Into the Hells

by Christopher Johns

  We need to end this shit, like, a minute ago, I said to Balmur.

  He grunted, You all okay?

  Bokaj and James are down. James is hurt bad, and Bokaj is dead. Jaken is trying to get to him, but the Dofilnarr is keeping him away from his body. It’s so fucking strong. It has so much more mana than Zeke, Muu shouted into our heads. The panic in his voice sent a burst of adrenaline through my veins.

  Kayda! I roared through our connection. The shout startled her enough to drop her prey from high enough that I knew they would either die or be severely hurt. Get the king, and take him to the others, now!

  She screeched and dove toward us. “Telfino, Kayda is taking you to the others. We got this. Help our friends!”

  He nodded once as he jumped as high as he could, and Kayda caught him by his staff in both talons and took off.

  “After him!” one of the not guards shouted. I found that one and just fucking clubbed him with the hammer end of Magus Bane. I dropped Aspect of the Ursolon, crushed his head for good measure, then turned to the remaining four of the living kidnappers.

  Balmur, his breathing growing steadily more rapid and shallow, was a blur of motion. The others had been moving to follow the king and Kayda, but they had discounted us.

  Tell ‘em. Go ahead and say it. Listen to ol’ Zeke and just say out loud, “They done fucked up.” Said it? Hold on to your britches, y’all.

  “Rrrrraaaaaaargh!” Balmur screamed as he launched himself after them. I was in his way, so he used my shadow as his personal doorway into the first ones, slicing her Achilles’ tendons as he reared out of the void. His arms never stopped their flurry of motion and she was dead long before she hit the ground.

  I bounded after them and activated Wind Scythe before whipping Magus Bane at the last of them. It hit with a solid crunch to the spine that populated a paralyzed symbol below his HP bar. I ripped the weapon from his back, taking another third of his life and then stomped on the back of his neck as hard as my fifty-five strength would let me. A sickening crack echoed from it but barely reached me through the blood pounding in my ears.

  One of my friends had died—again, and I hadn’t been there to help.

  Balmur’s forgotten dagger was at my feet, so I picked it up with a growl, the silver on the weapon burning my skin, but I didn’t care. I launched it toward the Dwarf, surprisingly close to him, and he grabbed it on instinct. With another shout of furry, he sprinted after the others. I cast Aspect of the Hare and took off in hot pursuit.

  It took another minute for us to catch them, me firing lightning bolts at them when they were close but missing by inches. Then having to keep tabs on them as they ran headlong through celebrations, tossing food into the air or shoving people aside.

  One had even managed to grab a hostage long enough to give me pause, but a spurt of blood covered the victim in crimson as Balmur appeared from their shadows to slit the guard's throat savagely.

  Gone was all thought of trying to keep things under wraps. Finally, someone thought to trip the fleeing guard, and Balmur and I reached him at the same time, my great axe severing his neck as Balmur gored his kidneys.

  I put my weapon away and then called the incensed Rogue into my collar with a tap before taking off toward the orchard with breakneck haste.

  Kayda had begun using her newest ability again, the lightning in it crackling and raining down here and there, the cooling and healing effect lost on me. When I reached the clearing, the scene was insane.

  All but one of the kidnappers was dead, Questis and the Dofilnarr—who had taken my form—were at war, slinging spells at each other as Telfino cast healing spells at him while trying to help the others. I landed just outside the clearing from my last jump and released Balmur.

  Here. Stay out of Balmur’s way, I growled at the others.

  The Dwarf looked for his next target and decided on her—this Mage looked battered but still relatively healthy and was shielding herself as she motioned with her other hand and chanted something.

  Jaken lay on the ground, severely injured, but his hands were on Bokaj, his lips moving in prayer. Tmont stood over her master protectively as she batted at the Dofilnarr when he got too close.

  James laid in a broken pile, his health just barely above a percent, Kayda’s healing rain was helping a bit. Yohsuke was wounded, around forty-seven percent, and was busy fighting something from a freshly made portal that was trying to come through.

