. “Much better.”
Tafel sighed. “I’m going to chase after Mary. I’ll leave a small portal behind, so if anything happens, just shout into it.”
***
Mary frowned and turned her head from side to side. The path to the left was dark and ominous, filled with lurking dangers that would eat her since she didn’t have her sword. The path to the right was also dark and ominous. Ahead of her, there was a giant tree. Behind her was the way she came from, but even that looked scary as well. Had she really come from that way? The moon and stars weren’t out, and the only source of light came from … nowhere. Mary shivered and hugged her shoulders. She wanted to go back, but her stomach growled at her, and she swallowed down her unease. Even without a sword, she was strong. At least, she wouldn’t die if—
Snap.
Mary shrieked and dropped to all fours. The rune on her head flashed, and an aura rose up around her body, wrapping it up and creating a turtle-like shape. A snake slithered out from her lower back and tasted the air with its tongue.
“Mary?”
Mary opened her eyes and raised her head, turning around to look behind herself past the aura. Tafel was standing there, holding a fireball in her left hand, her staff in her right. Mary blinked twice, and the aura dispersed as the rune on her head faded away. “T-Tafel,” Mary said and nodded. “Were you hungry too?”
“What were you doing?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow. She walked up to Mary and offered her a hand, helping the empress to her feet. “You seemed, uh, very—”
Mary cleared her throat, drowning out Tafel’s voice. “I was hunting,” she said. “The snake part of my aura can see in the dark. It’s like I can see the hot things inside a cold forest.”
Tafel’s expression didn’t change, and Mary’s face flushed as she looked away. It was a good thing her face was already tinged with red thanks to the bloody color of Tafel’s flames. Mary’s stomach growled again, and she wet her lips with her tongue. Right when she was about to say something, a shiver ran down her spine, and she whirled around.
“Mary?” Tafel asked.
Mary furrowed her brow. “Tafel,” she said and stood in front of the demon like a mother bear standing in front of its cubs. “This might be very rude of me to ask, but can I borrow your sword?”
“You want to borrow Chi’Rururp?” Tafel reached into her portal and pulled out her one-eyed sword with a single wing on its handle. She passed it handle first to Mary. “I don’t think he’ll improve your strength if you cut yourself with him, just saying.”
Chi’Rururp blinked at Mary, but the empress wasn’t looking at it. Mary clenched Chi’Rururp with both hands and shouted, “Come out!”
There was no response. Mary narrowed her eyes and took a step forward while sweeping her sword in a wide arc. It sliced through the trunk of the massive tree ahead of her, but it remained standing as if nothing had happened. Mary placed the sole of her boot against the trunk and nudged. There was a groaning sound as the top half of the tree shifted forward. Then, it toppled over, speeding up as the top neared the ground.
Screams filled the air, and stomping sounds rang throughout the forest, heading away from Mary and Tafel. Tafel frowned and raised her hand, throwing the fireball in her palm into the air. It hovered above the treetops and grew in size like a miniature sun, lighting up the surroundings in a blood-red glow. The backs of people running away came into view. They were equipped with shoddy weapons: one had a hoe, another had a sickle used for harvesting wheat, and a third tossed away the branch it was holding to run away faster.
Mary sprinted forward and grabbed the man who had thrown away the branch. He shrieked and shouted, “Mercy! Please, mercy! Don’t kill me, please, please, please.”
Mary stared at the man. There was nothing special about him. He was wearing dirty clothes, and his hair was matted as if it hadn’t been washed in a few weeks. A layer of dirt covered his arms and legs, and the man wasn’t even wearing shoes. Mary tilted her head. She had heard about people like these. They hid in lawless places and robbed anyone who came through. “Are you a bandit?”
“N-no!” the man shouted and shook his head back and forth.
“But your actions were very similar to a bandit’s, you know?” Tafel asked, narrowing her eyes at the man, stepping towards him. “What were you doing in these woods with weapons, hmm?”
“W-we’re villagers,” the man said and shrank back. “We, we, we were hiding from the sheep devil.”
“The what?” Tafel asked.
The man swallowed. “W-where are you from? Are you from the Scathir Empire?”
Tafel turned towards Mary. “Are you?”
