That made getting away our best answer. The Pathway would close again and soon as we exited, and Cavus would hopefully be stuck here. If not, he’d fight us on another planet where more help could probably turn the tide. I refused to believe Stell’s Icon allies would ignore him showing up on their planet.
One more leap put me hurtling straight into the silvery door.
I bounced right off of it.
Expletives splashed out of my mouth as I skidded back to my feet, turned, and ran for the other Pathway leading back to Avalon. If that one worked and he still followed, Guineve and I would wreck his face together, now that she was fully healed.
“Don’t worry, my little Stell,” Cavus continued speaking from the ceiling. “This time I did everything right. No one will ever take you from me again.”
Teeth cursed at him again. This time I stopped right in front of the Pathway entrance and slammed Toirneach at whatever binding covered the opening. There was a flash of light and an angry cracking sound, but the weapon bounced right off and nearly flew out of my hands.
“Silly, ugly stupid boy,” the guttural voice chuckled from the ceiling. “Didn’t he hear me? Uncle Cavus took care of everything. The only way these doors will open again is if he leaves without my little Stell. And that’s fine. Uncle Cavus won’t mind that at all.”
Make him stop talking to her like that or I will fucking eat him, Teeth growled. I mean it.
“Wes,” Breena whispered. “I’m sorry. You have to let me go. You have to leave me here.”
“Ha,” I spat as I summoned Carnwennan and had its shroud cover both me and Breena. Then I moved several feet away, so that we were in a new position. Don’t be ridiculous, Breena. Here, I sent as I lowered her to the ground. I wanted to cut her free, but the threads were too small to remove without hurting her, even if I used magic. My eyes searched the ceiling, but all I could see was inky grayness. I twirled the axe in my right hand, wondering if it was still the right weapon for the job.
Cavus chuckled again.
“Look, little Stell. The ugly, stupid boy thinks he’s strong enough to hide you from me. Can you tell him, my little Stell? Can you tell him that I can smell where you are exactly, right behind him? Does he know that I can always smell my little Stell when she’s near?”
“Motherfucker,” I growled. “If you get any creepier I’m going to climb up there and see just how many ass-kickings it takes to get to the center of an Umbra-pop. Now stick your head out and say hi, bitch.” I flipped the giant tomahawk in my hands. “I’ve got a package I need you to sign for.”
I couldn’t help it. The bastard made my hair bristle and my mouth froth.
“He just won’t leave us alone, will he, my little Stell?” Cavus hissed, and I finally saw movement above us. “He can’t help but be an ugly, stupid boy. Doesn’t he know what happened to all the other ugly stupid boys?”
Breena let out a muffled whimper as the monster came back into view. My own eyes widened in shock. Because he looked completely different.
He was much smaller, roughly my own size. Like before, his entire body was black, but that was nearly the only thing consistent. Now he resembled a deformed spider instead of a deformed human, gripping whatever surface he was on with every single appendage. His number of limbs still varied, growing and collapsing into his center, but now he alternated consistently between six to nine legs. Each of the limbs resembled a normal spider’s legs, except that the tips wiggled slightly when they lifted up, and tiny black-gray hands crawled over the appendages, leaving little trails of ink that disappeared when they touched the spidery limbs. The head was even more shadowy than it was in the past, a mandible-ringed thing that reminded me of a large ant head.
The real horror was the monster’s abdomen. It was shaped like that of a spider’s, but every now and then it glowed. When I looked carefully, I saw a single light bounce around inside, creating the glow by slamming itself against the abdomen walls, as if it was desperately, uselessly, trying to break its way free. Worst of all, mouths of all kinds lined the bottom of the bulbous abdomen, some gnashing their teeth, some clamping serrated jaws, and a few drooling with deformed tongues. It was enough to make even the dragon side of me recoil in disgust.
“Did you tell him, little Stell-piece?” the mouth at the very end of the abdomen asked, a wet, red-gray tear that resembled the mouth of the monster’s original form. The abdomen bulged and shrank weirdly as the mouth moved, and it reminded me of how the Umbra’s head always adjusted to fit the expression of the monster’s mouth. “Did you tell him what happened to all the other ugly, stupid boys? Does this little piece of you remember?”