  Bokaj is up. Out of mana—drinking potions, Jaken mumbled tiredly.

  Use the sylph’s potion, man, now! I barked and saw him pull the vial from his inventory.

  I took out three of the medium mana potions and downed them in rapid succession. My mana popped back up by one hundred fifty, putting me at full.

  I used my Charge Spell ability and held Mass Regrowth, a spell that normally cost 150 MP to cast normally. I held the spell for three pulses or fifteen seconds of my friends doing what they could. Then I unleashed the spell at the full 1,200 MP cost. I was down to 150 MP in the ring on my finger. I took one last medium mana potion to the gullet and cast Aspect of the Sabertooth.

  Aspect of the Sabertooth - +8 strength, +20 dexterity. Increased rate of attack. This great cat may be a little long in the tooth, but those who think that may find themselves gored swiftly.

  My canines lengthened greatly, my fur grew a little shaggier, but I felt my muscles grow denser and lither at the same time.

  My friends’ HP bars were beginning to rise, and as they did, so too did our fighting spirit.

  “Room for one more, Questis?” I asked as I ducked under the creature’s large, bear-like claw. It had taken Ursolon form. It looked exactly as I did, and that pissed me off.

  “Ah, nice of you to join us again,” the Elf grunted as he took a blow to his shoulder. Telfino healed him, and his HP jumped back up to eighty percent.

  Soon, Kayda warned me, and I knew that she meant her mana was recovering, and she would be able to join us in earnest.

  An arrow sprouted from the Dofilnarr’s shoulder, and it roared in anger. A crash of lightning sounded to our left, and I noticed that Balmur and Muu had finally worked their way past the Mage’s shield.

  Bokaj, you good to go help Yoh at the portal? I asked.

  I watched as the Ranger limped by with Tmont as support. She hissed at everything.

  James good yet? Yohsuke called.

  Mending his spine is going to take a minute, Jaken muttered as if he were trying to concentrate.

  “Telfino.” I ducked away from a paw that swung at my face. Talking with fangs like this would take getting used to. “Go help Jaken, please.”

  I couldn’t look to see if he had heard me, but I heard a shuffle of feet and muttering before a radiant green light began to flow into my vision from the right.

  I didn’t dare look right now. Rather, I buckled down and began to work into a good flow of axe forms—chop, swing, block, parry, step back. I heard the hiss of arrows being launched and then shouted cursing.

  “Anyone know how to dispel magic?” Yoh hollered, the strain evident in his voice.

  76 MP returned to me, helping ease the headache I was trying desperately to ignore.

  Questis shoved me aside as the Dofilnarr Ursolon’s head snapped forward. “Give me a moment, will you?” he asked softly.

  I nodded once and batted the asshole’s paw back to the side. Suddenly, golden energy flooded my vision, and there was a mostly healed James, his fists covered in ki so thick it looked like he held the sun in his hands.

  We began to beat on the beast in front of us, its health falling steadily from seventy percent to sixty-eight percent. Its health pool was ridiculous, and there was little room to doubt why it had nearly killed two of us.

  I heard a chant from the back of us, and once more, I felt my muscles begin to strain less. But more importantly, we all had buffs.

  We were buff as fuck at that moment.

  Mother Nature’s Love – Friendly creatures in
the area of this prayer’s effect receive a boost to mana and health regeneration of +3%. Duration: 30 minutes.

  Mother Nature’s Wrath – Friendly creatures receive bonus strength, dexterity, and constitution. Duration: 10 minutes.

  My mana began to go up by 93 MP now, putting me up to 169 MP. Good start. I dipped into my inventory and grabbed one minor mana potion and my last medium mana potion. I downed the two, and it threw me up to 294 MP.

  Just enough to cast Beastial Fury. My muscles thickened, and the world around me seemed to grow a little quieter. Then I realized it was because I was roaring. My anger was fully realized.

  I was rage incarnate, and the focal point in front of me just turned into a fox-man.