Mary nodded. “That’s my last name.”
“We, we made it?” the man asked. “Thank the heavens! I’m from the Ruiniert Empire! Our emperor conducted a wicked ritual that involved the sacrifice of thousands upon thousands of men. But, while I was waiting in line for my turn to die, a miracle descended from the sky! The guards who were keeping us in check had turned into sheep! So, all the people who were being sacrificed rioted and threw those guards into the ritual pit instead. We thought everything was over, but then they started coming out. Devilish sheep.” The man swallowed and stared into Mary’s and Tafel’s disbelieving eyes. “You have to believe me. I swear on my mother’s grave. There are devils in the shape of sheep that are going to end the world.”
Mary frowned. Back at the banquet, one of her Shadows had said something about the other empires conducting a ritual before sending soldiers to invade her lands. Could that be it? “What happened to the emperor of Ruiniert?”
“He was, um.” The man wet his lips with his tongue. “He was thrown into the ritual pit too.”
Tafel sighed. “Such is the fate of an evil emperor,” she said and shook her head. “Someone’s bound to kill you, like my father.”
Mary looked at Tafel. “What do you think? Is he lying?”
“Probably not,” Tafel said. “Besides, anyone who can come up with that kind of story while a sword is pointed at their neck is valuable in his own right. Even if he’s lying, you can keep him as a bard or something.”
Mary nodded and sheathed her sword. Or she tried to, but Chi’Rururp melted the belt on her waist with its caustic spittle leaking from its edge. Mary stared at the green liquid traveling down her thigh with wide eyes.
Tafel cleared her throat. “Oh, yeah. It does that sometimes.”
***
“Is that a human?” Vernon asked. He hovered in the air next to Sera, pumping his wings up and down. The two dragons were above the clouds, staring down at a red figure sitting in a pit. Its legs were crossed, and its arms were folded in its lap. The red man’s eyes seemed to be closed, and his chest moved up and down with every breath he took.
“If that’s a human, then that’s a tomatoing big human,” Erin said, peeking out of Lindyss’ hair. “I think those things are called giants.”
“Everything’s a giant to you,” Lindyss said.
Erin snorted. “But this one’s giant to you too.”
“Can you do something about it?” Sera asked the elf sitting on her head. “I don’t like the smell of it. It smells like death, but at the same time, it smells like abundant life.”
Erin tilted her head and asked herself in a whisper, “What does abundant life smell like? Flowers? It must be flowers.”
“You really think that highly of me, huh?” Lindyss asked.
Sera blinked. “Well, according to Grimmy, you subdued Kondra, didn’t you? Don’t tell me that was a lie.”
“It’s the truth,” Lindyss said. “But for me to bring out strength
equivalent to that time’s, certain conditions have to be met. I can’t just subdue dragon patriarchs and matriarchs all willy-nilly now. If I could, do you think I’d be the one listening to Grimmy?”
“Oh?” Erin’s eyes lit up. “What kind of conditions? Does it have to be raining? One of the fairy queens back home could cast a really devastating spell, but only if it was raining above an erupting volcano in the middle of the winter while snow was on the ground.”
Lindyss raised an eyebrow. “The conditions to summon my strongest undead are not that specific.”
“It’s true love’s kiss, isn’t it?” Vernon asked. “You two-legged things love applying the condition of true love’s kiss to everything.”
“If it is, it’s a shame Grimmy’s not here,” Sera said and rolled her eyes.
“I’m not in love with Grimmy! And he certainly doesn’t love me,” Lindyss said, glaring at Sera while resisting the urge to slap the dragon. It’d certainly feel good to, but she’d probably die afterwards.
The fairy in Lindyss’ hair flew out of her head. “I’ll give you a kiss!”
“Shut up, Erin.”
“Wow, I’m hurt.” Erin’s wings drooped. She landed on Lindyss’ shoulder and sighed, crossing her legs and placing her hands on her knees.
“Fairies don’t know what love means,” Lindyss said. “Don’t think I don’t know that.”
“Okay, enough joking around,” Vernon said. “Seriously, what are the conditions for you to take care of that thing?” He gestured at the meditating giant underneath them. “Don’t tell me Grimmy made you come with us for no reason.”