“Wes,” Breena squeaked. “Please run.”
“You know what I remember?” I said, ignoring Breena’s request and reaching for the familiar burning lightning inside of myself. “I remember facing you before. I remember you doing your worst, and then I remember coming back to fight you for a second round. And that time, I remember you running away from me. Does that ring any bells, arachno-creep? Does that sound about right?”
Cavus had begun crawling down one of the walls, but he stopped and hissed at me for a moment, the sound coming from every mouth on his abdomen. But then he made another disgusting chuckle, and continued crawling toward us.
“Yes, ugly stupid boy. I remember all of those things. I remember you burning a part of your soul right out, just to hurt me. You’re the first ever to be able to do that, ugly dumb boy. But you will die if you do it again. Is that why you’re still teasing him, little Stell?” The shadowy ant head looked past me. “Because he was the first boy ugly and dumb enough to try and do that for you? To go that far, just to hurt your Uncle Cavus?”
“Stop calling yourself that,” I growled. “You’re not her uncle. You’re not her anything.”
“Yes I am,” the monster chuckled, still crawling down the wall. “I have to be. I ate every other ugly stupid boy that claimed to be her father, or her uncle, or her cousin or her grandfather. So now I get to be all those things for her. I’m the only one who gets to, now.”
He’s in range, Teeth snarled inside my head. Why are we still talking to him?
“Good point,” I said out loud.
My enhancement spells all flared, and I roared and hurled Toirneach as hard as I could at the creepy bastard. The monster was chuckling right up until the wind began to whip around the weapon. Then the Umbra hissed, bunched his legs, and leaped away.
“Where did you get that?” All of his mouths screeched as he landed some distance away on the floor. “Ugly stupid thief!”
I didn’t know what Cavus knew about my weapon. But he was afraid of it, and that was good enough for me.
He also seemed far weaker than he had before. I had been directly enhanced by Avalon during our first battle, and he was still strong enough to send me hurtling hundreds of yards through the air. I was even stronger now, but it still felt far too early for him to feel threatened by me.
As a follow-up test, I fired off my finger-bolt spell into him. All ten darts followed his skittering, and at the last moment oil-like liquid belched out of his abdomen and covered his body in a shield. I saw the covering ripple as the bolts impacted it, but the electric darts just fizzled across its surface.
“Breena,” I asked quietly. “Why is he so much weaker now?”
“It’s just a small piece of him,” she whispered weakly. “And he’s still too strong for you.” I turned to look at her. She looked as if she had worked her way clear of part of the webbing, and might be able to fight her way free if she tried really hard. But she had gone completely pale, and was shivering all over. Raw terror continued to wash out from her through our bond. “Run, Wes,” she said again. “Be safe. Be well. I’m sorry. I’ll miss you. I…” She tried to say more words, and then her mouth snapped shut on its own.
The next moment there was a skittering noise, and Cavus barreled across the murky hall and directly into me.
My dagger disa
ppeared as I summoned my shield. I turned back just in time to have Cavus’ clawed front legs crack into the wooden barrier. The shield held, but I felt myself skidding across the floor as the creature’s other legs tried to stab over my guard.
“Breena!” I shouted, straining against the Umbra’s surprising weight. “Snap out of it and help me fight!”
“Ugly, stupid boy,” Cavus hissed. “Stell can never fight me!” The ant head chittered as the monster’s legs bunched up against my shield. “She needs me!”
“Like hell she does!” I shouted in the next moment, pushing back against the monster’s weight and rearing my axe back for another strike. I swung at the nearest leg, but it drew back hastily before my blow landed. “She doesn’t need you to do anything but get out of her way!”
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” Cavus screamed from his mouths. He reared up on two legs and heaved on my shield with the other six. I went flying through the air. “You are the worst! You are the ugliest and stupidest of all the ugly, stupid boys!”
I slammed down shoulder-first on the solid but formless ground hard enough to bounce, wincing from the impact as I struggled to make my second landing feet-first. I failed and wound up slamming against the wall next to one of the Pathway exits.
