by Eric Vall
“What?” I coughed and gathered myself before I dragged myself off the floor. “What do you mean?”
“It’s rather simple, though I don’t expect a foolish human like you to understand.” Phi narrowed her eyes and rattled the cage to elicit a scream from Nia.
“How about we play a game? I like games, human. Don’t you like games? I know you do, your whole race does.” As she spoke, her child-like face twisted into a maniacal grin that made my blood run cold.
“You’re crazy!” I growled. “We’re not going to play your fucking game, monster.” I glanced back at Gawain, who still looked deathly pale and wobbled on his own two feet. He tried to step forward, but his body moved like he weighed as much as lead, and he nearly collapsed. I rushed to his side to keep him from smashing his face in and wrapped an arm around him.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” the monster-girl chuckled. “He’s leaving you, human. Whatever shall you do? Save your woman, or save your friend? I know who I’d pick, but I’m not a dumb human.”
“Hey, stay with me,” I encouraged Gawain as I patted him on the shoulder. “We’ve been through a lot together these last couple of weeks, and I’m not going to let it end here.”
Gawain nodded, but his eyes were unfocused, as though he was stuck within the confines of his own mind. I gently slapped his cheek and shook him, but nothing drew his attention.
Suddenly, Nia screamed, and both Gawain and I shot our gazes up to her. From what I could see, Phi hadn’t done anything, but Nia was not the kind of person who would cry in agony if she wasn’t in fact in said agony. She pressed her forehead against one of the cage bars, and it wasn’t until she gripped the bars with fire in her hands did I realize that Phi was telekinetically cutting her arms open. Blood dripped from her wrists as the gashes formed up her forearms and turned her normally white gloves a deadly shade of crimson.
“Stop it!” Gawain’s eyes went wide as he refocused them. In an instant, the weight he seemed to have put on himself was gone, and he yelled as he rushed up the stairs. “Leave her alone!”
I hustled after him only to have him thrown back on top of me as he attempted to charge the magic barrier that separated us from Nia and Phi. The two of us scrambled to get up, and we rushed to her again. Nia sobbed as her magic did nothing against the bars, and the blood trailed down her arms. She was a fighter, but even she had her limits. In this enchanted cage, she was powerless.
“You are powerless here, summoner!” Phi cackled. She walked through the magic barrier again and stepped between Gawain and I as she descended the stairs. “This is my world, and you are my toys now. So, are you going to play my game, or am I going to kill this pathetic female?”
“What’s your game?” I growled between my teeth. I didn’t want to indulge this creature, but I figured asking her questions might buy me more time to figure out how to get Nia out of the magic force-field cage.
“You see,” Phi began, and her voice seemed to whisper in my ear even though I could see her standing across the room past Nia. “I’m not much of a fighter. I’m more of the kind to sit back and let the lesser beings do my bidding. You have fun summoning my kind to fight us. So, if you beat my pet monster, you’re all free to go this time. Sound like a deal?”
“What’s the catch?” I asked as I tried to keep hope from my voice. I knew Gawain and I could beat any monster this crazy angel-girl could summon.
At least, I hoped we could.
“Well,” she began to giggle. “No catch really, but if you lose, you all belong to me and will serve under me as my knights. You will kill the people who were once your comrades in my name and destroy the land you love and protect for the sake of monster-kind. Won’t that be wonderful? Instead of you using my kind to fight against us, I’ll be using you to fight against your kind. There is a poetry to that, don’t you think, Gyrff?”
I gulped and blanched at the thought of putting my hands on any of my friends. I had to win this fight, no matter the cost.
I also realized this was the first time the creature had actually said my name, and the word seemed to echo in my brain like a thousand voices were whispering it.
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” I asked.
“You don’t,” she answered, and her grin somehow managed to grow even larger on her child-like face. “But I could just murder your pretty little female right now, if you’d like.”
“Fine,” I replied shortly. “I agree to your terms.”