  It opened its mouth to say something, but I was on top of it before it could finish. My great axe swung relentlessly fast, the angles of the slashes and slices becoming increasingly hard for the creature to figure out.

  A dark figure, furred with claws flashing in mirrored rage and muscle, crashed into the creature before me and raked it with its claws. The tail was sporting a weapon striking like a scorpion wherever it would reach.

  This was a friend. I brought my axe into an overhead chop, activating Cleave by second nature and carved through the attacker of my friend’s arm. The limb fell off, thumping on to the ground and beginning to dissolve. The creature screamed loudly, and the furry friend continued her assault.

  It was around sixty-one percent HP now and falling. Arrows sprouted from it before a golden flash of light appeared around it. It had no effect, and the creature howled in anger.

  Its body grew and thickened, the limb regrowing slowly, taking some of the health in its HP bar with it. Fifty-seven percent health left.

  I heard a burst and scream from my left, followed by a cry of victory but couldn’t afford to take my attention off the Dofilnarr. The beast had swatted the great cat away and began to move on me.

  Good, come closer so I can cut you easier, I rumbled in my mind.

  A being who glowed with a radiant gold and red aura stepped before me and struck the creature with his shield. A maw of metal and teeth appeared from it, grabbed the advancing creature, and it seemed to take hold. He swung it toward me, the back exposed, and I roared triumphantly.

  Raining down chops and slashes with Magus Bane, my weapon began to refill my pool with mana that it stole from the Dofilnarr.

  After a few hacks, I had the mana to use one more ability—Bladed Storm.

  My weapon whipped back and forth in the air around me steadily, leaves and grass rustling with its passage.

  “The portal is closing!” I heard an excited voice over the fury of my assault. I raked it with my clawed right hand. It lost its form once more.

  The creature was at thirty percent health and dwindling.

  A shield of ebon burst into life before me, and I kept hammering away at it. The creature then tore off his other arm, the one lodged in the metal being’s mouth and push kicked both the bearer and the shield aside. It closed its eyes and disappeared for an instant.

  I looked wildly around the clearing. One of the figures that had been fighting, a green one—friend—laid on the ground, unconscious but alive. The two who had been fighting at the portal mouth had been shoved aside, and the Dofilnarr began to flee through.

  A CRASH of lightning cut through a Fireball rushing out of the portal, and I heard an anguished cry from the other side as the portal closed.

  With the threat gone, my adrenaline began to flood from my system, and my mind began to take in more than the situation directly in front of me. My mana was recovering but not enough to be of much use.

  I looked around. Yohsuke and James were bloodied, around thirty percent health despite the buffs. Muu snored on the ground, his HP bar around half but a sleep icon above his name. Across from him was the female Mage that had been fighting us.

  Tmont limped over to stand beside her master who laid up resting beside a tree. He was pulling his guitar from his inventory.

  Balmur… Balmur was nowhere to be found.

  “Where’s Balmur?” I asked, my mind a little muddied still.

  “He went off chasing after an Elf that made it through the portal from the other side and then made it past Bokaj, James, and Yoh,” Jaken answered as he fell on to his ass tiredly.

  King Telfino sidled over to sit beside the Paladin. “That was hard. You all fight like demons.”

  “Thanks, Majesty.” Balmur’s gruff voice startled me as he appeared next to me, seemingly having forgotten his rage. “I was tortured by them daily.”

  Telfino looked uncomfortable for a moment, so I spoke first. “You find them?”

  The Dwarven Rogue grinned savagely. “Yep. They didn’t make it far.”

  Good. Fuck those guys.

  “Bokaj, let’s get ready to go get the ones we have held in the traps into the dungeon. Where’d you hide the trap anchors?”

  He just shook his head, “Can’t. The Mage there was able to dispel them in a motion, but it didn’t matter. While we were distracted with that thing acting like it was you on steroids, she slaughtered them all and made another portal using their life essence somehow.”

  So we were up shit creek with no info and sure as fuck no paddle. Damn it.