“I need a sacrifice,” Lindyss said. “Great power comes at a great cost unless you’re a dragon.”
“What kind of sacrifice?” Sera asked and frowned. “You didn’t teach any of these things to Vur, did you?”
Lindyss snorted. “Of course not. This isn’t something he can learn. Anyways, about thirty S-ranked adventurers will do.”
“Hey…,” Erin said, her face paling. “About those Fangs of Capitis that you swallowed with your shadows outside of that dwarven prison….”
“Hmm?” Lindyss raised an eyebrow. “Fangs of Capitis? What Fangs of Capitis? I don’t recall a dwarven prison.”
“You’re playing dumb again!” Erin bounced up and down. “Stop doing that!”
“Can you do anything without your sacrifices?” Sera asked. “It’d be difficult to find that many people. We have no idea when this thing will start moving.”
“Without my sacrifices, I’m weaker than a dragon,” Lindyss said. “And I used up all my saved ones while taking care of Kondra.”
Vernon narrowed his eyes. “So, you’re useless?”
Lindyss crossed her arms over her chest. “Someone’s worth is not dependent on their strength. I can be useful in different ways, like analyzing your opponent or calling for Grimmy when things go wrong.”
“Well, how about you call for Grimmy right now?” Sera asked and sighed. “It’s not every day you see things larger than a dragon.”
Lindyss placed a finger to her temple and closed her eyes. A moment later, her closed eyes twitched before shooting open. “He seems to be asleep,” she said. “I got sent to an automated voice message.”
Flames shot out of Sera’s nostrils. “Sleeping when he said he was going to watch over the kids and Vur?” Her eyes narrowed at the elf on her head. “Wake him up.”
“I can’t do that from far away,” Lindyss said and shook her head.
Vernon pointed at the giant. “Then be useful the other way and analyze it.”
Lindyss nodded and crept forward, Leaning over Sera’s snout. “Well, for one, it seems to be pretty big.”
“Are you messing with us?” Sera growled. “Has being around Grimmy for so long removed your fear of dragons?”
“I wasn’t done yet! Stop being so snappy,” Lindyss said. She cleared her throat. “And if it’s that big, then presumably, it has greater physical strength than you two because physics and the fact that Grimmy said it’s a danger to dragons. The aura around it is similar to a girl we met before, the one with the sword that you stomped the uncle of. She has the ability to cancel out magic, so it’s safe to assume spells targeting this thing won’t work on it either. You’ll have to turn the spells into physical attacks like destroying the earth and making it fall or freezing it by targeting the air around it instead of its body.”
Sera nodded. “What about its weakness?”
“Not sure,” Lindyss said and shrugged. “If I knew, that would’ve been the first thing I said. But everything has a core. It either has a heart, a magic circle, or a central node powering it. Remove that, and it’ll die.”
“That’s not true,” Erin said.
Lindyss turned her head to face the fairy sitting on her shoulder. “Do you know something?”
“You just said everything has a core,” Erin said and nodded. “But it’s quite clear you don’t have a heart. You’re mean.”
Lindyss flicked the fairy’s forehead, knocking the little queen off her shoulder.
“How do we approach this, dear?” Vernon asked, ignoring the two squabbling atop his mate’s head.
Sera clicked her tongue and frowned. “What is it that those pesky adventurers did? They sent a scout first?” Her eyes rolled up to stare at Lindyss. “I think I found a job for you.”
Lindyss froze, a fairy struggling against her fingers. “What kind of job?”
“Figure out how strong it is,” Sera said.
“You mean, right now?” Lindyss asked. “What do you want me to do, fight it?”
Sera nodded. “That’d be ideal. We’ll watch.” After a brief moment of silence, Sera tilted her head. “Go on. What are you waiting for?”
Lindyss’ eye twitched. Purple wings sprouted out of her back, and she rose off of Sera’s head. “Come on,” she said, pulling Erin along even though the fairy queen was trying to fly away. “If I have to, you have to as well.”
“Can’t you feel the aura coming off that thing? I don’t like it!” Erin’s wings beat so fast that they weren’t visible, but she couldn’t get free of Lindyss’ hand. “How about you take this chance to flee?”