“Are you sure you know what you are doing?” Gawain hissed under his breath, and I realized he had broken out of his trance.
“That’s why I have to win,” I replied tersely, and I grabbed a crystal from my bandolier. “Now, are you going to help me or what?”
Gawain scoffed and clapped his hands to form a circling flame shield around him as he twirled his gun around his finger. “As if you’d have a chance without me.”
I smirked. “Now you’re sounding like yourself again.”
“Oh, this will be so much fun.” Phi giggled and snapped her fingers. The chandeliers flared to life and illuminated the room in its entirety, and the crystals clinked together as the room shook. A void formed from the ceiling and engulfed the area in darkness for a split second before it vanished again. From the void came a monster that was large, though not so huge that it didn’t have the space to move about in the room. It was canine-like, and it reminded me of the army of bandersnatch I’d fought in Bathi Highlands, only this one had feathered wings that spanned three-quarters of the room.
Its eyes were as black as the fur on its body, and four silver stripes were draped over the beast’s back. Feathers fluttered to the ground as the monster roared, and Phi held out her hand for it. The monster nudged her hand with its nose, and I could feel there was a connection between them. It ran deeper than the troll and the pyrewyrms, and anything else she’d thrown at us thus far.
“Vingehund,” Phi called it, and the canine creature snuffled as she patted its long snout. It was also then that I noticed this vingehund had two arched horns growing from its head.
“Is this your fighter, then?” I asked with an overly cocky grin. I couldn’t afford to project the slightest bit of weakness.
“It is.” Phi giggled and waved her hand. Nothing happened, at least to the naked eye, but it was then I remembered the weird enchantment that had been placed on the room before. As Phi stepped closer, she seemed further away, and I recognized it as the same magic Sleet used to create the arena for the Magicae Nito. It was no wonder Phi had been able to penetrate it and open a rift within it. She seemed rather well versed in those sorts of space-distorting magicks.
“What are the rules?” I asked to buy some time. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to fight this thing, if it was elemental, light or dark, or based on strength or speed. There were too many variables left unaccounted for, so I didn’t want to place too much stock in one or the other.
“No rules,” she answered flatly. “Win or be mine, Gryff, or maybe I should call you Gryffie.”
“How do you know my nicknam--” I started to ask, but then my opponent interrupted me.
“Are you going to talk or lose, fool?”
“I’m going to beat you,” I said, and then I pulled out one of my crystals.
I made my monster choice based on general strength and summoned my roosa. I smashed the crystal on the ground, and the scorpion emerged. Its giant pincers snapped and clapped as it skittered from one side to the other, already itching for a fight. I smirked to myself. I knew its feistiness would come in handy, and it was the most well equipped monster that I had in my arsenal with the exception of being able to fly, but my roosa had plenty of other outstanding attributes.
“Is that all?” Phi mocked, clearly unimpressed with the challenge I’d presented her.
I narrowed my eyes as I thought of what else I could use that would be effective against this vingehund. The only solution I could come up with was speed, and I could definitely work with that
. If the roosa could get around quickly enough and attack at a faster rate, then we might actually stand a fighting chance. I didn’t know what grade the vingehund was, but I knew for certain that it was at least an A rank if it was directly involved with Phi.
I summoned my speed slug and attached it to the back of the roosa. It buzzed with energy and the need to go fast. All it waited for was my command.
Silence hung in the air as the anticipation of battle loomed. Gawain took a battle stance, and I watched as the magic imbued in the gun circulated and scanned the surroundings to determine the best approach. I still needed to inquire about how he had obtained his gun, aside from it being a gift from his father, but now was neither the place nor the time to discuss politics. This was a fight for our lives, for Nia’s life, and we couldn’t lose.
Without any more hesitation, the vingehund launched forward as Phi phased away to a safer location behind the magical wall that separated us from Nia. Its fangs were bared, and it snarled as it dove to take a bite out of my roosa. As I predicted, though, the roosa was too fast for such an obvious attack, and it skittered hastily around the canine.