  “Salvage what you can,” Yohsuke grunted as he sat up. His health was recovering more steadily. “Loot the corpses, and if we can, we’ll revive one, but while I was fighting those assholes, I got shoved through the portal. It was the Fae, alright, and it led directly into some kind of fort or forward operating base. There were people everywhere.”

  He looked bleakly at Telfino. “I’m sorry, Highness—your people, the ones who were taken—are dead.

  A large great cat, the size of Fern, sauntered over, and Questis shifted from it in a flash of green light. “There are no more in the area, your Majesty.”

  I prodded him with my Fae Iron finger, and he remained the same.

  “We probably don’t have to do that anymore, man,” Bokaj grumbled.

  “Everyone here gets poked. Protocol.” Yohsuke shook his head. “Can’t get complacent. Complacency kills.”

  That was true.

  QUEST ALERT!

  Quests complete!

  A Champion’s Duty – Queen Maebe, leader of the Unseelie Fae, has informed you of a potential plot to throw her world and her people into great peril. Assist her by rooting out the spies living amongst the high elves.

  Reward: Deepened standing with Unseelie Fae, further tutelage in the art of wielding Shadows, and further favor of Maebe upon acceptance.

  High Elf Highway Robbery – Someone has been stealing from the new king of the high elves, and that is just unacceptable. Find who or what is responsible, and either tell King Telfino or bring him evidence that they have been stopped.

  Reward: Better relations with King Telfino and his people, ten thousand gold pieces, and a possible favor in the future.

  “It is not the best result, but it is a result. You have upheld your quest and will be rewarded as such. Thank you for your assistance and for risking your lives for my people.”

  As I bled each of my friends and the king, I thought on it. Was this okay? We didn’t need the money, not really. We’d had to slaughter those people—imposters—but still. Their families would be missing them.

  I put my thoughts to the group, and they agreed, though Muu was still sleeping off the spell.

  “Majesty.” Bokaj stood cautiously and limped over to us. I cast Regrowth on him and T’ just to be safe. “Thanks, man. Majesty, you saved us. The least we can do is have you take the gold and give it to the families of those affected. It’s nothing compared to their loss, but we can hope that it helps them in their time of need.”

  “That is kind of you, generous even,” Telfino started. He was sad; you could tell. “But it is my responsibility to see to it that those people are cared for, and they will be.”

  “We know,” I offered, “but we want them to know that
they have friends in us. And so do you. We won’t swear fealty—but how about an alliance against those who seek to do you harm?”

  “I need not even discuss this—my answer is yes.” The king stood and clasped my wrist. “The high elves under my rule recognize the Unseelie Fae and Queen Maebe, The Frozen Shadow, as friends and allies. Long may our friendship bring our two peoples prosperity.”

  Secret Quest Complete!

  Diplomacy High and Low – King Telfino has recognized that without Maebe’s aid through you, his people would be in even more grave danger and has agreed to an alliance.

  Good work, champion!

  Reward: Unknown

  Well, that was cool as fuck, but that left us with one question.

  “So what’s next?” Balmur blinked at us expectantly.

  “Well, we need to get you some better armor and gear. Then we can follow our next lead.” Yohsuke offered us a small bag of dried meat to pass around.

  “And what’s that?” Jaken asked before tearing a piece off.

  “Going after the Drow,” James stated. We looked his way oddly. “Farnik told us that they seemed possessed by something. Stronger. More brash. That could mean a lot of things, but to me, it seems like someone was pulling their strings and getting them to create some mayhem that would likely distract Fainne.”

  Seemed as good a place as any to start. And Gods knew we could use a break from this stuff. Balmur especially. I could try to find a decent familiar to partner with Kayda. And we could get closer to seeing this world safe.

  Didn’t mean there weren’t still assholes out there that wouldn’t stand in our way, but we were better off now. At least I hoped.

  I surveyed my friends—beaten, bruised and covered in gore, some of it theirs, more that wasn’t. And I couldn’t help but smile wide.

  It was good to have the team back together.

  Afterword

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