“There, my little Stell-piece,” the spidery Umbra said, walking backwards toward my terrified friend, abdomen looming toward her. “The ugly boy’s far away now. You don’t have to tease him, or listen to him.” The fleshy mouth at the abdomen’s tip curled and yawned open. The little light inside the abdomen began bouncing around even more frantically. “You don’t have to pretend you can be what the ugly stupid boy wants you to be anymore, my little Stell. You don’t have to pretend you can be brave. You don’t have to pretend you can be smart. You don’t even have to pretend you can ever be happy, or good at something. You just have to be my little Stell, forever. That’s all you get to be—”
Safety measures deactivated, my mind-screen chirped. Battle-form engaging.
As my Ideals began to merge, Teeth seized control of my throat and let out a roar that rattled the walls and ceiling of this formless hall.
“STOP!” Teeth shouted out of my mouth. “TALKING! TO! HER!”
My jaws began to stretch.
Dragon-bond engaging, my mind-screen chirped again. Be advised that current vitality may prove insufficient for dual-form activation. Recommending caution…
Fuck off! Teeth and I roared at once, dismissing the message. Red and gold scales began forming over the bare skin of my neck and forearms. Then they crawled over my armor, merging with it to provide better protection. My hands grew clawed gauntlets. Even my axe and shield began to glow with a red sheen. It made the light from the Battleform’s enhancement magic dance all over the room.
But none of that information was important as killing the god-damned, creepy idiot menacing my friend.
“I WILL EAT YOU!” I shouted, clearing the distance between myself and the Umbra with a single leap. “I WILL WRECK AND EAT YOUR FACE!”
Toirneach blazed with six different magics as I swung it clear through one of Cavus’ clawed limbs, the combined enhancements churning up the limb like it was a stick trapped against an electric saw blade. The Umbra screamed in agony, rearing up and backing away from Breena.
“Pain!” he screeched. “How dare you?” The shadowy ant head looked at me, as if it were seeing me for the first time.
“You are Aegrim’s heir!” the creature hissed in astonishment. “Why does Aegrim oppose this? This isn’t right! He should like how I want her! You should be helping me!”
We answered him with an incoherent roar, and struck at him again with Toirneach, drawing an angry line across the underside of his carapace. The monster howled again, and I saw little hands crawl frantically up his remaining legs to try and stitch the tear shut.
“You dare?” Cavus screeched, slamming his right three legs into my flank. I twisted my shield into their way, shuddering at the impact. “You dare dispute my claim? She’s mine! I bought her! I paid for her! I did everything they asked!”
“What?” Breena asked behind us, and I felt her stir at the words.
The monster struck with his remaining legs at the same time I struck out with Toirneach. Our attacks intercepted each other, forcing us into a grapple, as this time the oily black coating billowed out to save his limbs. I strained against the Umbra’s weight but did not buckle, dragon man against disgusting nightmare bug.
“Greedy, stupid, cheating boy!” the ant head snarled, black spittle flying out of the mandibles. “Stupid traitor-prince! You want her for yourself? You can’t use her! You don’t even know what to do!”
“SHUT UP!” both parts of my mind roared. “SHUT THE HELL UP AND GET IN MY BELLY!”
As Cavus cocked his ant-head in bafflement at my words, my own jaws launched forward and closed with a sudden snap.
The bastard jerked his head back in time, but I still caught at least one mandible. I twisted my own skull and a good portion of the monster’s front mouth came away with a crunch.
“Stupid traitor-prince!” Cavus screamed from his abdominal mouths. I spat his nasty remains out of my mouth and ripped Toirneach free of his left limbs. The Umbra backed away awkwardly as my following swing grazed him. Then he leaped backward, putting over a dozen feet between us. “You think you’re a match for one of us?”
“I am,” I growled, smoke coming out of my enlarged jaws. “And so is she.” I pointed behind me.
And I meant it. I refused to believe that Breena couldn’t take Cavus in a fight. Not while he was in this wussy, spider-bitch form.