“And then what?” Lindyss asked with a snort. “Then I’ll see them again in a few hours. What else can I do?” She passed through the layer of clouds underneath her and stopped, hovering in the air above the giant’s head. “This thing is a lot bigger up close.”
“That’s how things tend to be,” Erin said. “I don’t think there’s anything that gets smaller the closer you are to it.”
Lindyss ignored the fairy and stuffed the queen into her hair. She sighed and spread her arms out to the side. A black rift appeared in front of her, and a series of bones fell towards the ground. The giant’s eyes snapped open, revealing round red orbs that had no pupils or irises. The giant tilted his head up and made eye contact with Lindyss, who was still maintaining the rift. Bone upon bone fell out of the black portal, but all the giant did was stare. When the bones on the ground wriggled and crept towards one another, the giant turned his gaze onto them. Like a baby, he stared at the forming bone dragon without a sound.
“I thought you said you needed a sacrifice for those,” Erin whispered. “And that giant thing is really creeping me out.”
Lindyss shrugged. “I’ve seen worse,” she said and closed the rift when the last bone fell out. It landed on the ground and attached itself to the end of the bone dragon’s tail. “And this thing doesn’t require any sacrifices because it’s really weak. It can’t cast any magic, it can’t fly, and it has almost no mass behind it. It’s probably as strong as an almost newborn dragon.”
Erin’s eyes widened. “And you can casually summon something like that?”
Lindyss shrugged again. “If I have the bones for it.” She sighed. “But it seems like I’ll be losing a set today.”
Erin peered over Lindyss’ head towards the ground. The giant had climbed to his feet. He
was easily twice the size of the dragon skeleton, the skeleton only a little bigger than one of his limbs. The giant’s muscles rippled as he reached down towards the skeleton with his left hand. The dragon skeleton let out a soundless roar and rushed towards the giant, biting down on his finger. The giant’s eyes widened, and his mouth opened. A wailing sound hit Lindyss like a shockwave, nearly knocking her out of the sky.
The giant pulled back his hand, one of his fingers missing. His face contorted, his lips baring to show his red teeth that were the same color as his gums. He punched down with his right hand, but the dragon skeleton dodged to the side. The earth shook as the giant’s fist made contact with it. An instant later, the giant shouted and withdrew his hand, shaking it before blowing on his knuckles that were now bleeding. The dragon skeleton took that chance to dart in and bite the giant’s ankle, tearing a chunk of flesh off of his Achilles tendon. The giant buckled and fell to one knee.
“Was it weaker than we thought?” Sera asked Vernon. The two dragons were still flying above the clouds, staring down at the fight going on below.
Before Vernon could respond, the giant grabbed towards the dragon skeleton. It scuttled forward, but the giant’s fingers managed to close around its tail. With a pop, the dragon skeleton disconnected it and waddled away. The giant roared as he ground the tail in his hand to bits, turning the whole thing into flecks of bone powder. Vernon scratched his chin. “I wouldn’t want to be grabbed by that.”
Once the dragon skeleton lost its tail, its previously smooth movements turned clunky. Instead of running, it waddled while limping as if it would fall over at any second. The giant hobbled after it, dragging his one lame leg behind himself, supporting the rest of his body with his left hand. Like a man chasing after a cat, the two scuttled and limped around the pit that the giant had been sitting in, going in circles. The giant stopped chasing, and the dragon skeleton stopped moving. The giant leaned to his left, and the dragon skeleton leaned to its left. The giant leaned to his right, and the dragon skeleton leaned to its right. The two stared at each other, the giant circular pit separating them. With a roar, the giant leapt over the pit and grabbed towards the dragon skeleton. It waddled away as fast as it could, but it tripped, and the giant caught ahold of its leg. The dragon skeleton whirled its torso around and bit and clawed at the giant’s arm, shredding his skin, but the giant didn’t let go. With a crunch, the dragon skeleton’s leg was crushed into powder, but it didn’t seem to mind. It clawed and bit at an even faster rate, but the giant swatted down with its free hand, crushing the dragon skeleton’s skull. But its legs didn’t stop moving, still tearing deep gouges into the giant’s right arm.