“I’ll keep it distracted,” I told Gawain. “See if you can do anything about those teeth. They could do some damage if they get ahold of something.”
“Yeah, sure, send the small human to take out the teeth of the large nasty beast,” Gawain drawled, but I saw the tiniest of smirks curl in the corner of his lips. He shot toward the ceiling, and I observed in awe as a bolt of enchanted lightning shot through the gun and latched onto the chain that held one of the chandeliers like a whip. Somehow, the magic weapon had turned raw energy into some kind of physical force. Gawain, gun still clutched in his hands, swung from the altar, and used the lightning bolt as something like a grappling hook. He flew into the air as his cloak billowed behind him.
As my sped-up roosa zoomed around the vingehund, it snapped its pincers at the canine’s legs, only missing narrowly each time. The canine monster was fast, but it was still slower than the roosa. We just needed to plan our attacks a little more thoughtfully.
Suddenly, Gawain dropped from the ceiling and onto the back of the vingehund. Whether the vingehund didn’t feel him land there or simply didn’t care, I couldn’t tell. Either way, the monster didn’t react until it was too late, after Gawain blasted a lightning bolt muzzle around the monster’s snout. The bolt effectively clamped its mouth shut, and the hound whined as electricity coursed through its jaws.
“Great going, Gawain!” I cheered, but Gawain ignored me, and instead focused on what other damage he could cause while he still had the advantage.
While he did that, the vingehund and my roosa duked it out on the ground. As the former struggled against the lightning bolt muzzle, it thrashed and flapped its wings furiously as it tried to kick up wind. The gusts didn’t bother my roosa much, as it was weighed down by the armor, and it sped underneath the canine to scissor its claws into the vingehund’s underbelly. Blackish purple blood poured down atop the roosa as it clipped and severed the flesh, and I was actually a bit shocked the incision didn’t rupture any organs in the canine’s body. I wasn’t sure that was how the anatomy of monsters worked, but I knew on Mistral, a normal canine would be dead from a cut like that.
The vingehund, now rigid and clearly in a severe amount of pain, was able to break the muzzle and howled. The sound echoed in the marble room, even with the enchantment still in effect, and I clamped my hands over my ears. It was nothing short of awful, and it reminded me of the high-pitched cry that the pyrewyrms emitted from their wings. I thought my ears might bleed without the earmuffs that had been provided to me when I fought the pyrewyrm outside of Garvesh Enclave a few months back.
I persevered, however. I couldn’t say the same for Gawain. Despite his efforts, he fell from atop the canine monster and hurtled toward the ground.
“Don’t let him hit the ground!” I ordered the roosa, and the scorpion rushed to Gawain so fast I almost didn’t see the motion at all. While the landing wasn’t going to be much softer, it was much shorter. I raced down the steps of the altar and skidded to a stop as he smacked into the hard back of my roosa.
“Gawain!” I managed to pull him off the scorpion just as the vingehund snarled and snapped its jaws at us. The roosa proved to be faster this time, and its mighty pincers clamped down on the snout of the canine. Again the canine howled, and blackish purple blood spurted from the gash the roosa made and dripped onto the marble floor.
As the vingehund and my roosa battled, I dragged Gawain away from the fight. There was no real safe place to hide unlike the ruins in the Shadowscape the last time we fought one of Phi’s monsters, but I did what I could. I got him far enough away that he would be out of the way of immediate harm but also close enough that I could still maintain control of my roosa which I quickly realized didn’t want or need any more instruction than what was absolutely necessary. It seemed to have a battle strategy all its own but would obey commands when they were given. It was fascinating how the monsters I caught appeared to differ in personality.
“Ouch,” Gawain groaned as he sat up in my arms and shook his head.
“You fall a solid twenty feet from the ground, land on a metal clad scorpion, and all you can say is ‘ouch’?” I chuckled and patted his back.
He winced, and I cringed apologetically. There was no more time for idle banter, though. There was a fight to win.