A new leg suddenly burst out of the monster, replacing the one I had removed earlier. Gray hands crawled over the damaged ant-head, and new flesh bubbled out in their wake. Cavus reared back up, on four legs this time, and all the hands on his body faced me and began to glow. Streams of black, purple, and gray energy fired, blasting me before I could react. The dragon half of me roared in rage as I was knocked off of my feet. I rolled backwards to recover, and I caught sight of black smoke vomiting from the spider monster’s abdomen.
“You are not to call me prey, Aegrim-spawn,” all of Cavus’ mouths spoke, and this time their words echoed along the entire hallway. “You are a hundred thousand years too young to have earned that right!”
The black smoke coated the monster like armor, thickening his bulk, reinforcing his limbs. The light from his abdomen dulled, and purple energy crackled from the gray hands crawling over the new armor.
“I have eaten stronger beings than you!” the mouths shouted. “Just ask her! Ask her what happened to the heroes of her world!”
I wasn’t curious. I punched out with my right fist to send a stored lightning bolt out of my knuckles. The waving, burning, blood-red seared into Cavus’ right flank, and he screamed for the millionth time already, because he was a little bitch who wasn’t used to pain. Then the hands on his body all fired again, and burning purple bolts slammed into my armor, scales, and shield, nearly knocking me off my feet again. I felt my insides tremble under the attack, and I knew that unlike the bastard Umbra, I was far more hurt than I appeared.
“Breena!” I shouted. “Get up! This is your fight too! Either heal me, or throw a punch!”
She looked at me and blinked, looking a little more pink, and sane.
“Wes,” she said dumbly. “You’re still here.” Her eyes suddenly widened. “And you’re hurt.”
I was torn between my desire to comfort her somehow in the face of such a traumatic event, or screaming in rage or frustration over her current inability to help.
“She can’t help, stupid traitor-prince,” Cavus cackled, and his hands began glowing again. “She can never do anything but be my little Stell! And she knows it!”
Hold fast, the quiet voice said. I rage.
About time, I growled back, hurling my axe at Cavus. The Umbra skittered to the side, right into the fireblast I launched next. He screamed, but again I knew
he was just reacting to the pain instead of the actual damage. And he would repair the damage quickly, if I did not find a faster way to take him down.
Daughter, the quiet voice said again, to my utter confusion.
What? I asked.
Daughter, he repeated, and I finally realized he wasn’t talking to me.
Daughter.
Breena shook, and then suddenly looked around.
Daughter.
There was a quality, some kind of echo, that made me realize that my quiet, angry friend had been saying that word to Breena, to Stell, for a very long time. It reminded me of Val’s actions back when the Umbra on Avalon had attacked me.
Daughter. Use me. I rage.
“But you’re not real,” I heard Breena whisper.
Daughter, the voice repeated, with a patience that suggested thousands of years of practice, a thousand years of calling out to her. It made me wonder if he had also been talking to me all this time.
Stop getting distracted, I told myself as my axe returned to my hand. Invictus, or whoever you are, interfere in this right now or you and I are done.
Hold fast, he replied. I will rage with you.
My hands sparked silver.
“Yes!” Cavus chittered with his ant-head mouth. “Do it, traitor-prince! Burn yourself out and leave me with my little Stell!”
That’s the second time I’ve heard that, I thought, letting the silver power intensify.
No, the quiet voice directed. Like this. Now use me. I rage.
Feeling the subconscious instruction, I dashed forward instead, letting the silver, burning lightning build up in my body.
“Wait,” the ant-head cocked sideways. “What are you doing?”
Daughter, the voice said again, and Breena began to stir. I rage.
Cavus’ confusion cost him. I closed the distance and slammed my axe back into his face, crunching into the oily armor and slicing another mandible off. The silver power merged into me, mixing with my Battleform’s magic, enhancing me even further. Cavus shrieked, scuttled backwards, and then whipped out at me with two new, scythe-like limbs that grew directly from the top of his body. They slashed around my shield to leave long gashes in my arms, piercing all my magical protection.
Woad Children (Challenger's Call Book 3) Page 27