“Go,” Gawain nodded toward the battling beasts, “I’ll catch up.”
I hesitated, but only for a moment. It didn’t feel right to leave him behind, but my options were limited. I nodded, though, and ran back into the fray where my roosa still had a hold of the vingehund’s snout.
“Toss it!” I screamed at the roosa, and the roosa regarded me for a second, as though it were judging me for taking action, but responded all the same. It lifted the winged canine up by its bloody snout, and its wings flapped about frantically as it tried to escape. No sooner did the scorpion raise the canine up did it slam it back to the ground like a hammer. I heard the bones crunch upon impact, and I bit my lip to keep from shuddering. I didn’t care who you were, a hit like that hurt.
When my roosa finally removed its pincer from around the hound’s snout, I was able to clearly see the damage. The vingehund’s right wing was nearly destroyed, contorted into a conglomerate mess of hide and bones and bloodied feathers. The snout didn’t look much better, as there was now a chunk of it missing from its face that lay on the floor at the roosa’s legs.
“Damn,” I muttered under my breath.
The vingehund whimpered and whined as it forced itself up on its feet again. There was a determination in its eyes that was fierce, and it refused to give up on its master. A blue glow encompassed the canine, Phi’s doing, no doubt, and the wing and gash repaired itself. The glow, however, remained after the healing, and the vingehund barked as it readied itself for a renewed attack.
“Get ready,” I warned the roosa, and it took an aggressive stance. Its tailed reared back, poised and aimed to strike down the canine once and for all.
“Let’s go!” I yelled, and the roosa, enhanced with the speed slug, scampered across the marble at lightning speed and jutted its tail out. The thrust barely missed as the vingehund leapt over the scorpion. The moment its paws hit the marble floor, the canine beast rounded on the insect and sank its sharp, jagged teeth into its tail.
There was a split second where everything was dead silent before the roosa screeched and writhed in pain. Its claws slammed into the marble, and its many legs slid over the floor to try and get away from the vingehund, but nothing worked. I felt my own body wrack with pain, likely because of my connection to the tamed monster. I needed to do something. I couldn’t let my monster suffer like this.
The vingehund thrashed my roosa around and slammed it into every possible nearby surface, the wall, the floor, the wall again, the ceiling, the floor again.
I couldn’t bear it.
&nb
sp; I growled, and my fists curled. It was then that I felt the burn of my rhin dagger at my side, and I knew what I had to do. I was going to protect my monster if it killed me because that was the bond we shared. That was the pact we made through my mana when I entrapped it within its crystal.
I surged forward and unsheathed my rhin dagger before I slid beneath the vingehund. While it was too big to get at its soft underbelly, I slashed at its feet as my roosa had with its pincers, and though my gashes were small in comparison, they were still enough to draw its attention away from my monster. My mana took a hit, and I knew then the roosa was losing health quickly.
“Hang in there, buddy!” I called to it, and the roosa, though bleeding profusely from its tail, managed to get up on its feet and steady itself for another go. The both of us charged at the feet of the winged canine, and it took off into the air, the one place we couldn’t reach it and where it had the advantage.
The vingehund reared its head back as strange energy built in its jaws. The moment it thrust its mouth forward, the roosa and I dodged opposite directions as a flaming purple beam shot out from its mouth. The vingehund did it again, then again, until the monster had the roosa and me dodging left and right from the onslaught instead of fighting. This was getting us nowhere.
Suddenly, an idea struck me. I summoned a third monster, my other speed slug, and I attached it to my back. I buzzed with the need to move, as my roosa had when I attached one to it, and I laughed to myself as I blurred back to Gawain’s side and hastily snatched his gun from him.
“I’m borrowing this,” I told him and left before he could argue. I adjusted the gun's settings to ice as I ran and shot at the vingehund several times, all missing the beast.
But I wasn’t trying to hit it.
No, instead, each one left a trail of ice in its wake that looked just sturdy enough for me to climb, a winding staircase toward the flying monster.